Top Ten of 2011

Hey gals, today I have a little something in store for you. Everyone seems to be doing top 10 or 20 or 25 of their favorite polishes of the year, but I can't narrow down... and also, as I was putting my stash away in my new Helmers, I discovered so many pretties I obtained this year that narrowing it down would be nearly impossible with them all fresh in my mind. Instead, I decided to give you my top 10 discoveries/favorite products of 2011 :)

10. E-tailers/online polish hunting: the day I discovered transdesign.com was a sad day for my wallet. Shortly thereafter came polish hunting on amazon.com, nailderoyale.com, buyincoins.com, ebay.com, harlowandco.org, shop.llarowe.com, etsy.com, and many more. Polish hunting from my cozy computer chair in my PJs?! Yes please! I've found some great goodies and brands this way, as well as nail polish jewelry - win!

9. Zoya: maybe this is just me, but when I first started becoming interested in polish (sometime in 2010), the brands were OPI, China Glaze, and whatever I found at the drug store. Zoya came along in 2011 when I realized they had great customer service and amazing promos. Their polishes are great quality and some of my favorites for the year were from Zoya (I'm looking at you, Feel collection).

My first three Zoyas, can you guess which (or find the old post)?

8. Stamping: when I was younger, I got what I now know to be a stamping machine. I was probably about 9, and it was this complicated machine that you put a plate in, and it had various stages of a design (for example, the white part of a candy cane and the red part separately) and you would put your finger inside and then twist it to get the designs on in the same place. It was a pain in the butt, but I'm sad now that I can't find it, because from all the stamping plates I acquired in 2011, I'm sure I could have had some fun and been unique in the stamping world!

One of my first attempts at stamping for Valentine's Day, I had a long way to go ;)

7. Good top coats: prior to 2011, or maybe even 2010, I didn't even use top coat. In my nail biting days, top coat was my only polish! But when I wore color, rarely did I go through the process of base and top coat. In 2011, though, I discovered what a difference a good top coat can have on a de-grittifying a glitter, prolonging a holo, or just finishing off a mani. My favorites are OPI top coat and NYC In a New York Minute fast drying top coat, but I have many more waiting for me to try!

6. Lex Cosmetics: another great discovery this year: Lex Cosmetics! The premise really drew me in: I loved that fans made the polish story, composition, and name and Lex would make the most popular (by vote). I also love that $1 of each polish goes to charity. I'm excited to say that in 2012, my polish is being made (look out for Tuilleries) and I cannot wait!

Lex Cosmetics Seashell

 5. Lynnderella: I bet a lot of you are surprised Lynnderella is #5 and not #1! Well, she definitely holds a special place in my heart and I will forever be a fan of hers, so long as she never starts a line of shimmers or duochromes *shivers* The Glittering Crowd would have definitely been in my top 5 favorite polishes of this year!

4. Twitter: even though I had twitter before this year, this was the first year I realized how valuable it could be! I've met some great gals on twitter, and great people to talk to, including: Jacqui, Radha, Jamie, Steph, Mandy, Amanda/Melissa, Nicole, Dana, Arlyn, Amanda, Robyn, and on and on and on. When I have 5 minutes at work, I check twitter - and it's all because of these lovely ladies and the way they cheer me up.

3. Linear holo: this was a huge discovery for me this year. I remember stumbling upon the OMG collection at the beginning of the year thinking "oh, that's cool" and by the end of the year I was like "OMG I NEED OMG." and I've accumulated a few :) Since then, Glitter Gal, Nfu Oh, Hits, and various others have entered my world and it's a very welcome addition!

Nfu Oh 65

2. Helmers: my dear, dear boyfriend got me two of these for Christmas and they've changed my stash, seriously. I feel so much better and more organized just having them in my room. They look so nice and organized, it's been a welcome change (Thank you, Brandon!!!!).

1. Rainbow glitters: did you all see this coming? I hope so! This was THE YEAR of rainbow glitter, and my stash flourished. I did a post back in the day comparing all my glitters, but since then I've at least doubled my stash of rainbow glitters. Every brand has their take on it, so trust me when I say I own pretty much all of them. If you ever encounter a rainbow glitter, know that I will lovingly accept and use it ;) My favorite of the year? Lynnderella The Glittering Crowd (see, that's why she wasn't #1...).

Just four of the many I own

What do you guys think? Which of my top 10 do you agree/disagree with? What would you add?

xoxo,
Amanda

Nails Inc Trafalgar Square (Magnetic)

Hey girls... I just realized my blogiversary is coming up! I'll be a blogger for one full year on the 5th of January. Hmm, not sure how I'll celebrate! Any ideas?

Anyway, today I have for you my very first magnetic polish (okay, that's not true - I have four Essence ones that I haven't tried yet because I was waiting for this magnet!). This is from the ever-famous Nails Inc line, and this is the gray one. My BFF got me this for Christmas and I'm IN LOVE :)

I started with two coats of the polish, then right after the second coat was applied, I held the magnet up. You could literally watch the magnet working! So cool. I went with a horizontal stripe pattern since it was my first time trying this out, and it came out really cool.

One of my clients even noticed and she told me local salons were charging $5 per nail to do magnetic nail polish! Boy, sometimes I think I have an expensive hobby, but when you look at it that way, I'm saving money! :)

xoxo,
Amanda

Rainbows & Unicorns & Non-Christmas

Hey girls, sorry I'm running late today! Forgot I hadn't scheduled any posts after Christmas Day. For those of you who celebrate, what did you do? What was your favorite gift? I got a couple of helmers and a diamond necklace - I'm a lucky gal!

I'm making up for my lateness in GLITTER today :) You may all know my not so secret love for Lynnderella. She is basically the goddess of glitter, and I finally used her (IMO) greatest creation ever: The Glittering Crowd. Over 100 types of glitter all existing in one bottle = magic.

Anyway, before I get carried away... I did 2 coats of Zoya's Kendal from their new Feel collection as my base coat. Kendal is a purple-gray and the formula was really great on this. I could have gotten away with one coat. It's great at self-leveling and just being perfect!

Then I added two coats of The Glittering Crowd and here's the magic:

Artificial light

Sunlight

Sunlight

Round, square, hex, bar, micro, whatever type of glitter you can imagine is in this baby - and that's why I love it! Each nail was so unique and fun, I couldn't stop staring at my nails! The only qualms people tend to have about Lynnderellas are that the glitters hang off your nail sometimes, the bar glitter sometimes curls up (I had this problem, so it'd look like I had hairy nails), and the glitter can clump together (seen above). However, it's all part of the process. My biggest complaint in the brush:

All of my Lynnderella brushes are nothing if not wonky. Kinda stiff, narrow, always curved to the side. It takes some getting used to but I've figured out how to maneuver them ;)

What do you all think? Pretty awesome, right?

xoxo,
Amanda

The Evolution of Man...i.

Oh my god. The title of this post is almost too much for me, even. And I'm the one who wrote it! Also, Merry Christmas to my followers who celebrate! Santa Amanda thinks you've all been very good this year, and she's planning a giveaway for you guys to prove it (hint: it's going to include some fauxnad plates).

So, basically, I have a few transformations of the same mani, and I hope you're ready! I'm going to tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a polish named Zoya Kristen. Kristen was a lovely blue-gray pastel creme that covered very well in one coat. Her mommy, Amanda, has been having trouble moisturizing her cuticles and asks that you be kind for these photos. Here's Kristen without flash:

And here she is with flash:

So, although Kristen was very nice all alone, Mommy wanted to add something wintry to her, so she decided to do some snowflakes with her Migi pens.

Unfortunately for the evil witch UNA (untalented at nail art), Mommy's right hand didn't turn out as well as the left, and the snowflakes were removed and Kristen was once again alone until a lovely polish sent by Mommy's friend Jacqui came to the rescue, and her name was Revlon Whimsical:

Whimsical and Kristen spent a lovely day alone together, but Mommy was again seeking a friend for them, so she added some fauxnad snowflakes to make them happy and joyful on this Christmas Day (by the way, no, this isn't my Christmas mani... but it made for good reading...) and to complement the sparse glitter from Whimsical.

So, hopefully you enjoyed my little story. If you skipped over it, that's fine too. I'm apparently feeling very punny and rambly tonight, but I hope you enjoy this mani nonetheless!

xoxo,
Amanda

Fresh Snowfall

Hello again, how's everyone's week? It's Saturday, which is awesome because it's the day before Christmas (for those of us that celebrate)! Today I have some wintry nails inspired by snow - which, coincidentally, I despise. Yes, yes, I'm fully aware, I live in New England and I shouldn't complain and blah blah blah but I cannot help where my parents decided to raise me!

I digress... so I started off with Orly Snow Cone (yes, I am such a cheeseball that I even picked a polish with "snow" in the name). This is a lovely periwinkle-ish light blue that covered beautifully in one coat, but I did two for good measure. Here she is alone (and ignore the fact that blogger, again, has tilted the photo beyond my control).

Then I added what I affectionately call Mini Snow Globe, which is The Icing Crystal Heat (I have no idea where they got this name, absolutely none!). It's small, iridescent glitter:

Behold, a close up showing all the prettiness:

I really liked this mani BUT it came off in sheets and was chipping within 24 hours. I don't know if I should blame my base coat, the Orly, or the glitter... actually, scratch that. I refuse to blame the glitter. So this mani lasted about half a work day and one night before I had to peel it completely off because I looked like a moron.

Oh, and just for good measure, here's the two bottles together. Grown up Snow Globe on the left and baby Snow Globe on the right: 

Snow Globe looks so much iridescent-ier than it's baby, but they both are really gorgeous and I can't really complain about it either way. As you can see, I'm very attached to both *tucks them into bed*. Also interesting that they essentially have the same bottle, but different brands. Wonder whose bottle shape came first!

xoxo,
Amanda

More Christmas Nails...

Two days in a row?! I admit, I'm cheating: I wrote these two posts in a row. But STILL. Give me some credit for trying ;) This mani was intended for a party with my friends from school and we exchanged secret Santa. I liked this idea more in my mind and it looks sort of funny until step two... Also, please ignore my cuticles which are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo drrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I'm sorry.

Anyway, step one: Nubar Reclaim (green holo!) and OPI Log on to Love accent:

Check out this gorgeous linear holo... yummmy!

Then I did a gradient over the Nubar with China Glaze Snow Globe using my Orly Smudge Fixer (basically, drop a dollop of a glitter polish and then paint over it with the Smudge Fixer and voila! gradient). And thennnnn I added China Glaze Ring on the Red over the OPI (sheesh, that's a lot of brands!). Here's what I got:

As you can see, I'm obsessed with Snow Globe. I got a backup bottle from my nail secret Santa and I'm so relieved - I was hoarding my bottle (seen here) and refusing to use it as often as I'd like. Now I will be using this wellllll into the summer, probably year round, calling it Sand Globe or Snow Cone or something so that I can justify it...

xoxo,
Amanda

Christmas Party Nails

Hi everyone! I'm back...ish. I was really behind on Christmas manis and it's just not the same posting them after the holidays, so I guess the deadline inspired me! These are the nails I wore to my work Christmas party, which was kind of a good idea in my head but didn't work out exactly as planned.

I started off with one coat of Ulta's The Jungle Look - ONE freakin' coat. Below is no top coat, too, and look how shiny! This color reminds me of Mandy because she's always encouraging me to use it ;)

Then I wanted to add some dots. I decided on silver, but my boyfriend also wanted red... but the red didn't really show up and they just looked black in most lights. You can see it below with the flash that it is red, but the first picture they hardly show up. I made the dots using my Migi nail art pens.

And there you have it, really simple holiday mani. I was going to do this with blue and silver for Hanukkah as well, but I've lost track of all time and haven't... but you can visualize, I'm sure.

xoxo,

Amanda

Winter

Hi all, I wonder if you've noticed a bit of a change in my posting or demeanor lately? If not, I'm glad.. If so, I'm sorry. I'm not closing my blog down by any means but this time of year is just hard. Lots of people struggle around the holidays, including myself. However, some of you know I'm a therapist -- that means my workload also increases as others begin to feel the weight of the holidays and winter in general. It weighs on me, too.

I'll be posting as frequently as I'm able and of course I'll be checking in to read and reply to comments, chat on twitter, answer emails, or whatever method of communication you prefer. I have lots of pictures ready to be posted, but lacking inspiration to write at the moment.

Please remember to enter my current giveaway; it's lovely software and I'm glad to have it for myself. You will enjoy it too. My sparkle giveaway winner was April, I'm not sure if she has a blog but if she does I'll add it here.

You'll all be in my thoughts and hopefully it'll be back to normal soon.

xoxo,
Amanda

Small changes

You guys will notice a few small tweaks. I installed Disqus for commenting, to hopefully make it easier and allow you all to know when I reply to you. The colors are showing up a bit weird for me, if you know how to change the colors within Disqus, let me know.

xoxo,
Amanda

I'm Not a Nail Artist... Part Three

Hello! How's everyone's day going? Today is my five year anniversary with my boyfriend! I'll be gone for the night to go to my nearest Ulta in Connecticut and just enjoy the sights we don't have in Massachusetts :) Any weekend plans for you guys? I have another nail art attempt today, which didn't turn out horribly but was really much better in my mind. I decided to emulate a Christmas tree, but not drawn on each nail. Instead, I made it so each nail was a part of the tree. For each nail I started with Ulta's The Jungle Look then added some sparkly green from my Migi pens for the branches. Then, I added red candy canes and various colored ornaments to each nail, and a yellow star at the very tip of my middle finger.

I took this picture before top coat because I wanted to see if I liked it better 3D or with topcoat... but the polish wasn't totally dry apparently and smudged to smithereens with top coat, so this is the best way I have to show you. Again, remember I'm no professional and take this as inspiration if you want to improve on it :) What do you guys think of the concept?

xoxo,
Amanda