Wednesday, December 31, 2014

My New Year's Nails

So I'm still on break from work, yay, spending a whole lot time to myself which has been amazing. Been prepping some ideas for the blog in January, catching up on my nail blog browsing and commenting, procrastinating on taking Christmas decorations down and relaxing my butt off!

So anyway, I did fit in some time to do my nails yesterday and I'm wearing these for my New Year's Eve celebration in. My husband and I don't have any grand plans, most of our friends our out of town for the holiday unfortunately. So we are planning on spending the evening in, drinking some great red wine and watching our hockey team play a game.

So onto the look! What I was going for here was a champagne colored polish which looked similar to ORLY Mirrorball, which we are all currently obsessed with right?!?!

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So here are the stars of the show F.U.N. Lacquer TGIF and Painted Polish Blinded by Bubbly (which is SOOOO amazing).

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This was my first experience with a F.U.N. polish. TGIF is a gold linear holographic polish with gold flakies as well. The polish was a little sheer and required three coats for this opacity. To create the Mirrorball-esque look I added one coat of Painted Polish Blinded by Bubbly on top. They matched pretty well.

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For the final look, I stamped an image from my Lily Anna 06 plate which has a star look to it. I liked it okay, wasn't as classy as I wanted it to be, but it's not like I'm going out or anything, so it'll do.

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Wasn't as blingy in the sun as I wanted it to be, but oh well. What do you think of this manicure? What do you have picked out for your NYE mani? Share with me on my Facebook page, I'd love to see it!

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

These are my confessions and goals!

So as you'll notice there are a few things I haven't tackled on my blog. Either because I am too intimidated by it, or actually it is something I don't like very much.

So I thought it would be fun to confess a few things to you!

My Confessions

1. I am NOT a fan of textured polishes. I own only one textured polish (OPI Alcatraz Rocks) and I recently purchased a second one in a Zoya box I got on Thanksgiving (Zoya Godiva). I got these purely for the sparkle and plan to top coat them every time. I just don't like my polish getting snagged on a sweater or have my hair getting tangled in them!

2. Sometimes I pick my glitter polish off, because it take so long to get it off my nails. I know, I know, this is SUUUUUUPER bad for my nails. And yes, it causes peelies. But all the cotton that gets everywhere when trying to remove glitter polish is such a pain! Target's scrubby tubs have become a saving grace for me, but honestly, half the time I pick a non glitter polish because I don't like the hassle of removing glitter. Which is probably what drew me to holo polishes in the first place!


3. I just can't jump on the matte train. I know it's super popular and I might try it once or twice. But part of why I like nail polish so much is that it makes my nails so shiny and glossy. I can't imagine taking that away. But with the trend of all these amazing flakies, I might have to break out the matte top coat to see what that is like. 

4. I hate hate hate giving myself pedicures. It usually messes up my finger nails and it's so uncomfortable and I just can't get the hang of it. Plus I have super tiny toe nails, which is a hard canvas to work with. And feet are no fun to photograph, there is no way to make them look nice. And if I do get the courage to ever post them on IG, I get some creepy comment from some foot fetish person. Grrrrooooooosssss.

This is as cute as it gets, and it's not that pretty!

5. I think there is only one day this entire year that I went 24 hours with no manicure. It was around my grandparents' funeral, so I guess that is excusable. But I can't handle naked nails!!!

My naked nails, peelies and all!

6. I sometimes have a bad habit of chewing the skin around my nail. Not often, but if I haven't moisturized enough and I get a coarse part of skin there, I have this tick that just want to bite it off. And then that looks awful, especially on the hand I photograph. I think the moral of the story is, I need to moisturize/oil more often so that my skin doesn't get too coarse.

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See that extra skin, it's because I of my bad chewing habit!!!

7. I'm not a fan of long nails. I like my nails short, but I also hate to file/trim them. This usually makes the whole mani process so much longer and I find I have the bits of nail I filed off sticking to the bottom of my nail, usually underneath it and it really makes it tough to paint afterward. Unless I have a good soak with my mani, and I don't always have the time for that.

This is as long as I can handle my nails, I had to take them way down after this!

8. Swatching polishes isn't for me. Sweet Heart Polish was super kind enough to send me some press samples of her polish earlier this year. But I eventually found out that posting the swatches and getting the review done on a time table (not that she was holding me to one, but I felt the need to post ASAP once I received them because of her sweet generosity), made me stressed out. I have enough deadlines in my real life job, keeping to deadlines on the blog took the fun out of it for me. That isn't to say I wouldn't work with companies in the future, I'd love to help spread the word for indies and small businesses. I guess I'm more a nail art person and basically I'm not built with the skill set to swatch a lot of polishes. And I totally respect the ladies out there who do swatch – I mean I am in total awe of them and they do a great service to consumers like me (and for the companies too). I totally depend on them! I think I just get more out of nail art and just having fun with it. 

Ok so that's all I can think of for now. What are your confessions or bad habits when it comes to nails!? I know we all aren't perfect and we do have them!

Now onto some goals for 2015, some new things I'd like to try regarding nail art.

Goals for 2015

1. Water marble nails. I hear everyone groan about this, but I would really like to try it. I know it's messy and takes time, so maybe I'll just start with an accent nail. Or take a Saturday to try it out sometime. 

2. Lead light technique. I love seeing stamped images with some extra color. I don't have a ton of jelly polishes, but I have enough to try this out. 

3. Stamping decals. This is another thing I have avoided because it looks like it is time consuming. But I think I have the skills to tackle this now and I'd like to try it!

4. Trying new-to-me indies. I have part of this goal already accomplished. I have packages on their way to me from Fair Maiden Polish, Bear Pawlish and Black Dahlia Lacquer. All new companies I have never tried before.

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Just a few of the polishes I get to play with in 2015!

5. I'd love to host or help put together a nail art meet up for other Bay Area nail fanatics. I've already started connecting with some via Facebook. I started a group so if you are from the area, please join!!! This is a little intimidating to me, because hello strangers, but I love the community I've met so far. And it's super fun to talk to some local ladies who care as much about polish as you do!


6. Do more nail art challenges. I just completed the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge and it was SO much fun and really gave me something to look forward to. Especially on the days when you are just staring at your nail polish collection and are like... uhhhh I don't know what I want to do! I just joined the group Challenge Your Nail Art, and they are laid back and let people come and go as they please with the challenges.

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7. Continue to post regularly. I think I finally have this down. I had a bit there where life got in the way. But once I started the challenge which had me posting every other day, I really felt like I got in a good rhythm with my blog posting and management. For me it's never the doing the nails that is the problem, its the photos/editing and posting which I need to make time for. I was able to post a ton in December and if I can fit it in during the busiest time of the year, I think I should be set for the future. 

Those are all the goals I have right at this moment. What would you like to see more from me on the blog? I'd love to keep you interested and entertained, so let me know what you'd like to see more of. 

I'm not making any promises, as I'll be on vacation when this posts, but if I have it in me, I'll post my New Year's Eve manicure tomorrow!


Monday, December 29, 2014

Favorite Nail Art Posts of 2014

Hey everyone, hope your vacations are going well, now I'm going to do a recap of my most favorite nail art I've accomplished in 2014.

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I've grown quite a bit, so I think I'll try to add these in order of how I did them, so you can see the progression.

My Birthday Manicure
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My First Gradient
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Neon Dotticure
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Stamping with a-england Sleeping Palace
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Holo Stripes
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In Bare Form Dotticure
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Sea Star Nail Art
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Quatre Foil Nails
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Beach Shore Nail Art
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Blue Holographic Skittle
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Green to Teal Gradient
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Rainbow Waterfall Nails
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Halloween Skittle Nails
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Iconic Half Moons

KBShimmer Skittles

Multicolor Stamping

Painted Polish #PSL with Angled Lines
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Fall Leaves Gradient
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Ugly Sweater Nails
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Christmas Skittle
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Which one did you like the best? I really loved getting to go back through my posts from throughout the year. It reminded me of what I have tackled, what I got better at and what I have still yet to take on!!!

Tomorrow I will post a bit about some nail polish confessions and some goals for the new year!

Friday, December 26, 2014

Top Nail Polishes of 2014

Now not all of these are necessarily new in 2014, but they were new to me in 2014.

My obsession with nail polish and nail art really took off this year, and while this blog has been around for a few years now, it really turned into mostly nail-related in February of this year.

I have been doing my nails pretty consistently since 2012, but I think this is the first year I really discovered a new love of polish, an huge interest in independent brands and just a true love for nail art and all the lovely nail blogging community that comes with it.

So let’s get down to it, my favorites of 2014. I’ll start with my favorite polish of 2014. These might not necessarily be new in 2014 (most are), but they were new to me and definite standouts for the year.



These are not in any particular order, and any link that takes you to my Instagram, will mostly likely be a post in the future, but nail polish I used this year.

Newsie Nail Novices Top Polishes for 2014


Literary Lacquers Je Reviens
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Smitten Polish The First Lobster
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Painted Polish Drunk on Holo
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ORLY Mirrorball
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Zoya Rue
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Dance Legend Boo
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KBShimmer In Bare Form
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ILNP Black Orchid
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Zoya Chantal

Dance Legend Beautiful Lie
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Emily De Molly Monet's Garden

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Smitten Polish Out of Darkness
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KBShimmer Rust No One
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Indigo Bananas Maui Wowee
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Smitten Polish Glacial Springs
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Smitten Nose So Bright

Dance Legend Different View
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ILNP Ultra Chrome Flakies (couldn't pick just one)
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Colors By Llarowe Obsessed with Marilyn

ILNP Iconic