Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones inspired

Pin It

I read Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones back in May. She also authored Howl's Moving Castle and a number of other entertaining young adult novels. Every one of her books that I've read is charming and magical. So far, Dogsbody is my favorite.

China Glaze Desert Sun with Julep Mystery Glitter

Pin It

Hi there. Are you having a good weekend so far? I wanted to show you this quick little mani that I wore for two days. I planned for it to be a full glitter manicure, but after seeing this glitter polish on the nail, I decided that it would be better as an accent nail.

Chelsea Lavendairy for the New Year

Pin It

Hi lovelies! It is almost New Year's Eve. You want to see what I'll be wearing for my big party. . . By "big party," I mean hanging out with my husband and daughter, cuddled up together. Just because we're not going out doesn't mean I didn't want some New Year's bling.

Cult Nails Disciplined Glitter Sandwich

Pin It

Hello everyone! I hope that you all are about to start a wonderful weekend. I figured there is no better way to start the weekend than with an exciting manicure. I allowed myself a big splurge last week, purchasing the Cult Nails Behind Closed Doors collection within moments of its release for sale on Thursday evening. I couldn't wait to set my eyes on these polishes. Then, I woke up on Wednesday morning, walked downstairs, and saw a small box sitting by the door inside my house. The package had been delivered on Tuesday, but my husband forgot to tell me! If he wasn't such a wonderful man, I would have been quite upset that he made my little polish beauties sit inside that box overnight. Sometimes he doesn't understand my passion for nail polish.

As I was driving home from work on Wednesday evening, I was mapping this manicure in my mind, pale pink as the base, bright multicolor glitter for the filling and then Cult Nails Disciplined to keep the whole manicure in line.

I took an unintentional break from all the blogs I read during August and it seems like I missed out on some very important nail polish news. I knew nothing about these peel off basecoats and by a fluke, found an old blog post about it earlier this week. I had been avoiding my glittery polishes for all this time for no reason! I always knew that there should be some manicure uses for Elmer's glue, but I had no idea that it would be my basecoat.

I started this manicure with two layers of thinned Elmer's glue, two coats of Sinful Colors Easy Going, a dabbed on coat of Milani Gems, and two coats of Cult Nails Disciplined. I know that I made a joke about Disciplined keeping the manicure "in line" before, but it really did. The bright colors of Milani Gems on top of the pale, petal pink of Easy Going was very brash and looked a little immature. Once covered with the soft, sheerness of Disciplined, the glitter looked pretty and pastel. Disciplined was like a grey, shimmering, chiffon gown covering the manicure and I loved it.

This manicure lasted two days, but probably could have gone three, maybe even four if I was really careful and took super fast showers. The peel off basecoat is not designed for long wear, but easy removal. And easy it was! It took less than two minutes to peel off each finger, with no stray bits of polish to struggle with. One thing that I did notice while wearing the peel off basecoat was that if an edge was starting to come free, I could just dampen it a little, hold it down for a couple of moments and it would re-adhere to the nail.

I am so happy about the Cult Nails Behind Closed Doors Collection. I am wearing Bitten on my nails right now and it makes me swoon. All of the colors in this collection make me a little weak in the knees and I hope to post more about them soon.

Also, Elmer's glue as a basecoat! This is such a happy day! I try not to use nail polish remover more than once a week so that I don't dry out my nails too much. Now, I can switch up my polish so much more often. I still like to wear spectacular colors for longer than a few days, but once in a while I get a little fickle, so this will feed my fickleness. And I will definitely want to wear Disciplined on its own for more than two days very soon. It is so lovely.

What do you think of Cult Nails Disciplined as a jelly sandwich? How often do you change your polish?

Once again, I'm joining the Nail Files. I've missed out on seeing all the great manicures and polish lust. I can't wait to catch up a little. Go check it out yourself!

Have a great weekend.
~Alexis

China Glaze Optical Illusion

Pin It

indoors

outside

Hello, lovelies! Welcome to my sparkly, shimmery, glittery post. Allow me to introduce you to Optical Illusion from the China Glaze Prismatics collection. This is a very sweet blue green holographic polish packed with hot pink, orange, yellow, green, silver, and baby blue metallic glitter. Once applied, it looked like a blue-green foil basecoat topped with tons of multicolored glitter. I own several glitter polishes, but none of them are anything like this.

Application of Optical Illusion was unbelievably smooth and even. I topped the polish with one coat of Gelous and one coat of fast drying topcoat. When I use this polish again, I will top with two coats of Gelous for a more glass-like finish.

Optical Illusion stayed on my nails much better than I thought it would. I did have to repaint one small chip two days into the manicure, but more severe chipping only took place after four to five days wear. On the plus side, the polish patched really smoothly. The patched area looked just as smooth and even as the rest of the nail polish.

Check out week 19 of the Nail Files. Do you have a great manicure or polish to show off? Then join the Nail Files link up too!

What do you think of the Prismatics collection? Any favorites?

Next week I'll show you a green ombre gradient manicure with some stamped art. Have a good weekend.
~Alexis

St. Patrick's Nails: Not quite a week later

Pin It

Let me begin by apologizing again. I'm sorry; I know that I promised a weekly manicure and the wear and tear of the week, but St. Patrick's Day nails went out of style on Sunday, so the polish came off on Monday. That was the longest I could bear it. I wanted to keep my finger on the pulse of nail polish fashion, so my nails are now clothed in other springtime colors that you may have seen earlier. I hope you'll forgive me.

As I mentioned on St. Patrick's Day, this manicure was a bit of a bear. The base color is Sinful Colors San Francisco. It looks gorgeous in the bottle, but application is very sheer and streaky. It also took a very long time to dry. I normally don't ding up my nail polish, but this manicure had dings and dents on about five fingers!

I wanted to stamp some clovers onto the polish, but I had a hard time getting it to come out in a pleasing way, so I scrapped that idea and then tried to use a dotting tool to create clovers. That was a disaster, so I removed it too. I finally just topped the green polish with two coats of China Glaze Luxe and Lush. Luxe and Lush saved this manicure from ending up on an acetone soaked piece of cotton on day one. I love how it sparkled like gold chunks on my nails.

I finished waxing the door while wearing this manicure and it bore the labor well. I removed the polish after wearing it for about three days and there was only a tiny bit of tip wear and the teeniest of chips on my left middle finger. The removal of Luxe and Lush was much less difficult than I anticipated. It required a little soak, but came off the nail completely.

Next week, I'll tell you how my springy stamped nail art performed; I am going to try to make the spring manicure last longer than usual because I am still loving it four days after application. Happy spring!



~Alexis

Green Ocean glitter gradient manicure

Pin It

Hello again. Today I share last week's sparkly manicure. Following the tutorial from The Hungry Asian, I created this green glitter gradient french manicure. First, I painted the white of my nail with Sinful Colors Green Ocean, then a second coat of Green ocean extending a little below the white onto the nail bed. The next layer of polish I added was Finger Paints Twisted and I finished off the glitter with Wet 'n' Wild Kaleidoscope. I then painted the whole nail with a clear gloss polish and finally a layer of quick dry topcoat. I was happy with the effect, but if I were to do it again, I think that using a more opaque polish than Green Ocean as the bottom layer would give an even better effect.

This manicure held up remarkably well, much better than I expected from a glitter manicure. Green Ocean goes on pretty thick, so I expected tons of chipping. At the end of the third day, I had a bit of tip wear and a tiny chip on the edge of my left middle finger. By the time I took off the polish, after six days, there were very small chips on both thumbs and a chip on each middle finger.

I love the look of glittery polishes, but oh, how I hate removing them. It seems to take forever and my hands are covered in sparkles afterwards. By the way, sorry about the blurry images. I will try to be better about that.

We put an unstained door up in the entrance to the family room about two months ago. I knew at the time that I would finish the door with Briwax, a wood wax that leaves a rustic finish with a beautiful patina. Briwax works best when it is a little warmer and you definitely need to open windows. I was finally able to wax the door with the warmer weather and while it didn't beat up my nail polish, it did a number on my fingernails. I wore a double layer of gloves and took off my gloves to discover two chipped nails. I still need to do one more coat of wax, so I hope that my nails survive it all.

I also learned why you should stain or finish wood as soon as possible. You can see little finger marks in this picture. Oh well, I'll have to live with that bit of imperfection.

Next week's manicure will be festive St. Patrick's Day nails. I'll post early to show off the green in time for the holiday. Until next time, take care.

~Alexis