Shuffle the Deck!

So I didn't die on my flight, which is surprising since we apparently nearly collided with another plane >.< NEVER FLYING AGAIN. I've been enjoying being back in lovely (and warrrrmmmm) Pennsylvania. Today was especially awesome as we had a fantastic thunderstorm!! Woo!

None of my nail polish has arrived from California yet, so until then I'm stuck with a couple mini Wet N Wild polishes and whatever I happen to pick up here. So far that has only been Shuffle the Deck from Spoiled. I hadn't planned on buying any polish, only remover, but this is one I have been drooling over for awhile. Red, silver, and black glitter?! YES PLEASE!! I layered it over Everybody Loves Redmond and Silvivor - two of the Wet N Wild minis.

And here is a cute little macro shot. I want to do these more, I just have to figure out a way to incorporate them - any suggestions? 

I also need watermark advice if anyone is willing... mine sucks right? Halp!

I feel very out of touch with all of the blogs that I regularly check over the past week or few weeks. This is completely my fault and I plan to correct it. Now that I have a more stable internet connection, the (blogging) world is my oyster! I appreciate everyone's comments, you guys truly are wonderful and encouraging!! 

Thanks for reading :)

BONUS KITTIES!! 

Berry is the black one, the other is Fern. I miss them very much right now!

Some taping and some striping

I have seriously been lacking inspiration lately. I feel like I can't come up with any of my own designs. My freehand skills aren't quite where I would like them to be, so I'd prefer to focus on that, but this idea popped into my head so I had to try it first.

First, the pictures!

I started off with For Audrey as a base, then taped off a section of Mount Royal by American Apparel. Very quickly, I swiped a thick coat of Nail Junkie over the top taped section (which I actually think was a dark blue Cosmetic Arts polish I found at Ross, not Mount Royal. But Mount Royal is on the bottom bit of nail).

I had some streaking and smearing, so I decided to cover that up with gold using Flower Girl by Sinful Colors. 

What do you think? Better with or without the striping?

I like them both a lot :)

Thanks for reading!!

Cult Nails Extravaganza Part 2

And now for the second set of designs I did using Cult Nails products! (See part 1 here!)

All designs were created using only Cult Nails products including rhinestones, Enticing, Captivated, and Wicked Fast top coat.

I thought I had more pictures than that, but I guess not! I want to stress again that I am eternally grateful to be given this sort of opportunity. I never thought they would pick me! So thanks again, Cult Nails! Now if I could only get my hands on some Unicorn Puke ;) 

Thanks for reading! :)

Cult Nails Extravaganza Part 1

As I mentioned awhile ago, Cult Nails sent me some products to use to create nail art designs for their website. Obviously I was floored and also honored, but I was also a little shocked when the products came. I had a really hard time creating designs with only a sheer pink polish and a glitter (and of course a buttload of rhinestones!). But, I love that there was a challenge! Definitely made me think outside of my comfort zone. In the end, though, I feel I pulled it off and was able to do these gorgeous products some justice ^.^

The sheer pink I referred to is Enticing. It is a very lovely and delicate creamy, but slightly shimmery, light pink. It's almost frosty, but not in a way that has a silver tone to it or anything. It applies easily and dries fairly quickly. I needed 5 coats (I do pretty thin coats, to be fair) for full opacity. (Thought: This would be a great polish for layering!!)

Without further rambling, the first installment of my submitted (and apparently approved!) designs...

That glitter in the last two photos is Captivated. I included the second photo because the color is more accurate in that one. Not so for Enticing, it photographed much better outside. 

Captivated is an awesome coral/orange/yellow glitter that's actually very smooth. I usually expect to apply two or more layers of top coat depending on what glitter it is, but this smoothed out nicely with just one coat of  Wicked Fast (which Cult Nails also generously included). Wicked Fast is also fantastic for sealing on rhinestones. Not sure how long it holds them there (reapply every day for maximum wear!) since I didn't keep them on very long each time, but it doesn't cause the horrible gloopyness over rhinestones that some topcoats do. 

And now... DIAMONDS! Diamonds everywhere!

A special thanks to Cult Nails for providing their amazing products. They didn't ask me to review them, I'm just sharing my thoughts. 

Stay tuned for part 2 and thanks for reading! :)

100TH POST!!! CELEBRATE WITH GLITTER!!!

I like to go three days without posting, then post three times in one day. It's apparently how I roll. Not intentionally, though. It's an accidental roll. ANYWAY, YAY 100TH POST!! To celebrate, I busted out Techno by China Glaze. I hadn't tried it yet, and this seemed like a good opportunity. First, watch this video. 

The system is down

YAY STRONGBAD!

After you're done laughing, look at these pictures of Techno over Grecian Sun by Sinful Colors!

I definitely recommend enlarging these. I just couldn't get the glitter to photograph as well as I assume it could. It's SO AWESOME. Seriously, if you don't own Techno, and you love glitter, I feel sorry for you. It catches light and literally looks like diamonds sparkling all over your nails! *sigh*

Thanks for reading :)

Zoya - Neeka

I had a naked left hand and decided to try out a polish I had been really excited to get but for some reason never tried, Neeka by Zoya. While it's very gorgeous, this polish is not really what I expected. I expected a bit lighter, more shimmery shade. Neeka is still beautiful though, so who cares? I hope my grotesque left hand doesn't deter you from loving this polish! I had no idea it would be so hard to photograph my left hand accurately. I haven't done it much before, I guess. So these photos don't really do the polish justice... but trust me, it's a must-have if you love purple!

So if this is my left hand - what's on my right?? Stay tuned! Err..logged on? Thanks for reading :)

Oooh a personal entry!

Once again I am moving back east to Pennsylvania! My flight is scheduled for the 17th. I hate flying SO MUCH. I have flown approximately 12,000 miles over the past year. NOT COOL. When I say I'm scared, I mean I shake and cry while boarding. I won't get into too many details, but hopefully this time it will be rather permanent. Or at least for the foreseeable future. Nothing wrong with California, I just have some things to do in PA. I'd like to think this is a start of a good thing, but there are other sad circumstances that prevent that from being entirely true. One good thing, I will most likely be starting some nail tech schoolin' here in the next year. Woot! It's weird, I never would have thought that I'd be going to any sort of beauty-type school. Not that there's anything wrong with that sort of thing, I have just wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. Perhaps that's where this will lead me, though, into being a course instructor myself. Who knows!

I'm also coming up on my 100th post, which is sort of sad considering I've had this blog almost a year now :( On the 100th post eve, I vow to change that once I am situated in Pennsylvania. Truthfully, sometimes I do things on my nails and just don't feel confident enough to post them. I should, though, because learning is what it's all about!

I'll be posting nail-related things later, I just wanted to get that out. Thanks for reading :)