OPI Tickle My France-y

I have discovered a love for neutral polishes.  I still love my reds and blacks and sparkles, but sometimes I just want something different.  Here I have OPI's Tickle My France-y.  It's a kind of taupey pink or lavender color, depending on what light you are in.  It's a cream, and I do love cream polishes.  Unfortunately, I have some ridges and depressions in my nails, particularly at the sides.  I need a good ridge-filling base coat.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I have Zoya's, but I'm not really happy with it.  I also need to pick up some orange sticks.  I need to start cleaning as I go - I still get polish on my cuticles!

This was taken with a flash indoors.  All pictures are 3 coats of Tickle My France-y with kbShimmer's Basic Training base coat and Clearly on Top top coat.  Love this stuff!

This one was outside, but there was no sun.

 I really love this color polish and I can't wait to try more of the neutrals in my stash.

Products I Am In Love With

It's been a long time since I've been here.  My nails are finally looking decent again and hopefully, I will start posting some pictures again soon.  I have been polishing my nails fairly regularly and I've tried some new products that I am absolutely in love with.

The first one is Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A-Peel.  I have a lot of glitter polishes, but truthfully I don't wear them too often because, like everyone else, I hate removing it.  It takes forever and I always end up with little glitter pieces all over everything.  So when I saw this product, I had to try it and it is amazing.  This is how my last glitter mani came off.

This was two coats of Glitter A-Peel, my new favorite base coat, two coats of Julep Jackie, two coats of Julep Firecracker, a coat of Gelous to smooth out the glitter and then my new favorite base coat.  It sounds like a lot of product and I guess it is, but I had no issues with application or drying time and it really didn't feel that thick.

My manicure wore about the same amount of time without chips using the Glitter A-Peel as it does without it.  I noticed that if I'm really using my hands a lot, doing things I shouldn't be doing with my nails like opening cans or trying to open boxes, it can cause the whole sheet of polish to just pop off, which happened to me today while I was getting ready for my cookout tomorrow.  That was me though, not the product.  Showering or washing dishes did not affect my manicure in any way other than normal wear and tear that you would get with any manicure.

I use it on my toes too, even when I use regular polish.  I can never seem to get all the polish off my toenails and it always seems to get stuck on the sides and I have a horrible time getting them clean.  This solved that problem for me.  Thanks to Glitter A-Peel, I can wear my pretty glitters on my fingers and toes again.  I love this stuff.  I may need to buy 10 more bottles.

Then there is my new favorite base and top coat from KBShimmer.  I love her polishes so when I saw she had a new nail prep solution (Nail Prep pH Balancing Pre-Polish Nail Treatment), base coat (Basic Training Nail Polish Base Coat) and top coat (Clearly On Top Quick Dry Top Coat) I snatched them up.  I love them.  Using all three of the products has made my manis last much longer without chipping.  I've been trying different top and base coats, trying to find one a really like, and I believe I finally found them.

The base coat is slightly sticky and my polish adheres really well to it.  The top coat leaves my polish super shiny and dries very quickly.  The nail prep dries quickly also and seems to really help everything stay on the nail surface better.

These three products are definite keepers in my book.  I don't ever want to be without them.

And now I have to go do my nails again since my mani peeled off. :)

Purple Polish

Every time I use another butter LONDON polish I like it more.  I still only buy it on sale because I think $14 for a bottle of polish is crazy, But I love it all the same.  So far, every one I have applied has gone on flawlessly and looked amazing, except I think Fash Pack was a little thick if I remember correctly.

My purple polish manicure was no different.  I started with two coats of BL Marrow and then added a coat of Knackered.

It was pretty, but I banged up the tips of my nails at work, so yesterday I touched them up and added another coat of Knackered.  It was so much prettier with two coats than just one.

Marrow was pretty on its own, but I think the Knackered gave it the zing that it was missing.  The shine and sparkle is subtle, not in your face glittery, but in the sun it really brings out the different colors.  Unfortunately, today I did not have my camera when the sun was shining. :)

In my opinion, I think Knackered is probably too sheer for me to wear on its own, but I love it over other polishes.  I think I want to try it over black or even red or orange.

I like this manicure so much that I will leave you with one more picture.

Have a good one!

OPI Liquid Sand

I love OPI polish.  I've been trying a lot of indies lately, but I always go back to OPI.  I never have any trouble with application, it wears well, I love their brush and they have a zillion colors.  The other day at Ulta I picked up Stay The Night (Because it is black and I was intrigued by the finish).  ANd I have to say, I love it.

My pictures aren't the greatest, but it reminds me of gravel, with sparkly bits.  The first coat was patchy, but it evened out nicely with two more coats.  I was kind of leary of no top coat, it just seemed wrong to me, but I went with it.  I had some tipwear after the first day, so I added another coat and sealed my nail edges this time and this stuff wears like iron.  I've had no chips or anything.  I wonder how hard it will be to get off.

