Sinful Colors & Lynnderella - A Yummy Pair!

Hello, my lovelies!

I have an interesting pair for you today. A low-end Sinful Colors and a high-end Lynnderella! I really like matching finishes of polish, and these two really needed a pairing. 

Black Cherry is a new, LE matte by Sinful Colors. Their Facebook page claimed it was  Rite Aid Exclusive but it’s been seen recently at Walgreens. A friend gave this to me, when neither my Rite Aid nor my Walgreens had  it. It’s a lovely blackened dark red with a matte finish. The more coats, the darker it gets. It has a pretty decent application, and like most mattes, dries quickly. This is three coats.

Christmas mani drive by posting!

Hello, my lovelies!

I'll be back this Sunday with new, weekly postings but I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it!

Here's what I'm wearing today! There's a whole bunch of polishes involved but the beauty on my ring finger is by a fabulous, relatively new indie called Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer! I'll have more from her this coming Sunday, but this stunner is called Newborn Solstice Sun and she is gorgeous. This is two coats of beautiful application, topped with Seche Vite. Be sure to check out Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer!

(The Santa hat is upside so I included a second pic to show it correctly!)

Sinful Laced Up & Zoya Dhara

Hello, my lovelies!

Another week has flown by but I've had a good weekend, how about you? A friend got married yesterday and today I've been making and canning cherry jam, some with spiced rum, or cinnamon and clove, and other fun flavors. And since it's the official first day of fall, I'm back to my orange graphics for the blog!

And some of you know my favorite thing about Fall - all things pumpkin! I bake pumpkin goodies through out the year but now they're everywhere. Pumpkin spice lattes (though I make my own with less sugar), pumpkin candles, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin cake, pumpkin muffins - you get the idea. Bring on the pumpkin!

Sinful Colors: My Turn

Hello, my lovelies!

From high-end to low-end! My mood has matched the cloudy and gray skies, so I have for you today, a new matte by Sinful Colors. Sinful Colors is a great brand, and the best part is that they are only about $2. They have a big core collection and they frequently release smaller collections, though they often recycle colors in those. The main hitch to their new collections is that they tend to be a one-time deal. If you don't catch them right as they come out, you don't get them.

Guest blogger: Christmas mani!

Hello, my lovelies!

I have been sick for several days (first time in almost 5 years!) with a nasty cold so my good friend Mary has offered to guest blog for me again and show off her Christmas looks! Take it away, Mary!

A celebration of red nail polish!

Hello, my lovelies!

I have something new for you today. Recently some friends of mine and I were talking about the red polish, OPI’s Smitten With Mittens (which for some reason, I always want to call it Smitten with Kittens). The conversation then evolved into one about red polish and how there are so many lovely ones. So I told them all to send me a pic or two of their favorite red and I would dedicate a post to red polish. And here it is!

Sinful Colors Swatch Spam!

Hello, my lovelies!

Today I have some Sinful Colors spam for you! During my swatchathons, I try to swatch all of my untried of a particular brand, and instead of doing them one by one on Try It On Tuesdays, some of them are going to make it into spam posts like these. 

I am quite fond of Sinful Colors as a rule. There was some hubbub with them not long ago when they stole bloggers pictures and used them without permission. Revlon (their parent company) was contacted by many of us (myself included), issued a public apology and reached out to the bloggers. I haven’t heard anything since, but to my knowledge, they were trying to make it right to with the bloggers that owned the pictures.  

Galaxy Nails!

Hello, my lovelies!

It’s rainy day today in DC, and I can’t do any yard work, so I’m doing nails? Yep. 

I’ve been meaning to do galaxy nails for a couple of weeks so I decided today’s the day! This is definitely a mani that requires time, as it involves layering polish. 

So, onward we go! First, we start off with a black base. I recently got Nevermore by Cult nails, hailed as a one coat black polish. No joke, it really is! I did two coats anyway. It also dries pretty quick, and applied super smoothly.

Water Marble Mayhem!

Hello, my lovelies! 

I’m calling today Water Marble Mayhem! Why? Because it is just not in the cards today for me to have a water marble. I had planned to submit this to Shelly’s Sassy Nails for the Sassy Saturday of this month, but…no. These just did NOT come out well.

I don’t know if I had the water temp wrong or what, but the skins kept forming super quickly, the polish wouldn’t spread, etc. I tried a few times before giving up, but here’s how it went. I didn’t even bother with clean up, I was so annoyed, lol! Waring, pic heavy!

COOOKIES! OMNOMNOMNOM!

Hello, my lovelies!

I had hoped to post this yesterday but I was out of town with friends all day and didn’t have time. So instead, I’m bringing it to you today!

I wasn’t sure what to put on my nails Saturday but almost everyone who answered the question on FB, said “Cookie Monster!” A dear friend was spending the night so we did our nails, of course! (and I forgot to get a picture of hers, damn!)

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Poppy!

Hello, my lovelies! 

Today I’m wearing Kleancolor Chunky Holo Poppy. I got this baby for $.01 on Copious! (Have you joined Copious yet? Use my referral link toget $10 in credit when you join!).

This baby arrived on a scorching hot day when I was stalking the postman. I had to let the bottle cool down because it was so hot!

The first thing I noticed about this when I opened it was that it doesn’t stink nearly as much as the blue one I have! Warning: pic heavy!

Try It On Tuesday is back!

Hello, my lovelies! It’s Try It On Tuesday! Put together by the lovely Jilltastic Nail Design, Tuesday is the day where we try on a polish that we’ve had, but haven’t used.

I only recently became a fan of neon in the summer. But now I’m hooked! So I’m showing off a beautiful pink neon I found a few weeks ago.

Something I noticed with a lot of the neons, is that don’t seem very neon, and most require white undies to really pop. Evidently there’s something about true neons that isn’t allowed in the US, I read? 

Another Funky Frenchie!

Hello, my lovelies! It’s Friday again and today I have a funky Frenchie for you. Jilltastic Nail Design’s challenge this week was a French mani, but it didn’t have to be the traditional white. Yay! 

I’d been doing some swatching today so I’m a bit high from the fumes and feeling rather tired! Please forgive me for not being too verbose today.

Refreshing blues!

Hello, my lovelies!

Time for some cooling blues! It’s so damn hot out, I needed something refreshing on my nails. So I thought a nice blue gradient would be perfect for today. This is only the third gradient I’ve ever done, but it looks pretty even to me. I was very pleased with the result!  

I started out painting the nails with Deborah Lippman Let’s Hear It For The Boy. This is a lovely light blue crème. Nice application, fully opaque in two coats and very smooth. I don’t normally buy DL’s because at $18-20 a pop, the miser in me screams in abject torture. But HSN periodically has duos or even trios of DL’s for really great prices. This one came with Dancing in the Sheets, a beautiful dark purply shimmer for $9.99. Can’t beat that! 

4th of July fishtail!

Hello, my lovelies! Happy 4^th of July! This Navy daughter salutes our troops and all who served so that I can enjoy my freedom. It also would have been my grandparents 75^th wedding anniversary (they’re both deceased).

First off, I have to say I’m Not Happy with this mani. I seem to have trouble with the weaving and it’s just super sloppy. I followed Lucy’s Stash’s tutorial, but I botched it up 4 times. 4 times!!! This is the 4^th round. I’m too tired to try again. In the pictures, she doesn’t show using tap, but either she does, or she just has a great steady hand. So, next time, I will use tape to make the lines nice and crisp. I really like this look and am determined to get it right, so expect to see more of this mani style in coming weeks. 

Jem is Truly Outrageous!

Hello, my lovelies!  Today’s manicure is a super special labor of love. 

My buddy Jenn over at My Indie Glam Addiction is having an awesome nail art contest and the theme is JEM! Any child of the 80s like myself will know immediately who this is. I can still sing the entire theme song and some of the songs featured in the show. I’ve dressed up as Jem for Halloween at least twice in my life-and one of the costumes is still hanging in my closet ‘cause the last time was just a couple years ago. 

A Tribute to JR Ewing and Dallas!

For those who are new, or don’t really know me, yet, I LOVE the 80s tv show Dallas. I grew up watching JR scheme and ruin people and (literally) push Sue Ellen into a sanitarium. For years I could only remember parts of the last couple seasons (I was a kid), so last year I started collecting the dvd sets-I think I only need 3 more!

When it was announced last summer that they were working on a "continuation" of the show, I squealed in joy. Since then I’ve followed every scrap of news I could get. The younger generation doesn’t thrill me (actor-wise) but knowing that JR, Sue Ellen, Bobby and co were returning to the screen just makes me grin like a fool. Ray, Lucy and Cliff will be back as well! I feel like I’m going to a reunion of old friends!

What does this have to do with nail polish? Because it inspired me to do a very special mani, as a tribute to Dallas. I came up with 5 things that represent Texas, and free hand painted them on the left. There’s no way I could do them as well on the right, so instead…they got something else, as you see.

Please forgive my ugly cuticles, I touched them up in Photoshop so they wouldn’t be so scary!

A Fiery Gradient!

I attempted a gradient a while back with blues, that worked okay and looked good from about a foot away. For that one, I painted my nails a cobalt blue, then sponged a medium blue over 2/3 of the nail, and then sponged a light blue-gray over the tips. This was the result:

But today, I used The Nailasaurus' awesome gradient tutorial and got much better results! 

Fire colors are my favorite, so I decided a fiery gradient would perfect, esp with the heat we've been having! 

Using Essie Fear or Desire, a lovely bright orange that isn't quite neon, and Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby for the red, I got this beautiful gradient!

Memorial Day mani!

As today is Memorial Day, my first mani to share is something patriotic! I am a proud American and ask that you give a moment of thanks to all who have served this beautiful country. Being from a military family, I get a little choked up at such times. My dad was Navy, my uncles were Marines, and my BFF just finished her stint in the Navy. Needless to say, I have special fondness for the Navy and Marines. And yes, I watch NCIS.   

Now, moving onto the mani-that's what you'r here for, yes? This is…an assortment of art. I wanted a flag, but it’s a lot of work and I have yet to pull off a great tape mani. So I did the thumb with the American flag, a variation on the middle finger, dots on ring and forefingers, and a nail decal of Uncle Sam’s hat on the pinkie (no way can I freehand that!). I used China Glaze White on White, China Glaze Eyes Like Sapphires, and Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby.