A quick Day before Christmas mani

Hi everyone!

I decided that I needed to have at least ~something~ on my nails for Christmas, so I took a bit of inspiration from the envelope of a Christmas card that a friend sent to me that had little stamped gingerbread men all over it.
I used Revlon's "Dreamer" as the base color, and SC Nirvana for the gingerbread man, then a white for details and the zig-zag "icing" on my other fingers. I used the smallest dotting tools I had but seeing as how I have wee nubbins, the gingerbread man and his white details are really small...so his mouth kindof morphed from a mouth into a sort of garish bowtie or something. 
And I notice I missed a few spots of cleaning up, oops!
Anyway, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Peace.

An inspired winter mani

Hi everyone!

So now that work is winding down, I finally have a few moments to do some new nail art. I've been checking out the Nailasaurus blog and I happened upon one of her fantastic December manis from last year, seen here . So I got inspired. Even tho I did not have any dark blue glitter polish, or a stamping plate with a snowflake, still I wanted to try to re-create this mani in my own way, so here it is....I used Revlon's "Dreamer" as a base color, and an un-named HK blue glitter polish for the tips, then did the "snowflake" (such as it is) using Pure Ice "silver mercedes". I think it's alright, but seriously, it doesn't even come close to the awesomeness that the nailasaurus did! I just LOVE her blog!!!

Peace.

A Samurai Princess goes On A Trip and says I Need A Refresh-Mint...

Hi Everyone!

Ok, so not the most clever of titles, but that's alright.

I'm excited! I ordered my VERY FIRST Indie polish, Sonnetarium's "Samurai Princess" from Beauty Pop Shop , and it arrived in the mail yesterday, nicely packaged. When I opened the box, here's what I found:

Wrapped up like a Christmas present! YAY! I wasted no time in unwrapping it. Here's the bottle shot!

My word, look at all that glitter! Black and white micro, small and medium hex, and black and white bars make up this polish, in a clear base! Horray!

Application was really smooth, didn't really have to do any fishing to get the glitters I wanted. The brush is black so I was never sure with each dip how many black glitters I was getting, or what kind, but that's alright! 

So I polished my fingers with WnW's On A Trip (you all know purple is my favorite) and did a ring finger accent with WnW's I Need A Refresh-Mint.

Then I did one coat of SP on each nail. I am kindof digging the randomness of the glitters on each nail. I probably could have done two coats of SP, but I didn't want to overdo it. I like the way this looks! What do you think?

Peace.

Guess I got carried away...

Hi Everyone!

This is just a quick post to express my disappointment, yes, disappointment, with China Glaze and their most recent release of the Cirque Du Soleil collection. Most notably, the glitter bomb that is "Get Carried Away". I went to Sally's a few days ago with a christmas gift card my folks had given me and picked up a few polishes, "Get Carried Away" was one of them. It was to be my first actual "glitter polish", so I was pretty excited. Plus the fact that it had red, silver and black hexes as well as black bar glitter...oh yeah, a true glitter bomb.

Then came the disappointment. I carefully polished my nails with two coats of Nina Ultra Pro "burst my bubble" (a very light pink), then brushed a coat of "get carried away" over the top. grey/black tinted base. That was my first sad face. Streaky. Second sad face. Totally covered up the fact that I had light pink undies. Third sad face. I WANTED to like "get carried away", I really did. But I did not. 

Then I thought to myself, you know, if you brush the "get carried away" onto a sponge, then dab it onto your nails, maybe the sponge will absorb that icky tinted base and just transfer the glitter smorgasbord, letting the base color show thru. Sounded good in theory.....

However, the black and silver micro glitters in this polish totally dominate the bars and larger hex glitters, so it's really just a hot mess on my nails.

So, I give this particular polish a 1 out of 5 Crimson Stars, because....while the concept was awesome, the tinted base was a total bomb, and the micro glitters vs. larger hex and bar glitters weren't balanced out enough for me to actually enjoy this polish.

Do you have "get carried away" ? If so, what do you think of it?

Peace.

T-Day Weekend Mini Sally Haul

Hi Everyone!

