Seize the Sparkle

I swear, I should not be allowed to go to WalMart unsupervised. I can never just go and get the one thing I need. I end up buying all sorts of things I didn't intend to. Case in point, I went today for a prescription and face wash and ended up with two surprises for Peanut, one for my husband, and these 5 nail polishes. Seriously. Oh, and some Lima beans, because I have a definite Lima bean problem, but we're not going to go there right now. On to the polishes... Maybelline Impeccable Greys Revlon Ritzy Revlon Girly Sinful Colors Blue By You Wet n Wild Fergie Glamorous I think Ritzy will look great over Impeccable Greys, and I didn't even think of that when I picked them up! Not sure which one I'll end up wearing first, but I'll post the pics here when I do!   And here are the presents I bought for Peanut... This cute onesie... A Classic! Happy Saturday!

Today's mani is soft, pretty, and feminine... Zoya Kennedy. Natural Light Natural Light Natural Light Macro Zoya describes Kennedy as a "pale, French beige creme." It leans a little towards the pink side in natural light, but I swear when I was putting it on last night, it looked slightly purple. In fact, I was wondering if I got Kendal and Kennedy mixed up, but this is definitely Kennedy. Hmmm... Polishes: 1 coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 2 coats Zoya Kennedy 1 coat Essie As Gold as it Gets 1 coat Seche Vite Like I said, last night while I was painting away, this looked more purple than pink, so I thought I'd layer gold over top of it, since I feel like most people pair silver glitter with purple. I'll have to try that combo in the future, but I promise... the next mani I wear will NOT include As Gold as it Gets. Three manis in a row has earned it a break! Even if this layering didn't turn out exactly as planned, it's sti

Oh. My. Starry. Eyed. Surprise.  :) Natural Light Natural Light Sunlight Natural Light Macro - Natural Light Yes, I went there.  It's not often that you see shaped glitter from a mainstream nail polish company. I know it's been out for a little while, but She's Lily Something was practically begging to be taken home... all because of some pink star-shaped glitter. The last time I bought nail polish with starry glitter, it was an absolute nightmare to work with. Getting the stars out of the bottle was a futile attempt at deep sea fishing. I bought that polish from the Gap, and I couldn't even begin to tell you the name of it. I can't even remember if the stars were red or orange... I just know that I couldn't get those stars to stick to my nails for the life of me. Thankfully, She's Lily Something was a little easier to work with. She's Lily Something is a sparkly pink glitter with pink star-shaped glitter. Totally girly gl

It's my comeback mani... The first time I've painted my nails since my daughter was born in October! For someone who used to change her polish every single night... this was a huuuuuge step towards normalcy. I also got to take a bath (complete with a LUSH bath bomb) and read a few more chapters of Beautiful Redemption. EPIC. WIN. Bottle Shot - Artificial Light Bottle Shot - Artificial Light Natural Light Natural Light I absolutely love wearing black nail polish. It just adds a little something extra to an outfit... a little mystery and edginess. I also love accent manis, so when I picked up 212-Sephora and What's a Tire Jack on Saturday night, I immediately knew how I would wear them! What's a Tire Jack? is obviously a black creme polish. 212-Sephora is described on Sephora's site as an "opaque smoky black with iridescent gold and copper chunky glitter." I think that describes it fairly accurately, but I also get some flashes of gr

I don't collect much. Nail Polish. Words. Books... ...and Skeleton Keys. I'm not sure what it is about them. Wondering who could've used them? What secrets they unlock? How ordinary they might really be? I haven't taken many pictures of my collection at all, but there are some fabulous images on deviantArt that just get my brain moving... Night-Fate Alessia-Izzo Puccanoodles2009 Night-Fate (again) What random objects serve as inspiration for your creativity?

Every now and then, real life can inspire art. In this case, it was a very real cupcake from a shop called Sublime Cupcakes . I haven't had one in a while, but trust me... they are delicious! Pictured below is Vanilla Squared... the inspiration for my Thanksgiving 2011 Manicure. Essie Marshmallow, Milani Gems This might be an old manicure, but I still remember which polishes I used to create the look. Must've been the delicious sugar-cookie taste that is Vanilla Squared! I can't tell you how many coats of each, but this mani features Milani Gems sandwiched in between coats of Essie Marshmallow to create a look identical to the icing on my cupcake. I also used Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler to make a smooth base, and Seche-Vite to make it dry super fast!  Jelly Glitter Sandwiches were a big thing for me during the fall of 2011. Making the leap to a "milky glitter sandwich" was only natural. Layering glitter this way might tone down the sparkle of the glitte

After posting all those old manis, I realized it's been AWHILE since I picked up some new polish. Definitely not a huge haul by any means, but I still thought I'd share. SOPI 212-Sephora SOPI Hollywood If I Could SOPI What's a Tire Jack? Nails Inc. Sugar House Lane SOPI 212-Sephora, Hollywood If I Could, What's a Tire Jack, Nails Inc Sugar House Lane When I went to Sephora on Saturday night, I have to say, I wasn't really looking for any of these. I was looking for a black and white glitter polish. Sugar House Lane is close, but not quite there. I thought for sure I'd find one at Sephora, but it doesn't seem like too many of the mainstream companies have jumped on the trend. China Glaze has Whirled Away in their Cirque de Soleil collection, so a trip to Sally Beauty is definitely in my future! 212-Sephora is a shade I've been wanting for quite some time. I remember being intrigued by it when it was first available for pre-

So I mentioned my old blog Polish and Prose, right? I have a weakness for a good jelly glitter sandwich and love layering with glitter. Here's some spam featuring some of my favorite manicures. Beware though, these are absolute glitterbombs! Enjoy!!! OPI Not Like the Movies with Unknown Glitter Essie As Gold as it Gets over Revlon Fashionista Essie Vanity Fairest with Unknown Gold Glitter Glittered Concrete (Franken) Pink Valentine Layering Red Valentine Layering Strawberry Jelly Glitter Sandwich Zoya Faye with Unknown Glitter Glitter Gradient with SOPI Sugar Plum Faeries Gone Wild over Revlon Bare Bones Christmas Glitter Gradient: China Glaze Twinkle Lights over Unknown Red Unicorn Puke Recreation: Attempt 1 Unicorn Puke Recreation: Attempt 2

Prior to becoming pregnant, I had a nail polish blog called Polish and Prose. It was a ton of fun posting pictures and reviewing new polishes. My husband bought me my very own Helmer and challenged me to fill it up. I took that challenge in stride for about a month. I'm embarassed proud to say that I own over 100 different bottles of nail polish, possibly more! Anyhoo... Jelly polishes quickly became one of my FAVORITE finishes. And don't even get me started on how much I love Jelly Glitter Sandwiches. *sigh* I haven't painted my nails in a WHILE, but this is the last manicure I sported. Katherine by Zoya, from the New York Fashion Week Gloss Collection. Let me just start by posting the promo pic of Katherine from Zoya's website. Zoya Katherine Their description of this lovely color is: "A sheer, dark, red-toned aubergine, oxblood with a buildable jelly gloss finish. The jelly gloss formula can be worn alone or layered to create an endless variety of

Writers block happens. Creative challenges happen. Procrastination happens. When I'm facing any of these 3 problems... I have a site I like to visit to inspire me. deviantArt Founded in 2000... it's a social network for artists to post their work online for peer review. I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but this site will do wonders to get your creative juices flowing. It's a place where you can truly surf the interwebs and find some really cool stuff. For instance... a simple search on glitter yielded this pretty picture: A few clicks later, and I found a really cool tattoo idea... both from the same deviantArt user, violetkitty92 . She actually drew these birds on her wrist, but I think this would make an awesome tattoo! I love the placement and everything. I clicked around her gallery, and it's full of some pretty amazing stuff. And that's the cool thing about deviantArt. You can be looking for one thing, and your search s

I'm normally not a New Year's Resolution type of person. If I've made them, I've broken them, most before the month of January has faded away. So what makes this year different? The fact that it's a NEW year. A DIFFERENT year. A year in which I NEED to decide how the rest of my life looks. Have you ever looked at your life and been unhappy with what you see? Have you avoided looking closely to evade an inevitable truth? Have you ever lost yourself... and not in a good way? How is it that this can happen so easily? I know I didn't intend for this to happen. I'm not even sure exactly when it started. Once I was in a long-term relationship? After I graduated college? When I got married? Somewhere along my journey through life... I lost my sparkle. I lost me. I'd like to say that I came to this realization on my own, but that would be a lie. As with so many other things in my life, the need for a little soul searching was brought up by someone else, a