New Favorite Green

I haven't been posting as much as I would like lately.  Life just continues to be super busy but hopefully I will get posting a little more.  Today I have for you Essie Mojito Madness from Essie's summer 2012 collection.  I have been on a huge blue and green kick lately.  I absolutely love this color!!!  I don't even know how to describe it.  It's kind of a cross between a grass green with maybe a little bit of lime to it. The formula on this was amazing and this is two coats.

Have a lovely day!

Amy

Orly Androgynie

Today I have for you Orly Androgynie.  This polish was originally a limited edition polish but Orly now has it as part of their permanent line.  I first put down a coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme, which by the way is an awesome black polish!  Androgynie is a black jelly with glitters but I didn't feel like messing with putting on several layers. Without further adieu....

Thanks for looking! 

Amy

Versatile Blogger Award

All I can say is...WOW!  I am shocked at being nominated for this award.  I am very new to blogging but I absolutely love it.  I was nominated by Mega Nailatude.  Thank you so much for the nomination!!  I truly am flabbergasted and appreciate it so much!  So I had to look up what this means or what I do next and here it is....

1.  Nominate 12 fellow bloggers that are relatively new to blogging.
2.  Let them know you have nominated them.
3.  Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4.  Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you by linking their blog.
5.  Add the Versatile Blogger Aware picture to your post.

The 12 bloggers that I nominate are...in no particular order.....

1.  Happiness is a Dry Nail

2.  Time On My Nails

3.  The Clockwise Nail Polish

4.  Lacquer Loving Lawyer

5.  Naked Without Polish

6.  i Heart Pretty Polish

7.  Mega Nailatude

8.  Take it With a Drop of Polish

9.  The Polish Hideout

10.  "I'm All Polished Off"

11.  No Naked Nails Allowed

12.  Polished Cousins

So now for the 7 random facts about myself!

1. I have two boys, a 4 year old and a 5 month old.

2.  I have two jobs..one full-time and one part-time on weekends.

3.  I love to play poker.

4.  I hope to be a nurse some day...goal is to go to school fall 2013.

5.  I have been married almost 10 years and have been with my husband since I was 15..(I am 31 now).

6.  I love to cook.

7.  I strive to always be positive and try to find the positive in all situations.  

Again, I am honored to be nominated for this award.  It isn't always easy for me to find time to blog between two jobs, two kids, etc. but I really love doing it.  That is all for now!

Amy

Neon

Hello there! When Walgreens had the recent sale on Sinful Colors I picked up several. A handful of them were neons. One thing that I learned....neons are a PITA to photograph! This actually photographed better with my iphone. This is Sinful Colors Dream On. I did put down some white "undies" as a base and then three coats of Dream On. This dries matte as neons do but I added Seche Vite as a top coat. If you read my last post I had given NYC Grand Central Sation a try as a top coat. Now I did bartend the next day but I noticed chipping before I even had my hands in water. Maybe I'll try it again during the week when I'm not bartending just to see, but so far I prefer my Seche Vite.

Enough rambling on, here are the pics of Dream On. It is still brighter in person but this is close. I do recommend this shade especially for the summer!

This color is so much better in person.  I recommend it!

Until next time, 

Amy

Butter London Slapper with Glitter Gradient

Hello again!!  I had picked up this Butter London polish recently and it's kind of been staring me in the face.  I finally decided to put it on today.  I then topped it with some glitter in a gradient type of fashion.

This is Butter London Slapper.  I then added Wet n Wild Coloricon Cost is no issue as a gradient.  I am trying out a new top coat.  I am usually a Seche Vite kind of girl but another blogger, who I cannot remember at the moment, had said she really liked NYC Grand Central Station.  I don't know that this is really meant to be a top coat, but I am giving it a shot.  It does dry fairly quick which is one of the characteristics I like about Seche Vite.  Onto the pictures!!!

Butter London Slapper.  Loved the application of this!

