My Mid-Week Work Mani

Since I’ve seen the recent swatches of Zoya Pixie Dust floating around the blogosphere,  I have been determined to get myself a bottle of the sandy colored one called Godiva (swatches coming soon!).  I hit up the Zoya website and discovered just how many other pretty neutral shades they carry!   Normally I’m a fan of bold polishes like purple, green and blue.  But there’s something special about glancing down at a beautiful nude manicure and thinking, “mmm hmmm… I look good and I’m not even trying!” LOL

Zoya has a past collection called Touch which I never heard of til now.  It’s made up of 3 nude polishes that are full-coverage, creamy, and have a hint of sexy shimmer.  Check out the Zoya site which has a cool YouTube video about the collection.  Of the three polishes I chose Pandora which is described as a “medium pink-beige nude with blue and mauve undertones and a hint of pearly silver shimmer. An opaque, full-coverage nude that works beautifully on skin with cool tones.”   The shimmer in this polish is so subtle and gives it a sense of depth that a straight-up cream finish just wouldn’t have.  The formula was on the thick side, but very smooth and only required two coats.  I think I really like Pandora!  It was just perfect for the work-related event that I attended tonight.

What’s your favorite work polish?

Konad Cloudy Sky Nails

Hi everyone!  Here’s the cute lazy-day Sunday mani that I came up with today.  It’s been very cold here lately, but today feel more springy and the birds are all chirping outside- so I think this happy cloud design seems fitting.  My base color is Sephora by OPI Natural Environ-mint.  It’s totally blue so I don’t know why they call it ‘mint’!!  Then I stamped some clouds on using my Konad M79 plate and some white Konad Special Nail Polish.

I added some matte topcoat by MASH to finish off the look.  This MASH matte polish is so great!  I bought it because it was cheaper than most other matte toppers.  Turns out that it dries super-fast and I’m really happy with the smooth formula.  I guess my cheapness paid off with this purchase!

Hope you all have a happy end to your weekend!  I’m going to go back to watching Breaking Dawn Pt1 now.  I recorded it a month ago and I’m having a hard time deleting it because I love it so much.  So I’m watching it again to get my twilight fix.  Maybe that will make it easier for me to delete it from my DVR box later!?

Versatile Blogger and my favorite posts!

Ok, now would be a good time to let your nails dry….this is going to be a wordy one.  Well, wordier than my normal posts anyway.  I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger award and I’m going to take some time to show my gratitude and gush about all the other cool bloggers I know!  A sincere thanks to these wonderful bloggers for nominating me.  It’s so great they they enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy theirs- Short & Sweet in Texas, beyondthebasecoat, thebubblybrunette, Live, Light & Beauty, and Brijit’s Digits !

Here are the rules if you’ve been nominated:  Nominate 15 fellow bloggers that you love and who are relatively new to blogging.  Let them know that you have nominated them.   Share 7 random facts about yourself.  Thank the blogger who has nominated you.  Then add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post.

Who I nominate: Keep in mind that all these awesome bloggers are pretty new to the blogosphere!  Here’s who I nominate along with my favorite posts from each of them…

• Mouthwatering Motivation « I love this diet and nutrition blog!  Reading Sammy’s daily posts reminds me to keep on track with my healthy eating!  If you like to focus more on protein than on carbs, then you will love this protein bar recipe!

• Sockmonkey’s Kitchen « I love the name.  I love her foodie posts.  Here’s a yummy ‘Ironman’ post to remind you to eat your vitamins!  Thanks mom.

• thebeautifulcraft « Since I have a fondness for craftiness I love her cute homemade headband tutorial !  She also posts about makeup and nails- basically, anything that’s beautiful!

• Galaxy Star 7 « Wanna read some book reviews? Wanna learn some cool new nail tips?  And did you know you could print and download ‘nail doodle sheets’?  That reminds me to visit her post and print some of those sheets right now!

• escape.by.beauty « Ashley is a new nail blogger and says that this zebra stripe design was her first try at acrylic paints.  Well, look how awesome this animal print came out!

• Short & Sweet in Texas « Want some serious nail art eye-candy? Every one of Julie’s nail posts is beautiful.  Check out this beach-themed manicure she created!

