Blue Alley Deals

For today I've got a glitter gradient gradating from a magenta glitter up toward a royal blue. I pulled out two somewhat dusty, unused colors from my Helmer to get this manicure. They both live in the same drawer, which is a hodgepodge of Essie, OPI, Wet n' Wild and a few other mismatches that don't have enough family members to buy their own Helmer drawer. Don't feel sorry for this drawer though, it's quite a party in there. The Kleancolor Chunky Holos and the entire Wet n' Wild Color Icon collection live in there. Solids and neutrals beware, this drawer's trouble!

I love the combination of these two royal, jewel toned colors paired together that comes across even more stunning in real life. Back Alley Deals and Saved by the Blue both come from Wet n' Wild. Saved by the Blue is one of those polishes that's always on the shelf, but you'll be lucky to find anymore Back Alley Deals. That collection was a limited time assortment of glitters only available at Walgreen's, and of course, only for a limited time. It's cruel how companies insist on creating the best polishes for only a limited time, and leave their less inspiring shades out year round.

Xhilarated Nails

I haven't mentioned this yet, but this weekend, I'm going to Vegas with some friends and Andy. We'll only be there for two days, but I'm sure we all expect to pack as many adventures into those days as we possibly can.

Ramping up for Vegas required some serious accessorizing, from sunglasses to bathing suits to outfits. One of the dresses I bought was actually designed as a coverup for a bathing suit, but the way it fits on me makes it a sexy dress.

Awesome striped zig-zag patterns totally inspired be when I walked by my closet today, so with White On (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear) and Four Leaf Clover (China Glaze), I created this manicure.

I'll keep working on my free handing abilities, if you keep promising to be so kind! Seriously, I had a less than glamorous day yesterday but reading the kind comments for the past couple of posts, seeing the amount of reposts and Likes, really brightened up a dreary day. I know I hardly ever respond to comments, but it doesn't mean I don't love them. I'd like you all to know that I read each and every one of them. So thanks guys!

Modern Leprechaun

Without even thinking about what tomorrow is, I made today's manicure St. Patrick's Day appropriate! I'd been thinking about the combination of these two polishes for a while, originally hoping to make a reverse gradient using the colors. When I finally got around to painting my nails last night though, I realized how much thinner Set the Stage (Sally Hansen) was in its glitter formula. It wouldn't have worked nearly as well as Crown Me Already did for my mermaid nails. (I think that post is actually my most popular.)

I didn't feel much like creating a huge, gloppy blob of glitter near the base of my nails, trying to reach the correct consistency, so I decided to paint the whole nail with the gold. It's done over Essie's Sew Psyched. I have a teeny weeny little sample bottle of that, and it's just about the cutest size I've ever owned. Unfortunately, after about 2 manicures with it, it's half empty. In the literal way, not the pessimistic way.

When I was putting the polish away, I noticed Glitter in my Stocking in the same drawer, and kind of kicked myself for not using that for the gold gradient. It has more reds than I'd like to go with the green of Sew Psyched, but it still may have been pretty cool. Next time!

Colors in the Face of Cancer

Jackie Clark, a writer and outreach contact for the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance reached out to me several weeks ago, extending an invitation to partner and present a touching and inspirational story to the readers of my blog.

Please enjoy her insightful words below, detailing just one of the tough issues women face when diagnosed with a tragic and sometimes fatal prognosis.

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Colors in the Face of Cancer
By: Jackie Clark

Are you a woman struggling with a cancer diagnosis who feels like she can use a new paint of coat on life? Or are you a daughter whose mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer? Why not try nail polish and enjoy having some cute cuticles, despite the circumstances you may be under.

As inconsequential as it may seem, a manicure can really brighten up your perspective. Let’s face it there is nothing fun about cancer. Yet, in the midst of your darkest emotions, brightness can be found in the form of gorgeous, silky nails. A simple act like painting her nails can refocus a woman on her femininity and innate beauty.

