Monday Mani: MOVEMBER

Today's Monday Mani theme is Movember. The idea is to raise awareness for prostate cancer. Movember comes in because mustaches are the symbol and some men (and maybe women!) participate in something call No Shave November. My husband's done it in the past, but he has a full beard so it's not much different.

I received Glam Polish Lisbeth and decided to use this stunner as the base for my Movember mani. I used three coats of Lisbeth to get full coverage and depth. The details are all black acrylic paint.

I recently changed up my nail shape I got a big corner break.

It's not my favorite, but seems to be more "in" than square or squaoval these days.

Halloween Nails: ERMAHGERD Happy Candy Corn

Okay so there's totally a reason for the silly title!

Smitten Polish ERMAHGERD CANDY CORMS is my annual Halloween/fall polish. I save it for this time each year. I don't have any other holiday polishes so it's sorta special. 

I think this is my 3rd year using this polish and suprisingly, I've never paired it with candy corns! So I decided to this year.

The purple base color I used here is Sinful Colors Amethyst while the candy corn is entirely acrylic paint.

This little cutie was inspired by the talented @lacquer_daze on Instagram.

Fresh and Funky

Just a quick post today! I've got a little back log of manis and this is one of them.

This is Fresh Paint Square Candy (3 coats) which is a bright green jelly polish topped with a Funky Fingers Teen Spirit.

Both polishes are from 5 Below.

Zoya Bevin Roses

My tea bag patch just wasn't working. The corner of my nail was super weak and it just wasn't holding so I'm down to nubs. I still have a tear low on the side that I'm trying to keep patched, but that's not working well.

I love flower manis. I don't know what it is about them, but they are just so beautiful!

I decided to use Zoya Bevin for the base of this in order to continue my quest of reusing polishes.

The roses are mostly Zoya Sooki though I mixed it with white and black to add details.

I'm playing around with lighting. These photos were taken at night using direct and diffused artificial light. I gotta play more, but I still think I'm a fan of natural light.

And bonus! Here's a pedi I did. The purple and blue are Zoya Kieko and Zoya Breezi respectively.

Sinful Colors Fig line work

Hello everyone! Sorry for totally forgetting to post yesterday!

So after I took after my gel nails, I noticed my middle finger on my blogging hand looked pretty rough. I had to file it down a bit, but they was a side year pretty far down. I tee bag patched it and put a gel top coat on this mani to make it last longer. We'll see.

I've been trying to use some of the polishes I have that don't get much love. I still like them and want them in my collection; I just don't use them much.

Sinful Colors Fig is one. It's a berry purple color with a very light shimmer that doesn't come out on the nail very well.

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do, so I grabbed some black acrylic paint and a nail art brush I had trimmed down and went to town. It was really fun to play around with lines and see how well I could do. I'm pretty impressed with myself and think I'm getting better at my nail art skills.

Swirly Aurora

I love having all the polishes I have (215-ish) and the choice that comes with it sometimes. But other times it can be overwhelming. I'll take peek through my polishes, seeing if one catches my eye. Then I spot one, mull it over, put it back, browse some more. Repeat. Except with a little one, I can't waste precious free time deciding what polish to use!

Enter my new best friend: Random Number Generator. Seriously. I keep all my polishes listed in a spreadsheet. So I just entered my numbers, and BAM! today's polish.

Zoya Aurora is such a gorgeous polish. I needed two coats. It's got this lovely holographic glitter. When I was taking photos, I found the colors would lean a bit purple-ish in some spots too. Very cool.

The swirly bit is a water decal that I purchased from Born Pretty Store. It adds something, but still let's Aurora shine through.

Easy. Gorgeous. Minimalist.

Purple Plaid

I've been meaning to post this since Monday, but time has really gotten away from me.

I joined a group a few weeks ago where the focus is on becoming a minimalist. The general idea is to simplify your life so that you can better enjoy it. That can mean getting rid of belongings so you can find what you need more easily or so you don't spend so much time cleaning. It can mean cutting back on social media or television or whatever so you have more quality time with your family. It can mean cutting out those toxic people in your life so your thoughts aren't cluttered and wasted on them. It's about living life. I've been mostly focused on getting rid of  items in our home as well as decluttering those time wasters. A lot of this for me has been cutting back TV to those shows that I really like (which is still a lot to be honest).

Another project of mine/hobby is meal planning. I love cooking, but it's hard to when you've got a cranky toddler at your feet (bless those of you who do it with multiples!). It's a bit easier though as T had gotten older so I'm trying to find simple healthy recipes for me to cook.