Topped with Wet N Wild Cost is No Issue

Thanks for stopping by!!

Amy

Quick NOTD Featuring Claire's Candy Shop

Hello there! I've been crazy busy lately so it's been hard for me to blog.  Today I have for you Claire's Candy Shop.  This is supposed to be a dupe to Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop.  I decided (for some reason) to layer this over China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic.  I got to be honest, I don't love this combo.  I will try Candy Shop again by itself when I don't have this darn bruise underneath my middle finger.  I have many polishes that are on the more sheer side or jelly-like consistency that I really have been itching to wear but that bruise deters me.  Anyway, here are a couple of pictures.

This is without flash and the picture below is with flash.  

Have a good weekend everyone!  

Amy

NOTD: Essie Go Overboard with Essie Pure Pearlfection

Happy hump day!
So I got a bunch of polishes out last night wanting to do some swatching but I could not for the life of me get the colors to be accurate due to my lighting.  Unfortunately, when I have time it is almost always when I no longer have natural light available.  So I ended up deciding to build a light box.  I still need to get some lights that are more portable but I am impressed with how it helps.  I did a mani with Essie Go Overboard which is a polish I recently received in a swap.  I then topped it with Essie Pure Pearlfection.  I need to pull this one out more.  I really love what it does when layered.

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Here is Essie Go Overboard by itself.

Topped with Pure Pearlfection...I love this!!!

Thanks for stopping by!  

NOTD: China Glaze Electric Beat with Sinful Colors Hottie

Hi all!  Happy Sunday to you!  Just a quick nail of the day here.  I am trying to use my untrieds and I came up with this combination.  Enjoy!

I started with China Glaze Electric Beat from the Electropop collection.  This is not true to color.  It is more on the blue side in real life.  

After adding Sinful Colors Hottie.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Amy

NOTD: Julep Mandy and Spoiled Cougar Attack

I don't know what it is but I just love accent nails lately.  Maybe it's my way of utilizing more of my nail polish?!  This is the last of my three polishes I got in my Julep "It Girl" box that I tried.  It is Mandy and she is a bright coral.  I used Spoiled Cougar Attack on my thumb and ring finger for an accent.  Cougar Attack is a copper glitter in a brown jelly base. Wet n Wild had Cougar attack in their On the Prowl collection that was limited edition so if you missed out, check your CVS.  This is also said to be comparable to Deborah Lippmann's Superstar.   I do really like this!!  I also have a brush comparison for the Spoiled versus the Julep.  I am really not a fan of the brush on the Spoiled.  It is HUGE!  Onto the photos!

Here is a picture of the brushes.  The one on the Spoiled is a beast!!!

Have a good day everyone!  

Amy

Layering with Floam

Hello everyone!  I hope you are having a great day.  Today I decided I wanted to do a post with Nail-Venturous Floam.  Floam is an extremely dense glitter polish with neon yellow-green and bright blue glitter.  It's not sparkly glitter though which is what I kind of love about it.  This has got to be the most unique polish I own.  I was very lucky and scored this when it was in stock at Ninja Polish.  I think it was in stock a whole 5 minutes!  Amy from Nail-Venturous also has an etsy shop.  She usually sells out pretty quick.  You can see her etsy shop and sign up to be notified when she is back here .

Onto what I did.  I actually decided to layer with Floam today.  I know neons are in and I recently picked up Essie Lights from the new Poppy-Razzi collection.  It is a hot pink and is quite difficult to capture true to color on camera.  

First I will show you Essie Lights.  This was three coats and dries to almost a suede semi-matte finish.  I do have a bruise on underneath my nail on my middle finger.  This has been there since the end of December and it is growing out.  I have been avoiding more sheer polishes for this reason but after I layer the Floam you can't see it.  

Like I said, this is more of a hot pink. 

And now with the Floam!!!  

I really love how this turned out.  Thanks for stopping by!

