Sinful Colors Star Fish & a NOPI

I'm not crazy about the polish I am about to show you.  Which is hard to understand considering its a pink creme and those are my favorite.  Sinful Colors Star Fish is a mauve-y kind of pink.  It is really pretty in the bottle, it just looked crappy next to my skin.

3 coats of Star Fish

 I had on CND Stickey and topped it with SH Insta Dri (Red Bottle).

Sorry for the wonky index finger.  I messed it up earlier and then "fixed"  it before taking photos. Looks like a dent -_-

I tried to save this manicure by adding NOPI Step to the Beat of My <3.

I WANT TO SWIM IN IT.

 These have one coat of the NOPI. They made it look cuter but the base color was still blargh on my skin )= Another one to add to the swap out pile I guess!

Jelly Sandwich with Sinful Colors "Gogo Girl" and SH HT

I love the look of jelly sandwiches and I am happy to show you this one.  While I'm not too crazy about reds (mostly because I don't wear them well - I love them on others!) the extra sparkle made this a bit more bearable for me.

When Walgreens was having their 99 cents sale on Sinful Colors, I picked out a few that I normally would dodge and Sinful Colors "Gogo Girl" is one of them.  But I think everyone should have a bright red jelly.

Anyways, for the sandwiched part, I used Sally Hansen "Hidden Treasure".

Two coats "Gogo Girl" - One coat HT - One coat "Gogo Girl"

I had a difficult time trying to photograph this.  The sparkle barely shows through on camera.  It was so attention grabbing in person though.  Maybe two coats of HT would've been more effective but I don't want to waste that beauty.

You can see it a little better here, but barely.  The sun was setting and all.

So the Hurricane Irene will be full force here in a few hours.  I think the anticipation is exhausting.  It's Saturday night and I've been waiting since Thursday afternoon (that's when I started hearing about it frequently).  Just sitting and waiting, it was quite ominous outside today.  The air was heavy, the sky was kind of dark.

OPI DS "Elegance" + Sinful Colors "Pinky Glitter"

The mani I am showing you today was actually one I did on one of the Counselors in Training at work.  I brought some polish with me and did a couple quick paint jobs on my break and when I finished this one I decided it actually needed to be on my nails.

I had never heard of the OPI DS colors until I stumbled upon a goldmine at my local Harmon.  They had an absolute boatload of them all on sale for $4 due to an huge shipment.  I have a total of 6 of these and I looove them.  This is probably my favorite.

OPI DS Elegance - 2 thin coats

Oh man I love it.  There is nothing bad about a pink holo!

Indoor Flash

And then to add the final touch, I put on one coat of Sinful Colors "Pinky Glitter".  It brought such a fun aspect to the mani.

I have a real love-hate relationship with glitter at the moment.  I love how it looks but I get aggravated with how easily it chips.  And the the removal is always a PITA, even with the foil method.  This was fairly easy to remove though since the base coat and OPI was underneath.  It didn't chip on me either since it was a single, thin coat of "Pinky Glitter".


Just a few things I wanted to mention:

-I've been trying different lighting scenarios.  I really don't have much time by the time I get home from work to get natural sun pictures.  I like to unwind a bit before hitting the nails so what I've been doing is using the Dual-Stabilization mode on my camera and going underneath the fluorescent lights in the basement; that way no flash is used.  The other pictures are indoor + flash.
-I got my first Helmer this week :D :D :D  A gift from Daddy for my birthday.  I got the white one and filled up four drawers and still have a drawer full on my Sterilte drawer set.  I plan to show all of this in an upcoming post.

yellow rainbow and ladybug mani

LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE yellow.  I was fiddling with my yellows and thought I would show them to you.

Bundle Monster plate 13

 Eek dry skin! Sorry, I took this right after I got out of the shower and removed it before I checked the photos, so this is the best I could do given those circumstances.  The cuteness factor should totally override the dryness factor though.  I used Wet N Wild "Black Creme" and "Red Red" for stamping.  An impatient me evidently applied the topcoat too soon.  There was some streaking which I should have known better to avoid. sadsad.

My yellow skittles (=

3 coats of each.

 I can't decide what I like best.  Warm golden tones like "Sundancer" are always enticing to me, but the brightness of "Lightening" is really summery and fun.  "Unicorn" and "Yellow Kitty" are softer which remind me more of springtime and as mentioned a few posts before, "Cayman Island" is pretty (to me) only under specific lighting.

Anyways, which is your favorite yellow swatched here?  What about your all time favorite yellow?

