Zebra's Teal

Fairy Teal is my new favorite color!  I bought this polish, used it once, and have been dying to use it again.  It has been hard what with all the other polishes that I've been buying.  Can you have polish guilt?  I still have so many colors in my collection that I haven't gotten around to trying yet!  Anyway - onto the manicure!!

 
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Fairy Teal and Konad Special Polish in White.

Getting better at the Konad!  I used plate m57.

This polish is a dream.  It is so smooth and just the right thickness.  Completely opaque in one coat, though I used two just for posterity sake.  It is also very pigmented so make sure to use a base coat.  Last time I used this polish I had an interview a few days later.  My thumb was chipped and I didn't notice until I was on my way out the door so I hurriedly removed the polish and reapplied.  With no base coat.  Well that was in January and the tip of my thumb nail is still stained.  Also be careful when you're taking it off for the same reason.

Grey Leopards.

I thought these polishes were discontinued until I found myself wandering down the polish aisle in a WalMart that is pretty far from where I live.  Boy was I happy!

Pure Ice - Kiss Me Here for the base and French Kiss for the design.

Image plate m57. This polish went on wonderfully smooth and it was opaque in the normal two coats. As you can see, it worked well for stamping as well.  For only two dollars I will definitely be buying more Pure Ice in the future.

My only gripe is that this polish doesn't work well with Seche Vite.  I suppose I can spring the $2 to buy the Pure Ice top coat, but it makes me sad!  I've become particularly smitten with how quick Seche dries. :(

Purple and Grey!

This week has been another slow one around the house.  We've been going to bed in the AMs, waking up in the PMs and just being generally lazy.  Good news? I got a (temporary) job working as a field supervisor for the census.

And I did some pretty cool manicures. :)  I got a Konad kit (finally!) and I'm slowly teaching myself to use it.  Apparently it's a lot harder than it looks. As proof, I submit my first two konadicures.

Revlon - Steel-her Heart (which was on sale at HEB for $1) for the base and  Rimmel 60 Seconds Mirror - Shine On for the stamping. I used plate m79.

It didn't turn out so bad, it just could have turned out better! The clouds at least look like clouds on some of the nails! Also, excuse the wear! I'd had this on four days before I got around to taking a picture of it.

 Revlon Plum - Attraction for the base color, Wet n' Wild Strengthening Formula - 207 for the stamping,  and Pure Ice - Busted on top.  I used plate m57.

This one turned out much, MUCH better.  I am still wearing it as I type, chips and all.

 

I wore it for about three days, then got antsy and put this awesome glitter on top of it.

 Here is a shot where you can really see how much glitter is on them.

Now I think I'm going to go and play with my Essie Matte Magic that just came in the mail. :D

It's true, I have an addiction.

Maybelline Colorama Top Coats- 25 - Shimmer Girl (This is probably 5 years old by now, lol!) and OPI - Jade Is The New Black



I am in love with these two together.  I've had this on since St. Patty's Day and as you can see it still looks perfect.  Base: Rimmel, Top Coat: Seche Vite.

Click to see the wonderful flakes of glitter up close!  I am so happy to have discovered this treasure hiding in the bottom of my polish box!  I would say the colors are accurate.  With Jade Is The New Black, the actual polish dries darker than the color in the bottle.  This is my first time using OPI (I know, right?) and I found that it went on a little streaky.  Is it my base coat, the color, or do all OPIs go on like this?

Also!  I figured out that my camera has a close-up function, ftw!



Pure Ice - Wild Thing (Creme).  Another polish that I've had for years.



This picture, however, was taken before I figured out the close-up function.  I loved this look, but this was the most difficult manicure to maintain ever.



Another picture so you could get a clear shot of the pinky. I used Seche Base Coat here, and it was the weirdest thing but entire nails of polish would pop off!  First it was just one finger on the second day, but by the end of the third three whole nails of polish had popped off.  They were easy enough to put back on, but once they popped off they just kept coming off!! I don't think it was the polish as I had just used it's pink-sister in a mani a few weeks ago and hadn't had the problem - so I figured it was the base coat.  Have any of you had this problem with Seche base coat?  I'm afraid to use it again until I know! Haha.

I did two more green manicures between these looks, but unfortunately I didn't get pictures.  And I'm too sick of green (haha, I know I'm not the only one!) to do them again for a long time to come.  Needless to say I will never attempt to freehand four leaf clovers with a toothpick ever again.  :D

Happy Polishing!

Quilts, quilts, and more quilts!

So I'm very crafty, and I figure that is what I can use this blog for.  At the moment I channel my creative energy into nail polish and quilting, so if you're wondering why I'm following your blog, that's why!

While I love quilting, I have only actually finished one quilt!  At the moment I have two quilt tops in progress and a third in the planning stages!  I just can't help it! Haha.  I love designing them, piecing them, and giving them away, but that pesky step where you actually have to quilt (and bind, ugh) the thing just gets in the way of my creative process.  Of course, my opinion on this is not definitive, as I have only done it once before and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. We shall see. :D

First quilt was for one of my friends babies.  I call it Butterflies on the Grass.

The back!

I got this pattern from Oh! Fransson, who is like my quilting idol. Haha.  Since then, here are the projects that are in progress.

First post!

Well, I figured since I have this thing, I might as well update it, right?

A lesson to be learned: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.  I bought some polish the other night along with some 'decorating' polish brushes.  These decorating brushes came with cute little stencils, to which I thought, awesome! Right?

Wrong! The stencil broke after the third nail.  However I was already too invested to quit!  Over the next half hour I struggled with a messy, broken stencil to complete my "Omg, Spring! Hurry up!" mani, inspired by my new neon blue polish.



I used Milani - Dude Blue for the base and Pure Ice - Flirt Alert for the flowers. There are some better pictures after the cut!


Artificial light!  You can click this one to see a bigger version, though I'm afraid the quality isn't much better.


Natural light.  I am in love with this blue!

It still looks cute, but it is definitely time to invest in a konad stamping kit.  Nevertheless, even though my flowers aren't perfect (trust me, they are much worse IRL, my camera just lacks the ability to show that), that will not stop me from wearing it for a week!

Perhaps I'll make a crafts blog over here. Who knows?