Halloween Nail Art! Blood Splatter!

Gosh its been forever and a day since I have done nail art! Honestly I still love nail polish very much. I'm always looking at the newest colors and collections, but my love for nail art kind of fell out. I remember last doing nail art I believe for my birthday. Sadly between work and not being home much really squashed any time I had to sit to do nail art. It hurts my heart because its all I used to do back in the day! 

Did you know I haven't painted my nails in the last two weeks. I've been bare nail all this time. 

So the other night after seeing all the lovely Halloween nail art that all the other amazing Nail Bloggers were creating this season, it made me want get back into it. I decided on a blood splatter mani. I remember doing one I believe the first Halloween my little blog celebrated. It was Dexter inspired as well, white base with red blood splatter. I think even at that point I didn't know you could use a straw to get the splatter effect. 

This time around I wanted to make it more gruesome. I love horror movies and special effects makeup so it was only obvious. 

I started with a nude base color. I chose Cover Girl Forever Fawn which is fairly close to my skin tone. Without something on top of it, it definitely gives me mannequin hands! 

Once two coats of that was dry, I grabbed some plastic straws and cut them in half. Then I took Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby a nice blood red jelly and created a small puddle on a piece of paper. 

Now splatter manicures can be messy so I made sure that I had a few sheets of paper towels, or newspaper covering my work surface. I also had on hand some nail polish remover and Q-tips for clean up. You will get this all over your hands, especially if you miss your nail when doing the splatter part. 

Then I dipped one end of the straw into Ruby Ruby held it not super close over my nail but far enough away that it would create an awesome look. I then blew a short burst of air into the straw and prayed it hit my nail! 

Lets take a look at how I did! 

Here is my left hand. I absolutely love how this manicure turned out. It really looks like I messed up my nails in some sort of accident or that I brutally murdered someone! As you can see by my middle finger I was way too close to my nail when I blew into the straw and almost covered the whole nail. I think my index and pinkie fingers are my favorite because the splatter effects looks just right! 

Now here is my right hand. Trying to do any nail art with my non-dominant hand is insanely hard. I give major props to those who can do nail art on both hands and have it turn out amazing! The splatter effect is less but still looks pretty gruesome. 

And here we have an awkward thumb shot, out of both my thumbs my right one looked better and I was very happy with it. 

After the splatter was dry I used my all time favorite top coat Julie G Jet Set to seal everything in. 

If you liked this manicure, let me know in the comments below and also tell me what your favorite thing about Halloween is! Was it a costume? All the scary shows on TV? Let me know! 

I'll talk to you all tomorrow! <3 Nicole 

My 2013 Beauty Favorites!

Hey guys! Happy Monday evening!! I hope that your Monday was awesome!

Today I have a post that I worked on over the weekend, I know its late, but better late than never, its my 2013 Beauty Favorites!!

This is the first time that I have done this type of post, normally this would be a Free For All Beauty Friday thing but by then it would way too late to do this post. Last year and I believe the year before that I did my top nail polish posts, you can find them here and here.

As much as I love nail polish I do love all things beauty as well, I taught myself how to put make up on and how to use different eye shadows, and liquid liner all by watching tons of YouTube videos. My make up stash however is not nearly as big as my polish stash but its getting to the point I need more storage for make up.

Anyway to start off this post I am going to start with foundation!

My favorite foundation of 2013 is Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Foundation. 

Now this isn't a new foundation out on the market but its new to me in as I have never tried it before. I have used the concealer which I don't care for but this foundation is nice. I'm a liquid foundation girl, I love the coverage I can get by building it up or just buying a decent covering foundation.

I only got this foundation towards the end of the year but from the first time I tried it which was the day I bought it I knew it would be a favorite for me.

For a thin formula foundation it really covers a lot of my imperfections, especially my dark circles under my eyes! That is when I know a foundation is a keeper in my book. It also doesn't cake up under my eyes like my other liquid foundations and BB Creams that I have tried.

What I like most about this foundation is the applicator, usually a sponge tip applicator to me isn't the most sanitary thing, but since I am the only one using it it doesn't bother me so much. The sponge on this foundation is very soft so when I use it under my eyes I know I'm not inflicting any damage to my already 26 year old bags.

My next beauty favorite of 2013 is: Cover Girl and Olay Simply Ageless Concealer. 

I purchased this concealer back during the spring time just before I went to Florida. I had always looked at this when I saw it in the drugstores but the price tag kind of made me turn away and tell myself that I don't need it. I happened to get this concealer on clearance for half off when I bought it. I don't believe that they make this anymore, it has been replaced by a concealer/serum CC cream?

In the pot its a mix of the concealer and the Olay Regenerest. I would show you the inside of it but I have hit pan on it and its just doesn't look pretty. During the summer this was my go-to concealer, it covered up my under eye well. It is a fairly decent coverage concealer, when I was on vacation sometimes this was all I put on with some setting powder since it was so hot outside and it worked well.

I don't know if it did anything for under my eye like helping my few fine lines I have. I know, fine lines at 26? Yes I have them and I hate them.  Darn insomnia.

I found myself being drawn to buying a lot of blusher this year. I think I used to only own one which is NY Color Downtown Wine I believe. ( I could be so wrong on the name). I then went to having by the end of this year five all together. Out of those five the one that I reached for the most was Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso. 

I bought this blush after I heard Ingrid (Miss Glamorazzi on YouTube) talk about it all the time. I honestly thought I would never find it because sadly my local CVS is the only place to carry Milani products and they never keep anything in stock and never get anything new. Finally one day while wandering through the beauty department I just happened to look and found the last one left. This blush is beautiful! Its a rosy goldish tone that  just adds this glow to your cheeks that warms up the complexion. It is a shimmery blush but its not the in-you-face shimmery.

This favorite was featured in my July favorites over the summer and I have now realized I have a love affair with this brand. I'm talking about the Lorac Pro Palette.

I cannot get enough of Lorac Cosmetics. Since featuring this in my July Favorites post, I have used it everyday since and worn the heck out of it. I love that you get eight matte shades and eight shimmery shades, you have endless combinations. Right before Thanksgiving my dad and I took a trip to our local Kohls. The first thing that I noticed was there revamped beauty bars. They now carry Lorac, and The Balm, plus a few other high end brands. I was so excited that I wasn't going to have to wait to go to Sephora, or order online. That is when I also purchased my second Lorac product. Its called The Sweet Temptations Eye Shadow Kit. I will be doing a swatch and review post of that soon!

Next up we have some lip favorites.

Revlon came out with some pretty cool lip products this fall that I fell head over heels for. They were the new Color Burst Matte Balms and Lacquer Balms. I purchased three of the Lacquer Balms and two of the Matte Balms.

The three lacquer balms I bought are called: Demur (#105) , Flirtatious (#125), and Vivacious (#120).

This Lacquer Balms are kind of the same as the Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains but there not really a stain. However the more pigmented the color, you do get a slight stain on your lips as it starts to wear off.

This fall I found myself drawn to buying brightly colored lip products and pinks and berries were most certainly on the list. Demure (middle) is a light nude-pink, which I love but it has visible bits of glitter in it and it does transfer to the lips and once the initial product wears away you are left with some glittery lips. That is the only downside of the product I have. The other two Vivacious and Flirtatious I could see shimmer but no chunks of glitter.

For the Matte Balms these are my favorites by far! I also was searching for a perfect red lip product this fall. I have never really worn red lipstick before because I always thought it made me look like a clown. So I bought shade #240 Stunning, it is a orange toned red, and I have to say I was very afraid of it. It wasn't perfect. I like how it looked on me but  I think I will try it out more in the warmer months. Then I saw a YouTuber ( I can't remember who) wearing shade # 250 Standout. I knew when I saw that shade that's the red I had in mind for myself. It was dark and velvety and just amazing.

As you can see my DSLR hates reds but you can still tell the difference. Stunning is the top shade and Standout is on the bottom. Any how when I put Standout on, I fell in love with it and have worn it almost every day I have to go to work. My job was the first place I wore this red out in public. I figure if I want to get over my fear that was first step. I knew my female co-workers would give me honest opinions, were cool like that!

One of my last favorites that I got in 2013 were two Real Techniques Brushes! I found them at Kohls! I got the Expert Face Brush ( orange handle)  and Stippling Brush ( pink handle). For those of you that don't know they were created by Samantha Chapman of the Pixwoo sisters on YouTube!

I have seen such a difference in how my foundation blends with the Expert Face Brush, it literally makes your foundation look airbrushed. It blends it out evenly and the bristles of the brush are super soft against your skin. The Stippling Brush I have been using to apply blusher thats why the bristles are pink. I love how it just fits nicely over my cheek bones to add the perfect amount of color.

I believe you can also get these brushes online or at Ulta, I hear even some Wal-Marts have them now too.

So thats it for my beauty favorites of 2013! I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did even if everything kind of found there way to me from the summer on!

Whats your favorite things of 2013?? It can be anything! Comment below!! 

Until next time!
<3 Nicole

45 Days Of Untrieds Day 16: Cover Girl Perfect Penny.

Hey guys!!!

Once again sorry for the lack of untireds here on my part I should of been up to like day 20 by now! But quite a few awesome things have happened over the last week and they took over my life for a bit.

If you have read my last  post you know that I was talking about leaving my current job for a new one, well I officially put in my two weeks! It feels weird to say that I will be leaving as of the 18 of this month. I am beyond excited though, I love new adventures and taking the plunge with them. It was one of my New Years Resolutions this year!

Also I got re-admitted back into school as of Tuesday!!! Finding out that I am going back to school makes me so happy, I love learning and expanding my brain!

So today's untired is another Cover Girl Polish. If you have an addiction Rose Gold basically anything than you may want this polish.

Perfect Penny is the name and rose gold is its game! I think I became obsessed with rose gold jewelry, and polish and an sort of accessories when I first saw Ingrid or MissGlammorazi on YouTube show her rose gold watch from Michael Kors.

My mom asked me the other day when I showed her Perfect Penny if I had a polish just like this, one that she has worn. I told her yes but this is different. She just shook her head at me. One day she will see how different similar colored polishes are.

It almost blends in with my skin tone so when I was painting my nails I actually had a hard time seeing if I had any bald spots. It was either that or the my light was making it all weird.

Two to three coats are more than enough to make it opaque. I did notice a few streak marks when applying this polish, you know the marks you can get when a polish is metallic and you get those lines.

You can definitely compare this too Essie's Penny Talk which is another one of my untrieds I should feature here, but I feel that polish is not super metallic, its also thicker and really good for stamping.

But if you have always wanted Essie's Penny Talk which is now a polish I see all over the place, but you can't still get your hands on it then Perfect Penny might be a nice replacement or an awesome companion if you already have Penny Talk.

I got my Cover Girl Polish at my local Wal-Mart. It is a part of their core collection so it should be easy to find.


Don't forget to keep up with the amazing Adrianna of Mories Nail Art and Shaylads on Instagram!

Do you like Rose Gold Jewelry/accessories/fashion?? 

<Nicole

45 Days of Untrieds Day 13: Cover Girl: My Papaya

Good Morning!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Monday! I spent mine doing laundry, trying to renew the registration on my car but the DMV's computers were down so we have to go back today. Then I had to call Geico because some person is or was trying to use my email on their policy, so I had to call them to remove since I don't obviously want these emails. But I decided to just eventually delete the account since it might of been a bad part on Yahoo as well possibly giving the same username to someone.

Anyway on to today's untried. I have a few Cover Girl Polishes that I have tried on here, last Halloween I think I showed you all Wine Stain, which also so happens to show up in my stats as most searched.

Today's Cover Girl Polish I have is called My Papaya! It caught my eye a while ago while wandering around the make up section at good ole Walmart.


My Papaya is a orange-coral that has a shimmer too it. I picked it not because I love the color coral but because its bright and fun and I think I'm auto-programmed to pick those colors first.

This polish takes about the usual 2-3 coats to be opaque. The formula is really nice, a little runny but nothing you can't fix with a clean up brush and some acetone!

The only thing I would change about this polish is the shimmer. You can clearly see it in the bottle but once on the nail it disappears. Its sad because it is really pretty.

If you want to pick up a Cover Girl Polish you can find them usually where ever they have Cover Girl Cosmetics. It may not be huge display but I'm sure you can find them!

Don't forget to check out Adrianna's untireds, she is kicking some butt in this challenge, and check out Shaylads on Instagram, she just had her appendix out so she is recovering go and give her some love while she is healing.

Do you like cosmetic companies putting out nail polish or should they just stick to make up? 

Free For All Beauty Fridays! May Favorites!

* I have nothing to disclose, everything but the Simple Skin Care Protecting Light Moisturizer was purchased by me with my own money. The Simple Skin Care Protecting Light Moisturizer was a free sample I signed up for via the internet.*

Be prepared for a long post with lots of pictures! Trust me though its worth it!

Ok any girl who is obsessed with beauty products, makeup, nail polish, etc., and if they watch YouTube videos then its a safe bet that some of them have watched favorites videos. I know I love watching them from all my favorite beauty YouTubers.

So since I don't do the whole YouTube thing, ( yet, I want to start trying, and I am getting a pretty decent camera for my birthday so I might just start.) I thought that I would start doing favorites post for Free For All Beauty Fridays! 

And yes this post is going up Saturday night because yesterday I had technical difficulties with posting!

So on to my May Favorites!

First up is eye shadow. I have two drugstore palettes that  are super affordable and great for wearing to work or even going out with the girls, or your guy.

Wet 'n' Wild makes some of the most affordable make up in the drugstore, I have used many of their polishes and never really touched the make up but I'm so glad I finally have tested the waters. the "Comfort Zone" Palette is one of WnW eight pan palettes that will run you about $4.99 at your local drugstore.

 The first three colors on the left hand side of the palette are the colors I have been reaching for ever since I purchased this palette. The fourth color on the left to the last four on the right are colors I don't always use but have tested the waters with by playing with them n my own home. The very last shade is unique to this palette as it is a duo chrome shade that flashes a rusty brick color to an amazing green. One of the best things about this palette is that the shadows are labeled as to where they should go on your eye, and on the reverse side of the palette there are little guides to help you. The pigmentation of these are also amazing a little goes a very long way.

The second drugstore eye shadow I have is a quad from Maybelline. Its from their Eye studio line. These quads will run you a little more than the Wet 'n' Wild palettes but the color pay off is pretty nice and the color ranges are also good too.

Once again this quad has the ' wear to work' colors, not bright or stand out-ish. I don't really like to wear bright colors unless its on my lips and even then I don't wear too many. I purchased this quad off the recommendation from my absolute favorite YouTuber Emilynoel83. If you don't know who she is I suggest you do if you love all things beauty. She is amazing! She gives great reviews and great how-to videos! This quad was featured in her Color Lovers video featuring rose gold make up products!

The pigmentation on these is about the same for the WNW palette,  its small and thin which makes it great for travel and will be finding its way into my make up bag when we go to Florida in two weeks.

Next in makeup, I think I have become obsessed with concealer, I currently have three concealers I use to help conceal my imperfections and under eye circles. This is the newest of the three and currently my favorite.

I chose the Cover Girl-Olay Simply Ageless Concealer not because Ellen endorses it, or the fact that it was on clearance for half off, but for the fact that I have always wanted to try it and don't own many Cover Girl products. I'll be the first to admit Cover Girl is not my most favorite brand of drugstore make up. I have used one of their 'Clean' Foundations in the past but I didn't like it and so hence didn't give anything else a try. This concealer though is amazing!

I am the shade #215 Light/Medium. This concealer is great for under your eyes to conceal those not so flattering dark circles. It comes in a little pot which isn't too hygienic, having to dip your finger in each time but since I am the only one who uses this I don't mind. This concealer is swirled with Olay's Regenerist serum, so it helps with fine lines and doesn't sink into your fine lines either. That is something I noticed, this doesn't sink in to what I call my smile lines under my eyes and they are pretty deep, I have had them since I was a kid.

Next I have a blush that I can't believe I love wearing. When I first started getting into make up I wouldn't be caught dead wearing this bright color.

This is the Revlon Photoready Cream Blush in # 200 Flushed.

 My Camera makes the blush slightly brighter than it actually is. Its not really that florescent. It is pretty bright however. A little swirl on my finger gives me the perfect blushed look. Since the color is a bright pink/fuchsia you have to be light handed otherwise you will look like  a clown or a doll.  This blush is more on the higher priced spectrum at $9.99 I was hesitant on buying it.
Every time I walked past it in Wal-Mart it called out to me and I would pick it up and put it down, then finally one night while just out for some 'me' time I took the plunge and bought it, and I'm so glad I did.

Finally on the makeup front I have a lipstick that I think I have worn everyday since I bought it at CVS. This is the Milani Color Statement Lipstick in #26 Nude Crème.

This lipstick is a-mazing! It is the perfect nude color. It is a pink nude but basically its my lip color but a tad lighter and better. The formula is smooth and goes on nicely, it is a bit drying so I do use a lip balm underneath just so the lipstick doesn't settle into the lines on my lips. I definitely plan on investing in some more color from their collection!

The last four favorites are skin care related and one perfume. So lets get started.

First up is the Simple Skin Care Eye Makeup Remover.

I want to say that this makeup remover is like the famous Bio-derma. Its probably the best eye makeup remover I have found next to baby wipes. You can't tell from the bottle shot but I have already used half the bottle up and will be needing to repurchase it. All I do is moisten a cotton pad, hold it on my eye for ten seconds and swipe away all the makeup on my eye. Its even safe to use on my lashes and my lower lash line. It has Pro-Vitamin B5 to help soothe the skin, restore it and soften. Its oil free which so if you have oily skin this won't make you look like an oil field. The fact that all Simple products have no perfumes or dyes is just one of the benefits, I know in the past using certain makeup wipes my skin actually breaks out if things are too heavily scented. Its fairly affordable at about $7 a bottle. I got mine at Walgreens and it seems to be the only place I will be able to get it, none of the other drugstores carry it.

Next is The Simple Skin Care Protecting Light Moisturizer. I got this after signing up to receive a full size sample via the blog Vampy Varnish, she had done a review on it and had a link that offered the full size product to the first 500 people who signed up.

This moisturizer is pretty awesome, it light weight absorbs into the skin quickly without leaving you feeling sticky or gunky. It has SPF 15 which isn't super high but enough to protect you if you going to be running around doing errands. Put on a regular sunscreen if you are going to be at the beach all day in the sun that has a high SPF. I know that Simple doesn't add perfumes or dye to their products but there is a slight sunscreen smell to this, its not horrible I actually like that kind of smell. I use this under my daily makeup (which already has SPF in it) and my makeup goes on smoother. I'm pretty sure you can find this in the local drugstore for around $9.99.


The final skincare product I'm loving for the month of May is the Clean & Clear Morning Burst Skin Brightening Facial Cleanser.