So onto today's mani!!! Lol

It's simple and classy, yet fun. My colors are OPI Parlez-vous OPI? and L'Oreal Tea and Crumpets (which has a crappy stiff brush but I love the color). I used black and white acrylic paint as well.

Valentine's Day: Cupid

I plan on trying to do as many Valentine's Day manis as I can before the day! I might post a few after because I have soooo many ideas!

This is the mani I'm currently wearing, but I have another that I did earlier this week that I'll post over the weekend. Then I'm hoping to fit in two more: one for next week and one for the actual day of (or rather the day after since my husband works on Valentine's Day and we're gonna go out the next day while my amazing mom watches our wee one).

Anyway, onto this mani! I've mentioned the Baby Center group before, and our threadly challenge was to do nail transfers. They could be simple store bought stickers/decals or you could make your own using the freezer bag/parchment paper/page protector method. I chose to make my own using the advanced stamping method.

I used all Zoya polishes for this other than my stamping polish. I started with a base of Zoya Dove and added the hearts/dots using Zoya Sooki (red), Zoya Shelby (pink), and Zoya Kieko (purple).

To do the stamp, I started the process like normal using Konad Black and Cheeky Jumbo 3 (European Romance). I left the stamp on my stamper and let it dry for a bit. Then I carefully filled in the hearts and let that dry. Next I added a thick layer of top coat and let it dry for probably about 2 hours. After applying my base coat on my nails and letting it dry a bit, I gently peeled my stamp off the stamper, trimmed it, added top coat to my nail, applied the decal and gently pushed it down! Whew! I cleaned up the edges (very easy with acetone and a small brush since it's all nail polish), and added more top coat. It sounds hard, but it was pretty easy!

With having a baby, this was easy to do since the process could be easily spread out. I definitely plan on using this technique more!

Valentine's Day: Leopard Skittle

I've been really wanting to do a Valentine's Day leopard print, more specifically a heart shaped one. I decided to skittle it up on this mani.

A friend of mine lent me her gel system to use as well so I did a gel sandwich (gel bad coat and cure, regular polish and top coat, dry overnight, gel top coat and cute). I'll post pictures later to show you a wear test :)

I used two coats each of Zoya Keiko (purple) and Zoya Shelby. For my ring finger, I used three coats of Glam Polish Unicorn Sparkles! The black accents were added using Wet n Wild Black Creme.

Pastel Galaxy

I don't know if any moms read my blog, but if you are a mom you just migth have heard of the Baby Center website. They have tons of information about babies and kids plus several chat boards. One of the boards I belong to has started a nail board that is going very strong! (Shout out to my BHB ladies!)

What's great about that is that we understand time restraints since we are all moms. We're all super supportive of each other which can be rare both in mom groups and the nail polish community. It's a neat little haven.

Anyway, we've decided to do weekly challenges. We get one theme for the week. Again as moms, getting a whole week to do a challenge works great! This week's theme is galaxies. I've done regular and Northern Lights ones. Today I decided to go with another "new" one and do pastel galaxy nails.

I followed a few different tutorials for this one and made it my own. It's not as pastel as other pastel galaxy manis, but I like some of the pops of dark colors.

I used a crap ton of polishes too:

Base is two coats of Sinful Colors Candy Coated.

I added the galaxy using Wet n Wild French White Creme, Barry M Blueberry, Zoya Pippa (yellow), Sinful Colors Fig, A-England Lake of the Lake (purple holographic), Zoya Pippa (pink), Revlon Minted (mint green that was mostly used to tone down purple base as Minted was pretty sheer), and Nubar Absolute (very lightly sponged to add the shimmery effect).

Zoya Normani

Tomorrow, we'll heading out of town for the wedding (well, reception since they had a destination wedding) of two friends.

I wanted to paint something simple yet beautiful on my nails. I always wanted to lean more neutral. I saw this idea and was going to use a tan as the base. HOWEVER, I just got my Zoya order in and *knew* Normani would make a great neutral base without being boring. I was right :)

Zoya Normani went on great in two coats. I wouldn't recommend two because then the coat would be pretty thick and so it would tak longer to dry plus be more likely to chip.

I used China Glaze I'm Not Lion for the glitter. After topping with NYC In A New York Minute and letting dry, I added Essie Matte About You.

Whimsical Ideas by Pam Peanut Butter and Jelly

Sorry this post is sooo late going up today. Things are auper crazy around here: teething/clingy baby, leaving for a week's vacation on Saturday(!), and dealing with medical issues with our kitty (she didn't eat for 5 days, and had surgery. I was syringe feeding her and injecting her with fluids per the vet, yikes!)

