New Years Eve Manicure: OPI: Muir Muir On The Wall.

Hi guys!! Happy New Years Eve!!

I cannot believe that 2013 is coming to a close but on the other hand I am very glad that it is. Looking back on 2013 it wasn't my best year personal wise. I went through a lot of family problems which I have more else blogged about on here. I really have struggled with depression and anxiety in the latter half of this year. I mean I know a lot of people struggle with it and I'm not saying that mine trumps over anyone else but this was the first year it really physically effected me and my well being. There were days that I was just so sad or angry that I didn't want to deal with anything going on in my life. I think that is why my grades suffered so much this fall, and fell into a Netflix coma some days.

Well that last paragraph was really sad....anyhow I am slowly starting to feel like I am getting out of that slump and look to brighter things.

Today I am going to show you what I am wearing on my nails to ring in the new year! Back over the fall I bought a fair few polishes and one of them was Muir Muir On The Wall from OPI's San Francisco Collection.

It is this vampy burgundy shimmer in a black base. I try not to categorize polishes by season, if I want to wear a winter colored polish in the summer so be it! But this polish is what I would say I love about the fall, it reminds me of when the leaves change here in New York, and it still slightly warm about but you still need a light coat, and its hot coffee drinking weather.

This polish is good to go in two coats  but I did three just to even it out because my clumsy fingers kept either hitting each other or something else.

My base coat was OPI Nail Envy Matte and top coat used is Seche Vite.

These photos were taken indoors since when I decided to change my polish it was about midnight.

So how do you guys plan to spend your New Years Eve?? I will be spending mine at home with my family, since I have to work in the morning and eating some good food.

I hope you all have a happy and safe New Years, and if you plan to drink remember to drink responsibly and don't drive, get a DD or a taxi!!

Talk to you guys in 2014!!
<3 Nicole

Update!!!

Hello lovelies!!

I hope you all are well. I'm so sorry I haven't posted to here in almost two months. Unfortunately there really hasn't been anything to update about.

School is still going on and to be honest its been tougher than I thought. I am definitely struggling to handle everything. I have even had some regrets about going back but my family and friends in real life and on social media have reassured me it was the right step to take.

I am however glad that it is over in three weeks! After that we get about a month break before spring semester begins. I hope that during that month off I can get some serious blogging done. I miss it so much. My nails have most certainly suffered from the lack of care they used to get before life went all crazy on me! Right now they are nubbins and the polish that I am wearing which is OPI Charged Up Cherry, is severely chipped. It makes me so so sad. I have acquired plenty of new polishes and cannot wait to swatch them for you and even maybe get to do some holiday nail art.

Next semester thought that starts in January, I made my workload a little lighter, I'm not expecting to graduate on time, I had to retake a class that I took almost three years ago so that threw me off but I also realized I'm not sure I want to go all the way and get a four year degree with business, I may just see where I go when I'm done here. However with that said, I am hoping that since my work load would be lighter and I am going to be working less I can focus more on school and blogging.

What I really want to do is blogging I mean I absolutely love it. I just wish I could make it into my job, but then I would become a recluse!

Anyway when I get a chance I will upload some photos to this post of any manicures I took photos of over the last two months and anything else that is exciting.

Okay lovelies talk to you soon!

<3 Nicole

I Was Nominated!!!

How is everyone doing? I'm well! I apologize for my absence! My dad came to visit and then it was catching up with friends who have been sick and starting my spring cleaning. Anyone else find it cathartic to get rid of crap?

Anyway... This is going to be a really lonnnngg post! Sorry!

Today I bring you an awesome post! A fellow blogger named Melanie from Melanie's Fancies, was really awesomely kind and nomiated me for a Leibster award! How cool is that!?

Here are the rules to this award:

1. Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.
2. They must also answer the 11 questions the 'tagger' has set for them.
3. They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.
4. They must then choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and tag them in their post.
5. These lucky bloggers must then be told.
6. There's no tag backs.

11 Things about me!

1. I love British Television! Ok so technically its mostly Doctor Who, but the shows that England has and have been shown here in America are amazing!

2.  My astrological sign is Cancer the Crab and I fit all the personality traits of my sign and I read my horoscope everyday and sometimes its spot on.

3. I have a weird sixth sense sometimes, If I am waiting for someone to text me or right before I get a text I will actually look at check my phone and then put it down and literally a minute later the text alert will go off.

4. I love arts and crafts, even at 25 I love to make decorations by hand or make my own cards for special occasions.

5. I work in a grocery store, and I absolutely hate it there, the people are mean and nasty but sadly its my only source of income until either I get a better job or go and get y cosmetology license to do nails professionally.

6. I have an associates degree in Secondary Education. Which means I am certified to substitute at local high schools, but since working with teens at my job I lost my passion and patience for dealing with them.

7. I am a video game nerd.  I love playing video games, my favorite series was and still is the Resident evil games. Ever since my dad played them when I was little I have become a fan, I even like the movies they have created with the franchise.

8. My niece Gigi is my world. That little girl means everything to me and I love spoiling her with presents and hugs and kisses. Her mom (my best friend ever) gave her my name as her middle name and that says so much and is so special to me!

9. I am addicted to my phone, I can never really leave it in another room for too long I always feel I am going to miss something huge!

10. I am huge on family, they mean everything to me! They come first before everyone else in the world including my job. On one or more occasion I have told my job that my family comes first and I could care less about working in a grocery store.

11. One day I hope that I can be happy and doing what I love or have being a blogger be my full time job, whether its as an independent beauty reviewer or working for a nail polish company or owning my own beauty company one day.


The questions from my nominator Melanie!

1. Aside from your nail polish, what's the one item you could not live without?
Hmm...I would have to say my phone, and I know thats bad. It is litterally attached to my hip all the time, its how I stay connected with everyone and everything I do, email, social media, the blog etc.. I always try to leave it in the other room so I can attempt to take a 'break' but I always fail at it.

2. What's the most recent book you've read? OR if you don't enjoy reading, what's 1 more activity you enjoy other than polish and blogging?

I love reading books! I just never have the time to finish them, I am currently reading through the Walking Dead Conpendium (the first one) which is about 3-4 inches thick over a 1000 pages I think, don't quote me. I got the first and second one for Christmas, I'm going to be reading for a long time! I also jumped on the bandwagon a while back and read "The Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy, although I haven't been able to finish the last half of the third book.

　
3. What's your favorite holiday?

My favorite holiday is definietly Christmas, and its not about getting the gifts its about me being able to splurge on the people I love very much and get them things they won't necesarily buy themselves during the year.I also love decorating the house up with lights and the tree it makes it all warm and fuzzy! Halloween is second because I'm a paranormal freak....

4. Story time! I want to hear a funny story from your childhood :D

Let see a funny story from my childhood... well I'll tell you about the first time I got a haircut. I was about two or three years old and of course mom was the hair dresser at the time. My mom just wanted to trim my hair to make it even becuase since never being cut it grew to a V shape in the back. So she sat me on a stool in the bathroom and trying to make sure I didn't move when my dad decided to call me and I turned my head just as my mom was cutting. Lets just say she didn't cut a straight line, so after fixing my hair to look even she showed my dad and he freaked out ( he hates short hair on ladies) and my moms was like " Well if you hadn't called her..." Thats about as funny as I can remeber to be honest!

5. What's your favorite color?

Throughout my life I have gone through color phases, my freshman year of high school I wore a lot of red, and then I believe my sophmore year I wore a lot of pink, as you can tell those were my favorite colors then. Today I like all different colors being a nail blogger and all but I am very fond of Purple if you were to look at my nail polish stash, and maybe pink as well..

6. If you could have any animal, alive, fictional or extinct, as a pet what would you pick?

I'm going to be really boring on this question, I love cats and have one but if I could have any pet it would be a little white fluffy dog. I had one growing up that my mom had before I was born and I loved her. So I would say a dog would be the one pet I would want right now.

7. Favorite and least favorite beauty products, doesn't have to be polish!

As much as I do love my nail polish I love makeup as well. I'm just not very versed in how to makeup look amazing, I have to say I couldn't live without my Revlon Age Defying Foundation, it makes my skin look so nice and smooth. I'm also becoming addicted to lip products I have like 10 of them in my makeup drawer set in the bathroom to choose from. I would say my least favorite beauty product is the Maybeline Master Studio Drama eyeliner (If thats the right name) It sucks, if you mess up where you put it , it stays like that for a good 12 hours, even a make up wipe has a hard time getting it off!

8. If you love to cook, what is one of your favorite things to make? If not, just tell me what your favorite food is!

I do love to cook! I wish I had more time and money at home to cook! My favorite thing to cook is Chicken and a Tabouli salad,. I buy fresh chicken tenders from the store and pound them out till they are thin and then egg them and bread them and fry them in olive oil. I know its not super healthy but I do not eat a large portions of it. I make what I will eat and thats it. Then I get tabouli salad from the deli, its by a company called Cedars. Tabouli salad is bulgar cracked wheat that is soaked in hot water until its plump, then its mixed with tomatoes, red onion, parsely, lemon juice and olive oil. I mix that with the chicken into a regular salad,. Its super filling and great as left overs!

