January 2013

I'm not announcing my comeback, I'm just going to say...I have some pretty polishes to share with you.

With everything I have on my plate, I just can't blog like I used to.  I still do my nails (all the time) and I usually take pictures of them, but I rarely get the time to sit down and edit the pictures.  My plan, right now, is to compile my manis over the month and share them with you, in bulk, at the end of the month.  Sound good?  Here we go.  And, like always, all pics are clickable to make bigable!

This was my New Years mani.  It's kinda Christmas-y and it's all Winter.  I started with a base of Milani Juno.  Then, using BM14, I stamped snow flakes using ChG Designer Satin and a random white.  To finish it all off, I applied a layer of ChG Snow Globe for a little extra sparkle.

I picked up this gorgeous polish at Ulta while on a "we gotta get out of the house NOW" trip with the bestie.  I don't usually even look at the Layla polishes because they're pretty pricey, but this happened to be on sale (and I had a coupon).  Layla Ceramic Effects Green Galaxy (CE 54) is a gorgeous, gorgeous deep green jelly with green micro glitter, small round green glitter and big green hexies.  This polish wore like iron - definitely worth the money!

I was feeling in a nail funk when I did this and it snapped me out of it right away!  I started with a base of Revlon Royal (probably one of my top 10 fave polishes ever).  After that, I stamped the pretty flowers using Orly Snowcone and BM224.  I added pretty purple rhinestones in the center of one flower on each nail.

I did this one originially for a "glitter" challenge for a FB group I'm in, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.  You can't go wrong with a classic red nail!  This is Zoya Alix with Milani Glitter FX in Red.  The Milani claims to be "one coat" but for this much coverage, I started with a coat of Alix and then layered 3 layers of the glitter.  That's not what I'd call one coat!  I wore this for 4 days and love it.

This is what I ended up using for the glitter challenge.  Let me tell you...this is a mess polish!  I started with 3 coats of Orly Fowl Play then added a coat of Finger Paints Twisted (I loves me some flakies!).  And because that wasn't enough, I ended up using a coat of Milani Jewel FX in Twilight.  I am NOT looking forward to removing this (can you say "foil method"?).

So...there's January.  Maybe...if you're lucky...I'll post a review of a couple manis from last year later!

Winter Wonderland

Good morning, Kitschies!  It was a busy weekend here in the Harmeyer house.  I can happily say that the house is now decorated for Christmas!  Now the shopping?  That's a different story.  The docs took the day off so I'm spending some of my day "off" waiting for my new stove to be delivered (yay!) and then the rest of it will be spent cleaning around the house and shopping for Christmas.  I avoid to the mall area like the plague this time of year - especially on the weekends - but it's not so bad on a Monday morning.

In case you missed it, I did a guest post over at one of my favorite blogs, Housewife Eclectic, this weekend about Christmas traditions.  Go check it out HERE - there's some great pictures to see!

I'm a member of Polish-aholics Anonymous (big surprise, right?) on FB and every Monday they have a new challenge.  I've participated before, but this is the first time I've linked it to a blog post.  This week's theme was snow.  I could've done something out of the box, but I decided to play it safe and I'm glad I did because I really like this one.

I started with 2-3 coats of ChG Frostbite, a really bright, icy blue as a base.

Then I sponged Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go (silver metallic) to soften the bright blue.

The silver showed up a little too bright so I sponged a little more Frostbite over the silver.

And with SH White On, I stamped little snowflakes using BM14.  This is much prettier IRL - the silver sparkles like snow.

Speaking of snow...it's supposed to snow here again today.  We haven't gotten rid of all the snow and ice left over from the storm early last week!  I usually really like winter, but I'm already ready for spring already.  LOL

Do you have any Christmas/Winter manis in the works?

Go, Drillers!

Ugh.  It's Monday.  Again.  This weekend went by in a flash.  We had the besties over for dinner, drinks and some games - it was a lot of fun and the food was GOOD (if I do say so myself), but the kids...they had their own plans.  The babies just would NOT go to sleep so they ended up leaving earlier than we planned.  And then Sunday was spent getting things organized in the house and the garage.  I wanted to go out to the park or something with the boys but it's been wicked windy here, so we hid out in the house.  Nate and I made cookies yesterday (post to follow eventually) and Mason...well...he did his thing (which includes a lot of yelling/screaming on his part because that's how he communicates for now).

A couple weeks ago I posted a request for color combinations for a funky french.  I got lots of answers, but one in particular stuck out.  One of my friends from high school recommended blue and white: our school colors.  So, this mani is for you, Lisa!

This is the first free-hand French that I've tried and I've got to say that it was much easier than I expected.  I started with Color Club Trippie Hippie for the tips and after some clean up with acetone and my round Filbert brush, this is what it looked like.  But, I couldn't leave it there...

I grabbed my Bundle Monster plates and decided that a trail of stars would work perfectly with this.  This is BM14 with SH Xtreme Wear in White On.  Lisa had suggested silver, but I wanted the stars to really stand out.  I got lots of compliments on this mani - people just can not believe I do my own nails.  Why is this so hard to believe?  It's really not hard if you have the right tools!

