Happy New Year!

What a crazy year. Seriously, ups, downs, middles, late nights, early mornings, great people. I truly have loads to be thankful for as this year comes to a close. I have wonderful friends and loved ones, I'm employed, and I've become friends with all of YOU! You all have been such a huge part of making this year what it has been, and for that, I'm eternally grateful! You helped me reached my goal of 365 days, and helped me make the decision to keep going. You've understood and been patient when there are days (or multiple days) since I got the second job where I really just don't have the time to create a nail design and post it. You've emailed me ideas, you've offered both praise and criticism, and most of all, you've changed my life.

As we embark upon this new year ahead of us, I will do my best to continue to make this blog a place for inspiration and laughs, and make it a place you still like to visit.

My blog resolution is to make more time to respond to emails and posts (I DO read them all!!) and make sure I get swatching and reviews done in a timely manner.

And, now to the nails...

I used Orly Luxe as a base, with Color Club Sultry Diva over it. For the New Year Baby and Old Man Time, I used American Apparel Mannequin for the skin, American Apparel Hassid to outline, and MAC Vestral White for the white on the robes, sashes, and diaper. For Old Man Time's beard, I added a touch of American Apparel Hassid to the white to paint the beard, and for the scythe I used American Apparel Raccoon for the handle, and China Glaze Millennium for the blade. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite.

So... Happy New Year! May 2011 be the best so far, but not the best to come.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac

Happy New Year's Eve, Dear Reader!

I really wanted to use another of the new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears today even though it was just a creme (last year's NYE mani was so blingy I broke off a nail removing it!), so I decided to just go with it and add a little glitter.

It turned out that Lacey Lilac, the lavender creme from the Xtreme Wear display I recall nothing about, is a fantastic layering polish.  It's super pigmented, so it only took one coat to be completely even and opaque.  For a pastel, that's a big deal.  If I were to wear Lacey Lilac alone, I'd do two coats so it would be nice and shiny, but as a base for some glitter, one coats was plenty.  I added one coat of FingerPaints Floatin' on a Cloud to it, topped it off with top coat, and now I have a glitterific pastel manicure.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac with FingerPaints Glitter, One Coat Each

I hope you have a safe and happy New Year's Eve, Dear Reader, and until 2011, love and nail polish to you!  

It's a TWO-fer!

Hey all!! Two things for you today…

I know I've been kinda M.I.A. lately, I promise I'll be back! Been working from 8 am - 11 pm every day, which means i don't usually get home till 11:45-midnight. After this week and the holidays are over, my life should be ever so slightly less chaotic, so I'll be back to posting more regularly!

Also, there is a CROWN Brush sale on Hautelook today! I have a couple of their brushes that I purchased at the International Beauty Show this year, and I love them! :)

The sale includes several different types of brush sets, travel, professional, synthetic, non-synthetic, as well as a few different eyeshadow and lip palettes!

It's a great way to start a brush collection if you're starting out!

Check out the sale HERE!

Dior Bond Street

Good morning, Dear Reader!

When Dior's City Gris nail lacquers became available, I got only one, and that's Bond Street.  Bond Street is a grey blue creme, kind of halfway between a deep denim blue and slate blue.  It's the only one that seemed unique enough to get - Gris Montaigne looks like a grey creme, and after Nubar's Fortress Collection I'm set on those, and NY 57th looks like a gunmetal shimmer, and I'm good for those as well.  That left Bond Street, which does not disappoint.

It went on like any Dior, perfect in two coats, and in addition to being a really cool color, it's super shiny.

Dior Bond Street Nail Polish, Two Coats

I love Dior nail polishes, but they're just too pricey unless the color is exceptional.  In the case of Bond Street, it was well worth it to me.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Posh Plum

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I ran into a little countertop display of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears recently, presumably another limited edition release, so I got a few of the colors and tried one out today.  I'm always happy when I run into a Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear display because I'm quite fond of the line - the colors and quality are usually good, and they're cheap.  Unfortunately, the other thing that's consistent is that I forget to read anything on the display, such as a collection name or whether it's LE...

