Saturday, August 31, 2013

6:24 PM

Essie Armed and Ready


     Hello, my fellow lacquer lovers. I hope you are having a great Labor Day weekend. I'm one of the lucky ones who get to work all weekend. But, I wanted to get in a quick post for all of you.

     Today's NOTD post is Essie Armed and Ready from the Go Overboard Collection. I would describe this color as a dark brown toned grey with a coppery shimmer. The shimmer is very subtle almost hidden but when you get it into the sunlight it really sparkles.

Essie Armed and Ready. Go Overboard Collection
Incandescent light no flash
     This is 2 coats plus top coat. You can see little hints of the hidden shimmer on my middle and pointer fingers. The application was pretty much flawless. My first coat was slightly streaky but I was applying it pretty thin.

Essie Armed and Ready. Go Overboard Collection
Incandescent light with flash
     Here you can see all that pretty shimmer I mentioned earlier. I love the flashes of gold, green, copper and red. I wish I had been able to get a picture of this in the sunlight but work was particularly rough on my manicure today. Guess that means I'll just have to paint them again tonight =)

   

Essie Armed and Ready. Go Overboard Collection
Incandescent light

     I wanted to include this one last shot because I think it captures both sides of this polish. You have the shimmer and the dark creamy finish. Armed and ready is one of those colors that I wasn't sure I would like at first but I'm really glad I purchased.  It's very different from any other color I have in my collection and I love the hidden shimmer. I think it adds another dimension to the polish that you don't notice at first because it's hardly evident in the bottle.

     As always thank you for taking the time to read my post and I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend. 

Friday, August 30, 2013

1:02 PM

My very first Award! The Liebster Award

     For today's post, I thought I'd share one of the notes from my Facebook page. I originally posted this on August 8th, 2012 long before I even thought about starting a blog. I was cleaning up my page last night when I found it. I have to admit I had forgotten about this one. It was kind of fun to read again and see if my thoughts had changed. It also gave me a chance to check out the pages that I had nominated and see how they have grown over the last year.  I hope you enjoy this little blast from the past as much as I did.
  
     Thank You to Iron Clad Nails for nominating me for the Liebster award! The Liebster Award is all about Nail polish bloggers with under 200 followers getting recognized. This is a great honor to be nominated, and I would like to thank Iron Clad Nails for giving me this opportunity!

Here are the Rules:
1. Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.
2. They must then answer the 11 questions the "tagger" has set for them.
3. They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.
4. They must then choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and tag them in their post.
5. These lucky bloggers must then be told.
6. There's no tag back's.

11 Things About Me
  1. I am a 34 yr old single mom of 3 children. Mason (8) Conner (6) and Sydney Jo (3)
  2. I work in a home improvement store in the Plumbing Dept
  3. I grew up pretty much a tomboy and just recently discovered make up and nail polish.
  4. I have no allergies. =)
  5. I still play the same sports I did in High school and love it just as much.
  6. I used to bite my nails.
  7. I prefer to text people than talk on the phone these days.
  8. I'm a sappy romantic that cries at Hallmark commercials.
  9. I still believe in being kind to strangers and helping the little guy out when possible.
  10. I'm a Packers Fan even though I live in Minnesota.
Here are The Answers to the 11 Questions "Iron Clad Nails" had for me....
1. Laptop or Desktop? Desktop
2. How many polishes do you own? About 412.
3. Are you a saver or a spender? Normally a saver but I've had moments of weakness
4. Museums or amusement parks? Amusement Parks.
5. What's your favorite go-to beverage (non-alcoholic)? Mountain Dew
6. What polish is your top lemming ATM? OPI Black Spotted
7. Do you have kids? If so, how many? I have 3 children.
8. What is your favorite movie of all time? Pride and Prejudice
9. What book are your reading right now? Currently between books but I want to start Gone Girl
10. What size TV do you have? ummm a 20"
11. What kind of pets do you have? No pets at the moment.

Questions for my Nominees.....
  1. What color makes up most of your collection?
  2. What is your favorite pizza topping?
  3. Do you still have a landline?
  4. Favorite cuticle treatment?
  5. What is the best tip you've ever gotten from a fellow blogger?
  6. When did you first become interested in nail polish?
  7. What is your favorite Olympic sport? (summer or winter)
  8. What is your favorite nail trend?
  9. Comedy or romantic movies?
  10. Do you own any Indie Polish?
  11. Favorite Polish Brand?
My Nominees
  1. Plastered Polish
  2. Light well Nails
  3. Sweet Polish of Mine
  4. WhyOrangeUPolished
  5. NailsIT
  6. Lacquer Lockdown
  7. Nailcrime nail art
  8. PackaPunchPolish
  9. Erin Does Nails
  10. The Nail Buff
  11. Once Upon a Polish
   It was a little shocking to see that my collection has doubled in size since I wrote this. And there seems to be no slowing down with 8 polishes currently on order, including my biggest lemming from that time.  I was a little sad to see that some of the pages I nominated really haven't taken off. Some have been dormant for a few months and others have found sweet success.

   I wonder where my little blog will be a year from now? Hopefully still growing and going strong.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

4:16 PM

Sharing the love!

     Today's post is a little different from most. I wanted to share an amazing moment I had today, toot my own horn a little bit, and share a little love. But first I have to give you a little backstory.

     There have been a few occasions where I have gotten a comment about liking my polish and today I was approached about reviewing my products. I am not a polish maker and have no products for people to review. So that got me thinking.... is there a polish maker out there with the same name? I really don't want to cause confusion. I don't want to get credit for someone else's work or have them get credit for mine.  So I googled myself.  The first few listing were for my FB page, blog and twitter account. But then I came across one saying I was featured on another blog. Wait what?!?! Someone featured me on their blog? The post was from back in October and I had no idea it existed.

    Cant Hold My Lacquer did a quick little post showing one of my manicures. It was one of the first manicures I'd done with striping tape. You can view the post here.  The original photo with information can be found here. Well needless to say I was so over the moon happy I was speechless. I in no way consider myself a big blogger. I don't have as much time as Id like to devote to my blog. I'm sure I have little impact on the nail polish community. And to be completely honest there are times when I feel as if my little blog is invisible. I just keep plugging away, trying to get better with each post and hope to be noticed. And my hard work is starting to pay off! Someone noticed me and liked my manicure enough to share it with their readers. Yay me!!Whoot Whoot!! Ok enough bragging and celebrating. I don't want this to turn into a "look at how awesome I am" post. But boy did finding that make me feel awesome!

     Instead, I want this to be a thank you post. Thank you to each and every one of you who takes time out of your busy days to read my blog. Thank you to those of you who choose to comment, it means the world to me. Honestly, I love each comment and try to respond to every single one. And a big thank you to Cant hold My Lacquer for making me feel like I have a place in the polish community and the recognition of my work. I hope that this post helps to gain some attention to her blog and Facebook page.

     And remember every blogger out there puts a little piece of themselves into each post whether they are big or small. Sometimes all it takes is a comment from you the readers to help make their day a little brighter.

Monday, August 26, 2013

9:50 PM

Brash Purple Prime


     Today's NOTD post is a new to me brand called Brash. I found this brand of polish at Payless Shoes and it retails for $2.99. There are a small variety of colors to choose from but today I will show you Purple Prime.

Brash Purple Prime


     This color was extremely hard to photograph and wanted to look blue no matter what I tried. I had to do a little tweaking in my photo editing soft wear to get a color accurate picture of the bottle. Fortunately, the sun came out and the pictures of my nails decided to play nice. I forgot to take a picture of the bottle outside when the sun was still up. Seems to be the story of my life these days.

    Purple prime is a deep rich grape purple that dries to a creme finish. The application was a tad streaky with the first coat and I learned quickly not to play around with it too much in order to get an even coat. Full opacity was achieved with two coats. Now even the polish was streaky on the first coat it still flowed off the brush nicely. Not like a lot of my white polishes where it seems like the polish dries as soon as it hits the nail.

Brash Purple Prime
Incandescent light with flash
     This color is different from anything I have in my collection so far, which surprised me since it seems like such a basic color. All my other deep purples have a shimmer or foil finish to them. In real life, it is a hint darker but this is the closest to color accurate I could get without editing.

 


     Here is a close-up shot so you can see the richness of this color. I'm working on my close up one finger shots so bear with me on this, its a work in progress.

  
     

    And because I have a hard time wearing just one color of polish I added Pure Ice Over You for a little bling. Of course, my thumb which isn't pictured turned out the best as far as the gradient goes. At first, I wasn't a big fan of this color combination but now I love it. The only thing I would change would be to have the little purple glitters show up a little more. They seem to be overpowered by the blue hex glitter.

    So what do you think of Purple Prime? Have you tried any of the Brash polishes yet? Thanks for reading my post. Feel free to leave a comment. I love getting feedback from other polish lovers.





Friday, August 23, 2013

8:14 PM

Salon Perfect Kaboom


      Hello, fellow polish lovers. Today's NOTD post is Salon Perfects Kaboom from the Neon Collision Collection. This collection became available at Walmart in June for $3.98 a bottle.

Salon Perfect Neon Collision
Photo pulled from google search no source listed

      Finally, after weeks of stalking my local store, I was able to get my hands on one bottle. When I saw it sitting there on the shelf all by itself I snatched it up as quickly as my hands would move. I think I may have startled the other girl in the aisle. I just had to have this polish to try, and I wasn't disappointed.

Salon Perfect Kaboom
Photo was taken indoors with artificial light
     This is 3 coats of Kaboom plus 2 layers of Simply Quick top coat. I like how the top coat gave this polish a bit of shine while still allowing the texture to come through. I have a feeling this polish would like slightly different layered over other colors and can't wait to experiment with a soft blue or light green. I don't know yet how removal will go since I am still wearing it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it to be like the Zoya Pixies and not a typical glitter bomb. I will update this post once I find out.

     I'm still on the lookout for the other polishes in this collection and hope to be adding them to my collection soon.  What are your feelings on textured polishes? Are they just a passing trend like the crackles? They seem to be sticking around longer than most "trend" polishes. Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. Until next time,  may your nails be strong and your polish never bubble. 





 *UPDATE* 
     When I finally removed Kaboom it was a bit of a PITA. Definitely requires the foil method for removal or a peel-off base coat.





Thursday, August 22, 2013

8:02 PM

A little PSA about Gel Polish Removal

     How is everyone doing today? About a month ago I was talked into trying gel polish by a girl at my favorite nail salon. So far I had avoided gel polish because I like to change my nail color a few times a week and gel just didn't make sense for that. What really changed my mind about giving gel a try was simple, what kind of nail polish blogger would I be if I didn't try out different types of polish and share my experiences with you. Well this post isn't exactly about the gel polish itself. Although I do have to say it held up fabulously for the week I had it on my nails. This little post is a PSA about the removal of the polish. But first let me show you what my nails looked like with the polish on.



Gel polish manicure
  
     Now I have to say that I didn't really like the way this turned out at all. It's hard to see in this picture but my nails had a greenish tint to them from the polish she removed before starting this and it showed through horribly in real life. After a week it was bothering me so much that I decided to remove it myself instead of going back in.

     I knew what I was doing, or so I thought. After cutting up all my tin foil and getting my cotton balls ready I got started. For anyone who hasn't tried the foil technique for polish removal let me just tell you that wrapping your own fingers once you have a few done is no easy task. I wasn't able to get my right hand wrapped very tightly and the foil kept slipping off my fingers, and every time I tried to squeeze it tighter I had remover run down my hand. It was a very messy process to say the least. After about 30 minutes of this I decided to remove the foils and try using just a cotton ball with pure acetone and letting those sit on my finger tips for another 20 minutes.

