Mani Monday: Keep Calm and Paint On

Hey,

I went to get my nails done today, the color I chose was China Glaze Keep Calm and Paint On. It was part of the Avant Garden collection that was released in the spring. I just had my nails mint but saw this and wanted it on my nails, I was going to buy this one but I couldn't find it, now that I have on my nails I'm glad I didn't, I have Re-Fresh Mint so a shimmer top coat would pretty much make this color so it's not worth it in my opinion. It's a pretty color and my nails are acrylics so the paint won't chip but it will fade. I don't know what the top coat was. The polish isn't so blue in person.

Thanks for reading, leave any request below!

NOTD: Going Green

with flash

Hey,

I have been very bad with posting, I started a new job and have been working 50 hour weeks and therefore I haven't had much time to write up a post and then post it. But I am going to work on that starting now! This week I went with China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint and Four Leaf Clover. Both gorgeous shades of green and great polishes. I used Four Leaf Clover as my accent nail and then the mint on the rest of my nails.  Both these polishes last long on the nails and they really compliment each other. I used no top coat or base coat. Four Leaf Clover is very staining on the nails, in my experience using a base coat makes no difference with preventing stains from this polish.

without flash

Thanks for reading, leave any request below!



Mani Monday: Tart-y for the Party

Hey,

This blog is up a little late today but at least I got one up this week, I started a new job and have been working a lot so I haven't had time to get a Mani Monday post up, but I'm going to start getting these back up. This week I used China Glaze Tart-y for the Party, the name is perfect for this post! It is part of the Avant Garden collection which I don't believe is still out but I could be wrong. On my ring finger I used Avon Nailwear Pro in Urban Gray and over that two random cheap glitters that didn't have labels anymore, sorry. They are both silver glitters, ones very small fine glitter and the other it a more chunky big glitter. I have found that when doing a silver glitter nail using a gray nail polish underneath looks really nice.

Sorry the glitter didn't come out well, glitter doesn't photograph well.

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Mani Monday: Sunny Days with an Orange Fix

With flash

Hey,
This week I decided to do something bright for summer on my nails, these nails are really cute and fun for summer.. The colors I used were Rimmel 60 Second polish in Sunny Days and Maybelline Color Show polish in Orange Fix. I did four coats of the yellow, this one isn't as opaque as I would like but with a white base underneath two coats should work great. For the accent nail the orange only took two coats and the orange polka dots went on in one coat, but I did go over a few making a few darker. I used no base coat, and the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.


With natural lighting

 Thanks for reading, please leave any request below.

So far both polishes are holding up well, but the yellow didn't dry to nice and got a little messed up since I used so many coats.
 

Mani Monday: Caramel Cupcake



What it looks like in sunlight

Hey,

This week I went with Rimmel 60 Second polish in Caramel Cupcake, its a pretty nude. Unfortunately this color is not flattering with my skin tone, so if you have a medium skin tone you may want to pass on this polish, although it looks gorgeous in the sun; it makes your hands look like mannequin hands. It would probably look nice on some one with either a dark skin tone or a light skin tone. The polish itself is great, has nice lasting power, goes on opaque in two coats which for a nude this cheap is amazing, it also applies so easily. These polishes truly are great and I would recommend them, but this shade just isn't a good color for me.

What it looks like in natural lighting

I think from now on I'm going to include picture of what the polish looks like in natural light and in the sun. I'm also going to try to get back into blogging by doing at least three post a week.

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Ways to Change Up Your Manicure

No one likes chipped nails and the same
manicure can get boring.

Hey,
 
Do you have chipped nails, getting bored with your manicure mid-way through the week, or tired of the same old one color manicure week after week but not so great at nail art? Well if any of those apply to you then this post is perfect for you! I want to share with you a few easy ways to change up any manicure and a few that hide those chipped tips. I personally only like to paint my nails once a week so this is what I often do to cover up the chipping, I may add on to these and do a part two. The green is Rimmel 60 Second polish in Sage All the Rage and the brown is Sally Hansen Complete Manicure in Commander in Chic. Both featured in a haul recently you can see that here and the green was just in my past Mani Monday, which you can see here. Also when doing these try to pick an opaque polish to make these much easier.

The middle one isn't actually pointy it's the
light reflecting.

 
So the first thing I like to do is like a half moon manicure but with a triangle, this has been pretty trendy lately and is a fun twist on the half moon manicure, I used a post it, pretty strange but it worked pretty good. I cut one of the corners on the sticky side and stuck that on the base of my nail and then painted the tip, I did have to touch up the green because it was a little messy so painting on the triangle would probably be easy if you aren't trying to cover up any chipping. To do that I would use two pieces of tape and just tape them onto the nail forming a triangle at the base.
 
Next is one of my personal favorites, I actually do polka dots on my nails fairly often. I think they are super cute and good for any color combo, and they look great as an accent or on all of your nails. I use the ball of a sewing pin but a dotting tool is the more conventional way, I just don't own one. I have also used lollipop sticks for bigger dots and that worked really great.
 
The half moon manicure is a pretty popular easy nail art trick. The most common way and the method I used was using binder reinforcement labels, these can be found at store like Target, Walmart and any other drugstore for around a dollar. You just stick these on the base of the nail as low or as high as you'd like and then paint the tip, wait 30 seconds then remove the binder reinforcement label.
 
This next one is pretty easy and really cute, all you do is paint thin vertical strips and then paint the top third. This adds a little bit more then a French tip but also covers your chipping.

Lastly is the French tip, classic and so looks great with any color combination. I just free hand this, but I have always heard that if you move your finger instead of the brush it makes the perfect strip. You can also try the binder reinforcement labels and tape to achieve that perfect tip.

What are your favorite ways to spice up your manicure or hide chipping? Remember none of these have to look perfect, mine sure don't but I still always get compliments on them so don't worry about them not looking perfect, they are just easy ways that anyone can do.

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Mani Monday: Sage All The Rage

Hey,
 

This week I decided to paint my nails with the sage green I hauled Sunday, you can see that post here. In that post I mentioned that I have been loving neutrals lately and this color is gorgeous. It is the perfect sage color, better for fall then summer but still gorgeous now. I did two coats and then used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat, I love the way this polish applies, it went on so easily since the brush is huge and I didn't get it on my skin at all, I will definitely be picking up more of these polishes and suggest them to you too!

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

The picture is pretty accurate in what the color look like in person.

Top Five Summer Nail Polishes

Hey, is it just me or do you also hate when your texting someone about nail polish and your phone changes it to Polish, I have no hate for Poland but I hate when my phone does this. Anyways today I wanted to share my top five summer polishes!

So I do change my polish weekly, and I try to be very different then the prior week, these are not to different from each others, but they really are my favorites. Sorry for the not so great paint job, I did it quickly since its only temporary, also most of these have been in Mani Mondays or will be in the near future!

Left to right: Mimosa's before Mani's CG, Mighty Mango SH, Blue Me Away! SH, Four Leaf Clover CG, and Deviantly Daring CG

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Top Five Spring Polishes

Hey,

I love nail polishes and spring is one of my favorite seasons when it comes to nail polish. I picked my favorite spring polishes, I only chose to pick five because come summer I intend on doing another one of these. These are all pastels, they range from $1.99 to $6.99 and are part of permanent collections.

From left to right: Sinful Colors Beautiful Girl, I just recently hauled this, but I know I will get a ton of use out of it this spring, it is a perfect light pink for spring, China Glaze Peachy Keen, which really needs shaken up sorry about that, this is by far my favorite of all of the ones mentioned in this post, it may even be my all time favorite polish, its a gorgeous peach shade and I just love the name, China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, great mint color and a must for every collection; mint has also been really in the past few years and still is, Avon Vintage Blue, its a gorgeous pale blue and its surprisingly opaque, and lastly Sally Hansen No Hard Feelings, this is a bit darker then a lilac but still on the pastel side of purples, its great for those who want a light purple but not a lilac. Also sorry about the below picture, I didn't use flash to try to get as close to what the colors look like in person, but they are all pastel/light.

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Mani Monday; Mimosa's before Mani's

Hey,

This week I decided to use another one of the polishes I hauled last week, I used Peachy Keen as my accent nail. Both polishes are from China Glaze, Mimosa's Before Mani's is from the Avant Collect, Peachy Keen is a permanent color. I love this combination and have talked about Peachy Keen many times and its been in several Mani Mondays. Mimosa's Before Mani's is a beautiful coral that leans more pink then orange, there is a very subtle shimmer in it, but it appears to be a creme finish on your nails. This is a perfect spring combo and I suggest both these polishes. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat with no base coat. It did wear off a bit on my pointer fingers after about three days and then it started to chip the fourth day so that isn't to great but the polish is still gorgeous and I am rough on my nails.

The polish isn't that bright in person, it's more pastel. Sorry for the non cropped picture.

Last weeks haul, featuring Mimosa's Before Mani's, here. Mani Mondays including Peachy Keen: Peachy Keen With a Gold Sheen and Peach and Periwinkle, it was also mentioned in my favorite spring polish post which can be viewed here.

Thanks for reading, please leave any requests below!

NOTD: Easter

Hey,

I have a Mani Monday coming up tomorrow, although it's on what I had on my nails last week but I just painted my nails for Easter, it's like midnight on Saturday, well Sunday now. But I wanted to share my Easter nails with you, I mainly stuck with pastels and then added white polka dots, I personally think it's super cute and looks like little Easter eggs. I also uploaded an Easter ETOD, which you can check out here.

Colors used:
China Glaze Fade Into Hue, blue
China Glaze Tart-y for the Party, purple
China Glaze Re-fresh Mint, mint
China Glaze Peachy Keen, peach
Sinful Colors Beautiful Girls, pink
Sally Hansen White Out, white

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat, I did these pretty fast and my whites starting to get goopy so they did come out a little messy, but I think that just adds to them and makes them look cuter, I added the dots randomly too and the colors aren't on any finger for a reason, in fact both hands are different.

Happy Easter!

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Nail Polish Haul

Hey,
 
So last week wasn't the best week for me, and therefore I treated myself to a few new nail polishes, personally I feel nothing makes up for a bad week like a few new bottles of nail polish. Usually I only get a few at a time like one to three bottles, this time I went a little overboard. I bought these in two separate days and at three different stores. So lets just jump right into this, starting with drugstore polishes. I just want to apologize about the glare on the photos, glass doesn't photograph well.



From left to right: Sinful Colors: All About You, Lush Life, Beautiful Girl, Easy Over, Rimmel Bare Naked, Sally Hansen Coin Flip and Mighty Mango.

From left to right: China Glaze: Mimosa's Before Mani's, Fancy Pants(more purple in person), Tart-y for the Party, Fade Into Hue, Sunday Funday, and Deviantly Daring. All of these except for Deviantly Daring are from the Avant Garden collection, I suggest checking this collection out if you haven't yet, great spring polishes, but be warned if you see the whole collection you might want to buy them all.

I have been on the hunt for a good dark teal polish that is a creme finish, I can only find medium and light ones that have no shimmer, do you know of any good ones that are under ten dollars?

I just did a Mani Monday post featuring Bare Naked and Coin Flip, if you want to see what those two polishes look like on nails you can check that post out here.

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Mani Monday: Nude Nails

Hey,

Last week I bought a few new nail polishes, I will upload a haul either tomorrow or Thursday, I picked up these two colors: Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in Bare Naked which is on all of my nails except my ring finger which has Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Coin Flip. I generally don't go for colors like this. I love this two paired together, I also have Coin Flip on my toe nails.

Bare Naked is a gorgeous nude with a very subtle shimmer and Coin Flip is a gold with sliver shimmer, it is a metallic. Both are holding up pretty well so far, I painted my nails on Saturday and I have no chips. I used the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat and no base coat. Coin Flip took two coats and Bare Naked took three, but it should work with two my nails are just a bit stained right now. These are both great polishes and the colors would look great with most skin tones.

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

NOTD: First Mate, plus mini haul

Hey,

It's been a bad few weeks, especially these past two weeks, which is why I haven't been blogging and for it being such a crumby week I decided I needed to treat myself to a few new bottles of nail polish. I picked up, all by China Glaze, Ingrid and then the two for today's NOTD Whirled Away(limited edition, part of the Cirque Du Soleil Worlds Away collection) and First Mate. Ingrid is a mid tone taupe brown with a subtle gold shimmer, Whirled Away is a clear based, not glitter so I guess confetti polish with mainly black but some white chunks too, all in different sizes. First Mate is a beautiful dark almost navy blue. I love the combination of First Mate and Whirled Away, I will say that I was a bit disappointed by Whirled Away but I am glad to have it because it looks really nice after a few coats but on its on or just one coat is a bit disappointing. I only used Whirled Away on my ring finger as an accent nail. I didn't use a top coat or a base coat. All polishes purchased at Sally Beauty Supply.

