question to the ladies;

how exactly does one pronounce "seche vite"? if you could give me the phonetic spelling thatd be great. itd been plaguing me!

valentines inspired mani

LOVE valentines day themes and colors. hearts and pinks are so pretty, so i decided to do a valentines day-esque mani. im not sure if it hits the mark but it reminds me a bit of lingerie haha.



i didnt put a topcoat over the konad because it almost always smudges it. instead, i put a topcoat over the 3 coats of good witch? and konaded over it. im happy with the outcome, its not too dramatic but still feminine.



the materials, in the order they were used;
sally hansen diamond strength in clear
china glaze "good witch?"
sally hansen insta-dri topcoat
l.a. girl "french white" (works really well with konad!)

i also used konad plate m57 as well as my dotting/stippling tool.






after i finished, i couldnt decide if 1 row of dots was enough. i added a second row of dots and im still on the fence about which i prefer! i was rushing and did the 2nd row a little sloppy. at least i didnt completely destroy my mani like i typically do with overkill!

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on a side note, i had made a post last night about the haiti relief. i think i accidentally deleted it, or didnt save it properly or something because its gone. anyways it was just providing a link & encouraging people to make a small donation towards the haitian relief. the salvation army is a reputable charity, and my typical charity of choice. no pressure. i think the telethon style fundraiser will make a world of difference.

notd done by salonist

so, my friend treated me to an actual manicure at a salon. i decided to get a french manicure since i love the look but have trouble doing my right hand neatly. the lady went straight for the clippers and said she was going to cut my nails. stop right there. haha i never reacted so quickly! i yanked my hand away and snapped, 'NO! file them.' my nails arent overgrown.. theyre not jagged or mismatched sizes. why was she going to cut them off?!

anyways, she used essie's 'mademoiselle' and an unknown white polish for the tips. i like it, but it chips easily. ive already had to patch it up a few times and put a new topcoat on it and ive only had it for about 36 hours. hmph. this is why i dont get manicures. the money spent on them isnt always worth the quality of work, especially when you can do your own at home. which i do, aside from a french.





in completely unrelated news:

classes started up again on tuesday. so being back in school means either two things. 1. i wont be posting as much because ill be busy or 2. ill be posting twice as much avoiding school work.

im taking;
math (online.. weird i know)
educational field experience (extremely intimidating)
speech/public speaking (already butted heads with someone in this class -_-)
educational psych (first class is tomorrow)

i know im only 22 years old, and i know i dont know much about life. im a firm believer in, 'the more you know, the more you realize you dont know', but there is an older woman in the class with an abrasive 'take charge' attitude and was acting as a dictator on our group speech. i spoke up and emphasized that everyones opinion was important and i felt that we should all voice our opinion instead of listening to her command. im assuming shes in her early fifties. she immediately copped a 'tude. a public speaking course is bad enough, i dont need enemies -_- ill keep ya'll posted.

field experience is 3 hours a week in the AM, which will be nice since i was laid off in september and havent been up to too much. i have class for it on weds but ill be in the classroom again which i miss dearly. since my classes are mostly night classes, mornings are mostly open.

i have an opportunity for an unpaid internship at a charter elementary school specializing in visual and theatrical arts. it really piques my interest, so if i decide to embark in that, there will be less of me around (i guess?) i somehow always find some time for this nonsense (= im completely enthralled for the new semester!

notd x2

i finally had the chance to wear dorothy who? as a full mani. i LOVE IT. it applies so nicely and it is smooth with one topcoat. i used sally hansen insta-dri topcoat rather than seche vite so i can see how long it takes for chips. so far ive found that both topcoats are neck and neck. sally hansen dries a tiny bit faster than seche vite, but both apply about equal. if anything id say that seche vite is a little bit thinner, but not enough to notice if you werent trying to pick them apart.

any who, on to the pics:





i used fauxnad plate m11 with konad special polish in white for the design. it thought it was cute enough, simple, not over the top.

i also did my friend kristi's nails (well one hand, she did the other) she likes china glaze's "cowgirl up" and used fauxnad plate m20 with special white polish too. i just dont see anything fabulous about this color!



just a side thought..
am i the only person who isnt going ga-ga over opi's mad as a hatter? there isnt one appealing quality about a mish-mosh of rainbow glitter to me. i see and hear about it everywhere but it doesnt do a thing for me! anyways, thanks for reading lovies (=

fauxnad!!

so as im sitting here eating my dinner (at 1 AM mind you..), a true food of the gods: cup-o-noodles (in chicken flavor!) i notice a small mail package sitting above my keyboard. !! thats why my dad was trying to wake me up earlier while i was napping. (i still have a lot of pain from my wisdom teeth being removed.. i havent been sleeping more than 3 hours at a shot) my package has come.. my FAUXNADS ARE HERE!

chicken flavor cup-o-noodles has to wait, my fauxnads have top priority. i opened them like ralphie opened his red ryder bb gun in a christmas story. no, really. anyways since i was swatching earlier today, after i finished i did a cute french mani on my right hand and im not ready to part with it yet. most of the time i have two different colored hands lol. my right hand (im right handed) is my test hand and my left hand is the hand you see photographed lol, well my right had polish on it from my china glaze haul i wanted to try out my fauxnads asap so i broke out the konad supplies and got to work..

i flipped. they werent WORKING. at all. wtf. then i realized i has having a true blonde moment when i discovered an almost invisible piece of plastic on top of every single plate. oops? lol. anyways i tried a few on my right hand and they work, beautifully. im so exciteeeed. there arent any full nail images which i knew buying them, but the confirmation still made me a little sad. i suppose i can splurge the $6 for the real plates for full images. in these times, a girl has to be frugal. i got 21 plates for $18 off of ebay. if i had bought 21 plates from konad it wouldve come to $126 before shipping. i call that a steal (=




most of the plates were individually packaged, but put of the wrappers had the majority of the plates in them. theyre mostly tiny flower themed looking images with intricate dots and added cutesy. im excited!

BONUS FOR YOU!



my little prince (=

french mani; notd

love love love the look of a french manicure. my toenails are 90% of the time done in french manicure style, since its so much easier for me to paint a straight line on my toes compared to my right hand. i have konad plates that are tips and of the french style but i havent been able to get them down.

anyways i was jonesing for one and decided to try taping off my nail to get a straight line. it worked mostly. i had to re-do a couple of them but i dont consider that too bad since this was my first time trying it. i used regular scotch tape. but i think that blue painters tape i used to use to tape off my canvas would work even better. here are the little soldiers i used:



left to right; (and conveniently in the order i used them)
sally hansen insta-grip basecoat
orly french manicure "pink nude" (sounds dirty)
L.A. girl nail lacquer "french white"
art club fine silver glitter
orly french manicure "bare rose"
sally hansen insta-dri topcoat

if i could redo this, i would have put "bare rose" BEFORE "french white" because it actually tinted the french tip part of a my nail a little which i hadnt thought of until i was almost finished. my bad.



i love how it came out. i was happy with the results.. i think next time ill put the tape a bit lower and paint the silver with the help of the tape instead of free hand.

china glaze haul

out of all of the brands of nail polish ive used thus far, china glaze is my favorite (=

is it still considered a haul if its from the internet? im not even sure if 6 polishes is considered a haul. i dont think it is, since i didnt have shoppers guilt after buying them LOL

the wonderful nihrida recommended a site for affordable polish, http://head2toebeauty.com/ . let me just say i love this site now, i placed my order on sunday evening and received it by early wednesday! i really had to control myself because there are so many amazing colors out there, i eventually picked out six.



from left to right;
he's going in circles - kaleidoscope collection
good witch? - wizard of ahz collection
dorothy who? - wizard of ahz collection
cowgirl up - rodeo collection
DV8 - holo collection
LOL - holo collection

im absolutely crazy about dorothy who? i dont had a distinct fondness for blues OR glitters but i cannot wait to wear this one as a full mani. i was most excited about good witch? but its sooooo light against my skin )= i still love it though, and will wear it often. the rest of them were ones i saw swatches for and thought were pretty. im most disappointed with cowgirl up. i saw an amazing swatch (dont remember where) and it had all kinda of hues and dimensions to it, but when i put it on and looked at it under regular lighting and fluorescent lighting and daylight.. it was a freaking dark magenta-purple. im a pastel girl. i love bright and light cremes and colors. this isnt my bag, at all. i went out on the limb with it because i was sold by the swatch, but even with multiple coats it still fell short of my expectations - oh well.

