Blue on blue and Monday Minicure

I have GOT to get better about my Monday manicures. This week's challenge over at PAA on Facebook is blue on blue. Also I got distracted by cracked.com....that's random but how random are different textures in a duo tone manicure with different blues? Ok not that random....anyhow.....

Starting from the base up we have Julep Jaime, Sally Girl Blue Glitter, NYC Skin Tight Denim, and then China Glaze Crackle Oxidized Aqua. I did a top coat over the glitter and then top coat over the whole thing at the end so this ended up pretty thick.

  I love the effect! The Sally Girl is my first of this polish type and I totally love it!

 Such a wonderful manicure but the thickness of it was quite a bit. The differences of textures and all the blues made my hubby happy who thought it was amazing! Now onto the cute part of this post.

The other day my daughter announce she was big enough to do her own nails - when asked at the dinner table what the best part of her day was she said, without hesitation, the part where she got to do her nails. Such happiness!!!

Look at how carefully she brushes off the excess polish and how neatly she paints!!! So much cuteness - my hubby says I've created a monster. Welcome monster to the nailaholic ranks - where we chase lemmings and dusty hunt to feed our passion ;)

Monday Minicure and my accidental Barbie colored manicure

So this nail thing has been an area of growth for me. I HATED pink and, through nail therapy, have come to enjoy pinks. But, in my zeal, this happened:

Please not this is an OLD mani and that's my cuticles are atrocious. Base is pink glass by Sinful Colors, stamped with Zoya Dannii, and tipped with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Strobe Lights. Not a bad mani in and of itself, but really....kind of reminds me of this Barbie my friend had back in 1995. Yikes.

Natural light doesn't really help.

My mini is sporting a silver Hello Kitty polish with Born Pretty Hello Kitty stickers adorning it.

She's awful cute isn't she? She loves her HK polishes (available at Target and Ross) and they are just the cutest and smoothest little girl polishes I've come across yet.

*dies of cuteness overload*

Julep Maven Unboxing and Review - SWATCHES (photo heavy)

So I mentioned the Julep Maven box last week and I received it this last weekend. To watch the video of the unboxing click here. You'll see how it was packaged and what was in it as it came in the mail.

For now here's the contents of the box:

A nice box of fabulous nail and hand care items.

Let's not lie though our biggest interest are the nail polishes and whether they are worth all the hype (and the 14.00 a bottle).

First is the Nail Therapy I received. I know the intro boxes are probably just pre-assembled and that's why I received this, but it was strange to get a nail strengthener when I said my nails are nice and strong. I do have nice nails (as I'm sure you can tell), BUT I do normally use a nail strengthener for my base coat so it's not a big deal in the slightest. The brush on this is amazing and this painted on nicely so we'll see how it holds up over this next week. All in all I do like it quite a bit.

Pre-cleanup and top coat - wanted you to see how this paints out by itself. This is dry and 2 coats.

I am "IT Girl" - my two colors are Sienna (the cult classic) and Emilie (the not yet released from the Fall 2011 collection). First off: I AM SOLD. Wow! The packaging is super clever, the brushes are nice, long, flexible, but strong and the polish itself is INCREDIBLE. One coat would have been enough. The nail polishes paint out with a nice gloss and the formula is silky smooth. Dries in a reasonable time and is 3-free. Safe for me and my little girl:

They look great on her too (it is Minicure Monday after all and she loves to have nails that match mommys - her favorite is the green).
Emilie: A green creme that dries with a high gloss. Super pigmented.
Sienna: A platinum that looks more silver in some lights and more gold in other lights. Smooth formula and dries as a foil.
Now do they stamp? Oh yes, yes they do!

So I am looking forward to getting more boxes and more colors. I'll be posting a further review at the end of this week on the glycolic hand scrub, but so far I'm loving that too.

http://www.julep.com/AP.aspx?ID=XX&EID=14785602

Code: smh9oxu (this is a 15.00 off code so you can try out Julep Maven for 4.99)

My Shattered Manicure - Minicure Monday

So this manicure started when I came downstairs to find that the toddler had pushed his sister's bench down the stairs and it went straight through the window. We live in a rental with a landlord who loves to nit pick every tiny thing. Apparently when we moved here we weren't supposed to actually "live" in the house. Gees what was I thinking right?

So to deal with my stress I created this mani:

OPI Not like in the movies meets Wet N' Wild Disturbia (two celebrity polishes) and I LOVE how Disturbia really brings out the purple duochrome side to this polish. Super fine glitter gives a lovely little shimmer (and reminds me of the glass lol).

You can really see the duality in this picture. Greyish-green with an incredible purple duo makes this one like an oil slick on the fingers (only much safer to have there).

Not the best picture in the whole world but you can really get the glitter in this one - this is with flash.

The image design is a Konad one from plate m73. I love my cheaper plates but the quality difference always jumps out at me when I stamp with a Konad plate. Such wonderfulness.

On the topic of Minicure Monday I feature my daughter's Lisa Frank-esque nails:

I saw this technique where you drop two colors of differing polishes on the design plate and then scrape straight across to get a "gradient" effect and it worked out beautifully! She loved this design so much.

Clean up is nearly impossible with her so I apologize for the design residue left on the fingers but, hey, she's five and what can I really do? I didn't realize till I was editing that she and I were both wearing green of a similar shade...how funny!

Minicure Monday - orange is in you say?

Or rather I said that! I've been up since 5 this morning (came wide awake to a happy 2 year-old shriek). Turns out he was laughing and talking in his sleep. While this is cute it makes for one tired mommy.
Weekend update: so I redid my nails for Friday but they chipped instantly. The culprit? A crack in one of my carefully grown nail! So today I am clipping them ALL down *sob* for Minicure Monday. Here's a minicure flashback while I file, shape and buff:

You were probably beginning to wonder if this mom had lost her marbles and was just jabbering colors. Another from the Hello Kitty collection and bright to boot. No shimmer in this one; it's cream all the way and so much fun.

Mini-me saying she's tired of mommy taking pictures of her nails. Is there such a thing?!?!

Missed Minicure Monday...again

So sorry about that - it's been a crazy couple of weeks getting my step son up here and two kids finishing up school for the year. But I got a text from Constantly Redone last night with a picture of Sally Hansen Crackle on a display stand at Rite Aid. I scored a 3.00 off coupon a bit back, but they didn't have it in (sad face). But I held onto it just in case and I am sooo glad I did! The Distressed Denim was such a vibrant blue that I knew it had to join my collection.

 

What does this have to do with Minicure Monday? Well mini me came downstairs and found this gem and wanted to try it out. How could I say no to those adorable eyes of hers:

Let's take a closer look at the "magic polish":

Big cracks on this one though if you do a thin coat it hardly cracks at all so I recommend a thick coat with this brand. The polish itself is a much thinner consistency then OPI or China Glaze, but still gorgeous and sooooo much fun! I'll update soon with my version. 

Minicure Mondays

I'm vaguely aware it's Tuesday though - vaguely because I'm sick and I had to work most of yesterday putting of Monday's manicure (and the mini as well) to Tuesday. Sad but life goes on and, really, what day isn't a good one for nail polish?

First up is my adorable 5 year-old's nails. She got some nail polishes for her birthday and lately she's really into "patterns" (she watched a Leapfrog episode about patterns). So she picked some scented Strawberry Shortcake nail polishes (no names - just bright, fruity colors).

 

They are tiny bottles and smell super yummy when they dry. Very pigmented though the brushes are lacking at best. Still they are creams with a tiny spattering of glitter in them. Get about a day or two of life out of them or 3-4 if I top her nails with Seche Vite. 

Mommy went with a Wet N' Wild called Wild Card (it's a super frosty purple, but not matte). SHEER! Took three coats to achieve near opaque and a fourth coat was probably needed but, as I mentioned, I'm a 2 coat kind of woman. 

Frosty with a mauve base. Not thrilled with how it paints on and getting that third coat on without it pulling too much was definitely some work. Very pretty color though. Next I stamped using m36 (note the lower case m - this means it's a MASH plate and not Konad). I discovered that Zoya Trixie stamps nicely and thus:

 

Trixie is the dreamiest silver ever. So metallic and foil - yum! I'll swatch her soon just to show you her full glory! Be sure to join Constantly Redone and I next week for Minicure Monday!