Orange you glad it's Monday?

Hi Everyone!! Happy Monday!  A funny thing happened on the way to me putting polishes away in my melmer.  The first thing I did instead of putting away the 6 or 7 polishes I had out was go through my purple drawer to find what I just really wasn't wearing anymore so I could weed them out.  I pulled out about 8 I know I'm never going to wear so I'm definitely going to share these with someone who will.  Then I noticed I have quite a few really pretty oranges that I just don't wear so I decided to wear orange everyday this week!  Wow! This is going to be SO hard for me because I don't have any orange clothes! OMG I am going to clash every single day this week.  CAN I DO IT?!  I don't know but you'll be along with me for the ride so we both shall see.

The Sunday challenge for the AIS facebook group was tigers yesterday.  Hey tigers are sort of orange so how perfect is that?  After seeing pics of all the way cool true tiger designs I decided I wanted to step outside the box and do something a little different.  I started with a base of Zoya Myrta and Cult Nails Captivated and then enlisted my pink CiCi & SiSi for some stamping

I like this one!  I think it turned out pretty cool

My friend Ana told me it was very Cincinnati Bengals looking!  I might have to utilize this look again for football season!

What do you think when you see it?  Does it say tiger to you or definitely not at all?

How about your orange stash?  How is it looking?  Do you have any real beauties in there that only get love during Halloween?  If so you should haul them out and wear some right now!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fabulous day! 

Day 8--Duochrome, Flakie or Holo

Hi Everyone!  Today's Crumpets Nail Tart's Challenge puts us to Day 8 aka Duochrome, Flakie or Holo.  When I first saw this theme I said to myself well why not do all 3?  I think we all know I love duochromes--I especially love Sally Hansen duochromes  huge fan of flakies as well, but holo's not so much.  While it's true I have a lot of holos I just HATE they look like crap indoors!  I spend most of my time indoors working and I'm not out lazing around in the sun enjoying the prismatic effect of a holo for crying out loud!

BUT today I decided to do all three.  I chose Sally Hansen Ruby Sapphire for my duochrome, three nice coats of it, but on my accent nail over 2 coats I did a layer of my favorite flakie--Cult Nails Clairvoyant.  

I love a duochrome because it has so much to offer, one color one minute, another color the next

I move my hands all over the place when I wear a duochrome

I stamped another accent nail with Color Club Cloud Nine and Cheeky XL D

While the flash makes the holo come to life with a prismatic blaze, it hides the gorgeous flakie, and buries the 2nd color of the duochrome

 I'm not sure why my skin is so golden here either lol!

Back into a shade pic and the duochrome and flakie shine but the holo is DED

Poor, poor holo, you only come out to play in the sun

I guess that's why when it comes to "finishes" I'm always going to want to go with a duochrome or flakie over a holo.  I'm glad I got all three into this mani though, it shines in and out of the light for me!

What's up for tomorrow?

Saran Wrap!  I haven't tried a Saran Wrap mani yet!!!!

Let's see what the other Tart's have come up with for today

Aaaaaaaand the winner is????!!!!!

Hi Everyone!  Yesterday I had the whole day to myself!  It was the first time in over a month I didn't have to work AND didn't have to go anywhere or do anything.  How did I spend it?  Well let me tell you I didn't even shower or get dressed!  I lazed around in my pajamas all day long and it felt darn good! I tried to sleep in but that didn't happen.  Actually I didn't sleep in today either but that's okay.

Yesterday I worked on coming up with an idea for what mani to wear for New Year's Eve.  I'm not going out, but I will be going over to my little sister's for a fun party.  Today I thought I'd show you the designs I came up with that didn't win and then tomorrow I'll post the winner!

First up is my gradient using A England Bridal Veil, China Glaze Let's Do It In 3D and Sexagon.  I love, love, love the Kaleidoscopes.  I prefer them over any other holo.  

I did an accent nail using my holo hex and black glitter franken, Midnight's Master.

Since I didn't have any true fireworks design on a plate I stamped using BM02 

This one turned out just as I had envisioned, but I had a few other ideas so I kept on going.

Next up is my gold and silver mani!  I started with OPI Designer DeBetter and then gradiented with Funky Fingers Platinum Record.  My accent nail is Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and Maybelline Bold Gold. I stamped with the cute "spermy" balloons on BM20

My nails are much too long for the first Bundle Monster set but I managed to double stamp which made me happy.

Here's a pic in the shade, it's still quite lovely even if it's not sparkly!

My next design had no stamping whatsoever.  I hauled out the precious OPI DS Original for the 2nd time since I've owned it, which is a little over 2 years.

I just did a little tape mani based on a picture I'd seen way back when on Chloe's Nails.  It's been getting pinned again recently which prompted me to try it for the first time

This one didn't really wow me, but got a few likes from my FB friends.  The purple I used along with DS Original is my very fave purple creme which is Nails Inc Vicious

My last attempt before the winner was another mani from a pic I'd seen on Pinterest.  I just loved this when I saw it.  Unfortunately I don't have the Summer Cheeky set so I had to settle for the stars on BM21

I think I did a fantastic job double stamping those babies!

I chose Nfu-Oh 51 to both wear and stamp with.  It stamps darn good I think!

So there are all the "failures"  What do you think?"  Do any of them float your boat?

Tomorrow I'll be posting the winner mani I chose--it turned out really good!

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!

When is fake better than the real thing?

Hi Everyone!  I have a fake mani on today! And by fake or faux I mean it's close to the real thing but is it the cigar?  You might know I have several chinchillas as pets.  And by several I mean 10! Yes 10 chinchillas as pets.  No I don't believe in wearing the fur of an animal, no I don't appreciate it when someone asks me how many chinchillas make a coat.  There are times when fake is much better than the real thing--pleather instead of leather and fake fur all the way!

Even though I have a lovely bottle of Clarins 230 I also have Max Factor Fantasy Fire AND BeYu 209.  I also have a bottle of Cult Nails Clairvoyant aka Unicorn Puke why?  Well for the first two because I wanted them lol and the second one because honestly I am not putting something named Unicorn Puke on my nails.  Clairvoyant is the same exact thing, it's lovely and no puke anywhere near my nails! YAY!

I decided to play around with some colors I haven't worn yet so I hauled out my Zoya Savita, my Max Factor Fantasy Fire and my Cult Nails Clairvoyant.  I've worn Clairvoyant before but not the other two.  I'm into matte nails lately so I did a lovely mani with stamping and mattified it all!

First up here is Savita, Fantasy Fire and Clairvoyant as is

Here's a shot of it in the shade, it's blurry but you can really see the color flakies in Clairvoyant

I love this polish and love it even more it doesn't have puke in it's name!

Then I went at mattified it--really love this look!

Then I went and stamped on it using my good old mermaid tail stamp BM209!

I didn't matte the stamping but just left it as is--what do you think--should I have just left it without stamping over it?  And how gorgeous is that Fantasy Fire matted?  OMG it's pretty delicious!

Thanks for stopping!! I hope you all have a fabulous day!

How Do You Blue 2!

Hey Everyone!  Back when I first started "collecting" nail polish I would always say my problem color was blue.  The problem being I loved it and ALL blue nail polishes.  Well I've been doing this nail art stuff for a couple of years now so I'm happy to say I've branched out and my green and purple drawer definitey rival my blue drawer now LOL!  BUT blue is and will always be my first love.  The first blue I ever got was 16 years ago believe it or not!  I was working as a receptionist in the OB-Gyn department and there was a sweet girl I worked with, Olga.  One day she came in with this blue nail polish--I think it was by Sinful back when they had the short sqround bottles like Seche Vite--the name of it was Disco Blue and it was gorgeous!  All the girls knew how much I loved doing my nails and I was so touched when Olga said, "I saw this and thought of you!!"  All these years later I'm still loving those blues!

I did this mani after I saw this way cool design on Pinterest.  I love Pinterest!  You get the best ideas there!!  This is where I first saw the design.  I tried to get back to a blog but it was wanting me to sign into some other social network lol!  Um no thanks, Facebook obsessed is enough for me!

 This is a gradient half moon mani and pardon me but this really kicks a$$!

 I used a couple of my favorite blues for this--Cult Nails Time Traveler and China Glaze Sea Spray.

 The application is really easy!  I did two coats of Time Traveler and applied Seche Vite.  Then I used my trusty price stickers to help with the half moon and I did my gradient technique with Sea Spray and Time Traveler and sponged it onto my nails over the sticker.  

At first I was disappointed when I realized it gradiented the two colors instead of keeping them separate as the picture from pinterest appears.  I think she sponged her darker color over her lighter instead of gradienting them together.  But once I had them all done I loved the look!

