Haul + Helmer help

Hi ladies I am almost done with verifying  the entries for my giveaway I am very excited to announce a winner but that will have to wait for tomorrow. Today I wanted to show you my recent haul. The month is now over and Ive been trying to buy less polishes a month. I had asked what is a decent amount of polishes a month and Rebecca from Rebecca likes nails shared with me what she's been aiming for which is buying less polishes that there is days in the month. So I decided to give that a try and I failed miserably my total came to 68!! I'm ashamed I have absolutely no will power I blame Zoya because of their BOGO sale and Sally's  for their buy 2 get 1 free.

I got all the following polishes this past week and a half. Ive been doing alot of buying for swaps for 2 lovely ladies in Europe so in the middle of all the buying I couldn't come home without something for me. So here are some of the polishes from Sally's sale so every 3rd polish was free.

China Glaze Re-fresh mint

China glaze Four leaf clover

China Glaze Shocking pink

China Glaze Sexy in the city

China Glaze Electric Pineapple

China Glaze Senorita Bonita

China Glaze Papaya Punch

Orly Cotton Candy

Orly Va Va Voom

Essie Smooth Saling (Walgreens)

Walgreens was also having great sales on Sinful Colors 50% OFF and so was Sally Hansen's Xtreme wear polishes. CVS had a sale on the Insta-Dri buy one the second one is 50%OFF this is what came from theses sales.

Sinful Colors All about you

Sinful Colors UFO

Sally Hansen XW Strobe light

Sally Hansen XW Pacific blue

Sally Hansen XW Lacey Lilac

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Beige blast

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Night flight

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind white

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver sweep

These's next polishes I got today with my hubby in a mall in Salem NH. Its sometime nice to go to further away malls because they always have the exclusive stuff so take a look at what I found!

OPI Silver Shatter

OPI Mermaid Tears

OPI Pirates of the Caribbean mini set

Lush Lemony Flutter Cuticle butter

Icing Blackout (finally)

Icing duabilityMagnetic attraction/

 Force of Love (looks like Deborah Lippmann Across the universe dupe)

Claire's Flackie set

Claire's Secret Garden

Claire's Bright skies

Claire's Nail bling (multi colored gems/leopard print)

Bundle Monster Plates (got in the mail Monday)

 

So I failed horribly! But its a new month so Im really gonna try to keep its under 31 due to my massive hauling again I have run out of space for my polishes they no longer fit on my book shelf. So I will be making a trip to Ikea to get a helmer. Who has a Helmer for their polishes? How many polishes usually fit in a Helmer? I have 450+ could I fit all of them in one Helmer? How many polishes do you ladies have? 

More about → Haul + Helmer help

Pampered & Polished Party!

Yay! It was a success. I hope everyone learned some things and enjoyed themselves. I tried to take pics to share with y'all here, but I got tied up and missed some bits. I tried to keep it to a small enough group to be manageable in my size apartment. It ended up be 11 women total (I think). I tried to set up everyone a station. We removed old polish, used an exfoliating scrub provided by Jackie from Oma's Favorites, pushed back cuticles and filed, then polished & embellished! Here are my pics. Sorry if some are fuzzy or funny colors, I'm still learning how to work my new camera in non-macro mode!

My baskets of polishes sorted by color to let them choose easily.

 The lineup on my bar, before it made it's way to the stations. I love these twist and lock pumps to put remover in. I got them at Sally's for $4.99. It's great because it pumps the polish directly into the cottonball without risking spilling it everywhere.

 My mom (in the black shirt) was in charge of food. She made all sorts of crazy finger sandwich combos as well as some chips & stuff.

 Each seated where I carefully covered all of my furniture so that remover wouldn't damage anything.

 Jackie testing out Sally Hansen "So Much Fawn"

 CocoPuff is back again! Trying her hand at stamping (and failing miserably, lol!) I tried to tell them it takes some practice. There is a learning curve!

