Valentine's Nails: Two Looks To Share!

Holy wow, it's been a while! I swear I'm here... I've just been lacking motivation to post. Yuck. To make up for that, I've got two looks to share for Valentine's Day!

Taken in indirect sunlight.

The first look is my 2nd foray into the world of textured polishes. I won another giveaway from Paint Those Piggies! and this gorgeous shade by Julie G was one of the prizes! I knew I had to highlight it, so I used it for the main nail color and as an accent for the hearts (they're upside down in this picture, by the way!). I accented with pink glitter and silver dots, then left the textured parts topcoat-free.

Taken at dusk with artificial light.

Let me tell you, winter around here makes in nearly impossible to take good pictures! This is the second Valentine's look I've got-- a mix of pastel-y colors with some stamping and rhinestones. I need to practice color combos before I actually stamp... and need to buy an actual pastel pink. But this turned out pretty cute, so I'm fine with it!

Polishes Used (Look 1)

Julie G Frosted Gumdrops Crushed Candy

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

OPI Your Royal Shineness

Polishes Used (Look 2)

L'Oreal Royalty Reinvented

Fresh Paint High Voltage

Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet

Pueen 2013 Plate 001

New Year's Glitter and Stamping: Featuring China Glaze Concrete Catwalk and Pueen Stamping Plates

Hi there! Long time, huh? I've been super busy at work lately and haven't had time to get around to blogging... but here I am! I'm back and I've got my New Year's nails to show you!

For Christmas my boyfriend gave me the 2013 Pueen stamping plates and my first ever China Glaze nail polish (along with a gorgeous OPI shade)! So I decided to highlight them both in my New Year's look. I stamped this design using plate #5, then added some glitter and mattified half the look. Kinda reminds me of fireworks or something!

Polishes Used
Sinful Colors Black on Black
OPI Your Royal Shineness
China Glaze Concrete Catwalk
Lush Lacquer Lite Brite
Color Club Black Striper

Influenster: My Shining Moment featuring Sally Hansen Triple Shine

Hello there! Today I wanted to share with you the story of my first solo road trip/ business trip!

I drove by myself down to Columbus for a 3 day business trip at The Ohio State University, which I was a bit nervous about. I've never taken a trip by myself, stayed at a hotel by myself, or spent time with my boss for so long! :P

For some reason, the color is really off here...

Luckily I had painted my nails with Sally Hansen's Triple Shine polish in Reef-Raff, which made me relax about my nails. This stuff goes on in one coat (this is two because I missed some areas on the sides of my nails) and doesn't even need a topcoat. Look how shiny it is!

I also didn't have to worry about chipping my tips, which gave me the confidence to tackle all the hands-on work I had to do for iTunes U. And since it was such a simple look, I didn't have to face the uncomfortableness that sometimes arises from too much attention focused on my nails. All-in-all, wearing this made my trip enjoyable and allowed me to shine around my colleagues!

I received this complimentary item for testing purposes from Influenster. Want to join? Send me a message for an invite!

A Day Late... Christmas Skittles!

Hey there! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas holiday and (maybe) enjoyed some time off of work. Sorry I've been so scarce... I've been swamped with work and took my first ever business trip last week! Keep an eye out for my next post for more info on how that went. ;)

As for the look I have today, it's my traditional Christmas skittles! There's just something so fun about this time of year and all the nail art possibilities that I can't help but mix up my look with 10 different designs.

(Click to enlarge!)

This year we've got a doticure, penguin, gold glitter bomb, green with red glequins, and a glitter half moon on the left hand. On the right, we have a glitter striped pinky, glitter bomb with heart rhinestones, snowman, snowflakes, and candy stripes. Whew! Not my best work, or the most creative, but it's enough for the season!

Polishes Used (from left thumb to right thumb, and I'm not listing duplicates for each nail. :P)

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Sinful Colors Bleeding Heart

Sinful Colors Amazonian

Zoya Ziv

Funky Fingers Dark Knight

Color Club Black Striper

CoverGirl #245

Funky Fingers Star-Studded

Nicole by OPI Gold Texture

OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air
Color Club Gold Glitter Striper
Daring Digits Robin

Orange Saran Wrap Mani

Hey there! Today I've got a simple look to share-- an orange saran wrap manicure. Doing these are so, so easy! Paint on your base coat and let it dry, paint on your second color, then quickly pat the nail with crinkled up saran wrap. Add your glitters and top coat and there you go! A quick mani that's super pretty.