This is definitely something I'll be doing again with some different colors!  I'm thinking of a nice chocolate brown with For Audrey!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a good day!

Summer Challenge--Green and Orange!

Hi Readers!  Summer Challenge Green and Orange???!!! What the????? Those colors DO NOT even go together!  But here's a disclaimer Readers, don't lament this to your fab work buddy Ashlee because when you say "omg green and orange those are awful colors to put together", she'll say "those are the colors I had at my wedding!" 

I was really lamenting this challenge.  I wanted to do it as I haven't done a few for a while so I thought okay get back on the horse.  But the green and orange horse????

It was easy to do when you had the right arsenal at your disposable!!! Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed and Gosh Rainbow!!!

Who said green and orange don't go together??? Not me!!!

I stamped over it using Zoya Meg

I thought these colors would beat me, but they didn't!

Here's my matching Toxic Seaweed ring I made ages ago!

Lizz's is really getting a work out as my camera man at work LOL!

I really loved this mani.  I couldn't decided if it was dragonish or snakeish but either way I loved it!  The image I used for snake and/or dragon design was Mash-39.

Thanks for stopping by!!! Make sure you check out what everyone else came up with for orange and green day!

Summer Challenge--Pink and Blue

Hi Readers!  Now don't lie but tell me what's the first thing you think of when you see or hear pink and blue? For me it's babies.  Yep babies.  I see or pink and blue and BAM my mind goes to babies.  So with the challenge today being pink and blue I really wanted to think outside the box.  I'm a huge blue fan but pink not so much.  I'd just done and tape mani so I said hmmmm what haven't you done in a while.  NEEDLE MARBLE!  Yep needle marble it is Readers with pink and blue

This one's pretty easy and straight forward.  I used a base of OPI Alpine White then used Cult Nails Time Traveler and Jesse's Girl Breathless for the needle marbling

I actually love how the ring finger turned out best BUT I actually re-did it lol!  I think I like it better using small dots instead of large ones like I did with the other fingers

Have you needle marbled yet Readers?  I was doing this before I got into stamping!  So easy and it looks really cool.  The key is wet polish, do one finger at a time AND don't use fast drying polishes!

I think this could look really cool using red, white and blue for the upcoming 4th of July.  We'll see if I give it a whirl!


Lots of ladies doing the Summer Challenge, be sure to check them out!

Debbie @ The Crumpet - http://thecrumpet.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Neivys - http://maquiclubgirl.blogspot.com/ 

Jo @ Northern Nails - http://therockchicksrambles.blogspot.co.uk/ 

arlene @ http://euzefelus27-nailart.blogspot.com/ 

Helena - http://nailwish.blogspot.com.es/ 

Cuti-CLUE-les - http://cuti-clue-les.blogspot.com/ 

Katee - www.agirlandherpolish.blogspot.com 

Alyssa at Fancy Phalanges - http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com/ 

Sarah - http://www.ynails.blogspot.co.uk/ 

bec - http://lacquerdreams.blogspot.com.au/ 

Misha - www.enigmatic-rambles.blogspot.com 

Sharon - http://whatcolorismycoat.blogspot.com/ 

Melissa - http://www.misadventuresofawannabemartha.com/ 

Laurie http://dressedupdigits.blogspot.com/ 

Lucie @ Lucy's Stash www.lucysstash.com 

Emma @  http://manicurity.blogspot.com/ 

Caitlin - www.caitlinscreativecorner.blogspot.com 

Jane- http://absolutevarnish.blogspot.com/ 

Amber www.nevernakednails.blogspot.com 

Vic @ Glowstars http://glowstars.net 

Jackie- http://memasmanis-jackie.blogspot.com/ 

Rychelle @ Colorsplash Nails- http://colorsplashnails.blogspot.com/ 

Stella - http://mywetnails.blogspot.com 

Missy @ http://missysmanis.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Kim @ http://apolishedaddiction.blogspot.com/ 

Christine @ http://lost-in-my-reverie.blogspot.com 

Angie @ http://ourpaintedworld.wordpress.com 

Bazzia @  http://polishmymind.blogspot.se/ 

Missy the Manicured Maniac @ http://melissahenderson95.blogspot.com/ 

Michelle @ http://lacquerorleaveher.blogspot.com/ 

Nikki @ http://www.lilgreenheart.blogspot.com/ 

Elizabeth @ http://nailpolishismycrack.blogspot.com/ 

Ana Cris @ http://www.estacerradaladrogueria.blogspot.com.es/ 

Shayleen @ http://simplyhandyallyear.blogspot.com/  

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Let Me (Dragon)Fly!

Hi Readers!  Did anyone get in on the fabulous sale Cult Nails had this month?  I sure did and I'm sort of kicking my self in the butt for not getting one of the polishes I snagged earlier!  What I got from the sale this time was Vicious, Time Traveler and Let Me Fly.  I've been wanting Let Me Fly FOREVER and I can't believe I almost didn't get it this time either.  I was going back and forth between Living Water and In A Trance and Let Me Fly.  For some reason I thought Let Me Fly was just a creme.  It's not readers! It's the most gorgeous teal shimmer EVAH!  I LURVE IT!  I really wanted to showcase it and I honestly thought of wearing it with no nail art over it.  That lasted about an hour lol!  Here's what I came up with for my Let Me Fly mani!

I actually looked for some cute dragonfly images but in all the plates I have i came up with bubkiss!  Hence the free hand dragonflies!
Here's nice close up!

I decided to wear my double butterfly ring with it!

Here's a picture of the polishes I used

This is Cult Nails Let Me Fly, WetnWild White Frost, and China Glaze Fairy Dust.  I just realized I forgot my WetnWild Black Creme in the pic lol!


If you don't have any Cult Nails I highly recommend you give them a try!


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Move over Brittany Spears!

Hi Readers!  Today's mani is TOXIC!  But definitely in a good way!  I received Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed as a birthday present from my sweet friend Marissa.  She is a really wonderful friend and I love her DESPITE the fact she is a New York Giants fan UG!  With the addition of Toxic Seaweed to my polish stash I now consider I have the trifecta of Cult Nails beauties--Captivated, Clairvoyant and Toxic Seaweed.  Maria really knows how to do glitters and flakies!  Next up for me from them will be Iconic, Time Traveler and Vicious.
No stamping on this mani today readers, just some gorgeous greens!  I did two coats of the lovely Zoya Veruschka and then sponged Toxic Seaweed on at the tips.  I love flakies matted and since I started with a matte I wanted to keep that look so a topcoat of Essie's Matte About You finished the look

I love Zoya Veruschka it's so rich!

Here's a nice closeup of the flakie goodness!

When you matte a flakie it just traps all the shine and shimmer and I love it!


So there you have it readers, a nice, easy but beautiful green mani for St Patrick's Day!  I'm actually thinking of attempting a water marble mani!  My friend Jodi over at Captivating Claws marbles like no other and she makes it seem so easy so you never know I may just surprise her and try one of my own!


Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Jewelry for your nails!

Hi readers!  Today I've decided to highlight jewelry for your nails--and by this I mean nail polish of course!  I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way or not but I wasn't all that excited when Cult Nails came up with the whole "Unicorn Puke" limited edition number bottles.  Honestly I'm not going to wear anything with "puke" in the title on my nails.  BUT Clairvoyant I can definitely "do".  Clairvoyant is a truly gorgeous multi colored flakie polish with a hint of purple.  I was lucky enough to get it on the Black Friday sale for less than $10!!!  Maria does a truly fantastic job creating some gorgeous colors if you haven't ever ordered from them before or have never seen the colors they offer you can check them out here.

Here I have two layers of Clairvoyant over the lovely OPI Ink

Here's a picture of it with flash because I always like to take pictures in light or with the flash as it does change the appearance of the polish

Isn't it just gorgeous???  I usually stamp my mani's but this is so pretty it needs nothing more!

I also make nail polish jewelry so I made some pieces using Clairvoyant

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I set these pieces on my rocking chair to snap a pic of so please excuse the colored background lol!

I tried to get a picture of me showing off my ring with the my mani but it's a bit dark, still I love having a matching ring for my manicure!

And last but not least is my favorite pic of me and Clairvoyant!  My nail polish buddy Crystal and I were both so excited to get Clairvoyant that we were doing the count down to who's going to get it in the mail first.  We decided we would wear it on the same day with the same underwear.  She got hers a day before I did but waited for me to wear hers--wasn't she sweet????.  Here is our picture--the Clairvoyant Wonder Twins!

How do you feel readers?  Did you get one of the limited edition bottles of Unicorn Puke or did you get the lovely and "normal" named Clairvoyant?  Or are you checking out Maria's site right now to get a bottle of this gorgeous polish?