My Spring Garden Fail

Once again, I've got an interesting story to share, and a somewhat failed manicure at the end of it all. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't altogether successful, either. It all started in the scrapbooking aisle...

We'd gone walking again, as we so often do. I don't like going for walks outside for several reasons- temperature fluctuations, bugs, traffic, etc. But mainly I find that it's really easy for me to overdo, and with the fibro I often won't realize I've done too much until exhaustion slaps me in the head and I just can't go any more. If we're walking at a shop, most of the time my husband can go pick up a scooter and I can make it back out to the car without having to call 911.

Having to call 911 isn't fun. People stare. :D

So, a few days ago we were walking through the scrapbooking section of my local big box store and I saw a punch I absolutely needed to have. It's the cutest little flower, and while it's a tiny bit large for nails, it's definitely doable.

Of course, the moment I saw it, I could envision so many ways to decorate it- adding a rhinestone in the center of it, adding glitter pieces to the center, making polish strips with swirls or gradients to use with it.

I knew this was going to be a fun one. I just didn't realize how MUCH fun it would be!

The first thing I did when I got home with it was to make some polish strips to punch flowers from. Once again, I primarily used the China Glaze Electropop polishes, simply because they're so versatile. I did several patterns- basic yellow with a topping of Love My Nails Dazzling, a set of diagonal stripes. a set with blobs of color painted on semi-randomly, and a strip of light pink topped with round stamps of yellow and red.

I knew these strips wouldn't result in actual flower-like patterns, but I was ok with that. I wanted something whimsical, and this worked pretty well!

While those were drying, I decided to experiment with a piece of foil my son had brought me. He'd gotten a jar of Nutella and thought the seal from the jar might make interesting nail decals. He's so sweet! He was right, too... the foil was sturdy enough to punch and lightweight enough not to be problematic.

I managed to get 28 decals from the foil. The best part? They're double-sided, gold on one side and silver on the other. I get to choose what side I want to be the top when I use them.

Once the strips were dry, I punched them as well. I got a lot of decals from the few strips I made, and I let them dry for a couple of days before putting them in the box to store them.

I love how these turned out. The colors on them ended up looking sweet, and there's so much variety even with the few I made. Note the decals that aren't complete- these aren't a waste. I use these on the edges of my fingers to make it look like the pattern continues off the nail. Don't toss the incomplete ones!

Speaking of storage, I went with this cute little favor box I found on sale after Valentine's day. I got twelve of them for something like a dollar. LOVE sales!

Since I have so many of the boxes, I decided to label the top of this one and make it clear what was inside. Instead of writing on the box, I dabbed on a bit of clear polish, then pressed a decal into place. Another coat of polish on top and now I know at a glance what's in the box!

Finally, the manicure! This was easy, but took quite a bit of time. I ended up using quite a variety of things to make the centers, like loose glitter, glitter polishes, and rhinestones. I think I'm wearing five different colors/shapes/sizes of stones! Over the top? Actually, it kind of works.

And since it's once again 3:30AM and I'm tired, I'll just share the photos. The process for these was easy- base coat, 3 coats of Gaga for Green, dabs of clear polish to set the flowers into, dabs of clear polish to set the stones and glitter into place, and finally quick dry top coat to finish it all off. Took me about two and a half hours, but lots of that was me trying to decide what to use for centers!

The big blue rhinestone is from Born Pretty, the pink flower is from my Fing'rsnail gem kit, and the black rhinestone is from Viva la Nails.

Unfortunately, my polishes didn't play well with my quick-dry top coat this time. Maybe it was the number of layers of polish, I don't know. But the next morning, I noticed these two enormous gouges in my left thumb! So sad.

I didn't remove this, though. I figured you couldn't really see the gouges unless you were super close to  my nails, so I didn't worry about it.

Frankly, if someone is 6 inches from your nails, you've got bigger things to worry about than your nail polish!

Ok, now it's time for me to see if I can convince my brain to shut off for a while so I can sleep. I'm starting to feel better overall,which is making me feel more creative. Unfortunately, creative doesn't mesh well with sleep!

