Teenage Dream Matte Glitter

Today's manicure is Sinful Colors Black on Black with OPI Teenage Dream in the bottom part of the nail and a matte top coat.  I think my matte top coat went bad?  Can that even happen?  It didn't work nearly as well as usual.  In theory I should have loved this, I love dark nail polish, I love Teenage Dream, when it works I love mattes and matte glitter...but this is super 'meh' for me.

I started at the bottom of the nail and just barely pulled the Teenage Dream up to about half way up the nail and let it get higher in some areas.  I like that part, I think it would be better with different colors though.

My order from Cult Nails's sale should be here tomorrow or the next day...so excited!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

I can't believe there are only 2 days left in this contest!! Today's theme was "inspired by the supernatural."  I decided to do a werewolf profile on my thumb, howling at a full moon.  I just did the werewolf on my natural nail because I thought if I did it against the same night sky gradient I did on the other fingers it wouldn't show up.  The werewolf profile kind of makes me laugh..he looks kind of like he has a beak.  But I love the gradient!  I FINALLY got the sponge gradient to work for me.  I used Essie Go Overboard, Pure Ice French Kiss, and OPI Yoga-ta Get this Blue for the gradient and then topped it with Out the Door holographic top coat for the stars.  I did the moon in Stripe Rite.

You can check out the other entries HERE, there are some really awesome ones!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 15: Delicate Print

Today's theme is delicate print.  I used Konad plate m73 for this.  OPI Russian Navy was the base color with Sally Hansen Celeb City for the stamping.  It showed up really well in person, but was really hard to capture on camera.

You can kind of see the print better at an angle...I think.

15 days down, 16 to go!  :-)

Easter Skittles

Happy Easter!  This is what's on my nails today.  I used 1 color per nail and then stamped with Sally Hansen White On using a Red Angel plate over it.

ALSO!!! I ordered a Julep Spring Mystery box.  Did anyone else?  The preview of one on Facebook had a $50 gift card in it.  I can't wait to see what's in mine.  :-)

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Colors Used: Sally Hansen White On, Mellow Yellow, Green with Envy, Lacey Lilac; Sinful Colors Why Not, OPI Strawberry Margarita
Technique: Stamping
Purchased: Sally at Target, SC at Walgreens, OPI at VyVys.
Verdict on the colors: I didn't think I liked pastels, but I actually think the purple, green, and yellow look really nice.  The other two are colors I already had and liked.  :-)

Pink Wednesday: A Dupe?

My Julep add-on (Niecy) arrived over the weekend, and when I set it on my end table I noticed it looked a lot like OPI's Strawberry Margarita which happened to also be sitting on my end table.

What do you think?

Here my index and ring fingers are painted with the OPI, the middle and pinky fingers are painted with the Julep.  Sorry for the total lack of clean up.  I was just swatching these and then taking it off to do something else.

So, dupes?  They were super close.  I think Strawberry Margarita has a tad more blue in it.  And I will say I like the application of Niecy better...this is 2 coats of each and you can see on my ring finger that Strawberry Margarita still has some thin spots.



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Colors Used: Julep Niecy, OPI Strawberry Margarita
Technique: Quick 'n dirty painting
Purchased: VyVy's and through Julep Maven program
Verdict on the colors: Super similar!  Like application of Julep better.

Blue Manicure for Autism Awareness Day

Back to using my old camera since I packed my new one up in preparation to return/exchange it.  I painted my nails blue for today for Autism Awareness Day.  I used Sinful Colors Why Not with OPI Swimsuit...Nailed it! and Sally Hansen Golden I as the accent colors.

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Colors Used: Sinful Colors Why Not, OPI Swimsuit...Nailed it!, Sally Hansen Golden I
Technique: Taping, dotting
Purchased: VyVy's, Kroger
Verdict on the colors: I really like Why Not and think it would probably do well to stamp with, it was nice and thick.

Pink Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!  Today I have OPI Strawberry Margarita with Spoiled Trust Fund Baby layered over it.  Trust Fund Baby is a fun glitter, it has hot pink square glitter, and gold, blue, and black hex glitter.  It spread really unevenly though, so that was kind of a pain.  I've found some Spoiled brushes are GREAT, but some look like they've been beaten with a tiny tiny weed wacker.

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Colors Used: OPI Strawberry Margarita, Spoiled Trust Fund Baby
Technique: Layering
Purchased: VyVy's and CVS
Verdict on the colors: Strawberry Margarita is one of my favorite pinks.  Trust Fund Baby is pretty, but the brush makes it hard to get an even distribution.

Diagonal Taped Manicure

I was so excited to find China Glaze Atlantis at VyVy's.  They had a lot of stuff my local Sally's doesn't have.  I wanted to layer it over one of the other blues I picked up and thought it would look good over OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue.  They are both really pretty, and I wish I'd taken a few pictures before I used the matte top coat on it.  My new matte top coat is seriously awesome.  It dries fast, it works great, and I'm pretty much obsessed with it.

I really liked how this turned out, I love mattified glitter.

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Colors Used: OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue, China Glaze Atlantis, with Orly Satin Seal Matte top coat
Technique: Taping
Purchased: All at VyVy's!
Verdict on the colors: How much do I love my new matte top coat??  The others are good too. :-)

Pink Wednesday

Back from San Diego and finally had a chance to sit down and upload pictures!  Here is this Wednesday's pink manicure.

The One That Got Away is a deep magenta with a fine glitter shimmer.  It went on SUPER streaky in the first coat but evens out with more coats.  It's really pretty but something about it makes me feel kind of "meh."

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Colors Used: OPI The One That Got Away
Technique: Regular manicure
Purchased: VyVy's Nail Supply, San Diego
Verdict on the colors: Applies streaky for the first coat or two, but evens out well at 3 coats.  Is very pretty and yet somehow a little boring.

Epic VyVy's nail supply haul

I'm visiting my sister in law in San Diego this weekend and read about a nail supply shop on Yelp that has $4.25 OPI!  So we went to go check out VyVy's Nail Supply on 54th Ave.  OPI is $4.25 there, China Glaze $3, Color Club $3.  That's not really a discount on CC, but I didn't think about that until after I got done buying 2.  Oh well. Still an excellent haul!  I spent like...$61 and I don't even know how much it would have been at a normal store.  Anyway, here is my haul!!  If you are ever in the San Diego area I'd definitely check VyVy's out.  :-)

OPI Half Moon

Today I used two of the colors from my OPI Best of the Best set: Russian Navy and Strawberry Margarita.  I've never tried either of these colors, but Russian Navy has been on my wishlist for awhile so I was excited about trying it.  Once I put down Strawberry Margarita as the first coat I almost didn't want to proceed with my half moon idea!  I love it, it's a prefect hot pink.  Russian Navy is beautiful, as expected.  It has tiny tiny tiny purple flecks in it that you can only see at a certain angle.  While I wish my half moons were a little more even, I still REALLY like this manicure and will probably be using both these colors a lot!

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Colors Used: OPI Strawberry Margarita and Russian Navy
Technique: Half Moon using paper reinforcers
Purchased: Birthday present!
Verdict on the colors: Looooooooooooooooove them

Nail Polish and Cake!

My birthday was Sunday, so today the lovely ladies here at work surprised me with a chocolate cake and the OPI "best of the best" minis collection.  :-D

I decorated the cake with them to take a picture and had to share.

Wasn't that sweet of them?