Life's a Beach- Revlon Beach, that is!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope it's a wonderful day for you. If I had my way, I'd have every single one of you over for a giant party (catered, of course!) so we could sit and talk nails and fashion and just have a great time! Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way, so whether you're having a giant gathering or a simple day at home, I hope your life is filled with blessings and bright spots.

I'm thankful for so many things: my wonderful best friend (who happens to be my husband!), my awesome kid who isn't a kid anymore, my extended family and friends, the fact that my health is better right now than it's been in years. I also have to say this- I'm so thankful for every single one of you reading my blog, because you guys bring me so much joy every single day. I hope I can bring a smile or two to all of you as well! *hugs*

Ok, enough with the sappy stuff- let's get to the goodies! Today, I'm showing you a polish I got in a wonderful prize package from Dainty Darling Digits a while back. It's a very light golden green color with absolutely gorgeous shimmer. I think I would be absolutely in love with the color if it didn't make me have lobster hands!

The interesting thing about this polish (other than the gorgeous color) is that it's scented! I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, since I don't particularly like the smell, but it's certainly interesting.

Beach applied really nicely, and although I was worried about brush strokes there really weren't any. It's such a lovely color, and I'm sad it makes my skin look so... icky. I'm now wondering if I should try layering it, or just set it aside to use in a prize package for someone else. =/

So what do you think- keep it or share the love? And what are you thankful for this year? I'd love to hear some positive stories!

Hard Candy - Beetle

You may have noticed by now that I tend to be drawn to interesting polishes- duochromes, holos, things that don't look typical. I love iridescence, I love sparkle and glitter and shimmer. I am a total magpie, so when I saw Hard Candy's new polish Beetle in the display, I absolutely fell in love.

It's such a hard color to describe, for me. Depending on the angle of the light, I can see purple, magenta, green and gold in it at varying times. It's a beautiful foil polish that is absolutely stunning on the nail, and it wears like iron on me. These photos were taken 7 days after I applied the polish, and I hadn't even applied topcoat after that!

The photo to the left shows more of the variations of color that show up. I wore this the day of the impromptu polish party, and my nieces absolutely loved it. They gathered around while I was painting their nails and tried to decide how many colors they could find in it.

Then one niece asked why it was called Beetle. I loved this, because I was able to describe how beetles' wings are iridescent and reflect many colors, just like this polish. We also discussed the term "duochrome," and the roots of it- duo means two and chrome means colors.

Unfortunately, they then asked why this would be called a duochrome if more than two colors show up, and I had no answer for them. I think they forgave me for it, though. They certainly seemed happy enough with the holo polish on their own nails!

I had lots of fun wandering around my father-in-law's property looking for photo ops. He's got so many lovely flowerbeds, but almost nothing was in bloom this time of year! Of course, he did have some gorgeous pansies in the back yard that I didn't find until after I'd finished taking photos. That's ok, though... I'm happy with the shots I got.

What do you think of Beetle- is it your kind of polish, or do you tend to stick with more traditional colors?

Hard Candy Beetle was provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

More Experiments- Sponging With Gold

Mmmm, I love it when an experiment comes out nicely. I was experimenting the other day with various ways to liven up a neutral polish. I decided to go with simple things, and ended up absolutely falling in love with one of the looks. It isn't that the others aren't fun (except for that flower garden... it just did NOT work as I'd hoped it would!), but I am in LOVE with this look!

Do you see this? OMG, I love it. All I did was get a very inexpensive kitchen sponge (I think they were two for a dollar at the Dollar Tree) and cut it into a smaller manageable section. I made sure to get sponges with irregular-sized holes, instead of one with very small, uniform holes like a makeup sponge.

I put a base color of a nice, neutral taupe on my nails. Then once it was dry, I painted a coat of gold polish onto the sponge, then lightly touched it to my nail. That's it, and I was left with this gorgeous effect- sort of crackled, sort of granite-looking. I absolutely adore it!

What do you think- is this your sort of look? What would you add to this to make it pop more? 

Blah blah was provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Impromptu Nail Polish Party!

I had a spectacular day yesterday. I'd gone with my family to my in-laws' house, where my husband's aunt made everyone homemade beignets and we visited for hours! Everyone was there, too, so it was pretty amazing fun, if a bit chaotic at times!

Somehow, my gorgeous holo purple polish I picked up at the Dollar Tree wound up in my purse instead of in my untried box (no clue how, seriously!), and I ended up having an impromptu polish party with three of my nieces! SO MUCH FUN!

I got a pic of the bottle during the middle of the day, when the sun was out and the holo was playing nicely. Unfortunately, the pics I took of the girls were taken as the sun was fading, so the color is just not as good... so humor me!

The girls were all so excited about going into my blog, though, and so without further ado, here are my nieces and their nails!

Then I managed to get them all three together for a group shot before they ended up back in trees in front of the house. For once, it was the girls climbing trees and the boys inside playing with legos. Nuts, yea? :D

My nieces are awesome, and I've been informed that I need to bring my entire nail polish & nail art stuff collection to Thanksgiving, so that we can have a polish party. I told them no, not everything, but I'd put together a bunch of polish for them to choose from. I smell a Thanksgiving Konad party on the horizon!!

