Late Hanukkah Mani

  Oh my very special holiday, I haven't forgotten about you!

Ta-da!

It wasn't my best mani, but it served its very festive purpose.

  For this mani I used China Glaze First Mate with OPI Silver Shatter for everything but for the ring fingers I used Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and the Art Club striper in Midnight Blue.
  I was really surprised about how much shimmer Silver Shatter had!  What me and my best friend did was she got Pink Shatter, I got Silver Shatter ($5.99 each) and we got Speak For Your-Elf! free!!!

Happy Hanukkah!
Em

Christmas Mani

  Sorry I've been so behind on posting!!  Life's been pretty crazy lately and I've still be doing mani's, I just dont have enough time to photograph them before they chip or upload the photos.
  But I knew that I had to get this post out today!

Very festive!

I used:
Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby
Wet n Wild SaGreena the Teenage Witch
China Glaze Mega Bite

Red + Green + Gold = Merry Christmas

Across the middle of the nail is those red webs (those were an accident) that happen to be awesome!!!

Colors used.

All my tape and toothpics and Q-tips.  Joyous cleanup.

  Less than an hour after I finished this mani, I went to color me mine and made a mug.  I can't wait to use it!!

  Finished Hanukkah (my holiday) mani coming soon!

Happy holidays,

Em

China Glaze Hunger Game (Colours from the Capitol) Collection Press Release

  Gasp!!!  I really am looking forward to Luxe and Lush but I might also pick up Smoke and Ashes, Riveting, and Electrify.  Honestly, I have never read the Hunger Games books.


(I was not asked to put this press release on my blog.)

Finger Paints Special Effects Top Coat Press Release

JUST OUT!

Flecked

Motley 

Twisted

Flashy

Asylum

  OMG, Finger Paints flakies!!!!  I desperately want Twisted and probably Asylum :).


(I was not asked to put this press release on my blog.)

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Streak

Not auto-fixed.  Four coats.  Five on some nails.

Auto-fixed on Picnik.  No top coat.

  I'm gonna hate on this polish.  It's a nice color.  Not an "OMG!" color but not a "Ick" color.  A "meh" color.  I picked it up in a double pack with an Insti-Dri top coat.  Not used here though.

  It dried relatively quickly for a chrome polish.  Can't give you an exact time amount but it dried quicker than a creme finish polish.  It wore pretty well.  Two of my fingers got majorly chipped because I picked at them.  I didn't feel like re-doing four coats so I just did one.  You can tell which one in the first photo.

  I believe that neither of these pictures are color-accurate.  Also I really had to do four coats because of brush strokes.  UGHHHHH!!!

  I'll wear it again if I feel like it.  Otherwise, whatever.  Definitely not the best, but definitely not the worst.

Happy chroming,

Em

Busted! Zoya Phoebe

  Late in the summer months, I decided to get all of Zoya's summer matte collection.  Phoebe was the one I wanted the most :)

By itself without topcoat (or cleanup, sorry).

With topcoat.  Love :)

With Pure Ice Busted (a purple-gold shimmer).

  I really do love this.  It was so loved, that it was my mani to Homecoming.

Happy shimmering,

Em

On Yahoo! News: Nail Polish is the Biggest Beauty Trend of 2011

Link to article!!


I've actually heard other nail polish bloggers suggesting this a few months ago :).  Win for the nail polish world!!

OPI Sit Under the Apple Tree with DL Happy Birthday (Shimmer Sammich)

  I have never seen a shimmer sandwich done.  I bet it has been done but I haven't seen it.  Ta-da!  Behold the greenish-yellowish shimmer in SUTAT and the glitter in HB.

SUTAT is a sheer green-yellow shimmer.  It could probably be opaque in 3 coats but I didn't try to make it opaque.
It really does look like a Granny Smith apple.  Love <3

1 coat of SITAT and 1 coat of HB then another coat of SITAT.  Plus top coat.

Its like an odd version of the Get This Party Started! set.

Muy bueno.  I love it.

Best picture.

   I love SITAT more than I thought and I learned that HB really does dry :).

Happy sandwiching,
Em

HAPPY (late) THANKSGIVING!

  I know this is late but mainly I am thankful for my friends and family.  They are my shining stars in every day and I don't know what I would do without them.
  Without further ado, failed turkey mani!

All with Pure Ice Oh Baby! over it.
Red- Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby
Orange- Wet N Wild Shine Sunny Side
Blue- $OPI Slushied
Purple- Funky Fingers Cheshire

Brown is Pure Ice Magic, gold is China Glaze Mega Bite.
Fail of a turkey face...

Happy turkeying,

Em

Funky Fingers Riot (with some Pure Ice shimmers)

  The first picture is when I re-did the mani a few days later, just without the shimmer.  I really do like this purple :)  Its gorgeous.

  Riot is a dark purple.  The picture below is slightly blackened (which annoys me).  I said last night at dinner that it looks like grape jelly but my mom said that it is too opaque to be grape jelly.  I meant the shade of purple that grape jelly is.  It's like the color of the cap on the dark Welch's grape jelly jar.  It's a nice purple that dries to a semi-matte (RUBBERIZED) finish.

Too dark a picture (GRR) without.  Two coats but I eventually added a third and some top coat.

With Pure Ice Oh Baby! on all fingers except for Pure Ice Busted on the ring finger.

Oh Baby! flashes purple/pink/blue whereas Busted flashes purple/gold/pink.

  Love!

  On the second trial (the one with just Riot) I put it on Wednesday night and I'm still wearing it with a little tip wear and chips on two fingers on Sunday morning. Woo!!!

Happy painting,

Em

Pure Ice Silver Mercedes

  Silver Mercedes is a classic, metallic silver.  I love it.  It is the only non-glitter silver that I own. :)

My ultimate silver.

Two to three coats

Shiiiiiiiiiiiny

You can see its a teeny bit streaky.  Thats metallic for you.

Happy metallicing,

Em

Sinful Colors Black on Black (matte) and lookie what I found!!

Sha-bam!  Only a single one of the DL dupe was left.  Eek!

Oh yes!!

  But sadly, none (yes I freaking repeat NONE) of these beauties came home with me.  I hate it.

And here is the actual mani.  I couldn't find a cat so this heart must do.

I hate not having my lemming Revlon's...

Happy hearting,

Em


***Update- by the time this is posted, I have officially gotten ALL of the Revlon's that I wanted :)

China Glaze It's Alive

WARNING!!! PICTURE SPAM AHEAD!!!

One clear base coat, two coats of color, three coats top coat.

It ate the first coat of top coat and the second made it practically smooth.  I just added the third for shinyness.

Me like blurry.

This polish was too awesome to auto-fix any of the photos.

So friggn (yes, friggn) awesome.

This may be my most favorite polish, like, ever.

Even though they may not look it, the middle/ring and the pointer/pinky have the exact same everything.
It's just the lighting that makes them look different.

It's Alive is a murky, swampy green base filled with pretty much the same color tiny and medium sized circular glitter.
So worth it.

OMG...

Blurry.  I could wear this every day for the rest of my life and be completely content.

  I did this manicure by lantern light during the blizzard.  I lost power from that original Saturday afternoon until the following Tuesday night.  Probably about 16 inches fell.  It was miserable.  We had our generator running almost the entire time.  If you got hit, I feel your pain.  If you got rain, lucky you.

  I hate snow.  Especially in October.  Thanks for ruining Halloween snow.  Because of it, my town and a lot of nearby towns rescheduled Halloween to be Friday... which I can't do.  I had to cancel my party but I ended up going to another anyway.  This is where I decided it would be a good idea to flip over a U-shaped couch (I forgot that there was a table in the middle of it..).  I am in pain...

  Sorry for not talking about the polish at the end.  It was a dream to apply, two (not four!) effortless coats.  Extremely a joy.

Happy snowing,

Em

Fantasy Makers Night Glow Reswatch

  My reswatch of Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Night Glow.  This time I specifically paid attention to the glow.  It glowed for several days.  The glow did fade a bit each day though.  Once my eyes adjusted to the glow, it went away.  So it really only glowed for me for a few minutes after it was dark.

Four coats I think

  Everything else is pretty much the same.  But I think that I had an easier time applying it this time.

Happy glowing,

Em

P.S.-  I hope everyone in the NorthEast is okay.  We got hit pretty bad.  A lot of trees came down, a lot of wires, and a helluva lot of snow.  I know I just got  my power back after seventy-seven hours (luckily I had a generator).  Just hang in there and they strong.

Icing Epic Winning

  Doesn't everyone remember this guy?  I sure do...

Charlie Sheen! (photo from Google Images)

  Well if you aren't in the loop then you don't know that Icing has three nail polishes named after him; Epic Winning, Tiger's Blood, and Rockstar From Mars.  I didn't pick up the last one though.

  But I was going to a mall that has an Icing in it (I was so excited!) because the closest one to me is 45 minutes away.  I had seen Epic Winning on the shelf and eventually decided to get it when I hadn't seen Tiger's Blood which was my main objective.  But at the register there were a few bottles of Tiger's Blood and I was like OMG it was just sitting there waiting for me!  Eek!!!

  Without more chattering, here is Epic Winning (and it actually wins epically).

Bam!

Three coats glitter, one top coat.

Love in a bottle...

Pointer, middle, and pinky all have one coat of a blue and (I think) only one coat of Epic Winning.
Ring finger has one coat of black and (I think) only one coat of Epic Winning.
I am in love with it over black.

Gah!!!!

  There you have it, one of my new favorite loves.  It is a thiiiiiiick glitter but the result is well worth the difficult application and the icky brush (I hate it!  Too big!) and the rip-off bottle (exactly like China Glaze's).

  Sigh...

Happy winning,

Em