OPI Atomic Orange

31 day challenge. 
Day two: orange nails.

As was true with the red nails, orange is not a prominent color in my collection. Though my fair skin tone can pull off a cherry red (which makes me feel sexy), orange usually isn't something that I find attractive. Nor is it a color I usually reach for outside of nail art or Halloween. I probably should, as orange is Mr. Manicure's favorite color, but I never found an "attractive" orange. Until now.

OPI Atomic Orange is a vibrant, red-based orange creme. It was released with the OPI Brights collection, and it definitely is just that. Though Atomic Orange is a vivid, summery color., it doesn't feel like a neon, and is quite wear-able. I wore it to work today and got several compliments on the color from fellow teachers.

I don't know why it's almost coming 

out as salmon-y - it's not at all.

 
And then, because I thought another plain colored mani would be monotonous, I decided to spice things up with an accent of Zoya Destiny.  This is a PixieDust finish in a coraly-orange color, with gold glitter. As with all of Zoya's PixieDusts, this polish seems to radiate in all lights, and therefore, makes it virtually impossible to photograph correctly. Destiny is a lovely orange, not over the top, but look how she shines!

 

One thick coat of Zoya Destiny over OPI Atomic Orange. 

You can still get Zoya Destiny from their website. I purchased my bottle of OPI Atomic Orange at Target, but if you can't find it there, it's available at most internet shops. 

Essie Scarlet O'Hara

It's been a while. And I know the "life is getting crazy" excuse can only cut it for so long, since I see blogger friends of mine who have busier jobs and just had babies who are schooling me on this whole blog thing. So, to keep me motivated to keep up with my blog regularly, I've decided to take the September 31 day nail polish challenge. Although, I probably will stray a little, and make up my own daily themes for a few of them.

Day one: red nails.

I don't own very many reds in my collection - around 6, maybe? When I wear them, I tend to reach for my bright cherry, pin up girl reds or as a glitter topper. Today, I decided to finally break out of my comfort zone, and try out Essie Scarlet O'Hara. I know, I know, I've had this on the shelf for a while, and I've only swatched it onto a nail stick (for shame!). I totally bought this strictly for the name, since I LOVE the book Gone With the Wind, and adored Vivien Leigh's performance as Scarlett in the movie.

Essie Scarlet O'Hara is a deep, ruby red with lots of shimmer. The polish went on flawlessly - no pooling, not too sheer and with two coats, it looked wonderful.

 Two coats of Essie Scarlet O'Hara with
top coat.

The color of Scarlet reminds me of those beautiful red candied apples you see around Halloween, but never buy because you know you will break your teeth and can't afford the emergency dental care. I believe the people at Essie were trying to capture this in a bottle, and they were spot on:

 

Va-voom Vivien! 

Now, I want to watch GWTW for the 1,000th time, while staring at my nails.

"Ki-wi?" Or "When fruits go bad."

So, I was all jazzed about our classroom fruity fiesta and decided to try more nail art. Kiwis can't be so hard to make, right guys? Right? Guys?

I began with two coats of Revlon Posh for the kiwi base. Posh is a bright, green which reminds me of the new grass during spring. This creme applies like a dream! I probably could have gotten away with one solid coat of polish (I just always prefer two).

Two coats of Revlon Posh. 

So gorgeous!

And then I created this monster. I started with an oval dollop of OPI Alpine Snow. I took a nail brush to create the white kiwi lines. I probably should have used a toothpick or a thinner brush in order to make it more delicate. A small dotting tool and China Glaze Liquid Leather completed the kiwi.

Ugh. This kiwi is rotten.

Yeah, no bueno. But, that's the beauty of nail art. Sometimes you need to fail (epically) in order to keep motivated and in order to improve.

Let's get fruity!

We have been studying various fruits in my preschool classroom, and after the success of Watermelon Day manicure, I tried my hand at some festive strawberries.

I started with two coats of Zoya America - the prefect tomato (or in this case, strawberry) red creme! My photo doesn't do it justice - it's really a bright, beautiful red.

   

 

After a quick layer of top coat, I added a line of China Glaze Starboard to the top of my nail. Using a small nail brush, I created the triangle points. After finishing all the strawberry tops, I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz and a toothpick to make the seeds.
 

Ta da! Quick and easy strawberries :)

I think these turned out super cute!

World Cat Day

I just found out it was World Cat Day - I'm the worst crazy cat lady on the planet! I quickly threw together some nail art to celebrate. Please be advised I did this in under an hour, and while it's not the greatest, it does a smile on my face and I had to share.

I wanted a neutral background, so I began with China Glaze Seashell. I don't normally do "office friendly" or nude colors very often, primarily because I love bright colors, but one of my issues with nudes is because I dislike having to do more than one or two coats of nail polish. This is three coats of Seashell, and you can still see some bald spots. It's a great peach-y color, but at three to four coats, I don't recommend this (unless I have a fluke bad bottle).

On to the kitties!

 

Pointer: I used China Glaze Liquid Leather and a dotting tool to make a cat silhouette. I know these are normally thin, graceful cats, but this is an homage to my fatty mcfatterton, Mr. Nibs and is a little bulkier on the tush.

Middle and ring: China Glaze Life Preserver and China Glaze Ingrid for the cat faces. China Glaze Starboard for the eyes and Zoya Shelby for noses and ears.

Happy World Cat Day everyone! But especially to Nibbler.

Watermelon Day

Did you know that August 3rd is National Watermelon Day? Well, now you do :)

Watermelon nails in natural sunlight.

How to:

I began with two coats of OPI Alpine Snow. Next, a quick dry top coat was added to make sure that the nails were completely dry before applying striping tape (otherwise, it becomes a gooey mess). Top coating a base color whenever you do nail art is also a great idea, because if you mess any details up, you can use nail polish remover to fix your mistake, without destroying your carefully painted base color.

The striping tape helped make a clean white line for the mani, and also acted as a guide where the melon and the rind would be painted. One finger at a time, I used a generous coat of butter London Snog and Zoya Yara, quickly removing the striping tape on the nail before any polish dried to create a clean, sharp line. Then, I would move onto the next nail, continuing the process until I was finished.

Under a lamp, indoors. You can see the yellows
in Yara better than the first photo.

I think they turned out pretty cute. Now, off to celebrate this holiday with some delicious, ice cold watermelon slices!

Mentality Lisa. Oh, and BIRTHDAY!

Today is my 30th birthday, and I had originally planned on doing a large hex glitter placement manicure. But then, I received my package from Mentality yesterday. Once I pulled Lisa out of it's bubble wrap, it was over. I was head over heels in love.

Mentality Lisa is a purple-red holographic. But wait, there's more! Lisa is part of the Luxe Textured Glass Holo collection, which means it's not only a gorgeous holo, but also a glass fleck (like a glassy/diamond glitter) and slightly textured (it's not as gritty as the Zoya PixieDust collection, but more like a fine sand finish).

Lisa was a little thick to apply (but it's jam packed with goodness), and could almost be a one coat-er with careful application. I always do two coats for good measure, and it was simply stunning when dried.

 Two coats of Mentality Lisa, with Seche Vite top coat.

The shift in colors is absolutely wonderful.

But while Lisa is beautiful on her own, this is my birthday mani, so had to I kick it up a notch. BAM! KandNails CK04 plate with Butter London HRH just spiced up the party. I have begun practicing on my stamping recently (read: this week), so while this may not be perfect, I love the way this turned out.

Valentine's Day stripes

I had this grandiose idea that I was going to do a new mani every day this week in celebration of Valentine's Day. Then I realized:

A. I am too busy lazy.
B. That would wreck havoc on my already sad, dry cuticles.C. I own very few red and pink polishes to share.
D. I am no bueno at nail art and stamping.


E. I am so excited by my current manicure, and I never want to take it off. Like, ever. Seriously obsessed.

*The skies opened up and angels sing*

I was browsing Pinterest and I saw these gorgeous nails, which I tracked down to Kayla Savage. 

Look how absolutely beautiful they are!!! 

I wanted to recreate them to the best of my abilities. 

I started with three coats Essie Raise Awareness on my pinkie, index and thumb.  Raise Awareness is a baby pink that reminds me of cotton candy, but still very delicate - it's actually the lightest pink in my collection. The down side is that it does apply a little streaky, so three coats is necessary. Unfortunately, the many coats led to my manicure looking a little thick and not as refined as I would have liked. 

By comparison, I only needed one coat of a-england Princess Tears on my middle and ring fingers.  Princess Tears is a lovely lavender linear holo, with a pinkish flash visible in it. It's such a gorgeous holo, that I feel bad it was only used for the accent nails. I'm going to have to swatch this soon to show you the sheer amazingness. As with all my other a-england's this applied like butter. 

Love. Love. Love.

After some striping tape, and another three coats of Raise Awareness, I free handed some hearts in Zoya America. And, tada, a cutesy Valentine's Day mani.

Even my dominant hand mani turned out decent.  It's a miracle!

Olympics!!!

For those who don't know me, I am a total nerd for the Olympics. I adore everything about the Olympics: the Opening Ceremonies, the camaraderie of all the participants, the comebacks, the fierce competition... everything.

I especially love the Winter Games. I could watch figure skating for days - and I will! I also love hockey, speed skating, ski jumping, bobsled, curling... I really love it all.

This manicure is dedicated to Team U.S.A. On my pinky and pointer fingers I used Zoya Richelle, a lovely golden bronze metallic (going for the gold!), while OPI Alpine Snow was used for the base on my middle and ring fingers. 

Next, I used my striping tape (first attempt) to create represent the U.S. I originally wanted to go for a flag, but as this was my first attempt, I kept it simple. This was done using Zoya America (of course) and China Glaze First Mate.

The Olympic rings are my favorite part of the mani! I think they turned out great. How did I get such a perfect circle you ask? A simple coffee stirrer. I dipped the ends in the nail polish and stamped it on. I centered the black ring first and continued from there, using blue, red, yellow and green cremes that I had in my collection.

USA! USA! USA!

With this manicure, I'm all set to watch the Americans win gold in Sochi. Hope you all enjoy the Olympic coverage as much as I am!

Super Bowl nails

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet - it's the Super Bowl and there are dips and beers to consume!

I am a die hard Bears fan, so I really don't have a team allegiance for this game; but with many family members and friends in Seattle, I decided to cheer the Seahawks tonight.

I found Essie The More the Merrier and OPI Ski Teal We Drop to be the closest Seattle colors in my collection. And to get all wild and crazy, I decided to finally use my dotting tools that I bought myself at Christmas to try my first dotticure.

Two coats of The More the Merrier and 
Ski Teal We Drop. No top coat.

Not too shabby for the first attempt ever, in my (no so humble) opinion. 

Alright, that's all. Have a fun and SAFE Super Bowl!!

Too Cute-ice Sleepy Flower

This brutal winter continues to drag on, and is really affecting my polishing mood. In case you missed it, Chicago got caught in a second Polar Vortex, meaning more days with wind chills around -45.  I have never experienced a winter as terrible as this one, and can readily exclaim that I am soooooo ready for spring!!!

I pulled out Too Cute-icle's Sleepy Flower recently, because it is so representative of my mood and this weather. It's a light gray jelly with gold, pink, green and turquoise glitters in it - kind of like a winter snow fall, with a hint of the spring flowers coming on the horizon. See guys? I'm deep (or suffering from seasonal affective disorder). Either way, onto the pretty polish!

Two coats of Sleepy Flower worn alone. Look at the 

pretty colors in their squishy base.

This is what one coat on bare nails looks like:

Sleepy Flower is intended to be worn layered over a base color. While this polish is very sheer, it is chock full of glitter. As seen in the first photo, two coats looks decent, though there's a hint of visible nail line (VNL).

L to R: one coat of Sleepy Flower over China Glaze Liquid Leather (black), OPI Pedal Faster Suzi (light pink),
China Glaze Pelican Gray (light gray) and Essie Go Overboard (dark teal). 

I find that Sleepy Flower looks fantastic layered over a light gray, but also amazing over dark colors, especially striking over black! I've tried it over light colors, but the gray jelly muddles those colors and doesn't live to it's fullest potential.


Sleepy Flower is currently on sale for $5! Check it out and other lovelies at Too Cute-icle. 

Nails, Actually Water Sari

Tonight I wanted to share with you a gorgeous franken. For those not down with the nail polish lingo - this is a "franken-polish" created by mixing different nail polishes to create a new polish (or adding pigments and glitters to existing nail polish).

This is Nails, Actually Water Sari. Please take this moment to ooh and aah. 

Seriously, stunning.

Water Sari is a shimmering light blue polish, with orange, fuchsia and gold glitters. This polish is thick (not in a bad way, it applies like a dream!), and can easily be worn by itself in one coat. 

One coat of Nails, Actually Water Sari
over two coats of Zoya Breezi.

Close up! Look at the shimmer! 

I took at least 50 different photos of this mani, as I couldn't stop looking at this drop dead gorgeous polish. I mean, even the not quite in focus picture looks beautiful:

All that glitter - swoon.

You can see why I would want to conserve my precious bottle, and why I would want to wear a base polish with this. The problem is, I'm not really a blue person, and I don't own anything that matches the base color in Water Sari. Like, not even close. The dusty teal color of Zoya Breezi compliments it well, but doesn't accurately show the base color of Water Sari.

Two coats of Zoya Breezi.

I purchased this franken last year from Nails Actually. I'm not sure if it's still available, but if you're interested in getting your own bottle, I'd definitely encourage you get in contact with the lovely Charlotte.

a-england Ascalon

Let me begin my post with: please forgive my poor, poor hands and nails. With the continuous snowfall and bitter cold, not to mention that "lovely" Polar Freeze we had for a few days, no amount of lotioning or oiling can help my poor mitts. Please forgive my sad nails :(

...but, hey, they're not that sad, because they are sporting the amazing a-england Ascalon. Wowza! Not only is Ascalon a grey scattered holo, but it also has a duochrome with a lilac flash.  It's like everything I love about nail polish all rolled into one bottle. Just take a look:

Two coats of a-england Ascalon, topped with
Glisten & Glow HK Girl.

 Look at all the duochrome flashy/holo-y goodness!
Seriously, I'm going to get into a car accident staring at my nails.

As with the formula on all the a-england's I own, this applied like a dream - great consistency, no pooling, practically applies itself and is completely opaque in one coat (I'm just in the habit of always doing two coats). Words cannot express how much I love the a-englands that I own. If you don't already own one or two, I highly recommend adding them to you collection.

Nom nom nom.

The UK has strong shipping regulations, and cannot ship nail polish internationally, so you will not be able to purchase a-england directly. However, they offer a list of providers here.

Zoya Monica

I typically don't stick to the rule of seasonal colors - you know, pastels only in spring, neons only in summer, vampies for fall/winter. But, with winter raging in Chicago, I was really in the mood for a darker color.

Zoya Monica is a dark purple creme that reminds me of the skin on really dark plums. I've seen other swatches where Monica looks incredibly dark, but my bottle is a beautiful, rich color that is still bright. To me, this is a vampy lite.

Two coats of Zoya Monica topped with HK Girl.

But, you know me, I had to shnaz it up a little. I chose Orly Fowl Play as an accent color. Fowl Play is a dark purple jelly jam packed with flakies and blue glitter. It's a lovely color, and really deserves to be worn as a full mani in the future. 

T

One coat of Orly Fowl Play over Zoya Monica.

If you are a purple lover, I think Monica needs to be included in your collection. It's a nice, rich color that is very versatile. It can be your fall/winter vampy go to, but would still look great during summer.

Mentality Mirth and my first stamp art.

You know what I love most about birthdays?! Special birthday manis!!! ...and cake, and presents, and balloons, and cake, and friends and pinatas, and cake...

To celebrate the birthdays of Mr. Manicure and Mom Manicure this weekend, I wanted to wear something sparkly and fun. As I was looking over my collection, serendipity took over and the word Mirth popped out at me - and what better word to describe a birthday?

Mentality Mirth was definitely was the sparkly polish I was craving. Mirth has a light purplish/gray base with a stunning linear holo running through it. 

Two coats of Mentality Mirth topped with HK Girl.
As you can see, the holo was not dulled at all with the top coat.

It's like a rainbow got pulverized onto my nails. So pretty!

Mentality's Facebook page is adorned with gorgeous manis featuring stamping art, and inspired me to take the blue film off my Konad M57 plate this afternoon and give stamping a chance. I chose Mentality Offbeat, a dark teal - almost black, to stamp a fishnet pattern.

Clearly, I need to practice. But, look how the beautiful Mirth almost distracts you from that terrible stamping job. Almost.

Mirth and Offbeat are available at Mentality Nail Polish.

Snow Day!!!

Chicago is currently experiencing a deep freeze, with wind chills around -40, resulting in a massive city shut down, most importantly:

NO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!

Snow days as a student were fun, but snow days as a teacher are epic (and super rare at my school). I wasted spent the whole day watching trashy television in my jammies, snuggling my pets.

I somehow managed to find some during my busy day to paint my nails. To get out of the cold blahs, I decided to try one of my untrieds - GAP Bright Pool. With it's gorgeous aqua color, and pink/purple shimmer, this lacquer is a stunner! The application was great, not streaky at all, and had total coverage with two coats.

   

                                                             Two coats of GAP Bright Pool.

  

Look at that amazing shimmer! Ah, gorgeous!

The silver cap was creating a glare during photos,
but I did not want to stop taking pictures of this beautiful color.

Just looking at my nails makes me smile, and forget that it's too cold for the zoo's polar bear to be outside. It's like a tropical island in a bottle. So pretty!

I was late to the polish game, so I never picked up Rescue Beauty Lounge's Aqua Lily, but according to other bloggers, Bright Pool is a dead on dupe for it. This was released in October, so I'm not sure if it's still available in GAP stores (was retailing for $6), but if you are lucky enough to find it at the store or on a blog sale, you need to add this to your collection! 

2014: The Year of Nails.

I'm not normally one for New Year resolutions, but this year I decided I'm going to give this blogging thing another go. For the past few years, not only have I been adding to my collection, but I've also been making friends in the nail community, and become a fan of their Facebook pages and blogs. They have taught me new nail art techniques, pointed me in the direction of fantastic nail care products and have helped me gain the confidence to restart this blog. So, ladies, thank you. Because of you all, 2014 will be my year of nails.

...was that too sappy? I'm drinking wine and in love with the world.

Now, onto the nails!

For my New Year's Eve mani, I decided to go with a traditional gold and black. I started with two coats of OPI Glitzerland. But, then I thought I would kick it up a notch and free hand a chevron look using Zoya Storm and a silver nail art pen. And from this thought, came this abomination:

The horror! The horror!

Lesson learned - never again shall I attempt to free hand straight lines.

I decided to start all over again, and this time attempt my first Scotch tape mani. I think it turned out alright, considering this was a first attempt.

Two coats of OPI Glitzerland and Zoya Storm, 
topped with HK Girl.

Happy New Year! May the year of nails begin! :)