Wordless Wednesday: Green and Gold scallops

Zoya Logan, Zoya Ziv, Ulta Maine Attraction

Zoya Logan, Zoya Ziv, Ulta Maine Attraction

Zoya Logan, Zoya Ziv, Ulta Maine Attraction

Soft Grey Holo

Hello Ninjas!

This is weapons week at work and I have the opportunity to do sword classes with the red belts. Sword was SO MUCH FUN tonight in class! I think I'll really like the Fire Element and there is only a little over a week left until I'm wearing a red-white belt :)

Tonight's manicure was sort of a whim to make what could have been a plain manicure a little more interesting. I used two coats of Smoke Screen from Ulta as a base under one coat of a holo topcoat I received in a nail polish swap a few months back. The result was a very pretty soft grey holographic that looked a little like a wintery slush.

Ulta Good Clean Fawn

Hello Ninjas!

It's been a nice relaxing Friday here in sunny NC. The weather was warm but what do you expect from a southern summer? I spent most of my time inside getting a little R&R but the hubby and I did go out to lunch with a good friend of ours so that was nice. Next week we're headed to a concert and we can't wait! It will be the first concert we've attended together and two of our favorite bands will be there :) I can't decide which band I want to match my concert manicure to though, decisions decisions.

Tonight's manicure is a color I picked up on clearance at Ulta quite a while back: Good Clean Fawn. Since I love the cream with hidden shimmer finish on polish, a nude/brown version of this was right up my alley. GCF is a dark tan cream polish that leans slightly pink and has a sort of hidden light gold/pink shimmer. As with most hidden shimmer polishes, this wasn't an easy one to capture on camera but it was a nice subtle color to wear between the brights that dominate summer.

Ulta Into Astrono-me? and Indi-go girl

Hello Ninjas! I tested for my next belt today at work and passed! In two weeks at graduation I'll be moving up to a Blue-White belt! I'm excited because water is a whole new element which means a whole new set of moves. I've heard from a number of higher ranked students that water is a hard element to learn if you're not sort of a flowy personality already. I've been told I'll do really well in fire though! Ah well, this will be an adventure :)

 Tonight I've got two Ulta polishes I picked up when they were buy one, get one a while back. I've been lemming Into Astrono-me for a long time, I just love the murky cream polishes with vivid shimmer like Purplex and this one. This was a super easy to manage color, if I'd have been a little more heavy handed, I probably could have gotten away with one coat. Since I'm prone to thinner coats, it took two for perfection on this color. I added an accent nail of Indi-go girl which is the color my husband picked out for the manicure.

Recent Hauls!

Hello Ninjas!

This is my first post with the new blogger layout and I gotta say, it looks funny! I'm having another sick night so this post is super short a sweet. I'm including hauls from Ulta, CVS, and NinjaPolish. What loot do you want to see me swatch next?

Ulta and CVS Haul

Ninja Polish Haul

BONUS: One Hand Washes the Other Haul

Ulta Envy and recent finds

Hello again!

It's been overcast here in NC for a few days now so I apologize in advance for the poor lighting in my pictures. This is Ulta Envy, a lovely jewel toned green with a hint of aqua shimmer. This manicure is ONE coat. I've read other blogs and they all used two coats. I think the reason I got away with one is because I have nubs so there's no VNL to cover up. Still, super easy to work with and a pretty color that looks good on my sad nubbins.

 And here's a few of the polishes I've picked up over the last week. The two Butter Londons are my first from the brand that I picked up at Ulta's BOGO deal. I was happy to get Wallis but I was hoping to get No more Waity Katie instead of Big Smoke. Oh well! I'm excited about the cute little pumpkin polishes tha tI got at Rite Aid because one has black glitter and the other has holo moons!

The two White caps in the back are Orly Fowl play! I found two at Ulta this morning so I picked them up for people who might be looking for it. One is spoken for but the other is up for grabs :)

Zoya Blues

So I've tried on two Zoya blues in the last two days. The first mani I did was with Zoya Phoebe which is from their Summer 2011 Mod Matte's collection. I loooved this color as soon as I got it on! I had to make it a little different though by adding a silver glitter liner polish down the middle then Ulta Borrowed Blue on one side with Sech QD top coat and Essie Matte About You on the other side. the result was a half shiny half matte mani that I thought was adorable :)

The Other mani I did was with Zoya Crystal. This is a super neat metallic/foil blue that has a load of gold glitter in it. This is a color that's really hard to look directly at, especially in direct lighting. I did stamping of dog paw-prints in China Glaze's Refresh-mint and Finger Paints Lavender Highlight over top of Crystal for a unique but kind of busy looking mani.

My Easter Mani and some failed stamping.

So Justin's awesome family was in town this weekend which meant a pedi for me and his mom as well as a trip to Ulta. I'll post pictures of my haul later but lets look at the mani and my stamping fail. The base color is actually a bit of layering. Two coats of Salley Hansen Insta-Dri in Jade Jump and one coat of Ulta's Always a Bridemaid collection in Something Blue. I do have to say, I really really hate the formula on the Insta-Dris I picked up... Sure they dry fast but they also dry sort of chalky and the polish gets little dry gritty pieces in it... Which is pretty much the only reason I did a layering deal with the Something  Blue, to cover up the gritty ick. I wonder if some polish thinner would help?

Anyways, the next day, I tried to do some stamping with Wet n Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer but as soon as I added Seche QD on top the stamp started to degrade and get blurry and fail... SO I did a bunch of other stamp colors on top to get a sort of tie dyed look.

Also, my easter package arrived today from my mom who's all the way out in California! Can you guess what one of the things in my package was?

Fauxnad-icure! Or Mashnad-icure?

My first full stamping mani! This is such a pretty combination I think. I started off with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Grey Are which is a great very dark greige that leans a little purple. Then, I added a flower to each nail with MASH plate m21. I had to rush off to work so before work I just did the ring fingers but when I got home I finished them off! And, because I was feeling Springy, I also added a butterfly from the same plate to each thumb.

Two coats Grey Area, one Sech QD, flower stamp in Ulta Tutu Cute, butterfly stamp in Sinful Snow Me White, then topped off with another coat of seche QD!

Ulta: Blue Streak

Well, being as cobalt blue is supposed to be one of the "it" colors this spring, I decided to pick up Blue Streak when I went to Ulta and they had their polishes at 2/$4. This is a neat and vibrant blue that looks great in sunlight and is a lovely pop of color for any outfit. Two coats of super pigmented polish and Blue streak looks perfect. This is a blue that is on the cooler range and has more white than black in the base, making it cobalt rather than navy or royal blue.

Two coats Ulta Blue Streak, one coat Seche topcoat.