It's not always rainbows and butterflies...

80's


Today's Spring Challenge was Unicorn Magic Day!  The challenge was to make your mani magical.  I didn't want to do a full on unicorn on my nails -- well OK I did -- but I didn't really have the time or inclination to attempt it!! So I did some magical type colors anyway.  This mani reminds me a bit of those velvet posters everyone used to hang on their walls in the 80's.  The background is loads of fun colors, the foreground is leopard (which is just awesome let's face it) and the matte topcoat gave it a washed out jeans type effect.  VERY magical!  I hope you all enjoy and thanks again for following!! 

PS.  I'm REALLY working on my cuticles for you all!! I've had TWO paraffin dips this week AND I'm keeping a constant stream of Neosporin and cuticle oil on them. They look TONS better already!!

Colors used:  Revlon White On White, Color Club Poptastic, Almost Famous, and Chelsea Girl, butterLONDON Slapper, and Hard Candy The End.

Lucy in the Sky...

China Glaze

Today's Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge is your favorite Spring purple or peach.  I'm going to start by apologizing for the terrible state of my cuticle. Two sets of wraps and acrylics plus numerous other procedures in nail school have made a total mess of them.  :/  Even Photoshop can't help this hot mess.  BUT...I'm still trying to keep up with the challenges.  I used my new OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI for the base on this one and then topped it with some China Glaze Sweet Hook and then topped that with Barry M Silver Foil.  I love this cloud-like effect and was excited to try it out although I think it could use some tweaking before I do it again.  I struggled a bit with the color choices and the Barry M was a little streaky.  But it still came out rather nice!! I hope you all enjoy and I promise I'm giving my cuticles some EXTRA love for the next pics!! :)

Petal Pushers

holland


Yesterday's challenge for the Purple Crumpet Fairy was to do a blossom tree.  First I thought I wanted to do Japanese cherry blossoms.  I love cherry blossoms and they always look so pretty on a nice, muted blue green background.  But I've already done cherry blossoms twice now...a bit better the second time I think!  So I didn't want to do that again. And I wanted to go in a little bit different of a different direction with the color and shape of the flowers.  So here are my first lily-like flowers. Obviously they need a bit of tweaking but I think they came out rather nicely under the circumstances!!  I apologize for the horrendous quality of this picture.  I really need to try to remember to bring my camera to school with me!!  I hope you all enjoy and thanks for following!! :)

Base coat is: butterLONDON Teddy Girl
Flowers are: Catrice Sir!Yes!Sir!, Models Own Utopia, and OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI

Stitched Up

dotting tool

Today's Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge is Pink Polka Dots.  I actually cheated a little bit on this because I'm not using pink. But...this is a peachy-pink and it's SO very pretty that I'm using it anyway!  I wanted to do something simple but fun for these so I went with some simple alternating colored dots. :)  I used Orly Prelude to a Kiss and You're Blushing from the new Spring Cool Romance Collection.  Easy and pretty!! (please excuse the AWFUL lighting on this. My mouse is AWOL for my computer to light editing is impossible and the lighting I have available to take photos in SUCKS. I encourage you to google swatches of these because they're WAY prettier in person!!)

Thanks for following!!

A Very Merry Un-Spring Color...

blonde bombshell

Today's Purple Crumpet Fairy Spring Challenge is a non-Spring color.  I actually have quite Spring-like nails at the moment and don't really feel like taking them off so I'm using this picture of a mani I did around New Years.  I was somewhat inspired by the swatches I kept seeing of the Essence Circus Circus polishes and wanted to re-create the gold on black look without buying them. Even though this didn't do much to stifle my lemming it was really quite lovely.  I used Orly Goth as a base and then put two coats of China Glaze Blonde Bombshell on top.  It has little silver and gold glitters as well as larger gold glitter flakes which were GREAT for New Years!  I hope you all enjoy and thanks for following!!

