Lots of Hearts

Hey Everyone!! I spent the weekend away from the computer so we are behind on the Valentine's Day manis. I guess this means we will be seeing a few more days of red and hearts and barfy valentines day stuff. Luckily I don't think I have too many more manis to post before we can move on to other things. 

I think the theme of my Valentine's manis this year is recycling holiday polishes and making them work for Valentine's Day. Today I have another Sally Girl polish from the holidays. This one was supposed to be scented however not once did I get a whiff of any scent other than your normal polish smell. The non scent didn't bother me in the least though. 

I used Sally Girl Peppermint for the base. All the junk on my fingers and cuticles is the remnants of hair glue which I tried to use to help with cleanup. My first experience with the hair glue was a bit of a fail as you can tell by the amount left on my skin after my mani.

I used three coats of Peppermint to get a nice opaque base. 

I decided to do some stamping but couldn't decide what color to use to stamp so I did black and red. At this point I was pretty much over the red and pinks of Valentine's Day so the black was a welcome change.

I used China Glaze Tip Your Hat and Wet N Wild black for the stamping.

I used Bundle Monster plate BM-H18 from their Holiday Collection for the heart image. 

That's all for now :)

Red Shimmer Hearts

Hey Everyone!! Happy Friday!!! the 13th! I kind of want to hug a black cat today. I stopped by the Valentine's Day aisle at Target this morning but couldn't find anything interesting, other than all the candy of course. I was thinking I should probably pick up candy for the boys but wasn't very inspired by what I saw so I bought nothing. Tonight we are going to visit my dad up at his new rehab place. He has a roommate and is settled in. My mother visited yesterday and says he was sitting up on the edge of the bed when she went in so he is doing really well. Hopefully he comes home sooner than they thought. 

Today I used another Holiday polish for my Valentine's Day mani. All those reds that come out for Christmas come in handy when Feb comes around. I had picked up one of the Sally Girl Snowmen polishes on sale after Christmas and thought it would be great for a sparkly February mani. 

The base was the Snowman Polish in Red Shimmer. This clearly is a holo glitter and not a shimmer so I am not sure what the deal with the name is. I guess we are lucky it had a name on there because the Red Cross pumpkins and snowmen don't have names or colors or anything on them. 

I used three coats of the Red Shimmer polish. I could have probably stopped at two but the polish is on the sheer side and wanted to see if it would build up to a deeper color. It didn't really differ too much between two and three coats.

I then stamped using another Dashica plate. I used plate XL SdP-54 for the heart pattern. I love the Dashica plates as they stamp really nicely. 

I used Konad white stamping polish for the white hearts and LA Colors Gel Like Stunner for the accent nail. Stunner stamped really well so I am happy to say that so far I have found the line to be great for stamping. 

That's all for now :)

Hot Pink Stars

Hey Everyone!!! This week has been a pain in the butt. I am ready for it to be Friday at 5pm. Sounds like it is going to storm soon. I love the storms but C has to drive about 30 mins away for a job interview so I would prefer it not to be storming while he is driving. Apparently soccer is on, Again. I would really like to not be forced to listen to soccer in Spanish. I don't like soccer as it is much less when having to listen to it in Spanish. I am slightly cranky today. I don't have a car, C took it to go to the interview, and I don't have lunch. I should probably just get on with the mani before I get too cranky.

Today I have a fun mani I did using a neon jelly polish I made and ArtsyFartsyCrafts stars. 

I did a gradient with a kitchen sponge and Sally Girl Cool. I am getting better at the gradients I think. I found the key. I used to use makeup sponges but after watching videos on YouTube I found that using a kitchen sponge is much better. Ever since I tried that my gradients have come out much better. The makeup sponges are great for glitter though so I didn't buy a million of them for no reason.

I had made a neon pink jelly polish by using Sally Girl Cool and clear polish I had laying around. I added about 20 or so drops to get it the color I wanted. I painted that over the gradient and it helped it blend in and give the rest of the nail a nice pop of pink.

I finally decided to use the black stars for a mani. I wanted to do something different so I placed them at the tip instead of near the cuticle. I didn't get them all centered perfectly but they aren't too bad. I love the black stars with the hot pink.

This mani was super bright and fun. I loved it. I still need to work on my gradient skills a bit but I was pretty pleased with how this one turned out. Now I must do it in other neon colors. 

That's all for now :)

A Brainy Bargain

Hey Everyone!! I really need to get to sleep earlier. I almost over slept this morning and I am not sure if it was due to my alarm not going off or turning it off in my sleep and not getting up. Luckily T was already up and came in to investigate why I wasn't waiting on him. The good news in that is I was actually able to get enough sleep so I don't feel exhausted today. I think we are going to have to move my bed time up a little bit, at least for awhile. Boo! 

In case you hadn't heard Zoya is doing a BOGO sale this week! I love Zoya and I love sales!! Shipping charges do apply but it is a great time to get an awesome deal on those Zoya polishes on your wishlist. I feel like I am being tortured recently with these sales while I am supposed to be on a no buy. I am a bit torn between getting four of the Zoya Pixie Dusts and getting the Holiday Bundle Monster Set. I actually have a gift card so I am not cheating. If I get the Bundle Monster set I will actually have almost $7 left over but if if I get the Zoyas I will have five cents. OR I could just keep the gift card for later. There are just too many decisions that need to be made. I am so indecisive. 

Today I have a bargain polish for you. This cute little guy also happens to be a dupe to Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream according to many sources. I do not own Mermaid's Dream because I am pretty cheap and it takes a lot to make me buy a polish that expensive. I do remember seeing gorgeous swatches of Mermaid's Dream when it came out and thought it was a very pretty polish. For those of you, like me, who won't spend that much on one polish this one is a great alternative. 

Sally Girl Brainy.

**This image has been copied from the Sally Beauty Supply website.**

I don't have a bottle shot and I wanted to show you the cute little Sally Girl bottles. They are little guys too. The bottles are only 0.18oz 

Even though these bottles are so tiny I love them. The Sally Girl polishes I have are all great and the brush is pretty decent for being so small. I often pass up the Sally Girl rack because of the location the store has it in but I do really like these polishes.  

I can't remember if I did three or four coats for this mani. I know it is at least three coats. I still have plenty of polish left in the little bottle too. I could probably get at least another two full manis out of it. 

Brainy is a gorgeous seafoam green type shade that has a very pretty gold shimmery look to it. It also has larger blue glitter and smaller teal glitter rounding it out. I really loved this polish after I put it on. 

I don't remember being as gaga for the Deborah Lippmann polish but it could have been the price turning me off to it. Usually I don't look too hard at higher end polishes because I won't be spending the money on them. Put them in a bottle and charge a buck and I am all over it. 

A nice close up look at Brainy.

I really want to do some mermaid nail art on this polish. It is so pretty and sea like. 

Well I guess I better get back to work now. 

That's all for now :)

This is Epic

Hey Everyone! I am going to make this quick because I have tons to do tonight. Well, tons I want to do tonight anyway. Who knows if it will all get done. I need to take some pictures too before the sun is completely gone. The polish I have for you today I bought on a whim at Sally Beauty Supply yesterday. I actually LOVE it though. I must say in order to get these pictures as accurate as possible I had to photoshop the beejeezees out of them. The color isn't accurate in all of them but I did what I could. It is very much a blue color and not as purple leaning as some of the pictures looked.

Sally girl Epic. This picture is pretty color accurate and didn't need too much photoshop work. I used ONE COAT of this polish. ONE COAT! I almost fell off the couch.

It got a bit of tipwear at work and I was trying to do cleanup while on the phone with a customer so that was interesting.

I did feel like a giant using this tiny little bottle of polish.

It is like a dark cornflower crayon. I love the color. LOVE the creme. It is perfect.

The little brush didn't bother me at all and was especially good for my little mutant nubs. 

I did have to redip the brush for my longer or bigger nails but the brush is really small so that is not surprising.

I have always thought about getting these little polishes but never did. Now I am thinking I will have to give them a try again. I was pleasantly surprised.

Since polish is on sale right now at Sally's buy 2 get one free I picked up two other colors. I will have those for you at some point :)

That's all for now :)