Amanda Does Fauxnad

Hi all! I know a whilleeeee ago I asked you all what you'd like to see more of, and the resounding answer was nail art and stamping. I've slacked on that, but this mani reminded me why STAMPING IS AWESOME AND YELLING ON THE INTERNET IS NOT. Sorry for your little virtual eardrums.

My base color was two coats of Orly Frisky which I snatched up on clearance at Ulta recently. My nails are little nubbins here which always means my cleanup process suffers... sorry. I just hate to look at them so much I avoid thorough cleanup, I guess ;) Anyway, so, yeah... Orly Frisky. A lovely blue creme which is sooooo much more mint green than it shows up here.

Then I thought, "Oh! My readers! They want stamping!" and so I found the single Bundle Monster plate sitting within reach - BM210. (hey, how did he get out of his dungeon?!) I used my favorite design from the plate and Icing Chrome Teal and voila! My favorite mani of the longest time was born. (it's a newborn here, that's why the cleanup is so messy. see how I made it work?)

xoxo,
Amanda

Halloween Part Three: Kesha Nails!

Hey all, I know I'm a bit late but... well, you read my last post. You get it. So here's my last installment of my Halloween nails: my costume inspired nails! For Halloween this year, I was Ke$ha. Whenever I told people that, they'd tell me it was perfect for me. I don't know exactly how to take that, but I took it as a compliment. When I was deciding what to do for my nails, I couldn't decide between epic glitterness, Halloween, or animal print, so I decided to combine all three: glow in the dark animal print with glitter accent nail... EUREKA! ;)

Below is OPI Glow-Ink the Dark from their 2009 Halloween collection (I bought the minis on Amazon) layered over white. It's about four coats: this polish is SHEER (and, to add insult to injury, incredibly hard to take off - like, worse than glitter... ugh). It's a very pretty purple (and does glow in the dark well, but I couldn't get a picture of that since I was doing my hostess responsibilities and then I lost power).

After Glow-Ink the Dark, I stamped with Color Club Lumin-icent using the animal print stamps at my disposal and did my accent nail with coordinating Color Club Jingle Jangle:

Zebra, cheetah, glitter, giraffe. Totally Ke$ha!

 Here's a more close up view so you can see them all. The giraffe stamp wasn't very cooperative, but hopefully people understood the point. Maybe it's more of a cow stamp? Eh, I like giraffes better!

I actually ADORED this mani. It made me want to stamp and glitter-fy everything. I think Ke$ha invaded my brain. I kinda liked it. And tomorrow: Kesha makeup!

xoxo,
Amanda

Boyfriend's Pick: Ulta Scene Steel-er and China Glaze Harmony

Hi ladies (and gents, possibly!) How is everyone doing today? It's Monday which is normally okay for me, since I like my job, but I hate Tuesdays and therefore dread Mondays... are any of you like that? I'm enjoying today though because none of my clients are coming (boo, no money) but it's giving me plenty of time to stalk my fellow bloggers who are at Cosmoprof! (By the way, this post is apparently going to be centered since Blogger won't let me align it left)

Today I'll be showing you Ulta's Scene Steel-er, a gunmetal gray metallic polish. I absolutely love gray polishes. I love gray anything. I fell in love at first sight. It was a bit brushstrokey, but nothing too unbearable, so I wore it for a day on its own. I'm sure this polish would be great for stamping!

Then, my boyfriend helped me pick out a Bundle Monster plate and color to stamp. He has great taste and picked China Glaze Harmony and BM 210. It was subtle, but really pretty and inspired me to let him pick more manis! Sorry for my awkward finger placement, I wanted to show how subtle the stamping was but then you couldn't see it at all so my ring finger is up a little and my pinky kind of followed... it was a mess, but it did show what I wanted it to! haha



Does your significant other pick your polishes or manis? Do you like this idea? Should I make this a regular blog feature? Isn't he adorable? (Oh wait, ignore that last thought...)

xoxo,

Amanda

Yet Another Purple Mani

Hi all! Quick post for today. Sorry for the purple-overload lately but.. well, too bad. More variety to come I promise! (I solemnly vow that the next post will not be purple...) When I was picking up my Charlie Sheen polishes at the Icing, I had to take advantage since the mall was an hour away and trips to the Icing are few and far between. So I scooped up some of their Chrome polishes in hopes that the metallic finish would dry quickly and in one coat for a good on-the-go mani. This is "Chrome Light Purple" (interesting name, huh?) and it pretty much lived up to those expectations. I used two coats to even it out and one coat of NYC In a New York Color Minute Quick Dry Top Coat (whoa, long name much?).

Blurry, but very color accurate.

This picture shows the shimmer and the metallic finish. It dried really quick and the application was a breeze. Definitely recommend this line if you're into metallics!

xoxo,
Amanda

Past week of manis

Hi girls! Sorry I went another span without any posts. I figure you'd rather wait for the real thing than read excuses. Here's my past week of manis, starting with my Valentine's mani inspired by Danielle's Valentine's mani. This is Zoya Reece with Sinful Colors Show Me White, Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go!, and Zoya KI layered over each other on the accent fingers with Bundle Monster plate (I forget the number, but it's the three hearts!):

Next up is Color Club Gossip Column. This is about 12 hours of wear and there are huge chips all over. I forgot a picture earlier in the process, so unfortunately this is all I've got! Sorry. Formula was good on this and I loved the color, but wasn't impressed with the wear (obviously).

Next up I have two Milani Holos, Hi Def (purple) and Digital (pink). They were scattered, beautiful, pigmented holo and I adored them. 

Next was Petites Figi. I imagined from the bottle this was holo too, but instead I got metallic. Highly disappointed by that! It was pretty easy to use and lasted forever, but I didn't like the color on me so it didn't last long. Into the swap bin!

And finally, I got in my China Glaze Crackles (!!!!) and couldn't resist. This is Cracked Pavement over China Glaze Ahoy! which I forgot to take a picture of on its own. This was amazing all in all, even though I didn't expect to be layering over this color since it was beautiful on its own.

More crackles are in for the next post as I made some swatches, but I have to run for now! What did you guys think of my manis? My nails are naked right now, so perhaps I could use some advice for the next mani?

xoxo,
Amanda