49ers Decal Manicure

Hi there!

This is the next idea I have for a 49ers manicure...

My San Francisco 49ers nails. NFL Super Bowl manicure.
China Glaze - Red Pearl, OPI, Suzi Loves Cowboys,
and Essie - Good As Gold.

I painted 2 coats of each polish to achieve what's pictured. With one of my striper polishes, I painted white lines onto my index finger to portray a football. On my ring finger, I simply placed a 49ers sticker.

I'll be posting one more San Francisco 49ers manicure tomorrow morning. Click here to see what I've done so far.

Until next time...

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi there!

This is the manicure I'm wearing today...

My nails painted with Orly - Scarlet and Golden Maharaja.

I painted 2 coats of Scarlet as a base- it's red with orange and copper shimmer. Once that was dry, I painted a stripe of Golden Maharaja- it's brown with brown and copper shimmer. While that was still wet, I used one of my dotting tools to place the gold stars where the 2 polishes met. I topped it with a coat of OPI's top coat.

I wish that I would have been able to capture just how pretty these 2 polishes are together... the shimmer in each of them is gorgeous in person!

Here's a similar manicure that I painted back in April...

My nails painted with Julep - Amy, Michelle, Oscar, and Sienna.

It has the same technique as the first manicure... but instead of stars, I placed dots of gold and gold glitter polish. Complete credit for this design goes to The Nailasaurus. A friend of mine saw her blog post and asked me to recreate it with only nail polish.

What are your plans for today? Hunny poo and I are spending Thanksgiving at home this year, and I love it! Our house is so warm and cozy, and I already want to take a nap :-)

Until next time...

Autumn Breeze

Hi there!

I added a leafy filigree design to yesterday's manicure...

My nails painted with OPI - Suzi Loves Cowboys and
Chop-Sticking To My Story.
Stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM21 and Essie - Good As Gold.

...and I'm glad I did, because I really like it! I was planning on stamping a plain leaf design, but it turned out that the one full nail image I have in my collection didn't seem interesting enough for what I wanted.

I was going to stamp this manicure with Nicole by OPI's The Next CEO, since I do like its color better than Good As Gold against my base colors... but it simply doesn't stamp well. It's gorgeous on its own, but the foily finish doesn't allow it to transfer. Alternatively, Good As Gold stamps amazingly! If you're looking for a great gold to stamp with, I most definitely recommend it.

Is this a manicure you would wear?

Until next time...

Fall Gradient

Hi there!

This is quintessential Fall...

My nails painted with OPI - Suzi Loves Cowboys and
Chop-Sticking To My Story.

...right? I painted 1 coat of Essie's Very Structured (a rusty brown) as a base. I could have just painted a base of Chop-Sticking To My Story, since Very Structured doesn't show through to the final manicure anyway. For the gradient, I blobbed each polish onto the back of one of my stamping plates then I used one of my cut up makeup sponges to transfer the polish onto my nails.

I topped this manicure with a coat of OPI's Top Coat. Perhaps surprisingly, this was my first time using it... and my first impression wasn't so great. Even with a light hand, the orange and brown polish still transferred to the brush.

What are you wearing on your nails today?

Until next time...

Sheswai - Badass

Hi there!

This is one of the bottles of polish I got a while ago after posting a decent deal alert...

My nails painted with Sheswai - Badass.

I painted 2 coats to achieve what's pictured. It applied very nicely- the formula didn't flood my cuticles... and the little bit of polish I did get into my cuticles was removed easily with the pointy part of my nail clippers.

There are more cons than pros with this polish, I'm afraid :-( The color is beautiful, the bottle is pretty cool looking, and the application was nice... but the pros stop there. The dry time is odd... it seemed like it never fully dried near my cuticles- I had clean hands; no oils, soaps, or lotion residue to prevent proper drying. It's important to wear a topcoat with this one... it chips easily, it scuffs, and the tip wear is almost unbelievable. The writing on the bottle rubs off very easily- it's almost all disappeared on the back of the bottle.

I wore this for roughly 36 hours before removing it. It isn't too noticeable at first glance in the photograph, but there are scuff marks on all of my fingers. There is also substantial cuticle wear- there was much more present at about hour 24.

I won't write this brand of polish off just yet... I do plan on trying the other 2 colors I have. At the very least, I hope I just got a dud bottle... or even that this is a case of the formula not working with my body's chemistry.

Have you tried this brand? Whether you've tried it or not, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Until next time...

China Glaze - Call Of The Wild

Hi there!

I forgot to post this earlier... woops! Anyway, this is what I wore today...

My nails painted with China Glaze - Call Of The Wild.

The first coat showed a lot of red undertones and left some streaks, so I painted 2 coats to achieve what's pictured.

To see all of the On Safari collection, click here.

Until next time...

Spoiled - Bite Me

Hi there!

This is another of the Spoiled polishes that I bought because of the name...

My nails painted with Spoiled - Bite Me.

