peach nectar

how about another franken? good, i'm glad you like that idea.

3 coats peach nectar franken

i'm not sure what spurred the idea for a peach jelly polish with purple and gold glitter. but who cares, cause it's awesome! the polishes i used are sally hansen xtreme wear coral reef, milani jewel fx lavender, and sinful pinky glitter, which is one of my favorite iridescent glitter top coats!

i really love frankening glitter jelly polishes. they seriously couldn't be easier. the only problem with them is that i tend to get shrinkage around my cuticles when i apply top coat (see my index finger in the above pics). isn't that weird? it only happens with jelly frankens, not jellies made by an actual company. hmmm. . . . but that's ok, because i still love how delicate and twinkly it is. i call this a frankening success :).

white sand beaches

i *stole* another manicure today. except i don't think it's called stealing if you give credit where it's due, right? like in a paper when you cite a source. so my source for today's mani is from alexis leigh's blog. it was one of those moments where you love someone's mani so much that your eyes bug out of your head and you instantly want to copy it. and i had all of the exact polishes she used, so it was a no-brainer. what is the internet for if not for inspiration? (but not stealing.)

 1 coat sinful snow me white

sinful mint apple and nyc water street blue gradient

1 coat sally hansen hidden treasure

in typical polish cart fashion, the original looks much better than my version :S. ah well. i still loved it! yes, there's a lot going on in this mani, but i loved all of it. gradient! green! blue! flakies! ocean-inspired! what's not to love?

the best thing about this mani is that anyone can afford these polishes. this is just further proof that you do not need to spend a lot of money to come up with something amazing. too bad the something amazing wasn't my original idea :P.

sunday stamping: tone on tone

i'm so excited to be posting in the adventures in stamping facebook group again. it's been a while! the first time i participated was the day before my baby was born! needless to say, i've been a bit busy since then. but i'm really glad to be back today!

base color: 1 coat sally hansen xtreme wear lacey lilac

purple stamping: l.a. colors color craze nuclear energy

image plate: cheeky xl b plate (4th row, 2nd image)

the l.a. colors polish wasn't the best for stamping, but it worked. i actually liked the subtle effect. i really like the stamp, too. it looks very 60s mod to me.

nothing exciting to say. . . . except that i like this. i don't love it, but i like it a lot :).

polish purchases: august edition

yes, i somehow still managed to buy a bunch of polish this month, even though i had a baby. i'm both proud and ashamed of myself at the same time. to be fair, i bought all but one item before the baby was born, so there's that.

orly preamp, sally hansen xtreme wear pink-grape fruit, pure ice never satisfied, pure ice over you

beautiful scratchers plate h20

pure ice never satisfied and over you ($2.00 each)- i'm not sure if these are from a limited-edition pure ice collection or not (it's so hard to tell with pure ice), but they were sparkly and $2, so i had to have it! enough said.

sally hansen xtreme wear pink-grape fruit ($2.49)- uhhh, not sure why there's a hyphen in pink-grape fruit. actually, the whole name just confuses me. why not just pink grapefruit? oh well, it's still a pretty polish. this is the only one i bought post-baby. i ran to target to pick up nursing bras and diapers (glamorous, i know), and as a consolation prize for the loss of my youth and freedom, i snatched up this polish near the check-out. it helped. a little.

orly preamp ($6.95)- i've been eying this polish for a while, but never bit the bullet until this month. just like pink-grape fruit, it contains gorgeous pink shimmer, which is the only reason i bought it. i'm really not a pink person by any stretch of the imagination, but this shimmer lured me in. we'll see how i feel about it when i actually wear it.

beautiful scratchers plate h20 ($7)- you know how i've been obsessing over the gold seashell nail jewelry from nail swag? well, i haven't been able to find them anywhere, so i had the genius idea to use a shell stamp instead. smart, right? instead of expensive nail jewelry that will probably fall off and be lost forever, why not use a reusable stamp that can be done in a million different colors? i scoured the internet and finally found what i wanted at a site called beautiful scratchers. they have a lot of fauxnad and other knock-off plates, as well as plates i've never seen before (like plate h20). plus, they have free shipping!

GRAND TOTAL FOR AUGUST: $20.44

amazing that i managed to spend this much and have my first child in the same month, huh? i must be nuts.

the seaweed is always greener

well guys, this is by far my craziest manicure to date. i felt inspired to do some wacko mermaid nail art, and thought i might not get many more chances before baby gets here. i have this hunch that she's coming really soon, like any day now!

base color for all fingers: 1 coat sally hansen xtreme wear mint sorbet

pinky:

1 coat sinful green ocean

1 coat urban outfitters unicorn

love & beauty turquoise at base

ring finger:

2 coats cq gem green

donna michelle loose glitter (from dollar tree)

revlon gold coin for seashell

middle finger:

1 coat fing'rs heart 2 art in mint condition

nicole by opi a million sparkles at base

revlon gold coin for coral

index finger:

1 coat sea glass franken

blue stamping: maybelline color show metallics blue blowout

image plate: cheeky xl b plate (4th row, image on the R) 

 

this crazy look was brought about by 2 different elements- the first is the eclectic nail art from nail swag, particularly this manicure. she does so many mermaid-inspired looks, and this is another one of my favorites. i'm seriously dying over the gold seashell nail jewelry. apparently they're from hex nail jewelry, but all the seashells are gone :(. the seahorses and starfish are cute too, but i desperately neeeed a gold seashell lol.

the other (super random) inspiration for these nails is a free game i started playing on my ipod. it's called mermaid resort, and i'm more or less addicted.

it's like the sims, but for mermaids. kind of. the little mermaids and under-the-sea resort buildings are so adorable. i just had to do under-the-sea nails for myself. my index finger is abstract bubbles, my middle finger is coral growing out of the bottom of the ocean, my ring finger is supposed to be a little golden seashell (since i don't have any jewelry to stick on there), and i'm not sure what my pinky is. just ocean-colored glitter, i guess. here are all the millions of polishes i used for this look-

sally hansen xtreme wear mint sorbet, cq gem green, donna michelle glitter, sinful green ocean, love & beauty turquoise

urban outfitters unicorn, sea glass franken, fing'rs heart 2 art in mint condition, nicole by opi a million sparkles, maybelline color show metallics blue blowout, revlon gold coin

phew, that was exhausting. so many polishes! i probably won't do be able to spend this ridiculous amount of time on a mani for a while, but it was definitely fun. i have a million other mermaid-inspired manicures swimming around in my head (see what i did there? swimming? :P). maybe i should plan a mermaid manicure week or something. would anyone be interested in joining me? :)

glistening pacific

a manicure doesn't have to be complicated to be drool-worthy. sometimes you just need a brilliant layering idea, like this one-

1 coat sally hansen xtreme wear pacific blue + 1 coat l.a. colors color craze glistening purple

holy shmonkey, i really like this! when i put the bottles of polish next to each other, i wasn't sure they would go together, but they surprisingly do. would you believe this is my first time breaking out my bottle of glistening purple (the glittery topper)? i should've used it much sooner!

i believe i found glistening purple at dollar tree a couple of years back, but you can also find it at cherry culture (on sale for $1.50!). since we're on the topic of sales, all sally hansen polishes (like my pacific blue base color) are going for 40% off this week at rite aid! that's a great deal. get yourself to a rite aid! i'm gonna get myself to bed, though. happy shopping!

save the silver stamping

well, i tried to redeem the world's dullest silver foil by adding some cool stamping on top. i'm not sure it made up for all of silvivor's deficiencies, though. . . .

