Well, Hello there!

I know you guys haven't seen a post on this blog in awhile. But as another long time friend of Erika's, and a reader/ supporter of this blog, I mentioned to her that I hadn't seen any posts in awhile. I do like to support anything my friends do, and have been reading since the beginning. So she asked if I'd like to take part, and here I am!

Now i'm nowhere near as good with a brush as Erika, Renee, and Julie are. More like Ernestina Does A Manicure, in my honest opinion. And I think I may be dating myself with that paraphrased reference. :-P But I do love polish, and have a willingness to get better so bear with me!

I've been buying polish since middle school when all I could afford is a 99 cent bottle of Wet 'N Wild, sadly those hideous colors of blue and metallic apple green are long dried out, but the memories remain (of hideous manicures). Painting something pretty on your nails makes you feel good, and why shouldn't we all treat ourselves to some good feels now and again?

For my first post I decided to post on a polish that was bought for me as a gift from Erika when I went up to NY to visit; Deborah Lippman's Lets Go Crazy. You should know, I'm a HUGE sucker for purple and glitter so this polish was a no brainer for my first Lippman. I've read around  about it, and the consensus is that it's chunky,  the purple is murky... Well you all can google that if you're interested. Also, until I get my camera charger in the mail, I'm stuck with my 2 year old ancient smartphone camera. So no judging on the picture quality until I say so! :)

Rejuvacote, Lets Go Crazy, Out The Door Topcoat. 

Plus showing off some possibilities for future posts :)

First things first, I LOVE this polish. I do think it needs some work to come out well, though. It could be me who knows. But sheer purple, with tons of colored glitter? I'm probably biased as a lover of purple shiny things. 

These pictures will get better I promise. I'll also invest in something to get those bits of polish off by my next post

So this was one coat of Rejuvacote, which is my standard base coat. Two thick coats of Lets Go Crazy, followed by one thick coat of Out the Door. I did have to fish every few nails because the glitter was getting sparse, as well as a quick cap and roll. But despite that, and some streakiness, I still have a big mushy soft spot for this polish. As I get more used to doing my nails more often i'll definitely revisit to see if I have the same issues. Anyone have this polish have the same issues? Let me know!

Bonus: Have any of you seen this link for cute Valentines mani ideas? Now I'd change the pink to purple, as i'm not a pink fan. But that's just me. A solid purple mani, with maybe a red heart on the thumb is as Valentine-y as I get. But, they're all super creative. :)

Gift from my awesome sister! and please ignore my gross cuticles...

Helllo everyone! I hope someone is still reading this blog, I know we were terrible bloggers and abandoned ship. School.. work... family problems and babies! Kinda took over, hopefully we will all be blogging again, I hope! But on to the nails:)

My sister is currently in Morocco, with my niece and I have been helping her with packages and such, so I was so happy to receive a sephora box in the mail with my name on the box. I thought for a second I won something because I am always entering contests and I knew I entered a few from sephora ( a girl can hope!) but when I opened the box, there was a note from my sister that of course made my day, and goodies in the form of Nars Nail polish and the sephora lip favorites! I love my sister because she always gets me things that I want but never buy myself, like Nars nail polish which I have had my eyes on for a long time!

She bought me this awesome set:

NARS

Pierre Hardy Nail Duo

The colors are both called "sharp lines"but basically one is a peach that is opaque in 2 coats and a burgundy that gives vamp a run for its over priced money!

I painted my nails in the burgundy and at the last minute added a cover girl glosstini from The Hunger Games collection called Violet flicker that was too pretty to pass up at Cvs the other day. I will do a blog entry about that lil guy, they are so cute. A tad overpriced for the amount but the colors are so amazing I had to get one.

bottom- all the way to the left.

It was so hard photographing this polish, I mean I tried different lighting and angles, but this was the best I could do without resorting to going outside in the cold.. BRR!

Whoa.. this is sad.

Wow, so sorry for the lack of posts! I guess its me now, all alone... but thats okay, Ill try my best to post more than once every 3 months!

Heres a manicure I am rocking right now:

$18 for 13 ml/0.43 fl oz, Sephora.com

I saw this in Sephora(swooooooooned) and Renee scooped it up and got it for me behind my back. It is literally the prettiest nail polish. 

Couldn't have said it any better, Chris.

It lasts a long crazy time, almost opaque in one coat, is it worth the money.. um.. yeah. I think so. The color is, but their are other colors in the collection that can be easily duped. This color, not so much. So yes me likes!

The West Memphis Three Are FREED!!! A New Car, And A New Swatch!

*If you have an opposition to the West Memphis 3, I ask only that you first educate yourself on this case before posting controversial comments. Visit http://www.wm3.org to learn about them.*

Hi everyone! I am sorry I've been mia - I have a heaping pile of issues going on in my life right now regarding fertility, my health, and my future. Needless to say, it hasn't been all shits n' giggles for me. I will fill you all in soon, and I promise some awesome swatches are to come.

But right now I want to focus my attention on the fact that the WEST MEMPHIS THREE are finally home! I am so happy, despite the lame Alford plea, that they will be able to continue their lives...18 years later...outside of jail. The case will continue investigating, and hopefully the DNA evidence can point investigators in the right direction. (ahem...TERRY HOBBS)

I have been a WM3 supporter for over 15 years. I have poured my heart and soul into spreading awareness of their case, and I am pretty sure I was able to get a lot of friends on board as well.

I threw together a few designs this morning, and posted them on Zazzle for sale. Please pass along the designs, as I will donate all money received from my sales to WM3.org so that they may continue the investigation. It is imperative that we find justice for the 3 boys who were murdered, and clear Damien, Jason, and Jessie's names for good.

I'm going to link the designs below here, but I am going to make them available in ALL shirt types, so please visit my Zazzle Shop for all designs, and designs to come.

 

so to report some more happy news, my 30th birthday just passed (that's not the happy news!) and I got an amazing new camera for better photos that I haven't been able to fully test out yet. It's the Canon EOS 69D, digital SLR. What a fantastic camera!!

And, I got a new JEEP! Not for my birthday though, but because my JEEP is ready to be laid to rest. 130k miles, yes, it's time!

My new Jeep, a Wrangler Unlimited Mojave Ed.

 

Oh, you were expecting some nail polish, right?? Here is my current swatch, a very coveted and beautiful swatch by OPI Sephora - Midnight Mambo. Excuse my peely fingers.

An Eastery Sparkly Day- And My Easter Present!

Happy Easter! 

Is that just about the scariest easter bunny you've ever seen? I couldn't help myself.

You know by now that I cannot just keep one color on my nails for longer than 24 hours, right? So consider the last Easter post a "trial" of sorts! A preparation for the real deal ;)

I was also just thinking, as I know I've pretty much created over-kill on sparkly accent nails. What do you, as readers of our blog, want to see more of? Because we are ready and willing (perverted thoughts aside!) to deliver what you would like to see! At first, we started this blog more as an outlet to feed our obsessions, and share our nail polish looks as friends, but now since we have followers, we want to keep you entertained as well! So speak up. Let us know what we can do more of, less of, no more of....and hey, we'll give it a shot :)

I recently purchased an armload of nail art stamps (copies of the real Konad deal on Amazon for  a fraction of the price) so look forward to many Konad experiments ahead in near-future posts.

And moving on to my Eastery Sparkly Day look.....

My new Sephora OPI swatch "Havanah Dreams" accented with Deborah Lippmann's "Today Was A Fairytale". The blue jelly blended in really nicely with the blue cream swatch, and I really like this look! Maybe I will try it over purple next time. I *like* the Deborah Lippmann swatch, but I feel like it's been done before, by just about everyone. I think they could have really knocked this swatch out of the park if they added super-micro glitter, too. 3 levels of glitter would have been bliss!

this is just 1 layer of TWAF

Now on to the Easter present....please note, this was an Easter present to myself! I don't expect Mr.Scary Easter Bunny to leave anything at my doorstep, so I have to take initiative and buy a present for myself, right? I found this Juicy Couture Kindle case for $35 at TJ Maxx, and didn't even hesitate. I had to have it. I love it!

A Secret Bunny Exchange

I belong to a really freakin amazing community called Purseblog.com, and I obviously spend most of my time in the sub-forum for nail junkies such as myself.

I noticed there were occasionally these "exchange" posts, organized by a really awesome girl, where you sign up, and become a secret santa of sorts for another person on the board. You can participate to send internationally, that way you can get goodies from any part of the world. And you never know what you're going to get. You just brief the organizer on what nail polish finishes/brands you like/dis-like, etc, and the rest is up to whoever gets to buy for you.

And this is what my Secret Bunny (Easter!) put together for me! People can be SO awesome and thoughtful. I am so happy to have found that forum, and so grateful for this amazing gift!! Keep your eyes out for swatches of these!

 

Left to right:

Sephora for OPI - Havana Dreams
Sephora for OPI - Traffic - Stopper Copper
Milani - 530 Gems
Illamasqua - Ruthless
 

I see this Illamasqua perfecting a great outfit. Black tank, my 7 For All Mankind Roxanne skinnies in Beverly Glen, my red ruffly spike pumps....red on fingers and black on toes. Oooh! SO going to do that!

From Simple to Colorful ;)

You guys should know how I feel about my OPI for sephora's, well if you don't.. I lurrrve them. I wish I could buy every color, but at 9.50$ a pop (yes they did go up from 9$, damn you sephora!) I have to get the ones that really catch my eyes.Which brings me to my next mani. I know I have mentioned flurry up a few times I believe, so I know your familiar with it.

It is marketed as a topcoat, but I wanted to try it by itself and see how many coats it would take before it actually covered my entire nail. Well I stopped at 5 coats. Lesson learned, keep it as a top coat! I even blobbed it on, to get the hexagons silver to stick, but still no luck. Overall, It was worth it, because when I was in Wegman's (which I have to say is amazing! I have never been there before so I was pleased to say the least) I got stopped by two people who said they could see it all the way at then end of the aisle, now that's amazing!

Ah simple, but so sparkly!

Now to the colorful, I have been eyeing the Sally Hansen nail effects for a while, but I thought 10$ was a little pricey for just one use. I mean you could get a whole bottle of O.P.I for that! So I passed, but then I saw them for sale priced for 4.59$ I grabbed two designs and viola! Here are the results:

Also, very easy to do, this took me a grand total of about 10 minutes!

Also we reached our goal! So ladies keep those fingers crossed and good luck!

It's bouquet with me by OPI for Sephora

I bought this a couple of weeks ago, but never really got a chance to use it yet. I havent been in the most creative moods lately when it comes to my nail polish, I can thank school for that one..

I used this on top of Zoya Icicle( 3 coats) and then 2 coats of IBWM. It prolly would have came out a bit denser with 3 coats, but I think 2 is pretty good for me.



I need to get out of this polish funk and start doing something like Julie, Renee, and Tammy and change it up!

Ohayo (Good Morning!) Polished Fans (Renee)

Been away a bit due to a foot surgery, and yesterday I decided to give myself a much needed manicure :)
All polishes I used are Japanese drugstore brands except the nail decals (Broadway Nail Art.)  Nothing too fancy, but I created a simple yet elegant look that is easy to re-create!

First, I coated my nails with basecoat.  Then I applied two coats of beige polish, to give a nude natural look.  Then I painted the tips with dark pink polish, painted the border between the pink and beige with a thin line of gold glitter with a nail art brush, put flower decals on my ring fingers and thumbs, and topped it off with two coats of clear coat.

Now, forgive me if this is late, (remember, surgery and the fact that there are no Sephoras in Japan) for all those ladies who love everything Kawaii (cute) I found the Hello Kitty for Sephora line, including nail polish!  The packaging is to die for cute, and the color swatches look really good too.  Here's the Sephora stock photo:

Pink Sprinkles looks so pretty!  I might have to nab me some..
Until next time polished fans!

Good morning polished fans! (Renee)

Slightly late-comer here.  My name is Renee, I'm a fashion, makeup, and of course, nail polish junkie transplanted from the Big Apple to the capital of the Land of the Rising Sun, Tokyo.  Since nail design is HUGE here, I'll not only be giving you the first hand scoop, but I'll be doing some designs myself.  I'll also pop in with some good nail care tips I have to share.

Today, I didn't do anything too crazy, but classy never the less.  I'm wearing the Sephora by OPI Teal We Meet Again that Erika gave me, with New York Color #105 Starry Silver Glitter on the tips that Julie suggested.  Very pretty!  

Mata ne~ (see you later)