Crazy Diamonds

Hello Gorgeous! Hope your December is going well! Mine is full of craziness. Saturday is my last day of work, then next Thursday, we're hopping on a plane to Vegas to tour schools, celebrate my birthday and Christmas, and start to get things settled for our stay there. Kiddo is very excited!

 As you're aware, I'm a part of the Hobby Polish Bloggers, and from that group I made a great friend, Narmai from PiggieLuv. She's always got AMAZING art on her nails, and she's an absolute muse. I took some inspiration from her GORGEOUS Don't Let Anyone Dull Your Sparkle nails, and decided to work with it. I bought some OPI Sheer Tint minis on Amazon, grabbed my chunky glitters and went nuts.

First step in this process is using a sp- you know what, she's got a great tutorial over on Youtube. Check it out!

I went out and about like this, before they were finished... Even unfinished, they got comments and compliments! 

Macro Shot. Because these will never get old lol

For my nails, I went with a different message than my muse:

Shine on, you crazy diamond! 

My diamond in Macro

To create the lettering and the diamond, I created my own decals using Seche Vite, a piece of paper, and a ziplock baggie. I wrote out what I wanted to say on the paper, put the paper in the baggie, and then painted the baggie with Seche Vite. After that was dry, I painted out the words using Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes and Sinful Colors' Black on Black using my medium-length line brush. The diamond is Silver Mercedes, with LAC's Glitter Bomb and China Glaze's Fairy Dust behind.

I sooo love these! They were so cute and fun to make! I hope you enjoyed them as much as I do!

In the comments, please lemme know what you're doing for Christmas!

Traveling TARDIS nails!

Hello, Whovian! Hope you're having a wonderful day! Today, I'm showing you some of my favorite nails I've ever done! If you've been with me for a while, you know I'm a pretty big nerd/geek, part of the Doctor Who fandom, and I love doing nails that show it!

So on Black Friday weekend, Storenvy was having a 30% off select shops sale, and while sifting through a bunch of beauty stores, I discovered one called Gryffinstor that does mostly water decals and temporary tattoos. They have a LOT of fun and nerdy stuff, please go check them out! As I was sifting through their items, I saw that they had the TARDIS, and I had to have a sheet! With zero hesitation, I tossed them in my cart and purchased them, with the intent to do this mani.

I received them really quickly, the shipping speed was excellent! In fact, they arrived so soon, and I couldn't wait (of course), so I took some polishes, sponges, and tools to work and did these at my desk. After some trial and error, I ended up deciding to paint the backs of the decals with white polish because they were too transparent without, and you couldn't see the TARDIS. After doing so, the TARDIS really pops!

Ooweeeoooooh! OOooheweeeeoooh! Do do do do da doooo de dooo!

*weird grinding noise*

Yeah, I'm excited about these. After wearing them for a few days, I still don't want to take them off.

Now, I wanna let you in on a little secret: not all of this is nail polish! I accidentally forgot to bring black (how?!), and I don't have black handy at my desk, so I grabbed what I had: black sharpie >_< 

So after laying down the black, I put a top coat down so it didn't smudge, then sponged on several colors using a ripped up makeup sponge held by some tweezers.

The colors I used for this are: Black Sharpie, Sally Hansen's Co-Bolt Blue, Zoya's Robyn and Pippa, and LAC's Purple Passion. I also used three glow-in-the-dark colors, an unnamed Rue Beaute' that's hot pink (it has a light-up lid), Pulsating Purple by Bright 'n Sassy (I found it at my local grocery store), and Pure Ice's Glow In The Dark. I was disappointed to find that the pink and the purple don't glow in this mani, but Glow In The Dark sure does! I haven't been disappointed in that one yet :) I still feel like they do make a bit of a difference in this mani, though, by changing some colors.

I used a dotting tool and a striping brush to create the stars, and Sinful Colors' Snow Me White. Topped everything with China Glaze Fairy Dust, and then placed the TARDIS-es. After those were snug, I topped everything with Diamond Claw after cleanup.

I love these so much, and I keep nerding out over them. I have a feeling we'll be seeing them again soon!

What fandoms do you belong to? If you like these, please leave a comment!

Snow Days

Hello from the midwest, where it went from 60°F to snowing the next day.

I was not ready for this. I am cold.

But in celebration of the season, I've done an homage to my family's second-favorite snow activity: Snowmen!

To create this look, I used an unnamed pale blue Rue 21 nail polish, a single coat of China Glaze's The Outer Edge, from their The Giver line, and to create the snow, I dabbed on OPI's Liquid Sand Solitaire. Pretty easy, and actually very quick. 

This was the first time I've used The Outer Edge. It's a dream to use on the nail, very easy to control the glitter, but a nightmare to get off the cuticle. I do like the way it looks, though. It's made of dense, tiny white matte glitters and then some less-dense, even-tinier silver glitter suspended in a clear base. 

I top coated with Diamond Claw from Dragon Claw Polish before I dabbed Solitaire.

Are you excited about winter? If so, what's your favorite part?

Dragon Claw Polish- Swatches and Reviews

*Press Sample*

These samples were provided to me by the creator of these polishes. 

I have not been compensated for this review.

Today, I have a couple of samples from a new indie called Dragon Claw Polish!! I was thrilled to receive such beauties, and excited to get to swatch and review them! The store is debuting on November 7th, so mark your calenders, loves! Pricing is going to be awesome too, with minis at $3.95 and full sized bottles at $7.95!

The polishes I received are Bea and Dragon Fly Wings. I also received a sample of her topcoat, Diamond Claw, which is what I used the pictures below.


First up is Bea. Janet (the creator) says: "Bea comes from the Girls of Famous Asian collection. She is a friendly, always happy person, and whenever I work with her she gives off a calming, friendly vibe. This polish is a bright celadon blue shimmer polish with chunks of friendly glitter!"

Right you are, Janet!

I used four coats

I found Bea to be a very jelly formula, needing about 3-4 coats as it is very sheer. I had a bit of an issue with the glitter settling to the bottom, so I was having a hard time picking the larger hexes. The color is a gorgeous, easy-to-wear blue, and it's very shimmery, to the point that it was distracting (which I love!). There's tiny holo glitters in there, and then all shapes and sizes of blue, purple, green, and red glitters. It dried VERY quickly, even for layers 3 and 4. I was honestly surprised how fast this dried, because as soon as I was done with one hand, the other was ready to go! I love it!

The next polish I received is Dragon Fly Wings. This one was the office favorite (I opened them up at work) and it reminds me of my mother, whose favorite animal is the dragonfly.

Janet's description of this polish is "Dragon Fly Wings is from the Icky Made Pretty collection. Dragonflies are beautiful and their wings glistening in the sun is gorgeous. This polish is a wonderful teal with a color changing shimmer. It shifts from gold to green."

Dragon Fly Wings also has a jelly-like base, but it wasn't quite as sheer; I only needed 2 coats to get it opaque, but I should've gone for one more (I could still see my smile line). I found it to be more of a glass fleck glitter instead of a shimmer as the description says, but it definitely has a lovely spectrum of colors in the glass flecks. I caught myself staring at the shift several times throughout the day, and found some really pretty colors if I tilted my hand just-so. But alas, I was at work and I'm not allowed to be taking pictures there lol.  It also had a massively small amount of drying time, which was very pleasing and impressive!  

Of the two, Dragon Fly Wings was definitely my favorite, but I just tend to go towards this type of polish vs large glitters. Both of them were awesome to work with and easy to get on the nail. I didn't have any issues with streaking and they were both very good at leveling. Other than the issue with Bea's larger glitters (which, let's face it, is gonna happen with any and all large glitters), I am very happy with both of these polishes and I'm excited to see what I end up using them for :)

Now I know you're worried about the challenge post and wondering why I'm posting Thursday morning instead of Friday morning, but don't worry, you're getting two posts this week! Yaaaay! So you don't miss it, be sure to follow me using your preferred method :)

If you want to check out more of the new Dragon Claw Polishes, check out her site here. I know I'm excited for more and I'm sure you will be, too!

Sunset Over the Skylines

Hello luvvies! Hope you are excited for this weekend, I sure am!

At my Dollar Store, we've been getting some really awesome steals lately. Particularly in the makeup section, so I've been keeping an eye there, and very recently, I scored! I found some Maybelline New York COLORSHOW Nail Tattoos in style 30, called "Skylines" and I immediately knew what I was doing with them! Sunsets!

I absolutely love these, so I took WAY too many pics! Sorry-not-sorry lol

This one is my personal favorite

For the sunset, I started with a dot of Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow, then put a ring of Salon Perfect's Haute Pink (which is really an orange, if you ask me), followed by a ring of Zoya's Charisma, followed by a ring of Pure Ice's Last Chance, and then the rest of the sponge was Sinful Colors' Endless Blue (I thought it was going to be darker, but the sponging lightened it up considerably).  Over the Last Chance and the Endless Blue, I dabbed some unnamed LAC glitter.

Doing a round gradient opposed to a linear gradient was actually much harder than I was anticipating. Anyone have any tips?

I have had an AMAZING amount of strangers and friends commenting on how much they love them. I love them too!

I hope you guys have an awesome Friday and an even better start to your weekend!

Happy Independence Day!

It's the Fourth of July, which to Americans is basically the day that we go nuts with alcohol and explosives. No wonder the rest of the world think we're crazy...

Another part of this tradition is that everything gets decked out in red, white and blue. While I'm actually not very patriotic, I did do my nails for the holiday.

Half-moons with metal stars, red and blue jewels, and red and blue glitter make this a red-white-and-blue make this a Fourth of July spectacle!

Hope yours was safe, and fun!

Chevron

I am so ridiculous sometimes. I KNEW I did my nails for last week's post, but I just could NOT find the pictures for them, so I broke down last Tuesday night thinking I forgot to take the pics for them.

Suddenly tonight, I found them! ...They were in the folder I never use, which is literally named "Nails" for my blog pics. I put something away for once, and couldn't find it because of that.

Yeah. Brilliant.

Anyways, I found them, yay!

This is a very trendy look right now, with the glitter on one finger and the chevron on the next, and I really did fall in love. Era picked the purple and I did this at work. 

I have no clue what happened to my pinkie. It was like that IRL, it's not an issue with the camera.

That dratted thumb, can never get that corner right....

I freehanded the heart and the chevron! I used this Pinterest tutorial as a general guide. Unfortunately, I have dug through her tumblr AND her actual blog and I cannot for the life of me find the original post :( Darn pinterest!

I used Wet'N'Wild Megalast On a Trip, which my camera didn't like too much (It's too blue in these pics), China Glaze Cosmic Dust and Fairy Dust (on my middle finger), and Revlon's Spirit. Topped with Seche Vite.

I will likely do this several more times because it's just so friggin' cute :)

Thowback: Swirls

Surpassed 10k views!!!! ...And no followers, with like 6 comments. C'mon guys, why no interaction? :(

I did these nails back in like, May of 2013 and SOMEHOW didn't get a pic of them. So I redid them! And I love them just as much :)

Step one: Dab your chosen colors of nail polish on a makeup sponge and dab your nails with the sponge.

Add a sparkly layer

Stamp your favorite swirly stamps/freehand it (if you're good enough!)

Topcoat, and tada!!

My son's doctor loved them, as did the girlies at work :) The stamping was not my best, but I was still pleased with them.

What would you do differently?

Please participate in the poll, leave a comment, and subscribe :)

Swatches

I got some swatch rounds (I think that's what they're called?) with my birthday Amazon gift card, so I'm doing swatches of the polishes I own.
The one I've got done so far is my Miscellaneous glitters, ones that don't have any particular color placement.

This is the round blank:

And this is what it looks like when it's done. As you can see I need to get a much thinner marker. Here's my silvers, golds, and misc glitters:

Right now I'm working on a week-long project for you guys, as a part of a review of a popular product I've found online, so unless someone lets me do their nails I won't be posting anything until then.

Happy New Years'!!!!!

Another 12 months have passed since this time of year again! Yaaay!
And of course I have to have nails for the occasion :D

OH NO WHERE DID MY PINKIES GO?!

Fireworks!

And a toast to finish off the new year/welcome in the new one!

In the past three days I have taught three people how to successfully stamp using stamping plates. I'm pretty damn proud of that :) They had beautiful nails :)

To create this look I used Sinful Colors Black on Black, and Snow Me White, Fingerpaints Peacock Portrait, and OPI Nicole Heavenly Angel. 

Thank you guys for sticking around :) This year my goals are to start getting comments outta you guys, get some subscribers, and to finally sit down and work out a schedule. Do you have any goals geared around your hobbies?

Secret Santa Week 1

We're doing a Secret Santa where I work. For three weeks in December, you get a gift for your SS, the first two presents worth about $3-$5, the second $15-$20. This week, I got three bottles of nail polish, a mani kit, a pedi kit, and a cute little sock purse that I use to keep the new tools in my desk :)

I got two bottles of a jelly nail polish by Color Show, in the Polka Dots line.  Blue Marks the Spot and Pretty in Polka.

My reviews: 

Pretty in Pink: This one has a great formula. In two coats, I lost my free edge, and got a very even coverage of the glitter. It's a very pretty bubblegum pink with small, medium, and large-ish black and white matte glitter. The glitter is very easy to manipulate.

Blue Marks the Spot: This has a very, very sheer formula. What you see on my nails is four coats. The glitter is the same, and it's just as easy to manipulate. The only issue I came across was the sheerness.

Hehehe this is what it looks like taking it off.

I really enjoyed wearing these, even though they felt very busy for the first few hours. Once I got used to it I really liked them :)

My Secret Santa went waaaay over budget for the first week, but lemme tell ya, I'm VERY pleased!!! Thank you (if you read this!)

Welcoming Winter

I'm cold. We actually hit below-freezing recently, and that was horrible. I really need to get ready and buy myself a coat.

But I'm excited. Snow soon! And then I got this polish from OPI, Heavenly Angel, and it made me think of snow.

The base color is Essie's Bikini So Teeny. On my thumb and middle finger, I sponged two coats of Heavenly Angel. On my ring and pinkie fingers, I added a coat of Pure Ice's Oh Baby!, and on my pointers, I freehanded snowflakes using Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl. 

My review of Bikini So Teeny: Two-to-three coater. It's difficult to work with, because the second coat streaks the first, lifting it off the nail.

My review of Heavenly Angel: Definitely needs to be sponged on. The flakies aren't thick enough in the base to brush on. 

More October Nails

I know, GREAT title right? lol have anything better, leave it in the comments ;)

These were fun :D I'm starting to perfect the striping technique.... The trick is to make sure everything underneath is 100% dry, and peel the tape off when the polish on top is still wet. I was not doing that before, and either whole chunks of the top color would peel off, or polish from under the tape would come up. It was a mess! Not this time, though!

October is Here!

...Someone wake up that guy from Green Day. (I know, overused joke...)

I'm so friggin' excited for October, but at the same time, I'm in total disbelief that it's actually October. 2012 was just last month, right??

I'd been so excited to do my nails tonight... All of my nails I had perfectly shaped and they were all even and the same great length... and then I broke my right middle. So frustrating! I'm sure I'll get over it... Nails do grow back, after all!

If you're arachnophobic, heads-up. I'm wearing spiders and their webs!

Step one: Sponge the tips of your nails with your base. I chose Orly's Charged Up.

I sponged Sinful Colors' Let Me Go on top and just under the Charged Up. In hindsight, this was a little too much, but had I just left the whole thing like this, it would've been perfect.

Next, I added the spider webs. Using a thin striping brush, start at the gathering point and draw out in black. Repeat a couple more times. Draw little U's between the lines. I went over mine with glitters. Born Pretty's Holographic #7 is shown here.

I stamped spiders onto my accent nails using Pure Ice Black Rage and Mash-38 stamping plate.

Little closer....

A couple of the spiders on my right hand got squished. 

I LOVE this mani, and I've only been wearing it all of five minutes now! This was inspired by this post that I found on Pinterest. I'm working on improving my freehanding, and drawing straight lines will probably improve with time. I'm still very impressed with myself on how these turned out though!

Waterfall Nails

I saw this post in quite a few places, and fell in love with the waterfall look. I started reading through her blog, www.thenailasaurus.com, to find out she's in love with waterfalls too, and even made this tutorial. I didn't follow it to the tee (I didn't use the right brush), but I just had to use my new China Glaze Cosmic Dust today and I thought grey/black/white tones would be GORGEOUS over it. And I was right. But it did need a pop of color, so I added purple (based on my ABF's preference). And man oh man I'm in love! (with the mani...)

Obviously, I need some practice, but I loooove this!!! The way the holo is grey until the light hits it, it works perfectly! When the holo, y'know, holos, it's just brilliant. In certain lights the purple looks like another grey, and it all is just perfect :)

Comparison: China Glaze Cosmic Dust vs Born Pretty Hologram Effect #7

So Sally's was having another sale, and OF COURSE I had to get in on it. This purchase was my first bottle of China Glaze! I got Cosmic Dust, which is a medium grey holo.

And I decided to compare it to Born Pretty's Hologram Effect #7:

Coat 1

Hologram Effect #7                                                  Cosmic Dust          

  

Coat 2 

Hologram Effect #7                                                  Cosmic Dust        

Cosmic Dust is very opaque, only needs 1-2 coats. As you can see, after two coats, you can't see the difference between the black bottom coat and the no bottom coat. Hologram Effect #7 is very sheer, and could maybe be a topcoat glitter for a mani. 

Hologram Effect #7 is a little more of a vivid holo, and a little chunkier. It also has a bit of a sage green color in it after it dries, whereas Cosmic Dust is just a straight dark silver.  

Both of these will have its use, and they are definitely nothing alike. I was just curious what the difference would be. Turns out it's like night and day and I'm okay with that :)