Nyx

When I had tried Zoya's Nyx earlier this month, it was over Dream. I don't think I got the full awesomeness of Nyx. So I just did a simple paint job with it. This color is so gorgeous. I found myself staring at it all the time. It was the sparkles. What girl doesn't love sparkles? The only reason I had purchased this polish is that it was my cat's name. Hah, who knew I'd like it so much.

LynBDesigns

I ordered a couple polishes from another Indie polish person. LynBDesigns. I am a geek. Yes, I admit it. I love it. Embrace my geekyness. LynB has many fandom based polishes. I picked up two. A holo names It's Mauve and It's Dangerous. Based on a line from Doctor Who. The glitter jelly is called Mind Palace, a Sherlock based polish.

Loved loved loved these. I am also getting better at my polish lasting longer. This mani lasted from Monday night through Saturday morning. I've been using a layering technique with Gelous that I picked up at Sally's.

I am having a big problem with dry/flaky nails though, once I remove the polish. Any tips?

Polish Addict, yes I am.

Polish addict nail color http://www.polishaddictnailcolor.com, had a sale late last month where some of the minis were $2.50. I decided to grab a few to give her polish a better try than just the Secret Galaxy.

First of all, how freakin' cute are mini polishes? Tiny little bottles. So adorable. Anyway, I gave Dark Secrets a try first. Did I mention I'm a purple girl? I also am in love with the little tiny glitters.

I will say this was a jelly polish, which I did not realize. So it took me three layers to get any sort of opacity, and it was still sort of see-through. This is not a bad thing, just unexpected. I still loved it, and am falling in love with this Indie brand.

The accent was my first Opi Liquid sand. It was in a mini set, so I'm not sure what the name is. Thoughts on liquid sand? I love textures. What others should I try?

Wet n not so Wild

I admit, I gravitate more towards the "pricey" polishes. But I had some Wet N Wild I had purchased on clearance, and thought I'd give it a try.

I wasn't really a fan of this Mani, and took it off after a day. The glitter was OPI, and I liked that it made it seem like a Mermaid tail, but it just wasn't me. There was nothing wrong with the polish itself, I will try it again in the future.

Zoya Carter...first try at dots

A group I am a member of had a challenge to do dots. I know dots probably aren't difficult to must, but remember...nail virgin here. I am in LOVE (LOVE, did I mention) textured polishes. So I decided I wanted to use my Zoya Carter polish. I had received this in the deal in January.

Carter is gorgeous. I am a purple girl. If you asked me what color I'd be, I'd say purple. Because purple is freakin' awesome. However, of the Pixies I have I think Nyx is prettier. I am surprised by this, because when I picked Nyx out is was because of the name.  I didn't think I'd actually enjoy the color. The dots are in Nyx.

I did this in two coats. And I did use a top coat as well.

OPI and Stripes

And then... I got my striping tape in from Amazon. Woot! This is my favorite mani I have done so far. It isn't perfect, at all, but it was so much fun. My husband picked out the colors and told me how I should do it. It was pretty cute. He is most definitely the "artist" type in this family, so I trusted him and gave it a go.

Colors were all OPI.  The yellow is Hit the Lights. I believe I used Alex by the Books for the blue color. And the purple is Love Song.




And then, my 3 year old daughter saw them. Bad mommy, what was I thinking. I told her I'd do hers in the morning, thinking she would forget. Oh no, the first thing she said when she saw me the next morning was "My stripes!!!" Luckily we have piggy paint.

Polish Addict Nail Color

And then I discovered Independent polishes. I sent a picture of this polish to my husband when I first saw it. His immediate response was that I *HAD* to buy it, and that I should hurry up and do so. Hah.

This is Polish Addict Nail Color's Secret Galaxy. It is freakin' gorgeous. Now, it had a learning curve for me. I tried doing thin layers, but was worried it wouldn't have as much depth. Then I read another swatcher who had used the tip of the brush and kind of blotted it on. I tried that. Now, it made for messy nails pre cleanup (and this pic is before cleanup). But it gave it a lot of depth. I need to play with it more.

OPI so lovely

The next mani I attempted was suppose to be the cloud mani. You know, you do three little bumps on your nails, with at least three different colors, and then "how cute!" Except I used OPI. I did not realize until later , that I should have turned the brush on it's side. The OPI polishes have a nice, wide brush. I love this. However, with my tiny nails it was too wide to do this mani without turning it on the side.

I will have to attempt again with that in mind. However, this seemed to be a hit. Many people thought it looked like little hearts instead.




Can I just say, I do love OPI polish though. I have the best luck with them going on pretty smooth. This used Alex by the Books, Stand by your Manny, and I *believe* the pink is Selena.

This is a mani I did using my Zoya colors from the awesome sale they had in January. 3 colors for 12 bucks shipped!

This is Dream, with my first tape attempt with a center stripe of Nyx. This was using scotch tape, as I didn't have any nail tape yet.

Intro

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog. Nope, I have no idea what I'm doing. I am in my early thirties, and to be honest, I was never a nail person. I would buy polish once in a while, but it would get used once or twice to never be seen again.

That has changed in the last couple of months. I started reading a thread on a message board about nail polish, and slowly became hooked.

I am seriously a novice at this. Sometimes it isn't pretty. My cuticles and hands are a hot mess (well, a dry mess). I'm not good at cleaning up, and resort to the "take a shower and pick off the excess the next morning" method. I'm hoping to post here, and we shall all see my progress over time.

Hopefully.

See, not good at clean up :)


But a little better a few weeks later.


And who doesn't like some gumdrops...



red too