Thursday, December 20, 2012

Week 12

I'm sick, so just a quick post this week.  This week's challenge is 'Inspired by a song', and cause so much Christmas music is playing, I was going to do snowflakes and some Christmas lights for "Blue Christmas".  I feel like crap though, and am so tired all the time, so I only have gotten my base color down so far.  I'm hoping to finish them, so there may be an update later in the week.


Wet'N'Wild Fantasy Makers Black, Color Club Personal Stylist, top coat

Can't even tell where I nick'd my nail while shaving my legs! Lol, anyway, here's some candy cane nails, and what my nails look like naked so this isn't such a sad post (Naked nails happened before I filed them down for the candy cane nails):


SinfulColors Snow Me White, Tokyo Pearl, and Sugar Sugat, top coat


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Glitter!

I love glitter polish, but hated the cleanup.  That was before I found out about the Elmer's Glue trick.  Now I need more glitter polishes!  I currently have 58 polishes, after getting 2 sets for my birthday yesterday from my friend.

This is my mani for this week's challenge:


I don't really remember what polishes I used, since I was borrowing a friend's at the time.  I know they were all SinfulColors though!  Pretty sure it was Sugar Sugar, and Black on Black with a silver glitter.  

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Lace and Lacquers: JOBY NAIL ART: Decal Review & GIVEAWAY!

Lace and Lacquers: JOBY NAIL ART: Decal Review & GIVEAWAY!: A little something out of my norm today, but still fun! Plus a little somethin' somethin' for ya'll at the end! JOBY NA09-38 Signature ...

Monday, December 3, 2012

Winter nails!

I love winter.  This is one of the challenges that I was looking forward to, I had the idea already thought of months ago.  I just wish I had a micro-flakie top coat for some sparkle.

I used Elmer's Glue as my base coat (for easy removal in case I screwed it up), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blinding Blue for the background, SinfulColors Snow Me White sponged on the tips.  I then used Snow Me White and my dotting tool to make the snowman, with Wet'N'Wild Black Creme for the coal and hat, Color Club Wham! Pow! for the nose, and a random dark shimmer red for the scarf, all with the dotting tool.  I then sponged SinfulColors Tokyo Pearl on all the nails for a snowfall look, and then N.Y.C. Matte topcoat.


I was going to attempt to do this on my right hand as well, but after multiple hand washing, doing dishes, and taking a shower, the polish popped right off.  So waiting for my nails to dry out before completing my mani.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Rainbows!

The challenge this week was one I was really looking forward to, since I don't normally do bright and colorful nails on myself.  I still couldn't commit to more than an accent nail this time (which took me longer than I thought it would).



I used Sally Hansen's Complete Manicure in Black Platinum for my other nails.  The accent nail is SinfulColors Snow Me White with Color Club's Poptastic collection as my rainbow of colors.  The green I wasn't happy with until I mixed some of my SinfulColors Last Chance with it, it was to mint ice-cream looking before.  I even remembered to do an Indigo color, which is just the blue and purple of the Poptastic collection mixed together.  All topped with my Sally Hansen top coat.  Left hand I used my striping brush (and could have done a neater clean-up on the cuticle), and I also attempted to use my dotting tool to do my right hand.  It did not turn out as nice, but still recognizable as a rainbow :)

Until next time
Jess

Monday, November 26, 2012

GoingtotheShowing: 555 Followers Color Club Holo Hues Giveaway

GoingtotheShowing is doing a giveaway!

GoingtotheShowing: 555 Followers Color Club Holo Hues Giveaway: I know that some of you may have been searching for this collection, so I bring to one lucky winner the entire Color Club Holo Hues. I a...

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Princess Polish: Halloween Hangover Giveaway

Princess Polish: Halloween Hangover Giveaway: Happy Weekend, everyone! I hinted at this at the start of the week, but it is now officially here! I don't know about you, but there ...

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Black and … Week 7

This week is supposed to be black and white, but I could not get my idea to translate to my nails.  I wanted to do pirate skull and crossbones, but could not get it to look like anything more than an 'X' with a dot above it, even with trying to use my skull stamp.  So I ended up doing black and silver bar glitter.

Wet'N'Wild Black Creme, Kleancolor Grand Finale, and Sally Hansen Top Coat.

The bar glitter was a pain to apply.  I'll need more patience with it next time I guess.

Until next time
Jess

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Lace and Lacquers: JOBY NAIL ART: Decal Review & GIVEAWAY!

Lace and Lacquers: JOBY NAIL ART: Decal Review & GIVEAWAY!: A little something out of my norm today, but still fun! Plus a little somethin' somethin' for ya'll at the end! JOBY NA09-38 Signature ...

