Monday, November 29, 2010

Dot Dot Dot

Hello again!
Break is over so it is back to school for me. Only a 12 days left however! hooray! This also means that I am swamped with papers, finals, and presentations... As well as trying  up to finish my research but it is very difficult when the Skinner box malfunctions  >_<

On to the nails!

I was dying to try out my first Sparitual polish. That is the most amazing smelling nail polish I have ever come across. It's not suffocatingly overwhelming like most other brands :)

Free spirit is not an exciting color (its the creamy beige accent fingers) but I was in desperate need of an off-white polish and someone was willing to trade for it on MUA.
I quite love this polish though. It is a little on the sheer side but it dried quickly and the smell made it pleasant.
Overall nice experience with this brand :)

I felt it was a little plain so I added some layered dots on the rest (and stripes)
Sparitual in Free Spirit
China glaze in For Audrey
China Glaze in Solar Power
Petites color fever in Figi
Sally Hansen in Lively Lilac

Tadah!

Went to the State Museum earlier this month and they had one of those nifty static lightning balls and I couldnt resist!



Until next time ^_^

Monday, November 22, 2010

Snow nails

Well at least kind of
 see for yourself!
Just a simple glitter-jelly gradient over white



Sally Hansen white out
Sinful colors in hottie

Monday, November 15, 2010

Oz nails

My econ professor was talking about the wizard of Oz a couple of weeks ago. He mentioned that there are some who believe the book was an allegory about the debate over monetary policy of the 1900's. I won't bore you with all the details of our discussion (im quite of fan of economics but I know most people arent...) so here are few of the nifty symbolism that was brought up!
the yellow brick road represent the gold standard (the method used to back up our currency back then)
the silver slippers (red in the movie) is the people wanting silver to be used as well as gold for the currency
they go to OZ - oz=ounces, you measure gold in ounces!
Each of the friends (lion, tin man, ect) were meant to represent important leaders of the time.

anyhow! This was just my ramble of the day I suppose, but after we talked about the movie, I came up with this little mani
gold and green!
NYX in Las Vegas
China Glaze in Medallion

I dont have an awesome silver glitter or I would totally have made the tips silver :D

Also! I made my friend be the guinea pig for Hard Candy's beetle. I have seen that it is a dupe for Orly's Space Cadet but since I dont have that polish, I cannot confirm nor deny. I just know that this is a wonderful polish!


Thumb is just beetle and index is layered over black. Not the greatest photo but you can always click on it to make it bigger!

Until next time

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Mystery OPI

I really wanted to try out this new OPI polish I got. It is such a pretty fall color. Unfortunately it is nameless. Well, the label with the name fell off. Im sure it has a name, I just have no idea what it is!

If you know what this color might be, please let me know. It is a burgundy color with a purple base...
here is it with a brown and a red for comparison:
now on to the mani!

Again, sorry about the lack of cleanup. I am a slacker.
OPI polish
LA Girl Metal in Gold Plated
Art Deco in Black
I had some trouble making the swirl because I don't really have the appropriate brush yet but that is something I am working on getting! Other than that, I just added some stars mostly because I had them.

I hope you like it! and again, if you have any idea what the OPI  might be, let me know. I will be investigating this further :)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Unexpected Jelly

This is just a quick post of a mani I did while sick and stumbling around on cold meds. I wanted to try out NYX asphalt that I purchased from Cherry Culture. It is black with blue, red, and silver glitter.
It is the middle bottle :D

It looks so pretty, no? Unfortunately it turned out to be one of the sheerest polishes I have :( but I had already committed to wearing it, so I layered. And I layered. And I layered. Until eventually, it became acceptable for me to wear out in public.


 that was about 8 or 9 coats... yeah... I know.
it looked better in the shade:
Ill have to figure something else to do with this polish

It is quite pretty. Lots! of glitter. Next time I will layer it though.

until next time :)

Friday, November 5, 2010

Rocks or Rainstorms

I really like lightning storms. I don't really like thunder (because it always catches me off guard and scares the crap out me...) but I love lightning.

so I thought I would try to make some lightning storm nails!!
eh well... I am not the most artistically inclined person and it can be a little difficult to recreate certain things with nail polish... Anyhow, what I got doesn't really look like rain clouds but it did make a nice effect!

holding the super cute Jade Cat my boyfriend got for me at the Renaissance Festival  ^_^
I sponged a bunch of greys, black, and white together and then used top coat to smear it all together.
here, I was trying to be artsy and have the lightning be pretty colors...
Sally hansen in Wet Cement
Franken- Mallory
NYX in black
Sally hansen in White out
I smudged all of those with Out the Door topcoat
Sally Hansen in Blue Brisk and Lively lilac (for the lightning)
and then I mixed a bunch of greens and yellows for the "green grass" part


the final effect turned out more like a nice rock than a rainstorm but oh well :)
I kind of like the effect and so I will have to try this technique with some other colors



Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Cherry Culture!

Sorry about the lack of updates :( I have been sick. Just a cold, but I've been spending all my free time sleeping to get rid of it. But now! I am better! so a long overdue review of Cherry Culture will start things back up

Alrighty! I ended my month-long (ish) no buy with this spree :D lots of nail polishes were on sale so I got quite a few.
This is after I opened everything up in the mail room :( I was too excited to see all my goodies
They were all wrapped in bubble wrap and arrived in pristine condition.
Shipping was free due to a promotion (if you spent a certain amount...)
A couple of nail treatments. Ive been using the whitener as a basecoat for about a week now, but I have seen no difference yet. Obviously it would take longer than a week to work so who knows!
Awesome metallics! need a couple of coats to go opaque though

My first LA Colors. The red was a jelly :( is there even a true red creme out there???

My first NYX polishes as well
This came in a set from LA Colors called explosive. $3 for four polishes!
A much needed brown creme and more glitter :D
 These little guys were my only issue with Cherry culture. It appears that they had the sinful colors labeled wrong. I was expecting (151) St. Thomas (the bronze color) to be a nice pearly white with a ton of glitter and (958) Let's Meet was labeled on the site as a green with golden shimmer... The bronze and yellow were very unexpected. They are super pretty colors. The only issue is that I already have polishes that are pretty much the same as both of these :(  I have the option of returning them for store credit but the shipping would kind of make it pointless. 
Maybe if I have a giveaway, I can throw these in :) for the moment, they sit on my desk...

Alright, so Cherryculture.com
good prices. nice selection. Not too sure about the customer service.... I emailed them about the mislabeling issue and never got a word back... Also, the mislabeling on their site has not yet been fixed so if you order a color, I recommend you double check with another website to make sure thats the color they are showing you. I believe this is only an issue with the sinful color polishes...
Other than this misadventure, I am enjoying my new goodies

Monday, November 29, 2010

Dot Dot Dot

Hello again!
Break is over so it is back to school for me. Only a 12 days left however! hooray! This also means that I am swamped with papers, finals, and presentations... As well as trying  up to finish my research but it is very difficult when the Skinner box malfunctions  >_<

On to the nails!

I was dying to try out my first Sparitual polish. That is the most amazing smelling nail polish I have ever come across. It's not suffocatingly overwhelming like most other brands :)

Free spirit is not an exciting color (its the creamy beige accent fingers) but I was in desperate need of an off-white polish and someone was willing to trade for it on MUA.
I quite love this polish though. It is a little on the sheer side but it dried quickly and the smell made it pleasant.
Overall nice experience with this brand :)

I felt it was a little plain so I added some layered dots on the rest (and stripes)
Sparitual in Free Spirit
China glaze in For Audrey
China Glaze in Solar Power
Petites color fever in Figi
Sally Hansen in Lively Lilac

Tadah!

Went to the State Museum earlier this month and they had one of those nifty static lightning balls and I couldnt resist!



Until next time ^_^

Monday, November 22, 2010

Snow nails

Well at least kind of
 see for yourself!
Just a simple glitter-jelly gradient over white



Sally Hansen white out
Sinful colors in hottie

Monday, November 15, 2010

Oz nails

My econ professor was talking about the wizard of Oz a couple of weeks ago. He mentioned that there are some who believe the book was an allegory about the debate over monetary policy of the 1900's. I won't bore you with all the details of our discussion (im quite of fan of economics but I know most people arent...) so here are few of the nifty symbolism that was brought up!
the yellow brick road represent the gold standard (the method used to back up our currency back then)
the silver slippers (red in the movie) is the people wanting silver to be used as well as gold for the currency
they go to OZ - oz=ounces, you measure gold in ounces!
Each of the friends (lion, tin man, ect) were meant to represent important leaders of the time.

anyhow! This was just my ramble of the day I suppose, but after we talked about the movie, I came up with this little mani
gold and green!
NYX in Las Vegas
China Glaze in Medallion

I dont have an awesome silver glitter or I would totally have made the tips silver :D

Also! I made my friend be the guinea pig for Hard Candy's beetle. I have seen that it is a dupe for Orly's Space Cadet but since I dont have that polish, I cannot confirm nor deny. I just know that this is a wonderful polish!


