Boston Snow, Pretty Valentine's Nails... and Annie Lennox

Happy Friday the 13th y'alllllllllll!

Don't mind my lack of posts this week. I'm somehow going to blame it on the snow. We've got lots of that up here in Boston these days. Apparently it's a record amount of snowfall in a 30-day period, and the city is kind of losing its shit. They don't know where to put all this snow, so streets have become narrower, snowbanks have gotten higher, and malcontent has juuuuust about reached its saturation point. Personally, I take my life into my hands each time I creep my car - inch by inch - out of my building's parking lot, because the snowbanks are so high that there's absolutely no way to know if there's a car coming or not. It's a real gamble every time - one that may soon cause me to experience either a car accident or a heart attack. I'm hoping for neither... wish me luck.

Obligatory weather-talk aside, guess what else I've been doing like a champ this week that's kept me from blogging...

Working out! HEYO! #BetterFasterStronger.

It's been so long since I've been able to have a normal-ish gym routine, thanks to the many aches, pains, ailments, troubles, et ceteras that I've been bitching about since the summer. With physical therapy now in my rear view and the numbness gone from my arm, I'm back to taking advantage of my Gold's Gym membership. It feels amazing, and I can't wait to see myself tone up again! It's been hard to eat whatever the hell I want and maintain my girlish figure at the same time these last few months. ;)

Anycrap. [Insert normal segue.] I know last week's nail polish blog was rife with grumpiness about Valentine's Day, but something inside me insisted upon an official VDay mani after all. Whatever. Shut up. Here it is:

No hearts though. Eff that.

The red is A List from Essie, silver is Diamond Texture from Revlon, and the middle finger is Snow Me White by Sinful Colors topped with Clearly Spotted from Maybelline.

The red nails all required 3 coats, and they're still not totally opaque. The formula of A List is really beautiful... but it's thin. Much like Giuliana Rancic.

Speaking of her and that (hey look, a relevant segue!), I didn't watch the Grammys last week because I don't have cable, but I have watched some of the highlights online. Two damn words y'all:  Annie. Lennox. Two more words: SHE TOOK ME TO CHURCH 'N PUT A SPELL ON ME, FOR REALSIES. If you don't know what I'm talking about, please behold:

Mmmmmmhmm. Spectacular.

This weekend I'm going home to Pittsfield to visit my family - seemed like a nice way to spend Valentine's Day, plus it's my little sister's 23rd birthday. Yeah, my baby sister is turning 23. Time, AMIRIGHT? Shit marches on.

Wish me luck in my travels this weekend because there is another round of snow/blizzard coming our way. I have a feeling the 2.5-hour drive from Pittsfield back to Boston may be closer to a 5-hour drive through the snow on Sunday! Eesh.

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A "Mreh"-nicure & Some Cool News

The mediocre mani you'll see below was four G.D. attempts in the making.

FOUR OF EM.

Each time was with different polishes, but they all just kept turning out like straight garbage. Whether it was a wretched polish formula or an inadequately opaque glitter, nothing was pleasing me. When I finally landed on this combo of a galaxy-esque polish and accents of silver glitter, I was ready to leave it on whether it was fabulous or not. Spoiler alert (from the first sentence of this blog): It wasn't extremely fabulous, but it's fine. It's FINE. UGH.

The blueish-purpleish-holographickish polish is Mysterious Curse from Orly, and I haven't featured it on my blog since waaaaaaaaaay back in October 2012 when it was on my list of favorite Fall nail polishes.

.  WHY do my hands look like they are full of jaundice and sans any circulation?!  .

On my ring finger and thumb nail I did two coats of Pure Ice Beware (an old favorite of mine that also hasn't been featured here in awhile), topped with one coat of Platinum Adorn (a glitter with silver hexes and fine silver bars from Maybelline's Color Show Jewels line).

I hadn't used Beware in quite awhile, even though it used to be on pretty heavy rotation on my nails. Here are some other ways I've used it:

• Bailamos, Silver Glitter and Polka Dots
• Mixed Metals Mani
• I Painted My Sister's Nails
• Orchid Lollipop Nails
• Pink Leopard Print Nails
• Pinterest Inspired Silvery Nails
• Starry Night New Year's Eve Nails
• Silver Leopard Nails
• Black & Silver Chevron Nails

Not much else to say about these nails - they're just mreh for me, personally. I wish some of the other polishes I'd tried first had worked out because their color combinations would have been much more interesting than this.

