Sunday Sweets- Cupcakes!

Another Sunday rolls around, and I've got more Sunday Sweets for you. After my nephew's birthday party last weekend, I've got cupcakes on my mind! I just had to go looking to see what sorts of cupcake goodies I could find!

First off, I found the cutest emery boards! They come in a set of three- one with stripes, one with bubbles, and one with cute little cupcakes. These are too cute, and the bright colors made me smile. Not bad, for $1.97!


Then for £2.99 there are the cupcake nail polish remover pads. They're supposed to smell like vanilla, but I'm not sure how much I believe that! But would it really matter? The container is SO CUTE!! I love the pink and the blue, I love the cupcake, I even love the fonts!

I know, I'm a sucker for cute. But this is a surprise?

Moving on, we've got the cupcake manicure set, with all the various little manicure tools that can wreak absolute havoc on our pretty nails. But honestly, would you buy this for the tools inside, or would you buy this for the absolute adorableness?

That's what I thought. It has SPRINKLES!! I think this is just the cutest little set, and it would be even better if it were handmade by someone awesome on Etsy, don't you think? Still, at $8.95 it's not horribly expensive, and it's so sweet!

Once you've got your nails all shaped and pretty, then what? Well, of course you paint your nails with the cupcake polishes set! For $8.00 you get six polishes with cupcakes on the bottles, along with separators for your toes, and a big cupcake tag to make gifting a breeze. Seriously, could it get any better than this?

Well, since you asked? Yea, yea it can. This cupcake pedicure set may only have two polishes, but its toe separators have cupcakes on them! Plus, you get a cupcake-shaped emery board, a vanilla frosting hand/foot cream, and cupcake nail decals, all for $12.99! I wish someone had sent me this for my birthday, because adult or not, I'd have had a ball with this set! Ah well... it was still a good day.

I honestly am surprised I found so much fun cupcake manicure stuff, but it was so much fun to track down! This makes me look forward to next Sunday's Sweets. What would you like to see- cute nail art? High end products? Maybe a hunt for your favorite animal? Leave suggestions in the comments, and I might just see what I can find for you!

Til next time!
♥ Laynie

Incoco Dry Nail Applique- too good to be true?

I've been seeing the Incoco Dry Nail Applique packets at my local drugstore for a year or more, but I can't lie, the price was definitely an issue that kept me from trying it. But every so often, I would wander over and look at the various colors and wonder if they were any good.

Part of the problem for me was the display. The colors looked so dull, so boring. I'm not a creme polish sort of girl. I like glitter, I like shimmer, and I like colors that are deep and interesting. From what I could see, the Incoco selection seemed limited and bland. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $8 on a pack of nail polish stuff that I couldn't even really tell what kind of color and finish it was.

Then one day I was browsing through the Walgreens' clearance section. I don't know about you, but I adore finding things on sale. I'm not bad about buying things just because they're on sale, but if it's something I'm interested in? Oh, heck YES I'll jump! So, when I saw packs of Incoco stickers for one dollar, I couldn't resist. I pulled out my wallet and left with Sinderella feeling like I'd just made a super purchase!

The packet sat in my nail box for ages. I'm not even sure why, but I always seemed to have something else to do, or I was worried I didn't have enough time to figure them out, or I was just flat out intimidated. How on Earth would I be able to put nail polish stickers onto my right hand without making them look horrible?

Then I decided to try them. I sat down with the packet, opened everything up, read the instructions and decided to go for it. If I'd had any sense at all, I'd have looked on YouTube for instruction videos. Incoco has a channel with instructions for both plain and French tips, and the videos are very clear and informative. I'd have had much more luck if I'd watched them first!

Of course, if I'd been thinking ahead, I'd have photographed the whole process of applying them. I didn't, though, because I hadn't really gotten into this whole blog thing yet. I did take pictures of things five days after the application, though, because I'm weird like that. (I even have pictures of me in an ambulance, because my husband is as much of a photojournalist as I am. One of the pictures has me with the emesis bag over my mouth and my middle finger in the air, because it captured the spirit of the moment so well. But I digress...)

The first thing that surprised me was the color of the polish. This wasn't a creme after all! No, this was an absolutely amazing deep golden shimmer polish that was intensely beautiful. Still, getting it on was a bit intimidating, but I found that as long as I took my time, they came out beautiful. And amazingly enough, they were actually dry immediately, with no dinging or smearing at all!

As soon as I finished the polish, we left to go run errands, and it seemed like we didn't stop for days. This polish stayed on like a dream, though. Look at the tipwear, for pete's sake... that's insane for 5 days! All of my nails were like this. They stayed beautiful and glossy, and made me so incredibly happy every time I looked at them.

One thing, though. The Incoco instructions say that their one little packet of nail polish remover will clean the polish off all 10 nails. Maybe they're talking different people than me, because this stuff was on there. Their polish remover pad is made of felt, so that it really did work nicely, but I still only managed 5-6 fingers before needing my own remover. Still, if that's the worst I can say about the stuff? Not bad...

So let's look at the pros and cons. It's fast, it's easy, and it's incredibly neat. The product has no bad smell at all. You could use this on an airplane, in a hospital, wherever without any guilt at all.

As for the negative aspect, I'm not fond of the packaging. It's too hard to see what type of finish you'll have. I also find it pretty expensive, since you're getting one manicure for $8, as opposed to a bottle of China Glaze polish (or Orly, or OPI, or whatever your favorite brand is). Also, there's not as much flexibility with these as there is with a bottle of polish. You can't really layer them (I think?), and you can't do any frankening.

Still, these are sweet as heck if you need them in an emergency. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for sales, because these would be fabulous to keep on hand. What do you think- would you like to try Incoco Dry Nail Appliques? Do you think they're priced well, or over- or under-priced? Tell me what you're thinking...

An experiment that works!

I should wait. I know it. I get way too excited about things before they're finished, then I tell everyone and the surprise is ruined. But I'm halfway through the first set of these, and I think I can share my test nail without ruining too much of the surprise. So, humor me, will ya?

Yesterday, my husband and I went walking through a variety of shops- hobby stores, craft stores, etc. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love wandering through a creative-type store, because I never know exactly what's going to catch my eye, or what I'm going to go home with.

Thanks to this wandering I get to show you a preview of my next set of nails. They're for halloween ... they're spooooky monster nails! Be afraid!

Ok, maybe they aren't exactly scary, but they're monsters! Monsters with googly eyes! The nail in the picture is the second to smallest size nail tip, so most have more room for painting and detailing. Thankfully, I've got all sorts going.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I'm enjoying this set. I was painting last night in a room alone, giggling to myself about how silly and cute some of these monsters are. There are no details yet, but personalities are already starting to show. I cannot WAIT to finish this set!

So, what do you think? Have you started thinking about halloween at all? Am I the only one who starts thinking about halloween in August? Talk to me!

No H8- my inspired reaction to the overturning of Proposition 8.

I'm not even sure what to say about this, really. When I heard yesterday that Proposition 8 had been overturned, I was so overwhelmed. I sat and smiled, feeling history being made, and wondered what had taken so long to get to this point. I told my husband, my son. My online friends and I talked and laughed, happy for some good news for a change.

Then last night before I was heading to bed, I found this post- the Daily Nail's post about her No H8 manicure. I love rainbows as you may have noticed in my past blogs, but even more so I love the idea of the No H8 campaign. I also absolutely agree with every word she said in her blog. So when I saw her manicure, I knew I wanted to do my own spin on the idea. But be aware that this one came directly from the Daily Nail.

I immediately pulled out all my stuff and got down to business. Sally Hansen Hard as Nails base coat, then I mixed custom colors for the rainbow in acrylic paints*. For some reason, I like my rainbows with brighter colors, rather than the traditional red, so I used Medium Magenta, Brilliant Blue, and Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue straight from the tube and mixed the purple, green, and orange from these. For my left thumb, I used 2 coats of Fantasy Makers** white, then used a dotter with Fantasy Makers black and Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff in Red Forever Creme to do the lettering.

I took the picture to the right before I'd even finished cleaning up. My fingers are so messy... don't judge me, please! At that point, it was something like 2:30 am and I was absolutely crashing. I shoved everything back into my polish box and tried to sleep some. Once I got up, I realized that I didn't like the way the colors looked, so I decided to top the rainbow fingers off with a holographic top coat. I grabbed my Milani HD and did a thin coat over all the rainbow nails, leaving the NO H8 thumb alone.

I did another round of cleanup and scrubbed my hands nicely and wound up with this, and I think I'm pretty happy with it. Unfortunately, no one has noticed my nails yet. But it's ok. I know what they mean... they sum up my belief that love doesn't discriminate between color or gender, and that our laws shouldn't either. I have no problem with churches refusing to marry couples of the same sex, because that is their right. But there is a difference between marriage in the church and a legal marriage, and the church, in my opinion, has no right to step into legal matters.

Be happy, be safe, and be kind to each other. Those are the best suggestions I have for this life...

*I use Liquitex Professional Acrylic Artist Color in Heavy Body for my acrylic paints.
**Fantasy Makers polishes are distributed by Markwins Beauty Products Inc.

Sally Hansen- Rockstar Pink: My Unbirthday Nails

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't gotten around to putting together a lemming list. It's not that I don't have polishes I drool over, polishes I have planned for when I can squirrel away a few dollars that aren't going toward school supplies or school clothes or kiddo's needs. But with life being what it is, and my somewhat limited amount of energy, that lemming list has gotten pushed to the back burner.

However, for my birthday, I was happy to snag one of the polishes I've been eying every time I pass a Sally Hansen display. This time, I picked up Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Rockstar Pink.

