mermaid manicure month part 2: ariel in abstract

today's manicure is inspired by everyone's favorite mermaid- ariel, of course. these nails are in honor of those of us who can't draw (ahem). so abstract is definitely the way to go.

index finger: 1 coat wet 'n wild wild shine red red + cheeky xl b plate stamping (6th row, 2nd from L) in revlon copper penny

middle finger: 2 coats nyc fashion safari + born pretty store plate m76 stamping in l.a. colors color craze nuclear energy

ring and pinky fingers: 1 coat l.a. colors color craze sea siren + 1 coat l.a. colors color craze treasure island

aaaand my thumb-

base: 1 coat sally hansen xtreme wear mint sorbet + sinful nail junkie gradient

gold stamping: revlon copper penny

image plate: messy mansion mm21

 the red is supposed to symbolize her hair, the purple stamping is her seashell bra, and the sparkling teal is her tail! get it?? i showed these nails to my mom, and her response was- "how old are you?" well you should know, mom, you were there on my birthday. i think my reply was, "never too old for ariel." and there's nothing more true than that, at least in my book.

and since this is mother's day, i thought i would throw in a gratuitous picture of my baby dressed as a mermaid (this was actually for halloween, so she's much much bigger now!)-

happy mermaid month, and visit again for ocean creatures nails!

polish purchases: october edition

well hello, remember me? i know it's been a while. . . . i don't really have a good excuse, except that i've been really busy with baby, and have kind of lost interest in nails for a while. *gasp.* but i think i've recovered from my temporary apathy, and i'm back to show you what i bought last month-

opi gargantuan green grape, pinkdipsybulle indian ocean franken, hard candy so so sequin, sinful gilded

sinful gilded ($1.99)- i've been searching for this beauty at many a walgreen's, and finally found it at a rite aid. soooo glad! how beautiful and shimmery is this?

hard candy so so sequin ($4.00)- i need another silver holo glitter like a need extra baby weight, but while shopping at walmart, i was seduced by the sparkle. tale as old as time.

pinkdipsybulle indian ocean franken ($6 + $2.50 s/h)- i looove this polish. it's a gorgeous cornflower blue base with tons of magical magenta shimmer. can't wait to wear this one.

opi gargantuan green grape ($8.99)- wait, didn't i already buy this one? yes i did, but it was a total fake. not even close to the real (amazing) green shade that i wanted. observe-

l: the real gargantuan green grape, r: the imposter

the first one i bought was totally toothpaste, the one on the left is green gorgeousness. the perfect color.

GRAND TOTAL FOR OCTOBER: $23.48

i got 2 big-ticket items that i've wanted for a while, and 2 glittery cheapies that make me smile. all in all, a good month.

henna tattoo

here's one of my favorite manicures, from over a month ago (sheepish face).

base color: 2 coats nyc fashion safari

brown stamping: sinful mercury rising

image plate: born pretty store plate qa59

i stinkin' love this image. it's right up there on my top 10 list (which i think i'll post about sometime soon). i always seem to have better luck with images that have thin lines instead of thick ones. somehow it just transfers better. plus i think they're more aesthetically appealing, so that's a win. i wore this manicure for a week straight, that's how much i loved it :).

another awesome manicure for cheap- the nyc polish for $1.72, the sinful for $1.99, and the plate for $1.99. i call that a victory for us cheapskates :P.

dream on

the name of this polish always makes me think of the aerosmith song and makes me want to start singing (more like screaming, actually). . . .

2 coats sinful dream on

i feel like i've had dream on for forever and a day. it's been a couple of years at least, and i've worn it 3 or 4 times (which for me, is pretty unheard of). this is definitely a neon, although it's hard to tell from the pictures. it's a little hard to work with (hey, it's a neon) and dries super matte, which i really hate, so top coat is a must. i really dig the color, but it doesn't wear well at all on me, and it stains like you wouldn't believe. look at my poor cuticles!

wear time and staining aside, it's a very fun and eye-catching color. it fit my end-of-summer mood perfectly!

sunday stamping: glitzy glam

so i'm back from my insane 4-day 1400 mile trip, and me and baby both survived! amazing. it was actually a good thing that i went, because i tackled some mothering obstacles i never thought i would. i've mastered changing a diaper in the back seat of a car, holding a baby and a diaper bag and a purse while walking in heels, nursing in a public restroom, and rocking baby to sleep with one arm while wolfing down mcdonald's with the other. basically, staying at home with a baby all day seems easy compared to traveling with one lol.

anyways, here's what i added to china glaze united to make it lovey-dovey for the wedding, and glitzy glam for the adventures in stamping facebook group-

 base color: 2 coats china glaze united + 1 coat pure ice spit fire

white stamping: sinful snow me white

image plate: pueen 41

yup, i love this combo! all that united needed was some pink holographic glitter on top! sigh, i never get sick of looking at holo glitter. and my #1 rule for a road trip is to add holographic something to your nails so at least you have something pretty to stare at for hours and hours in the car.

even though i don't love heart designs (too cutesy), i really liked this manicure. and i thought it was very appropriate for a wedding (and a road trip!).

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.

shine on me

hello, world. yes, i'm still alive (barely). the baby is now 3 weeks old, and i'm finally starting to feel like myself again. we're settling into a sort of routine, and i'm finding time to paint my nails again. i even managed to whip out some stamping this week! but first, here's the glittery polish i layered over the creme from my last post (because you know i couldn't just leave a creme naked).

1 coat sinful truth or dare + 1 coat sinful shine on me

this. . . . didn't end up being a favorite look of mine. the pink diamond-shaped glitter is very pretty (and holo!), but i think the tiny green and blue glitter was too clashy with my base color. also, this would've been a lot prettier had i added top coat over the glitter. . . . oops. but hey, i'm doing good to even slap 2 layers on these days, with a tiny baby in the house!

well, i can't think of much else to say tonight. except that i'll definitely be more present on this blog from now on. expect better manicures coming up!

truth or dare

i finally had a spare hour while baby was sleeping to paint my nails. it seriously did wonders for my mood, even though it was just a plain, boring creme.

1 coat sinful truth or dare

most color-accurate

this was part of some limited-edition collection from sinful colors (they only have a million a year), but i can't remember what it was from. i don't really care, though, because it's so pretty! this is the perfect wine/plum color that i've been looking for forever! i've tried others (like nyc manhattan), that ended up being waaaay too dark on me, and some that pulled too raspberry (like julie g peep toe pumps). but this one is just perfect in one super-shiny coat!

the only downside about this polish is that it stains. . . . bad. but otherwise, i'm a happy customer!

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? :)

baby showers #2 and #3

it turned out that i had 2 baby showers back-to-back last week- one on saturday and one on sunday! it was one whirlwind of a weekend. i've finished writing thank-you notes for saturday's shower, and my goal for today is to get the rest done. . . . yeah, right.

base color: 2 coats nyc fuchsia glamour over 1 coat sinful easy going

gold stamping: maybelline color show metallics bold gold

image plate: pueen 33 (top image)

i guess i'm stuck in a stamping pattern- whenever a polish has gold shimmer, i feel i just have to stamp over if with bold gold. not very innovative, but still pretty :). i thought this cherry blossom image was sweet enough for a baby shower (plus i'm partial to anything with cherry blossoms on it because of my japanese background). 

on a side note, do you notice anything weird about the picture above? look at the gold polish- it's labeled "holographic". . . . what the? i picked up a new bottle of bold gold because i already used up my old one for stamping, and this time, it has a different label. i've looked at this new one from every angle, and believe me, there is no hint of holo anywhere. it's exactly the same as the bottle labeled "color show metallics." why maybelline decided to falsely relabel it, i'll never know. . . .

well, better go get cracking on those thank-you notes! enjoy your thursday :).