Happy Birthday to Me!!

Hello Everyone!

Today is my 24th! And so far, it's been great. I got some great gifts, and got to spend the day with my family, so it's been pretty good :)
For my birthday mani, I wanted to combine elements of my favorite things. This mani incorporates my favorite color (purple), my favorite insect (butterflies), and of course glitter!

Materials Used (in order):
Milani 3D holographic Hi-Res
Sinful Colors Purple Diamond
Wet n Wild fastdry Hannah Pinktana
Sinful Colors Fiji
NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel Starry Silver Glitter (2 coats)
Konad Image Plate m1
Konad Special Nail Polish in Black (stamping)

It may be hard to tell, but this was actually a gradient mani. My first successful one! I used a make up sponge to apply the polishes, and it was a breeze.

I got money as birthday gifts, so guess what I bought? Polish of course!

L to R: Milani Garnet Gems, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Red Carpet, (2) NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel Starry Silver Glitter, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Wet Cement, Revlon Not So Blueberry

L to R: Revlon Blue Mosaic, Starry Pink, Facets of Fuchsia

 When I saw these 3 beauties in Target for $3.36 each, I literally squealed. My mom looked at me like I was a nut or something. She couldn't understand why I was so excited over polish. 3 lemmings satisfied in one go!

L to R: Sally Hansen High Definition Nail Color in Spectrum, Milani 3D Holograpic HD, NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel Top Coat, Orly Bonder Rubberized Basecoat.

 I got the four above from CVS. I haven't been to CVS in years and was shocked to see that they had a good selection of Orly products! Of course, at $7.99 a pop, I wasn't about to go crazy. The basecoat sounded good, so I decided to grab it. On the back of the box, it says that it prevents nail lacquer from wearing off for up to two weeks. I will definitely be putting this claim to the test soon.

$5 for this set at Target! The polish junkie in me simply couldn't resist.

Shades from Payless. I paid $9.99 for one and $4.99 for the other! Payless is buy one, get one half off of everything.

Spin Pins by Goody. Greatest hair invention ever made! It holds my bun up all day long.

Inked Wet n Wild Craze Collection: $1.99 ea. at Duane Reade

Pretty decent birthday haul! And I'm totally happy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Golden Cheetah!

Hi!

I just love the cheetah print image on Konad IP m57. And with Milani 3D Holographic in HD, it looks appropriately animalistic! Rwar!

Rwar (again)!

SmokE

Water Marbling

Hiya!

Today I decided to give water marbling a try. I've seen so many fantastic youtube videos of the technique, and wanted to create a fabulous design for myself. I think I did okay for my first attempt. This is actually my submission to the Blue Kaffee August nail art contest.

Materials Used:

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Away (Base Color)
China Glaze Sky High Top
Orly Snowcone
Orly Blue Collar
Milani Cyberspace

Enjoy!

SmokE

Opi Black Shatter with Milani Blue Flash

Hey there!

For the past few weeks, my brand new bottle of OPI Black Shatter polish has been sitting untouched. I'm a bit of a Konad junkie, and have been going Konad crazy since April. So I thought it was about time to try something new:

    OPI Black Shatter over Milani Blue Flash  (Natural Light)

          (Artificial Light)

                                                                                                                                                                         
I LOVE this look! It screams edgy, and looks incredibly unique. I think the brighter the polish under the black shatter, the better. And from this trial, it would probably look awesome over anything glittery. I am dreading removal though. Blue Flash is a pretty dense glitter polish. Will definitely be needing foil :(
Black Shatter dried pretty quickly, with a matte finish. I didn't like the matte look, so i used Sally Hansen Insta- Dri Anti Chip Top Coat over it.
Milani Blue Flash is supposed to be a one coat glitter polish, but I had to use 2 coats for full and even coverage. It dried pretty quickly also, and had a rough grainy finish. Not surprising, considering how dense the glitter is. A coat of Seche Vite Top Coat smoothed it out some, providing a smoother surface for the shatter polish to do it's work. Polish used under shatter polish MUST be completely dry for best results, so I always use a coat of Seche Vite just to make sure.

Hopefully I can wear this Mani for at least 5 days, or until my new Bundle Monster plates arrive...whatever comes first :)


Toodles,
 SmokE