NOTD: Zelda Nails - Happy Birthday Hubs

It's been about a week since I blogged last....life is crazy...sorry.

Today is my husbands birthday and to commemorate the day I used one of my new MJ nail plates from (MyOnlineShop) to stamp the logo of his favorite video game....Zelda!



I didn't take as many pictures of my nails as normal mainly for time reasons, but you get the idea.  Just a plain and simple mani with a small stamp.  I used 2 coats of China Glaze Running in Circles (best green foil fleck ever!!) and stamped with Revlon 24k and MJ plate XIV.

This post isn't really a review post (I will do a more thorough one later) but I did want to show you the plates I picked up from the new MJ plate release.  If you would like to see what the other plates in the collection look like head on over to Spellbinding Nails (Sarah always has the word on new plates - both indie and commercial).

The special edition plate is full of Disney and many more popular characters!! 

 XIX has some really neat full nail images plus a bunch of great text for all occations.  Soo much on this plate to love.  The text images are small and can be hard to read, but they have to fit on your nail afterall.

XIV is popular logo central!!  

 Im not going to lie.  I wanted this plate mainly for the Doctor Who and Mario images, but there are some other really cool ones as well.

All plates are backed, however, if you try hard you could cut yourself, but why would you try to?

Like I said before, I'll do a proper review soon.  For now I would like to wish my wonderful husband a Happy Happy Birthday!

China Glaze Textures - Swatch and Review Bump & Grind and In the Rough

This is going to be a long and picture heavy post....FYI

I only bought 2 polishes from this collection...mainly because I'm not completely sold on the texture trend. 

First up is Bump & Grind - a semi matte fuchsia/rose texture polish.

This is 2 coats of Bump & Grind.  This was the first time I'd used a texture polish and I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to apply and control.  It went on very even and dried pretty quick - it is kind of hard to tell when it is "dry."  I was concerned about the wearing power since I didn't use a top coat, but after moving boxes and digging in files at work all day I had no chips! Surprisingly durable.

In the Rough is a light green semi matte texture polish that leans more towards yellow (not neon or lime green). 



This is 2 coats of In the Rough.  It was just as easy to work with as Bump & Grind.  I felt like this one took a little longer to dry, but I can't say for sure.  The close up on the left shows the texture (it looks slime lime green in that pic, but it's really not!) The close up of my thumb shows it with a thin coat of IMN Northern Lights on top.  I wanted to see if a thin coat would take away the texture - it did a little, but not enough to really notice.  I like the added sparkle!

Both polishes are great!  If you are lovin' this texture rage then definitely grab a couple of these.  They aren't completely matte.  If you look you can see gloss, but since there is so much texture it makes it look semi matte.  The texture isn't "sharp" but will catch in your hair or attract rouge cat hairs.  Removal is on par with a heavy glitter polish.  I might recommend using the soak off method - it also keeps down the amount of leftover grit.  This line launches in Sally's stores in May and retail for about $7 (I got lucky and found a store that had already put them out).  I also found the new Orly FX line of textured polishes....which I will show you one tomorrow!

Are you liking the textured polish craze?



Blue Holo Gradient

This will be my 3rd mani for Autism Awareness month!

For this mani I used China Glaze Hanging in the Balance and Color Club Over the Moon.

I painted one coat of Hanging in the Balance and then used the sponge gradient technique and sponged on a couple coats of Hanging in the Balance and Over the Moon.  I was surprised at how well they blended.  Unfortunately, I was not able to capture the holo goodness that is Over the Moon, but in real life the subtle depth is very elegant.

On a sad note...the Boston Marathon bombings are weighing heavy on our nation and our hearts.  My husband is a runner (sometimes I am too) and we have both participated in the Houston Marathon in the past.  I can only imagine what the people of Boston are going through.  My prayers and thoughts are going out to all effected either physically or emotionally.  Yesterday (late) I saw notices on Instagram to paint your nails purple for Boston today (4/16), but it was too late to do so.  So I will paint it purple tonight and share tomorrow. 

Please continue to pray for our nation.

Spring Flig Challenge - Day 2 In Bloom

Ok....so I missed Day 1 - Indie Skittle mainly because I honestly don't have enough Indies to do a skittle mani and I flat ran out of time.  I know...I know...how is that possible, but really I don't.  I plan on fixing that in the near future...promise.