Friday, November 9, 2012

Galactic Lacquer: 1,000 Facebook Follower Giveaway

Galactic Lacquer: 1,000 Facebook Follower Giveaway: Wow, so we've reached 1,000 Facebook followers already. Thank you all for your interest and continued support! I would like to reward you al...

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Gotta Catch'em All!

The choice for this week's nails was an easy one.  I've been wanting to do Pokeball nails for a long time, but haven't been able to get my nails long enough without breaking.  I love Pokemon, and am actually trying to collect all the games.  I'm slowly getting there, but having problems finding the Gold and Crystal versions for Gameboy Color within my budget.


Please excuse the horrible picture taking skills.  Probably should have done another coat of the red, but I was in a rush :)  I used Elmer's Glue as my basecoat, SinfulColors Snow Me White and Go Go, and Wet'N'Wild Black Creme.  No topcoat.  Striping brush for the black stripe, then dotting tool for the black and white button

This is 2 coats Snow Me White.  I love this white because it is so pigmented, but my bottle is needing a little thinner added to it, it has thickened up cause I left the cap off for to long a couple of times :(  I am also not really good at clean up on my right hand yet, but still better than it was lol.


Until next time
Jess

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Halloween Nails week 5

So late with posting this.  Orange polish is not a color I like on me, so trying to do something creative was difficult.  I finally was inspired while painting pumpkins with my son.  


The nails: 

I started out with a new base, that I got as an accident.  Was meaning to get more top coat while we were at Walmart (where we rarely go anymore), and wasn't paying attention to which one I grabbed.  Oh well, was needing base coat anyway!  Black Creme from Wet'N'Wild, then dotting with SinfulColors Snow Me White. My dotting was not very clean, as Snow is pretty thick, so there are little stringy things everywhere. I then went back with Color Club Wham! Pow! for my orange dots.  Cause it was for Halloween, I also used Wet'N'Wild's Fantasy Makers Glow in the Dark polish.  Ended up smudging the dots a bit, but it wasn't to obvious off-camera. Finished off with top coat.  The glow wasn't to obvious on Halloween, but I was also carrying around a giant glowstick while taking my son and my cousins' kids Trick or Treating.  

I need to find out how much the nail salons around here will charge just for shaping my nails, I just can't get them even when trying to square them off.

I wish I had remembered to take pictures while making the mini Oreo cheesecakes, so that I could make a proper post for them.  They were a big hit with my family, even my mom liked them.  

Until next time,
Jess

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

glitter obsession: Color Club Halo Hues + Giveaway

I just entered Glitter Obsession's Color Club giveaway!

glitter obsession: Color Club Halo Hues + Giveaway: Finally, right? I had to wait for a sunny day to swatch these babies, and boy did they not disappoint! It ended up taking me two days to d...

Monday, October 22, 2012

Candy Corn! Week 4

Whew, what a long weekend.  Went to a local farm for their Pumpkin Festival on Saturday.  It was so much fun, kiddo had a great time and was super happy to get to pick out his pumpkin!  We also picked up some produce that grew on the farm from their produce stand.  While we were standing in line for the hayride, they shot off the Pumpkin Cannon, and I actually caught a video of it! (coming soon)




On to the polish portion of this post.  I figured I'd get a head start on this week's challenge and do a candy corn gradient.


basecoat
2 coats Snow Me White
Color Club Almost Famous for the yellow
Color Club Wham! Pow! for the orange
topcoat

I wore it like this all day Saturday, and actually had one lady compliment me on it at one of the booths (where they were selling some indie polishes along with their handmade soaps and bath stuffs. I didn't pick one up this time, but did pick up their card to see about ordering some later when I have some more money.)  But it was way to bright and loud for my tastes, and I just had to mess with it.  



(Please ignore my lack of clean-up, I was rushed to do these before my cousin's birthday party!) O.P.I. Black Shatter and Wet'N'Wild Black Creme helped tone down the neon-ness, and also gave me an chance to finally use my striping brush.  I was really shaky, but it looked all right I think.

I also managed to find a Kleancolor What Girls Really Talk About Mini set at R.O.S.S. for $4!  They also had a bunch of Color Club multi-packs that didn't really wow me, but I couldn't pass up these glitters!  

