My First Indie - Sticks & Stones

Finally got my hands on a bottle of Sticks & Stones!  It's just...just fantastic.  Let's see if I can get everything in here.  Sticks & Stones has big, medium and small white hex glitter, white bar glitter, big and small black hex glitter, big and small black SQUARE glitter (love square glitter) black bar glitter and just a hit of holographic glitter!   It looks great over all the cremes I've tried it on and on a couple jellies too!  Next time I post about this polish it will probably be in a pink jelly sandwich so stay tuned!

On with the show! Here it is over my skittle nails.  Thumb to pinkie I used Hard Candy Splendid, Unnamed pink jelly from the 99cent store, Unnamed Green jelly from Icing(sorry!), Wet&Wild Blazed and Sally Girl Chillax.  Then I topped them with Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love.

OoOoOo, Aaaaah

My sister said it reminded her of a garage floor!  I think she meant one of those kinda fancy garage floors.  My boyfriend even thought this looked cool, he really liked the bar glitter.

Do you have Sticks & Stones or any other black and white glitters?  Are you as madly in love with them as I am?

Crackle - A Torrid Love Affair

I was thinking the other day about what exactly started my nail polish obsession.  I've always liked polish and I have always kept my toenails painted but I never used to be so into painting my finger nails.  I had a small collection of pinks, a couple reds and some pretty sheer pearly whites but I rarely painted my nails.  Then one day I bought a neon pink, you know the kind that it almost hurts to look at.  Well, I painted my nails with it and I was in love!  Still, I wasn't knee deep in polish addiction yet.

So what was it, what really sent me over the edge? SHATTER!  When I saw the OPI Katy Perry collection in InStyle I went bonkers!  I had to have it.  I looked all over for it but it was sold out everywhere.  Finally one day I found the Icing brand Crackle and of course I bought it right away.  I loved it, I still do!  I've only collected 4 colors but I'm so glad I have them.  While other people lost interest in crackles I remain enamored! I don't use them terribly often but I'd never toss them to the wolves.  Today I decided I needed to show my Silver Claire's Crackle a little love with one of my favorite color combos.  Teal/Silver.  Enjoy!

Did you fall in love with the crackle craze?  Do you still enjoy using them?

Summery Water Marble

I was driving home from work the other night and I thought, "I think I want to do a water marble tonight." So I did!  Let me tell ya, if you just suddenly get an urge to do a water marble, you might want to take it as a sign.  It's not something you should try to force or do when you aren't feeling like you have a little extra patience!

I was really happy with the way my left hand came out.  The right, well that was another story.  I didn't like it so I forgot to take a picture of it.  Yeah, that's it...I forgot!

For this one I used a white base color under the marble.  Then I used Claire's-Secret Garden, Grasshopper and Hard Candy-Splendid.

I love the water marble look but it can be such a pain!  Do you enjoy doing them?

Sally's Visit - Skittle Mani with Gradient Accent

So I just renewed my Sally's Card (YAY!)  They sent me my monthly flyer reminding me that it was about to expire and there was a coupon on the back for 15% off and a free Ion or Silk Elements product!  I  ended up being good and just bought some Seche, renewed my card and got a free Ion Conditioner for just a little over 10 bucks!  I think their card is a great deal.  If you don't have one, GET ONE.  I know you might be thinking you don't want to spend the 5 bucks for a card but you get a $5 off coupon for your next visit and there is no set amount that you have to spend to use it.  You can just buy $5 worth of product if you want to.  You also get discounts on just about everything and sometimes it's a pretty good discount.  Just browse around the store and look for the Beauty Club price.  You can save a lot of cash! 

The next day I went back (since I had my $5 coupon) and bought some of the Sally Girl polishes and a bottle of the Beauty Secrets brand thinner.  I used to have the Orly Thinner and let me tell you, the Beauty Secrets brand works just as well!  The bottle is bigger and a little less expensive.  The only down side is the bottle design.  The Orly Thinner has a really nice squeeze bottle top and it's very easy to dispense just a drop or 2.  The Beauty Secrets brand thinner has a flip up spout.  It doesn't just spill out but it's easy to get carried away.  Aside from that, it's great!  I accidentally left a bottle of polish partially open and didn't realize it for a long time.  It was all but completely dried up.  I poured a good deal of thinner in there, mixed it up with an orange stick and then shook the hell out of it!  It totally saved my polish.

Anyway, I didn't intend to ramble on like that but I really love that card and wanted to tell you about the more frugal option of thinner!  What I really wanted to do was show you the mani I did later that night with my Sally Girl minis! (plus one Spoiled)

Unfortunately I can't positively remember the name of the pink on my index finger!  It might be Blink Of Pink but I can't find it on the site. However the rest (middle to pinkie) are Chillax, Epic and Spoiled 2 Weeks Sober. Chillax is more blue then it looks in this picture.

I love the Sally Girl polishes, they always apply really well and dry quickly for me!  Have you tried them?  What did you think?

Warhol Bender - Day 31 - Recreate your favorite Challenge

I have seen this last day interpreted many ways.  Some people recreate a mani of their own from a prior day or a mani someone else did for one of the days.  Our instructions were just to choose your favorite challenge and create a mani based on that theme.

 I have to be honest now, the day I chose wasn't my favorite (shhhh) however, I took this as a chance to retry a challenge that I wasn't very happy with the first time around! I choose Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork.  This was the idea I really wanted to do for the original day but I just didnt have the time after work to do it.  My boyfriend actually came up with this idea so I gotta give him credit for that! 

I present to you my Warhol Bender (the robot).

I really love the index finger here.  I think it came out the best, his expression is perfect and totally says "Bite my shiny metal a**" to me!  The pinkie is my least favorite and kinda reminds me of Marvin The Martian! The eyes on this one gave me a heap of trouble for some reason but overall, I really liked it!  I think I may try this again but instead of all Benders I'll try different characters on every nail.  Something I don't think Bender would take kindly to!

Forom index finger to pinkie I used Claire's Grasshopper, Hard Candy Splendid, Claire's Secret Garden and NYC Fuchsia Shock.  The Benders are all mixed acrylic paints.

Explosions - Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

Day 30 was kinda a flop for me. I was a little stressed out and just couldn't relax.  That usually makes for a bad nail day!  While I was pretty happy with the end result I couldn't get it exactly how I wanted it.  Now, looking back, it seems so easy.  I re-did it today as an accent nail and it came out just right!

The tutorial that inspired me is here Nailside - Explosion Tutorial and here is my submission for day 30. By the time I actually ended up with this I just didn't have time to do the third color for the challenge deadline and honestly I just didn't feel like working on it anymore!

I used Claire's Aqua and Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go for this one.

And here is my re-try of this design as just an accent nail. I used Claire's Bright Skies, FP Easel Come, Easel Go! and Sally Hansen Black heart.  I like this one MUCH better in terms of getting it to look like the tutorial. However, looking back at the original I realize that I do really like the way it came out!

Ever have one of those bad nail days where nothing seems to workout?  I hate those days!

Cutie Ghosties - Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

All I can think about when I hear the word supernatural is Sam, Dean and Castiel.  Oh my goodness, talk about wanting to be touched by an angel!  I'm sorry, was that too much?  I digress...  Seriously though, it's a great show with some super hot guys!

Again, I apologize, that's not what this is about!  I didn't do my nails based off the show. I based it off this tutorial from a very talented lady Nails In Nippon.  I thought it was so freakin' adorable and had been wanting to try it since the first time I saw it!  Here is my version.

You can't be scared by these cute wittle ghosties can you?  They look so friendly and cuddly.