      I was making progress but it was slow going and I'm not exactly know for my patience.Out of pure exasperation I took my cuticle pusher and started to "scrape" the softened polish off my nails. BIG BIG BIG mistake! Even though I wasn't using much pressure I ended up removing some of the top layer of my actual nail. What I was left with after this long and messy process was a nail blogger's nightmare.


     So long story short my advice for all of you is simple. When it comes to the removal of gel polish if you don't know exactly what you are doing, or have little patience, you should probably leave it to the professionals. After this little fiasco my bottle of pure cuticle oil and I were inseparable for about a week and I'm happy to say that my nails are almost back to a healthy state. I still have some weak spots near the tips that want to peel but in another week it should be grown out enough that I can cut the bad parts off and be back to normal.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

11:47 PM

Fing'rs get spotted


     Hello everyone! Looks who's back to finally blogging! Its been a long time and I've missed this, but life has a way of throwing us curve balls doesn't it. I'm not quite at a place where I can start posting again on a regular basis but I hope to have a bit more frequency in the near future. Thank you all for bearing with me. Now on to the fun stuff...

     Today I have a review for you on the get spotted kit from Fing'rs that I purchased from Wal-mart. After weeks of checking my local store, I was finally able to track one down while on Vacation. I may have done a little happy dance right there in the aisle and embarrassed the boyfriend's daughters in the process. They still begged me to do their nails as soon as we got back to the cabin though.

Fing'rs get spotted


     For those of you unfamiliar with this product it can be found at Wal-mart and costs about $8.00. I was so excited to get my hands on it I forgot to look at the actual price and no longer have the receipt. I tried to look the actual price up on their website but it was not listed.


     I have heard a lot of mixed reviews and feeling about this product with results ranging all over the place. There is a bit of a learning curve to this kit but with a little research first, you can get good results the first time out like I did. I knew that the best results came from applying it in really thin coats. And I mean REALLY thin. I wiped almost all of the polish off the brush before application. I accidentally stumbled upon another trick to getting good results that I'll let you know about a little later in the post.



Fing'rs Spotted
 outdoors in natural lighting


     Here I have one coat of Spotted over OPI's Die Another Day. I wanted something with a high contrast so the results would show up clearly. The next picture I have to show you was taken outdoors also but for some reason, the flash went off. I decided to throw it in my post because it really shows the effect this top coat can have.

Spotted
Outdoors with flash

     So I had some pretty good results for my first time trying this kit wouldn't you say? I'm not sure I would have if I'd followed the directions on the box. This is where my happy little accident comes into play. The directions say to 1. Apply your base color and allow to dry completely. 2. Apply black spotted top coat. and 3. Allow polish to dry and add a clear top coat. Well, I wasn't thinking and applied a coat of Seche Vite before applying Spotted. But boy am I glad that I did. I decided a few days later to see if I had followed the directions if I could still get good results. Guess what... I didn't.



Spotted


     My thumb on the left is done following the directions and the one on the right was done with top coat between the polishes. Neither one has a final layer of top coat. On both thumbs I applied a thin layer of Spotted but the left thumb looks like it wanted to crackle instead of spot. If my full manicure had turned out this way Id be on my way to the store to get a refund. I was not happy with that result at all. I do have to warn you if you use my little trick that you should apply 2 coats of top coat to the finished mani and wrap your tips. Something I am horrible at remembering to do by the way. *must remember to wrap tips* Otherwise the next day you could end up with something like this.


Spotted peeling
     After one shift at work the spotted top coat started peeling off  in little sheets. It almost looked intentional after a little bit with the way it peeled but I was still disappointed. I thought I had a fool proof trick for this kit to share with everyone. But I will keep trying till I get it right!


Spotted peeling close up
Close up of peeling.

     As you can see from this close up shot the top coat seems to be separating from the spotted and they are both peeling up from my base color. I really hope that wrapping my tips will prevent this from happening in the future because I loved the look I got with this kit and would like to be able to wear it for more than a day.

     Have you tried out the get spotted kit? Is this something you'd want to purchase? Let me know in the comments section, especially if you have any tips to share.

*This product was purchased by me. All photos and opinions are my own.*

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