I'm back! and I've got goodies=]

Hi everyone!  I have missed this place so, and I have a lot of stuff lined up believe it or not!  I've actually been really under the weather lately, I didn't know if I was going to make it over to my parent's to upload and write today... I think I'm just working way too hard.

Alright! So this week I have done tons of shopping, you will see my hauls and reviews on here later=]

Also, I have a few goodies that came in the mail such as my Birchbox, and a couple of other things, one of which will be taking over this blog post very soon.

So if any of you are not aware of the awesome blog that is run by Lizzy O, otherwise known as the Do It Yourself Lady, well then you need to click on that and go right over there!  Her blog is pretty freakin cool, she's always swatchin', haulin', and spreading the word on freebies and coupons and giveaways!  Anyway, a couple of weeks back she held a surprise giveaway, using a widget that totaled up her top commenters, and I was one of them!  She contacted me, letting me know I would be receiving my surprise gift very soon=] It arrived earlier this week:

I am so pumped!  I have never won a giveaway, and this one is even better cause I wasn't even trying lol  She sent me Zoya Reagan, and Sally Hansen HD Resolution, soooo pretty! I have only swatched Reagan so far, and I didn't even get to take photos til the third day *yes I did wear a polish for about three days. bite me.*  So that accounts for the tipwear.  This polish is opaque in one coat (awesome) but I still feel naked unless I apply two.  When I saw the bottle at first I was like oooooh how did she know I've been looking for another pink?  But it isn't.  It's MAGENTA! Even better=]  Saturated to the max, magenta! I loooooove Zoya so much!  I'm sure that I will love Resolution as well, but my untried stash is now growing growing growing, because it seems I can still find the time to buy a shit ton of polish even if I don't have the time to change it everyday.

I have said it before, but Thank you soooo much, to the lovely Lizzy O, you are one of my must-reads and I'm ecstatic that I won these lovelies=]

On a different note, I will definitely still be trying to keep up with the Summer Challenge, as much as possible, but that might have to wait til next week since I was planning on getting a lot of manicuring and photos done today but I got caught up being super sick yesterday, and then I got my hair done today (woo!) I'm a redhead!

Keep your eyes peeled, ladies=]

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 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

tri-colored stamping, and another small haul!

For today's post, I tried stamping with different colors!  I saw a picture on fuckyeahnailart and thought about what I could do..


So maybe I should've used neons lol I like the way it turned out, even if it was slightly hard to tell exactly what was going on from far off:

Sorry, it's so hard to tell what this mani actually looked like from these photos!

I used Gelous as my base coat, Sally Hansen French White-2 coats, then using a floral all-over Cheeky plate, I alternated the combo of China Glaze For Audrey, Secret Periwinkle, and Sweet Hook.  I mattified it with Hard Candy's matte top coat, and called it a freakin' day =]


I must say my stamping skills are coming along! For this one I did not scrape off enough Secret Periwinkle before I stamped my thumb, and did not have enough polish on the stamper for my ring finger at the tip.  I like this design =]


And now, because I absolutely can't be on any sort of no-buy..
Another Sally's and wal mart haul!  Oh payday..

First up:Sally's.  I actually almost got two Hunger Games polishes because they're $1 off right now, but my mission was for more glitter.  Mission: accomplished.  For now..


I picked up China Glaze Fairy Dust, I'd been eyeing this baby for a bit, and heard many great things, like that it turns any mani into magic. We'll see =]


Also, CG Liquid Crystal from the Prismatic collection.  This is the only one that I have from it, and I really like it.  The color shifts from a light blue to a light purple with lots of different colored glitter and shimmers.  Very pretty =]

I got two Sally Girls, a gold and a pink glitter.  I like these, and I think that someday my Sally Girls will come in handy should I choose to start franken-ing =]


I also bought a huge thing of acetone, which was like three bucks I think with my Sally's card, and another nail file!


Wal-mart:

Sally Hansen Double Duty base and top coat.  My nails are getting longer, I need some more protection!  Revlon Blue Lagoon, Maybelline Color Show Tenacious Teal and Porcelain Pretty.


All together now:

All of these are two coats.


Whew. Okay I gotta stop now!  Next month, I plan on beginning the indie section of my stash!


What's your favorite indie polish brand?

Summer Challenge: Day 1!

In case you haven't been reading or following any of the blogs that I follow (what's wrong with you?!) then you probably don't know anything about the summer challenge.  Started by Debbie from The Crumpet, it's a reallllllly long, and hopefully reallllllly awesome challenge, and it's my first!

click here to get all the deets on the Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge fb page!

Today's theme: The Olympic torch starts its journey.

I must say, I haven't kept up with the Olympics for a while, the last one came about the year I graduated high school.  I can't tell you what I was doing (such a hazy memory of that time..) but I can imagine I was celebrating like I had just won the Olympics.  I used to love watching the gymnastics and a few other various parts on TV when I was a little kid though.  Then I got pissed when I found out this awesome show only runs every four years! whaaaat..

So my mani is pretty basic, I'm really only using the colors for the rings for this one. Red, green, blue, black, and yellow which I have substituted gold for.  Aren't I just cool? ha..

This is Sally Hansen Double Duty base coat, two coats of Maybelline Color Show Tenacious Teal on my index, middle and pinky fingers. For my thumb and ring fingers I have painted diagonally with Pure Ice Black Rage, and for the other half Color Club Disco Nap.  On top of these I have sponged Sally Girl no name gold glitter, it's really a simple clear base with small and medium sized gold glitter pieces.  I focused on sponging the entire nail on the thumb and ring fingers, while only about halfway on the rest.  Then, I have taken a dotting tool and made dots in Pure Ice French Kiss, Siren, and Black Rage on my teal fingers.  Topped off with Seche Vite.

So, I hope that I do get to watch this year's Olympics, and incorporate something better than just colors into my manis.  Oh yeah, there are a few more Olympic themes left, as well as a lot of other cool creative ideas to get your lacquered-crazed brains a-goin =]

Here are the ladies who participated in the challenge today: