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.