Blueberry Gumdrops and Mint Apple Nails

My mani sounds way more scrumptious than yours does. SAWRY LOLOLOL JK NO I'M NOT. #nomnomnom

Using Mint Apple by Sinful Colors and Blue-Berry Sweet on You from the Nicole by OPI Gumdrops collection, I whipped up this look featuring a polka dot accent nail. Too many months without a polka dot mani makes one weak... I always say. (Yes, always.) And it's been way too long since I last dotted my nails, so I was feeling pretty weak. Yep, I'm blaming my weakness on the lack of polka dots and not on the lack of workouts. LAY OFF ME, I'M INJURED.

Anycrap! For these nails, I did 3 coats of Blue-Berry Sweet on You on my pinky, pointer and thumb nails, and 3 coats of Mint Apple on my middle finger. I used 2 coats of Snow Me White (Sinful Colors) on my ring finger, topped with Mint Apple polka dots.

As usual (and especially since it'd been so long since my last polka dot mani), I did some practice polka dots on a piece of scrap paper before going to my nails with my dotting tool. If you want to step up your polka-dotting game, here's an entire blog full of my favorite tips for making perfect polka dots on your nails. You can also browse through all of my polka dot manis here.

Elsewhere in my life, there are a few other things going on...

1. I'm still looking for a roommate... yeah, a roommate for February 1. Like, a week from now. I seriously thought it would be easy to find a roommate, but joke's on me! I've listed my place on Craigslist, HotPads, PadMapper... so far no great leads. Um, know anyone cool who needs a place to live near Boston? I'm about to have to pay for the entire month of February by myself, soooo........ send me your freshest homeless friends. Please 'n thanks.

2. Deflategate. I mean, geezus people. Can we say buzzkill? I don't have an explanation for this shit, but I'm not making any excuses either. It just sucks for last weekend's amazing game/win to be tainted by all of it, and it makes me feel a bit more sheepish about broadcasting how excited I am that the Patriots are in the Super Bowl. (But really though....... WHOOHOOOO!!!!!!!!! PATRIOTS FTW!!)

3. GUYSSSSSS - I'm hosting Craft Club #4 this weekend! It's happening a little late in January, but we're squeezing one in nonetheless! Sunday's craft is going to be collaging, so I'm excited to host my friends and show them my techniques for making collages. I actually haven't really had anyone over at my place at all yet since I've lived here, so this is kind of like breaking-in my apartment in some way. Better late than never! And it seemed like a good idea to host Craft Club here while I've still got the entire apartment to myself :) You can, of course, expect a recap and some pictures of our crafting adventures here in a week or two, if you're into that sort of thing. Note: You oughtta be into that sort of thing.

What do you have going on this weekend?
Have any polka dots on your nails or homeless-but-employed friends to send me?

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM BLOGLOVIN   {Linking with The Nail Files, Friday's Fab Favorites, and Beauty Frenzy Friday}

Sparkly Red, Silver and Blue Nails

Happy 4th of July errrrrr'body!! I don't have much to say today, except for "LEWK AT MY FESTIVE, SPARKLY NAILS."

So. Look at them:

I used Sinful Colors' Ruby Ruby as the base on my red nails, topped with 3 coats of Milani's Ruby Jewels for some sparkle. On my blue nails I used Blue It by Sally Hansen as a base coat, with a single coat of Nicole by OPI Gumdrops polish in Blue-Berry Sweet On You. For my ring fingers I did 2 coats of the Diamond Texture polish from Revlon.

Hopefully it won't be too overcast tonight, because I intend to watch the Seattle fireworks display on TV, and it can be a real bust on a foggy night.

Do you have fireworks to watch tonight?
Did you get to see a parade today?
Use caution when mixing alcohol and explosives this weekend!

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM {Linking with Friday's Fab Favorites, Beauty Buzz, and The Nail Files}

Aqua Sparkle Nails

HELLLLLLO Friday! If all has gone according to plan, I am on my way to Massachusetts right now. AKA spending an entire day hating my life. (Please see here for a few reasons why traveling can bite my butt.)

Despite the "getting there" part, which sucks, so many wonderful things await me upon my arrival in MA:

• Dunkin Donuts. Nuff said.
• My brother, who will pick me up from the airport and house me for the night at his apartment
• The rest of my family, who I'll see tomorrow afternoon after I finish my trek from eastern Mass to western Mass
• Babies: People have had babies since the last time I was home. I'm gonna squeeze some cheeks.
• A wedding!! My friends Kim and Sam will be getting their nups (nuptials?) on next weekend
• A bachelorette weekend! My friend Abigail is engaaaaaged and we're celebrating with a weekend in a beachy town in Maine, the weekend after next

Anyway! On to zeeee nails!

I've been itching to use my Nicole by OPI Gumdrops Blue-Berry Sweet On You nail polish again, and just needed to choose a fabulous polish to pair it with. I chose an aqua-inspired glittery polish from Sinful Colors which had been in my stash for several months without me so much as glancing at it. WHAT'S MY PROBLEM? The glitter polish, called Nail Junkie, is a translucent teal base with a lovely amount of holographic glitter rounds in it - some small and some extra small. The polish kind of reminds me of a mermaid.

Excluding my ring fingers, I applied two coats of the Gumdrops polish to all of my nails - a dusty, periwinkle blue textured polish which is also chock-full of blue-leaning holographic glitter specks. I absolutely LOVE this polish - it applies gorgeously and has a thick brush head for easy application. It dries to a rough, sandpapery finish, but not rough enough that it catches on anything.

On my ring fingers I started with two coats of Moonlit Woods, a periwinkle blue Revlon Parfumerie polish that is essentially identical to Blue-Berry Sweet On You, minus the holo glitter and texture. Over Moonlit, I applied two coats of the Nail Junkie glitter. Sidebar:  Nail Junkie, I just realized, looks a bit like Mermaid Tale by ORLY - which Jennie just showed off last week on her blog, if you want to check that out!

I hope you don't mind, but I may just go radio silent for the next couple of weeks while I'm home. You will survive my absence though - I totally promise.

What are you rocking on your nails today?
Have you tried any of these Gumdrops polishes?
Any trips in your near future?

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM {Linking with Fab Favorites and The Nail Files}

Negative Space Glitter Nails

Well this is kind of a wacky mani, sooo... deal with it. A few weeks ago I went into a London Drugs and accidentally came out with this little batch of things, which included both of the nail polishes that were used in today's mani:  Revlon's Diamond Texture and a polish from Nicole by OPI's Gumdrops collection called Blue-Berry Sweet On You.

I really like both of these polishes and was excited to use them together, since they're so pretty and sparkly. Diamond Texture is jam-packed with tiny silver glitters, with some slightly larger round glitters mixed in as well. I love the effect of the two different sizes of glitter - it gives the polish so much more dimension. Blue-Berry Sweet On You is a periwinkle/dusty blue filllllllled with tiny holographic glitter. I didn't actually know what the "Gumdrops" aspect of this polish meant. There was no display there to explain the name, so I just grabbed it and assumed it was some sort of a textured polish.

This is how the OPI site describes these Gumdrops polishes...

"Introducing eight new limited edition matte texture shades designed to give nails a mouth-watering manicure. Gumdrops feature a 'sugar-like' finish that lightly shimmers with fine glitter particles for a brilliant candy colored finish."

........ Anyone else think that "matte" and "shimmers with fine glitter particles for a brilliant candy colored finish" seem completely contradictory? The last thing I expect a "matte" polish to do is "shimmer" or be "brilliant" - right?? Do you guys think that the copy-writer may have been on crack? Just a quick poll of the room.

Both of these polishes dry to a coarse, sandpapery finish, for sure. And they both are certainly sparkly.

Alright enough chit-chat about the polishes - here's what I did with them:

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my "sneak peek" from yesterday that showed how I did this. After painting all of my nails with a base coat, I applied some Essence nail stickers (package shown here) like so:

Next, working on one nail at a time, I applied two quick coats of each polish on either side of the sticker and then removed the nail sticker with tweezers to reveal the "naked" stripe in the center. #SheSaidNaked.

The last time I used these nail art stickers, I wasn't jazzed with the outcome. The stickers didn't result in super straight or clean lines. But Joey gave me the tip to only do one nail at a time, rather than painting all of my nails and then going back through with the tweezers to remove each sticker. This results in less tacky polish, and thus a cleaner line when you remove the strip. THANKS JOEY!

So yeah the negative space thing was a bit of a gamble - I wasn't sure how it would look. It still looks a little strange to me, but in a "unique" type of way as opposed to a "What the Actual Fahk?" type of way.

What do you think of this look?
Have you tried any of these Gumdrops polishes yet?
What's your name? Who's your daddy?*


*These questions are optional.

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

{Linking with The Nail Files, Beauty Buzz, and Friday's Fab Favorites}

Rain Drops & Cherry Blossoms Nails

Today's nails are brought to you by the letters V, A, N, C, O, U, V, E and R. It was a rainy day yesterday, and it most certainly influenced my nails.

In addition to the rainy day, I also happened upon this announcement from CraftyNail which outlined some nail art link-ups that will be happening throughout the month. The first of the April nail art link-ups had a theme of Rain/April Showers, which is especially relevant here in Vancouver... though it's rainy here pretty often, not just in April. Anycrap... hence the rainy nails.

And obviously, the cherry blossoms are starting to pop off around here as well, as evidenced by some of the photos that I shared earlier this week. The blossoms were already pretty much begging me to translate them onto my nails anyway, so I decided to combine my rainy nails with my cherry blossom nails.

I got to play around with a whole bunch of polishes for this mani. OPI Isn't That Precious, Sinful Colors Rain Storm, Milani Tip Toe Pink, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Essie Little Brown Dress, and a Revlon Matte Top Coat:

I did two coats of Snow Me White on all of my nails, followed by the matte top coat. Using Rain Storm and the small end of a dotting tool, I made the raindrops by making a polka dot and then dragging the dot while lifting away from the nail, to create the drop effect. On my ring finger and thumb nails, I painted on the brown branches using a nail design brush. When the branches dried, I covered them in light pink polka dots, and then went back in and added some of the darker pink dots randomly.

I actually really like this mani! It's not perfect, but the color combination of the blue and the pinks makes me happy - especially against the white background.

If all goes as planned, I should be going on a great hiking and camping trip this weekend!! It's been way too long since I've gone for a hike. The plan is to head into Garibaldi Provincial Park and up towards the Red Heather Hut - a little hut that I wrote about back in January as well. We're keeping our eye on the weather reports to make sure that everything stays calm enough for us to camp out. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

What are you up to this weekend?
Anything fancy on your nails today?
Do you get cherry blossom trees where you live?

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

{Linking with The Nail Files, Beauty Buzz, and Friday's Fab Favorites}