Harry Potter Manicure!!!

Hello! For this manicure, I was inspired by Cris over at Let Them Have Polish . I did change it up a little bit though :)

I put little shields in each house's colors on my nails and then a HP symbol on my thumb. I just used tape to block off the nails for the shields and both hands really only took me about 2 hours to do. I won't go into details for each nail but here's a rundown of the polishes that I used.
Pinky - Hufflepuff - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow, Love My Nails in Black Rage
Ring - Ravenclaw - Pure Ice Fast Lane (bronze), Zoya Tallulah
Middle - Slytherin - China Glaze Jolly Holly (green), Zoya Trixie
Pointer - Gryffindor - Orly Solid Gold (matte but I added topcoat), Zoya Kristi
Thumb - HP symbol - NYC Skin Tight Denim Creme with Nubar 2010 over it and HP with a white striper
I also used CND Toughen Up base coat and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat. I really like this and I can't wait to see the movie tomorrow!!! Anyone else going to see it?

Ocean Manicure

Hello everyone! Today I have a manicure inspired by the ocean. I get to take a vacation to South Padre, Texas in a a few weeks and I can't wait to go! 

I really wanted to play around with my bottle of Nubar 2010 but I had also bought Zoya Shay and I wanted to wear that too. I decided that Shay looked sort of like sand on a beach and thus this mani was born. I started out with 1 coat of CND Toughen Up base, then I put 2 coats of China Glaze For Audrey on my pinky, middle and pointer fingers and 2 coats of Zoya Shay on my ring finger and thumb. I had problems with both polishes bubbling on me (something that doesn't normally happen to me) and I can only guess that it had something to do with humidity. Anyway, I added 2 coats of Nubar 2010 over the fingers with For Audrey and 1 coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat over that. On my ring finger and thumb, I added 1 coat of Insta-Dri over Shay and then used a white striper to paint 2 small stars on my ring finger and a sort of shell shape on my thumb. Then I used a black striper to add three R-E-A-L-L-Y thin lines on the shell and added another coat of Insta-Dri.

Overall, I really like it! The turquoise looks like the water of the Caribbean and the flakies add the flashes from the sun glinting on the water! Okay, so who want to go to the beach now?

4th of July Mani! Lots of Pics!

Happy late 4th of July! Here's the manicure that I did! I'll give you fair warning though, there are lots of pics!

 This is the full manicure! And yes, I am holding a bottle of Nubar 2010, 

I found it on Amazon for $8.51 with shipping and tax!

I've broken this down by finger so you can see exactly what I used for each nail individually. 

I used CND Stickey for a base on all the nails and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri for a topcoat.

 Pinky

On my pinky I applied 2 coats of Zoya Kristi 

and made the stripes with a white striper.

Ring

 My ring finger was my favorite!

I used 2 coats of Zoya Tallulah, 1 coat of Nubar 2010 

and a white striper for the fireworks explosion!

Middle

For my middle finger I used 1 coat of Rescue Beauty Lounge Underware, 

1 coat of China Glaze Frosty (to make it sparkly!) and dotted it with Zoya Kristi.

 Pointer

This finger had 1 coat of Zoya Tallulah, 1 coat of China Glaze Dorothy Who? 

and I used a white striper to freehand the star.

Thumb

This was another of my favorites!

I used 2 coats of Zoya Kristi, a little silver star decal 

and then made shooting star stripes with a white striper.

This was a super over the top manicure and it didn't last very long,

but it was great for the holiday and I got tons of compliments!

Summer nails!

So these are some surfboard inspired nails that are super easy and you can do them in whatever colors you want or can even match them to outfits/accessories!

So first I used 1 coat of CND Strengthening Base coat,1 coat of Zoya Tallulah and 1 coat of Sally Hansen Instra-Dri top coat. Then I used 2 pieces of tape (make sure the base color is dry and that you stuck the tape to your hand a few times) and covered up both sides of the nail leaving a narrow strip of space between the 2 pieces. Next, I painted Sinful Colors Innocent on over the strip not covered in tape to make a stripe of green down the center (or as close as I could get). After waiting for that to dry down, I used a white stripe right along the edges of the green stripe and then covered everything in another coat of Insta-Dry top coat.
Again, you could easily use whatever colors you have on hand, or if you want to match outfits or accessories it is very easy to customize this look however you want!

Giveaway!

Natalie's Nails is having a great giveaway!

Click to go check it out!

Quick Spring Look

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share my quick little spring look with all of you!

This is one coat of CND Stickey and one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Brisk Blue. Then on my ring fingers I used a bobby pin to make four dots (for each flower) with China Glaze Frosty and then pulled the dots into the center to create a teardrop effect. Then I used a dot of some Maybelline hot pink polish in the center of the four white dots. Then sealed it with a coat of Poshe. It looks adorable and took less than 20 minutes to do!

OPI Texas Sorbet Guy Meets Gal-veston

Hello everyone! I'm sure by now most of you have seen the awesomeness that are the new OPI sorbets. These are technically jelly finish polishes but they are really well done and they look so yummy and juicy!

This is Guy Meets Gal-veston but many other bloggers have already done swatches so I thought I'd show you what I created with these polishes! These are amazing for gradient manicures because they are so sheer but build up really well.

For this manicure I used 1 coat CND Stickey base, 1 coat of Rescue Beauty Lounge Underware, 1 coat of OPI Guy Meets Galveston over the whole nail (makes a beautiful neon light pink!), a second coat of GMG over the bottom 2/3's of the nail, and a 3rd coat over last 1/3 on the tips, followed by 1 coat of Poshe fast dry topcoat. It was pretty simple and the sorbet dried pretty quickly so it wasn't as time consuming as doing something like a scotch tape manicure would be!

Here is a terrible picture but a nice representation of how gradient the polish looked!

St. Patrick's Day Patchwork

Hello lovelies! St. Patty's Day is the anniversary of my heart surgery as well as the birthday of my bunny Dusty Clover! I wanted to do a St. Patrick's Day manicure with China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses on all my nails except for the ring fingers and then do a silver nail with a green shamrock on my ring fingers, but it did not really work out the way that I wanted it to. So...I tried something else I had been wanting to!

First, I used CND Stickey base coat and then one coat of Zoya Trixie and let it dry. I did not put a topcoat over this layer but I sort of wish I had because when I taped off the nails there were a few bald  patches left that I had to cover. Anyway, after Trixie dried, I used one piece of tape on each nail and covered about half the nail on a diagonal in varying directions. Next, I painted on China Glaze Jolly Holly and took the tape off. After about 5 minutes I used Poshe Fast Dry top coat over this and let it dry about 10 more minutes. When it was dry I taped off the nails again on diagonals in varying directions. I tried to cover part of both the green and silver parts. Then I painted on China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses and took off the tape. After about 5 minutes, I applied another coat of Poshe.

I definitely need more practice especially on the pinky nails but it turned out really pretty and unexpected for St. Patty's Day!

Valentine's Day Nails!

Happy almost Valentine's Day! The snow has finally started to melt here and I've never been so happy to be back in classes! Last night I decided I would go ahead and do my Valentine's Day manicure since the bf and I are probably going out tonight instead of Monday to beat the crowds and because we both have tests on the 15th that we need to study for.

This was 1 coat of CND Stickey, 2 coats of China Glaze Heli-Yum, 1 coat of Poshe, free hand heart with white StripeRite, free hand XO with black StripeRite, and topped off with another coat of Poshe! I think it's very Valentine's Day appropriate, simple and cute without being over the top. Heli-Yum is very bright shade of hot pink so use with caution! I plan on wearing it with a strapless, light pink dress and natural makeup with a red lip!

Hope you have an amazing Valentine's Day!

Snow day manicure!

Hello! I hope everyone is staying safe and warm if you are getting this wonderful blizzard like I am. It's been a whole week since I've actually gone to a class. Anyway, it gives me time to play, right?

