Church Mani: Nail FAIL! :(

Hey there ladies,

I hope this Sunday has treated you well :)  My post today will probably be ranty and full of angsty irritation. Grrrr....

For starters let me just say that I am having a terrible, no-good, very-bad nail weekend (and it makes me mad!).  I bought some lacey nail stickers that I thought would be really cute as french tips on my nails for church today...

I bought these for $1.99 at a Rite Aid  drugstore

I applied 2 coats of CG - Love Letters to my nail beds.  Then I added 1 thin coat of  Sally Hansen -  White On to the very tips of my nails to "wrap" them.  And then I busted out the nail glue (to help secure the stickers) and started applying away...

I should mention that I did these yesterday afternoon before getting ready to see an LA Philharmonic concert (date night, woohoo! lol).  A) These were a pain in the butt to apply. B) From far away they were cute but up-close they looked like a mess.  Partially my fault, I suppose.  C)  They started to lift / peel off by the time we went to dinner 3 HOURS LATER!  I applied 3 coats of SV to these suckers and still they couldn't hang!  I was pretty peeved!

When we got home I immediately took them off and decided to do a simple frenchie with stickers on my ring-finger beds (because those were the only ones that stayed on well).  Aaaaand I mucked it up horribly!

Colors Used: Sally Hansen - White On, China Glaze - Fairy Dust

I was impatient with this mani because I was tired and I just wanted to go to bed.  I did a terrible job with the tips and then I didn't wait for them to dry before adding the Fairy Dust.  BIG mistake.  HUGE!  The Fairy Dust made the White On do this weird bubbling / smearing thing, but with only 5 hours of sleep left to look forward to, I wasn't about to start over.  So I Seche Vite-ed it and went to bed.

My tips for today:  Be careful as to what products you choose to use on your fingers and BE PATIENT!  Good manis come to those who wait lol :)

Until next time!

Stef <3

Let's Play with Some Clay!

Hey there!  It's a beautiful day today and I have a fun mani to share with you,  woohoo!

I recently ordered some fimo canes / clay sticks in the mail and they came in this week.  I didn't metion them or show photos because the packaging was a mess and there was an item missing from my order (I'm a little irritated haha).  But even with the mishaps, I couldn't wait to start playing...

Colors Used:  China Glaze - Love Letters, Wet n' Wild Blazed

This is a pretty girly mani for me to be rockin' but I really like the way it turned out :D  CG's Love Letters is one of my go-to's in my polish collection, it makes my nail beds look healthy and pink w/o looking like I'm trying too hard.  I think it's a beautiful polish!  I also really love coral for this season.  Not orange and not quite pink, it's a great "girl" color for me.

For those who are unfamiliar with fimo sticks, they look like this...

I ordered a pack of 100 pcs (on Amazon) and they ended up sending me 150.  It was a nice surprise but I really want the glass nail files I ordered lol.  This is a small grouping I grabbed at random.

With an exacto blade / knife, you cut thin slices off of the "cane" and apply it to your nails with nail glue.  I've already done four nail art ideas on my color wheel using these sticks, I suspect you'll be seeing a lot of them on my manis in the near future ;)  What do you think?  Have you used these before?  How do they work for you??

Please feel free to leave a comment with any questions (or love <3) you want to send my way!

Until next time!

Stef <3

"It is not slime, it is mucus!"

Happy Friday everyone!  The weekend (for all intensive purposes) is here and I am glad, glad, glad!!

I understand that princess week was last week?  I don't know how I missed that, but it's been bugging me!  So I decided to do a princess mani to make me feel a little bit better lol.  I tossed around a lot of ideas as to which princess to choose (Aurora is my fave, but I hate pink... Alice doesn't really count... etc.), what to do design-wise and which colors to choose.  I decided to go with Tiana :)  She is an incredibly fierce princess and I haven't really seen a lot of nail art for her.  Here 'tis...

 w/o flash...

w/ flash...

 For the colors used I'm going to list them in rainbow order (yellow, blue, green, blue, pink, purple black, white and grey).  Color's Used: Confetti - They Call Me Mellow Yellow, Sally Hansen - Green with Envy, NYC - High Line Green, Love & Beauty - Teal, Confetti - Bayou Blue, E.L.F. - Flirty Fuchsia, Sinful Colors - Dream On, Confetti - Black Tie, Wet n' Wild - French White Creme, O.P.I. - Skull & Glossbones, NYC - Mulberry Street and China Glaze - Fairy Dust.

As you can see, starting at the thumb, I did Mardi Gras beads, a crown, Tiana's dress, a frog and a firefly. I think I covered the basics lol. I really had fun with this mani and I think they're pretty cute :)

I had said in a previous post that I'd have some guest nails to show buuuuuut... so far, the girlies have asked for cupcakes... and cupcakes... and... cupcakes!  I guess I'll just have to do some more mani's on myself.  Drat ;)  Have a safe weekend ladies...

Until next time!

Stef <3

The Versatile Blogger Award!

Hello again ladies!

I'm very new to the world of blogging and I JUST realized that I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award, by Miss Jonochi at Just Add Polish, on Monday(she does beautiful work by the by)!  Ackk I'm so dumb!  Hahaha.  So, here it is... :D

Thank you!!

The rules are:

• Thank the person who nominated me and give them a shout out
• State 7 Random facts about your self
• Pass on the award to 10-15 bloggers
• post the award pic to your blog

Onto the random facts!

1. I am HORRIBLE with fish!  I think they are so adorable but I can't manage to keep them alive for longer than a year :(  I've come to terms with it and I shall never buy a pet fish again...

2. My favorite color, since elementary school, has been red.  But yellow, lime green, and grey tie for second place!

3. If I could drink one thing for the rest of my life it would be a large coffee with hazelnut from Coffee Bean.  Yum!

4. I'm really looking forward to Mother's day because my Mama is the strongest and most capable woman I know.  I hope I grow up to be just like her <3  (I'm almost there!)

5. I love my man!  I try not to gush about him too much because it can be sickening to others lol.  But I have to say that God truly blessed the heck out of me when he sent my honey in my direction.  I can't wait until we become husband and wife, 10 months seems so far away!  (And I'm sure we will make the cutest black-irish babies eva!!) 

6. I have been craving sushi and bbq for the past few days and I've decided that someone needs to open up a fusion restaurant with amazing ribs and sashimi so I can chow down!

7. I'm excited for this summer!  Summer Camp is looking really good right now and I hope that the ideas and inspirations are executed well... the kids deserve a fun filled break from school :)

Passing It On:

I really like the work that these ladies do, check 'em out :)

Bee Polished 
Copy That, Copy Cat 
Deez Nailz 
Emily's Nail Files 
Fancy Phalanges 
Gold Specks 
Gypsy's Glitter 
Hooked! 
Kokoro Nails 
Let Them Have Polish! 
MaD Manis 
Manicurator 
MissAdelinne 
My World 
Northern Nails 

Thank you again Jonochi!!

Stef <3
 

Bleedin' Purple and Gold :)

Hello, hello, hello!  I'm hoping the week has treated you all very kindly (and if it hasn't... remember that Friday is just around the corner!)  :)

We finally got some rain yesterday, although pre-storm we had some mucky-swamp humidity going on.  It was gross!  I don't know how Floridians do it!!  Anyway, onto the mani...

Today's nails are inspired by my all-time favorite basketball team... the Lakers :D  Now, my boys have had it hard this season and it seems like one bad thing happens after another.  My favorite player, Derek Fisher, was traded this season and I'm still pretty upset about it :'(  I could go on and on about how amazingly wonderful that man is but I'll refrain.  His being traded gave me the true inspiration for these nails (he will always be Laker #2 in my book!).

 Colors Used: Cosmetic Arts - Explosive, Sinful Colors - Dream On, Sinful Colors - Snow Me White

I really like the way they turned out!  I'm going to be pretty sad when I have to take them off lol. I do have a couple of comments (questions?) about this mani.  I currently have 4 neon polishes in my collection and they all paint really streaky and the finish is flat (I wouldn't necessarily call it a matte finish, but it's very dull).  Is that normal for neons?  I haven't seen a lot of the nail bloggers talk about the formula with these polishes and I'm a little curious o.O  That being said, a top coat is my best bud when I use my neons hahaha.