I'm not sure where the "rockstar" in the name comes in, but let me say how much I adore it. This polish is truly a glitterbomb of happiness! Overall, it seems to be a cool, rather dusty pink at first glance. Almost a lavender, really, although it seems a bit mottled when you first look.

But when you look more closely, you find absolutely insane amounts of glitter! Not just pink... no, there are lots of colors: pink, lavender, purple, blue, red, gold, silver?  It's hard to tell, because they're so small, but it's so amazing. The picture to the right is 2 coats, and despite the photo, it's basically full coverage with those two coats. I swatched briefly to see what I thought, before doing all my nails.

I decided to use a base coat of pink, something to give it a bit more depth, I guess. I didn't realize just how full coverage those two coats would be! I used a single coat of Nail Fantasies in Peppermint Patty, a beautiful hot pink creme that is almost neon, but not quite. If I were wearing it alone, I'd need two coats, but for this one was sufficient.

Then I layered two coats of Rockstar Pink on top, and realized that the pink didn't show at all. I could have saved the drying time, but next time I'll know. I topped it off with a layer of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails quick-dry topcoat, and enjoyed their glassy smoothness.

Now I have to be honest- while this polish is amazingly fun and glittery, it's also the worst glitter I've had to remove. I've never had a problem like this removing glitters! I felt like trying to sand off my fingernails with a belt sander before I was done! Honestly, it took me a full hour to get this stuff off, and by the end I was cursing up a storm.

Gorgeous color, freaking lousy removal. Plus it was chipped all to hell after 2 days. Maybe it's a problem with the bast coat, I don't know, but I wasn't amused.

Still, I know it's just a matter of time before the glitterbomb bottle sings its siren song to me once again, and I've lacquered my nails with the juicy, glittery goodness of Rockstar Pink once again.

Thank you all for the happy birthday comments. You have absolutely no idea how much they meant to me. I had quite a roller-coaster of a day, complete with laughter and tears, freakouts and unsolicited hugs, and I even got to make a little boy in the middle of a meltdown feel better. Overall, it was a good day.

We went walking at Whole Foods last night, looking for Bacon Salt of all things. I was sure I'd seen on their website that Whole Foods was one of the places you could get it. It isn't, at least not anymore. But it was fun regardless. I got to see Zoya polishes in person (gorgeous!!) and even swatch a few, and that's where I made the little boy stop melting down. It's a great technique, actually. For small children in the middle of an actual breakdown, where they're not just being whiny or whatever, if you ask them a random question and can catch their attention, it interrupts the meltdown cycle and just stops it cold. It was beautiful, and the father was SO impressed.

The little boy was around 2, and looked absolutely exhausted. He was sobbing, huge tears rolling down his face, and his father was trying to get him to stop crying but seemed at a bit of a loss. So I stepped up and said, "Hey buddy, what's that in your hand? Is that a phone?"

He looked at me through the tears and just... stopped. The tears stopped, the vocalizing stopped, and you could clearly see what was going through his head: "What the hell is this weird lady talking about?" I talked to him for another 10-15 seconds, just to make sure the cycle had broken, then I smiled at his dad, who was looking at me like I was working magic or something. I told him briefly that when you can distract kids with a question the way I did, it can stop a meltdown. The kid was fine after that, for the next 10-15 minutes at least. :D

So overall it was a good day. I splurged for my birthday and got 3 nail polishes- woo! (Awesome $5, if you ask me!) I got Sally Hansen RockStar Pink (a $2.50 crazy glitter mix of pink, red, purple, blue, gold, silver... and who knows, maybe more!), Wet N Wild Wild Card ($1 for a shimmery lavender gorgeousness that defies pictures, apparently!), and Wet N Wild Eggplant Frost ($1, oddly not a frost but a deep blurple shimmer that is to DIE for!). I then came home and put on 2 coats of the glitterbomb, and now my nails are like... maybe radioactive candy? I don't know, but I love them!

Of course, we stopped off for groceries on the way home (because really? Us? Buy groceries at Whole Paychecks? Don't think so...) and of course, husband looked at me wrong and I had to fight off sobbing in the store the whole time we were there. Seriously, days like yesterday make me convinced I'm still PMSing. I tracked it for a while, and I swear it even happens fairly regularly every 4 weeks or so. Explain that one to me?

Then this morning I was off looking at blogs and went to make a comment. This particular blog had word verification on for commenting, and I cracked up at my particular word. It even inspired a cute little slogan. Some of you may appreciate it... and if not, bite me. It's my not-birthday.

So yea, blah. I've been up all night once again, and I'm just tired and moody and ... blah. But hey- I'm not dead yet. :D

Birthdays kinda suck sometimes.

A rare, picture-free post. It's my birthday, humor me.

Speaking of, birthdays sometimes suck. I've decided that I'm not actually having a birthday this year, so to speak. Instead, it's more of a I'm still not dead, so bite me day. Yea, I like that...

That doesn't mean I'm not going polish shopping for my not-birthday. :D