So on the 22nd of November me and the folks drove up North a bit to celebrate a combined Thanksgiving and Christmas celebration with the rest of the family and some extended family. My folks had my name for Christmas this year, and they got me a Sally Beauty Supply gift card, along with a couple of other things. Today my sister and I went to Sally Beauty Supply and I picked up a few polishes using my gift card, so here's my mini-haul!

From left to right we have  Orly - Ingenue, Nina Ultra Pro - Burst My Bubble and China Glaze - Get Carried Away.

Get Carried Away is my first "real" multi-glitter bomb polish... it contains black and silver micro glitters, red, silver and black hex glitters and black bar glitters in a grey/black tinted base. The brush is a bit wonky, but since it was the only one there, I decided to get it anyway, figuring I could trim the brush a bit later on.

I've already put it on my nails, and I regretfully have to say that I'm a little disappointed in it. The hex glitters don't come out very easily so a lot of fishing is required and I also had to do a bit of strategic placing of said glitters. I also noticed that the bar glitters had a tendancy to curl. Maybe it was just this bottle. Does anyone else have this polish, and if so what did you think of it?

I tried it over two coats of the Burst My Bubble, thinking it would be a good combo, but...it wasn't. Because of the tinted base of Get Carried Away, you can't even tell there are really light pink undies there. I think maybe Get Carried Away would look good with light grey undies, or else all on it's own.

Anyway, these three polishes were my "in advance" Christmas gift from my folks, so thank you! :D

Peace.

Galaxy Revisited

Hi Everyone!

I know it's been a loooong time since I made a nail art post, and all I can say in my defense is that I  have been so busy with work that I haven't had the time to play with my polishes. That changed today, tho, since I finally have a day off! So, I decided to revisit some nail art I've done once before - Galaxy (or Nebula) Nails! While I was at Walmart yesterday trying to find a nail nourisher/strengthener, I wandered over to the Pure Ice display and say a funky looking polish I hadn't seen before called "Electric!" - It's a black polish with a super-fine silvery shimmer. I thought "Hey, that would make a nice base for a galaxy mani!", so I brought it home with me. Of course, with all the other stuff going on with this mani, plus the strategic application of CG's Fairy Dust, you can't really make out the base color. For the "galaxies", I used Finger Paints Paper Mache, CG's Lemon Fizz, WnW's Tickled Pink, and some unnamed dark blue. I don't think it looks too bad (aside from my super nubby nails, that is...). What do you think?

Peace.

Nail Art from the past

Hi everyone!

I know I have not posted anything on the blog since the beginning of October, and the reason for that is because I have been so very busy with work that I haven't had any time to play with my polishes.
Today I am going to at LEAST make a post of some nail art I did a very long time ago that's just perfect for Autumn and in particular Halloween. Maybe it will give you some ideas of your own! Enjoy!

Peace.

Go Pink Wednesday for Breast Cancer Awareness

Hi everyone -

So, the month of October is breast cancer awareness month, and this is something close to my heart, due to the fact that several years ago, my mom called me on the phone and told me that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. It took my breath away. My main outlet for my feelings at the time were sculpting things using fimo and also making things using paper. I sculpted a lapel pin for my mom using fimo in support of her fight with breast cancer and sent it to her. Luckily, for four years now, she has been cancer free. My manicure today, while simple, reflects the love for my mother and her fight that she won while battling breast cancer. I love you, mom :)

It's Autumn!

Hi everyone!

I am so happy that Autumn has finally arrived! It's my favorite time of year - the turning of the leaves, the wonderful scents in the air and around the house, the wonderful dark polish colors.....ahhhhh!
On my nails today is one of those polishes...a wonderful deep plummy color by WnW called "Disturbia". This is one of my favorites. I love dark colors, and I love the color purple. Please excuse my terrible short nubs, work is forever taking it's toll on them, the poor things. On my ring fingers and thumbs I have put a thin coat of "Cheatin' " from Pure Ice. The subtle purple and teal sparkle isn't in your face, but it definitely catches your eye.

Are you as excited as I am now that Autumn is here? Do you have any favorite polishes you plan on wearing during the season?

Peace.

My Sunday Dotticure

Hi everyone!

