Memorial Day Water Marble

Guys. GUYS.

It's an exciting day in the Brown household. Why, you ask? Wellll..... I FINALLY managed to do a half-way decent water marble. HUZZAH! AND...

Wait for it....

I got a BRAAAAND NEWWW CAAAAR!! (I hope you said that in a "Price is Right" voice....because I did...) I know right?! DOUBLE HUZZAH!! I'M SO FLIPPING EXCITED!!

I'd been driving an old 2001 Sunfire since high school, and well, suffice it to say... poor little Sunfire was on his dying bed. And since I just recently got a job with my degree, I figured now's as good a time as any. Pardon my excitement, I just had to share with someone :)

Look at that sweet pimp-mobile...

Ok, I suppose you guys came here for a mani. Right?

For whatever reason, I decided I really wanted to do a [successful] water marble. If you guys have been following this blog for some time, you'll know that we both SUCK at water marbling. It's just..... not something that comes easily to me. But this time... I was on a mission! I sat down with my colors and experimented. And guess what? It only took me....

TWO FREAKING HOURS TO DO. I kept having to redo fingers and the whole freaking process is just way too time consuming and WAY too messy. But it came out....decent...so I guess that's okay. Props to you guys who make awesome water marbles because... I just don't get it. It seemed like sometimes the polish dried WAY quicker than other times. And I couldn't get any decent designs carved into the polish and ugh..... it was so frustrating. The colors in this are Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud, Sinful Colors GoGo Girl, and China Glaze First Mate. Topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust. (DUH.)

/le sigh. I'm hopeless at water marbling.

Do you ladies in the States have any plans for Memorial Day? I do I do! I finally get a day off so we're having a little cookout with family :)

I hope you all have a safe and fun holiday!

A french affair with cocktails

I was intrigued when I saw the pic floating around Pinterest of the cocktail mani.  Presumably, the concept is that the thumb and first two fingers of your dominant hand are accented so the bling is visible when you hold your wine glass. 

So here's my take on it.  I wanted something bright and fresh for summer so I settled on pink.  The base color is Essie French Affair, which is a cool toned pink.  It went on surprisingly well considering I have so many application issues with Essie polishes.  This is two coats.  On top I layered two of my favorite glitterbombs.  First was Funky Fingers Sand & Stilettos.  S&S is a silver holographic glitter but I'm convinced it leans pink.  You can also substitute Studio M or Color Club Magic Attraction (which is the same polish).  Then on top I added OPI Teenage Dream which we all know is a pink base loaded with lots of holographic glitter.

What do you think of the "cocktail mani"?  My B/F's mom says she thinks it looks like I forgot to paint 2 of my fingernails.   Love it or leave it?

Wet n Wild It's All In The Cut - Glitterbomb!

Hi all!

I don't have any nail art for you today, but I do have an awesomesauce glitterbomb to showcase! You may or may not know by now... that after I have nail art on for a while, I long for the days of simple (for me) manicures. It's like clockwork - after having a mani on with nail art, I do something simple for my next mani. This is simple....by my standards! I doubt most people would say an obnoxious holographic glitter is simple. But what kind of blogger would I be if I used things like NUDES and light pinks on a daily basis?! A boring one. That's what.

This is two coats of China Glaze Gothic Lolita. I totally could've worn this alone, it's so pretty! It's a medium purple with the slightest bit of shimmer. I topped with two coats of Wet n Wild It's All In The Cut, a light purpley pink holographic glitter - reminds me a lot of OPI Teenage Dream (one of my all time favorite glitters).

This is going to be quite the distraction in the coming days at work... I can't stop looking at my glittery nails! I wish I could showcase the holographic effect better, but when I took these pictures the sun was going down :( You'll just have to trust me when I say that it looks amazeballs.

Now I ask you this,

What's your favorite glitter polish? Let us know in the comments! Have a great day :)

Crystal and Stone

Hello everyone.  Last night as I sat trying to think of a color or design I hadn't done lately I settled on something silver.  Here we have OPI Your Royal Shine-ness (which I have showcased before) paired with OPI Servin' Up Sparkle.  I masked off the tips of my nails before applying the SUS - which is a clear base packed with small and large hex holographic glitter.

After the glitter was dry, I freehanded China Glaze Stone Cold to the tips.  Stone cold is a lovely charcoal colored matte polish from their Capital Colors collection.

The two colors together remind me of the fragility of crystal and the durability of stone.  Have a good weekend everyone!

Bright Flower Gradient Nails

Hello ladies, hope you've all been well :)

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been recovering from a brutal allergy season. I've had a terrible cough for the past two weeks.. BUT! I'm back in action with a pretty new mani to show you guys!

I started this one with two coats of China Glaze Papaya Punch, then created a gradient with China Glaze uh.....the fuchsia one from their spring collection, and China Glaze Spontaneous. And you know what? This freaking mani chipped in two hours! Yeah. I did these at about 6:30, got in the shower at 7:45, and when I got out they had chipped. WHAT! Lame.

I'm not sure what my camera's problem was when I took the pictures of the gradient, because that's DEFINITELY not how this looks in person. The final pictures are more color-accurate.

I Konaded over it with plate RA-112 - don't know what to call this pattern? But anyway. I think it came out so pretty! I've been out of practice lately with my nail art so I was pleasantly surprised with the way this one turned out.

That's all for today, have a fabulous day! Almost the weekend :)

Orly Space Cadet

This post is not about a new polish or fancy nail art.  It's simply showcasing one of my favorite duochrome polishes - Orly Space Cadet.

I woke up Monday morning in the mood to wear a duochrome and went straight to this one.  Space Cadet is a shimmery golden pink in a green base.  As you already know or might have guessed, it's color shifts from golden pink to olive green on the nail.  Space Cadet is a bottle of spectacular smooth, sparkly goodness.  The color can be somewhat sheer but is buildable, so I used 3 coats for my pictures today. 

I tried to capture the different color flashes of this little gem.  Now my next question is, should I leave as-is or konad over it?