Aggies Do It Better

Happy Halloween! Or Holo-ween, hahahaehhhhhhh :) For my final Halloween look I was all set to go orange and green, pumpkins and green chevrons, so basic! I even had it sketched out and polished pulled. But I changed my mind last minute and wanted to do something totally different. This is the mani I wore all weekend and will wear until tomorrow! I figured I didn't want to be stuck wearing orange for several days, and when I was looking around my indie drawer I landed on Bliss Polish Flashlight, a gorgeous midnight blue holo polish inspired by the movie Pitch Perfect 2 :) I'm not as crazy into holo's as most of the nail community is, but this one is gorgeous!  I did a tiny bit of stamping with my Pueen Halloween Party 01 plate (aka the only Halloween plate I own) and China Glaze Check Out That Silver Fox, which is super opaque metallic polish I thought might be good for stamping and it was! I don't have any stamping-specific polishes. On my ring finger is Zoya Im...

Today I have a not so non-traditional look....I've been wanting to try this purple ombré gradient look so many people do for Halloween for years! I decided this was the year to try it, and at the same time make it not-so-graveyardy.  For the ombré gradient I used Lucky Lucky Lavender, Funky Dunky (bottle shown) and Lincoln Park After Dark. I took a couple quick pics of the process! I used white liquid latex to protect my fingers from the mess....I'm still not that great at gradients because I don't practice it enough! The latex definitely helps with the mess which really discouraged me from doing them in the past.  I left it on while I was drying and waiting to stamp. I used This Gown Needs A Crown for the silver stamping. I wanted to use the OPI chrome but it just wasn't picking up! Frustrating!   You can see all my little practices on the mat. I just sort of chose a few designs to go on top.   I also used a little bit of Pirouette...

Even when doing non traditional Halloween nails I can't escape the candy corn motif! This is my favorite color combo for Halloween. The little bit of Halloween decorations I have in my house are candy corn themed! I used Zoya Purity for the white base, then stamped with Darcy (yellow) and Cam (Orange). I also tried out a textured gradient for the first time and it came out ok! I used Solange (yellow) and Beatrix (Orange). I also used a tiny bit of OPI Solitare for the white tip.   I did try to take a few pics of the process...this by far not a tutorial! I'm the last one to me making a stamping tutorial....yet haha. I just blobb the colors around on the engraved image...  And then use the scraper to blend the colors as I scrape...  Basically I just practice a few times till I get a good image picked up. I've been having a problem with my new clear stamper not picking up very well... I figured out that it's because the jelly part is not ...

Hello and Happy FRIDAY! I knew when I set out to do non-traditional Halloween mani's I wanted to do pink and brown. One of my little Halloween vinyls from Twinkled-T is a little grim reaper dude, so he's the one that inspired this mani!  I used China Glaze Don't Mesa With my Heart for the pink base, then a nail vinyl and Wood You Wanna to fill him in. The glitter is Dancing and Prancing....my ring finger is supposed to look like glitter in the tree....but I'm still practicing ok? Haha! I stamped with Chrome is Where the Heart Is on my pointer finger for the grave site. Stamping is done with Pueen Halloween Party 01 (aka the only Halloween plate I own). I'm fairly happy with the way these came out, considering!

Today's non-traditional Halloween design features 3 of the new Zoya holiday collection! I'm waiting to swatch  them all until my nails grow a little-I had a crazy day on Monday and broke my pointer finger nail corner clean off! I haven't had a break like that in a while because I've been keeping them pretty short. But life happens! So that collection I hope to have up next week! I chose Saint as my base color-it's a gorgeous periwinkle polish with a strong pink shift you can really see in the sun! Shimmers aren't my favorite but dang! The way it looks where the sun hits! Wow!   I used nail vinyls from Twinkled-T to make the slider web and spider. I used Zoya Alice to make the web-it's a periwinkle pixie dust! And the blue pixie is Waverly and OH HOLY CRAP is it awesome! I normally never out topcoat over my textures but I did here because I topcoated the rest. Dang yall, it's awesome!  I am really happy with the way these came out! I...

Hey guys! Today I have the Lush Sparkly Pumpkin to review. This was part of my first ever Halloween Lush order a few weeks ago. I have lots and lots to say about it, let's dig in! I had a HECK of a time holding this time for a picture. And, really every time I had to move it around here or there. There's so much glitter on it I always got super annoyed!! I think its supposed to have a piece of cinnamon stick in there for a "stem", mine didn't, but it might have fell out during shipment and I didn't see it in the box. First up, I chose Zoya Dhara to match! It's a bright reddish orange pixie dust (texture) with a really strong gold shimmer-it went perfectly! The Halloween designs are made with OPI Black Onyx and my new (purchased also) Pueen Halloween Party 01 stamping plate. I'm still digging in and going right for the stuff I consider slightly advanced, like stamping on texture!  I was really nervous to use Sparkly Pumpki...

Happy Halloween week guys! I'm not a fan of Halloween too much, in particular all the gory and gross stuff people so and wear, zombies and all that. Not for me! So for anyone else in my boat, I'm going to be doing as many non-traditional nail art designs as I can fit in before Halloween! For this mani I used several of the China Glaze Lite Brites collection: I'll pink to that (pink), None of your risky business (Orange), Whip it good (yellow), and Lime after Lime (green). I blobbed them all on to the design on the Pueen Halloween Party 01 plate and scraped twice to blend!  My base is OPI Alpine Snow and the black texture is OPI Emotions. I just used a lightning bolt nail vinyl to make the bolt :)

Hey guys! Today I have a little more info on the  nails I wore last weekend on my birthday! I have a little tradition of always wearing Picture Polish Frosting (now discontinued) on my birthday. Four years ago, I ordered it for myself as a birthday present and it was my first Picture Polish. Since then I always wear it, while still trying to change it up a little every year! I also juuuuuuust started stamping, like for real like 5 minutes ago. I ordered myself a few quality plates (*key*) and a clear stamper and just jumped right in with the big kids. So far, it's going really well!  I wore Frosting on my 2nd and 3rd finger as a base, and Cherish (also PP) on the rest. Then I stamped with New York (the lighter pink) and Bonkers (maroon) using the Pueen Nature Lover 01 plate. I found it not super complicated!  Here's a look at my past years manicures!  In 2013, I wore just Frosting. Baby newbie nails! I wasn't posting nails yet on my blog yet :) In 201...

Hello! Boo! haha. Today I have the Boo bath melt from Lush. This was my first time using a bath  melt! I read mixed reviews on them because while they moisturize your skin, they can make your tub a slippery "death trap" one person said. That made me laugh! I'm clumsy enough as it so I don't need any help in that department. So this Boo melt is my guinea pig and will help me decide if I ever buy any again! Obviously I knew this would be cute for matching nail art! I used ole' reliable OPI Black Onyx and Alpine Snow. The glitter is International Crime Caper, which showed up fairly well over the black! I used a dotting tool and wobbled it around for the Boo! (which isn't hard for my shaky hands) This was also super hard to hold while taking pictures outside, it was warm this day! I felt like it was melting in my hands and getting harder and harder to hold with every second. Note to self, put the next one in the freezer first! In the video there's a...

Hey guys! Today I have another member of the Lush Halloween 2016 collection for you, Monsters' Ball bath bomb. I ordered this primarily because I knew it had so much nail art potential!! I mean, how cute is it! It reminds me of Sully from Monster's Inc. :) On my nails, I chose OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender and Can't Find My Czechbook to coordinate. I also used Black Onyx and Alpine snow for the dots and eyes, and the glitter is Muppets World Tour. I'm really absolutely terrible at free hand nail art, but I was pretty happy with how these turned out!  This bath bomb is part of the Calacas scent family, if you speak "Lush" (which I don't, but I'm working on it!) The main ingredients are Lime oil and Cocoa butter. Which you would think would make it smell more citrusy but to me it didn't. It does however smell really good. Its my favorite of the Halloween collection so far. I can't quite put my finger on what the scent reminds me of.  ...

Hello! Today I have a review of some products I purchased at Target a few weeks ago. Shea Moisture is a brand that's been around a little while, my only experience with them is some samples I've gotten in online orders from Ulta, which I haven't even really used! When I heard they came out with a Rose line I definitely started keeping my eyes open. Low and behold, I saw these products at Target! I believe there's a shampoo and conditioner as well but I haven't seen it anywhere yet.  I picked up the Sensitive Skin Crème Body Wash and Sensitive Skin Crème Body Lotion. They also have a mud mask that was in a tub, but it wasn't sealed and looked a little questionable, so I opted for the sealed trial size instead, more below on that. The body wash and lotion weren't sealed either, I don't know if they are supposed to be, but somehow that didn't bother me as much. On initial smell in the store--these smelled amazing! Very strong rose scent, just...

Hey guys! Today I have the Pumpkin bath bomb from Lush! This is part of the limited edition Halloween range, and I have several of them coming up here in the next couple weeks for you!   

Hey guys! Unofficial Lush week continues here:) I don't have any new polish swatches because I've been so busy around the house and my skin on my hands is so dry, despite my best moisturizing and oiling efforts :( Today I have another new-to-me bath bomb from Lush, part of my initial order I made from the UK a while ago. This is Big Blue, and it has actual seaweed in it!! Along with sea salt, Lemon oil (yay) and Lavender oil this one was a no brainer for me to try! Turns out, I don't have a blue polish that exactly matched it! WHAT! I know, I'm surprised too. The closest I could come is my beloved OPI Can't Find My Czechbook. I believe this polish is in the core collection of OPI now, its a must have for everyone! Here's a quick little video of Big Blue in action, I sped it up a little because its such a slow fizzer :) It swirls around kicking out little bits of seaweed. It's fun to watch! Look. At. This. Water. I mean, could that get...

Hello! Life sure got busy last week-I decided to do a bunch of batch/bulk cooking so I was in the kitchen all day every day. I have a lot of blogs to catch up on! This bubble bar from Lush is called "Grass". I bought this from the Lush UK website online and since I don't go into the stores that often I'm not sure if you can buy it here in the US or not. It doesn't show up on the Lush USA app. The reason I bought it is because of my love for the Avobath bath bath bomb and new found love of all things grassy and forest scented (excluding the Tramp scent, ew) This was definitely a gamble purchasing this before I smelled it but it was so cute and I knew I could do matching nail art so I took a risk!  Searching for a matching green with subtle shimmer in my drawers I landed on Zoya Meg. I think it matched pretty nicely! And it's my kitty's name :) I made the flowers with Zoya Purity and Wendy. I'm very artistically challenged and even with using jus...