Orchids on "Orchids" for the Orchid Show

Yesterday Gosia and I went to the Orchid Show at the botanical garden in town.  The Missouri Botanical Garden is pretty much my favorite place in St. Louis.  I'm sure I'll do more flower-themed manis as everything starts blooming!

Since we were going to the orchid show, I decided to wear one of my new Colors By Llarowe pretties, "Orchids Are Better Than Roses Any Day" AKA "OABTRAD".

"OABTRAD" is the perfect representation of the Pantone Color of the Year for 2014, Radiant Orchid.  It's a warm orchid with almost golden undertones.  The holographic finish absolutely makes it radiant!

This is two coats of CBL's usual perfect formula.

I decided to try some stamping too!  I didn't have anything with orchids on it, but I thought these flowers from MoYou Pro Plate 06 were close:

I stamped using Julep "Harley", which left me pleasantly surprised!  I wasn't sure if silver would stamp very well, but "Harley" was nice and opaque and my images transferred perfectly!

Colors By Llarowe can be found at Llarowe.com and Julep can be found at Julep.com

Here are some pictures of the orchids from the show:

Thanks for reading!

Valentine's Mani part 5: WTF Camera!?!

Just a real quick post today because I wanted to post the last of the KBShimmer Valentine's trio, but I could NOT get my camera to capture this color-accurately at all!

Just two, horribly inaccurate photos:

This is Julep "Carrie" with RBL "Mismas" and KBShimmer "U Rock My <3 accent="" nail.="" nbsp="" on="" p="" the="">
Carrie is not the weird putty color it looks here; it's actually a bright bubblegum pink.  I was surprised at how much I liked it, since I'm not usually into "classic" pinks.

Mismas is a darkened purple--it is fairly accurate in these photos.

And lastly, U Rock My <3 a="" and="" black="" different="" glitters="" hearts.="" hex="" hot="" is="" matte="" mix="" of="" p="" pink="" sizes="" star="">
Julep can be found at Julep.com
Rescue Beauty Lounge can be found at RescueBeauty.com
And KBShimmer can be found at KBShimmer.com.  Christy Rose also makes great bath and body products.  I buy one of her bath bombs every time I place a polish order!

Thanks for reading!

Valentine's Mani Part 2: All You Need is Love

And by Love I mean Julep's "Love" that went out to all subscribers this month!

 "Love" is a super-shimmery gold with pink undertones and loads of red microglitter.  It almost has a gold to pink duochrome effect.  I tried to catch the pink flash in the next couple pictures:

 

To add to the Valentine's-y-ness, I added a pink heart rhinestone from a pack from Sally Beauty.  Rhinestones are totally easy to use.  You just place them on your nail while your polish is still wet, let it dry for a couple minutes, then seal it on with a thick coat of top coat!

  I love "Love" so much!  I hope Julep puts out more colors with this finish.  The formula was a little thick though.  I didn't have any problems with application, but I might add a bit of thinner next time.

Julep can be found at Julep.com.  Julep's Maven program is a boutique nail polish subscription box.  I'll let you read more about it here.  If you want to become Maven, you can sign up through my link and use the code "FREEBOX" to get your first box free!