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!

Motley Blue

Good morning, Kitschies!  We're running in to the end of the week again.  Anything exciting planned for this weekend?  I get to spend the day with Nate tomorrow (school is out today and tomorrow for parent-teacher conferences) but I don't know what we're doing quite yet.  We have a birthday party on Saturday, but other than that, I imagine we're looking forward to the usual 'round the house chores that we usually do.  Then Monday, school is closed AGAIN for Presidents' Day, so the hubs gets to have *his* day with Nate.  I know they're planning on going skating - lucky!

I've been so bad about posting consistently lately and I'm sorry.  Things are still in a somewhat chaotic state in my life and I have a hard time fitting everything in.  However, the last few days have been a bit slower at the clinic, so I'm trying to take advantage and get a few posts in.

I'm sure you've seen a lot of the Finger Paints Special Effects (flakies) around the blogs over the last couple weeks and you know I have to jump on that train.  I was lucky enough to pick up these great flakies prior to their official release (because I bug my Sally's girls like that) but I haven't had a chance to wear all of them yet.  I know this isn't the first mani I've used them for, but this is the first one I took pics of.

I started with a base of SH Complete Salon Manicure in Thinking of Blue, a pretty navy blue creme.  Then I added two coats of FP Motley, an awesome combo of blue (or purple, depending on who you talk to) and green flakies.  The blue flakies don't show up so much because of the blue base, but you could see them in certain lights. 

I apologize for lack of good pics of this one - we went through a cloudy stretch and this was impossible to capture with a flash. 

Were you lucky enough to pick up the FP Special Effects collection?  Funny thing: the SA tried to sell me the black polish that was "released" with this set because "they (the flakies) won't work without it."  I asked her to see the bottle, opened it and immediately handed it back to her.  Sorry.  I don't need yet another black creme.  LOL

I'm Going Dotty!

Good morning, Kitschies!  It's been a whirwind couple of days.  We've been so busy with Christmas prep and holiday parties, I haven't had time to sit down and blog!  Don't worry, though...I've still been doing my nails.  Wait.  I take that back.  For my office Christmas party, I had one coat of a holo topcoat and that was it.  That's just not right.

Earlier last week (or maybe it was the week before), I saw this cute little dotty tree on Simply Rins.  She does the best nail art and they're usually pretty fool-proof!  As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to give it a go.  And wouldn't you know it...it *was* pretty much fool-proof. :)

I started with a base of ChG Glittering Garland (2-3 coats, depending on how careful I was with application) for all but the accent nail where I used Finger Paints Paper Mache.

To create the tree, I used a couple dotting tools, some greens, a red and a yellow.

The greens: ChG Glittering Garland, ChG Starboard, Zoya Gemma.  Yellow: Let's Meet.  Red: Zoya Sooki (that's been my go-to red this holiday).  See the pinky?  Yeah.  I should've gone with 3 coats there.

If you click on this pic, you can appreciate the flecks in Garland and you can see the tree in better detail.  See?  This is a pretty fool-proof design.  It didn't take but a few minutes and it's CUTE!!

So, now that it's December 20th...are you read for Christmas?  I know I'm not!  I still have some wrapping to do and I have to make my way to the grocery store to get the makings of a sour cream fruit salad (I know it sounds gross but totally isn't - trust me) and the hubs has decided we're having his dad over for Christmas dinner so I guess we need to figure out what we're making.  *sigh*  As much as I like shopping, I abhor the grocery stores any time after 5pm.

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?

Purple Flower Power

Happy Tuesday, Kitchies!  It's only Tuesday?  *sigh*  The entire month of September has flown by and it doesn't look like it's going to ease up any time soon.  Between coordinating days off with Nate's school and derby practice and whatever kid party we have on the weekend and quality time with the hubs...there's no time left over!

Enough of the crazy!  On to the pretty.

This mani was inspired by Simply Rins' Butterflies and Flowers mani that she posted in May.  I know I didn't do this mani all the way back in May, but it *was* probably early August.

I started with a base of Finger Paints Heavenly Hydrangea from their Summer 2011 collection.  It's a really pretty dusty mauve/lavender/orchid creme color.

Then I added some shimmer with Nicole Count on Me.  Count on Me was given to my by Frippery Digits in my box 'o goodies - she called it the best layering polish ever and I think I'm gonna have to agree.

After the shimmer, I stamped SH White On using BM11 on the tips.  I should've stamped first *then* used Count on Me but, as I recall, this was the last of a long night of unhappy mani results so once I got to this point, I was done.  LOL

Count on Me is pretty dang gorgeous!  It's so sheer, all it does is add a little bit of sparkle.  And the best part?  The sparkle changes color from pale pink to blue/purple.  So pretty and great over a bunch of different colors.

I suppose I should get back to work.  It is, after all, what they pay me for.  But wouldn't it be awesome to be paid to blog all day?  Yep.  Pretty much!