I hope you all have had a nice weekend....it's back to the grind tomorrow morning. boooooo. I cheered myself up by doing a quick and easy dotticure today using Sally Hansen's "No Hard Feelings" as a base color, and my dotting tools and China Glaze "For Audrey" to make various sized dots on just my ring fingers. I love a purple and teal/turquoise combo, don't you?

Enjoy what's left of your weekend, and I hope you all have a great week!

Peace.

A sort of "TIOT", Orly "Royal Velvet"

Hi everyone!

So tomorrow I am back to work, so needed to cover my nails with something. I was rummaging thru my polishes and I happened upon Orly's "Royal Velvet", a lovely blue-purple duochrome with a shimmery finish that caught my eye. Since I just finished two coats and a topcoat about an hour ago, the sun has long since gone down, so I cannot show this beauty in the sunlight, but I did try to take a couple of pics that would show the shift between colors. The pics shown, as I mentioned, are two coats and a clear topcoat, but I really think that three coats would have been better, I was just impatient.
Here are the two pics trying to capture the shift difference between the purple and the blue:

I really like this polish, I've never worn it before, but I like the shift and the shimmer of it. Tho I think I really need to look into getting (making) myself a light box to try to get my pictures to turn out better.
Do you have this Orly polish? What do you think of it?

New swatch and an apology

Hi everyone!

First off, I want to apologize for not making a blog post for so long - I've been super busy with work lately and have had no time to do any new swatches or manis for a little while. But I'm back now with a gorgeous color that I think is just wonderful for the autumn months....it's Sinful Colors "Rich in Heart". This is a very dark, vampy color, it really looks almost black unless you view it in sunlight - and when you see it in the sun, you realize that it's a very dark burgundy color with a lovely reddish shimmer to it. The photo I took of it does NOT do it justice....the color that is seen on my pinkie finger is the closest I could get to showing the true "in the sun" picture of this beauty.
What do you think of this color? Is this something you would wear this autumn? Would you jazz it up somehow, and if so, what would you do?

Peace.

Add on - My mom said to me that she'd like to see a little something extra with this color - so I did one coat of Colorama's "color girl", which is a sort of holo flakies (shards? not sure of all the terminology out there just yet) glitter in a slightly yellowish base. The flakies turn from orange to green to yellow. I quite like it. What do you think?

Peace.

Jessica - Chilled Chambord Swatch

Hi everyone!

This afternoon I was trying to think of a good polish color to put on my nails for the book fair I will be doing at one of my schools tomorrow afternoon. I grabbed the shirt I plan on wearing and was holding bottles up against it for some inspiration, and when I grabbed Jessica's "Chilled Chambord", I knew it was the one. I won this polish and several others in a giveaway from Enchanted Nails and Fluffy Dog Tails not too long ago.

This polish is absolutely stunning. A deep red wine color with a red shimmer, opaque in two coats and the perfect compliment to what I will be wearing tomorrow afternoon. I love this color! My only problem now is deciding whether I will leave it as is, or do some stamping or use some water decals as accents.

What do you think?

Peace.

Pepe's Purple Passion!

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share with you a swatch of this A-MAZ-ING OPI I just got from my friend on FB for my Birthday Do-Over...this color is awesome!!! Dark, dark plum with what appears to be a fairly reddish shimmer - oh my word it's gorgeous!! It's called Pepe's Purple Passion.... and I LOVE IT!

It is awesome all by itself, needs nothing over it. AWESOME for Autumn!

Peace.

My awesome Birthday Do-Over Nail Mail!!!

Hi everyone!!

I am SO excited over today's post because I got a wonderful, wonderful box filled with goodies from a friend of mine on FB. In the cute little cupcake card she sent with everything she said "...since you were sick on your birthday, we can pretend this is a do over." I'm all for that!! (for those who didn't know, I had a massive tooth/lower jaw infection on my birthday and I had to go to the doctor and get antibiotics and was absolutely miserable. Everything's ok now, tho!)

Look, just LOOK at all the awesome stuff she sent me!!!

First, the list of polishes:
Megan Miller - Lemon Ice (I know, right?? Megan Miller!! :O ) I love the peacock feather on the bottle, and the bottle and cap are so cool looking.