Sorry for the glare!

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Links:
China Glaze
Cirque Du Soleil Worlds Away collection
Sally Beauty Supply

ImPress Press On Manicure

Hey,

I can honestly say I was not impressed with these nails. The concept is neat and they do have some cute designs but that's about all they have. I have been hearing a lot about these nails lately. I had gotten these about four months back, maybe a little longer through an Influenster VoxBox, so they were free.

The first flaw I found with these were the size, for me personally they were shorter then my own nails; which are pretty short naturally. Just to wear these I had to cut my nails as short as I possibly could. So they aren't really designed for adults, I feel as though they don't exceed the quality and size that the ones we all used as children have. This of course may not be a problem for you if you have small nails naturally. They look longer on other peoples nails, so maybe this was just a problem for me.

After I had sacrificed my nail length; I ran into another problem, they just didn't want to stick onto my nails. These lasted me maybe ten minutes before any started falling off and they were all off in thirty minutes. The product claims to last up to a week, I couldn't even get an hour out of these. I am rough on my nails but the only thing I was doing at the time of use with these was texting. Now you could always glue these on, but that defeats the purpose of using these so you don't ruin your nails with acrylics. I also don't like that they come in only one size, which are really short, when I get my nails done I get them done so I can have long nails, not shorter then my nails naturally are.

Don't get me wrong I think the concept of these is wonderful, but the product just didn't meet my expectations. I would have loved for these to work out, who wouldn't love acrylic without the damage to your nails and for less. Personally I would say pass on these, your better off getting tips at a nail salon or just sticking to polishing your nails. I am glad that I got these through Influenster though, it saved me from wasting money on these, and I hope this saves you from wasting yours.

If you still want to try them, they are available at any drugstore and are around 6usd, you can get them in Boots in the UK, but I would imagine they are in all drugstores there too, sorry I don't know the price but I do believe they start at five pounds.

Did you try these, how did they work for you? Maybe I did something wrong and just need to give them another chance, but for now they didn't work.

I also want to state that when using these my nails were polish free and had no oils or lotion on them.

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Influenster: I guess you need an invite now, if you would like an invite just leave a comment saying so with your email, I can only invite five people though, and I'm not positive if Influenster is worldwide.

Favorite fall polishes

Hey,

As you may know I love nail polish, I love having my nails polished and just the way it looks. I am one of those people who changes their nails and makeup for the seasons, so I figured I would do a post on my favorite fall polishes, I love these kinds of post and videos and thought this would be a fun post to do. I want to say that my nails are a little messy, because I didn't have time clean up, take pictures and then take of my polish to re polish my nails for the week, so sorry about the sloppy nails, I hope that doesn't bother anyone too much.
 
I have a total of twelve polishes I want to talk about, two I don't have shown, one I have a past NOTD on, you can see that here, I love this polish for fall, Vintage Boutique by Avon is a gorgeous brown and a great fall polish. The other polish is a top coat, the NYC matte top coat, I don't know the full name, sorry, but it is in the two dollar polish line. I love matte nails for fall, I think its just a fun and different thing to do, plus it really makes a difference in a polish.
 
These first five are all reds, red is my favorite color, especially for fall. These range from an pinkish/coral red to a blackened red with red shimmer. These are all from Avon, most of the polish I'm going to mention are though, I really do love their polishes.

Sorry for the glare..

 
 From left to right: Blossom, Real Red, Red Wine, Tweed, Wicked. These are all from the Nailwear pro line, except for Red Wine, it is from the Speed dry+ line. This is with two coats for all.















These next polishes are the colorful polish I love for fall. From left to right: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Black Platinum, Avon Nailwear pro in Empower, Vivid Violette the brightest color I ever wear for fall, and Olive Green, and lastly another Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Pat on the Black. The twp purples came out weird, the one looks blue and the other looks black, but they are both purples, ones a brighter purple with blue shimmer and the other is a plum.
 

 
 In case your were wondering why a few bottles have polish all over them, I had a few polishes break a couple years back and these are the ones who survived it. Also well I'm on the topic of nails, my Mani Mondays are over, I may do NOTD's every once in a while but an actual dedicated day for the post just wont be possible, I'm too busy to have it up on time and then I just don't get around to it until it's like Friday or my polish is chipped. I also may not be able to paint my nails in a month or so, and therefore the post would end there any ways, but I will try to do NOTD's on Tuesdays until then. I'm thinking of doing a post on Mondays on my eyeshadow looks of the week, starting next week to take place of the Mani Monday.

What are your favorite fall polishes, any that you think I need to have in my favorites?

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

NOTD: Vintage Boutique

Hey,
Yet again another late nail post, I wanted something fall, I love fall I feel like everyone who is into beauty and fashion says that but it has always been my favorite season. Last week I mentioned that I may be done with these and I still am unsure if this will be the last one or not, I will definitely replace these post with something else for Mondays. So this week I chose to use Vintage Boutique, its a gorgeous fall color, I'm not always the biggest fan of brown but there is something about this brown that I just love, it reminds me of fall and hot chocolate, which I do categorize as a fall item. I don't know how to even begin to explain this brown, it seems to me like it has purple in it and at the same time it seems like it doesn't and is more of a taupe or mushroom brown. It's an Avon polish, part of their Nailwear pro+ nail enamel line, and I do believe this is only sold around now, but I may be wrong about that.

My blog is being part of a "competition", I would really appreciate if you would vote for me, its under the best new blogger category. It's a really great way to find some awesome blogs too. http://www.theblogcat.com/p/blog-cat-awards.html

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Nail polish: http://shop.avon.com/shop/product.aspx?level1_id=300&level2_id=301&pdept_id=313&cat_type=C&pf_id=45832

Delayed Mani Monday; Awakening

Hey,

Since this week fall starts I wanted to paint my nails in a fall themed color. I picked this up a while ago and featured it in a haul, which you can see here. I was debating on what color to get when I had bought this polish and prior to getting this I heard that it was like a sunset on your nails and it really is. I think this is a beautiful polish but I'm not sure if I would repurchase it, I'm glad to have it in my collection but I don't see myself getting a lot of use out of it. This polish is called Awakening and its by China Glaze. It's like a purple/orange/rust/pink in one depending on the angle. Its a unique and gorgeous polish, and I do suggest checking it out because its so different and even though I'm not in love with it you might end up loving it. The picture I used only captures the purple side but seriously you need to check this out in person. I used Seche Vite as my top coat, no base I find I don't hate it when it isn't paired with a base coat but I'm still not blown away by it,.; thankfully its almost gone! Since I'm almost done with that top coat I want to know what your favorite top coat is, I need to pick up a new one soon.

Also I know I've been late/ not posting much lately and I'm sorry about that, I'm trying and hopefully I can start getting more post out and back on schedule. I also may not be able to do these Mani Monday post anymore, but will try to replace them with something else, but I am not sure if I will or will not be able too, I'll know for next weeks hopefully.

Thanks for reading, please leave any request down below!

Mani Monday: Blossom

Hey,

I wanted a good transitioning into fall color this week, so I went with this pretty pinkish red color by Avon called Blossom which is a discontinued color they had for fall a year or two ago. With that being said I know I've seen colors pretty much exactly like this one from Sinful Colors and OPI, pretty much every nail polish company has something similar. I think this would look really nice paired with a brown, mauve brown or taupe. I just used a top coat this week which was Seche Vite, and last week that top coat got "dirty" it just looked filthy and I have no clue how that happened since I'm not the type of person to even let my hands get dirty, it was really strange and just wouldn't wash off.

Sorry for the really messy nails, I honestly just painted them and typed this up a few minutes before it was posted and usually I do this the night before, I've been so busy hence the few blog post this week.

Also the polish is a bit more pink tones in person not as bright.

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!

Mani Monday

Hey,

This week I just wanted something simple but yet pretty and still semi bright. Typically I go for a nude/pink when I don't know what to paint my nails but this week I wanted color but not to crazy so I went with China Glaze For Audrey, I've had a post with this before in a past Mani Monday and a haul. I really like this color but I think it might be getting a bit gloppy and I haven't even had it for more then three months so that's not good. It is a gorgeous color though and I'm going to wait a while and see if it gets worse or if it was just then. I also might add a bit to it later this week and therefore I might have a post probably Thursday of how I touch up a manicure mid way through the week. I didn't use a base coat but I did use Seche Vite as my top coat.

Thanks for reading, please leave any request below!