Color Wave Fiesta!

Hi everyone!

I miss blogging. I really do. Time has become such a precious commodity since school started. It's been hard to find the time to paint my nails, much less post about it. I am sorry I haven't been around as much, but I am sure that you can all understand :) Im not going to promise to post once a week because I have no idea if I will be able to do that but I will try to pop in once in a while. Quality over quantity!

I know it's Halloween time and most posts right now have something to do with Halloween manis so if you are looking for that, feel free to take a gander at my previous posts : Monsters Inc, Halloween on Purpose, and Halloween Ruffian.

Today, I wanted to show you all this pretty stripey mani I made using only the China Glaze electropop collection.

Zig-zag stripes are not as easy to do as I thought they would be! This really reminds me of the Fiestas we used to have in High School Spanish class. Pinata, anyone?

Have you ever made a mani using polishes from only 1 collection?

Until next time ^_^

So mod by Sally Hansen

More nail stickers! This time they are polish bases which males application and removal a bit easier than nail shields. However wear time is not nearly as good. My Jamberry shields held up nicely for 2 whole weeks but these Sally Hansen nail strips don't usually make it more than a week for me. By the end there is just too much tip-wear...
However I really enjoy all of  these nail sticker things. They're convenient and come in a multitude of colors and patterns. This is the mod design by Sally Hansen. Perfect for my mini trip to South Carolina!

Jamberry nail shields- Blue Damask

So we ended up leaving for our vacation a day early... Which is why I never uploaded my holiday mani! I actually ended up finishing it up in the hotel room that night.

Well here it is, better late than never:

Since we were going to be gone for 2 weeks, I decided against traditional polish that would just chip and need constant attention. I leave that for my regular routine. On this trip, I didn't want to worry about how my nails would look.
Lucky for me, I recently won a sheet of Jamberry Nails. These are not something I would usually buy for myself. They are $15 and since I like to change my polish so often, it just isn't worth it. Usually anyhow... For this trip, they were perfect!

They are a little trickier to apply than regular nail polish strips. You have to heat them up with a hair dryer in order for the adhesive to work. I don't know if you have ever held your hand in front of a hot hairdryer, but it really isn't the most pleasant thing. Filing the edge down the my tips was not super easy either since the nail shields are a little thicker than nail polish.

However, the mild hassle of putting these on was worth it in my opinion. They lasted my entire vacation. Not one of them came off and no chips!

I think they were actually good for my nails too. When I got home and took them off, my nails looked healthy, strong, and were longer than I ever managed to get them before!

Removal is also a little tricky but, well worth it. The yellow from my nails is completely gone :D I guess they just needed a little polish break...

So after 2 weeks, this is what most of my nails looked like. They were a bit grown out but nothing too troubling

However my index, on both hands, took quite a beating as you can see above. It was a little annoying having a few pieces of plastic hanging off my nail but I just used some manicure scissors and my file to smooth them down.

So Jamberry nail shields? Love them! they last longer than polish strips and you get more in each pack. I have enough left over to do another mani or maybe even my toes. If you're headed on a long vacation, I totally recommend reaching for these.

What do you prefer, nail shields, polish strips, or good ole' nail polish when you head out of town?

Until next time ^_^

Ombre Stripes

Week 23 of the Year of Polish challenge- Ombre Mani

I saw a mani very similar to this on Tumblr not too long ago and thought it would make a nice alternative to the normal Ombre manis

Plus, as you have probably noticed, I have been in a very colorful mood for a while now so the thought of sticking to different shades of the same color was not very exciting.

This striped ombre was very easy to do and it is a nice alternative for nail-fanatics who just do not happen to have 5 complementing shades of polish!

Sally Hansen in White On

YELLOW

Sally Hansen in Yellow Kitty

Orly in Spark

China Glaze in Solar Power

PURPLE

China Glaze in Agent Lavender

Fresh Paint in Blackberry Smoothie

China Glaze in Grape Pop

GREEN

China Glaze in Refresh-mint

China Glaze in Gaga for Green

Zoya in Envy

BLUE

China Glaze in Kinetic Candy

Sally Hansen in Brisk Blue

Barry M in Indigo

PINK

SinfulColors in Pink Forever

NYC in Pink Promenade Creme (old version)

China Glaze in Fuchsia Fanatic

A nice white base and paint on a stripe of each color. Add a topcoat to blend everything nicely and bam! A stripey rainbow!

Alrighty then! I'll be leaving for a summer vacation on Sunday so I will be taking a little break from posting. I'll try and log on to show you what my vacation mani looks like first though :) I'm planning on using some Jamberry Nail shields since they last for so long!

Until next time ^_^

Paint Splatters!

Last week's theme for the Year of Polish challenge was a splatter mani. Since I just made a true splatter mani for the earth day theme, I thought I would take a different spin on this one by making "controlled" splatters.

Instead of splattering by putting polish on by blowing with a straw, I created some paint splatters using a dotting tool.
The polishes I uses were inspired by Jenna Froggy. When I saw her splatter mani using metallic polishes I knew I had to try it as well :D

Wet N Wild in Black Creme

KleanColor in Metallic Green

KleanColor in Metallic Yellow

KleanColor in Metallic Fuschia

KleanColor in Metallic Pink

Orly in Sweet Peacock 

My splatters did not end up looking especially splattery. Some of them look  more like flowers no? but I loved the colors!

Until next time ^_^

Fruit Salad Smoothie Nails

Today I'll be showing you the summeriest of manicures ever created! Just kidding! but it is really bright and happy

Week 21 of the Year of Polish challenge had the theme: Fruit Mani
I received some fimo fruit slices from a super neat friend of mine and had yet to use them so I decided to take this opportunity to try them out

First of all, I love these little slices. They are so tiny and cute! You can buy fimo-fruit by the stick and cut each slice yourself, or for a little more money, you can purchase them pre-sliced! You can find these on ebay as well as at Sally's

I started with a brightly colored drip mani, added some glitter, and found some contrasting fruits to stick on

Orly in Spark

China Glaze in Aqua Baby

Sally Hansen in Coral Reef

Orly in Green Apple

Color Club in Pucci-licious

Art Deco in Silver Glitter

Fimo fruit from Sally's

I opted against adding a topcoat over the fruit. First of all, I knew I would not be wearing it very long since I am behind on the challenge, but also because I think they look prettier when they are not completely flat against the nail. 

However, their lack of flatness did become a problem. They kept getting stuck in my hair and while watching a movie, I did peel a few of them off... but I saved those and now I can reuse them! silver  lining eh?

I still really like the way this looked. I would re-do this mani for a nice summer pool party or barbecue! 

Does it bother you when things hang off of your nails?

Until next time ^_^

Pink and Glittery with Bows- The Girly Nails

Hello!

I've fallen behind on my Year of polish challenge >_< sorry about that!

I have a day off from lab tomorrow so I will see what I can do about that :)

Today, I have for you a mani I did some weeks ago. I was lacking in creativity and while perusing through my drawer of nail art accessories, I picked up a nice little sheet of nail stickers. 

To keep the nails from looking too busy, I picked a simple color and added a bit o' gold to it!

China Glaze in Strawberry Fields

Revlon on Gold Coin

Nail stickers from Ebay

What do you think of nail stickers? do they help you when you are in a rut?

Until next time ^_^

MyGlam bags and May Birchbox

So I just realized that I have not been updating my Glam bag posts! The last one I posted was in February... shame on me! So I'm going to catch up in one post. Here's a quick and dirty run-down of the past 3 Glam Bags

March Glam Bag

March's theme was "Repair and Restore". We received a DermStore care package with sample of Murad's Eye Lift Perfector, PurLisse's Essential Moisturizer, and a $25 coupon for DermStore. We also received a sample of Keracolor Color Enhancing Leave-in, and a MyGlam brush case and crease brush. Also each bag contained either 3Lab Perfect cleansing foam, PurLisse pure lip comfort, or Murad's absolute bronzing boost. My bag contained the full size PureLisse pure lip comfort which is really nice.

There were some complaints that the bag and the brush case smelled chemically, and they did. However, a few days of airing out and they were fine. The quality of the crease brush is also very good. From what I can tell it is made of natural hairs, which is awesome. 

Overall, not the greatest Glam bag but still pretty good!

April Glam Bag

April's theme was "Girl's Night Out" and our bags were filled with items that we could use to create a very nice party look. I received Urban Decay's 24/7 glide on eye pencil in Junkie, which is a shimmery golden teal color. I loved it so much that I bought the rest of the "electric" collection from Urbandecay.com. This eyeliner is soft and really does glide on like butter! but after a few minutes, it dries and become smudge-proof, best of both worlds my friends :)

We also received DermStore's new Lip Quench which is a plumping lipgloss but without that stinging feeling all those other plumpers have. It is also really nice. Along with that each bag contained a pair of lashes from All-Belle and an eyeshadow and eyeliner brush.

May Glam Bag

Finally we have May's Glam bag with the theme "Love is in the Air!". This bag contained a sample of the new perfume by Philosophy "love sweet love" along with some glittery nail stickers, a Studio Gear lipstick, and the 2 last brushes for our MyGlam case: a concealer and a eyeliner definer brush. I'm not sure how an eyeliner definer brush is used though... it looks more like a lip brush to me...
Overall, not as good as April's but still pretty banging for $10!!

Lastly, I've also joined a few other beauty boxes subscription. I joined Beauty Army a couple of months ago because I liked the fact that you could pick out which samples you wanted. Unfortunately, the variety of what they had available was rather disappointing. There were a lot of moisturizers and small packets of eye cream, but nothing I really wanted to try. So after 2 boxes, I canceled my subscription.
Then last month I joined Birchbox since I had heard so many good things about them. This is what I received this month

Aparently Birchbox had teamed up with Gossip Girl to create this box and I couldn't be more thrilled. I looooove Gossip Girl! Since I don't have cable, or reliable local channels, I have to get my fix through Netflix which means waiting until the September for the whole season to be uploaded :(
Anyhow, back to the box! My box came with Algenist's complete eye renewal balm, Color Club in Disco Nap, Dr Jart's waterfuse BB cream, and Ojon volumizing shampoo. Oh and a little note-card :)
Not too bad right? I'm not too thrilled about another eye cream but I will probably just give all of the eye cream samples I have acquired to my mom.

So that is that. Sorry about the massiveness of this entry. It's hard to fit 3 month's worth of stuff into 1 entry but that is my fault for being a slacker right?

What do you think of beauty box subscriptions? Should I keep posting about the ones I received or do you hear about them enough in other places? let me know :)

Until next time ^_^

Ways to Fix a Broken Nail

So we've all had some pretty bad nail breaks before... and if you love to do your nails, that can feel pretty disastrous sometimes. One option is to just cut your nail down at or past the break. However, sometimes the break is a little too far down, or maybe you just can't bare to part with your wonderful nails...
Well, there are still options!
My nails break quite a bit. With the research that I do at school, I have to wear gloves a lot. Sure, they protect my hands, but wearing gloves for a long period of time can really take a toll on your nails... I've been using a fortifying base coat (nailTek II) and that does help but I still get breaks once in a while. So I've been looking at some products to help me seal these breaks in order to be able to grow them out!

This is Claudia Stevens Brush On Miracle nail fix- available at Sally's for about $3. All I have to say about this product is do not waste your money. All it is a relatively thick topcoat. An old bottle of Seche Vite would work better in my opinion.
What you have to do with this product is apply 2 thin coats. It can apparently be used a strengthener but I used it to seal some peeling nails.
After I applied this, my break was smooth. I put some polish over it and called it a day. An hour or so later, I noticed that my broken nail was once again poking up. So I took my polish off and reapplied the Miracle Nail Fix. Again, it didn't last more than an hour.
Final verdict- it's hard to believe in anything called "miracle". I would only use this as a last resort.

Next we have SuperNail nail bandages. Available at Sally's as well for $4.99.

