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!

Bright Skittles

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! Most of the pictures you will see over the next week or so are old-ish. This particular manicure is from February. Poor thing is happy to see the light of day. Or at least the light of the blogosphere.

These bright skittles were fun and easy to do. From thumb to pinky: Cosmetic Arts Limelight, Zoya Pippa, Color Club Poptastic, Ulta Blue Streak, and Julep Anne. Each is two coats. The little design on my ring finger is an Essence French Glam Nail Stickers. Each sheet has several designs.

Ulta Devious with Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter Accent

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! I have yet another Ulta brand polish to share with you today.

Ulta Devious is a dark eggplant purple creme. It goes on smooth and creamy like butter, opaque in two coats. I used Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter as an accent over Devious. Pinky Glitter is a light pink jelly filled with holo glitter and shimmer. The glitter really pops over a dark shade.

Ulta polishes retail for $6 at Ulta, in store and online. They frequently go on sale for as inexpensive as $2. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens, Walmart, Target, and various other stores (a complete list on their website.)

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?

Ulta After Party over black

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I have yet another Ulta brand polish to share with you today.

Ulta After Party is a clear base with micro red/orange, mauve, and silver glitter. On its own its very light; it really pops over black. The glitter disperses evenly and dense in just one coat. It can easily be layered on its own to be opaque.

Ulta nail polish retails for $6 at Ulta, in store and online. They always have a sale, so you never have to pay full price. I got this shade (along with several others) during their recent $2 sale.

Ulta My Two Cents

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! 

Ulta My Two Cents is a brown jelly base full of small copper glitter. The application is good, little uneven at the tips. However, until you take macro nail photos, its nearly impossible to notice. It takes two coats to be opaque. This polish simply screams Autumn. I've had my eye on it for months and finally caved during the last sale.

Ulta nail polish retails for $6 at Ulta, in store and online. They always have a sale, so you never have to pay full price. I got this shade (along with several others) during their recent $2 sale.

Ulta Vintage Violet

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday!

Ulta Vintage Violet is dusty pastel lavender creme with pink undertones. The color is fantastic and makes me anxious for Spring. The application is perfection. It goes on smooth and glossy, opaque in two coats.

Ulta nail polish retails for $6 at Ulta, in store and online. They always have a sale, so you never have to pay full price. I got this shade (along with several others) during their recent $2 sale.

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.

Ulta Hide & Go Sequins

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday!

Ulta Hide & Go Sequins is a dark blue blue filled with light blue (almost silver) and vibrant green medium hex glitter along with small blue hex glitter. This polish is a close dupe for the very popular Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe. I do not own AU, but the only difference looks to be that it contains more medium hex glitter than the Ulta version.

The price also differs greatly. Deborah Lippmann retails for $18, while the Ulta is on sale right now for $1 with their 5 for $5 deal. Sadly, Hide & Go Sequins is not available year round. So grab it while you can.

Blue Milk Mushrooms

Its Stamping Sunday! I have not done this challenge in a long time. Which makes me sad. So I'm making an effort to start again. This week's theme is 'Poisonous and Toxic." It took me a long time to decide on a design. Spiders, snakes, and bats are all venomous not poisonous (if they are deadly at all). I finally found something poisonous that I had a stamp for. YAY!

Lactarius indigo, also known as the blue milk mushroom, ranges from light blue to dark blue. They can be poisonous. They are very pretty if you see pictures.

To create those lovely fungi on my accent nail, I started with two coats of Pure Ice Wild Thing. Then I sponged on Ulta The Jungle Look and Sinful Colors Black on Black. Finally I added my blue mushroom with BM-302 and Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. The rest of my nails are two coats of Pacific Blue.

BM stamping plates are part of a 25 piece set (the 2012 one) that retails for $22 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear retails for $2-3 at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Target, and Ulta.

Ulta Diva

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! 

Ulta Diva is a sheer pink tinted jelly filled with iridescent glitter. It was the perfect compliment to Essence Sweet as Candy. This is two coats of each, plus top coat. The application is great, especially for a glitter filled jelly.

