guest NOTD; naughty & nice

My roommate loves vampy colors so she was immediately drawn to China Glaze’s “Naughty and Nice”.  This was two coats of that with one coat of Cover Girl’s Boundless Colors “City Lights” holographic topcoat.  She wanted some extra sparkle for the holiday.  

 These ARE pre-cleanup so excuse the mess!

Also, got my bundle monster plates from Amazon.com today!  Too bad my stamper is still missing!

Click to enlarge for detail. Happy new year!

NOTD; elephunk

I bought this one yesterday as mentioned in my previous post.  This is Funky Fingers, "Elephunk".  The application wasn’t too bad, this is 3 thin coats.  It was still a little spotty in some spots but only if you held it up to the light and looked for it.  It’s a grey, I think crème? Base, with the tiniest most miniscule hints of a silvery shimmer.  So I guess it’s a shimmer then.  But it doesn’t look like it on the nail, and barely in the bottle.  Anyways this is my first grey and I really do love it.  I added some pink and silver butterfly decals that added that extra something I felt it needed.  I put two on each ring finger and one on each thumb.  These pictures are pre-cleanup so excuse the messy edges. 

 

Also, I’ve been having trouble with the skin around the edge of my nails!  My left thumb has open cuts on the side and the right thumb (pictured) is super dry!  I use oils and cuticle balm but they don’t seem to have the same effect on my thumbs.  I definitely think my skin there is different but I am still figuring out how to avoid the issues I’ve been having.  Any advice? I sure could use some.

Look at that cute eyeshadow palette!  I got it for 3$ at Essentials at my mall.  So cute (=

Click to enlarge for detail.

my storage solutions

As mentioned in a previous post I said I was going to share my collection and tools organization nonsense. Ok first things first, I am beyond unorganized in every aspect of my life.  I function better with stacks of paper versus folders and files.  Always have and always will.  Random things have even more random places in my room and car but I always know where everything is.

Except my car keys.. those elusive little #*%&!

Anyways my nail polish and accessories are pretty well put together. (For me anyways, I'm sure most of you would have a coronary if this is how your stuff was stored, LOL.)  My cuticle scissory things are always missing but never too far, haha. 
This post is PIC HEAVY, just a head up!

 This is where my polish lives.  They get along for the most part.

Top drawer contains nail art (because those little suckers get lost and eaten alive with the big guys!)

Middle drawer.  They're not sorted. I told you you'd have coronary.

Did we enter cardiac arrest yet? Haha 1000 CCs of polish - STAT!

Those are my polishes.  I don't think all of mine would fit, I have lots of ones I use frequently on my desk.  Anyways the next pictures are how I store my accessories and tools and treatments.

They live in here.  I added text because my labels didn't photograph well.  How cute, it's miniature.

My topcoats, nail glue and nail treatments hang in here.

I have hundreds of files and emery boards crammed in here. Dollar tree has 36 boards for 1$. I CAN'T HELP IT AND I WON'T APOLOGIZE LOL.

My hardware drawer for both manis and pedis!  The thinner didn't fit anywhere else, oops.

My konads and fauxnads are in this drawer.  Notice the stamper missing.  Thanks Amaya.

And my random jewelry, tacky Christmas earrings included.  It has become a running joke in my family for me to wear the tackiest earrings for holidays.  I had these big light bulb earrings from last Christmas but I lost them.  I don't know if that was intentional or not.

So, how do you store your stuff?  If you have posted about it already, leave your link! I'd LOVE to see!! Btw, fun fact, both of these drawers are on my nightstand, and nothing else LOL. You can see where my priorities are.

guest nails & another haul

Went shopping today! Got a bit of a haul along with a beautiful scarf from New York & Company and some new shoes for the future professional me (=

I went to Essentials at the mall and found a couple Essie polishes on sale for 4$.  I picked two I liked most, “Mistique Pink” and “Knockout Pout”.  I also went to Five Below again, of course, and picked up three new polishes, they are: “Elephunk, Tribal & Daiquri on Deck” so cute!  I also found a Color Club Art Club nail art polish in BROWN. Mochalatta to be exact.  I don’t know if I will ever need it, never thought to myself, “damn, I need brown nail art!” but if that day ever happens, I am soooooo beyond prepared.

 

Also have some guest nails for you :D  My BFF came over to get her Christmas presents finally and I promised her a mani.  She originally wanted China Glaze’s “Ruby Pumps” but after showing all my new polishes she went nutso over “For Audrey” (as most first time witnesses do) and quickly changed her mind!  I gladly obliged because that’s what BFF’s do. (So I hear)  Anyways this picture is pre-cleanup so they’re a little messy.

 

She has such cute little hands and perfect natural nails.  I get jealous because I have naturally larger build than most (Hell, I am six feet tall!) so everything else tends to run big on me, too.  I was super excited about finding cute shoes today, you can only imagine how much I frickin’ despise shoe shopping!

I am going to wear Elephunk tomorrow because I am going to visit my grandparents in Pennsylvania and don't suppose something obnoxious would be my best bet haha.  I will take pics of my nails for a NOTD later this week (=

As always, click to enlarge & please comment!

wtf skittles & a wonderful gift

I have some skittles for you today! Among other things. I think I am going to post a couple more times today haha. I took pictures of my collection set up and nail organization that will show you how I do it, maybe you could get a few ides from it, but that will be later today.

Anyways a couple months go I bought a six pack of mini Laffy Taffy scented nail polishes from (where else?) Five Below.  The colors stood out to me and I really wanted them, it was 5$ for the whole set of 6 minis.  I couldn’t find the purple one until after I did everything so this swatching session is one shy of complete.

 Cute, aren't they? My friend's 3 year old love them because they're "baby polishes". Haha!

These polishes are a complete and total mind****. Crème in the bottles, metallic on nails.  Or crème in bottle, shiny on nails. I don’t get it. And I was really super disappointed. But I decided now that I’m not bummed about it anymore to show you what I’m working with.

 This is going to be a little like the old spice commercial so bear with me on this.  Look at the yellow bottle, now look at my nail.  Look at the blue bottle, now look at my nail. CREME in bottle. METALLIC on nail!  Please click to enlarge to see how much of a mind**** it truly is.  The strawberry is creme and the cherry looks like a freakin' jelly on the nail.  And the green, don't get me going on the green.  I don't even know what color it dries to.  Is that metallic, a sheer shimmer? Who the hell knows. I don't.  I bought the set specifically for the creme yellow, it looked so pretty in the store.  It turns to a gold shiny shimmery finish with hints of wanting to be a metallic. *scratches head* WTF?

Off topic: My brother is in town from California and he brought me the CUTEST gift!  When we were younger we used to play this game on the SNES.  It was both one of our favorite games and we would sit for hours and play; its called Earth Bound. Anyways sometime over the summer he called me and asked me what my favorite Earth Bound character was.  I really thought he was just plastered but it makes sense now.  The game has quite a few cutesy characters but I picked Paula, the female hero.  This is what he gave me:

A FREAKING PAULA PILLOW!!

While her name is Paula in the game, you can change her name, along with the other heroes names, at the beginning. I just thought this was the sweetest gesture!  Thank you Alex and Alex's crafty friend for the wonderful gift :D

Thanks for reading guys (=  Please click the images to enlarge, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

NOTD; blitzen | stationary | new year resolution

Have you ever been completely floored, in love with and generally in awe of a color? I haven’t until I put on Funky Fingers “Blitzen”.  I got this at my local Five Below store because it was one of the only ones I didn’t have, I told my friend and she got it for me for Christmas.

I didn’t think it was a holiday green but my sister begs to differ. I think its too teal to be holiday. Regardless, I am in love.  Blitzen is a teal jelly base packed with micro-glitter in a large array of colors.  I can see blue, gold, silver, orange, green etc.   But they flow so well. This color is absolutely amazing!!  While this is 3 coats, you could get away with 2. Started to goop up a little on me when I tried the 3^rd coat but I worked it out.  I am wearing this on both hands and I can’t stop looking at them!!  Used my normal base-coat and topcoat mentioned in previous posts.  It’s not super bumpy, a little textured but not really too bad at all!

Oh my god I LOVE IT!!

What colors do you see here?

Off topic: I was writing my thank you notes to the places I did my field experience service learning at this semester and I just realized how cute the stationary was.  I got ten of these little cards for 5$ at Walgreens.  I sealed each with a glittery star because everyone knows I love sparkles xD Anyways, look how cute!!

Look!! Polka dots, and pink at that!  The dragonfly is a metallic gold and the cards are blank inside so you can use them for anything, in this case they were thank you notes.

Some additional off topic nonsense, new year resolutions. As far as nails go, I have two.

1. Perfect the gap!

2. Better cuticle care.

As for real life um, I think, uhh, I am going to, err, quit smoking. There, I said it. That is part of the battle.  I know I can do anything I set my mind to, I need to find resources to help because I don't know if I could kick this alone. 

Thanks everyone for reading, remember I love and look forward to comments!

Click images for enlarged detail, especially for this one! No really, I was fiddling around with Photoshop CS and now the enlargements are way more detailed, so check that out!

<3 Cathryn

springtime safari

Out with the Christmas colors already! I have had enough!! I like the cold but I don’t like snow, so I kind of like winter when it isn’t snowing. Early spring is a favorite too because it is still cool out. I do NOT fair well in heat! My normal body temperature is around 96.9 and I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but when everyone else is freezing, I am usually just fine! Anyways enough about me, I decided to do a spring time colored mani. (=

I used a make up sponge to sponge on China Glaze’s “For Audrey” and “Lemon Fizz” I sealed with a topcoat of Beauty Secrets and used my Art Club in Black for the konad since I am out!  Then I used another coat of topcoat and I was done!

I have to gripe about this; the oh-so-obvious smudges. Black is the only color that does that more and regardless of drying time.  If you look at my ring finger you can see smudges are less apparent and that’s because I tried a new technique.  Instead of “painting” the topcoat on, dripped on it by waiting for it to naturally drip.  Once it was on I waited for it to spread out a little and sort of helped it around.  I tried this on another nail too but it didn’t work to well and the topcoat ended up pooling on the side.  Since it did work once, I am going to try this in the future. Practice can only help!

I would love this mani so much more if there were no smudgies!!

Anyways, in some of my pictures you can see a brown ground with polish all over it.  Instead of having people think I just slop polish onto everything I own I decided to show you my surprisingly simple yet insanely convenient nail board.  It’s the backing from some kind of frame poster that was won at a carnival years ago.  Its not wood, its compressed cardboard or something but its really hard and stiff.  I use it for EVERYTHING. My room is kinda cramped so I use it as a tray, kind of like a table top.  I use it for my laptop on one side and nails on the other.  Everyone who comes over and does their nails always adds to it, its kinda quirky but cute, anyways here it is in all its glory.

Also, I just purchased 25 more fauxnad plates from amazon.com for 18$ with shipping! HERE is the link in case anyone is interested. Cannot wait to get those!

Images are clickable (=

New Years Giveaway!

My leetle nails is doing a fantastic giveaway for the new year, with up to 5 entries and lots of great gifts. I decided to enter my probably 4th ever giveaway! The prizes, directly quoted from her site so I don't mess it up are as follows:

- Flormar NA09 (works for Konad)

- Flormar 36

- Flormar 112 (works for Konad)

- Flormar 240

- Flormar 311

- Flormar 410 (works for Konad)

- Avon clear top coat (works lovely over Konad)

- Avon “Golden wine”

- China Glaze “Shower together” (I've heard that it works for Konad)

- China Glaze “Jolly Holly”

- 4 x Viva la nails water decals

- Fauxnad set with some really lovely roses on it

- 2 x Amuse chapstick (cherry and grape flavored, they’re really awesome and smell great)

- NYX Megashine lipgloss “Plush red

Click HERE to see her post.
I am particularly interested in the nail decals and stampy plate (= Goodluck!

polish additions!

First off, before I start, I just wanted to say I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and hope you all have a safe, happy and healthy new year (=

Now, on to my new polishes!  This month was bountiful in polishes from gifts to polishes I bought myself, I am so happy to have these new additions to my collection and can hardly wait to use them all!  I am going to start with the polishes that were given to me.

My best friend, Coryn, bought me 3 polishes from Five Below.  They are holiday themed glitters, which you can just never have enough of!  I am super excited for these in particular because I already own quite a few Funky Finger glitters and they go on so nicely!  They’re packed with glitter and cover completely in just a few coats.  Their formula is surprisingly easy to work with.  I also love Funky Finger’s crèmes.  Their shimmers are nice too, but I am not crazy about shimmers so I tend avoid buying them. Aside from Five Below, I don’t know where you can buy these but I’m sure a little digging online will be fruitful for anyone interested.  They’re very inexpensive too, I get 3 bottles for only 5$!

I was pleasantly surprised to find a bottle of Nicole by OPI in my stocking.  Since my dad does all the Christmas shopping I was even more surprised.  He cracked a joke saying something about the price of it, 7$ at Wal-Mart.  I could only laugh because he didn’t realize how much it was until he looked at the receipt.  I explained to him that’s exactly why I don’t own any of them, lol!  He unintentionally bought me one from the Justin Beiber line which is fine, he said he picked out “Step to the beat of my <3” because it looked very different from the others and hadn’t seen me use anything like it before.  Thanks daddy (=  I have this one on how over a base of Lemon Fizz by China Glaze and its so cute.  The hearts are a little tricky to pick out of the bottle but it really isn't an issue.  I love the little pieces of glitter in it too.  Just adds a nice, unique touch!

