Fear or Desire

Hey Everyone! As promised I have some beach photos for you today. I took them Friday evening. I used to spend so much time on Hollywood Beach as a kid. It has changed so much but I still love going there.

When we were young we KNEW we were close when we saw the big waterball.

I have been wanting to go to the beach but there was SO MUCH seaweed I am kinda rethinking. I HATE seaweed. It kinda creeps me out.

Love the water though!

The boardwalk. Spent tons of time hanging out there.

My favorite time at the beach is when the sun is behind the buildings and it is getting dark.

Today I have Essie Fear or Desire from the 2012 Summer Collection Bikini So Teeny. I am on a major orange polish kick lately and I need all the oranges.

This is two coats of Fear or Desire. I did this mani in the car so I hadn't done cleanup yet. I was also going to add glitter to this baby so I wasn't ready for cleanup.

This is a great orange! I love it!

It is a really nice creme with great application and makes me think of a smooth orange ice cream bar. I have no idea why. Perhaps because I am hungry and ready to eat lol.

Sadly to the naked eye it looked like I did a pretty neat job polishing and I didn't think I needed that much cleanup. Then macro came along and ruined it.

This is a perfect summer color. Bold and bright.

I very much like this polish. It reminds me of Jesse's Girl Crush though I believe this one is darker. I will have to check on that when I get a chance.

That's all for now :)

Let's Talk Penny Talk

Hey Everyone! I think I need to come to the conclusion and face the fact that coffee gives me heartburn. It is a sad reality and probably won't make me stop drinking it but it is a reality. So df went to jury duty yesterday and wasn't home until 9pm. Why wasn't he home until 9pm you ask? Well, he didn't get home until 9pm because he wasn't released from jury duty until 8:30pm. I, the person that cheerfully goes to jury duty WANTING to be picked for a jury NEVER gets my number called! He rescheduled his twice and tried everything to get out of it and he gets a case! GEESH! I am so jealous.

Today I have a full mani of Essie's Penny Talk from their new Mirror Metallic collection. I actually painted this over yesterday's stamped mani so any uneven spots were actually caused by the stamping that I painted over.

I could almost get away with one coat of this baby. ALMOST! I did two coats because there were some visible brush strokes I didn't like. I think most of it was caused by the uneven stamped surface but it is also going to be prone to brushstrokes due to the finish.

I must say though, this is name PERFECTLY! It actually looks like a brand new penny it is so super shiny.

The formula was pretty good, there will be some brush stroke issues but it was easy to apply.

Did I mention it was nice and shiny?!

This polish is quite nice. It is glowy and metallic and shiny as heck. I really wish a polish could be made that is fluid and liquid metal looking like the Minx is. Something that looks like liquid Mercury on the nail would be AH MAZ ING! This line is not it but still pretty darn nice for a metallic polish.

I very much liked the color on this one. It floats between a rose gold and a copper penny color. I should have taken a picture with a shiny penny. Duh for me!

It also stamps really well as you saw yesterday.

That's all for now :)

Penny Talk gets Cheeky

Hey Everyone! I had planned to blog this on Friday but I got the wild idea to head to the beach after work and hang out for awhile so we did that instead. It was quite lovely and I will have pictures of that for you tomorrow. I love the beach in the evening when the sun is not beating down on me. The kids enjoyed it and other than totally throwing off my evening and keeping me from both blogging and working out it was a fun time. I usually can't stand the sun but I am itching to go to the beach during the actual day time so I can get in the ocean. It is rare that it happens but sometimes I actually do want to go face the sun.

I recently purchased the XL Cheeky Plate A from Amazon. I was really excited to get the plate and the price was right so I went for it. I am going to try and do more stamping. I got the plate originally and one of the images was completely messed up and another one had a little blemish on it. I contacted Amazon to get a replacement which they did send out with free "overnight" shipping. I don't like the way Amazon does things but I wanted the plate. I had to actually reorder and pay for another plate and then send this one back instead of having a replacement sent without charging me for a second order. I was on a tight budget and wasn't thrilled about having to pay for a second order so I could get my damaged plate replaced but I really wanted my plate. I received the plate over the weekend so that was when I contacted Amazon and I recvd my replacement plate Tuesday. There is one image on this plate that also has a slight blemish but I wasn't about to go through returning it again. I will just deal with it, the images are huge so hopefully I won't ever need that section of the image.

This is the plate. I love the images and was especially excited to get the puzzle piece image. The size of these images is HUGE! I ordered the XL stamper after I used this plate. I am super happy with the large images because they will fit ALL of my nails with no problem.

I decided to use Penny Talk which is a new Essie polish from their Mirror Metallic collection. When I swatched one of the polishes from that line I immediately thought they would be great for stamping and they are! It would have been better to use this particular color over a different base but honestly I already had my nails done and was too excited to wait.

I did have an issue getting the image all the way to my cuticles and you can see a grand canyon's worth of space between my stamping and my cuticle. I am not sure what the deal with that is but it is surely operator error.

I liked this weird little square pattern a lot. I did have some smearing with the stamping and the top coat but that was also operator error. I need more practice with stamping. I ordered a bunch of plates so I have plenty of images to practice with.

Penny Talk was a great stamping polish and I expect the others from the collection to work just as good. I used some couponing skills to get the whole collection for a very reasonable price so I will have stamping with the rest of them coming soon.

I finally finished the baby blanket I made for my friend's baby shower. Unfortunately I finished it the day after she left town to head home so I can't give it to her in person. She will love it though. I love it! I am proud of myself, it is my first blanket.

You can also blame this blanket for lack of posting when I was working on it. lol. I was so busy trying to get it done before she went home I spent most evenings working on this blanket instead of doing my nails and posting.

That's all for now :)

Blue Raspberry Taffy and a Million Sparkles

Hey Everyone! I think I have lost my mind. I just edited the pictures for this post then went back into the file and see that I have edited them at a previous time. I don't think I posted this polish as I did check in the Finger Paints label but I might just be crazy. I did just work out so I am still recovering but I am completely baffled. If this is a repeat we will blame the exercise and hunger. I am pretty hungry right now since I didn't have my regular banana snack after work. I am going to make this a quick one so I can get changed and eat dinner. 

This mani is from back when Finger Paints came out with their Spring collection Gumdrops and Lollipops. I bought this polish first, instead of Circus Peanuts, because I was being cheap that day and I can't resist a blue polish. We all know what happened when I went back for Circus Peanuts. I will say though that I do LOVE this color and am happy I bought it. I had also recently seen and snatched up a new Nicole By OPI polish that sparkled so much I couldn't resist. Since I couldn't decide between the two I did an accent nail with the glitter.

Finger Paints Blue Raspberry Taffy and Nicole by OPI A Million Sparkles.

It was hard to get these pictures color accurate. This one is fairly accurate but not exact, it is somewhere between this picture and the one below it. The flash washed out the color in some of the pictures. It is a gorgeous BRIGHT blue that makes me want some taffy NOW. Did I mention I am hungry?

I used two coats of Blue Raspberry Taffy and one coat of A Million Sparkles. 

I think this may be the most accurate color wise. I did experience a bit of staining with this polish but nothing too crazy and nothing a new mani couldn't cover up.

I was having some cuticle issues as always but my nails were SO LONG! 

A Million Sparkles is quite the eye catcher. It has some bar glitter in there so those with strong feelings against the bars you will probably not enjoy that aspect of this one. It is super pretty though and really sparkly.

I loved this mani and I love both of these polishes. I am a total blue polish freak! I would like some taffy now I think. 

That's all for now :)

Stay Outta My Bismuth

Hey Everyone! I am tired tonight. I worked out for the first time in a bit so I am slightly tired. I also have to go stamp my nails so I am going to make this fast. I didn't sleep well at all and the puppy has made it a day from hell with his non house broken, destructive ways. I am ready for BED! 

