W: Whirled Away and Re-fresh Mint, China Glaze

Well. I had some ambitious plans to do a water marble mani for W, but that failed at that. So here was my back up, a glitter, from the Cirque du Soleil collection.

Whirled Away, China Glaze.

Re-fresh Mint, China Glaze.


Below is my failed attempt at water marbling.  I had tape all the way around my finger, but I had it on so long I got tired of it and took it off.  Now I know why everyone tapes the sides of their fingers.  Anyhow. I spent an hour trying to get a suitable marble pattern in the water.

My problem was the polish kept setting too quickly.  I don't know if it was the polish or I was just not working fast enough..... I watched a bunch of videos, and tried a bunch of different polishes, no luck. I also used room temperature tap water, then tried room temperature filtered water.  It did not seem to make a difference.  I had to give up.  I may try again later.

I have new found respect for ladies that can water marble!

The base color is Orly's After Party in case you are wondering.  Sinful colors Savage is the marbling color I really wanted to work with.

Well that is it for today.

Razzle Me Dazzle Me - China Glaze, Glitter Tips w/ Fresh Paint Coconut

I have to say I've been loving this manicure.  

This is Razzle Me Dazzle Me, just on the tips and accent nail.

Below is a bottle shot.  Various black and light gold glitters.

Below is my right hand, with glitter on all the tips, no accent nail.

AND..... a simple swatch of Fresh Paint's Coconut.   Two easy coats, very nice formula, thick and pigmented. Coconut is an off white with peach undertones.  This makes my skin look really tan and the polish looks really bright, stark almost.

Fresh Paint can be found at Five Below, a junk store where everything is $5 or below. Color Club, or Forsynthe Cosmetics is the maker of Fresh Paint.  These are cheap around $2 a bottle, technically they are 3 for $5.

Enjoy!

R: Rock Solid - Orly - layered glitter

Hey guys!  This week is letter "R" and I did a glitter sandwich with Orly's Rock Solid and Finger Paints, Fall of Surprises... check it out.

I'm a bit tired this week, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

Please check out the other R manis this week!

P: Peaceful Opposition, Orly

Hey there! Quick ABC challenge post today. Here is Peaceful Opposition, by Orly, from the 2013 Hope and Freedom collection.  A sheer white polish with silver hex and square glitters.  The formula doesn't level out very well so it looks a bit streaky but that's the norm for these milky sheers. I just did one coat under a top coat. Super fast mani with no cuticle clean up. Gotta love that.

So that is it for today. Check out the other ladies below!

O: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, OPI vs Winter Wonder, Sinful Colors

It's Wednesday!  Like I need to remind you.

For the letter "O" I swatched OPI's On Her Majesty's Secret Service, from the 007 collection.  This is the only polish I bought from the set. OHMSS is a nice blue, grey, metallic foil with multicolored shimmer/micro glitter. Formula's a bit thin, but not problematic at all. Below is three coats.

I include the picture below because in the top two finger you can really see the small glitters sparkle.

A couple of weeks after I bought OHMSS, I found Winter Wonder from Sinful Colors, they are dead on dupes.

Below is one coat of each polish.

AND a bottle shot, for those of you who like to look at bottles, such as me!

Neither of these polishes are in stores anymore, but they are online. Online the prices are all over the place, but when they are in stores, OPI is $8 and SC is $2 here in the states.

Meet my cat, Demi. I woke her from a nap with the camera. She's my buddy. In the last couple of years has become quite attached to me and likes to sit with me while I paint my nails.

So that is it for today!

N: Nirvana, Sinful Colors

Hey there!  I'm a little late this week because I've been stuck at work, with no time to post.  This week's N mani is featuring a work-safe color, Nirvana by Sinful Colors.

Here's a swatch.  Two coats with IMN out the door top coat.

The label says this is a matte polish, but it dries shiny. I waited 10 minutes to see if it would turn matte, but it did not.  Maybe it's a mislabel?

I added glitter to one accent nail, to keep it interesting yet understated.  This is Rockets Red Glare from Orly.  I love how this is a true red glitter.

Above is before top coat, and I broke my middle finger nail hauling my printer up and down the stairs trying to figure out the router situation last week.  Then my index fingernail cracked yesterday. I don't know how, I just looked down and there was this huge crack.  So I'll just have to deal with short nails for a little while.

Below is the glitter with top coat.  I love red and brown together!

We finally got moving along in the bedroom again. I am sore from all the squatting and bending over. I think I'm out of shape!

Well below is the foyer looking into the bedroom. If you remember this floor had that awful blue slate that we chiseled up.

And here is the bedroom. The floor is completely covered, but we are still far from finished. I still have to install shoe molding and fix the baseboards and windowsills.

If you are just tuning in, click back to see the progress.  The purple walls and dirty carpet seem like a distant memory now.

I have to work all weekend so I definitely will not be posting until next Wednesday, hopefully.  I'm having a hard time keeping up this year...  I do miss reading all the nail blogs out there.  So that is it for now.

K: Kinetic Candy, China Glaze

Today's ABC challenge features Kinetic Candy from last year's Spring, Electropop collection.  I wore this last year but I didn't take pictures of it.  I was surprised to see that KC has a trace amount of grey in it, just a trace.  The formula is fantastic, creamy, not chalky.  There was no wait time between coats therefore really easy to work with.

Here's a simple swatch of two coats.

Then I added glitter.  Santee's M89, Gift Sparkle, such a generic name.  

And... a quick comparison.

Well that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed this post!

Finger Paints - Cupcake Heaven

Happy Saturday out there!

This weekend I have a really nice pastel to show you. New this spring from Finger Paints is Cupcake Heaven.  Such a beautiful blue teal, I can't seem to stop buying this type of color.  Cupcake Heaven is brighter and more blue than China Glaze's For Audrey, if you need a comparison.  Today I paired it with a copper glitter also from Finger Paints, called Fall of Surprises.

Below is two coats of Cupcake Heaven by itself.  I didn't have any issues formula wise on this but it did dry with my vertical ridges showing and my ridges aren't that deep.  Probably need to remember to wear a ridge filling base coat with this one next time.

I got my bottle at Sally's and now I don't remember the price, plus I think in the last couple of weeks they raised all prices for nail polish.  China Glaze I saw is now $6.49 a bottle if your not a club member.  Oh and the new Finger Paints spring collection comes with a bunch of matching fish eggs - bead thing-y-s.  I skipped out on those.

Side note: Have you seen the new Orly bottles?  I should have taken a picture... oh well.  I hate the new font, looks cheap and they got rid of their signature "O". Bad!  I'm glad they kept the new rubber caps though.

Here's how the room is coming along:

PULL up the carpet!!!

Remove tack board and about 1000 staples with crow bar and screwdriver!  Talk about tedious!  Vacuum up dust, dirt and debris...

This is the entry to my bedroom, which is also the front door, "foyer", not much of one, but it is/was tiled with slate. There's hubby chiseling away to remove the stone and concrete underneath.  What a dirty and messy job. The removal of slate took 6 hours alone, for such a small space, maybe only 25 square feet. Hubby said, "We will see if hard work builds character". After a long day of hammering away, he concluded, "It does not."

If your just now tuning in, click back post by post to see how this all started.

Next we put down new hardwood floors!  I will post again on Wednesday with the ABC challenge hosted by Kimber at Lacquer Korner.  We are working on letter "H".  See you then!

G: Grape Juice by China Glaze

Letter "G" this week is represented by Grape Juice by China Glaze.  My husband picked out this polish... I would have never gotten this on my own.  It's not too bad, Grape Juice is a sheer, but super sparkly purple shimmer.  I think this might be good to layer over a bright blue creme polish... Anyhow, this is my first time wearing it and today I'm just posting a simple swatch.

I picked up a couple of new Revlon glitters from Walgreens a couple of weeks ago and decided to test them out on Grape juice..... only the big glitters stood out, the small glitters just got lost in the shimmer.  Oh well, fail.....

Below left to right is Hearts of Gold Fx, it has holographic heart glitter suspended in micro gold glitter.  In the middle is Celestial Fx which has holographic star, moon, and diamond glitter in micro holo and silver glitter.
Last is Grape Juice.  The Revlons were $5.99 each.

Here is how the room is coming along.

Here is two coats of Benjamin Moore's Ballet White.  I still have to paint the trim in oil, but I was thinking I should wait for the window sills to be fixed.  Next we rip out the nasty carpet!!  More to come!

D: Dirty Berry by Catrice

Hey there!  D is today's ABC Challenge and I'm showing a swatch of Dirty Berry by Catrice.  DB is another bottle I got in a swap with Criminal Nails!  Catrice is not available in the US, so this is extra special to me.  This light purple polish has some micro holo glitter in it.  However, it's not a very strong holo, and tends to only show up in super bright sunlight, which we hardly are getting these days... cold, dark, winter.  Although the last two days have been unseasonable warm, but today it's really cloudy and going to thunderstorm with tornado watch... so I might lose power. UGH!  Oh and the temperature is going to drop 30 degrees so now we can all get sick from the wide temperature swings. Nice~!

Anyhow here is two coats of Catrice, DB.

Also, I went up to Sally's the other day and picked up this bottle of Rush top coat on a whim.  It was on sale for $3.99 for one whole ounce!  I've only tried this top coat once but what I can say so far, is that it dries to touch in one minute and after 10 minutes I was able to go about my business. Impressive!  This might become one of my top coats that will be in regular rotation.

There's a smaller bottle, but this one was on sale, so that's why I got it.  Since the bottle is big, the brush is really long and weird to work with.  I probably just need to get accustom to using it.  Lastly the formula is a bit runny so I got top coat all over the place and had to do a second cuticle clean up. Ooops.  Now that I know that, the next time I use this top coat, I'll just be more careful.

Below are the ingredients.  I think ingredients are important.  Whenever I see a cosmetic review (same goes with food) and the ingredients are left out, I say in my brain, "minus 5 points out of 10"!  I can not completely evaluate a product without knowing what's in it.  With nail polish I just look for the big four, DBP, toulene, formaldehyde and camphor... no big deal, since most nail polishes are big three or four free these days anyways. With skin products however, I do look for petroleum based products, sodium lauryl sulfate and synthetic perfumes, mostly, and will avoid those. I look for other stuff too, but those are the basics.

Here's how the room is coming along.  Take two steps backwards.  We painted one coat of Benjamin Moore's Cream Silk and it turned out to be a very light yellow, lemony yellow.... At the first brush stroke I knew I didn't like it.  My husband said, well just paint one wall and see.  So we ended up painting the entire room, and spent two days evaluating it.  Oh boy, we could not convince ourselves to like it.  So one day of labor and $100 worth of paint down the drain, not literally, just figuratively.

Below is the paint chip, second to the top, Cream Silk.  I thought it would be a warm white, not a light lemon color.... so we shall see. Benjamin Moore has 140 different shades of white to choose from so its a daunting task, to say the least.

Well that's it for today.  Next I'll show you what color we ended up with.

Essence Twilight Breaking Dawn - Alice.....

I'm not into vampire movies or shows, but I do like a good vampy polish and I do like Essence.  I got this bottle in a swap with Criminal Nails! Special editions from Essence are released in such limited amounts in the US, that I was really excited to get this in the mail.  I did a quick swatch of number 02 Alice Had a Vision - Again.  Alice is a purple jelly with purple and green micro glitter.  Two super easy coats and it is dark yet sparkly!

I wish I knew who Alice is but I don't. I did try to watch Twilight when it first came out but I was so bored I couldn't make it through the first half.... sorry Twilight fans out there..... I have to say the only vampire movie that I really enjoyed was Interview with the Vampire, with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and the very young Kirsten Dunst.

Well, here is how the bedroom is coming along.  We cleaned all the walls and the ceiling.  Then repaired all the holes and dings (there were a lot) with joint compound, sanded and painted one coat of primer.  Whew!  It was a lot of work just getting this far.  This took three days.  What took so long?  Repairing walls is just like icing a cake and painting nails, it takes two coats of joint compound for a smooth finish after sanding.  I never knew this before and found out by watching some videos on the internet.  I used to only apply one coat of compound, sand then prime.  Instead, this time one coat, wait 24 hours, the apply the second coat, wait 24 hours, then sand, then prime. It makes all the difference in the world!

After primer.

Painting the ceiling.  Look how gray and dingy!

If you just tuned in and want to see before pics just click back one post.

That's what I have so far.  See you Wednesday when we do letter D!

Pirate Polish What's Up Doc w/ OPI Ski Teal We Drop

Continuing with my green theme, this month, I've got a green glitter to show you today, from Pirate Polish, What's Up Doc? I've been looking for the perfect teal to pair with this glitter and here it is with OPI's Ski Teal We Drop, from the Swiss collection.  

Ski Teal We Drop is a dark, rich teal cream polish.  This is two coats, decent formula and dries fast.

Below are a couple of bottle shots of What's Up Doc.  The orange bars look like carrots, don't they?

Pirate Polish is an indie brand and can be found at Etsy.com. Lacquer Tracker is the maker and she has a blog, click here.  Pretty!