Pucci, Pucci, Please?

christmas nail art
 

OK so today's Spring Challenge is a water marble.  Until a few days ago, I had NO idea what I was going to use for water marbling something for spring.  When I think of spring I think of bright, fun colors and I have ZERO.  I know, how is that possible, right?  I just tend to shy away from brights,  I do have some poppy Barry M colors, but they didn't marble to my liking.  So...then I got a WONDERFUL birthday present in the mail from the lovely Stella. A WHOLE set of Color Club Poptastics.  I immediately thought they would be amazing for water marbling and...as it turns out...THEY ARE!  My index finger got a little messed up on this one because the marble separated too much and it spread to thin across my nail when I dipped it.  I intended to fix it later but never did. :/  Life gets hectic, right?  I did another water marble with Chelsea Girl, Almost Famous, and Twiggie from this set which also came out lovely.  (You can check it out below!!)  Thanks for following and I hope everyone is having a great weekend!! :)

All colors by Color Club: Warhol, Pucci-licious, and Twiggie.


Twiggie, Almost Famous, and Chelsea Girl marbled with zebra print!

The Swingin' Sixties

Barry M


Today's Purple Crupmet Fairy Spring Challenge is to do small flowers or a flower bed.  I started with a COMPLETELY different design for this challenge but then I pulled out this awesome vintage 60's mod dress I have to wear today and I decided to do these to match.  I used Color Club Twiggie for the base (fitting no? I swear it was a complete accident!!) and stamped Barry M Cyan Bllue over the top. :)  These nails make me so anxious for Spring!! Thanks for following!! :)

It Takes Two...

buttlerlondon teddy girl

Today is a two-fer!!  Pink Wednesday along with Day 2 of the Purple Crumpet Fairy Spring Challenge.  Day two is supposed to be your favorite Spring pink.  As it happens, I have a LOT of pinks that are great for Spring and I picked up a few of the new China Glaze Electro-pop's the other day which I think will be great in the warmer weather.  But I gravitated to the butterLONDON's where I have this gorgeous pastel pink called Teddy Girl.  I jazzed it up a bit with some little dots for fun. :)  Hope everyone had a lovely holiday yesterday!! Thanks for following!
ButterLONDON Teddy Girl, Models Own Pastel Pink, Orly Basket Case, and Ulta Snow White

Happy Valentines Day!!

china glaze dance baby

It's Valentines Day!! I hope everyone has a chance to celebrate with the person (or people!) they love the most today! As for me, I will be working. :( But I'll celebrate another time. :)  Today is also the start of the Purple Crumpet Fairy Spring Challenge. And it begins with an apt theme: Valentines nails! I did these nails in class today and I had a plan for them which changed about 15 times ove the course of an hour and I ended up with these.  The red stamping on my accent nail smeared a little when I topcoated which is weird because that never happens to me with Seche Vite...but they'll only be on a day so I suppose it's not that big of a deal! I also stamped the hearts in the moon area AFTER I had painted on the moons which in retrospect was the hard way of going about things!  But it came out rather nice I think.  Especially considering that Valentines Day nails are NOT my most favorite kind :/.  At any rate...these are done with OPI Red, China Glaze Dance Baby, Revlon White on White, and konad colored polish.  Enjoy and everyone have a safe and happy Valentines Day!

Blogger Awards

I've gotten SO many blogger awards lately!! I love that you guys are enjoying my blog and think about me when you're giving them out...but I rarely have time to actually sit and do them!! So today I'm rounding up all the ones I've gotten over the past few months or so and doing them all at once! Ah! Here goes:

First up we have the Nail Polish Tag from Arielle over at Only Always Soccermom.
1. How many nail polishes do you have?
Last official count was just under 500.  I'm  quite sure I've surpassed that now but I'm hesitant to confirm!

2. What is your favorite brand of nail polish?
Barry M, butterLONDON and Models Own rank highly for me.

3. Do you like crackle polish or do you hate it?
I like the possibility of crackle polish but I rarely use it. I also love that it can be used as an instant mani pick me up when your polish is a few days old or you're in a hurry.

4. What was your first nail polish brand?
I think it was Revlon.

5. If you are going to have a nail polish line, what are you going to name it?
I would probably keep it simple and go with Bee Polished.

6. What nail polish colours do not compliment you?
Yellows don't look great on me and neither do reds.

7.What nail polish colours do compliment you?
I love muted blues, greens and greys.

8. Name two of your best nail art friends?
I love so many nail polish junkies!! But probably the two I'm closest to at the moment are Debbie and Claire. They're my loves from across the sea :)

9. What was the best nail polish gift you ever received?
That's a hard question. I've gotten so many wonderful things. But I just won my very first blog giveaway and it was from Angelique who is the very first polish swap I ever did. :) So I'll go with that.

10. make a speech thanking the blogger who gave you this tag?
lol...Thank you Arielle! I'm not good at speeches...but I appreciate you thinking of me and my blog and I'm glad we've gotten to know one another.

11.What is your second favorite nail polish company?
I have three tied for tops.  But after that probably....China Glaze.

12. Glitter or no glitter?
Glitter.  But removal is such a chore.

13. OPI, China Glaze or Essie?
China Glaze.

14. When do you change your nail polish?
I used to change it like I changed my underpants!  Now I do it every three or four days unless I'm on a challenge.

15. What's your favorite colour on your nails?
Blue.

16. Darks or brights?
Darks before brights, but generally I prefer lighter colors.

17. What are you wearing on your nails right this moment?
OPI Red, China Glaze Dance Baby and Revlon White on White.

18. Matte nails -in or out?
LOVE matte nails. And suedes.

19. French manicure?
I do like a classic french. But I hardly ever sport one.

20. Favorite winter colour?
I like silvers and metallics for winter. Or deep greens.

Award number two is: The I Love Your Blog Award

 I've actually recieved this from several bloggers, so I won't single any one of them out! But thank you!! :)

Questions:
1. What is your favorite fashion magazine?
I don't get a WHOLE lot of time for magazines anymore which is a shame because I used to LOVE them.  But I love French Vogue and Nylon.

2. Who is your favorite singer/band?
I'm going to go with The Beatles. I also love She & Him, Dustin O'Halloran, and Priscilla Ahn

3. Who is your favorite YouTube guru?
I know it sounds crazy but honestly, I don't "youtube"

4. What is your favorite makeup product?
My new Barry M eyeliner. I'm in love :)

5. Where would you like to live?
Well I'm aiming for Boston but if I were to pick outside the states I'd go for London.

6. What is your favorite film?
Marie Antoinette

7. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
More than I care to count!

8. What is your favorite color?
Green

And number three is: The Versatile Blogger award which comes to me from http://chromacraze.blogspot.com/
You're supposed to:
1.) List seven things about yourself
2.) Pass to 15 bloggers

There was a survey attatched to the blog I got this award from and instead of listing 7 things about myself, I'm going to go ahead and do the survey.  I think over the past month or so with all the new groups I've joined pretty much all the good facts about me have already been used anyway!

MakeUp:
Blush or Bronzer ?  Blush at all times of year but summer. Then a light bronzer.
Lip Gloss or Lipstick ?   Both. But usually gloss.  I'm kind of a lip gloss addict!
Eyeliner or Mascara ?  Both.  I like to do the winged 60's eye.
Foundation or Concealer ?  Neither. I ususally just wear a tinted moisturizer.
Neutral or Colored Eyeshadow ?  Anything. I love eyeshadow.  Most often I wear a minimal amount in a nuetral color though.
Pressed or Loose Eyeshadow ?   Loose at home, pressed on the go.
Brushes or Sponges ?  Brushes.

Nails:
Long or Short ?  In between.  I like them on the short side since I do a lot of typing.
Natural or acrylic? My natural nails are nice and strong so I've never had need for acrylics.
bright or dark? Anything!
flower or no flower? Depends on my mood.

Body:
perfume or body splash? Ooo I'm obsessed with perfume.  My signature scent is Stella McCartney but I love all different kinds.
lotion or body butter? I hardly use either (I know, bad me.) but probably lotion.
body wash or soap? I like bars.

Fashion
Jeans or Sweat Pants ?  I don't think I've ever worn sweat pants in my entire life.  I have two pair of skinny jeans but I mostly wear dresses and skirts.
Long Sleeve or short? It depends on the weather.
Dresses or Skirts ?  Both. Probably dresses more than skirts though.
Stripes or Plaid ?   I don't really wear plaid so I'll go with stripes.
Flip Flops or Sandals ?   Heels. :P
Scarves or Hats ?   Scarves.
Studs or Dangly Earrings ?  Either. But I mostly wear smaller earrings.
Cowboy Boots or Riding Boots ?   Neither.
Jacket or Hoodie ?  I don't think I own any hoodies, although sometimes I steal my husbands! So I'll go with jackets.

