Martini Summer- A Simple But Striking Nail Art Design

I'm not quite sure how I came up with this one. I wanted something with varying sizes of dots, and then I remembered the hole reinforcements I used to use in grade school. They weren't that great for their purpose, but they might be just what I needed for this look.

I dug through my polish boxes trying to decide what colors to use, and somehow picked out these four colors. I wasn't sure they'd work together, but I was willing to give it a try. I think it turned out nicely...

And since I didn't film a video of this experimentation, I put together an animated gif showing how I did this. The background is a bit backwards, because instead of painting a white nail and adding yellow dots, I did the opposite- I painted the nail yellow, then added my reinforcements and painted around the outside of them. Everything else was pretty straightforward.

Hope you enjoy it!

I so love lime green!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Twist and Shout, by Nail Fantasies

You know what? Storms are a pain in the butt. I live in an older mobile home (yay for not paying rent!), so we tend to evacuate when there's a tropical storm or larger coming. That means I'm posting this from my dad's house!

For the record, we're fine. The storm has come and ... well, sort of gone. It's been fairly uneventful, thankfully, and we even had a bit of good luck. Normally we park in the same spot every time we go to my dad's, but this time we parked close to the house. It's a good thing, because when we came out the next morning, there was an ENORMOUS limb right where we normally park our car! It would have been seriously unpleasant, and I'm glad it didn't happen!

We didn't even have to do without power, thanks to my dad's whole-house generator. We lost power sometime in the night last night, but his generator kicked right in and kept us fully-powered. This is where I plan to be for every storm in the future, as well.

But enough of that! I want to show you a lovely polish I got on sale. I've got a few Nail Fantasies brand polishes, and I love them all. This time I'm showing you Twist and Shout, a lovely lime green creme. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures until after I'd put a coat of glitter polish from Love My Nails on, and I absolutely cannot remember the name of that polish to save my life. I'll update this blog once we're back home again and I can check the name.

Still, you can see the color well in these shots. Twist and Shout is a beautiful creamy lime green that applies nicely. It's one of those colors that really called out to me when I saw it, especially considering it was only $0.50 (if I remember correctly, it might have been less).

As you can see, the glitter polish really does give this green more of a kick. It's an interesting combination of glitters, combining fine translucent opalescent microglitter with large round translucent opalescent glitter, larger translucent opalescent hex glitter and large rhombus holographic glitter. In short, it's absolutely stunning and can look very different from nail to nail.

In fact, the difference nail to nail can be seen either as a positive or a negative characteristic. Personally, I really like the varying looks. However, if you're someone who wants your manicured nails to look consistent overall, then you might find this frustrating. There's really no way to guarantee which shape glitters will show up on your nail that I'm aware of.

I guess you could pour some out into a small dish and try to fish out the bits using a brush or a fine-pointed tool of some sort. Still, that would seem like a waste of polish to me, and too much work. I'm fine with the more whimsical, varying application.

So- overall, I'm extremely happy with both of these polishes. The lime green is perfect both for general application and for nail art, and the glitter is versatile enough to be used as a layering polish or for frankening purposes. This could make some GORGEOUS frankened polish!

As for me? I think it's time for me to find a nap... I think I hear it stalking around in the bedroom. I bet I can totally incapacitate it!

Til next time!

Tropical storms are a pain in the butt.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Ready for a Spring Manicure?

Whew!! What a day! I've been off wandering with my husband and our son, enjoying the wonderful weather and trying to work out some of this fibro stiffness I've been fighting with. We've been having a lot of fun looking at various home items and dreaming about our ideal house. We do this periodically, looking at furniture or appliances. Lately, though, I've been really drooling over electronics.

I wish I knew why I was so into shiny new gadgets. HD video cameras, Nikon dSLRs, home theater systems, CD changers, flat panel TVs... I could look and look and look for hours, it seems. My husband is no better. Anytime I lose him in a shop, all I have to do is wander over to the electronics department and there he is!

It's been fun. Exhausting, but fun. Still, I think I've been overdoing. It felt good to sit down and spend an hour doing nothing but painting my nails! This time I went for something springlike because I got the most gorgeous yellow polish I think I've ever seen! I've always shied away from yellow because it's seemed to hard to wear, but Hard Candy's Splendid is actually good with my skin tone! Then, when I held it next to my Essence Lime Up! I realized they were absolutely perfect together, and I was going to need to do a fun manicure using them both.


