Swatch time...

Swatching is so time consuming when I fall behind!  It takes a long time to get myself organized and things in order.  The actual swatching doesn't take too much time though.  Here is some of what I am working on.  I am practically caught up but I needed more wheels - I will get those soon.

Thanks for visiting!
Brandy

11/21/12 Nail Mail

A little bit of nail mail to start off my Thanksgiving holiday!  Today I got a bottle of OPI's Last Friday Night  and Zoya Katherine, Paloma, Frida.  The Zoyas are lovely Jelly colors.

 

Thanks for visiting!
Brandy

11/19/12 Nail Mail

I love nail mail!  Today's special is some Orly and Zoya with a little Seche thrown in. 

• Zoya Tallulah
• Seche Recondition ("adds flexibility to fragile nails")
• Seche Natural (matte finish)
• Orly Mysterious Curse



The Orly mysterious curse is from the Dark Shadows collection and is just beautiful!  It is a duochrome that is purple then blue!  So, so pretty.

I can't wait to try them out!

Thanks for visiting!

Brandy







Walgreens Haul

Nouveou Cheap had posted on her blog that Walgreens had once again put their Sally Hansen polishes on clearance.  I can't refuse a deal so I hit it up!  Here is what I got!  I am not going to list out all of their names (unless someone asks me to), but you can see some pictures.  Who doesn't love pictures?

Thanks for visiting,
Brandy

11/15/12 Nail Mail

I received some beautiful Orly polishes today that I purchased from ebay.  As a special bonus, the seller included popular by Revlon!  I have been eyeing this one for quite some time and was especially pleased with this gift.

Here is what I received as seen in the photo from left to right:

• Shimmering Mauve
• Sterling Silver Rose
• Space Cadet
• Rose Radiance
• Popular by Revlon

Thanks for visiting,
Brandy

Birthday Manicure

Well, it is my birthday so I am doing something fun.  It is a pretty low key day for me, so this is me finding a simple pleasure for myself.  :)  I decided to try my hand at water marbling - they say practice makes perfect.  I have a lot of practice ahead of me in order to get perfect at it.  For the accent nails, I did a cupcake stamp.  It's cute!

Here is what I used:

• Water marble colors:
• Wet n Wild Megalast - On a trip
• Wet n Wild Megalast - Tropicalia
• Wet n Wild Megalast - I Need a Refresh-Mint
• Accent Nails:
• Base Color = Wet n Wild Megalast - On a trip
• Stamp Colors - Wet n Wild Megalast - I Need a Refresh-Mint, Wet n Wild Megalast - Candy-licious with Kleancolor Starry Night as the glitter topping
• BM-307 stamp
• Top coat = Seche Vite

Happy Birthday to me!  Thanks for visiting!
Brandy

Smoker's habit?

For a long time, I never wore a base coat.  My nail polish would chip or take forever to dry with so many layers.  That was before I became more educated about this nail polish world.  Even with using a base coat, I am getting some serious staining on my nails.  The last time I took my polish off (before the husband's choice mani), my husband said that my nails look like I had a 2-pack-a-day habit.  I mean they are practically orange!  Needless to say, I am not a smoker.  I need to remember to do some things to better take care of my natural nails!  They need a day of rest so they can get oxygen and sunlight (if there is any).  They need to be soaked and scrubbed and buffed.  Oh, that brings me to another topic.  My nails have been peeling lately.  That is unusual for me so I didn't want to do any buffing so that I didn't remove too many layers of my nail at one time.  Anyway, I digress.

This post is just to show you how bad things have gotten with my lovely nails. Here is what I started with.



before any treatment



my kitty cat is in the background

 

I decided to try and remedy this situation (if possible) so I took a look around on Pinterest to see what I could find.  I found 2 to try.  The first one was baking soda and peroxide only.  I soaked in that for like 10 minutes.  Here is what happened there...

 

The 2nd treatment also involved baking soda and peroxide.  It had added hot water though; and it required a light buffing.  Here is what happened with that:

 

 

So, there is quite a bit of improvement.  I would say "I'll just let them grow out" but we are entering winter now and nails don't grow as fast in cold weather.  And Buffalo gets cold!

 

Thanks for visiting!

Brandy





Bad nail mail?

I don't know that there really is such a thing as bad nail mail.  I love all polishes so this blog title is not necessarily all true.  The polishes are beautiful and I love them.  The issue is that they are not as they were described on ebay.  I expected full size bottles, not minis.  That is my only complaint on this, really.  Here is what I got:

• Zoya - Kristen
• Color Club - Blue-Ming
• Color Club - Age of Aquarius
• Color Club - Insta-this

Since I didn't follow my instincts last night with a blue color palette, this is going to have to do for my ode to World Diabetes Day.

Thanks for visiting.

Husband's choice

So, after the big "nail break" incident yesterday, I had to do my nails again last night.  Another way to justify my collection is to involve my spouse whenever possible.  I asked him what he wanted to see and he just kept saying "fall colors".  I told him that I already had brown and orange on my nails but he wouldn't hear it.  I really wanted to try a Jelly Sandwich mani, since I haven't done one before.  He was adamant...and I let him have his choice.  But, he had a caviat in that he had to pick out everything for the mani.  So, he picked the colors and the stamps for it.

Here is what he picked out:

• Brown = Forbidden Fudge (Sally Hansen)
• Gold = Swing Baby (China Glaze)
• Stamps:
• Reeds - RA118
• Tips - BM324

I'm still working out taking better pictures.  Here is what I ended up with. 

The tips didn't come out very well, but the reeds look fabulous!  I love those.  I may add a glitter top coat tonight, but I am pretty exhausted from the news that my husband delivered to me on my way home from work.  The job we were counting on him starting on the 26th has just fallen through.  Big Bummer!  On to plan B - what ever that may be.

Thanks for visiting.

And...Good Morning to YOU!

Just a bit of frustration this morning as I broke a nail.  Why does it always happen with the most mundane tasks?  I was opening a door at work first thing this morning and this happened. 





How sad.  I guess that means another mani is in my future for this evening.  Maybe?