blue NOTD for my crappy day

Just a quickie today because I've been anxious and irritable all damn day.  It took me 2 hours to get home from school today and had about 5 near misses.  A facking COP of all people almost slammed into me.  Today sucked. So here's a pretty blue (well, blurple) to suit the mood!

Three thin coats of Funky Fingers "Cottage stripes".  So pretty, loved the application!  "Cottage stripes" is a dark periwinkle with some sort of a purple-y hue, more so in real life, creme - I think so at least.  Whatevs, its pretty!

The day did turn around a little towards the end because boyfriend took me to dinner and we had a really nice time.  He does wonders for a bad mood (=

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

pretty pretty pink!

Looooooooooooove me some Sinful Colors.  This color is so pretty.  It's a little goopy but nothing a few drops of thinner won't fix!

This is 3 coats of "Cream pink".  Which kind of irks me because its a shimmer, not a creme.  I know cream =/= creme but still.  It's like the one time I was at Walgreens and the Make Up associate kept calling shimmers, "metallics".  It's like.. "No. Just, no."  Also, do you like my strategically placed heart?  I jumped a whole cap full of acetone all over my hand and my skin looked A MESS but my nails were too wet to lotion up so I got innovative. 

Pretty pretty pretty!

Then I added this holo topcaot, Cover Girl Boundless Color in "City lights".  Two coats. OMG I can't stop looking at my hands.  It's like Barbie got a bedazzler and went nuts!

HA. YOU CAN'T STOP LOOKING EITHER, I KNOW IT.

maybelline; punked plum notd!

Well, this color really isn't my bag at all.  But I got it for 50 cents so I can't complain, really.  It came in a two pack with a clear polish I want to franken with, plus it does look pretty in the bottle, on the nail as well, but really not my style.

This is 3 coats of Maybelline Salon Expert "Punked plum".  I do see the plum, but I see burgundy, too.  I associate plums with purple, and burgundy as having more of a red hue.  It has silver and dark red shimmers in it and the formula is really surprisingly pleasant!

I had a difficult time capturing all of the shimmers, because it is very sparkly in real life.  The photos don't do it justice.

Here are some more feeble attempts of me trying to capture the sparkles.  The color is actually pretty true to life.  Of course its a little bit darker without a flash but it's not far off from reality.

6 more followers til my first giveaway, yay! (=

funky fingers; manic flamingo

I swear I've sneezed out better name ideas. 

Pretty magenta jelly with blue shimmers.

This was 3, possibly 4 coats.  I don't remember exactly because I take large amounts of stock images sometimes when swatching and have yet to come up with a system of organizing the info.

cover girl NOTD; best 1$ mani yet

I am sooo drawn to pink sparkly polishes.  This one is especially pretty and it just jumps off the nail in person!

This is 3 thin, fast drying coats of Cover Girl Nail Slicks in "Very berry".  It's a bright pink/magenta with glass flecks or foil flecks, I still can't figure it out.  This came in one of the two-packs I bought at the dollar tree a few weeks ago.

It's so sparkly!

I decided to add one coat of another sparkly polish I also got for an amazing .50 cents!  It really blows my mind that you can find great polishes with fun colors (in the US, at least) for nearly next to nothing.

This is Maybelline Nail Expert in "Rock out" which I think I will be putting to good use in the near future.  Adds a little something that some polishes really benefit from.

Just look at the sparklies!!  Excluding the topcoat, this mani cost me A DOLLAR! LOVE!