Angel Wings

I only had time to do one coat of polish this morning, so I picked the Maybelline Brocade in Silver Swank.  While it doesn't cover my nail line, the gold shimmer and flecks of silver glitter are pretty striking, and I like the sort of "glaze" over my nail.  Kind of like a low-effort fancy french, not too shabby.

Holly Jolly Texture

I love me some texture polishes, and Zoya's Chita, China and Solange make a lovely giftwrap-style manicure.

Happy Hanukkah!

I thought a jelly sandwich in the traditional colors of Hanukkah, silver and blue, would be a really charming manicure, and this look even evokes a snowy evening to boot, making it doubly seasonal!

IT IS FINALLY CHRISTMAS MUSIC SEASON (happy thanksgiving)

I love Christmas music.  I don't think I can ever get sick of every hokey, oft-heard standard (except for Christmas Shoes, that song is awful).  But I keep myself from listening to it until Thanksgiving; it just isn't time for Christmas music until then.

So, let's celebrate Christmas music season with a holly jolly manicure!

I bought these Sally Hansen Rent the Runway polishes (Red: Rosey Shooter, Green: Green Rocket) way back in October, as I thought they, along with Glitter Gun (a gold) were PERFECT Christmas shades.  I layered them over Zoya's Hunter and Livingston (green and red respectively), to create a pitch-perfect holiday mani.

Jelly Time

Jelly sandwich time, folks!  I needed a little summer color today, seasons be damned!

Gorgeous!  I love this cantaloupe colored jelly, Zoya's Maya, with Maria Luisa in between.  Gotta love a subtle gold flakie peeking out from a lush jelly!

The greatest color combination of all time?

I threw these together on a whim a while back, just to see if they were brilliant or ghastly together.  My verdict? BRILLIANT!

The burnished burgundy-purple base of Revlon's Sugar Plum, with its hint of bronze, balances the pale indigo of Essie's Stroke of Brilliance just perfectly.  This combo just glows, it's an unexpected knockout.

Deep Purple Skittles

Purple: the color of royalty.  The color of spring, when bright crocuses pop up and peek at the sun.  The color of fall, when some trees change from yellow, to orange, to red, to a nearly livid purple.  The last, lingering color of a winter sunset. I love purple.

Zoyas one and all, from left to right: Valerie, Mimi, Mason and Daul.

Autumn

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."--George Eliot

Autumn is, and always will be, my favorite season.  From my birthday, to glorious fall colors, to the cool crisp weather that makes yardwork (my favorite form of exercise) so much easier, to apple season and more, I feel calmer, more fulfilled and more generally happy in the fall.

To celebrate, above are some perfect autumn nails; Zoya Cheryl as a base, a gorgeous cocoa brown glassfleck shimmer, with Candii Blossom Cosmetics Autumn Leaves as a matte glitter topper.  Ahh, crisp fall perfection!

Puttin' on the (Neutral) Glitz

Nude polishes are always a safe choice, a classy choice, and a simple, clean choice.

I like a little flash with my neutral nails, so I popped Nina Ultra Pro's Holographic Topcoat (ugh, buy this polish asap folks, it's amaaaaaaazing) over China Glaze Fast Track, with an accent of Spoiled's Jewelry Heist, and voila!

Luxurious Brocades from Maybelline

I spotted the Maybelline Brocades in a CVS recently, and snapped up three bottles posthaste.  This manicure layers Embelleshed Blues (dark blue) and Beaming Blue (light blue) over Zoya's Neve, a gorgeous purple-leaning blue.

The Brocades can lean a little lumpy if they're more than one coat, but with the layering over a base color they smooth out beautifully with a layer of topcoat.

The shimmer in Embelleshed Blues has a GORGEOUS green flash to it, and Beaming Blue is a light blue/purplish pink duochrome.  Both have larger blue glitters as well, giving these polishes quite an effect in a single bottle.

I'm back!

I've been a pretty lackadaisical blogger for a while now, but I'd like to change that!  I moved house, got a new job, got some chickens and have been working on increasing my fitness level as well, so I let blogging take a bit of a back seat.

I'm hoping to stick to a Tuesday/Thursday posting schedule.  As my polish collection has done nothing but grow lately, I've got even more to share.

Let's start with my current manicure:

I used Zoya's Jaime as a base, and jazzed it up with one of the new Maybelline Brocades, Gilded Rose, and Sally Hansen Glitter Gun from the Rent the Runway collection (see a fantastic overview here: http://nouveaucheap.blogspot.com/2013/08/spotted-new-sally-hansen-limited_22.html).

Application Notes:

• The application of Jaime was very nice; I still had visible nail line at 2 coats, but no streakiness or tricky application, which can be the case with a pastel like this.  
• Gilded Rose is just perfect; opaque in 2 coats, smooth even before you add topcoat, stunning.  I might just buy a backup.
• Glitter Gun was a shot in the dark for me, because a lot of the major brands kind of miss the mark with glitter mixes like this, but I was pleasantly surprised!  Simple application, not too much dabbing to place the glitter, and a free-flowing base that didn't gloop up.

I, much like Wendy Torrance, love pink and gold together. Gorgeous!

Artsy Wednesday: Disney

I've been wanting to try a waterfall manicure for a while, and while I don't think I quite nailed it on the first try, I did end up with a neat manicure.

I used Disney's Snow White as my inspiration, with my middle nail as the skirt of her dress, my index and pinkie as the sleeves of her dress, and my ring as her face/lip/hair color.  I think this turned out a little eerie looking, but frankly the original Snow White story is pretty creepy, so I'm down with how slightly spooky this turned out!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E
Makeup and Masala
Every Little Polish

Artsy Wednesday: Green

Cloud mani time!  I tried a cloud manicure once before and it was a total disaster, but this holo'splosion of a manicure covers up the bruises and warts of my freehanding pretty well.  The layers, from cuticle to tip, are China Club Angel Kiss, Avon Starlight, and China Glaze Kismet.  I love the Halo Hues so much, and the scattered, more muted holo of Starlight really helps set off the different shades of the Halo Hues!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E
Makeup and Masala
Every Little Polish

Artsy Wednesday: Three Colors

It's never too early to start thinking about Halloween, and so I did a fall-ish, Halloweeny manicure to get me in a spooky mood.  I used Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime as the base, then Slick Slate and Sun Kissed for stamping, using the LeaLC B plate.  I'm pretty pleased with the result!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work (and we have two new participants, Makeup and Masala and Every Little Polish)!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E
Makeup and Masala
Every Little Polish

Artsy Wednesday: Inspired by Animation, Adventure Time Nails!

Adventure time!  C'mon grab your friends, we'll go to very distant lands.  With Jake the Dog, all over my nails, the fun it never ends, Adventure Time!

Using Pretty n' Polished "I'm Not a Banana" and Zoya's Creamy, I was able to create the perfect Jake the Dog manicure. I'm pretty proud of how this turned out, it's so cute!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work (and we have two new participants, Makeup and Masala and Every Little Polish)!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E
Makeup and Masala
Every Little Polish

B&W Days 4 & 5: Glam/Cute and Faux Fur

I truly space cadet-ed about the timing of this challenge, so I'm making it up with a two-fer!
Glam/Cute: Lovely rhinestones on a clean white background!

Faux Fur: Rawrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Siberian Tiger stripes.

Check out today's B&W Nail Art Challenge looks!

An InLinkz Link-up

B&W Nail Art Challenge Day 3: Freehand Free for All!

When I hear "Free for all", and it's relating to nails, I hear "GLITTER". I also hear, "I have very shaky hands", so I decided to try my hand at a two-color galaxy manicure, as I figured that'd be more forgiving.  Thus, I give you a glitterbomb of black and white proportions :

Check out today's B&W Nail Art Challenge looks!

An InLinkz Link-up

B&W Nail Art Challenge Day 2: Stamping

I tend to gravitate toward my twirly whirly, fluffy and frilly stamping patterns, so today I aimed to use the harder-edged, more geometric ones off of my LeaLC B plate.  Et Voila!

Sorry for the slightly gloomy pics; it's been threatening rain all day long!
Check out today's B&W Nail Art Challenge looks!

An InLinkz Link-up

B&W Nail Art Challenge Day One. Get-in-shape: Geometric!

What did the acorn say when it grew up?  Gee, I'm a tree! Har har har; that's a favorite joke of my dad's, who was a math teacher for years.

Enough of that corniness!  On to the B&W Nail Art Challenge, Day One: Geometric! I used Julep's Eileen and Wet n' Wild Ebony Hates Chris to create this mod-squad, colorblocked, squared off, super hip, '60s chic manicure.

Groovy, baby.
Check out today's B&W Nail Art Challenge looks!

An InLinkz Link-up

Artsy Wednesday: Inspired by a Designer

BOB MACKIE.  How can you not, when looking for inspiration for a nail polish look?

Feathery swirls, bright metallics, sequins, thank goodness for Bob Mackie!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work (and we have two new participants, Makeup and Masala and Every Little Polish)!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E
Makeup and Masala
Every Little Polish

Julep's Faye: Sun Worshiper

I chose the Julep Boho Glam box for July, thinking I'd take a chance on the color Faye.  It's definitely nothing I'd ever see in a store and think, "That color was made for me!"  Julep called it a bronze, but I don't think of bronze when I see it.  It's the color of pale milk chocolate, with a gold flash in the sun.  I really do think of the term sun worshiper when I see it.

It's like nothing I've ever seen before, and I'm glad I took a chance on it.

The takeaway message is, give a color a shot if it's like nothing you've ever seen before.  It might just surprise you with how much you end up liking it!

All products in this post were purchased by me, and all opinions are my own.