Back from Vacation! !!

Hey everyone!

I've finally recouped from vacation and back in action.  I did get a gel manicure,  and I was so disappointed! The polish started to lift the next day.  Since I was hopping on a plane, I couldn't have her fix it. You can kind of see here where the polish didn't stick. I was mega bummed. The pattern was super cute though.  I will definitely re-do this on my own with regular polish soon.

So when I got back, I removed whatever was left still on. (Yes, it was only on for a week, and I had significant chipping as well as two nails that had large chunks that just popped off!) One of the polish groups I belong to, we do a weekly theme for Mani Mondays.  We were doing the alphabet,  but we ran out of letters!  So, then we just started to list other themes and ideas, so this week's theme is Emerald,  which was the color of the year last year. This is what I did:

This is Zoya Ivanka and my new Different Dimension Money polish as the accent nail. These were really pretty together.  Why do I love accent nails so much?? Oye.


Well I've mentioned before that I'm a polish picker. I can't help it!  I think it's from the millions of years that I was a nail biter. So I started picking at this last night, and had to replace it.  My last swap I received some super lovely Different Dimension polishes that were on my wish list,  (which is where Money came from) and this was another one I received. First two are in full on sunlight,  second two are in the shade.

This is Tulips Are Better Than One.  How pretty is this??? I fell in love with this polish when I saw a swatch posted, I cannot recall who it was from, but it was so stunning.  This polish is a super shimmery duo chrome shifter from violet to aqua to indigo. I've caught some dark pink / purple colors here too, but that's on some odd angles and on the far edges. And look! No accent nail. Well, yet. I wanted to swatch this in it's pure form before I do that.  =)


So that's all for today,  hopefully I will get back to posting twice a week now that I'm back and not freaking out about flying.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend,  and see ya soon
April

Latte Nails

Good morning everyone!

I am LOVING this week! Gotta love months that have an extra week in them, so I have a free week without meetings and events. I love it. And bonus for the two of you that read this, you get more posts, lol.

Here's a look that I put together and I can't recall why I chose this color combination.  I wanted to use the new circle glitter polish that I got, and then I needed to pair it with something so I went with a tan to nude to white gradient. I think it looks like a latte with foam on top!

The accent nail is a base of Essie Turquoise and Caicos, topped with this glitter. I tried to Google this polish and I've come up empty.  I've been told that the maker is Bear Polish, and the name of it is Absolem. If anyone knows more about this indie, please let me know because this girl loves some circle glitter! !!

The other nails are a gradient of Zoya Flynn, Taylor and OPI Alpine Snow.  I in finished them off with a light blue rhinestone because it seemed like too harsh of a contrast between the light and the blue.

Ps, how cute is my new midi ring?? I've been wanting one for a long time, and found a set that had this cutie in it. Here's the thing: my hands are so small that the dang rings come down too far!  #smallhandproblems.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day
April

I'm the Worst Blogger Ever

No excuses here, I know. It's been way too long since my last post, and it's not like I haven't been painting my nails. I have. I have been always updating on Instagram,  so if you don't follow me there, you can do so here. It's so easy to upload there, when I'm on the run, I just go there.

Enough of that,  let's get back to what's important.  What have I done in the past week?

First off, I have my mani from St. Paddy's Day. Like everyone else in the US, we celebrate and party hardy on the Saturday before. Luckily,  that was also a cue on the March Nail Art Challenge for Flakes. I just assumed that she meant flakies, so I went with it.

This is Sinful Colors Exotic Green, topped with Zoya Opal for the green nails, and then Essie's Fear or Desire topped with Zoya Maria Louisa. Little white shamrocks topped this one later, but I wanted to keep it simple for that daily cue. This pic is weird because I wanted to show the color shift that Opal did on the green.  So pretty!

Side note,  did you notice how far I cut my nails down? When I go out, for a long day of drinking and other festivities,  I always break a nail. Not this time, lol! Also, I've given up on the March challenge.  If something looks interesting I'll do it, but I'm halfway out.


Next up is in conjunction with a nail group on Facebook that I belong to, and every Monday we go through the alphabet and everyone posts a mani with the letter of the week. This week is R, so I used Zoya Rocky. I bought this gem on clearance at Ulta awhile ago and never used it. OMG. I love it. It's bright without being too bright, and is a super lovely shade. I'm so mad I never used it before.  I added an accent of a new indie I bought with an Etsy gift card I stashed away, and this is Oopsie Daisies Blueberry Muffins.  I love this one too!!! It's a white milky crelly base, so I did give it a white undie base. There are lilac, brown and copper glitters in there and I just adore it.

Finally,  I have two more new polishes that I received in a swap this last month. The base is OPI Road House Blues, and is topped with Jindie Nails Purple Universary. I die. Literally.  The circle glitters in this, I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. They were all different sizes and each caught a different spectrum of holo fantabulousness. (I'm making that a word for this, it's that awesome).

These pics don't even capture how purdy this is. It's just.... ahh. Pretty.

Now we're caught up. I promise to do better. I've gotten some super awesome new polishes lately,  and if nothing else I will swatch them and post that. I've finally gotten into the world of indie polishes... I'm not a big online shopper-I like to touch, see, feel things, and you can't do that online. I freak out when I order my tea online because I hate to be disappointed.  Well indie world, bring it. I'm officially obsessed.


Cheers everyone.  Have a great weekend
April

Two Looks, One Post!

So I'm doing the March Nail Art Challenge.  Ha, I know. But there aren't any outings planned this month,  so I should make everything on time!

I posted this already on my Instagram,  so you might have seen this already if you follow me there. If you don't,  go here and give me a follow.   :)

Day 1 was Dotticure. I wanted to do a pattern with my dots, and so I did sort of a mosaic look to this. I was super excited to finally use my Catlin from Zoya that I ordered back during the 3 free sale. I do love purple polish.

Kind of bummed where my dots got wacky from when I top coated this. Oh well. So I goes the life of a dot.

Then for day 4 is gradient. I'm early on this because I double whammied this mani. Another polish group I am a part of goes through the alphabet for mani Mondays. Today is P. I had a ton of P polishes. I took them all out and sat in front of me. Shocker, most were pink or purple. So, being the over achiever that I am, I used 4 different P polishes. Boom!

Base was Pink Friday by OPI, then I did a vertical gradient using OPI'S Pamplona Purple and Planks A Lot. I cut zig zag pieces of scotch tape and did the gradient on my bare nail, and then topped it with Ciate's Pepperminty.

I actually really like both of these looks. I especially love the zig zag. I need to do more of these.

Hope your week goes well. Happy Monday!
April

Day 23, I'm late!!

I'm failing this "I have a life " challenge... we went to Wisconsin this weekend for a beer festival and well, we had a terrible time! I don't follow basketball at all. I'm a football girl only,  and so apparently,  Wisconsin was playing us on Saturday in Iowa, and I decided to wear my Iowa stocking cap to the festival since it was outside and I was cold. Big mistake.  People were totally snubbing us, and saying really mean things as we walked by, etc. I knew that Wisconsin fans are pretty hard core, but I was so disappointed and I felt cheated out of a fun weekend. Oh well,  I digress.

So, I'm going to be late, and I did this fun number to make up for Day 23, Animal Print. Let me tell you,  I'm not a fan of animal print... and don't kill me, but I just think of it as an older woman's pattern.  Its just not my thing. Well, I was running out of daylight and needed to pick something, so I whipped this up.

The nude is my new standby,  Zoya Taylor;  and the coral is another new favorite,  OPI Live. Love. Carnival.  Sponged on for gradient, and then the leopard spots along the side.

I'm really shocked, I kind of like this. And if anyone knows where I probably saw something similar and recreated,  let me know so I can give them proper credit.  I searched and couldn't find anything,  so I'm not sure!

Thanks for checking this out... "simple" is the cue for the 25th, which I will also be late for.   ;)

April

Day 17, Studs #nailartfeb

No, this is not a post about hunky shirtless boys. We're talking nail studs here. I am on the fence with studs. They kind of tweak me out, the texture is a little weird. I find myself rubbing them all day and then the color rubs off.

I'm on day 3 of the Jamberry wrap that I posted about on Saturday. It's still holding strong,  so I wanted to add on to that.

I searched all over to see if I could glue on a stud on top of the wrap. I heard stories how you can't topcoat wraps because they would shrink and wrinkle. Guess what... it worked. I put a thin coat of Seche Vite, placed the stud, and waited for it to dry placing another coat of Seche on top.

Side note,  did you know that you can paint your studs? I painted that boy blue. The glitter on my thumb is Sephora X TNT, which is a random shape matte blue glitter.  Love it. My nude base is Zoya Taylor,  and the blue is Nails, inc Baker Street.

Whatcha think about this one? I like how it's trendy, but for some reason it still looks professional.  Sometimes I feel a little weird with my crazier manis, but me likey this one.

Happy Monday chickies. Let's get this week started.
April

Mannequin Hands, Take 1

Yay, it's Friday! ! I'm still having issues with working a full week. In the fall I took off every Friday of a home game so I could pack and prepare for tailgating, and then December had my birthday and all of those holidays in there. I'm hoping to get back into my regular routine by March, lol.

