Grey Nails with Sparkle Dust

Whooops, blogging has taken a backseat to getting my bedroom in order this week. Sawryyy.

It's been a month since I moved in, but the whole place is still a bit of a work in progress. Not only is my bedroom floor still sporting a thin layer of "random stuff" and lacking an actual bed frame for the mattress that's on the floor, but there's also no furniture in the living room or a dining room table (don't ask - I don't know why). The lack of a living room doesn't seem to bother my roommate, but personally I'm going to want to get to that sort of stuff sooner rather than later.

For now, I've already ordered a bed frame, which should be here in a week. Installing new curtain rods/curtains in my bedroom is also on the "next up" list, as well as putting up tonnns of pictures on my walls. In my unpacking, I discovered a stash of framed collages that I made over the last 6 years... and I'm thinking about trying to sell them. They're not all amazing, but several of them - UM - are. #DustsOffMyShoulders. Without any real sentimental attachment to them, there's no reason to hold onto them and let them collect dust, right? Right. So it's settled. I'm selling them.

Alright well enough of my rambling about the state of my bedroom. It's Nails Day!

Here's what I'm rocking this week:

Yup, definitely lookin' like fall around these parts nails. The cloudy, breezy weather called for something cloudy on my nails, so I went with 2 coats of Recycle by China Glaze, and used 3 coats of Urban Outfitters' Dust as an accent nail.

I did a whole post about Dust back when my blog first launched in the fall of 2012. You can go check that out here, especially if you love throwback nail polish blog posts featuring absolutely atrocious cuticles. Eek.

Tonight I've got a date with my cousin Catherine, who is going to come into the city to hit up a bar with me and shoot zee shit. Other than that, I don't have a single thing to do all weekend, except continue the work in my room. Eventually I'll post a bedroom tour here on the blog, because I'm pretty pleased with the way things are coming together.

What shenanigans will you be getting into this weekend?
Anyone else recently moved and trying to put their life bedroom back together?
What's on your nails? Share with me on Twitter or Instagram!

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Quick and Easy Snowfall Nails

I'm still going strong on my habit of painting my nails then peeling it all off within a day and a half, so there are ample opportunities for me to try out different holiday-spirited nail polish looks.

Here is one that was really easy because it didn't require any fancy Bob Ross skills in the painting department - I'm calling this look Snowfall Nails:

I try to browse Pinterest in my spare time, because it is sew creatively stimulating and I can get lots of different ideas for nail polish looks, outfits, artwork, paintings and #WHATHAVEYEW. I saw a few different nail polish ideas that used white snowflakes on a dark blue background and I really liked the way it looked. 

I started out this look with something similar in mind - I was going to do a dark blue background and add some white dots for snow. I was also going to use my Dust nail polish to pluck out some of the larger hexagonal silver glitter chunks and use a toothpick to place them carefully onto my nail amongst the white dots, as "sparkly" snowflakes.

HOWEVER!

When I got out all of my polishes in a row - Blue Pearl by Ruby Kisses, Snow Me White by Sinful Colors and Dust by Urban Outfitters - I started thinking that it might look really nice to just use Dust, as is, over Blue Pearl. It seemed to me that it might still resemble falling snow... and would certainly be sparkly and pretty, at the very least. So that's what I decided to do instead! I may still try the white snowflake/sparkly snowflake look in the future.

.  blue pearl by ruby kisses, dust by urban outfitters  .

Start out with two coats of the dark blue polish:

And top that shit with a coat of Dust!

.  a view in inside lighting  .

And here we have some Snowfall Nails!

.  "sha-zam," as they say  .

Fun Random Fact:  I am especially fond of Blue Pearl because it reminds me of my '88 Chevy Nova (RIP). In 2003 I was rear-ended while driving my beloved Nova through Park Square in Pittsfield. With the money I received from the person who hit me, I got my little lady a paint job with metallic blue paint - thus adding a fine metallic shimmer to her entire exterior and rendering her officially "blinged." This Blue Pearl polish has the same shimmery metallic sparkle to it, and so The Nove lives on!

How to Remove Glitter Nail Polish

OH HEYYYYY!

Last night I put on the ultimate pain-in-the-ass-to-remove nail polish combo of all time:  glitter ON glitter. Yup, I went there. I was trying to get my bling on!

I used 2 coats of Beware by Pure Ice - which, by the way, is my favorite silver glitter:

.  beware by pure ice  .

Topped with 1 coat of Dust by Urban Outfitters - which I wrote an entire blog about here.

.  dust by urban outfitters  .

If you ever wear glitter polishes, then right now you're all, "OMG girl, bet that ish was a bitch to take off!" Yes, glitter nail polish is notorious for taking 10x longer than other types of polish to remove entirely from your fingernails. You really have to work at it to scrub it all clean off.

Fortunately, I stumbled upon an awesome tip several months ago - an easier way (I won't say an "easy" way... it takes a few steps) to remove glittery polish from your nails.

What you need:
- ten strips (about 1"x4") of aluminum foil
- cotton squares
- nail polish remover
- approximately ten fingers, including fingernails
- bitchy, stubborn glittery nail polish all over said fingernails

What you do:

Take one cotton square and moisten it with nail polish remover. Wrap one finger tip with the cotton square, with the moistened part against your nail (duh):

Take one of your aluminum strips and wrap it around the cotton, securing it onto your finger by sealing the foil at the top and folding it over your fingertip. Repeat this for all "affected" nails:

Let your fingers chill in the foil for a few minutes - do something fun in the meantime like watch the Patriots game or poke your boyfriend with your new aluminum fingers.

After a few minutes, remove the foil and twist the cotton against your fingernail a bit as you remove it from your finger. You may have to do some clean-up around the edges of your nails to remove the glitter remnants there, but more or less your glitter should come off relatively easily:

Why does this work better than simply using a cotton square/polish remover to scrub the glitter off? The aluminum foil helps to keep the alcohol in the polish remover from drying up before it can really work its magic on the stubborn nail polish. Notice how much more quickly the nail polish remover will dry up when it's on a soaked cotton square that's exposed to the air. Science!

I encourage you all to liberally use your glitter polishes now, fright-free.

Urban Outfitters Dust Nail Polish

I made my first-ever purchase from an Urban Outfitters the other day, picking up two new nail polishes.  I don't normally shop at Urban Outfitters, but there is a store just up the street from me now and they lured me inside with the "50% off sale" signs that were plastered all over their front door. I almost bought a really pretty green dress as well but decided there wasn't a great need for me to buy a tank top dress in Canada in mid-October.

My two new nail polishes are called Dust and Lollipop and I don't own anything like either of them - and I own a lot of nail polishes which may end up being blogged about pretty often.

I haven't tried Lollipop yet, but have been wearing Dust for a few days now. (Not because it's lasted that long; I just keep reapplying it because it's so cool to look at on my fingertips.) It's a mostly-clear, slightly blue-tinted base with a fine navy blue sparkle in it, infused with two other glitters - one fine (but not as fine as the blue sparkle) silver and one chunky silver.

The below picture shows what it looks like with 3 coats plus a top coat, but you can keep layering it for even more opacity:

.   in natural light  .

.   inside  .

.  Urban Outfitters' Dust  . 

I'm pleased with this polish and am excited to try Lollipop as well, which is even more interesting than Dust! These polishes were being sold at 2 for $8, so not bad for a cool polish. They're $6/each otherwise.

Do you wear nail polish? Do you not give a crap about it? What's your favorite brand/polish?