High Intensity?

I was browsing around the local Rite Aide and saw this brand, Jesse's Girl at a fairly decent price for me to try it out.  I picked up the brightest pink, Beach Baby, because I've been wanting to get a collection of neons.  The bottle boasts High Intensity, well I want to emphasize how bright the color is.  It's pink, it's loud and it's totally awesome.  But, the formula was absolutely horrible to work with.  The brush was stiff and the polish dried too fast.  I'm not sure it's supposed to dry matte but it lost it's sheen as it dried.  With the stiff brush, doing the second coat was really hard because it pulled off parts of the first coat, even though it was partially dry?  I can't explain it well enough, I wish I took a picture.  I had to use a very light hand to brush on the second coat without pulling off any of the first.  Other than the trouble applying, the color is amazing.  It comes off more as a dark rose neon, if that even explains it lol My photos don't capture the brightness but its pretty true to color.  For the blue, I used Brucci's Gianna's 'Rockin' Blue.  In the bottle, it looks more turquoise than the dark baby blue over the base colored coat you see in the photo.  And for the purple, I used Spoiled's 2 Weeks Sober.  Clouds are easy to do, and doesn't take too much time. It almost always come out perfect without much touch ups. 

For this mani, I reverted back to using SV for my top coat.  I will eventually give OtD another try, but for mani's I want to keep on more than a day, I'll stick with my SV.

1 coat SHDD
2 coats Beach Baby
1 coat Gianna's 'Rockin' Blue
1 coat 2 Weeks Sober
1 coat SV

Reminder!! Don't forget to enter the giveaway!!

Cinderella Help

Hi lovelies, I need some help looking for Cinderella by Sinful Colors. I remember someone saying it was exclusive to a certain retail store but I don't remember which one and I'm hoping it's a store readily accessible. Sending some advance Thank yous! -=D

Expired Candy

I didn't like this mani as soon as I finished it.  I don't know if it's because it wasn't what I intended to do and had to settle or it was because it was just so hard to work with.  I recently purchased SH Xtreme Wear's Bubblegum Pink and wanted to do some sort of scalloping.  I tried using a nail art brush to do the scalloping but it didn't work out.  It kept pulling the color off, maybe I'm doing it wrong.  I had to do something to cover up the mess I made, so I ended up just dragging the color in a diagonal pattern.  That color would be SHXW's Lacey Lilac, then adding the last layer, Brucci's Mango Taffy.  Mango Taffy is a corally color, it's very pretty and so doesn't get appreciated in this mani.  I need to use it one day as a featured color.  I like Brucci's formula alot, even thought it might seem a bit thinner than alot of the other brands, but it goes on well and does not lump up or streak.  The two SH polishes I used were a bit on the thicker side, and I was having a really hard time with them.  I actually have polish thinner but I need to buy a dropper before I can use it.  The nail supply store sells them in these tin bottles that is hard to use.

Oh, I wanted update you guys on my experience with Out the Door topcoat after using it a couple of times.  I used it with this mani and it basically cracked the polish the next morning.  I don't know if it's because I washed dishes, or banged them up while I slept, but all my nails had some sort of crack in the polish.  I never had this problem with SV.  Everything about this mani bothered me, so I ended up just taking it off after one day. 

1 coat SH DD
2 coats SHXW Bubblegum Pink
2 coats SHXW Lacey Lilac
2 coats Brucci Mango Taffy
1 coat OtD

Reminder!! Don't forget to enter the giveaway!!

30 Follower Giveaway!!!

GIVEAWAY UPDATE: Hi guys, I just wanted to clarify something regarding the giveaway entries.  I'm not sure if it's just Rafflecopter being buggy but for the sake of fairness, I will be going through all the entries and removing those whom did not follow the +1 rules.  For example, if you chose the option of "Leave a blog post comment" and do not leave one, I will reserve the right to remove that one entry.  I just want it to be fair for those who did follow the rules.  Sorry if there was any confusion, and again, THANK YOU to those who did enter ! 