Hair
Curly or Straight ? My hair is curly naturally.  I usually wear it wavy.
Bun or Ponytail ?   Mostly I wear my hair down but I rarely wear a ponytail so I'll say buns.
Bobby Pins or Butterfly Clips ?   I use bobby pins like they're going out of style!
Hair Spray or Gel ?   Hair spray. It's entirely necessary for teasing.
Long or Short ?  My hair is SUPER thick and it gets heavy so I keep it mid-length
Light or Dark ?   I prefer it darker.  But I don't dye it and it's sort of a medium auburn.
Side-swept Bangs or Full Bangs ?   Both. Full when I'm not feeling lazy.
Up or Down ?   Down mostly.

Random
Rain or Shine ?  I love rain. :)
Summer or Winter ?  Winter.
Fall or Spring ?   Fall
Chocolate or Vanilla ?   I don't like chocolate so I'll go with vanilla.


OK that's it for the awards!! I'm not tagging anyone since I did so many at once! lol...but I really appreciate all the wonderful awards you guys have given me! :)

Purple Crumpet Fairy Spring Challenge

purple crumpet fairy
Tomorrow marks the official start of the Purple Crumpet Fairy Spring Challenge.  I can't say that I'm going to participate in every single day of this challenge, I'd like to, but I also have a VERY busy schedule at the moment.  Oh, and my camera is broken!! Of all times. :/  But I'm going to do my best to do what I can and you may have to deal with a few less than stellar pics  here and there! :) Did I mention my mouse quit working on my desktop today too?  What a week.  Anyway here is the list of challenges for Spring:



Tomorrow starts off with Valentines Day nails!! I hope you're all as excited as I am for this challenge! :)  Remember you can always join via Facebook by clicking here or you can contact either of the creators, Debbie or Claire!

Fool's Gold

barry m foil

This is actually a mani I did for Christmas which never made it to my blog.  Since it's pretty cold outside though, it's still a nice winter mani! It was surprisingly easy to do even though it looks kind of intricate which makes it one of my favorite kinds of mani!  I used a base of Barry M Gold Foil, but then because it had a much flatter finish than I expected it would, I put two coats of Essie As Gold As It Gets over the top.  You can't see it very well in the picture, but it gave it a nice sparkly finsih that was a little more what I was going for.  Then I used Orly Ma Cherie for the red lines and dots and Orly Wild Wisteria for the green ones.  I entertained the idea of putting some gold in the centers of the green but then decided to leave it as it was!  I hope you guys enjoy and thanks for following!!

Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge: Based on a Book

book mani

It's time for another Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge.  I actually wore this mani on Friday and meant to have it up for the challenge, but things have gotten a bit hectic around here since school started!!  So here it is a few days late!  The challenge was to do a mani based on a book.  I read A LOT of books.  A lot. A lot.  So it was a bit of a challenge to choose just one.  My initial thought was to do something based on The Hunger Games since those are the last books I read.  Then I thought, everyone is doing Hunger Games mani's and with the films coming out in March there is plenty of time and reason to do one later!  I also entertained Harry Potter because I love those books. But I really didn't have time to do them justice. SO...I chose to do them based on one of my favorite books: Memoirs of a Geisha.  As always, it's a little subtle and a bit muted, but I rather liked the results!  Enjoy and thanks for following!!

What is your favorite book?


Base is: Zoya Kristen
Flowers are: OPI Sparrow Me the Drama and LA Nail Art Pen in White
Tips are: Hard Candy The End

Mehndi your business...

baptiste

This was kind of an experiment of sorts.  I was trying out my new Illamasaqua polishes and after I put Baptists on, I didn't want to take it off!! So after a day or so I decided to make it a little more flashy with some art.  I picked an Indian type print off one of my stamping plates and then finished the design and added some extra flair with a dotting tool and an art brush.  This color is SO much prettier in person.  It's a deep shimmery purple with a rich, luxe finish.  I wish winter didn't force me to take these pics inside under an artificial light. :( But I'm REALLY going to try to convince my  husband to get around to my lightbox this weekend!! Thanks for following and enjoy!

 Illamasqua Baptiste with Orly Luxe stamp and freehand art.

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