What I'm Currently Wearing On My Nails - Surreal Sunset With Twirls

I took these photos with my 50 mm lens and I just love how they turned out although it's a bit awkward holding on the camera further away. I am dying to get a new lens, probably the 28 mm, and I hope I can find it at a decent price during Black Friday because I think it would be perfect for my blog pictures.

Anyways, so I pulled out Finger Paints Surreal Sunset and painted it on my nails. I did 3 coats. I felt like I needed to add something and since I don't often reach for my stamping kit, I decided it's time to make use of it. With my white Konad special polish and Bundle Monster plate BM-314, I selected the twirl design for this mani. I wasn't really careful or picky and some of the design smeared as I stamped them on. Overall, I'm pretty happy. I love the sparkling duochrome of Surreal Sunset and I think the twirls just made this nail look a little more elegant and fun to look at. Lastly, I sealed the manicure with Sally Hansen Big Shiny Top Coat.

What can I say? Pretty nails makes me happy.

2 Nail Looks - Orange Pink Gradient and Black and Gold Lace

I went to see Maleficent today and thought the movie was quite good! Much better than I expected. I have just a faint memory of the original story. I've never seen the original film but have read the story in book a long time ago when I was a little girl. Without spoiling too much of it, the new movie tells a completely new and different story to the original version but in a good way in my opinion. I think it makes the plot more interesting and sentimental. Angelina Jolie looked incredible and her performance was excellent! So glad to see her back in the big screens. I think she was the perfect actress for this role. Maleficient is wicked, dangerous, and beautiful at the same time. Do check it out if you haven't already. 

I've been pampering my nails for the past couple weeks with these manis. I feel so proud of myself! 

Currently, what I'm sporting on my nails is this vibrant Orange Pink shimmer gradient look with a few sprinkles of purple glitters. I made use of the new Revlon Electric Chrome Spiderman Collection polishes for these nail looks. This nail look makes me think of a tropical cocktail drink. 

Product Used:

• I did 2 coats of Revlon Electrified Web on all my nails. 
• Once that dried, I used the sponge technique to create the pink orange gradient by using Revlon Gwen's Crush, focusing it more on around the cuticles. 
• I added one coat of Sally Hansen Big Shiny Top Coat.
• I spread a few purple glitters on the top portion of the nail bed using Orly FX Can't Be Tamed.
• I finished off with another coat of Sally Hansen Big Shiny Top Coat.

Last week, I sported this black gold lace pattern on my nails. Initially, I wasn't planning on stamping anything on it but once I got the gold all over my nails, I felt like it was just too much and needed to tame it down so the black was a nice contrast and made the nails look more elegant.

Product Used:

• I started off with one coat of Sally Hansen Triple Strong as my base
• I painted one coat of Revlon 1000 Volts on all my nails.
• I used one of the stamping plate I got from Bundle Monsters (from Amazon.com). It has this lacy pattern that also reminded me of easter egg patterns. With my Konad black special polish, I stamped the pattern all over my nails. 
• I finished the look with Sally Hansen Big Shiny top coat. 

Impress Press On Manicure Joyride (First Impression) and NOTW Butterflies

I received these Press-on nails from Influenster for testing and review purposes in the Spring Fever VoxBox along with other goodies. However, this is going to be kind of a partial review and I'll tell you why in a bit.

I was sent the color Joyride, which is a medium shimmery magenta. Definitely a color I'd wear. The press-on nails come in this nail polish looking plastic container that you open by removing the cap first.

I've included a picture of the instructions on the packaging on how to apply these press-on nails.

My next step was to sort the nails by size and figure which one would fit best. I don't know what is the rhyme or reason behind how many of each size we're getting but there's 8 different size.

Size A was the biggest size but it wouldn't fit my thumb nail. My thumb nail is a bit wider and longer. The press-on nail look so tiny on me and it's got a lot more curve than my thumb nail.

Size D was the closest size to my index, middle, and ring finger nails...But still not a perfect fit. Width-wise it's fine but my nail beds are narrow and long so I would have to cut my nails really short in order to make these fit and I honestly am not planning on doing that. My index finger nail is very short because I broke it a couple weeks ago and this is as short as I'll let my nail be and the press-on nail still is too short for me.

Size F is the only one from the pack that will probably work on my pinky nail.

So you can guess from seeing the pictures that I have size issues with these press-on nails. Because of that I won't be testing them. It's rather pointless and I would prefer to give these away to someone who can make better use out of them. With that said, my first impression of these press-on nails is that they're not for everyone. If you have narrow and long nail beds or if you have flat nail beds these won't work for you.
My suggestion before you buy is to see them in person and estimate if these press-on nails will fit your nails. I've seen them numerous times while shopping and though I was intrigued by some of the colors, I always knew that they wouldn't fit my nails.

The suggested retail price is between $5.99-$7.99. They can be found at K-Mart, Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and Target. You can print out a $1.00 coupon to try these out by going to this link http://impressmanicure.com/

In spite of the press-on nails not working out for me, on a better note I made an effort to do something simple and cute with my nails. I used the butterfly design from one of my bundle monster nail plate. You can view my nail stamping plate haul HERE if you missed it.