Until next time
Jess

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Pucci-Licious Crackle - Challenge Week 3

I recently got a set of Color Club polishes for a steal at an outlet store, and have been trying out different looks for the Reddit week of the challenge.  It's the Poptasic collection, and the color I finally settled on was Pucci-Licious, a great shade of purple that I thought would look great with black crackle.  I know it's not really original or creative, but I don't really venture on Reddit that much and was't really inspired by the photos I saw, but did like seeing all the different crackle patterns and ways people mixed it up.  I've always loved crackle paint for those little wooden boxes you can get at the craft stores, so it's no wonder that I've been drawn to crackle nail polish as well.  Trying to get a color-accurate picture was tricky, as this house has crappy lighting and the sun would not come out today. My clean-up could use some more practice as well, I know.  I'm used to just waiting till my polish is dried, then scrubbing off any polish on my skin, but that still leaves my cuticles flooded and uneven :(  I bought some acetone and a cheap paintbrush and am starting to get better at cleaning up that way.


2 coats SinfulColors Snow Me White
2 coats Color Club Pucci-Licious
O.P.I. Black Shatter
Sally Hansen Top Coat

until next time
Jess

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Polar Opposites - Weekly Challenge 2

Hello there! I know the week is almost over, but I was just feeling completely uninspired with this prompt.  I think I need a nice deep grey-blue color, I have to many bright summery blues, and I was just not feeling it this week.  Plus I cut my nails down to nubs because I just wasn't liking the squared off look anymore and couldn't file them down evenly enough.  Plus I had some serious staining that was not wanting to buff out and was taking to long to grow out.

I recently picked up one of the new SinfulColors magnetic polishes at Target, and was playing around with it and noticed it had this awesome blue shimmer in it, so it became my 'Blue Nails'.  It's called Polar Opposites, and it's a lovely grey shimmer with blue shimmer that looks purple at extreme angles (that I could not figure out how to photograph), and when the magnet is used, it makes lovely black/dark blue waves and it seems the blue shimmer concentrates in those areas as well.  I had a problem with brush strokes showing, but I also wasn't being very patient when I applied it, so not 100% sure it's the polish and not just user error.  Please excuse my sad cuticles, forgot to moisturize them after doing the dishes. Shown without base coat (don't have one at the moment), 1 or 2 coats of Sally Hansen Black Platinum, 2 coats of Polar Opposites, and 1 coat of Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails Strengthening Top Coat (my typical top coat, as it drys really fast)

Blurred to show shimmer

The grey is more stainless-looking in person, but I couldn't get the camera the capture that as best as I would have liked.

Until next time...
Jess

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Stash and Set Up Post

While I'm trying to come up with a blue nail design for this week's challenge, I figured I'd post the polishes I have now at the start of this blog adventure, and my set up for now.  I usually end up doing my nails late at night, after my son goes to bed.  I have most of my stuff set up at my desk in my room, but I have a pair of clippers, a file, and a cuticle pusher on the cabinet next to my chair in the living room for when I want to fidget with my nails while watching a movie or something.  My buffing block is out there too right now, come to think of it.


Here's my desk set up.  The black and red box is usually over on the computer tower, and my tools pouch is usually under the monitor.  Chromebook (Cr-48, the Pilot Notebook from Google), my awesome Thermos that keeps w/e I'm drinking cold for hours.  Big bottle of pure Acetone, and a bottle of regular nail polish remover.  In the box is my SinfulColors and Insta-Dry polishes, and in the lid is the rest.  My top coat, Elmer's Glue base coat, and cuticle oil are up by the monitor.  Cotton balls, make-up sponges, and q-tips on top of the tower.  Tools in pouch, and a little glass tea light holder that I use to hold acetone for when i use my nail brushes (currently has a cotton ball in it that I used to wipe off excess cuticle oil from my finger nails).

The tools in my pouch:


I got the pouch at Big Lots for $4, had a bunch of Ms Manicure items.  Left side has nail clippers, cuticle nippers, dotting tool, cuticle pusher, nail file, and 2 brushes I got at Michael's, one for nail art and the other for clean-up.  Right side has toe separators, Salon Express stamper set, old gift card for scraping, Born Pretty Store Hello Kitty plate I got for free one random night, and 2 MASH plates I got for a penny each on Copious.  Paper hole reinforcement stickers and couple of orange sticks are also in there.  
 

Now for the polishes.

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell, Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple, NYC Matte Top Coat, Color Changing Blue/Green chrome, O.P.I. Turquoise Shatter, O.P.I.Black Shatter
Sally Hansen:
Nail Prisms Lapis Amethyst, Xtreme Wear Invisible, Complete Manicure Black Platinum, Advanced Hard As Nails Strengthening Top Coat, Xtreme Nails Blinding Blue, InstaDri Brisk Blue, Crackle Overcoat Cherry Smash, InstaDri Rapid Red, InstaDri Blue-Away

 
Tokyo Pearl, Ruby Ruby, Snow Me White, Last Chance
Frenzy, Cinderella, Ciao Bella!
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City, SinfulColors What's Your Name, SinfulColors Queen of Beauty, Wet'n'Wild Black Creme, Wet'n'Wild Magnetic Igniting The Spark, and Wet'n'Wild Fantasy Makers Glow in the Dark Go With The Glow

I also have a SinfulColors Let's Talk, but my camera hates it and I can't get a close enough color accurate pic, so have a Google search image:

That's it for tonight, until next time
Jess





Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Rock Star Nails-Weekly Challenge Week 1

So this week's challenge is to do a Tape Mani, something I've messed around with before.  I had painted my nails just plain black the other night, so was looking for a way to pretty it up when I thought about starting this blog and saw the challenge.  I ended up only doing the tape on accent nails cause I'm tired and cause I thought it'd be to much.  And I liked the contrast of colors so much I used a dotting tool to add 'studs' to my other nails. XD  




Base: 1 coat Olan Laboratories Nail Treatment
2 coats Wet'N'Wild Black Creme
1 coat Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails Strengthening Top Coat
accent and dotting: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City
1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Invisible

Until next time
Jess

Monday, October 1, 2012

Year-Long Weekly Nail Challenge, Wish Me Luck..(UPDATE)

Found this challenge on another girl's blog, http://gretalrabbit.blogspot.com/
First time attempting any challenge what so ever, and considering I don't have all the colors that I'll need just yet I don't know how well this will go.  My collection is pretty small, and other than the occasional clearance/outlet store find, I don't really have much to be buying a lot more.  So I might have to skip some weeks, unless I can borrow polishes from a friend.


UPDATE: 

GretalRabbit updated with a new year-long challenge, and it looks more do-able for me (and the dates are accurate), so I'm going to do this one instead :)


1 01-Oct Taping
2 08-Oct Blue
3 15-Oct Inspired by reddit
4 22-Oct Gradient Or ombre
5 29-Oct Orange
6 05-Nov Inspired by a game
7 12-Nov Black and White
8 19-Nov Saran Wrap
9 26-Nov Rainbow
10 03-Dec Winter
11 10-Dec Glitter
12 17-Dec Inspired by song
13 24-Dec Red
14 31-Dec New year
15 07-Jan Inspired by book
16 14-Jan Decal/transfer
17 21-Jan Splatter
18 28-Jan Inspired by technology
19 04-Feb Inspired by nature
20 11-Feb Pink
21 18-Feb French manicure
22 25-Feb Jelly sandwich
23 04-Mar Spring
24 11-Mar Violet
25 18-Mar Inspired by a tutorial
26 25-Mar Stripe
27 01-Apr Grey
28 08-Apr Inspired by flag
29 15-Apr Flowers
30 22-Apr Animal print
31 29-Apr Inspired by food
32 06-May Yellow
33 13-May Text
34 20-May Pastel
35 27-May Inspired by pattern
36 03-Jun Summer
37 10-Jun Galaxy
38 17-Jun Inspired by movie/TV
39 24-Jun Matte
40 01-Jul Half moon / border
41 08-Jul Inspired by colour
42 15-Jul Delicate print
43 22-Jul Green
44 29-Jul Inspired by artwork
45 05-Aug Polka dot
46 12-Aug Neon or Bright
47 19-Aug Water Marble
48 26-Aug Nudes or Browns
49 02-Sep Autumn
50 09-Sep Inspired by fashion
51 16-Sep Tribal
52 23-Sep Metallic

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Welcome!

My first post, so an introduction is in order!  I'm Jess, a stay-at-home mom to an awesome little smarty-pants kid. I like to cook and have recently gotten into nail polish and nail art.  I live in Florida with my mom and my son, while my dad is working out of state.  I have a younger brother, and tons of extended family.

I got into cooking while in high school my sophomore year, in the Pro-Start culinary class.  We would cook meals for the teachers,  catered events for clubs, and provided clubs with food items for various fundraising such as C.A.R.E., Alex's Lemonade Stand, etc.  I now mainly cook for my family and friends, experimenting with recipes I find online and in different cook books.  A few of my favorite cooks/chefs/cookbook authors are Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman),  Bakerella, Rachael Ray, and Paula Deen.

I don't have any fancy camera or photography skills, so I apologize for my less-than-stellar photographs now. I try to fix them so that they are mostly color-accurate when it comes to nail polish.

Until next time...

Jess