Cult Nails New Day with Water Decals from Born Pretty Store

Hi everyone! Today I have a fun and simple mani for you using water decals. I started off with a base of Cult Nails New Day, a wonderful buttery yellow that I won from Imperfectly Painted's 4th Blog Birthday Celebration. The color and formula of this yellow are both divine. I found it to be perfectly smooth and opaque at 2 coats (perhaps 3 if you are doing really thin coats or aren't being careful with your application) which is fantastic for a pastel yellow. If you are looking for a fantastic yellow creme, look no further.

I thought this lovely yellow was the perfect base for the colorful Born Pretty Store water decals (item Y108) that I picked up a few months ago. Originally, I thought each of the circles were separate decals, but they are joined in sets of two. This was good because they kept a cool configuration on the nail, but somewhat bad for me because I guess my nails are a little wider than most and the decals, which are made to go against the sides of the nail, wouldn't quite span the width of all of my nails. In real life, this wasn't something that you noticed a lot, so I was still very pleased with the mani. If I was going to do it again, I would cut the clear membrane that joined the circles together on a few of them so I could arrange them against the sides of my nails as they should be.

Cult Nails polishes are available from their website as well as from Llarowe, Beautylish, Harlow & Co., and Nail Polish Canada. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram for updates on new collections.

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram.  

*Nail polish was won in a giveaway, Water Decals were purchased by me.*

30 Day Challenge, Day 29: Inspired by a TV Show

Hi everyone! Today's prompt for the 30 Day Challenge was Inspired by a TV Show. I had a tough time choosing between The Big Bang Theory and Park and Recreation, but this mani by Canadian Nail Fanatic really inspired my Big Bang Theory mani (even though I do not have her awesome themed plates!). I just decided to make some super nerdy science nails tor my favorite Big Bang Theory nerds.

 For my mani, I started off with a base of Cult Nails Evil Queen (red) and OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana (yellow). I stamped with Konad Black using Bundle Monster plates BM-408 and BM-415 as well as Cheeky XL Happy Nails and Top of the Class plates. I painted the atom with acrylic paints.

Almost done! Only one more day to go! Be sure to check out what the other girls are doing for today! Thanks for looking everyone!

An InLinkz Link-up

Cult Nails Seduction over Elevation Polish Pic de Sottlo

Hi everyone! Today I have an old favorite to show you along with a new favorite. Cult Nails Seduction was a limited edition flakie that has been one of my favorite polishes since it was released. I got the hankering to wear it again after sifting through old pictures, and this time I decided to layer it over a fabulous creme from Elevation Polish, Pic de Sottlo. Pic de Sottlo is a vibrant royal blue crelly. It has the slightest jelly tendency which makes it look squishy. The formula is amazing too! This was 2 coats of Pic de Sottlo topped with 2 coats of Cult Nails Seduction.

Here is Pic de Sottlo solo. It is much deeper in real life (more like blurry pic #2). Typical of most royal blues, it wants to look lighter and brighter in pictures.

 Elevation Polish is available from creator Lulu's Big Cartel Store. She has a lot of info on restock dates and availability on the Big Cartel site as well as on her blog. Her shop is restocked on the 7th and 22nd each month unless otherwise noted. Elevation Polish is also stocked at Llarowe. 

  

Cult Nails polishes are available from their website as well as from Llarowe, Beautylish, Harlow & Co., and Nail Polish Canada. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram for updates on new collections.

Thanks for looking everyone! I've been digging out of a lot of old favorites lately, so expect to see them soon!

Mani Backlog Spam

While exploring my Photobucket, I found lots of unposted manis from throughout the year. Gah...how did I miss all of these?

Femme Fatale Abyssal Reflections (over American Apparel Malibu Green)

HARE Polish Golden Years (over either teal or blue...I can't remember)

Pahlish Eleven Pipers Piping. 

Lynnderella Very Pretty Vampire over BB Couture Dragon's Breath 

BB Couture Dragon's Breath

Ninja Polish Ambrosia

Elevation Polish Haba Xueshan over OPI Fly

Elevation Polish Huangshan over Finger Paints Pop Art Purple

Color Club Miss Bliss

Layla Purple Illusion

Nicole by OPI Kendell on the Katwalk over Zoya Ibiza

Color Club Eternal Beauty

HARE Polish Oceans of Alloys (over Contrary Polish Sky)

Contrary Polish Sky

Cult Nails Let Me Fly

Color Club Harp On It

Whew...that was way more than I thought! Thanks for looking!

4th of July Mani Featuring Oopsie Daisies 1776

Better late than never I guess? I have had issues with Photobucket this week so I've been a little behind on posting. But anyway, here is the mani I wore for the 4th.

Base and dot colors are Cult Nails Evil Queen (red), Sinful Gel Shine Wisp (white), and China Glaze First Mate. For the glitter accent nails I used Oopsie Daisies 1776, a lovely red, white, and blue glitter polish in a clear base. I used Nailz Craze plate 02 for the star designs and Bundle Monster plate 20 for the Stripes.