What is your thought on the Impress Press-On Nails? Have you tried them?

Year of the Snake Manicure

So 2013 is the year of the Snake and in case you didn't know I was also born under the snake year. Though I am not Chinese, neither do I celebrate the Chinese new year or really believe in astrology, I still enjoy reading about it and what better way to represent by doing a snake skin inspired nail look?

According to the Chinese astrology, I am a fire snake so I find that the color I chose for this mani fits my element. Red correspond with fire and symbolize good fortune and joy (I could use some of that this year). Aside from that red and yellow also dominates the Chinese Year Year festivities. I typically do not like wearing red on my nails but I love the outcome of this mani. In spite of having an edge, it still has a classy appeal to it.

Characteristics of a Fire Snake

• Charismatic (maybe)
• Wise (I think so)
• Lazy and self-indulgent (oh yeah definitely!)
• Good luck with money (I'm broke but I still got money to spend, don't know if that means good luck, lol)
• Can be possessive in odd ways (I suppose I can be odd in some ways and possessive in other ways)
• Good looking, elegant, and stylish (toot toot! ok never mind you be the judge of that)
• Suspicious by nature (I'll believe you first and suspect later)
• Have a strong, almost obsessive desire for fame, money, and power (ok, don't care much for fame but I'll settle with money or power).

 

Product Used

• China Glaze Phat Santa, 2 coats
• Bundle Monster BM-313 plate
• FantaSea Cosmetics Nail Art Paint Golden
• Stamper
• Expired credit card for scraping 

What do you think of my snake mani? Do you celebrate the Chinese New Year? If yes, can you share some of the family tradition you have for the New Year?

Bundle Monster Stamping Plate Haul

Hello lovelies,

TGIF. I'm a bit stressed out since yesterday because I can't get Photoshop to open. I've tried messing with the DEP settings and even did a system restore and nothing worked. I'm thinking about uninstalling and re-installing the program but I can't find the freaking CD. Ughhhh...I guess I'll have to resort to other options until I can see if re-installing the program fixes the issue. It's so annoying when things don't work like they should.

Otherwise, on a happier note, I'm excited to share with you these new stamping plates that I just received the other day.

I received 25 plates, with 6 designs on each plate. The plates are also paper backed and had a clear blue plastic cover. I see a lot of designs that I like but there's also a few that I probably wouldn't care much for but that's part of the bundle, what can I say? All these were $21.99 with free shipping, a pretty reasonable deal. It's like paying 88 cents per plate. Here's the link to the seller http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008AMKZUU/ref=ox_ya_os_product

I'm going to have to decorate my nails this weekend :). As expected, you can be sure that I will share any manicure I come up with using these plates.

Do you stamp your nails? If so, do you have any recommendation? I still want to get more designs but perhaps after I've had the chance to play with a few of these.

Luuux Shared Link

NOTW Florals Over Neon

Just thought I'd share my NOTW before I forget. I was in the mood for something bright so I decided to go with a neon color. Initially, I didn't intend to do any designs but sometimes I change my mind when I'm in the middle of painting my nails, lol.

I got lazy so I skipped the base coat. But here's what I used for this nail look

• 2 coats of Confetti Margarita Senorita
• 2 coats of Color Club Get Your Lem-on
• Stamping with Anise Run For The Money and X-Large stamping plate H
• 1 coat of Seche Vite
• 1 coat of Sally Girl glitter. I don't see any name but it's a bluish green glitter and it complements the blue sheen from Get Your Lem-on and the teal color from Run For The Money.

So even thought my nails were bright and neon. I think the design just made it a little more tame and interesting.

 

Luuux Shared Link

Black Stamping over China Glaze Ray-Diant Polish

I wore this mani over the past few days and just took it off tonight. The good thing is that I remembered to take pictures of it to share with you guys.

What I'm wearing:

• One coat of Milani Smooth Base Coat
• Two coats of China Glaze Raydiant, from the Prismatic Chroma collection
• One coat of Seche Vite
• Nail Stamping with Konad black special polish
• Another coat of Seche Vite

This was a fun and glitzy mani. The black stamping tamed down the glitters but still added an extra oomph to the overall look. I got quite a few compliments while I was sporting this mani. I hope you enjoy as well. I'm so tempted to order more stamping plates.

Luuux Shared Link

NOTW - Lacy Play Date

This is a slightly late post but before I went to vacation, I had repainted my nails because the old nail polish was chipping on me and I had to fix a broken nail.

What I'm wearing on my nails

• Milani Smoothe Base Coat. This is my current favorite base coat.
• Essie Play Date
• With the new nail stamping plate I bought recently, I picked a lacy pattern. I used Sally Hansen Color Quick Pen in Silver Chrome for the design.
• Seche Vite Top Coat

  

My struggle with this mani was that I felt the formula of the HS pen was drying way too fast. No matter how quickly I tried to stamp my nails, some of it wouldn't transfer. Fortunately, it's not very noticeable.
The design looks very subtle but to my surprise, many people noticed and complimented on them while I was shopping.
So far I've really been enjoying nail stamping and I am dying to buy more designs.

I hope you like this simple nail stamping mani

 

Luuux Shared Link