Sunday Sweets- Fun Manicure Items

Ok, maybe I'm too easily amused. But I saw these and I couldn't help but giggle. Did you realize that there are monkeys who will blow on your fingernails to dry them? I can just imagine having one of these. Who cares if it works, it's adorable!

You simply place your fingertips on top of his little bananas there, and he blows and blows on your nails til they're nice and dry. Now, I realize that they'll probably dry just as well without our little monkey friend, but HELLO, it's CUTE!!

Fine. Maybe you don't like monkeys. Maybe a monkey ate your grandmother's pet skunk or something. It's cool, you don't have to love monkeys to read my blog. It helps, but you don't have to or anything.

So, for the monkey-haters we have the Duckie Dryer! Isn't he CUTE? Now, he doesn't have a plate of whatever-it-is-duckies-eat, so you'll just have to wave your wet nails under his little beak and hope he doesn't decide to nibble one of them. I think it's worth it. And hey, he's by KONAD!

Seriously, I'm beginning to think all my nail tools should have googly eyes. Can't you see it? Dryers with googly eyes, nail files with googly eyes that wobble back and forth as you shape your nails, clippers that frown at you because their eyes don't get to move? (Clipping nails is bad, y'all!)

I decided to go hunting to see what other sorts of cute manicure tools I could find. You know, there's a ton of stuff out there! Who knew? I pulled a few of my favorites to share with you, because that's how I am. I share...

So I've stated that clipping your nails is bad, but if you absolutely must, then at least use the cutest clippers you can find. Hello Kitty is loved throughout the entire world, and also tends to be a bit of a brand slut- if you make it, you can put Hello Kitty on it. Don't believe me? Go googling one day with things you'd never expect to find with Hello Kitty on it. I have, but that's a different post entirely...

Back to Hello Kitty. Maybe you want to use her to do more than clip? Not a problem. Hello Kitty has her very own manicure set, complete with a battery-operated rotary tool for shaping and buffing, as well as a nail brush, a "cuticle lifter," and a nail dryer. Unfortunately, it's more of a toy than a manicure set, because from the reviews I've read the rotary tool doesn't have enough power to actually use. But it's cute, it's pink, and it's got Hello Kitty on it.

Oh yea, this kitty gets around.

 Last but not least, I give you this dainty little ice cream cone manicure kit. It's tiny, it's cute, and it contains everything you need for a quick manicure on the go. You even get your choice between strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla, and they all have sprinkles!

So talk to me- tell me what your ideal cute manicure kit would be? Are you partial to sweets? Animals? Cartoon characters? Leave me a comment and let me know what you'd love to see!

Til next time!
♥ Laynie

GOSH Holographic- Beauty and Sadness...

The colors of GOSH Holographic- rainbows weep with envy.

Most polishes are the same. They're pretty enough, they're nice enough, but they're nothing terribly special, and you wouldn't cry if you lost one. How many pink or red cremes are out there, almost alike, almost identical, and nothing exciting. You've had red cremes in the past, you'll have red cremes in the future, and it's one thing that you can always find with no problem at all...

But every now and then, you find a polish that's different. A polish that stands out from the crowd, that excites you and makes you want to own several- one to wear, one to save, and one to put away just in case. For me, GOSH Holographic is my special polish. It's not all that special, I suppose. There are lots of holographic polishes out there, it would seem. But this one is among the best, from what I've read.

When it's on my nails, I can't stop looking at them. Inside, there's a hint of holographic beauty, but in the sun this baby shines like magic. There are rainbows hidden in this polish, and sunlight brings them out to play. It's like having a bit of magic on my fingertips, and it makes even the worst days a little bit brighter.

So where's the sadness come in? Unfortunately, this beast wears horribly. Getting a nice even coat is tricky enough without a base coat. I haven't managed to apply it using a base coat, unfortunately, because it goes all goopy and disgusting. And without a base coat, this polish wears off in no time flat.

Forget tipwear. You can see in the photo that this is full-fledged chipping and wearing away. And the more it wears away, the sadder I get, because I know I'm that much closer to having no more of this gorgeous lacquer for my nails, and that the magic is that much closer to running out.

It's become my special occasion polish, my special pick-me-up. What makes it even more special is that a great friend of mine sent this polish to me as a pick me up. Every time I see it, I'm reminded of how special she is to me, and how lucky I am to have her as a friend. I'm tempted to paint a set of artificial nails just for myself, so that I'll at least be able to look at them once it's all run out. What can I say, I'm a sentimental wuss.

So tell me, what polishes do you find yourself hoarding, buying backup bottles of, and hoping you never run out of? What makes a polish sentimental to you- the color? The person who gave it to you?

More DIY Decals Using the Essence Stampy Set!

I started thinking a few days ago, which isn't necessarily a good thing. But this time I started thinking that hey, if I can stamp onto my nails, why couldn't I stamp onto plastic and make decals.

Well, the main reason I could think of is that there's just so little polish deposited. And yet... This definitely needed experiments.

I pulled out my stuff: a small zipper-top plastic bag, some masking tape, some styrofoam, my Essence Stampy kit and some nail polishes. I figured it would be helpful to stabilize the plastic, so I used the masking tape to adhere the bag to the styrofoam very tightly. That kept it from slipping and sliding, and kept me from cussing and beating my head into the wall.

So, I picked my polish and did some test stamps. They looked fantastic, but when I tried to take pictures about halfway through, I realized that white nail polish on clear  plastic over white styrofoam is really hard to see. I added some red stamps and finally got a somewhat visible photograph.

After filling up my little piece of zipper baggie, I realized I'd done about as much stamping as I could. I was now starting to run into previous stamps, which just will not do!

So give the decals a bit more thickness and stability, I put a layer of clear polish over them, waited until those were thoroughly dry, then added yet another layer of clear topcoat. I hoped this would help them to join together into one layer of polish I could just peel up.

Did it work? Oddly enough, it did! I think I'd be much more careful with both the stamping and the brushing on top coat in the future, but these came out adorable! The best part is that if you screw up a decal, you wipe it away and start again. There's no manicure to worry about messing up!

I noticed that my clear polish seems to have reacted a bit with the white polish, causing a bit of cloudiness to form. I'm hoping that's not a huge deal. Tomorrow I'll be working on doing my nails, so I'll let you know what I find out!

Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering why on Earth I would stamp onto plastic to make decals, rather than just stamping directly onto my nails. Several reasons, actually. First off, and this is a huge part of it: I'm not very good at stamping yet. This way, I'm getting practice in without actually having to redo my nails every time I mess a stamp up. But not only that, there's another benefit to making stamped decals: you can flip them, so that you have a mirror image of your stamp. It gives you more freedom to design, and I think it's a fun idea. You might even be able to trade stamped decals with friends who have different image plates than you do!


So give it a try! You may find you enjoy it lots! If you do try it, let me know in comments, I'd love to see what you can do!

Paint splatters can be FUN!

You know, I admit it. I am totally a child of the 80s. I love neon, I love wild prints, and I love paint splats. This set of nails reminds me of a sweatshirt I had in grade school, only the shirt was white instead of black. But what better color than black to make colors pop?

You can see how vivid the colors are. I can't lie, I want to keep these all for myself! So much fun, but at least I can redo them if I decide to!

This set of nails is made with a custom-mixed rainbow of acrylic paints, so that they have the same level of intensity. I love the black base, and the topcoat makes the colors so intense and glassy!

I won't lie, I can see doing this design with shimmers, metallics, glitters... monochromatic colors, analogous colors... I think it'd be fun no matter HOW I mixed it up! It's just downright FUN! Oooh, imagine white splats on a black background, with the occasional splat of red! There are so many ways to do this, and I don't know if any are better than the others. You'll definitely see this pattern again, if only on Etsy! Speaking of Etsy, these will be going up as soon as I finish this post.

I'm so excited to add that I've got some surprises coming up soon! I'm planning some videos, both of some of those dramatic, color-shifting polishes in the sun as well as some technique videos. If you have anything you'd like to see, feel free to leave requests in the comments!

And oy, I've just looked at the clock to see that once again, I'm catching 7:30am from the wrong side. I think I need to go to sleep. Man... one of these days I'll get my internal clock set right again.

...maybe. :D

Heaven Nail Lacquer is waiting for you...

I got so many questions about where, exactly, I bought my Heaven polish. I felt a little guilty, because I was waiting til I could get there and snap a few pictures to tell. What can I say, I wanted to share all the colors, not just one! So... the big secret is out. If you're looking for lots of fun colors at completely affordable prices, go to . . .

You read that right. Go to the cosmetics department at your local Albertsons grocery store and pharmacy. I bet you didn't know they had an extensive cosmetics department! The only way I knew is because I have a family member who used to manage the cosmetics department in her local Albertsons. She would bring me the most wonderful things all the time.

The interesting thing is that the Albertsons cosmetics department isn't managed by any old grocery store manager. No, they realize that cosmetics are important to women, so their departments actually are staffed by cosmeticians! So you really should stop by and look to see what's there... you might be pleasantly surprised.

Oh wait, I did that for you! Now, let me preface this by saying that just because these were found at my local store doesn't mean they'll be at all stores, but I know that this is a concept Albertsons is proud of across the board, so I bet you might have more luck than you might expect. So, your mileage may vary, keep your seatbelts on, and let's see what I found!

CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion Mascara Made My Tiny Lashes Visible!

Ok, we're getting away from nail stuff today, I hope you guys don't mind. But I simply had to share this. If you hated it, tell me, and I'll try not to do it again. :D

So, some women are born with amazing lashes. You know the ones- long, curled, sexy lashes that frame their eyes beautifully. I always wanted lashes like that. Instead, I have tiny, fine lashes that are hard to see, and I also have a fat face with deep set eyes. This means that my lashes are all but invisible, unfortunately. I dream of the day I could get lash extensions... or just visible lashes!

So I was provided with a sample of CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion Mascara from BzzAgent. My first action was to run to the web to check it out. There I found that it's $10 at WalMart! $10, for drugstore mascara... for COVERGIRL drugstore mascara? This better be something special...

Well, I got it. I tried it. It's not perfect... the brush for it is weird. It's thick and stubby, and seems hard to control to get your corner lashes covered. And yet, this stuff really IS special. It's buildable, so you can put on as much or as little as you need. It's amazing, in that it both thickened my lashes and lengthened them, visibly. It even curled them a bit! I mean... look at this comparison!

Pardon my big scary head there, but really... do you see the difference? No smudges to clean away, no clumpy ickiness, and holy crap, you can see my eyelashes!!!

It also isn't waterproof, which makes me want to cry. Because even though it makes my eyes look this awesome, my eyes are deep-set, and this will wear off between my laughter and sweat in no time. I cannot wear non-waterproof mascara. But still, if you can? This stuff is a dream.

So there. If you're looking for high-end performance from a drugstore mascara, add this one to your list of ones to try. It won me over. It won me over so much that I'm abusing exclamation points. :D

Heaven Nail Lacquer, Ruby

There are polishes that absolutely everyone knows about- China Glaze, Orly, OPI, Nfu-Oh, the list goes on and on. They're fabulous polishes, don't get me wrong. But sometimes, it can be fun to find something new, something that hasn't been talked to death already. What can I say, if something's been shown on every other blog already, it makes me think maybe I shouldn't bother showing it?

Then there's the stuff no one talks about. I won't lie. I've been googling myself mad, looking for someone, anyone talking about this stuff. I wondered if the company squeezes live kittens into bottles, or tests their polishes on penguin beaks, upsetting their natural feeding cycle and killing millions every day. Because surely, if a polish was this good, someone would have blogged it by now?

Maybe not. Maybe I'm just lucky, and happened to wander into a place no one has thought to look for interesting new inexpensive nail polishes. If so? AWESOME!! I mean, do you see the polish on my thumb, here? And that, my friends, is without the benefit of a topcoat. This polish is something special, and I cannot say enough good things about it.

This polish is from Heaven Nail Lacquer, in the shade Ruby. You're looking at two coats, no topcoat, shot with a flash. I'm stunned, because honestly, this doesn't capture the beauty of the glitter, the depth of it. This stuff sparkles, with a depth that is absolutely insane. Add a topcoat to it and it's absolutely impossible to stop looking at it.

This bottle of polish cost a grant total of $2, give or take. I think it was $1.99, but I can't swear to it. I'm planning a blog fieldtrip soon, in which I take you all with me to the cosmetics department in which this sweet little beauty lived before it came home with me. This one is my precious, and I think it may be my favorite polish, at least for today.

Now, clearly this one isn't big 3 free. No, it's about as fulla 3 as you can get, but for $2, can you really complain? I wish I could compare it in RL to China Glaze's Ruby Pumps. From what I've seen, this could be very similar to it. It's a rich jelly polish with dense silver microglitter that shines up through the jelly for super depth and interest. I'm serious when I say that when I wear this, I can't stop looking at my fingers. Every time they catch the light, I get a wave of giggles inside, and I feel like I'm wearing Dorothy's ruby slippers on my fingertips!

Of course, I'm also a bit sappy, so it doesn't hurt that my husband got this for me for Mother's day. It's a long story, but a sweet one, and so it makes this polish just that much sweeter. Nothing like a bit of romance to make a great polish even greater!

Take care, lovelies. I've been up all night, and I think I need to curl up with my husband for the few minutes I can and appreciate how lucky I am. Give your honey an extra-loving hug this morning while you can, just because you can. :D

♥, Laynie