Sinful Colors Strapped

Hey Everyone!! Happy Friday! It is such a slow day at work I am thinking everyone made it an extra long weekend and took today off too. I was doing ok with printing the documents I need to get printed and reading my book until technology foiled my day. The machine won't take the toner so my printing was shut down until Tuesday when it can be repaired. Then my Kindle literally shut down because it ran out of battery. I of course don't have my cord so there went my plans of reading. Two hours left. C just sent me a picture of T. They went for haircuts. T's hair was so ridiculously long and shaggy and I think he was getting sick of it being in his face so he actually expressed interest in a cut when it was mentioned. I usually leave him alone because he acts indifferently and I won't make him cut it if he doesn't want to. The picture was of T sitting in the barber chair with tons of hair all over the floor. Even the barber commented on how much hair he cut off! I am awaiting the final picture but C says he is looking pretty sharp.

So I fell off the no buy a little bit recently. I allowed myself a little splurge on the new Sinful Colors Leather Luxe collection because Walgreens had Sinful on sale 2 for $3.00. It isn't the .99 cent sale but it was still a good price. I probably should have just used a matte top coat on polishes I already have but having a polish that doesn't need an extra step was enticing. 

The first one I had to try out was Strapped. Strapped is a very pretty green and is not as teal leaning as it looks in pictures. I used three coats for this mani.

I wanted to do a little something different for this mani so I tried stamping. It failed. It was too subtle for my liking and I was having a lot of issues stamping with both clear and matte top coat.  I did top my ring finger with clear top coat to make it shiny. I wanted to see what the polish looked like shiny and give the mani a little contrast. 

I stamped with regular clear on the matte nails and with matte top coat on the shiny nails. You can hardly tell at some angles. It was rather frustrating.

Please excuse the cuticles. When I was freshly lotioned up you couldn't tell the polish was matte due to the lotion. You can see that my impatience got the better of me as some of the nails have dings and wrinkles because I didn't let it dry enough before stamping. It is rather sad considering matte polishes tend to dry on the quicker side.

I love how the accent nail looks with matte stamped designs on it. I will have to try that look again. I used a plate that I will be showing you soon in a mani where you can actually see the stamping. 

Overall I loved the color of Strapped. The matte polish is a fun way to shake things up but I am glad I added a shiny accent nail. I am not ready to give up the shiny aspect of polish completely. 

Here is a close up so you can see Strapped both as a matte polish and with a top coat. 

That's all for now :)

Black Polka Dotted Limoncello

Hey Everyone!!! I am one of the most clumsy people ever. I just moved a huge stack of papers off the copy machine into the box the finished copies go into. In the process I managed to swipe the big stack across my top lip. It feels like at least one paper cut if not several small ones. That is talent. Not a talent I necessarily want though. The dentist went pretty good yesterday. The tooth is not infected or in need of major repair. A little tiny piece came off the side of it and she thinks that may have caused the sensitivity and pain, possibly. There is now some bonder on there which will hopefully protect and seal the tooth and keep it hanging on for as long as possible. I have to be really diligent about wearing my night guard though. I tend to forget. I feel like a football player or something when I put this stupid thing in my mouth. It isn't my favorite but it is far better than the root canal.

Today I have an awesome mani to show you. I absolutely LOVE this color and want to paint all the things with it. It reminds me of those little kiddie motorcycle/car rides they have at carnivals. It seriously makes me think of the carnival when I was a kid. It is also sparkly and pretty and I need a guitar in that color because it would be awesome.

This picture makes the bottle more neon than it really is in person. It is a less neon more of a soft lime green yellow in person in the bottle but it didn't play nice in pictures. I used Nubar Black Polka Dot and Layla Softouch Effect 06 Limoncello. I got the Layla on clearance at Ulta on a whim and I am so glad I did.

The Layla Softouch Effects polishes have a distinct finish that is neither completely matte or completely suede. They are a non shiny finish that looks soft if that makes sense. It is an interesting effect and I enjoyed it for the 2.5 seconds that it stayed that way.

These first shots are sun shots, obviously, because I wanted to catch the insane sparkle for you. I had picked this polish out with the intention of using Black Polka Dot on top from the get go. I didn't think about it at first but obviously if you put a glitter topper over a matte it will no longer be matte. Duh. I also didn't think to take pictures of the polish before I altered the intended finish. Another duh. 

