Boogie Nights for Audrey

Behind again. Shame on this blogger.

The first of many manicures to come is this simple little cutie. China Glaze For Audrey with an accent of Ulta Boogie Nights. I love blue and gold together!

Mint Manis for Talia Joy (featuring Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint)

Tuesday July 16, 2013 the beauty blogging realm (and ultimately the world) lost a very talented young woman. Talia Joy Castellano was only 13 years old and battled two forms of cancer over half of her lifetime. She accomplished so much and inspired so many people in her short life. Its always sad when anyone is taken too soon, but especially at her age.

Her last Instagram manicure was a mint polish, thus Mint Manis for Talia was born. Today many of the people she reached are wearing mint manicures in her honor, including myself.

For my mint mani, I chose Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint, a mint green creme filled with subtle gold shimmer. Mint with a little something extra (just like Talia).

She will be dearly missed. In her life she accomplished so much. Her family and friends plan to see all of her dreams fulfilled.

Talia's Youtube Channel and Instagram can be found here.

OPI Honey Ryder and Pussy Galore

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! I have a couple of swatches, plus a cute little fruit to share with you.

OPI Honey Ryder and Pussy Galore along with a cute fruit fimo cane slice. I was not a fan of the first round of the OPI Liquid Sands, but I LOVE the OPI Bond Girls. I bought the whole collection. I never buy an entire OPI collection. I am addicted to pairing them in combinations like this. They are delightful textured. Just enough to be fun, not so much that it catches on things. Two coats to be opaque. Make sure you let them dry between each coat to achieve the best textured look and feel.

And how cute is the fimo cane slice next to the pink?! I was skeptical about wearing them, but putting it on the side of my nail helps it lay flat. This cute little fruit is pre-sliced from Born Pretty Store. It came in a set with other fruit slices. They are very wearable for everyday manicures if you place them right.

The OPI Bond Girls Collection retails for $9 individually at Ulta, Dillard's, JCPenney and other professional salons. The fruit fimo canes come in twelve different designs with ten slices each. The set (Item ID: 4999) retails for $1.79 on Born Pretty Store. They have a ton of other fun nail art related items as well. Shipping is always free worldwide. You can also use my coupon code AHL91 to save 10% on your order.

Disclosure: The product (fimo cane slices) in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Ulta Boogie Nights and XOXO

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Ulta just recently discontinued a few of their nail polishes and released some new ones. I picked up two. I am very happy with my choices.

Ulta Boogie Nights is a clear base filled with multi-size gold glitter, along with multi-size multicolor glitter. The colors include purple, orange, blue, pink, green, and a few silver. The application is perfection for a glitter this dense. It is opaque in three coats. It took two coats of Seche Vite to smooth it out, but the finished look is worth it. The layering is not thick.

XOXO is an orange toned pink jelly containing orange, purple, and pink flakes. The application is smooth and opaque in two coats. These two polishes are so much fun, especially together.

Have you seen the new Ulta colors? If so, are you planning to snatch up any?

Zoya Marina & Stamping

I hope you are enjoying your Monday!

Zoya Marina is a strongly blue toned gray metallic. The application is good and opaque in two coats. Over Marina, I stamped on this lovely pattern with Color Club Gingerbread Man and stamping plate BM-209.

I literally forgot to add that I matted an accent finger to see how the two metallics would look matte. Every finger aside from my ring is topped with Seche Vite, while the ring is topped with Butter London Matte Finish.

Essence Ticket to the Show & Front Row or Backstage?

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday!

Essence Ticket to the Show and Front Row or Backstage? are one of the Colour3 duos. A double ended polish. Ticket to the Show is a black jelly like creme base filled with rainbow shimmer. The shimmer was hard to capture on camera, and rather subtle. Front Row or Backstage? is a grey brown filled with gold flakes. It is the layering polish and while meant to be used over a base, I decided to showcase it on its own. The application on both is perfection. Ticket to the Show is opaque in two coats, while Front Row or Backstage? took three.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! And that you had a Merry Christmas, if you celebrate. Otherwise, Happy Tuesday! I wanted to do nail art for Christmas, but I have been utterly exhausted lately, so I settled for Christmas colored polishes.

Ignore the tip wear and band-aid. I usually take photos within an hour or so of doing my nails. However, I did not remember I needed pictures until the next day after work. By then, I had tip wear and a bandage from a cash register related injury.

For my green, I used Barielle Date Night, a jewel toned emerald shimmer. My accent nail consisted of Essie Head Mistress and As Gold As It Gets. I love this combination! So simple, yet very appropriate for the holiday.

Christmas Stamping

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Christmas is getting closer and closer. And the stress is getting worse and worse. But at least my nails are cute. :)

I used only three polishes for my base and stamping. Ulta The Jungle Look (green), Color Club Gingerbread Man (gold), and Love My Nails New Love (red). For my stamped images, I used BM-316 (gift with bow), BM-320 (ornament), BM-321 (tree), and BM14 (bells).

Christmas Tree

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Its been a little over a week since I last posted, and I apologize for that. The holiday season has me stressed out. Getting ready for the holiday itself, plus work. I work in retail and I am sure you have seen how the stores are this time of year. I have never little time left. So I am cramming a post in before I go to bed tonight.

You have probably seen this type of design floating around the web lately. It has been very popular this season. I used one coat of Milani Signature Gold as my base. I love this gold, and keep picking it up as the gold in my holiday designs. For the tree, I taped off my nail leaving a triangle. Then I placed striping tape, making sure to lap it over the tape. I painted on a layer of Color Club Holiday Splendor before carefully peeling the tape off. Finally, I topped my tree with a silver star glitter.

