Autism Awareness Mani #2

*Follow my blog with Bloglovin*

Hey all!  It has been a very busy, busy week at work, and I have had no time to do anything, let alone my manicure.  So, when I got home at 10:30, I pulled out the polish so I could post my week 2 Autism Awareness mani.

I have been working with papers and filing all week.  Add to that the forced air heat, and...yea.  Continually having to washing my hands has left them very dry, cracked and pained, so my cuticles were in no mood for any real clean up.  Just kind of ignore the angry redness and dryness, and focus in on this beautiful blue.

Photos are kind of...bad.  It's after 2:30 am, and I wanted to get this post up because the weekend is jammed up with everything I couldn't get done during the week.  So, that meant taking pictures in the middle of the night.   Probably not the most ideal time for taking pictures.

Color is Blue Funk by Studio M.  Really loving this brand...last weeks mani went 6 days with very, very minimal tip wear, and no chipping.  Add to that the $2.99 price tag - this week was also 25% off, so I had to add quite a few colors to my collection.

By the way - that shine is from the polish.  No top coat used.

The glitter used was Sweet Dreams from the Selena Gomez collection by Nicole by OPI.

Really need to call it a night...or morning??  Have a great weekend!

Great blog find and Autism Awareness Mani #1

*Follow my blog with Bloglovin*

This is my first non-challenge blog post, and it will be a relatively short one.  I should be house cleaning, but that is just no fun.  I was doing some indie brand searches - alright, lets just face it, I was shopping - and through random searches and links, I came across a blog - xoxo, Jen - that floored me.  I haven't looked at any of her posts yet, that's coming next.  So, what floored me, you ask?  She has a listing of Indie polish brands, with links to sites, that total over 375!

Obviously, I have not checked out the links yet, and who knows if some of them are still in business, but the time it took to put all that together? Amazing!  Link to her website HERE...  I plan on using it myself.

Since April is Autism Awareness month, I am jumping in and doing at lease one blue manicure each week.  This is the first.  I wanted to start off with a lighter blue, but what I got was eye-popping.  This polish, irl, has got a micro shimmer in it that looks to be greenish, but what it does is make this aqua blue just completely glow.  It is so bright!  I'm not usually a blue-wearer, so wearing blue this month is a big deal.  I wanted to start off with a penlight, and ended up with a spotlight instead.

Both polishes are from Studio M - big box brand for a chain here in the midwest.  The aqua blue is called "Total WOW", and the glitter is "Sexy Siren"  You'd think they were made for each other.

This blue is just beautiful.  It was a little sheer, so I did 3 coats, but application was good. Hardly had to do any clean up afterwards.  Cuticles definitely need some work though - sorry.

Hope you enjoyed the extra post this week, and I hope everyone has a great weekend!  It really is FINALLY starting to feel like spring around here in Chicago - yea!

Liz

ABC Challenge- "M" is for Magic Attraction

*Follow my blog with Bloglovin*

Back for another week - wow, they are coming fast.  I had originally planned for this week to do a cute manicure of the funny little guys from the animated movie "Despicable Me" - Minions. 

 

But, I didn't feel like cute.  Holidays are still hard, and the depression still sets in, though not quite as badly as Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I needed something pretty and...girly, hoping that it would help lift my mood (trust me on this - cute and juvenile would have made things worse).  So the little twinkie guys had to go, but they are still a possibility somewhere down the line. 

While I was out shopping, I always take a walk down the cosmetic aisles - not that I need to, mind you - I just can't help but make a pass through.  I wanted to pick up another bottle of the fabulous flakie I used last week, and came across the beauty I have used this week - Magic Attraction.  Here is the finished product:

 

I had to take photos of this before I did the striping on it - check out the bling:  Had to take a blurry picture to get the colors flashing off the glitter.  Sorry that photos are so washed out - with flash too bright, and without too dark.

So, I used the following - all drugstore brands this week (from left to right in photo):

1. Sinful: Starfish /  2. Pure Ice: Superstar!  / 3. Sinful:  Folly /  4. Studio M:  Magic Attraction

I'm pretty happy with the final effect.  Lines were free-handed - not too shabby, if I do say so myself.  And it did perk me up - mission accomplished.  Oh, and had to share this photo - I put this box on the futon next to me, and turned around to pick up a couple of bags of things I wanted to put in the box.  When I turned back, this is what I was greeted with:

AND her name is Maize - she fits in with the letter this week!
 

