Quickie for approximately $4.00!

Good morning! So as an attempt to be more active, I did a quickie mani last night that I'm actually loving today! I knew I had a lot of cleaning and work to do today that was going to ruin my nails, so I wanted something quick, easy, and honestly, cheaper.

Now, I don't want to present myself as a polish snob. Every polish I own has a special place for me, because all brands have something unique to bring to the table. However, it is a fact that some brands cost more than others. While I don't own any "high end" brands such as Deborah Lippman, Dior, or Butter London, my OPI's and Zoya's cost more than my Wet 'n Wild's and Sally Hansen's (even if I didn't pay full price for them, hehe).

Now, why would I want my nails painted at all if I'm just going to be home cleaning all day? Well, my friends, I have come to notice something interesting. My nails tend to break off LESS when they have polish on. Even though generally chemicals are not good for our bodies and nails, nail polish acts like a little shield for my nails.

However, I digress. I'm home cleaning today, still wanted my nails pretty so I could share them, and didn't want to spend a lot to do so (even though technically I spent this money long ago...). SO I have decided to try an untied, and LOVE IT.

 This little gem is Wet 'n Wild Fast Dry in Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire. These generally retail for $1.99, though the pharmacy I get them at often has them for BOGO 50% off. Now first of all, I love this line of polishes for the simple fact that they are named after TV shows. I have two favorites because of their names (Sage in the City and Saved by the Blue).

Second, the colors are all super pretty! Blue Wants to be a Millionaire is a very sheer blue base with fabulous holographic mircroglitter throughout. Now, it's very sheer, and may be opaque in three to four coats. However, I didn't have the time to do that, so I just did one coat over a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Black Out, my current go-to black. That's another cheap polish, ranging from $2-3 dollars (I spend $2 on mine). And the combo is fabulous!

No flash.

No flash and blurry to show that FANTASTICAL holographic sparkle!

Wet 'n Wild and Sally Hansen polishes are easily available at most drugstores/pharmacies and chain department stores like Wal-Mart or Target. For a combined price of $4.00 and total painting time of ten minutes before bed, I think this is a winning cheap, quick mani that is ADORABLE.

Peace!
-Jessica

Nail Fun...more Glitter Crackle!

Hello hello! So I did this mani...Sunday night I believe? And I never had the chance to get the pictures up. But I had mentioned on my Facebook page (you can click here to see it!) that I was wearing glitter crackle. And I had a couple questions about it, I loved the combo I did, so I took pictures and want to share!

Here I used Wet 'n Wild Through the Grapevine as a base, with China Glaze Beam Me Up glitter crackle.  You can see the cracks ARE pretty distinct, and large like using a thick coat of a single color crackle, even though this is a thinner coat of glitter crackle. The purple base was surprisingly easy to work with, as well, opaque in two coats with little to no streaking!

Gotta get to work for now, enjoy!

While I'm blogging...more hauls!!

Okay, so I'm gonna make this short and sweet. Here's my latest haul (it's like March Madness around here!) I will say Sally's was having an awesome sale :-)

Here is China Glaze Lubu Heels, Dorothy Who?, Fairy Dust, Some Like it Haute, and Love Marylin. Love my sparkles!!

So there's a funny story about my Hunger Games polishes. From left to right, we have Stone Cold, Luxe and Lush, and Electrify. Now, instead of Stone Cold, I thought I got Smoke and Ashes. Up until my order came, I had thought I ordered Smoke and Ashes, but had I checked I would have realized I ordered Stone Cold, instead. BUT I'm really liking Stone Cold's matte finish, so I may just  need to make one more Sally's order while China Glaze is on sale :-)

Then a few random loves, we have Wet N' Wild Gray's Anatomy (a really cool iridescent green/gray/purple/pink), Finger Paints Red Crackle, and China Glaze Cracked Concrete.

So I have probably bought too much recently, but there's been so many pretty colors!! I guess there's never too many pretty colors!

Old Mani's

So as I've said before, I have some pictures of different nails I've had since last October. I've only used my phone to take these pictures, but I still want to share some of them, because some of them are pretty cool :-)

This was a polka-dot mani I did freehand in January. The purple is L.A. Colors "Nuclear Energy" with an L.A. Colors white nail art polish for the dots (I did them freehand with the art brush, this was done before I discovered a dotting tool). You can't see it in the picture, but there was also one coat of Orly's "54" on top, which is a very sheer pink shimmer/sparkle. Overall it was really cute :-)

So another blog I follow, Nails Never Fails talked about a "jelly sandwich" mani, using a jelly-type polish with a layer of glitter. So this is OPI's "It's a Girl!" as a base, with a layer of Wet N' Wild's "Sparked" in the middle, and then the "It's a Girl!" on top. It was the coolest thing, the glitter looked suspended in the polish. Therefore, because of this, I bought "Translucent" by Color Club to try this mani again.

Finally, this is probably my proudest mani. These were my Halloween nails, and it was AWESOME! There are three stripes of color underneath: Wet N' Wild's "Sage in the City" for the green, Pure Ice's "Hot Tamale" for the orange, and L.A. Color's "Amethyst" for the purple. I have Color Club's Black Fractured on top. Love this, and will try this type of  mani for another holiday (I have some of China Glaze's metallic crackles that will be nice for spring/Easter).

NOTD: Saved by the Blue

So yesterday (Saturday March 3) was The American Heart Associations Greatest Heart Run and Walk of Utica, NY. I am on a team for my nephew who was diagnosed with a heart condition at two weeks old :-(. The team shirts are a very primary blue color, so what better color to paint my nails?

(p.s. this was taken on my phone, poor quality!) Wet N' Wild Saved by the blue, with Hard Candy "Matte-ly in Love" matte topcoat! So much prettier in person, it has such a different sheen!

I have some old nail pictures I found on my phone I will post eventually, and this is a little late to post, but oh well. Just have to keep going!

Hello, nail world!

So, I have joined a large part of the polish world and decided to blog about my own experiences.

Now, I'm going to be up front about a lot of things in this first blog post:
1.) My application techniques are improving, but by no means are perfect. So when I do post pictures, you will notice polish often all over my cuticles, or smudged because my cat jumped on my lap, ect...
2.) I don't own a ton of polishes YET. My collection grows slowly but surely, as I discover the brands I like to use more, the types of polishes that are fun to wear (GLITTER!), and my financial situations.When I can afford more polishes, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll have a larger collection!
3.) I love experimenting will nail art, but I've never actually been a decent artist on paper to begin with, so my nail "art" is often basic and messy (but I love it, and that's the point of blogging about it!)
4.) My nails are never really in good condition, leaving them shorter than I would like for nail art :-(
5.)  I'm ALWAYS willing to take advice :-)

So, my mani for my first post is...

Zoya Gemma! With an accent water marble finger (first success!) done in three shades of Wet N'Wild: Night Prowl, Blue Moon, and Fatal from their "Crystalic" polishes.

Close up of the marbling (the red spot is from dry skin, this weather is horrible on my nails!)

Wow, I need to practice camera skills, as well (or have my husband take pictures). So yea, lots to learn, hopefully lots to share :-). Will continue to keep getting polishes as I can, trying new manis/art, and join the polish world!