Various items have been provided by the manufacturers for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

A Cinderella Story

Let me tell you, I feel so relieved being able to post a simple, beautiful look after my previous fails. I find it very frustrating when I can't translate what's in my head to what's on  my nails. Thankfully, that wasn't a problem with this look!

Also, I'm still feeling pretty icky, so I didn't do my usual photoshoppery to fix my poor pathetic cuticles. I apologize in advance, but I feel the look is princessy enough to forgive. I hope you agree!

So- this all started with an email I got from KKcenterhk. I almost missed it, because it somehow wound up in my spam folder! Thankfully, I saw it, because they wanted me to try their water decals. I said sure, and after browsing for what seemed like hours, I finally decided on N.NAIL-WDHHC069-Silver- a set of metallic filigree designs.

In all honesty, I wasn't sure what to expect. The water decals I've seen and used prior to this point were very thin, and I couldn't imagine a metallic water decal actually working. But I was optimistic, and eagerly awaited the chance to try them.

Click this one to see the detail on these decals!

Once they came in, I was absolutely floored. They're absolutely gorgeous, shiny metallic silver and so delicate! The only problem I have with them is that they were too darned hard to photograph- I must have taken 20 pictures and this is the best of them!

They are slightly different than other water decals I've worked with, though. Instead of coming loose after seconds, they take a few minutes to really turn loose from the backing paper. I actually used a pair of plastic tweezers to peel them off once they were saturated, but they're very sturdy and held up beautifully.

However, once I had them in hand I couldn't decide what to pair them with! I wanted something simple... no holos or duochrome to take away from the delicacy of the design. I also knew I wanted to put a stone inside the circle of the design. It just seemed made to be accented!

Finally, I decided on a polish I didn't think I'd like at all- Kinetic Candy by China Glaze. It's a pretty enough polish, it was just too pale, too blue, too  Easter for me. I decided to add a coat of Love My Nails Dazzling over the top, and a tiny blue gem from my Fing'rs Nail and Body Jewels.

I don't know if I've mentioned this lately, but this is probably my favorite set of nail gems. They're tiny and so sparkly, plus there's such a fun variety of shapes! This set was provided by the kind folks at Fing'rs ages ago, and I keep finding new uses for it!

You see the end result here... this blue sparkles like Cinderella's ball gown, and I don't want to hear the clock strike 12! I've had this on for days and don't want to take it off. It's so shimmery and delicate, and I am just in love!

Who knew I could be a pale blue, Easter kind of girl? Certainly not me! I also left the Dazzling off my thumb, just to show the decal a bit more clearly without all those sparkles.  I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Water decals were provided by kkcenterhk.com for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

China Glaze Cracked Concrete and Couture Cupcakes: What I Did On My Saturday Night

Oh my dog, I had an absolutely wonderful Saturday night! First off, I finally seem to be reaching the end of my might-be-mono/glandular fever episode. This has made me absolutely euphoric. There just aren't enough words to describe how wonderful this is!

Then a couple of days ago I got a wonderful surprise in the mail- I got three China Glaze crackle polishes to review! This is wonderful, because as much as I wanted to experiment with these (and as excited as I've been about them) I've been on a no-buy with no end in sight. Getting these means I get to play with them and then share the finished results with you! I'm so happy with the three colors I received- Cracked Concrete (grey), Broken Hearted (pink), and Lightning Bolt (white). There's so much potential with these!!

For the look shown here, I first did a quick coat of Sally Hansen Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Color Pen in Silver Chrome. I love silver, so I thought this would make a fab base for Cracked Concrete.

Applying the crackle polish was so much fun! I'm going to need to experiment with it a bit more, but it seems like the amount of polish you apply affect the type of crackling you get. Thinner coats seem to give more crackling with almost feathery-looking cracks, while thicker coats end up with big chunky cracks. At least, so it seemed with my brief experience!

