Ornament nails inspired by Design Seeds!

Hey guys! Today  I have another collab mani for yall today! My friends Danele, Marcella, Aly and I decided to do one more collaboration before the end of the year. We decided to do ornaments based on the Designs Seeds Palate at the end of the post!



I used sooo many polishes for this mani, all OPI!

base: I Vant To Be A-Lone Star (2 coats)
shimmery topcoat: Happy Anniversary (1 coat)
ornament colors: OPI Scores a Goal!, Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It, Koala Beary, Skull & Glossbones
gold: Love.Angel.Music.Baby
white: Alpine Snow 

whew! 8 all together!

For the ornaments I just used a dotting tool, no special technique!





Design Seeds color palate

Aggies Do It Better Favorite Things Giveaway 2014!

Howdy! Today' blog is all about the giveaway I'm running over on Instagram! It's not to celebrate a certain number of followers or anything like that, just something fun for the end of the year! All of these items will be given to one winner, chosen at random, on New Years Eve! Yay! If it goes well I would like to do this every year!

This is a compilation of almost all my favorite things I have been using this year and as I'm coming to the end of my first year of this newly-launched blog ( I guess I can't say new anymore!) am still loving!

Note: Everything in the giveaway except for a couple things where noted was purchased by me! :)


First up is a full size 15ml bottle of Danele's oil that I blogged about earlier this week! You can see my review of it here. This bottle of the scent Glazed Christmas Cookie (my FAV) was donated by Danele for this giveaway :)

Cuticle Glaze oil

Next is a brand new box of Orly Nail Rescue! I recently discovered this stuff and it has saved me from so many disasters! Everyone needs it!

Orly Nail Rescue

This is the only cuticle remover I use. It lasts forever-I'm still on  my first bottle and I use it about once a week! It has really made a visible difference in how my nails look in pictures.

Cuticle Remover

Here are some more supplies from Sally's that I love. In addition to my crystal file I use these blue and pink ones daily! the blue one is really good for taking down length. I use these orange sticks to push back my cuticles with the remover above and scrape the excess off, and just anytime they need to be pushed back. They also have many other handy uses!

files and orange sticks!

Let's get on to the polish, shall we??? The winner will also receive the full OPI Gwen Stefani polish collection! (not including the separate boxed polish)!!!

OPI!

The winner will also receive this EPIC package of nail vinyls from Glam my Mani! Marlene was generous to donate 9 sheets of every design you can think of! I've used her vinyls several times and they are awesome :)

Nail vinyls

A few fun little extras...I love that sequined file (maybe I should keep that....hmmm)

bling

The winner will receive Seche Clear basecoat, Sally Hanson Insta-Dri topcoat, and China Glaze Ghoulish Glow glow-in-the-dark topcoat plus and elf concealer brush that so many of us use for cleaning up polish around the cuticle areas!

base and top coats

I also have a well known addiction to lip balms...here are my favs tho! Chapstick Cake Batter and The Body Shop lip butter in Shea!

lip balms

This is also a product I could not have lived without this year. The winner will receive a full size bottle of Batiste dry shampoo in cherry, my fav of all the scents!

dry shampoo

Lastly a cute black sequined cosmetic travel bag! yay!

travel bag

Cuticle Glaze oil review!

Hey guys! Wow! It's been a while :( My last published blog was over 2 weeks ago!) It feels longer than that. Right from Christmas I just got super busy preparing for the holidays and getting gifts for a Secret Santa Exhange I was in (do yall want a full post on that?) and just the way life seems to explode with business when December 1st hits. Then last Tuesday I decided to trip and break a bone. my poor toe. My first broken bone ever! And THEN 2 days later I came down with a crazy stomach virus that kept me in bed all weekend. Sheesh! So I'm way behind on things and I won't be back to blogging super regularly until after the holidays, probably. But I have a few up my sleeve!

Today I have a review! My friend Danele over at Low Country Lacquer started tinkering with oils this summer and came up with a really awesome cuticle oil! She gave some to me and a few others to try out for a while. And let me tell you, it's awesome! It's all I have been using pretty much since then.  She has finally decided to start a business selling it and SO that's where I come in to tell you how fantastic it is. Be sure to read all the way to the end for a surprise!

Disclaimer: the oils for this blog specifically were provided by Danele for me to review. My opinion is my own and can not be bought with cookies or wine or polish. So trust me if I start babbling its my HONEST opinon :)




Her oil comes in 2 packages... an 11ml roller ball tube (plastic) and a 15ml glass bottle dropper.
Scents you can choose from are: Unscented, Glazed Christmas Cookie, Glazed Lemon, and Sugar Glaze. She sent me an unscented (dropper) and Christmas Cookie (roller ball).

(fyi...the original bottle she sent me was also the Christmas Cookie scent. It's no wonder I was hooked)



Here are what my (unpainted bleh) nails look like after a weekend of malnourishment and a morning of running errands in the cold. Shame on me!



