Sparkling Mimosas

Happy Tuesday! Just a quick swatch post for your viewing pleasure, tonight. From the "vault," which is very tiny. We've got two polishes from China Glaze.

This is three coats of China Glaze Mimosas Before Mani's from Spring 2013's Avant Garden collection. MBM is an orange-toned coral with a golden shimmer all throughout it. Application on this one was streaky and uneven. It definitely needed the three coats to even it out. This is shown with flash to display the true color.

To add a little sparkle, I added one coat of China Glaze Glitter Goblin, from the Halloween Collection that came out in 2012. I won this in a giveaway from the amazingly talented and sweet Heather at Peace, Love, and Polish.

Glitter Goblin is a mixture of silver holo and orange micro-glitters suspended in a clear base and is a a really fun, festive way to add some glitz and sparkle to a mani :)

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

xo, ali

Float Like A Butterfly

Hey guys! Happy Friday! Here I am with yet another (late) installment of Golden Oldie Thursdays. This week's theme was orange. Orange is probably one of the colors I have the least of in my collection. It's just not a color I am drawn to. It always reminds me of Halloween or Thanksgiving or high school homecoming. We were the Tigers so of course, our colors were orange and black.

Then, it hit me. It's time to try some nail art! I found a great tutorial from Adventures In Acetone.

I started with two coats of Ulta Bang!, which came in a pop-art themed mini-set a couple of years ago.

This pumpkin orange creme went on smoothly, with no problems and minimal clean-up. The formula was consistent and there really wasn't any worry of cuticle pooling.

Next, I followed with one coat of LA Colors Color Craze in Magnetic Force

This polish added a golden sheen and some visual interest, which I really liked. I got a lot of compliments on this combination

I topcoated and then used this tutorial with an LA Colors Art Deco black striper and a generic Sally Hansen white.

Here's the finished result:

I knew this manicure was a success when one of my co-workers asked me if that was a butterfly on my ring finger :)

I'm really proud of this manicure, also. I can tell that my nail art skills are improving, slowly but surely. It helps that it is such a fun hobby and skill to curate, too!

Be sure to check out what the other girls created for this challenge!

xo, ali

Pickin' Wildflowers

Good evening! I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was a three-day weekend and it was spent on a wine tour, spending time with my sister, and saying goodbye to my parents. They moved to North Carolina today because my dad retired. I'm very happy for them to be able to start this chapter of their lives but I already miss them like crazy!

Part of this weekend was also spent getting a "professional" manicure. I use that term very loosely. I've had great manicures in the past and I even fell victim to the glamorous lure of acrylic nails. But, this weekend was, quite possibly, the worst manicure experience I've had. As you know, I rock square nails, or as square as I can make them. As you'll see below, they are now round. I actually had to request the manicurist to use a basecoat before she polished. I had to do clean-up when I got home.

I guess this is the catch-22 of being a nail polish addict. I may not be a licensed nail tech but I've become pretty picky over the years about my nail care routine and how my nails are painted. I know that this tech is just trying to do her job and doesn't bank on getting girls like me in her chair but your professionalism and customer service can go a long way!

/rant.

Thanks for letting me get that out of my system. Let's get to the real reason you're here.

After my professional mani (OPI Cajun Shrimp) chipped the day after, I decided to do my own manicure.

I used three coats of Revlon Parfumerie Apricot Nectar and stamped with Color Club Wildflowers

I had a really hard time getting this to be color accurate and it was super-frustrating.  I need to get a different set up for my pictures and lighting. The most accurate color of Apricot Nectar would be the bottle shots. It's a pink toned orange and reminds me of orange Creamsicles. Wildflowers is a pink-toned red that stamped really well. Of course, I was also using a Bundle Monster plate, so that helped a little bit ;)

I can't wait to use Wildflowers as a full mani.

That's all from me, tonight. See you on Thursday for GOT!!

xo, ali