The design is very easy to create. I need to work with striping tape more.

Color Club Gingerbread Man & Holly

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I recently got a new camera. I have been playing around with it and trying to see if it is what I want. Obviously, macro shots (close up photography) is a large part of my camera use. I have not perfected taking manicure shots with this camera yet, but decided I needed to start posting them. If anything, seeing them on my blog will hopefully help me figure out tricks to make the pictures better. I purchased a Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR. The camera is amazing. I am just having trouble getting macro shots in my light box without casting a shadow with the long lens. Also, getting my skin to turn out the right color. If you have any advice, please let me know, whether by comment or email.

Enough of my camera rambling, onto the pictures!

Color Club Gingerbread Man is a light gold foil. The application is perfection and opaque in one coat. It may appear like your basic gold foil, but it does have something special about it. Its scented! It smells like a frosted gingerbread cookie. The scent is very light. Nothing overpowering.

I wanted to make this manicure into something even more Christmas like than gingerbread, so added hollies. Three berries and three leaves. I used stamping plate BM14 and Ulta The Jungle Look. I attempted to stamp red and green on my thumb, but the delicate design dried too much before I could stamp it. So I decided to do green and add the red afterward. I went back with a small dotting tool and Love My Nails New Love to make the holly berries red. I personally love this. Its simple and very easy.

Glitter Sprinkled Gold

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday!

Milani Signature Gold topped with Snowman Red Glitter. Signature Gold is a metallic copper gold. Perfect and opaque in one coat. Red Glitter is a clear base filled with red micro glitter. The bottle is shaped like a snowman and they are exclusively sold at Rite-aid this time of year.

Essence A Piece of Forever

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! These pictures have been sitting in my folder for nearly a month. Not sure why I have not posted them before, but here they are now. :)

Essence A Piece of Forever is a metallic gold frost. Ignore the bubbles, its just top coat plus fan. The application was okay. Basically what you would expect from a frost finish polish. I've used three of the four from this collection so far, and none of the applications are up to par with the rest of the Essence polishes I own. Its odd. But it does not stop them from being pretty.

The Essence Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2 Collection is limited edition. There is a variety of makeup, including four polishes. I purchased all four at $1.99 each.

Essence Gorgeous Bling Bling

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! 

Essence Gorgeous Bling Bling is a burnt orange jelly like creme with gold flakes. Ridiculous name, but absolutely gorgeous. The formula is perfection and goes on completely smooth. Opaque in two coats. The flakes distribute evenly and each coat is just sheer enough for the flakes from the underlying coat to be seen, giving the polish depth.

The Essence Colour & Go line is available at Ulta for $2.

Happy Thanksgiving with Milani Signature Gold

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! And Thanksgiving, if you celebrate the holiday. I've had a nice and slightly hectic day. It involved cooking, painting nails, and family. This morning in between cooking dishes, I took off my leopard mani and debated over what to put on next. I wanted something appropriate for the holiday today, but also nice for tomorrow. I finally decided on gold. Perfect for Fall, Thanksgiving, and for Black Friday. I will not be shopping tomorrow, but rather working. I got the opening shift, so I will be at work before midnight. Wish me luck!

Milani Signature Gold is a metallic copper gold. The formula is perfection with an easy application. Opaque in one coat, but I used two for good measure.

Autumn Leopard

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! Thanksgiving is almost here! For those who celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful day. Hopefully it will involve the people that you love and yummy food.

Today I have a fun nail art design to share with you. Leopard print!

I have honestly never been a big fan of leopard print. But I kept seeing so many pretty nail designs involving the print, so I finally decided to give it a try. This design could not have been easier to create. So simple! I'm still on the fence as to whether I love it yet or not, but it is growing on me.

Since we are well into Autumn, I decided to use colors fitting the season. Essie Head Mistress, Finger Paints Figure of Art, and Love My Nails Black Rage. I'm rather found of the colors; I just wish red didn't turn my skin pink during cleanup.

Head Mistress is part of the Essie Stylenomics Collection and retails for $8. Finger Paints retail for $5.29 at Sally Beauty Supply. Love My Nails retails for $1 at Bari Cosmetics.

Essie Stylenomics and As Gold As It Gets

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Or enjoyed it considering its almost over. Today I have a pretty Essie combination to show you.

Essie Stylenomics is a very dark green creme. Depending on the lighting, it looks black, it is that dark. The formula is smooth and glossy. Opaque in one coat. No top coat in the pictures.

Essie As Gold As It Gets has gold flakes in a clear base. The flakes vary in size. Some of the flakes flash red, green, and bronze depending on light and angle. The application is perfection. The flakes lay completely flat to the nail. One coat gave the coverage you see in my photos.

Essie retails for $8 at Rite-aid, Walgreens, CVS, Target, and Ulta. Stylenomics is part of the Stylenomics Collection (still available in store). As Gold As It Gets is part of the Luxeffects Collection, most of which (including this one) have been made part of the core line.

Color Club Nouveau Vintage

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! Today I have a gorgeous Fall polish to show you.

Color Club Nouveau Vintage is a red-toned brown with gold/copper and green shimmer. The green is much more noticeable in the bottle than it is on the nail. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats. I honestly did not think I would like it when I bought the Back to Boho set. That's why its taken me over a year to wear it. Despite what I thought initially, I love this polish!

Cat's Eyes

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday!

Cat's Eyes designs are everywhere! And I love it! For mine, I followed a tutorial by Kayla Shevonne. I used Beauty UK Black, Pure Ice Wild Thing, Wet n Wild The Gold and the Beautiful, and white acrylic paint. It is a very easy look to achieve, especially following Kayla's tutorial.