ZOYA Melanie

Today's polish of choice is Zoya's Melanie. Zoya describes this polish as being "very soft and delicate light baby pink..." however I don't know if this is the most accurate description in person. I think this color is a pearly peachy-pink. This color morphs its finish in different lighting ranging from looking cream to frosty to pearly. I used 3 coats for full opacity and topped with Seche Vite. Take a look.

direct sunlight

shaded natural light

artificial lighting

 In the shade Melanie looks to me like a smooth cream and in direct sunlight the shimmery pearl finish shines through. This color is just as Zoya says, delicate. I just love it against my skin tone.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pink Polka Dots

Hello, ladies! Sorry for another late post. We've had company over and I'm trying to squeeze this in right quick. This look was inspired by this manicure from Goose's Glitter. I still need to work on my polka dots, hers are amazing and even, but even so...it is a great idea! The other night I showed you my base coat of white. I did 2 coats of Finger Paints Papier Mâché and 3 coats of China Glaze High Voltage (neon). I never noticed until I looked at these pictures that High Voltage has a great purple sheen in it, I love it.

All pictures were taken indoors so it didn't completely capture the "neoness" of this color. It's super vibrant in person. I created the half moons using hole reinforcement stickers that were only a couple of bucks from Target and the dots with, what else, but a dotting tool. Isn't it cute?!

Thanks for popping in!

FINGER PAINTS Papier Mâché

Hello ladies! I have a late night post for you. I was watching My Week with Marilyn and decided to paint my nails while I was watching. I've mentioned this color in many of my posts, it's currently my only white: Finger Paints Papier Mâché. While I am not in love with this formula I wouldn't say it's the worst. It's very thin and watery so it can be a little streaky and leave bald patches if not applied carefully. I did 2 coats - the first one being a thin coat and the second much thicker. I topped it with Seche Vite in these photos and since it is really late, I couldn't get outside for nice natural lighting so my awful kitchen light will have to suffice.

I know, I know...my explanation probably makes this polish sound horrendous, but as you can see it is a nice, stark white. It does take a while to get used to working with it. As I said in a previous post, I would LOVE to hear what white polish(es) you favor!

I added more to this, but alas, it is late so I will post the completed manicure tomorrow! Have a great night and thanks for popping in!

CHINA GLAZE Fast Track

Hey, ladies! It's GORGEOUS outside today! The rest of the week here is going to be rainy and blah so I took advantage of the sunshine and finally put on China Glaze's Fast Track from the Capitol Colors Collection. Fast Track is the representation of District 6, Transportation, in the Hunger Games Trilogy. The color itself is a great neutral taupe with gold shimmer. I applied 2 coats and topped with Seche Vite here. The number of coats you use for this color is up to you, the more coats the darker and richer the base color becomes. Even just one coat of this is subtle and pretty. I took lots of pictures of this shade.

natural sunlight

 

taken in shade

Please excuse my broken nail, hopefully it will grow back quickly so I can file it back even with the others. If you haven't already noticed, I prefer to square off my nails. That doesn't mean I don't dislike oval shaped nails, but on myself I prefer the look of squared.

But, back to Fast Track. What do you think of it? I love the shimmer in a neutral color.

Well, thanks for stopping by!

"Leprechuan Puke" Water Marbling

Happy Friday, all! St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow so it's time to get your green on! I did a green inspired water marble that I have dubbed "Leprechaun Puke." I started by painting 1 coat of Finger Paints Paper Mâché on all of my nails, then I tapped them off and dunked them in my green concoction. Have a look :-).

Left Hand

Right Hand

I just cracked open a brand new bottle of Pure Acetone to clean up after the marbling, and there was a lot to clean up even with my nails tapped off. I don't know if I will use glitter again in marbling because it ended up everywhere! Also, after previewing my pictures, I will make sure to moisturize better before taking pictures. I apologize immensely for my cuticles and dried hands. The acetone really did a number on them. My sister just gave me and Elf Cuticle Pen that I will be more diligent in using after cleaning up with Pure Acetone. That being said, I always think marbling is fun and unique. If you haven't tried it before you should make a point to!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a safe and fun St. Patty's. May no Leprechauns puke on you!

March Birchbox 2012

I love Birchbox days! Every month there is an awesome surprise in the mail for me. This month's Birchbox is themed Spring Training. Lots of excellent goodies!

I have never heard of sunscreen wipes before, but it seems pretty ingenious to me. I am really looking forward to trying out the teas.

If you are interested in signing up for Birchbox, click here. Birchbox is a beauty sample subscription delivered once a month to your door for only $10!

I hope you all have a great day, thanks for stopping by. (:

A Wicked Weekend Polish

Hi again. Popping back in to show you the mani and pedi the sister and I did. I will start with Jessica's green ombre mani first.

Cute, huh? I've never done ombre nails yet, but it's definitely on my to-do list!

I did a pedicure in a suitable color scheme for St. Patrick's Day.

For my toes I painted 2 coats of Paper Mâché then free-handed the stripes.

All-in-all we had a great girl's weekend. :-) Thanks for stopping by again!

Wicked Weekend

Hello, ladies! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. My oldest sister, Jessica, came to visit from Maryland to come see Wicked with the hubby and me. It was a fantastic show which I have been yearning to see since it came out! We went on a small Sally's trip and did our nails and then we had what my sister proclaimed to be a "Pintrest Day". We chose crafts and food found via Pintrest and made a day out of it.

First, I will start with our polish haul.

We dug into the China Glaze Magnetix display and each chose 2 colors because their special is buy 2 Magnetix get the magnet free. I grabbed Drawn to You and Attraction while Jessica nabbed You Move Me and Cling On. We both tried to swatch and didn't have much success. You Move Me is a blue that had the best effect with the magnet. My purple, Drawn to You really seemed like a dud. Many of the reviews on this collection say the magnet it weak and maybe that was why we were struggling. For now, these polishes will go un-swatched though. The other polishes in the picture are 2 Savvy polishes that were on sale 99cents each: Gotcha Grape and Totally Teal, then the  mini polish up front is a Sally's scented polish: Lime. We both bought new nail buffers and my sister renewed her Sally's card and got a free ion product, she chose their dry shampoo.

Now just some random photos from our "Pintrest Day!"

link to Pintrest tutorial

fried egg in orange pepper with candied bacon and St. Patty's colored deviled eggs

hasselback potatoes

Chicken Pot Pie mini biscuit muffins with kale

Here are links to the pinned food tutorials: baked hasselback potatoes, chicken pot pie biscuit muffins, fried egg stuffed pepper.

We unsuccessfully attempted to make a homemade face mask as well out of peaches and honey and yogurt, but it didn't turn out. We both also did St. Patty's themed polishing while we were watching The Big Bang Theory, but I will post those pictures in a separate post.

Check back in later today for her mani and my pedi! Thanks for stopping by! I hope you can find Pintrest as inspiring as we did. :-) It's great fun!

Liquid Leather

Today is another wet and gloomy day here in Virginia. I hope the sun peeks out sometime this week so I can wear my gorgeous Fast Track in the sunlight.

Today I have my black polish to show you. I have yet to try any other blacks although I wouldn't say I was necessarily attached to this one. China Glaze Liquid Leather is glossy and very pretty, opaque in 2 coats. It's clean and simple to apply with a nice formula even though it's a bit on the thin side. This was my base black under my Pac Man dotted mani.

taken indoors

my boy husky, Dpow, looking handsome in the background

taken outdoors, overcast light

Do you have a favorite, go-to black? 

Thanks for stopping by, ladies! See you next time.

ZOYA Caitlin

Hey, ladies. I hope you all enjoyed your Fridays. The hubby took me to see the Vow today which I thought was good. It was also a murky, overcast day with some rain. I originally wanted to paint Fast Track on my nails today, but since there really was no sun out I decided to wait. That polish is just SO glittery and sparkly that I want to see it in full sunlight! Instead, I went with Zoya Caitlin to somewhat match what I was wearing. I also feel that the color played off of the weather here today. Caitlin is a smoky purplish grey. It's a nice color, very similar to Zoya Kelly. The formula was great and this is 2 coats topped with Seche Vite.

taken indoors

outdoors, overcast sunlight

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, thanks for stopping in. See you next time.

Today's Mini Haul

Today was the release of the Capitol Colors Collection from China Glaze! I've read all 3 books in the Hunger Games series and I am itching to see the movie coming out later this Month. Of course, this occasion warranted a quick trip out to my local Sally's. Unfortunately, the store was in a new product shipment disarray. The manager had no idea what I was talking about when I asked if they had the Capitol Colors collection out. I ended up scavenging in the back of the store through their open boxes and found the 2 colors I wanted. To be fair to the manager, she did attempt to help me look for them for a little bit. It just happened at that same time a lot of customers were coming in and she was the only one in the store at the moment so I was left to fend for myself. I was thankfully successful! I dug out Fast Track and Stone Cold! I also grabbed myself a new bottle of acetone and popped into the dollar store right next door to grab some more cotton rounds. Oh yeah, and I grabbed some cute toe-separators that were only 49cents.

Which Capitol Colors do YOU want the most or already have?