I painted 2 coats to achieve what's pictured. I like the formula... it applied easily and dried just as quickly as I expected it to dry.

A closer look at the coppery, sometimes red, shimmer...

Spoiled - Bite Me.

I got to talking with my friend, Destany, about this particular shade and the Spoiled line in general. While there are several mentioned problems about the brushes being too coarse and awkwardly shaped, neither of us consider those a deal-breaker. I concluded that I don't care for the thickness of the brushes. When I paint my low-set nails, I like to get the polish as close to my cuticles as possible. With such a vertically thick brush, I'm unable to do so without getting nail polish on my skin and/or flooding my cuticles. Destany doesn't have that problem, as her nails aren't low-set like mine are. To see her thoughts on Bite Me, click here.

Here's a look at a brush width comparison of a few polishes from my collection...

Nail polish brushes. Across the top: Spoiled, OPI, and Nicole by OPI.
Across the bottom: Essie, Chine Glaze, and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength.

What's your favorite type of brush to use when painting your nails? What's your least favorite type of brush? I think my favorite might be OPI, and my least favorite is Essie- just because the brush is so small.

Until next time...

Ugly Manicure Monday - 02

Hi there!

This ugly manicure comes to you courtesy of Katt at Kattatonic Fierceology...

Essie - Armed & Ready.

She painted 3 coats to achieve what's pictured. Her nails are messy because she painted them while driving around town (as a passenger). She even hung them out the window to dry.

Thanks, Katt!

Have you ever been so excited about a polish that you couldn't wait until you got home to try it? I have!

If you have an ugly manicure, I'd love to feature it! Email me with what polish you used and what you intended your manicure to look like :-)

Until next time...

Spoiled - Cougar Attack

Hi there!

Here's another of the Spoiled polishes...

My nails painted with Spoiled - Cougar Attack.

I painted 2 coats to achieve what's pictured. It applied just fine, but it's a bit more gritty than the other glitters I've tried thus far.

Cougar Attack is unique to my collection with the brown base and orange glitter- but it screams autumn to me, so I'm not sure how I feel about it right now. Yes, I'm one of those. I sometimes can't help myself and I associate colors with the time of the year. Don't you?

This seems to be a direct copy of Wet n Wild's Cougar Attack, from the On The Prowl Collection released in late 2011. I don't own it, but the swatches online are undeniable.

Until next time...

My Private Fantasy

Hi there!

Haha, that totally sounds dirty! This may seem like a strange combination, but I reeeally wanted to wear both colors today...

My nails painted with OPI - My Private Jet and China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy.

I promise it doesn't look Halloween-y in person. Typical of neons, Flip Flop Fantasy isn't captured well by my camera. It's an awesome neon reddish pink!

Here's a cell phone picture...


My nails painted with OPI - My Private Jet and China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy.


It's very blurry, but the color is more accurate- especially in the glare areas on my middle finger and my pinky.

I painted 2 coats of My Private Jet, though it would have been fine with just one coat. I painted 2 thick coats of Flip Flop Fantasy and I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite.

The more I look at my hands, the more I like this combination!

Have you tried any strange or unexpected color combinations?

Until next time...

Brown - Swatches

Hi there!

These colors look so similar!

From left to right: OPI - You Don't Know Jacques! Suede, OPI - You Don't Know Jacques!,
Sinful Colors - Nirvana, Elf - Smoky Brown, and China Glaze - Ingrid. 



From thumb to pinky: OPI - You Don't Know Jacques! Suede,
OPI - You Don't Know Jacques!, Sinful Colors - Nirvana,
Elf - Smoky Brown, and China Glaze - Ingrid.


With the flash...


From thumb to pinky: OPI - You Don't Know Jacques! Suede,
OPI - You Don't Know Jacques!, Sinful Colors - Nirvana,
Elf - Smoky Brown, and China Glaze - Ingrid.


Not only are these polishes similar in color, they are similar in application as well. The largest difference is price.

And solely because I can, I took a fun picture of my new bamboo table runner...


Interesting picture of my new table runner.

Until next time...

Guess My Name

Hi there!

It's been raining here all week and my backyard is an absolute muddy mess. We haven't landscaped it yet and we're just waiting on the rain to subside so we can get on with it. I decided to embrace the color...

I'm wearing 5 different polishes. What? Yes! Can you guess what they are?

Here's a picture with the flash so you can see the undertones...

There are 2 coats of polish on each finger.

I'll post the colors tomorrow :-)

Happy guessing!

Until next time...

China Glaze - Ingrid - Vintage Vixen

Hi there!

I didn't want my fingernails to be naked today, so I quickly painted them with China Glaze's Ingrid, from the Vintage Vixen collection.

The color is a muddy, cream brown with a hint of gold shimmer.


My nails painted with 2 coats of China Glaze - Ingrid.


Tomorrow afternoon, I'll paint a design with one of my Konad plates.

Until next time...