I'm going to be painting some friend's/family's nail in the next couple of days so those will probably be the mani's you will see over this weekend.  And it looks like I'll have a fairly full schedule so if I miss a day I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me!  ;)  So, what do you think??  I love how bright and fun they are!!

Until next time!

Stef <3

Glitter Sammy... Jelly Sandwich... Me Likes!

Hey there ladies!  It's mid-week and I'm ready for the weekend haha :)

This post will be pretty short and sweet, cut and dry... hopefully not boring.  This is my first attempt with a glitter sammy / jelly sandwich.  I have mixed feelings, which I'll get into after the pics...

Colors Used: Love & Beauty - Baby Pink, Ulta - Pinata-Yada-Yada

Alternate layers of Baby Pink (3) and Pinata-Yada-Yada (2) and... tada!  Jelly Sandwich :)  I like them and I don't like them.  First off I am hating my cuticles right now!  I'll just have to give them some more TLC, I suppose.  The other thing I don't like is that in some lighting this mani looks super cute and fun but in other lighting my nails look dull (like they're dead).  I only put on one coat of Seche Vite, maybe I'll add another.  

What I do like... in the right lighting this mani looks like a party on my nails :D  It also reminds me of Dippin' Dots (and I love me some Dippin' Dots!)...

So that's it!  Pretty straight forward.  What do you think?  Have you done glitter sammy's before??

Until next time!

Stef <3

Nail Mail and Rainy Day Mani with... Snails?

Happy Tuesday everybody :)  I have a fun little mani to share with you this morning!  But before we get to that, I wanna talk about mail...

Update:  The forecast now states that it's supposed to rain Wednesday and Thursday... the clouds are taking their time I guess!

Sometimes it's quick and sometimes it's irritatingly slow but, I love receiving things in the mail!  Especially if the mail delivery contains something for my nails haha.  It's like opening a wonderful present that I bought for myself ;)  So here's what I received yesterday afternoon...

 I ordered a new set of nail art brushes and some M.A.S.H tweezers from Amazon, on Friday.  I've just started playing with the brushes and  I'm very pleased.  The tweezers (which I purchased to go along with a thuper duper fun mani, and whose counterpart should be coming in this week) have already come in handy a few times.  I'm a happy lady :)

I also signed up to be a Julep Maven this past week and I these lovely polishes also came in the mail yesterday...

Boho Glam Intro Box Contents:  Meryl (gray creme), Blake (yellow creme) and Julep Facial For Hands Glycolic Hand Scrub.

I saw this in my mail box as I was on my way out the door to go to work.  I almost snatched it up to take with me because I was just so excited!  Instead I just took it in the house and sat around anxious at work, waiting until I could come back home to play :)  But then my quartet had a rehearsal at the house and then we went to dinner and needless to say the only thing I've played with so far is the scrub (which is fantastic!)  I will be using these in a mani at some point in the near future!

Ok, enough about mail / purchases.  Let's get down to the nitty gritty :D

The mani for today was inspired by a train of thought brought on by the weather forecast.  It's supposed to rain here in the Orange County area today and tomorrow and it got me thinking about snails.  Yea, that's right... snails!  I think that snails are adorably cute (Although I refuse to pick them up because they're slimy, I ask my honey to move them if they're in harms way.  I've got problems lol.)!!  I worry about them on rainy days and so I thought, "why not do a snail mani?".  Here it is...

I was pretty sleepy when I did these and it's not as neat and perfect as I would like it to be but... it'll do :P

That's all I've got for this post.  We've reached the end.  There is no more.  So very sorry and sad am I!  I'll be posting again soon, if not later today then probably tomorrow :)

Until next time!

Stef <3

My name is Stefanie and I'm addicted to polish! :)

Yellow, Yellow!  I hope the day is treating you well :)

What I've got to share today are my recent polish purchases... which might be a little out of hand at the moment.  I have no shame!  :P

I've collected these beauties over the past week and a half to 2 weeks (I've lost track :/).  To start off with I have my recent purchase from Foever 21...

From L to R: Baby Pink, Faded Rose/Multi and Orange (I wish they'd come up with better names for their polishes!)

I've swatched these on my color wheel and, aside from the orange, they paint beautifully.  My only complaint would be that the Baby Pink is stupidly sheer.  I'm still glad I bought them :)

My next purchase was a few days later while I was at Target with my honey and 2 dear friends of ours.  I stumbled upon E.L.F.'s Spring Collection (I wish I had kept the box!).  These polishes are usually $2 a pop but the boxed set was being sold for $5... I had to bring them home lol.  And I'm so glad I did, they're wonderful :)

 From L to R: Coral Dream, Flirty Fucsia, Party Peach, Smokin' Hot

I don't know if it's just my set but the Coral Dream and Party Peach, in my opinion, should get together and do a name swap because they are incredibly confused!  I've double checked online and the bottles are labled correctly, so... I dunno... maybe I'm the confuzzled one...

These next 3 photos are from my VERY FIRST trip to an ULTA store... I thought I'd died and gone to my own personal polish heaven!  And here is why...

I've been looking for simple glitters and Essence for a while:

 From L to R: Pixel - Pixel Dust, Essence - Space Queen and Essence - Wanna Be Your Sunshine

These swatched beautifully on my color wheel :)

Swatched these on my wheel and loved them all!  I can't wait to wear them :)

I found ULTA's dupe for OPI's Rainbow Connection and a very pretty blue creme (scratch and flip):

 From L to R: Blue Streak (which is a little streaky at first) and Pinata-Yada-Yada

That dupe is definitely going in a jelly sandwich soon. Oooo maybe the Baby Pink!!  Idea formed... *ding*! :D

 But the most exciting part of the whole trip were these 2 pretties!

From L to R: Revlon's Posh and Whimsical! :D:D:D:D:D

I was acting like a giddy little girl in that store lol.  I've been eyeing Posh for a long time and they had it at a great price but I never, NEVER thought I would find Whimsical!!  I figured I'd jumped on the nail train too late and she (I'll call her Whimmy) was gone forever. She was the very last one, sitting next to Posh, and I almost walked right past her... YIKES!  To be fair, Whimmy was sitting in the display slot for Dream On aaaaaannnndddd she didn't have a place of her own anywhere that I could see.  She obviously was waiting for me to come and take her home.  And I'm so excited :D

One last thing to share!  I love painting others nails just as much as I love doing mine.  My Future Mother-in-Law (from here on out referred to as my FMIL) asked me to give her a mani that would match her outfit for Stagecoach (a country music festival) this year.  Together we brain stormed and came up with this...

She's happy, I'm happy and I hope you're happy :D

Until next time!

Stef <3

Church Mani: A Shimmery Champange and Black Frenchie

Good morning lovelies!  It's the beginning of a new week and so my count down to Friday shall begin *le sigh*...

I wanted to share with you the mani that I wore to church yesterday.  I've decided that this is something I'll be doing every Sunday when I get home from church / after-church activities.  I also said I would offer you and explanation, so here it is....

I recently started singing at a BIG church (that shall remain nameless) and because of it's following there are certain rules for attire that must be followed if you are going to sing with the choir.  No jewelry (except for wedding bands, obvi), I can't wear pants that will show below my choir robes, the hair style / make-up I come in with is the one I have to keep for both services... You get the idea haha.  Now while no one has specifically told me that I can't wear colorful polishes, I don't want to run the risk of being reprimanded.  So I've made the executive decision to "keep it simple, stupid!" on Sundays.  I'm a stickler for rules in general and this will be like a personal challenge for me, simple but fun mani's on Sunday's... yaaaaayyyyy!  Lol.

So without further blabber, here it is...

Started with Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails as the base coat.

