Game Day Mani # 1

Happy Thursday, everyone! Only one more day until the weekend. Yaaaaaaaaaaay! So, I'm going to have a pretty short post tonight because I am in the middle of watching my UCF Knights kick some Akron butt! Anyway, so I thought I would add something fun to my blog. I decided that every time it's UCF game day that I am going to paint my nails in school colors! Each week, I am going to come up with a different way to do them, so hopefully this will give all of you sports fanatics a creative way to support your teams with nail polish. :o)

Since tonight's game ended up on a Thursday, I didn't have too much time to do something fancy. So, I decided to go with a simple accent nail! I am wearing Maybelline Color Show Twilight Rays. I found this polish in WalMart a few weeks ago and I *knew* it would be perfect for a UCF mani. Twilight Rays is a black polish with pretty gold flakes! The flakes are not only sparkly in the bottle, but on the nail too! For the following photos, I have two coats of Twilight Rays with Seche Vite as a top coat. For my accent nail I used China Glaze Blonde Bombshell. Blonde Bombshell pretty much says it all in the name. It's definitely a glitter bomb with a ton of different types of glitter in the mix! 

Please excuse these photos. All of these were taken in the shade due to the outer bands of this lovely tropical storm blocking the sunshine all day! :o( 

So what do you think??? If you like Twilight Rays I have found Color Show polishes at WalMart and Rite Aid and I believe they retail for $3 each!

Orly Preamp

Good evening all my fellow nail polish lovers! How has everyone's week been so far??? I had a pretty good, but busy day. This afternoon I had a craving for an M&M McFlurry, so I went to McDonald's and noticed they have a Rolo's McFlurry for a limited time, so I decided to give it a try...and oh wow! It was delicious!!! There was caramel and chocolatey goodness everywhere! If you haven't tried it yet, you need to go ASAP! Anywho, so today's polish of choice is Orly Preamp. This polish is part of their 2012 Electronica Collection. It was the only color that really stood out for me out of the four. I may consider going back to get the other ones when they go on clearance, though! 

Preamp is a shimmery pink polish that has kind of a purple-ish tint to it. It also has some pretty awesome gold and rose pink shimmer in it! I really love this polish! The formula was great and I only needed two coats! It also seems like a pretty unique pink, so if you don't have it I would definitely suggest you go grab a bottle! 

The following photos are two coats of Preamp with my SH top coat! The first two photos were taken in the sun and the last one in the shade. 

So there you have it! What do you think??? I love it! If you're interested in purchasing this polish, I found mine at Ulta and there weren't many left when I was there. I know Orly is also sold at Sally Beauty Supply, but I don't think I ever saw it at my local Sally's. You may want to check there if you're searching for it, though!
 

OPI Nice Stems! Summer 2011 Collection

Happy Saturday, everyone! I hope you all have had a great, relaxing day. Now there is only one more day until Monday...how depressing! Well, hopefully my post today well make up for weekends being so stinkin' short! Today I have for you the rest of the OPI Nice Stems! Summer 2011 Collection. There are 4 colors in this collection which include Be A Dahlia Won't You, Come To Poppy, Play The Peonies and I Lily Love You. I did an earlier post about Be A Dahlia Won't You. If you would like to see photos and my review of that color, click here. I actually got Be A Dahlia Won't You in a full size bottle when I was home in FL. After that, I decided I needed all of the colors, so luckily I found a set of minis at Trade Secret! First, I have a photo of the box the set came in!

Isn't it cute?!?! I just love minis! I know it sounds weird, but I love using the small brushes!

Anywho, first up is Come To Poppy. This is a coral, shimmery polish and I love it! It was so easy to apply and the formula was great! The following photos are 2 coats of Come To Poppy with a Sally Hansen Insta Dri top coat.

I would like to add that for some reason my camera is making this color look way more pink than it really is. The color is definitely coral, so don't let my junky camera trick you! ;o)


Next up is Play The Peonies. Now, I have to be honest...I really don't like this color at all. It is an extremely light, shimmery pink that looks almost white. The first reason why I don't like it is because it made me look extra pale. :o( Next, I'm really not sure if it was because of the mini brush size or not, but it took me 4 coats to get this color completely opaque. I mean, 4 coats is ridiculous! Plus, when I started putting extra coats on, the polish started pulling and making bald spots, so I had to wait a little bit in between each coat. That usually would not bother me that much if the color is worth it in the end. However, in my opinion, this color was not worth all of the work. Sorry folks! The following photos are 4 coats of Play The Peonies with SH top coat. 

