Sunday, November 5, 2017

Weekly Mani's-November 4, 2017

Hi my fellow polish friends,

Today I have some swatches of the nails that I wore during the week ending in November 4, 2017.  I've been doing these videos on my YouTube channel, when I got the idea to post them here as well.  I can't promise that I will post full collection reviews, although I'm not ruling that out either!  Let's get into the nails!

Friday 10/27-Sunday 10/29

Polka Dots Nails-Essie Petal Pushers (a dusty grey lavender cream) with OPI Manicurist of Seville (plum cream)


Monday 10/30

OPI Krona-logical Order (greyed out brown cream, OPI Iceland Collection, great formula, 2 coats)


Tuesday 10/31-Halloween

Zoya Storm (black cream with scattered holographic, great formula, 2 coats)


Wednesday 11/1

OPI Parlez-vous OPI? (dusty lavender grey cream, great formula, 2 coats)


Thursday 11/2

Essie Angora Cardi (mauve raisin cream, 2 coats, good formula)


Friday 11/3

Essie Be Cherry! (cherry red cream, cool-toned red, Essie Holiday 2017 Collection, 1 one)


Until next week!

Monday, September 4, 2017

OPI Less is Norse

Hi friends.  Long time no talk.  I'll be honest, this year has been a little rough for me.  I feel like I'm at a point in my life where I don't know myself anymore.  I'm struggling with this, knowing who I am, knowing what I like, where I think I should be at 30.  It's been hard for me, and I'm not really sure how to get over it.  There's one thing I do know though...I love polish.  

Today I have a quick and simple swatch of a new polish by OPI for Fall 2017.  OPI Less is Norse is considered the star shade of the new Fall collection, it's what the ads have been focusing on...and for good reason.  Less is Norse is a really interesting shade.  To me, it's a dusty denim blue cream.  I thought it would be darker but it's not too dark that you can't tell that it's blue.  


I wanted to take a picture again my dark jeans so you can really tell the blue in the polish.  The formula was fantastic, two easy coats.  One thing that I noticed was how shiny the finish was.  Even without topcoat it was incredibly shiny.  With topcoat above, you can see my camera reflection in it!

I do have a really glittery polish up next, I'm super excited about it.  Nice talking with you, I am super tempted to just buy every OPI Fall shade :)  Did you pick any up?

Friday, March 10, 2017

New Favorite Pink-OPI Let's Be Friends

Hi everyone.  It's been quite a week around here.  Work's been busy and it was the hubby's birthday on Wednesday.  I'm also in week 4 of bronchitis, which I've never had, but has really been wearing me down.  Although today I realized that I'm finally starting to get my sense of smell back....after a month.  I'll take it though!

Today I have a new polish to me, that has become an instant favorite.  I've had it for awhile but never tried it...it'll be a regular from now on.  I'm talking about OPI Let's Be Friends from the Hello Kitty Collection.  I picked up almost all of the polishes from this collection but few were standouts to me.  Let's Be Friends is a pale, pale baby pink; almost like a white with a few drops of pink in it.  Now normally pastels are known for bad formulas and chipping badly, but I'm happy to report that this was neither.


Above is a picture in natural light.  The formula was surprisingly good, needing only two coats for full opacity.  It was really easy to work with!  


Overall I'm very pleased with this polish.  It held up really well, especially for a pastel.  Definitely a new favorite for me!  Have you tried this polish, what did you think of it?

Monday, March 6, 2017

Week in Review: Glam Pink Princess

Planning has really become my current creative outlet.  I've been into Erin Condren planners for a few years now but have finally reached planner peace with the Erin Condren Horizontal Neutral.  I've tried all three setups, the vertical layout, horizontal layout, and hourly layout.  The horizontal layout just works for me.  I would love to share my spreads each week, for the week before, to show everything fully completed and filled out, with much more detail than is shown in Instagram.

This last week, February 27th through March 5th, is a super girly planner week.  I got this kit from The Glam Planner on etsy and immediately used it.  It's a pink princess theme with accents of black in the dragons, crown, and castle.  It does have accents of red, a color that doesn't thrill me in the slightest, but pink definitely is the overwhelming force in this spread.


I stopped posting my filled out spreads on instagram for privacy reasons, but this way works much better.  This week wasn't too eventful, but we did travel up to Chicago over the weekend for the hubby's birthday.  We got to spend time with his family on Saturday and had a fun pizza party at this brother's. 