This is what the roller ball looks like.



To apply with roller ball, just swipe over cuticle area in half-circle motion. I have to say, the oil comes out quite well in this roller ball. I have one other (off-brand) roller ball oil and I have a hard time even getting the thing to turn! So slather it on, don't be shy!



For the dropper, you can either pinch up a small amount and dispense like this...



or like this. I usually do it with my hand facing me.



Then just use your other hand to massage it in. Use half circle motions around the base of your nail. If your nails are also free of any type of polish or base coat rub it into your nail too! It will absorb and is really good for your nail plate. I usually lay it on thick and rub the rest of it into  my hands.



Yall. I promise I wouldn't say this is awesome if it isn't. Fun fact: since I've had her original prototype since the summer it is what I use to hydrate my hands right before I take pictures of swatches. It absorbs quickly and doesn't leave your skin shiny  like my Burts Bees Lemon balm does (which I like too, but. Shiny.) So if you've been wondering what I use this is it! As far as the scents go, the Christmas cookie one is my favorite I've tried. The scent doesn't stay on your hands all day like lotion, just long enough to enjoy while you're using it.

Here's the official description of the unscented one:

Hand-mixed, UNSCENTED cuticle oil including: jojoba, avocado, sweet almond, and shea oils. 
No preservatives, not tested on animals. This product contains no fragrance.

And for the Glazed Christmas Cookie:

Hand-mixed, scented cuticle oil including: jojoba, avocado, sweet almond, and shea oils.
This fragrance contains notes of caramel, cream, a hint of nutmeg and praline. It also contains base notes of cocoa and vanilla. This fragrance smells yummy enough to eat!  
No preservatives, not tested on animals. This product contains fragrance oil.

**Please be aware of any allergies you may have. These products contains sweet almond oil. **



Here they are, nice and healthy again. ahhhhhhhh :)


 

And guess what! Danele has generously offered my readers a 20% code off your ENTIRE purchase from her store! ENTER CODE: ADIB20  So go there to Cuticle Glaze and pick up some! The glass droppers are $10.75 and the rollerballs are $9.50 and they will last you a long time! I'm only half way through the original bottle I have. But one must have back ups, right? ;)

Thanks and see yall again this week I hope!

Pipe Dream Cha-Ching! and Loaded Lacquer Coconut....more sparklies!

Hey guys! I'm squeezing this in inbetween all the cooking and prepping for Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is my superbowl of holiday cooking and I love it! I finally took a few minutes yesterday to take off my previous mani which was looking a hot mess after 5 days...ugh! I put on Loaded Lacquer "Coconut" which is a white jelly very similar to the nude one I wore last week! You can see the look I created with it here! Last night after all the kids were in bed I added a little sparkle with some straight nail vinyls from Glam my Mani and Pipe Dream Polish "Cha-Ching!" I am totally in love with this! I wasn't really intending for this to be my Thanksgiving mani but a) I didn't want to wait any longer to use these and b) I am loving them so I don't care if they aren't Thanksgiving-y!

I didn't get a chance to get any sun pics of the gold version but I did today...scroll to the end for those! Enough blabbing here are a crap ton of pics! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving :)



indoor lighting



indoor lighting



sun shot!



obligatory blurry shot to show sparkles!



more sun!

Snowman nails with Zoya Dream

Hey guys! Today I have a mani I did months ago for Nail It Mag! They ask for submissions months ahead of time so you find yourselves doing holiday manis in the summer! Crazy! One of the prompts was for "winter" so I new I wanted to redo my most-pinned mani from last year (it's getting close to 1,000 pins! That's a lot for little ol me!) And what do you know this is the one of mine they selected to be in the December issue!

I didn't take any pictures or video when I did this but I am thinking of making a video tutorial for them, let me know if yall want to see one!



Polishes used:
base: Zoya Dream
white: OPI Alpine Snow
White for snowman: OPI Solitare
Orange for snowman: Zoya Beatrix
black for snowman: OPI Emotions



This is last years version (2013). Not too completely terrible?? My nail shape and picture taking have improved dramatically so that makes for a huge difference in pics. I used almost all the same polishes though!



Wear test featuring Zoya Harlow (matte velvet!)

Hey guys! This will be a short little blog..... I did a little experiment about a month ago with the Zoya Matte Velvets (which I'm still obsessed with!)  I've been hearing that people are hesitant about matte polish because it doesn't wear well/chips easily. I have such an enormous love for these particular polishes, not only for their quick dry time and amazing colors (although whyyyyyy isn't there a blueeeee) and I just want to keep on blabbing about them!

I didn't take a picture of them when I first did them....what is wrong with me, haha! But this was sometime in the first 24 hours I had it on so that's gonna count. I wore a simple mani of Harlow (matte) with accent of Arabella (textured pixiedust) and took pics at the end of each day!

note: I did wear a ridge filling basecoat with these. Zoya says to  not wear a basecoat or topcoat with the Matte Velvets, buuuuttttt I did anyway. I do think basecoat helps extend the wear time.




