Deborah Lippmann - Weird Science

I've been super busy and happy and loving my new job, so haven't had a chance to paint my nails lately. They get totally destroyed and broken when I let that happen, so they're on the shorter side right now. Today I have a simple/fun manicure to show you.

This polish comes from Deborah Lippmann's Holiday 2014 set, which was so spectacular that I sure did spend over $100 on the entire thing.

Sinful Colors' Cinderella & Darling Diva's Holiday

I would like to note that for the first time, I've actually come back to a draft of my post in order to completely change my review of a color. This manicure was for Lazycole to enjoy her week off in between jobs!
 

jindie nails' Candy Land Remix

So, the reason I've been MIA recently is because I was in the process of job hunting, but it's finally over. Now that I've finished my last day at my current job, I can finally celebrate!!!!

I'm starting a new job and am super excited for the bigger and better things coming my way. With that in mind, today's manicure is a super fun confetti-esque celebration!

Butter London Disco Biscuit

It sure has been a while. I've been too overwhelmed/busy to paint my nails or blog about it. All will be revealed in time... but for now, here is my manicure from ~2 weeks ago? probably?

OPI Solitaire & Alcatraz; Zoya Chita

It's been a couple of weeks since I've painted my nails, and boy have they suffered for it! They are short and broken and sad.

I have been completely uninspired to paint my nails until tonight I finally decided I wanted a textured look and was watching The Little Mermaid. The rest is history.

Ciate Boom Box and Color Club Lady Liberty

Today's manicure is designed around Color Club's Lady Liberty, which my boyfriend saw and decided was required.

Today's manicure will also formally introduce my fancy new (actual) camera! I've been ... managing to take 300 pictures and about 10 or so are good, so, brace yourselves for some detail!

The future is here...

ilnp Cold Fusion

Happy Sunday! I decided to try one of the new ilnp flakies that I just purchased with my Spring 2015 pre-order.

All I can say is thank goodness for work-day Saturdays. When else would I get my nails done?

ilnp Spring 2015 - Mega (S), Timeless Vow, Happily Ever After, and Hush

Today I have half of my most recent ilnp.com order. I've decided to separate them because these 4 were pre-orders from the new Spring collection, whereas the other 4 are just more of the incredible amazing flakies. I'll try to swatch those next.

Before I begin, I'd like to just make a very brief statement about the CC info breach that Barbra (owner/creator of ilnp) has experienced. She had issues in February, hired techs, beefed up security, and still experienced a breach again during her major pre-order sale. My card info was compromised, though I had absolutely no hassle with my bank to get everything sorted, so I'm honestly not too bothered about it.
 I would like to say, however, that upon finding out it was happening to her the first time and again this time, Barbra personally contacted everyone [potentially] effected, explained what happened, apologized, and ultimately decided to only accept paypal in the future because she doesn't want to put her customers in that position again. I will 100% purchase from her again. She handled everything with so much respect that I couldn't possibly ask for more from a person or a company.

That out of the way, let's get to the purdies.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! China Glaze Unpredictable and Sinful Colors Green Ocean

It's that time of year again! Green manicures for St. Patrick's Day. I do absolutely nothing for St. Patrick's day other than have green bagels, green donuts, green ... all the cakes, basically.

I also love this time of year because it reminds me of my 2 year old struggle to find Sinful Colors' Green Ocean, which is part of their (yearly) limited edition St. Patrick's Day display. It took me that long to find a bottle anywhere, and believe me, I went to a good 10+ Walgreens each year until I finally found it! And freaked out and bought like 3 bottles so I'd never run out ever.

That being said, I requested that my boyfriend find a color that he likes with Green Ocean. Frankly, I don't think this mani does it justice, but it was interesting to use it over something other than your typical black.

Color Club (holographic) Eternal Beauty & Halo-Graphic .. Ciate Main Stage & Talent Scout

Fortunately, once again, today's manicure is designed by my boyfriend. I apparently have a really horrible sense of colors and am feeling fairly uninspired on my own.

This manicure includes two linear holographic polishes--if you are not familiar with the term, just you wait! Here's hoping for some Spring soon!

butter London: Slapper, HRH, Henley Regatta, Indigo Punk

Once again working on a Saturday and, unfortunately, left to my own devices, I picked my polish for this manicure, so I'm less than thrilled with the turnout. I was skipping through my butter London's, which I own a ton of cause I love London...and I found way too many polishes that I wanted to use.

At least I've had a chance to swatch them now, because butter London's are truly truly stunning (and I have four less completely unopened polishes now...)

The overall result is, in my opinion, a little bit of a hot mess, but I am not the artistically inclined one, I just paint the nails...


Translation: Blame my boyfriend for this mess.

OPI I Carol About You and Essie Set in Stones

Thanks to this damned weather, I am sporting particularly short nails this week. It feels weird and awful and I hate it. However, I do like dark colors on short nails better, so I thought I'd take advantage by doing a simple dark color and glitter manicure. I had a particular Essie purple in mind that I thought I owned--turns out I had bought it way back, but for my sister, not myself--so I ended up with OPI I Carol About You, which is apparently from the 2014 Gwen Stefani holiday collection.
Over top I used one coat of Essie's Set in Stones from the 2011 holiday collection. (Happy Holidays, I guess...)

Chanel Azure and Essie Peak of Chic

I've been enjoying simpler manicures lately, which is going to be the perfect way to get through all of my unopened glitter polishes.

I've also been noticing that I'm not a fan of the color schemes I end up picking out for myself, so have permanently passed the job to my boyfriend. He just has a better eye for colors than I do.

This week I bring to you Chanel Azure with a couple of accent fingers covered in Essie's Peak of Chic.

I would like to preface these swatches by saying that Chanel nail polishes (and makeup--really anything from this brand) are pretty steeply priced, however I received this polish for my 25th birthday last year from my boyfriend. No wonder I have over 400 bottles... Someone wonderful is enabling me. Hmm.

Anywho, take a look at this beauty, which really is worth every penny.

Zoya Prim and jindie nails a history of violets

I decided to kill two birds with one stone this week and use two of my untried polishes. Fortunately I have an insane amount of glitter toppers that I've never tried before. Keeps my manicure's interesting.

Today we'll be taking a look at Zoya's Prim and an indie brand I discovered during an amazing 50% off Black Friday sale--Jindie Nails!

I'm starting to really love glitter toppers, especially with lots of ridiculous glitter sizes/combos; it makes for super awesome nail art without me having to try.

Let's take a look...

Deborah Lippmann, "The Mermaids"

So as you'll start to figure out, I am super cheap. Coupons and sales are my best friend. I do own quite a bit of (what I consider to be) high-end/expensive nail polish that I would NEVER pay full price for. When I hear about a good sale, I have no self control, I must jump on it.

This sentiment ESPECIALLY applies to Deborah Lippmann polishes. If you're patient, you can find pretty amazing deals through her site, or when Sephora has 20% off sales.

Basically all Deborah Lippmann polishes are amazingly gorgeous, unique, fabulous, and worth every penny!

My main goal with this blog is to motivate myself to actually use the polish that I own. It's hard to use everything when you buy 5+ colors at once.

Today, I finally cracked open a couple of Deborah Lippmann's "The Mermaid" collection.