Orly Love Each Other

I love it when my alcoholic beverages taste like candy, I thought for so long that I didn’t like my booze to taste sweet but I was wrong. My new favorite love (thanks to my best friend) is Whipped Vodka, it is vodka that is flavored like whipped cream, how can you go wrong? The stuff is delicious in everything I put it in; it makes any diet pop taste wonderful (my favorites are mixing it with Sunkist and Dr. Pepper). The only problem with this delicious stuff is that it has way more calories in it than other vodka because of all that pesky sugar, don’t worry though, I find ways to fit it in my diet. Unfortunately, for as sweet as my delicious drink was, this manicure is not so sweet.

 

For this manicure I used Orly Love Each Other Sally Hansen CSM Anemone of Mine, OPI Alpine Snow, and China Glaze Pool Party. The Orly looked so cool in the bottle and I’m a little disappointed with how it turned out on my nails, it is more subtle than I had hoped. The color is almost completely translucent with a ton of light purple micro-glitter (I have three coats on).

 

 

Orly Love Each Other

 

These nails had one of those “oh crap, now what do I do?” moments, for some reason when I pulled the tape off my pointer finger it decided to take a strip of all the paint down to the nail with it. I was very displeased with this. I had to put a bunch of base coat in the missing strip to try to build it back up so my nail would look even, it you look close you can still see the divot. Thank goodness for accent nails or I would have had to start all the way over on that whole finger.

 

 

These are ‘oops’ flowers

 

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my new accent nail so I decided to try very small flowers, they ended up being my favorite part of the whole manicure. I don’t know when I will learn my lesson that I don’t like French manicures as much as I like colorful/crazy/gaudy manicures, perhaps someday. I think the thing I don’t like about them is that they are always just ok, they never distract me or cause me to show them off to everyone (a few French manicures are excluded from this). I want to follow these up with something very fun but I haven’t decided what yet, hopefully I don’t have another tape malfunction.

Think Spring nails

February is the snowiest month in Minnesota (I’m not sure if that is true, but I sure feel like it is), I think I prefer the snow to the bitter cold of January, but we would all agree that this winter can be over anytime now. I know that hedgehog said it was going to be an early spring and I am so holding him to it (watch our Punxsutawney, I’m watching you). Winter makes me super lazy, that coupled with the fact that I started a new book (and finished said new book) meant that I didn’t get much done this weekend, including my blog. I feel like you will forgive me and understand the depths of my winter laziness.

For this manicure I used Orly Skinny Dip, OPI Alpine Snow, China Glaze Pool Party, and some stripers. I was so excited as soon as I saw Skinny Dip at Sally’s, it was destined to come home with me. I was not as excited when I started actually using it; it had a slight purple sheen to it (kinda like Avon Lagoon but with an obviously darker base color). The color almost has a matte finish too, which I was totally not expecting or wanting from this color.

 

 

Think Spring nails

 

With the help of my amazing top coat I was able to get shiny nails despite the weird semi-matte blue. I mixed the China Glaze with white to tone down its crazy pinkness. I also painted my toes this color and they are hard to look at; the color is so bright I can see my toes through my socks.

 

 

The white really toned the pink down believe it or not

 

These nails were downright distracting to have; the colors were so bright that I kept looking at them. It was fun to have such Springy nails when we got a bunch of snow; I liked how much they didn’t match the weather. Hopefully if I keep doing Spring nails then Spring will actually come, fingers crossed. J

Pins for Paws Bowling nails

On Sunday I got to volunteer for the local animal shelter in one of the most fun ways possible; my work had two teams at the Pins for Paws event so I got to bowl for puppies. I’m a terrible bowler, like really bad, I bowled a 68 my first game and a 79 during the second game (I got a strike!). I always have fun bowling even though I’m horrible at it (no offense to anyone reading this and thinking that I bowl better than them). I was very worried about breaking a nail while I was bowling and my fears were not helped when someone said “how can you wear those? You are going to break them all off!” This comment was met with my standard “they are real” and “OMG why would you say that?!?!?!” I’m at bit ashamed to say that I actually said the letters O, M, and G. Somehow I managed to not break any of my nails and I’m going to say that is why my game suffered.

For this manicure I decided to do paws (again) but to give them a bowling theme so they matched the event. I used China Glaze Rich & Famous and Gothic Lolita, OPI Alpine Snow, DS Radiance, and Deutsch You Want Me Baby? and Orly Liquid Vinyl.

Pins for Paws nails

I’m terrible at painting nails all white, I don’t know if I put on the coats too thick or don’t do enough of them, but they always look terrible, like chunky streaky messes. I also hate how all white nails look on me, but this might be because I can’t seem to paint them right. Despite all my thoughts on white nails, I really wanted to have some of my nails look like bowling pins, so I went with this design. My thumb is supposed to look like a bowling ball but I’m not so sure how well that really turned out.

Bowling ball thumb?

These nails aren’t my favorite but they worked well for the event. I think it is odd that I have found a reason to do paw print nails three times since starting my blog. I must really like puppies J.

Leopard Heart Print nails

Thad and I don’t do a whole lot for Valentine’s Day, we like to keep it low key. This year (and last year) I asked for nail polish instead of flowers or chocolates. As I my collection of polish is growing, Thad is having a harder time finding colors to get me, so this year he got me a gift card to Sally’s. Getting a gift card for nail polish is like getting two gifts in one; I love shopping for polish. I didn’t get quite as good of a deal as the last time I had a gift card to Sally’s but I did manage to add three colors to my collection and get more polish remover and cotton rounds.  None of those colors are in this manicure though since these are the nails I had on Valentine’s Day.

For this manicure I used China Glaze Rich & Famous, Fast Track, and Mahogany Magic, Orly Liquid Vinyl, and Sally Hansen CSM Shell We Dance? and All Fired Up. I think they look like mobster wife nails, like I’m married to Ray Liotta from Goodfellas.

Leopard Heart Print tips

There is a little tip wear in the pictures and I think this is mostly because I only put one coat of FastTrack on the tips. Normally it wears super well, but one coat just wasn’t enough. I’m very pleased with these nails, I free handed all the hearts and some of them came out downright awesome. The one on my ring finger was the first one I did and it turned out amazing. J

I impressed myself

I’ve never been good at drawing hearts so I was a bit surprised that these came out as well as they did. I should have done less of the regular spots so they tips weren’t quite as crowded and perhaps more of the hearts so that it looked more Valentiney.

Sad short thumb nail

I have so many ideas for my new polish, I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day!

Avon Nail Stencil nails

Bacon is amazing and I love it. We bought half a pig, I named him Kubie, and he is the most delicious pig that had ever lived. Truth be told, I actually have no idea if Kubie was a boy pig or a girl pig (that’s city girl talk), what is important is that he didn’t die in vain; he died for his delicious bacon. Tonight for dinner Thad made me a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and fried in bacon grease. Let me say it again, I love bacon (and Thad). My fingers were all shiny with the bacon deliciousness and it was glorious.

I’m not really a fan of these nails, not that I want to sway you but just as a statement of fact. For this manicure I used OPI Alpine Snow and Rosy Future and China Glaze Rich & Famous (told you it was my new favorite). I also used Avon nail stencils that my mother in law gave me last weekend.

Oh how I hate you nail stencils

I hadn’t heard of the nails stencils before so being a 21^st century girl I Googled them right away. All the reviews said pretty much the same thing, they tear, and oh did they tear. I found them to be a great size and they were very easy to peel off the plastic sheet but as soon as you started pushing them onto your nail they tear like crazy. The directions say to leave the stencils on for 5-10 minutes before removing them; I didn’t listen to that direction but none of my issues seemed to be as a result.

Notice the red on my pointer finger

As if the tearing wasn’t annoying enough, part of the stencil got stuck in my polish and I couldn’t get it off (it’s the red smear). I yelled at the stencils so much so that my puppies were concerned for their mom’s sanity. I’m going to try more of them just to make sure, but right now I would give these nail stencils a big 0/5. I’m really disappointed in these nails because they could have been so cute, my right hand looks terrible because I tried to reuse the stencils and it was an epic fail. I wanted to repaint these nails right away but I’m forcing myself to wait until tomorrow so I can do my Valentine’s Day nails, hopefully I like them more. J

Heart nails

Today is a stay in the house kind of day. We were supposed to get hit with an epic blizzard, I wouldn’t really call the weather today epic, but it is unpleasant. So far the heavens have deposited layers of sleet and wet snow, what a lovely combination. I keep having to remind myself that this is February and I live in Minnesota, so I shouldn’t be surprised. Last night we decided to be social since we knew today we would be home bound. We went to a silent auction at my parents church, it was fun as always and I won a super cute ‘girls night in’ basket (complete with the movie Bridesmaids). I joked with my mom that next year I should put up a manicure for auction; she seemed to think it would sell but I’m not so sure about that, I’m a really messy painter. :)

For this manicure I used China Glaze Rich & Famous, OPI Aphrodite’s Pink Nightie, and Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure. That China Glaze is quickly becoming my new favorite pink, I’m pretty sure it is going to be in all my Valentine’s manicures. To create the heart design I folded a piece of scotch tape in half and then drew and cut out half a heart, unfolded the tape, and used the stencil on all my nails. I was surprised I was able to use the same stencil on all my nails, but since I’m not very good at drawing hearts it made me very happy.

Jaunty hearts

I messed up the heart stencil a little bit on my pointer finger because I had too much paint on the stencil when I pulled it off. This was the first time I have made a stencil out of tape, I usually use tape for my French manicures. I was really happy overall with how it worked but it is very important to make sure that there isn’t too much paint left over on the tape or it gets in the wrong places.

I love the rhinestone heart

I had totally forgotten I had rhinestone hearts in my enormous rhinestone collection (thanks again Thad) I’m pretty sure these hearts will be making another appearance this month. I’m also pretty sure that I’m going to end up doing Valentine’s Day nails all month because I’m having so much fun with them.

Pink Plaid nails

My gas company sent us a report card the other day, apparently we are part of some pilot program where they will send us a report card and let us know how we stack up amongst our neighbors as far as how ‘efficient’ we are. We didn’t do so well, out of 100 households we ranked 76. We have a brand new furnace and our water heater is only two years old, so I think it is unfair to say we aren’t as efficient, they just meant that we used more gas than other people. The whole thing bothered me, I like my house warm!  They also suggested in the letter that we lower our thermostat by 10 degrees when we are not home, I really don’t think my girls would appreciate that. They are the type of pampered girls that get their nails done like they did on Saturday (Millie has green nails and Jules has red).

I painted my nails in my very comfortably warm house on Saturday, after the girls got their nails done. For this manicure I used my brand new China Glaze Rich & Famous, and NYC French White TIp. I used my NYC white instead of my OPI because the brush is a lot smaller, in general it is a terrible white and I hate it.

They are like pink Burberry

I love these nails; I annoyed everyone at work by showing them off this week while I shamelessly gushed about how awesome they are. I took the pictures on Tuesday so some of the nails look a little worn but overall the manicure has been holding up very well, I got my first chip today. Rich & Famous has a pretty terrible name, but the color is great. It is just the Valentine’s color that I was looking for. I used two coats on these nails and they didn’t really need another.

With natural light

The white was terrible, the pink showed through really bad on some nails and I had to go over the white several times, which just led it to look chunky and streaky. I wish I would have just used my OPI and been careful with the wider brush. The design was actually pretty easy to do but it took a while just because I wanted to go slow with the lines. For obvious reasons, my right hand is a little shaky but as I didn’t pick a very forgiving color scheme I’m not too surprised.

I finally did a decent job with my cuticles

It dawned on me recently that I’ve been doing my nails for right at a year now (since the end of the gel manicures). I know I haven’t saved any money by not getting my nails professionally done, but I’ve really enjoyed painting them.