Sunday, January 23, 2011

Water Marble Nails



So, this is my first attempt at water marbling. Don't know what that is? Then you need to check out My Simple Little Pleasures blog. She is THE expert on water marble manicures and is so creative. The designs on each nail are completley different from the next, but as I said this was my first attempt at this. I really enjoyed doing this and I may make another attempt at one soon. I think the color combo I used is super gorgeous! I used a base coat of Zoya's "Malia" and then the blue is Zoya's "Robyn" and the purple is Orly's "Purple Crush" and then I just layered it with Orly's "Shine On Crazy Diamond" to add a bit of sparkle to it.

I have to apologize for how blurry these turned out, it was so overcast the day I took these pics that my camera just refused to focus. But, I think you guys can get the idea and still see how beautiful the color combo with the glitter is. This is def a manicure that needs repeating!



Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Tiger Striped Nails



So today I wanted to share with you all another manicure I did not too long ago, and this was so simple but one of my all times favorites! All I did was use an orange nail polish (I used Revlon in "Swoop") for the base and took Konads image plate in M69 with the Konad special polish in black and just stamped it onto my nail. I have to admit, I wasn't sure about how to exactly place this design. I wanted the design to cover my entire nail so after the first initial stamp there was still some blank areas, so I would re-stamp the design which caused the pattern to overlap in some areas and I just didn't like that way that looked. It's really up to you but I feel that just doing one stamp and then if there is a small amount of blank area around the edge of your nail it should be ok. I just think the overlapping looked sloppy, but it's totally your preferance! Anyway, here is a closeup of my thumb without overlapping, I think you will see that it looks much cleaner.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Zoya giving away 3 free polishes!



Zoya is giving away 3 free polishes! Yes, that's right, 3 FREE polishes! I'm not sure how long this will be going on but if you use coupon code "FB2011" You get 3 free polishes of your choice, just pay for shipping! Hurry up everyone and take advantage of this great deal! I ordered mine last night, I got Kelly, Starla and Edyta. Which ones will you get?

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Silver Holographic Chunky Flakey Nails



Hey everyone! I thought today I would share with you all a mani I did over the summer. I Really liked the way this came out but it was honestly a total pain to accomplish. I used Sinful Colors nail polish in "Let's Talk" as my base. It's probably the most beautiful purple polish I've ever seen and it was only $1 at Walgreens! Then I used some really thick, chunky holographic silver flakes I got from Sally Beauty Supply and layered them over my final coat of Let's Talk so it would adhere better to the nail. After I let it dry for about 2 minutes I had to put at least 8-10 coats of Seche Vite over it because the flakes are soooo chunky that I could just feel the edges of them and it was driving me crazy, you know like how if you put a chunky glitter polish on and you don't add a top coat and it feels gritty? I just hate that, everything has to be smooth lol.

So the final result was gorgeous in the sunlight. The holographic element of the flakes really sparkled and was so vibrant and I loved how it looked against the purple polish. The one thing that really sucked about this mani was that because it required so many coats of top coat that the polish was soooo thick that after a couple of days the polish just started to fall off, like my whole nail just peeled off entirely. Not to mention the remaining polish was a real bitch to take off, even with pure acetone. But if you like how this looks I would absolutley recommend giving this a try. I have some clear holographic flakes just like the silver ones but I have yet to attempt a mani with those, so I need to get crackin'! I don't think the clear ones are quite as thick as the silver ones but I'll try and do a post about those as soon as I can. :)


here is a slightly blurry photo with flash, I was completely unable to capture the radiance of the flakes just right :/

Saturday, January 1, 2011

New Year, New Life

This post isn't really beauty related but I feel like I need to rant a little bit being it's a new year. I'm really hoping 2011 will be kinder to me than 2010 was. In 2010 I lost my house which in turn forced me to drop out of college and move 4 hours back home to live with my parents. My boyfriend and I were living together in Lexington, NC and now he lives with his brother. We also loved our most cherished pet and what we considered basically our child, our pot bellied pig, Fester. Loosing him was really the biggest hurt I've ever felt in my life. He died so suddenly, there was nothing we could do to save him :( I think about him every single day and have pictures of him all around which does make me feel better- He's always with me.

I also had to quit my hellish retail job in Lexington when I moved back home. I didn't mind quitting my job but looking for work since I've moved back has been absolute hell. I had a really great paying job as a 911 Dispatcher, a job I absolutely loved, but after 3 months of working there I was laid off because my idiot boss is incapable of doing her job correctly and miscalculated her budget and couldn't afford to pay me and 2 other employees that she hire- thus laying us off. I'm currently on unemployment which is really not helping all that much. I'm searching for work constantly but nothing yet. My car has also been acting up a bit over the past few months since I've moved home and have had to get my parents to pay for all the work it's needed. Of course now that it will be paid off in a few months it wants to act up.

I'm really hoping 2011 will be the turn around year for me. I'm thinking about taking a phlebotomy course that is offered in the fall, and on top of that medical coding so that way I can hopefully, always at least have a part time job on my own terms. My long term goals are to get a good paying job and save my money up for probably at least 2 more years then try and move to Raleigh. I have always loved Raleigh, always something to; museums, shopping, eating, site seeing, concerts- you name it. I love the way the city looks and the feel to it, it's like there is electricity in the air. So anyway, I'm just hoping I can get a break at life this year, hopefully sooner than later and I can accomplish the few small things I'm asking for out of life. Here's to 2011!