they were $3 each, which is a deal in my book. shipping for 1 bottle is $9. shipping for 6$ bottles is 11. my total came to about $27 and some change - which $9 cheaper than if i had purchased them from a beauty supply store. i was excited with the saved money and the new colors and the additions to my collection, so really.. i cant complain!!



i took over 40 pictures of the sample above and i could not, by any means get a good shot. this is the pick of the crop which just emphasizes how sad my selection was lol. this photo doesnt do the colors justice. except cowgirl up, thats pretty much how it looks..

new haul, new technique, new notd!

i went shopping! i went to the dollar tree and walgreens. i got 5 polishes and 5 nail art polishes from the dollar tree and 3 sparkly topcoats from walgreens on sale for $1.09 each! how exciting! my haul;



the three polishes i got from walgreens were absolutely stunning. theyre from the covergirl "boundless color" collection which i had never heard of, and were the last 3 left on the rack. im sure i wouldve bought one of each color given the opportunity. i really like the bottles and brushes too.



from right to left;
-pink twinkle. there is irregular flecks of foil inside this one.
-city lights. a holo topcoat (the little bits of holographic glitter are sparse compared to a typical holo polish)
-amethyst mist. a purple jelly base with hexagon multicolor glitter & teeny tiny bits of glitter as well.

theyre so beautiful and the application is wonderful. i dont have _that_ many drugstore polishes that i actually use but i will definitely be employing these 3 lovelies (=

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in other news, i tried my first marbling last night! i cant say i was too happy with the outcome. in fact, i removed it right after taking the pictures. here is a few things i learned;
-petroleum jelly moves when you insert your finger in the water and often times ended up under polish resulting in a re-do
-aside from a base coat, a base color is needed to bring out the vibrancy of the marbled colors
-scotch tape works relatively well. i used one long piece for the sides and top of my nail, and then secured that piece with another piece of tape around the whole finger and that piece edged off the bottom of the nail.
-for some reason, i could not get 2 different holos to work together, but that just could be me.
-i cannot figure out how to avoid a large gap on my thumb; i retried over 5 times and had a large gap, in the same place, of uncolored nail each time - any advice?



like i said before, i think a white underneath wouldve really made these colors pop. i used orly "liquid vinyl" and funky fingers "punch". the black came out mostly gray.. i wonder if it just isnt marbling compatible or it wouldve been brighter with white underneath. not TOO bad for my first attempt!

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my NOTD has got to be one of my new favorites. i used my new colors for this;
-sally hansen insta-grip base coat
-maybelline wet shine "pink splash"
-covergirl boundless color "pink twinkle"
-seche vite topcoat

the golden/pink flecks look so much cuter irl. i had a hard time capturing the color of the flecks and i tried all 20 different camera settings with different flashes.. the best ive found so far is the flower/soft flash option. i had some luck with the food/soft flash too. i think its because these are both meant to capture fine detail. without a doubt the worst setting was one for text, DARK, blurry and spotty. anyways, here it is;

wonderland fun

i bought this at walgreens for a mere $2 and i am in love with this color. its sinful colors "feeling great" i love the formula and it applies so nicely. one coat would suffice if you were in a rush but i always go with two anyways. its such a vibrant color!




i did some damage at five below today and picked up 3 new colors along with tons of polish remover. one of the colors i picked up is funky fingers "wonderland". its a highly mirror-esque glitter. it smooths out VERY nicely with a topcoat of seche vite (and the topcoat doesnt seem to affect its shine at all) but it is a pain to remove. i always said glitter will survive the apocalypse and i still stand by that statement. after removing it traditionally, it was all over my fingers and i had to use more cotton rounds than id like to admit.



regardless, "wonderland" is a very fun, funky "going out for the night" polish. after 3 coats you could still see my nail underneath depending on the lighting. it draws a lot of attention to your nails. my dad saw it on me and told me he neede sunglasses just to look at it. its also a relatively difficult polish to capture on film but i did my best.