WnW Magnetic - A Force To Be Reckoned With (my first magnetic!)

WnW Wild Shine - Sparked (pink glittery goodness!)

Sinful Colors - Snow Me White (SO glad I didn't buy this a couple days ago like I was planning on - finally a decent white!!)

Sinful Colors - Rich In Heart

OPI - Pepes Purple Passion

Nicole by OPI - Just Busta Mauve

Pure Ice - Busted

Also 2 little boxes of minis, 8 that are color polishes and 8 that are glitter polishes.

And if all those awesome polishes weren't enough, she also sent me:

All seasons and all episodes of True Blood!! (you know what I will be doing tonight!)

ROLOS!!!!!

A little box of Russell Stover assorted chocolates

Hello Kitty boxes of candy!!

A cool palette of 12 different eyeshadows!! Gorgeous colors!

A small spiral notebook with cupcakes  on the front and back cover. So cute!

A Memory card game that has cupcakes on the cards

A 5 pack of mini gel pens

two sheets of little rainbow stickers, one with hearts and one with holographic-y stars!

I love, love, love everything in my birthday do-over box, thank you SO much!!

Can't wait to wear these polishes! ~pops a Hello Kitty candy in her mouth and smiles~

Peace.

Wet Cement :)

Hi everyone!
Tonight I decided to break out a polish that a FB friend of mine gave to me, that I have yet to try. It is WnW's Wet Cement. Looking at it in the bottle, I was all "meh"...was not very impressed with it. But once I got it on my tips I loved it! It's a very lovely medium taupe, sortof a brownish taupe with a purplish undertone to it. 

Looks great on my nails!! I did two coats of it to reach opaque. Then I decided i'd look thru my decals, since I have tons of decals that I hardly ever use. I found these white floral decals that looked lovely on it, so here it is:

I probably could have done with more decals on the thumb, but I love how the decal on the ring finger looks with this polish. I am glad I finally decided to try out this polish, I am loving it!
Peace.

That's a wrap!

Hi everyone!

Earlier today a friend posted on my FB page suggesting that I do a saran wrap mani. I've seen this mani around before and have always wanted to try it. Some people call it a plastic wrap mani, or a cling film mani.

I've also seen two different ways to do it. The first way is to lay down your base color and let it dry, then choose the color you want over the top of it and do one layer of that on your nails (do this technique one nail at a time so the polish doesn't dry before you get to it with the saran wrap!).  Before it's dry, wad up a small piece of saran wrap and dab-dab-dab around over the still wet coat of polish. The wet polish will stick to the plastic wrap and be lifted off your nails.

The other way I've seen it done is to put a little puddle of the top color of polish onto a plate, lid, CD, whatever, and wadding up the saran wrap and dabbing it into the puddle of polish, then dabbing it onto your nails here and there.

I decided to put the layer of polish onto my nails then dab the saran wrap to remove the polish in places. This is two coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz and one coat of China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le.

It looks pretty cool, and it's SO easy to do. (Hey look, it's my right hand! ~gasp~ )
Have you ever tried this technique? What colors did you use?
Peace.

G is for.......

Hi everyone!

G is for Gage...er... I mean Giraffe!

I did this manicure for the son of a dear friend of mine who likes giraffes!

First I did two coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz. Then I stamped using Sinful Colors Nirvana.

Overall, I am a bit disappointed with the end result of this, as the image on the plate (MASH 20) was too small to cover my entire nail, so on all but the pinkie (don't look at the pinkie!), I had to double stamp, then go back over a few areas with my brush and remover to try and separate some of the spots.

Then, I mattified it, because hey, giraffes aren't shiny. Not entirely sure what happened on the pinkie, but I think it's a result of overzealous clean up, and that's what happens when remover hits the matte top coat. Let's just pretend that a bird flew over the giraffe....

See T? Giraffe nails aren't that hard to do, and I KNOW you have the MASH20 plate ;)

Peace.

Versatile Blogger Award X2 !

Hi everyone, guess what? Crystal over at CDesigns92 nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thanks Crystal!

I know, you are thinking, hey didn't you already get that award? Well, yes, I did. But no one ever said I couldn't accept it more than once!

The only problem is, I do not have any more relatively new blogs to nominate, so I really hope it's alright if I just do the 7 more random facts about myself. Besides, what better way to get to know me than to have me share things about myself?
So, here we go!

1. I work for my parents, for a company called Books Are Fun
2. I don't consider myself to be very "girly-girl", but I do like girly things like butterflies, hummingbirds and of course, nail polish
3. I love the AMC TV Series The Walking Dead
4. I have dabbled in many different crafty things, from decoupage, to scrapbooking, to card making, to altered books, to carving my own rubber stamps, to beadwork (rosaries, jewelry, phone dangles...) I have so much random craft stuff it's unreal.
5. My favorite colors are colors in the red family (ie. burgundy, crimson, candy apple red) and the purple family (ie. lilac, amethyst, violet)
6. I have never been stung by a bee, hornet or wasp (and I hope I never get stung!)
7. I LOVE EATING CRAB LEGS!

Peace.

OPI at Target?

Hi everyone!
Thought I'd share with you something a FB friend of mine just told me - OPI and Nicole OPI polishes are at Target! I haven't been to a Target in years and years, so this is news to me. If you already knew this, then treat this as a reminder that there's more than one place to buy your OPI polishes!
Look at the yummy displayyyyyyy .....

OPI is $8.50 and the Nicoles are $7.00 . Some of the colors, between the two labels, are nearly identical.

Peace.

My frickin' franken

Hi everyone! I thought I'd make a quick post to show you the frankenpolish I just finished. It's in a tiny bon-bon's bottle. I actually used the color that was originally in there, called "copper", I guess...there's no name on it. It's a very sheer brown base with what looks like silver shimmer. It was mostly full, so I just added a couple drops of Petites "Mango", and some shiny orange glitter and some shiny gold glitter. Shake, shake, shake, here's a bottle shot:

Then I put some on my nails. Pinkie is one coat, ring finger is two coats, middle finger is one coat over Sinful Colors Nirvana, and pointer finger is one coat over WnW black creme. I'm not sure I like it over black.

I've already decided to name this one "Autumn Sunrise". Can you tell I'm ready for summer to be over already? What do you think of my franken? What undies would you wear with this? (by undies I am of course referring to a base color, not the undies on your body!)
Peace.

Posts from the Past

hi everyone!
So ever since my last blog got deleted, I've been crying a little bit inside over the past manicures I had posted on there, so I've decided to do re-posts of past manicures every once in awhile just to show everyone what I've been up to the past couple of months. This post features a couple of manicures I did in July, one that I did when I first got my MASH stamping plates, and my totally awesome galaxy manicure. Enjoy!

Peace.

Versatile Blogger Award

Hi everyone!
Woke up to good news this morning..... Ash over at Painted Nubbs nominated my blog for the "Versatile Blogger Award".

Weee!

The rules for those nominated are as follows:

1. Nominate 15 some other blogs who are still relatively new to blogging.
2. Let them know that you have nominated them.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4. Thank the blogger(s) that nominated you.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post.

First of all, thank you for nominating my blog, Ash :)

I think these blogger awards are a great way to discover blogs you may have been unaware of before, and get to know new people who share your obsession with polish. It's also a good way to learn new techniques and get inspiration from others.

Here are 7 random facts about me:

1. I love the Victorian style (decor, architecture).
2. I'm not a fan of ice cream, I will only eat sherbet.
3. I have 7 tattoos.
4. The only jewelry I wear on a continuous basis is a small sterling silver hoop in my upper left ear and a sterling silver toe ring on my second right toe
5. I have a boyfriend that lives in England.
6. I don't read the fortune from a fortune cookie until after I've eaten the cookie.
7. I have never had a broken bone in my life. (knock on wood)

On to the nominations (sorry, there won't be 15 because I don't follow very many newer blogs right now)!

[kossori hana.]
Can't Hold My Lacquer
Crazy Nail Lady
Elanor's Nails
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Once Bitten Nails
The Fox Claws
Too Cute-icle

Peace.

Robin Moses Inspired Daisy Nails

Hi everyone!
Earlier today I was browsing nail blogs, and I happened to find myself at the Robin Moses blog. I started browsing, and a couple of manicures really tickled my fancy. I watched the tutorials for them on youtube and thought "I could maybe do something that almost looks that cool..." (considering the fact that I suck at freehanding and have shaky hands, so using brushes is hard for me)
So without further ado, I present to you, my Robin Moses inspired daisy nails!

Her own design is so brilliant and looks quite awesome, compared to my childish attempt at recreating it, but if you don't look too close, they don't look half bad.

For the base color, I did two coats of Revlon Peach Radiance. After that dried, I felt that the "radiance" part was a bit too radiant, so I did one thin coat of Maybelline Blushing Bride, which is a very very sheer pinkish sort of color. I then sponged a bit of Rimmel London #606 Dazzle on the tips.

I used a couple different nail art brushes and acrylic paint to do the stems and flowers.

So, what do you think? Have you ever done any freehand nail art inspired by Robin Moses?
Peace.

One Stroke Fail Nails

Hi everyone!
If you have been following me on Facebook , you may remember the youtube video tutorial I posted not long ago detailing how to do one stroke flower painting on your fingernails. To watch the tutorial, click right here .
On my Facebook page, I said that I wanted to try this. So tonight, I tried it.

And failed. Really bad.

I have some acrylic paints that I have had since....oh....forever...so I decided to break them out and try my hand at this one stroke brush painting thing.
It looks so easy.......but don't be fooled!! I think my acrylic paints were too runny or maybe I just sucked too hard or something, but wow. It looks like a three year old scribbled on my nails or something.

I showed it to my mom (who is usually the first to see my new nail art and give her honest opinion, and I love her for that!), and she said "Well, I like the one on the middle finger".....hahahaha. I love you, mom!
I am thinking that I have got to practice this one stroke brush painting a lot more before I attempt this again. What do you guys think? Have you ever done the one stroke brush painting on your nails before?

P.S. The base color on my nails is the wee "franken" I did last night by mixing white and black to get myself a light grey. Still have to come up with a name for it, but i'm leaning towards naming it "Steam".
Peace.

My first "Franken" ?

Hi everyone! If you're following me on Facebook then you may already know that last night I decided to make my own nail polish color, due to the fact that I don't have a light grey in my stash. I thought I did, but it's a silver. Bah. So anyway, I cleaned out a little 1/8 oz. bon-bons bottle with some acetone, then filled it back up most of the way with Revlon's White on white, then added about 3 drops of WnW Black creme and shook to mix it up. It turned out great! Just the right sort of light grey that I was wanting.

Now I know that some of you out there might think "that's not making a REAL franken..." and you may be right...but every franken maker had to start somewhere, right? :)

Here are the pics - sorry if the grey has a sort of blue-ish tint in the pics, blame it on my icky camera. It doesn't look blue in real life.

My only dilemma now is what to name it. So far I've come up with "Mourning Dove", "Steam", or "Greyscale". Do you have any suggestions?
Peace.

Very Lovely

Hi everyone!
A day or so ago I was doing my regular blog browsing (and also re-following blogs I'd been following before the icky blog deletion catastrophe of mine), and I happened to get back onto a wonderful British blog I had been following, The Nail Newbie . Several days ago she did a post that had a very simple but oh so lovely nail art design that made my wee nubs go "SQUEE!", and I knew I had to do it myself. You can see the inspiration for this new nail art right here!
At first I was going to go with a light pinkish base color like she did, but nothing I had in my stash cried out to me. Then I saw it....an untried, unnamed Hello Kitty polish in a purplish taupe that made me smile. You know I love HK. A Facebook friend of mine sent me this polish a while back, along with a PLETHORA of other yummy polishes. So, I made that the base coat.

Then, since I am still really clumsy when it comes to using my new nail art brushes, I instead reached for a fine-tip black sharpie, and very (sortof) carefully did each letter of the word "love" on my nails. (I have fairly shaky hands so the lines were a tad wobbly..)

After I got the letters on my nails, I thought they needed a little "something-something", so I broke out my MASH plates. On plates 16 and 17 I found little heart images, so I used #16 on my thumb with WnW's Disturbia, and #17 (cleaning one or two hearts off with a q-tip) to stamp on my other fingers. Then, at the suggestion of a couple ladies on my FB page, I added little gold dots to each nail in various places.

Pay no mind to the center of the "o" on my middle finger - I overstamped and tried to clean it up, but just ended up smudging things around. D'oh!
So ladies, what do you think? Win or Fail? Do you think you'd ever do this on your own nails?
Also, don't forget, you can follow me on Facebook by liking my new page in order to get notices of updates to my blog or just random pics and ramblings - check it out by clicking here!
Until next time,
Peace.

Restocking some supplies

Hi Everyone!
The time comes for us all when we must venture out and restock our supplies. Today was my restocking day. I'm running dangerously low on cotton balls and polish remover, so those were a must. I also wanted to get some acetone to have on hand for cleaning out empty polish bottles and easier clean up after a mani.

The feathers and glitter I picked up at the new JoAnn's that recently opened up not too far from us. I got the feathers in order to recreate a cool feather mani I saw on YouTube, and the glitter...well...I haven't figured out what to do with the glitter yet, but it was so pretty I couldn't pass it up. The cotton rounds, magnets, remover, acetone and HK Dig 'n Dips were purchased at Walmart. (Yes, HK stuff is a necessary supply item!) I can't believe how much more HK stock Walmart has been carrying these days. It used to be that the best HK stuff could only be found at Target. Thank you, Walmart!
Surprisingly enough, even tho I walked up and down the beauty aisles looking at the polishes, I didn't buy any. 
So ladies, what do YOU think I should do with all those packets of glitter?
Peace.

Uptempo Plum and my new mani mascot!

This morning, to try and forget about the pain and swelling in my jaw, I decided to break out one of the polishes my FB friend sent me in my birthday nail mail. It's Uptempo Plum, a Sally Hansen Instadry. At first glance it looks black, but if you look closely, or you're out in the sun, you'll see that it's actually a VERY deep plum color with a slight reddish shimmer to it. Very lovely, I adore dark colors. (sorry, no swatches :( )

After I went to WalMart earlier today and picked up a few polishes, I decided to use my new Ice Queen on my ring fingers and thumbs. Not bad, not bad at all! Another friend of mine on FB has a sort of "mani mascot" that she holds when she's taking pictures of her manicures, and so I started wondering...I should get myself a mani mascot! (Sorry to copy you but the idea was so cute and clever that it had to be done!)

I was thinking, looking around my room, and then my eyes settled on this adorable mini bunny plush that looks like a marshmallow bunny peep on my wall shelf. I bought this cute plush a long time ago from a good friend at her Etsy shop, Gummy Bunny Studios .

The young woman that runs the shop is so talented, very creative, super nice and quite intelligent. You should really check out her shop if you are looking for unique, cute and well made trinkets and gift ideas.

I know, I know, it looks like a dormant shop right now, but I have spoken with the owner of the shop and she assures me that while she's been rather busy with other things in her life right now, she has plans to start listing more things in her Etsy shop soon. She even plans to start doing painted acrylic nail sets! I can't wait to see them! So keep her in mind if you're looking for affordable, adorable and creative gift ideas, for yourself, or for someone else! Now, a couple of pictures!

Isn't that peep bunny plush so cute?? I love it! It has a little glittery pompom tail that makes it even cuter. You can see pics of it at the Gummy Bunny Studios shop .
And now, since the flash on my camera really doesn't capture the small hex glitters of Ice Queen, I present to you a somewhat crappy no-flash picture of my thumb nub :

I quite like the way Ice Queen looks over Uptempo Plum, even tho I had to fish a bit to get the little hex glitters out. what is your opinion of the overall mani? What do you think about my newly christened mani mascot?
Peace.

Just a baby haul to cheer me up

Some of you may have just read on my Facebook page what happened with me on my birthday yesterday. (If not, you can find it by clicking here )
The WalMart near my house is a sortof smallish one, so finding certain things there is a bit difficult sometimes. I was looking for some specific craft supplies, but after not finding them, I headed over to the polishes.