9. Since polish and candy seem to go hand in hand, what's your favorite candy?

Polish and candy do seem to go hand in hand don't they? Sadly though I'm diabetic and cant really have too much sugar. But my favorite candy to indulge in on an occasion is Reeses Peanut Butter Cups! Anything chocolate and peanut butter to me is amazing!

10. Favorite place to buy polish?

My favorite places to buy polish is most certainly the drugstore. Drugstore companies are coming out with new polish its seems almost all the time, I always stalk them to see whats coming out and when. Another place I love to buy polish is from the online retailer Head2Toe Beauty. I've talked about them on the blog! They carry all the larger polish brands like China Glaze, Essie, Color Club. Brands that are not easily accessable to me where I live. Their prices are awesome, I can get ten polishes for under $40 including shipping! Unless of course its one of the more expensive collections. I highly recommend Head2Toe Beauty if you have never checked them out before!

I1. f you had to sell all of your polish and never buy any ever again, which 5 would you keep? Includes base and top coats because I'm a jerk like that :P

Aw thats just mean! For base coat I would keep my Sally Hansen Green Tea and Olive growth, For top Coat my Sally Hansen Insta Dry, and the three polishes would have to be Essie Wheres My chauffer, China Glaze Hang Ten Toes, and Sally Hansen Ruby Rush. I chose these three becasue the Essie one I can wear in the spring, The china Glaze one I can wear all through summer, and the Sally Hansen one Can be worn all through fall and winter. But really all of them can be worn anytime of the year!
 
Questions for my nominees!

1. What do you think that you would be doing right now if you had never gotten into blogging or becoming a nail polish addict?

2. What inspired you to become a blogger?

3. When you paint your nails do you have the TV on tuned into your favorite show? Do you have something playing on a computer in the background? Do you have music blasting or do you need complete silence to paint your nails?

4. Do any of your family/closest friends/boyfriends/husbands/girlfriends know about your polish addiction? If so what do they think about it?

5. Besides nail polish and beauty products what other hobbies are you into?

6. What is your all time favorite movie? One you could watch over and over and never get tired of?

7. What are the first five songs that you last listen to on your iPod, computer etc?

8. If there was one high end nail polish that you could own, without price being a problem what would it be and why?

9. Looking at your nail polish stash, what color do you horde/collect the most of?

10. If you could create your own nail polish company what you call it?

11. Where do you see yourself in five years, how about 10 years?


Bloggers I nominate are:  Based off of GFC Followers and or Bloglovin. Not everyone has blogger!

1. Adri from Mories Nail Art!

2. Lindsay from Polish and Diamond!

3. Nicole from Nicole Gets Nailed!

4.  Alaina from The Little Canvas!

5. Ryan from RyCobra's Southern Nails!

6. Nicole from Young Wild And Polished!

7. Minnie from Funky Nails!

8. Megan from Let There Be Lacquer!
9. Alyssa from Nails By An OPI Addict!
10. Polish in Paris!

11. Claire from Kerruticles

Ok so that's my 11 that I chose to get the Liebster award! It was hard picking my 11! I hope to see some of my nominees do this post next!

Anyway talk to you all soon!

<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

The 13 Question Tag, Created by Nouveau Cheap!

Hello!

So the other day I saw on Nouveau Cheap's blog that G created her own tag questions and then tagged anyone who had a blog or to leave their answers in her comments. I love watching tag videos on YouTube and reading them on blogs so I decided to do the tag questions while I am planning out some blog post for the fall and some swatch posts!

Like G did I am going to tag anyone who has a blog to repost the questions with your answers or if you want to leave your answer  in the comments below :). Oh I recently noticed I had the stupid word verification on when people would leave comments. I know how ridiculous they are and I didn't even know I had it on. I took it off but comments will still be moderated by me via email :) so if your comment doesn't show up right away, don't worry it most likely will as soon as I see the email from blogger.

Now on to the questions!

1. What's one thing that most people don't know about you?
What people don't know about me is I'm super nerdy sci-fi geek. I love shows like Doctor who and Being Human (the U.K. Version and U.S) and a bunch of paranormal shows too :) I'm a huge paranormal freak :) I'm also very quite and reserved when faced with people I don't know or in a large group of people. You would think having to talk to the public for a living would have changed that but nope.