So again, big thanks to Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner for organizing this weekly challenge.  
If you are interested in joining, just head on over to her page, click on the ABC Challenge link under her banner, and get the info to e-mail her your request to join.  This is a closed group, so you will need to get the OK to be added, but anyone & everyone is welcome. We still have half the alphabet left, so plenty of time to get in.

Please stop and take a look at all the other ladies in the challenge, and enjoy the rest of the week.  Only 2 more days till the weekend starts!

ABC Challenge - "L" is for lemon-lime

*Follow my blog with Bloglovin*

Since I was so long winded last week, I will be short (for me) on this one. I don't think I'm keeping this mani on very long. It is below freezing, blustery winds, and snow is in the forecast - again!. It was meant to perk me up and make me look forward to spring, but it's just not working...

I took this week's letter to heart, and not only is the concept comply to the rules, so do the 4 polishes I used (all were in my stash, hard to believe):

Maybelline Color Show - Lustrous Lime

Jessica - Lime Cooler
Sinful Colors - Let's Meet.
Orly - Lemonade

First time sponging, and it was fun - definitely will be doing this again.  It seemed a little blah, so I put on a topper of iridescent flakies from Studio M, and a purposeful mistake - from a comment RiaG made last week - on my accent nail with Hard Candy, Piece of Papaya.  FYI - this color is AWESOME!  I may wear Papaya and make a blog post if I do. 


Before:                                                                                        After:  Topper is:
Not bad, but too blah for my mood...                                            Studio M - Covered in Diamonds

 

It was almost impossible for me to get a photo where the greens read as green - the "naked" one on the left was the closest I could get.  In real life, it's much more noticeable.  Probably because these were yellow-greens and not blue-greens, the camera couldn't make the distinction.

And as always, cheers to Kimber's Lacquer Korner for starting off this challenge - it's never too late to join. Just see her website, and request to be included.  It is a laid back challenge - once a week, as opposed to every day - because she realized that life sometimes comes before polish.  Shocking, but true!

Thanks for taking the time to read...and now, onward to all the other lovely ladies' submissions for the letter "L"...

ABC Challenge - "K" is for Khloe Had A Little Lam-Lam

*Follow my blog with Bloglovin*

Here we all are again - wow, we are almost halfway through the alphabet!  This week is the letter K, and let me just start off with a rant.  I DO NOT like reality TV.  I think it is a major contributor in the dumbing down of Americans.  The stupidity and shallowness that runs rampant on this kind of TV is just...ugh!  Capitalizing on this type of "entertainment" is a family called the Kardashians.  I go out of my way to NOT purchase anything involved with that family, but they are not the only ones.  There are others, but I am getting too far off tangent here.  This is a nail polish blog, for crying out loud!

This is all leading me to the fact that the polish of choice today is from the Kardashian collection put out by Nicole by OPI.  Can I tell you...I hate myself for loving this color.  It was part of my St. Patrick's day exchange gift, so technically I did not buy it, so that makes me feel a little better.  Yea, I am going to run with that.

It is a dark teal, which looks like a dark evergreen in certain lights.  It goes on perfectly, is basically opaque in one coat, and dries to a glass-like shine.  Why, oh why, does it have to be part of the K-collection?  It does have one draw back - it stains like (a) _____ (insert favorite expletive here).  I was trying to be VERY careful with application, but had to do a second clean-up the next day for cuticles, which were a very nice pale shade of green, I must say.  These photos are three days in - constantly washing my hands, cleaning, hand lotions, and cold weather; my hands had a lot of abuse this week.

To add a little something to this color, I decided to do a cheat marbling.  I have not had much time to practice water marbling, and have issues with choosing polishes that will work.  Either they will not spread, or they spread so much that they break the pattern, and I need to clear the water and start over.  I didn't want to be staring at a cup of water all afternoon, so I brought out my trusty sheet protector from the letter "G" manicure, and did some pseudo marbling.  A few drops of polish, a toothpick, and 36 hours later, these are what I got. 

Yes, they look a little alien, but I did not want to drag the toothpick backwards through the polish.  The tentacles were cut off when I was shaping these to put on my nails.  But beware...you had better know exactly how you want this to sit on your nail, because once they touch the polish underneath, even if it FEELS dry to the touch, it WILL suction itself.  It was OK with this manicure, since I had so much base color mixed in the marbling, but if I hadn't, everyone would've noticed the big boo-boo on my thumb, not just me (and no, you can't see it in the photos above).

Didn't think to take a photo of these in, you know, DAYLIGHT, but you can see the shimmer that these polishes have in them.  Pretty impressive for such an inexpensive brand.

Couldn't quite capture the shimmers on the taupe and sage, but you can see a *little* bit of the blue peeking through in the green bottle.  You'll have to take my word on the taupe. 

Colors used are:
Nicole by OPI - Khloe Had A Little Lam-Lam (dark teal, used as base color)
Love & Beauty - Coral Glow (has a gold shimmer)
Love & Beauty - Taupe (has a silver shimmer)
Love & Beauty - Sparkling Sage (has a blue shimmer)

I am still working out some kinks with this method, and one of them is that I should NOT have used so much of the base color in the marbling.  With the darker color in the marble, and the dark base under the marble, once I put it on the nail a lot of the lighter coloring got lost.

Over all, I am VERY happy with how this turned out.  As long as I know what colors I want to use when I change things up, this is a very viable option to water marbling, at least until I get good at it.  There is nothing like instant gratification you get from that method, after all.

Sorry everyone...I think I am FINALLY out of breath!  If you made it all the way down to here, congratulations - you deserve a medal!! And thank you!

Take a look at everyone else involved in the challenge, sponsored and brought to you by Kimber from Kimber's Lacquer Korner.  I think "K" will give us a pretty diverse group of manicures.  Looking forward to them as much as you!

ABC Challenge - "J" for Jindie Nails

Another week, another letter.  This week is going to be short and sweet.  I was planning green with St. Patrick's Day theme - got the first color on my fingers and it did NOT look good at all.  Green - at least the light greens I have that start with "J" - are not working for me while I am winter pale. 

In the middle of this dilemma, I got nail mail from Jindie.  Problem solved.  Although I still look deathly pale, I love this polish.  It's just fun.  Excuse the nicks and cuts all over my fingers - spent the day at work filing and handling papers, and couldn't keep my hands moisturized enough and got pretty cut up.

Jindie Nails - Barbies Have More Fun (pink and black round and micro matte glitter)
over Pure Ice - Superstar! (plain white)






















Take a peek at all the other ladies in the challenge below, and thanks again to Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner for bringing us together.

Have a good week everyone!

ABC Challenge - "I" is for OPI's I Don't Give a Rotterdam!

Here we are again for the letter I.  Bad, bad day.  I tried 4 different manicures for this letter - I got them done, hated them, and started all over.  Pretty much wasted my Sunday on it.  So, the title of one of the polishes I used pretty much sums up my attitude by the end of the night.

I'm not really happy with this, but I am guessing that even if I had the perfect manicure I wouldn't like it right now either.  So, onward...

I used:

OPI - I Have a Herring Problem (left, greener of the two) and OPI - I Don't Give a Rotterdam! (right, bluer of the two).  Both from the Holland collection, and both are very close in color.  Photo does show the difference.  I do really like these polishes though; muted colors and multi-color shimmer. 

What I did:  full coat on the nail with the bluer of the two, I Don't Give a Rotterdam!.  I did a tip gradient with the greener one, I Have a Herring Problem.  The idea was to put a stamp near the gradient line with silver.  For that, I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Hi Ho Silver.  The problem?  The stamps I used were so delicate, they are not translating into the photos.  It's there IRL, but not as...bold?...as I would like it.  Poor choice of polish to stamp with too (I found out).

I tried to blur the pictures a little to show the stamps...






Oh, and FYI - this manicure wasn't even 10 hours hold, and there is already tip wear...overnight.  I'm guessing these OPI's don't like Seche Vite.  Another "good to know" thing.                  

So, here is a little darker and blurrier photo, but the stamps show up a little better.

Glad this week is done.  Not exactly a "fail" because I've got polish on my fingers, but far from a success. Oh well, I'm already moving on to J...

Give everyone else a look-see that is involved with this challenge, hosted by Kimber of Kimber's Lacquer Korner.  Want to join?  Visit her website and drop her a message - all are welcome.  (Isn't that a line from Poltergeist?).

Until next week!