Jolly Holly

Here is my Christmas Day manicure.  Not very creative but still I thought it was pretty.

I tried a new product today.  When I ordered my polish from Maya, I noticed they also had a new Smoothing Coat for Glitter, so I picked up a bottle.  I didn't have a chance to try it until today.

I really think it made a difference.  I used a base coat, two coats of China Glaze Jolly Holly (a perfect Christmas green IMO), one coat of kbShimmer Candy Cane Crush, one coat of the Maya Smoothing Coat for Glitter and a coat of Seche Vite.  Using the Smoothing Coat and the Seche really made my nails smmoth and even.  I think one more coat of Seche would have made them perfectly smooth.

The smoothing coat is not a quick dry topcoat and is recommended that you  use it under a fast dry topcoat.  I did and had no issues with the dry time.

The Chine Glaze went on perfectly as usual and dried very fast.  The topcoat of Candy Cane Crush gave it a nice contrasting look but I wish I had been able to pick up more red on the crush.  It still looks all festive and Christmassy anyway.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Nails

I have had festive nails for the last week or so for the holidays.  Red of course, my favorite color.  First of all I have a plain red manicure using Julep's Ellen - a very nice red creme.  It applied flawlessly and covered in two coats.  I love the color. :)

Later this week I did another red mani with Catherine by Julep - another glorious red polish.  I have a lot of red polish.:)  I followed it with two coats of kbShimmer Candy Cane Crush - a clear base with red and white hex glitter of varying sizes.  You can't see the red glitter because I layered it over red polish, but I think I am going to use it over green for Christmas Day.

And the best part?  The Candy Cane Crush smells like peppermint!  The scent lasted quite a while too.  It made me feel all happy and Christmassy.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

Ellen by Julep

I really love Julep polishes.  I wasn't sure at first - the first bottle I tried was very icky and thick and the application was terrible.  I contacted them and they sent me a replacement bottle for free - no questions asked.  I really liked that, and the next polish I tried was heavenly.  Eleen was also.  It's a beautiful red creme polish and if I'm stuck I what I want to wear, I always go the the red cremes.  I love this one.

The application was perfect - two coats covered everything with no visible nail line.  It even covered by bruised and icky index finger in two coats.  Ellen dried quickly and I got three separate compliments on my nails today at work - two from men.  I think this is a good color on me. :)

This mani is a few days old - base coat, three coats of Ellen and a Qtica topcoat.  I had very little tipwear - I just had to add the extra coat because my cats claws are like daggers these days and Riley put a huge scratch in my polish last night.

Smitten with Smitten

I tried a new indie polish today.  Flurry by Smitten.   It is a gorgeous polish and extremely appropriate for today which was gray and cloudy and overcast.

Smitten is a gray polish with blue and silver glitter.  It is a little sheer and this is three coats and two coats of Seche Vite.  I think I'd like to try it over a light gray polish to see how it looks. 

The polish applied beautifully and I got a nice amout of glitter without having to work too hard for it.  It did seem to take a little bit longer to dry.  I finished my manicure and even after applying the Seche I still managed to smudge a nail, which I haven't done in a long time.  It doesn't detract from the polish at all in my opinion, I just have to let it dry a little longer between coats.  The surface is a little rough becuase of the glitter but two coats of Seche smoothed it right out.

I love the name of this polish and think it describes the color perfectly.  It absolutely reminds me of a winter sky before it starts snowing.  I got compliments on it at work too.  And no, the bottle did not come like this.  My dog managed to grab it when I wasn't looking and chewed the top.  Big surprise there.  At least she has good taste. :)

I habe a couple of other colores by Smitten that I am eager to try out as well.  You can visit her Etsy shop to get some Smitten polish for you very own.

Some New Favorites

Since I have been having a lot of trouble lately with my nails peeling and breaking, I started using two new products to try to help with my problem.

The first one I got was Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle serum.  I try to remember to apply it evey night before I go to bed and I'm actually doing it pretty regularly.  A drop on each nail and then rub it in.  It makes my cuticles look great.  And since I have been using this my nails do seem to be growing faster and are stronger.  The only thing I don't like about it is that sometimes it's hard to get the serum into the dropper.

I also started using Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimultor.  I've been using this as my base coat since the last time I cut down my nails which was November 19th.   Please try to ignore the staining and the chewed up cap.  Ruby got ahold of it somehow (and I don't know how) but fortunately, I noticed before she ruined the bottle. :)

My naked nails - I am getting ready to paint them before I go to bed, but this is what they look like right now - no lotions or serums or anything.  I am dorry for the yucky picture of my bruised nail.  I slammed it in a cabinet in October and I think it's going to take a long time to grow out.

The last new thing I tried was OPI's glass nail file.  OMG - true love.  I will never use an emery board again!

Fash Pack

Since I am currently fascinated with my butter LONDON, here is another one.  This one is called Fash Pack and is another neutral color that BL's website describes as "mushroom meets putty".  I think thats a pretty good description.

 I don't like this one as much as Yummy Mummy.  Although it dried quickly, the formula was kind of thick and draggy.  After I finished my mani, I notice big patches along the sides of my nail where the brush totally skipped over my nail.  The polish also seemed to miss the tips of both of my index fingers.  That may have been me, but the polish was a bit difficult to work with.

It is a plain creme polish, no sparkle as far as I can tell.  It did dry quickly and althogh the surface of my nail looked a little uneven becuase of the dragging issue, it smoothed out nicely with BL PDQ topcoat.

Yesterday I ended up doing two more coats the fill in the bald aptches.  So I ended up with 5 fairly thick coats of polish, plus a base and top coat.  I think 5 coats is a lot.

Aside from that, I do like the color.  It's quite a bit darker than Yummy Mummy, but I like the color on me and it does look good with everything.  I think next time I may try using a little bit of thinner and see if that helps. 

 

 

Yummy Mummy is defintely the winner in my book, but I'll be wearing this one again also.

And For My Second Post Today...

Rapture by Mentality.  Although I dearly love my reds and black sparkly nail polish, I've discovered that when my nails are short as they are now, I prefer more neutral colors.  Plus, although no one has said anything to me about my nail polish at work (except the compliments I get from clients) the neutrals are a more appropriate work choice.

Neutral does not have to boring.  I found that out too.  Look at the amazing holographic shimmer in this baby.

This polish applied like a dream and was fairly smooth when it dried, which it did quickly.  I know because I had to chase Ruby and get my remote back right after I finished this and I had nary a smudge. 

This manicure was with a base of Qtica Nail Growth Stimulator, three coats of Rapture and a top coat of butter LONDON PDQ Quick Dry Topcoat.

I think I may be changing my nail polish a lot in the future. :)

More Nail Mail

I admit I went a little crazy with butter London's 30% off sale.  Here is my second order of polish from them.

From left to right: Marrow, Scoundrel, La Moss, Ashton, Branwen's Feather and Fash Pack.

Top to bottom, left to right:  Ashton, Branwen's Feather, Fash Pack, Marrow, Scoundrel and La Moss.  I like how in this picture you can see the hint of red in La Moss.

I think I now own most of the colors I wanted from butter LONDON and won't be buying any more for a while,  We'll see. :)

It's Not Christmas Bells You're Hearing...

...it's the ring of the cash registers taking all my money for awesome indie polishes.

Nail Mail today.  And this is stuff I ordered before I knew that there would be so many Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales in the indie polish world.  I don't even remember what I ordered, so my packages will be a surprise for me.  What I do remember is that I was able to try a bunch of indies I've been wanting but could not (or thought I could not) get at the moment.  So, I am very excited to see what shows up in my mailbox in the next few weeks.

Today I got a package from kbShimmer.  She has beautiful polishes and bath products.  In addition to the polish, I got three Georgia Peach bath bombs I can't wait to try.  Maybe this weekend I will pamper myself with a nice bath and manicure courtesy of kbShimmer.

Anyway, on to the loot.  I picked up four of her holiday polishes along with the bath bombs:

Aren't they beautiful?  I got:

Candy Cane Crush, a clear base with red and white hex glitter and I think there are some fine white and red glitter as well.  Very Festive!

Berry Christmas - a berry base with fine red glitter.  Of course I had to buy a red polish! :)

Cocoa Nut - a chocolate brown with fine red, gold and I think I may see silver or possible green glitter in there as well.  I think this is the one I am most anxious to try.

And finally, We Three Blings - a clear base with gold irridescent glitter.  It looks very glamorous to me.

All of the polishes look amazing and the bath bombs smell wonderful.

More to come as I bought a lot of polish this weekend.  Now I am off to decide which polish to try first.  Decisions, decisions. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

A few days ago I did a manicure with butter LONDON Yummy Mummy and I posted about how much I love this color.  Since today is Thanksgiving I wanted something that looked fallish and holiday, but I didn't have time to redo the whole thing.  So I grabbed my new polish Minako from Daily Lacquer.  It has a base with a slight orange opalescent shimmer - not overpowering but noticeable with orange and blue glitter, stars and moon glitter and some bar glitter thrown in for good measure.  It's beautiful!

I layered it over Yummy Mummy and it gave me just the extra something I was looking for.

The polish went on nicely and dried quickly.  The surface of the polish was a little rough, but nothing two coats of top coat didn't fix right away.

I didn't manage to pick up any of the stars or moons but I did get some bar glitter.

I did a litle bit of dabbing to get glitter on most of the nail surface.  I think that was me though - I haven't worn very many glitters and I think I did the second coat before the first was completely dry and the glitter moved around a little.



I think this is one of my favorite manicures so far.  As an added bonus the pictures came out better than most of the ones I've taken and I didn't get polish all over my fingers and cuticles. :)

Yummy!

I have a couple of things today.  First off is some pictures of the polish I picked up on Saturday.  I was good and only got two things.  And the Winter Affair set was priced wrong at Sally's, so I got it for $6.99 instead of $8.99.  I'm always eager to save money. :)

Winter Affair consists of Merry and Bright and Snowflakes.  The polishes are supposed to be scented and I've never tried a scented polish before so I'm eager to see what that's like.  They look very Christmasy to me.  The other is Finger Paint's Snow Flakes.  I couldn't resist it.