I found four colors I had never seen before at the beloved Dollar Tree and I am super excited to use these!  I go crazy when I see new polishes available since I already own most of the ones that are on the shelves.  There are like, maybe 5 dollar trees that are all about 15-20 minutes away and the one in South Plainfield is the only one with a decent selection and new additions.

e.l.f in fair pink (on left) and fluorescent pink (on right). I don't think I've seen these before but the bottles are thin and rectangular and I could not resist! (and at a dollar a piece, there's no reason to!!)

 L.A. Colors, Color Craze in Static Electricity (blue) and Live (Silver). The silver looks particularly unique as the particles are notably fine and minuscule.  Can't wait to see what I can do with this!

Next is what I am super ultra excited for!  As a present to myself for finishing community college and graduating with my Associates degree, I bought a handful of polishes online at head2toe.  A total of 8 polishes (including the ridge filling base coat, not pictured) came out to 34$ and change, shipping included.  They arrived about 5 days later.  Super exciting for me since a bunch of these were colors I’ve wanted to ages!!  My mom picked out Cheek to Cheek since sheer, shimmery pinks are her favorite and the only type of polish she will wear.  My roommate picked out Emerald Fitzgerald because she loves darker polishes and wears them very well.  

The rest were my doing.  Blue Hawaiian was a last second addition to my purchase since I realized I don't have many if any blues.  Bad Kitty was absolutely beautiful in the swatches I have seen and I couldn’t resist! I have already worn it and love it!! It chipped after a shower though, sadly.  But I really do love it.  I am wearing yellow fizz right now and adore it, so excited I bought it.  I have wanted For Audrey for ages and have been meaning to buy it.  Ruby Pumps was bought because I realized I had NO reds.  I have one that has been used up completely and it was a glitter too. 

I also wandered into a Sally’s that’s right near the Dollar Tree and ended up getting one of the gift sets for a discounted 7$.  The set came with Naughty and Nice, which is a really pretty and unique maroon, burgundy jelly and Mrs. Claus, another red glitter addition!  It came with a free gift, the Peppermint Cuticle Oil.  Smells great and works nicely, but I feel like the bottle is always leaking because it gets everywhere!

I also wanted to try out some new base coats and top coats so I am starting with Beauty Secrets.  They were 3$ a bottle but have large sizes available for 6$.  I actually used them three times already and I love them!  Both dry so fast.  I can't tell you about durability though because I change my polish far too often.

Basically I am super excited for my new additions and will have lots of updates available when I start swatching or making NOTD’s out of them!  What did YOU get for the holidays?  I can’t wait to see!  - Images are clickable to enlarge!

-Cathryn

ugly mani; cute kitty

U-g-l-y you don’t got no alibi, you ugly YEA YEA, you ugly! Atleast, this manicure is.  First off, in the lighting of my room, the basecoat is pink.  I went outside today and its freaking fluorescent orange.  Two things I don’t like; fluorescent and orange.  I wanted to rip the polish off my nails so bad haha.  Anyways, figured I would post it since I did it, ha.

Base coat is two coats of L.A. Colors Color Craze and I don’t remember the name as I threw out the packaging already.  I assumed the color name would be on the bottle somewhere but it isn't!  The color name was not relevant to the color itself; it was some kind of high wire or electrical current type of name.  Not “Fluorescent orange”, either way it had me fooled.

On top of the basecoat I used a Q-tip (Learn from my mistakes, DO NOT USE Q-TIPS FOR DOTTING) with ORLY “Liquid vinyl” to create the flower shape.  I used a paperclip to make the little dots, which works really well.  

For the inside of the flowers I used ORLY “Green apple”, Funky Fingers “Cheshire” and “South Hampton sea foam”.  They covered nicely and quite opaquely over the black so that was nice to see.  I used Sally Hansen “Confetti” and Insta-dry top coat to seal and cover the designs.  

Since this mani sucked so much I decided I needed to brighten the mood (=  My brother lives in California on his own but had acquired two kitties when he lived in Las Vegas.  Anyways,  he was having trouble finding places that accepted pets so he sent his kitties on an airplane a few months ago to the sweet land of New Jersey to live with us. 

The little bugger in this picture is Frank, aptly named after Frank Zappa.  We are convinced he is part ragdoll because he’s so floppy.  I guess you would have to know him to know what I mean but this cat is ridiculous. He literally looks around to see what kind of trouble he can get into.  Anyways! He has his ADORABLE moments, like today, when I heard some noise on my bed behind me.  I turned around and see Frankie burrowing under my comforter as usual.  Ten minutes later I turn around and he has literally tucked himself into bed and went to sleep!  Most cats I have seen HATE blankets, but no, not Frank- he prefers!

