Zoya Bevin with Accent Nails

Doesn't this manicure remind you of mint chocolate chip ice cream? Maybe it's just me? I loved how this one came together!

For the light mint nails, I used three thin coats of Zoya Bevin (two thick coats would have worked as well), the accent nail is 2 coats of Zoya Dea and the index glitter nail is Sephora by OPI in Only Gold for Me Topcoat, one thin coat.  I did this over a base of NailTek II Foundation and sealed with one coat of OTD.  Excuse the tip wear as this mani was a day old at time of photographing!

 

The Zoya cremes applied wonderfully and the glitter was easy to use as well. I like the sparsity of it as it still lets the base color shine through. Loved this mani!

Smitten Polish - Chocolate Bunny Soup

I have such a soft spot for my Smitten polishes.  I love them all, so so much.  Most definitely my favorite indie brand and Noelie is such a sweetheart as well!

I really like chocolatey brown polishes (hence why I've made a few myself!) and the circle glitter and subtle golden shimmer just make this polish so lovely.  Shown is four thin (very thin) coats - I could've done three thick ones but I wanted to build up glittery depth.  This is over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door.  This is a jelly based polish with 3 types of circle glitter and a lovely shimmer.

The polish is inspired by those chocolate bunnies you see at Easter time and their candy eyes.. all melted down in polish form, too clever!!

Chanel Peridot & a Generous Gift

I was astounded and so moved by the generous gift I received from a dear friend on one of my nail forums.  I had mentioned my birthday was coming up soon, which high end brands should I give a try? I usually just direct my loved ones towards the things I want but can't afford for my birthday gifts.  My friend sent me a box FULL of high end BEAUTIFUL polishes.

Peridot & Graphite

Annie & Cuprum

Eclipse & Prism

Shadow & Dior

 So fancy!!!

Needless to say, I was blown away.  I actually cried, which I don't do very often at all.  I was so moved, so touched.. thank you buddy!

Chanel Peridot was the first one I wore.  Well, RBL Cuprum was but I didn't get pics, lol. I've never worn a duochrome before, so I had some difficulties photographing it.  This polish stayed on for four days! That's CRAZY if you know me, I'm a daily changer.  I was busy with school, yeah, but I loved it so much.  She didn't just open my eyes to high end brands, but to other finishes!!

This is three coats over Barielle Advanced Pro with Argan Oil (my new base coat to see if I can get the peelies in order) and sealed with OTD.

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Cellphone, in my car.

Oopsie Daisies Ganaché Limited Edition Polish

Ganaché is the other limited edition polish I referenced in my previous post, With a Cherry on Top. It's a brown jelly based polish with different size brown glitter and a fine coppery shimmer.  A bit of an unusual route for a polish but have you ever had ganaché? Yum.

Swatches shown here are 3 thin coats over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door. These photos show Ganaché worn on its own, but it can be layered over an existing brown that you love as well (=

Sunlight

Sunlight

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If you're interested in purchasing Ganaché or other Oopsie Daisies Nail Polish, Click Here to shop now!

Oopsie Daisies - Tiramisu

I'm super excited to show you this one finally on some real nails!  When I first envisioned Tiramisu, I didn't picture what actually turned out to be the final product.  I'm so happy the way it turned out and I love what it actually became.

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This is two coats of Tiramisu over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door.

1 Coat - 2 Coats - 3 Coats
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Tiramisu was inspired by the colors in this popular dessert.  While there is typically a lot of the custard in the dessert, I thought a brown/neutral polish would be a fun addition to the trio, so that's the direction I went with it.

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Tiramisu, along with the rest of the Sweet Treat Trio Collection with be available for sale within the next week, I'm just waiting on some final labeling materials in the mail.  In the meantime, if you've like to try your luck at obtaining the collection, I'm hosting a giveaway!

Lynnderella ChocoLotta Love

I did something incredibly wrong with this manicure.  It chipped on me within 2 hours which resulted in me peeling it all off during my Praxis test.  I'm not sure why it chipped so easily.  I know me and glitters don't mesh well but 2 hours?  Love Lace & Lilacs wore like iron, as well as Connect the Dots. I'm not sure what I did here but I'll have to try a different method next time I wear it.

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I'm thinking it may have just been too many coats of polish.  This is one coat of Orly Bonder, two coats of Zoya Dea, two coats of ChocoLotta Love, one coat of Glitter Tamer and then one coat of OTD.  I also don't think Bonder likes me either.  I've had bubbling issues with polish I've put over it.

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OOOOOOOH!

Zoya Dea makes a great pair of underwear for this one!  I need to tweak my treatment combinations though, I think that's a factor in the peeling and chipping.  I'm trying out Bonder but I don't think it is for me, at all.

Zoya Dea

Out of all the colors in the nail polish spectrum, I realized I didn't have a brown that I loved.  I don't have many, if any, true browns.  I saw swatches for Zoya Dea and it looked perfect, and it is!

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Thi is 2 coats of Zoya Dea over CND Stickey topped with NYC Grand Central Station.  My mom managed to get shimmers into my big 2 fl. oz. bottle of OTD, so I had to resort to back ups.  While GCS is wonderful for holos, it shrunk my Zoya.  It wasn't tipwear, it was tip pull aka shrinkage.  You can't see it in these swatches because I applied another coat of Dea before taking these pics, but beware, Zoya and GCS may not work for you either.

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Dea is a delicious milk chocolate creme.  It make have hints of red in it, I'm not entirely sure, but it does appear very brown to the naked eye and I love it!  Please excuse the fuzzy that got trapped in my final coat on my ring finger, I tried to mask it as best as possible!

Thanks for reading! (=

Turkeys Are Brown

And so are my nails.  Well I should specify that COOKED turkeys are brown, some have brown feathers, too.. but I digress.  I like brown but I'm not loving the shimmery metallic nonsense that's going on.  That boils down to personal taste though as there is nothing wrong with the formulas.

This is two coats of Klean Color Coffee Addict with two coats of OTD.  One thick coat would've sufficed but I used two.  It's pretty, but not my style.  It took a little bit longer to dry than most polishes, too.

This is two coats of OPI Warm & Fozzie which runs in the same family as Coffee Addict but has some different qualities to it.  I had a hard time trying to photograph this one o.0

back to school notd; stupidest name ever

Today was my first day at my new school and this is the manicure I wore.  Well, actually, I fauxnaded it, pics further down post.

This has got to be one of the stupidest named polishes I've ever seen.  "Caring Caramel". LOL.  I'm not kidding.  It's Sally Hansen Maximum Growth polish that I think was my mother's because it mysteriously appeared in my nail polish drawers one day.  I really do love it though, it works nicely with my skin tone!

"Caring Caramel" is a fallow color, according to wikipedia.  I google image searched the that word and it showed pictures of deer.  Alright.  It's like a, light tan.. muted brownish..  cappuccino sticks out in my head.  It is a creme finish with wonderful application.  Judging from the bottle condition and how aged it looks, I have a feeling it's discontinued.  Pretty nonetheless.

Then I went and stamped it with konad special black polish.  Which I hate, btw.  I am ready to throw the bottle out the window.  It gets EVERYWHERE.  And stains and spreads and doesn't come off.  Drives me nutso.

cuppycake nail art

I've been seeing cuppycake nails all over lately and makes sense with cupcakes on the rise and possibly peak of their popularity.  This design is not my own, but as mentioned, they're everywhere and I haven't the slightest clue of who did this first.  I had lots of fun with these and once the first one was done, I was able to get the hang of it and finish my other nails in an assembly line fashion.

background:  Funky Fingers "Cheshire"
wrappers: Funky Fingers "Daiquiri on deck" and China Glaze "Lemon Fizz"
icing/sprinkles/cherry: assorted Art Club Nail Art polishes
I used a paperclip for the sprinkles and shine on the cherry and and the end of a paintbrush for the cherry itself.

For the following picture, I did a little more abstract cupcake design doing only one accent nail as a cupcake and the rest as icing and sprinkles (=

I used L.A. Girl "French White" for the bigger white parts.  I made a tutorial which I will be sure to post later!

fauxnad of the day!

Your girl here had a moment of genius and remembered where Amaya (my friend’s 3 year old who lost/hid my stamper last week) hides all the toys when she’s over.  When the light bulb finally went off, I ran to her secret hiding spot (a basket of cat toys next to the TV stand in the living room) and sure enough found my konad stamper!  Seeing as I received my bundle monster plates earlier this week, I was super excited to play around with them.

 I ironically used my Art Club nail art brush in “Mochalatta” (I had just made a post mentioning I’d never use it!) for the stamps over a base of Almay One Coat “Sheer Angelic”.  First of all, I needed two coats, and second of all, why would they make a one coat sheer?  It wasn’t sheer like a sheer is supposed to be with the one coat, it was spotty and NEEDED a second coat.  Then again, my mother gave me this bottle like 4 years ago and I am pretty sure she had it for about 45 years before that.  It also smelled like burning rubber kind of, really strange.

Sorry for the quality of this photo.  The brown looks totally washed out.  And the Almay isn't quite that white, but it is a little more true-to-life than the nail art.  I find the nail art polishes to work pretty well with Konading, but when they're a bit aged.  Ya, like wine.  Better with age, they thicken up.  It's obviously better if there not goopy when youre hand-painting designs.  The second coat of "Sheer Angelic" finished up pretty nicely except my right index finger.  I didn't fret though seeing as I had plans to stamp!

Looks nicer in person, for sure.  The flash makes the red pigment show too much.  It's more muted in person.

Also, I'm getting really excited.  I've gotten 17 new followers since I started posting again on Dec. 19th.  I will have a giveaway when I reach 50 (=  What a great way to celebrate!