Fall-ing Leaves And Cozy Times

Hi all! I'm back with my last 2 Fall manicures. I'm busting out the Christmas stuff this weekend so this is the last of it for me. I hadn't done any stamping for awhile and had an idea for a manicure so decided to see if I could bring it to life. It ALMOST turned out the way I had imagined. The main problem was that I thought I had a different shaped leaf on my plates so it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. These are the polishes I used:

 L-R: OPI A Roll In The Hague (Holland Collection), Rescue Beauty Lounge Jane (Housewives Of Tudor England Collection), BB Couture Uranus (A Touch Of Greece Collection), Zoya Shawn

L-R: China Glaze Mahogany Magic (Hunger Games Collection), China Glaze Brownstone (Metro Uptown Collection), China Glaze Trendsetter (Metro Downtown Collection)

I started with a base of Jane so all of the other colors would really pop against it. For the most part they did with the exception of the two lightest colors; but they helped add some depth to it. I used Bundle Monster plates BM05 and BM221 for the leaves. I realized after I did it that I had stamped them so my pics would be upside-down...oh well. Here is the finished product: 

 After that manicure I realized I still had another Fall glitter from Lush Lacquer that I hadn't used yet.

I alternated some of the same colors I used for my leaf mani and did 2 accent nails with the glitter.

My pinky and middle fingers kinda look like poop (literally) but I really love how this turned out! Lush Lacquer makes the most amazing polishes; I used 2 coats here and it was pretty much full coverage. It applies like butter and there is definitely no fishing to get an amazing array of glitter. It dries pretty gritty and per usual with glitter on my nails, I could not get it to smooth out. My body chemistry must just react to glitters in such a way that it just makes them soak up the topcoat like nobody's business. And last but not least, I of course made a pair of earrings...

Sorry about the length of this post. To be honest I was just too lazy to break it up into 2 posts. If you are interested in checking out any of Lush Lacquer's glitters you can find their Etsy shop here. Have a great weekend!

'Til We Meet Again...
Rebecca  :)

*I purchased all of these products myself* 

 

Fall Nails With Not Too Polished

Hey there! A month or so ago I was on a roll for some reason and won a few blog giveaways back to back. It was pretty surprising...I don't have the best of luck a lot of the time. But then again, I was entering giveaways left and right like a mad-woman: I guess it had to pay off sometime right?

One of the giveaways was from Liz at the Not Too Polished blog. She has her own line of polishes that she sells on Etsy and part of my prize was the polish of my choice from her shop. I chose a polish called Headless Horseman. I've been on a bit of an indie glitter polish kick lately and this one caught my eye right off the bat. It is a gorgeous mix of black, yellow-gold and burnt orange micro-glitter; small yellow-gold and burnt orange shiny hex glitter and random large black hex glitters thrown in here and there. I chose to do it over a semi-light base color so the micro-glitter would really stand out. For that I chose OPI Wooden Shoe Like To Know; one of the few polishes I was able to get from the Spring 2012 Holland Collection. I only got 4 from that collection but there are still a few more that are on my wishlist. Anyway, on to the nails! First the polishes...

 I love the pink shimmer in this polish! It's such an unexpected color with the brown but looks so amazing with it. And now the finished product.

I absolutely loved this manicure! It looks so Fall-ish. This is only one coat of Headless Horseman; it applied effortlessly with no dragging or fishing for glitters. I didn't even have to fish for the big black glitter pieces which was really great. I followed it up with 2 coats of Gelous and it was still a bit gritty; for some reason I can never get glitter polishes smooth now matter how many coats of Gelous or Posh I put on it. It must be something with my body chemistry or something. And this manicure wore like iron! I applied it on Sunday and by Thursday I had a miniscule amount of chipping and a bit of tipwear. I only took it off because I wanted a change. And of course I had to make a pair of earrings to match. I wore these puppies all week I love them so much.

So there you have my first Fall manicure of the year. This is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love everything about it...the smells, the light, the decorations, pumpkin everything! If you want to follow Liz on her awesome blog you can find it here. You can find her amazing polishes in her Etsy shop here. I'm in the process of opening up my own little Etsy shop for my jewelry creations; I'll keep you posted. But in the meantime if you are interested in seeing some of my stuff I have a Facebook page here.

Hope you all are having a fantastic weekend. I'm working on another Fall manicure today so I'll post that sometime this week.

'Til We Meet Again...

Rebecca  :)

*I purchased some of these products and won others in a giveaway*

Election Day Nails

Hi! This is going to be a super quick little post; hubby and I are glued to MSNBC watching all of the election coverage. But I did want to show you my election day nails since I thought they were super cute. I even got a compliment on them from one of the ladies running the polling place!

I used Orly Blue Suede topped by Vivid Lacquer Paint Me Patriotic.

I LOVE this glitter! It is so chock-full of so many sizes and colors. It definitely needs to be used as a topcoat; I don't think it could be used by itself but it really pops over this blue color. I was able to get a star glitter on almost every nail without fishing too much for it. And you can't really see it in these pictures but there is a fine, teeny-tiny red glitter that is dispersed throughout that makes it even more amazing. I also made a pair of earrings (duh!) that I did over a silver base rather than the blue.

So, that's it for today. If you are in the States I hope you got out and voted. This is a terribly important election for so many reasons.

"Til We Meet Again...
Rebecca  :)

* I bought some of these products and received some of them for my honest opinion*

 

My Halloween Look

So, I said I was going to post about my Halloween look and here it is! Shocker I know... 2 posts within a few days. But anyway, I don't know how or when purple started being one of the main Halloween colors but I can't say I'm sad about it. Purple is and always has been one of my favorite colors. It doesn't seem like it would look good when paired with orange but somehow it just works.

Once again I used my Sleek Acid eyeshadow palette for the orange. For the purple I busted out a Sephora palette that I got for Christmas a few years ago. Then I got out the liquid eyeliner and went to town. Here are the results:

Now, I am by no means an artist; which is pretty obvious. But this is the good version! For the first attempt I tried stretching the skin out a bit to have a smoother surface (because I AM almost 40 years old and getting some of that wrinkly, crepe-y skin on my eyelids). It was NOT pretty! It was all distorted and wonky and looked really bad. I should have gotten a picture actually; would have been kinda funny. Oh well.

So then I slapped on some black lipgloss (which is way out of my usual comfort zone...but it was Halloween so why not?).

The earrings I have on were my creations also. I did a black background with orange glitter from one of those no-name brands in the cute jack-o-lantern shaped bottles that come out every year. I wore these almost every day during the month of October; I love how they turned out!

 Here's what I used for the look:

     Eyes: Tick:Tock Cosmetics Infinity eyeshadow base in Milky Way

               Sephora Color Play Palette II - 2 of the purple shades

               Milani Eye Tech Extreme liquid eye liner in Blackest Black for the liner and the spider

               Stila Major Lash mascara in black

     Face: Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Your Skin Makeup in Porcelain

               Milani Even-Touch Powder Foundation in Shell

     Lips: Wet 'n Wild Fantasy Makers lipgloss in Wicked Witch

I had fun creating and wearing this look. I'm really enjoying playing around with color and things that I normally wouldn't wear. After all, it's only makeup and if I don't like it I can wash it off! 

I've got a really cool nail polish to show you on Tuesday. It is a red/white/blue glitter so it's perfect for election day. See you then!

'Til We Meet Again...

Rebecca  :)

*I purchased some of these products myself and received some of them as gifts*

 

Neon Candy Corn Eyes

Hi all! Happy Halloween! Anybody do anything fun? Nothing too exciting here. I have Wednesdays off so I slept in super late, we walked on over to Starbucks for our caffeine fix, got some super nommy burritos for dinner, I baked some pumpkin blondie bars and now hubs and I are going to settle in and watch the finale of Face Off and maybe a horror movie or two. Pretty much the perfect day actually.

So,  I had been toying with the idea of doing a candy corn look with eyeshadow to go along with the candy corn nails I did last week. I was going to do the "normal" yellow and orange but then realized it might look really cool using neons! I had recently gotten the Sleek Acid palette but hadn't gotten around to playing with it yet. I had been eyeing this palette for ages but as neon pigments aren't approved for use on the eyes here in the states it isn't as easy as jumping online and ordering it. Luckily my friend Sarah who lives in Ireland was kind enough to order it for me and send it my way. Here's a pic of it in all of its neon-y goodness. Isn't it amazing?

These colors are definitely out of my comfort zone but I'm really trying to step out of my usual box these days and try new things. Here's the finished product.

      Products used:
          -Sleek divine eyeshadow palette in Acid
          -Wet 'n Wild eye shadow trio in Fly Me To The Moon (the white shade)
          -Tick:Tock Cosmetics infinity eye shadow base in Milky Way
          -Jesse's Girl eye shadow palette in Brown Eyed Girl (an orange shade for my brows)
          -Milani Eye Tech Extreme liquid eye liner in Blackest Black
          -Stila Major Lash mascara 

I used a white eye shadow base by Tick:Tock Cosmetics (infinity eye shadow base in Milky Way) and that stuff is amazing! The white allowed the colors to really pop and the shadows stayed put forever (or at least until I scrubbed them off that night)! I would highly recommend that you try it if you are looking for an amazing eyeshadow base.

I was pretty pleased with how this turned out. I did a cute Halloween look today too that I'll post about soon. Hope everyone had a great day!

'Til We Meet Again...
Rebecca  :)

*I purchased some of these products myself and received some as gifts*

Lush Lacquer Halloween Nails

I'm back with two more Halloween manicures featuring Lush Lacquer. I'm a bit obsessed with their glitter polishes lately; they are chock-full of glitter and you don't have to fish around to get a great variety of it on your nails.

First up is Korny Candy over China Glaze Concrete Catwalk...

I did this glitter over grey so none of colors would get lost. It would look great over yellow, orange or white but then some of the glitters wouldn't stand out as much. I just wanted to eat my nails the whole time I had this on. I love candy corn! Hubby always makes fun of me because he hates it (and so does everyone else I know) but that just leaves more for me right?

For the second manicure I used Hey Jack! over Sally Hansen Silver Sweep...

I really love how these colors look over the silver; they really pop! This polish was also a huge glitter explosion all over my nails. The only thing I'm not sure about is the bar glitter. I love the way it looks but I always end up getting it on the edges of my nails and it pokes over and then I end up scratching myself with it. Then when I rip it off I get a huge hole in my manicure. First world problems I know.

So I'm probably gonna do one more Halloween manicure tonight but I'm feeling kinda lazy. Depending on how it turns out there may or may not be a post about it. We'll see...but I did do some fun eye makeup today that should find its way onto here in a day or so. Keep an eye out!

'Til We Meet Again...

Rebecca  :)

*I purchased all of these products myself*

 

Wet 'n Wild Fantasy Makers Mini-Haul

Hello again! I'm back with a post of something I actually haven't written about before...makeup! Or, to be more precise, lipgloss.

I was at CVS a while back to pick up a prescription. But of course, being me, I can't just walk to the pharmacy and back out again...I have to make a little side trip through the cosmetics section. As usual I didn't have a lot of extra money to spend but I had $5.50 worth of extra care bucks (or whatever the heck they are called) burning a hole in my wallet. After a disappointing walk-through I walked by an endcap that make my jaw drop. They actually had a whole endcap completely devoted to the Wet 'n Wild Fantasy Makers collection! And it was completely stocked! And it had a big yellow sign that said it was BOGO! How did I get so lucky? I don't know but I quickly took advantage of the situation. This is what I ended up grabbing:

Between my extra care bucks and the BOGO deal I got all of these lovelies for $1.50! I know right? I was pretty damn excited I tell ya. And here are the 3 glosses swatched in sunlight. I tried to capture the holo goodness in these babies because it is super pretty.

L-R: Snow White, Queen Of Hearts, Wicked Witch

 

And here they are on me. Looking at these pics I'm thinking maybe I should have smiled a bit or something? I'm not used to doing makeup pics yet so bear with me...

 Snow White is something I would definitely wear layered over something else to give it a bit of sparkle.

 I'm still a bit gun shy when it comes to red lippies so Queen of Hearts is a perfect way to ease my way into wearing it. I love the holo sparkle to it! (It kinda looks like I have a smear of it above my lip but I don't remember seeing it at the time...huh...)

Wicked Witch will probably only get love on Halloween. As I work in the medical field, it is definitely not work-appropriate and I am definitely gun shy about wearing black lippies. I really love it though!

These are definitely awesome glosses for the price ($1.99). I don't like glosses that are too slippery or too thick....I like a consistency somewhere in the middle and these fit the bill. I actually think I'll get quite a bit of wear out of Queen of Hearts and I will bust out Wicked Witch on Halloween for sure. I have an idea for a cool eye look to go with it. If it turns out the way I envision it, I'll show you guys some pics.

'Til We Meet Again...

Rebecca  :)

 

Halloween Nails!

Hey all! This is the first of what I hope will be many posts featuring Halloween manicures. Fall is my favorite time of year and Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday; I had my Halloween decorations out before September was even over!

I don't know how lime green, orange and purple came to be Halloween colors, but I really love them together. I've had this manicure for a few days and can't stop looking at my nails. I was going to take outside pics tomorrow (hopefully in the sun) but the polish is pretty thick with layers and is starting to pull up on the sides of some nails. Once that happens it's all over for me; I can't keep myself from sticking a nail under an edge and peeling the polish off in big strips. It's strangely satisfying and cathartic for some reason...kinda like popping zits but that's a whole other post.

 Here are the polishes I used. I'm sort of obsessed with black and white glitter polishes and can't help but try them over everything. And it always looks awesome!

L-R: Wet 'n Wild Sunny Side Up, Orly Charged Up, 

OPI Did It On 'Em, Lush Lacquer Salt 'n Peppa

So, we'll see if this manicure lasts through tomorrow. ..if not, I have plenty of other Halloween ideas. Hope you liked it!

'Til We Meet Again...
Rebecca  :)

*I purchased all of these products myself*

End Of Summer Neons

So I decided to send summer out with a bang (when it came to my nails at least). This will probably be my last super bright mani of the season. I for one am super glad that summer is over; I've never been a huge fan. I suppose it is in large part due to the fact that I'm so pale I'm practically translucent. I can't be out in the sun for more than 5 minutes without turning into a lobster and I only have two shades of skin...super white or super red. And I can't stand being hot (although where we live it's foggy a good portion of the summer which I kinda love). And I don't particularly love the beach although I've lived on the coast of California my whole life. As I said, just not my favorite season. But I do love the bright colors of the season and I'm really glad that neons have made their way back into the spotlight. I really love them as nail polish colors. So for this mani I used China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, China Glaze Sun-Kissed and Pretty & Polished Valentino.

My camera could not quite capture the true colors of these; they are too bright. As with a similar mani I was inspired for the color placement by Carly of the Lacquered Lover blog. She commented on one of my Instagram pics that she thinks of it as the Carly so that is what it shall be named as far as I'm concerned.

I love the way this style of mani looks; and it's a great way to use more than one polish. And I am still completely obsessed with black and white glitters and need to get my hands on as many as I can. They look great over any color. And of course I had to make some earrings out of this combo (although they aren't quite earrings yet, I need to get some more posts). I decided to use most of my neon polishes and I absolutely love how they turned out!

Top row L-R: Sun-Kissed, I'm With The Lifeguard, Flirty Tankini

Bottom row L-R: Rose Among Thorns, Ride The Waves, Japanese Koi

(All China Glaze)

So, there ya' have it...my last super bright mani of the season. Time to bust out the fall colors.

'Til We Meet Again...

Rebecca  :)   

*I purchased all of the products myself*

Vivid Lacquer Cookies And Cream

Hey all! (If there is anyone still around to read this). It's been a while but here I am. So, a month or a few ago, Anni from Vivid Lacquer had a Facebook post stating that she wanted bloggers to review her products. I wrote to her thinking that I would have zero chance of being chosen because, let's face it, I don't have the largest or most consistent blog out there. But she told me that didn't matter and sent me 3 of her polishes to review! I was pretty stoked to tell you the truth. Money has been a bit tight lately so I haven't been able to buy any of the new pretties coming out and it was nice to be able to get some new things. The first of the three I got was Cookies And Cream. Because I am definitely a crazy cat lady, I love the cute little cat in her logo.

Cookies And Cream is a sheer milky white base packed with small black hex glitter, black shards and matte silver shards. I used 3 coats on its own to give it more of a jelly sandwich kind of look but when I wear it again I think I'll put a white base coat beneath it. I used 3 coats with a coat of Barielle quick dry topcoat and a coat of Poshe. I tried the Barielle first because I recently got it for really cheap at Marshall's and wanted to give it a try. Ten minutes after applying it, the polish was still tacky; I don't know if the Barielle just didn't play nice with this polish or if it just doesn't like me. I'll have to try it with another polish to find out. But I put a coat of Poshe over it all and there were no issues. So here it is: 3 coats of Cookies And Cream, a coat of Barielle and a coat of Poshe.

And of course, I had to make a pair of earrings out of it too.

You can find Anni's creations in her Etsy shop here: Vivid Lacquer . She also sells stamping plates; one of which has the butterfly wing that I have been dying to try (and I'm too lacking in artistic skills to freehand it). The other 2 polishes she sent to me will be in upcoming posts. Thanks for sticking around!

'Til We Meet Again...
Rebecca  :)

*Products in this post were provided to me for review.*

 

31 Day (Or Something Like That) Nail Challenge - Day 5

Well, here we are on day 5 of the nail challenge and I'm getting to the end of what I have prepared. I'll probably have some random days here and there when I do my nails but it won't be every day. This day's challenge was blue and I chose China Glaze Frostbite.

It's a really difficult blue to capture in photos because it's so bright and saturated; but I think this pic does the best job of the ones I took. It's a beautiful, deep, bright royal blue with amazing shimmer and shine. Whenever I wear this polish I can't stop staring at my nails; it's kinda captivating. And I was feeling crafty this weekend and made a pair of earrings with it too:

So, there you have it; a polish challenge blue day. I would definitely recommend picking up this polish if you don't already have it. It's one of my faves. And as before, don't forget to check out the other blogs that are participating in the challenge.

'Til We Meet Again...
Rebecca  :)
 

31 Day (Or Something Like That) Nail Challenge - Day 4

Hello again and welcome to day 4 of the 31-day nail challenge. Today's challenge is green and I chose Milani Flamboyant Green.

This is such a pretty green; I would describe it as a dusty grass green if I had to put a label on it. Like most Milani polishes it applied so easily in 2 creamy coats. And with that short and sweet post, day 3 is done. Don't forget to check out the other blogs!

'Til We Meet Again...
Rebecca  :)
 

31-Day (Or Something Like That) Nail Challenge - Day 3

So, here we are on day 3 of the nail challenge. Whew! I haven't blogged this consistently up until now; kinda sad I know. But life tends to get in the way, ya know? Anyhoo, today is yellow. For some reason, and I really couldn't tell you why, yellow has always been my least favorite color. I can't explain it and I always felt sort of bad to have such an unwarranted prejudice against it. But these days it's growing on me. I actually had to start a second nail wheel to swatch yellows on so yellow and I are making progress. For today I chose Revlon Top Speed Electric.

I really, really like this polish; it's not quite a pastel but more of a bright I guess. And my pics don't show it at all, but it has a very pretty, subtle shimmer to it. And for a yellow polish it applied very easily. It was a bit streaky at first which is to be expected with yellow but 3 coats covered really well. It's definitely a spring/summer sort of color and I can see myself wearing it more in the future.

So, that's it for today. Be sure to check out the links for the other participants of the challenge.

'Til We Meet Again...
Rebecca  :)