Kiss Me, I'm Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today I've got the most colorful #OOTD I've posted in a long time, along with this year's St. Paddy's day nails.

This entire outfit is Fashion Q. The boots were a Christmas gift and I'm still so happy with them, even though they blend in with my black jeans.

Of course my nails had to get in on the festivities. I mentioned how I've been using the same green polishes for years now. This year I found the newest Pure Ice display and I was so excited to actually find it. I see so many people posting that their Walmarts don't stock the new collections. To be fair, I kind of stumbled upon it. It was in a cardboard display hanging at the end of a random aisle outside the beauty section. These are worth the hunt though!

I used the entire Pure Ice St. Patrick's Day collection: Charmed I'm Sure, Be My Clover, White On Time, and Irish I Was Orange. These adorable rings from Walmart made for a perfect match.

These nails are Irish all the way. Sometimes I think of what I want to do in advance, but with these I wasn't sure. My mom really likes the group Celtic Thunder. I remember watching their first show with her back in the day. She was in the hospital a few years ago and when she got out and was recovering she rediscovered them and since then she's gotten me into watching them too. At the end of their newest show they did "Ireland's Call" and when I saw the flag behind them, I got my inspiration. I mean this collection kind of calls for it, right?

It's always funny to me when I do something simple and spontaneous and I end up loving it.

Hope everyone has a good one today!

St. Patrick's Day Nails Throwback

When it comes to holiday nails, sometimes I don't post them until a whole year later. Why? I do them on the day of the actual holiday and then it's too late to post. By then everyone's sick of it. Although I know a few people who probably could never get sick of green beer!

So here's my 2015 St. Patrick's Day nails. I think I've used these same polishes for every St. Patrick's Day since I've been into nail polish.

I used Call You Later, Happy Ending, and Irish Green all by Sinful Colors. The metallic green shamrocks and dots are a green Snowman Polish.

Spoiler alert: I've done my nails already for this year and I actually used different colors besides green and different polishes. Stay tuned...

Wet N' Wild - Garnet! I Broke A Heel

Here's a swatch I did back in November of Wet N Wild - Garnet! I Broke A Heel from their Holiday 2015 We're The Wild Cats! Collection.

I don't know what called out to me about this polish. Maybe it's the monochrome color. Or maybe it's the name (Garnet is my birthstone). Whatever it was, I had put this back on the shelf and went back for it.

I'm so glad I did! Even though this isn't actually a garnet hue, it's a beautiful polish. I've stayed in the polish trend loop over the past few years but I haven't really bought any of it. This is my first "texture" polish. I love the finish.

If you can still get your hands on these, they're well worth it. Of course now it's January and everyone's on the hunt for Spring collections and pastels and soon enough Summer and it's neons. I'll just sit here with my vampy shades pretending it's still Autumn. :)

Birthday In A Bottle

I toyed around with making the title of this post something like ~Birthday Behavior~ or some other wild exciting phrase but the truth is I spent my birthday getting over the flu so these nails were the closest thing to a party.

But OH. This polish really feels like a birthday in a bottle. I picked this up at Rite Aid around Christmas time. It's one of the Snowman polishes with an ice cream cone cap, so it's unnamed. It has lots of different sized multi-colored glitter in a pink jelly base that totally surprised me when I tried it.

There's no scent sticker like the ones that I got last year had but it's scented - and it smells sweet like cupcakes.

Rings are from Forever 21.

A week later and I still haven't celebrated my birthday. Consider this a Part 1!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Here are some Christmas themed nails that I've been rocking while finishing up my Christmas shopping and last minute stuff.

I used:
Wet N' Wild MegaLast - I Red A Good Book
Wet N' Wild Fergie - No Place Like Home
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme
Wet N' Wild - Garnet! My Heel Broke
Wet N' Wild - Naughty and Iced

and I made Hello Kitty decals using the reverse stamping method and a Born Pretty Store plate.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Candy Cane Nails

So here I was, actually planning on doing another nail challenge. During one of the busiest months of the year, too. Isn't that funny?

My challenge of choice was #nailartchallengedec made by @redkoletz and @glamournailart on Instagram.

It started on the 4th day of December with Candy Cane as the theme, so I happily did it and then got happily too busy to continue, ha.

