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!).

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.

viva las vegas

i really love gold shimmer. and neutrals. so a neutral with gold shimmer is just glorious to me. surprisingly, i prefer this $2 one to a four-times-as-expensive zoya version. here's the beautiful (but now discontinued) viva las vegas-

2 coats pure ice viva las vegas



the gold shimmer in this one really is insane. i love it. it's a shade that could be work-appropriate (for almost any job i can think of), but not boring in the slightest. i kept catching myself staring at my nails! in fact, i liked it so much that i didn't even feel the urge to stamp over it! gasp. . . .

like i said, though, viva las vegas came from a limited-edition pure ice collection that's not available any more. if this were a permanent shade, it would totally be on my list of beautiful $2 polishes. but alas, it's not (side note: i just spotted viva las vegas posted on ebay for $12.95. . . . ridiculous!). anyone know of any similar shades? does china glaze fast track come close? i know zoya makes one that looks deceptively similar in the bottle (zoya jules), but on me, it looks like total crap. who knows, it could work for you though!



purple palms

palm trees, that is, not hands. purple hands would be indicative of some kind of medical problem, i'm guessing.

base color: 1 coat sally hansen xtreme wear lacey lilac + 2 coats lilacquer bakeneko

silver stamping: pure ice silver mercedes

image plate: mash 39

i really like this image! and silver mercedes was perfect for stamping. soo glad i picked this one up! looking back, though, maybe i should've used a copper polish for stamping instead of silver. i don't know, maybe it would've gone better with the warm shimmer of bakeneko. . . ? but oh well, too late for that!

hope you enjoyed my mismatched stamping!

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?

heart breaker on a trip

i have a winning combo to show you today. would you like to see a lovely blurple with magical green shimmer on top?

1 coat pure ice heartbreaker over 2 coats wet 'n wild megalast on a trip

this is how pronounced the green shimmer looks like in real life~!

trust me guys, this looks even more magical in real life. you can see the green shimmer almost all the time, except in extra dim lighting. heart breaker is a gorgeous layering polish, and if you don't own it already, you need it. for $2, it's a no-brainer. plus on a trip is also an amazing polish, so you could have a seriously stunning manicure for $4 total. don't you just love drugstores?

polish purchases: november edition

sorry this is delayed. . . . i've been super busy these days. so without further delay, here are all the polishes i bought last month!

urban outfitters mystic, urban outfitters unicorn, pure ice the family jewels, pure ice viva las vegas, love & beauty green

sinful dazzle, amuse starry purple, amuse midnight star, sinful ice dream

love & beauty green ($0.99)- what a creative name for a polish. . . . i've been wanting this one (well, nyc enchanted forest, which is the exact same) for a long time, so when i spotted it at forever 21, i immediately bought it. i didn't even know it was on sale for 99 cents! score.

amuse starry purple ($1.25)- i stumbled across a $1 store on the way back from missouri, and everything in it was $1.25 (wtf?). i need more chunky glitter topcoats like i need more coffee spills in my car (which is not at all), but i couldn't resist!

amuse midnight star ($1.25)- has anyone heard of this brand before?? the glitters sure are pretty, but it definitely doesn't smell or feel 3-free. ah, well.

sinful dazzle ($1.99)- i found this magenta glass fleck/shimmer in the sinful holiday display. sooo pretty.

sinful ice dream ($1.99)- it looks just like snow! which makes me very excited for winter weather, except that it's been in the 70s here all week (again, wtf??).

pure ice viva las vegas ($2.00)- this polish was part of the new limited-edition shades from pure ice at walmart. i had to snatch this up because i have yet to add a flattering nude with gold shimmer to my collection. zoya jules looks terrible on me, and i wanted both china glaze fast track and essence irreplaceable, but never bought them. so this $2 solution was perfect!

pure ice the family jewels ($2.00)- this is my first polish with diamond-shaped glitter! so excited :)

urban outfitters mystic ($4.00)- so, i have this weird tradition of going out to sushi and then to urban outfitters with my cousins every black friday. i told you it was weird. this year is the first year i bought polish! mystic looks like an exact dupe for deborah lippmann ray of light, and my resolve was powerless in its wake.

urban outfitters unicorn ($4.00)- i pretty much just bought this one because urban outfitters had a 2 for $8 sale. i'm pretty sure this is china glaze snowglobe in different packaging. but still pretty.

GRAND TOTAL FOR NOVEMBER: $19.47

yay, i stayed under my $25 budget! don't expect that to happen again :P. my polish wishlist is growing exponentially these days.

31DC2012 DAY 31: recreate a manicure you love

i'm doooone~! it's about time, huh? :) soo happy.

2 coats pure ice super star + 1 coat china glaze white cap + 1 coat sally girl later (gold glitter)

when i was first getting into the world of nail polish blogs (about a year and a half ago), but stumbled across this manicure from fashion polish. i'm pretty sure my jaw fell open (genie from aladdin style) and vowed to try it someday. apparently that day is today. go figure, i still like it!

my brother said my nails look like dragon eggs lol. i don't know what dragon eggs look like, but i like the description! :)

i really like how this is mostly opaque, but definitely not a stark white. that's because i used pure ice super star (a white jelly) for the base color. super star is pretty much the most inappropriately-named polish ever, because what super star do you know of who wears a demure white jelly on her fingernails? no one, that's who. something named "super star" should contain tons of holographic glitter and be some kind of crazy-bright color. complaining over.

dark kiss

it's been a while since i showed off one of my frankens, so i decided now is the time. although today's is not very impressive- just a dark blue creme.

1 coat dark kiss franken

the idea is simple- i wanted a navy blue creme, but couldn't find any at the drugstore (this was over a year ago). so i bought pure ice french kiss, which is a bright cobalt blue, then added a bunch of black until i was happy with the color. i think i used the sinful black one (whatever it's called), or possibly wet 'n wild black creme. i really don't think it matters.

since i made french kiss darker, i decided to name it "dark kiss", which sounds quite ominous, don't you think? sounds like it could be the name of a twilight movie*. ha.

*side note: did you know that there are rifftrax for the twilight movies?? amazing!

31DC2012 DAY 20: water marble

would you be surprised if i told you this is my very first time trying a water marble? i've been petrified to try it after watching my sister wrestle with toothpicks, goopy water, and polish all over her fingers while attempting it. but there was really no way to cheat on this day of the challenge. so i watched this video by my simple little pleasures and here's the result-

i was pleasantly surprised by how not awful it is (side note: i feel like i say that a lot about like in general. i always expect the worst possible scenario to play out, and then when it doesn't, i'm oddly surprised and relieved. hmmm. . . .  i think that's called pessimism. maybe i should work on that).

i started with a quick 1-layer base coat of sally hansen xtreme wear mint sorbet then marbled with sinful snow me white, wet 'n wild fastdry teal of fortune (the teal shimmery one), and pure ice oh baby! so that i could see the mint green underneath.

wet 'n wild fastdry teal of fortune, sally hansen xtreme wear mint sorbet, sinful snow me white, pure ice oh baby!

i definitely need some practice, but i still like it! i love the teal and mint green combo too. i can't believe i waited this long to try it. sooo glad i'm doing this (extremely long and drawn out) 30 day challenge!

polish purchases: september edition

julie g 9 to 5, color mates spring fling, sinful supernova

nail pattern boldness flipping out hard, opi sit under the apple tree, pure ice heartbreaker (good version!)

with flash to show the shimmer~!

color mates spring fling ($1)- i saw this brand (color mates) at dollar tree the other day, and had never heard of them before. they had a large variety of shades, and they were (duh) $1, so i decided to try one. haven't tried spring fling yet, but i'll keep you posted when i do!

pure ice heartbreaker ($1.99)- if you haven't read about this online, heartbreaker is a gorgeous green shimmer layering polish that you can get for super cheap at walmart. however, it's been reformulated into a dull, boring turquoise shimmer. boo. while "grocery" shopping the other day, i found several of the old (amazing) version still on the shelves, so i had to snatch them up! my 1st bottle was running dangerously low. . . .

sinful supernova ($1.99)- i found this in the new sinful colors hot flash metallics display at walgreens. it's a gorgeous champagne/rose gold foil that's opaque enough for stamping! if you see one, i suggest you grab it!

julie g 9 to 5 ($3.99)- i'd been picking up this one every time i was in rite aid, so i finally decided to bite the bullet. it's kind of a neon pastel peach, if that makes any sense. love it!

opi sit under the apple tree ($6.80)- i think this was originally $8.50 at target, but i had a little bit of money left on a gift card, so it brought it down to exactly $6.80. this is a sheer yellowish green shimmer polish which looks killer over blues and greens. to be honest, i bought it just for layering. 

nail pattern boldness flipping out hard ($8 + $3 s/h) is definitely the most expensive polish this month. but totally worth it! i'd been wanting nail-venturous floam for months now, and discovered this very similar one on etsy! i'm loving the blue and green matte glitters. this is only the 2nd indie polish i've ever purchased! very excited :)

GRAND TOTAL FOR SEPTEMBER: ($26.77)

waaay better than last month. i only added 6 polishes to my collection, and stayed close to my $25 a month budget. since my collection has gotten so large, i'd like to be more selective about ones i buy. these days, i'd rather buy something really special than just whatever's on sale.

magenta twinkle

today i feel like goldilocks. not because i have blonde hair, but because i made a polish that's just right. wet 'n wild fast dry how i met your magenta was too pink, pure ice twinkle was too orange, so i frankened the perfect compromise!

2 coats magenta twinkle franken

i freakin love this shade! i wasn't expecting to love this so much. the gold shimmer is awesome and makes it glow. plus, anyone with $4 can make this awesome coral using these polishes:

pure ice twinkle + wet 'n wild fasty dry how i met your magenta = magenta twinkle franken

magenta twinkle is the perfect compromise of a name for the perfect compromise of a polish, don't you think?