When facing a daunting diagnosis and the subsequent treatment options, it is easy for a woman to feel overwhelmed. One of the first things a woman allows to fall to the wayside is her personal upkeep and beauty. Yet maintaining ties with current trends in fashion and beauty can serve as a wonderful way for a woman not to lose herself as she faces the biggest battle of her life.

If the idea of a full makeover is overwhelming, there are small and simple ways for a woman to maintain a sense of style. The reason why a manicure is such a wonderful idea is because it an easy and time efficient way to pay a little attention to your own needs. A manicure may be the absolute last thing a woman has on her mind while battling cancer, yet it may be just the thing she needs to renew her sense.

Being pampered is a great way for a woman to ease back and allow herself to be treated as a princess, even as she struggles with one of the many cancers woman are faced with including mesothelioma from asbestos exposure.

If a trip to the salon for a manicure simply isn’t in the budget, then a woman can still enjoy the same blissful pampering at home. All it takes is a simple drug store bottle of nail polish and her husband, friend, or children to elegantly apply the nail polish as she sits back relaxes. The soothing human touch paired with adding bright, beautiful colors can be a truly transforming and healing experience. After endless appointments with doctors and treatments following the cancer prognosis, hands that provide a beautiful touch can be a refreshing change.

Painted nails are a sign to the world that a woman no matter how many struggles she may have faced, has not given up on herself or her fight against cancer. Remembering the importance of beauty no matter how small an act proves that she has not lost count of her value as a woman.

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Painting your nails, getting homegrown manicures, and creating details on your nails truly is effortless with today's tools. As all of you know, I'm a huge fan of dotting tools, but an even more effortless tool available at low prices to almost every country are stamping plates. From Konad to Red Angel to Bundle Monster, these patterns take about two tries to master, and then you too could be creating beautiful designs such as this.

Confidence is key, and a beautiful manicure can empower anyone.

Jackie, thank you for your insightful, inspiring and beautifully written post!

Outlined Flowers

I was originally inspired for today's manicure by Gully Nails's post, Polka Dot Flowers. After looking at her design again, I know I kind of missed the mark, but I'm still sort of giddy about my own design. Sort of seems kind of Spongebob-esque.

The base color here is Secret Peri-Wink-Le (China Glaze), overlaid with Whimsical (Revlon).  The petals are a combination of Feeling Great (Sinful Colors) and Lightening (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri). Finally, I drew the inner pollen spots with Time Off (Sinful Colors).

I will try this again to get it closer to Becky's design, because I absolutely love it.

Pyramid Flaked

An unusually frustrating feeling occurs when you have so many ideas flurrying about in your head, and can't decide which one to pick and ultimately apply to your nails. It's like walking into a candy store and being told you can only have one piece of one flavor. The decisions weigh so heavily on you that you eventually cave under the pressure, and pick up the first piece that you can grab. In the end, you're not thrilled with it, but the sweet taste is too distracting to care.

Faced with such a dilemma last night, I wound up with this cluster of colors. I chose the black base (Black Platinum from Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure) because I didn't want to use the solid black you see paired with flakies on almost every Googled image of "flakies". (I wish I had used a solid though.) The pyramid shape filled with Twisted (Finger Paints) is something I've been envisioning for the past few days, but it was only while I was applying my base coat that I decided to use flakies instead of my original idea. I won't say what that idea was yet, because I'm sure in the next few days I'll use that still. Ultimately, this is what I came up with, indecision be damned!

Collar-ful Argyle

It's a well known fact that dogs provide more than just companionship to their human counterparts, including a calming sensation and happiness when they're around. I bet you didn't know they also provide nail art inspiration?

She was staring at the treat Andy was holding above her head for me. Awesome pose!

Riley is our dog, and her collar was my inspiration for this argyle print. I used Steady as She Rose (OPI) for the base, and Time Off and Bad Chick for the pattern.

