Inspired by Nature

There were a lot of ideas for this theme but in the end it had to be feathers.  I have been meaning to try this anyway and now was a good excuse!  I used China Glaze Kalahari Kiss for the base, topped with NYC and added the feather to my middle finger while the topcoat was still tacky then sealed it with a coat of Seche.

Deep Desire for Leopard Print Plus Reviews

I have been trying hard to show more "budget friendly" brands here as I have seen a lot of people requesting more of this.  I love polish of all kinds and have bought everything from drugstore to higher- end polish and have been just as pleased with both.  For me, finding a polish is about the "thrill of the hunt".  I enjoy trying to find the ones I want at a bargain price and I tend to have pretty good luck at it.  I watch the sales through a variety of sources and I often check the same places.  One of my favorite places to shop is Ulta.  Not only do they tend to have a good selection of polish, but they go through periods where they have a large clearance section with OPI, China Glaze as well as Essie and sometimes others.  It can be quite dangerous for me!  Ulta also carries their own line of polish which I have been quite pleased with thus far and they also have some great sales on those.  One such sale is what lead me to this beauty!  I am a sucker for a deep luscious red and that is exactly what Deep Desire is.  I wanted to do something red with an accent nail in a leopard print but as I have said before, I am a very pale person so I have to be careful with the red I choose.  I can pull off several shades but I knew I would wear this mani for a few days (*gasp*) and also that it wouldn't be for any special occasion.  For those reasons, I wanted something that was deeper as it is more in my comfort zone.  I started with a base of CND Stickey to help prevent any chips, then applied two coats of Deep Desire on all but my ring fingers.  On the ring fingers I used two coats of China Glaze I'm Not Lion and  topped all of them with a coat of Seche.  Once dry I used Revlon Hot for Chocolate to stamp on the lepord print and sealed it with a coat of NYC.  I have tried some other brown cream polishes for stamping, but so far this is by far my favorite.

Ulta Deep Desire with accent of
China Glaze I'm Not Lion stamped with
Revlon Hot for Chocolate

I rarely wear a polish for more than 24 hours but this mani has been in place for more than 48 hours.  I will likely redo them tonight but they really wouldn't have to be.  I was careful to wrap the tips from the base to the topcoat and at this point, the ends of my nails are all that is showing wear; if I look at them straight on, there are no visible chips.  For a polish that I only paid $2 for, that is quite good to me.  If I wanted to extend the life of this mani further, I would add another topcoat (though not Seche as it needs to be applied to wet polish) and I am sure it would last a few more days.
So this ended up being quite the long-winded post but hopefully I have given you some insight or useful information! As always, I appreciate your feedback!

Orly Galaxy Girl Swatch and Review

I am a bit disappointed that I could not get a better pic of this polish.  There is much more shimmer IRL than is evident in the pics.  I really wanted to like this polish, in the bottle it is so pretty, but what you see here is four coats!  Maybe I am just impatient at the moment, but I'm not really a fan of dark polishes that take a ton of layers.  Other than the formula being too thin for my liking however, it did apply well and dried pretty quick considering all the layers.  Though I did help it along with Seche Vite as the topcoat....comments?

Look At Me, Look At Me!

 It has been a long and crazy week around here.  This was really my only mani this week which is unusual for me but let's just leave it at sometimes being a nurse may not have been the career I would have chosen if I knew then what I know now.  I was able to get away and spend an evening with some of my best friends though this week and we had a blast, so this was the mani I did for that occasion.  I started out with a base of CND Sticky and then two coats of Nicole by OPI Look at Me, Look at Me.  It is a beautiful blend of silver, pink, and blue microglitter.  I wanted a smooth nail so I applied a coat of Gelous followed by a coat of Seche.  Once that was all dry, I used essence Black is Back to stamp the design and then painted the tips black.  Once that was done, I applied a second coat of Seche for a glossy super smooth finish.  I got tons of compliments on this mani, what do you guys think?

Pet my Peacock

I have again had to work some extra overtime this week (and I'm not done yet, will be working 36 out of 48 hours this weekend) so for today's mani I just updated the one from yesterday. I have had Spoiled's Pet my Peacock for a couple of weeks now but had yet to try it and finally decided that Revlon's Midnight was one of several colors it would go perfectly with! This is one coat of PMP over Midnight, I added a coat of Gelous (which I think I could of gotten away without) and then a coat of Seche. It is perfectly glassy smooth!

Purple Stripes

One of the girls at work the other day asked me to do something "purple" for my nails for the next day. It was a perfect excuse for me to try out some of the new essie colors I had yet to try. I started with a basecoat (still trying different ones, this time was Finger Paints) and then two coats of essie She's Picture Perfect. I'm not sure if it was the basecoat or the polish but it was kind of tough to apply, sort of "dragging" up the nail. It is a really gorgeous shade though and either way, I would put up with it for the color! I topped that with a coat of SV and waited for it to dry completely and then used essie No More Film (LOVE this color!!!) and my m78 plate for the stamp. I topped it with a coat of NYC Grand Central Station (clear) but as you can sort of make out it was a little streaky between the two colors, not sure what happened there, I have used it before without any trouble. At any rate, I got loads of compliments on this mani!

Zoya Edyta Swatch and Review

I took advantage of Zoya's recent promo for the buy 3 get 3 deal. I had a bit of a hard time choosing, there are so many yummy looking colors and I don't have many Zoya's. The first one I decided to swatch was Edyta. This is a lovely metalic shade that Zoya describes as a "complex mixture of gold, olive, blue-green and smoky grey with a sparkling metallic finish". I see the gold and the olive, but not much of the blue-green or grey. Application was good and dry time was average. It's a pretty color but I'm not really in love with it which is odd because I do tend to be drawn to darker colors. Oh, well. I will try it again sometime closer to fall maybe.

What do you think? This is 2 coats with a topcoat of SV.

Pink Wednesday, Revlon style

I have missed a few pink Wednesdays, sorry about that! This weeks is a simple stamp design. I started with two coats of Revlon's Cafe' Pink then stamped with Revlon's Extravagant and Konad M25. Topped with a coat of Seche.

China Glaze Foie Gras

Sorry for the lack of posting over the past several days guys, it has been crazy around here! I hope to get back on track this week! Short and sweet for today, a polish I'm sure you have all seen from the China Glaze Hunger Games - Capitol Colors Collection. This one is representative of District 10's Livestock theme. I actually didn't read the book until this week...if you haven't, you need to!

Two coats with a topcoat of Seche.

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Studded Green

You may have noticed that I missed posting yesterday; I had a funeral to attend and just didn't have the time or the energy after that to post anything. However, I do have one for you today. I started this one with two coats of Essie's Marshmallow and then painted each nail individually with a third coat of Marshmallow and added the green studs before moving on to the next nail. Once I was finished with all the nails, I added a coat of Seche and then topped it off with a coat of Essie's As Gold As It Gets for a little extra sparkle. What do you think?

Green Tips

I used to French tip my nails all the time because I really like the "classy" look of it but I haven't done it in a while so while I was trying to come up with ideas for this weeks Green Theme, I thought I would have one of them be a French. I have seen several versions of a green French tip mani out there over the past several days. I think it's still classy enough that really about anyone can pull it off. With so many different shades of green out there you should be able to find one that will suit your style! For mine I chose Sinful Exotic Green. Beautiful shade really though I don't think I have worn it alone, for this the formula was great. I just painted the tips with it and then covered the whole nail with Seche Vite and then used Sephora's Aluminum Gold with a dotting tool for the accents. The little gold flower is from a package I got at Sephora around Christmas.

Irish Flag Nails

So for today's nails I went with the "Irish" theme and decided to try the Irish flag. Luckily for me, it's a pretty simple design. I started with two coats of Sinful Snow Me White and waited until it was totally dry and then used a strip of tape down the center of each nail and then painted one side with NYC High Line Green and the other with essence Wake Up! I waited about a minute and took the tape off and topped the whole thing off with a coat of Seche.

What do you think? Let's hope I can come up with a good idea for tomorrow!

OPI DS Classic

I have had this polish for some time and I'm not quite sure why I haven't worn it before now. This is sort of a new obsession for me and over the past couple of months my polish stash has grown from a few to...well lots of polishes! I still have LOTS that I have yet to wear. Anyway, on to this lovely polish! For this mani I really wanted some simple stamping, something wouldn't take away from the beauty of the polish. I love the formula of the DS Classic, it is a bit sheer on the first coat but the second is perfect coverage. For the stamping I finally decided on China Glaze Crimson. You would think from the name that it would be a deep red, at least that is what I think of as Crimson. But it is really a deep plum color which accented the gold of the DS Classic perfectly.

Base: OPI DS Classic

Stamp Color: China Glaze Crimson

Plate: BM01

Happy Pink Wednesday!

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet today, simple pic of my mani for today. Base of Revlon's Sublime Strawberry (from their scented line - YUMMY!), stamped with BM-209 using Wet N Wild's Black Creme polish and finished with a coat of Seche.

Black Knight!!

So I'm sure many of you have seen numerous swatches of this polish, but I'm going to show you again because it is beautiful! This is one of the three butter LONDON polishes I own and so far I have to say that I really like them. For this one I painted one coat of a black cream polish and then one coat of The Black Knight on top. I topped it with a coat of Seche and that is what you see here. I got loads of compliments on this polish!

Just for kicks, here is a macro shot of this one. On first glance it looks like just pink/purple and blue glitter in a black base; but up close you can see there is so much more going on there!

Bossy Boots

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days, I have had to do some overtime at work and haven't really had the time/energy for much of anything. Part of my Ulta haul this past week included butter LONDON's Bossy Boots. It is from their current spring line and it is beautiful! A pale, sea-foam green cream polish that I got lots of compliments on! The first day, I wore it plain in all it's glory. This is two coats but I think I could have gotten away with one careful coat, does have a topcoat of Seche.

The second day (yes, these pics are from the second day!) I layered China Glaze Snow Globe over the top. I don't usually wear a polish more than a day but this one I did both because I liked the color and because I really didn't have the time to change it. It did last very well and after working 24 of the past 48 hours, that is really saying something! :)

V-Day Post N Run

This one is going to be a quick post and run, I have to go to work today. :(

Base coat of Orly Bonder, three coats of Essie's Raise Awareness, stamped with various stamping plates and mostly Julep polishes, covered in China Glaze Fairy Dust and topped with Seche; what do you think?

It's Genius!

I have a very limited supply of Essie polishes, as I have stated before I kinda live in the middle of nowhere and they are harder to come by than some. At any rate, today's swatch is one that I love! It's Genius is a shimmery sort of ruby purple if that makes sense, lol! It has tons of gold shimmer to it which makes it simply luscious! Two coats were perfect for me but you could probably make one work if you were careful with it. I used a base of Orly Bonder and a topcoat of Seche for this mani.

In this pic you can see the gold shimmer in the bottle (and I just realized it's upside down! oops!)

The flash is bright in this one but the color is truer here I think.

Dance Baby!

Today I have for you a swatch of China Glaze's Dance Baby from the Electropop Spring 2012 collection. It is a beautiful pastel pink with a hint of purple. The formula is great, pictured is two coats.

Then I topped it off with two coats of OPI's I Lily Love You. It was really much brighter than it looks here but I couldn't get the true color to really show up, aside from that its a really pretty combo. I topped the whole thing off with a coat of Seche.

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?