For the candy cane nails I used:

Salon Perfect - He's With Me
Snowman Polish - Green
Kiss White Striper

On my middle fingers I used:

Snowman Polish - Red & Green Glitter

And on the rest of my nails I wanted to try doing a pond mani so I used:

Santee - Peacock Green Glitter
Santee - Fuchsia Glitter
Kiss White Striper with a dotting tool

I used my Sony a5100 for this picture but I gotta admit when it comes to nails, I think I prefer my iPhone 6. I need to get more practice using it and then maybe I'll like it better but so far the iPhone is easier to hold and focuses on more. It's gotta be all in the settings.

Thankful Vibes #ootd

It's been an absolutely insane year. Insane in a not good way. My uncle, who took many of my pictures that I've posted here through the years passed away during the summer, after two years bravely battling cancer. I know I've mentioned him quite a bit here and in the months since, I've missed him so much, especially during special occasions when he'd be the one taking pictures.

Thanksgiving is one of those occasions. I think the holidays in general can be incredibly hard after such a loss. Suddenly, that empty seat becomes all the more glaringly obvious.

In a nod to him I went out and got my first "fancy" camera, a Sony a5100. With a tripod and the mobile app, I can use my iPhone as a remote to take pictures of myself. Of course, I'm holding my phone in the pics and I miss having his company but I've been thrilled with the quality. It's not for nothin' that so many makeup artists and gurus love this camera.

So I present to you my first post in a long long while, and I dedicate it to my sweet uncle who was always happy and willing to take pictures for me to post.

Hat, choker, necklace & rings// Forever 21

Shoes// Hot Topic

Top// unknown

Skirt// Gifted

Nails// Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme
            Wet N' Wild - Naughty and Iced

So can we talk for a second about my pink hair? I've always went to a salon to do my dip dyed pink streaks, and I happened to go the same day my uncle had to move to a home to be cared for. I went to visit him after I got done and he loved the pink and started talking to me about the show Kawaii International and about Japanese fashion. He was just THAT cool. My pink washed out but I wanted to do it myself for his birthday so I ordered Jerome Russell Punky Colour in the shade Flamingo Pink to try it out.

Unfortunately I ended up having to use the pink for his celebration of life instead of his birthday but I'm so in love with this dye that I've had it in ever since.

It's bright and happy and reminds me to him. And for that I'm thankful.

Christmas Skittles

Hey dolls! I spent most of November with plain nails while they grew out and they're finally at a point where I feel like doing nail art again. Of course with Christmas so close, now I don't really have time for it.

I decided to do Christmas themed skittles. I like skittles. I pick a color or design, then do one nail on each hand with it, and before I know it, everything's painted.

I used some perfect Christmas polishes for this. My favorite, Salon Perfect - He's With Me for the red, Snowman Polish in Green and Red & Green glitter, Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, and Salon Perfect - Glow Pink as a base under my glitter.

Have you guys done any Christmas nail art so far?

Candy Apple Nails

Hey guys, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

Today's nails are a treat I had in the vault from before my break. Here's some Fall appropriate nails that were unplanned and totally a spur of the moment design.

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Cinna-Snap and then picked up one of my Fall favorites, Sally Hansen - Pumpkin Spice and painted on some drips.

I didn't realize it until I was done, but these nails remind me to another Fall favorite: candy apples. Pumpkin spice and candy apples sound real good right about now, don't you think?

#TBT - Fall Inspired Gradient

Here's a lil something new here: a #ThrowbackThursday post.

I did these nails on October 7, 2013. At least that's what the date says on the picture file.

I think at the time I was using Pink Armor as a base coat. Then I used Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Sunny Side Up for the orange and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pumpkin Spice over that.

Posting a right hand pic just so you can see Pumpkin Spice in the shade. It's gorgeous and I keep reaching for it every Fall.

I haven't done much nail art at all since I broke two nails last month. Hopefully by Thanksgiving they'll grow out enough that I can enjoy doing it again. Till next time.

#31DC2014 - Day 21: Inspired By A Color

I had to think a little about this day, because the first 10 days were all color themed and I didn't want to do any repeats. Then it hit me, pink wasn't covered during the first 10 days (which I think is actually surprising).

I decided to do pink and what could be more pink than kawaii Hello Kitty nails?

I used Wet N' Wild Mega Last - Candy-licious, Love & Beauty - Ivory, Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink, Wet N' Wild Chrome - Precious Petals, Salon Perfect - Glow Pink, Sinful Colors - Decadent, and Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme for the stamping.

I combined a couple different techniques to do these. I used my Born Pretty Store plate for the Hello Kitty images. The sticker on my ring finger was done doing decal stamping. I actually made the decal a month or two ago when I first heard about decal stamping, and it held up even in the summer heat.

