Sally Hansen Earthen Opal

Hi everyone! Today I am bringing you the other polish that I won in the Wizards of Bling giveaway that I won a few months ago (back in March I think?). This one is called Earthen Opal, it is a gorgeous rusty red color with a gold shimmer running through it. Like the other polish, it took forever to dry; but this polish was opaque after 2-3 coats. It looks amazing paired with golds. Do you like it too?

KOTD: Fiery Fabric

Hey everyone! Today I am bringing you a simple Konad from the s6 plate. I used Sally Hansen Earthen Opal as the base color and China Glaze Twenty-Four K as the stamping color. I love how the colors go together, but maybe this wasn't the best image to use, I accidently got one backwards if you look closely. Do you like these colors together? What do you think?

Essie Wrapped in Rubies

Hi everyone! Today is another backlogged swatch (last one I promise!), this one of Essie Wrapped in Rubies. This is a much deeper and richer color than I could make my camera show. It is a beautiful blend of brown, red and gold. I think that it is kind of a sultry color, I don't know. It is a gorgeous color that I somehow managed to get a mini of, it is a gorgeous color. It applies well in 2-3 coats and dries in an acceptable amount of time. I think that I will likely sport this one more in the winter, especially on my toes. What do you think of it?

Essie Ruby Slippers

Hey everyone! Today is a polish that I managed to find a mini of, Essie Ruby Slippers. This is China Glaze Ruby Pump's chunkier sister. The color is great, but the glitter is definitely chunkier than in Ruby Pumps. This is also more of a yellow-based red to the bluer-based red in Ruby Pumps. This applies much like a traditional glitter in that it needs a few coats, but it dried nicely. It does need a thick topcoat if you want a smooth finish though. I love how this color sparkles in the sun, and it is a very pretty color. I get lots of compliments when I wear it. It is a pain to take off (like any other glitter), but it is a lovely color to have on!

Swatch Spam: Darks

Hi everyone! Today is the last installment, but I am bringing you the darks. Enjoy ladies!

OPI Big Apple Red

OPI Bogota Blackberry

Sinful Colors Burgundy Apple

OPI You Don't Know Jacques

Art Deco: Red, Red Glitter, Bright Orange, and Intense Pink

Hello everyone! Today I am bringing you a review of several Art Deco polishes.

The first on, which you may remember I used quite a bit during my Valentine's Day series, is Art Deco Red. This is a great red striper polish, it is a really classic primary red color and the brush is super long, skinny, and easy to work with. The formula applies very easily and is opaque in one swipe.

The next one is Art Deco Red Glitter. This is such a lovely glitter, this one has a red base color unlike the metallic glitters that have clear bases. This is kind of like the striper version of China Glaze Ruby Pumps, I love it!

The next one is Art Deco Bright Orange. This is an awesome neon red-orange color that I think will be great for summer nail art designs. This is a beautiful color and I can't wait to use it!

Last in this post is Art Deco Intense Pink. I could not get this polish to show up true to color because it has a lot of purple tones, so I apologize. In real life it is much brighter and much more neon, like a dark pink highlighter.
 
Do you buy stripper polishes? What brand do you use?

OPI Glove You So Much!

Hello everyone! Today I am bringing you a polish from the 2009 OPI Holiday Wishes collection. I know that I said that I wasn't going to get anything from that collection besides Merry Midnight, but it was 50% off and I couldn't help myself!

Now when I got this home; I was super mad. I didn't think to compare it to Bogota Blackberry in the store, and in the bottle these look almost exactly the same! This one looked slightly darker, but I was still really mad. Then when I swatched them both I felt tons better! This is like the super vampy version of Bogota Blackberry, it is a lovely frosty burgundy color that I love to death! Even for a frost, brushstrokes are pretty minimal, it applied beautifully in two coats. Did you pick this one up? Do you like it?

Nail Art: Olympic-Inspired Nails

Hi everyone! If you follow me on Twitter, then you probably already know how obsessed I am with the Olympics, so of course I had to do a mani inspired by the event! I have closely watched every Olympics since the Sydney Summer Games in 2000. In fact I even live in Salt Lake City, which hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. It was really cool to watch the opening ceremonies this year because I now know so many people around the world through blogging. When countries would march in, I would think of people that I know in those countries and cheer, it has brought me much closer to the international aspect of the Games. I love it! Do you watch the Olympics too?

I used OPI Alpine Snow, Art Deco Gold Glitter, OPI Sea, I Told You!, Sinful Colors Canary Yellow, OPI Black Onyx, OPI Green-wich Village, and OPI Big Apple Red. It is inspired by the Olympic flag, which I love because it contains at least one color that is on every flag around the world!

Valentine's Day: Deconstructed Lace

Hello everyone! Today I am bringing you another fun Valentine's Day manicure. *Please ignore the massive amount of bubbling I got, they appeared after my top coat was applied. I have never had bubbling problems before.*

I decided that I wanted to try multiple stamps on my nails. So I used the lace pattern on the m57 plate over and over again at different angles. I love how it turned out, to me it looks like ripped up lace. I used OPI Alpine Snow as a base, OPI Tutti Frutti Tonga for the pink, and Art Deco Red for the red stamping. Do you think that it looks cool too?

Valentine's Day: Hearts and Dots

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all having a wonderful day! Today I am bringing you another V-Day mani, but this one was kind of a fail. I meant to do little hearts on my nails, but they all turned into dots. I am not very talented with the striper brush, I should have gotten a nail art pen! Oh well, I still like it. I used OPI Alpine Snow under ELF Pearl for the base color, and Art Deco Red for the hearts and dots. Are you doing anything special for Valentine's Day?

To make this post a little less lame, I will share something embarassing that happened to me yesterday. So I was at work and typically I work by myself in a lab. So I turn on music to entertain myself and I was totally belting out Tik Tok by Ke$ha and my boss walked in. I might have been dancing too, I don't remember. It was so embarrassing, I don't think that she cared, but I did. I am not even a good singer lol, so I am going to stop singing at work! :P

NOTD: Super Skinny Glitter Tips!

Hello everyone! Today is just a really quick mani. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to try a mani with really really thin tips, so I did! Doesn't it look cool? I really like it. I used Chi Chi Mother-In-Law and Art Deco Gold Glitter for the tips. If you are only wearing one polish color for the day, this would be a really easy way to spice it up a little for nighttime. I feel like it would look a lot cuter if my nails were really long though. Do you like it? What do you think?

KOTD: Velvet Butterflies

Hi everyone! Today I am bringing you a nice KOTD, this is OPI Glove You So Much! with China Glaze Twenty-Four K and the m20 plate. I used the butterfly image in the middle of the plate and stamped some flowers for her to land on. I think that it turned out really cute; do you like it too?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway! Either scroll down to the previous post or click the link in the upper right hand corner of the screen. :)

Mattified Essie and Mecca!

Hey everyone! Today I bring you mattified polish! I matted these with Essie's Matte About You Topcoat. At the bottom is the picture of them glossy for comparison; enjoy!

Essie Mint Candy Apple - I think that I like this one shiny better, I don't know, candy should just be shiny! I would be wary of matte candy...

Essie Forever Young - I love this one matte! It looks so retro and fun matte! It seems very 50's/ burlesque/ pin-up awesome!

Mecca Cosmetica Celia - I love this one matte too, although its shiny counterpart tickles my fancy as well! I don't know if I will ever use it in nail art matte; but I do like it!

Stay tuned, later today I am posting my awesome fun time with kelliegonzo!!!! You need to see it!

Chi Chi Mother-In-Law

Hey everyone! Today I bring you another polish from Australia/New Zealand that I recieved as a part of my present from Selina, and it is Chi Chi Mother-In-Law!

This is a sheer creme red polish. It applies very evenly, but as I said it is sheer. The picture was of 3 coats and you can still see my nail line, but I find this the case with a lot of creme reds. It dried within a reasonable amount of time and wore without chipping for a few days. I quite like it, it is a very classic cherry red color that every girl should have in her stash, no matter what brand it is. Kiwi, do you like it?

NOTD: Lubu Mani

Hi everybody! I decided that it was time for me to *attempt* to do a Lubu mani. A traditional Lubu mani has a creme black on the nail and a creme red under the nail, but that isn't visually interesting enough for me. So instead of the black, I used China Glaze Lubu Heels for some sparkle. I also used OPI Big Apple Red as the creme red. I thought that this would be super cute; but it wasn't. My nails are not long enough to do this mani well! It was really hard to get the brush under the nail, and it was really messy for me. It chipped almost instantly too! Sad. Oh well, I am sure that I will try it again if my nails ever get long enough! :)

Oh, and I want to apologize for not posting any pictures of the snow, by the time I got back to my room to get my camera it had all melted away and it was sunny again. :/ I will try to keep my camera on me this week!

Essie Forever Young

Hey everyone! Today I bring you Essie's Forever Young. I picked this up in the clearance section at Ulta. It is a jelly bright red. This was about 3 coats, but there is still some visible nail line. I love how vibrant this polish is, and it is so darn shiny! I think that this is OPI Big Apple Red in jelly form, but I would have to swatch them together to truly compare. What do you think?

Nail Art: Madison Avenue

Hi everyone! Some have inquired as to what I did/used for the mani in my profile picture. I actually did this one special to match the color scheme of my blog. The background I chose is called Madison Avenue, so that is what I call this mani.

I used Essie Forever Young, OPI Black Onyx, Art Deco Black, and OPI Alpine Snow. I used the Art Deco to line out the tips, Black Onyx to fill the tips in, and a dotting tool with Alpine Snow for the dots. I love this mani a lot, do you love it too?

NOTD: Onyx Pumps

Hey everyone! Yesterday I showed you China Glaze Lubu Heels, and here is a better version IMO. This combination is like Lubu Heels on crack!

I used OPI Black Onyx and China Glaze Ruby Pumps over it. I love it! I like how the glitter looks denser while still being darker. I couldn't stop staring at my nails all day! Do you like this version or Lubu Heels better?

China Glaze Lubu Heels

Yes, I am finally getting around to reviewing this polish! This was the polish recommended to me the most, and I do like it; but I wasn't that impressed.

This polish is stunning in the bottle (see the bottle shot below), it is a black jelly with red glitters. On the nail, it wasn't as dense as I was expecting. As it is a jelly, it took a long time to dry, but the finish was really nice. In the end, I think that it is ok, but not my favorite.

Holiday Nails: Candy Canes

Hello everyone! Happy Christmas Eve to those of you who celebrate Christmas! Today is the last installment of holiday nails this week, and I brought you candy cane themed nails! Are you all enjoying the holidays?

One of my favorite candies during this season are candy canes, I love spending hours eating these sweet candies! I wish that I had gotten the white stripes a little thicker, but overall I think that it looks ok. There were definetly better candy cane manicures out there in the nail blogosphere than this one. I used Essie Forever Young and Art Deco White. Do you like it? I know that it is not nearly as good as other blogger's versions!

What are your favorite holiday foods/sweets? Is there something around the holidays that you crave because you only eat it around this time of the year?