A SUPER Fun Time with Blue Tips...

So today was an altogether sad day...it was a Wednesday, I failed a math test, and it was cold after swim practice. But it's alright! I came home and realized that I had a couple pictures from my last mani sitting on my computer just WAITING to be blogged about, so here they are!

Blue tips in China Glaze Dorothy Who? and some extra sparkle from nails inc. Electric Lane holographic topcoat! Now, if you can't tell from the picture above, the day I did these nails was QUITE sunny. I'd just gotten over the flu (yuck...) and was a little too excited to be able to go outside...well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Holding a pine tree!

Holding another tree!

Holding my neighbor's flower!

Holding my other neighbor's flower!

Holding some berries that may or may not be poisonous!

Holding my dog! (He wouldn't stay still!)

So...yeah. That was my sugar rush for the day...

Stay happy!!

If Nails Make You Happy ORIGINAL Nail Polish Swatches!

It's finally here! The very first collection of If Nails Make You Happy nail polish, created and hand-mixed by yours truly!

The "A Plus!" collection is, as you in all your brilliant cleverness may be able to deduce, high school-themed! It includes three jelly-based polishes (Midnight Cram Session, "Study Date", The Pride) and one glitter topcoat (Multiple-Choice Question).  Check out my swatches of each below!

First up is Midnight Cram Session, a black jelly polish with large coppery-gold hexes and holographic silver micro-glitter (check out the third picture for the best holo effect). Midnight Cram Session is opaque in three coats (as shown on the index, middle, and pinky fingers) and also looks great layered as one coat over black (ring finger)!

This is "Study Date", a shimmery pink jelly with two sizes of white hex glitter, small red squares, and large pink hearts. "Study Date" is almost opaque at two coats, but if you're OCD and absolutely hate having a visible nail line, three coats will do the trick. Because the hearts are so big, they might need a little fishing out if you want to get more than one or two on each nail.

Here's The Pride, a blue jelly with two sizes of white hex glitter, navy bar glitter, and holographic silver micro-glitter. The color scheme actually comes from my high school, but don't worry - it looks great even if you're not a Wildcat! Shown here are three thick coats on the index and middle fingers, and three thinner coats on the ring and pinky fingers.

Lastly, I have Multiple-Choice Question, a black and white glitter topper. Here I have one coat of Multiple-Choice Question layered over a light blue creme. Personally, I like Multiple-Choice Question best over bolder colors, but it looks great on lighter or more whited-out colors, too!

The nail polish base I use is 3-free, meaning it has NO toluene, formaldehyde, or DBP. Use all If Nails Make You Happy polishes without fear of toxins!

All four polishes will be available in full-sized bottles (0.5 fl oz, $7.50) and mini bottles (0.125 fl oz, $4.00) on my Etsy shop starting on February 18th.

Stay happy!

Happy Valentine's Day - Big News!!

I'M GETTING MARRIED!

...just kidding. I saw myself type "Valentine's Day" and "big news" and I instantly associated those with huge massive adorable romantic gestures and proposals, 'cause I'm a hopeless romantic like that. Don't judge.

Anyways! My actual big news! I'm starting the If Nails Make You Happy NAIL POLISH LINE! Everything is still in development right now, but keep your eyes open for some preview swatches and updates about when the online shop will be live!

Here's a swatch of one of my first polishes, "Study Date", which comes from a collection including three other school-themed polishes. Yeah...school-themed. You wish you were this cool.

"Study Date" is a shimmery pink jelly with red square glitter, two sizes of white hex glitter, and translucent pink hearts! Felt pretty Valentine's Day-ish to me, yeah? Let me know what you think, and stay tuned for more!

Stay happy :)

My First Award - Versatile Blog!

WOW WOW WOW! I came home today to probably the most exciting email I've gotten in a long time (not that I ever get really exciting emails...) - I had a comment on my blog saying I'd been nominated for an award! YAYYYY!

Thanks SO MUCH to Gwen at intergalacquer nails for the Versatile Blogger Award! The rules for winning are as follows (they're also available here at the VBA website)...

• Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
• Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.
• Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
• Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.
• Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

Right now I can't say I've won the award yet, because I still need to find 15 other new blogs that I think deserve the same recognition. But for now...I'm probably just going to dance around happily because someone out there is reading my blog. THANK YOU!

Stay happy - I know I will!! 

Cow Nails!

MOOOOOOOOOO!

I internally debated doing this entire post in cow,  but in the end I came to the conclusion that nobody really wanted to read a  bunch of "moo, moo moooo, mooooo, moo" (so, as you can probably tell, I stuck with English).

Anyways, that's what my nails are today! Cows!

Stuck with plain cow pattern on the right hand 'cause I didn't trust myself to put faces on without making them look really, really sad...and a bunch of people actually liked the patterned [easier] side better! Which do you like?

Stay happy!

Julep Rebel (in a Ravens-esque Mani!)

Helloooo!

Hope you're having a rockin' day...if you're in Baltimore, you probably are; if you're like me and live in the Bay Area, you're getting ready to face a whole bunch of bandwagon Niner fans tomorrow...

But Super Bowl aside, I do hope you're having a fantastic weekend. To finish it up, I've got a special mani for you - my first holographic polish! Here's Julep Rebel (named after Rebel Wilson of Pitch Perfect fame...)

Before you judge me for taking about a million pictures, let me tell you how IMPOSSIBLE it is to photograph a holographic polish. Long story short, I did my nails yesterday and spent at least half an hour playing with different lighting trying to get the holo effect to show up. Every single picture, my nails came out plain silver. Then this morning, I woke up and there was a TEENSY bit of sunlight that made it onto my pillow that made the holo effect show up...so I grabbed the camera and spent at least another half hour bending over backwards trying to use that one spot of sun to make the holo effect appear on my nails. And it still didn't come up very strongly...oh well.

Anyway, Rebel had a perfect formula for application; I did two coats. If you plan on trying her out, though, do NOT use topcoat - as with other holo polishes, topcoats will dull the holographic effect!

After all that struggle to photograph my nails, I REALLY didn't want to do a completely new mani, so I added some black and purple clouds (...clouds? sure...) with China Glaze Smoke and Ashes and Zoya Aurora:

Well would you look at that...now the holo in Rebel decides to show up.

And then I was like, I feel like I've been looking at black and purple all day... Oh, right. The game! Sure, silver and holographic purple aren't exactly the Ravens' colors...but it's close enough to pretend I did my nails out of team spirit, yeah? Even if I'm not a Ravens' fan?

How do you like the look? ...and how did you like the game?

Stay happy, even you San Fran people!

Zoya Sparkle Gradient

Hey there! Hope your weekend is off to a marvelous start - mine was! Slept in until eleven, did my nails, then went on a family day trip...but you don't wanna hear about that.

The mani I've got for you today is one of my favorites that I've done - even if it's not the best looking. It's the first gradient I've ever done with a sponge (usually I use plastic wrap)!

I used Zoya Mimi (purple), Charla (blue), and Ivanka (green) from their Sparkle collection. Because all three were glitters that weren't particularly opaque, I sponged the gradient over a coat of Zoya Yummy.

How do you like the look? Personally, I thought that the colors together looked like a "rainbow mermaid peacock"...which I did actually say out loud. To several people. Multiple times.

And in other news, I finally decided to join the rest of the nail world and try out Seche Vite!

It is, as bajillions of others will proclaim, very shiny and fast-drying. I didn't have too many problems using Seche over my Zoyas other than the fact that it took a little longer to dry them than I anticipated; I did notice some shrinkage from the tips of my nails, though. I'd say Seche is a nice topcoat, but it's not a million and four times better than, say, Out the Door or Poshe.

What do you think of the rainbow mermaid peacock gradient? Have you tried out Seche Vite - and how do you think it compares to the other fast-drying topcoats? Let me know!

Stay happy :)