• Naillion « I cannot get over these Rockabilly nails!  I freakin love them.

• Eeeek! Nail Polish! « Her long sassy fingernails will blow your mind.  Do you follow Eeeek! Nail Polish’s blog?  If not, click your way over there right now and follow her, ok?!  Do it like now.  I can wait….

• Lekker Lacquer « For someone who just started nail blogging a few months ago, Talia’s nail art looks so professional!  Check out the ‘ugly sweater’ manicure that she did for a holiday nail art challenge.  Her nails totally look like ugly sweaters! And I mean that in the nicest way possible.  LOL

• Polish or Die « I think the photos of Kelli’s nails are beautiful- maybe she should be a hand model lol.  Check out these cute sunglasses that she stamped on her nails!

Random facts about me:

• I really enjoy music and my current favorite band from the last few years is Kings of Leon!

• I’m very interested in spiritual, paranormal, and other fun stuff.  I own a few sets of tarot cards and I check my horoscope everyday (I’m a Cancer).  I’m also into psychic phenomenon which has been inspired by the weird psychic stuff that happens between my mom and I.  Palm-reading, ghost sitings, dream interpretation… I love all this kinda stuff!  I feel like there’s more to the world than what we can see with our own two eyes.

• I love cooking- my faves are soups, vegetables and big huge homemade pizzas.  I contemplated starting my blog about pizzas and recipes…. but I’m glad I chose nails instead.  Can you imagine having to cook and eat giant pizzas several times a week?  Well now that I think about it- yes…. yes I can!

• I think I might be too empathetic since I can cry at the drop of a hat!  I easily tear up several times during the course of a movie, a Dr Phil talk-show episode, or even a silly commercial.  I love to laugh, or feel sad, or feel scared or any extreme emotion really.  In life I feel like if I don’t feel anything, then what’s the point?

• I work as a college financial aid counselor that specializes technical/computer stuff and student loans.  As a result, I’m very passionate about financial literacy and student loan debt. I could go on and on about rising college costs, loan repayment, the government’s role in providing access to affordable higher education, etc…  I think I’ll stop while I’m ahead.

• Ya know those ugly plastic shoes called Crocs?  Well, I love them.  I know a lot of people think they are horribly ugly.  And they are.  But they are so comfy and I would wear them 24/7 if I could.  In fact, I wish I had a croc blanket to wrap around myself from head to toe.

• My French ancestors settled my little U.S. town (in New York State) back in the 1600’s.  I am the 11th generation in this same town!  My full name is very French-sounding but I don’t pronounce it that way normally.  I usually go with the Americanized version … but if I’m feeling fancy I’ll say it with a french accent!  Mais, oui!

Thanks for reading my blog everyone!  I’m having a blast on wordpress and I’m so happy to have met so many wonderful bloggers!

Ruffle Nail Art

I’m so excited about this nail art technique called Ruffle Nails! Every nail fanatic needs to try this- it’s easy and has lots of wow factor.  All you need to do is grab your favorite polish shades and a dotting tool (or bobby pins) to make some over-lapping rows of dots (it helps to use the largest tool you can find so the dots aren’t too small).  If you’d like to see a step-by step tutorial here’s a great one by Chalkboard Nails.  Now that I’ve discovered ruffles- I’ve got all these ideas swimming around in my head- neon ruffles, rainbow ruffles, black n white ruffles…  I want to try them all!

My first attempt came out much so better than I expected!  I casually worked on this design while sitting on the couch and I honestly didn’t try too hard.   I figured I’d end up taking it off with polish remover and then give it a real go later.  Well, I couldn’t believe how cute my test mani came out so I took some pics!  I used some of my favorite green and purple polishes here… and I think the matte topcoat really pulled it together nicely.  The variety of colors and the satin finish made my fingertips look like fimo clay! ↓

I went with a cool color combo of blue, pink and grey for my second design. ↓

One thing I like about the ruffle technique is that it’s so easy, you can even do a great job on your ‘other’ hand!  I’m right-handed so my left hand nail art usually looks good, and my right-hand comes out how should I say… non-photogenic? LOL.   Well, not with ruffles!    Try it out for yourself and let me know your results!

