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!