Seize the Sparkle

It's been entirely too long since I've worn a glitter sandwich. This one is full of milky, glittery, patriotic goodness, quite by accident, I must admit. Polishes Used: 1 Coat Sally Hansen White Veil 3 Coats L.A. Girl Celebrate 2 Coats OPI Bubble Bath 1 Coat Seche Vite With Gray Suede on my nails last night, I decided I need some glitter on my nails. It was either that, or nail art, and the glitter won. (It usually does.) White Veil is a really pretty glitter polish from Sally Hansen that I forgot I owned and have never tried. It's a white and gold hex glitter mix that I thought would look stunning over a neutral polish. I painted on 1 coat and didn't really like it. So, I used L.A. Girl Celebrate instead. 3 coats using the dab-and-go method gave me a generous coating of glitter on my nails. Mostly red, blue, and silver glitter with an occasional fuschia. 2 layers of Bubble Bath were needed to completely tone down the glitter and finish

This polish is one of my favorite nude shades from my stash... if not thee fav-o-rite. Simple and classy... this shade does exactly what you want a neutral polish to do... complete and compliment without competing. (Try saying that five times fast. Whew!) Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 3 Coats Revlon Gray Suede 1 Coat Seche Vite Nude polishes are tricky. If you've ever been on the hunt for the perfect one, you know what I'm talking about. Too much yellow, not enough pink, too gray, not enough brown... I could go on and on, and those are just complaints I've had about some of the not-quite nudes in my collection. Then I found this one. Gray Suede from Revlon was honestly a one in a million find. Seriously. It's part of their core collection, and a pretty decent match to my skin tone, but not a complete match. The shade compliments my skin tone without looking harsh or garish. Gray is a bit of a misnomer, considering this is a

Am I fan of the name? No. Not at ALL. But, do I love this color? YES!!! From OPI's Holland Collection for Spring/Summer 2012... I Have a Herring Problem. Natural Light Bottle Shot - Natural Light Sunlight The Claw - Natural Light Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 3 Coats OPI I Have a Herring Problem 1 Coat Borghese Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite If Jeans don't already come in this color, they totally should. This is THEE perfect shade of antique dusty blue. OPI added in some superfine shimmer, most noticeably gold, and a bunch of other colors if you REALLY look at it. This polish came out in the Holland collection OPI put out last year. That came on the heels of a bunch of denim colored polish collections. A few of those blues were similar to this color, but I don't recall any of them having the shimmer included. That DEFINITELY sets this polish apart, in my opinion. Contrasting shimmer was a bit of a thing for me last year, and

If you're familiar with DIY manicures... I'm sure you've seen half-moon manicures made using reinforcement stickers. Instead of reinforcements, I used foil star stickers for a unique and different shape. This is my first official foray into Nail Art AND my first tutorial. Enjoy! Materials Needed Foil Star Stickers like these Nail Polish Tweezers Step 1 Paint your nails. I cheated a bit and used the polish I was already wearing as my base. Why? I've tried the half-moon thing in the past, and every time I try it all at one go, I end up pulling off base coat. This was a stress-free way to be sure that my base coat was dry. Here are the layers for my base: 2 Coats Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 3 Coats Bongo Catching Kisses 1 Coat Borghese Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite Catching Kisses by Bongo Step 2 Anchor one point of the star on your skin, and firmly press the star onto your nail. The point anchored on your skin will make for easy removal with tweezers o

Today's mani features 2 previously untried shades from my Helmer... Orly Wild Wisteria and Orly Rococo A-Go-Go... Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 2 Coats Orly Wild Wisteria 1 Coat Orly Rococo A-Go-Go (Accent Only) 1 Coat OPI Clear Top Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite It's been a LONG time since I've painted my nails with a 2-coater. A long time indeed . For whatever reason, I've never worn either of these colors, but I've had them for a while. Rococo A-Go-Go was a limited edition polish from Orly's Fall 2011 Mineral FX Collection. Wild Wisteria is a core Orly shade that you can still purchase. (Yay!) I was in the mood for a dark polish that wasn't black, so Wild Wisteria immediately came to mind. It's a super dark indigo leaning purple that's pretty and edgy at the same time. Opacity is great... 2 coats is quite a feat for any polish of mine. Rococo A-Go-Go is a pretty raspberry and gold duochrome. The gold side show

So, when I was moving, I found a BUNCH of colors I didn't remember buying. This is one of them. I honestly have no idea where I found it or when I bought it. I think it was when I was on the quest for the perfect pink polish? It comes pretty darn close... Take a look! Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 3 Coats Essie Mod Square 1 Coat Borghese Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite Mod Square is a bright pink creme that is seriously very close to being thee perfect pink. I've had it on for 4 days now, and I'm still loving the color. It's a slightly blue-leaning hot-pink with a super shiny crelly finish. It's like the pink cousin of Turquoise and Caicos. Essie uses this finish in a LOT of their polishes, and I'm definitely a huge fan of it. It's just that slight bit of squishiness that you get from a jelly polish, but still opaque enough to be a creme. I honestly can't believe I forgot about this polish. It wasn't even l

This layering was actually painted over already dry nails. At the time, I was wearing What's a Tire Jack from Sephora by OPI... your basic black creme polish. It's a go-to neutral when I have no idea what color to paint my nails. Especially when I've just clipped them down to nubs. Can't have them going all clickety-clack over the keys now, can I? Take a look...  Natural Light Natural Light Artificial Light MACRO Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 2 Coats SOPI What's a Tire Jack? 1 Coat Seche Vite + one day of wear 1 Coat Pure Ice Oh, Baby! 1 Coat Pure Ice Heartbreaker 1 Coat Sally Hansen Pink-Grape Fruit 1 Coat Pure Ice Oh, Baby! 1 Coat Sally Hansen Pink-Grape Fruit 1 Coat Pure Ice Oh, Baby! 1 Coat Seche Vite Still not the most layers in a manicure, but pretty close! I was curious to see how Pink-Grape Fruit and Heartbreak would layer together, and the result was different than I expected, but not too bad. I gues

First of all, I realize that it's the 3rd of July. If I were a super OCD timely sort of person, I probably would've thought to do this on Monday, but I'm not and I never will be. So. We moved this past weekend. Moving always puts a lot into perspective. Especially when it comes to stuff. And I have a lot of it. Stuff, that is. Seriously. When you're going through all your stuff and finding surprises left and right that you didn't remember you had... Well, you're either super forgetful, or you have too much stuff. George Carlin sums it up best, here . Go ahead and watch it, I'll wait. Dum de dum. I'll admit I am a bit more forgetful than most people, but I'll also admit that I have a lot of stuff. And I like to buy stuff. It makes me feel better when I'm down. But do I always NEED what I buy? No. Not really. So. Like I said, it might be odd to start this off on July 3rd... but it's Wednesday, and my brain functions much better on W

My Buoyfriend just might be my new favorite blue polish. I don't normally get too excited over blue polish, but this is definitely one to add to your collection. Just look... It's sooooo pretty! Polishes Used: 2 Coats Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 3 Coats SinfulColors My Buoyfriend 1 Coat Sally Hansen Pink-Grape Fruit 1 Coat OPI Clear Top Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite My Buoyfriend is part of SinfulColors' Ahoy There! collection. If I had to pick only one blue out of the four in this nautical collection, this would be it! Pink-Grape Fruit is part of the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Summer 2013 Limited Edition Collection. What's so special about My Buoyfriend? It's an insanely pretty shade of cornflower blue that's definitely unique in my collection. I added Pink-Grape Fruit for a little pink sparkle on top. The base of Pink-Grape Fruit is a very light jelly lavender that shows up mostly clear when layered. I'm not sure if another coat or two wo