Polishes Used
CoverGirl #240
CoverGirl #245

Copy Cat: Jelly Pumpkins

Hey there! Today I've got a late-ish Thanksgiving design to share. This is my rendition of Adventures in Acetone's Pond Pumpkin nail art. I saw this and instantly went "OMG! I have the polish to recreate this! And how adorable!" So I gave it a try for Thanksgiving and this is what I ended up with.

Picture taken in my bathroom under yellow-ish lights.

This is 5 coats of OPI and 4 different "layers" of white pumpkins. It turned out super cute and had more depth than my crappy picture shows. The only bad thing about this mani cure was the polish removal... stain city! :(

Yuck! And this was after I did a baking soda soak to get the major staining off... yikes! Also, I definitely picked this polish off since it was so easy to peel (as a jelly). BAD! You can totally see the white marks on my nails from the damage... bad bad bad...

Polishes Used
OPI Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear
Sinful Colors Snow Me White
It's So Easy Stripe Rite White

Fall Chevrons

Hey there! Today I've got a super fun look that I couldn't stop staring at when it was on my fingers! 

I got this idea from work / play / polish's guest post here... except she used neons. I've wanted to do this look ever since I saw it but I didn't get around to it until now. 

It's so luminous and warming and pretty and yes! It took a bit of time, but it was totally worth it! I started off with the white base, used striping tape to mark everything off, then painted in the colors. Add in some top coat and wow! A gorgeous design. :) Both pictures were taken in natural light. 

Polishes Used

Pure Ice Platinum

Wingin' It Lacquer Burning Leaves

Zoya Ziv

Dots Metallic Bronze

Piggy Polish and Wingin' It Lacquer Make a Fall Mani!

Hey there! This starts the slew of fall-themed manis I've done (and plan to do). It's that one time of the year to wear all the deep, earthy colors that reflect the beautiful leaves outside!

Taken at dusk in natural light.

I wanted to use my giveaway win, Falling Leaves, to create a autumn-inspired look... and this is what I came up with! I pulled from the red and orange glitter in Falling Leaves and placed some accent glequins on my dark green nails. I absolutely love that color, by the way. My boyfriend bought it for me and it's so luscious and deep and vampy. Sexy for this time of the season!

Polishes Used

Piggy Polish Ivy Leaf in Santa Claus

Zoya Creamy (as a base)

Wingin' It Lacquer Falling Leaves

Nail Fail: Pastel Water Marble with Glitter Accents

Happy Monday, everyone! Today I've got a lovely nail fail for you to gawk at... a strange attempt at water marbeling with pastels. 

Photo taken in shade.

Actually, the marbeling wasn't that bad. Once I added in some dots and glitter things got funky! When I purchased my 12 pack of glitter from eBay, they sent me a pot of clear iridescent glitters. I figured that they would add an extra touch of sparkle to things. WRONG. They kinda just blended in and were almost undetectable in person. I think they're made more for being worn over dark colors...

Polishes Used
L'Oreal Royalty Reinvented
CoverGirl #240
Zoya Creamy
Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet

Seasonal Color Changing with Del Sol's Trick-or-Treat

Hi there! Today I've got an exciting polish to show you all- Del Sol's Trick or Treat. If you've never heard of Del Sol, it's because they're not really in the nail polish business. They manufacture all sorts of products that are activated by the sun and change colors, including polish! Unfortunately, I think that Trick or Treat is discontinued... but it's still available through other web merchants.

Both pictures taken in direct sunlight.

Here I've got on two coats of Del Sol over a quick coat of Scare-o-Lantern. You can see that without sun exposure this is a super sparkly and pretty orange. Once the sun has been hitting your nails for a few minutes (or seconds, even, depending on the sun's intensity), the color morphs into a deep purply black. I didn't really need the undies for this, but I was in a rush so I slapped some on to avoid having to put on three coats of Trick or Treat. You can totally see some sheet marks (I know! So bad!) because I went to bed right after this. Oopsies! ^_^;

Polishes Used
Del Sol Trick or Treat
Sweet Heart Polish Scare-o-Lantern