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink: Shrimply Divine

Good morning, Kitschies!  It's Wednesday.  Again.  Nothing too exciting going on in the land of Suburbia.  I'm typing this out on Tuesday night because Wednesday morning we have some lame training at work, so I thought I better get a jump on this before I miss the bus completely.  And I'm pretty tired tonight, so it's probably going to be a short post.

It's Wednesday, so it's time to link up with On Wednesdays We Wear Pink!

Quite a while ago, ok, a LONG time ago, I asked the bestie what color combo I should do for a funky french mani.  She said pink and black.  This is what I came up with.

I started with a base of SH Complete Salon Manicure: Shrimply Divine (thanks Emily!) then creating a chevron tip, I used Finger Paints: Easel Come, Easel Go and SH Black Out.  Then where the three colors meet, I added a pink rhinestone. 

I don't remember exactly, because it's been so long, but it looks like I must've used Seche Vite as my top coat because I have quite a bit of tip shrinkage. 

I like this mani, it's cute, but it's not one of my favorites.  I need to do more chevron french tips - they're different and there are so many great color combos!

Short and sweet.  My kind of post!  LOL  Check out On Wednesdays We Wear Pink for other great participating pink blogs!

And don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY!

Two for the Road

Good day, Kitschies!  Yep.  You're reading this right.  Two posts in one day!  It's much less chaotic here at the clinic and I missed a post on Tuesday, so I'm making up for it today. 

I know nail bloggers don't post many pedicures.  Why is that?  I know...toes are (generally) gross, but if you take the time to give yourself a pedi, why not share the pics?  Saying that, I hope I don't repulse you with my post today.  If I do...get over it.  LOL  Everybody's got toes.  Let's move on, shall we?

This is Zoya Jacy.  Isn't she beautiful?  This is a medium magenta with a purple shimmer.  The shimmer is rather subtle, but it's gorgeous.  Very opaque, I could've gotten away with only one coat but I used two.  I got Jacy from the Facebook offer Zoya had a couple months ago (in January?).

Toes!  I couldn't just leave this a plain pedi, so I grabbed my silver striping polish and a purple-ish rhinestone.  I don't know what's with the design, but this is how it turned out.  The hubs asked if it was "wings".  I don't see wings.  Do you?

Now, the second pedi is a little more up my alley. 

I started with a base of Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go (silver metallic).  Then using the black and magenta striping polishes I picked up at Ross (I think they're Art Club...I can't remember).  I was really surprised at how opaque the magenta was.  I was going for a plaid design which I got to turn out ok on one of the toes.  The other one?  Yeah.  It's plaid...though not like the other one.  Oh, well.  Nobody sees my toes this time of year anyway.  Good thing, huh?

Here's my question to my fellow nail bloggers.  Why don't you post pics of your pedis?  Or do you just not do your toes?

An American Holiday

Good Monday morning, Kitschies!  I hope you enjoyed your weekend.  Mine consisted of some time at the clinic (very productive time), a bit of time with the bestie and two of her kids and then cleaning and chores for the rest of the time.  I'm really behind on prepping pics for the blog, but I did manage to get one or two sets done.  This is one of them.

Last Monday was Presidents' Day here in the US.  I didn't get the day off, but I did a mani to celebrate!  Just a side note...my next holiday off isn't until the end of May. *sad Megan*


Here's what I used: Orly Royal Navy (after shaking and shaking and shaking for about 5 minutes), Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go, Studio M Magic Attraction and Art Deco nail art polish in red glitter and white.

A note on Orly Royal Navy.  This is one awesome color, but the fact that the sparkle *always* separates from the base color is the suck.  I don't know what the deal with that is, but if you take the time to shake it, the color pay off is worth the effort.  Blue jelly base with blue (almost teal?) sparkle is so right on the money!  On to the mani pics!

Full sun pic.  Ignore the tips - I had quite a bit of shrinkage with the silver for some reason.  The day after I did this, I filed down the tips a bit and got rid of the ugly shrinkage (my nails needed a little cleaning up anyway). 

I also got a bit of shrinkage along the edges, too.  I love Seche Vite, but I hate it, too, because of all the shrinkage I get (among other things).  I had been using ChG speed top coat (whatever the name is), but I picked up the SV top and base coats a few weeks ago at Sally's because they were BOGO, but ChG is my go-to/preferred brand.

If you click on this one to make it bigger, you can really see the gorgeous sparkle in the blue.  I loved this mani and I got LOTS of compliments!  I like it so much, I wore it for 4 days.  And without much tip wear and no chipping.  I'll definitely be doing something like this for 4th of July!

