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!

Hellooooooooooo!

I've been absent for a while, since school is taking a major toll on my blogging abilities. However, school is out soon-ish for break, and I'm hoping to pick it up again.  I might start doing smaller posts, especially since I've been getting into indie polishes(!) and nail wraps and stamping! I do miss blogging, but it's just something I haven't been able to make time for. I'm currently wearing these nails:

The base is Zoya Mason, which I got in my October Ipsy Glam Bag! I don't know if I was the only one, but mine had some formula problems.  It was almost like there were tiny clumps of pigment and it was a little bumpy before topcoat.  I stamped using China Glaze Goldie But Goodie, using a design from Cheeky Jumbo Plate 1.  Necessary (for my conscience): The "name" of the plate is Viva Mexico, which I have problems with.  Some of the imagery is very stereotypical and I have a massive problem with that. Mexican culture is NOT all Cinco de Mayo, dammit. Most of the images are fine, albeit not exactly "Mexican"-there are some images that are heavily Maya and Nazca inspired.  I just needed to express that on some platform!  See y'al later!

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. 

Julep Angela Swatch

I need to blog more, so I'm going to start doing quick swatches/reviews of polishes before I add art. All of these posts will probably be from my phone, just so y'all know! This is Angela, part of my (upgraded) July Julep Maven Box, and an "It Girl" polish. It's a gorgeous blue/purple duochrome, or "molten", as Julep calls it. 

The first coat was streaky, but a second coat seemed to even it out, to an extent anyways. The formula is pretty thin, and I had some drag problems. Overall, I like it enough to work with it, since it really is a gorgeous color. The purple in it comes out at certain angles, but it's mostly that pretty metallic blue-green. 

 

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.

And Once Again...I Am The Worst

Hey guys, I'm having some struggles with the blog-my camera batteries are dead, I just had three tests the last couple of weeks, I have multiple projects (and more tests!) coming up, and plenty more excuses where those came from. I'm planning on doing a Maymester and both summer sessions for my school, so I really don't know if this is something I'll be able to keep up with like I used to. Honestly, if you want to keep up with my nails, the best place is my Instagram-where I upload all new manis as soon as they're done. My username is ebcdaily, hope to see you there!

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?

Updated! Button Earring DIY

A few months ago I did this 5 Minute Earring DIY, which is probably one of the easiest ways to make earrings, ever. I have a little newer version, thanks to a button display that I found lurking in the back of my Hobby Lobby's fabric section. (So lurk-y that I had to move it so I could turn it and look at all the buttons.) These were EXACTLY what I've been looking for, and you can see for yourself that they weren't all that pricey:

They were actually all on clearance, so if you live near a Hobby Lobby, they might be getting rid of theirs too! The main difference (and difficulty) I had with this round of buttons is that the silver ones were actually metal, not plastic. I still managed to get the backs off with my wire cutter, but mine are old and I would NOT recommend using a pair you value. I sanded down the backs of both the silver and gold buttons with a little sandpaper too, since they were a little rough. From there it's exactly the same: dollop of E6000, blank stud, let dry...although:

I did get a little fancy and glue rhinestones around the edges of the smaller silver buttons. If you're wondering about size, the smaller metallic ones and strawberries are all about the size of a dime, and the larger ones are around nickel size. Have fun, y'all!

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!

Liven Up Honey, It Ain't That Bad

I'm back! For the past week or so I've been sticking to plain colors/not taking pictures/taking tests and crap that happens in school apparently? I also checked in at 99 colors for my grand total, pre-no-buy and swatched all my colors and stuff. Here is a color I somehow haven't used yet, Zoya Yara, which I LOVE, with some Born Pretty studs.

I think one of my first purchases post-Lent will be more army greens, I adore this shade, don't get me wrong, but I want a non-glitter one too!

Title: Wait So Long, Trampled By Turtles

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

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.

Glitter Chevron V-Day Mani

Real quick post-I have to go get an outfit for mah Valentine's date thingy? But I did this yesterday!

I don't know why, but this was stupid hard to photograph. Base is Julep Georgia and chevrons/heart (done with a dotting tool) are a gold glitter Color Club striping polish.

DIY Crystal and Spike Earrings

SO. I went home last weekend and had a chance to bring back some of my crafty stuff, so I whipped up these bad boys yesterday because I had no class AND I wanted something to wear with this awesome army green button down I just got. Unfortunately, the glue was a little too wet, so I didn't wear them on account of not wanting to wear them permanently. BUT HERE THEY ARE:

BAM.

Sorry I'm so excited, but I really, REALLY like these. For steps check after the break!