JLB Cosmetics' Mint Candy

Happy Sunday!!

I usually do a "church appropriate mani" as my Sunday post, but I'm giving my nails a break and doing a little bit of nail therapy.  I'm rocking Julep's Oxygen nail treatment today. So, I'll be sharing one more mint mani with you instead...

Colors Used: JLB - Mint Candy, Gold Dust

I can't seem to get anymore pictures to load, I dunno what's going on :\  Regardless, This is 2 coats Mint Candy, 3 coats Gold Dust and then I used my striper for the design.  I feel like this mint leans more towards turquoise.  It was beautiful to work with, but the polish did have a bit of a funky smell to it lol.

I don't have much else to share right now except I wish i could get more pics to load :(  Alas, earwax!

Until next time!

Stef <3

A Braided Mani...

Good morning lovelies!

Today's mani is inspired by nail art I've seen around and have been dying to try... the braided nail :)  I saw a tutorial on YouTube by CutePolish and decided to take a whack at it hahaha.  Here's my interpretation...

 Colors Used: Bonita - Neon Citrus, JLB - Immortal Gold, Sally Hansen - White On

The one thing I will say about this mani is... it was a tad bit messy!  I flooded my cuticles with polish (not all of which did I get rid of :\)

I chipped my thumb while at the DMV, playing with my necklace because I was bored out of my mind.  I really dislike going to the DMV...

 A closer look.  You can see that the neon isn't quite opaque enough to cover the white (and vice versa).  I dunno... I kinds like it :P

My current-favorite dress in the background lol.

And the "pinner"...

I had fun with this mani, it's really great!  I highly suggest that you watch the video tutorial on this look before doing anything.  She has some really great suggestions that I used, even down to which polishes I should use!

That's all for now, if I have time this evening I will share my current nail haul :)

Until next time!

Stef <3

P.S. Don't forget to vote for a nail tutorial you would like to see me do!

Spooky, Scary?

Heeeeeeyyy!  How's it goin'?  Do you hate me for being gone for so long??  :(  It's not my fault, I promise!  There just aren't enough hours in the day lol.  Between work, wedding planning, apartment hunting and shopping for things to fill our eventually-new-place... I'm pooped!  But I have missed you all lots and lots :)  On to nail art?

My mani for today was not inspired by anything.  Zip, zilch, nada.  I couldn't sleep Friday night because I was dumb and drank far too much coffee around 6 o'clock in the evening haha.  So I got up and started getting creative.  I knew that I wanted to use one of my new metallic polishes by JBL (which I got in a nail haul that I plan on sharing with you at some point this week).  I also wanted use my stripers from Sinful Colors.  Here's the end result...

 Colors Used: JLB - Purple Rain, Sinful Colors Nail Art - Time Off (black) and Bad Chick (white), Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow

I've been told that they look like trees/branches, a forest at night with fireflies/stars, lightening, Tim Burton inspired, etc.  I have to say that I agree with all of these statements hahaha.  I really just went to town hoping they would turn out alright.  I am quite fond of them :)  (side note... this mani is still on my nails... I'm pretty sure this is the longest I've ever kept a mani on!)

Plans for the near and no-so-near future:

• A polish haul ;)
• A giveaway for my 100th post! (This is post #79 :P)
• A vote/poll on which mani you would like to see a tutorial of (this will be in it's own post)

Alrighty chicas and/or chicos, that's it for now :)

Until next time!

Stef <3

Think Pink.. With Scalloped/Cloud Tips :)

Good morning starshine, the Earth says hello!  :D

Today's mani is "the design that started it all", so to speak.  When I first started painting my nails I thought I was being so creative/clever and fashion forward by having an accent nail with polka-dots (genuis!  lol).  And then I saw this design on Nailside and my mind was blown!  I had to try it and try, try I did... lots and LOTS of times!  So much so that I swore to myself I wouldn't do them again for a while.  It's been a little over two months hahaha...

 Colors Used: JLB - 03 (mauve) and 04 (pink), Salley Hansen - Golden-I

Both of the JLB's were pretty sheer but easy to work with.  I applied 3 coats of the pink and 2 coats of the mauve (probably should have done 3, you know what they say about hindsight...). I let those dry for a minute and then I applied 2 coats of the gold.  I like 'em!

Aaaaaand the big one...

I am still not crazy about the color pink, but I do love this mani :) 2 more mani's to go tho.  I may be a convert yet!

Quick question... would it be more convenient for you if I created a Facebook page to go along with this blog?  I can't stand Twitter and, while I love Pinterest, it's a little impersonal... what do you think?

Until next time!

Stef <3

Think Pink... Tape Mani! (kinda)

Hello hello hello!  Happy hump day!  Lol.  I can't believe it's already Wednesday!!  One more day of work and then it's the weekend for me (and I get paid on Friday which means I will most likely be buying more polishes haha) :D

For today's mani I decided that I should try out the taping technique, taping off sections of my nails to create a fun design.  And I failed miserably!  I couldn't paint fast enough, so the polish would start pulling up with the tape and I ended up with stringy/gloppy lines.  It irritated me to no end!  So I took it all off and started over freehand.  This was much much easier for me to do.  Any lines that weren't quite straight I fixed with acetone and my angled brush.  I then added some striping and glitter to dress it up and this was the final look...

Colors Used: JLB - 02 (light pink), JLB - 05 (pepto pink), O.P.I. - Pirouette My Whistle

I know, I know... I use Whistle a lot :\  But it's the perfect glitter in my collection because it's not overwhelming while still adding some pop!  I really like it :)  Here are some more pics...

 

And one final shot...

 

I realized last night that I said I would have pics to show you of my polish storage and I never posted them... how terrible am I??!  So here it is (after the jump of course :P)...

Church Mani: Think Pink!

Good afternoon/evening y'all!  It has been a crazy-busy weekend, one of those where I feel like I need another weekend to recuperate from this one lol.

I have some news.  Not great, not horrible.  Maybe a little bit interesting / exciting.  I have decided to challenge myself this week and do only pink mani's! *gasp!*  I know... I have shocked / disgusted myself with this idea, which is why it's great :D  I plan on producing the most horrifically girly pink mani's that I can manage and rock them out (in public!) for the entire week.

Seeing as it's Sunday and technically the start of the new week I figured why not start now?  Buuuuutttt church mani day is supposed to be fairly simple so here is what I came up with...

Colors used: Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, Sally Hasnsen - French White Creme, JLB - 06, Savina - Heavenly, Confetti - Heartthrob, China Glaze - Love Letters

With flash and without (indoor)

The reason why I used two different whites for the tips is that I haven't found the perfect white polish yet.  Sinful Colors is almost perfect in one coat, with just some slight streaking, but it's super thick.  The Sally Hansen is really thin and requires almost 3 coats to be opaque.  So I used one coat Sinful first and then applied one coast of Sally to cover up any bald spots.  I then used my dotting tools to create the different sized dots and voila... mani!

That's all there is for today folks!  I will have my polish hauls from the last 2 weeks up with tomorrows mani and then for Tuesday I will show you how I store my pretties :D  I hope you're weekend has been wonderful and blessed!

Until next time!

Stef <3

For Audrey with some RAWR! ;)

Hello, hello!  How are we all faring this loverly day?  I'm feeling pretty ok and I'm really excited for today's mani :D  Here we go!

Colors Used: China Glaze - For Audrey, JLB Cosmetics - 06, Rimmel - Black Satin

I new that I wanted to use For Audrey with a pink-ish accent nail (I'm really trying to accept pink into my life but it's soooooo hard!! lol).  The mauve-y color is one I found in a boxed set at Ross and I will probably show that in a haul tomorrow after church (I'm just slacking with the picture taking :\)

I added the zebra stripes as an after thought and I love the way it turned out!  I may actually keep this on for more than one day lol...

 (indoor lighting)

 

 (outdoor lighting)

 For Audrey is a color that China Glaze created to match Tiffany's signature brand color (so I've heard).  I was skeptical (even after I had it on my nails) so I pulled out and old Tiffany's box that I've had for years.  I don't even remember what came in this box originally, it now holds some Ivory (*sniff* poor heffalump) dominoes that I inherited from my grandfather...

 

I was wrong, it's pretty much perfect, spot-on, wonderfulness!

So there it is and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do :D

Until next time!

Stef <3