On a brighter note, to make up for the ridiculousness of my multiple nail failures, the universe ushered into my life two exciting positives yesterday:

1. I finally ditched the non-smartphone Samsung Brightside I'd been using for the last 2+ years and replaced it with my first-ever iPhone! It's an iPhone 5S, and owning it is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. On the one hand... Data. Internet. Apps. On the other hand... the dreaded screen shatter. Don't think for one second that I haven't noticed all of my friends' iPhones screens break into a million pieces, Apple. I immediately purchased an Otter Box to go with mine. Wish me luck!

2. .... And this one's a biggie...... I bought a plane ticket to Panama for April! YEAH, PANAMA THE COUNTRY. NOT THE CITY IN FLORIDA. A few months ago, my cousin Catherine mentioned to me that she was planning a trip to Panama during her April vacation from school (she is a high school Italian teacher), to which I promptly responded, "I am coming with you." And I meant it.

Besides Canada, I've never traveled to another country before, which is why it's such a huge deal to me. Traveling to exciting places has always seemed way out of my league... but it isn't, in reality. In reality, I have the means to do it and the time to take off from work... and those are two of the most important obstacles to clear if one wants to travel. And I do want to travel. Real bad.

So pats on the back for me. Here, here. Whoop, whoop. :)

And speaking of pats... DOSE PATRIOTS DOE! Big football game on Sunday - pretty much the highlight of my upcoming weekend so far.

What are you up to this weekend?
Any big trips planned for your 2015?
Whatcha rockin' on your nails?

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Sparkly Grey Nails, A Health Update, and Weekend Plans

I did these nails yesterday so you know that they are 45% peeled off already right now. That's why I need to take pictures of my nails immediately after finishing them - otherwise they will simply not last.

This is two coats of China Glaze's Recycle on my pinky, middle and pointer fingers. My ring and thumb nails each have one coat of Recycle topped with one coat of Revlon's Diamond Texture, which is a really opaque, fine silver glitter with larger silver rounds mixed in. I was seriously shocked at how well this Revlon polish covers with just one coat. It does also have a slightly grainier texture to it when it dries.

In other news entirely, the appointment I had with the orthopedic doctor on Wednesday provided both questions and answers about my long-lasting neck/shoulder/arm pain. X-rays on my neck and spine showed what looks like a freaking bone spur on my lower neck, which has been wreaking havoc on the nerves in my whole left shoulder and arm. The doctor also said that my neck and spine were both very straight - like they had no curvature. I looked almost arthritic, which he said I was too young to be displaying. He even asked if I'd been in a car accident! What the actual heck! To answer that question - I was rear-ended in my car literally 10 years ago, but it wasn't something I considered to be a major accident at all. The person who hit me wasn't going that fast - we were entering a rotary in the center of Pittsfield. Could that accident really have set this bone spur in motion?? How would I even know for sure?

Regardless of what caused it, the good news is that it won't require anything invasive (surgery) to fix it. The doctor prescribed 6 weeks of physical therapy, which I will start next week. Hoozah! Maybe my arm will stop going numb soon!

On a way cooler note, I am really excited for my evening tonight and my afternoon tomorrow. Tonight, I'm driving down to Canton to my friend Stephanie's condo and we are going to hang out and have a sleepover! The last time we had a sleepover at her place, we watched a lightning storm, colored in Care Bears coloring books, and watched movies. Tonight we might go ice skating or see a movie, or maybe even color and watch movies again! I'm heading to Target this afternoon to see if they have any copies of Home Alone and Home Alone 2, and if so I'll bring those to Canton tonight as well.

Tomorrow morning Steph is actually hosting Craft Club #3 at her place, so we'll be joined around 11AM by some of our other girlfriends for an afternoon of making homemade holiday cards. I'll bring my camera along - OBVI - and make sure to report back on how it goes. Spoiler alert: It's going to go AWESOMELY.

What are you up to this weekend?
Anything sparkly or fancy festive on your nails today?
Do you send out holiday cards?

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Pastel and Silver Glitter Nails

You know how sometimes you just wanna throw some silver glitter on it? (Ke$ha, you know what I'm sayin, girrrrl.) #WULL, yesterday I was just cruising along innocently, painting my nails some pretty pastels.... when SUDDENLY there was silver glitter covering more than half of my nails! WHAT ON EARTH?! WHO'S THROWIN THE GLITTER???

Oh, it was me.

I used two Sally Hansen Insta-Dri pastels - Jade Jump (shown here) and Pink Blink (shown here). They both act the way you'd expect a Sally Hansen pastel polish to act - streak-city. But they're still such pretty colors!

For the silver glitter, I used my new Revlon Diamond Texture polish, which I also used recently in my Negative Space Glitter Nails. 

Don't mind my raggedy cuticles - I have no idea why they look so haggard in these pictures. I swear they don't look like that right now... maybe it was due to the acetone I was using for cleanup? 

This mani kind of reminds me of sorbet ice cream with sprinkles on it... even though sprinkles aren't silver and glittery. What say you?

This weekend will be one for top-to-bottom epic cleaning of my apartment because there's a very special visitor heading my way quite soon... My mom is coming to Vancouver next week to visit AND to run the Vancouver Marathon (she is a BOSS)! I'm so excited for her to see the city I've been living in. My hometown back in Massachusetts is in a valley with lots of big, rolling hills... but the mountains that are surrounding Vancouver are just on another level. She's going to love it! And as a cool touristy bonus, the marathon route doubles as a lovely tour of the city ;)

What exciting things do you have going on this weekend?
Any special visitors headed your way?
What are you rocking on your nails today?

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Silver Leopard Nails

Let's just get this out of the way: When I typed the title of this blog post, I immediately thought of Brian Fontana's Sex Panther cologne in Anchorman. Don't really know why - leopards and panthers are not the same thing.  OR ARE THEY?

Actually they are - did you know that an Asian black panther is really just a black leopard? And an American black panther is a black jaguar. I hope you've learned something here today.

ANYCRAP. On to more pressing issues: nail polish. Silver leopard nail polish, more specifically.

The inspiration for these nails came from Dulce Candy's recent Black Friday video, where she was wearing a silvery/grey leopard print scarf that I thought was pretty:

Leopard nails are fun to do, so I'm always happy to realize new color combinations for the look. And I thooooought that I had some great colors in my nail polish stash to choose from:

.  stiletto by revlon, beware by pure ice, grey by love & beauty  .

Look familiar? I used the exact same trio two weeks ago. #Reeeeeepeeeeeeeeeat!  (I said that in the voice of the "REEEEEEEEMIXXXXXXX" line from all the hip hop songs... But if you were my friend, you'd have already known that.)

After applying a base coat, I used 3 coats of Beware on all of my nails. Then I used the tip of the grey polish's brush to dab a few dots of grey around my nails.  Once those had dried, I put a few drops of Stiletto onto a piece of scrap paper and used a toothpick to draw the small black C's and brackets around the black spots. The last step is to add some small black spots to the empty areas of each nail. 

If you're the kind of gal who's been afraid to even attempt leopard print on your nails - like maybe you think you aren't good enough at "doing nails" to do this - well, if I could reach through this computer screen and give you a good solid shake, I would. The BEST part about leopard print nails is that even if you're an amateur and don't do it "perfectly" (whatever the heck that even means), it still looks BOSS. 

Seriously. You CAN do it. And I'm only saying this because there've been a solid number of people who have commented on my other leopard print nail posts, saying things like, "I could never do this, I'm terrible at nails." If you can find a toothpick (you can), and you feel like putting in about 20 minutes to paint your nails, then you can do leopard print on your nails. It's dots and C's, guys. Just dots and C's. And we've been dealing with both of those things since at least kindergarten, #AMIRIGHT?

But I digress.

The dark grey spots weren't as dark and "stand-outy" as I had envisioned them being. Actually, if I hold my hand away from me I can barely even see the dark grey. It looks more like just a matte version of Beware. (Which now has me interested in doing a full mani of Beware with a matte top coat, just to see what it looks like. Hmm...)

Want to see more leopard print nails? You got it, dude:

• here are some patriotic ones
• here are some glittery, disco ones
• here's one that'll bring all the boys to the yard
• and here are some for your 16-year-old little sister

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Black & Silver Chevron Nails

Holy crap this week flew by! I swear we JUST finished our jam-packed weekend with Dave's parents, like, yesterday. How is it Friday already?! Not that I'm complaining - just startled that it's already nail day! Hey-ooooo! #ThrowYaNailsInTheSkyLadies.

This week I was again stumped as to what to paint on zee old gals (that's apparently what I'm calling my fingernails today), so like last week I popped over to my Pinterest nail polish board to see what was up.  Well... I didn't find what was up exactly, but I did see enough chevrons in my board to remind me there were some yet-to-be-used chevron nail stickers in my stash of nail supplies. #Duh.

I ordered 3 sets of chevron nail decals from Inspired Nails back in September after I saw my homegirl Jennie raving about them in a blog. The decals came with chevron, anchor and star stickers. (They were $4.50/set at the time, but they're $4.99 each now.)

The nail design you see above is not the original look I was going for. The strip of bare nail in the center was an accident... but just read on.

My plan was to have 3 different colors on each nail - silver sparkle at the cuticle, silver in the middle, and black at the tip. So I grabbed these polishes - Stiletto by Revlon, Beware by Pure Ice and a Silver Grey by Love & Beauty:




Before painting my nails I also prepped by grabbing a pair of scissors (for snipping my chevron stickers to the right length) and a pair of tweezers (to help me peel the sticker off the nails without messing up the polish).

First I painted all of my nails one coat of the silvery grey color and waited what seemed like a solid amount of time for it to dry. Thinking they were dry, I placed a chevron nail decal across the "French tip" area on my pinky, ring and pointer fingers. I place the decal about halfway down my thumbnail and left my middle finger blank. Then I painted below each chevron with silvery glitter polish and above each chevron with black polish. Using my tweezers, I then started peeling the chevron off of my pinky nail, hoping to reveal a still-grey strip beneath it.... No such luck!! The grey polish came right up with the sticker!

Mreh. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but........... let's go with it, hmm?

So I'm definitely going to try this again, except I'll wait way longer before placing the sticker next time. In the meantime - just think of the nude strip in the middle like Britney Spears' mid-drift, circa 2001.

Also... don't the black tips kind of look like little mustaches if you look at them quickly?

#MovemberBitches!

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Pinterest-Inspired Silvery Nails

I've been feeling sort of uninspired nail-wise these past few weeks. I blame it on being overworked in general - all of my mental energy is spent on all of my 7-5pm duties and there's little leftover for creative juice afterwards. So this week I turned to my Pinterest Nail Polish board to see what sorts of things would inspire me there. Luckily a "winner" popped out at me and even got me excited to break out all sorts of tools and instruments to complete the mani.

The original Pin used a Tiffany-blue polish instead of a dusty blue one, but I was simply not in the mood for a Tiffany color on my hands right now. It would be far too cheerful for me and my GOODNESS I just realized what a blob I sound like right now. SORRY Y'ALL. *Slaps self across the face* I'MA SNAP OUT OF IT NOW.

.  if you're happy and you know it, slap your face!  .
.  slap slap!  .

So I opted for Lapis of Luxury as the main color for this mani instead, which is a beautiful periwinkle from Essie's Resort Collection. By the way, I just realized that my bottle of polish is misnamed - the sticker on mine says "Lapiz" instead of "Lapis"... interesting. What does your bottle say?

Anycrap, other polishes I used included Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Love & Beauty Crystal Silver, and Pure Ice Beware.

I also used my Quo dotting tool and one Essence French Manicure Tip Guide sticker. The original Pin used a nail stamp as well, but I don't have a functioning stamp kit, so I opted to do polka dots on my pinky nails instead. I trust you won't hold it against me?

I started with a base coat on all of my nails, then did two coats of Snow Me White on my pinky and pointer nails, and two coats of Lapiz/s of Luxury on my thumb, middle and ring nails.

Next, I used the larger end of my dotting tool to make some silver dots around my pointer nail. In lieu of a stamp kit, I did Lapis of Luxury dots on my pinky nail with the smaller end of the dotting tool.

{Sidebar, did you see my blog about How to Make Perfect Polka Dots on Your Nails? READ IT.}

Thennn, I put a thin coat of Beware over my middle finger, which wasn't symbolic, I swear. Next I placed one of the tip guide stickers on the back of my hand and peeled it off a few times just to try to remove some of its stickiness. I'd used these nail strips once before without doing this step, and the stickers ended up leaving a sticky residue all over my nails. So definitely do the un-sticking process before you use these tip guides!

After it was sufficiently less sticky, I placed the sticker carefully on my thumb nail until it was sitting where I wanted it - demarcating the French tip area - and painted the nail above it with 2 coats of Beware. I peeled the sticker guide off pretty immediately, before the polish could dry.

The final step is to pull out large hex glitter pieces from Crystal Silver and place them on my ring finger until the entire nail was covered. I did this by fishing out the hexes with the small end of my dotting tool. This step is the most time consuming, and if I'm being honest, I didn't even bother to do this step on my right hand. I didn't take progress pictures while I was doing this part either, but I have taken pictures of doing this in the past, which you can see here in this Winter Bling Nails blog.

Also, the pointer finger nail with the silver polka dots just refused to photograph well. There was always a bright glare!

What do you think of this interpretation of the original pin? 

And are you following me on Pinterest? If not, what's your problem? Hmm?

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Orly's Bailamos with Silver Glitter & Polka Dots

Today's nails are a mix of several excellent things:  a vibrant jewel tone color to usher in fall, silver sparkles, and - of course - polka dots!

Semi-inspired by this pin, I wanted to dabble in this "two different accent nails" concept, but wasn't convinced that my chevron-painting ability would be up to snuff quite yet. Cue the dotting tool.

Bailamos is a shimmery, dark turquoise by Orly. It's got a lovely formula - opaque after two medium coats. It's one of my favorite fall polishes because of how popular jewel tones have become for fall in the last few years.

For this mani, I also used my trusty Snow Me White (Sinful Colors) and my favorite silvery sparkle - Beware by Pure Ice. I've used these two colors is so many other manis - you've probably already realized how fond of them I am!

I used two coats of Bailamos on all nails except my ring finger. Three or four coats of Beware were used on my ring finger - it's a fabulous silver glitter but the glittery pieces are super small, so they need several coats to become opaque. 

Lastly I added the white polka dots to my middle finger using my Quo dotting tool.

I love the look of this mix 'n match mani - and was even tempted to do the same thing on my other hand but with a different Orly polish. Though I decided against that this time, I'll probably be trying out this look with other color combinations in the future.

What do you think of the dual accent nails? Yay or nay?

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Mixed Metals Mani

This week's nails are brought to you by the elements Cu, Ag, and (variations of) Au. #MetalsBitchessssss #Chemistry(sucks)!

(Seriously though, I hated chemistry.)

Don't worry, I'm not going to make you Google them. Cu = Copper, Ag = Silver, and Au = Gold. On top of those three, I've also got a Rose Gold and what I will call Antique Gold. Those symbols aren't in the periodic table of elements, so someone really messed up there.

Anycrap, today I decided to use them all on my nails, because why choose one metal when you can rock five at once? #AMIRIGHT?

And what I learned during this experiment is that it's dreadfully hard to take photos of metallic nail polishes and have them really show the true color. Womp wommmp.

The one on my thumb looks silvery in the photo but it's actually a pale gold in person.

Here's what I used for my metallic mani:

From left to right...

• Pure Ice - Fast Lane (copper)
• Orly - Buried Treasure (antique gold)
• Love & Beauty - Bronze (I prefer to think of this one as rose gold instead of bronze)
• Love & Beauty - Grey, with a coat of Pure Ice - Beware (silver)
• Love & Beauty - Pewter (which like I said looks gold in person)

Are you a fan of the mixed metals trend? If you are too bashful to rock mixed metal jewelry, try out a mixed metal mani next time instead! 

As a fun aside, today is my brother Rob's 23rd birthday. #MAZEL! Happy birthday bro! May the universe grant you at least 75 Facebook notifications today.

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