My camera charger is MIA...

Do you know what my cell phone camera and a potato have in common? They both same the same quality photos!...and I'm only slightly exaggerating!

With my move a few months ago I somehow managed to misplace the battery charger for my Canon and I am so sad! I suppose I should be thankful that the two fully charged batteries that I did have lasted as long as they did, but I'm really not looking forward to buying a new charger (especially since the old one will turn up soon after). In the meantime, I'm going to search for a new camera app that will hopefully make better use of the alleged 8 megapixel camera that my phone has. The past few manis I did I've only taken photos with my phone, so bear with me on the quality and lack of pictures. I'm going to throw them all into this post and hopefully I'll have my camera up and running again soon! 

For this first mani, I was lacking a bit of inspiration and ended up making my boyfriend sift through my polishes and find some colors he wanted me to use. After much deliberation, he ended up choosing Butter London's Disco Biscuit and OPI's Gold Shatter. I've used Disco Biscuit before but the Gold Shatter was new to me. My mom actually surprised me with it when I was visiting home over the holidays when she found out that in all my collection, I did not have one shatter polish! She's kind of great :) 

Bryce made sure to check up on me a few times through out my polishing process to make sure I was using the colors he chose. Very important business ;)

My next mani used Zoya's Wednesday. If you're in the market for the perfect turquoise, look no further! This is a muddier turquoise which you can tell a bit easier from the second photo (sunlight makes it seem much brighter). This was just a fun simple mani and used striping tools and dotting tools to make it happen. 

 This is a simple Jelly Sandwich mani that uses China Glaze's It's A Trap-eze and the pink/purple jelly is OPI's Houston, We Have a Purple. I know so many people were raving about It's A Trap-eze when it first came out, but I don't particularly like how this looks by itself on me. That being said, it was the easiest polish I've ever applied. No worrying about streaking in any way. 

Phew! Okay! Last one! This one used China Glaze's Exotic Encounters (the gorgeous green!), Kalahari Kiss (yellow) and I Herd That (golden glitter). I really REALLY love Exotic Encounters! When I showed Bryce and told him the name, he informed me that that wasn't a real name for a polish. So I asked what it should be called...apparently "kinda green with some blues" is a much more appropriate name! Look out China Glaze polish namers, you've got some competition ;)

I added the taped Chevrons and wanted to do this green justice, but I think the Kalahari Kiss ended up looking too mustardy combined with the green. 

Happy Polishing! 

Sparkle Gradient with BL, CG and SOPI

Today's nail art challenge is Sparkles! I'm really loving this look and it's super simple to create. The base color is Butter LONDON's Royal Navy and the gradient is made with China Glaze's I Herd that and the chunky glitter is Sephora by OPI's Only Gold for Me top coat.

I'm off to dinner. Happy Polishing :) 

Butter LONDON's Rosie Lee with a quick pattern.

Last month Good Morning America had a great deal on Butter LONDON's holiday 3-piece sets (6 polishes for $36!!) so of course I couldn't say no. I mean, come on, those poor polishes were all alone out in the big wide world and I just gave them a home! I'm so excited to work my way through using all of them and to share them all!

For this look, I used Butter LONDON's Rosie Lee paired with Milani's White on the Spot and Zoya's Avery (which I also just got and I love it!). This is a pretty simple mani and once you get the hang of it, you can get it done fairly quickly.

Its it so pretty!?

Happy Polishing :)

China Glaze and Butter London Loveliness.

I've mentioned my newfound love affair with nail stamps before, but I'm seriously in love with them.  I'm going to ask them if they want to go steady later tonight, so wish me luck they say yes! The application process and the versatility of stamping in general is just so cool! This is actually the second time I've used this stamp (as shown in my previous stamping post) but I just think it is so darn cute and to be honest, I wasn't feeling some of the other stamps on the image plates I have. I guess that just means I need MORE :D That's not to say I don't love a majority of the stamps in my current set, I just wasn't feeling them for tonight's mani. Since it's almost Monday and I'm really not excited about it (though I only have a two day week! I'm going to Costa Rica on Thursday!! YEEE!) I wanted something fun but simple. 

From the left:

Ulta's Smoke Screen

butterLONDON's Slapper

China Glaze's I Herd That

Urban Outfitters Eyes Wide Closed

Happy Polishing! :)...and go buy a stamping kit if you can! :D

Nail stamps! I love you!! :D

I some how managed to come down with a horrendous flu bug that has left me out of commission for the past few days. I don't think I've ever been as sick as I was a few nights ago. I was so dehydrated and nauseous that I ended up at the hospital for medicine and an IV drip. I think I've finally overcome my fever but I'm sleeping a ridiculous amount and my head and body are not happy still. Everything hurts and I'm starting to go stir crazy so I figured I'd make a brief post until I can do my nails again. 

So! I just bought my first ever nail stamp and set of image plates and I'm so flippin' excited about them!!  

I know that stamping kits are not for everyone but I finally caved and bought myself a Konad stamper and a set of Shany image plates from Amazon. I recently got a brand spankin' new butter LONDON called Slapper that lovers of blue/green/teals should go out and immediately purchase. Butters aren't cheap, but you can often find them discounted on Amazon by up to $4 which makes them much more reasonable. Konad and Shany both recommend that you use their stamping polishes to ensure a good stamp onto your nail, but I didn't purchase these. Instead, I used an unnamed black polish from Urban Outfitters for the tree, and the white snowflakes are Milani's "White on the Spot." Both polishes were opaque and thick enough to transfer well and I think they will work for the time being. Anyway, I love this look and I'm excited to explore the nail stamping world! :)

Happy Polishing :)

Disco Biscuit

As is well known by many, the quality of polishes varies by brand. A majority of my collection consists of Milani, Kleancolor, and Sally Hansen which are lovely brands in their own rights. Each have some unique and beautiful colors that many people yearn for. Then you have brands like Essie, OPI, and China Glaze that run you a few dollars more a bottle and are likely the most polish popular brands. However, once you leave the $8/bottle range, I tend to tap out and wait for a miracle of a sale to happen so that I can purchase the highest end brands. One such brand is Butter London. I was lucky enough to have someone purchase this for me and when I opened the box yesterday to look at the color, it was love at first sight.

Meet Disco Biscuit, "a tropical hot-pink nail lacquer with an undercurrent of tiny iridescent glitter particles." Can we please talk about how great a name that is? I have no clue what it means but I think it's perfect. It's very possible that because the brand is in fact based out of London, my American self has yet to encounter the situation where that name would make any sense. Possibly a drug tripping reference in which seeing this color would be all the more exciting. Regardless the name, the color speaks for itself.

The formula of this is really great. This is about 2 coats with Seche Vite on top. 

The best way to describe this polish? Is magical bubblegum fairies dancing on my fingertips sufficient? :D

Happy Polishing.