This is definitely a win!  I loved the colors and the white added a little something to an otherwise meh French mani.  The only drawback to this was that you can see staining on my nail beds.  It's not horrible, but I notice it.

French manis and I have a love/hate relationship.  I love them.  They're pretty.  You can do a lot of different things with them.  But...it seems that no matter what, I end up breaking a nail.  So, right on schedule, I ended up having to cut one down because it tore at the corner.  Then this weekend I ended up chopping them all off because I had another break.  Now I'm back to nubbins.  *sad Megan*

Well..I'm off to do some work.  Enjoy your day - see you tomorrow!

A Swingin' Christmas Mani

Good evening, Kitschies!  I don't know how it is where you live, but it is FREEZING here in good 'ol New Mexico.  According to the thermometer on the patio, it is 16* and it's only 9 pm!  Good thing I have a heated mattress pad on the bed.  The boys are all snug in their extra warm jammies and as soon as I get things straightened up around here, I think I'm going to do the same.

As you've probably read, I went to Cali to visit my family for the holidays. We left super, super early on the 23rd, got there by dinner time, and left pretty early on the 28th, got home, unpacked, rested a bit and then the usual routine began the next morning.  Needless to say, I did not have a whole lot of time to do my nails.  I did, however, take a little time before we left to do a pre-Christmas mani.

This isn't the best pic to show off my nails, but it's a good one of the polish.  This is Swing Baby! from the China Glaze Vintage Vixen collection released this Fall.  I'm not really one for foil-y gold polishes, but this one is pretty.  It's a champagne gold foil that begs to be stamped!  So, stamp I did.

I managed to get just a bit of sun one morning and that was just enough to show off my nail art.  I grabbed plate BM14, China Glaze Jolly Holly and stamped a holly leaf design on each finger.  It was lacking something so I put one red rhinestone in the middle of each holly stamp.  I think it turned out pretty good.  I got lots of "Oh, your nails are cute" comments which is fine with me.  I ended up taking this off the first full day I was "home" because it was chipping pretty bad.  I know this was just last week, but it feels like forever ago and I have no idea how long I actually wore this mani. 

A closeup of one of my fingers - a blurry pic, but a more detailed image, nonetheless.  Do you like it?

Well, I put together my Helmer last night.  Usually I am no good at putting things like that together.  You know...things that require you to read directions?  Yeah.  Well.  I made a comment to the hubs that it was easier than I thought it would be.  Then I went to put the first drawer in.  I quickly realized that "easier than I thought it would be" wasn't quite the case.  It would've only taken me about 45 minutes to put it all together, but since I put the drawer guides on UPSIDE DOWN, it took me 90 minutes to put it all together.  Nice.  So, after a scraped knuckle (thanks to the fact I had to tear it all apart), a pinched finger (also from the deconstruction) and a chipped nail, I got the dang thing together.  And it looks pretty good!  As soon as things here at the house settle down a bit, I'll post some stash pics (the current count: 178!).  And just so you know...I'll be hosting a giveaway within the next couple of weeks so keep your eyes peeled!

OK.  I'm cold.  I'm going to get some stuff done around the house and then I'm snuggling up under the covers and watching some TV.  G'night.

Jack Frost

Nothing like a fun Christmas song to start the day!

Good morning, Kitschies!!  I got some rest and I'm ready to go today!  It took a while, but I'm finally in the Christmas spirit.  I think I just let myself get too overwhelmed with everything that has to get done and then once most everything is accomplished, that's when I allow myself to enjoy the season.  Oh, and hearing Christmas music on the radio and seeing Christmas displays in the store before Thanksgiving probably doesn't help the bah humbug attitude, either.  I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

In celebration of Winter, I put together this pretty little mani last week.  I had been itching to try this polish because it's SOOO pretty in the bottle.  It did not disappoint!

Zoya Crystal from the Fire & Ice Flame collection that was released in October.  Crystal is described by the Zoya website as a light, silvered shiny blue metallic foil with sparks of brilliant yellow gold.  A cool, snowy winter blue that's ideal for any Ice Princess.  I don't usually describe myself as an Ice Princess (Ice Queen, maybe, but that's besides the point), but if it means I can rock this polish, you can call me whatever you want.

This is photographed indoors with flash.  The blue in this picture is a little deeper than it appears IRL.  I was feeling the chill of winter so I pulled out plate BM14 with the snowflake and stamped a couple flakes on my ring finger and thumb on both hands in blue Konad special polish.

This is much more color accurate.  Taken outdoors in indirect light.  See all the gold flecks?  It makes this polish GORGEOUS!  It almost looks textured but it's smooth.

You can see the stamp the best here.  My little nubbins. :(  They grow pretty fast, but not fast enough to do some funky French for Christmas.  Seeing these pictures makes me want to go home and do another mani with this color!

So, what do you think of Crystal?  Is she a keeper?