They're Grrradients!

There should probably be a monument erected in Sammy's honor, because her gradient tutorial has proved to be the easiest, most consistent gradient tutorial I've tried, and the results absolutely speak for themselves.

I'm so pleased with mine! I used Caribbean (Savina) and Plum Truffle (CND) for my gradient. I really wanted to add something as a great topper, so I went with Asbestos (Windestine). It's one of my favorite glitters. I love that the glitters are all small and all the same size and color. I'll be getting a few back up bottles as soon as they come out, especially with the unbelievably professional service provided by Freda.

Thank you both for a very happy pair of hands tonight!

Belieb Me, I'm Plum Tuckered Out!

 
This was a struggle getting this post together before the night's end. I'm sorry it's nothing exciting. I hardly have anything to say about it.

One thing I will say is that the brushes on CND polishes are awesome! I didn't realize how much I liked them until I looked at my hands after applying Plum Truffle and saw that EUREKA! There was hardly any polish on my actual fingers to clean up! Almost all of it wound up on the nails where it was supposed to. You can try to chalk that up to practice and a steady hand, but the brush was a much bigger factor than I thought it ever would be.

A good brush and a sick formula? CND's pushing its way into my heart. Or at least the part of my heart that supports nail polish. I would say there's a part of my brain that does too, but that's probably been dissolved with the polish fumes by now.

Oh, by the way, the silver glitter on top is a Bieber polish, Make U Smile (Nicole by OPI). (Why the "U" Beibes? Why not just use the other two letters in the word?)

Opulent Orchids

Yesterday I tried my hand at striping tools; not the striping nail polishes with the brush built in, but the brush that you can use on any color you like, and the results were less than awesome. Maybe it was the polish choice, but I'm not ready to talk about it. I'm a little ashamed of it, and not ready to share it with the world.

Instead, I'll share with you a manicure I created using dotting tools, again. They've made me so beyond happy, and I can't stop writing down ideas in my teeny little notebook that would feature them. I highly recommend grabbing a set. It's worth the $10 you'll end up spending.

After my pansies caught so much attention and flattery (I found them featured on a French blog), I decided to keep with the flora theme. The stunning, fractal patterns created by most plant life lends itself quite well to the nail world. This time, my flower of choice was an orchid. These beauties have an interesting story behind them, involving the Greek myth of Orchis. According to Wikipedia:

Orchis, the son of a nymph and a satyr, came upon a festival of Dionysios (Bacchus) in the forest. He drank too much, and attempted to rape a priestess of Dionysios. For his insult, he was torn apart by the Bacchanalians. His father prayed for him to be restored, but the gods instead changed him into a flower.

Ouch. Sorry dude. But thanks for the inspiration!

I have no real, gorgeous orchids to pose with, but I do have a vase with the silhouette of an orchid painted on it.

I used Essie Turquoise & Caicos for the base color, the stems are from Color Madric Green, the white petals are French White Creme (Wet n' Wild), the purple petals are Plum Truffle (CND) and the yellow centers are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening. I had a lot of fun with this one, and my patience paid off. Even my right hand looks good. To top everything off, I used Matte Magic (China Glaze), based on the idea someone gave me when I posted my pansies. They thought I had made them matte, but that was just a photographic illusion. This time, I intentionally matted them, and it gives them a much softer, delicate feel, just like the plant.

Photo courtesy of http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/2011/04/06/how-to-parent-sensitive-orchid-children/

Maybe if I work up enough strength, I'll post what I consider to be a failed manicure another day, but for today, that's all folks.

Birthday, Christmas and New Year Haul

The end of the year is always full of some serious celebration for me. With a birthday right before Christmas, Christmas itself, and all the celebration and hangovers that accompany New Year's Eve, there's a lot to be happy about. In addition, I have gifts and presents to celebrate over that I know you all will also appreciate. Of course, I recieved some lovely non-nail gifts and love from my family and friends that are also reason to celebrate, but since this is a nail blog, I'll just share those with you today.

Get ready...it's picture heavy!

First up, these are the gifts my sister gave me. She understands nail polish more than anyone I personally know, so you can only imagine my joy opening her gifts. She gave me tools:

...dotting tools

...striping brushes

...and a glass nail file.

She gave me the Butter London Dressing Table duo, Black Knight and Tart with a Heart. Unfortunately, the dressing table suffered a fatility during the 17-hour car ride, so it won't be making an appearance in today's shots.

She gave me some amazing nail art brushes I've never heard of, but definitely want more of. The formula on all of these is great, and only requires one coat. That's practically unheard of with brighter striping shades. All of these are from a company called Color Madric. They're all sort of metallic, not matte as their bottles seem to indicate.

Shown here is Design Yellow, Green, Ocean Blue, and Hologram Glitter.

Hologram Glitter really is holographic, as I tried to capture here.

Shown here are the metallics from the Metal-licious collection of Color Madric brushes. These colors are Am-Ore, Platinum Rush, Lead to Riches, Metal-Licious, Iron I Lovely, and Gold Digger.

These all appear metallic, as their collection's name suggests.

She gave me part of L.A. Girl Glitter Addict collection, including the elusive Uninhibited I've been craving since I saw Rie from Nails and Noms use it.

Shown here are Uninhibited, Jostle, Animate, and Celebrate.

A few days after getting these, we stopped by a random Rite Aid to get Andy some contact solution, and I saw a glittering display of five more colors from the collection!

I added Eutopia, Nostalgic, Purge (a new nail polish name favorite in my book), Synergy, and Provocative to my infant collection.

Now it's a glittering grand collection!

She gave me some polishes we had talked about over the phone. These are randoms I mentioned liking that she had cheap access to out there in So-Cal.

Shown here is Sea Gurl from ORLY, Good Witch? from China Glaze, Cleopatra also from China Glaze, Glass Slipper from Sally Hansen Diamond Strength (one I actually snagged for myself), Lady Luck from Sally Hansen Gem Crush and January from Julep. She didn't like that color on her, so I took it off her hands. To top this load of polishes off is the amazing Load from Illamasqua. Look at it back there. Beautifully raunchy.

Rounding out my sister's amazing gifts is my first bottle...or bottles rather...of Seche Vite.

Look at this monstrosity! It's so much top coat, I don't even know what to do with it! 4 ounces!

So that's it from her...but fear not, my haul has not ended! She did an unbelievable job of making my Christmas gifts a thrill to open. Thanks Sisser, I love you!

I mentioned in Sapphire that Andy's mom's trainer, Robbie really hooked me up with some amazing CND products. Here they are!

She included in my bag of goodies some nail care items including some tasty CND Solar Oil (a cuticle conditioner), Scentsations lotion minis in Sparkling Champagne and Clementine & Mistletoe. They smell awesome! There are also several samples of CND's Spamanicure hand lotions, in Citrus Soothing Creme and Almond Hydrating Lotion. I absolutely love the smell of the almond lotion. Finally, there are a few nail buffers, showing their support for breast cancer research with the words "Nail Community Cares" written on them.

She also included some amazing colors, including Smoochie (#518), Sapphire Sparkle (#561), Plum Truffle Sparkle Effect (#586), and Plum Truffle Colour (#585).  You've seen Sapphire Sparkle already in Sapphire.

Thank you again Robbie, I love everything!

Last but not least! We have the polishes I bought myself.

You've already seen the Urban Outfitters collection I picked up here, but here's a few more shots of those beautiful bottles.

I also snagged the entire Finger Paints Special Effects collection today at Sally's!

 Not much to look at when they're in the bottles, but I'm sure you've seen them used by other ladies. My favorite shots are from Jen at The PolishAholic, from this post showing each on its own, and this post showing them all layered together. Oh many these are going to be fun to play with!

So that's it. Can you feel my excitement through the screen? It's radiating!

Sapphire

Today's manicure is using two of the newest additions to my collection. Yesterday I bought a paint palette from Urban Outfitters containing some pretty awesome metallics and shimmers. I don't usually go for metallics, but these stuck out, so I bit the bullet. As you can see, they're all pretty gorgeous.

I used the unnamed blue you see in the package, and topped it off with something I had forgotten I wanted, Sapphire Sparkle from CND. Holy crap does this topcoat add some serious pretty to any polish.

I mean, the blue was great on its own, but one layer of Sapphire Sparkle really brought it out. You may have seen this beauty before, on Lacquerized and her post comparing the effect created by Sapphire Sparkle to a beetle. She's right! It's gorgeous!

I have Andy's mom's trainer, Robbie to thank for this amazing polish. She really hooked me up with some CND greats. You'll be seeing more soon.

You'll also get to see the haul I scored over the break, in full after I return, sometime after the third.

Don't forget that I want to host a giveaway when I reach 100 followers! I'm still deciding between glitter, and non-glitter as the prize. Any opinions on which I should go for?