Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Spring Colors

Thus far I haven't really tried much in the way of nail art. I've made attempts at dotting, some taping, and a few glitter gradients that looked pretty decent. So I thought I'd try some free-hand design, and I think it turned out rather well!

Bottom to Top: Wet N' Wild All in the Cut, Zoya Rica, Love & Beauty Aqua Blue + Zoya Rica & Reece and Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away, Zoya Reece + L&B Aqua Blue



I'd still love to get my hands on some Konad stamping plates for more intricate designs, but simple flowers and dots were really pretty easy.


I mainly photographed my right hand because of the ultra-fail on my left (as seen above), which is rather sad considering I'm right-handed. >.>;; But the problem is that I didn't wait long enough for the flowers to dry and ended up smearing my design, very boo!


My inspiration for this mani was from the upcoming colors for Cult Nails Divas & Drama Collection, here's a sneak-peek that Maria posted. Can't wait for that flakie!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Fantasea

A couple of weeks ago I picked up Orly's Fantasea, a really lovely plum-mauve-gold duochrome that's part of their permanent line, I believe.

Orly Fantasea



It's awesome to see a beautiful, unique color like this that isn't limited and hard to find. So, I don't know what took me so long to finally grab it! >,>;;


And as if it weren't amazing enough on its own, I also decided to adorn it with a multichromatic flakie, Essie's Shine of the Times.

Orly Fantasea + Essie Shine of the Times


Aside from playing with polish, another thing I love to do is cook. Some of my favorite foods I just can't find in restaurants or stores here, so I learn to make them. One of my favorite Japanese snacks is pickles; salty cucumbers, umeboshi, pickled daikon. And recently I noticed that I could buy little pickling cucumbers at the grocery store, so I took some home and decided to make my own tsukemono.

Kyuri Asazuke


I searched online and found many great recipes, and first decided to try a simple kyuri asazuke from La Fuji Mama. This one has a nice, light vinegar flavor and was very tasty and refreshing. However, my favorite pickle is salty cucumbers, a type of shiozuke. So the next time I made pickled cucumbers I used a recipe from The Black Moon:

3 Kyuri (Japanese cucumbers), unpeeled and cut into 1/2 inch rounds,
three teaspoons of salt.

Place the cucumber slices into the pickle press (or jar) and add one teaspoon of salt, mix well by stirring with your hands. Add the second teaspoon of salt and mix again. Add the final teaspoon of salt and mix well. Clamp on the top of the pickle press and screw down the lid until it pushes down tightly on the top layer of vegetables to be pickled. Leave under pressure overnight or for at least 10 hours. Remove the pickles from the press and place in a colander, wash well to remove salt, pat dry and serve. Salt pickles like these should last a week or more when refrigerated, but they're so delicious you'll probably eat them all before you have any left to store!


Yeah, they've never lasted a whole week. Or day. Next I'll have to try and get a hold of some daikon radishes! Oh and another cool thing I've recently discovered, http://pixlr.com/o-matic-- a site with AMAZING retro photo effects that you can see I've used on the above pictures. This has totally squashed my lemming for an iPhone, aka Instagram.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Glitter Mania!

Yeah, I have the glitter bug. I blame all of those Deborah Lippmann glitters! Even though I don't own a single one. :D Here is NYX Superfunk and L.A. Girl Nostalgic over Zoya Kendal, and then alternately topped with Pure Ice's Busted, and Heart Breaker.

Zoya Kendal + NYX Superfunk + L.A. Girl Nostalgic + Pure Ice Busted & Heart Breaker



Oh, tip wear, you are the bane of my manicures.


I thought it turned out pretty nice; the sheer Pure Ice shimmers really changed the overall colors and added that extra something. They are really excellent for layering and adding depth. And I think these glitter + pastel manis are perfect for Spring!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Indigo Rainbow

Last month I made my first purchase from Beauty Joint so I could try out KleanColor's amazeballs color-shifting glitters and a few NYX glitters, too. Here are Chunky Holo Bluebell and Chunky Holo Black over Revlon Indigo Night, one of the new ColorStay polishes.

Revlon Indigo Night + KleanColor Chunky Holy Bluebell & Chunky Holo Black



Sooo awesome!! A rainbow of tiny and hexagonal glitter. I thought the blue would make a good contrast with the most visible colors, red-orange. Although as you can see, I got some yucky looking tip wear. :/ Probably should have wrapped my tips.


The only issue with KleanColor I had was the smell, wow! I'd heard it was pretty awful, and that is no joke. And even when it dries and you've washed your hands many times, it's still pretty stinky. But, oh well; it makes up for it's dreadful odor with a shiny spectrum of awesomeness. ♥

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

If the glass slipper fits...

Here's a new color by Sinful Colors, Cinderella. Its a beautiful glass-flecked pale blue with pink-gold shimmer and, wow, it is a stunner. It goes on rather sheer; I used three coats here, but it's totally worth it. Now onto the picture spam!

Sinful Colors Cinderella



Look at that fiery sparkle! As you can see the nail line is still somewhat visible, so it may be easier to layer over another polish for full opacity.



I think this color would be great to layer over, but it's really amazing on it's own. Hope to see more like this one from Sinful Colors!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Time to go Green!


Diamond Cosmetics Oh, Tiff! + L.A. Girl Nostalgic + NYX Enchanted Forest


Lately I have been really into green manis, so I thought this would be good time to share some ideas for St. Patrick's Day!


Honestly I don't really do all that much for St. Patrick's Day. My family has some Irish heritage so every year my mother would cook us corned beef and cabbage, but now that I'm older if I want to get in the Irish spirit I can just drink! (Kidding, mostly.) However I do like to wear something green, if just to keep strangers from touching me.



With this mani I wanted to recreate one of my favorite glitter polishes from indie brand Nostalgic Lacquer, Duckie. She restocks often and has quite a few great colors, so definitely check out her store!