Delicate Flower Mani...and the Usual Weekend Psychosis!

Hello loves, is everyone enjoying their Saturday?  I certainly am.  I'm attempting to relax but I have 2 children fighting directly in front of me...they might as well just jump on my face and wrestle there... and another child telling me how much life sucks (He's 16, doesn't everything suck at 16?) 

So I retreated to the bathroom, locked the door and pretended I had been struck with a severe intestional illness.  "Don't come close or you will be pooping your brains out"....yeah, they definitely pounded concrete after that comment.  So here I sit on the bathroom floor, peace and quiet all around....I do feel bad for my poor husband downstairs....alone...in the trenches. But this mani I have to show you just can't wait...

 

 

 

 

You guys.....I freaking LOVE this mani!! It is definitely in my top 5!!  I don't mean to toot my own horn but-- wait, yes I do.  A good self induced horn tooting is good from time to time.  *TOOT*  *TOOT*   I used Butter London Sprog (blue), Essie Yogaga (tan) and Essie I am Strong (pink) for this little delicate flowa.  The index and pinky are simply dotted with a very light hand and a super tiny dotter.  On the middle finger I simply dotted some tiny flowers.  I did them the same way I normally do but I used a much smaller dotter and spaced them out a little bit more.

Sprog is a polish I picked up last week, after eyeing it up for weeks or maybe even months.  It did not disappoint.  Formula was heaven and all I needed were 2 thin coats for perfectly opaque nails.  Yogaga I have used before, it's nothing to write home about, just a basic light tan.  Good coverage, a little streaky.  I definitely will not be slapping my poor mother over this one.  Hasn't she suffered enough for you people?  I am strong, the pretty pink on my ring finger is from Essie's 2012 collection of the same name.  It's a nice pastel pink with decent application.

I am quite proud of this mani.  Who knew Dot could be so delicate?  I will be trying this look out with different color combinations.  I do really like the delicate design paired with the muted colors.  What colors do you think would look good with this delicate nail art?


Happy Polishing and Happy Mama Slapping!!  Now off to save the hubby! 

Yoga-ta see This Water Marble

Hello hello!! We made it to Friday!  Yay!! And I have nothing planned this weekend except for lots of swatching and nail art-ing (hmm, new word of the day?).  I love weekends like that, where no one has a baseball tourney hours away, no birthday parties, no in laws to pacify.  Just me, my jammies, and a 2 day love affair with lots of new polishes!

So this week was crazy busy for me.  By the time I sat down to paint my nails, it was going on 10:00, and trust me, 5 am comes really quick as you all know.  I wanted to do a water marble, (when do I NOT want to do a water marble?) but I knew I didn't have enough time so I did just accent fingers.  I thought I would dislike but it turned out nice and it was just enough to give my mani a little ooommph!

 

 

 

 

I really really love this blue polish!  It's OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue hence my title for this post.  The WM was done with OPI Suzi & the 7 Dusseldorfs (pink) from their Germany Collection and The Temptress' Touch (green) from Loreal's Project Runway Collection. I also used Yoga-ta in the WM as you can see.  I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.  The colors marbled together beautifully, although The Temptress' Touch which is a shimmery gold-y green was looking more yellow than I had hoped as it blended with the magenta in Suzi. 

 

I recently purchased Yoga-ta get this Blue and I am so glad I did.  I do have a lot of deep shimmery blue polishes like this but I just can't get enough.  Application was a dream and the deep opaque color makes me.....wait for it....want to smack somebody's mammy.  My mother has taken enough abuse, I am moving on to friends' mothers now.

 

Here is a shot of my rarely seen, and very offended right hand.

 

 

 

 

 



I had to give her a little love, she is always brushed aside for her much lovelier sister.

 

 

Do you guys like the accent finger?  Coming up this weekend, I have a few Halloween mani's to share.  I am not a huge fan of Halloween, but I'm trying to be a good blogger and get in the spirit. 

 

 

Happy Polishing and Happy Weekend-ing!!!

30 Day Challenge Day 11- Stripes *Sigh* And A Baby Tutorial

Hi kiddos, how is everyone doing today?  I'm ready to take my little heiney to bed but not before I get my post up for all you lacquer lovers to see.  I had a busy day today, got to reconnect with a friend I had lost contact with for a while. (Long story)  Let's just say it was a very good night!

Sooooo, stripes huh?  Yeah, not a fan!  I don't have striping tape and I don't want to play with stripes.  But the challenge was a way for me to spread my polished wings and venture into lands other than dots and water marbling.  So instead of glamouring you all into believing we had skipped over day 11 due to technical difficulties, I sucked it up and tried something new.  Originally I attempted zebra stripes but when the hubs asked me why I was scribbling on my nails, I chucked it and started over.  *Hides behind couch*  Oh ok, go ahead, have a look....

Why is your last picture so large Nicole you ask?  I have no clue...I redid it 3 times and the little mother sucker just wants to be large and in charge.  Of course I had to throw a few dots in...mainly because I jacked my middle finger up royally and didn't have it in me to redo it.  If you've never seen this design before, let me explain what I did.  Keep in mind, it's a major pain in the arse!

First I dripped about 4 or 5 large, and I mean schmongo (new word of the day) drops onto my little palette.  You could use a plate, tin foil, your husbands belly button, whatever floats your boat.  Then I sat there like a total loser and mixed the little effin puddle for what seemed like an hour (it was probably about 5 minutes) until it got gummy and started to make strings when I pulled on it.  I used my thinnest dotter to do the mixing.  I then got my nail as close as I could to said puddle and quickly but gently pulled up on my dotter bringing a string of gummy polish over my nail.  

As you can see, sometimes it didn't work as well as I had hoped.  Either the strings disappeared into thin air or they were a little too thick.  It's a cool process and really very simple but it is a little tricky to get your polish and pulling process just right.  With some practice, this could be really neat.  The trick is not to get too much polish on the dotter as you are pulling.  This is easier said than done.  Once the polish starts to thicken, it magically starts to disappear.  Your nice big puddle turns into a little spot of frustration.  I'm going to try this again and I'll take pics as I go.  It's a little difficult to explain without being able to show you kids some photos.  

You have to let this dry forever before top coating.  I didn't wait as long as I should have even though I thought I was ok.  We'll try again soon with a mini tutorial.  

My untried polish was Butter London Marrow, a deep purple with just a hint of shimmer.  Application was good, I did have a little dragging and spotting but the color is so pretty I didn't even care.  The pretty pinky purple polish I used was Zoya Perrie.  I love this polish.  It is very opaque and goes on great.  I used 2 coats of both polishes.  

Hope you guys aren't too disappointed with this one, stripes make me want to scream.  Can't we just get to water marbling already? :) 

Happy Polishing Friends!!

Check out the other lovely lacquer heads participating in the Polish Pit of Death, um, 30 Day Challenge.

30 Day Challenge Day 11--DOTS!!!

Ok, now you all know that Dot loves dots and I was so excited for this challenge day....well wouldn't you know it?  As soon as I put that dotter in my hand, I drew a big stinkin blank.  I was putting so much pressure on myself to do something amazing and off the wall that I got myself overwhelmed.  I swear nail blogging is a high stress kind of job!  FBI bomb squads? Brain surgeons? Pssshhhh, they ain't got nothin on nail bloggers!  But I pulled through.  Just as I was fading and starting to go toward the white light, I got my act together and threw down some dots that I hope you will be happy with.

I wanted to do something I had never done before...and this certainly is something new for me.  I really like the look of this.  It's fun but still classy.  My untried was Butter London Victoriana, one of my BOGO purchases just today from Ulta.  It really is so pretty!  Formula was good, it went on very opaque.  The above pictures are one coat, yes only one!  I love me some Butter London.  Ulta was like a madhouse earlier.  Women were crowded around the BL display as if they were giving away free samples at Costco on a Saturday afternoon.  I managed to throw some elbows and grab a few polishes. One lady had 10 polishes in her bag.  I swear she was just buying for the sake of buying.  Gotta love her dedication.  I think I even saw her out of the corner of my eye put a women with a walker in a choke hold.  (I could be exaggerating but you'll never know now will you?)  

The dots were done with No Place Like Chrome  from Essie's Chrome Collection.  You guys already know I am in love with this line, and this beauty worked just great for my dots.  

Did Dot pass the dot test?  I hope I made you all proud!!

Happy Polishing!

Take a gander at the other lovely ladies nailing it up in the Bungee Jumping While  Water Marbling Death Drop, ahem, I mean 30 Day Challenge.

Nicole My Lifesaver and Zoya Shelby

I know I said I was going to show you guys the new China Glaze Boho Collection but my swatches the other night were not the greatest so I'm going to try again today in the sunshine. (My photography skills are quite suspect, if I do say so myself).  So today I have a fun little mani to show you all.  I was shopping yesterday and picked up a few new colors so I thought I'd try one of them out. Here's a look at the newest additions....

I'll list my purchases at the end of this post

So for this one I decided to try Nicole My Lifesaver and I threw in a little Zoya Shelby  just for kicks and giggles. I mean, c'mon, when is Zoya Shelby not welcome at the party?  

My cuticles have seen better days, I know but I'm working on it. I'm using my Burt's Bees Lemon Butter like its going out of style. If anyone has a magic trick, please share with me! 

Yesterday in my travels, I picked up some new background papers to use in my photo's. You can see the one here in this last pic. Isn't it just so sweet?

Enjoy your weekend kids.....I'm settling in for some swatching, my cuticles should love me for this one!

Polishes shown above (In Order)

Orly Preamp

OPI Do you Lilac It

Essie Miss Fancy Pants

Essie Chubby Cheeks

Pixi Luminous Lilac

Butte London The Black Knight

Nicole 2 pack- Hint of Mint

                     My Lifesaver