29 December 2012

China Glaze Ruby Pumps and The Daily Lacquer Usagi

Happy happy weekend!! Hope everyone's weekend is going well!! I recently made a couple of trips to Sally Beauty for the clearance sale and one of the things I bought was the China Glaze Ho Ho Ho set, which included Ruby Pumps. Ruby Pumps is one of those colors that everyone needs to have in their collection! It's just such a gorgeous red jelly, with oodles of glitter in it <3 There's just no describing this beauty! And for whatever reason, I had a hard time capturing the color and awesome glowy shimmer. I decided to use Ruby Pumps as undies for another gorgeous polish, The Daily Lacquer Usagi. Usagi has gold and holo micro glitter, blue glitter, red square glitter, gold /holo bar glitter, holo moons, and white hearts <3 This applied beautifully! I did have to fish for the hearts and moons, but in the end, it was well worth it! Maggy at The Daily Lacquer makes such beautiful polish and her bottles are too cute!




You can find The Daily Lacquer on Facebook and on Etsy :) Polish sells for $8.00 a bottle :)

Some polish bought by me. Others were from winnings from a giveaway.

28 December 2012

Wintery NOTD

Happy Friday!! Sooo glad it's Friday, even though I have to work 4 hours tomorrow :)

I wanted to do a wintery mani, and this is what resulted from that idea!

I used 2 coats of WnW Break the Ice, which is just an absolute favorite!, then I sponged on Sinful Colors Cinderella. I think next time I'll use something a bit darker since Cinderella is so sheer. Next I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Snow Globe and sponged Revlon Radiant on the tips. At first I didn't like it, but now I love it! <3

I think wearing this for the past few days has deterred the snow from our area! We've had snow in our forecast for the past week and then it suddenly was gone! Woooo!!



On a funny note, my husband told me I need to start blogging more, so that's one of my goals for 2013! I think I may also start doing makeup reviews, or at least posting EOTD/FOTD since I'm really starting to stray from my comfort zone and trying new things out, like liquid eye liner!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm going to finish my mac & cheese then go paint my nails! :D

24 December 2012

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Just a quick post to wish all of my readers Happy Holidays! I did Christmas nails last night and got to put my new striping tape to use! :D So much fun!! I used Covergirl Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail Gloss Forever Festive, Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, and Loreal Fancy Me :)



22 December 2012

Something Christmas-y, or So I Tried..

So sorry for not posting as much! I swear, I'm so tired when I get home from work, I usually fall asleep on the couch, with my contacts still in, or I make it upstairs to the bed and fall asleep with the light on and still wearing the clothes I wore to work! :( 

I've been wearing this mani for a week now. It's definitely coming off tonight, though! I bought a few nail polishes over the last week and Essie Leading Lady is one of them and I can't wait to put it on!! This is two coats of Revlon Rain Forest and China Glaze Make a Spectacle. I tried to do something Christmas-y and thought MaS kind of twinkles!! I apologize for the extreme tip wear! I input prescriptions all day and it does a number to any nail polish I wear :( Plus my nails are getting so long I've been typing with the tips of my nails :\



And a picture of our tree!!



And some giveaway news!! If I reach 100 likes on FB or GFC, I will do a giveaway!! Spread the word!!

16 December 2012

Dedicated To Newtown, CT

On Friday, December 14, 2012, the most tragic mass shooting in US history occurred. I was at work and a coworker came in from lunch and told us what had happened. It was one of those surreal moments where you can't believe it happened, even with the news story staring you in the face. I went to lunch and called my husband, told him to give Eli hugs from me. He asked why, and I was like, "Didn't you hear about what happened in Connecticut??" After that, he watched CNN all day and updated me on what happened. 20 innocent babies gone from this world :'( The day's events weighed heavily on me, and it's one of those things that's difficult to comprehend. A friend of mine posted this quote on FB: Becoming a mother makes you the mother of all children. From now on each wounded, abandoned, frightened child is yours. You live in the suffering mothers of every race and creed and weep with them. You long to comfort all who are desolate. - Charlotte Gray

My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to the families who lost a loved one that day. May you find peace and comfort in God's embrace <3

This mani is dedicated to Sandy Hook Elementary School, the lives lost, Newtown, Connecticut. Bloggers of this wonderful nail polish community are banding together and posting white manis to represent purity and peace.



Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Polar Bare and Shimmer Thea: white for purity and peace and blue also represents peace, as well as youth..




White manis in honor of Peace, Non-Violence and Remembrance of the Innocent


09 December 2012

Water Marbling!!

Howdy!! Sorry for being MIA for the past week or so! Love my new job, but with it being a compounding pharmacy, we are crazy busy!! Add to that being sick with a nasty cold, trying to finish up Christmas shopping, and I'm beat!!

I've been wearing this water marble for about a week, I think. I'm in love with water marbling!! <3 I used Orly Gidget as my base color (it doesn't like to spread in the water, though!), and marbled with Orly Lola, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and Sinful Colors Forget Now. Then I added China Glaze Fairy Dust because it just makes everything fantastic!! <3


30 November 2012

Erica's Nails and More November Nail Art Challenge - Day 10


Booooo!! :( Today marks the very last day of the awesome challenge that Erica at Erica's Nails and More hosted <3 I had a lot of fun doing this challenge.. it was a chance for me to step out of my comfort zone, to do themes I've been wanting to do, but would never have done if it weren't for this challenge :D

This is going to be a short post because I'm tired, I have to work tomorrow morning, and I think I'm getting sick :(


Day 10 of this challenge was to recreate your favorite.. it could have been a favorite mani you did for the challenge, one that another participant did, or a chance to redo one. Since we did water marbles for Day 9, and I fell in love with it, I decided to do another one!! :D

I swear, this looked so much more awesome in my mind when I pictured this :\

I used Orly Buried Alive as my base color, then water marbled with BA, China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, and China Glaze Mahogany Magic. It seems KK had some weird reaction with BA and kind of turned a bit greenish. I love it, though! A lady I work with thought I painted on all of the stripes myself! :P

And pictures! Then bedtime!!

There's a few after the break!!




25 November 2012

Erica's Nails and More November Nail Art Challenge - Day 9

Good evening!! Hope everyone's weekend went well, and if you went shopping for Black Friday, things weren't too hectic for you! I took advantage of some really awesome deals on Amazon Friday night :D

So now we're on Day 9 of the challenge, which is water marbles. This is one theme I was not looking forward to, just because it looks so complicated, there are so many things that need to be taken into consideratiom.. it just seemed really daunting! :( But that's why it's called a challenge, right??

It took about an hour for my water to become room temperature, and even then, it was still kind of cold, so I nuked it in the microwave for about 15 seconds. Added a little more water to it, and it was almost good to go! Could've been a little bit cooler, though :) And of course, I forgot to tape my fingers, so clean up was a nightmare!! I stayed up until around 4:30am this morning doing these :\ LOL

I used China Glaze Elephant Walk as my base color, then water marbled with Elephant Walk, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Sinful Colors Secret Admirer, and Sinful Colors Smokin.

Now that I have it figured out, I'll be doing a whole lot more of these! I think for a first time, I did pretty great :D

Lot of pictures!!



24 November 2012

Color Club Holo Hues Giveaway at Going to the Showing!

This is a new blog to me! Going to the Showing reached 555 Followers (great number!!) and is giving away the entire Color Club Holo Hues Collection!! I know everyone is trying to get their hands on this collection! I know I'm one of those people since we don't have any stores here that carry CC :(


Open to the US and International and ends on December 24th!!

NOTD - China Glaze Bizarre Blurple and The Daily Lacquer Moon Kitty

After failing miserably at gradient nails, I took it off as soon as I had taken pictures of it and put something else on. I recently won the entire Lovely Moon Collection from The Daily Lacquer (which is just gorgeous!!) and decided to use China Glaze Bizarre Blurple from the 2012 Wicked Collection and layered The Daily Lacquer Moon Kitty over it. Beautiful!! <3




Erica's Nails and More November Nail Art Challenge - Day 8

Happy Saturday!! Hope everyone here in the US had a great Thanksgiving!! :) I made pumpkins pies Wednesday night and spent all day Thanksgiving Day cooking for my little family of 4! :) And today, we put up the Christmas tree and hung the kiddos' stockings! Can't believe Christmas is in a month!

We're on Day 8 of the challenge and the theme is gradient nails. I've never done gradient nails before, so this was a total flop for me! Maybe next time I'll stick to two colors until I've got it done :D

I used China Glaze Naked, China Glaze Elephant Walk, and Sinful Colors Smokin.





There are two more days left in the challenge, and the next day is going to be the hardest.. water marbles!! I bought filtered water and small plastic cups for it, so we'll see how I do!


22 November 2012

Giveaway At Pink & Polished Nails

Kristine at Pink & Polished Nails just reached 100 Followers and is having a giveaway to celebrate! There will be 2 winners. Giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only and ends on December 16th! Be sure to enter!! :)




21 November 2012

Erica's Nails and More November Nail Art Challenge - Day 7

Howdy!! Can you believe this challenge is almost over and that Thanksgiving is the day after tomorrow?! :O Craziness!! We haven't started our Christmas shopping for the kiddos because we're waiting for our oldest to make out her list for Santa :P This is going to be the second Thanksgiving that I've cooked. Usually we go to my mom's or my husband's dad's, but decided that we wanted to start our own family traditions. Soooo... that means tomorrow night I get to make the pumpkin pies and get up super early on Thursday to get the turkey going! Ugh!! LOL :D

Anywho!! This is Day 7 of the challenge, which I wasn't looking forward to because it's stripes/lines, and considering the fun I had with lines the other day.. While I was catching up on reading all of the blogs I follow. I came across a lot of really awesome nail art using a fan brush!!

I had already painted my nails with Pure Ice Royal Flush, which I need to do a comparison post on, because it looks just like Orly Oui! <3

Here are some shots of Pure Ice Royal Flush on it's own..




Gorgeous!!! So then after finding manis using fan brushes, I whipped out Essie Penny Talk and Pure Ice Royal Flush and got to work! It was so much fun doing this, and I'm still wearing it because I love it that much :D







Sorry for the crappy clean up! I cleaned up several times and all I managed to do was getting sparklies all over my hands!

Next is gradient nails and then water marbles, which means I need to get to planning and thinking!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!! <3


17 November 2012

Erica's Nails and More November Nail Art Challenge - Day 6

Happy Saturday!! Since I was fired from my last job, I've been job searching left and right and landed a job! I start my new job as a pharmacy tech on Monday, which I'm really excited about. I was a pharmacy tech a few years ago and it was my absolute most favorite job ever.

The theme for Day 6 of the challenge is "Inspired By Another's Nails." Now, I knew what I wanted to do, but silly me didn't bookmark the mani that I fell in love with, so I literally spent hours going through blogs, googling, searching on Pinterest, and finally ended up going through the chat log between my mom and I on Facebook and found it!! I stayed up until 230 this morning doing my nails because the process was soooo long, and some of my skills are very lacking!

My mom sent me this link a couple of months ago on a guest post that Katy at Nailed It did, and my first reaction was, "I really need to do this!!"

So I got all of my supplies gathered: butter LONDON Nail Foundation (which I'm on the fence about), Orly Decades of Dysfunction (which is absolutely gorgeous!!), Orly Lola, China Glaze Naked, Sinful Colors Black on Black, tape, BM-20 stamping plate, my striping brushes, and got to work!

While I love most of this mani, I've never used a striping brush before and didn't really have a steady hand.. I actually think I was trying to paint the lines on with my hand in the air?? LOL Which leads me to issues with Day 7, since that is stripes! Oi! Think I need to get some striping tape and actual striping nail polish dealios :P

This is definitely something I want to try again, though!

I'm super excited about my pics, though! I downloaded the Photoshop CS6 trial and have been resizing my pictures and watermarking them and playing with different fonts (which I love to do!). AND!! I had hubby get different light bulbs today, so hopefully the coloring will be a lot better in the future :D

And on to the pictures!!





15 November 2012

Stumped!!

I am so stumped with the next theme for the challenge I'm in. This time it's "Inspired By Another's Nails" and I've gone through blog after blog, pinterest, googled stuff, and I'm coming up blank. I had one idea in mind, but I can't remember where I saw the post or who did the mani!! :(

13 November 2012

Erica's Nails and More November Nail Art Challenge - Day 5

Hi ladies!! Happy Veteran's Day and Remembrance Day! Tonight's episode of Bones was dedicated to all of the soldiers who have fought for and defended our freedoms.. it was a really good episode and had me in tears :(

Today is Day 5 of the November Nail Art Challenge.. this was a huge flop for me :( I don't know if it's just me being inpatient, or if my nails are just too tiny. I may redo this, though.

I digged dug* some old nail polish out of  my stash that I think are just gorgeous and would have worked well if there hadn't been any issues.. lol. This is about 3 coats of Revlon Limited Edition Champagne Dazzle.. I think this was from a holiday collection from 2005? I can't seem to find any information about it online. Then I used Revlon Limited Edition Rock Royalty, which is also from 2005.




*Whoa bad grammar alert!! Guess that's what happens when it's after 1 in the morning! :O

1200 Likes/600 Followers Giveaway at Naked Without Polish

Naked Without Polish is having a huge giveaway to celebrate 1200 likes on FB and 600 followers! There's an international and a US giveaway with multiple winners! Becky has some awesome swatches and nail art, so be sure to check out her blog!

12 November 2012

The Nail Junkie Release and Giveaway!

The ever-so-amazing Aleta at The Nail Junkie just announced her new collection of nail polishes! And to celebrate, she's having a giveaway where one lucky person will win all three polishes, Coffee, Cocoa, and Tea!! This collection will be available for purchase this Friday (November 16th) at The Nail Junkie Artisan Polish Store and The Nail Junkie Etsy Shop. All of Aleta's polishes are 3 Free and Cruelty-Free and are $10 a bottle, which includes free shipping in the US and $5 for international. $1 of each bottle of polish purchased will be donated to a charity of Aleta's choice :D How awesome is that?! From the swatches I have seen of her other polishes, they are all so gorgeous! <3



11 November 2012

Giveaway for Dashica Image Plates at Ida Pie

Ida Pie is having a giveaway for some Dashica Image Plates!! I know these plates are going on my wish list!! <3


Teen Polish Junkie 1000 Likes Giveaway!!

The fabulous Teen Polish Junkie reached 1,000 likes on FB and is having a fabulous giveaway to celebrate!! There will be a grand prize winner and 1 runner up. Be sure to visit her here and enter this amazing giveaway!!



10 November 2012

Erica's Nails and More November Nail Art Challenge - Day 4

Happy Saturday!! :D For whatever reason, I'm just not feeling the nail polish vibes lately. I don't know if it's because I'm tired a lot, if it's because I'm not working, or what, but all I want to do is lay in bed and watch tv. 

Anyway!! This is day 4 of the challenge from Erica's Nails and More, which is Delicate Print. I've been having such bad luck with stamping that I know I didn't want to do that. My husband suggested using some lace as a stencil, but I didn't have anything I could cut up. So finally I just decided to use some KISS nail decals that I've had for about 6 years.

This is 2 coats of Orly Miss Conduct from the Orly Holiday 2012 Naughty or Nice Collection. These pictures don't do the color any justice! It is so much more gorgeous and sparkly in person.









08 November 2012

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November 8 - No H8 - Eradicate Hate in the Nail Polish Community

Bullying is not funny.  It is not cool.  It is not right.  And more importantly, it is not okay.  

Most of us are thankfully residents of countries that support tolerance and many of our families have settled in these places simply for that reason.  Generations later, it is our responsibility to perpetuate that message of tolerance across our new social platforms, including the internet.

As members of the nail polish community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer.  Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color and even to our polish application techniques.  To look down on anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that.  I refuse to allow other people's view of "normal" dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.  

In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitment to the No H8 movement.  Today, November 8, I dedicate my post  to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community.



Since I have already done my nails for the challenge I'm in, I decided to go through past manis and found this one:



This was when I first started my blog and getting back into nail polish. This is two coats of Orly Oui, a gorgeous dark purple with gold shimmer. Back in July, I didn't know about nail polish clean up, cleaning up around your cuticles, the macro setting on my camera, lightboxes, etc.

Bullying is all around us. I don't necessarily think I was bullied when I was a kid (maybe I was?), but I was picked on a lot because my family didn't have a lot of money, and I didn't always wear the "right" clothes, the "right" shoes, or hang out with the "right" kids at school. I was bullied at my previous job and at a job a few years ago because I wouldn't kiss butt. In both cases, I was fired for reasons other than the true cause. My 6 year old daughter has been bullied at school and around here.. and what happens? Some kids either succumb to the bullying, or they become a bully themselves in order to defend and stick up for themselves. My daughter is the latter, and we tell her constantly what it means to be a bully.

I think people sometimes forget that something they say could be funny to them and a few others, but not everyone is going to see it the same way. A lot of what is meant to be in fun could really hurt someone's feelings. There IS a HUMAN BEING behind every screen name, every blog, every social media page, and it's so easy to hide behind that and not own up to your actions.

If you or someone you know suffers from bullying, there is help.  Please visit the following sites for support and encouragement:


National Suicide Prevention Hotline - 800-273-TALK (8255)


Check out the other bloggers who are standing up against bullying!!


07 November 2012

Erica's Nails and More November 10 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 3

Wow!! I can't believe it's Day 3 already!!  Day 3 of Erica's Nails and More November Nail Art Challenge is  inspired by a tutorial. I admit, I had a little bit of trouble with this one because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I thought about doing a gradient, but that's part of the challenge, as is half-moon mani. Then I thought about doing galaxy nails, but considering how time consuming those are, I didn't want to spend 3 hours doing my nails :( So I got on Pinterest (of course!) and Googled nail art tutorials.. then it hit me!! Saran wrap mani!! I used the tutorial at Polish Me, Please! There are a lot of saran wrap tutorials out there, but this one seemed relatively simple to do. There are also a couple of ways to do the saran wrap part. I think the next time I do these, I'll try the other method. So easy to do, it looks elegant, it looks complex (I think!), and it's just gorgeous. It reminds me of marbled granite <3

Anywho!! I used 2-3 coats of China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, Orly Gumdrop, and then I thought, "Why not throw some Fairy Dust on top?!"

And there you have it!! :D









I'm trying to work on my hand poses :P Some of them are just awkward!!

Be sure to check out what the other girls are doing!! <3

04 November 2012

Erica's Nails and More November 10 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 2

Good evening!! Hope everyone is doing well this cold Sunday evening :) I have wild rice soup in the crock pot.. so yummy I totally forgot about blogging for Day 2 of the challenge I'm participating in. Gahh!! So today is Day 2, like I said, and the theme is polka dots! While I love the full nail polka dots I've been seeing, I don't think they would look good on me, so I just did minimal dots :)

So here it is! I loveloveLOVE this color of nail polish I used, but the formula isn't very good :( I think it dries too fast for my liking and it kept getting goopy :( This is two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri In a Flurry and the silver is a Limited Edition Loreal Silver Star :) I used HK Girl Top Coat, which is the best quick dry top coat in my book <3

Peeeektures!!







Look at that micro glitter!! So gorgeous!!

And a little disclosure about my clean up, since there's been a lot of drama going on about that ;) I just learned how to clean up the "right" way, so my nails aren't going to be absolutely perfect. I blog for me and to share my manis with people I befriend and my mom :)

Have a great night!! <3