MANIc Monday Polka Dot Gradient ♥

Welcome back to MANIc Monday! I have missed a couple of weeks of MANIc Monday due to lack of time and forgetfulness but I'm back with a super cute polka dot gradient that I did based on a tutorial from Chalkboard Nails. 

Polka Dot Gradient

I am pretty happy with the way this one turned out! Sarah is so incredibly talented that I have no hope of recreating the majority of her nail art but this one was simple enough that I feel like I did a pretty good job! See the original mani below (and click on the photo to be taken to her post and tutorial). 

Courtesy of Chalkboard Nails

For my version I used a base of Catrice Orange-Utan (review coming soon) and for the dots I used Sinful Colors Feeling Great and Pistache.

Polka Dot Gradient

Thanks for reading and happy polishing! ♥

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Bright and Fun Spring Mani with Sponging and Stamping! ♥

Happy Thursday! Only one more day until the weekend! I have a super bright and fun mani to show you today! 

I was in the mood for neons last night - and this is pretty much completely opposite from what I had in mind originally. LOL But I really like it! I used a white creme base (Milani White on the Spot - will list all colors in this mani at the end of the post) and then I put drops of colors on a stamping plate. Once I had all of the colors on the stamping plate (a large enough area to cover a nail) I pressed a makeup sponge on top and then placed that directly on my nail. I did this process twice on each nail to achieve this look. After that was dry I added the stamping using plates from the first Bundle Monster set and topped it off with one coat of Poshe. 

After finishing this mani it reminded me of some that I have seen over at The Crumpet. Debbie calls them "Splodgeramas" - while I did mine differently, the outcome is very similar. You can see her tutorial here. 

Spring Mani

Spring Mani

Spring Mani

And here is a look at the base before I added the stamping...

Spring Mani - Pre-Stamping

What do you think of this mani? I wish the stamping was better but I really like it anyway!

The colors I used for the base of this mani are:
China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard
China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise
Sinful Colors Dream On
Urban Outfitters Bandeau

And the stamping was done with Color Club Wild at Heart and Milani White on the Spot. 


Thanks for reading and happy polishing! ♥

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Ninja Polish: Melted Snowman ♥

Hello everyone! I have a super fun combo to show you tonight! 

Ninja Polish Melted Snowman was part of their Holiday 2012 Collection but just because the holidays are over doesn't mean we can't use holiday polishes. Melted Snowman looks good over so many different colors and I will be wearing it year 'round! 

I layered 1 thick coat (I got plenty of glitter on the brush with each dip) of Melted Snowman over Sinful Colors Timbleberry (sometimes called Thimbleberry - and purchased before my Cruelty-Free update) and topped it off with one thick coat of Poshe. I was almost smooth but I would recommend a glitter topcoat or an extra coat of your regular topcoat. I absolutely LOVE how this looks over this base color, this was such a fun mani! (Please note that any bubbles seen are in the topcoat, not the polish itself.)

Ninja Polish - Melted Snowman

Ninja Polish - Melted Snowman

Ninja Polish - Melted Snowman

Ninja Polish - Melted Snowman

And a quick pic of the base I used. Sinful Colors Timbleberry, a bright pink-based coral with a crelly finish. 

Sinful Colors - Timbleberry

Melted Snowman is currently in stock at Ninja Polish and retails for $9! Visit Ninja Polish at all of the social media links below!

Ninja Polish links:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google+
Instagram

Cruelty-Free. 4-Free.

Thanks for reading and happy polishing! ♥

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Argyle Nails ♥

Hello everyone! I have a quick nail art attempt that I did last week. I loved this so much that I wore it for 2 days (that's a long time for me - LOL). It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't as good as my inspiration, but I adored it anyway!

First up, my inspiration mani. Sheila at Pointless Cafe did a Copy-Caturday post for argyle nails, seen below.

Argyle Nails done by Pointless Cafe

I didn't have the pink Milani and I decided I wanted to use all creme polishes instead of the metallic silver so I used all Sinful Colors polishes (purchased before my Cruelty-Free update). Sinful Colors Black on Black, Smokin' and Cotton Candy.

Argyle Nails

My lines could be cleaner but I will try it again and hopefully improve!


Thanks for reading and happy polishing! ♥

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Cruelty-Free Update

I am saddened by the need to write this post. If you have read my blog for very long, or taken a peek around at various different pages on my blog, you know that I strive to purchase only Cruelty-Free products. There are many drugstore brands that I don't buy because either the brand itself, or the parent company of the brand, is not cruelty-free.(To see my list of companies that do or do not test, click on the link at the top of my blog.)

