New Years Nails: 2016

Happy New Years! I'm so excited about the three day weekend. 2015 was a great year for me, and I'm looking forward to things getting even better in 2016. I'm starting things off right in the new year with some of the easiest nail art and Fairy Dust! I finally bought it on sale at Sally's and I'm so glad. It's just the right amount of sparkle without overwhelming the art underneath. I'm also back to coffin shaped nails which I loved when I tried them at Halloween. I think I might keep this shape for a while this time.

Do you see what I did here? Count the number of studs on each finger and you'll see why these are my New Year's nails.

To create this look I dotted blobs of nail polish onto a plastic sheet and smooshed them with my stamper, then pressed onto my nails. I did a couple layers on some nails to get full coverage and give more depth. It's really easy to get an interesting an fun look with this technique. I'm sure it already has a name, but I'm calling it smoosh art.

I also picked up My Vampire is Buff by OPI on clearance at Sally's which I used as my base for this manicure. From the way everyone talks about how amazing this polish is, I expected the formula to be better. My first coat was really streaky and the brush dragged at the color. The second coat fixed the streaks, but I was a little disappointed to see them in the first place. For my color blobs I used shades of purple and teal. 

Sinful Colors- Dream On

China Glaze- Plur-ple, Violet Vibes, Queen B and Too Yacht to Handle

Island Girl- Aloha Paradise

Orly- Saturated

The two different sizes of studs are from Born Pretty. I topped it all off with Fairy Dust from China glaze and my favorite top coat.

 Are there any nail shapes or trends you're looking forward to trying in the new year? I think I'd have to answer "all of them." I love the challenge of trying new things.

Merry Sparkle-mas

It's still Christmas, this post still totally counts. I've been really busy today... killing dragons. Skyrim has been resurrected from the pile-o-games that I never quite finished the first time around. It's still just as addictive. I'm missing my family a ton, but being so far away means playing Skyrim all day in my pajamas guilt free. I'm taking a small break from dragons to post these sparkle overload nails.

I used a ton of polishes for these nails.

Thumb: Spoiled, Daddy's Credit Card; LA Colors, Sparkling Diamonds and Tinsel

Index: China Glaze, Seeing Red; Milani, Red (large hex glitter); 

Sally Girl, Red Glitter (snowman bottle)

Middle: Orly Color Amp'd, Hollywood Royalty (Christmas present from mom. Thanks!)

Ring: China Glaze, There's Snow One Like You; Zoya, Cosmo

Pinkie: Spoiled, Distant Memory; Milani, Teal (large hex glitters)

Most of these took three coats for complete glitter awesomeness, but were chosen because I know they have great coverage in about 2 coats. The Milanis are great for being packed with dense glitter. I feel like my nails are covered in metallic wrapping paper.

If not for the 75% off clearance sale at Sally's tomorrow, I wouldn't be leaving the house at all this weekend. Aside from that one short excursion I'm looking forward to two more solid days of dragon killing, looting and general mayhem. What are you up to this weekend?

Snowflake Gradient Nails

I love winter! It's even better here in Oregon where actual weather happens. Last weekend we got our very first snowflakes of the year, but they all melted as soon as they hit the ground. I got to spend the whole weekend inside all cozy making these snowflake cookies. I gave away a lot at work, but it didn't prevent me from eating way too many this past week. At least my nails won't make me fat.

For these nails I started with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Manicure in Ion. Over that I layered Lost Soul from LA Colors. This one is a really pretty shimmery grey, but it's very sheer so the creme base was needed for opacity.

For the snowflake stamp I used Bundle Monster plate BM-323 and grey and white stamping polish from Mundo de Unas. I swirled the grey and white together in the middle with a toothpick on the plate before scraping to blend the colors together and create the gradient effect with the stamping.

I can't believe Christmas is next week! Are you ready yet?

Keep Calm Lip Balm- Review and Giveaway

I don't know about you guys, but I always have a hard time keeping calm around the holidays. Every year I get the idea that frosting sugar cookies with royal icing is a good idea and that this time I won't get tired and bored after the third cookie even though I know I will and the recipe makes about four dozen million. I've gotten the itch again and just ordered 7 new cookie cutters from Amazon so I'm pretty much committed now. Between that and trying to shop while absolutely everyone else in the city is also out shopping it can be tough to have a relaxing holiday. Luckily this year I've already finished all my shopping so I'll just hermit up inside and bake for the rest of the month. Here's a present idea that might help keep your shopping list a little calmer this season.

Rimmel has come out with these adorable Keep Calm lip balms just in time for Christmas which I think would make really cute stocking stuffers for people who are addicted to lip balm. I already have about 20 different kinds hiding out around the house, but I'm always more than happy to get a few more. If I have to move more than 3 feet to get to my closest balm I become the opposite of calm so I make sure I'm stocked up. I received a couple of these balms to review so read on to see what I thought (these are a press sample, but opinions are my own/honest). I also got an extra set and wanted to do a holiday giveaway for all my favorite readers. Enter at the bottom of this post.

The colors I got to try are Keep Calm and Rock (berry blush) and Keep Calm and Party (violet blush). There are five varieties total including Keep Calm and Shop (clear), Kiss (pink blush), and Play (rose blush). They aren't scented to match the colors, but all seem to smell the same. To me it's a mix of rose water and baby powder which I actually rather dislike. I'm not a big fan of most scents in general and especially not so close to my nose. I could only manage to wear these for a few minutes before I had to wash it off due to the perfumey smell. If scented products don't bother you then I'd say go for it, but if they do you might want to skip this one.

The Keep Calm Lip Balms claim to increase lip moisture by 22% vs bare lips. The texture was nice and felt pretty moisturizing, so I could agree with this claim. The tints are nice as well. This is something I'd probably throw in my purse for when I'm too lazy for lipstick (which is about 98% of the time). The packaging is probably my favorite part though. I love the bright colors and Keep Calm theme. These are sold at most major drugstore chains for $2.50.

I've swatched these on my arm to show the colors. The top is Keep Calm and Party (violet blush) and the bottom is Keep Calm and Rock (berry blush). I think the tint is just enough to give lips some color and still look pretty natural.

And here are the obligatory nails.

I'm glad I finally had a valid excuse to use my Keep Calm and Polish On stamp (Bundle Monster plate BM-619). I painted each hand with colors to match the balms so you get to see the mythical right hand this post. For the Rock nails I used LA Colors, Static Electricity for the base and stamped with Mundo de Unas #15 with Bundle Monster plates BM-610*, BM-320*, BM-411 and BM-423 (*also used on the other hand). For Party my base is LA Colors, Hysteria (a white base is highly recommended to make this yellow pop) and MdU #21 with plates BM-414 and BM-202. When I took these of my cotton balls looked like neon cotton candy.

Giveaway Time!
The prize is one Keep Calm and Rock and one Keep Calm and Party as pictured above.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules:

1. Must be 18 or older.

2. Must be a resident of the US.

(Sorry, still too poor to afford international shipping.. someday though)

3. No giveaway accounts- these will be disqualified.

4. Giveaway ends 12/12/15, 12:00 am PST

5. The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to claim their prize. If the prize isn't claimed within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen.

6. Other legal stuff I forgot/don't know about? So official, these rules.