CK Emerald Green

Hey Everyone!!! It has been a very long past couple of weeks. We are still trying to figure out what is wrong with T and he has tests and doctor appointments to go to. I think the stress is catching up to me since I had a lovely anxiety attack Tuesday. I am feeling better except for my tooth bothering me again. I am going to need to finally make that dental appointment next week. Things could be worse though. 

Today I have what was probably my biggest lemming. An amazing polish fairy from a forum I belong to gifted me this polish recently when she found out it was my number one most wanted. I nearly fell out of my chair from excitement and how amazingly sweet she is. I literally opened the package and did my nails I was so very excited.

Calvin Klein nail polish. Who knew?! I had never known that Calvin Klein had polish until someone posted this baby on their nails one day. It was instant love. 

I love the cap! I am not really into the whole designer name thing and the only thing I really know about Calvin Klein is that I can not stand CK One. This guy used to drench himself in that stuff then sit in front of me in my Algebra II class and it gave me a headache everyday. I can't stand that smell to this day. 

The gorgeous Calvin Klein Emerald Green. 

I used three coats of Emerald Green for this mani. OMG it is as gorgeous in real life as it was in the pictures I first saw of it.

The formula was good but I was not entirely fond of the brush. I can get over the brush though because the color is so pretty.

It is so glowy.

And pretty.

And I took a ton of pictures of it.

I am still ridiculously excited about this polish and I can't believe I finally own it.

I couldn't say thank you enough.

I actually somehow chipped my one finger within 24 hours. I don't think it was the polish I think it was when I opened a box or something at work.

Yes, I totally just redid that nail and kept on wearing this bad boy.

I love this polish. I would totally paint my car in it.

So very pretty. So very generous and I am so very happy! I can't wait to find a way to pass that type of generosity forward.

That's all for now :)

Too Cool for Pool

Hey Everyone!! Guess what day it is...it is HUMP DAY, wooo wooo!! I wish it was Friday but I will take Wednesday. I am tempted to take Friday off. We will see. Today I decided my hair was hanging too dead like and I cut my bangs a bit. They are long bangs. I watched some youtube videos and decided to just go for it. It looks choppy because it doesn't blend with my long dead hair but at least it breaks it up a bit. We will see how it goes after I wash it. I also cut my palm doing this. Don't ask, I have no idea. 

Today I have a simple mani I did using one of the Sinful Shine colors that recently appeared randomly in my Walgreens. I really hate the way Walgreens just throws new colors in with the core colors instead of putting out displays. Sinful Colors is actually on sale this week for .99 (in most areas) so I figured it was a good time for this post.

I used three coats of Sinful Shine Too Cool for Pool. It is a gorgeous blue with a very pretty pink shimmer. I love this color.

I decided to jazz it up a little and used some pink half pearls to compliment the shimmer. I bought these from some radom ebay store.

I put a single pearl in the middle of all my nails and stamped a pretty floral design on my ring finger. I used Mundo de Unas Mexican Pink for the stamping. I used more pearls for the centers of the flowers.

I can't remember which stamping plate I used so I will have to add that information later. 

The application for Too Cool for Pool was very nice. 

I attached the pearls to a wet coat of top coat and then added another coat on top to make sure they were more secure.

They stayed on quite nicely.

Taking an accurate color picture in doors is not very easy with this color but I was more interested in showing off that shimmer. 

That's all for now :)

Contrary Polish 18th and Vine

Hey Everyone!!! Happy Monday!! The kids started school today here. This is both exciting and not so exciting for me. After the week from hell with T last week over band I am glad that the summer torture season is over. If we had to do one more week of that one of us would have ended up having a breakdown. I think we have everything settled now and things should be good but one can never tell with T. I am not real excited for the assignments and activities that the school year brings much less that he is another year closer to graduating. I still want to be able to go backwards in age so I can make him little again instead of this growing up junk. 

Today I have a quick mani I had done to showcase my Mundo de Unas stamping polish.

I started with a base of Contrary 18th and Vine from the 2013 No Place Like Home Fall Collection. 18th and Vine is a gorgeous purplish blue color with pink shimmer. This type of color is gorgeous but the main reason I can't classify my polishes by color. Is it purple? Is it blue? 

 I used one of my recent plate arrivals Sugar Bubbles plate SB004 and Mundo de Unas Stamping Polish in Mexican Pink to create a stamped accent nail. I thought the design looked like snails. I was hoping the pink would go good with the pink shimmer from 18th and Vine.

I don't have very many Contrary Polishes though I have no reason why. I always love the polishes but for some odd reason they never seem to come live with me. 

The formula was excellent and applied so nicely. I used three coats. I think the color in the outdoor pictures above were slightly washed out a bit. I love the shimmer in the Contrary Polishes! So very pretty. 

I just made the mistake of checking out Llarowe for other Contrary Polishes. I can not figure out why I do not have more of these polishes! I have my eye on several right now.

That's all for now :) 

Cool Grey and Hot Pink Hearts Review

Hey Everyone!!! Happy Monday!! Well, we have one week of summer left. This week I think T has only two to three days of band which he greatly appreciates. He actually even came to work with me today. I am sure that decision was mostly because I offered to pay him if he helped me out. Our warehouse guy is on vacation so I am left to run the warehouse and the inside and I figured T would like to make some extra money. He happily agreed. He can't come tomorrow and I think he has to be at band Wednesday as well so this is the only day I will get the help. Of course today is on the slow side. It is still always fun to have him here with me for the day. I am not sure he thinks it is fun but he humors me. 

Today I have a review for you from an item that the BornPrettyStore sent me for an honest review. I love BornPrettyStore and frequently order from them. The shipping can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to over a month but the products are great as are the prices. 

Today I will be reviewing the 90pcs 4mm Mini Colored Heart Shaped Metallic Stud Rhinestone UV Gel Nail Art Decoration. I wouldn't mind if their products had shorter names, I think we will just call these the Mini Heart Studs from here on out. This package comes with 90pcs of one color. I forgot to take a picture of the packaging but it comes in a little baggie. I transferred mine to a clear container for storage.

I couldn't figure out how I wanted to do my nails for this mani so I actually have two different manis to show you. For the first one I used a base of Sinful Colors Cool Grey. I then used some loose black glitter mixed with clear polish to add a triangular shape in the middle. The shape wasn't very good because I forgot my striping tape. I used clear top coat to secure the heart stud to the nail.

The heart studs are 4mm which is about as big as I really would like to go on my nails. Since mine are so small having anything bigger pretty much takes over my nail. When I have the studs in this position you can see how there wouldn't be much room for anything bigger on my pinkie. I like this size a lot and think it is the perfect size for these hearts. Not too big and not too small.

I love the neon vibrant color of these hearts. They are quite bright and fun and the neon freaked my camera out a little bit. They are really neon pink but my camera couldn't capture the color most of the time. 

The hearts did stick up a little bit but they never snagged on anything, including my hair, and they stayed put nicely. I didn't have any problems with any of them falling off.

I wasn't really keen on the whole black glitter stripe for some reason so I decided to give the studs a try without that glitter.

I used a base of Sally Hansen Cool Grey and then placed the heart studs lower and more in the middle of my nails. They fit much nicer on this area of my nail and didn't stick up as much. The shape of the hearts let them hug my nail a little more in the center.

I put a coat of top coat over the studs to make sure they weren't going to be going anywhere. I liked this mani a lot better than the one with the black glitter. 

In the middle of my nail I think the 4mm size of these hearts is perfect. It isn't too big and isn't too small either. They definitely look smaller since they aren't as close to my cuticle but I love the way they look.

Since I only used top coat to secure them removal was as easy as removing nail polish. Now, I am sure you know this by now but I am pretty cheap. I like to reuse things as much as possible and always try to salvage my nail art supplies after I have used them. I know this item comes with 90 pieces but just throwing away the hearts after I used them bothered me.

One thing I did realize in removal is that the acetone is going to cause the coloring of these studs to come off as well. Perfect, I thought, now I can use them again and they will be different! After removing the mani and the coloring from the studs I was left with a new set of shiny silver heart studs.

I decided to do a mani with those to show you how you can reuse these studs instead of just throwing them away after one use. I used the same Sinful Colors Cool Grey base and put the hearts in the center of my nails again. Removing the color from the studs is easy and doesn't leave them damaged at all. 

The studs look a little scratched in these pictures but I assure you that is the top coat and the reflection. I did this mani as a quick experiment and wasn't as careful. I didn't let Cool Grey dry enough so some of the color was picked up in my top coat brush and made it onto the hearts making them look a little funny.

Basically I just wanted to show you that if you are frugal or just don't feel like throwing away the studs after use you can totally wipe the rest of the color off and use them as silver studs! 

Overall I love these cute little hearts and would definitely buy the other colors. The package is $2.63 for 90 hearts which is a really good deal. BornPrettyStore also gave me a discount code for my readers so if you use code JLG10 you get 10% off your order.

That's all for now :) 

Conserve and Sustain

Hey Everyone!!! Oh what a week. We have a bit of a crisis going on regarding T and band and it has pretty much been draining my energy. I have pictures to edit and things to do and have had a headache most of the week from stress. Hopefully tonight I can get on the ball a little bit and get things done. The summer is nearly over which blows my mind because it doesn't seem like it should be. Then again it seems like it has taken forever as well.

Today I have a mani with a new to me brand and a really cool recent find. I hadn't frequented my little nail polish supply place in a very long time and decided to stop in awhile back. To my surprise they carry some new brands including Nubar. I was super excited because I had never seen Nubar carried in a store. I was able to keep calm and only buy two. That is mainly because I was running out of time though. 

Nubar Conserve from the Going Green Collection and Mentality Sustain from the Green Mattes Collection.

Mentality Nail Polish is a new to me brand. I have ordered a few from either blog sales or their site to give them a try and this is the first one I have used. I have been following them on facebook for awhile and they have great stamping polishes, based on what I have seen, and a fun brand. They offer free shipping within the USA which also makes me quite excited. 

I also used one of my new Dashica plates XL SdP-77.  I used the full nail image and one of the leafy images.

I started the mani with three coats of Nubar Conserve. I have wanted the Going Green Collection for as long as I have known about the brand and was so excited to finally get this color. I think I will save up and go back and get the rest. 

The formula on Conserve was really nice. The first coat was thin and made me think we might have problems but it all evened out nicely.

I stamped the design using Sustain which stamped perfectly. It is a matte polish so it gave the mani a nice textured look. I really like the way this polish stamped and am impressed with the quality.

My Dash plate stamped perfectly and I love this image. I have a few different Dash plates now and every one that I have used has worked like a dream. I am a total fan now and can't wait to collect some more plates.

I wanted to add a little something so I stamped the leaf design with Konad Black polish on my accent nail. I used top coat on this nail only because I was really curious to see what Sustain would look like with top coat.

Top coat didn't change the depth of the color of Sustain which I notice sometimes happens with mattes. It pretty much just looked pretty shiny with the top coat. I think I like it better without the top coat because to me it looks like there is a fabric feel to it when the polish is matte.

I pretty much loved this mani and didn't want to take it off. I took a ton of pictures of it as well.

I really love these two green colors together. I do need to try and do a full mani with Sustain though. I am very curious to see what that will look like.

I think both these polishes will be on my list to use when St. Patrick's Day rolls around.

That's all for now :)