Orly Mermaid Tail PLUS...an impromptu giveaway!

When I heard that the Orly Glam FX were on clearance at Sally's, and clearance was an extra 50% off this weekend, I literally went to three different Sally's stores looking for them. I. am. crazy. But anyway, I picked up four! The one I'm about to show you, the blue one, and the pink one (way too lazy to remember or even look up names, but you'll see them in future posts I'm sure). 

I actually picked up two of Mermaid Tail. Two? I don't need to. Which is why I'm giving one away on Instagram! All you need to do is follow me on Instagram and like the picture I posted about the giveaway. Pretty simple way to win an absolutely GORGEOUS polish, no? My instagram username is c4rped1em. Now what are you waiting for? Go for the gold!

Alright, enough rambling. Here it is!

 

I used two coats of Color Club Perfect Mol-ten and one coat in a gradient style of Orly Mermaid Tail- my accent finger is just two full-on coats. I'm a weirdo when it comes to green polish. Green is my favorite color but I've never been much of a fan of green polish. I think that's slowly starting to change, as I absolutely LOVED this manciure. Loved it! I ordered Zoya Ivanka in the recent promo and I am super duper excited about that green.

Let me leave you with a picture of myself and my adorable cousins. I love these kids. They live a few hours away but yesterday we drove up to visit and get lunch. It was such a nice day. I'm stunned that MacKenzie is going into fourth grade and Joseph is going into kindergarten. That makes me feel so old. I forget they can even read sometimes because I still imagine them being babies.

Ignore how much of a hot mess I am. ;D

Have a nice day, lovelies! Don't forget to enter my Instagram giveaway!

Naked Bubbly Bombshell

Hey ladies! Happy Friday! I have a pretty busy work weekend ahead of myself.. working all day today and babysitting tonight.. working 9-9:30 tomorrow, and doing a mani/pedi, tutoring, and working on Sunday. Busy busy busy! I need to replenish the good ol' bank account after my expensive road trip, so it'll ultimately be a good thing! I'll reward myself on Monday; my best friend gets home from vacation this weekend, so we're going to the beach Monday! Yay for having Monday mornings/afternoons off! :D

 I'm wearing a tape mani today! Check it out:

I used striping tape on my accent nail and regular Scotch tape for the triangles on my other nails. This look is very simple but I love it. I used Deborah Lippmann Naked for my base color, and Orly Bubbly Bombshell for the glitter accents. I hate when manicures are hard to photograph. This manicure kicks ass in person but doesn't look as great in these pictures. Ahhhh well. Until next time! 

Guest Week Day Four: Helga from Color and Creativity Water Marbles!

Hi ladies! Here we are with day four of my guest blog feature! Today, I have a water marble to show you by Helga from Color and Creativity. I hope you like it as much as I do! 

Hi, this is Helga from Color And Creativity. I was really excited when I say that Emily wanted some guest bloggers for her vacation. I've never done a guest post before so I thought it would be really fun :) I wanted to do something special for her so I chose to water marble! I started with one coat of E.L.F. - White and then added a coat of China Glaze - White Cap. Then I marbled with White Cap, China Glaze - Wagon Trail & Orly - Rococo A Go-Go. Top coat and you're done! I liked that the shimmer from White Cap really stood out in certain angles :) Shimmery!

Haul Pictures

Hey guys! Happy Hump Day! Because Unicorn Puke is so gorgeous, I didn't want to do another manicure and take UP off last night. So, today you all get to see my haul pictures from the past few days. See, I'm unlike a lot of other nail bloggers in that I don't just paint one hand for swatches of colors to post on here. ALL of which you see are polishes I wear for full manicures. I like doing this because I can get an overall feel for a particular color/brand/ regarding wear time and appearance.

I'll start with a picture of yesterday's/my current mani.. *drool*

Two girls in my math class yesterday were like "I can't stop staring at your nails! They're so beautiful!" Yes, ladies, I agree.

On to the haul...

Orly Fowl Play

Yummy flakies!!! After placing an order for Cult Nails' limited edition Unicorn Puke a few days, I was seriously craving some flakies. My untried bottle of Fowl Play was the best medicine for this! Fowl Play, Merry Midnight, Unicorn Puke, NFU OH 51... can we say purple flakie addiction?? They're all so similar yet so unique. Here's ORLY's take on purple flakie!

Orly Rock Solid (from the Mineral FX Collection)

Hi ladies, happy Friday! Well, it's technically Saturday already, but close enough! I hope you all had a great week, especially those of you who returned to school after summer break. I had my first day on Tuesday; it was sooooo very hard to get back into the swing of things.. especially the waking up at 7am part.. yuck. But, I will truck on to maintain that 4.0. ;-)

Today was pretty busy; I had to go straight from work to babysitting, and I only had a few minutes to stop home and grab a polish or two to bring to babysit with me. I haphazardly grabbed a random Ulta polish and Orly Rock Solid from the new Mineral FX Collection that you've probably seen mentioned on other blogs before. Lucky for me, this polish was on the top of the pile, so it got spotted first. Rock Solid is a gunmetal shimmery gray that is packed with very tiny holographic sparkles. It's gorgeous, and reminds me of an asteroid or something of the sort.

OPI Merry Midnight and New Look!

Hi ladies! Welcome to the new and improved Embellished Nails! Jen from Just Foolin Blog Designs helped me transfer my ideas into a gorgeous banner. She was so patient as I went back and forth between design ideas and pictures I wanted. Here is a blog post where she features my blog makeover! Thanks again, Jen! AND, thanks to my wonderful 100 other followers! Seeing my blog's followers in triple digits makes me so happy, considering I blogged for about two months without any followers, telling myself "I just did this for me." Well, now I do it for all of you too!!!

Onto today's color... my best friend and I decided that pedicures would be a great idea to ring in the new school year and celebrate a great summer with, so we went for it! I couldn't resist getting a manicure too. Best part of the trip? Seeing Merry Midnight, the rare OPI color, on the color shelf! Aaaahhhh! I decided on OPI Sweet As Annie-Thing from the 90210 collection for my pedicure color. I'm so partial to reds on my toenails... in fact, I don't think I've ever gotten a professional pedicure that wasn't red. I got Merry Midnight done on my nails.