I have used Clean & Clear products since I was teenager and started having pimple issues. It seems so long ago, actually  I haven't been a teen in 7 years (seems forever right? Kidding!) Anyway I picked this up because I wanted a cleanser that was just to make me feel clean, I didn't need anything that had anti aging, or blemish control because I have products for those problems already. I wanted something to just make me feel clean in the morning.

This lathers really well even with only one pump. I also like the fact that the pump locks so you don't accidently hit it in the bathroom and waste product. The smell is very pleasant its lemon and papaya, it also has caffeine in it to help wake your skin up! It is slightly drying but that's okay and it leaves my skin brighter and  matte. It also helps control the oil on my face. You can find this in drugstores for about $5.97, I got mine at Wal-Mart.

Finally the last favorite I have for you is a perfume that I'm glad I found. I absolutely love the Victoria Secret PINK body mist. My most used one is Fresh and Clean. It smells like a boys' perfume but for girls. I have had friends tell me it smells like Dolce and Gabbana. So when I was in Five Below last month I always check out their body sprays since they always do their own versions of the high end perfumes.

This is called BE Cool & Clean.

This tiny little flat bottle is great for travel, I have two of these and one of them is in my purse at all times just in case I need to freshen up. Its just about a half ounce of liquid so it probably won't last long but it was only $2 so you get what you pay for. But this perfume smells exactly like my favorite Victoria's Secret scent. So when in comparison its worth it to me. It smells so clean and crisp and I love that kind of smell when I am going to be at work or just not in the mood for a fruit-y scent. 

So that s it for my favorites of May! I hope you enjoyed and sorry this post was so long! But if you did get through it than Thank you for reading it!

Until next time! Nicole

Sugary Sweet for Valentines Day!

Good Morning!

Today I bring you another Valentines Day nail art manicure!

I have always wanted to try ' Sugar Spun' Nails. I had seen a few other bloggers try it out and I thought that is nifty how it really looks like threads of sugar over their nails! So sitting on the couch one day surfing Instagram as I do on occasion ( ok who doesn't do that?) I saw that one of the Instagramers I follow ( sorry I don't remember who) had done some sugar spun nails for this past NY Fashion Week.

I was sort of in a funk on what to do for another nail art manicure since I wanted to have some leading up until V-day, and this was just the thing I needed.

First off if you are not a fan of bright colors for Valentines Day or your Anti Valentines then maybe this isn't for you or you can do it in colors that suit your current mood!

For my base color I decided to finally try out Cover Girl Stay Brilliant Nail Lacquer in Vio-last. Vio-last is a vibrant purple crème, it is absolutely fantastic and I will have swatches and a review up of it soon! I have to say it comes pretty close to my all time favorite purple!


Once my two coats of Vio-last was dry I quickly YouTubed a how to on 'Sugar Spun' nails just to make sure I had it right on what I was doing. For the 'Sugar' part I used Nicole By OPI Still Into Pink, which is new to their core collection. I'll have separate swatches of that up too!

Basically the concept of 'Sugar Spun' Nails is to let the polish you are using to create the sugar get sticky and thick enough so when you take a toothpick to it, it creates  strings that you drag over your nail and you do this over and over until you get the desired look you want. You are limitless on the amount of colors you can use!

I found while doing this is that one little puddle of polish will help you cover one nail maybe two if your nail beds are small. But after a while the polish dries up or gets too goopy to make anymore strings, so do expect to use a little polish to accomplish this look.

One note to take is after dragging the sugar pieces on to your nail make sure you let them dry well and I don't mean just a few minutes, some of the more bumpy parts will still be squishy and if your not careful you will push them down. As you can see I did that to my ring finger slightly down the center where the polish had built up.

The feel of my nails after letting my sugar pieces dry, was very textured and bumpy, so if your a fan of smooth nails its not going to happen here. These photos are taken after one coat of top coat and in natural light. I do have a little tip wear since I took these the day after I did them. For the few days I did wear them, they wore pretty well.

So if you want to be all sugared up for Valentines Day then this manicure is right up your ally!

Hope you guys enjoyed and I'll talk to you soon!
<3 Nicole.

My Top 10 Polishes of 2012! Part 2!

Good Morning and welcome to part 2 of My Top 10 Polishes of 2012!

Today I am going to show case my last five favorite polishes of 2012.

Lets get started!

First on the list in the second half is from Cover Girl! This fall Cover Girl released a nail polish collection with all different colors. I'm sure Cover Girl has had polishes in the past but this is the first I have seen them since I started blogging. Out of the collection that Cover Girl has to offer I chose a polish that I definitely don't own already or have anything close to. It is called Wine Stain. It is an dark blood red jelly finish polish that is super saturated with color and is right up there with my favorite reds.  I used this polish also in a Halloween manicure this year, it looked pretty really for fake blood drippings.

Next is a polish I never thought I would get my hands on. OPI is not commonly sold where I live but the grocery store that I work at sells it and sometimes we get in one or two of the new collections. Like right now there is a polish from the James Bond Collection hiding in the back waiting for me to purchase it this weekend!

Anyway my favorite OPI from this year is I Have A Herring Problem. Its from the Holland Collection that was released in the spring. It is a blue-grey polish that is just beautiful. It has this most amazing silver shimmer running through it as well.  Its the one polish out of the collection that if I was going to buy one it would be this one.

 Back in September my sister from another mister had a beautiful baby girl and when we had her baby shower one month before her due date I wore this next favorite. I got it when I ordered half the Summer Neon Collection from Head2Toe Beauty. It is Pink Plumeria. It is a lovely light corally pink neon. This collection of neon's is special, because they are not just BAM in your face neon's, they have a shimmer to them that even if you left them without a top coat they would still look amazing.

When I wore this polish for the baby shower I stamped butterflies over it and I think it was very appropriate for her shower. Take a look.

Second to last on my list was a glitter polish. What nail polish addict doesn't love a good glitter polish. I know I do. As much as they can be a pain in the you know where, I can't resist. China Glaze released a collection during the summer called On Safari. I was attracted to only the glitters. I'm Not Lion is a gold micro fine holographic glitter polish. In the sunlight it is super sparkly and would be appropriate I think in the work place. Its not loud its just right.

Last but certainly not least is a polish that I think a lot of nail polish lovers liked. I know I had a few conversations with people about it. China Glaze's Wicked Halloween Collection had a couple amazing polishes in it this year, as you saw by my choice for Immortal. This last one is just amazing. Its called Bizarre Blurple. You know how here in the nail polish world we sometimes combine words to make a new that describes a polish? Well China Glaze caught on and gave us this beauty. When I took these pictures my camera didn't want to pick up the purple, as it never does it just got the blue of the polish. Doesn't matter though it still amazeballs!


   
                               

 

 

So that's it! My Top 10 for 2012! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and if you wore any of these polishes this year leave a comment below!!

 

 

I believe my final post for the year will be a new years eve manicure so keep a look out for that!

 

Nicole 

Halloween Nail Art:

So its one day until Halloween and I am here to bring you another nail art that is simple enough to do if you have any last minute costumes to do or a party to go to. Bear in mind I hope that you all are safe here on the east coast from Hurricane Sandy and her awful wrath. If you are going out for Halloween tomorrow night or tonight for a party just be safe!

So toady's nail art is sort of, well I thought it was gory, my mother described it as 'cute'. She is always the first one to see what I paint on my nails, whenever I sit at the kitchen table she always says, "painting them again?" and I go "yup".

So when thinking of what I wanted to do, I first thought that I would recreate another awesome nail tutorial by Goldiestarling, she has these awesome little vampire nails on her YouTube page and they are as easy as the Frankenstein ones. So I went to work recreating them and wound up hating them! They looked horrid to me, so I took them off and tried something different, pumpkin nails... and yet another fail! So now going on the third try, its gotta be a charm right? I decided to on blood drip nails. I know they have been done before, but I have never done them.

All you are going to need for this nail art is a blood red polish, if you have a vampy jelly polish even better.

The first polish that popped in my head was my new Cover Girl Polish, its red and vampy and jelly! I would of used Velvet Bow from China Glaze but I love that polish too much to use it for nail art!

Taking a small dollop of it on some news paper and my large end of my dotting tool I went to work, I first covered my visible nail line kind of like a messy french manicure. Second I dipped the large end of the dotting tool in the polish and starting from the middle of my nail I placed a drop and dragged it back to my tip of my nail. Do this two, three, or four times (if your nail bed is big enough) and at varying lengths.

You can see that I wasn't very good with the "varying lengths" part, mine are uniform except my pinkie finger. I think this would be great if you are going to be a zombie, it looks like you just dug in to some flesh!

Just top it off with a top coat and you should be good to go for the night! Until next time! <3 Nicole

Cover Girl Stay Brillant Nail Gloss in Wine Stain.

Hello! As I type this we have a hurricane-a-brewin' outside. Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on us here in Northeast. Last year on this very day we had a freak snow storm, so I'm pretty sure the apocalypse is happening....haha just kidding....maybe. Next it will be zombies or something....

Anyway I haven't forgotten that Halloween is in three days and today I have a very simple nail polish for you that would go great if you are going to be a witch or a vampire or you just don't like nail art and just want a color that says vampy but still somewhat work appropriate.

I know a polish is work appropriate for me when no one notices it at work. So this polish is by Cover Girl! I have never seen Cover Girl Nail Polish before, but I should refer to it as they call it Nail Gloss. I had heard they would be releasing a line of polishes and I was excited to see what they would produce. While at Walmart preparing for this lovely hurricane we had to go past the beauty section to pet supplies and low and behold there on an end cap was the new collection. I was immediately drawn in to the display due to the bottles. They look like Chanel Nail Polish bottles. Tiny little square bottles. Then the excitement dropped as I didn't particularly like the color choices. they had some nice what I call ' mom' colors or colors my mother would wear. I then picked up a vibrant purple color that was the brightest in the display and decided to get that and then I saw the one I am about to show you today.

I love a good vampy red color, it looks the best on my skin tone, so when I grabbed for Wine Stain, (the name of this perdy color) I definitely saw Halloween, and also it made me think of all the 'Oxblood' polishes that I have seen some people get excited about.

So now two new Cover Girl Nail Glosses were making there way home with me, the only other downside was the size of the polish and price, you  get 10ml of polish for $4.97. That's kind of steep even for Walmart. I would expect that price at CVS or Walgreen's, even Rite Aid. The Maybeline Color Show Polishes which are the same size only go for $2.97 at my Walmart the last time I looked. So its up to you as the consumer and nail polish addicts to decided on whether five bucks a pop is worth it to you.

Here are my swatches of Wine Stain. I like this polish a lot, two coats is good for opacity, and clean up is not such a bitch as it usually is with dark red polishes. The finish is very glossy and shiny, and it kind of has that jelly-esq finish to it.

I'm still wearing this polish as I write this and after a long night at work I only have two small chips on my right hand on my thumb and pointer fingers. So...so far so good I guess, and let me remind you what I do for a living. I work in customer service lifting heavy objects and register tills and constantly digging my hand into till to pick up change and money to count, then there is the dreaded self-check out which are metal bins that I have actually sheared my pinkie nail off of before. In conclusion only having two small chips is pretty good :) The only bad thing with the bottle is the top, trying to hold that square top and paint your nails gets bulky and almost blocks my vision to my nail so I have to crane my head to see I get it on the nail and not on the finger.

Okay so that's it for this post. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post to see how I used this polish in nail art!

Talk to you soon
<3 Nicole