I started this blog never thinking I would have any followers, let alone 30+!  But thank you all for trucking through with me!  And to let you all know how grateful I am, I will be giving away 4 yummy colors!!  (I stress, do not drink them!! lol we don't need another episode of My Strange Addiction!)  Unfortunately, because of restrictions with sending out hazardous materials internationally, this giveaway is only for US Residents.  I am so sorry that my international followers cannot participate but hopefully I will be putting together something soon that I can send anywhere.  So keep your eyes on the lookout!

I know how hard it is for some of you to get your hands on a bottle of Whimsical, so I will be adding that to my small bundle.  I also found this cute cute Love Your Life from Nicole by OPI, which is glitter with pink hearts!  Who doesn't love pink hearts!!  It sits in a clear base, which means you can paint it over your favorite color or wear it by itself.  Last but not least, two bottles of Sally Hansen Xtreme wear polishes that I quite like myself.  First up is Deep Purple, I've had this color for a long time, and used it plenty.  It's a dark royal purple with a shimmer undertone that glimmers under sunlight.  Second, is Rockstar Pink!  From afar, it looks more purple than pink but if you take a closer look, it actually contains fuchsia, cyan blue and silver glitter.  It's just a personal preference but I like the wide brushes that comes with the Xtreme wear polishes.  I can actually get my whole pinky with one stroke!  

Even though I own these colors, the ones in the giveaway are brand new!  So thank you again!  I'm sure they'll be going to a great home!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bold and Bright

I had to stop over at my parent's house after work to pick up the munchkin.  There's a Walgreen's, CVS and I JUST noticed a beauty store!  BEAUTY STORE everyone!!  I cannot tell you how excited I was when I saw it.  I did a double take, and was like, SAY WHAT?!  I went to the Walgreen's first to see if they have Sinful Color's Cinderella but I didn't find any Sinful Colors at all there.  What I did find was Rimmel polishes on sale for $1.99!  I picked up three for $6.50.  Then I strolled over to the beauty store to find a whole slew of nail polishes, make up, hair products, everything!  I picked out three Brucci polishes, cuticle cream, cuticle sticks, INM Out the Door quick dry topcoat and a shampoo that was recommended by my manager.  Anyway, enough of my ramblings.

The hot pink I used is Rimmel's Posh Pink and the baby blue is Brucci's Victoria's Blue Eyes.  Initially I was going to do black stripes over the alternating solid colors but after a few failed attempts, I was pretty discouraged.  So I sat there trying to think of something to jazz it up a bit and figured hey why not alternate the tips also.  The colors match perfectly even though they're such opposites.  After finishing the tips, I thought yellow woulda looked great with the blue and pink but by then I was too tired to do more.  I kinda love this mani, it looks super modern yet retro at the same time!  

I tried out the new topcoat, INM Out the Door.  I read some reviews comparing it to Seche Vite.  I'm a regular Seche Vite user but wanted to give this a try because it was 3 dollars cheaper at the beauty shop.  Seche Vite was $6.99 and Out the Door was $3.99 so why not give it a shot.  From my experience, SV shrinks quite a bit sometimes, but it's still one of the best quick dry topcoats because of how fast it dries and how shiny it is.  Out the Door dried just as fast, but it seems less shiny.  I read some people got streaks, which I didn't get but I do prefer a shinier finish.  Next time, I'll just get the SV instead since it's still cheaper than getting at the local drug store for $9.95.

1 coat SH DD
2 coats Posh Pink (alternating tips)
2 coats Victoria's Blue Eyes (alternating tips)
1 coat INM OtD

Hippie Flower Power!

In light of Spring, I decided to do little flowers.  The color palette ended up looking sorta hippie-ish. For some reason, it reminds of tie-dye or Hawaiian shirts.  I don't know, maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me because I'm trying to get rid of all this work on my desk while posting.  Woops, did I just say I was at work?  lols  It's actually the only decent time I have to post because I didn't finish this manicure until almost 1am last night.  It took a little bit longer cause of the different colors I used, totaling 6!  The base is Rimmel's Wild Orchid, and the pink dots I used Icing's 80s Prom Queen.  As for the flowers, the red one is China Glaze's Traffic Jam, the gray one is China Glaze's Peri-Wink-Le and the blue one is Icing's Cote D'azur. As for the yellow dots, I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow.  I noticed I do a lot of dots, I already decided on what to do as my next mani and it also has to do with dots.  Maybe I should just do a plain swatch post lols.  

1 coat SHHD
2 coats Wild Orchid
Flowers - Traffic Jam, Peri-Wink-Le, Cote D'azur and Mellow Yellow
Dots - 80s Prom Queen
1 coat SV

Glitterama!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  It took me a long time to choose a base color for Whimsical but I finally settled on China Glaze's Flyin' High and Secret Peri-Wink-Le on my ring finger.  After applying Whimsical over Flyin' High, it turned it greener, which is good because I wanted something on the greener side for St. Patty's Day.  I actually think it looks better over the periwinkle color, it didn't alter it too much and stayed pretty much the grayish purple it originally is. 

So this mani is in honor of my husband's part Irish heritage, and so he claims, with the flecks of red in his beard and all lols.  IRL, Whimsical over Flyin' High has more of a grassy greenish tint, and looks much greener than the pictures show.  It reminds me of Easter, which is practically around the corner.  Speaking of which, I need to pick up an Easter dress for my munchkin.  Hope everyone has a wonderful St. Patty's Day!  Don't get too drunk!

1 coat SH DD
2 coats Flyin' High
2 coats Secret Peri-Wink-Le (ring finger)
2-3 coats Whimsical
1 coat SV

iPhone Case

I've been thinking about doing this for a while but didn't think I had the colors.  I went digging through my stash and found Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Green with Envy.  Well who woulda thunk, it matched the green on my iPhone case!  I knew Icing's 80's Prom Queen was a good match for the pink part so I set on making this happen!  It came out okay, it's a little sloppy for my liking but it sorta resembles it?  lols  Yes, I think I'm just trying to convince myself into believing that. 

Green with Envy is very streaky going on, so of course, the longer the cap stayed off, the gunkier it got.  I had to do 3 coats on some nails to get full opaque coverage.  But you might be able to notice how lumpy my nails look because of how thick the green got.  I used the dotting method to do the so called drips, but it didn't come out the way I envisioned in my head lol It's kinda trippy staring at my nails then looking at my phone. 

I finally found Whimsical at the local Duane Reade.  Apparently, they all seemed to have gotten a shipment of new colors because after I bought mine, I saw them in a few other Duane Reades around the city.  Now that I have a bottle, I don't know what to do with it.  Any ideas?  Maybe I'll do something with it this weekend.

1 coat SH Double Duty
3 coats Green with Envy
1 coat Seche Vite
1 coat 80's Prom Queen
1 coat Seche Vite

Blogger Liebster Award

This post has been long overdue! I received 2 Liebster Awards from Bethany - A plethora of nails and Miranda - splatbyarfblat. Thank you lovelies for nominating me! I figured I'd get the award spruced up and share it with you guys. I'm not familiar with these blog awards so I googled Liebster which I found to be of German origin and it means "Favorite, beloved and dearest." <3
Rules:

1. Put the link to who gave you the award.
2. Put the award in your post.
3. Choose 5 blogs under 200 followers and give them the award.
4. Let them know that you have awarded them.

Nominations:

1. Niki - forlacquerofabetterterm.blogspot.com Check her site out! She makes the cutest cheetah prints.
2. Amanda - noxnails.blogspot.com Cute freehand and stamp manis!
3. Megan & Christy - thecateyeshaveit.blogspot.com Beauty reviews and manis!
4. Iroshi - iroshishobby.blogspot.com More nail designs!
5. Yuzuki - sopolishable.blogspot.com Another upcoming blogger with creative nails. Love her rainbow dot manis.

Black and Yellow

I have the song stuck in my head all day today!  Actually, I'm just repeating black and yellow over and over again in my head lols.  Anyways, I've been looking for a nice bright sunny yellow for a long time.  I spotted the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow and just had to pick it up.  It's bright, it's sunshiny, what's not to love about it.  I've been thinking about doing black stripes over yellow but it was late last night when I started on my mani, by the time I finished with the yellow coats, it was past 11:00 pm.  Damn you daylight savings!  I guess having to do 3 coats didn't help with the time either.  Instead, I opted to for a semi thick black french on my index and ring finger and dotted out the rest of my nails.  I used Spoiled, Visually Slimming for the black.  The brush is weird, it's flat and wide with one edge curved and the other a nice sharp corner.  I ended up using one of my nail brushes to paint on the black, which wasn't that bad and I used a bobby pin for the dots. 

1 coat SH Double Duty
3 coats Mellow Yellow
1 coat Seche Vite
Visually Slimming dots/tip
1 coat Seche Vite

Technical Difficulties

My AC adapter for my laptop croaked Saturday morning. Of course, that's when my laptop decides to run out of juice.  My husband ordered me a new one, mind you, this one only lasted a month before having to be replaced.  So it's a waiting game, at least it's not coming from China -=T Then god knows how long I will be waiting.  In the mean time, I was about to make a post at work but without photoshop, I can't adjust my photos into upright position.  When I try to send an email, my phone defaults to portrait even though I took the picture upright.  I tried rotating it the pictures with MS Office Picture Manager but when I try to upload, it goes back to portrait.  So now, I'm waiting for Halona to come to the rescue.  Hopefully I'll get my post up soon....

I love the 80s!

After finishing my manicure last night, I showed my husband and his reaction was that it looked so retro and all I need are some leg warmers and a headband.  Hell yeah!  I love the 80s, I so wish I was old enough during the 80s to actually enjoy it while it was happening.  The hair, the music, the style, everything!  But alas, I was born 10 years too late.  This mani features the two Icing polishes I bought from Icings by Claires.  The bottle reminds me of China Glazes but the brushes are different. The Icing brushes are a bit wider and I kind of like it better than the narrow CG brushes. It has more coverage and not super wide where I paint my fingers lols 

The hot pink is called 80s Prom Queen and the blue is Cote D'azur.  I don't know if you can tell but the hot pink is super bright and I love it ! I needed three coats to get it totally opaque for both colors.  The blue, I'm still unsure if I like it yet.  It seems to me, like it wants to be a jelly but not?  I can't really explain it.  I could've gotten away with two coats of the hot pink but the blue absolutely needed that third coat.  I need to try a sandwich with Cote D'azur, maybe it is a jelly.  Who knows, cause I can't tell right now lols 

1 coat SH Double Duty

3 coats 80s Prom Queen

3 coats Cote D'azur

1 coat Seche Vite

Orly's Pinterest Contest!

Hello ladies! Orly is launching a Pinterest contest where you'll style your moodboard to convey their "My Cool Romance" collection. Rules and links are down below.

Pinterest Contest board
My Cool Romance Pinterest Contest Rules

PRIZE
One Orly Cool Romance Swag Bag:
Entire collection of The Cool Romance 6 pix and more!

I recently found out I've been pronouncing Orly as "Oh really", like the owl! lol I've been told it's "Or lee". Am I the only dork who associates the owl with Orly? How do you ladies pronounce Orly?

Happy Birthday !

Happy Birthday munchkin!  Mommy loves you more than the world!

Puzzles?

