Sunday, February 26, 2012

hiatus

HIATUS.

Due to personal reasons this blog, and corresponding facebook page, is going on hiatus. I am not sure when it will be back up and running.

I thank you for all your support and hope you understand.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Nail Art Dots

I love polka dots. If it has polka dots on it I will more than likely purchase it. I'm just a pattern type of person - damask, stripes, dots, houndstooth. I love them all. I tried to make my nail look like candy, but..I think I might've been better off using white as a base. Next time!

Friday, February 24, 2012

ashley is polish addicted giveaway

Click here to enter Ashley is PolishAddicted's giveaway...a Lynderella! Good luck to all.

Tutorial

Julep just posted a very simple tutorial on how to do a cheetah print mani. I've been curious about this, and since my stamping skills are non-existent I wondered if I would ever be able to have glorious cheetah print nails. Here is the tutorial.



Enjoy! I hope it's as helpful to you guys as it was for me. I'll let you know how my test run goes as soon as I find where my daughter placed my orange stick.

OPI+Jordana


This is a simple mani I did the other day. I wasn't a huge fan of it but I kept it on because I had to run some errands. I used Orly bonder as a base coat and Seche Vite as my top coat. I love that combination! I also get a super shiny, long lasting mani.



I used OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes for the base color, and Jordana Copper Blaze for the tips. I love copper blaze, but I am not really a fan of gouda gouda two shoes. I think it just needs to grow on me.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Color Club+Sinful Colors


This is a blue color club I bought in this pack. It didn't have a name, I'm still trying to find it. It's a pretty decent blue. It doesn't look that streaky, the light in the photo just makes it look that way. In person it's smooth and vivid. It's a nice royal blue.



 I didn't like it on its own though, so I put Sinful Colors Hottie on top. Hottie is an amazing glitter that gives a semi-matte finish to your polish. It looks very space-age to me. I think Hottie would be the perfect polish to use for galaxy nails.


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Heart Nail Art



Just a quick post today. I found TWO MORE bottles of whimsical! So, that's awesome. I think I'll save one for a giveaway. I also bought pink and turquoise hair dye because I feel boring. Every spring I get the itch to do something with my hair. Last year I chopped it off. NEVER AGAIN.

Anyway. Here's my most loved heart mani. I love this to pieces, though some of the hearts I flubbed. My better half says they look like butterflies. Ehhh.

I used Essie Sand Tropez as a base and OPI Fly & You're a pisa-work, and Wet n Wild "On a trip" for the hearts. I used a bobby pin as my dotting tool, because sometimes I like to channel McGuyver and save money.


Zoya Promo

Here's another ZOYA promo! Click here to read about it!

Amazing Nail Mail! *pic heavy

At the beginning of February I participated in a Valentine's Day Beauty Swap organized by Ms Mystique.

                                                     

I received my package yesterday from Emma at Emma Bovary Beauty! I was so excited to come home and see my mail arrived, I ripped open the package before saying hello to my daughter, haha!














In order of the photos:

Australis blush in baby doll, Australis mineral eyeshadow in treasure, Australis lip gloss in coy, BA gloss in baby, Bloom Berry Bang lip balm, Essence mascara, Essence long-lasting lip gloss in me and my ice cream, Lacura blush in sunset, Sportsgirl anklet, Savvy eyeshadow palette, Face of Australia lipstick in Forbidden Fruit (eee!), Work of Heart eyeshadow palette (how cute is that!?), Sportsgirl Get Cheeky eye/cheek shimmer, Face of Australia liquid eyeliner in black, and a tiny pack of Vegemite.

Thank you for everything, Emma! It's all amazing. I had little idea of what I wanted and my buddy managed to hit the nail on the head even with my vague "um, I like red lipstick and neutral shadow" LOL. I love everything and cannot wait to try it all. I can't say that I'll eat the Vegemite - I've heard horror stories!...maybe I'll keep it in my purse and pull it out at parties, haha.

I received Emma's package fairly quickly. I'm hoping mine doesn't take very long. She used a bag which I will have to remember for next time. I used a box. A slightly heavy box..ha.

On a separate note, I need a light box. Yikes.

I also received my Zoya Valentine's Day order! Nidhi and Melodie. :)

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Men and Nail Polish


Recently Seal was spotted wearing a fantastic shade of yellow polish on his nails. Click here to read the article at styleite.com There seems to be quite a bit of buzz about this, and I'm not surprised.



One of my hot button issues - when I'm in debate mode - is gender roles. I see nothing wrong with Seal wearing nail polish. I think it's refreshing - and no different considering men have worn black nail polish for years and are only recently deviating from that choice. What's the problem? Will the world implode if more men decide to follow suit on the manicure?

I love it. I'll continue to love it. I think the world needs more acceptance and equality, and less judgement.

Keep calm and paint your nails - ALL of you!

What's your opinion on men wearing nail polish?

OPI+Zoya

For some reason my better half is obsessed with orange nail polish. When he does get involved in picking colors for me to wear or buy, he always gravitates towards bright neon shades or anything orange. This is two coats of 'a good man-darin is hard to find' by OPI with two coats of Zoya OC Cooler layered on top.

I love both of these colors on their own. They're beautiful, saturated oranges - even though they both take a few coats to get that way. If you have the patience for the drying time with all those layers, you'll have one fun, bright an in your face mani.

Sorry it's so messy, I did this while my daughter was taking a bath so precision was a bit of an afterthought.





This is OC Cooler by itself. I took this awhile ago before I even considered starting a blog, so trying to be neat and having even nails didn't really occur to me. This is three coats of only OC Cooler. I love the subtle gold flecks of glitter in there, it really makes this polish stand out on its own. This is definitely an underrated Zoya! OC Cooler can easily be worn alone. It's quite opaque with a first coat. I also own SOHO Punch from this collection (glamcicles).

Monday, February 20, 2012

Sinful Colors: Snow me White


I keep raving about Sinful Colors Snow me White so I figured I would just post swatches of it. I love this white, it's my favorite. It's a nice, clean white that's opaque in 3 coats. The formula is decent, not too thick, not too thin. The brush is nice as well. I wish I purchased a back up bottle during the .99 cent sale but I didn't even think about it.

I highly recommend this white. At 1.99, I couldn't possible ask for more!

 


I'd like to thank everyone for entering the giveaway. I appreciate all of you and I do have 4 more planned in the future so I wish you all the best of luck. I love hearing your input, reading your hauls, and looking at your manicures.

I have no idea why my format is so wonky right now. Also...I forgot your Sunday Funny, so here! :D

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Vikings

It isn't nail art saturday, but who cares! Maybe it's Striped Sunday. This is my first try at a tape manicure and while I am not entirely pleased with how it came out, I definitely learned a lot:

1. Do something to protect cuticles to prevent lots of cuticle flooding
2. Don't do nail art when your toddler is in "helpful" mode.
3. Use a better base color

I live in the mid-west. The closest decent football team is the Vikings, so here is my...Viking manicure! They're not my favorite team at all. My favorite team is THE SAINTS! I'll be doing a Saints Mani soon, and with baseball coming up, I'll be doing my favorite team, The San Francisco Giants!

So here it is. I used Wet n Wild Color Icon "give me a price quote" for the gold (crappy bottles, wth?!) and Sinful Color "dream on" for the purple. The purple is very intense and dries matte. Even with a top coat, the WnW gold is still really gritty feeling which I do not like at all - however it's a very awesome, textured gold.

These two colors were really great choices for a tape mani because the almost-neon "dream on" dried really quickly and the glitter dried quickly as well!


Remember, today is the last day to enter the giveaway! Tomorrow I'm hoping to have some color club spam for you guys. :) Enjoy your Sunday!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Nail Art Saturday


I'm new to nail art. This is my first attempt at nail art EVER. First, I love Star Wars. To my friends, that is no secret. I think Star Wars is amazing and easily one of the most epic series of movies ever. I decided for my first nail art attempt, I would do:

Storm Trooper Nails
!

I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White for the white polish. It is my favorite white polish that I've used so far. The black was just a Wet n Wild black creme and I used a Sinful Colors nail art brush from this red bottle I bought recently. I just cleaned the brush off and am probably going to franken the red.

Be gentle. ROFL. Like I said, this is my first attempt and as dorky as they look, I'm in love with them! I took off all but two and am saving my two best fingers for my better half to see when he comes home from work. He'll probably just roll his eyes and turn on his XBOX. :)

I should add my middle finger is indented like that because my lens cap holder for my camera snapped off and smacked my finger! It still hurts 15 minutes later!



Well, what do you think? :)

11 (or 22?) Questions

11 Questions


The Nail Polish Rehab Candidate tagged me for these questions. Thanks! I love surveys. I did many of them when myspace was popular ;)

Rules:

-Each person much post 11 things about themselves on their blog
-Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post
-Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
-You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post
-Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her
-No tag-backs




11 Things About Me:

1. My dad was military so I moved around a bit growing up, and continued to move after I graduated high school. It was just ingrained in me! My favorite place that I chose to live was San Francisco.
2. I never met a piece of cake I didn't like.
4. I love broccoli, cooked in the oven, with lemon drizzled on top. I eat it almost every day.
5. When I muster the motivation, I actually enjoy jogging.
6. My favorite band of all time is Jimmy Eat World.
7. If I could only wear one nail polish color for the rest of my life it would be "Save the Date" by Sally Hansen.
8. I'm double jointed in all my fingers and can make my tongue look like a three leaf clover.
9. I hate snow.
10. I went to college to become an English teacher and dropped out before the year ended. I'm glad I didn't finish because I like being relatively debt free and I don't want to be an English teacher anymore.
11. I am an emotional cleaner. I don't mean I cry when I clean, I mean I clean when I'm really emotional about something (be it angry, sad, pensive).


The Nail Polish Rehab Candidate's Questions


1) How did you develop your interest in nail polish?
  I wore glasses all the time so make up was difficult but nail polish was easy. My interest grew as I got older.
2) What is your favorite brand of cosmetics? (non-nail polish, but the brand can make nail polish)
NYC! I love all their cosmetics. They have such affordable but high quality foundation, mascara, lip gloss, eyeshadow, and blush!
3) If you have a Pinterest account, how many pins do you have on it?
Oh my gosh. 1125 http://pinterest.com/alaskaiscold/
4) If you have a significant other, is he/she supportive of the whole "nail polish thing"?
For the most part. He's really supportive of my blog, and he really wants me to start my own line of nail polish - but he isn't thrilled about my compulsive need to buy nail polish at every store we go to.
5) Name a couple of your favorite books:
The Phantom Tollbooth and Ella Enchanted.
6) What was the last item you splurged on?
My Nikon D3100 last year.
7) What is your favorite type of cuisine?
Japanese.
8) Which shades of nail polish do you usually gravitate to?
Corals.
9) PC or Mac?
I use a PC but I like Macs better.
10) What is your favorite reality tv show? (It can be trashy)
: Real Housewives of New York!
11) How many bottles of nail polish do you own? (It can be a rough estimate)
180 if we include top/base coats.

My questions for the people I tagged:

1. If you could only wear one nail polish color for the rest of your life, which would you pick?
2. What brand of polish do you own the most?
3. Do you like sushi?
4. What advice to you have for anyone looking to start a  blog about their favorite hobby?
5. How many hours per day to you spend on the internet?
6. What television show do you wish was back on the air?
7. Best 90s song of all time?
8. Pajama jeans - yay or nay?

9. Should red lipstick be exclusively for special occasions?
10. Do you wish more men wore nail polish?
11. Tell me your favorite things about Star Wars.

I tagged:

1. http://captivatingclaws.blogspot.com/

2. http://beepolished.blogspot.com/
3. http://cherryglamgirl-rachel.blogspot.com/
4. http://www.thenailjunkie.com/
5. http://www.mixedmama.blogspot.com
6. http://www.dandy-nails.com/
7. http://polishfixation.blogspot.com/
8. http://www.loveforlacquer.com/
9. http://addictedtotheallureofbeauty.blogspot.com/
10. http://conceptionail.blogspot.com/
11. http://www.letthemhavepolish.com/

essie go overboard

This is a short post today because I am having technical difficulties with my keyboard. Hopefully I can resolve them without having to buy a new computer, as was suggested to me earlier.

This is Essie Go Overboard. I bought it hoping it would be brighter but it's still a very pretty deep teal. It looks more like a fall color to me than a spring color, what do you guys think?

Friday, February 17, 2012

China Glaze Blue Sparrow

China Glaze Blue Sparrow is the first neon I've purchased and I'm really pleased with how it looks. Blue Sparrow dries slightly matte like most neons do. This is four coats. It definitely takes a lot to get this polish to a nice opaque shade but the work and patience is worth it because the color is awesome. The first two colors are before a top coat. The last two pictures are after adding a Sally Hansen top coat. I do not like matte shades, I'm a glossy, shiny type of gal and I love how this looks after a top coat! It's not an eye-popping burn-your-retinas neon but it's definitely bright and fun!




Thursday, February 16, 2012

Sinful Colors Amethyst

Today I am wearing Sinful Colors Amethyst. It's a very saturated grape-purple. I love these shades of purple more than the red based plum purples. This is a thick (but not too thick!) one coater. I love one coaters most of the time, especially when I'm in a hurry. Unlike most thick one coaters, I had no issue with bleeding when I used this polish. Sometimes (like with a few WnW) the polish just seeps into every crevice on my finger/nail bed and refuses to come out. Not this time!



Ignore the red residue. That's from the color club, it wouldn't come off!

Sinful Colors is a really great, affordable brand of nail polish. I love almost all their colors, the application is smooth and the brushes are a great happy place between thick and thin. Buy them while they're .99 cents at Walgreens. Even if you think you don't want it, just buy it! You can't go wrong for a dollar, people!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Milani+Color Club

Here is a fun and sparkly mani for you guys! First I used this red color club. I received it in the color club box I showed you in the previous nail haul post. It doesn't have a name or a number soo...it's just red.


This is my first experience with color club and so far I'm very pleased. The application with smooth. This is two coats and it looks great. It kind of gives me lobster hands though, so this will more than likely be headed to my swap or giveaway pile (if no one has an issue with that).

AND LOOK! My pointer finger is all better and back to making appearances in swatches! :P



I decided to put the red Milani Jewel FX on top and I'm really pleased with the outcome. It looks like a fun holiday manicure - lots of sparkle and red. It's very vibrant and in your face. Thanks to my mom for taking all the photos. She was very excited to be a part of this post, lol. :)