Tag: NYC

 
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SinFAIL

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This is for all my friends with nail envy….sometimes my nails just end up looking like ASS.

I was so excited about my Sinful Colors haul, that I decided to try to use all the colors. DON’T try all the colors!

After Sally Hansen Diamond Shine, I put on 2 coats of “Let Me Go” – it’s a purplish pink with a blue tinge in the bottle, but it is much sheerer on the nail. I used “Super Star” as an accent on my thumb – royal blue jelly base with vibrant purple glitter – and “Decadent” on my ring finger – fuchsia glitter in various sizes. I topped with NYC In a New York Color Minute “Grand Central Station”. Unfortunately, I started doing stuff too quickly and the edges curtained. Curtaining occurs when the top layer is dry, but the layers underneath aren’t and the whole top layer moves on the nail and creates a wrinkled edge, like sweeping a curtain with a sash. It happens more often with cremes and I thought this shimmer would be safe. Nope.

I really like “Decadent” over “Let Me Go”, but the “Super Star” doesn’t match AT ALL. This shit has to go…

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Cinderella, Cinderella

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If you can’t decide, why decide? That’s why I like going to Chinese buffets – you can have a little bit of everything.

After Julep Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat, I started with one coat of Sinful Colors “Cinderella”, a baby blue shimmer with pink/orange undertones – it’s one of their more popular colors. It’s fine by itself, but I wanted to try out a bunch of green and blue glitters that I had recently bought.

On my thumb, I used one coat of Sinful Colors “Green Ocean”, a limited edition St. Patrick’s Day polish. It’s a sheer jelly, with iridescent flakies. It gave only a slightly green cast to “Cinderella”. I need to try it over a black or a dark blue. It was the only one that felt a bit bumpy after my top coat (NYC In a New York Color Minute Quick Dry in “Grand Central Station”). This was also the first time my topcoat cracked! Only on one thumb though, thank GAWD.

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My Index Finger got Sinful Colors “Green with Ivy”, which isn’t green at all, maybe teal-ish? It’s another sheer jelly, but with holographic glitter bars. It’s from the Summer 2014 “Destination Color” collection and a Walgreen’s exclusive color. I was not wowed by “Green Ocean” or “Green with Ivy” over “Cinderella”.

My middle finger is like WHOA with Sinful Colors “Nail Junkie”. The base is turquoise, so it is the only one that really changed the base color of “Cinderella”. I wanna do my whole hand in it!

My husband liked my ring finger the best – Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in “Sea-ly String”, from the Fall 2013 Collection. The base is sheer blue, with a variety of silver, blue and black glitter and bar glitter.

Finally, my pinky got Sinful Colors “Ice Dream” from the Holiday 2012 “Winter Shimmers” and Holiday 2013 “Glitz & Glittered” Collections. This look could be Frozen, part 2.

Which one is your favorite?

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Hook ’em Horns

So I’m not actually a Longhorn, but my mother was. I did, however, go to a UT system school – UTD – and as such, burnt orange was one of our school colors, along with green. Orange and Green is a winning combination…SAID NO ONE EVER. Even so, I feel that I am somewhat entitled to rock burnt orange nail polish.

This is Julep “Tatiana”. It was originally part of the September 2013 “Cityscape Collection” Boho Glam box, but I received it in my Lucky Mystery Box. Julep’s site describes it as golden burnt orange microglitter. Since I am now a base coat/top coat believer, I started with Julep Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat, 2 coats and then finished with NYC In a New York Color Minute Quick Dry in “Grand Central Station”. The results are OUTSTANDING. I may actually keep this longer than 24 hours….

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It’s Not Horrible…

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That’s the first thing I said to my husband when I finished painting my nails last night – “It’s not horrible…”

A few months ago, I was chatting with Dr. Goddess and she was displeased with a yellow polish that she received in one of her Julep Mystery Boxes. She challenged me to find a yellow nail polish that looks good on the lily fishbelly white, like ourselves. Yellow, like coral, usually looks amazing on dark or even very tan skin…but isn’t quite as magical on pale skin.

I purchased Sinful Colors “Yellow Spotted” a few weeks ago during one of my Walgreen’s binges. It’s a new shade from the Summer 2014 “Turn Up the Heat” Collection. It’s a very primary yellow, with a prominent shimmer. It’s almost exactly The Simpsons yellow! I started with Julep Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat, added 2 coats of “Yellow Spotted” and topped with NYC In a New York Color Minute Quick Dry in “Grand Central Station”. I got decent coverage, with just a bit of thickening towards the cuticle.

Like I said, it doesn’t look horrible, but it doesn’t look awesome with my skin tone either. Being 1/4 Chinese, I tend to have a faint yellow undertone to my skin anyway. Yellow clothes do not compliment my skin and neither does this nail polish. I do think I will use the polish again, if only with green or purple glitter. Plus, there’s always Lily – she got my husband’s olive skin and looks great in yellow polish!

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I Finally “Let It Go”

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Is your house a frozen wasteland?

Are you tired of being told to “let it go”?

Do you suffer from constant demands to “build a snowman”?

Does your child run around the house with a white fuzzy blanket/cape, swirling around the room, leaving a wake of chaos?

You made be suffering from “Frozenitis”…

Yesterday, I stopped fighting it and surrendered to the “Frozenitis” – I came up with matching Elsa manicures for my daughter and I.

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I used Sinful Colors “Tokyo Pearl” for the base and Sinful Colors “Ice Dream” for the glitter gradient. (It’s really hard to do a glitter gradient on a six year old’s nails, so it just looks like I did a spotty job on hers.) I used Julep Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat on myself, but didn’t bother on Lily. I also used different top coats. I used Sally Hansen “Diamond Flash” on Lily, but before I painted my own nails, I went to HEB and happened to pick up NYC In a New York Color Minute Quick Dry in “Grand Central Station”. Angie suggested the $2 NYC topcoat when I was fretting about bubbles. “Grand Central Station” is not technically a topcoat, but I couldn’t find a Quick Dry top coat from NYC at HEB, and I had read several good reviews of “Grand Central Station” – here, here and here. I was fairly pleased with the results – very similar to the Sally Hansen Diamond Flash…maybe not quite as quick to dry, but definitely shiny and fast. For $2, I can afford to experiment…

Lily is thrilled with our matching nails – this is actually the first time we have ever had matching nails. Maybe this will become a regular thing?