polish purchases: september edition

well hi. i'm still here, i promise! i've been pretty busy these days- mostly baking for a couple of family birthdays and a friend's baby shower. wanna see what i made?

close to 100 baby shower macarons- cheesecake, white chocolate vanilla, and strawberry cheesecake!

a caramel cheesecake macaron cake for my mom- in her favorite color!

fun, right? aside from all the baking, i also managed to buy a few polishes-

l.a. colors enchanting, la splash embellished, sparkling torpedo, and tailscales

maybelline color show vintage leather lasting lilac and antique teal, hard candy emerald's eve

maybelline color show vintage leather lasting lilac and antique teal ($2.97 each)- i've been looking for this purple one ever since i saw swatches at nouveau cheap. it's a gorgeous red-toned purple with clear flakies! so unique. when i saw it at target, i caved and bought the teal one too. just because :P.

hard candy emerald's eve ($4)- so this is a new glitter from hand candy and i had to have it. i'm such a sucker for holographic gold glitter, and i can't wait to try this over mint green!

l.a. colors enchanting ($4.18)- this has been a long-time lemming of mine. it's supposed to be a dupe of orly fantasea, which is a beautiful purple/red/gold duochrome. when everything at cherry culture was 20% off, i knew it was finally time to snap it up.

la splash embellished, sparkling torpedo, and tailscales ($4.18 each)- la splash is a brand that i've really liked so far (i only have 1 polish- golden seahorse), and was curious about their other glitters. after a quick google images search, i settled on three amazing ones i needed. they all three contain holo glitter, and i can't wait to wear them! plus, i mean, the bottles. i love the shape and the gold cap! so cute.

GRAND TOTAL FOR SEPTEMBER: $26.66

i'm quite pleased with everything i bought this month. no regrets here. sorry i haven't been very regular with postings, but i now have a bunch of saved manicures to show you. to be posted soon!

sunday stamping: plate ending with 8

i need ideas to get some creativity flowing these days, so i decided to join the adventures in stamping facebook group. i'm very excited about contributing my manicures :). this first one was really fun, and made me use a plate i had overlooked before!

base color: nyc skin tight denim creme

white stamping: jordana white

green dots: la splash golden seahorse

blue dots: maybelline color show metallics blue blowout

purple dots: wet 'n wild color icon it's all in the cut

silver holo dots: layla mercury twilight 

image plate: mash 48

so, for this look, i first stamped the dotted image in white, then went crazy with dots. . . . good thing i just bought those new dotting tools, huh? i probably should've stopped before i added the silver holo dots. i'm thinking it looked better beforehand :S. actually, in real life, the holo looks really glinty and cool, it was just hard to photograph. and it's super cloudy today, so i couldn't get more than this one shot to show up well at all. oh well, i'm happy with it.

so, what do we think about my crazy blinged-out nails? i quite like them. in person, my nails look like they're wearing jewelry :).

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 :).

sand storm

i know what you're thinking- geez, woman, how many posts can you squeeze out of one manicure?? this is the last one, i promise :).

 base color: 2 coats china glaze kalahari kiss

glitter: 1 coat nina ultra pro holographic topcoat

gold stamping: maybelline color show metallics bold gold

image plate: nailz craze nc02

i almost didn't do any stamping over this manicure because i thought it would be way too crazy. but in real life, it was really subtle and classy-looking! not to mention just plain cool :). this turned out to be one of my favorite manis ever!

i've said it before, but i'm still so glad that i bought my nailz craze plate! want to know a ridiculous-but-true story about my pregnancy brain? after i bought my plate and it finally arrived in the mail, i couldn't find it anywhere! i had just finished straightening up my living room and thought that i'd just put it somewhere random. . . . guess where i finally found it? in the trash can. no kidding. i had to dig through old coffee grounds and chicken fat to get that thing lol. how's that for dedication to nail art?? i'm pretty sure it was worth it though :P.

purple prism

here's my favorite creation from my recent franken mania. i present to you purple prism, as suggested by the lovely karen from frazzle and aniploish :).

3 coats purple prism franken

for months, i've been lusting after purple jelly polishes with purple and holo glitter, like candeo colors orchid, lacquerlicious strawberry cosmo, and elixir lacquer with a k. but most indie polishes are a bit too expensive for me, especially when i only wear a polish once or twice :(. sad, but true. so i had the genius idea- why don't i try to make one myself with polishes i already own?? jelly polishes with glitter are pretty much the easiest frankens to make (in my opinion). so this is what i came up with, after lots of pouring, mixing, shaking, and testing-

i used a bazillion different polishes to get my final result. here are all the glitters-

born pretty store diamond nail art glequins #1, wet 'n wild wild shine kaleidoscope, l.a. colors color craze glitter bomb and glistening purple, maybelline color show sequins rose bling

and here are all the cremes i used to get the perfect purple shade-

l.a. colors color craze nuclear energy, julie g peep toe pumps, sinful dream on

whew, that was quite a list of polishes. but they combined into exactly what i wanted, which makes me happy. and i didn't have to drop $10 or more plus shipping to get it! my mother would be so proud lol.

 

4th of july nails

i'm not exactly what you would call a patriot (i've spent most of my life in japan), but i felt like doing a red, white, and blue manicure this year. or maybe i just wanted another excuse to bust out the old stamping :P.

 base color: wet 'n wild wild shine french white creme

red dots: wet 'n wild wild shine red red 

navy stamping: maybelline color show metallics navy narcissist

image plate: cheeky xl b (3rd image, 2nd row)

again, not perfect, but i'm pretty happy with it. i stamped the navy part, then filled in some red dots with dotting tools. my sister said it looked very bandana, paisley-esque, which i guess couldn't be more american, right? :P.

oops, sorry about the old, crappy bottles!

today was a good day. i had some friends over and we watched a couple star wars episodes with rifftrax (love that stuff!). but the best part was the food- we at some delicious broccoli cheddar soup, sandwiches, chip dip that looked like the american flag, and of course, macarons!

they were red (and blue) velvet with cream cheese frosting :). and now they're all gone because they were too good lol. i hope you had a good day off (if you're american) and that you have something pretty on your nails! 

polish purchases: june edition

everything i bought this month was totally unplanned. . . . as in nothing was on my wish list lol. but i'm really happy for spontaneous purchases, because i love everything i bought!

maybelline color show metallics amethyst ablaze and blue blowout, fing'rs heart 2 art in mint condition

nabi hologram nail lacquer in purple, sky blue, and green

born pretty store plate m66 ($0.99)- can you believe this plate was just 99 cents?? i really love the cherry blossoms and the bamboo plant, and can't wait to do a japanese mani! this plate had my name written all over it :).

born pretty store plates qa10, qa 50, and qa59 ($1.99)- these plates were also on sale, so i went a little bit crazy. i'm geeking out over the middle swirly image in qa10, the adorable mirrors in qa50, and the henna-inspired patterns in qa59. my head is spinning with all the new mani possibilities!

fing'rs heart 2 art in mint condition ($1.68)- i found this just a couple days ago at walmart and snatched it up immediately. a deborah lippmann dupe inspired by mermaids for less than $2?? there's just no question. this was the only fing'rs polish in the display that caught my eye, but i might have to go back and look for more. . . .

maybelline color show metallics amethyst ablaze and blue blowout ($2.09 each)- these were both on sale during the cvs clearance last month, and i thought i'd give them a try for stamping, since i've had such good results with bold gold and navy narcissist. i'm excited to try them out!

nabi hologram nail lacquer purple, sky blue, and green ($12.95 for 3)- you guys, have you seen swatches of the new nabi holos?? check these out on the holo queen and tell me you're not drooling. i got mine from a seller on ebay with free shipping, which i thought was a pretty good deal. but you can also get them on amazon for $4.10 each (+ $1.35 shipping). my polishes are still in the mail, but i can't wait to see them in person!

GRAND TOTAL FOR JUNE: $25.77

so i barely surpassed my $25 budget, but i'm not gonna worry about a mere 77 cents :P. especially since for $25, i got 4 awesome stamping plates, 3 gorgeous holos, 2 metallic polishes for stamping, and 1 dupe for an $18 polish. not bad, right??

peacock stamping

you guys, i have never struggled so much with a stamping image before. this manicure gave me so much grief and took so much time, i almost gave up. no matter what i did, each stamp turned out smudgy and blurry. but you know when you have a particular manicure in your head, and you have to conquer it?? no other version would do. so i redid each nail about 5 times until it looked halfway decent (but still not as clear as i wanted).

 base color: sinful mint apple

navy stamping: maybelline metallics navy narcissist

gold dots: layla coral glam

image plate: cheeky xl b (top right image)

as you can see, there are still some smudgy spots in this mani. but seriously, all of my other attempts looked like crap. i don't know if it was the image itself, or the polish i used for stamping, but something was definitely awry. oh, well. i surprisingly still ended up getting lots of compliments on this mani.

i was inspired by this color combo and this use of holo dots. i loooved using coral glam again for dots- it gave it some subtle flash of holo~!

so just out of curiosity- does anyone else have a particular stamping combo that has given them a migraine? it's not just me, is it??

extreme floral

what goes great with extreme gold shimmer? even more gold!

base color: 2 coats l.a. girls color addict extreme

gold stamping: maybelline color show metallic bold gold

image plate: mash plate 40

this wasn't at all how i intended for this mani to turn out. . . . i meant to just stamping the swirly floral image once on each nail, but the one on my index finger came out so off-center that i had to stamp again. after that, there was no turning back and i kiiiinda went nuts with the double and triple stamping :P. but i really like how it turned out!


how is it that i've never used this beautiful flower image before?? (click here to see what it looks like on its own.) i've been so intent on buying new stamping plates these days that maybe i've overlooked some awesome unused ones. anyone want to recommend another mash plate that's a must try?