Luckily I got some packing partially done today with my husband's help, and our kitty is finally eating on her own :)

Today's polish is Whimsical Ideas by Pam Peanut Butter and Jelly. I used two coats here. The glitter came out great, and I didn't need to dig or place it.

Zoya Carter

Today I have the last of the new PixieDusts that I bought. This one is Zoya Carter. I loved all the blogger swatches I saw of it, but it didn't behave as nicely for me as Sunshine and Chita.

Carter was much thinner. One coat barely did anything. In the end, I did two thin coats and one super thick coat. I topped with Seche Vite to make it dry faster. It looked gorgeous top coated! Unfortunately, I couldn't get any pictures because it chipped the next day :(

I added one more coat on top to make it a texture again and took these photos.

My Carter also seems to have silver bits that aren't really well blended into the polish itself and look a bit weird as a texture. 

Glam Polish Unicorn Sparkles

I have another Glam Polish from the lovely Rachel for you today.

This one is Glam Polish Unicorn Sparkles. This mani is two coats. I didn't have to do any fishing for glitter and application was wonderful. I took the photos in sunlight so you can see the beautiful sparkles.

Neon skittle

I did this mani using Cosmo Girl Wild Thing (pink), Sinful Colors Dream On (purple), and Sinful Colors Why Not (blue). The neon glitter topper is Hit Polish Not So Plain Jane (she makes amazing glitter toppers; check her out!!!).

Zoya Kieko and Hit Polish Mr Bubbles

Base color: Zoya Kieko

2 coats of Hit Polish Mr. Bubbles

OPI DS Temptation

I bought O.P.I. DS Temptation a while ago from a friend. I've seen several manis on Pinterest creating chevron/zig zag design over glitter so I decided to do one!

I used 2 coats of DS Temptation on my middle and ring fingers and my thumb. On my index and pinkie, I used two coats of Wet n Wild Black Creme.

To add the chevron design, I just used nail stickers! Super easy! I love the ease of this design plus it's super pretty. Normally, I do my accent nails as my thumb and ring finger, but I enjoyed playing around a bit with this design and switching things up!

Zoya Aurora (and thoughts on Blogging)

Last night I had a nail blogger friend over for dinner, and we got to talking about things. When I first started blogging, it was a way for me to share my nail art ideas and manis that I had done. Blogging was just an afterthought. As I've gone on, I dread writing up blog posts just because I'm not super creative in the writing area.  Nail polish also isn't the only hobby in my life. I also love to bake/cook, coupon, crochet, cross stitch, and read. I've found that I can't do those things as much since blogging takes up so much of my time.

So I've decided to change things up a bit. My blog posts are going to be more photo focused only. I will mention colors/supplies used, but that's it. I also plan on utilizing my Facebook page more. I recently started an Instagram too so follow me there @rubytadpole.  I envision eventually switching to purely my Facebook page and Instagram and not using my blog as much. It'll still give me the ability to share my manis without spamming my personal page.

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Zoya Aurora is part of the Ornate Collection from Holiday 2012....and yet I haven't shown it to you yet! Bad blogger :(

BUT.....I picked a wonderfully sunny day to wear this so you can see the beautiful holographic effect!

Aurora is a purple scattered holographic polish.  The last photo which is taken in the shade is the most color accurate. I used 2 coats for these photos, but probably should have done a third.

Zoya Stevie

For Mother's Day, my awesome husband gave me a few hours out of the house by myself and permission to do some shopping. What a sweet guy! I meet up with my friend Kristen from Darling Nails while out. She wanted to head to Ulta, and I'm so glad we did!

They had the Zoya Summer 2013 Pixie Dusts in stock. I've been waiting for a sale on Zoya.com to buy them, but I couldn't wait any longer so I bought 3.  At the register, they rang up as Buy 2, Get 1 free! I finally the deal I was looking for!

Zoya Stevie is one of the Pixie Dusts that I picked up, and it is so pretty!

I used 3 thin coats for this mani, though I could have probably gotten away with 2.

Look at all that silver glittery goodness! There was so much, that my poor camera had a hard time focusing. I didn't have much sun the day I took these pictures either, but you can see how sparkly they are in the shade; just imagine in the sun light!

I can't wait to wear this polish more over the summer. I'm sure it'll look super cute on my toes too :)

When Stars Collide Dragonfly

I decided to add some simple nail art to When Stars Collide. I used Gosh Holographic Hero for the dots and the dragonfly wings. The dragonfly's body was done with Wet n Wild Black Creme.

Enjoy the photos!