China Glaze Light as a Feather nails

Today is Thad’s birthday! Our birthdays are only 8 days apart and since I’m so into my birthday his day sometimes gets a bit lost so I really try to do everything to make his birthday awesome. I’m not a very good cook so we are going out to dinner with friends tonight to celebrate and I’ve showered him with gifts for the last two days. I’ve also been on dog duty for the whole weekend; we generally take turns getting up at night to let Millie out. I don’t know if I would ever be able to do enough for Thad to show him just how much he means to me but I certainly like to try. I’m super lucky to have a husband who is so much fun to be with. Happy birthday Thad, I love you so much.

Now to my nails, these nails were super annoying to have on, I’m probably going to say that a lot in this blog, but that is only because these nails were super annoying to have on. For this manicure I used China Glaze Fast Track and Light as a Feather. I don’t know why I keep buying textured nail polish; I have a dysfunctional relationship with them.

Light as a Feather nails

These nails got better the longer I had them on but right away they were so freakin annoying. The Light as a Feather was really sharp, like super crazy sharp, if I wore contacts I wouldn’t have been able to put them in with these razor sharp talons I had created. If you love having really sharp, dangerous nails that get caught on everything and are a pain to wash your hair with, you would love this polish.

I hate how much I like them

All the annoying aspects aside, I actually liked how these nails looked, especially after a couple of days when they toned down a little (the pieces that were sticking up at odd angles fell off after a couple days). If I were going to do them again I would use a light orange as the base to play up the orange in the confetti polish. It’s going to take a long time for me to forget how annoying these nails were before I attempt to use this polish again, at least they are cute J

Sponged Disaster nails

I’m pretty sure I watch seasons of TV shows like every other rational person does, I compulsively watch the entire season as fast as physically possible and allow the show to affect most aspects of my life, normal right? I just consumed the seventh season of Dexter, and although I didn’t even really like the season I still felt the need to get through the season in a manner of days, it would have gone even faster if we didn’t have jobs. Between watching Dexter and hanging out with friends in Vegas, it has been very hard for me to keep my language clean at work, stupid peer pressure J

You know how when I do a sponged manicure I always say how much I love it and how I should sponge more often? Well these nails are sponged and they didn’t need to happen. For this manicure I used Orly Prelude to a Kiss, Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure, and China Glaze Fast Track and Rich & Famous.

Sponged disaster nails

These nails were so blah that I forgot to take pictures of them until after I started taking the polish off, which is why you get rare right handed pictures. The application of the polish had so many issues that it would have been impossible to have nails that I liked in the end. Somehow (I’m going to guess because I never dust) my sponges (and everything else) got covered in dog hair so I ended up sponging the dog hair right into the design. It was really fun to find the hairs days later and have to pull them out, it made me feel really pretty.

Yes, these pictures suck

So, yeah, these nails aren’t very good. They were a poor design that was poorly executed. I guess these nails are proof that sponging isn’t nail magic. On a completely unrelated topic, while I was at work Thad DVRed The Man with a 132 Pound Scrotum, he must love me J

Gold Wedding nails

My Disney vacation is in 157 short days. I’m super excited to go, as any rational human should be. To pass the time until December I decided it would be fun to watch the Disney movies that I either have never seen or haven’t seen since I was super little. Netflix has a bunch of Disney movies on their watch instant now so today I watched Dumbo. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dumbo before and it wasn’t what I expected. The movie is super short (just over an hour) and pretty dark for a cartoon. I was so sad when they took Dumbo’s mom away (I feel ok about that spoiler since the move came out in the 40s so if you really wanted to watch it you have had plenty of time to do so). My next movie will be the Aristo-Cats, I feel more in the Disney mood already J

Not everyone is into pink/white wedding nails so I thought I would do gold wedding nails. I have mixed feelings about them but for this manicure I used China Glaze Fast Track, OPI Goldeneye, and e.l.f. 20417. I was going for messy glitter layered tips but they just didn’t turn out quite right.

Gold Wedding nails

I actually like these nails more in pictures then I did in real life which doesn’t happen very often at all. I feel like they are just missing something. If I were to do them again I would also make the tips smaller and try to make the transition less abrupt. I also think they would look better on shorter nails.

I do like nails that sparkle

Overall these nails were ok, with a few changes they would totally work for a beachy kind of wedding, or on a very tan bride (I always think gold nails look better on tan people). I only have one set of wedding nails left, hope you have enjoyed them so far J

Saran Wrap nails

It’s been way too long, I wish I had some awesome excuse to explain why I have been neglecting my blog, but I don’t have one other than I am lazy. Don’t worry; I’ve still been painting my nails so this week will be full of blogs, blogfull if you will. Minnesota and Mother Nature got together and decided to play a mean trick on us here in the northland. We got snow a few days ago, and not just a little dusting of snow, but like 8 inches of this horrible, wet, heavy snow. I miss being warm and seeing the sun. Please get warm again Minnesota, we really earned it.

