Ready for Spring?

I admit it. I'm not a fan of winter weather. Fortunately Spring is only a few weeks away, so I jumped the gun a little bit and put flower stickers on my manicure this week.

Zoya "Phoebe" Matte Velvet Polish with Kiss brand flower stickers.

This is my first time using a matte nail polish, and to be honest, I'm not sure what to think. I really like this color, and I like the finished texture, too, but the polish is not without it's cons. I don't know about all matte polish, but this Zoya brand dries fast! Almost too fast for me to finish painting my nail. I had heard that matte polish tends to chip faster than other polish, and it was true for me. I painted these on Friday night, and Sunday morning I noticed a chip on my right index finger. I'm also not sure about the stickers... I think I went overboard with them. I should have stuck with just one flower sticker per nail, or just done one nail with stickers as a focal nail.

I've had a few people ask me how many colors of nail polish I own, and until the other day, I didn't know. It turns out that the answer is 49 (for now). A lot of them (16) are Sinful Colors brand, because well, they're cheap. Also, I have quite a few bottles of glitter polish. As my cousin told me a few weeks ago, glitter has powers. Here's a photo of my collection:

Joyeux Mardi Gras!

Believe it or not, I didn't originally intend to do a Mardi Gras manicure this week. Last Wednesday I was going through my polishes, trying to decide how to do my manicure this week. Two weeks ago I bought a New York Color purple called "Purple Pizzazz Frost", and a week ago I happened to buy a gold glitter called "All About You" when Walgreens had their Sinful Colors on sale. When I saw the two bottles side-by-side I realized Mardi Gras was approaching and decided to go for it. So I went to Dollar General the next morning on my way to work and purchased Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear "Ivy League".

New York Color "Purple Pizzazz Frost, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear "Ivy League", and Sinful Colors "All About You".

I alternated the purple and the green on every other nail, and I sponge painted the gold glitter on the nail tips. This was the first time I've sponge painted nail polish, but it was very easy and I'm sure to do it again. You just apply the polish to a makeup applicator sponge, and then dab it on your nails.

New York Color is a very inexpensive brand, and I can't remember if I got it at Kmart or WalMart, but it retails for about $1 or so. I was actually impressed with the "Purple Pizzazz Frost" for that price (my photo doesn't do it justice), but I'm NOT loving the applicator brush. It was thin, and made out of a harder plastic that didn't spread the color very well. By contrast the brush on the Sally Hansen "Ivy League" was kind of wide and flat and the polish spread very easily.

In my mind I'm already trying to decide on what I'm going to do for my next manicure. Right now the front-runners are either using Sally Hansen's HD "DVD" (a holographic purple) or Zoya's Matte Velvet "Phoebe" (a matte turquoise). Whatever I do, I'm going to try to make it something quick. My oldest son is turning 8 next Sunday, and I know I'll be busy with the finishing touches for his party next weekend.

 Sally Hansen HD "DVD" and Zoya Matte Velvet "Phoebe".

On a side note, I'm realizing that eventually I need to get a good digital camera and stop taking pictures with my cell phone. My nails look much nicer in person than they do in the first photograph.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I thought I would go with an appropriately girly manicure, and nothing says Valentine's Day like hearts, glitter, and the color pink.

I had originally planned to paint my nails alternating red and white polish, with some Jordana brand  heart glitter I bought at Kmart, but when I tried to use it, I could get very little of the hearts to get on the nail polish brush. It was a bit of a disappointment. Instead, I used three different polishes, all from the Sinful Colors line available from Walgreens. I have pink polish and pink glitter on most of my nails, with a white accent nail featuring red confetti hearts from Sally Beauty Supply. I really like how they turned out, but for some reason they took forever to dry. It must be the Sinful Colors brand.

I had a friend over Saturday night for manicure night, and she painted her nails purple with some freehand silver accent strokes. Right now I'm still too unsure of painting freehand designs on my right with my left hand and getting it to look right, but hers look great!

See you next week!

Welcome!

Welcome to my nail blog! I'm an amateur nail polish addict, and my fascination grows every day. Hopefully my nail polish skills will increase along with my blogging skills. :) My plan is to talk about polishes in all price ranges, and show you my own personal manicures. I promise to get more interesting as I get more experienced!

Last Friday I gave myself a glitter French manicure.

I used Essie "Trophy Wife" for the base color, with Sinful Colors "Nail Junkie" for the glitter tips. The gold line is metallic tape strips you can buy from eBay.

This was only my second attempt at a French Manicure. I'm not very good at painting the French tips freehand, so I have to use the guide stickers. The first time I tried a couple of months ago I thought the polish was dry, but apparently it wasn't, and the guide stickers ruined my polish. :(  I was much happier with this attempt.

Next week I'm planning on a Valentine's manicure... I can't wait!