Happy New Year!!! My not-so fancy nails....

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year!  I ended up going to my best friend's and hanging out... nothing fancy.  Just good friends and good laughs. 

My nails for the occasion?  Just two coats of China Glaze Gossip over Gimlets and one coat of Fairy Dust for subtle extra sparkle, which you can see in the blurry pic below. 

 

 

 

Happy Polishing!

Plaid hearts....

This is my poor attempt at a mani I saw last weekend by the lovely and talented Quiche Girl. You can see her amazingness here.  Seriously?  How gorgeous are those nails?  Now.  In my defense... I WAS running around with my children and kinda in a hurry to leave the house and head north to the boyfriend's.... and I will also say I WILL be attempting this manicure again.  Soon.  So we'll see.  Maybe if my tips were more rounded?  But I just cant bring myself to round them off.... I'm such a squoval lover.  :/

I hope you guys enjoy it either way. 

I used Mason by Zoya, Spontaneous and Millennium by China Glaze, and Liquid Leather by Orly.  How bad does it look?

 

  Happy Polishing!

Snowflakes in Miami

Snowflakes in Miami...or as close to snow as we might get anyway.  For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope it was absolutely wonderful.  Now, Christmastime is around the corner.  Where DOES the year go?  Anyway, let the holiday nail designs begin, right?  I've seen so many pretty designs, I dont know where to start.  I had my kids this weekend so this mani took me a while, but I finally got around to it.  Whenever the girls see me doing my nails, they want theirs done too.  *rolls eyes*
 
This is two coats of Snowcone by Orly.  One of my favorite blues.  I've had my bottle like three years and it's still good as new.  No formula issues, ever.  Then I took the snowflake images from Konad plate m59 to stamp using Ibiza from Zoya, Millennium by China Glaze and Konad Special White.  Pretty, no? 

 

 

 
Happy Polishing!

It's almost Halloween...

This is two coats of Zoya Kelly using Millennium by China Glaze for the image from Bundle Monster BM-224 image plate.  Cute, no?  As usual, no formula issues with Zoya and Millennium always stamps so well.  It really is a go-to for stamping purposes.  Let's see what else we can come up with for Halloween. 

Happy Polishing!

Sew Psyched for Roses!

Hey ladies! Today I have another long overdue beauty that has lived in my untried drawer for far too long. It was time it was used and graduated to my "green" drawer. LOL! This is Sew Psyched by Essie. So pretty! I got this in a little box set that came with 3 other colors from this collection. The small bottles are cute but now I wish I had a big bottle of this color because it's so amazing! Essie describes this as a cashmere soft sage pewter. I agree with the sage description and would only add that it has subtle silver micro-shimmer. 2 coats for full coverage.

I'm such a cornball. I told my boyfriend I was going to stamp flowers because I get "sew psyched" when he gives me flowers! LOL! *insert knee slap here* So I went with the full nail rose design on m65 by Konad. I stamped using Millennium by China Glaze (a silver). Only downside, I think stamping with silver killed the silver micro-shimmer. Maybe I'm crazy but now I don't see it! *stares at nails* Oh well! Still pretty!

On another note: 5 days 'til my 27th birthday!!! =) I'm so excited. I got myself the Pandora charm bracelet as a birthday gift. But I'm not wearing it until Sunday. Especially since I didn't buy any charms. My mom got me some charms but she won't let me have them until the day of my birthday. No point in wearing a charmless charm bracelet. LOL!

Now I just need to figure out how to paint my nails for that day. Any suggestions?

Happy Valentine's Day

Hey Ladies! This will be a quick post because I'm in St. Louis spending Valentine's Day with my boyfriend. Yeah, this was a scheduled post. At this time I'm on a plane on my way back home... =(

So I wanted to do a Valentine's Day post. This is OPI's Koala Bear-y. I love this color. I've had it for a long time and realized I had never used it. Shame on me. This is a berry fuchsia type pink creme. Great application and great formula. It goes on like a dream. Very bright and pretty. Only issue is that it's difficult to capture on camera. The pictures have a tendency to make the color come out reddish. I then stamped the heart design from Bundle Monster's BM03 plate using China Glaze's Millennium.

Hope you gals like it! Have a Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you guys don't have to spend it away from your significant other!

Over The Top!

Hey Ladies! You would think I wouldn't get more polish with as much as I have in the un-tried drawer of my helmer... But I went to a local nail supply store and saw Over The Top. I've been eyeing it for months but have never been convinced enough to get it. I finally caved. I like the color but it wasn't what I was expecting it to be. Essie describes this as a dramatic metallic midnight silver. It's really dark but not so dark that it ends up looking black. It's like metallic asphalt. I applied 2 coats. The first coat was pretty sheer. And some spots would have needed a 3rd coat if it wasn't for the fact that the 2nd coat I applied was very generous.

I stamped the swirl full nail pattern from the second Bundle Monster set, BM-201. I think its an adorable pattern. One of my favorites. I stamped using one of China Glaze's best polishes for stamping: Millennium. The swirls cover a lot of the base color so I decided to just stamp the ring fingers. Didn't want to cover up that much of Over The Top.

Happy Polishing!

NOTD: A 360 View

Hey Ladies!

I normally don't post on weekends. But I did yesterday because I really wanted to share my swatches and review of the Zoya Fleck Effect Collection. So be sure to check out that post here: Zoya Fleck Effect Post!

I start my last semester of law school today. It's hard to believe that its been almost 3 years already. It feels like I started law school just the other day. Time flies! I don't want to go back. This break wasn't long enough. LOL! But I'm glad it's my last semester. I'm almost at the finish line!!! Hopefully this semester won't be as insane as the last one (which was one of the reasons why I had to stop blogging). Anyways...

Here is another look from the vault. I have so many looks that I did but never posted. This is one of my favorites! I actually want to redo this. It's so pretty! Today's polish is from RBL's Surf's Up collection. 360 is a teal-ish color with extremely subtle silver shimmer. So subtle that you barely notice it on the nail. But I swear it's in the bottle. LOL! The color is opaque enough that you can get away with just 1 coat... but I applied 2 just for that perfect even finish. There is something about this color that is just so beautiful to me. To finish off the look I stamped the flower pattern from Bundle Monster's 2nd plate set, BM224. I stamped using the popular Millennium by China Glaze. I love that flower pattern. It's one of my favorites from the set. I stamped the pattern in different directions so that each nail wouldn't be identical.

Hope you all like it!

SinfulColors Holiday 2011 Collection - Wish

Hey Ladies!

Yes... We're back!

So lets jump right into it. 

This is SinfulColors Wish Collection for the 2011 holiday season. The collection includes 5 polishes and 2 nail art shades. All the colors represent the holidays pretty well. This collection is also great as a starter set since it contains basic colors and nothing too crazy. 

I struggled with using the nail art shades. The brush on these is long and thin. It's not the products fault. I've just never used these before and didn't create anything I was proud enough to post. LOL! So I think I'll play with them more until I learn how to use them properly. I'll probably do a separate review post for them. But just so you know they are called Flower Girl and Fashionista. Flower Girl is described as "a bronzy gold with tons of sparkle" and Fashionista is described as "a glitter-laden pewter." 

On to the polishes... All swatches are with no base coat and no top coat.

Last Chance is described as "an emerald with depth and allure." This is a deep green creme. Very pretty. Reminds me of a christmas tree. 2 coats for full coverage.

This was the hardest color to capture... and this picture does it no justice. Daddy's Girl is "a deep purple with a drizzle of shimmer and glitter." It's a deep purple jelly base with small glitter and shimmer. So I'm having a love hate reaction to this polish. First, it took about 4 to 5 generous coats to get the coverage you see above. But ugh, you can still see my nail tips underneath. I hate that. But the color is so pretty. This picture does not show up purple. I tried so many camera settings and different lighting. But this is one of those purples that photographs blue! *Must do camera research on this issue!* The purple tone, the glitter, and the shimmer go beautiful together. I think this polish would be best layered over a matching purple or a black polish.

My favorite! Midnight Blue is described as "a bold, bright twist on navy." I couldn't agree more. This color is so vibrant and electric. Definitely an attention grabber. It has a little bit of a metallic finish so you have to pay attention to the application to avoid streaky lines. But its nothing troublesome. 2 coats for full coverage and you're good to go!

Out of This World is described as "a perfect silver with swirls of glimmer." This polish is a bit on the sheer side. It took about 3 to 4 generous coats for full coverage. It's a silver packed with silver shimmer/glimmer. Very bright. Reminds me of snow... I wish it snowed in Miami...

Sugar Sugar is described as "a candy cane, red-hot tint." This does remind me of the red stripe in a candy cane. I haven't had a candy cane in years! This is a red packed with red shimmer. Another vibrant and bright color. Perfect for the holidays. 2 coats for full coverage. 

So what do you gals think?

SinfulColors is available for $1.99 at major drug stores. Call 1-800-448-0763 or online at www.walgreens.com.

Starred Purple Panic

Another purple, and this shade DOES NOT DISAPPOINT!  This is Purple Panic by China Glaze.  Good gracious, this is bright, yummy neon purple with the best pink microshimmer.  My nails glowed for days.  In person it's way more purple... it just photographs pink, and boy did I try.  I used Bundle Monster's BM05 plate for the stars with China Glaze's Millennium.  This is definitely going to be a repeat performance for me. 

Happy Polishing!

Swatch - Sephora by OPI's Just A Fairy-Tail

Hey!

I've got an awesome swatch for you guys today! This is Sephora by OPI's Just A Fairy-Tail from the Mermaid in the Shade collection. Did I mention that its freaking awesome? ...Well, it is! Just A Fairy-Tail is a silver blue base with silver and baby blue shimmer. The formula was great but a little sheer. It took 4 coats for full coverage (but totally worth it). This is the first Sephora by OPI polish I've ever used and I was more than happy with it! It is sooooo bright in the sunlight. Kinda like when the sun reflects off a mirror. Almost blinding!

This swatch was done without basecoat and without topcoat.

Happy Polishing!

NOTD - I Love Kelly!

Hey Ladies!

Today I have the 2nd polish I got from Zoya's Facebook promotion. I present to you Kelly from the Wonderful collection. I don't know what is up with me and grays lately... I am attracted to them. Just ask Mari! This is an awesome gray that seems to have purple undertones when out in the sun. It only took 2 coats for full coverage. Application was great (as always).

Note: I know this looks darker than it normally does (when compared to pictures of other bloggers) but that is how dark it was on my nails. I didn't alter the image colors. Its color accurate to how it was on my nails at least.

I decided to spice things up after a day. I used french tip stickers (the ones that are slightly curved) and placed them on my nails at an angle (from bottom left to top right). I made sure it was on there properly to prevent any color from bleeding underneath and killing my straight lines. Then I used China Glaze's OMG to fill in the bottom half of the nail. I immediately peeled off the sticker and topped it off with Seche Vite.

Not to toot my own horn... but I've never tried this before and I think I did a pretty good job! =)

Hope you gals like it! Happy Polishing!

KOTD: Alice Plays Checkers

Hey Ladies! Today I have an addition to my last mani (here). I loved the checkered mani (even though I did it on just my ring fingers) but I wanted to add a little something-something. Nothing too crazy. I didn't want to overdo it. So I decided to go with a simple little heart on m17 (BornPretty plate). The image has 4 hearts but I just used 1 heart (the biggest one on the bottom of the image). I used China Glaze's Millennium for the stamping color and put the heart on the bottom black square.

After I was done I looked at my nails and it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. I love Disney's Alice in Wonderland and loved Tim Burton's version. I'm weird like that. My nails remind me of Alice and the dress she wore while inside the Red Queen's castle. This dress:

I LOVE this dress. If I could buy it right now I would in a heartbeat. I think it's gorgeous and funky (all at the same time)!

Happy Polishing!

KOTD: I'm late... But hooray for Spain!

Hey Ladies!

I'm back with another extremely delayed post. This manicure is from July! Coincidently, I wore this on the day Spain won the World Cup.

OPI - No Spain No Gain

I don't remember how many coats this was. Probably two. I remember this one being pretty opaque fast. This is an awesome berry-purple creme from the Spain Collection. One of my favorites. The pictures, in my opinion, don't do it justice. There is something about this color that just makes it stand out from all the others.

I then stamped the butterfly from CG-04 using China Glaze's "Millennium."

Hope you gals like!

Time to put my noes back in a book and keep studying for final exams! =(

China Glaze Holiday 2010 - Review

Hey Ladies!

Today I have for you the Holiday Collection from China Glaze! I was finally able to swatch these for you (while listening to audio recordings of my class and preparing outlines for my final exams)... LOL! I know there are already several posts out there with this collection. However, it is totally worth posting again!

All of the following are without a base coat and without topcoat. All of the following are just 2 coats of the color and then 2 coats with Party Hearty.

Jolly Holly - Little Drummer Boy - Midnight Kiss - Jingle Bells

Jolly Holly - An amazing bright dark forest green. Yes, it's bright and dark at the same time.

Little Drummer Boy - A midnight/navy blue shimmer.

Midnight Kiss - A gold shimmer/foil (I can't decide which).

Jingle Bells - A champagne/copper/bronze type of shimmer. Yes, take a pot and toss in equal parts of champagne, copper, & bronze and you'll come out with this color. No?

w/ Party Hearty

Party Hearty - A clear topcoat that is jam-packed with glitter! It has small silver glitter, medium green glitter, and huge red glitter. Perfect for the holiday season! Obviously, the more coats you put the more glitter you get.

Ruby Deer - Phat Santa - Mommy Kissing Santa - Sugar Plums

Ruby Deer - A super bright red. Kinda reminds me of a jelly but I'm not sure if you could call it a jelly.

Phat Santa - A gorgeous red. Not as bright as Ruby Deer. Can't decide if its a creme or jelly... or both...

Mommy Kissing Santa - A deep red shimmer.

Sugar Plums - A plumish red color with amazing multicolor shimmer.

w/ Party Hearty

Snow - Frosty - Cheers To You - Naughty And Nice

Snow - A pure white creme. Not chalky at all! In my opinion it almost could be opaque in 1 coat if you apply it properly. Of course I couldn't so I did 2 coats.

Frosty - Just like the name... A white/milky frosty color with shimmer. I'm sure you can get this fully opaque with more coats but I like the way it looks with just 2 coats.

Cheers To You - A silver foil. Reminds me of aluminum foil.

Naughty And Nice - It looks black but its now. It's a great vampy wine color. Reminds me of Essie's Wicked. It looks black but has that gorgeous vampy color when the light hits it.

w/ Party Hearty

Overall Conclusion: AMAZING! I think this collection has a great variety of colors that make it great for the holiday season. I encountered no application problems. Each polish applied like a dream. I didn't notice any staining while swatching. Party Hearty is also a great addition to the collection that helps spice up any manicure. I highly recommend this collection to everyone.

I love all the names and think they compliment the colors. I also find some of them to be humorous. And boy do I love humorous nail polish!

My favorite polishes from this collection (for those who care): Frosty, Party Hearty, Phat Santa, Little Drummer Boy, and Naughty And Nice.

Please read our Disclosure Policy! We received these polishes from China Glaze for review. The opinions expressed on this post are my own.

Redbull Flugtag Nails!

Hey Ladies!

I'm semi-back. Life has been hectic lately. I'm about to start final exams at school. But I'm going to try my best to schedule some of my backed up posts because as Mari said to me earlier this week: "I am becoming one of those bloggers we hate." And I certainly don't want to be one of those to you guys!

Here is a mani from back in June/July.

This is the mani I did for the RedBull Flugtag (using the colors of the Sugar Free RedBull can). If you don't know what the Flugtag is I suggest you YouTube it because it's hilarious. Basically people make aircrafts and try to see how far they can fly them over the bay before landing in the water. Most of them fail instantly but its the creative aircrafts that are fun to watch. The Flugtag was here in 2004 and finally came back to Miami this year! I was so excited! To bad it was too hot and we couldn't bare to stay there for longer than 30 minutes.

This is 2 coats of OPI's "No Room For The Blues" and 2 coats of China Glaze's "Millennium." I stamped the red wing using Konad's red special polish. The wing came from the Bundle Monster plate BM03. The image is actually a heart with wings so I just put a piece of tape over the heart and 2nd wing and only left exposed the 1 wing I wanted. It worked out quite well.

Please forgive my ugly looking nails. I had some bad broken nails back then and had to glue on fake ones to prevent the breaks from getting worse.

Hope you gals like it!

-Lissi

Sephora by OPI: Just a Fairy-tail

I snatched this bottle from one of my BFF's the other day just because I HAD to swatch it. Just HAD TO! It's shimmer on top of shimmer and then more shimmer. It's got silver and so much of it I couldn't tell if it was silver with blue or silver-blue with blue. In the bottle, you can't tell at all. Then you put it on your nails, run outside, and stare at the sparkles. The picture on the bottom-right is a little blurred so you can really see them. *wink* It's pretty sheer though, so this is three coats but it dried pretty quick thanks to Seche Vite.

Happy Polishing!

KOTD: A Tap Dancing Kitty

Hey Ladies!

I literally have a tap dancing kitty for you today... My niece! It's so weird posting a picture of myself on here. Has anyone else pictured what a blogger looks like based on their nails and online personality? And then laugh when you see a real picture of them because its nothing like what you imagined? Or am I the only weirdo? So I imagine some of you gals seeing my picture and thinking "That is Lissi!?!?! Never would have guessed it." LOL!

So my niece is 4 years old and is in dance classes (ballet and tap). On Sunday (June 20th), she had a dance recital. Her class was dancing tap to the Aristocats song and they were all dressed like cute little kitties!

So I promised her I would do my nails with little kitty cats in her honor... Of course she asked me to do cats on her nails too. I had to promise to do them for her the next day (which I ended up doing them tonight) because she wasn't allowed to have painted nails for the recital. So here is my tribute to my little kitty cat:

I apologize for my horrible looking nails and cuticles. I literally did this manicure (with stamp and all) 20 minutes before I had to leave to the show. So I didn't do a good cleaning up job, no pushing back of the cuticles, and no moisturizing. This was a paint and dash mani!

This is 2 coats of Zoya's "Loredana" from the MatteVelvet collection. This color reminds me of fresh asphalt when its still nice and dark. LOL! Zoya describes it as a medium gunmetal gray packed with silvery shimmer and a velvety matte finish. It's not matte in the pictures because I applied a layer of Seche Vite since I stamped. Application was great and it dried super fast (like most matte polishes do).

For stamping, I used China Glaze's "Millenium." The cats are from Konad's S10 image plate. The little fish skeleton is from Bundle Monster's BM04 image plate. I associate cats with fish. LOL!

Hope you gals like it!

O.M.G. It's my New FAVORITE Purple!!!!!

I have a thing for purple... love it! So many shades... lilac, lavender, plum... but this? This is super fantabulous and cool. It's been around the block with you gals for quite some time now but I just can't get over how lovely it is. I'm talking about China Glaze's Flying Dragon. woof. It's b.u.tiful. I decided to go back to my love of stamping for a while because I don't have the energy needed to remove glitter polishes every few days (that stuff can be draining).

I decided to use the star pattern from Bundle Monster's 05 plate with some China Glaze Millenium. Head's up! Dallas Cowboys fans out there: Come the 2010 season, this is the plate to use with your blue polish of choice. Anyway, it's my new favorite mani. Alas... should be getting my Zoya Exchange shipment any day now so I'm gonna make the sacrifice and change my look yet again. *whiping brow*

Hope you like the look! Happy Polishing!

KOTD: In Memory of My Windshield

Hey Addicts!

I apologize soooo much for falling off the face of the planet for a bit. But trust me, I've had my reasons. And here is one of them:

This is what happens when your poor car is viciously attacked by a palm tree frond. Palms trees are the tree of choice in Miami. I think its because of a palm trees high resistance to hurricane winds and our tropical weather. Either way, I've never seen one do this kind of damage! It's common for the frond to fall off the tree when its dry. But you usually just see them on the ground beside the tree and its no big deal. I went to Best Buy to buy a birthday gift and was inside the store for just 5 minutes... Literally! I knew exactly what I was going to purchase so I was in the store for what felt like nothing. I walk back outside and find my windshield smashed. Then I see the frond on the hood of my car. I was parked in front of a bush so the frond wasn't able to finish sliding off my hood. I was so angry. I had a Liar Liar movie moment and yelled at the frond. (For those of you that have seen the movie: it's the scene where his car is towed and he is yelling about the scratch on the car and taking it up the tailpipe.) I was like: "Are you serious!?!?! Are you f*cking serious!?!?!?" There wasn't anyone near me but I wouldn't be surprised if someone heard me in the parking lot and thought I was crazy. There was glass EVERYWHERE inside my car. All over the dash, the seats, the floor, etc. I was so angry. I had to call my insurance and have my car towed home. Luckily, my windshield was replaced within 2 days but I'm still dealing with the damage to the rest of my car. The hood and bumper is scratched, the dash is scratched, there is glass inside my radio, and the headliner next to the windshield is cut. Luckily my insurance will be paying for the repairs. Then they get to chase Best Buy's insurance for reimbursement of their expenses and my deductible. What a mission!

So... I made my mani in memory of my windshield and of this situation. I didn't have an image plate with a palm tree so I went with the next best thing... leaves!

This is 2 coats of FingerPaints "Sketch N Etch." I stamped using my new Bundle Monster plate BM19 in "Millennium" by China Glaze. I love these plates. But I'm officially sad at the fact that the full nail images are too narrow for my nails. The image couldn't cover my entire nail. I did the best that I could at stamping again over the missing area. You can kinda tell in the pictures. The "extra" stamp is on the left side. But at the end of the day the plates were still worth it for such a cheap price.

So, moral of the story: Don't park under palm trees!