Cinderella manicure!

Good evening Ninjas!

Sorry I missed Wedesday, I had a party to go to and didn't have any time between work and fun time to stop to post. Sorry about that! If it makes it any better, I specifically brought my laptop to my babysitting job tonight to post once the kids were asleep just so I didn't miss two posts in one week!

Tonight's very pretty manicure is done with a base of China Glaze Fade into Hue which is an awesome periwinkle blue. For some reason the polishes from the Avant Garden collection have been bubbling on me so I added a coat of Essie As Gold as it Gets to mask the bubbling issue. To make this pretty blue manicure a little blingy, I added a spiral of light blue rhinestones that I received from MASH for review purposes. When I posted this look in a facebook group, some of the ladies commended on how it was a Cinderella blue manicure and I agree! With all the shine and sparkle it's pretty princess-y too :)

Rhinestones provided by MASH PR for honest review. Affiliate link included in this post.

Illamasqua Kink and Essie As Gold as it Gets

Hello darling Ninjas,

Thank you for the kind words for Tango, he's on the mend but being a horrible brat when it comes to taking his meds! Hopefully that means he'll heal right up with no issues.

Today I've got na layering combo that wasn't what I had planned. I had initially meant to wear only Illamasqua Kink for a few days because I love green and I thought the vinyl manicure would get some interesting comments at work. I did three coats over Essie All in One Base with no top coat. I let it dry for almost three hours before I went to bed since I didn't know how long it would take to cure without topcoat. It seemed fine when I went through my nightly routine so I thought nothing of it. However, in the morning I had horrible sheet marks all over my lovely nails! I was sorely disappointed in the dry time of this polish. The application was a breeze, even my husband commented that I didn't "take long enough" to paint my nails. With all the press marks all over my nails, I had to find something easy to cover them up with before I went in to work  that I could use Seche QD over.

I ended up choosing As Gold as it Gets from Essie's LuxEffects collection since I thought that the gold flecks would look good with the deep forest green of Kink. I slapped on the new layer as I was dog sitting and it was good to go in under an hour (I was super cautious with it, it was probably fine sooner). This manicure turned out great but I'm still sad I didn't get to show off the cool vinyl finish of Kink. I know that the "matte" top coat I have from Kleancolor dries to a very vinyl finish, so maybe I'll try using that when I wear Vice.

Opal Nails

Hello darling ninjas,

Today I've got the outcome at my attempt to make my nails look like fire opals. I started with a base of 4 coats of Sally Hansen Brilliant blush which I wore by itself for two days. It's a pretty translucent pearl with amazing multichrome flashes of red, pink, and orange. On top of that I added a coat of Essie Shine of the Times to be the silica inclusions that make opal so pretty. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but it was still very pretty!

New Year Haul!

Hello darling ninjas!

Today I've got my first haul of the year for your viewing pleasure. This was the first batch of polish I've bought since the official end of my no-buy. I blasted into the new year in style with 10 new polishes! The Zoya polishes and the Sally Hansen polishes all came from Ulta on clearance and the Essie polishes I picked up off a new display at Target. I'm super excited about these! I love the bright Zoya colors, my only regret is not being able to find the last Mod Matte on clearance. Alas, it was a great haul overall!

L to R: Gemma, Mitzi, Pippa, Paz, and Dita

L to R: SH Delphinium , SH Crinoline, Essie Go Overboard, Armed and Ready, and As Gold as it Gets

And at the end of my no-buy, my husband has suggested new rules for my polish spending. He said that I should limit my polish purchases to $125/month. For reference, that is exactly how much I make one week at my second job dog-sitting. This price includes shipping charges too so it will be interesting to see how this effects my collection! I'm already down to $16.26 left for the month. Between Ulta, Target, Zoya, and Pre-Ordering from AEngland I've gone through a big chunk of my polish budget. I'm using GoogleDocs to keep track of my spending on a spreadsheet which is a little eye-opening but good for my wallet. Now I have to decide between Zoya or Finger Paints for the rest of my budget. I was thinking of doing the FingerPaints (the whole three I can afford lol) since they're LE and in store exclusive. I can probably pick up the Zoya Tru collection next month without too much issue.

What do you think of having a polish budget?

Holiday Haul and NYE Mani

Hello lovely ninjas!

Tonight I've got for you the polishes I got as a gift from my great friend Elizabeth. She got me these lovely polishes from my wish-list <3 She's one of the people who has gotten as obsessed with polish as I have since I started my blog and she's just awesome!

Altogether she got me four polishes and a HUGE container of Seche Vite. I was super excited about all of these but I think I nearly had a heartattack when I saw Piu Mosso and Scrangie! And the LuxeEffects definitely got a squeal of happiness. *sigh* I love all the pretties so much. 

Of course, she also brought the polishes she thought I'd be more interested in trying so I made a huge mash-up for my New Years Manicure. I did AEngland Lancelot on my thumb, middle, and pinky fingers and AEngland Galahad on my index and ring fingers as base colors. On Lancelot I did one coat of Morgan le Fay then one coat of one of the Color Club scattered holo's from their holiday collection. Over Galahad I did one coat of Essie Shine of the time. This was a super blingy manicure that I thought was a perfect way to ring in the new year.

Stay tuned for another haul post soon! I picked up 10 polishes between clearance at Ulta and Target today since my no-buy is officially OVER. Muahahahaha.

Essie News!

Ok, I haven't been doing many (ANY) press releases since last spring. But, there is one set I'm super excited about! Essie's LuxEffects for winter 2011/12. This, of course, is the set that contains the mysterious and gorgeous Essie Flakie! Which, per my husband, is the only polish I'm allowed to buy during my no-buy lol. The information and pictures below are completely credited to www.imabeautygeek.com and were found specifically at this page: Essie Luxeffects Topcoats, Essie Resort 2012, and Spring 2012

From left to right: As Gold as it Gets, Shine of the Time (FLAKIE), A Cut Above, Set in Stones, and Pure Pearlfection.

Also, their Resort 2012 collection has somewhat of a teaser picture up:

From bottom Left clockwise: She's Picture Perfect, Sure Shot, No More Film, and Pink-a-boo

Then, there is a gorgeous picture up of their Spring 2012 collection!

From top left to bottom right: Navigate Her, A Crewed Interest, To Buy or Not to Buy, Tour de Finance, Ole Caliente, and Orange, It's Obvious.

Again, ALL PICTURES AND INFORMATION ARE CREDITED TO BEAUTYGEEKS FROM IMABEAUTYGEEK.COM!!!!!