NPC: Most Untrieds in One Mani

Hi everyone.  So I'm late again, is anyone surprised?  Yesterday was such a long day, and I realized that between school and work, today is my first full day off since Easter!  No wonder I've been so tired!

Yesterday's prompt was "Use as many untrieds in one mani as you can", so I started with a base coat of Rescue Beauty Lounge "Insouciant" and then just started grabbing randomly and went at it with a dotting tool!  I ended up using 18 polishes total. Here is the result:

Close up on ring finger:

Close up on thumb:

I forgot how quick and easy dotting is!  I'll have to start using my dotting tools more!

Here are the polishes that I used:

 L to R : Julep "Missy", Jade "Vestido de Gala", Ethereal Lacquer "Ember", Nailtini "Champagne", Deborah Lippmann "Million Dollar Mermaid", Deborah Lippmann "Defying Gravity", Colors by Llarowe "Gizzards & Lizards", CND Vinylux "Gilded Pleasure", Butter London "Thames", and Ozotic 915.

L to R again: Nails Inc "Kings Road", Dance Legend "Sulley", Colors by Llarowe "Love You Forever", Arcane Lacquer "Peace of Mind", OPI DS "Mystery", Julep "Reece", Colors by Llarowe "Smooth Criminal", and RBL "Insouciant".  Whew!

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

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!

Rescue Beauty Lounge "Jack" and "Locavore"

Hi ladies!

How is your week going?  It's almost over, and then I have Spring Break next week!  Woot!

Today I have a polish that I picked by randomly sticking my hand into my bag of Gosia's borrowed polishes and grabbing something.  I ended up with Rescue Beauty Lounge "Jack", a beautiful hunter green creme with blue shimmer.  Then I decided it would go great with one of my untried RBL's, "Locavore", and here is the result:

Okay, these pictures are nice, but they don't do justice to either polish.  The glitter in "Locavore" kind of covered up the blue shimmer in "Jack", and my camera just couldn't capture the sparkliness of "Locavore".

"Locavore" is a mix of gold, magenta, and aqua microglitters.  I tried to get a good macro shot, but again my camera was freaking out.

This is ONE COAT people!  You could totally build this to opacity on its own, but removing it would be a bitch!

I didn't mean to do a St. Patty's day manicure, but this would totally be appropriate for St. Pats!  And the mix of glitters in "Locavore" would have been perfect for Mardi Gras!

Do you girls have plans for St. Pat's?

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 3: Burnin Love

Oh my God, Oh my God you guys!  (Read in the voice of Elle Woods from Legally Blonde the Musical)

Everyone and their mother has been restocking and putting out new collections in the past couple weeks!  Last week KB Shimmer debuted her V-day trio, piCture pOlish restocked on Llarowe on Tuesday, and then Colors by Llarowe restocked on Thursday, and then Elevation restocked and launched her new Patagonia collection yesterday!  Oh, and OPI's new Brazil collection came out.  I was going to hold off on that until I saw the mini CopacaBabies set at Ulta, and it happened to include all the colors I wanted to try from the collection.  I'm excited for all the fun nail mail coming my way, but my bank account is not happy!

Here is one of the polishes from KB Shimmer's new trio, "Whole Lava Lovin'":

"Whole Lava Lovin'" is a red holo with pink undertones.  I'm not normally a huge red polish fan (I know-blasphemy!), but the holo and the pink undertones make this extra special. 

I added on some hearts with Rescue Beauty "Aqua Lily" and Julep "Morgan"

The hearts were totally fast and easy.  You just make two dots next to each other (you can use a toothpick or bobby pin to make dots if you don't have a dotting tool), and then sort of drag the polish down and together into a point. 

"Whole Lava Lovin'" was super-easy to apply and covered completely in two nice coats.  My next mani features another polish from the KB Shimmer trio, so be on the lookout for that!

Rescue Beauty Louge "Aqua Lily"

This might be my new favorite polish.  I'm not even going to bother with an introduction, let's just get to the prettiness!

I took these pictures with my phone in between classes earlier.  I was sitting under a big skylight, which explains the weird reflections!

"Aqua Lily" is a dusty aqua creme with a lilac microshimmer.  Of course the shimmer wouldn't come out to play while I was taking pictures, but it's there I promise!  I think you catch a hint of it in the last photo.

Aqua or teal and purple is my favorite color combo.  I just love this!  And the formula was exquisite!  Two coats that practically applied themselves; no cleanup needed!

Unfortunately, Aqua Lily is discontinued and is CRAZY expensive on ebay.  I borrowed this color from Gosia, and she may not get it back!

Other Rescue Beauty Lounge beauties can be found at rescuebeauty.com

What do you girls think of this color?  You can trust me when I say pictures can't do it justice!