The Ultimate Want

Today, I am sad.  I fear I will never own my own bottle of Clarins 230.  It's a fact that I deal with, day to day.  I get by.  How could a polish so perfect be so freaking discontinued, and goes for over a hundred bucks on ebay.  Oh, the things I could do with the amazing Unicorn Pee.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, seriously do yourself a favor and google it.  You're not actually doing yourself a favor, because now you want it just as much as I do, and unless you're completely insane you're not gonna shell out the cash.  On the small chance that you ARE that completely insane, could you see if they'll throw in another bottle?

Anyway, so if you can't tell, today I was craving some color-shifting goodness, oh yes.  I'll have to make do with what I have, since I don't have the most precious of all.

note: These pictures were taken weeks ago when my camera was all wonky, and apparently I decided they weren't even good enough to watermark lol

Wow, these pictures are bad.

This is OPI Not Like The Movies from the Katy Perry collection, three coats. It's a weird gray/steel color from afar, but even in the bottle (not pictured) you can tell the color shift from purple to green in different light.  I had commented on another blog's post about this polish, having no idea that it had come out in a different color.  Apparently this version was only made for a short while when it came out, and then they switched to something different, something less duochrome.  So I'm lucky I guess!

I thought China Glaze Liquid Crystal from the Prismatic collection would go perfectly on top! I accented my thumb and ring fingers with it.  It's great because the colors shift from blue to purple, so my fingers are shifting to different colors on different fingers =] On the rest I added China Glaze Fairy Dust, for giggles =] I love the holographic shimmery goodness it adds.

If I can't have Clarins 230, then I'll just make do with what I do have=]

I do apologize for the horrible mess that are these pictures, this post was meant for a few weeks back and it slipped through the cracks of my brain..It really is a very awesome polish in real life.

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 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 =]

MSMD takin' notes from the Chalkboard

This is my first Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday!

Here is the link to the fb page with the list of other bloggers who participate! (Aka- i forgot to do this last night when i was writing this post and am now on my tablet which makes everything a little different)all the cool kids!

I got my idea from this post from the seriously talented Sarah at Chalkboard Nails! Her title Ants at the picnic! is an accurate description of what this manicure represents.  Here you are, chillin' on your gingham blanket (why have I never seen one of those in real life?!) munchin' on some grindage, and your watermelon-y goodness is just waaay too much for these little dickheads to keep away from.  Hide your melons, hide your glasses of sweet southern iced tea!

I couldn't completely replicate the manicure, but really who wants to totally copy someone else? I had been wanting to do something with watermelons ever since I picked up my bottle of Finger Paints Louvre This Pink.  It is THE perfect shade for watermelon!  Then I came across that post and I was like oooh I gotta try it.  I'm glad I did!  You should hop on over and look at the original photos of what this mani SHOULD look like lol

 Alright, so I have a shit basket.  I did not keep the basket.  I tried, I really did! I think having more colors would have helped?  I just don't think mine were very baskety.. My basket is a base coat of OPI A-taupe the Space Needle as well as lines of French Quarter For Your Thoughts, and then some of A-taupe the Space Needle mixed with white for some..depth? Geez I dono.  At one point I said screw it trying to make little perforated lines and just vertical and horizontal.  And that's what makes a shit basket, y'all! I took that off, and had a different idea to try.

 For my take, I painted half my nail in Sally Hansen Hard as Nails French White, two coats, then stripes in Finger Paints Gogh Red! (maybe, I'm pretty sure that's what it is..)  and Pure Ice Black Rage for my ants.  For the grass I used China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise (I think this one is a neon..I got it so long ago)

For my index and pinky, I did the same as my thumb, just without the grass.  I tried to get the ants to march in line and to be following the sugary trail.  For my middle and ring fingers I did a base of Finger Paints Louvre This Pink, then painted on with Color Club Age of Aquarius right above the rind, and then my other no-name Maurices polish, some shade of dark teal.  For my seeds i used Pure Ice Black Rage.  I topped all of this off with Seche Vite, because it was time to go do laundry and upload these pics, and all that involves a trip to my parent's house. 

My seeds look a little irregular, and I do think I should have made way fewer of them.  Pretty much all of this except the base and top coats were done with my super teeny tiny nail art brush that I got at Sally's.  My right hand which I didn't take pictures of actually looks the same as my left, if not better.  I love my tiny nail art brush =]  Overall, it doesn't look perfect (uh probably because I did it) but it looks way better than what I could've done a while ago, without the right tools.  So I'm happy with it!  Perfect for summer=]

I am really enjoying posting..do you know how happy I am that 12 people wanna follow me?  Okay really ten because when I set it up I wanted to make sure it worked so I followed myself from both my accounts.  How lame am I?  TEN PEOPLE! =]

I am also now on facebook, I will soon be getting a button or something put on here to link to that www.facebook.com/ambersnailblog  Can you believe that nevernakednails, never.naked.nails, and nevernakednailsblog were supposedly "taken" fb names?  I looked em up, they don't exist! whatever..I decided if ambersnailblog didn't work I was just leaving it the way it came lol

Thanks for stopping by =]