Termo Trio and Big Ruby nail tattoos!

Today's post is kind of a two-fer! I got some awesome nail mail on Thursday and I couldn't decide which to focus on, so I chose...both! I got my hands on some Dance Legend and Big Ruby "super cool nail tattoos". I am very excited about these nail tattoos. One, my daughter's name is Ruby. Two, our dog is Big Girl and she is a bulldog, which seems to be BigRuby's mascot!

Anyway, Dance Legend is a professional nail polish brand out of Moscow. If you go check out their website, you can see that they make some really bitchin stuff! I got my bottle from Llarowe, a stockist in the US. Here it is, Termo Trio #1...my first thermal polish!

Most thermals change between light and dark. This one has a third color, when it's in the "warm" stage. So dang cool! The texture of the polish is great. Two smooth, even coats and one coat of seche vite in these pics.

The above pic is in the "cold" stage. It's a dark, purple-ish blue.

Here is the "warm" stage. Kinda pink, kinda purple.

Here is the "hot" stage. A lovely, periwinkle blue!

I spotted BigRuby tattoos over at Chalkboard Nails. What a cute, super easy fun addition to your mani! They are applied exactly like you would apply a temporary tattoo to your skin. I chose the one that looks just like my pup! What do you think? I love them, and I love my new Termo Trio!

DIY nail decals!

In this post I'm gonna show you how to make these super cute nail decals, with just a few simple things you probably already have at home!

I started the idea for this post with a lovely forest green that I purchased at Big Lots for a buck! I was thinking it would be great for another beautiful bargain! I decided then, that it would look beautiful matted! 

Great. Right?

I was inspired to try a multi-day mani challenge by a fellow Reddit lacquer lover and I started trying to come up with ways to change up the plain polish I had on! Pinterest is great for getting inspiration too, and I found a little tutorial on how to make these with a plastic bag, some nail polish and a paper punch! 

Just paint your colors, and let them dry. Let them dry for a long time, or your polish will tear (like the gold did on my bag). For my decals, I used a mini heart punch and a pinking shear!

Paint some topcoat on your nail and stick them on! I used a wax pencil to make picking up and placing them very easy. After you stick them on, throw on some more topcoat and you're good to go! 

(This could be a good UND fan mani!)

I love these DIY nail stickers, and I can't wait to make more!!

You can't go wrong with Charisma. I love Zoya.

Here's my second nimbus mani for you. At first, I had Zoya's Charisma on all of my fingers. I had planned to do a hand-placed glitter mani, á la Chalkboard Nails, but it just wasn't workin for me. I scraped off the glitters and polish and decided to try a matte nimbus mani. 

Charisma is probably my favorite nail color. The thing that's cool about it, is that it fits into a lot of categories! You can wear it for any season. It's purple, it's fuschia, and it's pink; it just depends on what light you're in. The pic above is under my light with "daylight" bulbs in it.

This picture is what it looks like in ACTUAL daylight. Totally different, right? This is the first time I've matted a mani and really liked it! Charisma is beautiful in every way, wouldn't you agree?

Here's another artificially lit pic. It looks more purple here. Either way, it's a great color! 

I'm still hanging on to summer!

I'm not gonna lie, I've been feeling a little un-inspired in the nail "art" categpry lately. Maybe it's because life has been busy and I haven't had the time to sit and play. This evening, I did 3 different nail art themes. THREE! This is the first. It's cute, and I like it. It's just probably better suited for summer! After I finished it, I topcoated it, took these pictures and took it off. Such a shame to waste perfectly good nail art, right?

Aren't they lovely? They remind me of a purple Hydrangea.

 I used my dotting tool to make the flowers with three different purples.

On my ring finger I followed this Nimbus tutorial , from the Nailasarus to get the soft, watercolor effect. I love how all the colors layer together. I did a lot of painting in high school, and this nail 

art reminds me of a lot of the paintings I used to do. 

I will definitely be using the Nimbus technique in the future. In fact, it's making another appearance in tomorrows mani! Stay tuned!

What a shifty shifter!

Today I have for you another amazing color by ILNP.
It's another stunning ultra-chrome like Mutagen and Birefringence, but this time, it's a holo too!!! 

I give you, Cygnus Loop Holo.

I snagged this one when ILNP opened their sale site up for pre orders. There were LOTS of gorgeous colors to look at! I told myself from the start that I could only choose one! I wanted the non-holo version of this before, so my choice was easy.

I used three coats of color and one coat of seche vite in my pictures. 

Cygnus Loop is the shiftiest of the shifters...it's just amazing.

This color goes between bright purple, fuschia, orange and yellow!

This pic is in direct sunlight! Check out that HOLO!!

What makes a nail polish a "Holo"? It means that the polish itself contains something that is called SpectraFlair pigment. I did a little digging around the internet to find that it is basically an additive that has teeny, tiny, little, microscopic light diffracting prisms. Cool, huh? There are TONS of holographic polishes out there, with varying degrees of WOW factor. This one definitely has it. 

Wanna know how to store "Ten Thousand" polishes?

Up until Saturday I was using a toolbox from Home Depot to store all of my polish and supplies.

I grew out of it pretty quickly.

 My husband was getting kind of tired of me always having nail polish "stuff" all over the kitchen table, and honestly, I was too. I found a "how to" online that seemed simple enough, so I showed it to the hubby and we decided to make a rack together. 

In the tutorial it suggested using 1"x2"x8' lumber, so that's what I picked up. Our intention was to make it wide enough to span the space of three studs behind the wall.

There was only two studs in the space we wanted to hang it, hence the wire that is holding it up. My husband put screws in the studs and then we rigged up the wire on the rack to hang it like a big mirror or picture.

This picture shows how we attached everything together. We definitely are not carpenters, so it's not perfect, but it works. We spaced the shelves roughly 2.5 inches apart, and all of my polishes fit perfectly!

The shelf was super wobbly with just the wire holding it up, so he attached brackets on the bottom and top of the rack to stabilize it. Looking at it now, we probably could have just used the brackets since they are screwed into the studs.

Here it is! The only thing I'll change is I want to add some sort of face to it, to keep the polishes from falling off the shelves. I love it! Looks like I have some space to fill ;-)

Sunday bargain!

I had a friend ask me if I knew of a dupe for OPI's Vampire State Building. Apparently it is discontinued and very rare! It's going for a lot of money on ebay! From what I know of VSB(which is nothing), today's polish looks pretty dang close. May I present to you, KleanColor's Dark Red.

The best part about this color, other than the fact that it's gorgeous...it was $1. ONE DOLLAR. 

Here in the Twin Cities we have a few stores around called Heartbreaker. They carry super current fashion at a super reasonable price. 

They also carry NABI polish and KleanColor polish for a buck apiece. Unfortunately you can't get their polish online.  All of you MN metro gals are in luck, you can head to a Heartbreaker store and snag some cheap polish!

I haven't worn a dark red like this in awhile, and I really like it! For an inexpensive polish, the consistency was really great. Cleanup around the edges can be kind of a B-word, but this one wasn't too bad. We'll see how I feel when it comes time to take it off! 

I spotted this dark red and thought..."Maybe this will fill the void for VSB in Kristin's heart!"

What do you think? Do you love this dark red?

Here's a "love"-ly gradient for you!

Oh man, I love me some sponge gradients. I hate the cleanup afterwards (because I'm too lazy to mask my cuticles) but who cares? I love them! I wanted to do a gradient mani with a stamped accent nail, but alas, my stamping skills are still way sub-par. I decided to stick to what I'm good at.

It's like Valentine's day on my nails! (Check out that nice boo-boo on my thumb!) 

I used a really fun array of colors for this one. First up, Ice Ice Baby, by SpaRitual.

Second, Boom Boom Room, by Essie.

That beautiful raspberry color is Sonic Bloom by Sally Hansen. 

Last, but certainly not least, we have Fairy Dust by China Glaze. 

I love this glitter because it gives any mani a subtle sparkle. 

For a tutorial on how to create a sponge gradient, check out this tutorial.

What do you think? Are you as in LOVE with this mani as I am??

It's Magical...

Here I am again, to tell you about the wonder that is Model City polish.

 I got my hands on a lovely limited edition today...and it is amazing!

Model City released three blends on Saturday at Noon. Let me just rave about this for a second. Do the math...this polish was released at noon on Saturday and it was in my mailbox today. TODAY!

I'm not sure how Nina gets her stuff out so fast, but I have a few ideas...

Anyway...this little beauty's name is Chelsea. Chelsea was inspired by Schist. Schist is a rock that has large mica flakes. This looks to me like a fantastic interpretation. In my photos I used one coat of Venique's "Kitten Heel Honey", two coats of "Chelsea" and one coat of Seche Vite.

From ModelCityPolish.com, "Chelsea is a clear base packed with silvery white flakes and then a splash of gold and black flakes.  This blend can be worn on it’s own or as a top coat." 

I found out today that this is a limited edition polish. I felt super excited that I acuired #2 of 15!  You heard right, there's only gonna be 15 of these babies out there, so go snag one while you can!

It really is dreamy isn't it??

Don't forget about the Makeup Assassin's giveaway!!

There are so many amazing bloggers and indie polish makers out there. Do yourself a favor and go check out the Makeup Assassin's 1.000 likes giveaway! There are 18 different things to win, from various gift givers! I am including a prize in the giveaway, two colors of choice from Black Cat Lacquer! 

Go on, go check it out!!!

Super Snazzy Deborah Lippmann

Welcome back! Hope you like the new look of the blog! I am still playing around with it, so keep checking back for new features as I figure it out! 

I completely forgot that I had this polish! I got it from Sephora, a week ago and it got lost in the shuffle. I was trying to figure out what to do tonight and I spotted it! I got excited about it all over again! Today's featured polish is "Stronger" by Deborah Lippman. 

This color is a sheer violet jelly base with big chunky holographic glitter. It was co-created with Kelly Clarkson and a portion of the proceeds go to a charity of her choosing. 

These pictures definitely don't do it justice. This one is SUPER sparkly!

I can't wait to see it out in the sunlight! The application was pretty smooth. Just like any other chunky glitter, you've gotta position some of the pieces because they like to clump together!

This is the first Deborah Lippmann polish I've tried, but if they are as pretty as this, I will definitely get more!