Unconventional Ladybugs :)

Goooood morning all!  Let the work week commence!  Hahaha...

Today's mani was inspired by my kids at work.  I really love my job.  I get to play all day with silly kids!  I have fun and get paid while doing it, what more could I ask for?  :)

The kiddos are currently obsessed with "ladybugs".  Pretty much any beetle that they find that's small and roundish, they classify as a lady bug.  I loved the idea of ladybug nails but red really isn't my color (it's my favorite color, it just doesn't complement my skin tone).  So i thought, "If the little ones can have different colored lady bugs, so can I!"...

 Colors Used: O.P.I. My Pointe Exactly, O.P.I. - Pirouette My Whistle, Sally Hansen - Pumping Iron, Julep - Meryl, Rimmel - Black Satin

They turned out better that I expected and I really don't hae much to say about it.  The silver (SH - Pumping Iron) was a little difficult to work with.  It applied easily but, because it's a metallic, it was super streaky.  Not much I could do about it (altho I did try to verbally coax it into cooperating... which did me no good... obvi...).  I'm just going to let the photos speak for themselves...

 

 O.P.I. - My Pointe Exactly

There you have it.  I suppose this will wind down my Spring-ish mani's.  I'll be moving on to summer mani's with somewhat of a heavy heart.  Spring is my favorite season of the year and I'm sad to see it go.  Anywhossie...

Until next time!

Stef <3

Church Mani: Keepin' It Simple :P

Happy Sunday everybody!  It is a glorious day in my neck of the woods and I hope it is for you as well :)

We just got back from church and so here is the mani...

 Colors Used: Sally Hansen - White On, Julep - Meryl

Simple french tips with a little bit of "color" that I painted last night (boooorrrrring!  lol).  I was originally going to do a mani with another polish from O.P.I.'s NYC Ballet Collection but I thought that might be a little bit redundant.  Then my honey asked me if I wanted to go cruising down to Huntington Beach, in the new car, on a dinner date.  Of course I said YES!  Lol so I did this mani real quick before heading out.  

I think it's church appropriate and a couple of my gal pals in the choir commented on how they liked them.  So I suppose I'm pleased...

 

So that's it for today!   I really really really want to do some color swatches / comparisons and a couple of product reviews next week (I hope I can find the time :\).  I also have another polish haul to photograph and post.  I REALLY need to go on a "no buy" hahaha.

Until next time!

Stef <3

A Neon Skittles Mani

Hello hello! :D  Yesterday was such a crazy day!!  Between going to the bank, shopping for a car, purchasing a car, going back to the bank aaaaaannnndd we had a singing gig in the evening... I'm pooped!  We did end up getting a car that's within our budget and we're really pleased with it, so it's a great thing.  Downside... I had no time yesterday to do any chores!  So I'll have to keep this post brief... again... the second day in a row... I'm sorry :(

For today's mani, I wanted to play with the neons in my collection...

Colors Used: Love & Beauty - Orange, Cosmetic Arts - Explosive, Savina - Power Up, Ulta - Blue Streak (not a neon), Sinful Color - Dream On

I really don't have much to say about this mani.  It's very bright and fun, which is why I decided to do it in the first place haha.  I will say, if you've never used neon polishes before, they are thick and can be tricky to work with (the Savina is a bear!).  

So yea... I guess that's it... because I'm super lame and have to go be domesticated and stuff lol.

Until next time!

Stef <3

Sushi Anyone?

Happy Friday lovies!  I'll have to keep this post brief :(  We've been having a car issue for the past couple of weeks and so my honey and I are going car shopping today... wish us luck!

As I mentioned earlier, I'm obsessed with coral (and teal) for the summer.  So I decided to play with this color combo using my M.A.S.H. dried flowers.  Here's what happened...

Color Used: Spoiled - Let's Eat Sushi

I believe this is 2 coats topped off with 1 coat of Seche Vite.  I hate the color pink and I think oranges look gross on me but the mix of the two has me hooked!

I took some photos of it with my current wardrobe fave...

Aaaaannndd a big one to show it off lol...

So there it is :)  What do you think?  Am I crazy in thinking these colors are fabulos together??

P.S. In case I wasn't clear, the post's title is based on the polishes name... just an fyi... not that this detail escaped you or anything... teehee... :P

Until next time!

Stef <3

A Monochromatic Mani (aka Ombre :P)

Good day to you nail art / polish lovers!  It's almost the weekend as much as I love my time off, the next few days are going to be busy and hectic.. bleh.

Well, for today's mani I decided to do a full ombre look (I did a frenchie ombre that you can view here if you'd like :) ).  I love the color grey... a lot!  And grey scale nails just sounded like a great idea, so here they are haha...

 These are my favorite grey's in my collection.  I really like the ombre look, I think it's very fun!  There is another technique that I want to try out where you just use one color polish and add drops of black or white to change the shade. 

Here are the colors used...

Rimmel - Black Satin, Charlotte Russe - Smolder, Julep - Meryl, Confetti - Lonesome Dove, O.P.I. - Skull & Glossbones

Of course, I can't just leave plain polish on my fingers.  I need some pizazz!  Lol so I added my go to glimmer on top.  You know what it is I'm sure...

 China Glaze - Fairy Dust

It's my favorite, what can I say?  It's just so sparkly!!

As a side note, I've had a couple of friends ask me about my manicure techniques.  While I'm still learning myself, I have found some of the tips at Nails by Kayla Shevonne to be quite helpful!  Her "Manicuring 101" series is pretty awesome :)

So that's my post for today... unless you are curious about my recent polish haul ;)  It's after the jump!