DERP. this manicure is a DERP.

I need to figure out how to remove the word "DERP" from my vocabulary.  I catch myself saying it instead of "oops" or in situations where "my bad" would apply.  I need to stop raising eyebrows.  That quirky weird thing I have worked when I was 17, but at 23 I'm really just getting people to question whether or not I need to be admitted to a clinic.

Well, for the time being, here is a derp of a manicure.  I said I need to figure out how to remove it, I haven't removed it yet, rofl.

Sinful Colors "Unicorn" (yellow)
Sinful Colors "Timbleberry" (red)
Confetti "First Kiss" (pink)
BEACH BALLIN'

I should've left it alone even though it makes so sense as it is.  But I ended up destroying it with that fucking black shatter. I don't like it. It just ruins things. Looked like a fun beach ball kind of.

Now it looks like it has been camping at Death Valley for 3 weeks without a tent. DEAD. AND SHRIVELED. This mani looks thirsty!!  HOW DOES A MANICURE ACQUIRE HUMAN TRAITS?  God, black shatter is rewriting the science books here. Ugh I scrapped that shit off my nails right after I took the pics.  I know you all enjoy watching my nail blunders happen. You're a sick bunch. But it's ok - I love it too!

It looks like it has cancer. Tarred and slimy. ITS FUCKING. UGLY. LOL. I love how I can just freely go off like a lunatic here and I won't raise your eyebrows at me... d'awwwwwwwwww grouphug! no? ok.

Further evidence of the FUG.

Hey guys, I have a present for you :D :D :D

DERP.

 

Thanks ladies for reading and putting up with my blunders, bitching, ranting and eyebrow raising behavior. Love, Cathryn

A Franken - Tippytoes (pic heavy!)

I think I am going to officially name all of my frankens after My Little Ponies.  Why the hell not, it is so much easier!  So I really love this one, but have you ever been sitting there mixing colors and have an "aha!" moment of perfection and then realize you basically all ready have that color?  I did.  I basically re-created China Glaze's "For Audrey" with a slight hue change and some glitter.  But I'm keeping it!

"Tippytoes"

It's a *little* more green.  And you can see the glitter better in the bottle than on the nail.  It's VERY subtle!

Indoor flash

Indoor flash

So then, as usual, I thought "You know what would be PERFECT over this? HIDDEN TREASURE!" So yea, I shlapped it on.

Outdoor - indirect sunlight

Outdoor - direct sunlight

DROOL.

I usually don't take pictures outdoors unless it will really benefit the color and show all the details.  Hidden Treasure is most certainly one of those colors to capture in the sun!  Oh it made it perfect.  Every once in a while I do something I like, and every once in a while I do something I hate.  This time, I LOVE it. Love love love.

Ingredients:

Funky Fingers "Wild Child"
Sinful Colors "Unicorn"
L.A. Colors "Energy Source"
Icing "Starlight"
Pure Ice "Don't You Wish"

And in true "Cathryn Form", I have NO idea of the recipe as I just mixed until I found something I liked.  Sorry, I'm good for that.

OK SO THIS IS IRRELEVANT BUT LISTEN UP.  Anyone grow up in the 80's or early 90's?  There is this website, Ghost of the Doll, which archived all of the girly toys released in those years.  I literally had a nostalgia freak out when I discovered this site.  It has pictures, years released, photos and more details about each toy than you can even comprehend.  If you're anything like me, the next 3 hours of your life will be spent on that site wishing you were a child again.  In which case I'm Sorry or You're Welcome, LOL!

Sinful Colors - Timbleberry

What? Is a Timbleberry an actual thing? I don't feel like googling but going on Sinful Colors history of ridiculous color names I really am leaning towards "no".

Four Coats of Timbleberry. Three would've been enough!

A rich deep coral red orange creme. lol.

I like this color, which is weird considering it is very close to orange.  This one STAINED MY FINGERS REALLY BAD. Heads up.  Might want to use the foil method when removing this color if you ever decide to wear it.  I like it very much! Fantastic formula, didn't NEED four coats but I did it anyways.  So that's it. Simple post today.

But I made a very pretty springtime franken I will share with you all very soon. I LOVE IT.

UNICORN & how to kill a mani in 5 seconds!

This color is the second one that I found in the bucket of random Sinful Colors at Walgreens.  First of all, the name is so irrelevant I had to buy it.  Secondly, it looked really pretty in the bottle.

