Leopard Print Nails

I am not usually an animal print person but when I got this plate I was sort of drawn to this pattern. For this mani I started with my usual base coat (Bonder) and then applied two coats of Revlon Hot for Chocolate. I love this shade all on its own! It is a luscious deep brown shade but still light enough to be able to tell it isn't black. Once dry I stamped it with China Glaze Magical from their Romantique collection. As a side note, all of the polishes I have tried from that line work great for stamping! I topped it with a coat of Seche to help all the layers dry and then decided I wanted to try it matte so I topped it with Hard Candy's Matte-ly in Love. What do you think?

Peeps Purple Passion

I have seen several swatches of this polish on blogs over the past few months and recently found it and decided to give it a try. It is a really deep purple, more of a burgundy really with some small glitter that is really tough to see in the photo. For this mani I started with a base coat of Orly Bonder, then 2 coats of PPP and then topped it with Seche. Once dry I stamped it using Sephora's Aluminium Gold. What do you think?

Dorothy Who?

Oh I LOVE this polish!! This one has been on my wish list for some time, I realize it isn't a new polish but I am fairly new to the obsession! So this beauty is Dorothy Who? from China Glaze's Wizard of OHH AHZ collection. I was in a bit of a hurry today trying to get my nails done before work so I went with something "simple". For this mani I actually started with one coat of NYC Skin Tight Denim to help accentuate the base of the China Glaze color and then topped it with two coats of Dorothy Who and a topcoat of Seche. I got several compliments on this mani and I love the color!

Zoya Cynthia and a stamping experiment

So for today's nails I wanted to try out some different things. I started with two coats of Zoya Cynthia; to date this is the only Zoya polish I own. There are a few reasons behind that, this is sort of a "new" obsession for me; there is NOWHERE around where I live to buy Zoya; and I kind of dislike ordering polish online unless I have seen it before in person or a swatch. At any rate, I have this one and it is a very deep teal shade that pretty much looks black in most lighting.

Then I decided to punch it up a bit and test some of my stamping plates. This is a mix of designs from a couple of different brands of plates and Sephora's Mirror Mirror used for the stamping color. What do you think? Which pattern is your favorite?

China Glaze - Tantalize Me

This is another of the colors I bought on my recent after-birthday shopping trip. Tantalize Me is a gorgeous pinkish purple with blue shimmer. Pictured here is two coats, I should have done three as the formula is somewhat thin. That aside this is a beautiful color that has lots of possibilities! What do you think?

Finger Paints - Vintage Velvet

Just a simple swatch for today, still a bit overwhelmed with all the new choices I have! This is the first Finger Paints polish I have added to my collection and I love the color and the formula! It is super smooth and this is only one coat and it still looks great!

China Glaze - Awakening

This is the first of the many new colors I decided to try, mainly because it matched what I was wearing today. This is Awakening by China Glaze. It is a beautiful purple color with loads of gold shimmer, especially in the sun. This shade is a bit thin, I probably should have used 3 coats instead of just two... Anyway, I also tried out some of my stamps, this design is from Konad's m20 plate. What do you think?

What a day!

So I live pretty much in the middle of no where so my only option for buying new polish is Wal-Mart, online, or driving over an hour. Today, I drove! I had the day off and had yet to see my brother and his family for our Christmas exchange so I went up where they live and boy did I find some deals! I came home with 41 new polishes, lots I found in the clearance bins and various places and a few that I paid full price for because I have been dying to try them. No pics for today, I'm still trying to figure out where to put them all and what color to start with!

Birthday Nails!

So today is my birthday, good thing I'm not superstitious! I also have to work today so I wanted something fun but not too out there for work so I went with some cupcakes! For the background color I applied 2 coats of NYC Downtown, a gorgeous berry pink shade. Then on the accent nails I used a bamboo stick to "draw" on the cupcake wrapper in China Glaze For Audrey (love that color, can ya tell?), let it dry a bit and used the same stick to draw on the lines with Mirror, Mirror by Sephora. I used L.A. Colors White for the frosting and then added some microbeads with a toothpick to look like sprinkles! You can find these in the scrapbook section of your favorite craft store in loads of colors! Finally, I added a dot of OPI An Affair in Red Square for the cherry and topped it off with a coat of Seche. They turned out rather cute and now I'm wishing I had the time to do the cupcakes on the other nails! But, alas it is off to work I go. :(

China Glaze- For Audrey

Sorry it has been a few days since I have posted, what a crazy weekend! Anyway, for today's nails I started with a base of Orly Bonder and topped it with two coats of China Glaze For Audrey. It is a gorgeous pale blue-green shade that I seem to be drawn to a lot lately. The first coat is a bit streaky as with many pastels but it evens out very nicely on the second coat.

I guess I was inspired by our unseasonably warm weather here in the midwest when I decided on these simple flowers for the accent nails! For them I used China Glaze Starboard for the grass and stems, NYC Pink Promenade Cream for the flowers, and NYC Taxi Yellow Creme for the centers and then topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Nails Inc Houses of Parliament Magnetic Polish

I was up way too late again last night working on homework after spending the evening with the hubby and my dad for a belated Christmas with him so last nights mani is fairly straight forward. I stumbled across this polish at Sephora before Christmas and had to add it to my collection! These polishes are so awesome! It is a magnetic polish that features a magnet in the over cap. You basically brush on your basecoat (I use Orly Bonder) and then paint one coat of the polish as normal. Then on one nail at a time, you paint on the second coat and hold the magnet over the nail for 10-15 seconds and the pattern appears. It is really a very simple process that doesn't take that much longer than a typical mani but looks amazing. It is really hard to capture in the photos but when you move your nails the pattern sort of "shifts" making it look almost 3D. I get a ton of compliments when I wear this color!

Beautiful color even in the bottle!

Here is a pic of the top of the over cap, it has a little "lip" on it to help keep you from smudging the wet polish.

Here is the finished product with one coat of Seche Vite.

Pure Ice All Nighter and Gradient Nails

So after a very long night at work tonight I wanted to do something sort of simple for today's post. I had an idea in my head for a killer color combo for a water marble, but alas, my colors didn't want to play together. I tweaked it some and still no luck so on to something else! I had an vision in my head of what this mani should look like and what I got isn't quite what I had pictured. I'm still not sure what I think of it so I will let you decide.

I started off with two coats of Pure Ice All Nighter. It is a beautiful red satin shade.

Then I sponged the tips with NYC Bowery Black and then topped that off with a black glitter polish from Hard Candy. The Bowery Black is a much more sheer shade than I had anticipated (it is in the bottle in this pic) but still very pretty. I topped the whole thing off with a top coat of Insta-Dri top coat from Sally Hansen.

Introductions!!

So I thought for my first "official" post, I would start with sort of an intro so you get to know a bit about me. My name is Kim and I am a hobby junkie. I am a very busy person and I tend to have several "projects". I love anything remotely crafty or diy and have been making lampwork beads for 8 years now; see my other blog here and my Etsy shop here. I work full time as an RN and also taking online classes (also full time) working towards my masters degree, like I said, BUSY! I have always been what you might call a "girly girl" in some ways. What I mean by that is I love to shop and pretty much always wear makeup but I don't always wear jewelry and I'm a jeans and tee kinda gal. In high school I was always the go to person for anyone who needed makeup or nails done for special occasions because I liked it, was good at it, and have always had quite the collection. I have recently stumbled my way onto some very interesting blogs featuring beauty themes so, here I am, ready to throw in my 2 cents! Because I work in healthcare, you will find my nails will always be my own and relatively short compared to some; this is how I like them anyway. Please also understand that any posts I make are simply my opinions. I welcome any comments and will answer questions if there are any! :)

Here is a pic of what my nails look like now, this is China Glaze Designer Satin. Gorgeous color!