 base color: 2 coats wet 'n wild fastdry silvivor

purple stamping: sally hansen diamond strength save the date

image plate: pueen 49 (R image)

oh, did i forget to mention that this is my first time using my new pueen plates?? whoops. . . . my lovely husband bought them for me for my birthday in may, even though he hates the smell of nail polish and always says "hmmmph" when i ask him how my nails look. thanks, honey :). this new set of plates from pueen is amazing. i wish i were talented enough to photograph all of them for you, but alas, i am not. so click over here to colores de carol's blog to see a detailed picture of each. you might just end up buying them :).

overall, i really like the stamping image, but can't stand the base color. oh well, i have another pueen stamping manicure planned for next week! i promise it will be more aesthetically-pleasing :).

jasmine inspired

i'm sure you've all seen pictures of the princess jasmine compact mirror by sephora. sooo pretty. but unfortunately, i wasn't able to get in on that one before they sold out. so instead, i thought i'd use the compact as color inspiration for my nailz~.

 base color: 2 coats sally hansen xtreme wear golden-i

magenta dots: julie g peep toe pumps

purple dots: l.a. colors color craze nuclear energy

lavender dots: sally hansen xtreme wear lacey lilac

lest you think i'm a creative genius (because i'm not), i stole this design from the polish you pretty blog. such a great design concept! i love discovering new ways to use dotting in a manicure. pretty darn foolproof :P.

well, i still don't have the beautiful princess jasmine compact, but this manicure is a pretty nice consolation prize. i really love the way it turned out. plus, i think purple and gold is always a winning combination :).

golden-i

ohmygosh, i've never been so happy to write a post before. you may (or may not) have noticed, but i haven't been able to post in the past few days because my account and password got changed. . . . i was so frustrated. but today, finally, i have access again! woo~! and now i have a lot of manicures to catch you up on. . . .

2 coats sally hansen xtreme wear golden-i

finally, a bright, shiny gold foil that looks good on my skin tone (my last attempt, revlon gold coin, looks gross and green on me). very flashy and very pretty :).

the only thing i don't like about this polish is that it's not good for stamping, since it's sorta sheer. and it kind of takes a long time to dry (weird, right? most foils dry super fast. . . ). but it's worth it for the shininess factor!

POLISH DAYS: to boldly go



i audibly squealed when i read the theme for this month's polish days- a nod to star trek?? i'm so in :P. i don't know what has happened to me, but i used to be the girliest, prissiest person ever. i hated sci-fi. and then. . . . i married a nerd :). he's made me watch twin peaks, battlestar gallactica, and most recently, the original star trek series. i guess he's successfully converted me, because now i love star trek lol. it's so campy, hilarious, and weirdly addictive. how's that for compromise in marriage? :)

 green: 2 coats sinful happy ending

blue: 1 coat sally hansen xtreme wear pacific blue

yellow: 2 coats china glaze kalahari kiss

red: 1 coat wet 'n wild wild shine red red

gold: 1 coat revlon gold coin

black: fine-tipped permanent marker

this nail-polisher decided to go where she's never been before and make nails stickers! apparently, i'm terrible at free-handing on my actual nail, but i did surprisingly better on a flat surface trying to make stickers. i used this tutorial to paint gold metallic blobs on a ziploc bag, then used a fine-tipped black permanent marker to draw on star trek emblems. i had to make a zillion to end up with a handful of decent ones lol.

 

want me to prove that i'm a fully-converted nerd now? my husband and i went out to see the new star trek movie a couple of weeks ago, and this is what i wore:



it's hard to tell from the picture, but i was wearing crazy winged-out eyeliner and a braided updo like they used to do in the wonderful original series from the 60s. too much fun :).

i really loved my star trek nails, but unfortunately, they were not build for longevity. . . . even though the marker i used said it was "permanent", my top coat kept smudging it, so i decided to not seal the stickers with top coat, which meant that they kept peeling and falling off, until they finally disappeared :S. so much work for like 12 hours of wear lol. oh, well, it was fun while it lasted!