This is my snow day manicure. I did one coat of CND Stickey, one coat of Rescue Beauty Lounge 360 (a perfect gray-blue match to my eyes) and then I did a plaid pattern over it with StripeRite white and silver glitter. I only did one nail because some of them turned out sloppy and I liked the effect on this nail the best.
Stay warm!

Orly Space Cadet

Again, I am so sorry for the quality of these pictures. I didn't get paid this past week and so I have no money to buy a new camera so I'm stuck with my Iphone. However, I can still rave as much as I want about this polish!
Orly Space Cadet is a beautiful duo-chrome shade. It looks sort of green/teal/purple in the bottle, but on the nails, it flashed sort of a sparkly, fuchsia color in direct light, while indirect light brought out an olive green and a light brown color. I was so fascinated by this polish, I couldn't stop staring at my nails! It applies beautifully, although it needed about 3 coats, but I had weird peeling issues on my left hand after 4 days.

OPI Simmer and Shimmer

Okay so here's what I just took off my tips today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OPI Simmer and Shimmer

I got this beautiful polish from my boyfriend's mom for Christmas (along with Orly Space Cadet and Solid Gold Matte), and I wore it for my NYE mani with Zoya's Evangeline on my toes to match the pink glitter. It was really hard to photograph since I'm using my iphone due to just recently breaking my camera. However, I'm still gonna plunge on ahead and hope these pics will be at least slightly useful. The blurring shows just how sparkly this polish is. It's a beautiful glitter polish with tons of teal and silver glitter with little flecks of pink and gold. 

Funny thing about this polish. I thought I would need at least 5 coats since it's tons of glitter in a clear polish, so I tried it over China Glaze Jitterbug (sparkly pewter) and also over Rescue Beauty Lounge 360 (gray-blue). On my pointer finger I applied basecoat, 360 and 2 coats of Simmer & Shimmer, on my middle finger I put basecoat, Jitterbug and 2 coats of Simmer & Shimmer, and on my ring finger I put basecoat and 3 coats of Simmer & Shimmer. I COULD NOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE! This is a really thickly packed glitter polish!

REVIEW: OPI Simmer & Shimmer from Burlesque collection

* Wear (With CND Stickey basecoat and Poshe topcoat) - 

First chip on 2nd day and 1 nail completely chipped off by the 4th.

* Texture - A little runny but workable and much more pigmented than I first expected!

*Price - $8

* Where to buy - ULTA stores

*More info - All Lacquered Up

First post!

Hello! So I discovered makeup and nail polish this summer when I had some extra cash to blow and some extra time to read blogs. Before this I was only aware of the Walmart makeup aisle with its Covergirl and Maybelline displays. I liked NYC polishes because they were $1.25 and I alternated the navy and purple colored ones on my toes, with the occasional pink for summer. I had been wearing makeup since 15 (I'm now 21) but it consisted of tinted moisturizer, concealer, mascara and lipgloss. I had a few Almay eyeshadows that I wore for special occasions but that was the extent of my collection.

Enter the MAC To the Beach collection. I was enthralled. I had never seen such beautiful colors, products, or such high prices. I caved in and bought the Lustre drops in Sun Rebel and the Bronzing Body Oil. Then my love affair continued with my purchase of Urban Decay’s 24/7 liners in Flipside and Rockstar and hauling a huge pile of China Glaze polishes. Now I’m known as the crazy nail polish lady in my building at school. But it wasn’t until today when I realized I was measuring the cost of getting the oil changed in my car by eyeshadows and nail polishes that I thought maybe I should blog about it. This may also have something to do with the fact that my parents, siblings and boyfriend (who are subjected to my makeup ramblings the most) are getting rather sick of my carrying on about my new nail polish.

So this blog is going to be something for myself. I hope to get some readers and make this fairly interesting. I know I won’t be too big since I’m buying stuff on a college budget, but if I create lemmings for you by sharing some of my personal lemmings that I’ve acquired as well as review some products, provide swatches and some day to day ramblings then I will be perfectly happy!