Today's polish is Posh Plum, a really vivid and glowy red-violet shimmer.  It went on well and was good in two coats.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Posh Plum Nail Polish, Two Coats

Not bad for $3, huh?

That's all for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Chez Delaney Plates H3 & H9

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I decided to play around with a couple of the Chez-Delaney plates I got not too long ago, two I hadn't used yet.  From plate H3, I wanted to check out the big plain French tip pattern, and I added a little something to it from plate H9.

For color, I figure I can't go wrong with purple, so SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars is the base color.  I did the tips from H3 using Konad Pastel Violet Special Polish, and the pattern was a challenge to get a feel for.  By the last few stamps I did, I had it, but in the picture you'll see that a couple nails aren't quite right.  The thing is, it's hard to scrape the big empty engraving evenly and without sliding the corner of the scraper into the pattern.  I did want to master this one though, because double stamping my tips with the French patterns from Konad plate m19 leaves a darker line where the two stamps overlap when I use anything other than black or white.

After the tips, I added a little heart pattern from H9, applied top coat, and called it done.  It's by no means the most attractive manicure ever, but not bad for playing around with new plates.

Chez Delaney Plates H3 & H9 over SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Chanel Rose Paradise

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I got to try out the last polish in my most recent Chanel order, Rose Paradise.  This one's a limited edition that I've had my eye on for a while, and I figured since I'd wanted it for some time and I could still get it at retail, I should go for it, so I did.  I was reluctant because it's just a classic rose shimmer, but it's a really nice one.

In the bottle, Rose Paradise looks a bit frosty, but once it's dry it is not at all.  It ends up being a fine, dense, uniform shimmer with no brush strokes.  This is two coats dry in somewhat low natural light.

Chanel Rose Paradise Nail Polish, Two Coats

It's exactly what I'd hoped it would be - no alarm bells are sounding, but it's a great elegant, classic rose.  I think more than one version of Rose Paradise has come out, and the information on the box identifying this one is 185 Rose Paradise 159.185.

That's all I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Merry Christmas!!

So today is Christmas! CHRISTMAS! The time where families can get together and eat and just enjoy each other. I was lucky enough to get to spend this Christmas with my family, and though I leave in the morning, I miss them and the dogs already. On the bright side, though my trip was extremely short, I got to go to Yesterdog, which is amaaaaazing. The picture for today's nails is a iPhone pic, which will be replaced by a real picture when I'm actually at MY computer and have access to my files, etc.

I hope all of you had a great day, whether you celebrate Christmas or not...and for those of you that DO celebrate Christmas- MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :-D

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Dear Reader!

My last holiday manicure of 2010 is a little cartoony, but I think it's fun.  I used OPI Ali's Big Break, which is a great sparkly red, then stamped some of the Christmas patterns from Konad plate m12 (the Christmas one) using Konad White Pearl Special Polish.  Since I already showed you both of those, I thought I'd have a little more fun than usual with the picture.  This is what it looks like right before I throw a snowball.

Merry Christmas!

Have a great holiday, and until next time, love and nail polish to you! 

Clarification

Just to clarify about the twitter-only contests:

I'm not stopping normal giveaways here on the blog, I'm just adding a few SMALL twitter only giveaways. It might be a single polish, a cosmetic bag, or something like that. It's just a way to engage my loyal twitter followers as well as those here on the blog.

Sorry for the confusion.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve, Dear Reader!

I was up for a holiday manicure this morning, so I ran with it.  Actually, I tried and failed last night (there was a products-don't-like-each-other wrinkled polish incident), and the last thing I did to this mani didn't work out as planned, but now that my second attempt has gone south, I'm leaving it.  It's not too far off the mark, and I can show you where it went wrong.

I started out with two coats of China Glaze Midnight Kiss, then added a holly pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM14, painting the leaves with Green Konad Special Polish and the berries with Cool Red Konad Princess Polish.  I wanted to add one more thing, so I stamped the Christmas tree from Konad plate m12 in Konad Green, and at this point, all was well.  However, the Christmas tree didn't look too festive being green with green decorations, so I had at it with cheapo rhinestones.

