Nails for Boston!

Hey guys! Long time no nails, right? To be perfectly honest, my nails have barely been polished the past few weeks *holds back tears* but I finally have a mani to share! I ran my first 5k this weekend, so I thought it would be appropriate to do blue and yellow nails in honor of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.

I used Zoya Solange and Liberty (two of the new summer PixieDusts) for this mani. I layered one very thin coat of each over Zoya Darcy and Orly Sweet Peacock and then topped it all off with two coats of top coat for a smooth, glossy finish. I love the PixieDusts with top coat; they are so glittery and pretty! I'll be reviewing them all for you guys eventually (hopefully soon!).

The Zoya products in this post were provided for review.

P.S.
I started a blog as a way to keep track of my running and write about the races that I do, so if you're into that kind of thing, check out it here: www.runlikea-princess.com ;-*

Autumn Leaves French Manicure

I guess that I should have named this week Festive Fall Nail Art Week! :P Today I have a festive french mani for you to enjoy. I always forget how much I love fun french mani designs like this; I did one around the holidays last year and swore to myself that I would wear them more often, but alas, I never did.

I started with two coats of Confetti Pink Paradise and used Milani Chocolate Sprinkles to create my french tip by painting it right on the tips of my nails. I didn't use any kind of tape or anything since I knew the edge would be covered by the leaves anyway. After that was totally dry, I stamped some leaves randomly with a bunch of different colors: Essie Very Structured, Milani Rapid Cherry, Orly Luxe and Rescue Beauty Lounge Santa Fe. I think I'm going to do this again as my Thanksgiving mani! :)

Pretty and Polished Sand Art

So you want to see another awesome indie polish? Here is Sand Art from Pretty and Polished. Sand Art is made up of blue, pink, green, and purple glitter in a clear polish base. I wore two coats of it here over two coats of Orly Kiss the Bride, a very light pink. I had no formula issues with this one and it evened out nicely with one coat of top coat. This is one seriously unique and awesome polish! Pretty and Polished opens shop on Etsy pretty often and you can like P&P on Facebook to keep updated on exactly when the shop will open!

Girly Bits Hippity Hop

For those of you who aren't familiar Girly Bits, they are the brainchild of a brilliant woman named Pam with a knack for creating unique and exciting handmade polishes! Pam recently came out with her newest collection, Calendar Girls, and Hippity Hop is the color for April. I decided that the best way to showcase Hippity Hop would be to apply it over a skittle mani of pastel, spring shades. Details of which shades I used are below! If you are interested in ordering Girly Bits polishes, you can do so on her blog or on Llarowe! 

Below is two coats of Hippity Hop over three coats of Milani Mint Candy on my ring finger and Orly Kiss the Bride on my pinky nail. What's really neat about Hippity Hop is that some of the little hexagon glitter pieces are 3D! It's like having little tiny rhinestones in the mix!

Here I layered Hippity Hop over three coats Essie Nice is Nice and Finger Paints Lemon Sour. I don't really ever wear skittle manis, but I loved this one so much and I cannot wait to recreate it for Easter!

Konad Plate M85 Review

Hey everyone! Today I have a review of a new Konad plate for your viewing pleasure. There are two new plates from Konad (M84 and M85) and M85 was provided to me to review by Nail Polish Canada. You can find both of them on the NPC website. I loved the bubbly design on this plate, so that's the one I chose to use for the review! 

While I think the designs on this plate are adorable, what I really love is that they are big! I can fit a design in it's entirety on my nail and not have to worry about awkward cutoffs from too-small designs. I have plates from other companies that I cannot use at all because the full nail designs are so damn small, so I really appreciate that these are made larger. The designs are also etched nice and deep so there are no problems getting them to transfer to the stamper. 

Since the design that I wanted to use reminded me of bubbles, I decided to use some shades of blue to reinforce the watery look. The lighter blue is two coats of Milani Beach Front, an amazing light blue with silver shimmer, and the darker blue is two coats of Orly Sweet Peacock, an awesome medium blue foil. I reversed those colors for the stamping and am thrilled with the result! Overall, I had zero issues with the plate and would definitely recommend it; I can't wait to try the little star design next! 

*The product(s) in this post were sent to me for a completely honest review.*

Pink Dry Brush Mani

The inspiration for this mani came from Lindsey at Neverland Nail Blog who created this gorgeous design. While mine is no where near as beautiful as hers, I am very pleased with how it turned out and how easy it was to create. If you would like to read about how it's done, Lindsey has created a helpful tutorial.

I used three coats of Julep Penelope as a base (Orly Kiss the Bride would probably be a close replacement) and when that was dry, I took a dry brush and painted swipes of Color Club Foil Me Once and Orly Dazzle. I added a pink rhinestone to my ring finger nails, but I'm not sure if it was really necessary or not. I love how this turned out!

NOTE: Some of you may be aware that I provide my referral link at the bottom of all posts that mention Julep, but I no longer feel comfortable referring people to their program due to recent events. My referral link has therefore been removed from my sidebar and all posts regarding Julep in hopes that I will no longer generate traffic (and therefore profit) to their page.

Day 2: Golden Snowflakes

I have for you today a pretty mani I did with Orly Luxe. This was two coats of Luxe, snowflakes stamped with Konad special white polish, and a coat of China Glaze Frosty over top. I felt like it still needed more sparkle after all of that, so I placed some rhinestones on the accent nail snowflakes. 

I love this next picture... you can really see the shimmer from Frosty on my blurry middle finger nail. I love this design because it's festive but not over-the-top and in-your-face festive. This could also be done with a lot of different color schemes, too! :)

Orly Here Comes Trouble

I shared this with you once as an accent nail, but I decided that it was cool enough to be a whole mani. :) This is Orly Here Comes Trouble and it is absolutely packed with hexagonal shaped glitter and super tiny micro-glitter. I used about three coats for what you see below; it's hard to tell exactly how many I did because some coats were thicker than others and some nails needed an extra coat where others didn't.  The only thing I wish I could change about Here Comes Trouble is the yellow-ish base; it looks gross around the edges of my nails. However, I found this on clearance at Sally's for $1.99. Can't pass that up!

Julep Gayle

Again, Julep! You did it again! Gayle is incredible! Absolutely perfect formula (two coats) and a beautiful color as well. I'm really impressed with the polishes I've ordered lately from Julep; I don't know if I got some duds in the beginning or what, but the formula has been exponentially better in the polishes I've ordered recently.

Julep describes Gayle as a "regal, deep aubergine." I'm not sure I'd go with deep aubergine, maybe deep berry? It's definitely vibrant. I topped it with a coat of Orly Fowl Play on my accent nails and wore this for a whopping three days (an eternity for manis in my life)! I had minor chipping on the corners of a few of my nails, but I'm sure that would be solved with a better base coat. Maybe if my order from Bloom would ever show up... anywayyyyy...

Zoya Neeka

I got Neeka in a swap with the lovely Pennie of Conceptionail and it is everything that I had hoped it would be. A dusty, medium purple base with shimmery golden flecks, Neeka is part of Zoya's Fall 2011 Mirrors Collection. Two flawless coats were all I needed for what you see below.

I wanted to spice Neeka up a little bit without covering it up too much, so I stamped some flowers with Orly Luxe and added a rhinestone. This is my third Zoya polish and so far they are totally winning me over. Now I just need to get my hands on Yara...

Orly Rococo A-Go-Go

First of all, dumbest name ever. Seriously. It's a good thing that I don't judge a polish by its name! Rococo A-Go-Go has gorgeeeeeeeous deep purple glitter in a blackened base and is, apparently, a dupe for Zoya Jem. Regardless, it's super pretty and applied like a dream. Two easy coats were all I needed for the photos below.

This last photo shows a little bit of the different colored flashes that happen within Rococo A-Go-Go. When I was outside, I found that it looked mostly like the first photo, but indoors, the glitter seems to take on a more red-ish pink tone. Do you see all that multichrome goodness in the very, very bottom right corner? It would have been so awesome if that translated from the bottle to the nail...

Hello Autumn! (OPI Romeo & Joliet)

Let me just get this out in the open: I LOVE autumn. I love how it gets colder out and I get to break out my jeans and sweatshirts, I love apple cider, pumpkin pie, Bath & Body Works Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin candles, and of course, the gorgeous foliage. And what better way to celebrate the beginning of my favorite season than with fall-themed nail art? This is OPI Romeo & Joliet stamped with OPI Chop-Sticking to My Story and Orly Luxe leaves. 

Here is a swatch of Romeo & Joliet pre-stamping. It's a really gorgeous deep red shimmer from OPI's Route 66 collection. I used two effortless coats for what you see here; the brush in this bottle was so perfect.

Orly Fowl Play

Hey everyone! Before I give you the post for today, I just wanted to let everyone know that I've heard back from ProudMary and I will be sending her giveaway prizes out today! I just wanted to thank everyone again for participating!

The polish I have for you today is Orly Fowl Play. Fowl Play is made up of tons of red/orange flakes and blue-ish silver glitter suspended in an eggplant colored base. I used three coats for what you see in the photos. I know this is basically a copy of an old OPI shade, but it's still so awesome and worth owning!

The photo above is with flash in the shade and the photo below is in direct sunlight (I think the sunlight photo is better/more accurate, but the glitter shows up more in the flash photo). Also, I had a hard time photographing this, but the flakes in Fowl Play actually shift to different colors depending on the angle you hold your hand.

 

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!

China Glaze Tree Hugger

I just wanted to take a minute to thank you all for following and supporting my blog; I just hit 30 followers! It really means a lot that someone other than myself appreciates all this time I spend doing my nails ;) Now on to the post for today...

This was a (super!) quick mani I did before work one morning. It's China Glaze Tree Hugger on all my nails with Orly Here Comes Trouble on my index nail. Tree Hugger is a bright green with a hint of shimmer to it. It applied pretty well and dried quickly, but since I was in a rush, I only did two coats when three probably would have been best.

The real star of the show here is Here Comes Trouble. I picked this one up for $1.99 on the clearance table at Sally's. It's an awesome St. Patty's Day green packed with loads of different sized glitter. Check out the close-up:

I've never really been into celebrating St. Patrick's Day (mostly because I'm not even the slightest bit Irish), but this polish is giving me all sorts of inspiration for an Irish-themed mani.

Orly Kiss the Bride

This was kind of a disappointment. I know pastels are generally streaky and need three or more coats to be opaque and streak-free, but I was expecting more from Orly. The color is beautiful, but I did three coats here and I still think I could have used another on some nails.

Kiss the Bride is a very, very light pink creme. The formula was okay, although a little on the thick side. I really do think this color is gorgeous and as the name suggests, it would be perfect for a wedding, but I just wish it wasn't such a hassle to apply. Anyway, I stamped an antique-looking image from the new Bundle Monster plates and added black rhinestones to make some accent nails. I'm liking this a lot :)

Gryffindor Inspired mani :)

If you haven't been living under a rock for the past month, you know that the last installment of the Harry Potter movies is out in theaters today. Being a gigantic nerd, I am naturally super excited to see it tonight! And obviously I had to do some kind of Harry Potter nails. ;) Unfortunately, this week has been super busy and I didn't have much time to plan this, let alone execute it, so it's not as clean and nice as I wanted. However, it's still pretty and I'm happy enough with it to post it for you all.

I used two coats of OPI Chick Flick Cherry with one coat of Orly Star Spangled over it for the red nails. Both are awesome reds and I love them, however, Chick Flick Cherry was a huge pain to clean up. The OPI pro-wide brush is just a tad too wide for my narrow nail beds and I end up getting polish all over the skin on the sides of my nails. And since it was like 11PM when I was trying to finish these, I stopped caring about making them meticulously clean. I am slightly embarrassed of how messy the polish is near my cuticles though :(

I used Milani One Coat Glitter in Gold Glitz for my index nail, the snitch on my ring finger, and the sad excuse for a lightning bolt on my thumb. I also used a silver nail art pen to draw the wings of the snitch. I wish that I had more time last night to make this nicer, but what can you do?

Crazy purple mani!

Hello everyone! I did this mani to support my bro's All-Star baseball team last night. Our school district's colors are purple and white, so that's where my color choices come from. The boys' uniforms also have black and gray on them, so I used those colors too. I've never done my nails like this before and it was really fun to do!

Here are all the colors I used for each nail (left hand):
Thumb: China Glaze Sci Fi, Milani Purple Gleam, Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme (stamp)
Index: Sephora by OPI Just a Little Dangerous, OPI Black Shatter
Middle: China Glaze White on White, SOPI Just a Little Dangerous (stamp)
Ring: Milani Purple Gleam
Pinky: Orly Charged Up, China Glaze Sci Fi (stamp)

I should also mention that Charged Up is not as blue in real life as it looks in my photos. It is a blue-leaning purple, but it definitely is much more purple in real life than it shows here.

I'll be back Sunday with whatever I decide to do with my nails for my aunt's wedding tomorrow! :)

Orly It's Up to Blue

I've been super busy this week with work, my brother's baseball games, and my aunt's wedding coming up on Saturday, so I haven't had time to do anything really interesting with my nails. Sooooo that means you guys get an old one! This mani was influenced by Let Them Have Polish's mermaid mani, but I lacked a lot of the resources that I have now so it is a very loose interpretation of her beautiful design. ;)

I used Orly It's Up to Blue, which is a turquoise polish with a metallic finish and was honestly rather irritating to apply, although the end result justifies the trouble. I stamped sea weed/fern-ish plants with Wet 'n' Wild Caribbean Frost onto my ring finger and thumb nails and then I added little clusters of rhinestones to finish it off. I didn't like it as much as I liked Cristina's from LTHP, but I think it was still a success. What do you think?

Fourth of July nails!

Happy (almost) Fourth of July to all my fellow Americans! I am sooooo in love with this mani! It's so sparkly and festive and I can't wait to show it off all weekend. Please do yourself a favor and click on all these photos to see the incredible glitter in all of them.

On my fingers I used two coats of Orly Star Spangled, which is incredible; it's a jelly-ish bright red packed with red glitter that looks like it's just floating in the polish. I stamped an image that reminded me of fireworks from my new Bundle Monster plates onto my ring fingers with China Glaze Sci Fi and dabbed some glitter from Wet 'n' Wild Kaleidoscope onto the "fireworks." Also, that's not a smudge on my index finger, it's just the lighting from out on my deck that is making it look funny. :(

For my thumbs, I started out with one coat of Wet 'n' Wild Blue Moon, which happens to be one of my favorite polishes ever. It's absolute perfection, a dark blue that stays dark blue and doesn't look black. I put one coat of China Glaze Dorothy Who? over Blue Moon and then a coat of Kaleidoscope. And there you have it, my awesome glitter packed July 4th mani! I hope everyone out there has a safe and exciting holiday weekend and I leave you with a group shot of all the polishes I used for this mani: