ZOYA Earth Day Promo Arrived!

Happy Monday, girls! My order from Zoya's Earth Day Exchange arrived today! YAY FOR NAIL MAIL! :D

I think these 6 polishes are the most I have bought at once. I am so excited to wear my new beauties! From left to right the colors I picked are Robyn, Poppy, Zara, Midori, Arizona & Maisie.

I got some other goodies in my box as well. Here are my Zoya Haul pictures!

my babies wondering what their mommy got

Robyn, Arizona, Midori, Zara, Poppy & Maisie

Zoya Anchor base coat

Beach & Surf Collection Color Spoons

sugar scrub freebie

mini 2oz Zoya Remove freebie

The sugar scrub and Zoya Remove were both free with my purchase for having spent over a certain amount. I love that small bottle of remove though, it will be great for traveling. I also really like that my box came with the color spoons because it's nice to be able to hold it up to my hand and see the colors in person. The only color I  have from the Surf and Beach Collection as of now is Arizona so we shall see what other shades I am going to undoubtedly want now that I have the spoons.

What colors did you get from Zoya's Earth Day Exchange this year if you participated?

Thanks for popping by!

Do You Believe in Magic?

Good morning, ladies! Well, good morning if I wasn't feeling all stuffed up and meh. My husband made me some tea this morning and we bought cinnamon bagels from Panera yesterday for breakfast today so that was most enjoyable.

Today I have some nail art for you that I'm entering in a contest being held by Lindsey at Neverland Nail Blog. Her blog is incredible and if you haven't checked it out before you should do so! The theme for the contest is "Do You Believe in Magic?" I decided to go with a Magician themed nail falling under the slight of hand category.

Colors used:
   ● ZOYA Sooki - 2 coats thumb & pinky, Ace of Diamonds
   ● CHINA GLAZE Liquid Leather - magic hat, wand, Ace of Spades, bunny accents
   ● CHINA GLAZE Snow Globe - 1 coat Pinky
   ● JULEP Emilie - 2 coats ring, middle and pointer
   ● FINGER PAINTS Papier Mâché - white on all nails
   ● OPI Skull & Glossbones - thumb magic hat accents
  ** I mixed a bit of Sooki and Papier Mâché for the pink on the bunny

So, on my nails I have a magician's top hat and wand, 2 playing cards and the bunny that comes out of the hat. I added a gold star to the top of the wand which I adore. I freehanded all of these with my brand new art brush I picked up yesterday from Michaels for $4. I am so happy with this mani, I think it's so fun! I hope you like it too.

new art brushes, yay!

Thanks for popping in!

Bloglovin'

Hey girls! Just popping in to let you all know I've added my blog to Bloglovin' as an additional way to follow!

I have a nail art post coming up for tomorrow so make sure to stop by! Have a great night.

OPI Skull and Glossbones

Evenin' girls! Today I picked a polish that matched my mood and the day, OPI Skull & Glossbones. It's been rainy and overcast and I think I have the beginnings of a cold from my husband. Oh joy... I'm making us some crockpot chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight and I just made myself a nice hot cup of tea. Mmmm.

Skull & Glossbones is a cream grey from Pirates of the Caribbean Collection from OPI. This was actually one of 5 polishes my husband has given me. The ex of one of the guys my husband works with left 5 OPI polishes behind when they split. My hubby was able to buy them all for $5 since the guy was just going to throw them away! These are actually the only OPI polishes that I own; Skull and Glossbones, Steady as She Rose, Sparrow Me the Drama, Stranger Tides and Black Shatter (almost the whole collection!).

This is 2 coats of polish topped with Seche Vite. I'm sorry about the small cut on my finger, I nicked myself cutting up vegetables the other day.

taken outside, overcast skies

taken indoors in artificial lighting

OPI Skull & Glossbones

Definitely a rainy day appropriate polish.
Thanks for popping by!

GLITTERBOMB

I'm back again today! A Facebook group I belong to has Monday Nail Art Challenges that has a theme for your Monday Mani each week. This will be my first time taking part and this weeks theme is Glitterbomb! So, when I hear glitter I usually shy away just because I hate taking it off. Lame excuse though, right? So I decided to try out a jelly sandwich, which I have been wanting to do for a while. A jelly sandwich is a layer of jelly polish, glitter, jelly polish. It just looks like squishy goodness. So, here is my glitterbomb jelly sandwich!

squishy goodness!

Fun, huh? I don't really own many jelly polishes, I wish I had more. This one is SINFUL COLORS Ruby Ruby and WET n WILD Prancer. As far as my layering went there are 2 coats of Ruby Ruby, 2 coats of Prancer, 1 coat of Ruby Ruby and then it's topped with Seche Vite. Here are some shots of Ruby Ruby alone without top coat.

I guess I am photobombing to go with my glitterbombing. That is a lot of red! :-) Ruby Ruby is my first Sinful Colors polish and I picked it up today. I had hopped to get Cinderella as well, but my Walgreens was out. It's not a bad thing though since I have all my beautiful Zoya's on the way soon!

I hope you all had a lovely Monday and thanks for popping in!

Scentsy from Renee Bremer

Hello, ladies! I have something awesome to share with you today. Have you ever heard of Scentsy? My husband and I are OBSESSED with having all sorts of candles and fragrances in the house especially because we have 2 big dogs and I refuse to let our home smell like a kennel. I'm not kidding, any time I bring him out shopping with me he grabs a new candle. This has to be one of the best products I've ever owned. We own a great Scentsy warmer that melts wax Scentsy bars with the heat of a lightbulb (no flame), which makes it great to have in a house full of kids or pets, and diffuses the aromatic scent. Renee Bremer is my amazing Scentsy consultant. Let me show you what I'm talking about first.

The warmer I own is called Chisel. There are several warmers to chose from and if you don't want one on your counter you can get a nightlight sized one that plugs right into the wall. They are all beautiful. The Scentsy Bars come in packs with 8 breakable bars and last a total of 60-80hours per package. I have Paradise Punch, Baked Apple Pie, Just Breathe (a delicious eucalyptus, lemon and mint scents that is my FAVORITE) and Skinny Dippin'. I saw the below packets at my dollar store so I thought I would try them out, but I was really disappointed. The aroma on the dollar store ones was very weak, I could only smell it if I was standing right next to the warmer, and only had 4 cubes. The Scentsy bars are rich and fragrant.

dollar store knock off - not near as good as the real Scentsy

Here's how the warmer works:

Break off 1-2 pieces from the bar, depending on how strong you would like your scent to be, and turn on your warmer. About >5 min after switching on my Scentsy warmer I can start to smell whichever delicious scent I chose. The bar is completely melted around 30min. When you're done with a melted bar, they pop easily out with a knife or you can buy a special Grab Tab from Scentsy. You can even store the ones you pop out in a plastic bag for later use!

melted Scentsy bars pop right out when you're done

Renee Bremer is a fantastic Scentsy Consultant. She is friendly and helpful and will make sure you love what you get! You can e-mail her at reneelovesscents@gmail.com. Scentsy has more than just warmers too. You can purchase shower gels and creams, lotions and body butters, perfumes and dryer disks and lots more. You should definitely check out Renee's Scentsy Site by clicking any of the Scentsy links in this post.

Here is just a preview of some of the other warmers available:

Make sure to pop by later for a polish post!

Fuzzy Mint Nails

Happy Earth Day! In honor of it I have a green manicure to share with you lovely ladies today. I told you all I had something a little different planned for a weekend post and here it is...FUZZY NAILS. This unique technique has been popping up recently in blogs like Let Them Have Polish and The PolishAholic. My sister is actually the one who told me about this and at first I thought it was, well...weird, but she took me out to Michaels with her and bought herself some flocking powder. What is flocking powder you might ask? Very good question. Flocking powder is made of pulverized wool or felt and it's used mainly in scrapbooking to add texture to a page. She left me a container so I could try it and now I have. Take a look! :-)

I know at first it seems different, but it grows on you! This is definitely not an everyday thing and in fact is probably only a 1-day manicure as water or lotion could ruin the fluffy effect. Nevertheless, I think this was a fun and different technique to try out. It was super simple too. Apply a clear base or top coat to your nail and while it's still wet gently dunk it into a pile of the flocking powder. To get off the loose bits and chunks and to make sure the flocking powder was secure on my clear coat, I lightly tapped/pressed on it. I recommend doing this over paper towel or something as it can get messy with powder flying all around! I didn't apply anything on top of it.

I hope you got a kick out of this fuzzy mani like I did! Happy Earth Day and thanks for popping by!

Versatile Blogger Award

Hey, ladies! I was pleasantly surprised to find that I have been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award today by Liesl from Liesl Loves Pretty Things, thank you Liesl!

The Versatile Blogger Award Rules:

• Thank the person who gave you this award.
• Include a link to their blog.
• Tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.
• Select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.
• Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.

What a fun way to help people discover new blogs!

Here are the blogs I am nominating for Versatile Blogger:

Heidi from Diy Polish and More

Anutka from Wacky Laki

Aly from Aly Loves Lacquer

Carly from Lacquered Lover

the Goose @ Gooses Glitter

Stef @ Steffels

Amber from The Polished Momma

Sally from Pickledog Studio

Lindsay from Manicure What Ails You

Lindsay Drew from For The Love of Rugas

Janna from Clever and Colorful

Elaine from Lacquer Laine

Chelle from Cosmetic Cupcake

Amber from Amber Did It

Cris at Let Them Have Polish

Whew, what a list! Now onto 7 things you didn't know about me:

1. I am originally from Michigan.

2. I call it pop, NOT soda!

3. I like to play MMOs (massively multiplayer online).

4. I met my husband on World of Warcraft.

5. I am the youngest of 3 sisters.

6. I love cooking for my husband.

7. My favorite guilty pleasure is reading my kindle in the bathtub with a face mask on. (right now my favorite face mask is Indian Healing Clay)

Well, that about sums it up. Thanks again, Liesl!

My Zoya Earth Day Exchange Picks

I got my Zoya Earth Day Exchange polishes all picked out and ordered, yay! I am excited to add some more fabulous Zoya polishes to my collection. Now I just have to wait until they get here. :-) Here are my picks!

All images will bring you to their corresponding page on Zoya's website.

Colors Shown left to right:
  ● Anchor Base Coat (my favorite base)
  ● Midori
  ● Zara
  ● Robyn
  ● Maisie
  ● Poppy
  ● Arizona

Are any of you participating in the Exchange?

Thanks for popping in!

Tie-Dye Accents

Happy Saturday, ladies!

I am loving this weather! I can't say the same for my 2 siberian huskies though who much prefer the cold and snow.

We did take them down to the Boardwalk though which they enjoyed. There were LOTS of huskies out that day!

Dpow is on the left & Amoki is on the right

Aren't our babies gorgeous?! Ok Ok, enough of being one of those people who fawn over their dogs...we have nails to discuss!

So, I did end up adding that nail art to Lemon Fizz yesterday. I'll jump right into it and show you because it makes me happy!

Isn't it PSYCHEDELIC?! I used this great tutorial. This look is achieved by gently dragging a small pin or needle through your still wet polish. I must have done mine a bit too hard because instead of smearing the colors it revealed the white underneath, but I still LOVE this. It's so fun and I remember making tie-dye shirts when I was younger. I did a small change to the base polish by removing Lemon Fizz on my thumb and ring finger and replacing it with China Glaze Papier Mâché to give myself a good base to make the colors for the tie-dye really pop.

Lemon Fizz & Papier Mâché

Colors used for tie-dye in order of use:
● FINGER PAINTS Papier Mâché
● CHINA GLAZE Lemon Fizz
● SALLY HANSEN XTREME WEAR Sun Kissed (150)
● JULEP Cameron
● ZOYA Sooki
● JULEP Anne
● CHINA GLAZE Frostbite
● CHINA GLAZE Holly-Day
● Topped off with Seche Vite

I definitely plan on trying this pin dragging art again. I think the look it makes is fabulous.

Well, thanks for popping in and enjoy the rest of your weekend!