That's where the problem came in - I got a bunch of little wheels of rhinestone-y things super cheap off of ebay a while back, and now I see that they're cheap because they're crap.  I used a round white rhinestone for the star on the tree, which was fine, and then I added a few little round metallic beads to the Christmas tree, and top coat made the color bleed off of them.  So it would have been just right but for my crappy tree decorations.  In the picture, there are also some droplets on a few nails - it was snowing pretty hard when I ran out to take the picture, so please just ignore them.

Christmas Eve Nails

See how the color bled right off of the red pieces on my ring nail?  That's pretty frustrating at the very end.  However, no one's going to look at my nails as close up as this picture, and from a normal close distance it's more okay.  The red pieces just look oddly blurry, so I'm going to leave it alone.

The moral of the story is don't buy cheap crappy nail decorations like I did, and if you do, don't use them as the last step of a manicure that was kind of a hassle to execute.  Words to live by.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!  

Sweet Tweets!

Hey all! Are you on Twitter? I am! I wanted to give you all a heads up that I'm going to start doing twitter-only giveaways soon! (I'll announce it on twitter when I decided to start doing it! :))

Follow me at twitter.com/DailyNail and say hi! :)

Chanel Black Pearl

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Last night I tried out Chanel Black Pearl, so that's what I have for you today.  Black Pearl applied well, and it was good in two coats.  It's an almost frosty charcoal with a bit of a teal flash, and I think it really does look a lot like a black pearl.

Chanel Black Pearl Nail Polish, Two Coats

I like it, as I expected to, but I think that I prefer Peche Nacree to Black Pearl by a good margin.

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

ChristmaSnails!

So I sat the other day, pondering what sort of Christmas themed nails I could do that hadn't been done yet, and said out loud 'What kind of Christmas nails should I do?" to which Chris replied, "There's your answer!" Me: "huh?!" Chris: "Christmas Snails!" ...and thus, a nail design was born! :) Hope it makes you chuckle! :)

I used American Apparel Echo Park as a base, with Zoya Shawn and BB Couture Poison Ivy for the greens, with each color mixed with American Apparel Hassid to shade. For the gold, I used China Glaze 2030 from Khrome Collection, for the red, I used ORLY Candy Cane Lane, and for the burgundy, I used American Apparel Port. For the string of lights, I used Zoya Envy, with American Apparel Manila, ORLY Candy Cane Lane, and American Apparel Cameo Blue for the lights. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

New Konad Plates: m82 & m83

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I just got word that there are two new Konad plates coming out which will be available in mid to late January at WowSoCool, and I have pictures of them for you.

This is m82:

Konad Plate m82

This is m83:

Konad Plate m83

It looks like m83 in particular has some fun new things.  I'm looking forward to these!

I think that's really all I have for you today, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Konad White Pearl Special Polish

Good morning, Dear Reader!

WowSoCool has some new Konad goodies in, and I have one of them to show you today: Konad White Pearl Special Polish.  I tried it out yesterday over Chanel Peche Nacree using Konad plate m9 for the pattern, and it was really nice to use.

White Pearl is quite thick, but I left it that way and found that it was just right for stamping.  It's opaque, makes very clean stamps, and was super low maintenance.  I also found in applying top coat that it doesn't smudge, much like Konad Black Pearl Special Polish.  Here's White Pearl over Peche Nacree.

Konad White Pearl Special Polish over Chanel Peche Nacree with m9

I'm always more excited about new Konad stuff than new polishes because it can be used with every polish, so it just seems like a bigger deal to me.  This one, White Pearl, I will definitely get a lot of use out of.

That's the update for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Chanel Peche Nacree

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I got a couple of the Spring 2011 Chanel nail polishes yesterday, and I decided to wear one of them today.  The two I chose were Black Pearl and Peche Nacree, and after a few days of wearing darks (I wore Chanel Strong over the weekend), I thought Peche Nacree would be a nice change of pace.

