French Manicure with Essie Beam Up & OPI Alpine Snow

I have badly stained nails and I am also terrible at doing french manicures which creates a situation...because the only way I can make a halfway decent smile line is by putting white (or whatever color) on the tips and then using a round tip brush with acetone to create the arch...which means I can't use a colored base to cover up the ugly stains on my nails because the acetone would remove it and look sloppy and patchy. (Yes, I've tried the stickers, they are annoying for me to work with!  And free hand painting the tips  isn't gonna work for me!  And I am not good at stamping tips, they always come out crooked!)  

In comes Essie Beam up!!!  I can do my tips on my bare nails, fix the smile line with acetone, then go over it with 3 coats of Essie Beam up and voila!  healthy, natural looking nails without visible staining!  Love this stuff!!!  OH, and a bonus!  It glows in black light!!!  So it looks so neat at a nightclub, really makes my nails pop :)

Here it is in direct sunlight- this is one coat of OPI Alpine Snow on the tips and 3 coats of Essie Beam up over that, plus a top coat of Seche:

Oh- and no way will I post a before pic of my nail staining, my word will have to be enough- it's pretty bad!

Anyway, I love this stuff and highly recommend it!  It's also great as a base coat when you want to wear a sheer color and not have it altered by nail staining peeking through!  Or you can just wear it alone!! 

Happy Friday!!!

OPI Pink Friday

I have been wearing OPI Pink Friday the last couple of days.  I put it on looking for a base for my new Pure Ice "Come Closer" pink glitter I picked up at Walmart the other day, but then never got around to doing the glitter gradient I had in mind.  Probably for the best because it doesn't really complement the color of that glitter at all, I don't know what I was thinking.

 Here is 2 coats of Pink Friday with Seche on top:

I like this color.  Then again I like 99% of opaque light/med pinks I have tried.  The lighter and whiter based the more I seem to like them.  I don't love this as much as Essie Fiji, but I was happy to wear it for a few days, it fits me.  Application took a little patience, but not unbearable.

I don't know about you but I love Nicki Minaj and I don't think it's fair that Mariah Carey got more shades in her collection and got to promote their new liquid sand. Just sayin'.

Another pic of Pink Friday, displayed on a Manicurator style claw hand (I love how she does that!)

...Update on the camera situation- I found a cute little point and shoot 10 megapixel Casio Exilim laying around and ordered a USB cord and battery charger for it, so picture quality should improve in the near future :)

Have a great day!

Zoya London update

I wore that Zoya London for 4 days straight before I even had noticeable tip wear!
I never wear one color for that long, it's love!

One little problem though- because it is recommended not to use a base or top coat with the Pixie Dust polishes I ended up with some peeling and splitting after 4 days of not wearing my Sally Hansen Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 as a base coat :/

Next time I wear my Zoya Pixie Dust polish I am going to go against manufacturer recommendation and use my base coat and see what happens.  (Vespa is coming in the mail any day now!) Of course I won't use a top coat though- I love that matte sparkle textured finish!!!

Bad news about my Canon Rebel- it needs a shutter replacement and cost to repair will be $175.  Looks like I will be using my cell phone for pics for awhile :/

Have a great day!

Zoya Pixie Dust- London!

Here is London, my latest Zoya Pixie Dust collection polish I ordered about 20 seconds after I painted my nails with my first one, Godiva.  

I am in love with London!!!! For so many reasons!  This is my absolute favorite shade of gray regardless of brand/texture/finish!  It has perfect application and only needs two coats.  No base or top coat- just two coats period!  It dries relatively quickly and if it's anything like Godiva it will wear forever!  I love this even more than Godiva.  This is my new favorite Zoya polish, second to Godiva.  The texture is a nice fine grit that I prefer over OPI Liquid Sand and the sparkle!!!!!

Unfortunately my cell phone camera doesn't adequately capture the sparkle, but here's a close up to kind of give you an idea: (yeah I know, I need to step up the cuticle cream regimen!)

So, the perfect color, perfect application, perfect texture, perfect sparkle, excellent wear...I mean, what more could I ask for in a polish???   Of course I ordered another shade right after I put this on, lol!  I have Vespa on the way :)  If I fall in love with that then Nyx might be next.  I am trying so hard to be good and only ordering 1 at a time.  Hoping that I will forget about the rest of the collection- hah, yeah right!  This might be my favorite collection of nail polish of all time.  

A couple more pics (click to enlarge!):

Today I am bringing my rebellious Canon Rebel to the shop!  So hopefully I will be able to take really nice pics when Vespa gets here.

Have a great day :)

Valentine's Day Mani- OPI Color So Hot It Berns/ Sally Hansen Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment review

Here's my Valentine's Day mani!  As usual I used my SH Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment as a base coat followed by 2 coats of OPI Color So Hot It Berns and Seche on top.  I added a little FIMO clay heart on my accent nail.

I just noticed today how strong and healthy my nails look!!!  They were in very rough shape a couple months ago, peeling like crazy and all the edges had little splits.  Not anymore!!  I have been faithfully using Sally Hansen Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment for 6 weeks now.  (For the record, I am not paid to rave about this stuff, I bought it based on online reviews!) 

I didn't see any difference at all the first few weeks but all of a sudden today I took a good look at them and was like WOW!  They just look so healthy and feel so strong without being brittle at all.  No peelies, no splits!  

I feel like I could grow my nails as long as I want now!  But I am on the fence about that because growing my nails out means I won't be able to play my guitar...and texting/typing on my phone will be harder.  I feel handicapped by long nails but they're so pretty!  Maybe I'll grow them out a little :)

Back to Sally...I didn't want to try a treatment as a base coat.  I was worried that my polish would chip, not last as long, etc, but no problems in that department!  I feel bad for all the other base coats and treatments sitting in my pile going unused, but I think this is IT, this is the one for me!  I just bought a back up <3

Zoya Pixie Dust Godiva...and a rant about nail blog inspired impulse purchases

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!! :)

Zoya Godiva from the new Pixie Dust collection!  I tried to be good and only bought one shade, but as soon as I put this on I went ahead and ordered another :/   I am wearing 3 coats, no base or top coat per manufacturer recommendation.

I like this even more than the OPI Liquid Sand.  Probably because the colors available are much more wearable, but also the texture is a bit different and just more...pleasing. Maybe a finer grit?  More sparkle per square inch?  

I wish they would come out with a nice light pink Pixie Dust polish next!  And hot pink too!  And Coral!!!  (I've said it before, I like boring traditional colors)

The Godiva really does look just like beach sand on my fingertips!!  I think it would be an amazing background for some nail art- maybe do half Godiva and then some blue waves on the other half, a starfish...  Easier said than done for me, but maybe I'll give it a try at some point.

For now I am enjoying wearing it alone just fine!  This is for sure my favorite Zoya polish that I own, very possibly my favorite nude color and absolutely my favorite textured polish!

For the record, this was taken with my Droid, I still haven't taken my little Rebel to the shop.  These pics do NOT do this polish justice, it is very sparkly in real life!!  Pics can be enlarged by clicking...

I also got some indie stuff in the mail yesterday that I want to blog about soon.  Impulse buy after seeing it on someone's blog.  

I tell ya, polish makers get their money's worth out of sending free polish to popular bloggers to review.  I am a sucker, I buy it because it looks so gorgeous on their perfect nails with their perfect lighting and photography and their descriptive language that thank the Lo isn't about food or something otherwise everyone that read their blog would be obese.  

Nope, instead everyone that reads the blog is probably poor from buying nail polish, lol!  

Sometimes I am glad I broke down and other times I am like WTH was I thinking?  This is the ugliest color I've ever bought!  But she said "Oooh, it is so sparkly, it's my fave polish EVAR!"  and there I was logging in to PayPal...

Anyway, here's another pic of Godiva:

Have a great day :)

Weekend mani: Essie Fiji

My Canon Rebel really is a rebel :(  I have to bring it to a repair shop this week, it has just gone haywire.  So  today I have a pic taken with my Droid instead.  Essie Fiji, my all-time favorite pink!

This weekend I had to relocate to my mom's house for a day because we lost electricity in the storm.  Of course I brought my manicure kit!  I painted my nails and then my sister's nails with a base coat of Sally Hansen Complete Care 4-in-1 Extra Moisturizing, then two coats of Essie Fiji, then a top coat of Seche Vite.  Then we went out on the town and had a great time!!!  We are both in love with this color, we were showing people at the bar our matching manis, lol.  I know she reads my blog so I want to send a shout out to my little sis- let's do it again soon, was fun!!