Tigers in 2011! Whooo hooo!

I live in Michigan, and in Michigan, you have two choices. Either be a fan of the Detroit Tigers, or a fan of the Yankees, because Derek Jeter lived here. I would rather let a hamster bite out my own eyes than be a Yankees fan. No offense, New Yorkers. But I'm a Detroit fan.

Last night, I asked my twitter peeps what I should do with my nails, and my friend Jill, a raging Tigers supporter, suggested I do a Tigers manicure. So, without further ado:

For the base, I used Studio M "Orange Hot". For the french tips, Orly "Royal Navy". Which is much more sparkly if you store the bottle upside down. I don't remember who blogged that tip, but it has made m appreciate that polish so much more. For the tiger stripes, I used a Kiss art striper polish.

Of course, R.E.I.T. had to get in on the orange act:

...but she couldn't hold her fingers still long enough to get a good picture.

You might have noticed that my raggedy cuticles look a lot better these days. I've ditched the cuticle oil in favor of a different product to treat the dryness, and it works like a charm. I'm almost embarrassed to say what it is, because it seems like such a "duh, of course that would work" solution. I've been rubbing super emollient foot cream with alpha hydroxy into my cuticles once a day. This also works as a cuticle remover. So, things are looking much better around my nails these days. I just hope I remember this next winter.

The Happiest Manicure Ever

R.E.I.T. and I live in Michigan, and as you probably know, Michigan is the single darkest, coldest, most depressing place on earth during the winter. It's wet and dank and gray all the time, from about November to about May. But then this week, a miracle happened! The sun came out, in February! And the temps were in the upper forties! I went outside without a coat on!

To commemorate this amazing occasion, I crafted the funniest, sunniest, most happiest manicure you've ever seen:
Two coats of Pure Ice "Superstar" (white) as a base for two coats of Studio M "Neon Caution", topped off with a coat of Milani "Gems". Super sunny and bright, perfect for these precious few sunny days.

Random Manicure

Inspired by Chloe at Chloe's Nails I decided to do another patchwork manicure a few weeks ago. I wanted to mix up finishes, so I went glossy glitter and matte black. Take a look, and I'll tell you how I did it:

Again, please excuse my cuticles, the winters here are brutal to my skin. Also, I just got that nubby ring finger to grow out to a normal human length, and wouldn't you know, the middle broke!

Anyway, I started with Color Club's "Bewitching" which is a vinyl matte black. I didn't care for the finish as much as I thought I would, so I topped that with a coat of Hard Candy's "Matte-ly In Love" top coat, and waited for it to thoroughly dry. With my nails dry and matte to my liking, I carefully taped off alternating sections (I didn't want every nail to be identical) and applied Finger Paints "Easel-y Entertained", a stunning blurple glitter in blurple jelly. Yes, blurple. I said it.

After my patches of "Easel-y Entertained" were dry, I taped off yet another section and applied Studio M's "Fast Play". "Fast Play" doesn't seem to have a Color Club equivalent, at least, not a current one. It's a translucent purple jelly with irridescent gold glitter. That's what's responsible for the green sparkle in the indoor-lighting picture.

After that, I carefully applied Out The Door to just the glitter polished parts, and voila!

R.E.I.T. approves of this manicure, saying, "Is sfarkally!" That's her new favorite kind of polish. The sfrakally kind."

Studio M "Oh Joy!" = The Perfect Layering Polish

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Jill sent me an excited message via Yahoo! messenger. She was at Meijer, buying polish for twenty-nine cents. I didn't really care what it was, I wanted her to grab me some, too. I'm a sucker for a deal.

That twenty-nine cent buy turned out to be the best layering polish I've ever seen. In the bottle, Studio M's "Oh Joy!" looks like a boring white sheer with a pearly finish. Alone, it's a sheer, sparkly polish that's just so-so. But layer it over another color (like Essie's "Playa Del Platinum", one of my faves), it's magic!Winter is wreaking havoc on my cuticles, but I had to share. "Oh Joy!" turned "Playa Del Platinum" from a greige cream to a silvery foil. I can't stop looking at my nails with this on!

Unfortunately, "Oh Joy!" has been clearanced out of Meijer, and I can't seem to find a Color Club dupe (which is strange, because Studio M basically is Color Club in different bottles). I should have run out and bought several bottles, because this one is going to be a fave.

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.

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!

R.E.I.T. says today is pink.

Today, we're going to share our pink nail polishes! R.E.I.T. thought that would be the perfect color for today.

Mommy: Is there anything you want to say on the blog today?
R.E.I.T.: Mmmhmm.
Mommy: What do you want to say?
R.E.I.T.: Whoa! Careful. Be careful with the paint.

Consider that a reminder from R.E.I.T.: Be careful with your nail polishes. If you drop them, they might break. She knows from experience.

Message from R.E.I.T.: Careful paint. Like with babies.

Because we both like pink, our pink collection takes up two photos:


L-R: Sinful Colors "Wall Street", Mary Kay "Sagewood", Sinful Colors "Wicket Mind", Sinful Colors "Bali Mist"


L-R: Sinful Colors "Forget Now", Pure Ice "Flirt Alert", Studio M "Infusion"

Hopefully that's enough nail goodness to last the weekend. Monday will by Mommy Manicure, and I'll be reviewing China Glaze "Lubu Heels".