1.. 2.. 3.. AWWW. look at his dirty nose xD his sister has spots around her nose too.

Hope you enjoy & all images are clickable!

Christmas inspiration!

Hey everyone (=

With Christmas coming right around the corner I decided to make a few Christmas inspired samples of nail art!

I made a bunch but only three turned out nicely enough for me to share so im going to show you and discuss the lucky three.

First is a Christmas tree design I free handed (can’t you tell?!) on a base coat of a mini polish from five below from a set scented and colored after Laffy Taffy Candy!  It smells just like you would expect artificial banana nail polish would smell, haha.  It dries slightly metallic even though it’s a crème in the bottle.  All of the colors in that set dry metallic, which was quite a surprise because I bought them because I love crèmes!  I used  Funky Fingers “peacocky” and Sinful Colors “HD Nails” (a Christmas-y green) for the tree.  For the garland I used Art Club “Malmsy” and for the ornaments I used random colors from my collection. I used an unnamed brown (cherry cola scented!) for the trunk and sealed with a coat of Sally Hansen “Confetti” and Insta-dri top coat.

I found using an unfolded paper clip is the perfect size to make the intricate little dots for the ornaments.  Since the end isn’t rounded, it doesn’t hold too much polish and leaves just the perfect amount!  This design was super easy to do because trees are naturally irregular and you can’t really mess up that (=

The next design I did was a simple, very understated fauxnad design of a white bell (I am out of the Konad special polish so youll have to forgive it not showing up 100% opaque!) on top of a base coat of Funky Fingers “peacocky”.  I used some gold glitter nail art brush to add an extra sparkle on the bell and sealed with a coat of Sally Hansen “Confetti” and Insta-dri top coat.  Very simple, not too showy but I hadn’t seen any Christmas bell nails lately so I figured it was worth creating!

My last and favorite was actually supposed to be a candy cane but I messed up and ended up making it into a red French tipped design instead.  I used the V design in Dark Red Art Club nail art over a base coat of L. A. Girl “white French” and finished up with a green star rhinestone for that added Christmas sparkle.  I didn’t use any tape on this one but if I was doing a full set I certainly would need guides. 

Hope you enjoy them & happy approaching holidays!!
(All images are clickable!)

mint apple refresher (=

Hello ladies (= as mentioned in a previous post, I have some extra time on my hands so I hope I can update and post as well as view, read and share with all of you!  It is official though: got all my grades back and I have my associates degree, should be arriving in February!

This next NOTW (Nail of the week!) has been one of my favorites because it didn’t start out as a NOTW, more like a NOTD.  But I have continually added onto it so much that its actually lasting a long time but each new addition gives it a little bit of a refresher so a) it looks fresh and b) I don’t get bored of it!

The layering goes as follows;

Sinful colors: Mint apple

ORLY: liquid vinyl

Art Club: Black

Art Club: Silver Glitter

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top coat

China Glaze: Matte magic

It started out with two layers of mint apple, and then I added one more for total opacity.  I am out of basecoat and haven’t had the thought cross my mind to purchase any new ones, so I didn’t use one, lol.  I then sealed it with one coat of the Sally Hansen topcoat.

It wasn’t until the next day that I added the flowers on the thumb and ring finger with a little bit of sparkle.  Being the awful disorganized mess of a person I can be, I actually misplaced the fauxnad plate I used so I don’t even know which number it is! M24!  I used the Art Club polish for it though, the thick formula works great with konad and fauxnad!  Two days later I decided to give another try on a French tip.  (My favorite concept yet worst execution! Love the classic look but haven’t been able to get it down just right.. until now!)

I used this tape that I bought for Christmas presents from Five Below for a dollar xD  I will definitely be investing in some French manicure strips because this tape is a double edged sword. 

Pros:

leaves the CLEANEST lines I’ve done yet

perfect amount of sticky that doesn’t pull off base coats

Cons:

Is 100% clear and VERY hard to place straight.

Not meant for nail care so leaves the tiniest little gaps on the edges (that I fixed with Art Club)

I loved the final look!

A day or two later, I decided to mattify my mani and loved it even more!  I am not sure WHAT caused this problem, but about half and hour after applying Matte Magic, the edges of my nails were really white, looked like a bad case of dry cuticles.  They still are and I don’t know how to get rid of it )=  My cuticles were just oiled and lotioned before I took these pictures, so I don’t think it was the actual dryness of my cuticles.  I really don’t know what caused this chemical reaction!  Anyways, the final product;

thanks for viewing (= i love to hear comments and feedback so let me know what you think!
(ALL images are clickable!)