You can see the sparkles better in these pictures.  this is a base coat and four coats of the polish.  I did use drying drops on it and it did not seem to affect the matte finish or the sparkles in any way.

Now I want the other colors. :)

Above The Curve - Fallen Angel

I've had this polish for a while and have been meaning to try it and I finally did last week.  I've previously used I Pink I Can, I Pink I Can, a limited edition pink holo polish that was absolutely gorgeous on me, so I was eager to try Fallen Angel as well.  I hope to get the entire Angel line at some point, but for now, this will have to do.

I love Above The Curve polishes.  They have gorgeous colors and they apply beautifully and they donate $1.00 of every bottle sold to Shriner's Hospitals for Children and help raise awareness for Scoliosis.  Lots of good about a little bottle of polish.

Fallen Angel is a holographic polish with pink/purple/blue color shifting shimmer.  As you can see, it is beautiful!

You can really see the blue shimmer here. I wish I had a better picture.  It really sparkles in the sunlight, but sunlight was scarce around here when I was wearing this polish.  The other colors of the shimmer are very noticeable in the sun and it sparkles like crazy.

I found this formula thicker than I Pink I Can and had to use three coats to get it even, but I think I little thinner will fix that right up.  Otherwise I was great.  It dried quickly and I just needed my normal one coat of top coat - the polish is extremely smooth when it dries. I did get tip wear fairly quickly and it shows in the picture so please forgive me.  The tip wear is no fault of the polish.  My nails are at that length where no matter what I am doing I am hitting the tips on something and I have the tip wear issue with every polish I use.  If I was a lady of leisure it wouldn't be a problem. :)

There are now many more colors in the Angel line and they are all gorgeous!  Stop over at their blog for info and you can purchase your very own bottle at their Etsy and Big Cartel shops.

Liebster Award

I’ve been nominated for a Liebster Award! I was nominated for this a while back by my friend Mal at Enchanted Nails and Fluffy Dog Tails but I was having a hard time finding blogs with less than 200 followers.  Today I had some time to do some searching and I found 11 blogs that looked really interesting to me, so I nominated them.  Now I just have to work on updating my blog list. :)  Thanks Mal, for nominating me!

The Liebster Award looks to recognize new bloggers with less than 200 followers and help them get discovered. 

The rules are, you must post 11 random facts about yourself, then answer the 11 questions the other person asked.  Then come up with 11 new questions and tag 11 new blogs with less than 200 followers. And you can't nominate the person who nominated you.

 11 Random Facts About Me: 

1.  I am addicted to Diet Pepsi

2.  I have 4 cats - Riley, Jasper, Emmett and Jack

3.  My dog hated my cats so I had to take her back to the APL - it was sad.

4.  I smoke

5.  I used to write Trixie Belden fan fiction

6.  I named by blog after my dog - Ruby Tuesday

7.  I have 11 nieces and nephews

8.  I have lived in Cleveland or a suburb of Cleveland all my life

9.  My nail polish collection is embarassing large - especially since I only started polishing my    nails again this year.

10.  I have worked in banking for over 30 years.

11.  I have never been married.

11 Questions from Mal:

1. What’s your favorite mass market polish brand?

China Glaze and OPI

2. What’s your favorite indie brand (or which do you want to try the most if you don’t have a favorite yet?)

I'm still trying out my indie polishes, but I adore Above The Curve, Mentality and Different Dimension.  I'd love to try Girly Bits though.

3. What’s at the top of your bucket list?

You know, I don't have a bucket list.

4. What tv show would you want most want to star in?

Sons of Anarchy - Jax, yummm....

5. Does Tyra Banks & America's Next Top Model make you laugh or shake your head in disgust?

Both!

6. Desert or mountains?

Desert

7. Have you ever eaten dessert first?

Often

8. Have you ever won a contest?

Not that I remember.

9. What would your dream job be?

FBI profiler

10. If you could have a super power, what it would be?

Invisibility

11. What’s your favorite book of all time?

Trixie Belden - Gatehouse Mystery.


My 11 Questions

1.  When did your nail polish love start?
2.  What is your favorite food?
3.  Do you have any pets?
4.  What is your favorite drink?
5.  What is your go to nail polish color?
6.  Have you lived in any other state other than the one you live in now?
7.  What kind of car do you drive?
8.  Do you recycle?
9.  What is your favorite dish to make in a crockpot?
10.  Do you enjoy exercise?
11.  What is your all time favorite TV show?


I nominate:

Lena Loves Nails
Kat Stays Polished
And Then There Was Polish
Glittery Fingers & Sparkling Toes
Can't Hold My Lacquer
Denny's Digits
Erica's Nails and More
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Go Polish Yourself
Lacque Enthusiasm
Nail FREAK

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.