2. What's your favorite quote?
"Be the Change you want to see in this world"  Gandhi said this and it is so true, No one else is going to do it for you! I also live by Live, Laugh, Love, I have that tattooed on my right forearm, its my first and only tattoo. I say Live like its your last days, Laugh because its not good to be negative all the time, and Love because it takes to much energy to hate.


3. What's one food that you can't live without?
Sushi! I love sushi! I got to try sushi a couple years ago and now I have it at least once every week or every other week. Salmon and avocado is my favorite combo!

4. What's your song of the week?
My song of the week is a few songs, Glee is back and I usually always get excited for their covers of songs, sometimes they usually do them a little better than the original :) so right now I'm listening to Chasing Pavements by Adele but its the Glee cover :)


5. What movies could you watch over and over and still love?
Hocus Pocus my cat is named after a character in that movie, A League Of Their Own got me into playing women's softball, The Lion King, Any of the Disney movies really, I'm sure there is more I just can't think of them

6. Can you change the oil on a car?
No I don't know how to change the oil but I know how to check over the car before a long trip, meaning check the oil level and add it if necessary and check the antifreeze, and the windshield washer fluid, tire pressure. I think everyone show at least know that :)

7. Favorite kind of sandwich?
I love this Italian mix sub that we make at work, it's got every kind of meat in it and cheese and lettuce, tomato and onion, and this AMAZING Italian sub dressing that we sell at work. Put it on some chibata bread and it's amazing!

8. Can you knit or crochet?
I can crochet, but not very well. My mom taught me and I can start it and get to the turning point to start the next row and I always drop a stitch and it starts to come out all wonky looking.

9. How many languages can you speak?
I did take Spanish in high school but my teacher wasn't very dedicated the first two years and by the third year we had a new teacher and no one knew anything :( . Then I took sign language in college, I wish it had been more than just one year of it because it's hard to retain without anyone to practice with ( practicing in the mirror is no fun ) and one year just isn't enough to learn it all. I still remember some but not much. Clearly though I speak English lol

10. Be honest: do you ever forget your reusable shopping bags when you go to the grocery store?
I have the reusable bags at home but I always forget them! I work In a grocery store you think I would remember

11. Favorite type of pie?
Ummmm... I love pumpkin pie and apple so those are my two faves

12. What do you wear to bed?
In the warmer weather usually comfy shorts and a tank top and in the cooler weather my black comfy pants from old navy and a long sleeve shirt :) and some times a hoodie if its super cold in the house.

13. Ever been in love?
Not yet. One day I will meet someone who I will fall in love with  and until then I keep kissing frogs lol

Nails Inc. Sprinkles, The final two!

Good afternoon polish lovers! I hope you all are having a great day! I myself just got done with work about an hour and a half a go and boy could I go for a nap. 7:30 mornings are killer!

Today I bring you the final two Nails Inc Sprinkles Polishes, Pudding Lane and Sweets Way.

We shall start with Sweets way. Now when I saw swatches of this polish I initially like it, but for some reason when I swatched it on my nails I didn't like it. I had tried it once before over a white polish since the base on Sweets Way is milky white. Sadly that didn't look good either. I thought maybe by pairing them with a thin layer of a similar base color might help lessen the amount of coats you need to get the jelly effect but nope, not a chance.

Sweets way is opaque in three coats, and in dealing with a glitter polish three layers is quite a lot of glitter. This polish is also similar to Revlon's Whimsical and Deborah Lippmann Glitter In The Air only in the sense that the glitter color is the same baby pink, baby blue and silver. Although with Sweets way its all small round glitter and way more densely packed.

The pictures I have for you are three coats with a top coat in natural sunlight.

The final polish is Pudding Lane. I think that  this one is my favorite out of all of the collection. I don't have a blue this vibrant, or in this shade. Pudding Lane's glitter is gold and a darker blue glitter, which when the gold polish is mixed with the blue it almost looks like a lime green which is awesome. Two coats is more than enough to get this polish opaque. I suggest though with this polish to put on a couple layers of base coat because it DOES STAIN when removed. It doesn't stand horribly like Sally Hansen's Insta Dry Freeze but your nails will have a blue tinge to them.

Now the weird thing was that not all of the nails had the stain, its was like maybe 3 out of my 5 fingers. The way I removed the stain was by going back over my nail with a clean cotton ball and more acetone and then going into the bathroom and taking some soap (I used my Bath and Body Works Deep Cleansing) and a nail brush and gave my nails a good scrub. The little micro beads in the soap paired with the nail brush took off the stain in no time!

These pictures were taking in natural sunlight and no top coat.

So that's it for the Nails Inc. Sprinkles collection! I do really like these polishes and hope that more companies will continue the trend of all mixed together jelly polishes! I hope you all enjoyed this post , and I will talk to you all soon!

Nicole

Funky Summer Neon French!

Happy Sunday! I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! I also hope you all have an awesme 4th of July holdiay for those of us here in the states! Tuesday the day before is my 25th birthday! I am so excited!

Today I bring you a manicure I've been wanting to do for a while but I couldn't find my french manicure guides. I finally found them today and bam, popped out this funky french manicure!

I orginially started with three coats of China Glaze's newest neon I'm With the Life Guard. This is my absolute favorite green polish that I own right now! Its super bright and floresent, and any polish that makes my mother go "oh goodness" is a winner in my book. I wore this color as a plain mani yesterday and got a few compliments from co-workers.

I tried to get a good sunlight picture, but the sun didn't want to cooperate. I tried with a flash but it just made my fingers look like I dipped them in radioactive waste and glowing.  This polish is super bright, three coats and its opaque. I think since its been quite warm outside and somewhat inside my house the polish did thicken up a little but nothing that I couldn't handle. I'm pretty sure this polish is going to make an appearance for some Halloween manicures! Yes I know October is 4 months away but I can't wait for fall! Its my favorite time of year!

So on to the french part. By finally finding my nail guides ( which I should re-purchase) becuase god knows I cannot free hand french tips to save my life! I chose Beach Cruise-r also from the new China Glaze Neons.
Its a lovely dark purple. Not necessarily an in your face neon but I'm sure when its not over top of a bright green it has some brillance to it. I can't comment on the coverage, or opacity at this time with my bottle since I haven't done a full mani with it yet.

You can definitly see the difference when Beach Cruise-r gets its picture taking with a flash and then in the natural sun. Top is with flash and bottom is natural sunlight. I did add a bit of art to my accent nail just by dragging a black striper from Sinful Colors.

I hope you enjoyed this! Have a fabulous end to the weekend and the holdiay if you live here in the states!

Talk to you all soon.
Nicole

Maybelline Color Show: Crushed Candy.

Hello! I hope you all are having a wonderful Friday!

I know I always say this, but I cannot believe that I haven't posted since the first of May! Wow this year is going by fast!

Today I have a really awesome polish to show you! Maybelline has come out with new nail polish, in a line called Color Show. They are available at Walmart, and I got mine for $2.97.

These polishes have decent range of color and textures, from glitters to cremes to shimmers. Crushed Candy is a shimmer/glass fleck polish.

Sadly the display at my store was fairly empty. :( There were not many colors left and this was the only color out of the lot that stood out to me. I am hoping they will restock the display soon. This color totally reminded me of Butter London's Disco Biscuit, a color from their spring line. I cannot fathom spending $14 dollars on a nail polish. Maybe one day when I do not have a ton of bills.

Crushed Candy applied like a dream. Two coats and its at full opacity. The color is just perfect for the summer time.It is a hot pink fuchsia  that flashes with purple and blue shimmer. I do wish I owned Disco Biscuit to see if they are dupes of each other. I haven't seen any comparisons online so for all I know I could be off by miles. Haha.

 The formula is thin but easy to handle. Just like with any other thin polishes if you are not careful you can flood your cuticles. When I went to change my polish, Crushed Candy hung around my cuticle area so I had to go back with a brush and remover to get it all off. Remember if you use 100 percent acetone like I do it WILL dry out your nails/cuticles/skin  so it is important to wash your hands immediately and moisturize.

Have you picked up any Color Show polishes? If you have any recommendations on what ones you think are worth a shot? Leave a comment below!

Talk to you all soon!
Nicole

Simply Sweet : A Purple Pink bright!

Happy Friday!!!

So glad to be off today!! The weather has been nothing but phenomenal! Yesterday a few close friends of mine actually went and had a cook out at the local park, which is right on the water of the Hudson River. The day was perfect, good food, great friends, just perfect.

Of course I had to have a bright color on my nails to celebrate with. So today I am going to show you the second polish in the Simply Sweet four pack I bought from Marshall's last week.

This color I thought was going to be a darker fuchsia or purple, but no its a mix of a darker bright pink with purple. Kind of makes me want to say pinurple, pink and purple mixed together. Its a fairly bright almost neon color. It does not dry matte so its definitely not a neon. It reminds me of  the hydrangeas we get in at work in the spring.

These first two photos are with flash. The flash makes it look a little darker than it really is. All photos are 3 coats and no top coat!

You can see how in natural light its much brighter than with a flash. It is still showing a little darker than out in the sun. But the clouds were kind of covering the sun at this time. :(

The polish applied amazingly. The first coat was not streaky at all, unlike with the blue. The second coat was enough for opacity, and that's how I wore it yesterday at the picnic. I threw on a third coat to fix any little chips but there were none, but it looks amazing with three coats! Even with out a top coat there is a nice glossy-ness to this polish. Once again the brush was good no weird bristles or anything. I think the more I go to Marshall's I'm going to continue to look for this brand!

Simply Sweet Polishes can be found at Marshall's, I paid $4.99 for a pack of four!

Have a great Friday everyone!!
Nicole

NOTD: Simply Sweet: Blue

Happy Sunday to everyone!!

Hope you all are having a fantastic weekend. I am! This weather is amazing, I broke out the Capri's today just to realize my legs are too white and probably should of invested in some self tanner! :)

It has also been the best time to break out the bright fun colors for spring. It's nice because spring does arrive on Wednesday!

Today I have a color that I picked up at the mall yesterday. My BFF steph and I were spending an afternoon together and stopped in Marshall's  to see what we could find, of course I spot nail polish and pick up a four pack of the brand Simply Sweet Nail Polish in bright pastels, and I convince steph to buy a six pack of striper polishes from L.A. Colors, since she likes making nail art. For $4.99 a pack we couldn't resist.

In the four pack i purchased you got a bright pastel yellow, which I'm hoping is going to be amazing, a pastel bubblegum pink that reminds me of Pink Friday by OPI, a nice dusty purple color, and the color I am showing you today, a nice pastel baby blue!

These are all creme finishes, (which are my favorite). The bottle shape is pretty much exactly like an OPI bottle but just a tad smaller. The brushes are nice as well, not as wide as some of the OPI brushes, its like there the smaller version of them. In the blue bottle there were no weird bristles or anything which is always a plus!

With a Flash.



Natural Light



The application of this pretty polish, was three coats for opacity. If your careful you could get a way with two. All the photos in this post have three coats and a top coat. Even with out a top coat this polish has a glossy finish.

This is the true color of the Polish.

I would describe this color as a nice genuine sky blue color, or an Easter egg. I don't have any blues like this in my collection, especially with a creme finish. Perfect for the spring and summer!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a read, and I hope you all have a wonderful rest to the weekend!
Nicole

St. Patricks Day Manicure! Milani's Hi-Tech

Happy Friday!!!! This week for me has been amazing! I hope everyone else's week has been amazing too!

Today I am posting a green manicure for tomorrows St. Patrick's Day. I would post it tomorrow but I won't be home, tomorrow its time for me to get my taxes done and go and run tons of errands before a long night at work.

With this manicure I did attempt to create a shamrock on my ring finger but I failed and it looked like an unrecognizable blog of green polish. So I decided to stick with just some good green holo using Milani's Hi-Tech.

This is the second Milani 3D Holographic polish that I bought out of the five I have. This polish I feel has the most holo in it. Its the most noticeable and you don't have to stand in direct light or sunlight to see it.

Application of this was not a problem. About four coats did the trick for opacity. I did give myself a few bald spot by my cuticles with too many brush strokes. Added my Sally Hansen Insta Dry Top Coat and ta-da! The last picture is my favorite, you can really see all the lovely colors that shine in this polish from blue to orange!

Hope you all have a great weekend, and if you plan on partying tomorrow for St. Patty's day please be safe!

Nicole

Sinful Colors: Mint Apple.

Hi everyone! How is your Tuesday going?  For once my Tuesday, actually the whole beginning of the week is going fabulous! I think this is the start of the change I've been needing! Last night was the first night in two weeks I did not want to walk out of work! It was really nice, and then I came to find out that my supervisor actually decided to give me a Saturday off! I almost had a heart attack seeing it!

So today I bring you one of my favorite Sinful Colors Nail Polishes in Mint Apple. This polish was one of the first Sinful Colors that I purchased after they put in the Walgreen's about two - three years ago.

I describe Mint Apple as not  like Wet 'n' Wilds I Need A Refresh-mint but a darker mint green like the  gummy candies called spearmint leaves , and all the sugar on top of them represents the amazing silver shimmer that runs through this polish.

The first coat of this polish is a tad on the streaky side and if your not careful the more brush stroke you make the more bald spots you can make. Three coats does smooth it out and make it opaque with lots of shimmer.

Do any of you own Mint Apple?

Thanks for stopping by, hope you all enjoyed this short little post, but I'm going to go an enjoy the 70 degree weather outside!

Bye!
Nicole

100th Post! China Glaze Magnetix.

Hello!

Two things I am sad about today, 1: The weekend is almost over and 2: Daylight Savings Time....loosing one hour of sleep is not fun...

Enough about that, today is my 100th post!!! And it also coincides with the fact that my tiny little blog will be one years old one week from today!!

Today I bring you, finally China Glaze Magnetix. I bought these as soon as they came out in January, I held off on swatching them for the blog because I needed practice with this. Plus every time I would try them, they wouldn't work or I would mess them up.

I ordered three colors, Drawn To You, Instant Chemistry, and Pull me close. I ordered them through 8ty8 Beauty's website for I believe $4.06 a bottle. Each online retailer has different prices so you can sort of shop around for a few cents.

This is the magnet that you can buy for an additional $4.06. To be honest I was not happy about having to buy the magnet, I would of like to see the magnet in the cap like, Nails Inc. and Clarie's. This magnet is not the strongest either and you will see that in some of the photos. You have to hold it extremely close to your nail to get a good design, and with that you risk hitting your nail greatly and messing up the design.

The designs you can choose from are the star, which is my personal favorite, the diagonal stripes, and the chevron. The chevron design was the one I wanted to work the best but it was the worst.

Since I had lots of time to practice and I also tried other brands of magnetic polish, I feel China Glaze could of done better with this collection. The colors are nice, but brighter ones would have drawn me to buy more.

Application of these polishes are iffy, on some you can get away with one coat and others you need two, but I found especially with Drawn To You, if you used two coats the design did not show. As where if you used two coats with Pull Me Close and Instant Chemistry the designs showed up more.

This is one coat of Drawn To You, and the diagonal magnet. No top coat.
I found a top coat would muddle the design. 

These two pictures of Instant Chemistry are two coats and a top coat.
I used the star design here except on my pointer finger.

Pull me close is by far the best one out of the three with creating the design.
Once again two coats with a top coat.

If your a nail polish addict like me then maybe adding one or two of these to your collection is worth it. Plus if you have any other brand magnetic polish you can use the magnet from them to create a design on them. Although no one else I think has a star pattern out. If you just want to have a magnetic polish my honest opinion is that they are plenty of other brands out there that are worth your money than these. Sorry China Glaze.

So that's my swatches and review of China glaze Magnetix. Not my favorite collection and not the best magnetic polish unfortunately.

Hope you all have a great start to your week. Talk to you all soon!
Nicole

Milani Neon: Pink Hottie

Hi everyone! Happy weekend! Hope you all are doing well!

 I was in the neighboring county yesterday to drop my dad at the train, I was also on the hunt for the Nabi Magnetic Polish that are supposedly popping up at Walgreens. Did my Walgreens have them...no, neither did the other one I went to. I saw swatches on Scrangies Blog and I'm dying for the red one. I'm hoping that they will pop up in the Northeast next week or so since they were spotted out in the midwest already. Heres to hoping!

So after striking out at Walgreens I went over to the CVS across the street and looked at the Milani display to get another 3D Holographic polish. I bought Cyberspace, the blue one and one of the Neons, in Pink Hottie.

That is what I bring you today Pink Hottie! I think this is my perfect pink color! Its that bright bubblegum pink that suits the warmer weather and is just all around girly!

I know that neons dry matte, that doesn't bother me at all since a top coat can fix that in a pinch. The application I wasn't so happy about. It was really streaky and my non dominant hand can attest to that. It took about the standard 3 coats to be opaque, I did add a fourth coat just to make sure it was all good, especially on my right hand.

This first picture is the polish all by itself with no top coat. Even matte this polish has an amazing gloss to it!



Here it is in the shade, no flash with a top coat. It looks so much darker than it is. Outside of the pictures this color makes my hands look really tan. 

Finally we have in the sun and with a flash.

That's it for today! Do any of you own Neons from Milani or just any neons in general??

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

OPI Pros and Bronze

Happy Friday!!

Today I have a gorgeous polish from a Serena Williams Glam Slam Duo. I'm not sure if this was one of the first Glam Slam Duo's that was released but I'm glad I got it.

I found it at TJMaxx, my new mecca for spotting OPI polishes. Sometimes you can get really lucky and find some great deals! I think I'll stalk mine more often! In this duo pack you got Love Is a Racket, which I used in a Valentines Day inspired manicure and ( and obviously by the title.) Pros and Bronze.