Stay tuned, I foresee more pictures coming soon!

YAY, IT HAPPENED! 10,000 pageviews!!

I love you guys!! I never expected to get this far with the blog, and I am so excited to think about what's to come! Have a great week!

I'm having a GIVEAWAY!!

I've started this post so many times, and I'm realizing that I'm so overwhelmed that I just don't know what to say! I'll just jump into it... since I've started this blog, I've had such amazing support from my readers. You guys make me so happy with your comments, your tweets, and your emails, and I've absolutely fallen in love with blogging.

Imagine my surprise when I went into my dashboard a few days ago and realized that I was quickly approaching a major (for me, at least) milestone. I started hinting that I had something big up my sleeve. (If you follow me on twitter, you'll get hints like these, as well as spontaneous nail-of-the-day pics, weird links, and general chattiness!) What did I see?

I saw that I was quickly approaching 10,000 pageviews. (That's not counting my own, either!) I cannot even imagine that my words have been looked at that many times! To celebrate, I'm throwing a party!

Ok, not exactly a party, although if I could have you all over for a party I SO would! Instead, though, I'm giving away $100 worth of Broadway Nails products! I couldn't believe how generous the folks at Broadway Nails were when they agreed to do this. I'm so excited for whoever wins! So how do you win?

I've decided to make it complicate for myself, and easy for you. I've got a google form all ready for you, and all you have to do is fill in your information. Easy peasy! So, let's get to the details, shall we?

This giveaway will run from right now until midnight December 4, 2010. (I'm hoping the winner can get their goodies by the holidays!) To enter, you need to be a public GFC follower of my blog, and I'll need your email so I can contact you if you win. Would you like some extra entries?

• Add Layniefingers to your blogroll. (+1 entry)
• Blog about this giveaway (or stick it in your sidebar). (+1 entry)
• Follow me on Twitter. (+1 entry)
• Tweet about this giveaway. (+1 entry)
• Friend me on Facebook. (+1 entry)
• Finally, people who comment frequently will get an extra entry. (I know who you are!)

So really... what are you waiting for? Get entered, and spread the word! I'd love to see my GFC list go over 200!

Edit: Sorry, the giveaway is closed now. 

But keep watching the blog, 

I'm sure there will be another one soon!

This prize is being generously provided by Broadway Nails. Thanks so much!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

OMG! I found Sally Hansen Nail Prisms for $0.50!

Do you ever have one of those days that just feels providential? This was definitely one of those days! My husband and I were going to go for a walk, and I decided to go to the Dollar Tree just to see what was there.

I went wandering through the crafty section while my husband went to toys. Then I decided to check out the cosmetics section, and I am so glad I did!! There, hanging amidst the LA Colors topcoat and the nail files were these neon orange Sally Hansen polishes packaged two for a dollar. And in these packages just happened to be three colors of the hard to find Sally Hansen Nail Prisms, including one of the prettiest purple holos I've seen!

That's right- I picked up this amazing purple holo (that absolutely REFUSED to play nicely with my camera. Stupid night shots!) for a grand total of fifty cents. Umm... really? I'm absolutely in shock.

I embarrassed myself when I found them. I was casually browsing until I read "Nail Prisms," at which point I actually squealed loud enough for my husband to hear me all the way on the other side and end of the store. He came running, worried that I'd hurt myself, only to find me giggling like a lunatic and pulling polish from the racks. I know... what can I say, I'm a freak?

Now, they weren't packaged consistently. There was one Nail Prisms polish and one Sally Hansen Salon (the old square bottles), but the colors were rather random. I dug around to make sure I didn't get any duplicates, and I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with. 

I've been plotting holiday nail art and have gotten a perfect Christmas green, but I didn't have a good Christmas red, so I'm REALLY happy with Reddy to Mingle- it's such a gorgeous red with just a tiny hint of shimmer.

You can see the color breakdown on the left here, and that photo does get bigger if you click it. Again, stupid night photos, the colors are as true as i can get them. Purple Diamond is as amazing a purple holo as I've ever seen. Golden Cinnabar is a strange color, sometimes looking rosy, sometimes golden, sometimes greenish. I'm not sure, but I think I might like it. Diamond is a straight silver holo, from what I can tell... it's absolutely gorgeous. Mist You was the big surprise out of the bunch- it's very similar to the CND special effects polishes- very sheer with a super lavender kick. Rose to the Occasion is an almost-creme pink that's fairly opaque. Reddy to Mingle is a crazy-beautiful red jelly that has a bit of almost-hidden shimmer (from what I could tell).

Clearly I need to take better photos, but you can see a hint of the shimmer in this shot. In RL it is an intense lavender, absolutely breathtaking. I think I'm in LOVE!!

So you may want to go hit up your local Dollar Trees. You never know just what goodies you'll find! There were also a lot of really pretty false nail kits, some nail gem kits, nail glue packs 2 for a dollar... so much fun stuff! I also picked up a quick dry top coat to try, simply because I need to see if I can spend less than $10 a bottle for top coat. :D

Happy Friday! ♥