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