Thursday, December 16, 2010

Two more holiday manicures for the 12 days of the Holidays

This is a base of China Glaze "Jolly Holly" with L.A. colors red and black nail art polishes. Very easy design to do, just paint an equilateral cross, then two triangles, and use the black to outline the bow!

This is a white from Sinful Colors, along with Ulta's "Steppin' Out" and China Glaze "Jolly Holly" in a water-marble manicure. I topped it with China Glaze "Party Hearty" for some festive flash!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The 12 Manicures of The Holiday Season

I hesitate to call this "The Twelve Manicures of Christmas," because not everyone celebrates Christmas and these manicures are good for everyone!




On the first day of manicures... holiday lights! This was really simple to do. I freehand painted a french tip, then used a black nail art polish to draw the "cord" in a wave-like pattern along the bottom of the french tip. If you don't have a nail art polish or a thin brush, you could use a toothpick dipped in black nail polish. Then I got supremely lazy and didn't even use a dotting tool to make the lights. I just used the brush from the bottles of polish. It would have been easier with a dotting tool or a toothpick, so I recommend that. Then just top coat it (carefully, so you don't smudge... I smudged a little) and you're set!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Mommy Manicure Monday

Our camera is broken! Actually, we just can't find the charger. So, in lieu of a NOTD, I thought I would share with you some really out there nail art I came up with earlier this year. This manicure was inspired by Prince Poppycock, who is an amazingly fun character who competed on America's Got Talent over the summer. This is my version of what a proper fop should be wearing on his nails:

This was Sinful Colors "Pinky Glitter", a nail art pen, and a lot of nailglue to get the beads to stick. Obviously, I didn't actually wear this manicure. I wouldn't have been able to do anything with hands. Since a fop would never stoop to manual labor, this would be the perfect manicure!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thanksgiving Manicure!

This holiday season, I'm rocking a themed manicure!

I started with OPI "Rising Star":

Which is so pretty on its own, but I wanted to really get some festive fall coloring in there, so I added Finger Paints "Holly Good Time", which is a gold and red glitter:

I swear, that's not glitter on my cuticles. It's just the shine off the quick dry drops.

I'm going to rock this tomorrow, and it will probably entertain me more than the parade!

I suggested a similar look to R.E.I.T., but she was happier with Studio M "Frenzy" again. She's very in love with that color.

Monday, November 22, 2010

China Glaze Holiday Dupes

I've had quite a few holiday lemmings this year, and among those was China Glaze's "Party Hearty". Unfortunately, the only way I could find it was in a three-pack with "Phat Santa" and "Jolly Holly". I'm not complaining about having the other two polishes, but it's just, well, I already had them. Or at least dupes of them. Since my Mommy Manicure Monday manicure is a boring old french, this Monday is dedicated to comparisons:Ignore the upside down picture and concentrate on the bottles, if you would. This is China Glaze "Phat Santa" and Ulta "Steppin' Out". As you can see, in the bottle they're identical.


From l to r, "Phat Santa", "Steppin' Out", "Phat Santa", "Steppin' Out". There is absolutely no difference between these two colors. They could have been from the same bottle. This is two coats of each.

Next up was Jolly Holly, which I knew right away looked familiar. It strongly resembled another polish from a fall collection that I really, really wanted back then, "Harvest Hues" by Finger Paints:

In the bottle, "Jolly Holly" looks slightly darker.
This isn't the best picture, I apologize. My camera battery was dying on me, so I tried to snap the picture quick. From l to r, "Jolly Holly", "Harvest Hues", "Jolly Holly", "Harvest Hues". These would be another exact dupe, but "Harvest Hues" has a gold shimmer to it that is only visible in the light. They're still close enough that I would have passed on "Jolly Holly" if it hadn't been in a three pack with "Party Hearty".

So, there's the scoop. The two colors that everyone said looked too familiar really are familiar. If you have either "Harvest Hues" or "Steppin' Out", you don't need these two holiday colors from China Glaze.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

When layering attacks!

This year there were sooooo many lemmings for me in the holiday collections everyone rolled out. My number one? "Mistletoe Kisses" by China Glaze. Usually, I get super bored of the red and green Christmas polishes, but "Mistletoe Kisses" rose ahead of the pack. It's a minty green glitter in a sheer green base, and it looks exactly like green Christmas lights on your nails:
I was so in love with this last night that I kept staring at my nails. But this morning, one of the other lemmings in the pack was calling to me... OPI "Simmer & Shimmer". The mad scientist part of my brain wondered what would happen if I layered the two glitters... would there be some shine-related explosion? Would the sheer amout of sparkle blind someone?

The end result as nothing short of fab!
One coat of "Simmer & Shimmer" and Seche Vite (though I should have used two) and no clean up. I know the second photo is blurry, but it was the best way to show how much it cools down the already cool shade of "Mistletoe Kisses" and adds color and sparkle.

I loved it on my left hand so much, I decided I just had to try layering OPI "Sparkle-icious" over "Mistletoe Kisses" on the right!Again, one coat "Sparkle-icious" and one coat Seche Vite over "Mistletoe Kisses" with no clean up (because I'm not really intending to walk around with two different manicures today).

This will be my Fat Tuesday NOTD, because the colors are so suited to Mardi Gras! Where "Simmer & Shimmer" cooled things down, the gold and purple in "Sparkle-icious" really warmed things up.

So there you have it! Tons of sparkle to be had this holiday season!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

What's Wednesday Wearing?


Didn't get a good picture of R.E.I.T.'s recent NOTD. She was too busy wanting to file her nails. Here, she's wearing Ulta "Tutu Cute". It's a very appropriate name for my little girl, who really is Tutu Cute.

Friday, November 12, 2010

e.l.f. Holiday Set

While at Target the other day, R.E.I.T. wisely said, "I want yook," and pointed to the health and beauty aisles. I couldn't say no. We found the e.l.f. (eyes. lips. face.) holiday promo end cap and this:
The e.l.f. holiday nail trio. We'd never used e.l.f. before, but for three dollars, the price was right to try it out. Here's what you get:

From left to right we have "Cranberry", a holiday red with some subtle red glitter, "Golden Goddess", a translucent gold with varying size and shape gold glitter, and "Twinkle", a clear with opalescent round glitter.

My cuticles are so stained from "Mezzanotte Blue"! But here's "Cranberry". I'm not wearing a topcoat here so that you can see the finish of the actual polish. In a word, it's bumpy. However, it's also a really pretty red, perfect for the Christmas season.Next up is "Golden Goddess". Since "Golden Goddess" is so sheer and the glitter so sparse, it really wouldn't work on its own, in my opinion. What you're seeing here is two coats over "Cranberry". We might do some layering experiments with this one soon, since it's a nice dazzler for New Years Eve.

And finally, "Twinkle". Which is a very strange polish. It's another one suitable for layering, but probably not that spectacular on its own. Here's one coat over a generic black polish from our Halloween clearance haul. It dries matte, which I was completely not expecting. Unfortunately, drying matte leaves the sparkle pretty dull. I'm wearing a coat of Seche Vite on the right finger, so you can see how cute it is.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this offering. The fact that it was three dollars helps that along greatly. If I had paid more than a couple of dollars for these, I probably wouldn't be so positive, but that's the nice thing about cheap nail polish. You don't have to judge your choices as much!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Layering is magic.

I have to admit, R.E.I.T. has always been more adventurous when it comes to layering unlikely nail polishes. I've worn Sinful Colors "Hottie" alone (pain in the butt to take off) and over light blues like Studio M "Whose That Girl". But I'd never though of layering a light glitter over a dark color, until Chloe over at Chloe's Nails tried it. She wore "Hottie" over black, and it looked fantastic! I resolved to try it.

Tuesday night, I was on the fence about what to do with my nails. I know that on Saturday I absolutely have to wear a patchwork manicure of the Barielle argyle collection, at the request of a friend who wants to see the colors in person. I didn't want to wear neutrals all week. I looked through our collection and realized that I had never worn Borghese "Mezzanotte Blue". It had been sitting in my collection, unloved. So, I decided to wear it. I've seen this blue described as a creme in some places, but I'm not sure if I agree. There is a strange, translucent quality to it that is almost jelly-like. It's one of those "almost blacks", a color that you can only really tell what it is by looking at it slightly sideways. My nails looked glossy and dark, so I was happy.

Then, Wednesday morning, when I was painting R.E.I.T.'s nails, it hit me: I could layer "Hottie" over "Mezzanotte Blue!" Here are the results:



I took about a hundred pictures, trying to capture how gorgeous this turned out, and none of them did it any justice. "Hottie" is a light blue jelly with opalescent glitter in various sizes. On it's own, it's a baby blue sparkler. Layered over "Mezzanotte Blue", it's orange and green and gold with hints of purple. I feel like I'm wearing pirate treasure. Or a mermaid tail. I can't stop looking at my fingers (dry cuticles and all). It's like having a little galaxy on my nails!

Next time, I think I'll try it over Orly "Galaxy Girl" and see what the results are!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

What's Wednesday Wearing?

We've been MIA for a week, mostly because we couldn't find our camera! But we'll make up for it, we promise!Today, R.E.I.T. is wearing Studio M "Infusion", Studio M "Frenzy", and an unnamed pumpkin polish in green. After a few minutes she decided that one hand needed to be layered with Sinful Colors "Pinky Glitter" over it.

Mommy: "What do you want to say about your nail polish today?"
R.E.I.T. "Is it pretty?"
Mommy: "It's very pretty."
R.E.I.T. "Uh-huh!"

So, there you have it. It's very pretty.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Mommy Manicure Tuesday

Bumped this forward one day, and I feel wretched, because I'm not actually wearing it right now! Last week, the patchwork manicure was featured on Nouveau Cheap, and we were like, "Rock on, I have to try that!" Then, someone in the comments to the Nouveau Cheap post attributed the awesome look to Chloe at Chloe's Nails, who has a tutorial up there. We may actually do a tutorial with our tips and tricks, because we actually modified our process a little bit after we did mommy's nails. But for now, Mommy's patchwork manicure.

Essie "Playa del Platinum", Rimmel "Steel Grey", unnamed green pumpkin polish

Monday, November 1, 2010

Today is a very special day...

TODAY IS HALLOWEEN CLEARANCE DAY!

Oh, and yes, it is R.E.I.T.'s birthday! Happy second birthday, big girl!

Now, I'm not kidding about it being Halloween clearance day. If you love nail polish, and if you have a Meijer by you, you owe it to yourself to stop there today. Here's our haul:

These are five minis from Phantom Frights, which I must assume is a Halloween cosmetics company, because I can't think of any other day someone might buy a cosmetic meant to make them frightening. The pink, magenta, and orange are really not at all frightening. I quite like the magenta! The orange is the exact same color as Studio M "Orange Hot". The black and white are standard, I would say, and one of those blacks is a more sheer black with silver glitter, which is suitable for layering. The original price was $4.99, but I got it for $1.24!

When I saw the remaining pumpkins, I couldn't resist. They're so cute. One is a sheer, green-tinted glow-in-the-dark glitter, and the other is a clear base with green micro-glitter and large silver hexagonal glitter. Both were $2.49 originally, but came home with me for $0.62. The coffin-shaped polish came home for the same reason... it's so cute. As it turns out, it's a pretty nice berry red, so I wasn't just buying the bottle. The company is Fright Night and the color is "Bloodshed". It was originally $2.99, but I got it for $0.74!

Now, even though that last one up there isn't necessarily a Halloween polish, it was in the Halloween clearance, so it counts. It's one of Blue Cross Beauty Products' color-change Mood Struck polishes. I've seen people play with these on their blogs, and since it was marked down to $0.99 from $3.99, I figured it wasn't too big of an expenditure for curiosity's sake. It's supposed to change from that coralish pink to a creme, but I haven't tried it out yet. I'll have to report back with results.