I've recently been interested in more natural and nude colors of polish.  One of the things I learned from the nail community is that you need to find your mannequin nails shade. This one might be pretty darn close.

This is OPI's Samoan Sand. I used 3 coats, and then added black studs and accents because I may want to find my mannequin hands shade, but just those would have driven me bonkers. Still need to work on my stamping... but I'm slowly getting better I think.

Thoughts? I also picked up two of the Naturel line from Zoya when they had their awesome 3 free promo. I got Rue and Taylor. I think that Taylor is exactly my mannequin hands shade just from swatching it out, but I need to get it on to make sure. Rue is darker than it looked in pictures,  so I'm a little disappointed. Oh well,  it might be very pretty on.


Happy Friday!
April

Happy Merry Christmas!

Hey guys! I can't believe Christmas is here already.  I've got an action filled two days ahead of me,  so I've been taking it easy so far. One thing that I'm uber excited for? I found an app that you can catalog all of your nail polishes! You take a picture,  name the bottle, name the brand and then label the color and polish type. You can then sort later by any of those categories.  Brilliant.  I have an Android,  so the app is Nail Polish, Your Collection and is FREE!!! I'm about halfway through it all.

Here's a screen shot of most of my Essie's.  I tried going by brand at first, but gave up and started logging by color instead.

So, anyways,  here is probably my last Christmas mani to share!! I went simple,  but yet something that would make a statement.

I like water marbling,  but I'm not a fan of an entire hand worth of it... too busy. So why not do just an accent nail of marble?

The red is my new favorite,  Signature by Seche. I then used some random red glitter top coat to make it sparkle. The green is Zoya Hunter, with a Sinful Colors green / gold topper. Both are used in the marble,  with my favorite My Boyfriend Scales Walls by OPI.

I'm really digging the simplicity plus the sparkle.

Let me know what you think!

Merry Christmas my gawkers. Have a wonderful day with your family and friends.
April

Fall Leaves

Ever since I saw the Nimbus nail tutorial on the Nailasaurus' blog,  I've wanted to give it a try. It's a technique where you soak a q-tip in acetone and then thin out polish and dab it on. You can view her tutorial here.


I haven't done any fall seasonal looks yet,  so here was my grand opportunity. I used a butt ton of colors here.  Base is OPI My Vampire Is Buff. The leaves are Essie A-list,  Zoya Flynn, Zoya Darcy, and Sinful Colors Clementine. Since it was so fall-ish, I added a tree!

And of course, it was pretty windy and all of the beautiful leaves that we had are now on the ground and the trees look all haunted house-y. I typically love fall, but this year the seasons were all jacked up and fall was super short. We went from beautiful weather to snow and in the teens. Gotta love it in Iowa.

Whatcha think of my little tree?

April

It's Very Purpley

I totally fail. I have an excuse though.  My Hawkeyes won on Saturday so now we are bowl eligible! I may or may not have drank for 13 hours straight that day.  Hmm.

Anyways,  you all know I have a thing for purple polish.  I'm not sure what inspired me to mix it with gold,  but I LOVE it!

I've got so many purples here that it's probably better for me to start with the gold.  It's Maybelline Bold Gold... I saw someone else using this as their preferred stamping gold,  so I picked it up. I agree.  It's a great stamper.  Get it.

My middle finger has Pueen plate #42 with a base of OPI Do You Vant to Bite My Neck.  Vant to Bite is also the base for my pinkie finger. The gold glitter on the pinkie is Zoya Maria-Louisa.

For the ring finger,  that is OPI I'm Feeling Sashy and then I cut scotch tape with chevron scissors and it's colored in with Bold Gold.

On my pointer and my thumb (even though it's not pictured) is OPI Pamplona Purple... Which has turned into one of my new favorites. The glitter on top is an old Sephora by OPI that I got when they closed out the collection.

I'm such a nerd.  I wore a purple sequined top today that matched my pointer fingers perfectly.

Thoughts?  I think I'm getting better at stamping,  but still need some  practice.
Did I mention we got snow today? Snow. Ugh.  So it begins...

April

Zoya Winter Zenith Collection

I had a coupon for Ulta and I knew I needed to use it for nail polish since you could use it on the good stuff.  I had eyeballed some of the different winter collections that I saw and picked up a few that I liked.  (side-note,  it was extremely shocking that my Ulta had these,  since it took them months to get the fall collection in.)

I only chose two of the batch because I'm not too keen on the textured polishes anymore,  and the others looked like ones I already have.

First up is Belinda,  a GORGEOUS royal purple with a magenta flash.  This is so incredibly pretty.  I have a weakness for purple polish as it is,  and this one does not disappoint. The formula is almost  a one-coater,  but I did two to make it completely opaque. It just looks so regal and rich.

Lighting : shade

The other one I purchased was Mosheen,  a holographic bar / feather glitter with holo specks too.  This was a surprise for me,  since I've tried the feathered polishes and they were just  Ok... I think I don't care for how the little flakes peak out along the tip of the nail. This one does the same,  but I forgive it because it's so unbelievably stunning.

We're lucking out today with some lovely sunshine,  and it picked up every little holo speck flash...  Just beautiful. Please forgive all of the pictures,  but I was capturing so many pretty ones!

Lighting : shade

I also really wanted Dream,  which is a deep blue with a scattered holo,  and Payton is a nice burgundy with light holo sparkle... But I figured I wouldn't wear them as much as these two.


I picked up one of Essie's new Luxe Effects polishes as well,  so I will swatch that one out to show you. It's shockingly beautiful also.

Too early for holiday collections? I'm torn.  Now that I am out of the retail sales world,  I enjoy the holidays. Although my birthday is around Christmas time and I'm always a little bitter about that... Too many cheap relatives!

Have you gotten any of this collection?
April

September Cult Cosmetics Blackbox Review

Hi there! Hope you are having a great weekend.  I unfortunately somehow got the flu. I don't remember ever having the flu, so this is a totally new experience for me.  I never get sick. I have an EXTREMELY low tolerance for pain, and this feeling like someone has put clear packing tape on my back and then slowly ripping it off really sucks. Anyways, I finally received my September Blackbox!  Let's see what's inside.

So I have to admit, I was getting super antsy pants waiting for this, since it took 10 days to get to me. TEN. I looked up online for teasers, so I had an idea of what to expect.  Imagine my disappointment when I opened this up!

Here is the idea card that was included to use the polishes and the tools to create their suggestions for the month. This is also reflective of the hints that they gave us all month too. The teasers I saw had the pink glitter (Orly) and an Essie color, being the pale pink.

So, tell me, where does the orange and the red come into play here? I'm a little confused.  Let's look at the polishes first.

First up is my favorite of the box, and one I was pleased with.  It's Color Club Beyond,  a gunmetal grey holographic.  The holo in this is amazeballs.  It could have been a one-coater, but I added on a second. There was no dragging with this, as some holos tend to do.

Sunlight:

Isn't it pretty? This is in the shade. Stunner.

Up next is OPI Jinx. This was one of the first liquid sand colors that they put out, and a part of the 007 Bond collection.  When this came out, I wasn't totally sold on the whole textured polish thing.  So I never purchased it. Once I tried Pixie Dust by Zoya, I liked those and I bought a similar color. Look for a comparison at the end of the two.

Finally,  Color Club Brrr-red. Red freaking polish. I couldn't belive it.  Regardless of my dislike for red, it's a very nice polish. This is two coats, and is somewhat of a crelly consistency.

 I didn't take individual pictures of the tools this month. They were a rhinestone wheel from Mash with a tube of nail glue, which kept the theme and I liked. The other was a set of OPI nail appliqués in a sparkly and black design, called Metallic Waves.  It kind of looks like a mix between zebra print and a fingerprint.  Can you believe I've never tried nail stickers?  I can see myself doing one finger with these, but all 10 would probably freak me out. Ha! Plus I've been hesitant trying them because I have extremely small nail beds. These all look so big!


So... verdict time. I gotta say, I was so extremely disappointed with this box since i did love the August one. From the length of shipping time, to the false advertising and then I find out via Facebook that the subscription will only feature Cult Cosmetics brand polishes moving forward.  (They recently came out with their own line) I actually canceled my subscription on Friday.  I told customer service my concerns / issues I had with this month, and all I got back was a "we canceled your subscription" as a reply. I guess they weren't too interested in keeping me.

I've found a new polish box to try, the I.N.N. box by iNZURi, so I'm giving that one a shot. You pick your own collection,  and the beauty products they send along are the surprise.  Look for that review next month.

Lastly, here is the side by side comparison of Jinx with Zoya's Destiny. Ring finger is Jinx, pinky is Destiny. In the bottle, looks pretty close.

On the nail in the sun, they look identical, with Destiny being slightly more pink than Jinx

In the shade, you can barely tell a difference, maybe Jinx is slightly more sparkly gold.  Are they close enough you don't need both? Yes. I do have to say that Jinx dries faster than Destiny does.  And quick drying is always a bonus in my eyes.

So, do you have a beauty subscription?  What's the best one?
April