Happy Birthday to Me Nail Art

Hey everyone! Happy Friday, and happy birthday to me! Today I am 33. It's both a happy day and bittersweet day – I kinda sorta wanted a baby by now – and now I'm one year closer to that ominous age of 35 (were it becomes some higher percentage harder to try an conceive). And becoming older kind of nags at my brain like that.

So to bring out the happy I decided to do my nails up right! It's supposed to be a rainy few days this weekend and what better to bring a smile in the rain than some lovely neon polishes!!!



Above you'll see all the players for this look! I started with a white base and then sponged on a menagerie of Indigo Bananas (one of my favorite indies) neons.



To top off the whole look, because in California you never know when the sun might peek out from behind the clouds, I did a single layer of ILNP My Private Rainbow X, for a scattered holo cherry on top.



Then I stamped a geometric look from my UberChic Collection 7 (plate 7-02), not really caring if all the fingers were uniform. The polish I used was Painted Polish Midnight Mischief, a great stamping polish.



I used the latex barrier I have from ellagee, but I'm not quite sure if I'm doing something wrong or if the latex I use isn't quite good enough. Every time I go to peel my latex, the thin layer of dried polish that was on the barrier, does not come up when I remove the latex, it just stays stuck to the nail polish look. Which in the end almost defeats the purpose of using the latex, because then I have to clean up the polish mess. Meh, help me polish peoples!!!



I've only been rocking these nails for 24 hours and they've brought me so much joy already!



I'll end the post with a macro of my favorite nail, my thumb. I really liked how the thumb turned out because I think it was a good showcase of all the colors! :)

Not only am I a year older today, this month marks my second anniversary doing Newsie Nail Novice. So many happy things right now, my nails, this blog and life in general. Just gotta focus on the happy lovely rainbows in life! :)

Hope you all have a swell weekend! Let me know what your favorite nail art it? Gradients, holo rainbows, stamping, nail vinyls?! Also share with me tips for the latex application. I want to make this work gosh darnit!

Ever After Polish Review & Nail Art

Hey guys, today I've got some polishes to show from Ever After Polish's newer collection I've Got the Magic in Me – a collection inspired by the Magic Mike movies. ;-)



A snafu in shipping with this brand gave me a bad impression originally, but that has completely turned around. I contacted the maker after my original review of the brand, and I am nothing but pleased now. If you haven't checked out this brand, I highly suggest you do, the maker is sweet and the fan group is super fun and great too. Let's get to this week's swatches and review shall we?









First up we have Ever After Tarzan's Vine. This is a gorgeous leaf-like green, almost a kelly green, holo polish with very subtle gold flakies, which you can see in the macro shots. I really like this green, makes me think of fresh mowed lawn and suburbia for some reason. The polish was a bit on the watery side, be careful not to overload the brush and you'll be fine. Opaque in two coats.










This is Ever After Flesh Popsicle. This couldn't be a more perfect nude polish for my skin tone if it tried. Almost gave me what every nail person strives for at some point, mannequin hands. But the extra awesome aspect of this polish was the holo finish with the tiny copper micro flakies which give it a little something extra. This polish is complex and beautiful. The formula on this was superb and applied opaque in two thin coats.



I also tried out the Make it Rain salt scrub, which had a sweet floral scent to it and works just great. It is a salt scrub though, so the exfoliating pieces were much larger than some other scrubs I've used in the past. The oils are very moisturizing though. I really love salt and sugar scrubs, they help treat my hands after a long swatching session and are especially great when I have a busy week and don't have time for a mani bomb.







And because Flesh Popsicle is such an awesome nude, I knew it would make an incredible canvas for some nail stamping. In a test of some more of my Jolie Polish stamping polishes, I put together this rainbow heart look using my UberChic Beauty plate 1-01.

Anyway my impression of Ever After Polish is a great one, both with the polishes and the bath product. I would highly suggest checking out the brand, the customer service is great and the maker is super sweet. Have you tried Ever After Polish before? I'd love to hear which of their polishes you love!

Rainbow Waterfall Nail Art

You guys, I'm not going to lie here. I am exhausted today. Yesterday was election night, and for a reporter that means you work through the night basically. I did not go to sleep until 1:30 a.m. and then rolled out of bed to post more election number updates at 6:30 a.m.

Yesterday was so busy, in fact, I forgot to blog. So here I am election reporter hangover and all, bringing you this nail art. That is dedication my friends!



I was inspired by The Nailasaurus rainbow waterfall nail art. She is a pro, I love those nubs of hers.



Anyway for the base of this manicure, I used KBShimmer In Bare Form, the most gorgeous nude holo! Basically my holy grail nude.



Using a tiny brush using light light strokes, I created the waterfall. I used about a million polishes in this look, so I wont list them all here. But if you are curious about what a color is, ask in the comments and I'll do my best to remember!



So what do you think about this look? I so loved it! I just love anything rainbow colored, thus my true love of holo polishes!

Anyway, election coverage is still not over for me. The races in the school district I cover are still too close to call. The bond measure is only ~9 votes shy of its 55 percent approval threshold and one board member race is a difference of 29 votes. The county still has more than 1,000 ballots to count and won't update numbers again until 5 p.m. It's going to be a looooooong day.