It applied really well, but it took three coats for me to get it opaque.  Part of that is due to the bottle design, I think, where it has the little ledge to wipe off the brush as it is removed from the bottle - that meant I had to do really thin coats.  If the coats were normal, I think two would be enough.  The color is a delicate peach, and it has a shimmer that makes the finish look like a pearl, which I think looks really cool.

Chanel Peche Nacree Nail Polish, Three Coats

It's certainly not a must-have, as there are many similar shades out there, but since it's a particularly nice rendition of a peach shimmer and I'm partial to Chanel nail polish, I'm happy that I got it.

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

HOLY CRAP!

Urban Decay is on Hautelook today and everything is TWO FREAKIN' DOLLARS!! $2! Brushes, pigments, eyeshadows, eye pencils, masrcaras, everything!!!

Check out the sale HERE!!

Revlon Perplex

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Today I have another non-holiday manicure for you, this one using Revlon Perplex.  Perplex is the Revlon that's essentially a dupe for Chanel Paradoxal - I see a bit more violet shimmer in Perplex, but since it looks just the way I wanted Paradoxal to look, that's a good thing.

Perplex was easy to apply, and it was almost good in one coat.  I finished it with Diamont, and the dry time was average.  Since Perplex is what I wanted the much pricier Paradoxal to be, I'm really happy with it.

Revlon Perplex Nail Polish, Two Coats

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Untl next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Loco Incoco!

Rather than posting nothing for the day, since I had zero time to get nails done (every spare minute this weekend has been spent being elf-like or working. Christmas is exhausting!), I thought I'd post a new product that Incoco sent me to check out and review. I'm sure that you all know Incoco for the solid color, glitter, or french tip nail appliques, but now they have a NEW product out, and seriously, I gasped when I opened the box. They're patterned. Yeah, like Minx, but REAL NAIL POLISH!!! I have to say, too, I'm actually reaaaaally impressed with these, they're much easier to apply than the solid color ones. (they hide imperfections in the nail better as well) The patterns they sent are rad, I chose to show this one today because the colors kinda make me think of Christmas! :) I really love these, they're easy to use and look great– they only took 5 minutes to apply!

I know that these aren't technically one of my nail designs, but I wanted y'all to have something to see, plus, this introduces you to a brand spankin' new item that I'm sure you'll dig!

I used Incoco Nail Appliqués, not sure of the design name, there was no label.

Back to elfing.

Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum

Trying to do Christmas manicures from until Christmas day, hope that's cool with y'all! :) Today's is based on the song 'Little Drummer Boy'. I am completely enamored with the Milani 1-coat glitters right now, so I apologize for overusing them! :-D I thought that Red Sparkle would be PERFECT for the drum body!! The gold polish over it shows you what the texture of that polish is like though... very bumpy!

I used Milani Red Sparkle as a base, with China Glaze 2030 from Khrome Collection for the gold, mixed with American Apparel Hassid to shade. For the holly, I used BB Couture Poison Ivy for the leaves, and ORLY Candy Cane Lane for the berries. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Rat-a-tat-tat on your dum-dum-drum. (Can't get that damn song out of my head!)

Take a Bough

Christmastime is upon us, and with a mere 7 days left, many of us are hustling around trying to finish up last minute gift shopping, attend parties, and finish up last-minute holiday decorating. Today's nail design was inspired by the cold winter days spent as a kid with my family picking out the 'perfect' tree. You know, the one that wasn't too tall or too short, too skinny or fat, and heaven forbid it be lopsided! Years have passed and my parents have since switched to artificial, and I've switched to none, unless you count the 2 foot tall one that resides on my desk at work. However, I'll always have fond memories of tree hunting, whether it was at the store or a Christmas tree farm, so this design makes me feel fuzzy on the inside. ;) Hope it evokes fond memories of Christmases past for you too!

I used FingerPaints Winter Wishes from the FingerPaints Winter Dreams collection as a base, LOVE this color- super sparkly champagne color that would also be perfection for New Years! For the tree boughs, I used American Apparel Raccoon for the branch and base for the cones, then Zoya Dea to highlight the cones. For the needles, I started with OPI Here Today, Aragon tomorrow, then used Zoya Envy, then Zoya Shawn, then BB Couture Poison Ivy, then Zoya Envy again to separate some of the needles. Everything was random, but I layered the colors like I did to add depth. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Needle little Christmas?

Candy Cane Nails

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I did a manicure I thought of for the request for warm weather Christmas manicures.  I looked up some images to see if that would help me pick something, and it did, but it was still strange to see.  What I found was red and white were more prevalent than anything with green, but the thing that was odd to see is that there were a heck of a lot of beach scenes, like people in red bathing suits wearing a traditional Santa hat.  Now, please don't think that as a result of seeing those pictures, I now believe the entire southern hemisphere gallivants about the beach during the holidays - I know those are as authentic as the pictures of American families laughing around a fireplace in matching holiday sweaters.  What I did get out of it is that I should go with red and white, and that using the same imagery would work as long as it wasn't specific to winter, so I chose candy canes for the theme.

From there, I considered how a fun gathering would go on Christmas with June weather.  My best holidays have always involved a bunch of family and some friends just hanging out talking for hours after the main events are over, and we'd always sit outside if weather permitted.  For that, I thought a glow in the dark polish would be good for the white, and since I really like Sephora by OPI Full Moon, that was my white.  For a fiery hot red, I chose China Glaze Red Stallion.  To decorate, I used Chez-Delaney's plate H1, which has a tip pattern that includes three diagonal lines, and I just painted and picked up the three line part of the pattern.  Since it looked like a lot of stamping, I only did one nail in the candy cane pattern, and to match the others I used Red Stallion to stamp.  The lines aren't as clean as with Konad polish and don't hold up under the close scrutiny of a giant picture, but they're just fine walking around.

Candy Cane Nails: Sephora by OPI Full Moon, China Glaze Red Stallion, Chez-Delaney H1

So that's my take on Christmas in summer, and that's just about all I have to tell you about at this hour.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Sorry, my Darlings...

My sincerest apologies for the lack of posting yesterday and today.

Last night, I fell asleep shortly after I got home and took a shower. I got into bed to get warm, and ending up zonking out until this morning. Lights on, TV on, everything left on downstairs.... Yeah. COMA.

Anyway, that brings us to today. Today I worked my full-time job from 8a-5p, then hauled my butt to my second part-time job to work from 5:30p-11:30p. What this means to you is that there won't be any nails until tomorrow, since I won't even get home before midnight.

I hope that you'll forgive me, and come back to the blog! :) (2 days isn't TOO bad in the scheme of things, right??!)

Anyway. I DOUBLE pinky-swear that I'll have nails up tomorrow. Scouts honor. (I totally made it to Brownie status...wait...that's only the first level of Girl Scout isn't it? Whatever, I sold the cookies.)

2-day old nail design hugs to you all,

-M

China Glaze Happy Go Lucky & H8

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I used another Chez-Delaney plate, H8.  The pattern I wanted from it is a flaming tip pattern, which was just too much fun to pass up.  I was considering what colors to use to most look like fire, and I concluded that it would be pretty hard to pull off well using only two colors.  I still wanted to use the pattern, so I decided to go for the look of flames on an old hot rod, like this:

I've Got This One Covered, Indi

I started with the yellow, for which I used three coats of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, then I did the stamping in Konad Cool Red Princess Polish.  I found it took a while to get a feel for scraping this pattern without messing it up - on the big tip patterns, it's really easy to get the edge of the scraper too deep into the pattern and scrape away far too much.  Once I got the hang of it, the stamping went quickly, and I'm happy with the end result.

China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, Three Coats, with Chez-Delaney H8

I think it worked out reasonably well, and the manicure makes me laugh a little bit.

That's all there is to tell this morning, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polih to you!  

Perplexed

Ok, so I finally get it. I finally get all the hoopla and drool over Chanel Paradoxal. When Paradoxal came out, I sat back watching, thinking WHAT is so special about it? Well now I have an idea. If Paradoxal is anything like its proclaimed dupe, Revlon Perplex, then I'd have been one of the drooling girls, too! Pictures don't really show all of the awesomeness of this polish! Today I did a basic design, because I was more interested in showing off the base polish!!

I used Revlon Perplex as a base, with China Glaze Millennium applied with a dotting tool. Topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

So I know that Christmas is coming up, and everyone is either A) Broke, or B) Looking for gifts, so I'll end this post with a short note letting you know that tomorrow there will be new stuff for sale on the Sale page! :) (A BNIB PH8 Watch, BNWT bebe Sport/PH8 Necklace, BNWT bebe Sport/PH8 jacket, some Body Shop stuff, some older LE MAC items, and a few other things!) Keep an eye out!! :)

RBL Bangin' & H5

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I still wasn't up for facing another holiday manicure today, so I cracked into another Chez-Delaney stamping plate.  I wanted to use the tip pattern from plate H5, which is a pattern centered about a heart, and I thought it would look cool in Konad Black Pearl over a red creme.  For the base color, I went with RBL Bangin', halfway between a coral and a red, because the color is light and vivid enough to provide a stark contrast to the Black Pearl.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Bangin' is, like their other cremes, just perfect in two coats. It's normally easy to apply, but I must confess that today's manicure is neither my best application nor stamping.  The fact is, I did my nails while watching a Jackass DVD, so I kept busting out laughing.  I wish there were a more age-appropriate reason for the imperfections, but alas, I apparently have the sense of humor of a twelve year old boy.  So be it...  As a result, the only really decent stamps ended up being my thumb, which you can only see half of, and my middle finger.  I was laughing for the others and smudged them a little - just enough that they look crappy in a giant picture, but not enough to redo it.  Here's what I've got.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Bangin' Nail Polish with Chez-Delaney H5

It's not perfect, but I like it a lot just the same.

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

OK, so it's not really cold out, at least not here in Vegas. Rumor has it that it is frigid in the midwest though... and that's what inspired the nail design today! So, the bullions that I used yesterday survived ALL day, they didn't bug me at all! Because of that, I thought I'd try 'em out today, because I thought they'd be PERFECT for this design!

Guess what today is?! (Besides December 13th) It's my MOM's BIRTHDAY!!! :) Happy Birthday Mom! You're an awesome mom, you put up with Stace and I, with all our projects and harebrained ideas. You always back us up when we decide to do something, even if you don't agree with it. You're amazing, and I wish I could be there to celebrate with you! Thank you for supporting me with this project, too...I know it seemed silly at first, but I loved hearing that you and dad checked it every day! I hope that your birthday was great! I love you! :)

I used Milani Red Sparkle as a base for all nails except the ring finger, where I used Milani Silver Dazzle. For the snowflakes, I used MAC Vestral White, with bullions in certain spots. Topped off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Time for some much-needed beauty sleep!

LORAC Sale at Hautelook!

LORAC Sale at Hautelook today!

There is tons of stuff- eye shadows, palettes, mascara, eyeshadow liner pencils, cream eye liners, cocktails, lip polishes (I actually LOVE these- and to top it off- they look like a nail polish bottle!), lip glosses, and lipsticks.

There are some really good prices- like the lip polishes are $3!!!

Awesome.

Check out the sale HERE!

Anchors Away!

A couple of weeks ago, when I was preparing for the Beauty Bar Las Vegas event, I decided that not everyone shared my hatred of things stuck to my nail, so I bought some nail art bullions. No one decided to get any nail art utilizing them, so I decided that I'd give the bullion nail art another go, to see if I could stand it. Today's design is a nautical/sailor theme, and I did the anchor in silver bullions. I like the look of it, although I think I'd prefer them to be gold, but we'll see how long the design lasts before I ultimately pick it off. :-D

I used MAC Vestral White as a base, with ULTA Moody Blue for the tips, and ORLY Candy Cane Lane for the anchors. Applied the bullions when the first coat of Seche Vite top coat was still wet, then topped it all off with another coat of Seche Vite top coat.