I was unsure about how a copper polish would look on me and how it would mesh with my skin tone. I applied it first to my pinkie, to full opacity to see how it would look, and that way if I didn't like it I would just be able to take it off. As blogger though I thought I have to be thorough and wether I like it or not I had to wear it. I need to take myself out of comfort zone and try new ideas and colors.

Applying this polish is nice, 2-3 coats reaches full opacity and gives you tons of shimmer. Its easy to control, not runny like its compainon was for me.

This polish reminds me of a new pennies when you get them from the bank . The shimmer in this polish is what makes it interesting to me. Its not just the bronze in it, I detected gold shimmer and the occasion flash of lime green? Not going to lie here I really saw it!

The next few photos are with a flash and without. You kind of get a different look to it when you aren't shining light directly on this polish. Depending on the angle you hold your nails at, this polish almost looks a golden yellow. My camera didn't want to capture it though.

Flash

No Flash

No flash. Plus this is my favorite picture!



In the first photo of the three you can see the somewhat golden tones this polish gives off and in the pictures without the flash (I just noticed as I am typing this) looks like the cooper pots that have those little divets in them.

All in all I'm still unsure how much I really like this.  I'm going to say its a love/hate relationship. I think if I was paler it might be better.. but then if I was tanner I think it would look good too. I don't know!  I feel it doesn't mesh well with my skin tone but its workable. Does that even make sense? That whole paragraph was probably redundant.

Anyway, thats all for this post today! I think I'm going to start to work on some St. Patricks Day nail art even though I don't celebrate it, (not irish) :(.

Talk to you all soon!
Nicole.

I bring you Milani!

Hi lovely readers!

I am so surprised that it has been over a week since the last time I posted ( okay its only one day over a week). Still The last thing I posted was my Valentines manicure. Okay, two days after Valentines Day I went to the mall for some much needed retail therapy. I had Sephora gift cards I wanted to use, and maybe get some polishes too...even though I am "supposed" to be on a polish ban until the end of March when the Hunger Games Collection comes out.

I sort of broke that ban, only because I found 6 polishes that were on my wish list and one that was recommended to me. For a grand total of 7 the most I've bought in one day!

Today I bring you the first of the seven polishes. I am going to space them out by once a week maybe two in a week because I feel it will give me more blog post to plan. Work has me by the gonads, working crazy shifts. Yesterday I had to work till 10pm at night then come back in at 7:30 this morning. Not fun when you can't go to sleep right away. That's been one of the many reasons why I hadn't posted in a week. After my shopping trip I found out some not so nice stuff about the some of the people that I work with who decided its cool to talk crap. I now realize my circle of friend is now on one hand. I'll spare you the horrid boring details but yea that's one of the reasons.

I also got sick. Yup, my mom had a cold on Valentines day then kindly gave it to me. Thanks mom! So I was sort of unable to breathe and talk without hacking up my lungs and blowing my nose 24 hours a day! Needless to say I am much better now and couldn't wait to post this color for you guys! I even got sun pics!

Okay so since you guys have gotten through my very long intro, here is the reward with some lovely pink holographic goodness!

This is Milani 3D Holographic Nail Polish! I was very lucky enough to walk into the CVS at the mall and while my friend Stephy was bearing with me as I dragged her through, I hit the Milani display and found all six of the 3D Holos! I grabbed four of them since they were the only ones that stood out to me. I will probably go back and get the other two.

This is Digital. It is a pastel pink scattered holo, that sometimes when you catch it in the right light you can see some slight linear holo too. I would like to say that these polishes have a jelly like finish to them. The photos I am going to show you are 3 coats, you can't see my nail line but to my naked eye I can still see it. It doesn't bother me but adding one more coat made the difference.

The jelly like finish is something that I really like about these. These are my first holographic polishes, and boy am I addicted. I plan on buying back ups of these either online or when I go stalking some CVS soon. Shhhh... don't tell my mom. She is the one who is trying to help me enforce my no buying policy.

I did try to create a macro shot so you can see some of the colors but its not the best.

I love the rainbow effect with this  polish the '3D' effect that you get kind of makes the holo seem suspended? When you first apply these they seem like it would be gritty but its not at all!

Okay I think I have ranted enough. If you can still find these at your CVS I would say grab them! I paid $5.49 each for mine, but it was worth it. On the CVS website they retail for $4.99 and I think the the same on the Milani Website itself, but don't quote me. But I just checked and they are!

Oh and if anyone out there knows how to take a good macro shot please let me know!! I am always wanting to know new tips and tricks I can do with my camera!

Talk to you all soon!
Nicole.