I wanted to try something different for this manicure so I did what I read on the interwebs is called a Saran Wrap manicure. At first I tried to use Cling Wrap brand saran wrap and I’ll let you in on a secret, it didn’t work as well as the Saran Wrap brand saran wrap. For this manicure I used China Glaze Rich & Famous and Fast Track, every time I use Fast Track I’m reminded how much I love that color. I should have bought it in bulk so I would have it forever.

Saran Wrap nails

To do this manicure I first painted my nails with the gold color, and then I had to wait for it to dry all the way (something I struggle with). After it was totally dry (well, mostly totally dry) I put a layer of the pink on and then dabbed it away with a balled up piece of Saran Wrap. If you are thinking right now ‘I bet that made a huge mess’ you would be very right. I had pink all over my fingers, but nothing a shower couldn’t take care of.

I pushed a little too hard in a few places and made little divots

Just for fun, I decided to put essie Matte About You on my ring finger. In person I liked the matte finish nail more than the shiny ones but in the picture I like the shiny ones more. I like the overall look of the nails, I thought they kind of look like marble. This manicure was super easy and I’m already thinking of other color combinations I can do with it, perhaps next time I’ll use two colors that are more similar, like light and dark purple. Hope you didn’t miss me too much, I’ll try to be less lazy 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!

Tacky Gold nails

I hadn’t lifted weights in six months and for some unknown reason the evil trainers at the fitness center forced me to lift yesterday. As a result I had trouble washing my hair this morning and everything else after that was difficult too. I hate when people say ‘but it’s a good hurt’, I mean what the hell does that mean? I’m never happy to be in pain and I wouldn’t call anything about my inability to lift my arms above my head good. What I will say is good is that I painted my nails last night, getting the blue off was as hard as I remembered so it was good I had my arm strengthJ.

This is my 50^th post! I knew I wanted to do something gold and tacky for my 50^th (like a golden jubilee) and this manicure really fits that bill. Word of warning before the pictures, the red was a bitch to get off my hands so they are a little messier than usual. For this manicure I used Sally Hansen CSM Glity Pleasure and All Fired Up, OPI Goldeneye, and China Glaze Fast Track (I did also use essie Matte About You on the matte finish nails).

My pinkie is crazy

I used some gold colored foil on my pinkie and I’m not sure about it. Yes, it is super loud and tacky, which I do love, but it is also sharp and it gets snagged on everything. I put so much topcoat on trying to smooth it out but it is still pokey. If I make it through all of tomorrow with it on I will be impressed with myself. I love how the red turned out as a matte, especially in the leopard print, I wish I would have done the whole manicure as leopard after seeing how it turned out.

The leopard is just too fun

I can’t believe this is already my 50^th post, I feel like I just started doing this the other day! If I was forced to pick (and right now I’m picturing my hundreds of avid readers screaming ‘pick! Pick!’ I would say my favorite nails are my cherry blossom nails or my Vikings nails. I hope you have enjoyed my posts as I rather enjoy writing them.

Oh and on a side note, I don’t actually think my trainers are evil, but I do like to tell them that they are cold and dead inside. Also, Blogger has changed how to upload pictures and it is horrible. If any executives at Google are reading this (I assume I’m on their morning reading rotation) please change it back because the new way sucks.

Polar Bear nails

Happy New Year! Thad and I are not really party animals so our New Year plans included going grocery shopping and getting to bed at a decent hour. We did have a fun couple of days prior to New Year’s Eve though; we took a trip to the big city to hang out with family. Because I’m kinda weird, I took polish with me and did my sister in law’s nails. For her manicure I used OPI Brisbane Bronze, China Glaze Glitter Goblin, and Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure. Her nails are so much smaller than mine that it took a few tries before I picked something that worked. She seemed to like them and loved the SV topcoat because of its awesome dry time.

 

A well deserved manicure for a busy mama

I did my nails on Saturday before we left for our trip. I wanted fun going out nails but instead chose to do the opposite and did adorable cutesy nails. For my manicure I used Avon Lagoon, China Glaze For Audrey, Fast Track, and Luxe and Lush, OPI Alpine Snow and DS Radiance, and Orly Liquid Vinyl.

Nothing says party like a polar bear

I had so much fun doing these nails and I love how the bears turned out, I think Fast Track was perfect for the bear’s face. I tried a different snowflake pattern than I used last time and I’m not sold on it, I think I liked my first snowflakes better. I used matte topcoat on my pointer finger and for the first time it didn’t really make my polish look matte. I don’t know if that was as much because of the sparkly dots on top or because the blue color is a shimmer.

How can you not love this bear?

They are not party nails, but they are super fun. These nails make me want to try other animal nails. At the end of my last post I mentioned baked potato nails and was told I needed to clarify what I meant by that. An awesome way to remove glitter polish is to dip cotton into remover and then wrap your nail in tin foil with the cotton on the nail. After waiting about 10 minutes the polish comes right off with none of the normal “I hate glitter” frustration. When your nails are all wrapped up I think it looks like you have five little potatoes on your hand.

Baked potato nails and gray sweatpants

If you have never used the method I highly recommend it, not only does it work well but it also looks pretty awesome and makes your hand useless for 10 minutes which is always fun.