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Monday, September 29, 2014

Enchanted Polish 2AM Summer Night and Stamping

I'm going back to my roots. My stamping roots that is.  Remember those days, when I would pick two colors and stamp with them and add my funky french?  Ahhhhhhhh those were the days.  You see, stamping is easy for me and I'm pretty damn good at it. All these flowers and taping and freehanding are not easy for me.

I kind of gave up stamping because people starting telling me they were bored with my stuff.  Can't I do anything else kind of thing.  Well, I've tried and yes I can do taping, some mediocre dot flowers but that's about it.  I'm not going to stamp all the time like before, but yeah, I love doing that and I miss it.

I do need to try the advanced stamping and leadlight techniques.  I'll be exploring those to see if I can do them.

OK just watched several YouTube videos on these two techniques and I'm prepared to try them! I may not be able to try the leadlight technique as I don't think I have any sheer jellies.  It's not a polish type I normally buy.

Stay tuned for that!

Now that I spent that time perusing videos, I am now behind schedule and need to get on with today's mani.  You see I plan to be at the AT&T store when they open to order my new iphone 6plus and get my almost free new ipad air.  Damn I'm excited about that! My Ipad2 has served me well, but it truly has given it's all and now it's just a sad heavy piece of crap.

Here is the silly bottle shot.



This is Enchanted Polish 2AM Summer Night and OPI My Vampire Is Buff.

I started with 2AM and an accent of Buff.

Flash

Indoor Sun

Indoor Sun

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This 2AM has so many different colors to it, I had to show you more pictures! You can see flashes of blue, purple and green depending on the light and angle.  It's truly spectacular!

Next I wanted to use my all time favorite stamping pattern on Bundle Monster plate BM306.  I used 2AM and the OPI to stamp with as I did before.

Indoor Sun

Indoor Sun

Indoor Sun

Flash
Instead of my funky, I stamped a funky! I so love this 2AM! I cannot stop staring to see what colors I will see next!  It also seems that after all this time, I've still get the stamping mojo!

Stay tuned for more of that!

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Saturday, September 27, 2014

A England Fest

I had a very hard time trying to figure out what colors to wear today.  I just sat and stared and stared. You see what I wear today only lasts a day so I didn't want to do the colors I'm doing for my next post as I want to wear those longer than one day. Does that make sense?  I feel like that was a long rambling sentence.

But I'm ok with long and rambling.

I also just got my new Fall Barielle colors.  It has brown in it!  I have been so ecstatic at all the browns this Fall and thought perhaps the world is finally embracing the color I've known all along to be gorgeous.  But nope.  I just found out that it is one of the colors Pantone picked for this Fall.

Hmmmmm.  I wonder how they decide which colors are it?  Do they sit in front of a color wheel and say this one hasn't been prominent for awhile?  Or maybe they shoot darts at a color wheel and those are the ones for the season.  It just seems so random.

I mean first you have the color of the year, being a weird orchid color, then this?  I just googled it and these colors were picked in February! How do they know the Fall colors during the previous Winter???  It also seems that the runways are now showing the Spring 2015 colors.  Those picks are pink (nee Strawberry Ice), aquamarine and Lucite Green.  I'm all for that green, but I really don't want to think Spring before I've even enjoyed my Fall and Winter!

I kind of get why the fashion world has to be ahead of the curve so the rest of the people can adjust what they do for their collections, like the nail polish world.

If it were up to me?  I'd totally just do colors that spoke to me at that time and screw the Pantone predictions.  I still want to know how and why they pick the colors.

Here's a sneak peek of the Fall Me Couture Barielle set.


Aren't these gorgeous?  Well except the flaming pink one-but hey I will still rock the hell out of it!

Stay tuned for those!  Here is the silly bottle shot for today.


This is A England Dragon, Princess Sabra, the original Holy Grail and Bridal Veil.  I haven't worn these in over two years! What the hell?

I started with skittles.

Indoor Sun

Flash

Indoor Sun
I so love this Sabra! It's gorgeous!  Next I used my new right angle nail vinyls, then I free handed some lines and got this.

Flash

Indoor Sun

Indoor Sun
Not too shabby with the lines this time!  I'm pretty happy with myself here.  Kind of a funky mani. What I will tell you is when I took off the red polish, the shininess of my fresh new mani I showed you when I got my nails done was gone.  Now I don't care as I'm covering it up anyway.  But I do wonder why that happened.  I have used nothing but non acetone remover.

Yes I am still loving my nails!  What do you think?

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Thursday, September 25, 2014

Rouge Louboutin, Enchanted Polish Good Life & Flashing Lights

Today is my first post with my new nails.  Because it was a momentous occasion, I had to wear a special polish.  I've had my Louboutin polish for a while now and have yet to wear it.  I thought why not with my new nails??

This mani was also done the same day I got my new nails so I was rushed for time.  I will say though that the end result was something I couldn't stop staring at for real!

Before we get to all that though-I wanted to talk Apple products.  I'm an Apple junkie. I love my iphone and my ipad and can't get enough.  If I could afford it, I'd own a Mac. The new iphone 6Plus is calling my name.  I mean it is calling my name hard.  I love the thought of a bigger screen as I get older and can't see as well.  I catch myself holding object out at arms length and hate that!!!!

My parents have finally decided they want to get a smart phone.  Not that they are thrilled about it and I'm not sure they even want to learn to text, but they want to use it as their computer.  The computer they have now is a billion years old and a piece of crap.  I fix it the best I can when I'm home, but that only goes so far.  Really they just want to do email, have a phone and maybe do Amazon shopping.  The cost of this will be better than what they are paying for high speed internet on a computer that doesn't know what high speed is.

I went to the AT&T store yesterday.  I've decided they just need a 5C for their needs.  I went through the different plans and prices etc.  I also found out there is an ipad special that if I preorder the iphone plus, turn in my ipad2 and my iphone 4S, I would only pay $37 for a new ipad Air!!!!

Did you see that? $37!!!! For a new ipad Air.  I already told myself I was buying myself a new one for Christmas and figured I'd have to pay about $700.  Um this is way too good a deal to pass up.  I still have my 3S iphone the first one I ever had.  You see, I use my 4S as my ipod that holds all my music for my driving. But it's worth $200 toward the new ipad Air.  I thought my 3S was only 8gb and didn't work in my car. Well this morning I checked and it's 16gb and should work with my car.  I need to test it out to be sure, but I'm thinking I'm good to go!

So next week, I will go back, preorder the iphone 6plus, which I'm told may take up to a month now to get, and walk out with a new ipad Air. WOOHOO!  Score one for me!

I've also decided my mom should take my iphone 5S and we will only have to get my dad the 5C. It'll save money all around.

So come November when they come to visit, I have to teach them how to use the iphone.  Hopefully it won't be too painful!  HAHA!

Back to the special mani!  Here is the silly bottle shot.



The top picture shows how the Louboutin comes in it's own box.  Along side are the Enchanted Polish Good Life and Flashing Lights.  The bottom picture shows the bottle by itself.  It's a gorgeous bottle for sure!  Heavy cut crystal.  Swoon people!

I started with the Red and an accent of Good Life.

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How pretty is this with my new nails???  Next I simply added Flashing Lights, which is a scattered and linear holo at the same time.  That's why I can't stop staring!

Sun

Flash

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I am in love with this and my nails are just stunning!  The only issue?  Getting this glitter off with non acetone remover!  I'm not looking forward to that!!!

I opened a Store Envy account today.  It looks time consuming and complicated to get all my blog sale polish listed on there.  Someone told me it would be better than my blog sale.  I really need to sell off some polish!

Any hints out there for this?

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Nubs to Nails-A NexGen gel dip story

Hey guys! I told you that I would tell you all about my experience with NexGen gel dip nails.  This is that post!  I'm going to tell you and show you the steps that took me from peeling nubs to gorgeous nails.

I had done my research and my mom had tried a similar gel dip nail product where she lives and loves it. It looked like it was something I definitely wanted to try.  I made an appt with Diana at Kim Nails as I was told she was the expert at this process.  This happens to be the only salon in the entire area that even does NexGen nails.  There are other gel dip salons, but I wanted specifically NexGen brand.  It looked like it was the best.  Diana told me that people come to see her from hours away just to get this brand and have her do their nails!  How cool is that?

As I told you, I took my camera with me to the salon.  People looked at me funny, but they do that anyways, so it didn't faze me.  HAHA!

Here is what my nails looked like after Diana had removed my polish and the nail glue that was holding my peels together.  I told you about that experience a post or two ago!


OMG how awful is this??  See the peels on my pointer finger?  Yeah they are usually this bad.  I've tried so hard to get them healthy and my genetics just suck I guess!

The first step was to buff them up a bit.  This is the part I dread as I know it's this part that does the most damage to the nail.  It actually wasn't as rough as when I've tried acrylics before.

Next Diana glued on those super long tips.  You know the ones that curl down?  I promise you, I tried so hard to take a picture of that, but I just couldn't even get my camera out of the case!  It was pretty funny trying.  How do people with nails that long do their daily chores????

The tips were cut down a bit.  Here is that step.



See that the buffing wasn't too intense.  Next came the really cool part. For those who've had acrylics before, you know that pot of powder that they dip the wet brush into to make a bead and put that on your nail?  It was like that pot of powder.  Oh and you can pick any color you want.  As in the gel dip product is colored so NO chipping polish!!!!!  Why someone would want to wear the same color for a month I've no clue! HAHA.

So here's what happened next.  Diana applied a prep base.  I'm assuming this was pure alcohol like most nail preps we know and love.  Then she applied something like a base coat.  Then she took my nail and dipped it in the powder tapping my finger to get the excess off my finger.  This process was done three times per nail.  She told me normally you do two but I am super hard on my nails so she wanted to do three. Between each dip, she did another layer of the base coat product.

Here is what that looked like after the three dips per nail.


I chose to just do a sheer pink as I knew I'd be putting my regular polish on top.  My mom when she did hers, did a pink and white one.  But see the powder on my fingers? That's what my nails were dipped into.

Next came the electric file and hand filing.  After that was done, I washed my hands. The very last step to this process was the top coat.  You don't need the UV lamp, you can just fan your nails, but you can't be sure when it's really dry.  I'm not afraid of the UV lamp so I chose to do that to finish off my nails.  There was a bonus step of the paraffin wax, that I love to do!

Here is what the final nails look like.



See the super shiny?  That's the final top coat and is supposed to always stay that shiny.

How gorgeous are these nails?  I am in love with them! As I write this, I have had these on for 4 days now.  They feel natural whereas when I had acrylics before, I always felt like there was something on my nail. It was a weird feeling.  These I don't even think about.  I haven't been babying them at all. I've just been doing what I normally do.

I did do a mani on top of this, which will be my next post.  I'm curious to see what these will look like after removing the polish.

Some points you may be wondering.  I'm told these should last up to a month depending on whether you can "ignore the gap" at the cuticle as the nail grows out. You cannot use acetone as that is what removes this gel dip.  Let me just say that doing cleanup with non acetone sucks! It takes twice as long and is tedious.

I have noticed that on one nail, that either my nail is separating or something but I have super wonky nails on my right hand and until the point where I don't need tips, it may just be from that. I have another appointment in two weeks to remove these and start over.  Diana says not to do fills as it just gets too thick.  In the future, I think I will most likely do three week intervals. Where I live, the price was $40 for one color, $50 for the pink and white.  My mom lives in a rural area and paid $31 for hers.  I do not know what brand she used, but she said it was the same process.

I've already decided that next time I want to go a bit longer and more square.  I do think that I will keep these for a while.  I'm sure they will do some damage to my nails, but you saw how they were to begin with! It's not like I was sporting pretty nails to begin with!

A before and after picture for you.



What I do know, is so far, I love these! I would recommend these to others to try. Diana did a fabulous job and I look forward to having her do my nails for a long time to come!

What do you think?

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Sunday, September 21, 2014

Enchanted Polish Dream On, The Devil Wears Polish Browns

It's T minus 2 hours before I try the new to me dip gel mani.  Trust that I will take pictures of the process-if they let me that is, and show you what it's all about.  I can rock the nubs, and I do proudly, but damn do I hate that no matter what I do, my nails are crap. How did I find out about this new technique???  My mom of all people. Yup, the same one who thinks clear is a color, and doesn't quite get my polish addiction has gotten a gel dip french mani and LOVES it!

Stay tuned for that post-oh and don't tell my job as it's illegal.  HEHE.

I'm back to the regular grind.  Day to day existence.  Not as much fun as being on vacation with not a care in the world.  Can a handsome bazillionaire contact me and whisk me away from the doldrums and support me the rest of my days?

If that happened to you, do you think you'd get bored?  If you never had to work again, could do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted.  Would you then miss the work schedule and that responsibility from that life?  I think I might.

It's not like I wouldn't want to just never work again, it's that I would miss some parts of my job.  But then again, I could just get on my private jet and fly to Paris just for lunch and that would most likely make me feel better!  HAHA.

What would you do?

I'm continuing on with my new brown holos from the set of 8 I recently got from The Devil Wears Polish.  It was very hard trying to decide which ones to wear first.

Here is your silly bottle shot.


OOPS! Who is that creeping in on my bottle shot?  HAHA! That's my baby Checkers-who is officially 12 and cured of her bladder stone!

This is TDWP White Chocolate Cheesecake and Dark Chocolate Torte with Enchanted Polish Dream On.

I started with skittles.

Indoor Sun

Indoor Sun
Swooooooon people!  Look how amazing these are!  I am in love!  Hopefully this will be the last post with the nubs! Cross your fingers!

Next I simply used my nail vinyls and did this.

Indoor Sun

Indoor Sun
How awesome is this???  When did Blogger update things again?  I just wrote a post on Sunday, now it's Wednesday and things are different again.  What the hell?

I am LOVING these brown holos, plus this purple EP is gorgeous! I just got 6 new EPs and I can't wait to show them off!

All right, I'm off to get some nails!

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Friday, September 19, 2014

Hayride, Pumpkin Carving and the Equinox

Quite the mysterious title eh?  Stirs up images of the Fall weather coming doesn't it? Well, I just had to put on sweatpants because it's a glorious chilly morning here and my shorts just weren't doing it.

My betta's house is a tad bit cool at 76F whereas, he likes closer to 80F, but he'll have to deal as I like my house cold.

Spent three hours yesterday on the computer uploading pictures to Pinterest.  I had been seriously slacking in that department since the App pissed me off and wouldn't upload in a timely fashion. Seems not ONE person even gives a crap as there is no activity on there at this point in time.

Ah what I do for the nonexistent.

Have you see the Louboutin nail polish? You bet I bought the red one.  I've yet to wear it, but the fancy bottle sits proudly on my dresser in my bedroom for decoration. There are now 30 other colors released.  The bottles are similar, but not quite as fancy.  The different collections have different colored handles.  From silver to steel grey to rosy.  I want them all!!!!

Here's my thought.  I want to sell off ALL my non holo polish, buy up all the Louboutin polish and just use those gorgeous pretties from here on out.

Anyone want to buy my stash?  Let me know.  I am semi not kidding here.

I am planning on selling off some more of my polish, but I still have SO much on my blog sale, that it worries me that things aren't going to sell.  I need to open a Store Envy and go from there.  But damn that's a lot of work.  All those pictures, all that cropping and uploading and info.  Meh.

Not happening any time soon.

Let's talk a brand new to me called The Devil Wears Polish.  She just put out a set of EIGHT brown holos.  EIGHT people!  You know how I love my browns.  Yes I bought the set.  I have yet to show them as I just got them in the mail!

Today though, I will be showing you three of her Fall colors not in this set.

Here is the silly bottle shot.


As the title states, this is Hayride, Pumpkin Carving and Equinox.

Before we go on, I will warn you the super nubs are back.  I spent a lot of time yesterday filing them all the way down then gluing the peeled areas. I subsequently glued my nails to my skin and had to remedy that before polishing.  By this time I was in no mood for anything fancy.

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Normally I don't point stuff out as you wouldn't notice if I didn't, but at the point of picture time, I got this weird rash on my middle finger.  It's gone now of course.

These holos are gorgeous. My kind of colors.  I wish the sun had been out to see what would happen there.  Next time for sure.  I simply did some dots.

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I need to wear this green alone.  I'm betting it's a stunner for sure!

Have you tried this brand before?

Another random thought-did Blogger change the HTML font?  Seems totally different to me.

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Essie Nude Beach and a rainbow

Today we are having a flashback.  Back to the days before I really discovered nail polish.  Back when all I was sporting was a classic French mani.

So haven't updated you on the online dating stories lately.  I just haven't been into it and have stopped believing anything other than blog fodder will come of it.

Just got a message that simply said, "I like your face."  OK thanks I think.  Then there's the guy who seemed way too into me before we even met.  Plus I was on vacation and he claimed I wasn't giving him enough attention.  Really?  Then after I got home, I made the mistake of not telling him I made it home-what are you my mother? And I woke up the next morning to a tirade of about 16 texts.  These would have been funny had they not been so crazy.  When someone throws their income at you and how many other woman they could have besides you, there's an issue. A big one at that.

I decided to leave that one alone.

My other recent enlightenment is regarding the Facebook groups I'm in.  Why is there so much negativity and put downs out there?  You know I love my Enchanted Polish, it's my favorite holo brand.  Well it seems each and every time a new color comes out, there is such a mass of hate and eww that color is ugly etc.  Why can't she make this color or that color?  Well perhaps because it's HER company and she can make any damn color she wants and if you don't like it, don't buy it, or better yet, go out and make your own. It makes me so upset every time.

Someone said to me that this is bound to happen any time any product is made and that bad publicity is still publicity and I get that, but why can't you simply say, that color's not for me and leave it at that?  Why is it people have to go the extra mile and put it down?  I admit, maybe I'm too invested as I love it so much, maybe if I saw it about another brand, it wouldn't affect me.  I don't know.

What I do know is I left a bunch of the groups I was following.  Lately, I just haven't the wish to read each and every post and reply and all that work.  I was in like 10 or 12 groups.  Now I'm in 7, one being the group I started to stop the negative at least in my small part of the internet.  I want to leave more of them, but I'm still thinking about the others.

OK. Let's get to it.  I have nubbing to do!  Here is your silly bottle shot.


This is Essie Nude Beach and Bettina Lingerie.

Oh also one last thing. You may have noticed instead of posting every other day, I've been doing Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.  I've noticed my reader numbers are way down plus I've just been feeling blah about the whole thing again.  This is officially my 602th post.  Holy Crap that's a lot of stories!

Remind me next post to talk about the new iPhone 6 Plus! MUST HAVE!

Anywho, this Essie is NOT 3 free and is from years ago.  When I was using it, I got that old time chemical smell.  Know what I mean?  I've no idea if they even still make it. This was my pink for my classic French.

EDIT** They do still make it and I just ordered a new bottle!

For this mani, I did two layers of Lingerie and a layer of Nude.

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Pretty right?  The crazy thing though?  I'm used to darker colors and when I'd glance at my hands, it was like something was missing.  HEHE!

Next for something very cool, I did a different type of French mani using acrylic paint. For those of you missing my funky french-here you go!  Here are the VERY cool results.

Flash

Indoor Sun

Indoor Sun
Do you see the rainbow?  The last color IS purple, but my camera freaked. Originally, I wanted to have a rainbow per nail with 5 flowers per nail.  But my poor tiny nails couldn't hold that many so instead I made a rainbow out of all my nails together. Oh how I love that Nude Beach shimmer to this day!

What do you think?  I love this!!!!!

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?