First off, before I get to that fun green & yellow mani, let me talk about Splendid first. You know how yellow is always a pain in the butt to apply? Well, this one isn't. It's creamy and opaque and almost a one coater! I was stunned at it, seriously. What you see in the main picture to the right is two coats. Gorgeous... absolutely GORGEOUS!

I also checked to see how well it stamps over both black and white. I wasn't expecting much, because yellow is traditionally a sheer color whether it's in nail polish or artist pigments. It's just really tough to get an opaque yellow! But Hard Candy have done it, as you can see. It shows up beautifully over both black and white, and is such a cheerful color! What can I say, I'm sold!

So... back to the mani. I started with a base of Splendid, then used Essence's Lime Up! to paint 1/2 of each nail on a diagonal. My ring fingers got the base green, the rest got green tips. I was going to apply some pink flower decals over this, then realized I wanted something with a bit more punch to try and pull it all together, although this is cute enough to wear as-is.

For the record, this would also be a great base for a full-nail Konad stamp. Can't you see it- stamping with Lime Up! over the yellow background, so that there's a green print over the yellow? I think it'd be adorable...

Ah well... I decided to use my silver Art Deco striper to paint a line along the join (and disguise some of my wobbly edges), then to put silver pinstripes along the green sections. I added pink flower decals from Viva la Nail for a bit more punch and decided I was happy with things. All in all it was a simple manicure that ended up looking a bit more complex than it really was!

And for once, I decided to do something I rarely do... I'm showing BOTH HANDS! See, I really do paint both hands the same, even if my right hand rarely comes out quite as well as the left. This one was pretty easy to do, though.


So even though it's actually fall and cooler weather is coming in, I needed to try something a bit brighter and sunnier. I think this fit the bill! What do you think?

Items have been provided by the manufacturers for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Essence Lime Up!

Ohhh, my goodness. You may or may not know this, but I am almost obsessed with lime green. I've been looking and looking for a lime green that would actually be opaque, because out of the four or fice lime green polishes I've got, not one of them is opaque! This made me INSANE!

Then comes the best advice I've gotten in ages. I just wish I could remember who gave it. One of my polish friends on Twitter suggested I check out Essence Lime Up! I am SO glad they did, because I don't know that I'd ever have picked up an essence polish, and I'd have been missing out on such amazing stuff!

This polish applied like a dream, creamy and smooth and just... I don't even know what to say. Amazing. It was opaque with one swatch over the polish I was wearing on my thumb- I couldn't resist and had to try it in the car once I'd picked it up. If you're better with polish than I am (not necessarily that difficult!) then this could be a 1 coat polish for you. For me, I need two to get fully opaque and fill in thin spots, but still... not a problem.

The only problem is that it's a creme and I'm a magpie. That's easily remedied, though. I topped it with a coat of a lovely lime green BonBons glitter polish that has no name. I bought this one ages ago, and have worn it several times. LOVE IT! It's got several sizes of glitter, and they're iridescent which is a plus! (You know me and rainbows!)

And since I'm a total glitter freak, I added a coat or two of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Embalming Fluid. Ohhh, how I love this polish. I love looking at the bottle, it's such an almost-spooky looking sheer green that looks like it should be glowing. (It does, btw- it glows in the dark, and if I had a black light I'd show you!) Then it's got the most lovely shimmery microglitter. It's an amazing topcoat, and I can't recommend enough. (This was provided by the company for evaluation, and I'm strongly considering buying a backup bottle!)

Unfortunately, there is a problem. I covered this with a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward because I don't like the feel of glitter. For some odd reason, this topcoat made the polish shrink like CRAZY, and caused the edges to peel up! I've never seen anything like it, but it was pretty frustrating. =/ At least 6-7 of my nails had peeling around the edges, and I don't think I could have done anything to prevent. I still wore it for a couple of days, but I was really a sad panda.

That said, I wore this for three manicures in a row (!!! I know!! THREE!) and only had the peeling problem once. I don't know what happened, or if it'll happen again. But I don't really care... I'll wear it again, and again and again til my bottle is empty!

I'm even tempted to get another bottle to play with, because if I had my perfect bottle, this green would be a touch deeper and bluer. I think this might be perfect with a bit of Sinful Colors Love Nails, or perhaps my Sally Hansen Ultra HD Laser. We'll see, right? :D

What do you think? What color are you absolutely dying to find in a perfect, opaque polish?

