February Review

Hey-yo!  What's happening?  Lot of the same around here.

Like I promised last month, here I am with a review of the manis I wore during February.  It's gonna be a long one - hold on tight!

We'll start off the month in review with ChG For Audrey with OPI Pirouette My Whistle.  I lemminged after that glitter for a while - it's perfect for a bit of sparkle on top of pretty much any color.

February is all full of hearts and flowers, and because of that, I went with a couple different pink looks.  This is Zoya Reece.  Gorgeous pink with green-gold flash.  This was one of my first Zoya purchases.  I added the last pic to show how strong the green-gold flash can be.

OPI Black Cherry Chutney - another long-time lemming.  This is such a gorgeous, glowy (in the right light), vampy color.  This mani only lasted one night because...well...it didn't survive a night of pretty rowdy drinking.  And that's all I've got to say about that.

My first Butter London: Lady of the Muck.  Pretty cornflower blue with just a touch of shimmer.  I added pink and white striping for decoration.  The wear on this was decent but it didn't impress me enough to rush out and buy a bottle.

Marble time!  Makeup Zombie hosted a pink and red challenge around Valentine's Day and I knew immediately what I was going to do.  This is Color Club She's So Glam with Zoya Alix.  I topped it all off with ChG Fairy Dust (because you can never have too much sparkle).

Around Christmas when all the good sales were happening, I grabbed a trio of polish from Glitzology.  This one immediately caught my eye: Nebula.  Sheer black jelly with micro holo, hexie holo, AND holo stars?!  SOLD!!  I used two layers over Zoya Noot, a super dark green-grey. 

This was probably my least favorite of the group.  These are Zoya Tiffany (pink-peach) and Crystal (blue).  What I love about both of these is the gold flecks - it really makes the blue gorgeous.

And now, the best two of the month...

AEngland Tristam (royal blue holo) and Dragon (Kelly green holo).  These are gorgeous in person - I could not capture the holo correctly to save my life.  I could see myself wearing these much more frequently if they didn't chip like a biatch...and that's even with using Nfu Oh Aqua Base.  So, so pretty.

Color Club started coming out with some killer holos.  THANK YOU COLOR CLUB!  This is Cloud 9, a gorgeous, super strong pale pink holo.  I've seen the second collection and they're just as pretty as the first.  Want. them. all!!

There ya go...the whole month of February.  Which is your favorite?  Any suggestions/special requests for March?

Misc Nails 2012 - Part 1

Hello, again!  I went through some of my manis from 2012 and I thought I'd share some of them with you now. 

Ready for lots of pictures?  I'm splitting this up in to two parts because there were quite a few pictures and I didn't want to overload you all in one sitting.

Part 1

Orly Snowcone with KleanColor Blue Holo as an accent.  I waited a long time to get Snowcone and I have no idea why.  It's super pigmented and *bonus*, it doesn't stain!  A big thank you to Nailstah for the KleanColor way back in 2011.

Zoya Evvy (dark green-grey creme) and Zoya Quinn (deep berry).  The contrast of these colors was really great IRL...couldn't exactly capture it in pictures.

Zoya Bevin (mint) and Zoya Kristen (blue-based grey) with a little NYC Love Letters for some sparkle. 

Color Club Revvvolution (black holo), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Orange Crush, black striping polish and a bit of silver holo glitter to give it some pow.  Obviously, this was a Halloween mani.  I was feeling kind of uninspired for Halloween this year.

Milani Violet Dash (purple creme) and Milani Jewel FX Lavender as a glitter gradient.  I wore this for the first annual Southwest SparkleCon 2012 as organized by Makeup Zombie.  SO much fun meeting some new sparkle friends!!

A plastic wrap mani using a pale pink (I haven't a clue what it was) and China Glaze Designer Satin.  Super easy mani with maximum bang for your buck.  I loved this one!

And last, but definitely not least, a really pretty water marble using Zoya Anja (purple) and Zoya Midori (green).  This is the first marble I'd done in a while and I was happy how it turned out.  I really like how some of the green faded in to the purple.

I don't usually post makeup pictures but I wanted to share this one.  I did this as my look for a derby bout in October.  This is Fyrinnae Velvet Vampire (red) and Raven's Prophecy (black).  This look took me FOREVER but it turned out just like I wanted it and it was so pretty with gorgeous sparkle (that I couldn't capture). 

Stay tuned for Part 2 - coming soon!

Primary Colors

Happy September, Kitschies!  How is it possibly already September?  Before you know it, it's going to be Halloween.  And then Turkey Day.  And then Christmas.  *sigh*  Time is moving impossibly fast.  And because of that, I haven't been posting much.  In fact, I didn't post at all during the entire month of August.  Shame on me!!

The highlights of August: Nate started 1st grade, I had my birthday, and the hubs and I got to go camping!

I know most of you aren't here to see pics of my handsome little boy or of my adventures around the state, so I'll get to why you're really here: the nails!

I'm going to start by saying that I have NO idea when I did this mani.  But, it's pretty and I like it, so I'm going to share it with you.

I believe I started with a base of white, but since it's been such a long time, I can't remember exactly.  It was either white or the yellow.

Anyway...

I liked the idea of this one more in my head than it looked on my nails.  I think I should've used a brighter blue rather than a navy.

This is my right hand.  I liked the pinky nail on this hand a lot.  And the thumb was good, too, until I knocked it on something and ended up with a big bald spot.  But, you know when you've finished a full water marble mani, you really don't feel like redoing one if it gets messed up.  Yeah.  That's what happened there.

See...if all the nails came out like this one, with the blue really bold, I would've liked it better.  Either way, it was a water marble and really...you can't completely go wrong with that.

And here's what I used.  I have yet to find a yellow that I really like.  A real, primary-type yellow.  Any suggestions?

