french mani monday

Hello! Ah Monday is almost over... today was actually not so bad of a day. Work flew by and I seemed to have a productive day. I have no complaints overall. For some reason, I struggle to produce blog posts when I'm home... not sure why, but I need to overcome that! I've been doing my nails regularly, I just have no motivation to blog.

Yesterday I needed a palate cleanser, so I went with a French manicure. I loooove French manicures- I really should do them more often. It just annoyed me how fast they chipped. I was doing a lot of work with my hands today, so it's my own doing, but still very annoying. Here they are:

 

I freehanded the French tips, which I'm pretty darn proud of. I have no artistic ability whatsoever but these could probably fool you into thinking I do. ;D This is OPI Alpine Snow on the tips and a coat of the soft Essie Cloud Nine. I then topped it with a new top coat of mine, Cult Nails Wicked Fast. It really did dry really fast, and I noticed that it seems to be much thinner than my faithful Seche. 

What do you think?

new year's eve nails

Good evening, everyone! Almost done with my little vacation, but I'm feeling well rested and relaxed. I'm not

 necessarily ready to go back to work tomorrow, but I'm feeling a lot better than I was last week at this time. At the moment, my nails are soaking with some amazing Lemony Flutter cuticle cream by one of my favorite companies, Lush.

 Lush is pretty exclusive here- it's only available at a few places in my state. If you haven't found your perfect cuticle moisturizer yet, you have to try this one. It's $17 for the container, but it's a good size and lasts forever. I got mine over a month ago and have been using it regularly and you can barely tell I've used it. It's not overly greasy and it smells great.

Tonight I'm going to show y'all the manicure I wore for New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is one of my favorite nights of the year, and I was lucky enough to spend it with my boyfriend. We spent the night at a hole in the wall dive bar, and while I complained a lot of the night, looking back it was okay.

This is two coats of OPI Black Onyx with a glitter gradient (I'm obsessed!) of China Glaze Polarized. The star is a little rhinestone I got from a Secret Santa Swap. It's from a huge set from the brand that makes Cheeky stamping plates. I love these little things, they're so cute! They shockingly stay on for about a week and they look good the whole time, too.

I loved this manicure- I wore it for over a week with minor tip wear.

What do you think? What did you wear for your NYE?

pink glitter gradient

Hello ladies! Happy Tuesday! I could seriously get used to not working and lounging around all day! Well, that's probably a lie... I know I'll be mad when payday comes around. Ah well- it's worth it, if only for a few days. I will, however, say that it's so nice to have time to do my nails! I even got to give myself a pedicure yesterday! Wahoo. Loving this. 

I got a few free Essies from work the other day. There was a pile of them that were all separated and not suitable to be sold, so my boss let us take some home. One of them was Essie Lion Around, an absolutely amazing pink shimmer polish:

 

It's pale enough to look really delicate, but opaque enough to be a two-coater. I love this polish! It didn't stand out when I first grabbed it, but I love it. The formula was amazing and it's the perfect amount of pink and shimmer to be absolutely stunning.

The reason I chose this polish is because I realized it looked like it'd be a perfect match with one of the new Mariah Carey OPIs... OPI Pink Yet Lavender. This was my favorite from the collection:

 

I decided to do a glitter gradient with it, and I'm glad I did because I really like this look. It'll probably be super annoying to get off, but definitely worth it. Pink Yet Lavender reminds me of Pirouhette My Whistle from the NYC Ballet Collection that OPI put out last spring. It's sort of a pink version of that glitter. 

What do you think? Which of the Mariah Carey polishes did you pick? I got a few of the liquid sands... not too thrilled with them, more so bought them just to have as a part of my collection. Keep an eye out for them on the blog- should be posting them soon!

Have a great day, everyone!

making a comeback.

HELLO! I've taken an unintentional almost month-long hiatus, but I'm back now (I hope). If at least just a weekly post, that's certainly better than nothing. I guess like many others (at least I think) the upcoming new year has me thinking about resolutions and bad habits I've acquired this year. Read: my constant lack of blogging and my horribly inconsistent healthy eating and gym visits. Those are really the only two things I'd like to change. I'm quite happy with everything else... 

I'm dating someone amazing who I love very much... I can't remember the last time I was able to say that, but I am so grateful for him. Work is good, which thus means money is good... which will hopefully also mean my savings account gets to see some of that. I'm also starting my student teaching the end of January which I'm so very excited/extremely nervous for. 

I'm hoping to get back to posting here regularly because I have so many exciting things going on that I need to share with the world! :) For now let me share some of my recent manicures that haven't been featured in blogland yet. 

 

I wore this on Christmas. Candy canes! 

 

This one I wore to my family Christmas party. Not crazy about the colors but I was in love with this rhinestone tree!

 

This was my first encounter with rhinestones, and as you can tell from all of these manis I am OBSESSED ! 

My nails have been pathetically naked for about five days now, but I'm about to dazzle them up for New Years Eve, my FAVORITE HOLIDAY! I still don't know what the boy and I are doing but I'm super excited! This'll be my first NYE as a 21 year old ;D 

Now time to go do my nails and get myself ready for bed. I have an early wakeup for work tomorrow. Have a great (& safe) New Years, everybody!

begin again

Tonight I'm going to show you all one of my new favorite reds. Of course, all I can think of when I think of red is Taylor Swift... merh. I used to be a huge fan, but as she's gotten popular and gravitated more towards pop instead of country, I've just started to like her less. I do absolutely love one song off of her new album, however. Begin Again is a great song. It's catchy and makes me smile and just feel generally hopeful.

I'm going to be away for the weekend, so this will be my last post until Monday or Tuesday (but hopefully Monday). I get to get away with the bf which is SOOOOO exciting. Can't wait to be a few hours away with no cell reception sitting by a fireplace! 

Back on topic... today's red is from none other than OPI's Germany Collection. 

 

This is two coats of OPI Danke-Shiny Red. I got this done as a pedicure a few months ago and I loved it. Something about red pedicures... I'm actually wearing my first not red pedicure for the first time since July. I mixed it up with pink tonight. :o) Instead of showing you Danke on my toes I figured I'd spare you and swatch it on my nails instead! 

Pictured is two coats with no top coat. This polish dried so quickly, and application is just perfect. It's my ideal. You know when you put the first coat on of an absolutely great polish? How it just glides on? Yep, that's how this one was. 

I had to include my new ring in one of the pictures, too. I think it looks killer with hot red nails. 

What do you think?

snow, snow, snow...

We're experiencing the first snow fall of the year here in Massachusetts.. and I am not all that thrilled about it! I hate the cold weather, and seeing snow makes it completely evident that the warm weather is over for a while. It's just so cold and bitter out, makes me want to do nothing but stay in bed and sleep. Here was my view when I got out of work today...

 

Okay, not that bad... but still. Yuck.

Argh. Last night in anticipation for this snow, I decided to do a weather-appropriate manicure. I pulled out my snowflake stamping plates and got to work: 

 

I used two coats of OPI Russian Navy for my base, a classic in my book. This was one of my first polishes, and I still love it so much. Application is very easy because the formula is great. The color is so opaque and rich that it's almost dreamy.

 To stamp, I used Color Club What A Drag. On my ring finger, I stamped with bm 319. My thumb is bm 14, and the rest of my nails are bm 323. What A Drag is a great stamping polish. I really like how it looks over RN. I also like the look of different snowflake stamps in one mani, it mimics how all snowflakes are different in real life. :)

What do you think? 

nude paisley

No, the title is not referring to Brad Paisley... how I wish it were! He's hilarious, sexy, and has a wonderful voice. Mmmmmm. He always comes to mind whenever I see paisley print. The paisley that I'm referring to comes from bundle monster's third collection of nail stamping plates (the plate I'm referencing here is #315)! If you ask me, this is a genius idea. Who doesn't love paisley?! You can do so much with it. I always like the look of black images over a nude or tan creme, and that's what I decided to go with for this manicure. 

At first, I started out with two coats of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons. I wanted to think of some clever, unique accent nail... but I failed. I originally went with this look:

 

Then, I fell in love with how the paisley stamp looked and I wanted to add more. I didn't like how this looked with only two nails stamped. Thus, I added more stamping and an accent of Cult Nails Happy Ending, from the Fairytale Collection that was released this summer. This was hands down my favorite Cultie collection to date. 

 

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this combination. I love the paisley, but I don't like how dark the black is in comparison to the glass shard-looking multicolored glitter. It's something different, for sure. Overall, I seriously LOVE Don't Pretzel My Buttons. It's my ideal nude polish, for real. I'll probably wear it a million more times. My only problem with this shade is that I hate my application of it. I usually suck and mess it up by making it too splotchy or by accidentally flooding my cuticles. Oy.

What do you think? Are you a fan of paisley? What about nude polish?