And of course, being the magpie I am I wasn't able to leave this alone. I applied a coat of topcoat of course (China Glaze Fast Forward, how I love you!), but later on that day I added a coat of Love My Nails Dazzling. Unfortunately, while Dazzling did give a bit of sparkle to the look, it also seems to have made the crackle less obvious. Ah well, live and learn, yes?

Still, the best part of my evening came after my manicure. My husband decided to take me and our son out for a bit of adventure! (Ok, we were jeans shopping at the mall for our son, but I was out of the house for the first time in what feels like AGES... humor me here!) We parked in front of the bookstore at the local mall, and as we were walking to the mall my husband made a detour to the most adorable little cupcake shop!

I'd wanted to visit Cupcake Couture ever since I'd noticed it was open, but it seems like every time we're there, the shop had already closed for the night. Saturday was perfect timing, though, because not only was the shop open but they were having buy two get one free special! How perfect is that- three of us, so one of us got a free cupcake!

I was absolutely amazed at the choices. I've seen all the special flavors you can get, but you're usually stuck with the usual same-old same-old here. But Cupcake Couture really did go above and beyond with their flavors. Although I have to admit- even with all the amazing choices, I still stuck with my favorite red velvet. I'm so uncreative!

Now, let me make this clear: cupcakes are a big deal to me. I absolutely love them, but I'm picky. I don't want your typical cupcake with a splodge of frosting smeared on top. To me, a cupcake should be an experience- it should be beautiful to look at (or cute, or adorable, or whatever... but special to look at), it should be moist and tasty. What's the point of going to a cupcake shop if I'm going to get the same old thing I can get from home? I want it to be special!

Honey, these cupcakes more than met my expectations! The shop was very sweet, with a gorgeous display of the various cupcakes. The design of the cupcakes was wonderful. I wish I'd gotten a shot of all the cakes with their little decorations. It truly was a visual feast. Unboxing the cupcakes made me giggle in excitement, and I couldn't wait to start nibbling.

Once I did, well... let's just say I was a happy girl. My cupcake was dense, extremely rich, with a creamy frosting that was crusted on the outside a bit. Absolutely perfect frosting, and while I'd prefer the cake to be a touch moister, they were end-of-the-day cupcakes that were on sale. I imagine that probably had a bit to do with it. Still, they were top-notch cupcakes that took me back to my childhood, or maybe back to the childhood I wish I'd had- you know, filled with awesome cupcakes!

They didn't last all that long. All too soon we were left with a scattering of crumbs and a few sad little wrappers. But let me tell you... the happy feelings lingered for quite some time!

If you're in the Baton Rouge area, I would absolutely recommend visiting Cupcake Couture. You can eat in the shop or you can step outside to eat in the open air at the tables outside Borders. If you do happen to stop by, tell them you read about them here!

Polishes were provided by the manufacturers for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

GOSH Black Passion (and a request!)

I love autumn. I get absolutely giddy every year when the weather cools down and I get to start wearing my long-sleeved tops with my kitty shoes. This year has turned cool earlier than usual, and I'm not complaining at all! I am, however, finding myself turning to deep colors for my nails. It's time to pull out my GOSH Black Passion!

This is a deep charcoal polish with silver shimmer. I love it even more than usual because this gift (along with my other GOSH polishes) was sent to me by a lovely friend in the UK. Every time I see those bottles, I'm reminded of how surprised I was to see the package she'd sent me. A little unexpected kindness will turn me into a silly mess of thankfullness every time!

Black Passion is actually less black and more of a graphite color,  complete with silvery shimmer inside. It's absolutely lovely, and a bit easier to wear than straight-up black. I found it kind of hard to apply- it's a very dense, pigmented polish but it tended to have a lot of drag, so I ended up needing two coats just to even everything out. Still, two coats is nothing to complain about, especially when you end up with such a lovely result!

Also, I had a request the other day from Deez Nailz, who was curious to see what Love My Nails Dazzling looks like over black. She was thinking it would look stunning over black, and she was right!

I mean, really... do you see the crazy sparkle on that nail tip? I also tried something simple- I did a gradient with the sparkles, so that it went from pure black at the base to sparkle mania at the top. All I did was paint the glitter on from different parts of the nail for each coat!

I think it's a bit easier to see the lines since I put the arrows on. Also, to cut down on the lumpy look, I did the first coat on just the tip of the nail, the second on half, and the third coat covering three quarters of the nail. Somehow that makes it seem more gradient and less striped. A coat of topcoat and it looks magical!

What can I say, I think everyone should have at least one bottle of this topcoat. It can turn any polish from drab to glam! So tell me, what do you think of this topcoat? What color would you put it over?

Milani Bare Necessities With a Dazzling Topcoat

EDIT: Sorry, guys... I have no idea what happened here. The pictures were there when I posted, but suddenly aren't now. I'm blaming the web pixies for stealing my pictures! All should be fixed now, so carry on, carry on! ♥

 Psssst.

Yes, you. C'mere. I've got a secret to tell you.

You have to promise you won't tell anyone. I mean it... not anyone! Can I trust you to keep my secret?

I have an almost unhealthy love for sparkly things.

I know. I hide it so well. People are always so surprised when I squee over something glittery, because it's such a shock! But it's true, and I can't hide it any longer...

Ok, fine. It's not exactly a secret. But it's still the truth. I love glittery, shimmery things so much! It's not that I don't like creme polishes, it's just that they're so... creamy and flat. The idea of being able to add my own layer of shimmer to a creme polish to switch it up is a fantastic one, and it's hardly a new idea. Companies have made glitter polishes for decades!

But I recently found a topcoat that is filled not with glitter but with shimmer- tiny particles that glimmer and sparkle almost like diamond dust. To see that this polish was a grant total of $0.99?

Oh yea. I squealed out loud, standing right there in the middle of WalMart, not caring who saw me, who thought I was insane. I bought a bottle, and am now considering buying a couple of extra bottles for backup. I love it that much! It's called Dazzling, and it's a gorgeous iridescent shimmer in a violet-tinged clear polish. If I could, I would marry it and have lots of tiny little nail polish babies in all colors of the shimmery rainbow!

So, I started out with two coats of Milani's Bare Necessity from this fall's line of limited edition polishes. (For the record? Those polishes are crazy gorgeous for neutrals!!) Two coats gave me a neutral that was just a shade or two deeper than my own skin tone, warm enough to look healthy but still a nice neutral beigey-tan. As a work polish, I think this is ideal, even though you might die of boredom from looking at it too long. (I kid, I kid!!)

Once I'd gotten my base color down, I added a coat of Dazzling. This brought that neutral shade to life, turning it into a glistening neutral that seemed to have sparks inside! I honestly am at a loss about how to describe it... let's just say it was flippin' beautiful, 'k?

After one coat of shimmer gorgeousosity, you'd think I would have stopped there, yea? No. I added another coat, which made it even more magically insane than before!!  It's so crazy that I was abusing caps lock and exclamation points with my friends!! It looked almost alive with delicate rainbow sparkles lighting up my fingertips, causing me to spend entirely too much time staring at my nails and not nearly enough time doing important things, like breathing.  I was in love, y'all!

The best part is that it's absolutely smooth. No bumps, no sandpaper nails. Just a billion sparkles of light, turning your nails into a disco paradise. I added a coat of Seche Vite to make sure this baby wore like iron, and wore this for three days.

THREE DAYS, people!!!

I'm feeling a bit dizzy just remembering it... I think I need a few moments to myself. Feel free to dig around the blog while I go retire to my chambers to stare at my nails a bit more. This way, if I forget to breathe, at least I'll have a soft comfy bed to pass out into! :D

Milani's Bare Necessity was provided by the company's PR for evaluation.

What Did I Name My Pinky-Purple Franken? FRANKENBERRY, Of Course!