Finally, I have I Lily Love You. This is a glitter polish in a light pink base. This polish had small square glitter and some different sized jagged glitter in it as well. I was actually really surprised when I put this on, because it is not as pink as I thought it would be. The glitter in this actually flashes blue, green, orange and purple...it's awesome! I think the next time I wear it I'm going to try to layer it over a dark blue or black. I bet it will be amazing! The following photos are 2 coats of I Lily Love You layered over my 4 coats of Play The Peonies (can you tell I'm still irritated???). 

Well, that's it for today. Whew! This was kind of a long post, but I hope you all enjoyed it!!! BTW, if you are interested in purchasing OPI you can find it at Ulta, JC Penny, Dillard's, Trade Secret and most nails salons.

Nicole by OPI Star of the Party

Hey all! So, my post today is going to be pretty short because I really don't have too much to say about this polish. The following photos are of Nicole by OPI Star of the Party. I got this baby at Target on clearance and was pretty excited about it! Star of the Party is a shimmery, dark violet polish. This polish only needed two coats and I have to say...I really love the color! This polish is going to be a perfect go to polish for Fall!

The first 4 photos were taken in direct sunlight.

This last photo was taken in the shade.

So, the biggest issue I had with the polish (besides the large brush) is that the wear was pretty terrible. I had it on less than 24 hours and I already had tip wear on most of my nails and a couple of my nails were even chipped. I mean, I do paint my nails quite frequently, but I'd still really like a polish to last at least two days before I even have to consider doing touch ups or repainting them. But, alas, I will still definitely wear this polish again. You can find Nicole polishes at Target where they retail for $7.04.

Total Carnage!

Good evening all! So, I just wanted to do a short, informative post for the night. Last week when I was leaving FL, I attempted to toss my really heavy luggage in my car. While pretending like I can lift anything remotely heavy, I ended up ripping the nail of my middle finger on my right hand completely off. :o( :o( :o( Okay, it was so sad that I wanted to cry. However, I decided that instead of curling up in a ball that I would take this situation and make a handy blog post out of it!

This first picture is of my nails after I got all of my polish off. I'm sorry my hand looks so nasty. My fingers always get all dry after I use nail polish remover. Just look at the devastation!!!

In the second picture, I glued on a fake nail and it really makes a big difference! I know most people don't use this type of nail anymore...but they are really handy in an emergency situation such as this! I know the nail doesn't look exactly perfect (I was in a rush when I put it on). If the fake nail is too wide, you can always file down the sides a bit to make it fit your natural nail line better. Again, it's not perfect, but it's better than walking around with a sad little nub. Anyway, that is my sad story. My only hope is that someone can get something good out of my misfortune!

Mer-Maid For Each Other

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you all are enjoying the last few hours of your weekend. Tomorrow is Monday...blech! Well, I'm sorry I haven't posted at all lately...this week has been crazy! I finally had time yesterday to sit down and do a manicure! Whoop whoop! So, today I have for you a Nicole by OPI polish called Mer-Maid For Each Other. I have to say...I think this polish is SO awesome! It is a multichrome that flashes green, yellow and blue and it's also very shimmery! When I put the first coat on the polish was very sheer and kind of streaky, so I was a little worried at first. Thankfully it evened out with two coats! The only issue I have with it is that it does dry with some light brush strokes, but they really aren't that noticeable it most lighting. My photos are all two coats of Mer-Maid For Each Other with Sally Hansen Insta Dri top coat. 

I took the first photo from that angle so you could see that it sometimes does look really blue!

This photo was taken in the shade with the flash on. 

This photo was taken in the shade...look at all the colors!!!

 The following photos were all taken in the sunlight.

All in all, I really love this color. I wasn't a fan of the polish formula in the beginning, but all that matters is that it evened out in the end and looks greeeeeat! Also, from what I have seen online, this polish can only be purchased at Target along with some other awesome colors Nicole has just released. Hopefully I can get my hands on the rest of them soon!

OPI - Be A Dahlia Won't You

Good afternoon all! Whelp, today is the last day of my vaca in the grand state of FL. Definitely not looking forward to heading back to Bama tomorrow! I was planning on rocking out my last mani for a while, but because I have terrible luck, my polish started to chip. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's leaving chipped polish on my nails! Yuck! So I, of course, had to change my mani. Today I have swatches of OPI Be A Dahlia Won't You from the Nice Stems! Collection released in 2011. There are actually 3 other colors released for this collection which include Play The Peonies, Come To Poppy and I Lily Love You. I just haven't had a chance to get my hands on the other colors yet! Be A Dahlia Won't You is a very beautiful, shimmery pink polish. I actually thought it looked much brighter when I got it on than it did it the bottle. I love it though...it's sparkly and pink - my favorite combo! In my photos I used two coats of Be A Dahlia Won't You with Sally Hansen Insta Dri for the top coat (I just love that stuff)! FYI - make sure to click on the pictures to see them in larger view (the color of polish is more accurate that way). Not sure why the smaller versions' colors are way off!

The first photo was taken inside with the flash on. 

The next 3 photos were taken outside in the shade.

The last 2 photos were taken outside in direct sunlight. You can really see the pretty shimmer in these!

Overall, I really love this polish! I have now been wearing it for a full day and still have no chips or tip wear! I'm definitely planning on keeping this color on my nails as long as I can. :o) If you are interested in purchasing OPI polishes, you can find them at Ulta, JC Penny, Dillard's, Trade Secret and pretty much any nail salon near you!

Kleancolor - Chunky Holo Black

Afternoon all! Looks like today might be shaping up to be a rather nice day in good old FL! *fingers crossed* That being said, I was able to sneak some sun shots of the mani I am wearing today - and you'll be happy I did! Today I have for you a mani using (probably) my very favorite polish that I own! The following pictures are of a polish brand called Kleancolor. I heard around before I bought this polish that this brand tended to have an extra awful smell. Maybe it's just me...but I really didn't notice the smell of this more than any other polish I wear! Chunky Holo Black is a mutlichrome glitter bomb that flashes mostly red, orange, yellow and green. The polish is in a black base and in the bottle you can also see some blue flashes as well, but you can only see that on the nail every once in a while - my camera definitely didn't see any! But really - who cares? Can you SEE this polish??? It's BEA-utiful! I layered two coats over Sally Hansen Black Heart. The polish is pretty thick, but you always get lots of glitter on the brush and it's super easy to get it where you want it on your nail! There is some tiny round glitter and some different sized hex glitter in there as well. The first five photos were taken outside in the sunlight. 

Please forgive this last photo for being a bit blurry. I took this inside with my iPhone. I just wanted everyone to see what this polish looks like inside with NO light on. I mean come on...it's still gorgeous!

Basically, what you can get from this post in that Chunky Holo Black is awesome and you need to go order it NOW. You can buy this and a TON of other polishes here.

Loves Me Not

Hey everyone! I was getting a little bored with my mani yesterday and I didn't want to redo everything, so I did a little layering experiment! While I was in Wally World (aka Walmart) I was looking through the Sally Hansen polish and somehow found one last bottle of this beautiful dark polish called Loves Me Not! Now, in the bottle this baby looks like an irresistible multichrome. It is in a dark purple base and flashes purple, blue, pink and gold! Obvi, I was super excited to get home and try it on. Well, much to my chagrin it did NOT look like that when I layered it over my mani from yesterday. :o( I could only see purple and blue in the polish and that all depended on what kind of light I was in. Now, it could be because I layered it over purple (which is what I'm hoping), but I am still sad. All the photos are with two coats of LMN over Ulta's Celebutante. This first photo was taken inside with a flash. As you can see, it just looks like a dark blue shimmery polish. Also, please ignore the bit of purple peeking through from my Ulta polish. I know a lot of people like the brushes on the Sally Hansen polishes, but I personally hate them! My nails are way too small and thin for them and I always make a mess when I use them! Argh!

 The next photo was taken outside in the shade with a flash (sorry, no sun again today).

This photo was also taken outside with a flash. Now, you can definitely see all of the awesomeness in the bottle that does not show up on the nail at all!

This last photo was taken outside in the shade with no flash...just so you can see what it looks like inside. Without light it pretty much looks like a really dark purple. 

Overall, I am disappointed with this color. When I get back to Bama I am going to try layering it over blue, black and just by itself to see the difference. Getting this polish opaque won't be an issue at all. I'm hoping the other colors will come out with a different base coat. I would still definitely recommend this color if you're looking for a dark, shimmery blurple...and if you can work that monster brush!

Finally - Some Sunshine!

Hey everyone! What have y'all been up to? I've been on vaca in FL, which is why I haven't been able to post every day like I had planned. Not to mention, the days I wanted to post it has been rainy, so I haven't been able to take pics. :o( Luckily, I was able to catch some sunshine earlier today before it started pouring. I'm glad I did, because I'm loving this mani! Today I'm wearing a creme polish from Ulta called Celebutante..and I love it! I'm a pretty big fan of purple polish and this is no exception! I wore two coats of Celebutante (you could get away with one) and then just so I had a little sparkle I layered Tokidoki Stellina over my ring finger. Stellina is a glitter polish with a dark purple shimmer and some larger purple/pink giltter mixed in. I got Stellina and another Tokidoki on clearance at Sephora, so it was pretty exciting!

  
In the third picture you can really see the glitter in the Tokidoki! By the way, I got these Ulta polishes on sale. They were $6 each and on a BOGO special, so they were very reasonably priced and are basically awesome!