So on to Day 2 - In Bloom

These aren't super impressive (again time is really not on my side this week), but I think they came out ok.  I used China Glaze Budding Romance as the base.  Budding Romance is a moss green squishy crelly polish (part jelly/ part creme).  It took 3 coats to get a good opacity.  I decided to do the "blooms" as a pseudo french tip with yellow and white acrylic paint accented with some white swirls and leaves.  I really like the idea of this mani, just not happy with my execution...I will give it another go in the future.

Today, Day 3, is Patterns of Fashion.  I will do my best to get caught up and post later today.  Until then I will leave you with a Louis Vutton mani I did a little while ago, pre-blog, when I only posted to Instagram (explains the weird yellowish filter..ha!)

pardon the bad photo quality and lighting...it was a while ago

Big thank you to Elena from Ecklipsed by Color and Kelly from Tuxarina for putting on this challenge!! Please go check them and the other participants out.

Coral Gradient

(source unknown)

Today's Coral Gradient mani was inspired by the awesome pic above (sourse unknown sorry)...mainly the colors on the surfboard.  I've never been a huge pink polish person, but lately I've been really diggin' the way corals look on my hands...makes me look tan..ha!

I really wish the true vividness of this showed up, but my camera just wouldn't have it.  In the pictures it looks like a nice petal pink but in real life its a neon coral gradient...and I mean NEON (much more orangey than showing here).  It's bright and happy and I love it. 

I used Sally Hansen White On, China Glaze Flip-Flop Fantasy, and Sinful Colors Tambleberry

What do ya think?

Sunset Palms Gradient

As I mentioned in my last post, the hubs and I took a mini vacation down to the beach over the weekend and I had to do a beach themed mani to match.

So today, a few days late, I wanted to show you what it looked like.

Love this mani!! Next time I will do my best to remember to make the design face away from me....geez I'm bad at that.  I had every intention of doing that until I started sponging the wrong way.  I also wish I had used black acrylic paint instead of polish.  It was drying to fast and getting sticky...much harder to get fine detail with sticky dragging polish.  Despite all the mishaps it turned out great. 

The base of this Sunset sponge gradient is Sally Hansen Blue-Away, Revlon Enchanted, China Glaze Flip-Flop Fantasy, Sally Hansen Lightning and INM Northern Lights.  The palm trees were done with Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and a striping brush.

Today is the start of Tuxarina's Spring Fling Nail Art Challenge, which I am participating in, but I am already a bit behind...ha!  Vacations have a way of doing that to people.  Today's challenge is Indie Skittle...which will be difficult because I don't have enough Indie polishes for a skittles mani.  I'll see what I can do...be back later.



NOTD: China Glaze - Turned up Turquoise a la Coach

So I took a trip to Sally's over the weekend, finally grabbed the Avant Garden pieces I wanted, and saw the "Ombre" polish set from China Glaze.  Instinctively I am drawn to turquoise/aqua colors, but realized that I have all the colors in the set except for "Turned up Turquoise."  So here is my mani of the day using new to me Turned up Turquoise.  I used 2 coats of TuT and since it dries matte (and pretty quick!) I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri Top Coat (red bottle).

But since I can't leave well enough alone....I stamped the Coach logo full nail image from my MJ-IV plate.  I'm sure there are all sorts of copyright issues with this logo being on this plate, but I love it....it's one of the main reasons I bought this plate.  I stamped using Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep that I doctored with a Spectraflare alternative (noticeable in person...not so much in pics).  Turned up Turquoise is such a beautiful bright teal with micro shimmer.  I really have no idea why I hadn't bought this color sooner!

NOTD: Celtic Knots

St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays...so I have been on the hunt for some good plates to celebrate the holiday.

Today I wanted to show you one I got from Messy Mansion, plate MM04. 

There really isn't anything I don't love about this plate.  These designs are unique to anything I have seen and stamp perfectly! 

I used 2 coats of China Glaze "Cha Cha Cha" for a bright green background and stamped with Wet 'n Wild "Black Creme" (it stamps as well as Konad black but way easier to clean up) using the Celtic Knot full nail design.  The full nail designs on this plate are huge.  As you can see I only got about half of the design on my nail so wide nail bed or long nails wont be a problem.

Look forward to quite a few St. Patty's day themed nails this month!

Erin Go Bragh! (Ireland forever)