ILNP Gradient with Holo Stamping

Happy Wednesday everyone. This week is quickly flying by and I am so excited because I am going out of town wine tasting this weekend and after taking the last month off drinking, I'm ready to have some fun again. And thank you California winters because it looks like I'm going to have weather in the 70s for my outings!

Anyway today I have some terrifically bright nails to share with you.



I recently made a hefty ILNP purchase, thanks to a coupon code and a gift certificate from Christmas. As soon as I saw So Coral and Super Juiced, I knew I wanted to pair them together in a gradient, and I think the results are stunning.



I did put a layer of white polish down first, and I think the tip is for good gradients with a white base is good clean up of the white base. Try to clean away the white from the edges of the nail, so when you clean up your gradient, you don't get any white peeking through.



After finishing the gradient I knew I wanted to stamp over it, but I didn't want it to take away too much from the gradient. I originally thought I wanted to add a holo top coat to the gradient and then stamp with a solid color (like black), but then I decided that would be to distracting and take away from the beauty that is So Coral and Super Juiced. So I decided I would just stamp with holo color.



I used one of the new UberChic Beauty Collection 7 plates (restocking Feb. 9), using the geometric image from plate 7-02 with my M Polish To Have and to Holo. The result was super delicate, but I really liked it!



And a total happy coincidence, the manicure matches my walking shoes perfectly! It's been a goal of mine to reach 10,000 steps every day, and I've been doing my best so far using my fitbit! Having a lto of fun too!

I hope you enjoyed these nails, I'll have to post a full review of my recent ILNP purchase soon, so be on the lookout for that! :)

Personal Post with a Side of Black Holo Skittles

Hey guys, today I've got some stuff I want to share with you. Personal stuff. I hope you'll stick with me through it all. Think of it as a chance to get to know me a little better, but because we obviously all love nails, I've got a fun nail art look to share as well.



Here are my nails! I'll get to the details at the end of this post, but for now I thought I just get to the sharing part.

Part of me feels like I've lost my mojo this month. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I've been trying to get pregnant for a year now with no luck. It's struggle to remain optimistic when you keep confronting failure month in and month out.

On top of that, I have PKU, which I've covered here before here and here. It basically means that on top of this whole trying to get pregnant thing, I have to have a strict and monitored diet where I don't get to eat anything fun (no dairy, meat, bread etc.).

I've just been a little melancholy this month in general, the whole trying to get pregnant thing is a lot of it, but part of it is I feel like I suck at this whole blogging thing a bit.

I'm in a TON of nail groups on Facebook and sometimes it just feels like I am drowning. With my full time day job I can't possibly remain as connected as I'd like to be, and as a result, I sometimes feel lost in the world of nail blogs.

I often envy the people who are great at responses, have a ton of interaction with each other. Sometimes I feel like I don't even have time to comment on all the blogs I read, and I wish I were better at that. Maybe I'd have more interaction of my own.

On top of it all, I'm suffering from dry winter nails, and despite my daily cuticle routine, I just don't feel like my nails measure up some days. Annnnnd I made the mistake of waaaaaay over filing them so I feel like my nubs couldn't possibly make some of this polish look amazing.

So as a result, my posts have been sporadic, and in my own eyes – half-hearted. I guess with everything else going on, nail polish used to be my escape, but with all the melancholy some nights I haven't had the energy to even play. I find myself overwhelmed with all the polish I own and not knowing which direction to go in!

Let's break up this ugliness with some more pretty rainbow sparkle shall we?!?



So life is not all bad. I'm trying to distract myself this month. I sort of feel like I left myself go health wise (not counting the diet stuff) last year, thinking 'hey I'll be pregnant soon enough so what's the point?!'

For Christmas I got a FitBit and I've been having fun doing mini competitions with other people I know who have a FitBit. I'm not being crazy or anything, but setting mini goals for myself and getting super excited when I make them. Also, taking walks on my breaks at work or when I get home is good stress release.

And I've found as a fun treat while I walk, I listen to super engaging podcasts and usually it makes me want to walk even long than I have time for. It feels good, because instead of walking and thinking of all the things I need to do etc. I get lost educating myself on some topic via a podcast, it's all very stress relieving.

Oh and I gave up drinking for a bit. Me and my hubby did to see if it helps in the fertility department. I didn't drink a whole bunch to begin with, so not that big a deal for me, but probably an adjustment for my hubby.

I think it's time for another photo.



So that's it from me in the personal department. I'm still here in the blogging world. Doing it when I can, but also know I'm out in the world, trying to distract myself the best I can. I really want to be engaged more in the nail blogger world, but sometimes I just don't feel cool enough. It's pretty dumb, but sometimes I feel like I lack a good online persona.

If anyone has any tips for making life happy, ways to balance blog and social and not stress, good podcasts, any input whatsoever, I'd love to hear it.

Now let's get to the nails already!!!



Say hello to my super shorties and the ugly skin around my nails. Hardly blog appropriate nails, but I wanted to share this look because it did bring me some happy!

The base of this look is Painted Polish Midnight Mischief, a great black creme one-coater. I used Painted Polish Drunk on Holo to make a fun glitter gradient.



Then I broke out my M Polish To Have and To Holo to stamp from one of my Bundle Monster Shangri-La buffet stamps. I was excited to get this polish finally, but when I did stamp with it I thought that it would be a bit more opaque. Some of the photos of it led me to believe it was just so opaque when stamping over black. To me I don't see much difference between this and my Color Club Halo Hues. Maybe I need to play more, who knows?!

So I do believe I've chatted with you all quite enough now. I hope I haven't scared you off, but it feels good to get some of this off my chest so thank you for listening and for sharing any input you have.