I was good, I spent less than 5 dollars. I've been wanting to try a matte manicure for awhile now, so I finally picked up NYC's "Matte Me Crazy" top coat. I also grabbed an L.A. Colors nail hardener/base coat. I've been going thru the base coat like crazy. And, I also picked up Sally Hansen's "Ice Queen".

I saw someone swatch Ice Queen on another blog recently, tho I forget where exactly, and I thought it looked rather interesting. It's a bunch of small hex glitters in lavendar and teal floating around in a clear base along with some what looks like silver and multi colored (prismatic, maybe?) micro glitters.
Very interesting, can't wait to try it.

(sorry for the crappy close up shot)

Do you have Ice Queen? What do you think of it? How would you describe Ice Queen to someone?
Peace.

New FaceBook page for followers!

Hi everyone! I finally found out thru a friend how to make a page for my blog on FaceBook and I was actually successful. Now I won't have to annoy friends on my personal page by announcing blog updates. You can follow me and get facebook updates about my blog by clicking here and smacking that "Like" button!
Peace.

Past Nail Art

Even though my blog was deleted a week ago, I continued to play with my polish and take pictures, so I will share a couple of them with you so you can see what I've been up to this past week. The first one was done using Wet n Wild's Tickled Pink and a black sharpie to do the swirls and dots. I accented my thumb and ring finger with little pink rhinestones. I did this one for a friend of mine because she likes the black and pink combo, and I used a sharpie to freehand the swirls because I couldn't get my stamper and plates to work right for me hah hah!

A couple days later, I did this one, using Sinful Colors Nirvana as the base color, Wet n Wild's Tickled Pink for the design on the accent finger, and Finger Paints Paper Mache for the dotted lines.

Which one do you like better?
Peace.

Birthday Nail Mail and Birthday Mani

Since it is my birthday today, I figured what better way to start off my new blog than with some birthday nail mail and my birthday mani!
I have a FaceBook friend who is also into polish and she sent me a wonderful present for my birthday! She packaged all the polishes up in an adorable Hello Kitty soft-sided tote, too. Yes, I love Hello Kitty!

Inside the tote were these awesome polishes, some of which were on my wishlist on my last blog:
China Glaze Shower Together, For Audrey, Four Leaf Clover, Secret Peri-Wink-Le, Gothic Lolita, Blonde Bombshell and Japanese Koi.
OPI Don't Mess With OPI
Sally Hansen Instadry Bronze Ablaze and Uptempo Plum
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Parchment
Orly Royal Velvet
And a cute mini HK bottle of berry scented polish that came with a charm and a sheet of little decals.
HEAVEN!

For my birthday mani I decided to take the inspiration from the HK bag and the HK polish packaging and do my nails using some of the new polishes. 

On my thumb is a base of For Audrey, with Lemon Fizz dots and a little mini HK polish another friend of mine sent me awhile back. On my pointer finger are two mini HK polishes from the same friend, with dots of For Audrey, Lemon Fizz and a mini HK polish. My middle finger has Secret Peri-Wink-Le as a base and stamped with Lemon Fizz. Ring finger is Lemon Fizz with one of the HK decals, and my pinkie is a base color of Orange You Hot and a mini HK polish color. What do you think?
Peace.

Intro and Explanation - Why a new blog?

Hi everyone!
My name is Michelle, but everybody calls me Crimson, so I'm more used to that. 
I live in Southern Utah and am not married, have no children, so I have plenty of time to play around with my polish stash!
This blog will be a place for me to share my nail art and manicures, as well as polish swatches, hints and tips, links to other blogs, and eventually my crafty stuff and photographs I've taken, when the mood strikes me.

I originally had a nail blog that I started in the beginning of July of this year, but about a week ago, I tried to remove a newly created email address and the whole blog got deleted. I tried several times to fill out the information needed to undelete the blog, but after all of my tries, I was told that it was not possible to undelete it because the information provided was not sufficient to prove I was the owner. Whatever. So Anyway, since today is my birthday (Happy Birthday to meeeee) I decided that I would start a new blog and make a fresh start.