Valentines Manicure Day 2

(Read this before you read Valentine's Manicure 3)

Good Evening,
I should have posted this last night but I fell asleep.  Here is a very simple manicure but still not plain .  I stared with 2 coats of American Apparel.  After it was really dry I put a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust.  If you have never heard of it, it is a fine holographic glitter.  They say it is discontinued but you can still get it at Sally's or almost anywhere they sell China  Glaze.   If you don't stamp this as a good option for the reason that it really sparkles and in low light it really sparkles.  Remember, Valentine's Day is a great day for proposals.  You know Valentine's Day really brings out the romance in me.  I remember when my husband first proposed he was 16 and I was 14 and we were in the swimming pool.  Then he signed my yearbook and reminded me that no matter what when I turned 18 we would get married even if we were not in the same place he would look for me. He ended moving away and even though he called me my father always answered the phone and he always told him I was not home but Michael kept his promise.  When I was 18, he found me and called me.  I remember telling him it was too late.  I had gotten married and had a child.  He said he did not care, I could get a divorce and he would be a father to my son and even adopt him ( he was adopted so he had no problems with adoption).  I held back my tears and asked him never to contact me again.  He never did.

American Apparel Downtown LA with China Glaze

 

 

Stamped using Bundle Monster Plate 317

 

Well, Ciao for now bellas,

Patty

OPI Press Release for OZ

OPI Celebrates Disney’s Oz The Great and Powerful with Limited Edition Nail Lacquers, Including NEW Liquid SandÔ Hue

I know I said I wasn't going to buy anything but there are a couple I like.  I can't wait for the movie to come out.  Please note that the whole press release is not here where it talks about the movie it was too large and I had to scale it down.  You can go to OPI.com for more information.

Happy Valentines Day

It is five day's till Valentine's Day.  Do you have any plans?   If you do of course besides what you are wearing what are you putting on you nails?  I feel weird saying this but sometimes I plan my outfit by my mani.  So, for the next five days I have five mani's or ideas if you don't have exactly what I have or maybe you just get an idea.  We all get inspiration from each other but everyone' interpretation is different.  Even if we put the same mani on five people they would be different.  So with that said let's talk about this look.

I used American Apparel's Hassid.  One coat was all it took.  I love these polishes.  Then I topped with In the Whole Wide World.  Now, this was a tricky decision because I wanted to put it a light blue but Polishaholic used a light blue.  I tried other colors and black worked great.  If you don't have heart glitter polish Klean Kolors has a polish that is just hearts and then you can use a fine glitter and get something close to this.  Now, I tried something new.  Last week I did a mani and only wanted to do the tips I ended up sponging the whole nail with the glitter.  There was nothing left on the sponge and I was very satisfied with the outcome.  I had struggled with this one so I remembered my sponging from last week.  It worked great because I could control the number of hearts on each nail and even arrange them where I wanted them and was able to press on.  Now the black was dry and I had layered with  Seche Vite to ensure I had a dry surface to work on.  I am going to try it next time I use glitters I am doing to try it. I think a lot of us have a problem with chunky glitter but if this consistently works then it is an option  for some of us who have problems.  It has worked twice but it could be serendipity and I don't want to give a tip until it has worked for me several times and has worked for some other people.  If you try it and it works let me know.  I know I am using the scientific method but I want to be on the safe side before I really share this with the masses.

Update: Ciate Nail Polish

I have shown four ciate polishes to this point.  If you want to just give them a try before buying a bottle.  EBay sells mini's and they are only $7.99 free shipping in most of them.  And guess what they come in the same bottles like the big ones,  So cute.

That's it.
Ciao,
Patty

Ciate Monte Carlo

Good evening, today I have a beautifulolish that most of you are just going to skip out on and that is fine.  Everyone is entitled to their opinions including myself and my opinion right now is that I have bought 3 bottles of Ciate polish and they are a high quality item.  I ran across them when ordering some hotter London items.  I was impressed with the quality and price $15.00 just like butter London.this is a bar glitter polish.  I used one coat of ciate Starlet and one boat of the Monte Carlo.  It was beautiful.  I am impressed with their products and will continue to purchase what I like.  Life is too short to carry grudges and here we sit banning their products.  Do you even think they remember the whole caviar incident.  No, they don't and me I choose to forget about it.  Polish is my drug and if I find one that makes me feel this good.  I am not giving it up.  It is a personal choice, besides have you seen how cute the bottle it comes in is?

Ciao for now,
Patty

Kimber's challenge. Letter E

Today, I have Essie's Eternal Optimist.   Five weeks straight now with the brand name and polish name starting with the same letter.  I  wasn't able to take these outside and I think my husband messed with the camera settings and I did not check.  I should have because my computer is on the shop and I have had to use his and he is accusing me of messing with it.  I did nothing but crop and save pics.  Oh we'll.  I absolutely hate the name of this polish because I really hate the eternal optimist.  My mother is one and she drives me crazy and I sure as hell don't need a dose of crazy in my life.  We all know one of these people the kind you want to smack in the face and tell them to open the eyes , take off the rose colored glasses and see what is really happening.  I would venture to say that if you know no one like this you might be the eternal optimist but don't worry the EO lives in denial.  I am not trying to put anyone down.  This is really supposed to be funny because in reality the EO has a pretty good life.  No problems that they see.  I am the total cynic.  Constantly challenging.  Evaluating.  Predicting but I know no other way right now.  I am trying to get at least to that half way point.  I need about 30% more to get there.  So , do you think you might be a cynic?  Whatever you may be there is one thing for sure we are all here for one common thing.  Our LOVE of nail polish so that makes us all sisters cynics or eternal optimists.

January Favorites

January was on LONG month.  My husband thinks it went by fast.  I do not share those feelings.  It just seemed to drag and I don’t know why I was busy but it just dragged so I feel I have a lot of favorites but have really narrowed them down. So, here are my favorites.  There are ten in no particular order. 

This I think was one of the first things I posted in January.  It was a manicure I did when my daughter was here.  I really do love black and white manicures and this is one of my favorites.  Maybe I can recreate it for summer white and pink.  I would just have to change the middle finger.  That would be pretty.



This was a Deborah Lippman polish I had been wanting for so long that I finally got it.  I even went to the store to get it so that has got to show how much I really wanted it.  I just love the color.



I loved the green jelly sandwich I did during X-Mas and did not post until sometime in January.  I had been dying to do it with the Zoya Frida and finally got my chance with a desired turnout.



I liked the fabric challenge in Crumpet’s Challenge because doing this Burberry fabric really tested my skills on using striping paint and took the fear out.  I had avoided using striping paint just because I had trouble in the past but this was a challenge and I did force myself to challenge myself.



I love the color of this polish from Deborah Lippman’s Girls collection.  This one is Hannah.  It is a color I just don’t have it I teal with some grey tones in it and just beautiful.  It looks a lot like the polish Jennifer Lawrence wore during the movie Silver Linings Playbook.  Come to think of it.  I am going to find out what color that was because they did seem to focus on it at least three times during the movie.  If you already know the color.  Please let me know.



I absoluetely love this polish from KB Shimmer.  It is called Black to Business.  It is just so perfect.  The color, the right amount of glitter and the price.  It is really worth a look at.  if you don’t have it.


I really liked this manicure because I had seen so many variations of it and I wanted to do one too.  I used this in the stamping part of Crumpet’s Challenge.



I love this nail polish.  I got it at the end of December.  December was a Butter London month and January seemed to be a Zoya month.  I don’t see what February is going to be, probably nothing since it is a short month but let’s see what is coming in March.  Hold on to your money this month and wait for March when I am sure there will be sales in the multitudes.



Starlet by Ciate is so gorgeous.  Duochrome goodness.  I love it.



And last is the checkerboard stamping I did.  It was based on a dress I saw Kristen Dunst wearing.  I did it only to show on the blog and have not offically worn it yet but I am dying to.  Just waiting for the right time.



So, those are my favorites for the month.  Did you see something on my blog that you particularly liked and I did not list?  Let me know.
Ciao for now,
Patty

Patty and Goldie take a weekend off.

I can't believe I did that four days without posting anything.  I just had a busy weekend with my DBSA group and had a great time.  Of course that does not mean I did not do my nails every night.
We went to the horse stables, Galleria, movies, eating, it was great.  I told myself just go with it you'll post on Monday but nope more plans.  I was exhausted.   I work on the giveaway page last night and tried to read e-mails but gave up because I had an MD appointment, so what I do have are my weekend mani's.

First I wore a polish I wound up winning this polish on EBay for 8.00 it is a beautiful red with a slight shimmer of gold.  If is from Ciate called Kitten Heels.  The formula was smooth, no streaking.  I did need three coats to reach opacity.

I also wore a beautiful new polish from Whimsical Ideas by Pam.  I loved this polish.  I layered one coat of Zoya's Aurora and two coats of Parisian Violets on top.



Then Sunday when everyone was watching the Stupid Bowl.  I am so mad at the Texans, everyone was watching I was quilting.  Yes, quilting and really upset because two days of so much stuff going on I did not take care of my nails like I usually do and broke a nail.  After six months, I broke a nail.  My left hand is down to nubs, luckily my nails grow fast and I have plenty of manicures I need y'all to see.  So even though one hand has really short nails the other is just fine of course it is my right hand and I am right handed but that is OK.  I went 2 1/2 years with pain and no feeling in my right hand so I became pretty ambidextrous.  I'll show you the pics then you can tell you what colors I used.

 

I painted my nails black.  You can use any black you like then laser tape, I start with one right down the middle and two each side.   Then go to the other side of the nails and do the same down the middle and side to side.  On the pinkie I used only four pieces of tape only because I was getting a little frustrated.  Then I used Cult Nails Charlatan over the nail and waited about 20 seconds and slowly start removing the tape.  I think this is one of my best ones and the way the Charleton just randomly changes from pink to purple to blue is beautiful.  I won the set of these special edition polishes from Fashion Polish about a month ago.  I love them and I think they are on sale at the Cult Nails website but you can see all five of them on Fashion Polish's website. 

So, aside from having a great weekend with friends I had a great weekend in polish.  What more could I ask for?

Ciao,
Patty

Crumpet’s Challenge Day 31 Recreate Another Person’s Manicure

Wow, what a wild ride this has been and I cannot believe it is the 31st.  I am going to miss this but a break will be good too.  This is the second challenge I have been in and I finished.  I did not finish the first one.  What have I learned?  How to work HMTL’s.  That was the reason I did not finish the last one but now I feel good about them.  I am going to miss seeing what all the other girls are doing but I will follow their blogs.
So, today I recreated Posh Nail Art Challenge 6  Favorite color to work with.  I loved this manicure because it has a very ethereal look and love ethereal looks.  My favorite polish of 2012 was OPI’s My Boyfriend Scales Walls so this was easy to decide.  Now just a matter of reproducing it.  I did not have the Cheeky plate that Posh used so I used my LeeLac plate A for the stamping.  I used Color Club Cherub just like Posh did.  So, here is what I came out with.











This manicure is so simple yet so elegant.  I will be wearing it in the near future.  Thanks to everyone in this challenge.  Like I said it was a wild ride and I am a bit sad that it is over but I am in Kimber’s A-Z challenge and we post every Wednesday.  Crumpet is starting a new challenge that will be slower than this one.  I won’t be in that one but look forward to the next one.  Ms. Crumpet thank you for creating such an exciting challenge and allowing me to take part in it and I look forward to more in the future.
Ciao for now bellas,
Patty

Do Your Cuticles Hurt

About three weeks ago I was having a major cuticle issue.  They were just downright hurting.  No Lemony Flutter was helping.  So, I sat with the sore cuticles and when it was time for bed , I reached in to get my night-time meds and saw a tube of Neosporin with pain reliever.  I thought it isn't going to do any harm and rubbed it on within about 30 minutes the pain and redness had subsided I left it on all night and slept with my gloves on.  In the morning I was good to go.  On Monday, again I could feel some soreness, again Neosporin and voila problem solved.  Now, I don't want this to become a habit.  I view it more as a slow down sign and I am in no way encouraging anyone to get to that point but if it happens this appears to give some relief.  But also view it as a sign.  I know, I like to have back-up pictures but not at the expense of my health.  So, that is my little tip for today.  Hope you read this and understand where I am coming from.

Ciao,
Patty

Crumpet’s Challenge Day 30 Best Technique

When I stopped going to get my acrylics done, it was the start of the polish addiction.  I started to justify a bottle of polish a week in exchange for what I was spending at the nail salon that is how it all started.  Then my daughter found this nail technique water marbling.  We became obsessed.  Then found Konad and that was it.  I had turned into a nail junkie and I don’t know if there is any return.  So, water marbling was my first nail technique and I am very comfortable doing it but not crazy about doing the whole hand.  I like it as an accent so I left the pinky and thumb the base color.  I really think that one mistake people make in marbling is using the white as a base.  I just don’t think there is a need for that.  If you just use the lightest color as your marble then you are ok.  Just make sure the light color is very pigmented.  I used American Apparel polishes.  These polishes are very pigmented and perfect for marbling.  The colors I used are Cotton, The Valley, and Raccoon












So, there is my entry for Day 30.  I can’t believe we have come this far.  It has been a real wild ride.
Ciao,
Patty

Kimber’s Challenge Letter D

I chose for this week to use Duri’s Dragontini.  That is four in a row.  I am having SOOOOO much fun with this challenge.  Dragontini is part of Duri’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  If you have not heard of Duri polishes they are a fairly small company but their polishes are really nice they are smooth.   You can buy these polishes on Ninja Polish or on Amazon.  I would check out both because Amazon is pretty cheap.  Someone in Las Vegas sells them and they get to you really quickly.  So, I just had to stamp.  I used Cheeky plate 25 with Konad white polish.

















So, there she is Duri Dragontini.
Ciao,
Patty