October Challenge: Week 1

Good morning! Sorry this is a wee bit late, I have some company. In this week's challenge, I'm doing "nude." And I decided to keep it simple and go for a purple gradient French tip. Which felt too simple, so I added some webs, just 'cause I need the practice and also because they're totes adorbs (sorry. I don't know what happened there). 

I am very proud of what my left hand achieved on those spiderwebs.

Please ignore my pinkie nubbins. I lost them both on the same day after weeks of superglue and coffee filters.
It was very sad. 

For the gradient, I used NYC's Strawberry Cream, Sally Hansen's Pronto Purple. Strawberry Cream is a lovely translucent soft pink, with barely a hint of shimmer. It's absolutely perfect for this type of nude gradient.

For the spiderwebs, I used Revlon's Spirit and Kleancolor's Metallic Fuchsia and a medium-length line brush. All fairly simple, really :)

I topped this with a mix of Seche Vite (which has already caused some shrinking, booo) and Pure Ice's Glow In The Dark.

I can't wait to see what you guys come up with for the challenges! You can email me your submissions at pinkies4apenny@gmail.com if you don't have your own blog, and you can always post to instagram, twitter, tumblr, or any other social media using the hashtag #OctoberChallengeP4AP. Hope to wake up to some gorgeous nails :) 

Stripes and Daisies

I love daisies. And this color palette. So why not put them together? Inspired by this pin, I decided to have a go at it. I was not impressed by my freehand skill, so I decided to use a stamp. Much better!

Freehand

Yeeeeah, I'm not a huge fan of that. I couldn't get the lines thin enough, even with using acetone.

Stamped

For this mani, I used Pure Ice Kiss Me Here, NYC Lexington Yellow, Wet'N'Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint, and Revlon Spirit. 

I laid down three coats of Lexington, and then placed striping tape down where I wanted the yellow to show. I then painted Kiss Me Here and pulled off the tapes after about 5 seconds. I got really clean lines this way, for the most part. I then did a layer of Seche Vite, in case I needed to erase a mistake later. I decided to freehand the I Need a Refresh-Mint, as using the tapes was starting to wear on my patience lol. Another layer of the Seche Vite, and I was done for the evening lol

Before the daisies

The next evening, I tried to do the daisies. I still suck at freehand, but practice makes perfect, right? I gave up and pulled out my stamps, instead of trying to use my left hand. The stamps look best, I think. What say you?

Cool-Colored Grunge

I had a totally awesome idea for these nails. ...It did not go as planned. I am disappoint. 

BUT! These still turned out really awesome, so yay!

I'm really glad I've finally got a regular schedule at work, so I can keep a regular schedule with the blog! Even though I almost forgot tonight (oops)!

So I visited a look I liked a while back from Thanksgiving 2013, and gave it fresher colors :)

This is a very, very easy mani to do. Base coat, base color, and then scrape the polish from the brush until you get off as much polish as you can. Then put a minimum amount of pressure and glide the brush over your nail. Start in random places all over your nail. BAM! Awesomeness! I've already gotten compliments, and I JUST put these on last night :)

The colors that I used are Finger Paints' Inkblot Blue and First Edition and Sinful Colors' Irish Green and Dream On over two coats of Revlon's Spirit. I used a thin coat of Fairy Dust by China Glaze on my thumbs and ring fingers. For a top coat, I used L.A. Colors' Rapid Dry Top Coat. It was only a dollar, so I thought I'd try it. I... like it better than Seche Vite so far: less shrinkage and it smells better. We'll see how it goes in a few more manis.

What colors would you use for this? Please comment, share, and subscribe!

Argyle Nails, Striping Brush Fun

I have never gotten along with my striping brush. I have never managed to get a straight line with it, but after several attempts of struggling with my striping tape (are you sensing the pattern here? I am...) I gave up and dug out the nemesis.

Sooo glad I did, these nails turned out WAY cuter than they would have!

Today I got my hands on OPI's Int'l Crime Caper from the Muppet's Most Wanted line. My Walmart's Smart Style salon had it in their Buy One, Get Two Free promo, and since kiddo was getting his hair cut... I had to grab some. And then I had to use this one! Inspired by this, found on Pinterest, I went with a totally different color scheme, and I'm really pleased with it!

The colors used are OPI's Int'l Crime Caper,  Salon Perfect's Blue Ribbon, Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here, Revlon's Violet, and Revlon's Spirit. I used Seche Vite for top coat, Orly's Nail Armor as a base.

After two coats of Nail Armor, I laid down a layer of Int'l Crime Caper. Once it dried, I sponged on two layers of Kiss Me Here (I put Int'l Crime Caper on the sponge too). I freehanded the diamonds, and then used my striping brush to finish. Topped with Seche Vite and lookit how gorgeous! Must say, I'm tickled pink with how this turned out.

I'm going to start trying to post every Friday, as I have Thursdays off regularly now. With my recent hiatus, I do have some posts saved, in case I ever need backup again. Thank you guys for sticking around for me, glad I have some loyal people around.

Have a lovely evening!

Dusty, Ditzy, Dandelions

Hey guys, sorry about the long hiatus, life got super busy and hectic and stressful and I haven't even had time to do my nails lately. Hopefully things settle down soon and I can post regularly again.

I finally had a moment last night, so I did a design I've been wanting to do for a bit. Dandelions!

I love these colors together. I used Essie's Bikini So Teeny and Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here for the base colors, and then threw in Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes for the gradient and the fan brush art. The dandelions were done in Revlon's Spirit.  I created the dandelions using a 10/0 spotter brush that came in a Walmart paint brush pack, cleanup was with a 1/4" angle from Michael's. Fan brush was part of a nail-art brush set I bought on Amazon.

I had a lot of fun with this design. Took a while, but it turned out really cute :)

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 :)

Second Valentine's Day Post- Because I Love You

So I've been wanting to use this stamp for forever and I decided to give it a go. Then I got a brilliant idea from some movie or something I was watching and suddenly my wood nails became Valentine's Day nails.

The Boyfriend's first initial is Z, and I'm M. Geddit? :D

Apple!

D'aww

I'm very pleased with how this turned out. Base color is Sinful Colors' Nirvana, stamping with Winstonia W113 plate and  Revlon's Hot for Chocolate. I used Revlon Trade Winds for the "carving", and a mix of greens for the "leaves". Topped with a matte topcoat. 

I learned the hard way to do the letters BEFORE the heart... So that I can fit them in it. Oops.

Hope you guys have a happy Valentine's Day! I plan to :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Turkey Day here in the 'States, which means a lot of people are either going to be stuffing their faces with stuffing here soon.

I'm going to be stuffing my face with my family and then going to work (I'm getting paid double, who am I to complain?). My son's gonna have a blast with his Grandie while I man the phone lines. If you have DishNET Wireline as your ISP, call in to threaten to cancel and say hi :)

This Grunge look has been really popular lately, if you've been watching Pinterest. I liked it, but then i got bored of the one-direction and threw in some side-slashes. Now I love it. Honestly, I'm not a huuuuge fan of browns and oranges and gold so I'm not 100% sold on it, but it is pretty.

After struggling with my camera for a few hundred pics, I just went with my old cell phone... It seriously has a better camera on it than my Nikon, which I can NOT for the life of me get to take pics that are up-close. So frustrating! I honestly think it's broken. *sigh*

ANYWAYS I hope you Americans enjoy your holiday! Eat, drink, and be merry!

*SEMI-POLITICAL RANT, PLEASE IGNORE*

I feel that Thanksgiving is a time to be together as a family. Retailers should NOT be forcing their employees to work today. Me working today is totally voluntary, I requested it, as did my coworkers. I will NOT be shopping until after Thanksgiving is over, even if I have to pay full price for the items I'm keeping my eye on (I'll probably go nuts at Cyber Monday too). It's called Black FRIDAY, and in my opinion, that means it STAYS ON FRIDAY. 

I also feel Christmas should stay out of November, but I think that's because I'm a December baby.

Dem Bones, Dem Bones!

I decided to try and replicate a post from pinterest, instead of adding my own little twist, just to practice and to see where I really am. Lol okay that's a bunch of bullcrap. Sorry. I just REALLY liked this design!

Original post is here.

This actually turned out better than I expected it to! ... On my left hand, at least. My left hand still isn't down for the finesse it takes to make the tiny bones, but it didn't do too bad.

These took me a loooong time. I wish I had a more opaque orange, I had to do several coats on top of a white, and you can still kinda see where the white isn't even.

For these nails, I used Sinful Colors Black on Black, Pure Ice Kiss me Here, Revlon's Spirit, and Flower's Eye of the Tiger Lily. Top coat is Matte Me Crazy by NYC.

Pure Ice Releases New Line

So even though payday isn't until tomorrow,  I HAD to pick up four of the new Pure Ice line at Walmart. I LOVE sooo many of these colors!

Pure Ice recently released 55 new shades. Did you see that? 55!!!!! That's HUGE! Revlon has been busy! (Which we are ALL very happy for!)

Today I have a swatch for Last Chance (with a layer of Look My Way on my accent nail). For topcoats, I'm using one I picked up at Rue 21 and NYC's Matte Me Crazy on my accent.

I'm just... Augh! Can these BE any more perfect for each other??

I can't wait to experience more of this new line!!!!!

Target

Today's post is about saving money at my personal favorite store: Target.

"Why Target," you ask. "Why not Walmart?"
Three reasons: Target is the same price (and sometimes cheaper), it's more organized, and the people (both customers and employees) are a bit higher class and not as scary/creepy/gross.

"Target is NOT cheaper than Walmart!" you gasp.
Why, my dear ma'am (or sir, I don't judge!) you must not know about the amazingness that is the Target RedCard.

"You mean that credit card the cashiers always harass me about? I don't want any more credit cards- they're trouble! You aren't helping me save money, you're a scam!"

First of all, there aren't yet ads on my blog, so I'm not taking any money for this and therefore I'm not a scam. Secondly, the RedCard is not- I repeat, NOT- a credit card. It is a DEBIT card, which means it is directly linked to your bank account. You don't get a bill, it's removed from your account directly. It's exactly as if you're using your bank card, but more Target-ey, which means that you're saving money using it.
When you use the RedCard, you're automatically saving 5%- which makes it as cheap-and in some instances cheaper- than Walmart (with a bit higher-quality products), and when shopping online you get free shipping!

[Edit: The Target RedCard USED to be a credit card, but it is now offered as a debit. If you want the credit card, it is still available, but they aren't trying to get people to sign up for it anymore like they used to.]

Add on top of that: coupons. On Target's website, you can print out Target-exclusive coupons that you can combine with manufacturer's coupons to double up savings.

AND THERE'S STILL MORE! If you send 5 prescriptions to the Target pharmacy you get a 5% discount that lasts for 24 hours once you use it the first time. Forget something the first time you go? Go again within 24 hours and still receive the 5% off :)

Certain items will earn you a gift card- usually between $5 and $10. I generally like this deal. The items are usually discounted, and they're items I would generally buy in bulk anyways, like diapers and "feminine hygiene products".

I have bought $1.99 NYC nail polish for under a $.50 with all these discounts and coupons and such. HOW DO YOU BEAT THAT?

So anyways, I've found a few coupons on the Target website: $.50 off a N.Y.C. cosmetic item, $1 off L'Oreal Color Riche Nail Polish, $1 off L'Oreal cosmetic item, and $1 off a Revlon Nail Art kit.

Click here for the Target Beauty Coupons.

As a side note, I'd ask that you please, please, PLEASE always be kind and respectful to your cashier. If a coupon doesn't go through or a discount doesn't work, if you smile and joke about it or something, the cashier is more likely to let the coupon slide (by slide I mean they might give it to you anyways) next time (or this time if they're having a good day). If you're a bitch (excuse my language), you aren't going to get what you want- now or later. Couponers have a bad rep because they like to fight for coupons-which exhausts the cashier and often the management. They'll remember you and you're going to be less and less welcome at their store.

Anyways, good luck with your search and enjoy your newfound discounts! ♥