NPC Day 8: Boutique

Hi everyone!  I'm behind on my Never-ending Pile Challenge!  I don't even have a good excuse, I've just been really tired this week.  So this post should have gone up Wednesday, and I'm hoping to get another post up tonight.  Two posts in one day for you!

Today's (or Wednesday's) Challenge called for a boutique polish brand.  The definition of a boutique brand changes a bit depending on who you talk to, but to me it means a brand that is not a large wholesaler (so not OPI, Essie, etc), but is larger than an in-house hand-poured indie brand.  So some examples are I Love Nail Polish, piCture pOlish, and Rescue Beauty Lounge, which is what I used!

Here is RBL "Abi":

 "Abi" is a chartreuse creme with a hint of silver shimmer, which did not come across in my pictures.  I was surprised by how much I liked this on me.  I could not get a color-accurate picture of this.  It's much lighter and more yellow-toned than it looks in my pictures.

I decided to add some stamping with MoYou Landscape Collection plate 06 since I haven't done any in awhile.  I used Butter London "Lillibet's Jubilee", a lilac foil.  "Abi" is a bit closer to real-life color in this next photo:

Thanks for reading!  I'll try to get my next post up later tonight!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art: Chevrons

Hey guys!  Sorry I didn't get my St. Patrick's nails up yesterday :(  I've been taking this medicine the past few days that completely wipes me out.  I went to bed at 11:00 Sunday night and slept til 9:00 yesterday morning.  Then I ate breakfast and laid back down on the couch for an hour!  And after that I was still dragging all day at work, and when I came home after!  I was just didn't have the energy to take and edit pictures last night.  Luckily, this medicine is just an as-needed thing, so I'm going to stop taking it for now and go see my doctor again if I need something else.

Anyway, I went to bed early last night and got a good, restful night of sleep, and then I got so much done today!  I did my taxes finally this morning (got a nice big federal and state refund, whoohoo!) and then I cleaned and organized my office here at home.  I still had boxes to unpack from when we moved in last May!  I got everything sorted, and now you can see the floor!

Okay, sorry for all the talking, those were just two things on my Spring Break To-Do list, and I'm glad I got them done!

For today's manicure, I used some nail vinyls I got from Nail Vinyls on Storenvy.  I've used striping tape before, and I figured this would be pretty similar, but it turns out they're a little different!

 Nail vinyls are more substantial and way stickier than striping tape.  At first they would pull up the polish underneath when I tried to reposition them.  So I stuck the vinyl to my hand a few times to try to make it less sticky, but then it wouldn't still to my nail at all!  After some finagling I got it to work though!

This is one coat of RBL "Pause" over two coats of Butter London "Fishwife".   It was really hard to get accurate pictures of "Pause".  My camera kept wanting to make it blue.  For some reason, darker lighting (like the two above photos) worked better.  "Pause" is a grape purple shimmer, and "Fishwife" is a weak minty holo.

I'm glad I bought these vinyls; I'm already thinking of my next mani with them!  Have you guys tried vinyls?  Do you have any tips?

Thanks for reading!