Colors Used: NYC - Mulberry Street and Confetti - Black Tie

Finished with 2 coats Seche Vite

Alright, a couple of things that I don't like right off the bat... The NYC - Mulberry Street is awful, awful, AWFUL!  It is a really streaky, tacky, way-too-fast drying polish.  After 3 coats I gave up on it being even and clung to the hope that Seche Vite would even things out (which it did *phew*!).  Secondly, I don't think the picture does justice to the color :(  It's a really pretty champange-shimmer color that just isn't coming across well, which is just bums!

The things I do like... I like that I'm getting better with french tips and I like the polka dots (I'm a little obsessed with them if you haven't noticed by now hahaha).

That's all I have for this post.  Pretty short.  Maybe even a little boring. Cest la vie!

  I'm expecting some exciting things to be arriving in the mail and waiting for me when I get home this evening and I'll be sure to post it soon (along with pics of the goodies I got from my first trip to ULTA... ackkkk!!!)  With that being said...

Until next time!

Stef <3 

Time for Something Sweet!

Good evening, friends!  I hope everyone had a safe and happy Sunday :)

This is the mani that I had on this past Thursday.  It was inspired by a pin I saw on Pintrest.  I did a search for more images and then started painting and this is what I came up with...

Base Coat - Sally Hansen Hard as Nails .  Top Coat - Seche Vite

Colors Used (starting at thumb, then L to R): Elf - Smokin' Hot, China Glaze - Hey Sailor, Confetti - Margarita Senorita, Cosmetic Arts - Explosive, Sally Hansen - Green With Envy, NYC - High Line Green, Revlon - Blue Lagoon, Confetti - Bayou Blue, Essie - Lilacism and Sally Hansen - Rock Bottom.  

For the frosting I used Wet n' Wild - French White Creme, the sprinkles are Spoiled - I Have No Reception and for the cherry-on-top I used Love & Beauty - Red/Multi.

I got a lot of compliments from the kids and staff at work.  I thought they were very cute but a little tooooo busy for everyday wear (plus, what outfit would I wear to match them?? lol).  So then I simplified it to this...

 Base Coat - Sally Hansen Hard as Nails .  Top Coat - Seche Vite

 The darker blue on the tips is Confetti - Bayou Blue.

This personally was much more manageable and subtle.  More "me" :) 

I generally change my nail polish every other day.  I had these on until last night (Saturday) because they were just so darn cute!  And I would have kept them on for longer but I sing in a church choir on Sunday mornings and the dress code is a little strict.  I didn't want to take the risk.  I'll post my "Church Mani" tomorrow with a more detailed explanation (maybe I'll make it a regular Sunday thing?).

So what do you think?  Any questions, comments, advice??  Love to you all :D

Until next time!

Stef <3

My Mani's so far...

Hidey-ho and Happy Earth Day everybody!  My post for today consists of all the photos I've shared on my FB page with my girlfriends.  It was actually their positive support that pushed me to start this blog (hopefully I won't crash and burn!  haha).  All of these photos were taken with the camera on my HTC and a few of them have filters added because... well, I was just having a good time with my new phone :)  I was really surprised at how well the camera picked up true-to-life colors!  I'm no pro but I think the pics are decent.

I received the phone as a bday gift from my wonderful fiance (I will probably refer to him as my honey on a regular basis <3).  Around that same time I decided that the cost of getting my nails done, on a weekly basis, was taking away from our wedding savings. So I stopped going to the salon and started painting my nails myself.  And then I Googled images for inspiration.  And then I became obsessed!

Most of these photo's were inspired by photo's and tutorials I saw from A Girl And Her Polish, Chalkboard Nails, Copy That, Copy Cat, and Nailside.  A few were inspired by trends I saw on Pintrest.  And a couple I came up with on my  lonesome :)

3/18/12

 

3/22/12

3/24/12

 

3/26/12

3/27/12

  

3/28

3/30/12

 

4/3/12

 

4/6/12

4/9/12

 

4/10/12

  

4/13/12

 

4/16/12

 

4/18/12

4/20/12

 My honey said he's gonna get me a point-and-shoot in a couple of weeks to support my new love (he really is the greatest!  hahaha).  I really hope you all enjoyed this post and I'm sorry if it's a little bit loooooonnng :P  I suppose that's all for now soooo...

Unrtil next time!

Stef  <3