New Year's Eve

A super quick post because we've got friends coming over in about 45 minutes, and I have some last minute cleaning to do along with starting to cook dinner!

Since it's New Year's Eve, I needed to bling it up, even if I'm not going out.

I started out with a base of my favorite black, Wet N Wild Black Creme. I really need to buy more of this. It's cheap, goes on in 1 thick coat, dries well, and is good for stamping. What more could you want?
Then I added my new favorite, INM's Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat Silver.

It really is amazing. I used two coats on each finger. My pinkie looks like it has more, but it just applied that way. Over black, this glitter seems like a starry sky.

Well, I couldn't stop there, so I added more sparkles.

First I put on Barry M Limited Edition Effects Silver Glitter. I tried sponging it on, but it turned a bit white (look at the pinkie nail). So I tried a different technique. I place a thick line at the top of my nail, like you would with a french manicure. Then I wiped off the brush in the bottle and pulled the color back towards the cuticle. Tada!

As if that wasn't enough, I added Sally Girl Chunky Silver Glitter over the whole nail. I didn't take a picture before I added the Sally Girl so you the pictures look the same. Buuuutttt....the Sally Girl is big hexgaon/round pieces and some smaller chunks as well.

Hope you all like it!

Happy New Year to those who are already past midnight, and Happy New Year's Eve to those who have yet to celebrate. 2012 can only bring good things.

OPI DS Opulence

I have my first holo!! Granted, it's not a super strong holo or even a rare one, but it's a holo and it's all mine.

Since I can't leave well enough alone, I decided to create a design.

 I cut small strips of tape and put them over the OPI. Then I painted over with Sinful Colors Black on Black.  Finally I added a thick coat of Seche Vite to even things out.

I love this look. It's super fun and sparkly.  It's pretty simple to do, but definately takes some time to put on the tape. And then the tape wouldn't get off my fingers after I took it off!

New storage

The day after Christmas, I hit up a sale at Michael's and got a new storage system for my polish and supplies.  I'm in love.

Most of you have heard of Melmers. Well, this is by the same company, just a different unit. Here's full size image of one: It's the one circled!

I was really debating getting this over a Melmer because it was twice as much, but I really liked that is was on wheels.  On the top is an organizer with 16 little compartments.  All my tools/supplies/cleanup fit on top.

This is awesome.

Here's a picture of one of the drawers. I guess that about 100-110 polishes will fit in each drawer. I have space between mine so you can fit more if you put them closer together.  The drawers are fabric, but with a super study thick cardboard bottom.  There is no track on these drawers either so you can pull them out.

Here's a side shot. Inside of putting ribbon on the holder, I put on paper towel. The lady at Michael's suggested this when I told her that I wanted nail polish storage. So helpful! She was even in the know about polish because I told her I needed something tall enough to store polish and she asked, "What kind? Essie or OPI? Because those are different height bottles." Love it!!

What do you think about this system?

Retro dots

Hey all! Hope you had a great holiday with your families and friends. I know I did, even if it was a bit stressful with cleaning the house and cooking.


While I enjoyed doing the 24 days of Christmas challenge, it was tough! My poor nails were tired after all the acetone and this winter is being unkind to them.

Still, I can't have naked nails, and I didn't want to do a plain color. So I came up with this simple design. Actually, it's inspired by several nail bloggers.

It's only my thumb because my other nails are already chipped so badly! I did this mani on Christmas day actually. My husband worked that day and we celebrated the day before so I had a free day. I took the time to really take care of my nails (pushing back cuticles really well, good clean-up, moisturizing, shaping, etc), and then did this mani.

I used OPI Parlez-vous O.P.I.? for the base. Then I put on the white using Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner.  Finally, I used O.P.I. Stranger Tides for the dots.

I just got a new storage system and polishes so I'll have a post on those soon!

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 24: Favorite Manicure

This is going to be a super quick post because my husband has to work tomorrow so we're celebrating Christmas today and the family is coming to my place! Tons to do still! Panic!

Okay, calming down enough to post this. The favorite mani I did for this challenge was the snowman face, but I decided I didn't want to repeat what I had done so I decided to replicate Lexi's at Finger Painted.


I used acrylic paint. I have super cheap stuff and it doesn't dry very fast on my nails so I didn't wait long enough to put on top coat. It smeared. So now it looks like Mr. Snowman has orange snot. Sigh.

Whew! We're at the end of the challenge! I loved doing this so much. It really stretched my nail art abilities, and I've expanded what I can do. I think I'm neater at polishing now, but I've also incorporated stamping and acrylic paint.

I'm off for this next whole week so I'm sure plenty more designs will be posted!

Don't forget to check out these ladies designs, and Happy Holidays!!!!

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 23: Santa

I had a great time doing today's mani. I even did it on my right hand to go all out since there's only 1 more day left!!!

I did Santa skittles on my hands since I had so many ideas I wanted to use and couldn't choose just one!

Here's a closeup of each individual nail. I apologize for what looks like poor cuticles--it's actually top coat that I didn't see for cleanup (it's so hard to see since it's clear!)

On my thumb, I did a base of China Glaze Sea Spray with Sally Hansen Glass Slipper on top so it looks like snow. I love this top coat. Such gorgeous sliver flakies.

Santa's hat on my pointer

Santa's face on my middle finger (again stupid bad cleanup of the top coat)

Santa's suit on my ringer finger

Santa going down the chimney (my poor pinky, the cuticles are not happy, plus there's top coat on them :( 

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 22: Rudolph

So here's the Rudolph mani that I was supposed to do yesterday. Oops.  I was again inspired by Rina at Simply Rins and used her tutorial to do the reindeer face.

I just added the reindeer onto my middle finger because the elf is too darned cute!

I actually did the design all the way down to my tip so what you're actually seeing is Seche pull.  I also added some Essie Shine of the Times on the other fingers. Isn't it gorgeous?

I mean, just look at all those beautiful flakies. Even better is that it was finally sunny so I could take a proper photo of them to show you all.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 21: Elf

So I goofed! I found this awesome tutorial by Rina at Simply Rins on how to do elves. I was so excited about finding and wanting to try that I had completed the mani before I realized that elf today is tomorrow. Sigh. I wasn't going to take it off, so here it is today!

The base is Revlon Blue Lagoon, and the elf was done with all acrylic paint. It's my first time using them, and I really really like it. I was able to get much finer detail this way.

Isn't he adorable?!  Thanks for the great tutorial Rina!

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 20: Sleigh or Sled

I come a new pretty in the mail yesterday, Orly Androgynie,  so I had to use in today's manicure!

First I used Androgynie as the base.  Look how pretty!

I mean, just look at all the glittery goodness!! This is two coats of Androgynie. It's a thinner black so it definitely needs it.

Inspired by this idea from Posh for Polish, I stamped on a sleigh and reindeer. I took forever to get the reindeer to work. Finally, I figured out I was scraping off too much polish and pushed down lighter, it worked! Doh, user error!

Finally, I added in some color details on the sled. In retrospect, I wish I would have left the actual sleigh part white because it looked better.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 19: Santa Hats

I got the inspiration for this mani from Posh for Polish.

After my base coat, I added a thick-ish layer of Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat.

Next, I mixed together some Savvy Ruby Pumps and Pure Ice Siren to get the red I wanted.  I painted on a rough triangle.  Finally, I dotted on Finger Paints Paper Mache.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 18: Stockings

I chose to do this design on only 2 nails.

I painted the base O.P.I. Cuckoo For This Color. I told you I used it a lot for this challenge!

Then I painted on each stocking with Finger Paints Paper Mache.  I filled in the red using Pure Ice Siren and added mine and my husband's names. I thought about doing 2 more on the other fingers with my dog and cat's names, but didn't want you'll to think I was crazy.  o_0

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 17: Tinsel/Garland

Meh, not my favorite of the bunch.

I was feeling pretty uninspired couldn't find much online. Sorry for the clean-up, it didn't look like that in real life, I swear!

The colors used are O.P.I. Cuckoo For This Color and China Glaze Twinkle Lights.  I've been using Cuckoo For This Color a lot lately because it is a great Christmas green.

I've been messing around with my watermark, what do you think?

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 16: Lights

I really like how this one turned out. My students at school and the lady who cut my hair all commented on it!

Tons of people have put Christmas lights on a wire in various ways. However, I saw this picture with the plug and knew I just had to do it.

The base is 1 coat of Revlon Gold Coin along with 2 coats of China Glaze Blonde Bombshell. All the details are done using my Migi nail art pens.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 15: Presents

I really like how this one came out! I choose non-traditional Christmas colors to have some fun!

I used a different base coat for each but forgot to take a picture of my thumb. I used Pure Ice Siren (red), Sinful Colors Why Not (blue and it stained!!!), Sally Hansen Green with Envy, and Pure Ice Peony.  The white is using Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner -- I went a bit thick on the red one : ( 

Then I added rhinestones to each present. I really like how this one turned out.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 14: Ornaments

I decided to do a simple design today. I think this would have worked better if I had chosen a different background color.

The base is Wet N Wild Metallica. I stamped using O.P.I. Cuckoo for this Color (green) and Sally Hansen Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Color Pen in Red Chrome.  I can't remember what plate I used though. I choose to do two on each ornament on the middle and ring fingers and one green/one red on the pinky/pointer fingers.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

Why I will no longer be a Julep Maven

Some of you probably heard about the issues in the past with the Julep Maven referral program. I wasn't a Julep Maven back then, but rather joined afterward. I've only ordered one box, and my only issue with it is that it was an older box and had less than what others got in the mail, but it was only $5 so not a super big deal.

However, this makes me angry. Julep stole photos posted by nail bloggers and cropped out the watermarks! They have since edited their blog post, but you can read a whole write up here and see screen shots.
http://addictedtotheallureofbeauty.blogspot.com/2011/12/julep-is-removing-bloggers-watermarks.html

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 13: Christmas trees

So my poor middle finger smudged very badly after I added Seche Vite. Sigh. I didn't have time to fix it, so here yea go!

Look at my poor nails. :(  They've been breaking left and right. I've been using Essie Rock Solid as my base coat and doing everything else right (filing in 1 direction, fine grit file, sealing the nail plate, pushing back cuticles, moisturizing). So I blame stress. My face is breaking out all over the place, too.

This didn't quite turn out like I hoped it would. The base coat is Savvy Ruby Pumps. Clearly, they took their name from China Glaze. It's a pretty nice color, but a bit thin. It's not as glittery as Ruby Pumps. Next, I added in the tree base using Essie Sew Psyched (green) and Sinful Colors Nirvana (brown). 

I added in the details using Revlon Gold Coin. I decided to just make dots instead of trying to draw a star, but they don't quite look right. The sparkles on the tree is Milani Gems, which I believe is a dupe for Happy Birthday.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 12: Holly

Just a super quick post today. I'm not feeling well, and I have tons to do.

The base is Revlon Gold Coin. Then I sponged over Finger Paints Paper Mache. Next I stamped using O.P.I. Cuckoo for This Color and dotted on the holly berries.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 11: Wreaths

For this design, I looked at a bunch that I found on the internet and kinda combined them together.

Sorry for the mess on these! I swear they didn't look so bad before, but then I've been lacking some sleeping lately.

I used tons of colors on this so I'm not really going to list them all here. They're kinda muddled anyways.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

The Nail Polish Tag

Here are the rules

1.  Answer 10 questions

2.  Pass this tag to 5 bloggers

3.  Make sure that the bloggers you tagged know about this.

Here are the questions:

1. How many polishes do you have?

I just got some more so about 80.

2. What is your favorite brand of nail polish?

I really love Sally Hansen--great formula, cheap, so many colors. I also like Essie and Milani.

3. Do you like crackle nail polish, or do you hate it?

I kinda like it, but I haven't really used very many.

4. What is your first nail polish brand?

I think CoverGirl Nail Slicks or little BonBons.

  

5. If you're going to have a nail polish line, what are you gonna name it?

Honestly, I have no idea.

6. What nail polish color does not compliment you?

Most colors do! I think probably neons don't.

7. What color does compliment you?

Anything dark goes really well.

8. Name two of your best nail art friends.

All of them!!! 

9. What was the best nail polish gift you have ever received? 

Well, I buy all my own polish so....everything!

10. Make a speech about thanking the blogger who tagged you.

Kaki at Obsessed with Glitter is obsessed with glitter, lol! But I kinda really like it too, so I love seeing all of the super sparkly pictures she has. I love that she incorporates nail art into her love for sparkles.

I tag....everyone! I think a bunch of people have done this, so I tag those who haven't.

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 10: Poinsettias

I decided to do a poinsettia as a accent on one nail and then do a poinsettia inspired design on the other nails. The idea looked better in my mind. I do like the actual poinsettia though.

I used Revlon Gold Coin as the base, Pure Ice Siren for the red, and Wet n Wild Black Creme. The rest is a combination of colors that I mixed.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 9: Green & Red

Today's theme is green and red, and I had a hard time narrowing it down!

For the base, I used O.P.I. Cuckoo for This Color and 2 coats. I could have gotten by with 1 careful thick coat.

Then I stamped using Sally Hansen Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Color Pen in Red Chrome and Bundle Monster plate BM 214.

Here's a closeup of the design. I am getting better at stamping I think!

Here's some others who are also participating:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails