Catching Up

At the beginning of March, my manager left on maternity leave, and I am now both her and me at work, so I have been VERY busy.  The reason you care is because it leaves me exhausted at the end of the day, and unable to do my nails, much less post about them.  As of Friday, my face has broken out in stress-induced hives, so I am taking the hint, and slowing down, and doing my nails! :-)

Here's my current mani, featuring Ruby Wing color-changing polishes.  It makes me smile to see the color change, and forces me to leave the house to see it, since it changes color in the sun.  The color change is pretty quick, and is triggered by UV rays.  Pretty cool!!

"Birdie" (yellow) and "Gypsy" (mint), before the sun.  Super-cute, springy mani, right?

This took 3 coats to get completely opaque.  Topped with Poshe.

The same mani, but in the sun:

LOVE this color combo too!  So fun!

Here's a side-by-side comparison:

Here are some exciting past mani's I did since my last post:

Black-tipped French with Lacquistry's pretty pastel glitter bomb "Chick-a-dee doo-da".  LOVE this polish!!

Color Club "Halo-graphic".  Gorgeousness!!!

OK, you're all caught up.  :-)

Where Has January Gone?!?!

Sorry to have been MIA, but over the holidays we moved, got the kids settled in a new school, and did I mention we moved?  I hate moving!!  

Anyway, I've not had very much time to play with polish lately, but here are the mani's I managed to eek out.  Please don't mind that these are all cell phone pics...I seem to have mis-placed my camera's charger among the dozen or so boxes that still need to be unpacked.

Chirality's holo skittles for the New Year! 

Zoya Feifei & Lael 

This is my current mani!  KB Shimmer "Toucan Touch This" with Zoya for flower accents.  This gorgeously bright polish has been calling to me for a couple of weeks now...probably because of all the grey skies and rain we've been having here lately...this Cali girl needs her sun!! 

We're more settled in, and my awesome hubby made me a little polishing nook area in our huge master bedroom, so I'm planning on getting my polish on a lot more often!  Thanks for sticking around!

Better Late Than Never: Nail-Aween Challenge Days 8,9, & 10

This week was horribly busy for me!  In addition to my full-time job, I ended up having to write a report for work till midnight one night, made the kids' costumes, went Trick-or-Treating, and worked on my little Elf Coat business, so manicures were hard to come by.  But I did manage do my last 3 days of the Nail-Aween Challenge, but have just now had the chance to download the pics & do my post.  So here they are:

Day 8:  Witch Nail Art

This is a lovely no-name polish by Love & Beauty from Forever 21 stores, and I was surprised by how much I liked it...it totally reminds me of the night sky!

Day 9:  Pumpkin Mani

 These are beautiful holographic polishes by Chirality called "Just Before Dawn" and "Katydid".  BTW, I found out that Chirality basically means "chemistry" ;-).  The green "Katydid" is a much more linear holo than "JBD", and "JBD" is the absolute perfect shade of orange!  This is 2 coats of each, and the formula was a dream to apply.  Buy your very own HERE.

Day 10:  Any Halloween-Inspired Mani

Yes, I took the easy way out, and used my previous mani for this one (I was busy!).  This is "Pickin' Punkins in the Patch" by Lacquistry, and it is super-gorgeous!!  Jenna has some polishes in stock as of this posting, so click HERE to get your very own glittery awesomeness!  

This Challenge was certainly a challenge, and I had a lot of fun!  Many thanks to Sassy Nails for hosting it!  

Nail-Aween Challenge Day 5: Ghosts & Goblins

I found a beauty shop 5 minutes from my house that carries OPI, Essie & some China Glaze!  She didn't have any great deals, but she had a huge selection!  My little boys were not as excited as I was ;-)  

Now, I have to admit to not being an OPI fan.  The brush in the few that I've gotten is hard for me to use, and I have trouble getting polish on the edges of my nails.  And OPI is expensive, and rarely on sale.  Lastly, most of the polish names are annoying :-P  

But here in the face of all this OPI goodness, I succumbed and bought a gorgeous dark blue w/purple shimmer called "Russian Navy".  I put it on when I got home, and 2 coats later, it was lovely...although I did have issues getting my nail side edges covered w/out getting my skin covered too :-/.  

I decided to put on my hand-made holo top coat, and the sun peeked out just long enough for a pic:

So my Nail-Aween Challenge is "Ghosts & Goblins".  I don't know how to make goblins, so I figured goblin-colored ghosts would work:

I just dabbed on Sinful Colors "Innocent", and dotted on black polish for eyes & mouths.  Now that this one is done, I'm looking forward to Day 6: Frankenstein! :-)

Check out the other awesome Nail-Aween manicures:

datyorkLOVES

Erica's Nails and More

DreamyMM Nails & Make Up

 Tes Did It Nails
Sassy Paints 
Nicole gets Nailed 
Wicked Tips 
Delight In Nails
Polish Groupie 
My Nail Journey 
Get Polished Up! 
Just A Girl and Her Polish
Spellbound Nails
Le nail's corner d'Alex
Hello.Lacquer
Color the world with polish
Cutie Cuticles (nail art by Laraib) 
Wacky Laki 
Nail-Aween Nail Art Challenge October 1-31st, 2012 
GLAMOROUS NAILS 
Over The Topcoat 
Polish Gone Crazy 
tragedystipsandtreats
Susy In Color
Countess Nails 

Holographic Happiness!

With all the buzz about the new holographic collections set to come out from Color Club & China Glaze, it made me want to play with the holo's that I already have.  

This is Hits-No Olimpo "Hera" & "Hefestos".  In the sun, baby!!

So, Jilltastic Nail Design does a weekly challenge on her FB page, and this week was Leopard Print.  She also does a weekly "Try It On Tuesday", where you showcase your "un-trieds".  I wasn't able to do the TIOT this week, so I figured I could at least do the weekly challenge:

 In the sun:

I used my holo polishes Darling Diva Polish "Divalicious" for the pink spots, and Pretty & Polished's "Black Swan" for the outlines.

Gawgeous, right?  I <3 Holo's :-)

Plasma Plays in 21 Ways: "11. Pick a Color You've Never Worn"

This way to play was an easy one...or so I thought!  I have sooo many gorgeous polishes that I haven't even tried yet, I was really excited about this one.  And then I had to decide!  Ugh!  So, I figured I wanted to try some of my lovely Indies, but I couldn't pick just one... 

This is Pretty & Polished's "Black Swan" and Darling Diva Polish's "Divalicious" tipped with Lacquistry's "And Miles to Go Before I Sleep". 

In the sun!!!

OMG, right!?!  I love holographic polishes!  This is two coats of each, and they went on so smoothly!  And I haven't met a Lacquistry polish I didn't absolutely drool over!  I really think this looks like light reflecting off snow, which is exactly how she described it.  LOVE!!

Indie Nail Mail

I still have my dark flower mani, so today I will show you what came in the mail:

This is from a great new-to-me Independent Shop on Etsy called "Darling Diva Polish".  These came individually wrapped in bubblewrap and tissue, so they were like little presents!

Little presents of lovely nail bling!!  These are "Xanadu", "Divalicious", and "Grand Dragon".  Sorry I couldn't get a good pic of the glitters, but they are amazing!  YAY!

Look at the fantastic holo in "Divalicious"!   This pic is closer to the actual raspberry-ish color it really is.  Super-gorgeousness!!  I'm so glad I found another fantastic indie polish maker!

And I also got a couple of much-coveted polishes from "Whimsical Ideas by Pam".  Here are Kismet's Pajamas, and the infamous Peanut Butter & Jelly:

These are as amazing as everyone says they are!  I want to put these on NOW, but I'm going to stay true to Plasma's 21 Ways to Play.  I'm so glad I splurged and got these, though - I was really debating because of the price, but they are sooo totally worth it.  I love that Kismet's PJ's are named for her cat...I don't know why that charms me so much!

These packages were awesome!  And I'm still waiting for orders from 3 other Indie polish peeps, my first order from Cult Nails, and the Spring Mystery Box from Julep.  I am so glad there are so many wonderful polish options for us fanatics!  :-)