So, there ya go.  I won't promise to post more but I can tell you that I have lots of pictures prepped and just sitting there, waiting to be shared with the blogverse!!

Happy September!

Marble Madness

Happy Monday, Kitschies!  I hope you had a good weekend.  I started my weekend a few hours early as the hubs had his office holiday party Friday afternoon/evening.  I also had derby practice that night.  It was such a small group that night, but we had FUN!  We played games the whole "practice" but we still got a good workout.  Then Saturday and Sunday were spent getting caught up on chores and stuff around the house.  Nate got to go to one of his schoolmate's birthday parties.  OH!  And I made some caramel corn (maybe, if you're lucky, I'll post about that one later)...and it was goooood.

I have a water marble to share with you today that I can't decide whether I like it or not.  I don't hate it, it's just not one of my favorites.

I *love* the colors, but the execution wasn't as great as I wanted it to be.  The black seemed to bleed a little in to the pink.  The colors?  Zoya Elke and SH Black Out.  Elke looks more red than this in the bottle, but it's a really pretty red-toned pink with a really pretty gold shimmer.

This is my right hand.  I had a hard time getting good pics of this marble for some reason.  Seeing these pics makes me want to give this one another shot.

My index finger was my favorite out of all my fingers.  I like this pic because of the lighting - even though it doesn't show the water marble all that much.

They can't all be winners and it's not a complete failure because it *is* a water marble.  I haven't used Elke for a mani since this - maybe I'll give her a chance to be beautiful on her own.  Have a great Monday!

Inspiration

Good day, Kitschies!  I hope your week is flying by and you're as productive as you want to be.  I did not want to come in to work today.  Not at all.  And for good reason.  It's super-de-duper slow today.  Like, we had six patients between two doctors this morning.  *yawn*  Luckily the afternoon has filled in a bit and it looks like I'll actually have something to do.  In the meantime, I decided to give you a post.

I finally sat down last night and prepped pictures.  I now have enough pics for 10 posts.  10 posts!  And I'm still not caught up!  ANYWAY...I have had this mani sitting in my pending folder for months.  I was inspired by a (ex)coworker's scrub top.  I find inspiration in the strangest places sometimes. 

I started with a base coat of ChG For Audrey then I water marbled that with ChG Goin' My Way (brown) and SH White On.

Wow.  I'm horrible at taking pics of my right hand.  LOL  I like how this marble came out pretty consistent - with the exception of my right thumb.

My left thumb pattern was my fave out of the group.

And, in contrast, the right thumb was my least favorite.  You can't win them all, right?  LOL

Here's a little better pic of my right hand.  Good thing I don't have to take pics of that on a regular basis!

And a pretty sunlight pic for you.

I know I say it every time, but I think this is my favorite marble to date.  I have another marble hanging out in the pending folder - I'll get to it eventually. 

I want to do another marble (maybe for Halloween?) but I'm horrible at pairing/matching colors.  So, here's your homework: give me color combos to try!!  Please!

I'm off to eat lunch.  Hope you have a fantabulous day.  I'll be back soon with some Friday Confessionals.  It's been a while!

Big Days

Good morning, Kitschies!  Good evening, Kitschies!  I started this post this morning and got as far as the opening.  *sigh*  It was a long day...and we didn't even have patients!  We spent the day in training for diagnostic ultrasound.  While interesting, I can only see "normal" joints for so long before I lose interest. 

It was a big day yesterday!  Nate had his first day of Kindergarten.  *sob* 

He had so much fun (even though he rolled his eyes at going outside a lot) and he didn't want to leave when I went to pick him up.  And he was even excited to go again today!  I know *that* won't last forever, but I'm glad he had a good first two days.  When it was time to line up for his class on Monday, he told me: "It's OK, Mom.  You can go now."  OK...does that mean I can go to my car and cry for a little while?  I was good - I didn't cry...much.  My mom sent me a text about being and good parent and that made me tear up.  I had it coming from both side on Monday!  LOL

Then, Monday night, I went to my first roller derby practice.  And...OMG...it was SO much fun!  Seriously.  I was a lot steadier on my skates than I expected I would be - I only fell 3 times (I think *everybody* falls at least once a practice).  For being my first time in anything like this, I held my own.  And all the girls were so nice and encouraging.  I was afraid that they would be extra hard on the noob, but they really weren't.  The only places I'm *really* lacking in skills are balancing on one foot (picking up my right skate and touching across to my left hand <and visa versa> is *not* happening yet) and hitting/blocking.  I am so excited to do this!  I've wanted to do something more active for a while but wanted to do something different.  Ya think roller derby is different enough?  Yeah.  Me, too.

OK.  Enough of that.  Now for the *real* reason you come to my blog.  The pretties!  I've got a good water marble for you today.  Remember my last marble (it wasn't all that great)?  This one made up for that one.

I'm not saying this marble is *awesome*, but it's definitely better than the previous one!  I wore this in the beginning of June for my vacay to Cali.  I started with a white base (OPI Alpine Snow) and then marbled three ChGs from the Tronica collection: Hologram (silver holo), Hyper Haute (magenta holo) and Techno Teal (teal, duh).  My index and pinkie on my left hand (pictured above) were my favorite out of the group.

I don't know why, but I only got 2 decent pics from this mani.  And, wow!  I'm amazed at how much my nails have grown since early June!  It's hard to really capture the holoness of these polishes, but if you enlarge this pic, you can kinda see the holo effect on my thumb.

I want to do more water marbles, but I always have a hard time coming up with good color combos.  I know I have a really nice one still waiting to be prepped.  Suggestions for colors?  Lemme have it!

Well, I'm going to relax tonight and do my nails with a new OPI color I picked up at Ulta yesterday.  Have a great evening!