This is my crowning achievement of this Halloween season. Color Club "Cast a Spell" set. This one is "Bewitching". Four polishes and a set of Halloween decals. From left to right, "Hocus Pocus", which looks to be a holo glitter, "Spellbound" (Hey, that looks just like Studio M "Orange Hot"!), "Charmed I'm Sure" which is such a beatiful purple it was worth buying the whole set just for it, and "Bewitching", the absolute coolest, plastic-finish black. It's like coating your nails with black vinyl! I know you can see it in the picture, but I want to say it anyway: This set was marked down from $7.99 to $1.99.

So, that's $6.20 for thirteen polishes (some minis) and some nail art decals. Not too bad a haul, even if you subtract the two oranges that look exactly like Studio M "Orange Hot", a color I already owned (Studio M is made by Color Club, as I am guessing these minis were, as well), that's still 11 polishes for $6.20, which is about $.056 a piece. And I would have gladly paid $6.20 each for "Bewitching" and "Charmed I'm Sure".

Did anyone else go out and get spectacular deals today? Let us know in the comments!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Mommy Manicure Monday

Essie "Playa Del Platinum" with a little watercolor inspired flower with Essie "Geranium" and "Turquoise and Caicos".

Thursday, October 21, 2010

China Glaze "For Audrey" and Incorrect Descriptions Thereof...

I see a lot of people online talking about how "For Audrey" is a "perfect Tiffany blue!" or "the exact color of a Tiffany's box!"

BULL HONK!

Now, you may or may not be aware that Tiffany & Co. actually own that color blue. As in, no one else may replicate that exact color. But the moment I saw "For Audrey" in person, I realized that no way, no how, was it in danger of infringing upon their trademark.

In the interest of science (nail polish can be science, right?) I thought I would put "For Audrey" to the test:

In the bottle, they look pretty close. Let's compare on the nail. More accurately, on the nail wheel:
Next to those other blues, it looks pretty close. Still, you can really see how much darker the color is than actual Tiffany blue.

There was really only one way to see the difference without a doubt. I had to put the polish on the box:

See? This is dry, so it's not like the moisture darkened the color or anything.

I'm sure you're saying to yourself, "Mommy, that polish came out in 2007. You're just figuring this out now?" Well, no. It was just brought to my attention today, because R.E.I.T. and I needed to find a new solution for storing our stash:


What better place to store our precious jewels than a Tiffany & Co. box?

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Wear Purple.

Today is Spirit Day, also known as Wear Purple Day. In memory of the young people who have recently committed suicide after being mocked and harassed because of their sexuality, people all over the world are wearing purple. This is a no-hatred household, so today, R.E.I.T. and I are showing our support with our nails:

R.E.I.T. is wearing "Frenzy" by Studio M...

and Mommy is wearing Orly "Charged Up" with Sinful Colors "I Miss You" layered over the top, with a fimo slice butterfly.

Show your support, and wear some fantastic purple today. You never know how a simple gesture like that could affect another person.

L-R: OPI "Licoln Park After Dark" (suede), Sinful Colors "Fiji", Studio M "Frenzy", Orly "Charged Up", Nicole by OPI "Show You Care"

For more information, and other ways to help (that are a little bit more helpful than just wearing purple), visit glaad.org.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Friday, October 15, 2010

Barielle "Shades of Argyle"

Okay, I have a confession to make. I left the following comment on Frazzle and Aniploish when she shared her photo of the "Shades of Argyle" collection display:

I can't think of anything more boring than Argyle to base a nail polish line off. They should do, "The colors of Formica" next.

Okay, so, based off a picture of the internet, they really did look super boring. But at Ulta today (I had some money left on a gift card that just had to be spent, and they had a buy two get one sale) I saw them in person. And I had to have them.

First of all, if you're into flash bang whizz zoom colors, this is not the collection for you. But if, like me, you occasionally want to wear what I call a "grown up" color, you won't be disappointed in these. They are gorgeous.

Because my nails and cuticles are still horrorshow, I spared you the sight of them swatched these on a spare nail wheel:



Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do them justice. No matter what lighting I used, I just couldn't get a completely faithful representation. But anyway, from the left,"Wool You Marry Me", "Tight Knit", and "Cashmere Or Loose Me".

