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.

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.

Tribal & Turquoise

I got lazy again, so this time y'all get two manis in one post! The first one is a simple tribal, done with my yellow Color Club striping polish over Sinful Colors Blue By You, which is GORGEOUS.

And the second...you guys. YOU GUYS. Love. Lovelovelovelovelove. Turquoise is my favorite, and I had been wary of attempting lookalike nails because what if they turned out horribly?? They didn't, and I can't quit looking at them because LOOK:

Swoon. Unfortunately, my middle nail broke horribly this week, and I had to file it down to a nub, so don't judge it. I used Wet N' Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint as the base, then one layer of water spotting with Sally Hansen The Real Teal, and 1-3 layers of water spotting with Sally Hansen Black Out to get the pattern/opacity I wanted. The necklace is Lucky Brand, from about four years ago?

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!

I Never Could Get The Hang of Thursdays

I've been wearing Zoya Aurora for the past couple of days and it's SO PRETTY YOU GUYS. Unfortunately I did not take a picture before making them into galaxy nails, woo!

I was getting a teeny bit of tip wear, so I decided to kind of reverse a galaxy mani, colorwise. Since Aurora was already on the bottom, I used an eyeshadow sponge to dab on Sinful Colors Nova around the sides and toward the middle, then Sinful Colors What's Your Name on top and a little further out. Both are dark bases with shimmer in them, so they blended nicely and added some depth. Since I'm pickiest about the "stars" I mixed a couple of drops of Sinful Colors Queen of Beauty with a drop of China Glaze Glistening Snow and a little bit of clear topcoat to thin it out, then dabbed that on as well.  I love how the holo and glitter look, and I wish there was sunlight today so I could get a better pic! A couple of coats of Seche Vite smoothed out the (kind grainy) holo glitter and made it super shiny.

Title: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Studs on Studs on Studs

Now that I'm on the stud train, I'm never getting off. Except for next week, when I have an exciting rhinestone Christmas mani planned, of course. I picked up the base color last week at Walgreens after getting an extra-intense retina exam, when my eyes were SO dilated I couldn't even focus. Of course that still didn't stop me from buying some new polish. Miraculously, I didn't pick up a color I already own! Sinful Colors Nova is a purple/black in the bottle, but on the nails it's more of a black with blue and turquoise micro-glitter, and it really does look a little like a galaxy in a bottle. It had a bit of a thick formula though, and was really prone to color smudging when removing with polish remover. However, it did come off my cuticles magically quick when I did my go-to clean-up of taking a super hot shower...I'm lazy, what can I say?

Oof, looking at that picture reminds me I need to clean my vanity. It was my grandma's, and decades of wear and tear mean lots of scratches that my makeup just finds its way into! I'm just kind of scared that if I polish it, Lulu will slide all over and ultimately knock my makeup/tchotchkes off and break them. Guess we'll find out!

Autumn Tones

More Shine of the Times fun for y'all! Not the best picture, but still.

Colors used: Sinful Colors Mercury Rising, Essie Shine of the Times

Trampy, Vampy, Leopard Print Nails

I love these. Like, truly, madly, deeply, kind of love.

And I want my nails to look like this forever. 

Colors Used: Julep Delaunay, Sally Hansen Golden-I, Sinful Colors Black on Black

Mossy Emeralds

One of my absolute favorite things about fall is the jewel tones, and this combines wonderfully with my love of nail polish. I have a few different shades of almost-black polishes, the ones that look black until you hit the right light, and then they're green, or blue, or purple. The combination of the shifting base coat and the microglitter topcoat in this mani just glistens so beautifully!

Colors Used: Sinful Colors See You Soon and Kissy

Update: I know they're chipped and horrible, but this is how they look outside:

And by outside, I mean in the truck. My ring is from JcPenney!

The Starry Night

Nothing like a fine gold glitter gradient over navy blue to bring van Gogh to mind-you do have to admit that The Starry Night is pretty iconic! I love doing glitter gradients, they're so simple and quick. All you do is four coats of the glitter topcoat, first the entire nail, then three quarters, then half, and finally the last quarter.

Colors: Julep in Gunta, Sinful Colors All About You

"I Can Have It All!"

It's been gloomy all week, and when you add my sinus-murdering allergies into the equation, this means me staying in bed and watching 30 Rock on Netflix for the bazillionth time. JUDGEMENT FREE ZONE. Unfortunately for both myself and Liz Lemon, we can't have it all, as evidenced by Lulu SIMULTANEOUSLY stealing one of my cheese fries and managing to close out the Netflix tab. Now she's just lurking somewhere, waiting for me to move, so she can attack my ankles. Anyways, I realize I am so late to this nail polish party that the polish featured is, in fact, discontinued, but whatever.

It is SO PRETTY. Essie, why on earth would you stop making this?? Fortunately, I was able to score a new bottle on eBay, for a couple of dollars more than retail AND free shipping. The base coat is Sinful Colors in Boogie Nights, and I really like the color, but after three coats it still wasn't opaque so maybe next time I'll use a white base. I did use only one coat of Shine of the Times! And in other news, Jon Hamm's story arc on 30 Rock just started and I really must be off.

Updated: Gratuitous shots of my nails! The flakies themselves are a teeny bit more obvious.

Gunmetal & Glitter

So instead of a true-to-life shot, y'all are getting this lovely Hipstamatic picture instead:

That would be because my nails were extremely uncooperative. There were little spots in the base of my nails that the polish just wouldn't stick to, and what color did was picked up by the top coat...so, blergh. That, and my polish managed to push back from the tips FIVE HOURS after I did them. I literally just did the silver, as a distraction. I doubt this one will stay on through tomorrow, but you never know.

Colors used: Sinful Colors Secret Admirer, OPI Are You Glistenin', Essie all in one base coat (new!)

I Do Believe I'm Bad Luck...

...so no more team-inspired manis from now on. This week, I did Broncos nails and WE LOST. JUST LIKE THE SAINTS LOST LAST WEEK. Maybe I'll start doing the opposing teams colors instead?

But anyways, here it is:

From the base up: Julep in Eileen, Julep in Gunta, and Sinful Colors in Cloud 9. I'm still trying to get the hang of my dotting tool-my right hand is nowhere near as neat as the left, and this one isn't exactly perfect. Whatever, I kind of loved the eventual effect, and that's what counts, right?

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

It really, truly is. A) It was IN THE EIGHTIES AT ONE IN THE AFTERNOON. B) Football is back! C) It's almost fall, the best season, full of boots and scarves and jeans and clothes I love. To kick off the (football) season, I did black and gold for my boys, the Saints. Sure, we didn't win, but it's just the first game. We'll get it together.

This is just a quick mani post:

Base is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Golden-I and the half-moons (which I did using circular reinforcement labels) are Sinful Colors Black on Black. The purse in the background is vintage(?) Samir, and I picked it up at Funky Monkey in New Orleans.

Kiwis Make Me Cheerful

So this morning I was eating kiwis for breakfast, because I love them, and when I looked at them they made me want to redo my nails, which have been suffering with a failed nail art experiment. A few coats later and an awkward attempt with a dotting tool, ta-da!

Now I have cheerful little kiwis on my nails, and every time I look at them it makes me happy. I really like kiwis. 

Colors used: New York Colors in High Line Green, Sinful Colors Call You Later (glitter!), Julep in Annette, and Sinful Colors in Black on Black

Yay America!

So this past 4th, I was lazy and didn't go through the effort of a patriotic manicure, so I finally took my Julep America for a test drive, on top of an old NYC Glossies red and Sinful Colors All About You, and just did a simple accent nail for Olympic spirit and all. I was planning on going a little fancier, but my dad and I are going fishing tomorrow and it feels a little bit like a waste, considering how rough it's going to be on my nails, you know?

I'm also trying out a new top coat this week-the two I had were failing me and I had heard a lot of good things about inm Out The Door, so when I saw a Sally's yesterday I popped in and came out with the biggest bottle of polish I've ever owned. 

LOOK AT THAT SUCKER. I think it was a little less than $11 for 2.5 oz, and almost $6 for .5, so I decided, what the hell, and went for the big bottle. In just the day I've been using it I'm pleased. It has a super thin formula, so I did end up using my Sally Hansen on my glitter nails. I'm interested to see how well it holds up-so far only one nail is chipped, and that's only because that nail decided it wanted to peel. It is also extremely quick drying like it promises, which is defs a plus in my book.

Antony and Cleopatra

So the quality of my nails is HORRIBLE in these pictures, due to an array of life surprises. Between fishing and cooking and general adventuring, my nails were a little worn when I finally got a picture done.  I used Sinful Colors Mint Apple for most of my nails, with an accent nail on each hand in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Golden-I.

Every time I use Golden-I (and especially with this turquoise) it always reminds me of Egypt-so I went with an Egyptian/Shakespeare-y title for this post.  A new mani should be coming up soon, when my life gets a little less exciting.