With that, I'm out. Have a great weekend everybody! Tonight I have my first Saturday night off since my vacation in July! WOOO!

james bond chevron

So, I'll be honest... I wasn't completely sold on the new OPI collection... in fact, I wasn't impressed with much of any of the shades. I didn't plan on buying any of the colors. I thought they looked gorgeous in the bottle, but not as gorgeous on the actual nail. Well, needless to say I caved and bought two of the colors from the 007 collection, OPI's Holiday 2012 collection. I picked up Goldeneye and The Living Daylights, planning to use them together in a manicure. Well, that's what I have to show you today! 

I'm not totally in love with what I came up with, but I'll show you guys anyway. I was in the mood to break out my chevron stamp and do a cute manicure with it. My new James Bond polishes were staring at me, begging to be used (ok, that might be a stretch). I decided to use them as my base for my chevron:

 

First, I painted three coats of OPI Goldeneye. This is shown above without any top coat. It's so gorgeous and blingy on its own!

 

Then, as shown above, I added a thick, generous coat of OPI The Living Daylights on to my accent finger. Then, I top-coated each nail with some Seche Vite, my go-to top coat for stamping. 

 

Last but not least I stamped with Fingerpaints Black Expressionism and bundle monster #201. This plate always stamps really clean and it fits my entire nail pretty well. 

I personally think this is too busy. I sort of wish I didn't add the chevron. I think Goldeneye would look stunning on its own, which is impressive to say the least. Next time I wear it I'll probably leave it alone and wear it as a full manicure. I've never stamped over a glitter, and I don't care much for it here. Meh. 

What do you think? Did you pick up Goldeneye?

itty bitty gargantuan green

My nails are SO tiny. I did some trimming down because I chipped a bunch of nails. My OCD does not allow for multiple different-lengthed nails.. my cuticles are a hot mess and my nails are a hot mess, so I just got fed up and decided to go on a trimming spree. This has made me so self conscious about posting manis but I have great news to share with you so I'm going to post regardless.

In short, I started my new job at the beauty supply store on Tuesday. I am absolutely in love with it. I get a great discount and I love selling the products that I enjoy using. It's the best feeling in the world to be doing something you love. I'm just really happy as of late. :-)

This is the first polish I purchased with my discount at work. I've wanted it ever since I saw it on my friend Olivia's blog here. I never bought this color before because I don't care for how it looks on long nails... I'm embracing my shorties with the advice of some blogger friends:

 

I used three coats of OPI Gargantuan Green Grape. I looove this color. I had a problem getting my cuticles completely perfect but I got a lot of compliments on this mani. Colors like this always make me nervous because they're often extremely streaky but this one was excellent, per usual from OPI. 

What do you think?

autumn leaves

Growing up, fall was always my favorite season. As I've gotten older, I tend to enjoy summer more. No classes, warm weather, more opportunities to travel and vacation... but as a kid, fall what were it was at. I loved the changing leaves, playing outside after school in the crisp weather with my neighbors, going to the Big E, camping... the memories go on and on.

Today's manicure was inspired by something I saw on The Nail Network. I tried to copy this look in its entirety, minus a few color changes. I love everything about her blog; I suggest you check it out! Anyway, I found this manicure by googling "autumn leaves mani." I wasn't entirely impressed with some of the others but I loved this particular one. Here it is:

My version didn't come out perfectly but I was happy with the finished product. I first painted on two coats of Essie A Lot Of Shekels which is my go-to sheer pink/nude French manicure shade. Every time I use it, I fall more and more in love with it. I think it's an older color, because I got it in a clearance bin at a beauty supply store (actually, at the one I'll be working at starting next week!). Great clearance bin find.

I then freehanded some French manicure tips with OPI Warm & Fozzie (bottle pictured in the picture above). W&F is such a great fall shade! It's got so much depth to it. I swatched W&F on its own here, if you're curious! ;D The French tips don't have to be completely perfect because you end up stamping over them anyway. I used two coats of W&F to get this look.

For the leaves, I used image plate bm04 from bundle monster's first collection. I tried a whole TON of different colors to stamp the leaves but a lot just wouldn't show up well over my base. I ended up with a brown/orange, Love & Beauty Brick, and a red, OPI Revved Up & Red-y. Brick is actually a brown but looks more like burnt orange stamped. I wish I could've gotten more colors to work.

I'm eager to try this look again with different shades or even a different variation (ie butterflies instead of leaves, or snowflakes??). I'll leave you with two pictures I took at Ashley Reservior in the town next to mine in little old Western Massachusetts.

 

My foliage mani WITH some foliage! Couldn't pass up this shot.

This picture was edited on Instagram to show the depth of the foliage. I love this time of year.

What do you think of my autumn mani? Do the leaves change color like this where you're from?

betsey johnson roses

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! :) I had one of my interviews yesterday but unfortunately it was only for a seasonal position... not sure how I feel about that. My interview next week is at a store that might be affiliated with OPI, Zoya, Color Club... I'll tell you more about that after the interview. Fingers crossed!

Here's the mani I'm currently wearing:

I used one of my favorite pinks, Sephora by OPI Too Too Pink. This is two coats. I first blogged about this polish here and I've worn it several times since then. So in love with it. One of the best parts of this polish is that it's infused with Betsey Johnson's fragrance. I'm forever smelling my nails when I wear this polish, lmao. The scent really does last, too. It's awesome. I think the roses are very Betsey too. She incorporates a ton of different styles of roses in her designs but they're all pretty great. For the roses I used bundle monster 323 from the most recent bm collection. 

Too Too Pink goes on really smoothly. The brush is bigger but it suits my nails. I love the bottles on $opi polishes too, the caps are really easy to hold which makes application come out that much better. I stamped with my favorite white, OPI Alpine Snow.

What do you think?

blue gradient... my lucky manicure?

Ever since I did this manicure yesterday I've had really awesome luck.. I think I'm going to give my nails the credit! Life is heading in a really great direction. I just got two job interviews set up, one for this week and one for next week. I don't want to ruin anything before I decide on one, so I'll fill you in on the details once I have my interviews! Both are just part-time jobs while I'm in school, but I'm excited. 

I also just started a new babysitting/nannying job which is going to be completely amazing. I can't begin to tell you how awesome it is. Well, I suppose I could. The family has two little girls, and just moved here from Europe eight months ago. They're very affluent and I'm very excited. It's amazing to have a plan, even if it is going to be jam-packed with a million different things.

Here's the lucky mani:

 

This is two coats of China Glaze Aquadelic sponged with OPI Fly using a makeup sponge. These colors look really cool together. The gradient isn't perfect but I actually like it like that. I've gotten several compliments on these, probably because the colors are stunning and eye-catching.

What do you think?

blue opi + zoya ombre

Hey hey! It's a rainy Friday here in western Massachusetts and I have an outdoor concert to go to tonight.. boo. Ah well, concerts happen rain or shine. To match the weather, I did a rainy day blue ombre manicure using some awesome shades of blue. Check it out:

 

Here are the colors I used:

pinky: OPI Teal The Cows Come Home

ring finger: Zoya Tallulah

middle finger: Zoya Tart

index finger: Zoya Song

thumb: OPI Russian Navy

I like how this looks! The formula on all of these was excellent but I didn't particularly love Tart. OPI Russian Navy is a classic favorite of mine that I really need to revisit. I think it would look excellent with some silver stamping on top. Maybe I'll do that soon!

What do you think? Which is your favorite blue polish?

opi warm & fozzie

Hi guys! :) I have the perfect fall shade to show you today. I literally stalked my local beauty supply store for the Muppets collection from OPI last October. I bought five of them when they finally got them in. Warm & Fozzie was one of these five. For some reason, this is my first time using it. I guess I've never really been a brown person... but this one changed my mind. Check it out.

taken indoors w| artificial lighting

 

 taken outdoors

 Shown above is three coats of OPI Warm & Fozzie. It's actually much, much sheerer than I expected. Formula was ok, not as amazing as some other OPIs but it was great overall. I chipped a nail on my main hand so I had to use my opposite for these pics. :( It still came out good though! 

What do you think?

Day 13: ANIMAL PRINT

Hi everyone! It's Thursday, and a GREAT one at that! My last class of the day was cancelled, and I don't have to work today because I'm going to a concert tonight! Yup, another country concert.. I've gone to at least thirteen this year. Definitely my guilty pleasure (besides nail polish...).

I wanted to do a sort of... closure manicure. Closure of the end of summer. The last full out neon manicure before they sit in my melmers until next spring/summer. Not that I strictly follow color/season rules but I like wearing darker colors in the fall and winter. Here's what I came up with.

 

I used Nina Ultra Pro Solar Flare and China Glaze Pool Party. I have a serious weakness for China Glaze neons.. they are just beautiful! This manicure didn't photograph too well. I personally like how it looks in person better. I used Konad stamp m57, which had both a zebra and a cheetah print stamp. I used Fingerpaints Black Expressionism to stamp. This manicure is so much fun. I actually really like the yellow. I layered two coats of each polish over two coats of OPI Alpine Snow. Using white for a base under neons makes them really really bright, as you can see above.