I have taken to buying a lot of 3 specific drugstore brands because they were cruelty-free (and also had great polish) but I will no longer be purchasing any of those brands. Revlon, a company that stopped animal testing in 1989, has resumed testing to sell their products in Asia (where animal testing is required). In the past few months, Revlon purchased both Sinful Colors and Bari Cosmetics, who owns Pure Ice and Bon Bons brands.  This means I will no longer be purchasing any of these brands - three of my favorite brands. It really saddens me that Revlon felt the need to sell out just to make a bigger profit margin. I guess that's the nature of the beast though. They certainly aren't the first company to start testing so that their products could be sold in Asia.

I have been researching all of this information for a while because I did not want to make a rush decision and falsely accuse these companies without feeling like I had 100% proof. I felt the need to post this so that people would know what was happening with these companies and so they can make their own informed decisions. I do not condemn anyone for purchasing these brands and I am not trying to sway opinions - just stating my own.

♥

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Sinful Colors: Sugar Rush Collection - The Pinks ♥

Hello again! I couldn't resist going back today to pick up the rest of the Sinful Colors Sugar Rush Collection (yeah, after I said they were too pale for me LOL). I was shocked to see that most of the display was empty already! They were out of Orange Sherbet, which I was bummed about, but they had 2 lonely pinks and several Unicorns left. I grabbed the last 2 pinks and left Unicorn - just holding the bottle in my  hand was enough proof that it would look like crud on me.

(If you missed my post on the first 4 of this collection that I bought, you can find it here.)

Tonight I have Sugar 'n Spice and Cotton Candy for you - as well as a comparison with Sinful Colors Cream Pink (which I originally thought might be a dupe for Sugar 'n Spice.

Sugar 'n Spice only needed 2 coats and had an excellent formula, Cotton Candy also had a nice formula but did need a third coat to even it out. These both have an AMAZING hidden shimmer that I couldn't capture in my photos. So much prettier in person. For someone that doesn't care for pinks, I love these. Cotton Candy on my middle finger and pinky, Sugar 'n Spice on my index and ring. No top coat in any of the photos.

Sinful Colors - Sugar 'n Spice and Cotton Candy

Sinful Colors - Sugar 'n Spice and Cotton Candy

And for a quick comparison with Sugar 'n Spice (index and ring) vs. Cream Pink (middle and pinky). 3 coats of Cream Pink.

Sinful Colors retail for $1.99 each and are available at Walgreens and other various drug stores.

Thanks for reading and happy polishing! ♥

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Sinful Colors: Sugar Rush Collection ♥

I went to my Walgreens today specifically to see if they had the new Sugar Rush Collection from Sinful Colors yet (but not really expecting they would - 'cause that's how my Wags rolls) but to my surprise they did have it!

I bought 4 out of the 8 - the yellow one (Unicorn) is a re-promote and not something I would wear since it's yellow, Orange Cream and Cotton Candy looked too pale for my skin (although they were very pretty) and Sugar 'n Spice looked a lot like SC Cream Pink (maybe a little brighter).

Sugar Rush Display
L to R: Sugar 'n Spice, Candy Coated, Cotton Candy, Unicorn, Sweet Nothing, Sweet Tooth, Sugar Rush, Orange Cream

First up are the "blues" - Sweet Nothing on my index and ring fingers and Sugar Rush on my middle finger and pinky. The formula on Sweet Nothing was FAB - two coats, Sugar Rush was almost a 2-coater but I used 3 to even it out. (Please excuse the weird skin color in my pics, my camera didn't want to capture the colors accurately today.)

Sinful Colors - Sweet Nothing and Sugar Rush

Now for the purples - Candy Coated (on index and ring) and Sweet Tooth (on middle and pinky). These were both fairly thin with Candy Coated being slightly more opaque than Sweet Tooth. 3 coats of both (no topcoat).

Sinful Colors - Candy Coated and Sweet Tooth

Sinful Colors retail for $1.99 each and are available at Walgreens and other various drug stores.

Thanks for reading and happy polishing! ♥

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Blogger Collaboration - Most Expensive/Least Expensive Polish

Hello again! We are doing another blogger collaboration weekend and we decided to show off some of out most expensive and least expensive polishes. 


Dior Czarina Gold is the polish in my stash that I, personally, have paid the most for. I have others that are more valuable but this is the one I, so far, have paid the most for. Czarina Gold is a very deep blackened brown base with gold micro-shimmer. The shimmer shows more in the bottle than on the nail (but these pics were taken on a rare cloudy day and there for the shimmer shows even less than in real life). Czarina Gold is discontinued and pretty hard to come by these days. 

Dior Czarina Gold

Dior Czarina Gold

Dior Czarina Gold

Dior Czarina Gold

Dior Czarina Gold (under artificial lighting)

Dior Czarina Gold (under artificial lighting)

And for my least expensive I chose a Sinful Colors polish that I picked up in one of their 99¢ sales. Leap Flog is a gorgeous creme that is a grey/green/teal - it's quite the color shifter in various lighting. 

Sinful Colors Leap Flog

Sinful Colors Leap Flog

Sinful Colors Leap Flog

Make sure to check out all of the other awesome blogger's posts below!
If you would like to join in, please be courteous and use the inlinkz codes in your post so that we are all linked together. Otherwise, they will be removed. Here are the codes:http://www.inlinkz.com/script.php?id=198389&nojump=1&key=ILKe9d3uQgn5Y




Thanks for reading! ♥

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31 Day Challenge Day 18 - Half Moons!

Good evening everyone! I hope you had a great Monday (or as great as any Monday can be). 

For my half moon mani I wanted to do something that would really pop so I decided on a creme and a metallic. I chose Nails Inc. St. Pancras and Sinful Colors Dancing Nails and I LOVE how they look together!

I ended up free-handing my moons because the "stickers" I was using were not sticking very well and were just making a mess. For my free-hand (and only using the bottle brush) I am pretty proud of how these turned out!

(I do want to apologize for the varied nail lengths in my recent posts. I have recently cut them but had some posts swatched from before I cut them - it bothers me to post them like that but it couldn't be helped.)

Half Moon Manicure

Half Moon Manicure

Don't forget to check out the other awesome bloggers participating in the challenge below! If you'd like to join the 30/31 Day Challenge, go here to grab the codes to embed in your posts for the next 30 days and add your post using the link below! 

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31 Day Challenge Day Fourteen - Flowers!

Day 14 of the challenge is flowers! I took the easy way out on this one and stamped on flowers. LOL But my base was somewhat difficult and took quite some time to blend. I started off with a base of Illamasqua Smash and did a gradient with Sinful Colors Dream On. I absolutely love both of these colors and I think they look great together.

Gradient with Flowers

Gradient with Flowers

Gradient with Flowers

Gradient with Flowers

Gradient with Flowers

Gradient with Flowers

Gradient with Flowers

Gradient with Flowers

Don't forget to check out the other awesome bloggers participating in the challenge below! If you'd like to join the 30/31 Day Challenge, go here to grab the codes to embed in your posts for the next 30 days and add your post using the link below! 

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31 Day Challenge Day Two - ORANGE with Sinful Colors Tapping Nails

Happy Saturday! I have had one helluva day and my head is back to pounding so I am going to make this one short and sweet. For day 2 we have ORANGE.....

I had been wanting Sinful Colors Tapping Nails ever since I saw this post from Pointless Cafe. You wouldn't think a polish that only costs $1.99 would be a long-time lemming, but it can be when you can't find it anywhere! LOL Luckily I have amazing polish friends and my friend Gina surprised me with this one. Thanks Gina! ♥

The formula was a tad on the thin side, but not problematic. I did have to use 3 coats to eliminate VNL - but the color payoff is SO worth it. I love this one! No topcoat in the photos.

Sinful Colors Tapping Nails

Sinful Colors Tapping Nails

Sinful Colors Tapping Nails

Sinful Colors Tapping Nails

What do you think of this one? I love it! Don't forget to check out all of the other lovely bloggers participating in the challenge below!

If you'd like to join the 30/31 Day Challenge, go here to grab the codes to embed in your posts for the next 30 days and add your post using the link below! Thanks to Polished Criminails for starting this one!

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Grey and Neon Pink Polka Dots! (And Announcements!)

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have a fabulous long weekend planned! I have a couple of "announcements" to post before I go into my polka dot mani. :)

First, I have decided that I will be participating in the 31 Day Challenge, along with several of my blogging friends (and their friends! Haha). This will start tomorrow, September 1st. Sarah at Chalkboard Nails has made up several different images you can use for the challenge on your blog, if you like.

Also, in celebration of the new season of Doctor Who beginning tomorrow (I am a recent Doctor Who convert, I love it!) several of us will be posting Doctor Who themed manis throughout the weekend. I will have mine up tonight!

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Okay, that's all for the announcements - on to the polka dots! I used Orly Decoded, Sinful Colors 24/7 and Milani White on the Spot - all pics were taken in the shade. 

Polka Dot mani

Polka Dot mani

Polka Dot mani

Polka Dot mani

That's all for this post! I'll see you again soon!

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