Matte Stamping and Born Pretty Store Review

I'm always up for a new technique, and matte stamping is an amazing one!  A fellow nail Instagrammer (@jay_jay_bee) posted her own version and I knew I would have to try it out.

The base color is Mentality Nail Polish in Sailor, the most perfect navy ever.  It's got a light shimmer and dries matte, but is equally gorgeous with or without topcoat.  I stamped using MoYou London Explorer 22, a lovely large image plate and Sally Hansen Matte About You.

The people over at Born Pretty Store were also kind enough to send me some items for review, one of which was the studs I used on my accent nails.  I really like them-they lie almost flat on the nail, so they don't get caught up in my hair, or fall off when I catch them on something.  If you would like to make a purchase of your own, there's also a link at the top right of my page, as well as my code for 10% off, UDG10.

Stamps on Stamps on Stamps

 So a few months ago, I discovered the joy of stamping! These were all done with this set of Pueen plates and a Konad stamper/scraper set.  I've found that American Apparel polishes work well and that China Glaze Goldie But Goodie is an AWESOME gold.

Geometric! Lil' bit of smudging though, bleh.

WHO DAT! Stamped using Goldie But Goodie.

 More pretties after the jump!

Sugar Coat Pink Sprinkle Swatch

Three coats of Pink Sprinkle, one of the shimmery Sally Hansen Sugar Coat polishes. The glitter is almost like flakies and it's really pretty. However...the grit is white and it kind of shows through up close or at certain angles. 

Sugar Coat Red Velvet Swatch

Seriously, these polishes are awesome. Fast dry time, opaque in two coats, great colors...do I need to say more? 

Two coats of Red Velvet, all of the love. 

Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Swatches

So I've been searching for the new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear colors with no luck...but I DID run into the new Sugar Coat colors! I picked up Red Velvet and Laughie Taffy (buy one get one 50% off, plus $1 off each with coupon at Walgreens) because I love the line and the colors caught my eye. I just did a quick swatch on a nail wheel, forgive me!

I think I'm going to pick up some of the other shimmery colors next time I find them. Both were two-coaters and I can't wait to use them! 

They Both Believed It Was True

I was surprised at how few nail designs I'd done lately-then I realized my phone didn't sync them all.  Oh well, life goes on!

 Abstract floral nails, inspired by my new Toms! I used a bunch of polishes to do a kind of abstract floral thing like I did in this post.

I can't EVEN deal with how gorgeous Color Club Revvvolution is. Beautiful.

New OPIs! Goldeneye and Stranger Tides in a tape mani.

And THEN a real feather mani on my cinderella hand (over Goldeneye).

Polka dot mani! China Glaze Frostbite on Essence L.O.L.

Title: Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

All of Nails and Polish...

I missed the 1-year anniversary of my blog and I am just...blah. I'm doing this post because I am so miserably congested that I can't concentrate on my schoolwork and it makes me feel productive!

Gradient using Sinful Colors Crystal Clear

Water spotting using Julep Millie and Sally Hansen Golden-I

Freehand Evil Eye accent mani.

More Hex Nail Jewelry! This time on a dot/gradient mani.

Gradient/delicate leopard print nails.

New favorite! And ASOS Swim-inspired nails.

Super Bright! China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, topped with Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat in Fuzz-Sea (adorable).

Title: I switched up "All of time and space" a tiny bit...It's possible I'm in the middle of a Doctor Who marathon.

Hex Nail Jewelry/Abstract Floral Mani

Hi y'all! I'm so excited about this mani I could explode:

How gorgeous is this?? That pretty lil' bee is Hex Nail Jewelry's Bee No. 1 and I'm obsessed. I got my order in last week and I cannot wait to try out the other ones...but I love this one so much it might take me a bit to get to the others! The floral is Monet inspired and was SO easy. From the bottom up I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out, Julep Popova, NYC High Line Green, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Lacey Lilac, Breezy Blue, Coral Reef, and White On. I got the brushstroke-y look by dragging my topcoat instead of floating it (INM Out The Door) while it was kind of wet.

It's Passion, It's Not Love

I found my camera! With dead batteries, of course. Oh well, I still have two finals and the first part of an online course to finish up before I can take a little time off, so I probably wouldn't be using it anyways. It's Instagram again, sorry y'all!

Julep Alice (gorgeous), with OPI My Vampire Is Buff and Golden-I flowers.

MVIB base with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac, Zoya Daul, Sinful Colors Enchanted, and Julep Popova flowers, ring finger accent with Essie Ballet Slippers and Born Pretty studs, pinky uses Zoya Daul again! I'd forgotten what a pretty color it is!

My actual current mani! Julep Zelda with loose holographic glitter, from Born Pretty Store.  It's so pretty in real life, like tiny disco balls or fish scales. It's pretty chipped now, though-we got a hail storm with baseball-sized hail last night and I spent a lot of today helping clean up.

Title: City and Colour, Confessions (LOVE LOVE LOVE)

Slow It Down

It has been a rough week, to say the least.  Just one of those where you want to scream and cry and then adopt a million Scottish Folds and snuggle them all.  As of right now though, I only have six pages of writing and three finals between me and the end of the semester AND my baby cat is sleeping on my legs so...not too bad. Once again, it's going to be a bunch of Instagram pictures. I swear I'll find my camera!

This was a pretty popular post for me and I got a lot of compliments IRL! I used OPI My Vampire Is Buff for the base, as well as China Glaze First Mate, Maybelline Fierce N' Tangy, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Coral Reef, and Julep Annie.

OH LOOK, it's more Vampire and First Mate, but also China Glaze Angel Wings! Also the same flowers...

Zoya Ivanka with a little Vampire on top...

Pretty purple flowers sure make the Vampire look nice, don't they? I used Julep Popva, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac, Wet N' Wild On A Trip, and Sinful Colors Enchanted.

I had to cut my nails to nubs because they were getting too long for me to be super comfortable handling my contacts, so I did some lil' galaxies using the same method/polishes as in this post. 

See y'all soon!

Title: Slow It Down, The Lumineers

Dots on Dots on Dots

So lately I've apparently been on a polka dot kick AND I've decided that not blogging is not an option because it's something I like to do and Instagram just isn't cutting it.

Nautical colors are my favorite! The blue is China Glaze First Mate and I LOVE IT. I've been searching for a navy blue creme for what seems like forever, because every time I found one that seemed ideal, it always ended up having a shimmer to it I didn't like. The ivory is OPI My Vampire Is Buff and the gold is Julep Sienna.

Another mani I absolutely loved. I used Julep Rebel as the base (unfortunately, it was cloudy the day I wore this and it wasn't as gorgeous as it is here). The neon coral is China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy; the purple, mint, and blue are all Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Lacey Lilac, Mint Sorbet, and Breezy Blue.

I did a Purple Nails for Boston Mani as well, using Lacey Lilac as the base, Sinful Colors Enchanted as the first, bigger dot, and Julep Rebel as the smaller dots. I was actually asked if these were nail wraps a few times! Extremely flattering, in my opinion.

I'm The Worst

So life has been hectic and I've been lazy...and here is a bunch of Instagram pictures of everything I've done for like, the last TWO WEEKS. Three? I dunno, but I'll be back to blogging this week!

Glitter Gradient with Zoya Song and Ivanka

Glitter Gradient (Sinful Colors All About You and China Glaze Angel Wings) with Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Coral Reef, and Mint Sorbet. Studs from Born Pretty.

Julep Lynn with Born Pretty studs again.

Sally Hansen Coin Flip (LOVE THIS) with white detail (Color Club striping polish) and Born Pretty rhinestones-I have a wheel of these bad boys, so I should probably use them more.

Lacey Lilac again, this time with China Glaze Scattered & Tattered-seriously love this glitter too, part of their Glitz Bitz N' Pieces collection.

St. Patty's water marble with Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, White On, and Coin Flip, featuring my wallet (from Urban Outfitters).

Current (until later) mani! Julep Popova with All About You and individually placed glitter for the rainbow and pot o' gold.

A couple of my pics didn't show up in my downloads and I'm too lazy to manually download them (sorry guyz), but they are totally on my Instagram!

Lonely Angel

I ran across Mr. Candiipants' baroque nail art tutorial a couple of weeks ago and have been itching to do my own AND had a couple of new bottles of Xtreme Wear lying around that I picked up before I decided to go on a no-buy for Lent, so I decided to do something with Breezy Blue and Golden-I. Wow, that was a long sentence. Breezy Blue looks like a pale blue creme in the bottle, but has a silver shimmer to it that I didn't notice until it was actually on. Regardless, I like it.

I really like this. It could just be that I'm obsessed with Golden-I (almost a third of the way though my second bottle!) or it could be that this is AWESOME. I used hole-reinforcement stickers to do the line, since I'm horribly unsteady with freehand work, and a combination of my dotting tools and a small paintbrush for the design.

Title from Doctor Who, "The Girl In The Fireplace"

Valentine's Day Water Marble!!

I did another one! AND I only redid like...six of them because I didn't like them. Is that a lot? I'm picky.

Sorry for the sloppy pic, but I had to take it with a self-timer, holding the camera with my chin...don't ask. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Golden-I as my base, and the marble with Julep Delaunay, more Golden-I, Julep Eileen, and Julep Georgia. One coat of Seche Vite and I was good to go!

Valentine's Day Ruffle Manicure

When I saw this tutorial for a ruffle manicure over at Chalkboard Nails, I knew I would have to do my own one day, and that day was today!

Unfortunately, today will also be the day I take it off, due to sloppy floating and a VERY runny red. I'm thinking water marble next? It's so easy to do different things when I only have x amounts of colors to choose from!

From top to bottom I used: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Sonic Bloom, Sephora by OPI And a Cherry on Top, Julep Eileen, Julep Maya, Julep Delaunay, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Coral Reef, Julep Mischa, Xtreme Wear Golden-I, and Julep Georgia. Some nails I did repeat colors on since my nails are long and I underestimated how many "ruffles" I would need.

Seersucker and Roses

So, for all of you out there who don't know this about me, I'm a complete sucker for seersucker. I almost bought a pair of seersucker pants a couple of days ago, but they didn't have my size...and out of my depression came an idea. Julianne, a smoky blue creme that came in my last Maven box, is almost the same blue as the blue on the seersucker shorts I may or may not be wearing right now. This is just a (sloppy) swatch of Julianne, taken in sunlight:

Gorgeous, right? Now look what happens when you add stripes (for optimal seersuckery-ness) and ROSES. 

I know I have atrocious cuticles, but I did do these right before class so...there's my excuse. I've done roses before with a dotting tool, but this time I decided to try freehanding them with a teeny tiny brush I found lurking in my art supplies, and I'm pretty proud of myself. Like always though, my left hand is a little more...abstract. And now here is a gratuitous shot of my nails with my shorts, which are Levi's that I bought maybe two years ago?

So perfect.

p.s. my ring is from Foreverrrr 21!

Can I Still Make A Resolution?

So I realize I've been a horrible blogger lately, but I have excuses! I moved and I started school and I HAVE FRIENDS. I'm still doing my nails every two days, but I'm just not getting around to posting them. I did spend the weekend browsing for inspo on the interwebz, and I PROMISE I will be back with new and potentially exciting things! Here's some Instagram nonsense 'til then:

LOVE this palette. It's my go-to shadow-as-liner palette.

Sally Hansen Golden-I with stripey accents (done with my Color Club striper polish)

My beloved Ariats. Perfect for a beach bonfire, whee!

My Julep Boho Glam February Box-IN LURVE. (plus add-ons!)

Get your own HERE!

Julep Rebel, named after the glorious Rebel Wilson, and a gorgeous holo polish on top of that.

Julep's Oxygen Nail Treatment, on my (never nude) nails.