Fourth of July Mani (& Fireworks!)

Happy Independence Day to my fellow US citizens! I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday! I had the cutest idea in mind for my July 4th mani but it didn't work out the way I wanted (huge bummer!), so this is my back up design. I haven't done a french mani in a long time, so I actually really enjoyed wearing this.

I started out with two coats of Confetti Pink Paradise on all my nails except my ring nail, which got two coats of China Glaze First Mate and one of Polished Perfection Servo. The french tips were done with hole reinforcers and Confetti The Red Carpet and Julep America (I know I said I'd never use Julep on the blog again, but I didn't have any patriotic glitters, so I swapped for this one). The silver is a Jordana striping polish.

And just for fun, I thought I'd post some photos of our family fireworks show from last night. This is a new tradition for us and it's really awesome! Please enjoy :) 

Day 5: Festive French

Like that alliteration? ;) Welcome to Day 5 of my holiday mani celebration! I hope you're all enjoying yourselves so far and not getting too stressed out over the impending holidays!

Today I did a french manicure with some festive holiday colors :) I started out with two coats of my favorite french base, Confetti Pink Paradise. I used hole reinforcers to paint China Glaze Jolly Holly for the tips, but here's where my plan changed: I originally wanted to stamp holly leaves with a light green foil, but it just didn't show up well enough over the light pink base. Instead, I grabbed my silver striper for some tinsel-y accents. I dotted Dr.'s Remedy REVIVE Ruby Red under the silver lines and called it a day. This is one of my favorite manis so far, what do you think?

French w/Julep Gayle

Remember last week how I mentioned I had another colored french for you? Here it is! This time, I used Julep Gayle for the tip color. The base is still Confetti Pink Paradise and the stamp was done with Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme. I added black rhinestones to the flowers as a finishing touch. This looks so awesome and fancy in person. What do you think? Have you tried using hole reinforcers for a french manicure?

French w/Julep Michelle

Hey guys! This is my 100th post! Woot! :D

I've blogged about all of these colors before so I won't say too much here. I used one coat of Confetti Pink Paradise as my base color. I created the french tip using hole reinforcers and Julep Michelle and I dotted OPI Catch Me in Your Net with three different sized dotting tools. This is the first time I've done a french tip in a color other than white and I'm loving it! Stay tuned for another version of this next week! :)

Confetti Red Carpet

This is a very indirect Halloween mani; it really has nothing to do with Halloween, but I wore it to my family's Halloween party last weekend so it counts ;). My boyfriend and I went as Allie and Noah from the movie The Notebook. I'm pretty sure she wore red nails at some point in the movie, so that's why I went with red. Red Carpet is an awesome red creme that covered perfectly in two coats, but beware of the staining! If you remove it carefully, you should be able to avoid it for the most part, but it could easily get messy.

Since one of the most memorable lines in the movie deals with birds (for those who don't know, it's "if you're a bird, I'm a bird"), I stamped some feathers with OPI Romeo & Joliet on all my nails and then added a bird with white Konad Special Polish. I hate that bird, but it was the only bird stamp I could find on all my plates. I would definitely do this mani again with just the feathers, I love how subtle they are.

EDIT: I guess some of you want to see our costumes, huh? There were actually a few people that knew who we were without us having to tell them, but everyone that we had to tell (and who had seen the movie) went "OOOH yeah!" and got it right away. I did a curly up-do like she wore in the boat scene (that's the first photo, I was so proud!) and I found my dress at Plato's Closet for $18! It was originally from Express!

Confetti Moonstruck

EDIT: I just woke up to find that I've reached 300 followers! THANK YOU! Unfortunately, I don't have a giveaway planned for this because I wasn't planning on reaching it so quickly, but I want you all to know how happy I am that so many of you enjoy what I do! And you can still enter the 200 follower giveaway here! Thank you all for your continued interest and support! :)

Confetti is a cheapy drugstore brand that CVS carries for $1.99. They have quite a few colors that look decent, but I was always hesitant to buy them because I wasn't sure how the formula would be. I got a coupon for CVS in my e-mail and naturally needed to use it so, for some strange reason, I grabbed Moonstruck.

Now, time for a little story. The China Glaze Anchors Away collection is responsible for my current obsession with nail polish. If you know me, you know I've been obsessed with anchors and nautical-themed things for years now, so it should be no shock to you that I loved this collection. However, I remember seeing Below Deck and thinking, "Ew, who would wear a color like that?"

Five months later, the answer is "me." Moonstruck reminds me very strongly of the photos I've seen of Below Deck and I love it. It's one of those weird, purple/gray/brown colors and it is the perfect medium-toned neutral. As for Confetti's formula, it's much better than I anticipated. I still had to use three coats for this mani, but they applied very well and dried relatively quick.

I used Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme to stamp the leopard print on my accent nails and dotted China Glaze Pool Party into some of the spots to make it more interesting. I am so happy with this one!

Fancy gold french!

Hey everyone! Firstly, I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately; things have been busy again and are only going to get busier, so I may not be able to post as much as I would like to. Once school starts at the end of August, I'm going to at least try to post twice a week. We'll see how everything goes.

Secondly, I hit 50 followers a few days ago! That's my first milestone, yay!! Thank you all so much for coming back to see what I've been up to and for supporting my craziness. You're the best. :)

Thirdly, here is the nail post for today. I have been letting my nails breath a day or two in between painting them because they've been getting kind of peely and unhealthy, so last night I was sick of seeing them naked and decided it was time to paint them again. I did a french manicure using Confetti Pink Paradise as the base and China Glaze White on White and White Cap for the tip/sponging. I stamped a flower with Orly Luxe and added yellow/gold rhinestones to my ring and thumb nails. I feel so fancy! 8)

Yes, there is a hair on my pointer nail. Ugh. And the only thing I don't really like is that the flower stamp I chose kind of reminds me of a snowflake... not a fan right now.

Also, one of my fans on Facebook requested a cupcake mani and I just wanted to let her know that I haven't forgotten about it! I have an idea in my head, I just need to sit down and do it! Hopefully I will be able to get that done and post it soon. :) Thanks again!