Amy

  

Glamazon April Collab - Spring Splatter Mani

When wanting to come up with a mani for this, I tossed around a few ideas but ultimately decided to try out a splatter mani.  I have only done one other splatter mani in the past and that was a red, white and blue one for Independence Day last year.  I picked out some springy colors that I thought would go well together.  The base is Revlon Peachy, the blue is Ulta Bam-Blue-Zled, the green is Ulta Limelight and the Pink is OPI Pink Friday.

I am not entirely happy with this.  Must practice a bit more!  Some of the pictures I took were post cleanup but pre-moisturizer and I had used acetone during clean up so my fingers are quite dry looking.  This is a technique that I definitely want to get better at which means practicing.

Other participants for this collab:
Makeup Insider
The Glam Goddess
Laurie Ann
Stephanie Louise 
Keri
Wendy 
PurpleStar Makeup
Candace

On to the photos!

I started with this and let my base dry completely. 

I used a paper plate to pour out my splatter colors and a straw for each color.  Scotch tape to tape around my fingers to minimize the mess.

Taped up fingers.  I did one hand at a time.

Please excuse my acetone soaked fingers!

                                   

This is after I moisturized.  

I hope to get better at this technique and post more of this type of manicure.  I hope everyone has a great day!!  

Amy

Hidden Shimmer......

I picked up this polish from Target as it was so pretty in the bottle.  It is Sonia Kashuk Fairy Princess.  It is a minty sort of green with a blue micro shimmer...or at least you can see the micro shimmer in the bottle.  I was disappointed with this as I can't see the shimmer at all when it's on my nails. I used two coats.  My pictures aren't the best for this and I am still learning in that regard.  I tried to capture the shimmer in the pictures of the bottle but it was just did not transfer to the nail.

Can you see that beautiful blue micro shimmer?

Not on the nails you can't! Maybe I'll try this again and see if I apply three coats if it would make a difference.  

Hope everybody's week is going well so far!  

Amy

Bright Accent Nail Mani

Today I did mani with an accent nail.  I used Julep Heather which was from the Julep April "It Girl" box that I tried out for a penny.  I then used Essie Bazooka from the Poppy-Razzi collection on my ring finger as an accent nail.  It is a neon orange which is on trend for this summer.  I think this color would look great on the toes!

Poor clean up on my index finger and also it looks like there is some sort of dent.  

Have a great day everyone!

 

Nail of the Day with Sticks and Stones!

Here is a quick post with my nail of the day. I am doing this from my phone so I hope it turns out. I took pictures with my camera and I could not get this color to even get close to being accurate. I'm sure it didn't help that I didn't have natural light. So these pictures were actually taken with my phone since the color is closer to being true. This is Julep Helena which is a bright fuchsia and is a bit more brighter than I could capture in the photos.  Topped with Cover Bands Sticks and Stones.

I Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

Amy

Newspaper Nails

Welcome to my blog!  I have been debating for quite some time about doing this.  I don't consider myself the best at painting my nails but I have come a long way and I love nail polish!  For this manicure, I used China Glaze Dance Baby from the Electropop collection and newspaper.  I went through my pile of newspapers and cut out QR codes.  I got the inspiration from this video.  This was a little messy as I ended up with newspaper print all over my hands.  I did my best to clean it up.  It was harder than I thought to get all the print on the nail but this was my first time trying this out.   Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for taking a look!  

This is was a QR code looks like.  Sometimes they can be smaller or bigger.

After painting a coat of Dance Baby and letting it dry completely, I dipped my individual fingers in rubbing alcohol and immediately applied one of the QR code cut outs and applied pressure for a about 10 seconds.

This was my right hand which I think turned out better than my left (which is odd as I am right handed).

My left hand.  Kind of sloppy but maybe its due to my starting on this hand?  Also you can see the black ink around my cuticles.  My ring finger turned out pretty decent though! 

A close up of my thumb.  

Let me know what you think!  I am new to this whole blogging business but I figured I got to start somewhere!