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31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 11 : Half Moon Nails

Posted on 10 October, 2012 by Cynthia

A few days ago I broke two nails while I was cleaning and washing dishes. I got so irritated that I cut my nails off. I went chop crazy and cut my nails super short again…yes, painfully short. I know I said I wouldn’t do that again, but I couldn’t help myself. I had initially decided to use fake nails for this manicure and just polish them myself. However, they just looked so odd to me that I ended up prying them off and doing my own tiny little nails. I started out with 2 coats of essence Black is Black.

This really is my favorite black because it’s dark, shiny and super opaque. It reminds me of my favorite patent leather mary janes.

I then used Butter London Wallis for the half moons. I seriously never thought I would like this color as much as I do. I picked it up during the Coterie sale where I got 3 Butter London polishes plus a top coat for only $11!!! Talk about a great deal.

And lastly I applied some gold glitter stars before the final touch: a matte top coat. I had seen someone mattify Wallis and I was instantly in love so I had to try it myself.

I am satisfied with these nails despite how tiny my nails are. I can’t wait for them to grow a little so I can square them again. What do you think of this manicure? Don’t forget to check out the other manicures created by my fellow challenge participants. Thanks for stopping by and talk to you soon.

P.S. Sorry I’m a little rushed but I’m hangry (hungry + angry) and my brother is rushing me since we are going to my favorite mexi-food place. Ahhhh…tacos, carne asada, 7 mares, ceviche…I’m drooling.

Dear Nails, Please Grow Faster

Posted on 25 July, 2012 by Cynthia

My hair has grown enough that it is now refusing to cooperate. I had some real craziness going on today with my hair; so much so that L. was laughing at the state of my hair. It was like an out of control, curly, frizzy and lopsided pompadour. I just wish my nails grew as fast as my cray hair. :/ I really miss having longer nails to work with when I do stamping so I haven’t been playing with any of my plates for almost 2 weeks!!! The following is a mani that I did a while back but hadn’t gotten around to posting. I started with a couple of coats of Essence Black is Black.

Doesn’t this seriously look like patent leather? I think this is my favorite black nail polish.

I used plate BM 320 for this design along with Konad special polish in yellow. I really wish that the yellow polish had been more opaque. Maybe it looks like that because it was stamped over black?

I’m not feeling particularly talky tonight so I’ll leave it at that. What do you think of this mani?

Color Club Almost Famous

Posted on 27 June, 2012 by Cynthia

How do you feel about yellow nail polish? I think I have maybe 3 yellow nail polishes in total and I rarely use them. My mom always used to dress me in yellow when I was a kid because she said it was her favorite color on me. She used to dress me up so girlie: matching dress, shoes, purse, accessories. It was brutal and I pretty much rebelled at the age of 7 and started wearing whatever I wanted. Wearing this yellow color also reminded me of a childhood story.

When I was a little kid, before starting school, we used to live in a really crappy part of town. In fact, it was outright dangerous so my mom would keep my brother and I locked up in the house. That is like the worst torture for a kid so we felt like little caged animals. Whenever we would go out anywhere, my brother and I would run around like crazy completely relishing being out of the house. In fact, whenever we went shopping we would just disappear and we almost would have to go up to a store employee to page my mom because after a while we were lost. So my mom bought us a set of matching neon yellow/orange sweat pants suits. I swear it was radioactive bright like crazy velveeta cheese, and I hated wearing it. I don’t know if it was her way of making us easy to spot or what, but I still kid her about that.

I am not so sure that I like yellow polish on myself, so you let me know.

As far as yellow polish goes, Almost Famous was not terrible to work with. I did find that it got streaky and I created bald spots if I wasn’t careful. I usually try to stick with two coats, but I felt that I third coat would help to make the color more even. This is a very bright and sunny yellow for sure, and I can’t imagine wearing this any time except summer.

I don’t know why I did this design because I hate it. It reminds me of a NASCAR checkered flag. This is just barfalicious and I took it off immediately after taking these pictures.

How do you feel about yellow nail polish? Is there a color that you really don’t like to wear on your nails? Thanks for visiting!

Essence Color & Go Nail Polishes

Posted on 25 June, 2012 by Cynthia

I am not one to ever turn down a good deal so I when I saw some Essence polishes at Ulta, I decided to get a few. For the $1 price tag, I wasn’t expecting anything too special and I was more than happy to try something new. To tell you the truth, I hadn’t noticed this brand even during my regular trips to Ulta. I am glad to report that I think these polishes are just fine. I can’t speak of their longevity just yet, but I thought the colors were nice, pigmented and the brush wasn’t atrocious. I actually liked the brush because it’s wide and it covers my nail bed pretty well in one swipe. I didn’t pick very original colors, but now I know that I can purchase additional colors without reservations.

Nude It! is just a plain old neutral. There is nothing really special about this color but the formula is fine and was opaque with two coats. I wouldn’t really wear this color too often but it makes a good base for stamping and other nail art.

OPI Not Like The Movies, is that you? It’s actually not really a dupe but it has some similar properties. I do like the OPI version better because it has some tiny glitter which really makes it shine. However, I think that Where Is The Party? has a more pronounced color shift. It’s very pretty, but I definitely don’t like the visible brushstrokes.

Boring black? Well, I can’t remember the last time that I wore a black polish on its own. Black is Black won’t wow anyone because it’s just a staple color. Again, I don’t think I’d get much use out of this nail polish on its own but it’s shiny, creamy and pigmented.

Overall, I can’t really complain about these polishes. They are dirt cheap and have a good formula. These are cute little polishes that I can see myself putting in a goody bag or something similar. I’m sure my little cousins would love them for sure. You can’t go wrong for $1!!!