I like to think of each day in four sections, just like the vertical layout without the separation.  The left column is usually reserved for work and one really important thing going on in the day.  The second column is reserved for my to-do list.  I've really been drawn to simple checklists instead of the checklist boxes.  The third section is for appointments or other semi-big things going on during the day and the fourth section has the full boxes.


Clearly I like a good mix of white space although I've found that too much white space also bothers me....because that makes some kind of weird sense.  I'll usually fill out too much white space with decorate stickers if the day hasn't been too eventful.
Overall I really like the look of this spread.  I can't predict if I'll like the week until the end when everything is filled out.  Glam Planner kits are historically some of my favorite spreads, although she does seem to use alot of red in her stickers, especially in the monthly mystery kits. 

What was your planner theme for last week?  Did you like how it turned out?



A Brand New Beginning

Birthdays are about beginnings, so they say.  It's relevant, I promise.  This year has been one of big changes for me.  Some good, some bad, but the major realization happened the other day, as my husband stood in the living room and I was upset and frustrated.  He said the truest thing I had ever heard, but never realized.  "You are a non-traditional person," he said.  In my 30 years on this Earth, not once had I ever stopped to realize it.  Since then, that phrase remains a daily reminder for me.  It means different things...that I need to stop and accept myself for who I am, that I need to be positive in my life instead of negative, and to stop giving in to what I think I should be doing and instead doing things that I want to do.  I'm living my life for me now, so I'm going to pursue things that I want to do. 


This weekend we celebrated my wise husband's birthday, even though it isn't until next week.  We visited his family in Chicago and had a low-key party on Saturday night.  As we ventured home I shut my eyes and just started thinking.  I want to be positive and creative in my life and one thing that I've truly missed is writing.  I laid in the car and thought about what my new niche could be.  And then I remembered....I'm non-traditional, so I'm going to write about what I want.


So here's to new beginnings, new interests, and a new positive outlook.  Things won't always be perfect (see Happy Birthbay above), but that's what makes it interesting.

Current Manicure-3/6/17

Wow.  A year and a half later.  Things are very different in my life, which is to be expected.  However, I miss my nails, I miss writing, and I miss my online friends.  I can't say that I know exactly what this blog will become, but I just know that I miss it.  

So to come back, I'd like to show what my current nails look like.  I have a different job now and it is really rough on my nails.  I do have acrylics on, but eventually I would like to transition back to natural nails....it's just impossible right now with the amount of breakage and peeling that occurs at work.  Even with the acrylics, I still paint my nails every few days.  Here's what I'm sporting right now-


Right now I'm wearing a very spring-y combo of OPI Do You Lilac It? with ring and thumb accent nails with Nicole by OPI Be Awesome.  Lilac It is a very cool-toned lilac purple.  Normally I don't care for purples on my nails but this polish feels fresh, soft, and pretty.  It applies in two easy coats.  I used two coats of glitter which I really like.  Be Awesome is a pastel combination of diamond shaped glitters, and it's one of my favorite glitters to add to many different polish colors.

Here is Lilac It on it's own.


Clearly I'll need to get back on the cuticle oil bandwagon.  Let's just see where this little blog goes.  I might talk about different things that I'm loving right now, planners, crafting, etc.  It feels good to be back.

Friday, August 28, 2015

Untried #1-Essie Sexy Divide

Wow!  Hello there.  Clearly I haven't written anything in awhile and I haven't meant to but tonight I was just feeling it.  Maybe it was because I had a terrible day at work and I was feeling chatty perhaps?  Either way, I wanted to share my polish with you and I really like the idea of sharing untried polishes.  Maybe it will only be every once and a while, we'll see.  Let's get to it!

Today's very first untried is Essie Sexy Divide.  I have definitely not been into Summer polishes this year...it's pretty much just been nudes, metallics, and pastels for me.  We had a nice week of 70's this week and I just went for the vampy polishes.  I reached for Essie's Sexy Divide, which originally comes from the Winter 2008 collection.  It's a dark, cool-toned shimmery purple, which is almost black and sometimes a bit blue looking.


The formula was really great on this polish, I had zero formula problems.  I used two easy coats with one coat of Seche Vite topcoat for my swatches, which are also taken after a full days wear of this polish.


Overall I'm quite pleased with this vampy little number, although I know I'll have to keep the vampy nails to a minimum next week because we're going to be in the 90's...yikes!  Do you own this polish?  What do you think of it?