L.A. Girls 3D Effects - Purple Effect

I finally ended my search for a purple holo! *dance dance dance* Recently I stopped at a Rite Aid and sort of avoided looking too closely at the nail polish section (attempting a no-buy month!).. but the glittery, holo-y goodness of the 3D Effects display drew me right in! At only 4.99 a piece I couldn't really resist this beauty and quickly grabbed the Purple Effect!

Next time I wear it, I'll probably use some purple underwear for more opacity...but DAMMIT HOW PRETTY IS THIS?! I don't have many holos, so I'm not sure how the quality of this guy holds up comparatively, but I couldn't be happier. The pictures show two very easily applied coats (it's basically a jelly formula) and a top coat. The holo is even pretty holo-y indoors. Pretty exciting if you ask me!

Thanks for reading :)

I have returned! No, really this time!

I think my last post was something like... "I have returned!" Yeah. Not so much, eh? Well this time, I really can return! A ton of things contributed to my lack of posting, but mainly it was not being able to do my nails. I worked at an evil sandwich shop that did not allow ANYTHING on your nails *GASP!* It was pretty much the worst. My hands were constantly dry and disgusting looking from washing them so much (literally 20+ times a day), my cuticles were tearing, and my nails were short, frail, and pealing. I did get to do the occasional manicure, however. And that brings me to the second reason why there has been no posting even when I could do my nails: Craptastic internet service. All is well with that once again, though.

 For this post, I just wanted to show one or two things I did and photographed but was never able to post.

And back when people still did the fishtail/braided thing... 

As you can see my lighting situation isn't quite ideal. Working on it! And in the mean time, a sun shiny day is my best friend :)

Since having the internet back and being able to take care of my hands and nails again, I have been slapping paint on my nails as much as possible! I look forward to posting again and getting back in touch with all of the awesome blogs that were lost to me in the past 10 months. I have really missed the nail blogging community. It seems it has grown so much that I fear I can never catch up, but I accept the challenge!

Thanks for reading :)

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Ladies First by SnailZ Lacquer (HOLY BALLS)

It's... a purple..jelly...flaky... franken! The lovely Ashesela over at Art Evolve is quite the frankenista (that is totally a word!) and I have been forever drooling over her creations. Luckily, Ash is quite generous and sent me one of her creations (Ladies First) as a wedding gift. I'm going to link her photos because they are a touch (ok a lot) better looking, but I couldn't not show you all of the glimmery, flaky wonder on my nails right now!

Two coats Ladies First, no undies!

I feel that this lighting and my poor photography skills actually showed off this polish pretty well. It truly does look like my nails are constantly lighting up and just shimmmmmmering! I can't wait to do more with this beauty - anyone have any suggestions? There is definitely some sort of sandwich in the future for Ladies First, but I'd love any other ideas!

Here are Ash's photos (She may have done more coats than me as hers turned out darker)

THANK YOU AGAIN ASH! YOU ARE LOVELY!

And thanks for reading :)

I have returned!

I still don't have the best lighting set up... but I miss blogging quite a bit so I guess my readers will just have to suffer through my lackluster photos!

The big new I eluded to before.. I got married! Totally sudden and totally unexpected, but it was pretty much the best decision I have ever made. Mr.Nail Noise is not only quite talented himself (he sews, ladies! YEAH!) but he fully supports and even encourages my nail polish addiction. It's quite sad really -- I can't look at a polish at the store without him insisting that I purchase it! Awesome but dangerous for the wallet.

So first I have the nails I did for my wedding day. We didn't have a big ceremony, just a quick visit to the courthouse. I saw this design on heynicenails and figured it'd be simple enough to do to both my hands. For once, both my hands matched. This is a definite rarity for me ;)

Remember how I told you Mr. Nail Noise was very supportive? That might have been an understatement. Yeah, these are our matching nails - what of it?! We spent a day at the zoo and wanted something bright and animal-like, so this manicure was born:

Awwwwww

My hands even kind of match each other again! WOO!

I also have some manicures to throw in here at the end - not as professional looking, but I wanted to have a record of them anyway.

Pink Penguin by F4 and Nubar Black Polka Dot

 over a black and white gradient

Sally Hansen Garnet Lapis over Sally Hansen CSM in Petrol

Flash!

Lastly, I did a little stamping over a friend's acrylics - smeared with a top coat a little, but still looked pretty awesome if you ask me! 

Also she had awesome shoes:

GOLDGLITTERSHOESOHMYGOD

So that's what I've been up to -- married life is pretty awesome. 

Special note: I received a frickin' AMAZEBALLS franken from Ashesela over at ArtEvolve. It deserves its own post, though. And I'm disappointed that the photos don't do it any justice at ALL. You are the sweetest Miss Ash! 

Thanks for reading :)

Old (but FUN!) nail art

This is a few weeks old, but I never blogged about it. I saw design this on tumblr by JamboNails and I knew I had to try it. Of course it didn't come out anything like the original, but I am super pleased with the results anyway!!

The pink is Pool Party (ChG), the green is Kiwi Cool-Ada, and the orange is Knockout Orange I think... I don't have the bottle anywhere near me so forgive me if the name is wrong! I used a nail art striper for the black lines and dots. BAD LIGHTING IS BAD. I WILL be building a gosh darned light box soon! 

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!!! 

More dots - with cheap but awesome Dawn

Sometimes you get super cheap polish and it sucks - more often than not this is the case. I was pleasantly surprised by this little lady that I got from Dollar Tree. While it takes a few coats to get opaque (3 for no VNL), I really liked the finished product. It had no name, only the brand Dawn. These photos are with top coat. 

I felt it was kind of boring on its own, so I dotted it up!

These are some bonus photos of my Mom's nails. She let me do random things to them! :)

These were done for my cousin for a wedding. I was working without all of my supplies for these projects... very sad, but I guess I made it work ok - she liked them!

I'm in the process of moving at the moment, so I'm not around my computer nearly as often as I'd like to be :( But soon... soon.... NAILS EVERYWHERE. 

Thanks for reading this insanely boring post :)

Dotty flowers

These are sort of flowers... I really love this color combination and just sat there knowing I would fail at water marbling... and then DOTS. Hah ALWAYS DOTS.

The base is Army Jacket by American Apparel. I really do love their formula. So smooth and thick...mmmm...

The dots are: Exotic Green (SC),  Arizona (Zoya), Mellow Yellow (Xtreme Wear), and Mahogany Magic (ChG).

All the bubbling is the fault of my top coat. I don't care what people say, adding thinner causes bubbling. Especially if you have to add it every time you use it. Does this happen with Seche Vite/Restore? Does it create bubbling? I am really considering making the switch. 

Note: My absence was mostly due to some new coolness in my life that I can't discuss on here just quite yet, but it is AWESOME. I am going to try to post 3 times a week from now on. I'm not going to attempt every day because I know it won't happen. I am thinking of also having a couple guest posts just for no reason other than I'd like to showcase some cool blogs, new blogs, or just talented artists. If you have any interest, feel free to send me an email at mantislawyer@gmail.com -- You don't have to be a blogger!

I hope everyone is well, and I thank you for reading :)