Orly- Fowl Play

For months, every time I went to Sally's, I would pick up this color, but I always put it back. Once it finally made it home with me, I don't know why it took so long! It's a gorgeous dark purple packed full of flakies and glitter. This picture is two smooth coats of Fowl Play with one coat of HK Girl on top. 

I was going to stamp today, but after using this color, I couldn't bare to cover it up. I'm glad it finally made it's way into my collection!

A little bit of bling

I logged into my dashboard today and realized I lost a follower :( With only 36 followers, I treasure you all! I hope I can keep the rest of you coming back to read!

I found this pretty pink polish at Tuesday Morning. I had never been there before, but had heard that people have found great polish there, so I went hunting. I found a little display of Calvin Klein polishes. I've never tried or even seen them before, so I grabbed two to try. The one I used here is called Sheer Sparkle. The formula was flawless, the first picture is 2 easy coats. I love the shimmer it has.

For some added sparkle, I used Wet n Wild Fergie- Rock n' Roll to make a little glitter gradient. I picked this up at Walmart a few days ago, and I'm glad, because it needed a new home. It's packed with beautiful gray glitter and a little holo glitter as well. I loved how it looked with the pink in this look.

Sally Hansen Nail Polish Strips Wear Test

So next month my husband and I are going to Vegas to celebrate our 4th anniversary. I'm so excited! This will kind of be like the honeymoon we never got to take :) And my mom is going to watch our girls, so it's going to be great. Well, for the last few months, I've started to stress about my nails while we're there. I don't want to have to take polish and stuff with me and spend time fixing my nails when I could be laying by the pool drinking a margarita. So I decided to try the Sally Hansen Polish strips. I've heard that they were great, but never tried them myself. I did a little wear test so I could see if they would be a good option for vacation...here are my results....

They were pretty easy to apply, went on fairly smooth. The only problem I had was when I was filing off the first two (ring and pinky), I tore the corners. So it looks like they're chipped, but that was my bad. I did add one coat of HK Girl over top of them to try and lengthen their life span.

I put these on Monday night, and took this picture right before removing them on Saturday. So they lasted me 5 days solid. They probably would have been fine to go a little longer, but I was very ready for a change, and the outgrowth was starting to bug me. Overall, I was pretty impressed! I got one small chip on my right hand on day 4, and had minor tip wear as you can see in the picture. I think I found my answer for vacation!

Now to decide which design to choose....

New 31DC Day 31: Recreate someone else's mani

Finally, the last day of the challenge is here. I missed a couple days, but I made it to the end! I'm a little sad to not have a specific look to do each week, but I'm also relieved that I can go back to doing whatever I want. Challenges are a lot of pressure!

Anyway, for this day, I decided to recreate this look from Lisa at Polished Elegance. She did it for her favorite color day, along with a very helpful picture tutorial. I absolutely love argyle, and knew that I had to do it as soon as I saw hers.

I did 2 coats of SquareHue- Happy creme on all but my ring finger, where I did 2 coats of Sinful Colors- Snow Me White. Then I taped off the squares and painted Happy creme on the ring finger. Then I took a striping brush and Orly- Dazzle to do my lines. Topped it all with one coat of HK Girl.

I really love this look and want to do it again sometime, my right hand didn't look nearly as good as my left, I'm not too good with the striper yet. I hope I did this justice!

New 31DC Day 29 & 30: Inspired by a blogger/fave technique

I may be cheating ever so slightly with this one :) I'm combining days 29 & 30. One of the first blogs I started following was A Girl and Her Polish, and I'm always impressed with her amazing work. So I chose this look of hers as my inspiration. I wanted to try both double stamping, and stamping over a texture. Stamping is also my favorite nail art technique, so you're getting a two-for-one in this post since I'm already a couple days behind.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze- Bump and Grind. Aside from Crackle, this is the only textured polish I own so far. I'm still not sure I'm a fan, but I absolutely love the color of this one. My husband says it looks like Rhino Lining. I tried this just after I bought it, and every picture I took, it looked orange. So, I made myself a little homemade, makeshift light box, lit with a flashlight app on my iPhone. Pretty hi-tech right? It's made such a difference! I couldn't even believe it!

I stamped with BM-316 and Sally Hansen- Blue Away, then again with Milani- White on the Spot.

I added a coat of HK Girl to see if it would smooth out the texture a bit. It still kind of drives me crazy. It did a little, but could probably use another coat. Oh well, I think I'll just tough it out this time. Maybe I'll learn to love it?

Sparkling Garbage

I was at Sally's a few days ago and this polish caught my eye. I'm so glad that I picked it up! It's gorgeous!!

I started with one coat of Sally Hansen- Mint Sorbet. Then added 2 coats of Orly-Sparkling Garbage. I really love this combination. I think it's so pretty together.

Here's a picture in the sun too, I love how sparkly it is!

New 31DC Day 28: Inspired by your favorite color

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, I think it's been pretty obvious that my favorite color is pink :) 

I started this look with 2 coats of SquareHue- Happy creme. Then I grabbed 2 sizes of dotting tools and added some dots with SquareHue- Day glow, and Sinful Colors- Snow me White.

I was really happy with the way this one turned out!

May SquareHue Box

The Madonna Collection

This is the first box I've gotten that I absolutely love every color! How can you go wrong with 3 gorgeous pinks?!

The fist one is Happy creme. It's very Barbie pink, and I love it. And it's super, super shiny! This picture is 3 coats, no top coat.

Second color is Mother's pearl. A little darker pink with a frosted finish. Almost has a purple shimmer to it. It's so pretty. This is 2 coats, no top coat.

 Last color is Day glow. A bright, almost neon, pink with a matte finish. Well, not sure if it's considered matte...it's the rubbery kind of finish, whatever it is, it's great. It's very nearly a one coater. With a steady hand, you could probably get away with one coat. This is 2 coats, no top coat.

I went out to check the mail and when I walked in the house with this box, I said, "Guess what we got?!?" and my 3-year-old said, "Nail mail!!!" I've got her trained well :)

New 31DC Day 27: Inspired by you

I had every intention of doing my nails last night for this challenge. Then we ended up spending 3 hours at the emergency room so our 7-year-old could get 22 stitches in her forehead. Long story short, my nails are naked.

Check out what the other girls did for today!

Holy Holo!

Holographic polish. Oh my goodness. I need them all. This is awesome.

I started with 2 coats of Color Club- Cloud Nine, a beautiful light pink holo. I stamped with BM-320 and Milani- White on the Spot. Topped with one coat of HK Girl.

First a picture I took in the house....pretty right?

And then we go outside....and I die!

My favorite...

 

I can't get enough. Every slight change of position showed even more rainbow. It's so beautiful.

New 31DC Day 26: Inspired by your country

The good ol' USA. I figured red, white, and blue was only fitting. So I picked up this cool glitter, appropriately named Freedom from Pure Ice. It's packed full of red and blue glitter, with cute little silver stars in it.  I let the bottle sit upside down for awhile before I started because all of the stars were settled in the bottom. Even still, I was only able to fish a couple of them out and you can hardly see them on the nail. My base was 2 coats of Milani- White on the Spot.