Happy Olympics!

So as everyone knows, the Olympic opening ceremony was on Friday.  And it was awesome.  While it may not have had the same choreography and craziness that the Beijing ones did, it had definite whimsical charm and I absolutely loved it. Especially the part where they "forged" the rings. I was smitten. 

Anyways, my best friend and I decided that there was no way better to celebrate the world's most famous and popular sporting event than by acting like total fatties! So we watched the opening ceremony eating movie theater butter popcorn, Pringles, soda, and nice crispy bacon.  And it was awesome.  Anyways, this is the manicure I did that night, so Happy Olympics! And may the odds be ever in your favor.

The white base color is Julep Kate, and I've used it before for my 4th of July.  When I used it then, I had the worst bubbling I had ever had before, but I did use two thicker coats, which I thought was the reason.  So when I used it this time I did 3 thinner coats and I still had bubbling, but considerably less than I had before.  I couldn't wear it alone because of the amount of bubbling, but it worked really well for the Olympic nails.

The red ring was made with Wet N Wild Red A Good Book, the green ring was with Sinful Colors San Francisco, the black ring was OPI Black Onyx, the yellow ring was China Glaze Solar Power, and the blue ring was Sally Hansen Blue Me Away. 

Song of the Day: Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' by Journey

July Birchbox!

I just got my very first Birchbox in the mail the other day!

Everything in the box was meant for the senses, which I thought was a really cool idea.

The packaging is just so great I can't even handle it. More after the break!

OPI The Show Must Go On!

Alright, so here is my favorite duochrome in my current collection.  It's from the 2010 Burlesque collection.  Burlesque is one of my absolute favorite guilty pleasures, it's one of those movies that is so bad that it's just phenomenal.

So the polish is a pink/orange duochrome with a golden shimmer.  The formula is really great, I've had this polish since it first came out and it still applies really well.  All the photos were with 2 coats, although one thicker coat would be opaque, just a little bit splotchy.  P.S. I was in the shower the other day and I accidentally ran my razor over the top of my pinky nail.  You can see the dents that it left! :( But my nails were already painted so I didn't want to buff them out.  Can you spell L-A-Z-Y? I sure can.  On to the polish!

I absolutely adore this movie

This is what the polish looks like straight up, it's pink with an ever so slight golden shimmer

 

That at that gorgeous duochrome!

 More photos after the break, this post is very picture heavy.  I have no regrets :D

Lincoln Park After Dark With Flakies, Oh My!

I was getting a little tired of the pastels and brights this week, so I decided to pull out my favorite dark polish (other than solid black), OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark! There is so much hype about this polish, and it is all well deserved! It's a dark dark dark eggplant color.  When you look at it, you can tell it isn't black, but you're really not sure what kind of color it is.  After having just the solid color for a few hours I decided to dress it up, and there's nothing better on a dark polish than some flakies!  So for the flakies I used Fingerpaints Twisted, and applied it over some tape to make the geometric stripes.  You can't really see anything in the direct sunlight pictures that I took, so we're going to use the shade pictures instead.  These were super fun and a nice break from the bright colors (which I'm sure I'll be back to in a few days)

After a couple of days (this wore like iron) I decided to add a matte topcoat, as I love the look of matte flakies! Here is what that looks like:

Song of the day: At Last by Etta James

In other news, Fingers Polish Mania is having a giveaway! Here's the link:  http://www.fingerspolishmania.com/2012/06/elevation-polish-giveaway.html

Charcoal Glitter Gradient

So today I have a glitter gradient for you (if you couldn't tell by my self-explanatory title).  I used OPI Lucerne-taintly Look Marvelous and China Glaze Electrify.  At first I couldn't tell if I liked the colors together, but I've gotten a huge amount of compliments on them (I work retail and my customers can always see my hands at the register), and everyone seems to like it.

Song of the Day: Just A Kiss by Lady Antebellum

Influenster Summer Beauty VoxBox

So I signed up for Influenster last month and this is the first box that I've gotten! I'm very excited so I thought I would share. 

I got:

• Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Lotion Sunscreen SPF 30 ($8.99 for 6oz bottle)
• Tampax and Always Radiant Collection (prices vary)
• Quaker Soft Baked Bar in Banana Nut Bread ($3.29 for package)
• Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color ($9.99)
• Sally Hansen Nails and Cuticles Hand Creme ($5.99 for full size bottle)
• Clear Scalp and Hair Beauty Therapy ($4.99-$5.99)

The very good and the very bad reviews to come eventually (I procrastinate a lot)!

Song of the Day: Thank You by Dido

Happy July 4th!

Happy Independence Day!

My best friend Sam told me that I always do busy things for holidays and that I should do a simple mani for today, so this is Julep Kate (review/swatch to come later), Revlon First Class, and Love and Beauty Red.  It's not as extravagant as I would prefer, but I like it well enough :)

Song of the Day: Sweet Home Alabama by Lynard Skynard

July Julep box

I got the Julep July box in the mail yesterday!! Unfortunately, my phone wasn't working when I took the photos, so I lost all the unpacking photos, which was very sad.  But the packaging was very cute, with red white and blue packing worms, a coupon for a free polish (woo hoo!), a few Atomic Fireballs (one of my favorite candies!), and of course the polishes.  I got four this month, 3 for the box and 1 free July polish (America).

The second polish is the free July one (America) which is red microglitter with silver and blue circle glitter.  It's very festive!

Song of the Day: Ignorance by Paramore

Julep Renee with stamps

So my last post was about the June Julep box (I just got the July box in the mail, swatches/review to come!) and I showed the swatches of Renee.  I decided that since she was the last swatch I did, I was going to just leave her as a full mani and add a little bit of fun on top.  So I pulled out my Bundle Monster stamps and decided to do a little stamping.  This is what I came up with using the BM 15 stamp and Wet N Wild On A Trip.

Song of the Day: Amanda by Boston (one of my all time favorites!)