Oh, how'd I do it?  I started out with two coats of Royal Navy on the whole nail.  Then I took Easel Come, Easel Go and painted the outside corner.  It was missing a little something so I did one coat of Magic Attraction over the top of the silver metallic polish.  Once that all dried a bit, I took my red glitter striping polish and went along the edge of the silver polish.  Repeated that with the white and the red glitter again.  For the final touch, I took the red glitter striping polish and went from the inside edge, about 2/3 of the way down the nail and dragged it in a diagonal to the top.  Top with a coat (or two, I think it was) of top coat and you're good to go!

 So now that the awards show season is over, what shows are you looking forward to watching?

The People Have Spoken

So...it looks like most everybody was cool with the idea of themed days.  Thank you to everybody who commented.  I'll give it a try.  If I end up not liking the way it's going, I'll just go back to what I was doing.  If, after I start this, you want to see more of something specifically, please let me know!!

Welcome to the first Mani Monday!  Let's see what I have for you today...

A couple weeks ago, I was aching to do a water marble.  I was going to try a light and dark pink marble, but I wasn't happy with the color combination, so it went no farther than the two bottles sitting side-by-side on my Helmer.  Then the hubs suggested black and white.  It's a classic color pairing, so why not!  To throw a little bit of spice in the mix, I grabbed a bottle of red, just for fun.

I started off with a base coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On and then marbled the White On with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Midnight in NY.  For the red, I used Finger Paints Primary Color.  I was a little disappointed the black didn't come out more opaque on the red, but overall, I like how this turned out.  This was my right hand.

And the left hand.  This picture was taken after the second day of wear.  It did pretty good considering we went sledding that first day!  Don't ask me what that pink/purple spot is on my middle finger cuz I have no clue!

The thumbs.  Why is it that my favorite designs of a marble tend to be on my thumbs?  Larger canvas?  Who knows.  Oh, and I really liked both index fingers, too.  Really, there wasn't a finger I didn't like this time around. 

I have come to really like doing water marbles.  Do you have a suggestion of two colors to pair together?  I always come to a road block when trying to pair colors.  It always looks good in my mind, but once I get it going, it's not what I pictured.  Don't you hate it when you have these grand plans in your head but then it just doesn't come out right, no matter what you do?

Randomness

A bonus entry for the day.  The hubs is playing Star Wars on the Wii with Nate and Mason is napping.  I was going through my pending and pics folders and realized that I had a couple manis I hadn't shown you.  Why?  Maybe because they only had a pic or two or because they just weren't all that great (in my mind).  Either way, in an effort to start the new year off right and a bit more organized than when I left it, I'm going to show you some randomness.

I did this one for a black & white challenge on FAB UR NAILS.  I didn't really care for it, so I never submitted it.  Therefore, I never posted it.  Til now.  This is SH Black Out, Maybeline Express Finish in Shooting Stars (the glitter) and Finger Paints Papier Mache (white) with light blue rhinestones.  I'm still meh about this one.  I really like the glitter but it's PIA and takes FOREVER to dry - even with FDTC.

This is another FAB UR NAILS challenge, but I submitted this one.  I really do like this one; I don't know why I didn't post it on my blog.  This is ChG Foxy with gold and green acrylic paint and a gold rhinestone in the corner on the ring finger and thumb.

Love. Love. Love this color but it's super PIA to capture accurately.  This is OPI DS Extravagance - a GORGEOUS berry holo.  I think I didn't post this because I wasn't happy with the pics.

Another OPI.  This is Rumples Wiggin.  I like the color and the stamping (Color Club Wild At Heart) is cute, but I only got two good pics out of the mani.

OPI again.  This time it's William Tell Me About OPI.  I loved this color in the bottle because you can actually see the super dark plum color, but once it dried, it was darker and it was practically black unless you were in bright sun/light.  I think I wore this mani plain for a day and then added SH Hidden Treasure over top.  I liked it a little better after that.  Again, the pics aren't the greatest.

One more OPI for good measure.  This is Yodel Me on My Cell.  I do like this color, but it ended up be quite a bit more sheer than I expected it to be.  This was the standard 3 coats, but you can see on my thumb and pinkie that it could've used another coat.  Oh, and the stamps (stars done with Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go) didn't show up as much as I would've liked.  That's my big fat fatty kitteh, Sol, in the first pic of this set.

Zoya has yet to let me down and this one is no exception.  However, the pics aren't great and that's why I never showed you.  This is Gloria from the Fire & Ice Flame collection.  It's a really pretty light raspberry pink glass fleck.  The pictures aren't great (are you noticing a trend here?) and so it stayed in my blog pics file.

Zoya Mimi.  Beautiful medium purple glass fleck.  This is the *only* pic I have of this one for whatever reason.  This is more purple than blue as it shows here.  Why are purples so hard to capture accurately?

So, there ya go.  I get to clean up my folders a bit and you get to point and laugh at the horrible pics.  Which one is your favorite out of this?  And the worst?