Ulta Envy with Holo Stars

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! Today, I have a manicure to show you that I did last week.

I love this combination! Ulta Envy is a dark emerald green shimmer. The application is great and opaque in two coats. To top this color off, I placed on Essence Nail Art Tattoos in All About Me. The set comes with holo stars and butterflies. They are super easy to apply and lay completely flat. The holo gives them a 3D effect.

Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta. 

Green and Black Scroll

I hope you're enjoying your Wednesday! I am a little obsessed with my new Bundle Monster plates, so I did another mani with them.

I used Ulta Beach Bum as my base. It is a light green matte creme. The application was okay and took three coats to be smooth and opaque. For my stamping, I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and plate BM-314.

BM stamping plates are part of a 25 piece set (the 2012 one) that retails for $22 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store. Beach Bum is part of a mini set Ulta put out last Summer, Toe-tally Matte.

Ulta Material Girl

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I have a pretty polish from Ulta to show you today.

Ulta Material Girl is a magenta purple jelly with micro holo glitter. The application is good and opaque two coats. I know it appears a little gritty in the photos. I should have added a second layer of top coat. 

Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta.

Ulta Lav-ish

I you are enjoying your Wednesday! Today, I pretty polish from Ulta's lacquer line to show you.

Ulta Lav-ish is a very dusty lavender with rose gold shimmer. It is slightly sheer, but opaque in two coats. I am so glad I finally purchased this polish. Its gorgeous! The application is good.

Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta.

Floral

I hope you're enjoying your Monday! Another Monday Nail Art Challenge is here. This week is Floral. I wish this had turned out better. 

I was inspired by this post on the Nail Nerd. I used e.l.f. Fire Coral as a background for my flowers. The rest of the polishes I used were Sinful Colors Black on Black (outline), Love My Nails Orange Blossom, Ulta Peach Parfait (petals), China Glaze Mahogany Magic, and Julep Olivia (flower center).

Everything Blue

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Today, I have a layering combination to show you with nothing but blue polishes.

I am really enjoying wearing this combo! I started off with two coats of Ulta Mint Condition. Next, I did a layer of Finger Paints Motley. You can see some of the flakies peeking out behind the crackle. Finally, I did a coat of Funky Fingers Teal Scales. It is a gorgeous crackle with tons of shimmer. The application on all of these is wonderful.

Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta. Motley is part of the Finger Paints Special Effects Collection and retails for $5 exclusive at Sally Beauty Supply. Most stores are sold out (given it is Limited Edition)  though some sites online will have them. Funky Fingers Crackle retails for $4 at Five Below.

Creative Layering

Its Monday again, so its time for another nail art challenge from Polish-aholics Anonymous. This week, we could pick between Franken/Indie and Creative Layering. I chose the latter.

For my creative layering, I used three different polishes. Two coats of Ulta Sun-sational as my yellow base. It is a lovely yellow creme with great application. Then I sponged on Pure Ice Rio and Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters. I wish Rio had blended a bit better, but otherwise I'm happy with how this turned out.

Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. Wet n Wild Fast Dry retail for $2-3 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website.

Cheshire Cat

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I have what I hope is a cute design to show you today. It did not turn out exactly as I wanted.

The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. I did all of my fingers except for my middle with a water/dry marble technique. I followed this tutorial on More Nail Polish. Except instead of using a thick piece of plastic, I placed wax paper in the water. When my marble was ready, I cut a hole in the paper and pulled it out. The water drained and the marble landed on the wax paper. The marble itself came out very well, but the transferring to my fingers was a little difficult. Practice makes perfect though.

For the marble, I used L.A. Colors Nuclear Energy and Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac. I painted on a base coat of Nuclear Energy then added the marble. The Cheshire Cat smile is a base coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black then Snow Me White and Ulta Sun-sational.

L.A. Colors retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores.  Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear retails for $2-3 at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Target, and Ulta. Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture.