PaA Challenge: Fierce Nail Accent

I.love.accent.nails. I do! I see the accent nail as a place to put on even more colors/patterns without going overboard. So this week's challenge over at PolishAcholics had me a bit thrilled:

Ok so this manicure is both a fail and a win. I got a TON of new nail polish this month and I got to use several on this manicure. I wanted the accent to be a solid fan tapering up from one corner but I haven't gotten the hang of my new brushes. No biggie - also I need a bit more practice on the striper brush. Again - no biggie since I really like the final look on this one.

The base color is Essie Braziliant, topped with the gold/holo glitter from the Beyond the Mistletoe Color Club set. Accent finger is a base of Gold Chrome Quick Color Sally Hansen pen with Julep Olivia brushed over and stripe accents in Sinful Colors Oh La La and topped with Essie As Gold as it Gets.

It's a cold fall (on the verge of winter) day here. Happy Holidays all!!

P.S. I totally got almost ALL of my Christmas shopping done on Black Friday....don't tell the kids but they are getting DS Lites!!! I'm way stoked if you can't tell ;)

Essie Luxeffects: Shine Of The Times = WOW!

So I recently bought the unnamed Cosmetic Arts flakie and its, well, flakie. All over the place flakie and in all directions and somewhat untameable. Still gorgeous but it has NOTHING on this:

Essie Shine Of The Times. All the swatches I've seen didn't capture the incredible light and depth of this polish! All of these are natural light - no flash. Silky smooth formula and application makes this nail polish such a win!

Here's the bottle itself - flakie goodness! This is painted over Orly Fowl Play and a variety of purples. I adore this manicure.

Here it is in lower light. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Interested in getting the Essie Luxeffects before it hits stores next month? Check out aveyou.com - use "FTD" at checkout to get 15% off - which would cover shipping costs if you order the whole collection!

ALERT! Flash French Tip Dip Sale - 50% OFF!!! EXPIRED

DO NOT MISS THIS! I just posted my review a few days ago - if you were on the fence get off it right this instant and snap this up. French Tip Dip 50% off sale for the ENTIRE website! Use coupon code FTD50 at checkout. This is ONLY till midnight so do not hesitate.

Pumpkin Patch Manicure

So back at the free shipping promotion I got Zoya Midori which was a long longed for color. Honestly I'm not impressed and it's probably going to leave my collection soon. Not sure what I was expecting but in person it failed to wow me.

There is nothing wrong with the formula or opacity - two coats here (stamped with Zoya Jancyn and Zoya Shawn). I just found the color to be lack-luster is all.

I LOVED this little gourd though! We had a great time, but kids are kids and when you go into their naptime this happens:

Ah the beautiful image of a late fall day ;)

Men polishing their nails: the ORIGINAL frontier

So a news article featuring a new line of men's nail polish perked my interest (as it no doubt should) since it poses the question, "Why shouldn't guys have a little fun without it being assumed they are gay, goth, or punkers?" Not that any of those things are wrong - it's more the stereotype. My husband is none of those and here's what he likes to do:

He only paints his thumbnail and loves layers. Here he's trying out one of the unnamed Cosmetic Arts from Ross.

He didn't like this one - he actually didn't layer it and wished he had. The large glitter drove him a bit nuts and he took it back off. I wish he would have let me take a picture of the one he did where he painted out Orly Peacock with flakies layered over it - it looked amazing!

At any rate he's just a regular guy who thinks my obsession is silly, enduring and adorable...and sneaks some tests of the polishes himself every so often. Check out the new line called EvolutionMen here and see how the test went for the reporter. To preoder go here.

For more male nail polish also check out ManGlaze - little rough around the edges (ie do not click through if you are easily offended) but I'm pretty sure that's because it is actually meant for rockers.

P.S. My husband thinks that new line is....weird. Men.  

On The Prowl: Cougar Attack

I love glitter. I do not love glitter by itself. The conclusion is I never paint glitter by itself. I also should have posted this one WEEKS ago but it got lost in my dozens of manicure pictures. Oops.

So it went on over this mocha colored Sinful Colors that I've already handed off to someone else so I don't even know which one it is!! Cougar Attack is copper colored glitter in a translucent brown base (not a jelly base).

This is the Sinful Color on its own.

And the accent nail fail. That's Zoya Gemma over the Sinful Color and it was not a lovely combination. However this Sinful Color made an incredible base to really make Cougar Attack shine!

French Tip Dip Kit: Review (photo heavy)

So I got to go and do a workshop for nail art and trends and asked a couple of companies for donations and French Tip Dip Kit was was kind enough to sent me a kit AND enough files and orange sticks for my entire class! Just so you know I did not pay for this kit and I wasn't actually asked to do a review, but I love it so much I bought a kit for a friend's birthday and wanted to share with you how it went!

Now this was my first time doing this and there IS a learning curve. If I were to compare it I'd actually say it's less difficult to pick up then stamping it and the results are much nicer then stamped tips (which I STILL can't seem to get on straight). The kit itself contains:

• Tip tool with four different sizes
• Large white nail polish (1 oz.)
• Sheer Genius (.5 oz.)
• 3 minute top coat (.5 oz)
• 2 pots for pouring paint into for dipping
• Art card (laminated to practice on and has instructions on reverse side

Supremely amazing little kit and so much nicer then taped tips!
Onto the conference itself:

 I first went through he contents - you can see in the photos that I have a typed sheet and it covered the steps for the manicure itself in depth and gave some tips and ideas.

All in all it really made the class amazing! I am so happy I got to share it with others and try it out for myself and really recommend it highly to those of you who have been on the fence about whether to do it or not. It works with any nail polish (just pour it into a clean pot, dip, and then apply), and always be sure to pour your nail polish back into the bottle after use and clean out the pot. If you are looking for the different kits available (some with nail polish and some without) check it out here: French Tip Dip Kit.

P.S. These would fit PERFECTLY into a stocking! Just an FYI.

L.A. Colors Goddess (art stamped in Color Club Blue-topia)

L.A. Colors are cheap - we all know that - and not overly unusual. But every so often you run into a supremely amazing one and Goddess is it. At first I wasn't feeling it - looks pretty gold to me. But the glitter drew me in. Micro-glitter paired with hex glitter in a shimmery gold base that went on smooth as butter (albeit a bit on the sheer side) but turned out to be more champagne colored!

The hex glitter has silver holographic shine to it that really cools the gold into a champagne. It took three coats to reach full opacity but I didn't mind as it dries super fast. The finish is not smooth (this is typical with a cheap glitter nail polish), but 2 coats of Color Club top coat fixed that.

I took with flash to catch the glitter - it's simply amazing! This manicure really feels more Christmas season. The blue is Color Club Blue-topia which paints so dark you nearly can't tell it's blue and not black (I DESPISE colors this dark - I don't see the point), but it stamps out insanely amazing!

All in all a win! I don't know if you can purchase this outside the L.A. Colors Modern Glitters set, but the set is only 5.99 and the other glitters are awesome too.

BTW tomorrow is my birthday and I have a lot to show you!

Upload Winner: Julep Drew and Julep cuticle oil

So Julep did a Maven contest about 2 weeks ago where the first 10 people to upload their Maven story videos won a Julep color of choice and a cuticle oil. Mine sucks, but I didn't have time to change, plan or do anything except click that button as fast as I could. So no judging if you come across it ;) Oh the levels we will stoop to for nail polish. At any rate I won and let my hubby pick out my color....and he picked pink.....oh joy. EXCEPT it turned out to be a really awesome color!!

Julep has never failed me on the formula. Silky-smooth and gorgeous application this nail polish is opaque with one coat. I do two out of habit. Also that is Drew stamped over Wet N' Wild Blue Wants to be a Billionaire. Stamped wonderfully!

This is what I won - I really like the cuticle oil. It has a roller ball top and smells like a mixture of lavender and lemongrass. It's applies nicely and really moisturizes my cuticles. At 18.00 it's a bit spendy but I actually might buy it since I use it way more then my balm now.

In closing this haul is AMAZING and my kids are driving me crazy. It probably has to do with the very little sleep I got last night. Or the fact that my son knows his birthday is tomorrow and won't stop reminding me about it (would it be wrong to give him nail polish?). Or the fact that the toddler is a toddler. Or all over the above....I need coffee.....