Mardi Gras Nails!

Hi dolls!  Merry Mardi Gras!  =)

In case you didn't know, Mardi Gras means "Fat Tuesday" in French and is the last hurrah before the liturgical season of Lent.  If you are so inclined to learn more about that particular facet of this holiday, feel free to Google it, as I'd rather not lecture.  =)

I love Mardi Gras, you just do not understand.  It's so colorful and boisterous and fun!  I would kill to go to New Orleans during Mardi Gras.  It's not just about the beads, you guys, haha!  There's dancing and masks and parades and copious amounts of drinking involved.  And FOOD!  Cajun food is probably the best thing in the world and the only authentic Cajun restaurant near me stopped taking reservations a week ago.  But Mardi Gras also means pancakes to me.  So you will probably be able to find me at IHOP stuffing my face.

Thumb and ring fingers: China Glaze Liquid Leather with dots in the other colors

Index finger: Orly Wandering Vine

Middle Finger: Zoya Pippa

Pinkie finger: Nicole by OPI...Justin Bieber purple that I can't remember the name of.

On top of all: Sally Hansen Disco Ball

This was really fun to do, even if I obsessed about the dots and then got mad that my pinkie finger smudged at the top.  The dots I realize are a little difficult to see on the black, but nude or white would have just been wrong.  The entire time I did this manicure I was listening to The Civil Wars and zydeco music.

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

a england Galahad

Hi dolls!

My normal posting days are Sundays and Thursdays, so you could either think of this post as two days late or a day early.  Whichever you prefer.  Either way, I'm bringing you an a england gem today!

Now, I realize that her new collection The Legend was just released, which centers around the legend of England's patron saint Saint George (you can find the background on the story *here*).  This isn't one of those fabulous new shades, but from the Mythicals collection (about King Arthur, you can search that legend in the last link, if you so desire).

If you haven't met yet, I'd like to introduce you to Galahad.  The creator of this wonderful brand Adina describes Galahad as a mystic vibrant blue-green.  I like to describe it as a dark aqua or a teal.  Galahad had been a Christmas gift to me from L and J (aka Herself and Brother), which I was so excited for.  The other a england that was gifted to me was Pervecal, the full story of our Christmas together can be found in the link.

Galahad is absolutely beautiful.  The color is so flattering and the formula is like butter.  a england polishes are without a doubt the very best things I have ever put on my nails.

Direct sunlight

Shade

So glossy and shiny with a jelly finish, and dries true to shade in the bottle.  Perfection.

OPI Italian Love Affair

Hi dolls!  =)

I have seen so many cute Valentine's Day manicures on the blogs this past week that I decided to add to them myself.  I used OPI's Italian Love Affair, which is a super soft, ultra feminine pink creme.  It did make me think that it was almost more of a Parisian pink because of how soft and romantic it looked.  I mean, I've had ballet tights and leotards and stuff the color of this polish.  It made my inner high school and college age selves very happy.  This would be great as an "interview appropriate polish" by itself.

My only complaint about this polish is that it could have been an easy two coater if it hadn't been for the fact that there were so many bald spots and streaking with just two coats.  It really needed three coats to look proper.  My OCD would not let me have that happen to may nails.  Either way, this polish is highly recommended and will have a permanent place in my collection.

Next I used a Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in black to apply a single line of very small dots and a little bitty heart onto my ring fingers.  I think the idea I was going for was "heart strings," cause that's what it looked like to me.

The lighting in the last picture is very weird.  But at least you can see a close up of the design.  =)

Revlon Sunshine Sparkle and Finger Paints Flashy

Hi dolls!  =)

A little embarrassed to say that I got horribly out of order with some posts.  Today's post is the manicure I wore right before I went on vacation to see Sissy.

My base was Revlon's Sunshine Sparkle, which I picked up from my local Target on clearance back in the beginning of "winter," or at least when everyone was releasing their winter collections.  It's a really pretty sheer pastel yellow with a yellow/gold micro shimmer in it.  I think I did this base maybe three times because I royally messed it up the first time.  Way too much polish on the brush with not enough time in between coats just made a big mess of my nails.  The second time they got half way dry then Mom grabbed my fingers and scraped half the polish off my nails and onto her hand.  Neither of us were happy about that.

So like Goldilocks, the third time was just right.  The picture of this third and final time with this one manicure is just two normal coats.  This was also before my clean up, so please forgive the messy nails.

Every single one of my nails also decided to break down to the quick while I was at work the day I did this.  It was very depressing and kind of painful.  Poor little nubbins.

Finger Paints released their flaky polishes at the beginning of January at Sally's Beauty Supply, and I purchased my two bottles as soon as they were released...and then forgot to post about them.  Sorry. 

I love anything that is shiny and/or sparkles.  Flakies are a very nice subtle way of getting your bling nails past your boss in case your work has a strict policy about flamboyant nail polishes.  But every company and their mom this year released flakies, where last year you could barely find the lovelies.  Were the glitter factories having a sale on flakies?  

I can't honestly say one flakie is as good as the next, because I haven't tried them all.  Almost all of the ones I have laid eyes on come in a different colored base and have different colors in the flake themselves, so your selection depends entirely on what you want to wear them with.  I just bought two that I thought I'd be happy with having in my hoard collection.  For now.

Finger Paints Flashy is a multichrome flakie in a yellow-ish base, so I thought it went well with this manicure.  The colors in this are mostly yellow, pink, and orange, but I kept seeing bits of blue, purple and green in different lighting.  I tried to get all the colors to show up in the pictures above, but the lighting is a little washed out.

Thanks for humoring me with this late post!  I think I got Finger Paints Flashy for about $6 before the Sally's discount card.

OPI Come to Poppy

Hello hello!  I feel like I haven't made a post in a long time, even though it's my normal post day.  Maybe it's because I worked 9 days in a row...I have today and tomorrow off so I don't really care anymore.

This post is featuring the mani/pedi that I got while on vacation with Sissy.  I shocked myself twice in one day: my hands and feet matched AND I paid for a simple manicure that I could have just as easily done myself.  Another shock was the mani/pedi was sub-par.  All they really did was clean up my cuticles and moisturize then paint my nails.  Didn't even exfoliate my feet.  And I have scary ex-dancer feet so I have a huge build up of calluses.  Not too happy about that.

Anyway, this is OPI Come to Poppy from the Nice Stems collection.  Lovely hot pink creme with silver shimmer.  I own a lot of pink (surprise surprise!) and I think it ended up matching almost every dark or hot pink article of clothing I own.  Also, there is so much silver shimmer in it that it was almost difficult to get all the silver micro sparkles off of my nails after all the pink came off.

This was the best picture I could get since I was on a moving boat.  All the other ones were horribly blurry and you couldn't exactly tell what you were looking at.

However, in the matter of shade excluding the shimmer: exactly the same as Ulta Fuchsiamania.  Now, it's my opinion that Come to Poppy would be a better buy just because it lasted much longer.  I don't know if it's just this certain top coat I was using but I think I'm going to throw it out.  Every manicure I do with it ending up chipping horribly.