 Hold the phone! If that Kim trying something other than pink!?!?! Shock of all shocks! She went with Orly Ancient Jade!

 B already has a plan in mind involving colors to coordinate with a new purse and shoes! I like it!

 Ah! And rhinestones! :)

 CocoPuff is making a bigger mess, Jackie still can't decide and has changed her color ten times....

 B's nails turned out lovely!

 CocoPuff went with China Glaze Pink Voltage Neon, OPI Black Shatter over the top. Tonight was not the night for stamping after all....

 Sorry I didn't get more pictures of the completed manis. Some left before I thought about my camera again.

And these are the goodies I get! R gave up her whole stash because she doesn't do her nails much anymore. Even though some of the polishes are from back in the day, they're still nice. (One is "Love my Nails" anyone else remember that brand? Lol) I can use some of the polishes as bases for frankens! She even had a few OPI's! I was floored! She gave me Pearls of Wisdom & Loyalty Islands Lilac. Loyalty is apparently from back in 1997. Awesome of her to give them to me. Thanks again!

Overall it was a lot of fun and I encourage all that can, get a group of your friends together to do a spa party. It's great association.

More about → Pampered & Polished Party!

april haul

Hey guys, here is my monthly haul post!
Keep reading to see what I bought/received this month.

So after ending up with 45 in March, I decided that I should try to aim for buying less polishes than there are days in the month. Or equal with the days in the month.
And I came close! Close but no cigar.

Like last time, these are in the order I got them, and grouped if they were bought on the same day.
This time I added links for the ones that I have done swatches of! (Some have swatches still coming though!)

China Glaze - Liquid Leather
China Glaze - White On White
Nina Ultra Pro - Purple X-ing (free)
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Invisible

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Silver Sweep

OPI - Conquistadorable Color
OPI - No Spain No Gain
OPI - Yoga-Ta Get This Blue

Nicole By OPI - Step To The Beat Of My <3
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Rapid Red
WetNWild Coloricon - Prowler
WetNWild Coloricon - Blue Jitters

Milani - Gold Glitz (giveaway)
Milani - Purple Gleam (giveaway)
Milani - Silver Dazzle (giveaway)

Milani - Fresh Teal (gift)

China Glaze - Sun Worshiper
China Glaze - Watermelon Rind
Orly - Oh Cabana Boy (free)

Icing - Runaway

Gosh - Gasoline

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Lacey Lilac

Nicole by OPI - I'm a Belieber (gift)

Sephora - Hello Kitty Liquid Nail Art - Purple Sprinkles

Milani - Blue Flash

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Purple Pizazz (gift)
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Raspberry Race (gift)
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Chartreuse Chase (gift)

L.A. Girl Disco Brites - Dance Craze
China Glaze - Rose Among Thorns
China Glaze - Up All Night
Orly - Spark (free)

Bought this month but still not arrived:

Color Club - Starry Temptress Collection (7 polishes)
Milani 3D - 3D
Milani 3D - Hi-Def


So. If you count those all up, it's 43.
However, the ones that I paid for total up to 31.
So I almost made it to my goal if you don't count my winnings/gifts.
This month? Same goal. May has 31 days though!

More about → april haul

New Polishes At Medusa's Threads & Ebay

On ebay I have 2 polishes this week. I am more than happy to combine shipping for items purchased from Medusa's Thread & ebay! I tried to make these 3 day listings, but it told that I couldn't for security reasons. Ebay is confusing.

China Glaze Out On Safari


China Glaze Grape Crush

I've also added OPI DS Royal to Medusa's Threads.

Still in the original sealed box. It's been sitting in the storage room of a small independent beauty supply store here in Tulsa. It's hard to get a good picture through that plastic window! $20

Thanks for reading & thanks to everyone who has entered my latest giveaway!
April

More about → New Polishes At Medusa's Threads & Ebay

orly - royal velvet - swatch and review

This polish has proved to be very frustrating for me.
I bought it because it just looked cool in the bottle, but really I don't wear dark shades like this very often. (Which reminds me, why did I buy a dark blue China Glaze today?)

Anyway. I tried to swatch this a month ago when I got it but just had such issues with it that I took it off and swore never to use it again.
But after loving Oh Cabana Boy I decided to give Royal Velvet another try, and it went much better.

The first time, it just would not dry right. It was latex-y and gross, and I kept denting it, and it was so uneven and gross. And so hard to clean up. Just a bad experience.
This time I was able to get much more even coverage and it did dry fine. I don't know what happened last time!

Royal Velvet is sort of the definition of "blurple." It's a purple jelly-like base that sometimes looks blue, with bright blue shimmer. Sort of duochrome.

Hard to capture in pictures.

It's a bit sheer - 4 coats for perfect coverage.

Even though I had an easier time with application this time, I'm still not in love with this. I just don't think dark is my thing anymore.

The last picture is my favorite because it shows the purple!

I'll be posting my April haul tonight - I almost made it to my goal of less polishes than there are days in the month. Almost.

P.S. I got 2 blog awards yesterday from lovely ladies - I'll do my post on that tomorrow!

More about → orly - royal velvet - swatch and review

China Glaze OMG

Hey everyone! I'm excited about today's post because this is the first time I used OMG, which Dustin got me for my birthday. I know, I know WHY wouldn't I make something like this top priority!? It goes without saying, this polish is freakin amazing. As Karen from Karen's Nail Blog says: "This polish is holo- licious!" : )

Another huge plus for me is the drying time for the OMG collection. For being a mom with a baby, this polish gives a fast, fun manicure and I don't have to worry about them getting messed up! And I don't have to find a big window of time...I did these while she was in the bath! haha

This is how we jazzed it up:

What we used: New Bundle Monster plate 224 , Zoya Pippa and Ali, Konad Black

I thought this looked like a mix of futuristic and retro all in one!

Also, I created a Facebook page for my blog. There's not much going on with it because it's brand new, but you guys can fix that by liking the page HERE! :)

More about → China Glaze OMG

Saucy New Strawberry Shortcake

Why are companies sexualizing little girl's toys? I was in love with the cute, plump, toddler of Strawberry Shortcake. Why does she now have to be more "grown up" and wear a tighter dress with a shorter hemline? No wonder some of the kids of this generation have issues.

Old Strawberry Shortcake vs New:

image source

Maybe you've forgotten but in February I tried to do some original Strawberry Shortcake nails, and I felt it was a failure. Some liked it, but I didn't. Here those are. Since my skills have been refined a bit since that original try, I thought I'd give it another shot! I used the newer version of Strawberry Shortcake and her friends.

 Thumb is Strawberry Shortcake's new dress.

 
 Index is Blueberry Muffin

Middle is Strawberry Shortcake (she photographed more orange than pink, but it was more color accurate in real life)

Ring is Orange Blossom (I made sure to include this brown sugar friend, just for you Jackie!)

Pinky is random Strawberry Shortcake doodles.

How do you think I did?

Here are the broken down pics for those that are interested. I started with a base of OPI Alpine Snow Matte and Sally Hansen Iced Coffee. For Orange Blossom I sponged on some Orly's Prince Charming to give her some color. ;) All the rest of the colors are blended acrylic paints.

More about → Saucy New Strawberry Shortcake

Ummm....Nope! DO NOT WANT

This is one of those manis, that didn't turn out how I expected, but it actually looks better in the pics, lol. I received my set of new Bundle Monster plates a few days ago, and only had 1 night of play time so far. I saw what appeared to be peacock feathers, and since I'm kind of on a kick, I decided to use that image first :) Okay, well I started with a coat of black and a coat of Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal. I figured that all the colors in Turq. Opal, would resemble feathers better. I'm sure I would have liked this better, had I used different colors, and didn't eff up the design placement on my pinkie. It drove me crazy, lol

Then I used China Glaze Millenium and plate BM 212 for my design

More about → Ummm....Nope! DO NOT WANT