Summery Neon Nails With Claire's Paradise

I MEANT to write this post last night. But I ended up hanging out with a couple of friends (I love those girls so much!) and drinking a whole bottle of wine. By myself. Haha. I really needed that girl night. It's nice to be around girls who love you and AREN'T trying to sabotage you. And that is a reference to someone at my job. I like where I work, like my job, like most of the people, and just generally enjoy it. There is always that one person though. I KNOW I'm a good person and try to see the best in people, but sometimes those people try their hardest to prove you wrong. It's gone as far as this one person stealing money from me blatantly and without apology (We get a small amount of commission. It's a bit of a long explanation but it did happen.). I may make mistakes, but I know my character isn't bad. To deliberately sabotage someone so you can profit even the tiniest bit is disgusting. My only recourse is to be the better person (I know that I am). I'm not a child and am not going to play that game. I'm a strong believer that if you profit off bad deeds long enough it will eventually catch up with you without any action from the people you're harming. Maybe it's just karma?

Anyway, I stopped in to Claire's to buy the Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop dupe (also oh-so-originally named Candy Shop) and came out with it and three neon polishes. This one, Paradise, is my favorite. It is a neon coral with a strong blue flash. It's a bit sheer and I think I may have ended up woth 4 or 5 coats. Next time I'll layer it over white or nude polish so I don't have to use so many coats. But for using that many coats I really didn't have any issues with it mucking up or taking forever to dry. Do you need this polish? YES! I love it so much. It was $5 but Claire's polishes seem like they're perpetually buy one, get one half off.

Claire's Paradise

It's a little more pink and less orange in person, but still coral.

Claire's Paradise

Claire's Paradise

My little brother (Haha, he's 6'4") and his best friend since baby-hood just graduated from college and I'm so proud of them. They both got degrees in engineering. I want to share the picture with you guys of them as babies and then them in their cap and gowns. I can't believe how fast time flies! My brother is the tall one with red hair. I love these guys so much!

Fish Scales and "Woe is me" Tales

I'm STILL upset about the stupid neighbor thing from yesterday. Especially since we had to spend $90 and 4 hours building a mini fence in front of the actual fence between our yards. I acknowledge that my dog is bad to chew on the wooden fence boards when her dogs are barking at him, but I try and prevent it and don't let him out when her dogs are out. But she doesn't do anything when her dogs are running and bouncing off the fence on the other side. I have to be the responsible one and throw money away to keep my dogs from misbehaving while hers are free to do whatever they want. UGH! You know what? I don't think she let her dogs out ONE TIME today. Talk about an extreme reaction. They still need to go to the bathroom. Does she seriously think I don't ever want them to go out? I wanted to thank everyone who commented yesterday on my rant-y post. You all made me feel so much better. I just want so bad to believe that everyone has at least some shred of rationality to them, and it bothers me that some people will never have that, no matter who talks to them or what they say. So sorry I've been a bit of a Debbie Downer lately. I'll return you to your regularly scheduled pretties shortly.
As a way of easing back into it, here is the fish scales part of the title.  According to my boyfriend this mani looked like fish scales.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise under 1 coat of Hard Candy Break Up.

In the sun

My camera is dumb. It makes non-neons looke neon and actual neon look pastel. Turned Up Turquoise is a saturated neon green-based teal shimmer. Break is large opalescent hex glitter in a clear base. They glitter is hard to get even, but I like the way it looks so I keep using it.

In the shade

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Nail Polish Frankening Supplies and A Neon Pink Franken

I'm the type of person that has a new obsession every few months. the current one is blogging, but hopefully I stick with it longer than I do other projects! My past obsession has included painting, sewing, soap making, lotion making, making friendship bracelets, making beaded jewelry, and more that I can't remember. And I'll cycle back through previous obsessions every so often, too. I have a closet full of supplies from these former hobbies.  The only hobby that I have ever stuck with in my entire life is nail polish and painting my nails. I'm going on 2 and a half years now of being obsessed with it, and frankly I'm kinda surprised I've lasted this long. And my obsession shows no sign of waning.

I still get the itch to create things, but I'm terrible at nail art, so creating my own polishes is an ideal hobby. I have been meaning to place an order at TKB Trading for supplies for the longest time, but have always got distracted an spent my money elsewhere (I get distracted by pretty things easily). So the other day I placed an order for 30 small nail polish bottles and a bottle of a glitter suspension base. You need this base for glitters because the glitter will settle at the bottom without it. For non glitter polishes I just use the 99 cent Wet n Wild clear polish.

I was so excited with everything that I have already made 4 polishes. This neon pink one is my favorite, but my camera is a piece of shit when it comes to photographing neons. This is actually a neon shimmer with flakies. I used some of my precious bottle of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure to create it. In real life you can see the flakies, but my camera freaks out and makes the polish as retina searing as possible and eliminates the flakes. It really is bright though, because it's a neon (it dries matte as neons do).

This was 3 coats.Ugh, I'm so frustrated I couldn't get a good picture! Well, at least this gives me an excuse to get a new camera sometime! This is 1/3 Sinful Colors Pink, 1/3 diamond Cosmetics Hot Summer Pink, and 1/3 Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure.


Here is where I bought my supplies from. I also have a little tube of balls (they're actually BBs, or metal pellets) from Walmart. You need these to help mix up the polish. They really do make a difference. I put 2 to 3 in each bottle.


Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Several Zoya Nail Polish Swatches

So, as you may know, Zoya's Nail Polish Exchange is going on this week.  What is pretty much boils down to is that you get polish for $4 a bottle, whic includes shipping.  Zoya's polishes normally sell for $8 each.  All you have to do is mail one of your old yucky polishes to Zoya for every polish you buy.  Zoya then disposes of the old stuff in a safe way.  This is a great opportunity to get some great polishes and dispose of unloved nail polish in a healthy way.  You have nothing to lose!

So here are a few Zoya swatches to tempt you.  These are all swatched with no top or base coat.

Zoya Lola in the sun

Lola is a neon pink with blue shimmer.  This was 4 coats.  Zoya polishes tend to be a bit thin and sheer but the coats dry quickly and don't get too thick or gunky.

Zoya Lola in the shade

Zoya Adina in the sun

Adina is a gorgeous duochrome shimmer that shifts from a lavender purple to green.  This is 3 coats.

Zoya Adina in the shade

Zoya Kelly in the sun

Kelly is a dark grey creme that is supposed to lean purple, but I don't really see the purple against my skin tone.  This was 3 coats.

Zoya Kelly in the shade

Zoya Ivanka in the sun

Ivanka is a grass green glass fleck shimmer. My boyfriend claims it looks like a mermaid.  This was 4 coats and probably could have used a 5th, but it dried quickly.

Zoya Ivanka in the shade

Zoya Crystal in the sun

Crystal is a light blue shimmer with small gold metallic flakes.  The boy says this one looks like a fish, haha.  This was 3 coats, but was decently opaque at 2.

Zoya Crystal in the shade

Available:

• Zoya's polishes are available on their website and at select salons.

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a... Dragon? China Glaze Flying Dragon Swatches

China Glaze has to be one of my favorite brands of nail polish.  They are inexpensive (I but them for $2.99 online) and come in HUGE variety of colors and finishes.  Plus, it really seems like the listen to their fans' requests.  But, I usually get so caught up in new collections that I forget about some of their older, equally awesome polishes.  Which leads us to Flying Dragon.

I wanted this color since the begining of time (aka when I first got obsessed with nail polish), but I always forgot about it when faces with swatches of new collections.  I finally bought it and have not been disappointed.  It really is a must own for any nail polish fanatic, glitter, or neon lover.

Flying Dragon dark neon purple with blue and purple glitter.  It's rare that you see darker neons, but you can definitely it has neon pigment when you compare it to a non-neons and due to the fact it dries matte.  The glitter isn't very sparkly at all, which I kind of like for a change.  It makes the polish incredibly unique and despite being pretty opaque the glitter isn't buried.  Seriously, you NEED this polish.

This was 3 coats with a base and top coat.

China Glaze Flying Dragon in the sun

China Glaze Flying Dragon in the shade

Available:

• $5.99 at Sally Beauty Supply and their website. ($4.99 Beauty Club Card)
• $2.99 at Transdesign.com

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!