Ooohs and Ahhh's accepted.

Every once and a while, you do a nail art design that you just really REALLY love.  You can't stop staring at them and showing them off and hoping that people will run up to you on the street saying OMG THOSE ARE MAGNIFICENT! Well, this happened to me the past few weeks,  Come on along with me, let me share :)

The first design I'm showing you is an experiment with Julep Nora and my Essence Gold nail studs.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but my boyfriend is in a band.

Now, its not that I'm picky about music, I listen to a bunch of different genres, but I really REALLY don't like those screamy metal bands where its really just angry people groaning over loud music.  I'm sure there are people that think thats an artform, but I am not one of them.  Anyway, whenever I talk about my boyfriends band, I always say that it is 'surprisingly listenable'.  He plays guitar and sings for Lucky 33 (check them out! Like their page!), and they're a punk band here in my hometown, Syracuse NY.  Its not so much 'Punk' like Rancid or the Ramones, but more like Taking Back Sunday or Brand New.  There are melodies, choruses and pogo-jumps ;)   Anyway, one of the bars that the boys usually play at closed down, and they played the final show that was hosted at that bar.  It was an all-around good time.  Lots of drinks and good music.  ANYWHOOOOO these were the nails that I sported to the show.  I thought that the matte polish was very reminiscent of my punk age where I would color my nails with a sharpie and wear dark eyeliner.  The metal studs added that final touch of rock&roll.

After these nails came off, I decided to get some inspiration from good ol Pinterest, and I found these adorable nails:

How cute and perfect are these???  I absolutely love the colors and the glitter and the stripes and stars! 

Well, I don't know if my recreation of them was just wrong because of the colors I used or that my lines weren't perfect but they were not so great.

As you can see below, I switched up the pink for some minty green and went to town.  I decided to only do one star on my thumb as well, but I generally feel like the look wasn't as magical as the one to my right.  The colors I used in my own look were as follows: Zoya Jacqueline (cream polish), Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Golden-I & Sally Hansen Complete Salon Makeover Green Tea.

I think I just realized what the problem is.  The Golden-I polish makes my nails look like gold teeth and it creeps me out. 

  

I was just too ambivalent about these nails, so I took a trip to Ulta with my bestie and had a little haul (swatches to come later for the other polishes).  When we went there, Ulta brand polishes were $2.  TWO DOLLARS? How can you turn that down?  I had been in the market for a perfect coral polish and Ulta's Showgirl just really caught my eye.  So much so that it was immediately put on my nails when I got home.  I knew I needed something to spice it up and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out DreamCatcher nails! Take a look!

I can honestly say that I haven't loved a nail design as much as these in a very long time.  The color is outstanding, and even though these kind of colors don't usually look good on me, I think that this shade is perfect for my skintone.  The formula was perfect and although I used 3 coats,  I could have gotten away with two. 

For the dreamcatcher itself I had stolen some of my bestie's polishes.  While I have you all here, I should mention her blog.  She is incredibly funny and super talented so check her out!

Anyway, to the best of my knowledge, the black is Sally Hansen BlackOUT, the Yellow is Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, the feathers are Ulta On Taupe of the world brushed lightly with China Glaze Swing Baby, the purple is OPI Planks Alot, and the bluey green is Julep Daphne.

What do you guys think???

Long time no post, so SPAMMER TIME!

It has been weeks since I've posted.  I am aware of this, but the problem was this:

See this guy over here? This is my baby.  My pride and joy for the past 7 years, Shaggy the American Saddlebred.  Now, I have been riding and competing with horses for 11 years now, so I'm pretty seasoned when it comes to the whole horse show business.  One thing that I always have to prepare for is finger blisters (pictured below)...

 I never seem to be able to avoid getting these bad boys.  Opening plastic bags of shavings with your bare hands over and over again is always going to do some damage.  Despite my nasty looking blisters, I wasn't walking around all nakey-nails.  I rocked some killer new polishes during competition.  To the left is Orly's Boho Bonnet topped with OPI'S The Golden Age.  These were my competition nails channeling blue ribbons and gold medals.  We didn't win, but 6th place was a great pull for us!  To the left is Julep's Nora.  I got this in Julep's Warehouse sale and was so happy because I had been drooling over it for months!  Its a gorgeous Matte Suede polish that looks like a purple grey granite rock!

The day after the horse show ended I made my way to my Grandmother and Grandfather's 65th Anniversary party!
It was a garden party so these nails were my tribute:

I used Zoya's Jacqueline topped with Orly Boho Bonnet, Essie Lilacism for the flowers.

A few short days passed and it was my favorite day of the year, MY BIRTHDAY!

Birthdays are always super special to me.  It's the one day where you can be a princess and use the excuse "BECAUSE IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!"  The first step of being a birthday princess in my book is getting a swagger new dress and match the nails to it.  I got a wonderful dress from Old Navy on clearance for $13, and swung by Ulta and grabbed two of their polishes to create this look along with Essie Bobbing for Baubles.  Ulta's Bam-Blue-Zled as the base with a Indigo-Go-Girl as my glittery fasion nail and Bobbing for Baubles creating the pattern.  I really liked the way these turned out and adored the dress.  It was a fabulous birthday.

Of course birthdays mean birthday presents, and for me that meant that I had to swatch all of my new babies for you!

WHO'S READY FOR SOME SPAM SWATCHES!!!!

First up is OPI My Private Jet. 

 

 

This is a polish that I had been wanting for a while that stemmed from my long-term need to own OPI Holiday Glow.  I found this online and thought that one of the versions was very similar to Holiday Glow, and set out on an epic mission to get My Private Jet!  Now I'm still not really sure which version I have...I'm fairly sure I have the 'Ick Black'.  But either way I wasn't wowed.  It reminds me of Zoya Storm, but with less holo, and it doesn't remind me at all of my beautiful Holiday Glow.  I'm just gonna have to suck it up and buy it off ebay *sigh*

Next, OPI Number One Nemesis

This is a polish that I was acutally pleasantly surprised by.  My boyfriend picked this out for me because its such a unique color in the bottle.  It does remind me a lot of Zoya Fei Fei, but it has a lot more green color to it. It is most definitely going to be a go-to fall color for me.

How about some LIPPMANN FOR YA!!!

 

 

If you don't know what this polish is, you don't know anything about nail polish.  This is my first Deborah Lippmann polish, and one that I have been drooling over for a very long time.  Across the Universe is a deep blue jelly with beautiful blues and green glitters mixed into it.  It is just, simply, a perfect polish.  

 

BUTTER UP! for some Butter London!

This little beauty is, of course, No More Waity Katie.  I was so excited to get my mitts on this (and get this on my mitts)!  Its the most stunning lavender polish with bright purple sparkly polish mixed in.

Next up, more OPI! 

 

 

My Bestie has bought me the majority of these polishes, and she knows that I have been struggling to find THE perfect nude, and she absolutely found it! Don't Pretzle My Buttons (which I keep wanting to say "Don't Wetzle my Pretzle" for whatever reason) is absolutely perfect for my skintone.  Its the best nude I've ever worn, and I'm stoked to have it in my collection now! The blue underneath is another color that Bestie got for me.  One day, while sitting in her bedroom, I complained that I don't have a good blue to do turquoise stone nails with.  PROBLEM SOLVED! I can't wait to try our Can't Find My Czekbook out with some gold and black crackled on it!

 

....and now some PIXIE DUST!

Let me be the first to say that I am on the fence about this polish.  I absolutely love the color of this polish and I think it looks fantastic with my skintone, but I really can't get over the whole texture of it.  The first time I tried a liquid sand polish was What Wizardry is This? From OPI's Great and Powerful Oz collection.  I saw it in the grocery store and said 'HEY this looks like Holiday Glow' and I did a one-stroke swatch on my pinky.  I hated it.  It was a scratchy poop-brown color and I think it really just put me off of textured polishes.  I just like feeling soft shiney nails!  But anyway I promised myself that I would give this a few wears to see how I could handle it.  I'll keep ya posted ;)

 

 

Last but not least, Essie!

This is Naughty Nautical, probably one of my favorite polishes from the birthday haul.  I just love the color and how its got just a hint of shimmer to it.  The application was amazing and the formula was nice and opaque.  Nothing more you could possibly ask for in a polish.  Plus, fun fact, it matches my bathroom walls:

Pretty great right?

 

 

So thats all I've got for this post.  I've got some more nail art designs that I'm going to post later today.  Lemme know what you think!