i wanted to see how "wonderland" would look as a topcoat on three bold colors so i used sinful colors "feeling great" on my ring finger, orly "liquid vinyl" on my middle, and funky fingers "jester" on my index finger. i wasnt really crazy with the turnout to be quite honest! i had never used "jester" before and i cant wait to swatch it next because its beautiful! it looks ok on black and only so-so on the pink. i did three coats on top of the base color coats as well.

a bit of insight..

i know a lot of popular blogs have swatches with natural, indoor, outdoor and light-box lights.. i dont the patience for that type of dedication. i take multiples shots of my nails in florescent and my poorly lit bedroom and try to find the most true-to-life capture. if i absolutely cannot get close to the real life shade, ill try color correcting it on photoshop. figured that info was slightly useful at least! (=

theyre grrrrrreat?

sometime in december, i went to five below and found a two pack of sally hansen diamond strength no chip nail color for $2. it came with a clear polish and an orange-y, yellow shimmer polish.

i decided to do a mani in the "sunrise, sunset" color and i dont think im too crazy about how it looks next to my skin. i think this would suit somebody with a more natural tan or an olive skintone. anyways, here is how it turned out;



its bad enough that im naturally fair skinned, but in the dead of winter im damn near translucent! it really is a pretty color, its just a shame its not for me. i really love the formula though. three thin coats and it was mostly opaque; not entirely, but almost. its more watery than most polishes but i have a strong preference for runny over thick. it dried pretty quickly though. and i got to use my seche vite topcoat that i just bought. (i plan on doing a comparison between insta-dri and seche vite sometime in the near future)

i wanted to mask the hideousness that is "sunrise, sunset" and what better way to do that than konad :p i used plate m57, the zebra pattern with konad's special polish in black.



it definitely toned down the orange but i still dont think im too crazy about this mani all together. like i said, its not ugly, its just not for me. i suppose if youre in highschool and your mascot is the tiger, this would be purrfect for you.

speaking of kitties, my beautiful maine coon mutt of a cat was being super cute at the time of this manicure & i couldnt help snap a picture of her. although she wasnt looking at the camera for me, my friend kristi managed to get such a precious picture!



in true crazy cat lady fasion, her name is in fact athena, but we call her neener. and im pretty sure she loves it just the same (=

burt's bees lemon cuticle cream

i picked this up at harmon's discount beauty supply yesterday for about $6. i didnt know anything about it except from what the label told me. i figured id just say its amazing.



it has such a light but pretty scent and it makes my cuticles so soft! im not sure how often youre supposed to apply it but ive used it a couple times today already. mmm i love delicious buys (=

stomach solution

i either struck gold or completely missed with this pink hybrid. it seems nearly identical to pepto-bismol. and therefore it will be aptly titled, "stomach solution".


i used almost half of the "white on" bottle, about a 1/4 of the topcoat and 1/4 of hotpink. the strange thing about the hotpink i used is that when on the nail, its not really pink at all. its an deep orange-y red jelly (hey, i used the term jelly!) extreme sunset color. its almost too bright to even look at, and i was never too crazy about it.



its a bit lighter than a typical barbie pink, but i really do like the way it came out. i think its fun but could use some assistance.



assistance came in the form of;
-sally hansen "nail prisms ruby diamond"
-konad plate m57 [the cheetah print]
-sally hansen "diamond strength no chip nail color" [although i use it as a topcoat for swatches]
-china glaze "matte magic flat finish top coat"

i ended up liking how it looked without the matte finish better, but i think that might be a bit biased since for some reason the matte magic smudged the holo design. i thought i allowed enough time for it to dry but maybe not. well my heart was in the right place atleast!

a tale of two topcoats

i worked at a daycare for 4 years, and in the afternoon i was with the after school children. they always complimented me on my nails, so one afternoon i brought my stuff in and started doing their nails. i quickly realized i was using my semi decent topcoat up in almost a week flat so i had bought a bunch of cheap topcoats from five below. thats the explanation for having a bunch of nearly empty poor quality topcoats. believe it or not the children were better at waiting for their nails to dry than i am.

ive been using sally hansen's "insta-dry anti-chip topcoat" for about 9 months or so and i absolutely love it. ive heard nothing but great things about seche vite's topcoat and restorer so im going to venture out later this week and see if sally's or harmon's has it.




results will be posted soon (=

lilac dreme

so ive been having some serious fun with a new hybrid i made. i know most people refer to them as frankens but ive taken a strong liking to calling them hybrids, so just bear with me! (=

i got my wisdom teeth out on thursday morning and had to take off my nail polish for the thing that monitors my heartrate (they were impacted so i need general anestesia). ive never felt so naked. when i came home i passed out for a good while and when i woke up, the first thing on my list was to repaint them. i decided to use one of the new hybrids i made. but i made it before i made my blog so i rigged up an image of the 3 polishes i used since i wasnt able to take a picture of it.



salley hansen "maxium growth quick dry topcoat"
sally hansen extreme wear in "white on"
funky fingers in "powerplay"

after using "white on" a couple of times i decided that it looks like i painted my nails with white out, so there was no problem parting with it. the topcoat was almost empty and a bit too goopy, and with most of the funky finger polishes, theyre a bit cheap and watered down. theyre streaky and require more coats than i have the patience for. so with those factors in mind, "lilac dreme" was born! i have an absolute love for pastels so i just added more white to tone it down. i didnt think id like it as much i do, so i really am thrilled! this is 3 coats by the way



since lighting is poor i tried to color adjust it to the truest possible. its more lilac than pink.

and as always, i cant leave well enough alone so i jazzed it up with some konad & nail art! i used konad white special nail polish



this is on konad image plate m57 and for the record i LOVE using it on my tips. i have a few other image plates that are intended for french tips but i cannot seem to get it down yet! oh well, practice makes perfect, right?



i added one more element to this mani with color clubs "orchistra" i think it all flows together nicely!

pea souped up

i must admit, its a little ambitious for my first real post to be a polish hybrid. i was inspired after spending over an hour on dr. frankenpolish's blog. some of my polishes become too gooey after a while and i have a bunch of topcoats with only a little left in them, so i figured i could throw some colors together and see what i got!

the first one i have turned out to be quite fun actually.

-funky fingers in volt
-l.a. colors topcoat
-sally hansen extreme wear in mellow yellow




i mixed the three polishes together until i achieved a color i thought to be unique. if i had to name it, it would be "pea souped up". clever, i know!



i applied 3 coats of this color. i did it in a bit of a rush so its a little sloppy, but its my first swatch so im not going to nitpick. it reminds me of orly's green apple except with more a more yellow hue. i probably wont ever really wear this, but instead of having 3 unusable colors, i have one thats functionable!



ps; i stole my dads camera to get decent pictures. i tried multiple times with mine but it was a definite no-go! i think ill be using his until i can get a new one :p

hello there!

hey there! welcome to my nail polish blog! my nail polish obsession started in april of 2009 when my best friend sent me a bottle of china glaze's BFF pink holo polish in an easter present package. i didnt know such a color of nail polish existed and when i put it on, i was blown away! my only issue with my manicure was that my nails were so short, and i felt i was stunting the polish's potential. i was an avid nail biter my entire life until i recieved this bottle of nail polish and have since grown them out to a reasonable length. (for me anyways).

since april 2009, i have collected lots of varieties and colors of nail polish and have been doing my nails basically every other day. i love the nail polish blogs and read them constantly, so i decided to start one myself. there are a few things i think you should know about me before we embark on this adventure together (=

• my camera is absolute POS. in my old apartment, my camera was stolen and in its left in its place was the one i use now. (odd that whoever took mine replaced it, isnt it?) its an i531 polaroid with 5.0 megapixel. i plan on getting a new one when my finances are straightened out. any recommendations? im open!


• -i use proper grammar but i do not use correct punctuation or capital letters. they slow me down. my blogs are reasononably legible though, i feel.


• -my collection of nail polish is nowhere near impressive but i love collecting. i like the salon brands as well as dollar store finds. a lot of my bright colors are from a discount store called five below, where everything is $5 or less.


• -i by no means know the proper nail polish lingo. im not sure what a jelly is and what exactly qualifies something as a duochrome. so please be patient with my progress! i plan on becoming more familiar with the terminology.

aside from that, i think youll enjoy my blog. thank you for taking the time to read & please enjoy! :D