"Wool You Marry Me" is a dark (but not as dark as the picture) berry red cream with a slight brownish cast. The closest shade I have in my collection is Essie's "Wicked", but this is a shade or two lighter and leans closer to brown than purple.

When I first picked up "Tight Knit", I thought it was a brown. Then, when I swatched it, I found it was a muddy rose. I have nothing close in my collection, so I'm glad I picked it up.

"Cashmere Or Loose Me" (did they mean "lose"?) is a golden brown cream with very subtle gold shimmer.

All the colors dried super glossy without a top coat, and I'm sure they'll look amazing with my boring and extensive collection of sweaters and turtlenecks.

I tried to enlist R.E.I.T. to help me swatch, but she took one look at the colors and said, "No. No more brown!" So, I guess she'll be on board when we swatch something else.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

We Got An Award!

We are so flattered to have been given the Sunshine Award (look to your right!) by Karen D at Frazzle and Aniploish, we just had to make a thank you video! Please note that R.E.I.T. does not have two black eyes, she just made a very dramatic eyeshadow choice this morning. Also, there is a lot of lag between the audio and video. No idea how to fix that, but the sentiment remains the same!



Now, the rules of the award are:

1. Post the image on your blog
2. Link the blogger who gave it to you
3. Pass it on to other bloggers and link to them
4. Let them know you've tagged them by commenting on their blog

So, I'm going to give this award away to a blogger that always make me smile (besides Karen D, who tagged me, of course!):

Bronwyn's Blog Bronwyn Green is an amazing writer of steamy, romantic stories, but her blog is full of wonderful stories about her very funny, sometimes hectic, life. Check her out, and read her books!

R.E.I.T. says: "Hi babies! My babies! Thank you babies! Want kiss!"

So, yeah. Thank you, babies, for reading our blog! We're so happy, we could kiss you!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

A Little Nail Art



Nails belong to my BFF, Jill. She painted her tips pink, and I just had to add something to them!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Awesome Deals and a Swatch!

This weekend, I got some awesome deals! First up, my local Ulta had almost their entire collection of Borghese on clearance for four dollars! I hope this doesn't mean they plan on discontinuing the brand in their store, because I would love to see another super deep discount like that in the future. I snapped up "Mezzanotte Blue", which is a deep navy. It reminds me quite a lot of Hard Candy "Mr. Right", minus the shimmer.

Over at Sally Beauty Supply was the really exciting find, though. For some reason I always miss the good stuff on their clearance tables. I get there when it's really picked over and all that's left is scented cuticle oil and unbranded base coats. This time, though, I found two colors from Finger Paints's fall collection, marked down to $1.99. Not bad. And then I got to the register and found out that all their clearance merchandise was 50% off! So, I got two Finger Paints polishes for one dollar each! I absolutely loved their fall collection, so I was excited to get two more colors, "Harvest Hues", which is a shimmery dark green, and "Autumn Moonlight", a gray-blue with silver shimmer.

Now, exciting deals aside, the big find of the day was Borghese "Vigneto Berry". I had seen this polish swatched on a ton of blogs and read rave reviews, but none of the Meijers in my area seemed to have the limited edition display out! I thought for sure I'd find it at Ulta, so imagine my disappointment when they didn't have it, either. I had three OPI polishes in my hand, due to their buy two, get one sale ("Who The Shrek Are You?", "Rumple's Wiggin", and "Suzy Says Feng Shui"), along with "Mezzanotte Blue" and went to stand in the longest line ever. Luckily, the line wound right past the Borghese display with their fall colors! Excitement!

Unfortunately, the four dollar sale didn't extend to this one tiny little display (boo), but I was so excited that I didn't care. In fact, I was so excited to find this one that I asked them to put back all the OPI that I had picked out. It just didn't look as "must have" next to "Vigneto Berry."

I had to wear it immediately:



Pardon my messy fingers. Borghese makes very wide brushes, and it's a bit hard to get used to. This picture kind of highlights the problems with the polish. I love that it's matte. I love matte finish polishes. But I took this picture literally five minutes after apply the second coat, and it's already cracked. I think this must be due to the crazy shrinking the polish does while drying, so I would recommend waiting until the first coat is absolutely dry before apply the second coat.

However, just look at it. Matte magenta, with glitter. It's ridiculous that anything should look so good.

Another thing I noticed on the blogs was that this is a very versatile polish. It looks completely different when you put on a glossy top coat:



And again with the messy fingers. Chalk it up to my excitement. I couldn't wait to get it on my hands. This is with one coat of Seche Vite. Look how completely different it is! It's like I bought two polishes in the same bottle. I did one hand with top coat, one without, and the results were shocking. The hand without the top coat looked elegant and very "high-fashion". The hand with the top coat looked fun and funky.

R.E.I.T. absolutely loves this polish, too, but she prefers it without the top coat. Or, "bumpy", as she calls it. It's actually the first polish that I think she's worn twice in a row!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Munchkin Manicure Monday!

Since the past few Wednesdays have been crazy, R.E.I.T. hasn't shared her nail looks. And since I just took off my lovely acrylics and cut my nails super short to recover, I will mercifully shield you from the sight of my stubby nails. Wednesday has been wearing some pretty inventive Skittles looks lately. Today, though, she came up with a real winner (and one I'm actually thinking of trying out, myself):

She decided to try out China Glaze "Solar Powered" under Studio M "Gold Glitter". Don't you just love the Studio M names? Does what it says on the tin, I guess.

Anyway, I was pretty impressed by her choice. And she was so happy with it, she wore these colors on all ten of her fingers! Quite an accomplishment, from this kid, who usually goes through four colors in one manicure.

Mommy: "Do you have anything you want to say on the blog today?"
R.E.I.T.: "Yes. I paint. A mommy paint. Watch!"

So, I guess she thinks this is something I would wear. And you know, it wouldn't be a bad look for New Years!

Friday, October 1, 2010

This Blog Is Having A Sick Day!

Due to R.E.I.T.'s horrible cold, we're taking some days off to snuggle on the couch and watch videos. We'll return with fresh polish on our fingers and toes when the little bean is feeling better!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Mommy Manicure Monday: Fake nail rescue!

I love acrylic nails, for the most part. Probably because I can't grow my real nails out for one fig. The thing I don't like is the maintenance involved. Probably because I'm too busy to carve out a block of time to get them filled or removed after I'm done with them. Also, though my natural nails won't "grow out", they do grow fast, so after just a few days I have the dreaded gap, and my polish addiction stains them yellow after a couple of my obsessive changes.

So, let's pretend you have some stained, growing out nails, but you don't have time to remove them or get them filled. Because you have a deadline that is kicking your butt, maybe. So, let's pretend your nails look like this:



This is what my nails looked like on Thursday. Not pretty, right? The CND Shellac base coat held up pretty well, but since its job is to hang onto polish, it really held on to the yellow stain left by the brighter blues and greens I prefer. It was time for a little Macguyver style rescue.

This is the part where I tell you that I'm not a professional manicurist, and this is probably not advisable. But if you need a quick-ish fix and you don't have time for a nail appointment, this is what I did:

First, I filed the top of the nail, Shellac and all, right off, paying particular attention to the ragged edges of the grow-out line. I also did some shaping, as a week of typing and lugging bags around airports had messed up the tip shape slightly.

Between steps, I used a moistened cotton ball to remove dust. It helps you see better.

After removing most of the stained bits, I went to the buffer. Be really careful doing this that you don't file the acrylic too thin or completely off or something silly like that. Once they're buffed, this is a really good time to test for lift at your nail beds. If any nails are loose, apply a few drops of nail glue under the lifting edge and wait for it to dry.

Because the above steps have left tiny scratches and nicks in the surface of your acrylic nails, use a ridge-filling base coat. Or, what I'm using: Orly "Nails For Males" matte topcoat. Two coats makes a great base coat/ridge filler, and you can find it pretty cheap at some beauty supply stores, because it's been discontinued. Pick up two, if you find it.

After that, I applied two coats of Essie "Pink Glove Service". Any translucent pink will do.

And I finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but there was a remarkable difference, and keeping the whole nail "natural" helps to disguise the grow-out line. If you're trying to stretch out your time between appointments, this has never gone wrong for me.