Once I put the first coat of Black Polka Dot on I totally lost all focus and fell in love with Limoncello. It transformed the polish from a soft pretty color to a sparkling bright wow color. I couldn't catch the sparkle on camera no matter how much I tried but this baby sparkles!

I actually kept this mani on for three days that is how much I loved it. I used three coats of Limoncello which still left a bit of visible nail line. The polish is on the sheer side but it is gorgeous so it is ok. I topped it with one coat of Black Polka Dot and then top coat. 

Black Polka Dot is a great black glitter. I jumped on the Polka Dot set from Nubar when it came out because it was that awesome. I love black and white glitter. The only thing that could make this one better is if it was round glitter to truly make it a Polka Dot.

A nice close up shot for you. You can see a little bit of the sparkle in Limoncello and the fun Black Polka Dots.

Every polish I have tried from Layla has knocked my socks off. I really like this brand. I pretty much want to stalk all of the Ultas and try to get as many of these as possible. I bought this awhile back so I am thinking they won't be easy to find now though. 

I am going to have to do a mani for you guys without adding a top coat so you can see what the polish is supposed to look like. I really don't know if I can resist making it this sparkling awesomeness though. 

That's all for now :)

Football Draft Mani

Hey Everyone!!! Today I have to make it quick because I am about to head out to the dentist. I guess it will break up the workday a little bit but I am still not excited about having to drive there. I actually love my dentist I just don't love the drive there. 

We had our first Fantasy Football league draft last Sunday and of course I had to do a football mani for it. I cut it back to only two leagues this year so that I don't loose my mind too much. I can't wait for football season though my Bills are not looking too hot right now with their quarterback situation. I will have another football mani for the Friday night draft too. I wasn't really overly thrilled with how this one came out.

I used Zoya Holly as an accent nail. I also used Holly to sponge some grass on my other nails. They had base coat but no base color. 

I used China Glaze Hey Sailor, First Mate and Mahogany Magic as well as Nubar Night Sparkle for the helmets and footballs. I used Sinful Colors white striper for the white. 

I used the plate CH35 from the 2012 Summer Collection plates by Cheeky for the football and the helmets. 

I wasn't overly excited about this mani but I was running out to time. I was trying to make the accent nail a football field but I couldn't get the markings right so I just went with a solid green. I wouldn't say it is a fail mani but it isn't awesome either.

Oh you can see my clawed index nail too! My nail broke so I figured instead of making it super short I would try out a new shape. I had a hard enough time shaping that one nail and it is still not quite right so I am not sure the pointed look is going to be something I go for. I do love it though. 

Send me good thoughts if you can. I really do not want to hear the words root canal when the dentist and I discuss my cracked tooth. 

That's all for now :)

I'm with the Bandana Gradient

Hey Everyone! Since I was wide awake at 6:15 this morning I figured I would just stay up instead of going back to sleep after taking T to school. This of course means that now I am struggling to stay awake and I am quite sleepy. I am looking forward to Monday since I will get to sleep in and hang out with the boy all day. Right now I am looking forward to sleeping since I won't be getting a nap. Maybe I should run turn up the music and dance around like a fool for a bit. 

Today I have a mani I did with some rhinestones I got from the Born Pretty Store At .99 per pack I almost bought one in every color. 

I ended up starting off with #6 which is a chartreuse type green and #12 which is black. I decided to start out by using them together as an accent nail. They come in a little baggie filled with tons (100pcs) of pretty stones. I am going to eventually move them into a little container but for now they live in the bags and don't take up much room.

I wanted to try my hand at a gradient. I really am not skilled with gradients but I was semi happy with the way this one came out. I started with a base of Sation I'm with the Bandana from the Nailstock Collection. I would have thought a polish with the word Bandana in the title would be red but I guess that is just me. I then used Zoya Dove and Ruby Wing Electric Firefly for the gradient. I absolutely LOVE Electric Firefly and want to use it for all the manis. It is a great polish! The amazing Karen from Frazzle and Aniploish sent me this baby and I am in love. THANK YOU KAREN!!! I'm sure you all already follow her but if you don't you must, she is awesome! 

I decided to alternate the rhinestones on my accent nail. I think the colors went well together even if Electric Firefly did come out a little darker due to the dark base. 

The little rhinestones are the perfect size for my nails. These are the 2mm stones. They come in other sizes as well so it was a lucky guess that the 2mm is the size I wanted. 

A nice close up of the accent nail and the gradient. I secured the stones with top coat and had no issues with them falling off. I'm with the Bandana applied really well is a very nice gunmetal color. I used a makeup sponge for the gradient and sponged each color on. I did forget to moisten the makeup sponge though. I always forget that part.

I need to work on my gradient skills but it didn't come out too bad. I love the colors together and think the rhinestones were a great accent. As always if you use code JLG10 you can get 10% off your next order at Born Pretty Store. 

That's all for now :)

Inseparable Forces

Hey Everyone! I stopped using Photobucket because it was being quite a brat and today I have had nothing but troubles from Blogger. Oy. I am going to be speedy with this one before it starts messing with me again. I have twice had it shut down Opera while I was trying to move pictures around and it kept freezing up on Internet Explorer too. The internet does not love me today. 

I am happily back to doing Monday Blues though! This is exciting and I am going to try my best to be able to actually keep up with it.

Today I have for you Magnetic Lacquer from the Gelish Magneto collection. These were released sometime last year. Gelish made a line of gel polishes that were magnetic as well as matching magnetic regular polishes. I believe they were sold as a set mostly however I had only ever seen the gel polishes in store. This is one of the regular, non gel, polishes.

Inseparable Forces. I used two coats of this polish using the magnet on the second coat. This one had a diamond patterned magnet.

I wanted to try stamping over the magnetic mani after I saw a really nice mani on a blog somewhere. Mine didn't come out as cool as the one I saw. I used Gals plate GA12 from the Princess collection.

I like the color of Inseparable Forces, it is a denim blue type color. It was not a one coater as some of the magnetic polishes are but the formula was good. 

You can see it has a slight purple cast to it when it is magnetized. It is a really pretty color. I wonder if you can see the purple if you don't use the magnet...I didn't notice it.

The magnet is a typical flat magnet with a little ridge for you to rest on your finger. The problem with the flat magnet is that nails are curved and the sides do not get the magnet effect unless you sort of roll the magnet so it can reach the sides. Not only does this make things more complicated but it gives you much more of a chance to touch the magnet to the nail which I did several times.

The stamping went very well and I liked the open design. I did not like my top coat smearing my design though. I really don't like when my stamping gets smeared like that. 

I was disappointed that my magnet design didn't show up better. Overall this mani didn't come out as great as I had envisioned but it wasn't too bad.

You can see the purple well in this close up. It is really very pretty and was very unexpected.

I have a few more of these Gelish Magnetic Lacquers that I am going to have to try out soon. 

I apparently took a ton of pictures for this mani.

That's all for now :)

Swamp Thing

Hey Everyone!! I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. I am slightly cranky. Then again, it could be due to stupidity of others that greatly annoys me. Either way I am just ready to go home and ignore the world. Sadly it is not time for that yet. I ordered a couple of Zoya polishes from their BOGO event using my gift card. I saw pictures of Dhara and could not resist. Now I am just hoping their system takes the gift card and doesn't reject it for some reason. We will see I guess. OK. I better get going since I have to go do warehouse orders. 

I started this mani with Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Swamp Thing as a base. Their site describes it as a Drab Olive Green. I love it! It is a great swampy green color.

I attempted to stamp with Orly Glitz and Glamour but that didn't end up going so well. Glitz and Glamour was from the 2010 Tis the Season Holiday collection.

I used the paisley pattern on Bundle Monster plate BM-315. 

First up are some pictures of Swamp Thing before I attempted to stamp it. 

I used three coats. I love this color.

The formula was nice on this polish and I had no problems. I got this one back when the brand was changing bottles and having a sale. It is my first Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics polish and I am quite pleased.

I can see this polish working well to make a camo mani.

Here is where things went wrong. Glitz and Glamour is not a good stamping polish. It actually didn't look too bad because the sparkle and gold went well with Swamp Thing BUT unless you closely analyzed the nails you couldn't actually see the pattern.

Of course the macro shots are going to make me look like a liar in some of these pictures. In person trust me when I say most of the time you couldn't distinguish what was stamped on the nail.

I did really enjoy the sparkle the gold brought to this mani though so I kept it on and didn't redo the mani.

I am going to have to try another mani with Swamp Thing and some gold stamping. I think it would look great together.

My hands look really weird in these pictures. 

I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow! It has been a long week :) I hope everyone has a great weekend.

That's all for now :)