Very Merry Berry

I borrowed today's color from my sister's stash. Very Merry Berry, from the Color Club holiday Scent-suous Collection, is a mix of purplish-pink hexagonal flakes and smaller blue flaky glitter in a clear base. It has a pleasant, if not a bit strong, berry aroma to it. I wonder how long the scent will stay so pungent for. We shall see. So, I got it in my head that I would sponge Very Merry Berry over Julep Anne gradient-style. Fail. Turns out flaky glitter does not sponge the same way sparkle polish does. It all wanted to stick to the sponge and I ended up having to wipe it on my nail. So, one nail in, I just decided to use the brush to apply it. Still, not the best scenario. The flakes all sort of stacked and clumped on the tips. I did my pointer and thumb full nail and that was easier to apply. The flakes are really easy to manipulate around where you want them with the brush. Well, here are the results:

natural light

shaded light

I like these colors together and I dig the big flakes. I'm not completely sold on how it looks with just the tips done. I MUCH prefer the full-nail look with this particular polish. Either way, this is a fun polish and I'm glad my sister loaned it to me. (= See you all next time!

JULEP Anne

Happy Saturday, ladies! Today's manicure is another Julep beauty, Anne. Anne is a cream violet color with LOTS of pigment. It applied evenly and smoothly and cleanup was a breeze. I decided to go all Julep today and traded my usual Zoya Anchor for Julep Nail Therapy as my base and then topped with Julep Fast Dry Top Coat. It all just went on so cleanly.

indoor lighting

natural light

The top coat is what gave this the sheen, but the polish itself dried a little bit flat. I wish now I had snapped a few to show you before I did the top coat, but it looks pretty with or without. The color also has a bit more saturation is person, but it still photographed gorgeously. 

Hope you all have a great weekend! The husband and I are going out to dinner with one of his work friends who's changing duty stations, so it's his goodbye dinner. Then tomorrow we are going to IKEA to get new desks :-).  See you all next time.

Go Go Pink

Hello my lovely readers! Sorry there hasn't been a post in a while here, but I just got back from visiting my family up in Michigan. Great time! My parents took my husband and me to the Detroit Auto Show and I got in lots of shopping. The only bummer was the lack of snow! Naturally, the day after we came back to Virginia, they got about 4in of snow. Le sigh.

Today's manicure of choice is China Glaze Go Go Pink. I picked this up at Sally's. It came in a box with Seche Vite Top Coat and a small Angle Charm. China Glaze released this color to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Go Go Pink is a milky light pink. It's a very streaky color, but still a very pretty one. This is 3coats, 2 thin and 1 a bit thicker to even it out at the end. I topped this with my Julep Fast Dry Top Coat.

I hope you all enjoy the last day of the weekend! We are supposed to be having our new King Bed delivered today, but looking at the time I can already guess they will be late! Stop by again (=

Less Rain & More Snow Please!

Now that the excitement from opening up my new birchbox has passed, I have some nail art to share today. Zoya Kristen still was looking really good so I decided to do my first stamping experiment. I purchased a set of SHANY Cosmetic plates on Amazon.com and then 3 special Konad polishes (also from Amazon).

So, currently my husband and I are living in VA and so far we haven't had any snow. We got some last year, but no luck so far this year. It's still bouncing around in the 50s and 60s during the day. I LOVE snow especially because I love to watch our 2 siberian huskies play in it. Well, the past few days it has been raining and raining. So, I wish there was more snow and less rain!! I decided to do some snowflake stamps. Take a gander...

indoor lighting

natural (overcast) lighting

I used the following colors in this look:
   • ZOYA Kristen
   • FINGER PAINTS Papier Mâché
   • KONAD Special Nail Polish in Sky Pearl

To achieve this look, I started with my base color, Kristen. It already had Seche Vite on it from when I applied it a few days ago. I sponged on Papier Mâché with a wedge makeup sponge then chose Shany plate SH17 for the snowflake. After stamping the Sky Pearl, I used a small dotting tool and added some random specs of blue then I went over them with the white. To finish the look, I topped everything with my Seche that is now much more cooperative since I added ORLY Nail Lacquer Thinner to it.

My snowflakes are definitely not perfect, but it was my first time stamping and I am pleased with the results. I hope you like it too! Enjoy the rest of your hump day! I get to go pick up my clean, fluffy puppies from the groomers in a bit.

January Birchbox '12

Good afternoon ladies! I have a nail art post coming up, but first I wanted to share pictures of my January Birchbox which arrived today! *squeal* I love getting my Birchbox!! If you are interested in subscribing for $10 a month and recieving beauty samples at your door every month, you can follow this link to BIRCHBOX.

January 2012 BIRCHBOX

ORIGINS: Checks and Balances™ Frothy Face Wash 

Birchbox Magnet which I stuck up next to my yellow ribbon magnet. ♥ Navy ♥

JUICY COUTURE: Viva La Juicy perfume & VMV Hypoallergenics: Re-Everything: Face-Hand-Body Lotion

stila: Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in peacock (sorry for the blurry pic!)

box overview and description

extra helpful tips from Birchbox

There was also a Lärabar Mini Bar ("the original fruit and nut food") in chocolate chip cookie dough, but I ate it already ☺. However, it was the one thing in the box I wasn't a huge fan of. It had a very unique flavor. Like I said, if you are interested in subscribing to Birchbox yourself, you can follow this link.

Stay tuned for a nail art post in a bit!

ZOYA Kristen

Happy Monday, ladies! I hope you had a great weekend. The husband and I had some friends over and used our new fire pit for the first time to roast marshmallows and hot dogs. Today is also our 3 year anniversary! Yay!

Today I have another one of Zoya's Feel Collection to show you, Kristen.

indoor lighting

natural light

fluorescent light

Kristen is a gul grey with blue undertones. As you can see, the light really makes the blue shine through, but inside it's a much cooler grey. This color was so pretty I kept taking pictures. I'm reaching the end of my Seche Vite bottle and it's starting to get super thick and gloopy and it's starting to effect the final look of my polishes. I just added some ORLY Nail Lacquer Thinner to it after finishing using it so hopefully it helps.

I hope you all have a great week ahead! Stop by again. (=

JULEP Helena

Hello ladies. My husband picked out today's color. He chose one of my new ones, Julep Helena. This color has so much pigment you could probably get away with 1 coat! It's a very pretty, ultra saturated, fuchsia. Julep says it works with all skin tones. Indoors this color leans more towards a purple, but outdoors it really popped as a bright pink. It applied very smoothly and dried very fast. However, when the color dried it was very flat. There really was no sheen to it at all,  but I would not go so far as to say it was matte. Not even close, just flat. I topped it with my new Julep topcoat which gave it that glossy finish and smoothed out the look. Dry time wasn't too bad either, but it stunk! Take a look at this morphing fuchsia!

natural lighting

indoor lighting

fluorescent lighting

See what I meant about looking more purple indoors? I really didn't get a good picture of a true representation of how this color looks in person, but it's lovely. I always find it intriguing just how much lighting changes the look of certain polish colors.

Hope you all have a great night and thanks for stopping by!

2 FREE Zoya Polishes

In their first promotion of 2012, Zoya is offering 2 free polishes off of their website, just pay for shipping. :-) Here is a link, ladies!

click picture for link

Blue Print

It's officially a new year! My last post was Tinsel Town for New Years and I was most disappointed about the wear on it. I applied it on the 30th and by yesterday the tips were all worn! I guess that can happen with glitters though. So, a new manicure was in order for today, enter- Barry M: Blue Print (instant nail effect: crackle 315). I LOVE the color on this crackle! It's amazing. I applied a thin coat over Papier Mâché . Now, this post is for Blue Print and not the white, but the more I use this white, the less I like it. I cannot apply it without messing up constantly, it's so thin and watery and I have issues with it balding. This manicure didn't turn out the best because by the time I was able to stop fussing with my base color, it was already such a mess I just slapped Blue Print on over it. If anyone has any great application/full coverage white polish they adore you can recommend for me I would be most appreciative. Now, back to Blue Print!

Amoki checking out her Momma's nails.

Even though I feel this wasn't my best work, I love this look and this color. You can see with my middle finger what happens if you apply too thickly, it doesn't really crackle so much. Well, I hope you all had a great New Years Eve. Stop by again!