I saw this over at Kelly's page and instantly wanted to try it!  It looked hard but it isn't at all!  I used the two new China Glazes I got on Thursday, Flyin' High (blue) and Traffic Jam (fuchsia).  Flyin' High is a dark baby blue cream with a bit of green undertone and Traffic Jam reminds me of ripe raspberries.  My ring finger shows the truer color because it's not on top of the blue.  It gets a bit darker being on top of an opaque color.  I like this design alot, I'm thinking of doing it in a different color combo already. 

1 coat SH Double Duty

2 coats Flyin' High

1 coat Traffic Jam 

1 coat Seche Vite

Ring finger would be reversed

Sandwich Time!

Three colors down from my Thursday haul!!  I wanted to do a jelly sandwich but I wanted to use this Rimmel Wild Orchid so bad.  The actual color is a dark lilac and it went on so pretty.  I almost didn't want to do the sandwich.  The glitter is the Icing After Party, it is so pretty in the jar.  It has all different shaped pieces, gold, teal, pink, and red.  The reason I bought this was because of the pink glitter!  I realize it doesn't show up much in this mani because I sandwiched it with Rimmel French Rose which is a transparent pink.  I'm assuming it's meant for french manicures but hey, who says you can't use it for a glitter sandwich!  I think it came out pretty nice, it's cute, springy and super shiny.  I like it!  Oh, don't mind my cuticles, I just oiled them up lols.  Two more days till the munchkin turns 1!  I don't have a birthday gift yet....but she wont know the difference yet lol

1 coat SH Double Duty

1 coat Wild Orchid

1 coat After Party

1 coat French Rose

1 coat Seche Vite

Green Blue Chevron

My girlfriend Halona wanted me to try the chevron bad, so on a night the munchkin was at her grandparents, I succumbed and spent 2 hours on this mani.  I don't think I picked good colors cause they all kind of just blended in together. Not that I think it looks bad but I could've picked one brighter color for a little pop.  I did this free hand, it wasn't that hard, but kinda messy.  I would definitely try it again.  

I used the usual base coat and Seche Vite before and after.  Sometimes the Seche Vite shrinks my color coat, but that would be my fault for not making sure I covered the tip of the nail with the quick dry top coat.  When you leave a little space, it'll pull the color polish up as it dries.

Here are the colors I used, from nail bed down:

Spoiled - Distant Memory 

                                                               China Glaze - Secret Peri-Wink-Le

Milani - Mint Candy

Sinful Colors - Fly Away

Haul !!!

I took a few days off because it's my little princess' birthday on Monday.  Well, I was being just a little bit selfish taking today off also, considering she's with my parents and I will be getting the day all to myself.  So what do I do on a free day?  Of course I gather my girlfriends to take a trip over to Queens Center Mall and Rego Park Center.  If you didn't know, Ulta opened in Rego Park Center sometime last year.  It's the only location close enough for us to get to by public transportation.  I was expecting discounted prices but maybe I assumed wrong.  Even though everything was regular price, I did get a few polishes.  Oh, I didn't forget to print out some coupons.  Ulta had a coupon for $3.50 off $10.00.  I had printed out three thinking my girlfriends would find something but they didn't.  So I asked if they could help me save some money by purchasing 2 of my polishes each.  I ended up saving $10.50!!  I got the two China Glazes, two Rimmel, one Revlon and one Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polish.  That's 6 bottles for $24.32!!!  That comes out to roughly 4 dollars a bottle.  Which I have to say, is a mighty fine bargain!

We headed over to Queens Center Mall and ran into a store called Icing by Claires.  It was basically a Claires but immediately, I spotted nail polish.  At first, I thought they were China Glazes, as you can tell, the bottles are pretty much identical.  They had a sale, buy one get one half off.  They were $4.50 each, so I picked up 4 for $13.50 plus tax.

Here is what I got:

China Glaze - Traffic Jam

China Glaze - Flyin' High

Rimmel - French Rose

Rimmel - Wild Orchid

Revlon - Sparkling

Icing - Vampire Blood

Icing - 80s Prom Queen

Icing - Cote D'Azur

Icing - After Party

Sally Hansen - True Real Teal