FIVE RIDICULOUS COATS OF "UNICORN"

Yea, 5 coats. Enough to make me never use it again.  Also, the lobsterhands are out of this world in this pic.  I think there might have been *some* slight skin staining from the previous color I had on, which was a bright corally red.  But this is mostly just a contrast thing here.

Observe ladies, as I successfully KILL a perfectly fine manicure.

One coat of SH Hidden Treasure. Not dead, yet.

I should have left it here.  I should've stopped.  It actually looked really pretty like this.  But it was like, oh I don't know.. 3 AM and no sunlight, obvs, so its full beauty has not been captured in this pic. Ok, onto the murder scene.

Ew. Sorry.

I publicly apologize for doing that.  I don't think I like the shatter.  I said originally I didn't hate it, but, this is FUG. FUG FUG FUG FUGLY. For those of you who don't know fugly means "fucking ugly" - and that is the perfect description of what I have created.

Also this has got to be the most layers of polish I've ever worn. Lets count! Counting is fun.
2 coats of Orly Nail Armor
5 coats of Sinful Colors Unicorn (lol)
1 coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure
1 coat of my HG TC
1 coat of Shatter
1 more coat of my HG TC

THAT'S 11. My standing record!

Sinful Colors - Savage

I was wandering through Walgreens and found this bucket of Sinful Color polishes that weren't on any 3 of the displays in the store.  I'm not sure if they are discontinued or what, but I picked two of them up plus a third I found on the main display.  The one I am showing you today is one of the bucket polishes!

Sinful Colors "Savage" and my Neener helping me with my mani.

She was VERY helpful, actually!

3 Coats and TC

This polish was strange.  It tried completely matte and stained LIKE A MOTHER EFFER. I forgot my base coat so I had to buff buff buff.  I did a pretty decent job fixing it though.

The flash in the last picture kind of brightened the color up a bit.  It's a bit darker and a little more "dusty".  It's pretty though, I definitely like it!  Sinful Colors are available at Walgreens for 1.99$ (=

cheshire & purple diamonds

Puuuuuuuuuuuuurple, YAY!

This is 4 coats of Funky Fingers "Cheshire" (One of my all time favorites!)  Its a pretty purple creme and I love it all over the place.

Its a pretty purple creme and I love it all over the place.

Then I added 2 coats of Sinful Colors "Purple Diamond" over it and wheeee sparkly (=  I think this is glass flecks, but I could be wrong.

Look at the curves on her!
ONE MORE FOLLOWER TO 50!!
Ok, bedtime, goodnight!

mermaid mani

I've tried sponging with make up sponges before and haven't had the best of luck.  Truthfully, I've only tried twice and the second attempt was better than the first.  Anyways, I tried something different for this mani by taking the brush from a polish I never use and cutting it super short so I had more control. So I guess it really wasn't "sponging". Then I just blended, a lot.

I like the thumb, ring and pinky, but I lost the gradient effect on the other two nails, sort of.

I started with a franken aptly named "Jaded".

Then I used this arsenal of greens and teals;

left to right;
funky fingers "peacocky"
sinful colors "mint apple"
franken "jaded"
funky fingers "wild child"
sally hansen HD "pixel pretty"
funky fingers "bizerk turq"
& the last one is the brush I cut, but some of that made its way into the mani.

Then I just tapped and poked my nails like nutso.  I put a drop of each onto the back of a fauxnad plate and just kept dabbing all over.  I love blending :D

NOTD; beautiful girl

This color is one of my favorites. So girly.  I love pinks and cremes and pastels so this is perfect!  Somewhat tricky application.  This is about 3 and 1/2 coats.. yes 3 and 1/2.  Some parts were streaky and a few nails needed a 4th coat while some just needed an extra brush over another spot.  Still love it regardless (=

I realize I have posted this color once before but this time around I used a better camera (=  Also, I am taking baby steps in progressing towards perfecting the gap!!  It's sooooo much easier to remove polish when you don't have to pick and tear at your cuticles to remove every last bit of color.

blue glitter comparison

I was playing around with my polishes yesterday and decided to look at all my blue glitters.  Basically, that's it lol.

My acetone was severely drying my skin, so excuse the dryness.  I didn't moisturize before taking these, oops.

Also, I hate captchas, just saying!

Franken Attempt; "In Love"

I decided to give frankening another try (even though I have a strong aversion for that word and prefer the term “hybrid” but I will try to stay as relevant as possible).  I mixed about a quarter of each of these to get this color I chose to name, “In Love”.. mostly because I am IN LOVE with it!  They're all cremes, so there's no shimmer or sparkle, just very plain and understated.  Looks like artificial peach!