The box comes with 3 sticker sheets and a small buffer. Each sheet has 2 large, 4 medium, and 4 small (2 thin and 2 wide) stickers.
these things are super easy to work with. Just find the right size sticker, buff off any sharp edge, and put it on.

For this break, I used a small wide sticker.

You can really see the sticker up close, but back up a few inches and it becomes nearly invisible. The packaging says that this lasts for days. I would say maybe 2 days. After the end of the first day, I started to notice the sides of the sticker coming up. I just took out my manicure scissors and cut the lifted part off. You could probably keep this on for a bit more with this method, but you will have to remove it to change your polish. It will not dissolve in acetone remover. You have to use a new sticker every time you change your nails.

Final verdict- I would definitely use these again, especially if I am out or on vacation and break a nail. They are a temporary fix, but a pretty good one. It keeps the broken part from getting stuck in my hair in the shower or my clothes which keeps it from breaking further.

Then we have Orly Nail Rescue Kit. I didn't take a picture before throwing out the box but follow this link to see what it looks like. This kit is also available at Sally's, this time for $7.99

This kit offers a stronger repair then the ones previously mentioned but it does require upkeep.
The kit comes with a bottle of brush-on glue, a little pot of acrylic powder, and a small buffer. You apply the glue over and around your break, then quickly dip your nail into the acrylic. This will set almost instantly. When you take your nail out, it will be covered in powder, so just brush away the excess and you will be left with a little blob of acrylic where you applied the glue. Using the provided buffer (or your own if you prefer), smooth down the blob.
If you use the one they provide, it will stay slightly gritty so you will want to cover it with an extra layer of base coat. I use my own buffer to really smooth it down. I like to use the buffers that make your nails shiny. You guys know what I'm talking about? It's usually grey and really soft and makes your nails really shine without topcoat. Anyhow, I use that to really make the blob smooth and this keeps it from absorbing my nail polish.

Final verdict- If you have the time, this kit is really worth it. You will have to sand off the blob and reapply a new one every once in a while because the break might actually break through this thin acrylic. For around $8, you will get a lot of use out of this kit. It can also fix any deep dents you have in your nails.
This is my go-to nail fix for the moment.

Lastly I have for you the full acrylic fix. I got this done at a salon for $4. Alternatively, you can get your own acrylic kit and do it yourself at home!

I had this done on my trip to Florida. My poor thumb nail broke on both sides! and one side was much too low for me to think about cutting it down. Since I was not at home and did not have my handy Orly Nail Fix kit, I found a nearby salon who could do it for me :) She buffed down my nail a bit and applied a relatively thin coat of acrylic over my entire nail.

"Relatively" thin coat...

It was a really quick process and I think it was very much worth the price. This thing lasted for 2 weeks! plenty of time for my break to grow out reasonably. The only downside with this fix is the removal. If you are just going to yank off the acrylic, then you shouldn't even bother putting it on. That will damage your nail and cause more breaks for you in the future. You have to soak this thing in pure acetone and slowly buff the acrylic away. Look on YouTube for some really great videos on how to do this or go to the salon to have them take it off for you.

Final verdict- this is great for really bad nail breaks. It lasts a long time and requires no up keep :D
it is however, a pain in the butt to take off. This is something I would do again if I am out of town for a long time and suffer a pretty bad break. I wouldn't do this for smaller breaks, or if I had easy access to my Orly Nail Fix.

So that's it. There are other At-Home nail fix remedies but I have not tried anything else at the moment. If I ever come across a true miracle nail fix, Ill be sure to let you guys know.

How do you fix your nails?

Until next time ^_^

Squishy Lynnderella Bow

This week's theme on the Year of Polish challenge was a mani with bows. I've done a lot of bow-related manis before because I think they are so cute! so I was excited to make another one for you

This time around, I really wanted to try and make a squishy looking bow as opposed to the "2-triangles-with-a-dot" bows I've always done.
I found a really cute mani on Youtube done by IndigoNova1 that I used as an inspiration for this mani. I really loved how adorable her bow turned out!

so here is my bow mani for week 20

Blurry shot to show off the glitter :D

Zoya in Zuza

Lynnderella in Thank Blue!

