Happy Birthday Nicole!

Today is one of my dearest friends Birthday!

I met her in 10th grade and went to college together and have remained friends ever since.  She is an awesome mother, wife to a husband in the military and the best friend a person could have.

In March I asked her the craziest request.  She lives in Texas and I heard thru the bloga-sphere that there was a beauty Supply in Houston that had the Black Holographic version of OPI My Private Jet  ( I have since found it).  I thought "Houston?..Nicole's in Houston".  I immediately emailed her.

I asked her how far it was from her place and she immediately volunteered to go and get it.  At the time, I had no idea that the Beauty Supply was 45 minutes away from her house. She went on a afternoon trip that weekend, and called me from the Supply House.  They did not have anymore MPJ, but they did have "Mad as a hatter"...which she graciously grabbed for me and sent.

She wouldn't let me even pay her for it (I'm gonna get you back Nicole, just you wait). :P

So in honor of a really great friend on her birthday, here is OPI's "Mad as a hatter"

3 coats of perfection!

Blurry pic so you can see the *Bling*
Multi colored glitter that shimmers like no other...gritty?..YES..gorgeous?...HELL YES!

Thanks Babe..... and Happy Birthday Nicole!

Help Susie's son and get some cool stuff to boot!

Susie over at Susie's Home and Hobbies is having the cutest giveaway and is asking you to help her sons band.

Click HERE to enter

Put some gas on it!

Here is a great color I received in a recent giveaway, "Gasoline" by GOSH

3 coats no top coat.  Stunning purple glass flecks with light purple and blue shimmer. GORGEOUS!

 

The first coat was a bit sheer, but it layered nicely and applied well, no issues! 

I'm really loving the "glass fleck" theme for this years spring/summer colors...BOY I hope this theme continues on for fall.:)

And don't forget about my giveaway, enter by clicking on the picture in the top right corner :):)

Awards, Thank You!

First off I have to thank everyone who takes the time to visit my blog and comment, Thank U, Thank U, Thank U!

I have over 300 followers and I am FLOORED that anyone wants to hear my ramblings and see my pics!

OK :)

I was awarded this award by  Le Vernis Chocolat  and Amused Polish, so I am paying it forward!

Copy the award above, place it on your blog - link your blog back to me and follow the rules below.

I have tagged the following blogs

1.Lissa's Nails

2.My latest Obsession

3.Painted Tips

4.Polish Mayhem

5.Nikki's Nails

The rules are to tag 5 !

Then to tell 5 things about yourself:

1. I love the color blue, but I always buy things in other colors to give my self "forced variety"..LOL

2. I love candy, but hate Chocolate.

3. I drink loose leaf green tea everyday.

4. I dust my car off once everyday with the "California duster" (its black and dust shows after 10 minutes)

5. I still call my mom "Mommy" and my dad "Daddy"...hee hee!

Then Karen D at  Frazzle and Anipolish  and Katrina at Katrina's Nail Blog gave me this cutie

The instructions:

1.Thank the person who gave this award to you.

2.Copy the award and put it on your blog.

Done and done.

3.List 3 things which you love about your self.

Here goes:

— I love my thick eyebrows...easy to see the new hairs when I'm plucking them!

— I love my ability to laugh out loud at least once a day :)

—I love how much I love post-its!  They are the best invention ever!

4.Post a picture you love.

I downloaded this from the Internet a while back, PURE happiness...we should all live this way...except without all the mud...LOL!!

5.Tag 5 people you wish to pass this award on to.

I already tagged 5 people above, so I'm gonna make it a combo deal and give them  all both awards!

Keep it sweet ladies!!

Nail Hauls and the best find ever!

Okay so I have a lot of new polish, here they are!

RGB had a buy one get one Free sale for their 1 year anniversary, so of course I ordered.

This is "Dove"  and "OxBlood"....and I am in love with "OxBlood"..."Dove" not so much!

Next up is my 2nd Zoya Exchange Haul

 

Jancyn

Zara, Pinta and Ki

Kotori, Mimi, and Freja

Okay so I was picking up my mom at LAX and decided to wait in the parking lot of a nearby strip mall.  

So I'm sitting in the car waiting for her call and reading my InStyle (I love InStyle), and there was  a homeless man going car to car asking for change.  Well I wasn't in the mood to be bothered after an hour drive to LAX,  so I decided to move the car away from the scene.

I decide to park in a far corner, and while parking the car I see a Beauty Supply...SCORE. I can kill some time in there and wait for a call.  I go in, make a "bee line" for the polish and I see a row of white boxes...WTF...Yes this supply had OPI DS and had A LOT!  

I almost had a coronary while I was looking at the names and checking my list on my iPod. (Yes I keep a list on my iPod of polishes...LOL! :) 

Oh my god, they had three on my list and here they are !

DS Original, DS Exclusive, DS Royal

I was soooooo F'in happy, Woo Hoo, and they were not marked up a crazy price.SWEET!Also they had some older OPI's discounted to $6 bucks...Me likes this place!!!

Best trip to the airport EVER!  I can't wait to take my next trip out of town, I'm stopping at this Beauty Supply EVERYTIME.

Minty Fresh

Because of all the hype over mint colored nails, I found myself buying a lot of mint polishes BUT I have yet to wear one as a full manicure...HILARIOUS! 

So here are my colors, which one should I make my first mint manicure?

Left to right (starting at thumb)

Avon "Teal Waters" 3 coats

Catrice "Sold Out Forever" 2 coats

OPI "Damone Roberts 1968" 2 coats

Revlon "Minted" 2 coats

China Glaze "Re-Fresh Mint" 2 coats

I was surprised to see that the coveted Catrice (Chanel Jade dupe) was so close in color to the Damone Roberts...this is good for those of you who could not get your hands on "Jade", you still have a chance with OPI Damone Roberts and the Catrice. :) 

I also love that the Revlon and The CG are both light mints but different.  The Revlon is cooler and more blue and the CG is warmer, they are so close, but still different.  The Avon is in its own category, a great minted shimmer.  

So if you got the OPI Damone Roberts, you are all right for the color of "Jade", but still missing the shimmer. Here's a closer look!

Can you see the shimmer, the shimmer is a really nice bright green shimmer, subtle yet stunning. 

If this Catrice is a "Chanel Jade" dupe, then I NOW know why they all went crazy for it...STUNNING!

So which one should be my first Mint Manicure?

Adventures with Charla

I love Zoya's Charla and I may have to get another bottle because, I keep wearing it and playing around with it, layering it etc.

So here is the first thing I did after my first swatch of it....

 1 coat of Charla over Zoya "Ibiza"

1 coat of Charla over Sally Hansen "Blue it"

2 coats of Charla over Sally Hansen "Blue it"

2 coats of Charla (after 4 days) and then I decided to sponged Zoya "Ivanka" on the tips to get 5 days out of it :P

I loved layering Ivanka over the tips of Charla,  Ivanka really turns more greenish/gold when its against Charla, it was a true "Mermaid Manicure"

You can see the tip wear ( I was attempting to cover) in the pics, but in person there is so much "bling and shine" you don't even notice it!

 I really like Ivanka sponged over the tips of Charla....Which do you like?  Of course when I took my lovely Charla off (using the foil method) she bled blue all over my nails, I have smurf nails for the first time, even with a base coat, so next time I'm doing two layers of base coat...shes a tough old bird...but I love her :)

Glitter Removal

I was at CVS this weekend...SHOCKING!.....and I saw that they had a new cotton pad for removing nail polish.

It has two sides, one soft and the other exfoliating bumps.

See they have "exfoliating beads" in the pads

I wouldn't say that there are actual beads in here, but they are bumpy and harder, not just "quilted" like toilet paper :)

So I decided I would give these a try and see if they remove glitter and glass flecked polishes easier than the "foil method".

Currently I was wearing Sally Hansen "Laser"

I had on 1 coat of  base coat, 1 coat of a nude color and 2 coats of "Laser", and 1 coat of top coat.

4 fingers later, this is the result.  I know, I know it looks gross, but its important to note that although these have beads, they are really thin, I mean LOOK...there are 3 holes in the cotton pad.

So I decided to use these for my usual "foil method" on my other hand.

I like to cut the pads into 4 pieces.  I use one piece per nail.

I saturate the pad with remover (not a difficult task since the pad is thin)...then I wrap with foil, wait a couple minutes, unwrap the foil and remove by slowly pulling the pad off the nail!

Come closer my pretty! HEE HEE HEE HEE!

All gone!

My final verdict: These are no better than regular cotton pads from the drugstore, although I prefer the cotton pads from Japan.  I'm out now, but when I get more I'll show you a picture...they rock! You can find them at most Asian Markets.

These ARE better than cotton balls, no wisps of cotton sticking to everything, but NOTHING, NOTHING works better than the foil method!

Almost 300 followers, I'm soo floored...Thank You everyone for following!!! 

Also do not forget to enter my purple giveaway it ends next Wednesday June 30th!

Keep it sweet!

Funky Fingers: Alice in Wonderland 2010

I just received in a giveaway from Oyku, the set of Funky Fingers inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

I've been told that Funky Fingers comes from the same manufacturer as Color Club, so some colors are the same, which means if you can't find the Color Club version maybe you can find the same color in Funky Fingers....you can't beat that.

and away we go........

3 coats w/ top coat

"Mad hatter"

Sorry for the blurry shots, but these are the only ones that are color accurate. Great turquoise creme, bright and pretty, but it dried matte, so I needed a top coat to make it shine. Plus, I had to do 3 coats to get rid of bald spots

3 coats

"Off with their heads"

This is a nice red creme that leans pink.  I'd call this a "fuchsia red" creme.  This was a bit streaky and 3 coats was necessary to get rid of some bald spots.  It dried with a nice shine, no top coat necessary.

2 coats w/ top coat

"Chesire"

I love this purple, bright lots of pigment, beautiful creamy goodness! 

I'm told this is the same as Color Clubs " Pucci-licious".I saw a post where they were the same, I always forget where I see certain posts.  I follow over 100 blogs, so I mix them up all the  time..apologies!

I FOUND IT, over at My Latest Obsession

3 coats w/ top coat

"White Queen"

This one was pretty thick and would be better as a top coat over another polish.  the base color reminds me of a milk glass filled with water..make sense? Then fill that milk glass with muti-colored glitter. Got it?...good! :)

3 coats w/ top coat

"Alice"

This is the stand out of the group, simply stunning, Its a deep marine blue micro glitter, It almost has a metallic finish, GORGEOUS!

This is my favorite hands down, followed by "Chesire"...Overall I like Funky Fingers, despite needing 3 coats on most of them, the formula is easy to handle too! 

Thanks for reading!