Pink and Red and Lacy Stamping! What?!

I'm hiding from my boys as I sit on the steps listening to them play happily. I bet it will last threes muted, so I will make this quick.

I'm not a girls girl. I rarely paint my nails pink. Dark red, not bright red, if red at all. I guess an occasional magenta is used or some bold other red pink hue... But definitely not pale pink. Not often.

Introducing my pink and bright red manicure, with a floral/leafy/swirly stamp on two accent nails in reverse fashion. I splurged on myself and used a bit of my new business profit to buy a set of MASH stamping plates. LOVE them! I couldn't decide what to stamp, so I made Desi do the final selection!

Zoya Gewenth is a creamy bright red that's a little on the cooler side of the color spectrum. Covered my blue stained thumb in two coats. Portia is the light pink. Also creamy. Took two full coats to cover.

Portia is my kind of pale pink, I decided, and I would have no issue wearing it plain. It's pale, but a bit dusty, a bit mauve. It's not Pepto pink. Not bubble gum. Not baby. I just can't do those colors. Nope. I've tried. They last a few hours and then they have to leave.

Portia didn't stamp very opaque over Gweneth, but I kind of love it that way. Had I not been nervous that I would wreck my other nails continuing to stamp (because the first four went on quick and wonderfully I was certain the odds were against me), I might have done them all.

But, here you have it, my girly stamping adventure that I ended up living. Might top coat it and preserve it a few days.

Scratch that. I won't. I want to try more stamps soon. Haha.

And... Cue Ollie fussing.

Zoya "Skylar"

I've always been drawn to blue nail polishes. The color makes up a great majority of my 100+ polish collection and I own several different shades among various brands. Today's manicure is "Skylar" by Zoya and it is part of their Spring 2012 collection. The website describes Skylar as a medium steel blue. It also has a gorgeously subtle silver & gold shimmer. (It reminds me of Pooh's forlorn friend, Eeyore.) Today was my first time using Skylar and I think I have a new favorite polish!

I'd hoped to get a better quality picture with my Kodak camera today, but the Kodak didn't agree, as it refused to power on for me. So, another dubious-quality iPhone photo it is!

 

If you've never tried Zoya, please do! Be sure to follow them on Twitter and/or Facebook to get information on their frequent amazing deals!

 

-Desirae

Revlon Girly

Just a quick swatch for y'all today, & my crappy iPhone pic does it no justice. I picked up Revlon "Girly" at WalMart for $3.97 and I love it! When I have more time, I'll try it over a pink or purple and share, but for now, here is Girly all by itself, with 2 coats and a clear top coat. I love the pink & purple sparkles!

 I first saw this color on Instagram. Michele (@checkthesenailsout) swatched it and I thought it was pretty cute! If you're a nail fanatic and you use Instagram, you should definitely follow her...she posts lots of great manicures & other nail related stuff! Here's her swatch...she used Girly over OPI's Pink Friday on her accent nail. The blue is W7's Salt N Pepper in 2 coats.

I'll be back soon! My nails are in desperate need of some TLC and fun color! :)

-Desirae

Let's Get Mawwied!

Last week, I saw a post on Facebook from an indie polish line I admire and therefore follow. It was asking for ideas for her Princess Bride inspired collection.

I suggested "A Dweam Wiffim a Dweam."

She chose my name, and as a thank you prize, let me pick a polish from the line.

I chose "Let's Get Mawwied!"

It came today!

It's a creamy white base with multiple colored and multiple sized pastel hex glitter. It also has light blue micro glitter. I wish my phone camera could have picked up all of the beauty in this polish! It reminds me of conversation hearts and Easter! Never seen a polish like it.

I applied one coat over a bright white base, except on the accent nail I did two to see if there was a big difference. Had I the time to commit to removing two coats of glitter off all ten fingers, I would have gone back and done them all! I'm too impatient for that, even with acetone.

I didn't get to clean up super well because Spencer is feisty today.

Application was excellent. Even coverage and the glitters all lay flat. I love it! I will try it over more pastels at some point!

If I could link, I would, but I can't, so please copy and paste and go check out http://www.facebook.com/lynbdesigns. I can't wait to own more someday!

Bust a Mauve!

Just a quick one. After the mess on my water spotted nails, I decided just to put on a color to hide the blue stain on my naked thumb nails (thanks to a lack of base coat the other day).

I chose Nicole by OPI - Bust-a Mauve.

I choose to describe it as a mauve glitter bomb with a few other micro glitter colors, like orange and blue.

It's pretty, but took three coats to cover completely.

Back later with a new indie!

Water spotting during nap.

When I saw an online tutorial for water spotting your nails (kind of like marbling), I wanted to try it ASAP.

Today was the day! Yes, I was excited. I didn't want to do a super funky bright and bold combo, but rather a more muted lol and only on a few nails to test it out.

Enter Essie - Merino Cool (a dusty purple) and Zoya - Amanda.

I gave three fingers two coats of Amanda, a pink beige color. The rest got two coats of the Essie color. When Amanda was dry (haha), I taped off the skin around the nails, got out my medicine cup and a bottle of Victoria's Secret body must, filled the cup with warm water, put about five drops of Essie on the surface, then spritzed it with body spray. Chose a spot and dipped the taped nail (nail side down) into the polish floating on the water, waited for it to dry, swirled a toothpick to get the excess off, pulled the finger out and took off the tape. I did it two more times.

I let them dry and covered with NYC mate top coat (like I often do). The boys were both newly down for naps when I started the process which hadn't taken long at this point...

And as Murphy (think: law) would predict, Collin woke up prematurely and was irate.

So, my almost dry nails all got damaged.

I took a picture anyway, to show my first attempt. Lots of smudges and funny textures. Thanks, baby boy.

This would have looked great on Sunday. I have a shirt these colors I could have worn to church. Maybe I will try it again. We will see.


I think it would have worked better if the cup I used were a bit bigger and the spray must not quite so fine. I might try to just flick drops of diluted rubbing alcohol on it next time and hope for more and smaller holes in the polish.

Stamp of Approval...almost.

Before I jump into the manicure, I figured I should take a cue from Nik and introduce myself. I'm Desirae, a 32 year old wife and mom from south Louisiana. . I've been married for nearly 9 years now and our son is 2.5 years old. I also have an almost 12 year old German Shepherd named Hannah. In addition to being a nail polish hoarder, I also love to read and I am addicted to my iPhone. Nik and I have been friends for about a decade now and while we haven't met yet, we hope to some day! I'm sure when we do, first thing on the agenda will be giving each other a manicure! :)

Naptime manicures are a bit like playing Russian roulette...will he sleep long enough to let my nails dry? Let's take a chance and find out! But I can't blame today's smudged ring finger on a short nap...it's my own impatience. I'm horrible about letting my nails dry before I move on to something else. Hence today's imperfect manicure. Oh, well. You'll get the good, the bad, and the ugly here, folks!

I got my January 2013 ipsy Glam Bag in the mail today. It included a Nailtini polish called "Frappe" so of course, I had to use it right away. I'll be honest. I'm not usually a nude polish kinda girl. But this one is pretty awesome. Great coverage and no streaks with just two coats! It's one of those "your nails but better" kind of colors. I decided to get fancy and do a little stamping over it. I used OPI "Yoga-ta Get This Blue!" to stamp the leafy/scroll design over it. (You can do your own fancy-schmancy stamping with this stamper/scraper by Konad & some fun Bundle Monster nail plates. I used plate #BM20.)

Stamping is fun, but takes some practice. I'm still working on getting it lined up just right. Probably not gonna keep this on long...in fact, after this post is done, I'll be getting out the polish remover & cotton balls. Had I taken my time, it'd be a keeper!

I used Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Crystal Clear as a top coat.

Until next time...