What do you think? 

Day 9: RAINBOW

Happy Sunday, my fellow polish fiends! Today is day nine of the challenge! For today, the theme is rainbow! I can honestly say I've never done a full-out rainbow manicure. There's gotta be a first for everything, right?!

 To me, the "rainbow" idea is a little daunting because of how many colors it requires... I am not an artistic person, and sometimes matching colors is hard for me (i.e. which "purple" or "green" is right). I was a little nervous about this challenge day. The fact that there was so much creative liberty scared me. Red is red. Blue is blue. Polka dots are polka dots. Stripes are stripes. But rainbow? You can do anything with rainbow. Ahhhh! The possibilities are endless.

I ended up with a rainbow base and a black stamped manicure. Check it out.

 

My first thought process was.. roygbiv = 7, my fingers = 5. This is where the idea to do half-colors on my nails came from. Then... I stamped.

 

I'll list the colors I used from pinky->thumb:

pinky: OPI Overexposed In South Beach, Love & Beauty Dark Purple

ring finger: China Glaze Shower Together, Brash Electric Sky

middle finger: OPI Don't Mess With OPI, Piggy Polish Poet-Tree

pointer: Zoya Pippa, Essie Meet Me At Sunset

thumb: Essie Ole Caliente, Cult Nails Evil Queen

HOLY POLISH! I've never used this many colors in one manicure! It was a lot of fun to do, though, that's for sure. I used however many coats it took to reach full opacity. For the yellow, it was a few more than for the red. Actually, I only used one coat for my thumb nail- Cult Nails polishes rock! 

I stamped with bm-205. I really like this butterfly/bow-looking image. It looks whimsy & fun over the rainbow design, something different.

What do you think? Are you wearing rainbow today, too?

 

Day 7: BLACK AND WHITE

Hi ladies, happy Friday! Today I tried a stamping pattern for my black and white mani. I just received some new polish in the mail from Zoya so it was hard to put those aside and wear black and white.. wah!! That's definitely the hard part of this challenge! Anyway, here is what I ended up with today:

 

My black was Nina Ultra Pro Black and my white was OPI Alpine Snow, my go-tos. I'm not sure why my stamping didn't come out so good, but I didn't have the time to re-do the mani so this was my end result. The stamp I used was bundle monster-319.  

Do you like the puzzle piece look? I'd love to see how this looks with different colors. 

Day 4: GREEN

Hi guys! Happy Tuesday (that really feels like a Monday)! I go back to school today, but I'm only taking two classes so it'll be a nice and easy semester. My goal is to work a lot and save up a ton of money and go back to full time classes in the spring. It's refreshing that my classes aren't until 12:30 and are only Tuesday and Thursday. Wahoo! 

I've got an untried on today! I decided to go with an unconventional green for challenge day four. I chose OPI Stranger Tides from the springtime Pirates of the Caribbean collection from last year. I just recently picked this one up.

This is three coats of OPI Stranger Tides stamped with a few Bundle Monster stamps in Nina Ultra Pro Black. This is a very classic look. Stamping with black over this shade is such a great look! I love this black for stamping. I was also happy with Stranger Tides. It went on a little streaky but I'm pretty sure that was my error, not the polish.

What do you think?

Day 3: YELLOW

Ahh.. finally caught up. It's only day three and I'm already behind, lol. I can honestly say I've never worn yellow on my nails before, but I'm totally embracing it. I feel really quirky and spunky wearing yellow! I bought this yellow because of the name.. I'm guilty of buying polishes for their names all the time. Sometimes I care more about a polish's name than the actual color. I'm obsessed with sunflowers and I saw this polish at Ocean State Job Lot for $4... how could I possibly resist? You're right- I couldn't.

Pictured is two coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Sunflowers layered over two coats of OPI Alpine Snow. I'm shocked at the formula of this Sally Hansen- it was SO GREAT! I tend to be a brand snob and usually gravitate more towards my OPI's but I was so impressed by this. These normally retail for eight bucks so I should've expected a good formula, but I was really blown away. The brushes were awesome too, I loved the angles of them.

Layering a lighter color or even a neon over white is the biggest tip I recommend to others. It's a great way to make colors pop. My application wasn't amazing, as you can see some tiny faint white spots... but I was in a rush and this did the job. I'm actually pretty happy with it. I recently ordered Zoya Pippa from the recent Zoya BOGO promo and I was hoping to do that for this day, but their shipping is taking FOREVER and I haven't received it yet. Can't wait for Pippa! :D

What do you think of this? Which yellow are you sporting today?