clouds

this manicure was from a couple of weeks ago. . . . sorry! but maybe it's still worth sharing?

base color: 2 coats revlon cloud

darker blue stamping: petites periwinkle

silver dots: wet 'n wild fastdry silvivor

image plate: pueen 32

so. . . . petites periwinkle wasn't the best for stamping. it got a little smudgy in places. but i guess it worked. sorry i only have one picture, but this was the only one that didn't turn out horrible, 

i really like this stamp from pueen. it makes cloud nails super easy for those of us who suck at freehanded anything :P. next time i use it though, i'll choose a polish that stamps a lot more neatly.

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? :)

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 :).

silvivor

boy am i tired. every night this week (or shall i say morning), i wake up at 3:30 am to go to the bathroom, then can't fall back asleep until after 5. . . . why?? i thought i had at least a couple of weeks before the sleep deprivation started. sigh. let me try to keep myself awake with something shiny.

2 coats wet 'n wild fastdry silvivor

well, this is the only silver foil i own. and it's named silvivor. . . . stupid, stupid name. even if i choose to ignore the stupid name, this polish doesn't have much going for it. this is the least shiny foil i've ever seen. seriously, it looks almost matte in real life (the last pic shows the dullness the best). plus it was a bit brush-strokey, and very glue-like in application. silvivor does not have a fan in me.

let me at least leave you with a couple positive thoughts on this polish. well, it's cheap ($1.99), so there's that. also, it mixes well in frankens. any kind of silver foil, when mixed in with another base color, adds tiny silver shimmer to a plain creme. i've used this polish a lot for frankening (which is why i bought it in the first place), so i guess it adequately served its function. that's about all i can say. now i'm headed off to bed and seriously hope that i don't wake up at 3:30. . . . again.

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: 7 deadly sins

there are lots of the 7 deadly sins that i struggle with- sloth, greed, and most recently gluttony lol. being pregnant makes me hungry all the time. and extra lazy too :P. but the major one in my life is definitely envy. i'm jealous of beautiful people, talented people, people who look like they have their lives together, etc. good thing i have a polish named green with envy for this particular polish days :P.

 base color: orly green with envy

silver stamping: sinful supernova

image plate: mash 44

isn't it funny that i used a sinful polish to stamp with? get it- 7 deadly sins?? ha, i amuse myself. in the bottle, supernova looks like a rose-gold/champagne foil, but over teal, it pulled silver, which was what i was hoping for. 

to see why i used this chain image, keep reading after the jump.

polish purchases: march edition

i went a liiiittle over last month :S. but i got some stinkin' awesome polishes!

hard candy gummy green, hard candy peach pop, hard candy crush on raisin

china glaze hello, gorgeous, china glaze united, milani digital, milani cyberspace

hard candy gummy green ($4.00)- when the new hard candy polishes came out, i was most excited about this one. a pretty mint green that reminds me of ice cream? absolutely yes.

hard candy peach pop ($4.00)- orange isn't usually my thing, but this one spoke to me. it looked so much like velveeta and rotelle that i had to buy it. . . . lol.

hard candy crush on raisin ($4.00)- this is a really cool, complex color. sort of bronze-y, sort of pink, sort of pewter, but definitely glinty and sparkly. glad i picked this one up.

china glaze hello gorgeous! ($4.67)- cherry culture was running a 20% off sale not too long ago, and i jumped on the chance to snag a few polishes i'd been eyeing. this pink and holographic glitter was one of them. all china glazes were on sale for $3.99, plus 20% off, plus shipping. so each of my 4 polishes from cherry culture averaged about $4.67. not bad, not bad.

china glaze united ($4.67)- this is another pick from the same "united in purpose" collection for breast cancer. they look pretty similar in the bottle, but united is darker and more coppery. i couldn't decide which one i wanted more, so i just bought both!

milani digital ($4.67)- wow, this pink one looks a lot like my new china glazes. . . . and hard candy crush on raisin too. oops! i guess i have a mauve pink thing going right now.

milani cyberspace ($4.68)- as you probably know, you can't find the milani holos in cvs stores anymore :(. i'm very sad about this, because i love these holos. so the cherry culture sale seemed like a good time to get the remaining 2 from the collection that i didn't have yet. now i have all of the milani holos- silver, gold, purple, green, blue, and pink! i'm thinking i want to try a holo gradient mani sometime soon. . . . hmmmm.

GRAND TOTAL FOR MARCH: $30.71

yes, i went over my budget, but i really needed the new hard candy polishes lol. not really, but i like them a whole lot. there are a few more that look interesting, so i might pick up more this month!

blueberry moon candy

i went a little crazy with this mani. . . . you can tell i really missed painting my nails lol. here's what happened when i added silver holographic shredded pieces over a blurple/periwinkle duochrome foil. is that crazy enough for you??

2 coats revlon not so blueberry + 1 coat revlon moon candy milky way

i'm not sure about this. . . . too much?? to me it looks very. . . . lunar. maybe the name of the revlon top coat influenced me (moon candy). it was definitely twinkly and fun for a couple days, although i have to say that the base color (revlon not so blueberry) did not wear well on me. lots of tip wear after just one day :S. boo.

you can tell i've had not so blueberry for a while lol. more than half of the letters are gone! oh, well.

not so blueberry

who knows how long i've had this polish in my untried pile. . . .? definitely over a year, i think. which is a shame, because it's really pretty!

2 coats revlon not so blueberry

not so blueberry is a blurple/periwinkle duochrome foil (i think. . . . i'm so bad at describing colors and finishes :S). this is supposed to be scented like blueberries, but i definitely don't smell blueberries. it smells like. . . . something cloying i can't put my finger on. but then again, i'm pregnant and my nose is working overtime right now.

other than the smell, i quite liked this. very shiny and fun. that's all.

christmas glitterbomb

i wasn't feeling the red and green thing this christmas, so i chose gold and glitter instead.

1 coat revlon gold coin + 1 coat ac nail enamel d 23 + 1 coat pure ice the family jewels

ac nail enamel d 23 is a polish i got from the japanese 100 yen store that (i think) is a dupe for china glaze techno. and the family jewels is a polish i just picked up recently. it has gold glitter and gold holographic diamond glitter in a clear base. it's pretty dense on its own, but it was a little hard to fish the diamond glitter out. but still, this was lots of fun to look at :).

even though i loved this manicure, it was a royal pain to remove. i'm really missing my normal acetone remover these days :S. regular just isn't the same. . . . ah well, it's all worth it, right?