Confetti Water Marble

Hello lovelies! I'm still getting over the stomach flu right now (fun times!), so I won't be very long winded today. It's been a while since I've done a water marble and have been jonesing to do another one. Then I was entering into Mucking Fusser's Magnificent Milestone Giveaway and one of the entries was to post a water marble. Perfect timing!

Stripes Snippet

Like my post from yesterday, today's mani is another one I dug out of my draft folder. You can tell my nails are even shorter here. I'm hoping that I will get things more organized soon so I can spend the time I want writing and editing. Until then, something is better than nothing, right?

What I used:
OPI My Vampire is Buff- cream base color
Sephora by OPI Domestic Goddess- purple
Zoya Bevin- sage green
Barielle Banana Drop- yellow
Sally Hansen Inst-Dri Snappy Sorbet- orange
Seche Vite top coat
striping tape

Hope you all enjoyed! Have a fabulous weekend!

Ruffian With A England Ascalon and Barielle Soho at Night

I have a quick and dirty post for all you lovelies today. My "schedule"(I say that to give you the impression that I'm actually organized) has been a little off lately, so I grabbed some photos that have been hanging out in my draft folder. Enjoy!

What I used:
Barielle Soho at Night- deep plum creme
a england Ascalon- holographic steel gray and lavendar duochrome
Sally Hansen Dries Instantly top coat

I hope you're all having a fabulous Friday! Have a great weekend. :)

Puzzle Piece Nails Autism Awareness Day

I think puzzle piece nails look so cool, I'm glad finally tried them! As many of you know the puzzle piece is a symbol used by various autism organizations. Since today is Autism Awareness Day, I figured it was a perfect time for it. 

I always feel like my manicure was a success when my two-year-old recognizes the design without any assistance. :)

I always forget how bubbly my manis get when I use Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. I would be annoyed, but it's really not noticeable in person.

What I used:
Barielle Banana Drop- yellow
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue- medium blue
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue-Away- baby blue
Sephora by OPI What's a Tire Jack?- black

What do you think? Have you tried this look before?

33 Day Challenge Day 08: Chevrons

I love chevrons (seriously, who doesn't?), so I was looking forward to today's Challenge post. In my Inspired By a Book post I tested out some nail tattoos for the first time. In the set there were three patterns, and this chevron pattern was one of them. I had a much easier time using them this go around, which was a relief. I love how colorful they are! Speaking of the colors, I'm realizing how Spring-like they look. This mani is for all you Southern Hemispherians. :)

I started off with a base color on all of my nails, Sephora by OPI The Way Tutu His Heart. The formula was a real big pain. It's a really pretty, soft color, but super streaky and sheer. I'm kind of glad I only have a mini bottle of it. 

I used striping tape to mask off some inverted "v"s. Then I painted each color on, carefully avoiding painting over the other side of the tape.  

The first time I tried the nail tattoos I followed the instructions on the box. Rookie mistake. Instead of dipping the transfer paper in water and then pressing it on the nail as per the instructions, I went the logical route. I placed the paper on the nail, then pressed a wet towel on top of it few a few seconds. Much better results! The cleanup was still kind of a pain, but manageable. I'm sure I could have masked off around the nail with tape to speed that up. I will try that next time.

I actually started this manicure last night with the intention of finishing it today. By mid morning the tattoos were already starting to show signs of wear. I did apply top coat, but maybe it needs two coats? It was bad enough that I just started all over. I'm glad I did because I would not have been as happy with the photos as I am now!

What I used:
Sephora by OPI The Way Tutu His Heart- light cream/pink
Essie Mint Candy Apple- mint green
Essie Angora Cardi- deep purple mauve
Zoya Lotus- smoky purple with pink shimmer
Barielle Darling Dahlia- fushia
Fing'rs EDGE Nail Tattoos Transfer Paper (purchased from Walmart)+


Have you used nail tattoos before? What was your experience with them?

Thanks so much for reading!

FYI: Future giveaway!

I mentioned on my facebook page a couple of weeks ago that I have plans for a giveaway! The plan is that whichever I reach first; 100 posts, 100 fb page likes, or 100 bloglovin' followers, I will have a (awesome) giveaway. So this is an update to say this is my 70th post, I have 61 fb likes, and 36 bloglovin' followers! So at the very least, I will have it 30 posts from now. But if you want to speed things up, go like my facebook page, or follow me with bloglovin'! It's gonna be gooood. :)

31DC2013 Day 11: Polka Dots

So I'm going to be lame today and not have much to say about these polka dots. I started with a base color of China Glaze For Audrey. Then I added some dots with my dotting tool. Basically I couldn't decide on a design, so I did every nail different. The End.

This was my first time using my For Audrey polish. I loved how opaque and smooth it applied in just one coat! I still did two to make it a little smoother looking.

What I used:
China Glaze For Audrey
Sephora by OPI Metro Too Chic
Barielle Lilac Jelly Bean
Seche Vite top coat

I'm sure I will have more to say about tomorrow's mani. I'm just so busy and stressed, and all I want to do is take a nap! Who is for nap-time being a national institution? Me! Me!

80's Lacquer Jewelry

When I first swatched Barielle Daring Dalia I thought of how 80's it looked so I looked for other polishes that did also. I swear my mom had some earrings that looked exactly like this! For some reason this mani really amuses me.

What I used:

Barielle Daring Dalia- fushcia
Ulta Ultra Violet Femme- purple
Ulta Boogie Nights- glitter


I decided to up the ante by adding a little Lisa Frank. My childhood is calling.. C'mon, I know you all had her Trapper Keepers in school too!

Barielle Swatches

Here is my first attempt at swatching! It was a little more work than I anticipated. So I don't know how much I want to do it in the future. I probably just need more practice. Also, some of the photos didn't come out like I wanted. I'll start off with the worst ones first :).

I had high hopes for Banana Drop and was a little disappointed. The color on the website and even in the bottle itself looks somewhat muted, which is what I hope for. It ended up being brighter than I wanted. It was also really goopy, as light colors tend to go. This took three coats.

Lilac Jelly Bean was also more goopy than I expected, but this only took two coats. I like that it has just a hint of the lilac in a greige color.

Slate of Affairs was hard to photograph because of the blue shimmer in it. The application was easier, I did two coats, and I really like the color. This was the best shot I took indoors.

This is with the flash, it shows the blue shimmer:

In the direct sunlight you can see how much the color changes:

Falling Star is fun. I don't have anything else like it. It is thicker than I expected, but didn't have any big issues with application. On the website it is described as "marine blue with gold glitter". As you can tell it is not gold, rather it is an obvious copper, which their picture even shows pretty true to color.

Soho at Night is a beautiful dark plum creme. It's such a romantic color. As soon as I put it on I wanted to go out on a nice date. Yep, it made me feel like that as I was lounging in my sweatpants watching t.v. reruns. The formula was nice and smooth. I did two coats which looked good in person but looking at the photo maybe I should have used three.

Blue Cotton Candy is another fun color. I think their description of it though is the worst out of the bunch. It's described as "frosted opalescent sea blue". Basically they really couldn't pin it down so they threw in some random adjectives. It's understandable because it does look so different. It has a really dense silver shimmer that makes it looks textured, but it's not at all opalescent. The formula was thick here too. Some of my fingers I only have one coat on, the others I did two just for good measure.

Indirect sunlight:

Direct sunlight:

Hidden Hideaway was another good formula, it was smooth and opaque in two coats. It's a vampy shimmery purple that really shows up in the sunlight.

Daring Dahlia is the one I am least crazy about. It was described as "deep fuchsia with shimmer". So I was pretty disappointed when it turned out to be just regular fuchsia. At least it had the best application out of the whole bunch. Two coats.

Indirect sunlight:

Direct sunlight:

So that was all of them. As tempted as I am to try  more of their polishes, I think I will wait until I see the swatches first.

Again I apologize for the inconsistent and lame photos. I'm still trying to figure out how to use my camera to take pictures of other things besides my kids.

Barielle Haul

So excited about these! This was my first package to arrive out of a number of various orders I've made in the last few weeks. I purchased these from their website which had a 30% discount on the whole order and free shipping. I'm going to try swatches for all of them. We'll see how it goes..

When my package arrived I was a little surprised to find eight bottles. I really only remembered five or six of the shades. In reality, when I placed my order I didn't even pay attention to how many I bought because I kind of didn't want to know :).