So nothing special about these pics, except the wear is remarkable considering how rough on my hands I am!

end of day 2

end of day 3

Amazing right! I got 4 full days out of this before I took it off. Some of the naysayers might remember getting pictures sent to them repeatedly proving my case ;)

end of day 4

Snowflake winter nails with OPI Can't Find My Czechbook

Hey guys! Happy Saturday! What is everyone up to?  I am starting my Thanksgiving grocery list! For the past several years I make a huge traditional meal and I love it! It's a ton of work but it's worth it! And the Mr. lives for the leftover turkey hoagie. LIVES I tell you. Haha! What is your fav leftover! I don't usually mix them up in weird ways, I will just make another plate of all the same things!

These aren't very Thanksgiving-y but that's ok! These are another collab that I did last week...my friend Danele of Low Country Lacquer just passed her one year mark on Instagram so my fellow Glitter Gals and I decided to sneakily recreate HER recreation of her first mani! So fun! I didn't have the Essie she used so I reached for the closest thing I have...and one of my FAV polishes I have across all brands, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook. I am lucky this in the core line as of right now, if it ever gets discontinued I will be frantically hoarding them!

And then there's one other thing....Guys. I am not a person who edits her pics. Like, at all. I try to not mess with them if I don't have to. But this polish is such a pretty color and when I was looking at my pics I was noticing that it looked way more blue and less turquoise. BOO! So I figured out how to color correct a little to show how it looks in real life. BUT I wanted to show both versions!

This is the corrected version and how it looks in real life. You have to be really careful about color correcting because your skin gets weird fast!



This is SOTC (straight out of the camera). It look much more light blue.

Again, below is right out of the camera,

and this is corrected to true color.

By the way, on my ring finger is Essie Beyond Cozy and on my thumbs is OPI Tiffany Case! The snowflake is done with a silver striper by Kiss and I added a single glitter in the  middle from OPI I Snow You Love Me, my fav or a rhinestone look but FLAT!

Fall maroon and gold nails with OPI Thank Glogg it's Friday!

And it is Friday, how about that! haha! Today I have an awesome "x" design ( yes, I am preeety sure that's the technical term  for this mani) with some of my favorite OPI's! I can't take any credit for this one, though. My good friend Gianna of Nailstorming.com came up with this for our little collab today! I'll try to keep this short and sweet for today-no rambling haha!

The bottle shown in the pic above is OPI Thank Glogg it's Friday, one of the polishes in their fall Nordic collection. I only have a few so farrrrrrr but they are awesome! Yall know I'm a sucker for a beautiful maroon (ok, it's not totally maroon but enough for me) . Other polishes I used are:

nude base: OPI My Vampire is Buff
orange: OPI Where did Suzy's Man-go
gold accents: OPI My Favorite Ornament
gold nail: Zoya Cosmo




I loved this mani so much I decided to wear it for the rest of the week...I'm still wearing it now!



Pipe Dream swatches: Rythm and Bues (and) #Mcinspiration

Howdy! Today I just have a few quick swatches. When we had our Tn meetup last month I purchased a buttload of polishes from April of Pipe Dream Polish! I've been so busy I've barely gotten to wear them. I wanted to test a few of them out when I had a moment last week!


This is Rhythm and Blues, a blue jelly packed with blue glitter. Blue. I love it. Blue.

(this is 2 coats plus topcoat)



Rhythm and Blues

This is #mcinspiration, made in collaboration with Amy @mcpolish. It's a gray jelly with pink and black glitters, all things Amy loves! This is super opaque for a jelly, I only needed 2 coats plus topcoat! Yippee!



#Mcinspiration

Loaded Lacquer "No Shirt" and Pipe Dream Polish "Champagne Kisses"

Hey guys! Ok sooooooo  I'm venturing into the world of indie polishes...which honestly is not something I ever thought I would do! And boyyyyy is it a slippery slope! Now I want them all! So be prepared to be seeing a lot more of these!

The base I used is Loaded Lacquer "No Shirt" which a nude super opaque jelly. It was gifted to me by a friend and I'm completely obsessed. It's part of a set of 3 called the "Nude Jiggles" and once I have them all I will do a separate blog on them!

The gold is another of my new Pipe Dream Polishes called "Champagne Kisses". This is currently my favorite gold polish! I have another post coming up soon about more fun I had with it!

I use nail vinyls for the chevrons and stripes and free handed the dots and cross. And then I took a bunch of pictures the end.









(this is the base color)



I wore this for several days and took a bunch of pics of all my matching sparkly things. I told you! OBSESSED.



They also matched my beloved new phone and case (heart eyes!)  I took this pic with the iPad we have which needless to say has a crap camera BUT SPARKLES.