Today I have one of the Limited Edition Wet N Wild polishes that are out and about now. It is a Chrome collection. The bottles are fairly small at 0.29 fl oz and a bit pricey at $3.49. I did end up grabbing a couple because I love chrome and I wanted to see how chrome like these were. Today I have the light blue one to show you.

They are wee little bottles. Wet N Wild Chrome Stay Outta My Bismuth.

This reminds me of a HUGE Lemming of mine Zoya Crystal. I obviously do not have that one, sadly, so I can't tell you if it is at all similar. It is a light foily blue with tons of coppery flecks loaded in it. 

I used two coats. I thought it would be a good stamping polish but my first attempt did not go well. I can't say for sure one way or another but I am leaning toward no.

I do absolutely LOVE this polish though. It is not a mirror like chrome like I hoped for but it is spectacular with that fleck throughout. It does sort of remind me of chrome in a certain way that I can't quite explain. The rough chippy chrome not the smooth metal looking chrome. It makes sense in my head anyway lol.

One of my Walgreens stores has two full displays and the store I bought mine from has a half full display so they are still floating around out there.

That is all for now :)

Cling On

Hey Everyone! I am quite confused but pleasantly surprised that blogger allowed me to upload these photos today without having to go through photobucket. I like the bucket and all but it is time consuming and annoying. I am not sure how long this will work but I am pretty excited about it! It would figure that the dinner bell just went off and I am not finished with this blog entry. I will make it quick.

This is the puppy Mr. Charleston after his surgery. He is doing well now. 

Today I have for you a magnetic polish from the China Glaze Magnetix collection.

This one is called Cling On. It was the first one I bought because it was the most unique color and I didn't have a similar shade in magnetic polish. 

It is a really pretty shimmery olive type color. It is way sheer though. I used three coats and you can still see some of the glitter peeking through the mani I had under it.  

Everyone has magnetic polishes out these days. I had heard some bad reviews on the China Glaze magnet so I picked up the magnet set for the Gelish polish that Sally's carries. I mainly picked it up because it had a star magnet and I was convinced the magnets had to be good if they were intended for gel polish. I used those magnets on this mani instead of the ChG magnets.

The magnets were strong and they did very well. They had a line, chevron and star magnet in the set.

 This polish looks very close to gold sometimes. That is my only issue with the color.

Like the Layla magnetics the Cling On got a lot darker when it was magnetized. I really love that the polish shows that much contrast. Layla still makes my favorite magnetic polish to date but this one is pretty nice too, especially considering the cost is way less. 

I did manage to ding my middle nail on the magnet not once, but twice. I added an extra coat to try and do the magnet again and hit it both times so I just left it there. 

When I did this mani I threw it on over glitter which explains why you see glitter in some pictures. My main goal was really to just test out the Gelish magnets rather than wear the mani. I of course did leave my nails like this for a couple of days but when I started the mani I wasn't really intending to. I enjoyed Cling On and found the formula nice and easy to work with though it was pretty sheer. The Gelish magnets worked great and were really strong. They are a little big so getting the design centered in my nail was a little bit difficult but I am sure it just takes practice. I need to give the China Glaze magnet a whirl next time.

That's all for now :)

Neon Spots

Hey Everyone! I am so tired! I woke up early again today despite it being the weekend. I already need a nap too! I hope everyone is having a good weekend! We watched a couple movies and made pizza last night. We are having a nice relaxing weekend except I don't seem to be sleeping as much as I would like lol.

Today I have a mani I did last month. I used a variety of neon polishes to color in the spots I stamped with Konad plate M57. 

I loved this mani! It was super fun and bright.

I used two coats of Sinful Colors Snow me White as the base. The brush was weird and it didn't make application as easy as I would have liked.

Everyone that noticed my nails asked me if it was a sticker.

I had gone to get my hair done and my hairdresser had never heard of stamping. I tried to explain it to her and told her I would bring it to show her next time. She said it looks like it was too much work.

It really didn't take that long to do. 

I love neons and almost want to do this mani again now that I am looking at the pictures.

That's all for now :)