Candy Canes and Icicle Dreams

So, I'm not going to lie...I'm in love with this manicure. Also, I'm in love with Zoya. It's a nail polish company that makes the most amazing products. I highly, highly recommend liking them on Facebook, here, or visit their website, here. They're also doing "Flash Promotions" through their Facebook and Twitter accounts. They put up codes you can use to get free items, free items with free shipping, Buy two polishes, get two free etc... The only catch is that it's first come, first serve. So you need to be quick with that copy and paste!
Just within the last 2 weeks I've been participating in the Flash Promotions, I got a "Buy 2 polishes, get 1 free + free shipping", "$10 off your purchase + free shipping", "Buy 3, get 3 free + free expedited shipping" and, just last night I got my first ever freebie- "first 100 get a free polish!". I was so excited! I'll take some pictures of the beauties when they all get here. I'm waiting on the last 2 orders, but they'll be here very soon!
Anyway, with the holidays fast approaching, I thought it would be a great idea to do a Christmas themed manicure. I had free time last night and did my nails up! I didn't take any pictures then because I wanted some sunlight, but I had to work today and by the time I got home, no sunlight. So, these nails are still looking decent enough after a day of hard work at the hospital! The following pictures are taken with indoor lighting and flash.
I used Zoya Isla (my favorite polish color ever!) and the L.A. Art white and silver striper brushes. It's a candy cane and festive theme. I have a Christmas party to go to tomorrow and I'm accenting my outfit with rich red, so this works perfectly! I just wish I was able to capture the deep intensity of Isla. It's so rich that the middle of the nail glows red and the sides are a dark, deep blackened red. So amazing. I recommend this color to everyone!

Ahhhh....there's nothing like a macro picture to remind you how much hospital soap and winter air dries your hands out! Oh well, I'm off to moisturize! Wait until you see my other ideas!

Trial and Error

I know, I know! It's been so long since my last post! Grad school sort of sucks the life out of you and leeches away the hours in the day. Luckily, it's over for the holidays so I'll have a little extra time on my hands! With this time, I decided to try out a new technique that's been calling my name since the summer! It's call a patchwork manicure. Okay, okay, I knowwww a patchwork mani is suppose to have more colored sections on it, but this was a trial run, where I reached out for random colors and hoped for the best! I liked it enough. I think with 3 or more sections, this technique would look so nice! All of the following pictures were taken in natural light.

This is the best picture I took, I think. I used Barielle polishes for this. Falling Star (the blue with copper flecks) and Green Opal (that golden looking color).

Hope you enjoyed!

Happy Halloween!!

Yayy! It's here! Halloween! Sadly, I'll be spending my night in class, and working on a Power Point for a presentation later in the week. But I won't let this get me down! No way! Just to prove my point, I kept the themed nails going and I'm sharing it now. I attempted another spider web design mostly because the last design came out sickeningly messy. I will say that this one is much better, but the right hand - not so much. I need to work on drawing with my less dominant hand. Practice makes perfect, though!
So, this is my design. Black base, hand drawn spider web, orange base on my pointer fingers, same black as base on other nails used for drawn the Jack-O-Lantern face. All are coated in a gorgeous creepy glowing green flaky glitter.

For these, I used a base of Sinful Colors Black on Black, used my trusty L.A. Colors Art Deco in white, then on the index fingers used Sephora by O.P.I. Caliente Coral, and Sinful Colors Black on Black to draw the face. Over all of that I applied the newly released Nails Inc. special effects The Wyndham. It's my first ever flaky glitter polish and I'm so happy with it! I thought it added a little oomph to the nails and made them a little eerie, in honor of Halloween!

Here, you can see the Wyndham flaky glitter a little better. Love it!

My thumb.

The middle and right fingers are my absolute favorite ones!

So, that's it for today. I hope you all have an amazing night and if you celebrate, do so safely! Have fun!

Holo-ween and Dots!

What's this?! TWO postings in a row? I think it's a miracle! So, I redid my nails last night because my candy corn look was chipping really badly and I just cannot stand chips in nail polish. So, I wanted to keep up with the theme of Halloween because I love it so. I aimed for something a little bit more on the easy side, but still festive. And thanks to my mom and her camera savvy, you now have some much better quality photos for your viewing pleasure. I have no idea how she figured out the proper setting I need to use, but she did! So, without further delay, I give you my Holo-ween nail!

Here, I used Color Club Worth the Risque as my base. It's this gorgeous silver holographic glitter. On top of that I used N.Y.C. Times Square Tangerine Creme and Sinful Colors Black on Black for the dots.

And with this, I just wanted to show you guys how beautiful and glowy Worth the Risque is. It flashes so many different colors, and in the middle area of my nail you can see the polish flashing blue and yellowish-green. GAH!

I'll end this post with an update on my order from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab- I haven't received any of the orders yet. I will let you know when I do! I look forward to doing a full review on everything.

Halloween Candy Corn/Spider Web Mani

Ugh, so this blogging often thing is already off to an iffy start. However, I started this as a way to catalog some fun nail designs and talk about stuff that makes me happy. So, on that note, something that makes me happy:

H A L L O W E E N !  

It really is my favorite holiday. Everything from the history and spiritualism behind it, to the dressing up in costumes makes me swoon in anticipation! With the way the cards have fallen this year though, I'll be bowing out of actually celebrating the day. So, to keep my heart from crumbling, I at least wanted to keep up with the themed manis. Be warned, this was my first themed nail art and my downfall is always that I set the bar too high with what I want it to look like in the end. This didn't quite meet my expectations but, in it's own right, it's fun! I used colors that were available because I don't have the funds to go out and buy exact colors (secretly, I think the neon adds a little pow! to the look). Also, please don't judge the chips in the polish. I neglected to photograph the nail right after I completed it.

Base is Sally Hansen Xteme Wear in White On, stripes done with Color Club Wham! Pow! and Color Club Almost Famous. Copper glitter stripes done with L.A. Colors Art Deco in Copper Glitter. The spider web was some freehand art that I did using Finger Paints. I don't have the bottle with me so I don't know the name. All I can tell you is that it's a basic finish black. I finished it all off with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

I hope you enjoy! I'll do my best to have more up soon!

Anticipation

         I spent a good portion of my day pouring over the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL) website. Mildly obsessed with it now. How could I not be? The word alchemy alone is enough to suck me into a vortex, but sure, throw literature, mythology, fantasy, and out of this world scent descriptions and you've got one amazing concept.

       So, to explain, BPAL is a company out of California that creates oil perfume blends. Now, now, hold the dismissive notions. These aren't your typical blends. Their goal is to create scents that evoke emotions, and create scenes and landscapes. They are inspired by works of literature, artwork, mythology, and seasons and in turn, the scents that are created, relate directly back to what inspired them. Was that confusing? Let's try to clarify.

       Obsessed with Alice in Wonderland like I am? Well, how about a scent that is the embodiment of Tweedledum (Green mango, fig, patchouli and green tea)? Or, even one inspired by the poem, Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat (green tea, melon, mint, lime rind, and champagne grape with lemon balm, mullein, and toadflax)? Yeah, you heard me. 

        Alice in Wonderland not you thing? How about trying one of their seasonal limited edition scents. This time of year (until some time in November) the Weenies are available. They offer anything as sweet as Pumpkin Princess (Bright, sweet pumpkin with vanilla fluff, guava, chocolate-dusted white amber, tiare, red currant, raw honey, and meringue), or as season appropriate as Devil's Night 2011 (This is the scent of autumn night, fires in the distance, with a touch of boozy swoon, playful sugar and thuggish musk).      

   

             Seriously, no matter what your scent preference is, you can find something appealing on the site. They have herbal scents, foody scents, dark sinister scents, light scents, watery scents (think ocean!), and even some aromatherapy types. I strongly suggest you check them out. To make it even easier, head on over the the scent search area  and utilize it! Say you're a fan of  green tea scents, and would like to find a blend containing it on the BPAL site. Well, just type in "green tea" and there you go! A whole listing of things to chose from! 

          I think the only down side to the company is that they take forever to send your order out! I'll let it slide though because the waiting is because they hand mix the scents, bottle them, and ship them. Props for freshness!

            Mom, Sis, and I placed an order for imp ears (what BPAL calls their nifty samples of the scents) over a week ago and we're still waiting. The site's homepage says it takes anywhere from 14-21 business days to process an order soooo I'll be waiting a bit more. In my anticipation, I looked at the site again and ended up purchasing a bottle of Devil's Night 2011. The limited editions don't come in imps ears, so I've got a 5ml bottle waiting to be made. I also placed an order for 3 more imps ears (High John the Conqueror, The Harlot's House, and Cathode) and for a bottle of one of their dream formulas called Oneiroi (apparently can give you some crazy dreams per the reviews on the forum).  Mostly, Oneiroi sounded like the most sleep inducing scent and I just need a little something extra to calm my racing mind at night. 

        Basically, I am on the edge of my seat to get that order of imps ears that mom placed so I can get my hands on some BPAL! Then, I will be super anxious to receive the order I placed today. But anyway, I'll post some pictures and thoughts about the scents once I get them. In the meantime, click on over to the BPAL site. Check it out. Be in awe. 

Here We Go!

       So, I've toyed with this idea for quite a while. To blog, or not to blog? I've teetered one way, then fell back the other way...but now I've decided! Why not? What do I have to lose? Not a single thing! So, here I am.
       I don't have much of a plan for this blog yet. All that comes to mind is posting whatever I feel moved to post. I enjoy creating, making, and dreaming up many things. I'll likely post such things. However, I hope to gain some knowledge through my time here blogging. If you have any bit of knowledge/constructive criticism for me, regarding the post of the day, I'll gladly accept it!
      With that said, I suppose I'll start this blog by sharing my current obsession. Nails. Nail polish. Nail Art. I've been working with creating some pretty looks in the past few months, and so, I'd like to just share them now.

This was my first experience ever with nail art. Water marble done with Sinful Colors in Mint Apple, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pacific Blue, Orly in Charged Up, and Orly in Going to the Chapel. I am so proud of how nicely they came out. Try to disregard the messy cuticles. In my fit of sheer joy of having successfully completed a water marble (that didn't look like a complete massacre) I forgot to clean up!

Shortly after discovering how to water marble, I came upon the dotting tool. This is truly one of my most favorite designs I've done. Done with Sinful Colors in Tokyo Pearl (base), and dots done in Sinful Colors in Black on Black, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pacific Blue.

So then I tried to get a little more fancy and do a funky french with the dotting tool. The idea was great! The color choice was not...ugh! But, I did wear it for 2 days! Base was Nina Ultra Pro in Leaf Me Alone, with the dots being OPI in Strawberry Margarita and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue Me Away!

Last one for you all that I have was my first use of a striper brush. I'm quite proud of this one as well. Came out better than I had anticipated. I question the color combination, but I think it seemed best at the time. Base color if NYX Girls in Pistachio, L.A. Colors Art Deco striper brush in white, dots in NYX Girls in Indigo Blue and NYX Girls in Chocolate Taupe. Top Coat is my beloved Seche Vite.

I think this should more than do it for my first blog post. I hope you enjoyed!