Star Wars Christmas Mashup Mani

Happy Christmas Eve y'all!!!  So, the kiddo doesn't know it yet, but tomorrow night(Christmas Day) we are going to see the latest Star Wars movie, so NO SPOILERS PLEASE.  Because of that, I wanted to do a Star Wars & Christmas mashup on my nails.  He watched me do my nails, and LOVED them, and still has no idea. 

Now while I'm still not 100% happy with them, I do love them.  I guess it's the perfectionist in me & knowing that I can do better. They were pretty easy to do and I'll link the tutorials for where I got the inspiration on each of these from. 

I used a LONG list of polishes, so I'll be sure to list everything down below as well.


For the lightsabers, my inspiration came from a recent video by Simply Nailogical, which you can see HERE. Though the only acrylic paint I used was the white, I did use polishes to paint over the white....because HOLO!

 Blue Lightsaber: Wet N Wild Black Creme, Color Club Blue Heaven, & Revlon Royal

 Green Lightsaber: Wet N Wild Black Creme, Nubar Reclaim, & Verity B24 Aqua Blue

 Red Lightsaber: Wet N Wild Black Creme, ILNP Very Ornamental, & Wet N Wild I Red A Good Book

Christmas tree accent: China Glaze Angel Wings, ILNP A Fresh Evergreen, & stars from Salon Perfect Star Spangled. Tutorial can be found HERE!

 I took this shot outside with my cell phone using the flash.  Because we're having crappy weather, and I finished late at night, it was dark outside & I knew I wouldn't be able to get a full sun pic.
About the only thing I would do differently is maybe not use holo for the sabers? or use a glow in the dark over the white.  What do y'all think?

The Search For A Dupe

Hey y'all! Today, while I clean and do my mani for the weekend, I have a bit of a lippie swatch post for you.  If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen that lately I've been on a search.  My favorite nude, for me, lipstick is beyond the age of needing to be thrown out.  However I just can't do it until I find the perfect dupe for it.  I haven't worn it on my lips, because well....it's old....but I have swatched it on my arm several times trying to find the perfect dupe for it. 

That color would be EMBE Messina Matte.  The company is no longer around, unfortunately, so my only option is to replace it with something else. I've looked around for a while but finally decided to hunker down and find it.  The first, recent purchase, came from Impulse Cosmetics. 

I went with Cliff Hanger.  I knew from swatches that this probably wasn't going to be a dupe...but would be like a deeper nude for me.  As you can see in the swatches below it's definitely not going to replace it, BUT I do quite like it.  It's like a fall nude.

Then, a few months ago, I started making note of lippies from YouTube videos that I thought might be close.  Shortly after I ran into a CVS to pick up one of the new Revlon Colorstay Moisture Stain glosses to try out & grabbed a lipstick from one of those videos.

This is the Revlon Colorstay Moisture Stain in London Posh.  This is a bit lighter in person than it's showing up in these pictures.  It's like a peachy nude.  It does apply a little splotchy, so I've not worn it alone and cannot attest to the "stain" claims.  However I can say that it does have a little shimmer to it and looks great over all of the others in this post.  Scroll down for a swatch.

This is the Rimmel London Lasting Finish by Kate Moss in #14.  It's pretty close....but I think I might get #12 and try layering the two.  This feels amazing on the lips and does look great on me, IMO.  I've seen a LOT of YouTubers say this is their perfect nude and now I can see why.

As you can see in the swatches above...the Rimmel is pretty close, but it's still kinda lacking a little brownness.  Come to think of it, I might have to try layering it over CliffHanger. 

There are a few possiblities from MAC and Dose of Colors that may end my search, but I'm not stopping until I find it.

What's your favorite nude lip? Do you like more pink or more brown nudes?

Williams Martini Formula1 Inspired

Hey y'all!  Today's mani was kinda pushed on me by the man.  He said I should do one to match the Williams F1 car.  He's a fan of racing....anything but Nascar.  Occasionally he gives me ideas, which are always the paint schemes of racecars.

This one was completely freehanded & while one of the colors is "off", it still looks great I think.

The colors I used are Zoya Rocky, Revlon Cherry Bon Bon, and China Glaze First Mate.  I did all of the darker blue with a tiny detail brush.

There was NO way I was going to attempt to draw the logo on, but I think this looks pretty great on its own.  I think I'll try this again with a different shade later on.  What do y'all think?

Bright hair gradient PLUS glitter and stamping

Hey y'all.  So yesterday I posted the base for this mani, which was inspired by a friends new haircolor(s).  Today I added a little bit to it and hope you like.

 It was screaming for some glitter, but I couldn't think of a color that would look over it.  Then I remembered I have Salt N Peppa from Polish Me Silly(formerly Lush Lacquer) that I won in a giveaway ages ago and keep forgetting about.  It applied super easily & laid flat under the coat of Seche. 

 It took forever to decide on a design to stamp on the accent nail and I finally settled on this one from my RA-107 plate by Red Angel using Wet N Wild Black Creme.

Then I decided to grab my phone and take a few macro shots.  BTW, if you have a Galaxy S4, THESE are the lenses I have.  You can't use them with a case on the phone, but they work rather well...especially for just over $10.

So what do y'all think?  I actually need to start using that glitter more!

Gradient inspired by BRIGHT hair

Hey y'all!  So today I have a mani that I did inspired by hair.  A friend I grew up with recently bleached her hair(which ended up yellow) then the slapped some bright colors on it to form an ombre/gradient(whatever you want to call it).  It totally suits her personality and I immediately had to do some nails to match.

This is what I came up with. 

cell phone pic in light box

 I originally tried to sponge the gradient on, but because some of the colors were too sheer it didn't work out well.  I had to brush them on.

I started out with a base of Ulta Sun-Sational, I thought it was the only yellow that I owned, but I found another AFTER I finished this.  Then I brushed on Deborah Lippmann Between The Sheets to cover about 3/4 of the nail.  Once that dried a little, I went a little further down and brushed on Deborah Lippmann Call Me Irresponsible.  Lastly, I finished it off with Revlon Royal on the tips. 

Now, her hair goes from that bleached yellow color(since her hair is naturally DARK) to pink to purple....and the ends look sorta purple-y blue.  That was the reason behind my color choices. 

I really love this.  It's bright and fun.  Be sure to check back tomorrow to see what I do to make it even better. 

Candii Blossom - I Got The Blues

**Press Sample**

Hey y'all!  Today I have I Got The Blues from Candii Blossom Cosmetics to show off.  For now this is the last of the CBC polishes that I have.  I'll have a new one up next Friday on its release date.   So, since this is a pic heavy post I'll get right to it.

This clear based glitter is PACKED with various sized dark blue, silver, and holo hex glitters along with some blue & silver sparkles and shimmer.  It doesn't require ANY fishing for glitter.

Below is 2 coats of I Got The Blues with Seche Vite.....it doesn't eat top coat at all.

Then of course I had to do a jelly sammich with it.  On the index and pinky fingers it's sandwiched between Revlon Royal while it's just topping Revlon Royal on the middle and ring fingers.  Again covered with Seche Vite.

It looked so pretty that I had about 30 pictures & couldn't narrow it down past 5.  I laugh because I posted a teaser video on Instagram of my index finger & Brenda(the owner of Candii Blossom) wanted to know what I was wearing because she just HAD to have it.

I absolutely love this.  It's like a mirror ball on the nails.

This bottle is a 15ml round bottle and retails for $8.00USD.  You can find Candii Blossom on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and purchased on Etsy, 

 Note: Polish provided for my review/swatching purposes.

Revlon Cherry Bon Bon

I still have a large untrieds stash, but this crosses another one off the list & puts it in the Helmer.  A while back, while at Big Lots, I saw a few of the Revlon 2 pack polishes.  I honestly can't even remember how much they were, but decided to grab two packs.

This is one of them, that I happened not to pick up when they originally came out AND it's a scented polish.

Cherry Bon Bon is a jelly finish red that pulls kinda orange.  In the bottle, it looks neon orange, but on the nail it does show more red.  It is sheer, so it took me 3 coats for these results.  I did not use any topcoat.

I really like it & I'm glad I picked it up.  The only down side?  The smell.  It's kinda like some artificial candy cherry scent.  Like really bad lip balm.  Thankfully when I covered it with a glitter topcoat a while back I couldn't smell the fake cherry.

I think I have a few other of these Revlon scented polishes that I need to swatch.

Colorful Candy Canes *Pic spam*

I absolutely can not stand peppermint.  I only have the standard red & white candy canes on my tree because the kiddo loves them so much.  Me, I prefer the flavored ones.  So, when I was thinking of doing a candy cane mani this year....I just looked at my tree. 

I can't remember what flavors they are, or what brand they are......but I picked them up at BJ's in a huge pack.  I just had to do something different than the norm.

And this was the result....

First up, we have a blue candy cane.  I started out with 3 coats of Sally Hansen Barracuda then drew stripes on with a striping brush and used Revlon Royal & Zoya Katherine.

For the Green candy cane, I started off with 2 coats of China Glaze Def Defying, then used my striping brush to apply Red Satin and Escaping Reality.

I really liked both of these & may actually recreate them for Christmas Day in skittle form.  Just because I'm different like that.  Which is your favorite?

Oh, and before I forget....here's my failed first attempt at doing the green one.  I was having problems with striping tape, so I used a dotting tool and a small flat brush.  Yeah, it looked absolutely horrible.