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 :)

Blue Spun Sugar Nails!

Recently, this weird urge to try new things with my nails overtook me. I've seen about a bajillion different spun sugar manicures and watched plenty of tutorial videos, all of which said spun sugar manis are easy and quick....

HEADS UP. THEY'RE LYING.

That aside, I think spun sugar nails are really creative and, if done right, REALLY pretty! Here was my first try:

Not too shabby, eh? My base blue was Essie Aruba Blue and my "spun sugar" was NYC Cashmere Creme.

The one thing that all the tutorials told the truth about, though, was how much of a mess these nails are. Check out my mani before cleanup...

Yeeaahhhh....and don't even ask about dry time. But if you've got a lot of time on your hands and you don't mind the OCD cleanup process, I think spun sugar nails are super cool and well worth the effort!

Let me know if you want a tutorial...if I'm really feeling up to the challenge, I might try and make one...we'll see!

Stay happy!!

Sinful Colors Charge It Up (Magnetic!)

LOL.

Sorry. Never thought I'd ever dare begin a post with "lol"...but I didn't know the name of the polish I'm about to show you until I looked at the bottom of its bottle five seconds ago. And I laughed. Out loud. I mean..."Charge It Up"?

ANYWAYS! Sorry for the break - school really tried to poop on me last semester, and then one of my nails broke, which just served as a double excuse not to blog. But I'm back!

So today I've got for you Sinful Colors Charge It Up. Another magnetic! Yayyy!

SOOOO pretty, yeah? While Sinful Colors usually literally makes me feel like I'm committing some sort of sin against my nails and all the other nail polishes I own, their magnetics are to DIE for. They have a strong effect and unique colors and a great pattern....AND they're literally about the quarter of the price of most of the other, higher-end magnetic polishes.

Here's Charge It Up before the magnet effect is applied, one coat:

Look at that! Nice opaque steel blue in one coat....Yeah. I'm loving it.

Anyways, I PROMISE I won't take another break for awhile...unless my nails decide to cause one on their own. Let's hope they don't...

Stay happy!!

My camera's out...

...but I'm not! And fear not, for I used my crap-tastic phone camera to take pics of all my nails just in case my camera  never fixes itself (because I certainly won't be fixing it myself...)! But for now, while I wait for the camera to magically reboot in hopes that I can deliver you with much higher quality pictures than that of my phone, I have for you some of my favorite nail blog entries! 

1. Coewless Nail Polish Blog: Taylor Swift nails 

Um, like seriously. For the full post (and more pics) check it out here. If you see her other nails, you'll understand why this chick is literally my idol.

2. Chalkboard Nails' swatch of Serum No. 5 Day Glow

PSHHHFFSHHHHWHAT?! Yeah. So basically I HAVE to have this polish. Or I'll cry. See the whole post here.

3. The Nailasaurus's metallic splatter nails (inspired by the same design on Nails and Noms)

Aren't they so pretty?? And with short nails, too, for anyone who ever tries to use the excuse of short nails to not do them nicely. Check out the full post here.

So...that's all I (or should I say, the other nail bloggers of the world) have for you today! As soon as I figure out what's up with my camera or succumb to using my phone instead, I'll be back with pics of my own nails for you (and maybe a tutorial or two, just to make up for my absence). But for now...

Stay happy!!

Zoya Zuza (and Wednesday!)

Happy Wednesday! Ha, ha. Just kidding. Let's be real. We're not happy. It's Wednesday.

But, pathetic day of the week aside, I have some swatches of Zoya Zuza for you PLUS my first attempt at a dotted manicure...ever!

Zuza is a SUPER pretty, summery blue-green (but...for some reason, I don't want to call it teal) kind-of-foil. Does that make sense? No? What a shame. The foil quality comes from what the Zoya website calls a "micro-glitter" finish, but Zuza isn't quite as shiny or reflective as a real foil polish would be. Like the other polishes in the Zoya Summer 2012 Surf Collection, Zuza's a little harder to remove (that micro-glitter thing again!) and has a tendency to eat thinner topcoats. That aside, she has perfect - literally PERFECT - formula that's easy to apply and completely opaque in two coats.

The accents for this mani were done with Zoya Wednesday, part of the Zoya Beach collection that was released with the Surf collection, and Zuza dotted on top. If you can't tell, Wednesday is basically the creme version of Zuza's color (and, as a side note, I LOVE Wednesday to death). In my opinion, they look GREAT together!

Stay happy!!

[Rainbow] Penguin Nails!

Oh yes. That's right. Not just penguin nails...RAINBOW penguin nails. Prepare yourselves!!

Honestly. I'm literally in love with my five little friends. I look at my hands more than I usually would, because I like seeing five multi-colored penguins looking up at me.

If you're curious about the colors, the base colors are:
Zoya Perrie (thumb)
Zoya Yummy (index)
Orly Green Apple (middle)
Zoya Jancyn (ring)
Essie Ole Caliente (pinky)

Yeah...the thumb penguin got a little messed up...but it was kind of fat and I couldn't figure out how to do the eyes until the penguin on my second finger...

That being said, I'd like to take a moment to say something:

YES, THEY ARE REAL!

These are my real nails, and everything I do on them, I do myself, freehand! Not to toot my own horn (that's one of those phrases that I've always wanted to say but never gotten to use...), but for everyone wondering...well, yeah. They're my real nails and I do all the art by hand. Okay. Anyways!

As per the usual, I was too intimidated to try to do penguins on my right hand, but I wanted to keep with my rainbow color scheme, so here's what I did instead:

A tape manicure! Same base colors, with a regular white on top. I'm starting to realize that I REALLY like taping...it's so much easier than one would think, and it can look SO cool if done right!

So I've decided that I really enjoy having animals on my nails...any suggestions for what to do next? Let me know!

Stay happy :)