More peacock stuff, and I'm crazy.

Hi everyone!

Today's post is short and sweet, and having not really anything to do with the summer challenge that I'm not trying to slack on, but I started cosmetology school last night so it's hectic!

Okay, so I'm pretty crazy.  I was so jazzed up for starting school, I barely slept.  I get off work at 7 am, so when I woke up at 9:30 yesterday morning and could NOT go back to sleep, I stayed up.  Oh yeah.  Class starts at 5:45 pm.  I gotta work at 11pm.  I'm currently about to clock out in about 45 minutes or so and I am so. bleeping. tired.

So I hope to get a mani in before school, I've been wearing Ulta Envy going on three days now.  It's pretty and I do love it! (pictures soon) But I haven't worn the same nails for more than a day and a half in a while and that just makes me feel...weird..

wanna see my peacock, Katy Perry?

okay, yeah it's not great by any means, but it's alllll free handed with my tiny little brush! and some dotting tools.

Two coats of Deborah Lippman's Dancing in the Sheets (Coulda gotten away with one on most nails though, just sayin..) then in the middle I made a large dot of DL Almost Paradise, then Ulta Envy in that, Let's Hear it For the Boy in that. then for my green feathers I used Ulta Envy and The Jungle Look, with a little Color Club Disco Nap thrown in.

I will definitely be posting again soon!

MSMD, my take on RLN

Happy monday!  I'm kidding.  But it is memorial day, and that's something to be happy about!  Wait, no it isn't.  But it's so festive, with barbecues and seeing family, hanging out outdoors, burning your skin to a crisp...

But more important than that (to me) it's Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday!  For today's mani, I took inspiration from Rebecca Likes Nails' blog post on her modified leopard french!  I love hers being nude, but as she explains in her post, her nail stains were magically gone is what sort of inspired her to do this as a nude french.  Mine are here to stay lol I was quite happy with how this turned out, and I will be recreating this again in the future, but alas, I was busy getting posts together for this challenge, so this was worn for all of like 20 minutes.  Yeah.  Dedication.  Look it up. oh yeah, click that pic to go see her post=]

As a wise young lad once told me, "Here you go!"

This is my very first free handed leopard print done on myself, and I had only done one other on my little cousins bitten way down nubs so I thought it would be super easy to do to myself.  It was, but the thing is I spaced my brown dots waaaay too close together.  Definitely gonna remember to disperse them further apart next time.  Other than that, I have no qualms with this manicure=]

This is three coats of Deborah Lippman Footloose, I taped off and did my tips in Color Club Disco Nap.  For my brown dots I used OPI A-taupe the Space Needle, and the black leopardness with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails..whatever the name of that black is. it's just black y'all!  I did all that little stuff with my teeny dotting tools.

I topped this off with Poshe, and started with Sally Hansen Double Duty.

What do you think?  Is anyone else going over to their grandma's house for memorial day?  Are you gonna wear sunscreen?  Um, even if you don't celebrate you should still wear that.

On a different note, I start cosmetology school on Tuesday!  OH MY GOD.  My mom took me makeup shopping yesterday, because she loves me and knows I'm broke.  Since I got home from that, I haven't been able to sleep.  Remember those first day jitters from high school, and even college?  Did you ever get them so bad two days in advance?  Seriously.  I cannot freaking wait.  I'm going part-time since I'm still gonna work full-time, so it's gonna take me about two years.  I think it will be fun=]  Any other cosmetology school veterans out there? Tips, tricks?

Oh ps- that definitely means a makeup haul post is in the making

...it mostly rhymes with shmrevlon. =]

Summer Challenge: Day Five!

Today's theme: Your favorite summer color!

Okay, so this won't shock the people who know me outside of the blogging world, and they shouldn't have to guess what my favorite summer color would be...

Okay, yeah.  I just reposted pics from the post from like five minutes ago about me receiving this polish.  So what?  Well in case you're lazy and don't wanna click over, this is Deborah Lippman's Footloose, three coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Red.  Retro, rockabilly, pin-up red to be exact.  Last summer I tried, and I mean I really did try to keep up with my Bettie Bangs.  I became obsessed with Bettie Page, the queen of pin-ups.  It's way too much work, and I spent hours on them trying to make them perfect.  I cut them almost everyday, I was way too obsessed!  I tried to find the best way to curl them under, with curling irons and flat irons, nothing could keep them going for more than an hour or two (if I stayed indoors)

Woe is me, but I can still make my nails work.  This is the base for my MSMD post coming up in a couple of days, so get ready for that!

What is your favorite color to rock in the summer time?  To me the summer is the rockabilliest time of year.  Basically if you can take your clothes off and wear something retro and cute, and sit on a beach...yeah that's me.  That girl just sits inside of me all year long, itching to come out.  Sort of.

I only let her after she applies some serious SPF.  Cancer ain't cool!

Everybody cut footloose=]

Today I have some nice haulage for ya!

I just cannot contain myself, and a no-buy is practically impossible once I get paid.

The other day I went to Wal Mart and got these lovelies:

Revlon Fearless, Not so Blueberry (scented), NYC Water Street Blue

In the check out lane there were these little sport card organizer books that I just KNEW would keep my Cheeky plates in order, and I was right!  This book is only halfway full, so uhh...my shopping days are far from over =]

Also from Revlon, I bought one of the new lip butters! I bought Lollipop, which is a brighter pink/fuschia color.  It applies like butter=]  I always put on balm or some sort of lip moisturizer before I apply any kind of lip color, even gloss if it's more sticky (God, why can't you be smoother Victoria's Secret lip glosses??) And I didn't make an exception for this.  It does last for a while, and you can build the color to your desire.  I've found that after it's been on for a while and my balm has dried and even this isn't very buttery anymore, it doesn't feel dry and it leaves a nice stain on your lips.  I loooove lip stains.  I'm not certain it would be appropriate for everywhere, but if you like bolder pink shades, you'll like this one.  Definitely something you could pull off for night time going out, but if you're like me you'll wear this to the grocery store in the middle of the day.  I will definitely be picking up more shades!

Then I made a stop at the dollar store, and I think I bought out their LA Colors clearance section lol yeah...

Here is LA Colors Nectar, Topaz, Jewel Tone, Sally Hansen Ivy League And then LA Colors Art Deco in Bright Green, Teal Glitter, and Black.  All with two coats on the nail wheel, except the nail arts cause...just cause.

And yesterday I got some awesome nail mail that I have been too excited about all week!  First up, my Ulta haul!  Ulta had some sales going on, I was going to get in on the Revlon one, buy 2 get one free, but Ulta's was buy 2 get 2 free on their own polish!  They're six bucks a pop so four polishes for 12 bucks? Yes, please!  I could've just gotten the Revlon sale too, but I was trying to keep it light..ha!

Ulta Envy, The Jungle Look, Plum Perfect, Pinata Yada-Yada, all two coats.

I also got sent a nifty Ulta catalog with a nifty 20% off coupon on the cover...that ends today.  I'm just lame.

But I also got three perfume samples, since they give you a choice of three free samples with every order.

I picked Viva La Juicy and Taylor Swift's Wonderstruck because I just love those perfumes=] and the Versace men sample for my boyfriend because well, he supports me fully in this crazy batshit obsession and he deserves stuff sometimes too!

And now, for the one I was really really waiting for!

I had read on twitter from Megan @apolishproblem that HSN had all four of Deborah Lippman's Footloose collection from last year on sale, two for $9.95!! As of right now that's still going on, here is Almost Paradise & Footloose and here is Dancing in the Sheets & Let's hear it for the boy.

Pardon me for being so excited, but I've never experienced a DL polish before, it wasn't even a thought in my head since they go for $18.  For me, that is just so unrealistic, I mean I can have so much more polish for $18!  I know that they came out last year and they've already been reviewed and swatched, but do you care?  I don't!

I am in love.  Footloose is my new favorite red.  I know I said Revlon Fearless was a true red, and I still say it is, but Footloose is just omg..it's a tad more orange than Fearless is, which I was wondering before it got here if I was gonna be dealing with some dupes.  It would not have pissed me off in the slightest if they were, I'm happy to have them =] I am not completely sure if this is a jelly or not, I still have VNL after three coats, and it is really shiny, but it seems more like a creme..Application is perfection, I can't believe how awesome the brush is!  There was barely any clean up at all!

Almost Paradise is such a beautiful pistacchio creme.  I have seriously been on the lookout for the perfect pistacchio color, and all I can find is mint or seafoam.  This collection really knocks out a few things on my list =] This is two coats, and it's almost completely opaque.  Application: just dreamy=]

Dancing in the Sheets has been classified as a blurple, and it truly is just that.  A nice deep blurple that is a little bit shimmery.  This is two coats, and of course the application was just to die for.  So shiny! This one is without top coat.

I haven't swatched Let's Hear it For The Boy yet, but I have used it in some upcoming nail art=]

I can die happy now=]  My stash has made it past 100!  Do you remember that it wasn't even a month ago my stash was about 75?  I'm gonna have to bust out some more Birchbox boxes, tissue paper and scotch tape pretty soon to make more room.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Go here to see my post of upcycling those babies! (scroll to the bottom of the post)

What about you guys?  Done any nice hauling lately?  Have you tried lip butter yet? Do you like polishes with quirky names and movie themes? Do you have any Deborah Lippman polishes?  Did you pay full price? Do you know that I'm in awe of you?  I just might have to purchase more now =]  Okay, not right now, I'm pretty much done spending money on polish for a few weeks.  Sad=/

Summer Challenge: Day Four!

Oh, hey there!  I've been absent..
Not to get into a lot, but my grandmother has just had surgery, so I've just spent my last two days off over at her house helping her out and stuff...and putting off getting together summer challenge stuff!  Family is important though, and that's why i was not only watching over my grandmother, but my two young cousins (8 and 9) and let me assure you, I was not on a manicure rest!  I have been painting, removing, pressing tiny girly looking adhesive nails on, peeling them off, putting different ones on, peeling those off, painting again...and none of it on myself!  Well, okay I did find the time to do my own nails last night, and I think this manicure can double up on my summer challenges!  Not too sure, I may actually want to do a different one for the future challenge day.  I did miss Wednesday's challenge, the theme was summer dots.  I already did a dotting mani earlier that I feel is the perfect summer dot manicure so can I just cheat and lead you to that one..?

Okay, so today's challenge is orange freestyle themed.  And I feel like it could double over onto June 29: Underneath the stars.  If you don't agree, then I hereby surrender myself to the crumpet, and shall take my punishment accordingly.

Picture spam alert! I not only got my camera issues fixed, but I am quite proud of how this turned out!

inside:

outside:

blurry inside:

blurry outside:

emphasis on the thumb inside:

thumb outside:

blurry outside again, just 'cause =]

Galaxy nails! I have been wanting to do these for quite some time, but haven't been able to sponge correctly or use the colors I felt were right for it.  Some of these are obviously blurry to show the awesomeness of the holographic glitter=]
Specs:
Base coat: Sally Hansen Double Duty.
One coat of China Glaze Smoke and Ashes from the Hunger Games collection (the PERFECT galaxy base, in my opinion)
Index, middle, ring & pinky:
sponged on Revlon Dreamer in the middle in oddly shaped circles and stuff
sponged on one side China Glaze Tree Hugger
on another OPI My Address is Hollywood
on another Revlon Not so Blueberry (which is scented, and I'm not sure but I might be okay with that.  Maybe.)
sponged in the center Maybelline Color Show Porcelain Party
sponged the tips with CG Smoke and Ashes, and a bit around the sides til I was happy
To pull it all together, China Glaze Fairy Dust.  I really mean it.  This mani would not be the same without it.  Ever since I first saw it I knew it would be the perfect topper to a galaxy mani.  I've been lookin' around a lot, okay?  I see people all the time free-handing their own stars or dots in white on their galaxies, and I just think it totally takes away from it all, for me that is.  It just looks more realistic with the shimmering holographic bits in there, I think.

For my thumbs:
First, I sponged on Maybelline Color Show Porcelain Party, so the other colors would show up better.  This is an explosion of some kind.  I sponged on Revlon Fearless, and then alternated between that and Kleancolor Neon Yellow and Neon Orange, slowly making my way toward the tip of the nail, finishing with Revlon Fearless.  Then I topped that off with CG Fairy Dust.

Okay, so it isn't all about orange, but I have really been wanting to try this one out for a while, and it turned out even better than I expected!  So I needed an excuse to post it and tie it into the summer challenge lol

What's your favorite galaxy mani?  Am I offending you with my dislike of free handed stars instead of glitter?  Am I breaking the rules of the summer challenge too hard (um because there aren't any, get your facts right!) Wanna whine about it in a comment?  You can whine about anything down there, you know.
I'll read it, and respond in a timely manner with my thoughtfully thought thoughts =]

peacock marble

If you've been keeping up with either my blog or Cuti-Clue-Les' (whom btw has totally redone her background recently and it looks awesooome) then you will know that I have just discovered a new love: water marbles.  Oh my god.  I think I could do water marbles forever and ever, and never get tired of them!

For color inspiration, because I always feel like I'll throw together something awful, I look to fashion magazines.  Yeah.  I read 'em.  So what?  Anyway, the writers/staff at these mags might not know exactly how I feel on every subject, especially my stance on being submissive to men, (sometimes Cosmo, I really do love ya, other times I feel like you're trying to subliminally message me into becoming an oral machine..) and the fashion stuff is always craaaaazy expensive and normally just impractical for my life.  I don't work on a runway!  But they're normally pretty good at puttin' colors together=]  I swear, since my nails became my obsession, magazines have just become these idea books for me, they're also really great for patterns and designs.

Anyway, so I got this month's Marie Claire, and found a page with a girl wearing this weird peacock dress.  It had all of the peacock-ish colors and a couple feather designs I think, but mostly the colors were just there all together, swirled and going in different directions..  I thought that would be cool to recreate!  Everyone is loving the peacock design right now, put your own spin on it if you're interested but kind of unsure!

Some of these are still blurry, sorry!  I promise I got my camera issues fixed, but these were taken the other day..
Anyway, I started with a base of Maybelline Color Show Porcelain party, then did my marble with Pure Ice French Kiss, Maybelline Color Show Tenacious Teal and Kleancolor Neon Yellow, as well as Finger Paints Art You Wondering, which didn't show up so much in pictures.

I really just love marbles now, they're so fun and easy!  Once you have your colors, you're good to go!  I use the tape method, so clean up is a breeze, and I get better with each one I do!  If you have been put off by a marble mani, or are unsure of whether or not to try one because of maybe things you might have read about them or whatever...don't be!  Practice is the only way to get better.  Basically what it comes down to is, if I can do it, then there's gotta be a way that you can do it too.  If you have any questions at all, let me know!

And I did not forget about yesterday's summer challenge that I missed, but I do however feel that I can make up for it tomorrow.  Have a fantastic day=]

Summer Challenge: Day 2!

Today is the second day of the Purple Crumpet Fairy Summer Challenge!

The theme for this mani the Chelsea Flower Show!

I know nothing about flower shows, but I have plenty of floral stamp designs in my Cheeky collection, so here it is:

 Sorry for the blur! I could not get my camera to focus on these at all..I think i messed with the settings the other day and just messed everything up..

Quick note before the specs:  I've been using my Sally Hansen double duty base and top coat for a few days now, and for someone who changes their nails daily, this stuff seems to do the job!  My nails are no longer chipping off at the tips and looking a little rough..they just look normal when I take off my polish! anyway..

This is two coats of Revlon Fearless on all fingers except the ring, which has two coats of Maybelline Color Show Porcelain Party.  Then I used two designs that seemed to go well together, and stamped on my thumb and index fingers with Sally Hansen French White, and Revlon Fearless on the ring.  Topped off with Sally Hansen double duty, and then Seche Vite because I was sleepy=]

I am in love with this red.  To me, this is a true red. It could be a little bit deeper, just a teeny bit and then I would classify it completely as true, but I don't care I love it.  It's the perfect pin-up red, and the rockabilly girl that lives in my mind wears this all day long.  I really should let her out more often..

What do you think?  Check out the other lovelies participating, and join in if you want!

Debbie @ The Crumpet - http://thecrumpet.blogspot.co.uk/

Danielle - http://lbobeauty.blogspot.co.uk/

Neivys - http://maquiclubgirl.blogspot.com/

Jo @ Northern Nails - http://therockchicksrambles.blogspot.co.uk/

arlene @ http://euzefelus27-nailart.blogspot.com/

Helena - http://nailwish.blogspot.com.es/

Cuti-CLUE-les - http://cuti-clue-les.blogspot.com/

Katee - www.agirlandherpolish.blogspot.com

Alyssa at Fancy Phalanges - http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com/

Sarah - http://www.ynails.blogspot.co.uk/

bec - http://lacquerdreams.blogspot.com.au/

Misha - www.enigmatic-rambles.blogspot.com

Sharon - http://whatcolorismycoat.blogspot.com/

Melissa - http://www.misadventuresofawannabemartha.com/

Laurie http://dressedupdigits.blogspot.com/

Lucie @ Lucy's Stash www.lucysstash.com

Emma @  http://manicurity.blogspot.com/

Caitlin - www.caitlinscreativecorner.blogspot.com

Jane- http://absolutevarnish.blogspot.com/

Vic @ Glowstars http://glowstars.net

Jackie- http://memasmanis-jackie.blogspot.com/

Rychelle @ Colorsplash Nails- http://colorsplashnails.blogspot.com/

Stella - http://mywetnails.blogspot.com

Missy @ http://missysmanis.blogspot.co.uk/

Kim @ http://apolishedaddiction.blogspot.com/

Christine @ http://lost-in-my-reverie.blogspot.com