Thumb is just beetle and index is layered over black. Not the greatest photo but you can always click on it to make it bigger!

Until next time

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Mystery OPI

I really wanted to try out this new OPI polish I got. It is such a pretty fall color. Unfortunately it is nameless. Well, the label with the name fell off. Im sure it has a name, I just have no idea what it is!

If you know what this color might be, please let me know. It is a burgundy color with a purple base...
here is it with a brown and a red for comparison:
now on to the mani!

Again, sorry about the lack of cleanup. I am a slacker.
OPI polish
LA Girl Metal in Gold Plated
Art Deco in Black
I had some trouble making the swirl because I don't really have the appropriate brush yet but that is something I am working on getting! Other than that, I just added some stars mostly because I had them.

I hope you like it! and again, if you have any idea what the OPI  might be, let me know. I will be investigating this further :)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Unexpected Jelly

This is just a quick post of a mani I did while sick and stumbling around on cold meds. I wanted to try out NYX asphalt that I purchased from Cherry Culture. It is black with blue, red, and silver glitter.
It is the middle bottle :D

It looks so pretty, no? Unfortunately it turned out to be one of the sheerest polishes I have :( but I had already committed to wearing it, so I layered. And I layered. And I layered. Until eventually, it became acceptable for me to wear out in public.


 that was about 8 or 9 coats... yeah... I know.
it looked better in the shade:
Ill have to figure something else to do with this polish

It is quite pretty. Lots! of glitter. Next time I will layer it though.

until next time :)

Friday, November 5, 2010

Rocks or Rainstorms

I really like lightning storms. I don't really like thunder (because it always catches me off guard and scares the crap out me...) but I love lightning.

so I thought I would try to make some lightning storm nails!!
eh well... I am not the most artistically inclined person and it can be a little difficult to recreate certain things with nail polish... Anyhow, what I got doesn't really look like rain clouds but it did make a nice effect!

holding the super cute Jade Cat my boyfriend got for me at the Renaissance Festival  ^_^
I sponged a bunch of greys, black, and white together and then used top coat to smear it all together.
here, I was trying to be artsy and have the lightning be pretty colors...
Sally hansen in Wet Cement
Franken- Mallory
NYX in black
Sally hansen in White out
I smudged all of those with Out the Door topcoat
Sally Hansen in Blue Brisk and Lively lilac (for the lightning)
and then I mixed a bunch of greens and yellows for the "green grass" part


the final effect turned out more like a nice rock than a rainstorm but oh well :)
I kind of like the effect and so I will have to try this technique with some other colors



Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Cherry Culture!

Sorry about the lack of updates :( I have been sick. Just a cold, but I've been spending all my free time sleeping to get rid of it. But now! I am better! so a long overdue review of Cherry Culture will start things back up

Alrighty! I ended my month-long (ish) no buy with this spree :D lots of nail polishes were on sale so I got quite a few.
This is after I opened everything up in the mail room :( I was too excited to see all my goodies
They were all wrapped in bubble wrap and arrived in pristine condition.
Shipping was free due to a promotion (if you spent a certain amount...)
A couple of nail treatments. Ive been using the whitener as a basecoat for about a week now, but I have seen no difference yet. Obviously it would take longer than a week to work so who knows!
Awesome metallics! need a couple of coats to go opaque though

My first LA Colors. The red was a jelly :( is there even a true red creme out there???

My first NYX polishes as well
This came in a set from LA Colors called explosive. $3 for four polishes!
A much needed brown creme and more glitter :D
 These little guys were my only issue with Cherry culture. It appears that they had the sinful colors labeled wrong. I was expecting (151) St. Thomas (the bronze color) to be a nice pearly white with a ton of glitter and (958) Let's Meet was labeled on the site as a green with golden shimmer... The bronze and yellow were very unexpected. They are super pretty colors. The only issue is that I already have polishes that are pretty much the same as both of these :(  I have the option of returning them for store credit but the shipping would kind of make it pointless. 
Maybe if I have a giveaway, I can throw these in :) for the moment, they sit on my desk...

Alright, so Cherryculture.com
good prices. nice selection. Not too sure about the customer service.... I emailed them about the mislabeling issue and never got a word back... Also, the mislabeling on their site has not yet been fixed so if you order a color, I recommend you double check with another website to make sure thats the color they are showing you. I believe this is only an issue with the sinful color polishes...
Other than this misadventure, I am enjoying my new goodies