Colores de Carol Sayuri (March Polish Pick Up 2018 Exclusive)

*press sample

Hello and happy Monday! It's nearing the end of the month which means the Polish Pick Up is right around the corner! I don't know about you, but my wish list is getting longer and longer. And if it's not already, this Colores de Carol shade should be at the top of yours!

14 Perfect Pink and Red Polishes for Valentine's Day

Hello lovely Valentines! It's that time of year where everything is swathed in pinks and reds and twitterpation is in the air. Well, maybe not for everyone, but romantic love isn't the only reason to celebrate Valentine's Day. I've always found it a fun holiday to show my affection to friends and family, and hopefully receive some in return. 

piCture pOlish Bordeaux

*provided for honest review

Hello and happy Friday everyone! Today's post is dedicated to piCture pOlish Bordeaux, a stunning 2015 collaboration shade by stockist Nil Nails. Bordeaux is described as a "dark wine jelly scatter holo" and was inspired by the "rich texture, charming atmosphere, wine colour derived from the famous wine region." If you're a fan of red you will LOVE this one. And if you're not a red fan, you just may be now. The warm and rich earthiness of this one give it a sensuousness that I can't resist. (Apologies if that sounds ridiculous but it's true!) 

A England Rose Bower By Any Other Name

Today's Valentine mani is a departure from all the pink ones I've done of late. This romantic look features the beautiful a england Rose Bower. A england is a brand that makes such gorgeous polishes, you don't really want to wear anything else with them! I wanted to do a little nail art, but still keep it simple to show off Rose Bower in its full glory. 

Candy Cane Swirl

My number one rule for December: keep life simple, simple, simple. With the tendency for the holiday season to get a little frantic, I can be easily overwhelmed. Once that happens, I curl up in a ball and get nothing accomplished. So I aim to keep the presents easy, not overload my schedule, and go with the flow. Of course, just as I cross everything off my list and reach my zen, I remember my son's birthday is three days after Christmas :P. He's turning five this year, which means I can't keep his celebrations as basic as I once did.

Now on to the nails. In accordance with my above^ rule, I have kept my nails s i m p l e. Thinking of a complicated design hurts my brain right now. And really, I just like how this looks better. 

31DC2014 Day 26: Kamon Inspired Pattern

For today's Inspired by a Pattern prompt I chose this image representational of Japanese kamon, emblems or crests that identify a family. This particular kamon is repeating in a beautiful tiled design. During my trip to Japan a few years ago I noticed similar images at every temple and castle we visited. Most of them consist of a floral or botanic motif. I loved discovering the different variations of each kamon from place to place.

31DC2014 Day 01: Red, University of Utah Utes

For this first prompt of the Challenge I immediately knew what I wanted to do. Last year for the Blue Nails prompt I created a Brigham Young University Cougars mani. So I thought it was fitting to do a mani of their arch-rivals, the University of Utah Utes. 

I mentioned in that post that I have many members of my family that have attended and graduated from BYU.  Well I also have a number of U of U alums in my family too. Actually my husband did some schooling at BYU, but graduated from the U of U. So here's my I'm-not-playing-favorites shout out.

Go Utes!

Formula X Solar Flare and Photoelectric

Hello Lovelies! I have two gorgeous Formula X polishes to share with you today. A few months ago I showed you two from the Liquid Crystals collection in this post. I mentioned then that Solar Flare was next on my wishlist, and I finally got my paws on it! I had also been eyeing Photoelectric and had to add that to my cart. They are fairly expensive as nail polishes go, so I am slowly building my collection.

Formula:

The formula for both shades was great. They applied easily and evenly. They are described as sheer, and these two are. When I swatched Beacon and Magma I felt two coats gave sufficient coverage. I stuck with two coats for Solar Flare and Photoelectric too, but you can tell from the photos that I probably should have applied a third coat. It wasn't too obvious in real life though.

Cap and brush:

The Formula X bottles are topped with a bulky outer cap, but when removed it shows the smaller, easy-to-handle cap. The brushes are thin and flexible, and capture a balanced amount of polish on them for application.

Solar Flare is a "pink micro-glitter in sheer strawberry". I used two coats, plus topcoat. It's just as pretty as I hoped it would be!

Formula X for Sephora Nova

Hello ladies! Today I have a really lovely polish for you, Formula X Nova from their Celestials collection. You haven't seen a whole lot of textured polishes on the blog, I think this may only be the third. The others are here and here. 

Textured polishes have slowly grown on me. The scratchy tips aren't the best feeling, but not that horrible either. To be perfectly honest, the main reason I haven't been motivated to buy more is that they just don't photograph well. Would you forgive me if I say I think they look ugly in photos? Hey, I'm just saying what we're all thinking. 

NOTD: China Glaze Ahoy!

Wow, is it finally Friday? This has been a long, busy week for me. I've been running around so much, that I'm determined to stay home today and do as little as possible! Okay, maybe not, but I am trying to keep it easy. Plus, it's that time of year again where the air is thick with swirling cotton from the cottonwood trees. I'm talking white-out blizzards of cotton. That alone is huge motivation for staying inside. And when I am forced to leave the house, lipgloss is not an option!

This nail of the day is China Glaze Ahoy! from their Spring 2011 collection. Ahoy! is a gorgeous raspberry red glass fleck. Even with the squishy jelly base of this polish I was able to get it this opaque easily in just two coats.

33 Day Challenge Day 04: Tribal

I've got some catching up to do with this 33 Day Challenge. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be all squared away.

I wanted to do something a little different again my second go (this was my first) around tribal print. So I did some searching on Pinterest for inspiration, and found this tutorial from Nailed It. I seriously love, love this! I've mentioned before how much I like red nails, and this is no exception. This is so simple yet bold, and lots of fun.

If you want to know how to do this, click the link I mentioned above. I follow the tutorial exactly step for step.

What I used:
OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock- red
Sephora by OPI What's a Tire Jack?- black
Sephora by OPI White Hot- white
Sephora by OPI Yellow My Name Is Betsey- yellow
Sephora by OPI Too Too Turq
Sephora by OPI Alley Cat

What do you think? Do you love this design as much as I do?

31DC2013 Day 15: Delicate Print

Happy Halfway!!! Hello all! I am finally halfway through the 31 Day Challenge! I'm so proud of myself for sticking with it thus far. It hasn't been easy, but it's been worth it. I've tried so many things that I probably wouldn't have attempted on my own for some time.
With today's delicate print theme I was sure I wanted to do some more stamping. I had lots of freehand ideas in mind, but they stressed me out. I took the easy way to keep my ulcers under control.

Isn't it so sparkalicious? I knew it would be hard to photograph, but hey, it's delicate. 

I started with two coats of China Glaze Ruby Pumps. I added a coat of Seche Vite on top to speed the drying time. Once that was completely dry, I stamped the pattern on and topped with Seche Vite again.

What I used:
China Glaze Ruby Pumps- glittery red
Urban Decay Perversion- black
DRK-A Large Stamping Plate

Many thanks to you who have been following along so far! If you're just joining in on the fun, welcome!! I have two more weeks of this, with hopefully lots of mind-blowing posts to come. Well, let's hope they are at least decently good. :)

31DC2013 Day 01: Red Nails

Red is a color that immediately makes me feel sexy the moment I paint that first stripe of polish on my finger. With this manicure, all that sexiness went right out the window the moment I added Elmo. But I think cute is an acceptable substitute for sexy.
I knew straight away that I wanted to do Elmo for today's challenge. He is the friendliest red monster there is! I assumed it had been done before (I have found out that all my "original" ideas have been done multiple times), and found one I liked at Nail Loopy. Her Elmo design had awesome detail that I tried to reproduce.

I was really afraid of applying a top coat. I knew it would smear with how thick the polish was. Luckily it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. His eyes got the worst of it. At least he doesn't look demonic, terrorizing children everywhere.

What I used:
American Apparel Downtown LA- red
Sephora by OPI Hi Def- orange
Sephora by OPI What's a Tire Jack?- black
OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls- white

Did this make you giggle? In a "tee-hee-hee" kind of way? I was amused. :)

That's it for Day 1! Day 2 is coming right up..

Red Matte and Glossy

I've been wanting to try this look for so long. I bought American Apparel Downtown LA a couple weeks ago and thought this would be a good color to try it out on. It's a great classic red, but after the matte coat I felt a little meh about it. It's always trial and error finding out which colors look good matte and which ones don't. I don't think this one does. But I will try again and have some good polishes in mind.

I know if I just used a matte polish this would have been much simpler. Since I don't own any I started with two coats of Downtown LA, followed by Seche Vite top coat. Once it was all dry I taped off the tips. I wanted to make sure I got a really crisp line so I used striping tape. You can see I got a little confused with the process on my pinky nail. Then I painted on China Glaze Matte Magic from cuticle to the tape. With that extra coat it made the polish get a little thick where it met the tape. 

I had debated whether I should do it this way or just start with the matte coat over the whole nail and then paint the tips next. I'm pretty sure I should have done the latter. I just thought the Seche Vite would dry it really well so that the tape wouldn't mess it up. I'll try it the other way next time and will let you know how it turns out!

Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue

The holiday is past, but I still wanted to post this mani. I had fun trying some things new to me. I love this red and was happy for the excuse to use it. It's the perfect summertime red. I thought the dots turned out fairly well.

On my right hand I was going for fireworks but it looks kind of blobby. It stood out even more to me when I was watching fireworks and realized how much it didn't look like that! Oh well. I like the glitter coat over it. It was good to practice doing more art with my left hand. 

What I have on:

Red Hot Ayers Rock OPI (red creme)

Dating a Royal OPI (blue creme)

My Boyfriend Scales Walls OPI (dull white creme)

Stars at Night Nicole by OPI (glitter topper)