Sally Hansen in Whirlwind White

Sally Hansen in Brisk Blue

2-way nail art pen in black

I decided to do this mani in blue/green because I really wanted to try out my new Lynnderella polish. Isn't it gorgeous?! When I first found out about Lynn's gorgeous polishes, I was a little outraged at the lengths people had to go to in order to get their hands on these. I was also amazed at how much people were willing to pay for them on ebay! I refused to take part in the craziness, even if I really loved some of her creations. Then when Llarowe announced that she would be taking wishlists, I thought that finally, there is a way to get some of these without having to lose my mind :D

It took a long time for my name to come up. Since my last name starts with an R I was in the very last rotation. It also means that by the time my list came up, she was sold out of "The Glittering Crowd" :( but! I did get all of the other Lynn's that I had asked for. 

Now it seems the craze has moved on to Indie polishes. I have yet to buy polish off of etsy but I have to admit there are some really nice ones out there. I might have to wait until all the craziness dies down again before I partake though. I'm not much of a competitive person, and checking my email constantly to see if a particular etsy shop has restocked isn't how I like to spend my time haha ! Maybe I can swap for them instead!

What do you think about the nail-blog world's new found love of indie polishes?

Until next time ^_^

Grey Gradient Dots

Hello everyone!

Today I'm going to show you a little mani that I did using my "polka dot" glitters

I wanted a pretty neutral base since I was going to be slathering so much glitter on top so I opted for grey. I actually made a subtle grey gradient using the fan brush technique. It's messier than the sponging technique and uses more polish but I think it makes the polish blend together very nicely!

Sally Hansen in Wet Cement

China Glaze in Recycle

Lynnderella in Connect the Dots (Thumb and Index)

Nubar in White Polka Dot (Left Hand)

Nubar in Black Polka Dot (Right Hand)

Overall, I much prefer CtD. It really is "instant nail art" in a bottle. Black polka dot, though was really nice as well. It didn't have that shimmery POP like CtD but one coat created a really pretty dotty effect. I was a little disappointed with White Polka Dot though. it was really hard to get the large hex glitter out of the bottle. Also, they were really more pearly clear glitter than white... That made them kind of hard to see, especially on the lighter grey. I will have to try it over a darker color next time. Maybe it will be better?

there are many other "polka dot" glitters out there but I think I have enough for now :)

What's your favorite "polka dot" glitter?

Until next time ^_^

Abstract flowers

Week 19- Floral mani

The first thing I thought of with this theme is roses, but I'm not very good at making the swirly roses.... I've tried them before, but to me they just looked like blobs. When other make them, they look so pretty! so I found some different inspiration... I recreated a floral mani I saw on beautopia ((click here for her design!)

I changed the colors a bit to brighten it up and I am not as handy with a striper brush as she is but overall, these looked much more flowery than any swirly rose mani I could have done!

OPI in Fly

China Glaze in Make Some Noise

Color Club in Pucci-licious

Orly in Spark

China Glaze in Gaga for Green

details done with a 2-way nail art pen

I really love how bright this is! I think this would make a great pattern on a tank top :) I would totally wear it

This might now be my go-to flower design!!

Don't forget to check out past challenges as well as other bloggers who are doing this challenge by clicking on the Year of Polish page.

Do you have a favorite floral design?

Until next time ^_^

Rocko's Modern Life!

Since things were so busy last week at school, I'll be playing catch-up for a while...
Last week's challenge from the Year of Polish was cartoon nails. There are a lot of cartoons I like, or liked as a kid anyhow :) One of which that stands out is Rocko's Modern Life

Any of you watch that show before? it is so odd. I used to love it when I was younger. So many pretty colors!!
This mani was also inspired by one I found on Pinterest. It doesn't say who the original artist was only that it was found on the tumblr: 90'sareallthat

This is what I did:

I was going to write "Rocko's Modern Life" on the thumb but I quickly realized that I was not skilled enough for something like that yet >_<

Also! here is the inspiration from Pinterest:

I used way too many colors in this mani to list them all, but if there is a particular color that you would like to know about, you can ask me about it :)
So that's it for today! I'll be working on my Floral manifor week 19 of the challenge tonight, so I will probably post it up tomorrow.

Until next time ^_^

"Earth Day" Splatter nails

Week 17 of the Year of Polish Challenge is about appreciating the earth :)

I was tempted to do something with grass and the sun and all those pretty things

Unfortunately my time is pretty constrained at this time of the year. There are many a tests to study for a projects to complete and papers to work on... So I did a quick and dirty splatter mani!

I love this kind of mani because you don't have to wait for anything to dry. You just keep right on going then when you're done, stick on a coat of Seche Vite and voila! you're ready to move out!

To keep it "earthy" I used shades of green and blue :D

Turns out I have a much wider variety of green shades... which is odd since I have so much more blue polish!

I used the barrel of an old disassembled pen to splatter my colors... coffee stirrer straws work very well too!

left hand

 Greens:

China Glaze in Re-Fresh Mint

Spoiled in I Only Eat Salads

China Glaze in Four Leaf Clover

Zoya in Zuza

Model's Own in Emerald Black

right hand

Blues:

China Glaze in Kinetic Candy

China Glaze in For Audrey

China Glaze in Aqua Baby

OPI in Swimsuit... Nailed it!

Barry M in Indigo

Keeping this post short.. Have to get back to studying >_<

Have you ever done a splatter mani? what did you use?

Until next time ^_^

mbeautylounge- buyer beware!

Hello everyone!

Today's post is about an unfortunate event that occured to me earlier this year. I was browsing some nail blogs (because that's what nail bloggers do!) and I came across a swatch of OPI I Lily Love You. 

What a gorgeous flakie! the collection came out while I was taking my blogging sabbatical last summer and apparently that particular shade sold out pretty quickly.

I looked around at a few e-tailers and came across mbeautylounge.com

This was my first time on the site but it looked legitimate and nice. It had websafe check out and a good shipping policy and the prices were incredible!

I ordered 2 bottles of I Lily Love You, along with 2 OPI Mrs America, 2 OPI Nikki Minaj, and 1 OPI from the France collection.

The company is located about an hour away from where I live in Ohio so I thought I would be receiving my package very quickly. However, it took over 10 days of processing before my package was shipped out! This was much longer than the 48-72 hours promised on the website...

Regardless, my box finally got here! hooray! I opened it up, excited to see my new pretties but was shocked by the fact that the polishes were simply thrown in the box with some tissue paper. No bubble wrap. No foam peanuts. What was this person thinking?? Gladly, the trip wasn't very long and all of the bottles arrived in one piece. Good right?

Here is what I received:

Looks pretty good no? but where is I Lily Love You, you ask? That's what I wondered as well. I looked through the box and found a slip of paper with my order.  I Lily Love You was striked off and the word credited was handwritten. How disappointing! they must have sold out right?

I logged on to my Mbeautylounge account and checked to see if I had any credits or vouchers but found nothing... I then went to the OPI section and found that I Lily Love You was still there. With the option to add it to your cart. So it wasn't sold out?

I decided to send a polite message to the company via their "contact us" page asking what happened to my order. I hit send and was promised an answer within 48 hours.

after 3 days with no answer, I sent another message. Briefer than the first but still polite. Again, no answer...

10 days later, I wrote them a pretty extensive message asking to be given a refund (it was $16 worth of polish!). I also told them I would be reviewing their company on my blog (as I am doing now).

A day later I received a message from them to tell me a voucher had been created for the amount I was owed. It could be found on my account on Mbeautylounge.com

Finally! after about a month of messaging, it looks like there is someone over at Mbeautylounge after all! Since I was prepping for the giveaway that just ended, I decided to use the voucher to get some polishes for you guys. I didn't trust Mbeautylounge but I sure as heck was not going to let them keep my $16! So I order 3 bottles of Zoya: Ivanka, Valerie, and Charla.

After about 12 days of processing, here is what I received:

This time Charla was missing! what is up with this company?? the order slip once again  claimed that I had been "credited"... I did send a message to the company about the missing polish but I am much to exhausted to deal with them any more. 

Overall, Mbeautylounge is not a place I will be ordering from any more. They have great prices and a variety of collections but this was not worth it. 

Oh well, live and learn right? 

have you ever had to deal with a dodgy company before?

Until next time ^_^

**EDIT** About 2 months since my last email, MBeautyLounge just issued me a refund for the missing Zoya. Can't promise they will do the same for you but it looks like patience pays off with this company...

And the winner is!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who entered :)

Also, I want to welcome the new followers! We're glad to have you here!

I will be having another giveaway very soon which will be international, because everyone deserve nail polish!

Alright, alright... Now for the winner!

Congratulations to Peripatetic33!

Until next time ^_^

Dotticure

Since there can never be enough dots in your life, week 16 of the Year of Polish challenge is a Dotticure!

I am not 100% sure what makes a dotticure different from a polka dot mani (from week 10) but I'll take any excuse to whip out my dotting tool :)

I know it looks matte here, but I promise it isn't. The light must have wonked it....

Kleancolor in Metallic Fuschia

GOSH in Ocean

I've been trying to go through some of my unused polish but it can be really hard when you do nail art... Certain colors just work so well for certain techniques that it's hard to switch to a new color... So I think I am going to try and do one simple nail art a week that features some unused colors... what do you think?

Also! my giveaway has now ended... Thank you to everyone who entered! I've already started going through the entries, verifying things and all that jazz. I should be done in a day or two! 

Until next time ^_^

Stash Post!

Hello everyone!

I've always been a fan of polish, especially bright colors. I remember the first polish hunt I did in the early 2000's. I had seen a spread in some magazine about bold colored polish and there was a toxic waste green that I just had to have! After searching through a number of different drugstores, I finally found the perfect neon green at Walmart from Pure Ice. It stained my nails yellow but boy was I in love!

Then a few years later, I was looking through Vogue and saw a picture of a model wearing grey nail polish. The search began! Months later, an awesome friend of mine came back from Sally's with a bottle of China Glaze No Name Yet just for me. It was a grey/lilac polish perfection. It's still in my stash today, even though the bottle barely has any polish left. 

I used to have all my polish in a little make-up bag. Then, I went off to college and starting buying more and more nail polish. So I dedicated a drawer of my computer desk to polish :)

When I left college, I had probably tripled the number of polishes I owned. I stuff them all in a big hat box but quickly realized that I needed a better way to store my lovelies...

I went to the store and found a plastic drawer organizer! perfect! Now I felt like a real polish addict. It was time to do something more productive with my hobby. It was time to share it through a blog!

Since then, the collection has grown quite a bit and a new plastic drawer organizer had to be added. I considered getting a Helmer but the plastic organizers are much cheaper: my first was $29, the other 2 (which I stacked) were $15 each! And that leaves more money to spend on polish!!

This is what my polish corner looks like right now

 In the right organizer I keep all of my nail tools, art, and treatments along with glitter polish and franken materials.
The left organizer has all of my colored polish :)

More after the jump!

"Easter" mani

So today's challenge is supposed to be an Easter mani... However, I didn't really feel like putting bunnies and eggs on my nails so instead, I decided to go a little less literal for this one.
Easter manis are all about pastels and fun so I used my new Q1 Konad plate to create a cute spring look!

Ice cream and cupcakes and candies! I love this stamping plate!!

Sally Hansen in Yellow Kitty

Joe Fresh in Iris

China Glaze in Aqua Baby

China Glaze in Make Some Noise

I realize that the stamping polishes I used aren't really pastels normally, but over Yellow Kitty, they were perfect! 

You can get your own Q1 stamping plate from Konad.co.uk for £9 plus shipping

As far as I know, that is the only place where it is available

I hope everyone had a great Easter! with family and food and chocolates :D

You can check out other Year of Polish challenges on the Year of Polish page located on the right side bar

Also, don't forget to enter my 200 followers giveaway!

Until next time ^_^