♥ Mood struck polish as my base (teal)

♥ Wet n wild I Need a Refresh-Mint (light green)

♥ Revlon Charming (light purple)

♥ OPI Dutch ‘Ya Just Love OPI (dark purple)

♥ Orly Gumdrop (light teal)

♥ MASH Matte Topcoat

♥ Orly Faint Of Heart as my base (grey)

♥ China Glaze First Mate (navy blue)

♥ Revlon Blue Slate (medium grey/blue)

♥ China Glaze Dance Baby (pink)

♥ Orly Kiss The Bride (light pink)

♥ Seche Vite Topcoat

Heat Activated Mood Struck Polish

Today I have a fun polish to share with you – it changes with your mood!  It’s called Mood Struck Color Changing Nail Polish and it’s heat activated to change from teal to turquoise.  I’m a sucker for cheesey products like this- mood changing, glow-in-the-dark, I love them all!  I found this bottle on ebay and also picked up two shades that change in the sunlight!

This Mood Struck polish dried to a semi-matte finish.  And it just may be one of THE fastest drying polishes in the world!!!  It started drying instantly- so you better brush it on quickly, and with as few strokes as possible!  Otherwise, it gets goopy and streaky.  I used three coats here since I needed to even out the surface- and I didn’t bother with a topcoat because I really like the satin finish.

I wanted to photograph this polish in natural light so you could see what it really looks like in it’s natural state. But it’s so darn cold here- my nail color just won’t budge when I’m outside!  It’s pretty chilly in my house too, so I didn’t get much variation in color indoors either.  But I did notice that the tips of my nails were a bit cooler and were a dark teal color.  Whereas the base of my nail is warmer from my body temperature so the polish there was more of lighter turquoise.  It almost has a slight gradient effect !

Both pictures in this post show my nails after I dipped the tips in a small bowl of hot water.  I love the cool effect!  I can’t wait to try the polish during warmer months so I can see more of  this!

My Favorite Gold

I haven’t tried this Nicole by OPI shade yet- and I figured it would be a great glitzy color for the 3 day weekend!  I just found out yesterday that I have bronchitis, and now I’m surprisingly really happy!  I have been sick for ten days, so I’m glad to finally have a diagnosis and some meds.  This shiny gold polish is perfect for me today since it matches my good mood.

This shade is called My Favorite Gold and it’s part of the Justin Bieber collection.  This gold is super shiny, glam and is really an eye-catcher.  It’s one of those polishes that really glows!  If I dare venture out of the house today I can imagine getting a lot of compliments on it.  The formula was iffy- it did dry fast, but man- did it need a lot of coats?!  Shown in my pics is 5 coats… and I could almost go for a 6th!  If I turn my hand just right I can still see some visible nail line.  Next time I’ll have to use a white or yellow base coat underneath it.  I also decided to spice up this mani a little bit with some fimo flowers.  Has anyone used these before?  The flowers seem small at first glance, but once I apply them to the nail I realize how big they really are.  They take up way more space than I planned.  I wish they were a bit daintier…. but they’re still fun to use as an embellishment once in a while.

My Favorite Gold came in a two pack along with I’m a Belieber and I noticed a funny typo on the box.  There’s a couple words printed on the packaging- fashion, art and DYI.  DYI?  What’s that?  I think they meant to say DIY!  Hehehe… I love finding random typos.

Sparklin Kiss

Valentine’s Day kinda snuck up on me this year!  My boyfriend and I were joking yesterday that we should just re-wrap a few of the Christmas gifts we gave eachother!  Tres romantique, non?  LOL!  Actually, I’m getting over a crazy cold that really knocked me for a loop…. so I haven’t spent anytime planning our v-day, present-buying, or even painting my nails.  So as a last-ditch effort I whipped together a cute mani to get me in the valentine’s mood.

I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Commander in Chic as my base color.  Then I topped it off with one coat of Maybelline Express Finish in Sparklin Kiss.  The pink hearts in this topcoat are so cute and I love the way they coordinate with the brownish base color.  It sorta reminds me of a box of chocolates!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day 2013!