How Naughtycal.

RBL Purple Haze & H4

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I just got around to changing my manicure today, and I realized that at this point I'm already weary of winter and holiday manicures.  I still have a long way to go!  I decided for a change, I'd go with Rescue Beauty Lounge Purple Haze and try out one of the Chez-Delaney plates I got this week.

Purple Haze is, of course, as fabulous as always.  It's a great shade and it virtually applies itself, and it's perfection in two coats.

For the stamping, I wanted to see how Chez-Delaney's gargantuan tip patterns worked, and I went with the one on plate H4.  That's actually the main reason I ordered these, some of them have tip patterns that are friggin' enormous, so much so that I could literally have double the free edge I have now, and they'd still cover in one stamp.  For me, that matters because having to double stamp is a bit of a hassle, so these are great.  Just for a sense of scale, here's a picture of the plate from Chez-Delaney's site.  I used the one in the middle.

Chez Delaney Nail Stamping Plate H4

As you can see, the tip pattern and the full nail pattern to its left are the same length.  That's good news!

I did the stamping using Konad White, and they turned out well for the most part.  At first, I had a little trouble getting the Konad stamper to cover as much of the pattern as I wanted to pick up (I just used about half of it), and for some reason I start on my left hand.  So the stamping's a lot better on the right hand, but I have a heck of a time getting a picture of my right hand, so I'll just have to show you the imperfect left.

RBL Purple Haze Nail Polish, Two Coats, with Chez Delaney H4

I like it, and I'm excited to have some fun new plates.

On an entirely unrelated note, a few days ago in the comments, Cat from Australia asked about summery Christmas manicure ideas for those in the southern hemisphere.  I have two ideas I'm tossing around which are not complete, but I thought I'd ask you for your ideas as well, if you'd care to share them.  We can consider what it would be like to have late June weather at Christmas while the snow falls outside (like now!).  I'll be showing you at least one of the two ideas I'm working on this week.

That's just about all I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Polka Party!

Newly nubby nails need a goofy design. This is where the polka dots come in! I'm torn about whether I like my nails this length, so I wanted to do a fun and colorful design to help ease into the shorter length.

Today was a great day- other than waking up at 5 am to get to training on time this morning! Had a blast in training- my new coworkers are going to be fun, got free breakfast from Max Brenner, then I got to check out the new H&M store in the Forum Shops here in Vegas after work- it's supposedly the largest H&M in the US. They had all the new Lanvin for H&M stuff, which was super cute, but at $200 a dress, a tad out of my price range. The shoes were cute too, and I totally wanted one of the purses, but I ended up only getting two of the lipsticks, love the packaging!! The best part about going there today was that it was opening day, so they had a TON of opening day sales, I got a couple of shirts, dresses, and jeans for only $10 each! Rumor had it that they handed out scratch-off cards to the first 1,000 people, and they were worth $10-$1000!! Unfortunately, I didn't get to go there until about 4, so I missed out. :-/ Still fun to shop in there though- it is HUGE HUGE HUGE, and glitter and sparkle and stuff everywhere, plus, a ladies lounge, and awesome stuff on all three floors!

Ok, enough about H&M... to the nails! :)

I used American Apparel Raccoon as a base, with American Apparel Cameo Blue for the blue dots, American Apparel MacArthur Park for the chartreuse dots, American Apparel Echo Park for the shimmery cream dots, and Essie Foot Loose for the pink dots. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

The Lanvin <3 H&M lippies, I tested 'em out after I took this photo, and they're actually really nice- creamy and pigmented!  Too bad there are only 4 colors!  (Red and Hot Pink <---? not hot pink at all, sort of more pinky nude, are shown below, then there is Burgundy and Rose, which is really more of a Barbie pink)  I'm tempted to get the Burgundy, which is really rather dark, but I might be able to pull it off.

WOO!