Once again I used my glow in the dark base for the glitter, Glow Pink makes a pretty base anyways for Decadent.

Hello Kitty + bling + polka dots = the perfect nails to be inspired by pink.

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2014 - Day 17: Glitter

I've been waiting for this day to come!

I picked up Sinful Colors - Decadent a few weeks ago and I've been waiting to use it until today. I layered it over Salon Perfect - Glow Pink. More on that in a minute.

Of course, like a crazy person, I decided to try to cover every nail in glitter. For my non-polish lovers who are wondering why that would be crazy, well let's just say glitter is hard to take off. That's a nice way of putting it haha.
The glitter isn't all that dense so I covered as much as I could and then did a tip gradient.

My aunt bought my cousin and I these glittery birdcages and I think it's probably the most glittery thing I own. Maybe.

I did an experiment with these. I just can't seem to find OPI's peel off base coat, and something like that seemed like a must with these. I remember using Glow Pink for my Halloween 2012 nails and the polish peeled off perfectly. I decided to try using it as a base.

Well it did sort of work. Back in 2012, I wore those nails for a few days before they peeled off in sheets. With so many layers of glitter polish, my nails didn't dry all the way and I wanted to take it off before I got it everywhere. It did peel off, although it was sticky and mushy.

It worked good enough for me though. I got most of it off and then used a bit of polish remover to get all of it. It saved me time and effort for sure.

Long story short? In a pinch try a glow in the dark base for your glitter!

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2014 - Day 10: Gradient Nails

Today's nails are the first time I'm trying out a cotton candy gradient. These came out so cute and kawaii, they remind me to My Little Pony.

I used Love & Beauty - Ivory as a base, then did the gradient with Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink and Kleancolor - Pastel Blue. I topped it all off with Santee - Moon Light Glitter and placed a few stars from it on my pointer and ring fingers.

Of course this made me crave actual cotton candy.

Look at how delicious it looks, I wanna grab it right out of my laptop monitor. Now I need to go find some.

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2014 - Day 6: Violet Nails

Welcome to Day 6: Violet. Here's the deal: I don't really own any violet polishes. I didn't have much to work with when it came to yellow either. I remember doing some Lakers nails back in the day and to be honest I don't know what the heck I used.

I decided to use Revlon - Facets Of Fuchsia over Wet N' Wild - Black Creme because I remember layering this and getting a really pretty dark purple. You can see pics of when I first posted it here.

I didn't want to do the exact same nails so I tried doing a different technique for gradient tips, using clear polish and mixing it with the black while it was still wet. For some reason I ended up with little swirls of black that looked like smoke. I've never had that happen before and I'm guessing it was because I used quick dry topcoat instead of regular. Either way, I liked the effect so I went with it.

In the light, you can see the purple glitter pop. Outside the light, this looked really dark. I like the vampy look of these for Halloween, and the dark purple is perfect for Fall.

I ended up happy. And on the bright side, the issue I had with Facets Of Fuchsia not covering my tips when I first used it seemed to not be a problem.

What do you think of when you think of purple? Grapes of course! It's the return of the fruit, although I can't think of any way to keep this going for the black & white and metallic days.

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2014 - Day 5: Blue Nails

This challenge is turning out to be a parade of my favorite polishes and since yesterday I've decided to explore more of my glitter collection.

As a result here are today's simple and sweet nails. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Brisk Blue with Pure Ice - Strapless over it.

I've done this combo before and I never get tired of it. Strapless is such a pretty glitter.

What else can be more blue than a Smurf?

Like my green lipstick, this is another thing that I own and don't use that often. It's actually a hat with ear flaps and blue braids on each side. Maybe when the weather gets colder I might actually use it. The question is, what goes good with a Smurf?

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2014: Day 4 - Green Nails

So I completely intended on continuing my self-imposed fruit challenge for this day, but I was a bit limited when it came to green. A lime would be too close to an orange if I painted a slice and a green apple would just be Day 1's nails but done in green. A not ripe banana would fit but bananas again? Been there done that too.

At one point I actually considered painting a piece of broccoli as an accent nail. I'm part Dutch-Indonesian and my aunt just made us a dish called gado gado that has broccoli in it that I could've used to take a picture with. I mean veggies are close to fruit.

I ended up just using one of my favorite greens along with glitter.

This is Sinful Colors - Happy Ending and the glitter is Sinful Colors - I'll Call You.

Yes that is green lipstick. I am probably the only person I know who owns green lipstick and I've never found a use for it until today. So I had to bust it out.

An InLinkz Link-up

RAWR - Halloween 2012

Hey guys! I got a hold of some pics from Halloween that my uncle took. I felt so crappy for most of October, but thankfully I felt up to venturing out on Halloween.

If you couldn't guess from my Halloween nails, I dressed up as Catwoman, inspired by Eartha Kitt's costume from the 1960's Batman. Yea, I spent a lot of time in bed watching TV and I caught an episode of it and really liked her costume, more than some of the more modern Catwomans.

Yea I know she didn't have a tail, but my ears came with a tail and I wanted to use it. :]

I had fun with makeup and falsies too.

I used:
Prestige Liquid Eyeliner - Popstar
Prestige Liquid Eyeliner - Fame
M.A.C - Retrospeck Eyeshadow
M.A.C - Blacktrack Fluidline
Jesse's Girl - Starshine Eye Dust
Salon Perfect Perfectly Diva Lashes - Enchanting (fitting name right?)

For my lips:
Wet N' Wild MegaLast Lipstick - Think Pink
Wet N' Wild MegaLast Lipstick - Dollhouse Pink
Love & Beauty Shine Lipgloss - Light Pink (there's no name on it lol)

As for my plans that night? My cousin got back in town so her and my other cousin and I just walked around the neighborhood. We went trick or treating at a few houses cause we wanted to send the candy back to her brother and sisters but overall we didn't get much candy haha.

LDTTWC - Day 5: "We Can Do It!"

Dang man, are we really over the halfway point of this challenge already? Today is Day 5: "We Can Do It!" and this theme's nails are inspired by an influential woman in history.

I decided to continue with my nostalgic comedy route and go with Lucille Ball. As far as female comedians go, she paved the way for many. When it comes to physical comedy? She's the best hands down.

I was inspired by some nails I saw on Instagram, a design where the ring finger had a top lip painted on it and the thumb had the bottom lip. I don't know now who did it cause I saw it on my follower's activity tab and when I went back to look for it, it wasn't there anymore. But let's be real: it's Instagram, it was probably a repost anyways!

So I went with that and then did eyes and hair, red of course. CLEARLY this is meant to be a cartoony interpretation of Lucille Ball. ;]

I used:
Santee - Light Nude
Love & Beauty - Red
L.A. Colors Art Deco Striper -Red
L.A. Colors Art Deco Striper - Black
L.A. Colors Art Deco Striper - White
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Mango Motion

I was going to pair the faces with some old fashioned half moons but I decided to add a lil sumptin sumptin by painting inside the hole reinforcement sticker.

Anyone got any recommendations for a good nail polish thinner? I think I'm gonna go get the Orly one, but I'm gonna be honest, it's the only brand of thinner that I've seen in stores. Any good recs or tips would be appreciated!

Far Out Galaxy Nails

Ready for some really cool nails? I dunno what made me do galaxy nails, I've never done them and decided to try. For some reason I always thought these were really complicated and took a lot of time to do. Dude, totally the opposite.

I followed THIS post by Rebecca. I think anytime I link to a tutorial on here, it's been by Rebecca, but I love her blog and her tutorials are easy to follow. Funny thing is, it's not even a tutorial, but she did post step-by-step pictures.

I only had a few of the polishes she used, so I used substitutions and made a few changes to them too. I shoulda watched the video she linked to, but guess what? Yea, it was late and I was going somewhere the next day. Story of my blog right?

These are easy to do but use a lottttt of polishes. I used:
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - French White Creme
Wet N' Wild Chrome - Precious Petals
Hard Candy - Beetle
Klean Color - Pastel Blue
Santee - Opal Speckle
Klean Color - Chunky Holo Fuschia
Sally Hansen - Hidden Treasure

Bonus outfit pic time:

If my dear cousin Becca is reading this, I only have two words for you: SPICY LIME! :p
Good pizza spot + family time + actin a fool at Walmart with the cousin = a good day indeed.

Mannequin Nails With Santee

Here's a palette cleanser for you guys after those candy coated Sanrio inspired nails.

I originally planned on doing an Ikat pattern over this, but liked how it looked. I think this Santee polish is a good match to do the Mannequin look. Added the glitter just for some extra flair.

As you can see, this was taken indoors. At Target. :]

I used:
Santee - Light Nude
Santee - Opal Speckle

I think these kinds of nails are called palette cleansers, right? Stuck these in between two wild looks, because my next nails will be the return of cool awesome nail art!