I'VE BEEN GONE FOR SO LONG ;'(

Apparently, during the move to my new apartment, I lost my camera battery charger. I was able to use it for quite a while before it died, but then one day, it had no pulse. I was in denial and thought maybe I could find my charger, but inevitably ended up ordering a cheap one off of amazon.

BUT I'M FINALLY BACK MY DEAR, SWEET BLOG

(i missed you)

I'm going to be posting manicures like wild fire this week, to make up for all the lost time. Starting with, this manicure that I'm dubbing the 

"Superquicktakeslessthan5minutesbadass-icure"

I used Essie Devil's Advocate for this. All I did was paint it on, free hand, over bare nails. Slapped on some hefty layers of top coat to get it to really shine, and..

 TA-DA!!!!!!! 

I honestly wasn't sure how it would look to have bare nails showing, but I actually like it a lot more than if I were to have used a color that matched my skin tone.

 

Seriously, if you ever have one of those days where you want to paint your nails, but you only have a small window of time to get it done, and are sick of the old standard manicure... this is your solution!

tschus! 

VALENTINESY-WINTERY-SWEATERY GOODNESS

All this talk about the impending snow storm is making me anxious. But that doesn't mean my nails shouldn't be decked out in some snug little sweaters of their own!

Well, not literally

~

This week I picked up Zoya Haley, a gorgeous red polish that has strong orange undertones. It might even be my favorite red (to be fair, I say that about nearly every polish these days). Seriously though, this red is awesome. It seems to be more of a jelly polish than a creme, and applies as such. You'll definitely need 2 coats, possibly a third. But it's worth the effort, because when you're finished your nails are going to practically GLOW.

It's hard to show the true tone of this color in photos, but I did my best.

(no topcoat, and pre-clean up in this photo!!)

Then, I got down the business and stamped the heck out'a my nails using an image from my nailzcraze stamping plate...

 Being the klutz that I am, I managed to slice my thumb open between painting and stamping my nails. Since nothing says Valentine's Day quite like the cutest couple ever, Minnie and Mickey, that played a big part in the band-aid I selected for the wound. Pretty damned adorable, if you ask me. 

Anyway, my nails totally look like they're wearing sweaters, right? ..Right?! 

The silver I used for the stamping is Silver Sweep, one of the Insta-dry polishes from Sally Hansen. It's p-e-r-f-e-c-t for stamping. Seriously. Stamping has never been as easy for me as it was with this polish!

Since this is the second post in a row where I've stamped my nails, so here's a quick crash course in how to stamp your own nails. 

(You'll need a Konad (or simmilar) stamping kit!)

So there you have it. Obviously I'm just pretending to stamp my nails in those photos, but you can get the general idea. It's important to be quick when stamping, because as the polish starts to dry it'll be come harder to transfer the entire image to your nail!

 I applied a thick layer of top coat, and my nails are glistenin' like snow. 

Awwyea, I sure love this manicure. Hopefully it'll make the snow storm more tolerable this weekend. Hopefully.

tschus!

PURPLE STAMPED OMBRE!! YAY!

Everytime I've seen an ombre manicure in the past, I've looked admiringly and thought to myself, "one day, one day..."

..WELL..

That day has finally come, and it is glorious! Being the lover of purple that I am, I have more purple polish than I know that to do with, and finally decided it was time to put them to use in an ombre. 

left to right: essie devil's advocate, zoya mimi, china glaze no plain jane, opi planks a lot, and essie lilacism

SIGH

It's so gorgeous, isn't it!? 

Devil's Advocate is a deep, deep purple. It almost looks black, and also leans a little bit into the maroon family. Mimi is packed full of purple glitter, and in the right lighting will flash other colors, too. No Plain Jane is probably my all time, hands down, no competition FAVORITE nail polish, ever. It's a duo-chrome meaning that it color shifts depending on the angle and lighting. In this case, the colors are a rich shimmery purple and chocolate brown. The particular shade of this purple is amazing. I was never a big fan of shimmer, I was a all-out-glitter or nothing type'a girl. Until this polish! Planks A Lot is a perfect purple, too. I would describe it as 'classic' purple. And Lilacism, is exactly that- lilac! 
Seriously, I could go on and on about each one of these purples but I'll stop there.

Anyway, when I was done, I stamped on the lovely design, from my nailzcraze stamping plate, with China Glaze Awaken. It's an excellent polish to use for stamping, it's very opaque and just the right consistency. 

 

pssst- you can see the hints of brown in No Plain Jane in this photo!

& Since my thumb was hiding in all of the pictures, here's a close up. Check out that design!!

Ahhh, well that's all for now, I've got loads of new polish and plenty of ideas, so check back soon!

tschüs!!

GLITTER GRADIENT~

I'M BACK AGAIN

As much as I loved those Elvis nails, I have to admit that I love the color grey even more. This is definitely a grey that leans way into the blue spectrum, but I still think it still falls in the grey family.

 I'd describe it as slate...

The slate color I used is a lovely Zoya called Marina. I'm in love with every Zoya polish I have for multiple reasons. They have gorgeous colors, apply smoothly, and free of formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate and camphor. 

Next, I applied China Glaze's Some Like it Haute, a gooooooooooorgeous glitter. Definitely one of my favorites. It's comprised mostly of grey/black and silver glitters, but also generously packed with slightly larger (but still small!) holographic hexagons. (Normally, I hate alliterations, but that one's just too good)

Then, Essie's Set in Stones; a polish made up of 3 different sized silver hexagonal glitters. And lastly, as always, a thick coat of Seche Vite. This top coat is by far my favorite, especially because manicures packed with this much glitter need smoothing out and Seche Vite is well suited for the job.

Anyway, I think I'll actually keep this manicure on my fingers for a few days. Glitter gradients are one of my favorite manicures and aren't very complicated at all. It's a quick way to do something radical to your nails.

tschüs!!

INSPIRED BY THE KING HIMSELF

Holographic nail polish is definitely among my favorite types of polish because, seriously, what's not to love? 

This is Color Club's Harp On It, from their line of holographic polishes, and I seriously cannot say enough good things about it. (I also have another polish from this line, Angel Kiss, which is a blue/turquoise holo) 

This polish is truly hologasmic. 

Check out that impossible-to-ignore linear holo. And unlike some other holographic polishes, this one does not need any sort of special base coat and it applies like the a dream. There's no horribly annoying streaking, and it more or less applies like any other creme polish. The best part, is that a top coat (yes, even seche vite) won't dull the holographic awesomeness of this polish. It wears well for several days and is practically blinding in the sun. Prepare yourself for a whirl-wind of compliments when this polish is on your fingertips! 

After painting my nails, I remembered that Elvis' birthday passed on the 8th, and that inspired me to do some gold stamping. For this, I used my Konad stamper and a design from plate S6. The gold is another Color Club polish, Disco Nap. I got this polish from a monthly beauty sample subscription box (what a mouth full) and it's really starting to grow on me. And, it's just the right consistency to use for stamping. Some polishes are too thin, or aren't opaque enough to make a design pop.

 

As you can see, I was inspired by the suit this adorable little Playmobil Elvis doll is wearing. It's very reminiscent of the suits he wore when he played shows in Vegas. 

Happy Belated, Elvis! You're still the king.

tschüs!

HELLO!

Here it is! My first post on my blog dedicated entirely (for now, anyway) to all things nail related. For the time being I realize that I'm likely just talking to myself in the depths of cyber space, but hopefully that'll change soon. Anyway, let's dive right in, shall we?

I used 3 different polishes here, Essie's Butler Please, Illamasqua's Rare and Sephora's Chaotic. These photos seriously do not do these colors justice. The yellow is so bright it is practically glowing, and that's the reason why I love it so much. It's like I have little glow sticks on my fingertips. & The blue is a truly unique color that, for lack of a better and more eloquent description, I would describe as neon, royal blue. That's right, neon royal blue. Be advised that it dries matte on its own, so definitely be prepared to layer on some top coat to really get it to POP!

 As you can see, one hand is yellow with one blue nail, and vice versa. This is usually my go-to look when I can't decide between two polish colors and it's guaranteed to be weird. And weird is good. Very good.

 Then, over the whole thing is a generous coat of Chaotic- a polish that's comprised of multi-sized black and white glitters ranging from teeny tiny dots to little sticks and jumbo hexagons! 

It seriously lives up to the name.

So! That's today's manicure. I tend to want to change my manicure every day, sometimes even more frequently than that- so stay tuned ;)

tschüs!

(that's German for bye!)