Riley's a mutt, we're not sure what she is. We're thinking she may be an Australian Kelpie mix, because that's really the only breed that fits her size and coloring. Originally, the humane society we adopted her from said she was a German Shepard mix of some sort, but weighing in at 35 lbs. now, there's no way she could be. We love her no matter what she is though!

Simple French

C'est une manucure simple. Is that close? Does that say "this is a simple manicure"? If not, that's what it's supposed to say, but since I've never spoken a lick of French, I relied on my Mac's dashboard widget to translate for me.

Why is it in French? No, not because I'm trying to broaden my horizons or plan on traveling to France (or Canada) anytime soon. It's in French because today's manicure is a simple French manicure. Oh Katy, you're so clever!

It's nothin' fancy or schmancy, but it makes my nails feel longer.

I used only two colors for today. China Glaze's Good Witch and Sinful Color's Bad Chick. I freehanded the French tips, but maybe I should've taped for more consistent, straight lines.

Simple, to the point, and easy to take off later to make way for a better manicure.

Dainty Asian Flowers

Is grey work-appropriate? Where I work, there is no dress code. One of my friends had purple hair for a while! So when I show up everyday with a new, usually bright manicure, no one blinks an eye. I mean, we can bring our pets into the office, no biggie. However, tomorrow we are having some potential clients come in, and I'll be organizing the lunch, so the potential for them to see my nails is large. With that in mind, I wanted a manicure that was appropriate, but I also really wanted to do this manicure, so I risked it. What do you guys think...appropriate? Would a stickler boss strike down these colors?

I used I Vant to be A-Lone Star (OPI) as the grey base, Be My Valentine (Sinful Colors nail art brush) for the stems, and Illamasqua's Load for the flowers. Subtle?

Shred the Pool

After a long day of trudging through snow, work and a post-holiday grocery shopping trip, I didn't have much motivation to do some intricate designs or stamping on my nails. Luckily, my Lacquistry was waiting for me to open it at lunch!

I first saw polishes created by Jenna at Lacquistry at Amy's blog, and in particular, this post. Still striking out in getting any Lynderlla polishes, I fell in love with Jenna's Shredded collection. I snagged the black, gold, and aqua versions of the shredded polishes and holy spicoli am I pleased with them! Not only for their reasonable price ($7.50 a bottle), but also for their...well let's just let the pictures speak for themselves.

I needed the black because it's dying to get some serious contrast (which you'll see in a moment). I also grabbed the gold, mostly because I was upset when I applied Essie's As Gold as it Gets only to find out that the gold flakes didn't actually remain gold once they were layered. And of course, the aqua was too unique to pass up. I also picked up a polish she aptly named Potting Soil. You'll see that in the future though.

So, a quick mani later, I got these neon results. I reiterate...holy spicoli!

Slapping the black Shredded on top of China Glaze's Pool Party is probably too much to handle for some, and definitely a driving hazard if nothing else, but it's so beyond effortless-awesome that I think even those of you who don't favor pinks and neons will give it its due credit.

Vintage Flowers

Beautiful nail art comes from beautiful talent, and beautiful colors. The colors I used for today's manicure are really beautiful, especially when paired together. So thanks to Tzadkiel for her inspirational colors.

I don't have much else to say about it, other than I love it and dotting tools are clearly the best! The base color is Unicorn from Sinful Colors, and the dots are from For Audrey (China Glaze), Get in the Expresso Lane (OPI), Life Preserver (China Glaze), and Pull Over (Sinful Colors).

Mermaid Slippers

These nails looked like mermaid slippers to me. If Ariel wore Cinderella's slippers, this is what you'd get. (Vacation still, excuse the weeny post.)

The teal is China Glaze's Four Leaf Clover and the glitter is OPI's Crown Me Already!.

Gettin' close to 100 followers! Then a giveaway is coming your way!

UPDATE (1/20/12):

A Tumblr follower asked me to create a tutorial for this look. So here it is!

 

Glitzy Grinch

Another short vacation post, but with some pretty gorgeous manicures.

The first is one I did to celebrate both my birthday and Christmas. I used RA stamp #119, China Glaze's Icicle as the base (which you can't really see), Color Club's Sugarplum Fairy for the amazing glitter, and Black on Black from Sinful Colors as the stamping color. Init purty?

The second I did today, and will probably stamp on top of later, but I just couldn't touch Beige Blast (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri) yet. It makes everyone's fingers look elegant, albeit after four coats. It reminded me of Nugget, my little kitten, so I attempted to get a shot with me holding her.

This is the best I could do, given her wiggly kitten nature.

Finally, here's a little exclusion-ing via Photoshop to highlight that beige beauty.

Birthday Nails

Yesterday was my 24th birthday, so I needed to do a manicure I would love, regardless of what some readers might think of it. I've always loved bright colors, and pastel shades of those colors hold a special place in my polished heart. So I did a simple skittle manicure consisting of some of my new pastels from China Glaze's Up & Away collection. I love them all, but these won out, making a sweet little rainbow of colors on each hand.

I used:

• Sugar High from China Glaze on my thumbs
• Lemon Fizz from China Glaze on my index fingers
• Re-Fresh Mint from China Glaze  on my middle fingers
• Light Mist from Savina on my ring fingers
• Something Sweet from China Glaze on my pinkies

Just a sweet, simple little manicure I threw on before going out and getting a tasty breakfast with Andy. Later on I added black tips, but I didn't like the straightness of the tips enough to show you. I was too impatient to tape, so freehanded them. They don't look bad from far off, but up close they're not the best.

Happy Go Lucky Circus

Drink in today's manicure because it will be the last scheduled one for a few weeks. I'll be travelling to land of beauty, sun and polish...Southern California. Andy's family and the majority of mine live there, so Christmas, New Years and my birthday will all be celebrated there. I've packed up my polish and supplies into a rather heavy to-go container, hoping I don't wind up missing a polish I left behind here in Boulder.

But like I said, with so much going on, I won't be dedicating every day to polishing. I'll do my best, and squeeze it in where I have time and feel like doing it, but today's may very well be the last until the beginning of January.

To celebrate the festive 17 hour drive we have to look forward to tomorrow and Sunday, I chose what some might consider to be an obnoxious amount of color. I absolutely love it, seeing as yellow's my favorite color. What're your thoughts?

I used China Glaze's Happy Go Lucky and Essence's Circus Confetti. It's so beyond fun to wear this manicure, and I'm a little upset I used it early. It's a totally appropriate birthday manicure, but when the day comes, I'll probably match my nails with what I'm doing.

So ladies, farewell until Monday at the earliest, January at the latest!

Polish on!

Reddit Secret Santa Haul & Love

Reddit alien!

This year Reddit is aiming to break a Guinness world record for the largest online Secret Santa exchange. I decided to take part in it this year for the first time.

Part of signing up means filling out a character limited profile of what you'd like to see. Of course, I put nail polish and nail art supplies.

My Secret Santa totally pulled through, and sent me a colorful and amazing rainbow of polishes I don't have in my collection yet. He also included a set of emery boards and some really unique clippers.

The clippers are shaped like a foot, with a heart-shaped piercing in the big toe. There's also a small filing pad in the middle, below the clipper handles.

So of course, I had to try them all out! What I ended up with was a pretty ridiculous set of hands, but I like them all, so they'll stay.

My Secret Santa also included a kind note, and his girlfriend made a color legend of each polish.

Thanks Secret Santa, xtremepado! You (and your girlfriend), both rock for sending these awesome colors! You made a girl very happy for Christmas.

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Clover

After yesterday's failed attempt to layer the different Kleancolor holos over black, I decided to use a base that more closely matched the colors within the holo itself. Today's is Chunky Holo Clover. It's layered over China Glaze's Starboard.

Nothing too special, but I can count it as a Christmas manicure right?

Fancy Fat Santa

Remember the Kleancolor swatches I planned on doing? Since I've never done swatches of an entire collection (or many solo swatches for that matter), I wasn't sure how to go about swatching efficiently. So I figured I'd start with a layered black polish for comparison. Since I wasn't too eager to do an entire hand of the same color, I opted for doing each nail a different color.

This is the result:

Yes...each finger is a different Kleancolor layered over black. Um...yeah...I think these are meant to be worn over their corresponding color. Maybe even white would be better, but I'm always iffy about that. Don't get me wrong, each finger looks awesome, they just all look the same.

So Kleancolor swatches have been postponed. Sorry about that.

Instead! Work tomorrow is having the holiday party, complete with a secret Santa/white elephant gift exchange. I bought my gift and wrapped it, then thought that some Santa nails were appropriate to hand it off to some lucky sucker. Hey...it is white elephant after all.

I Googled "santa nails" and, after scrolling through some designs I wasn't too keen on, I stumbled upon this great take on Santa's belt by Wickless & Polished. I liked it because there wasn't as much white as I've seen, and I'm always up (or down) for a manicure that makes my fingers and hands look a little delicate. Odd coincidence too that this is the design I liked, since I recently found out my own mom likes Scentsies! This cosmic world we live in man.

So this is my interpretation, snazzing it up a bit with some glitter. Maybe this is slutty Santa fresh from the Halloween store. Either way, I don't like it as much as the original artist's. Her nails provide a better canvas than my recently filed fingers.

The polishes used include Hey Sailor (China Glaze) as the base, Wet n' Wild's Rockin' Rubies for the glitter, and detailing using Sinful Color's Time Off, Bad Chick, and Flower Girl. My favorite of these polishes is without a doubt Rockin' Rubies. It's got little glitters and big glitters, technical nail jargon aside.

Fairy Mermaid

Last night I finally had enough down time to do, photograph, and edit my nail pictures. This weekend was swamped between skiing at Keystone, hiking, getting brunch, dinner with parents and traffic. I literally had bare nails all weekend. THE HORROR!

It feels so much better to have some polished paws. Even better than that, it feels good to have a manicure, complete with filing, cuticle cream and moisturizing lotion. Delicious, moisturizing lotion. I'm not sure if I've ever told my bloggers this, but my new favorite lotion is Burt's Bees Milk & Honey Body Lotion. It's nothing fancy, but a tiny drop of it goes a long way, and it works beautifully with their Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream. I just put on the cuticle cream first, then top it off with a dot of lotion the size of a pea for my whole hand. Drink it in ladies, your hands will thank you.

Today's another Pirates by OPI manicure, with a little fairy dust sprinkled over it. The teal is Mermaid Tears (OPI) and the flecks come from China Glaze's Fairy Dust. The design is from Red Angel plate 105, and the black used to stamp is Sinful Colors Black on Black.

What I'd really like to do for you guys tomorrow is a bunch of swatches of that Kleancolor set I mentioned here. I got it in the mail, and it's gorgeous!

I've never done swatches though, so I'm unclear about how long it will take and how ambitious you need to be to swatch 9 different polishes for one post. That's my goal though, so hopefully that's what we see in tomorrow's post!

Ringing in the Red...and Green...and Glitter

I don't usually reach for standard colors when I do a solid color manicure (but let's face it...when have I shown you all a solid colored manicure). However, after applying the base to today's manicure, I know which polish is a new favorite of mine.

May I present to you in all her glittering glory...Ring in the Red from China Glaze.

She's the color so nice, I'll show you twice. I mean come on! It was so damn sparkly I ran over to Andy absolutely tickled! His words: "It's so...shiny!" Yes it is my man, yes it is.

I couldn't leave well enough alone though, and pumped it up with some holiday glamor. I stamped using Cherish, also from China Glaze, and Sinful Color's Fashionista adorned the half-mooned cut off point. The plate is RA-110.

I should also mention that beneath Ring in the Red I used one layer of Essie's Limited Addiction, just so I wouldn't be glopping on layer upon layer of that gorgeous glitter to get full coverage.