Pretty and Polished Party on my Yacht

January 17, 2012

This is two coats of Pretty and Polished Party on my Yacht! Isn't it such a unique, one of a kind polish?! You can visit Chelsea's Etsy shop by clicking here. She recently added some new polishes that I am super excited about. I ordered Power House and Forgery!

The first photo shows no top coat and the bar glitter does lay flat.

USE THIS DISCOUNT CODE AT HER SHOP FOR A 5% DISCOUNT!!!!

NAILVEN5

I added some random heart stickers (because I love this polish) and one coat of top coat.

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Ulta Envy + L.A. Girls Rock Star Crowd Surfing

January 16, 2012

Many of you know that I LOVE franken polishes... And there are two people in particular that inspired me to open my own Etsy shop (hopefully by next weekend)! So I spent the weekend swatching my polishes and taking photos. While I was looking through my photos, I noticed this manicure that is THREE months old. I think it is about time to post it! I guess I never posted it because I didn't like it. But oh well, maybe you will like it.

This is two coats of Ulta Envy with one coat of L.A. Girls Rock Star Crowd Surfing. I want to say that it looks like I put a matte top coat on too, but I can't remember.

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Color Club Wild At Heart + NYX Gilded glitter + Polish Ninja Nessie Scales

January 12, 2012

This is two coats of Color Club Wild At Heart. I received this beauty from the lovely Heather from Peace, Love, & Polish!

Then I decided to layer with one of Rhonni's color changing flakie top coats!!!! .... This is two coats of Polish Ninja Nessie Scales. You can purchase some of these by clicking here.

I added one coat of NYX Gilded Glitter to the tips (which I purchased from Rhonni's blog sale!)

More about → Color Club Wild At Heart + NYX Gilded glitter + Polish Ninja Nessie Scales

A Christmas Present Nail Design

December 03, 2011

Another Franken polish for you today! I have become obsessed with buying people's custom polishes lately. This polish comes from Dollish Polish. You can visit her Etsy shop here. She also sells custom hand painted nail art.

The photo above shows three coats of Expecto Patronum and one coat of China Glaze Fast Forward top coat. After two coats, I still had "bald" spots, so a third coat was a must for me. I do  appreciate the subtle glitter (there is a slight shimmer the photo doesn't show), but I do wish there were more blue chunks of glitter on my nails.

See all the lovely blue glitter in the bottle shot! I want more of that on my nail! And I did shake the bottle like crazy (like her note said to in the package). I think most of the glitter settled at the bottom, but I had a hard time getting it to rise to the top so the brush could pick it up. I shook it pretty well too.

I recently saw my friend Michelle's (Sonoma Nail Art) gift wrapping manicure, and it inspired me. 

Here is my version of a "sophisticated" Christmas present (in other words, I didn't want to use red, green, or gold). I painted on the "ribbon" with Sally Hansen Celeb City. I then stamped on the bow with Red Angel Stamping plate RA-121 and Kleancolor Metallic Navy.  These are my recently purchased stamping plates from Amazon. You can purchase a 21 piece set of Red Angel Stamping plates from Amazon for approximately $12 plus shipping.

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Lacquistry Franken = Fall Nail Design

November 21, 2011

I recently bought five franken polishes from Jenna of Lacquistry Original Nail Polish Creations!!!! You can visit here Etsy shop here. She also recently launched a Facebook fanpage.  Her polishes are amazing, and she has many to choose from. 

This is one of her creations, the Paean of the Bells ("a sparkling bronze jelly base sprinkled with golden brown glitters, punctuated with gold holo bits to create a uniquely warm shimmer"). It is stunning, and I love the color. Too bad I didn't get better pictures but my fancy camera is getting the LCD screen fixed. So I had to use my old camera.

This is two coats of Lacquistry The Paean of the Bells and one coat of top coat.

 The next day I decided to try something. So guess what I did. I used my METALLIC GOLD EYESHADOW. Yes, I said eyeshadow. I placed one coat of Maybelline Modern Metallics eyeshadow and one more coat of top coat. 

Can you tell the difference? 

Then I added some Fall inspired That's It? Instant Nail Art decals.

More about → Lacquistry Franken = Fall Nail Design

Fall Nail Design + Lovebeangirl's Franken Polish

October 02, 2011

October is finally here, so of course I have another Fall manicure! This polish is a franken sent to me by Tyne from LovebeanGirl (Click here to view her blog!). She created this franken as a contest entry. Her inspiration for this polish was Jacob from Twilight. Click here to read about what polishes she used to create this polish. It was so sweet of her to send me a bottle of it. I love the brown jelly finish with the silver chunky glitter. It is perfect for the season.

As always, I had to add a little something extra. I decided to try my new rub on nail art decals I just purchased (Click here to view the site. Just a warning on my experience with this company. This site was slow to ship. After a week with no shipment notification, I emailed them. They replied with a "sorry for the delay" e-mail. Your products will be shipped today. That was on a Friday, and I received them the following Wednesday. So about a week and  half from order date to arrival date, which still isn't too bad, but I wonder why I had to email them in the first place to check on my order). I am so glad I ordered almost every one of their selection of rub on nail art decals because these things are amazing. They lay flush with your nail unlike nail art stickers. All you do is place the sheet to your nail and rub on the decal! The directions say to rub it on with a orange stick, but I found it easier to apply by pressuring really hard on the decal for about 10 seconds. Then I finished it off with a top coat.

More about → Fall Nail Design + Lovebeangirl's Franken Polish

Smells Like Teen Spirit won!

Hi everyone, I'm very happy to say that Smells Like Teen Spirit has won the franken contest at More Nail Polish! There were so many other pretties competing, so it feels incredible to win and I'm very thankful for it. Thank you so much if you voted for it, it wouldn't have won without you! Also big thanks to Cathy for hosting the contest, it must have been so much work to do, and for the amazing prize; a brand new bottle of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Turquoise Opal! I can't wait till it arrives, it's so pretty! Thanks for stopping by :)

More about → Smells Like Teen Spirit won!

Vote for my (first) franken!

Hi guys! My first franken! I've finally managed to finish a bottle of topcoat so I had an empty bottle to start the long-awaited frankening. I wanted to post my franken sooner but then I discovered the Franken polish contest at More Nail Polish, so I entered! And I couldn't post my entry anywhere yet before it was published on More Nail Polish.

My franken is called Smells Like Teen Spirit, named after the famous song from one of my all-time favorite bands Nirvana, as a tribute. The song isn't my favorite of them but it was the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the finished franken. I think the name fits the vibe of the franken well and I really wouldn't be able to come up with any other name for it, this franken was meant to be Smells Like Teen Spirit!

The polish is a blend of many different glitter and shimmer polishes. The result is a blue-toned purple base filled with silver, gold, blue, purple and iridescent glitter/shimmer in different sizes. And it needs three coats to get opaque.

So check out all the 21 amazing frankens that have entered the contest and vote for mine if you really think it deserves to win. The grand prize is a bottle of the rare Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Turquoise Opal!

Sun

Shade

 

And here's the recipe for those who are interested, it's a looong list of 11 polishes, I think I poured in about the same amount of each and I also included a picture of everything I used, 'cause isn't a picture worth a thousand words?

China Glaze - Gold Digger

China Glaze - Strawberry Fields

Orly - Galaxy Girl

OPI - Last Friday Night

H&M - Blue Wave

Essence - Choose Me!

Deborah Milano - #838

Paris Memories - #253

Paris Memories - #254

Diamond Cosmetics - Turquoise Glitter

LA Girl - Overdose

More about → Vote for my (first) franken!

Latest Franken

This is 2 coats of a franken I made with Claire's Mood Peaceful/Confident & Sally Hansen Black Out. I was hoping it would keep it's color-changing ability, but no luck. I still think it's gorgeous though. It dried semi-matte, like the Claire's, as you can see in the first picture. In the picture below, I added a glossy top coat to my middle & pinky fingers.

Here it is in the shade with alternating glossy and matte finishes again. It ended up being so shiny that I can see myself holding the camera in my nail!

I certainly don't have anything comparable in my collection, but I'm sure some of you ladies do. Does this look like a dupe for anything you own?

Thanks for reading!
April

Current Giveaways

• American Apparel Polish Giveaway! Ends 12/3.
  

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Frankening With The Ugliest Polish I've Tried So Far.

What do you do with polishes that you've tried but just don't like? Do you swap them? Keep them with your regular collection but just ignore them? Banish them to a box under your bed? Or do you mix the unloveds together & see if you can make something pretty?
That is what I do with my unwanted polishes. For this franken I used my least favorite polish that I've tried so far, Ulta Sunny Romance of St. Tropez. I really can't imagine it looking good on anyone and it didn't work as a layering polish either. So I decided to add some Sally Hansen Black Out to it and just see what happened. The results were not what I was expecting but I like it! It somehow turned into a mossy greenish brown with copper shimmer!!


Thanks for reading!
April

More about → Frankening With The Ugliest Polish I've Tried So Far.

Trying To Franken A Rescue Beauty Lounge 360 Dupe

My budget doesn't currently allow me to purchase high dollar polishes from brands like Rescue Beauty Lounge and Deborah Lippmann. But I still fall in love with some of their unique colors like Rescue Beauty Lounge 360! Here's a link to Alizarine Claws lovely swatches of this color.

My version is still a little too bright and has more visible shimmer but I still love it! I used Tic Tac Turquoise for a base and added BB Couture Autumn Sunset until I got a color I liked. I love using up my unwanted polishes like this!

Thanks for reading!
April

More about → Trying To Franken A Rescue Beauty Lounge 360 Dupe

Franken Fail, Paintball, Goofy Will & Nail Art!

Will & I played paintball last weekend and it was super fun! I've never been before but I can't wait to go again. I got the prettiest bruise ever on my thigh and Will shot me in the hand. The hand shot was hard enough to blast off some of my nail polish!

I didn't have enough time to completely redo my nails before we went out that night, so I used my smARTnails sticker stencils and China Glaze Ruby Pumps to hide the damage. Someday soon I'll have to use this sticker stencil for making comic book style word bubbles. POW! The base color is my first attempt at frankening a dupe for RBL 360 which is a dusty teal. This one is way too bright!

This next picture is just ridiculous! I was half asleep when we left for paintball and didn't check Will's outfit like I normally do. Believe me it's necessary! We stopped at QuikTrip for gas, I looked up and saw this coming towards the car. That's one of my wife beaters!! Geez Will. You can see more funny Will in this post.


Thanks for reading!
April

More about → Franken Fail, Paintball, Goofy Will & Nail Art!