 

 

 

 

Oopsie Daisies polishes are available from creator Cathryn's Etsy shop as well as from Edgy Polish. Thanks for looking everyone and to all of my US readers, I hope that you had fantastic 4th of July celebrations!

 

Cult Nails Flushed and HARE Polish Medusa Luminosa

For this mani, I was wanting to wear ALL OF THE PURPLE THINGS. I decided to layer two beauties and it was definitely a good call. I started out with Cult Nails Flushed, a gorgeous purple with pink shimmer. It reminds me a bit of my beloved (and sadly discontinued) Claire's Magic, although Flushed is lighter. This is 2 easy coats of Flushed.

Next I layered on 1 coat of HARE Polish Medusa Luminosa. Drool. This polish is from the fall Illuminated Life collection and it is a purple jelly base with complex shimmer and disco glitters. The pretty blue disco glitters just glowed over the Cult. 

These polishes are both winners in my book! If you are a purple lover...go get them NOW! Cult Nails polishes are available from their website. HARE Polish is available from creator Nikole's Etsy Store (follow  HARE Polish on Facebook for updates on restocks) and from Llarowe. Thanks for looking everyone!

Advent Calendar Challenge Day 12: Family

image from: http://cupcake4today.wordpress.com/page/5/

So who all had one of these growing up? Oh yes...the infamous gumdrop tree. My grandmother always had one of these at her house. When the grandchildren in the family got a little older, she bought a few of these plastic trees and tied one dollar bills all over them and gave them as gifts...MONEY TREES! So yes...money can grow on trees...gumdrop trees!! At least it did in my family. My grandmother always did fun stuff like this  so I have many fond memories of the gumdrop tree. 

So for my mani, I made my nails into gumdrops! The colors I used are as follows:

Red: Cult Nails Evil Queen

Yellow: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow

Purple: American Apparel African Violet

Green: Essie Pretty Edgy

Orange: Essence Get Up!

I think topped them all with Revlon Colorstay Calla Lily and a franken I made with the silver TKB Mermaid pigments and suspension base. It would have looked perfect with Sally Hansen Glass Slipper on top, but I used up all of my bottle making frankens so I had to franken a topcoat!

It's really a very simple form of "candy nails" but it means something to me. Thanks for looking!

Some Non-Christmas Mani Spam!

Well...maybe a few of them are red...but that's ok, right? ;)

First up is one I did a little while back. This is OPI Man of La Mancha over Pretty Serious Poltergeist Puddle. This was SO pretty! I loved it!

Here is Poltergeist Puddle on its own. This is one difficult polish to photograph. It wants to photograph more blue than it actually is...but it has an abundance of pink and blue shimmer in it. The first picture is probably the most color accurate...but it still isn't just right. 

Next is Cult Nails Annalicious. I have so many pretty reds that I can't resist wearing them during Christmas...though they don't represent any particular day of the Advent Calendar Challenge. 

Next up I happened to purchase Layla Ceramic Effect #52 (aka The Butterfly Effect) from Ulta when they put out the new displays. It is very dupey to Nfu-Oh 51, but the purple jelly base is a touch more opaque. This is 2 coats over Barry M Indigo.

This is Barry M Indigo on its own. It is just perfect! It is so vibrant. Hard to photograph accurately too...purples like this often are. 

Next up is Zoya Fei Fei. This one has so much pretty going on. So many different colored shimmers in the base. They are really hard to pick up in photographs, but they are beautiful in real life. 

Oooh and here is a fun one for you...what do you do when you forget to take pictures of your mani? Well you take silly iPhone shots of course! This is one of my absolute favorite red cremes, OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock. Well look at that...it is featured with my favorite beverage!

I was disappointed with this picture, but I did the mani and picture in a rush one day. This is in my top 20 and I wanted to get a new photo of it. This is OPI Diva of Geneva. It will always hold a special place in my heart. 

This polish just made it into my Indie top 20 by a hair. I wore it for the first time days before submissions were due and it stole my heart. This is Enchanted Polish Octopus Garden. I wore it for a few days because I couldn't make myself take it off. I discovered something else too...these polishes do not need black undies! When I reviewed the new Beatles polishes a few months back, I layered them all over black because I assumed they would be similar to the Ozotic Mish Mash polishes and pop over black. I was SO wrong. This is 2 coats, no undies. Color me impressed. I love these Beatles polishes even more now! I didn't have any sun so I didn't get any good pics of the holo in these, but it is there!

And last but not least is Darling Diva Polish Seriously Serious. This polish is also SO hard to photograph (are you sensing a theme in this post? LOL!). It is a micro green and purple holograhic glitter polish. This is 1 coat over black. In real life, it has an overall purple look with splashes of green. You barely see the black undies, but they make the purple and green pop. The black polish shows up in pictures more than it does in real life.

So...how did you enjoy that little spamfest? I figured you might need a little break from Christmas related stuff so I hope you liked it! Thanks for looking everyone!