Essence Lime Up! was a spontaneous post at Ulta. What can I say, I'm addicted to lime green..

See my disclosure statement for more information.

A day in the life of Laynie...

Have you ever had one of those days where it seems everything you touch goes wrong, where everyone is grumpy and you just wish you could press fast forward and get the day over with? I've had all too many of those lately, but today was not one of them. In fact, it was the opposite!

It started with waking up to the alarm taking meds, then realizing that hey, I actually slept all night! Since I was still sleepy, I turned over, went back to sleep, and slept til 11am. Delicious! Considering I've been sleeping maybe an hour at a time if I'm lucky, maybe three times a night I considered this one of the most amazing, wonderful mornings I've had in a long time. I managed to snuggle with my husband almost enough!

He woke me around 11 because we needed to go get the kiddo's insulin. Long story there, but our son has type 1 diabetes and due to a weird insurance thing he was running out of insulin before we could refill it. Thankfully his general practitioner had sample bottles he could share with us, so we all hopped in the car and rode to the doctor's office, only to find that it was closed for lunch.

That was annoying! Didn't they know they were supposed to be there for us? *grin* To heck with lunch, you're totally supposed to be at my beck and call. But we decided that since it was such a gorgeous day we'd go to the nearby park and toss the frisbee around for a while. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, chilly and breezy, and perfect for just getting outside and feeling the sun a bit!

While my husband is pretty good with the frisbee, my son and I are... well... not. We spent more time chasing after it and yelling, "Oops, SORRY!!!" But no one got hit in the face, so I consider it a successful venture. I also observed a tiny spider for a while that seemed convinced he was going to be a tough guy and chase me off. He was no larger in diameter than my pink nail (including his outstretched legs), but he would lift those front two legs and look at me like, "C'mon, b**ch, whatcha got?" I managed to set my arachnophobia aside for a while to watch him wander and pose.

After an hour or so of frisbee we stopped back at the GP's office, picked up the insulin, then went to WalMart to pick up my meds. I know, I know, WalMart is evil. If I had more money I'd shop someplace else, but I really can't afford to. One day... one day. We also spent some time walking, and I made a quick run through cosmetics. My local WalMart now has the new Hard Candy display, although they didn't seem to have the tattoos out. Shame, those may be my favorite part. They're so cute...

Then we loaded into the car and headed for Baton Rouge, because while we were tossing the frisbee, it broke! Well, they were headed for Dick's Sporting Goods which just happens to be next door to Ulta! They were kind enough to drop me off there, so while they looked at all the sporting goods, I wandered through Ulta and found something I've been hunting for months- lime green opaque creme polish! I've got several lime green polishes, but not one actually looks opaque on the nail. But thanks to a Twitter friend, I got the suggestion to try Essence's Lime Up! OMG, y'all... it is SO PERFECT. One coat and it's creamy and opaque and smooth as can be. And not only is it the perfect lime green, it's only 99 cents!

I know. I couldn't pass it up. My husband fussed, but it was only a buck. And hey, it's my first Essence polish! (But definitely not my last!) He spoils me. We then spent the rest of the evening at the bookstore, where I read about blogging and fashion dolls and makeup and... yea. It was delicious, and now I'm about to curl up in bed with my best friend once again. Instead of wishing I could fast forward through the day, I wish I could press record so I could run through it again and again. This was one of those perfect fall days that I'll look back on when I'm old and grey, thinking what a wonderful life I've had.

And so this isn't a picture-free post, I'll share my poor pathetic manicure. Once again, I was doodling on my nails. I wound up with three fingers of each hand the same Sinful Colors blue (Love Nails), an unnamed Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear on my left ring finger and my right pinky finger that's almost identical to Love Nails, a sheer lime green Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear on my left pinky finger topped with a hot pink unnamed Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear with a scalloped edge, and a purple unnamed Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear on my right ring finger topped with that sheer green. My right ring finger was damn close to Zoya's Adina, btw... just a touch darker purple, with the same green flash from certain angles.

I used my decorative edged scissors to make nail stencils and had to test one, so I tested it over the green. Then I added some rhinestones in multiple sizes, just for the fun of it. I'll definitely end up making a tutorial for this technique, it's simple and fun!

I hope you've had a great day as well, and that your weekend is even better. I've got some surprises coming up soon, so come back soon. I can't wait to share the goodies I've got up my sleeve!