I had to cut my nails again, so they are practically nonexistant.  I did start using the Qtica Nail Growth Stimulator yesterday, so I'll see if that helps.  I chose butter LONDON's Yummy Mummy for my manicure.  I was a little afraid it would blend into my skin, but I loved it!

The pictures don't show how nice this color is.  Sometimes when I look at it it looks like it has a hint of purple or maybe pink.  Other times it's just a beautiful neutral taupe.  I think it will go with everything and is a perfect polish for work.

Yummy Mummy applied like a dream.  Smooth and shiny and dried very quickly.  It's shown here with the Qtica, BL Flawless Base coat, 2 coats of Yummy Mummy and BL's PDQ topcoat.  I have to say after not being that impressed with the BL base and top coat they are growing on me.

 

 

 
I'm sure this is a color I will be going to again and again.

Massive Nail Mail/Haul

Finally, I can post something without people having to look at my messy polishing skills.  No polish on the cuticles or fingers and no tipwear here.  Just pretty pretties. :)  And picture heavy as well.

First off is my polish from The Daily Lacquerista.  It just came today and I can't wait to try it.  So pretty.  And she has the cutest packaging I have seen so far. 

First, it all came wrapped in this cute pink bag with a bow:

There was also a a business card,  and again so cute.

And the bottles!  Oh my, so adorable.  I feel like I'm babbling but really.  I usually don't care so much about packaging or how the bottle looks.  As long as it arrives undamaged and works well, I'm happy.  This really made an impression on me though, so I feel compelled to babble about it.

Next we have half of my nail mail from butter LONDON's 30% off sale.  I actually went back before it was over and ordered more, but who knows when that order will get here.  These took forever to arrive.  But they are here now. :)

Gorgeous colors!  From left to right in the bottom picture - top row: Posh Bird, Scuppered and Toff.  Bottom row left to right: Fiddlesticks, Yummy Mummy and Blowing Raspberries.  I've developed a great liking for butter LONDON - especially at 30% off! :)

Another indie poish I wanted to try was Mentality and my order also came today.  I was looking for some pretty nuetral colors to wear to work and I think these will work out nicely.  I'm so glad the pictures show the difference in the colors, even if they are a little blurry.

No, I'm not done yet.  Someone should take away my credit card.  I've used Kleancolor Holos before and really liked them, so when I was brrowsing on ebay and saw a pick 12 colors for $18.00, before I knew it I had picked twelve.  I just can't stop my fingers from hitting that buy button.

Let's see if I can get the names right - from top to bottom, left to right: Tiara Gold, Chunky Holo Scarlet, Starry Night, Winter Wonderland, Chunky Holo Black, Titanic, Angel Red, Jewelry, Retro Green, Copper, Chunky Copper and Golden Nightmare.  I need more fingers.

Then there is my Pure Ice haul from WalMart last weekend and the Sally Hansen Lustre Shine polishes I picked up this week.

Pure Ice left to right: Crimson, Grunge, Girl's Best Friend, Draped, Temptress and Iced Copper.  Sally Hansen left to right: Lava, Copperhead and Plume.  I'm pretty sure I bought Firefly also, but I can't seem to find it.

I'm looking forward to trying all of these.  And I'm still waiting on more mail.

Twilight Mania

I am a fan of Twilight.  I read all the books and enjoyed them.  I've seen all the movies and enjoyed those also - even with the horrible acting.  I will probably see the new movie sometime next week after the hoopla dies down.  The release of the new movie gave me the perfect opportunity to try out some more of my polish from Different Dimension. 

I couldn't resist a polish named Sparkle Like Edward.  Or the one named 50 Shades.  So, for my Twilight mani I used both of them.

Sparkles Like Edward is a white jelly duochrome with holographic glitters.  At first I thought it was light gray, but as I applied it I could really tell it was white.  And in the right light it is irridescent and shifts to pink.  Unfortuantely, my camera does not capture how lovely this polish is.  The application was smooth and it was mostly opague in two coats.  I did three because I wanted more holo glitters.  It applied evenly and the glitter was pretty well spread out over the nail.  I haven't applied many glitters so far, so I'm sure my application will get better as I go.  Sparkles Like Edward did take a little longer to dry, but not horribly so and it was only a little bit gritty on the nail.  I used a coat of Gelous and then Seche Vite and it smoothed them right out.

The picture does not do it justice.  I think I am going to have to start penning up the animals so they don't escape and taking my pictures outside.  My lighting in here sucks.

On the other hand I did an accent nail of 50 Shades.  This is a grey jelly base with tons of glitters.  It also applied smoothly and dried faster than Sparkles Like Edward.  It was grittier than SLE when it dried and needed the Gelous and Seche to make it smooth.  I had bare spots but that is due to my application rather than the polish.  I bet this would look amazing over gray or black polish.

I think I like the mani better without the accent nail though.

Different Dimension has great polish and a nice assortment to choose from.  I can't wait to try the others I've purchased from her.