I know, I know... naming a berry-colored frankened polish FrankenBerry is just begging people to groan. It's so horrible, and I know better. But I was sitting and thinking, and as soon as it hit me I began to giggle, and I just couldn't stop. So now you get to see a frankened polish with the worst name in polish history. Or maybe for this week, I'm not sure.

Anyway, I broke this one down into steps. I was going for a Lippmann-esque glitter in a jelly base. I started out with some polishes I love. I used several clear, inexpensive glitter polishes from Love My Nails along with Sinful Colors Dream On, a vibrant, almost neon purple. I also used a little plastic cup to mix in, as well as a bamboo skewer for mixing. I like those better than toothpicks because I can get a better grip on them.

The thing to remember is start small- you can always add more polish, but removing polish from the mix is impossible. I started out with a small blob of Love My Nails Dazzling. I used this because it's got an absolutely beautiful shimmer to it, almost as if it were filled with diamond dust. I wanted my Franken to have shimmer galore, so this was a perfect start to it!

Then I went for the glitter- a mix of sizes of iridescent glitters in a clear base, Love My Nails Angel Baby. This one would give that mix of glitter sizes I was hoping to have. It also gave the rainbow touch that I seem so fascinated with these days.

Angel Baby has a variety of round glitter in various sizes. It's a great topcoat for layering, but it also works really well for frankening. I really like the way it plays with other colors.

Next I added in the Sinful Colors Dream On. I could have used any color, but I wanted a bright berry-type color. Dream On is a very densely-saturated purple that gives almost complete coverage in one stroke. It also tends to dry to an almost-matte finish, which does play a role in how this looks later. It's an interesting thing to keep in mind.

If I were to make this mix again, I might use a different purple, just to see if it would play better with the mix.

Now I grabbed my bamboo skewer and mixed this thoroughly. It doesn't take long, and soon enough I had a lovely, bright, sheer pinky-purple mix with tons of glitter. I really liked how this looked in the cup. The glitter showed through the polish nicely and the color was still vibrant, but incredibly sheer.

I wonder what it would have come out with had I kept the mix like this...

Time to test! I applied one coat of the mix to my thumb only to find that it was incredibly sheer- much more sheer than I'd intended. However, looking back I wish I'd tried more than one coat of the polish, just to see how well it would build.

Ah well, it's a learning experiment, and I certainly learned a lot while making it! Glitter is good, neons dry funny, and never be afraid to experiment!

I went back for more polish and added a bit more of the purple and mixed well again. This looked much better to me. While I wanted sheer color, I wanted it to be opaque enough to hide the nail line. I wanted it sheer enough to see various glitters peeking through the layers of polish. This looked like it just might do what I wanted...

Also, I really love the size of this plastic cup. It's perfect for mixing a small batch of polish and bit enough to get your brush into. It's also easy to clean, as I'll show soon enough.

One more test and I was satisfied with the color. I went ahead and painted all my nails with the mix. You can see it's still sheer, but deep enough to build to opacity. One coat was much too sheer, but 2 coats built to a lovely, almost-opaque color. I eventually put on 3 coat of polish, and really enjoyed the process. Next up- more colors like this!

Finally I had a lovely finished manicure (except for cleaning up, which I totally forgot to do for these photos). I love the color, and it applied nicely. I was surprised at how matte the polish dried, although it's not a bad thing. I think it dried matte because of the Dream On. It was easy enough to fix by adding a coat of topcoat, and it would have been just fine as a satin as well.

I used a brush from a clear strengthener to apply the polish, then cleaned it on my polish pad before I put it back into the bottle. It worked really well!

Finally, I've got a picture of the bottom of the polish cup, just to show the types of glitter involved in this polish. Isn't it yummy?
I love the combination of colors, and the blue glitter that shows up really is blueish.

I don't know why it took me so long to start mixing colors, but I'll definitely be doing more of it! This was FUN! I'm already looking at polish box, thinking about what colors I could combine for what effects!

So tell me, do you think you'll be likely to experiment with frankening? Are you brave enough to play, or do you prefer to watch other people mix up new colors? If you do mix up a new color, show me, I'd love to see!