HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Good Morning, and a Happy Thanksgiving to you!

I had planned on doing a nice, fall-like mani for today. Something with browns, and golds...lots of warm rich tones. You know what? I am seriously lacking in browns...and golds. What's up with that?

I guess I need to start building my collection when it comes to brown polish!

Anyway, I chose to do a gradient with black and tan and then use a black, white and gold glitter topper over it. I really like the way it turned out.

The colors I used were:

OPI My vampire is buff

Sinful colors Black on Black

China Glaze Boo-gie down

I think that these are a little flashier than I intended but I still like them. I'll probably do something like this for New Years eve!

Thanks for checking in, I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Darling Diva Polish - Nightbird

This polish is FINALLY making it to a legitimate blog post. I have had this shade for a long time, and I feel like I have come pretty dang close to acceptably capturing how lovely it is. If there were a title for "perfect blue holo" Nightbird would win. It's rich, it has depth and it has holo (that unfortunately the sun won't let me show you).

Nightbird is part of the White Witch collection. It is an indigo blue holo that goes on easy peasy! I'm wearing two coats of color and one coat of topcoat in my photos.

(I really wish you could see the beautiful holo that this polish has)

Even in low light, it's got a nice holo component I just can't get my camera to find it!!

If you click [here] you can visit the Darling Diva site and see some amazing swatches by Royal Milk Tea.

I love how indigo blue and gold look together. It looks so rich and regal. I decided to do some nail art over this beautiful blue. I used my personal favorite gold, "Tre Crime de Lavaredo" by Elevation Polish.

Fun, huh? Tre Crime de Lavaredo is a one coat wonder, so it's great for nail art like this!

Happy Monday, and have a great week!

DARLING DIVA POLISH

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OPI - Little Red Wagon

I have got an oldie but goodie for you today. I'm gonna be a naughty blogger and show you a discontinued color. I've had this polish FOREVER. It's been sitting unloved in a drawer for a long time. My daughter and I were attempting a water marbled Christmas ornament when I unearthed this old 2008 OPI beauty. I used it in a water marble on an ornament and then decided to put it on my nails.

I always forget how beautiful a classic red nail looks.

This is "Little Red Wagon" and it is from the OPI 2008 Holiday collection titled "Holiday in Toyland".

Even though this one is discontinued, you can find it easily on third party sites like eBay and Amazon for less than $15. I think this might be the perfect base to go under some holiday nail art!

Thanks for reading, have an awesome weekend!

Elevation Polish - Wai'anapanapa

Are you trying to pronounce that polish name in your head? I still am...

Lulu of Elevation Polish uses places all over the world inspire her to make her polishes and also to name them. Clearly she is well traveled, because her polishes are named after places all over the world.

Don't even ask me to pronounce them. I'm calling today's polish Wai. Its actual name is "Wai'anapanapa" and it is part of the recently released Hawaiian Punch collection. 

Wai'anapanapa is the name of a state park in Maui. I don't know that because I've been there...but after looking up some info on the inspiration, I want to go there!

(Check it out)

Wai'anapanapa is an almost opaque black filled with pink and purple flake shimmer. I used two coats of the color in these pictures, and two coats of Seche Vite because I wanted it to look extra squishy.

Upon first glance, it may look like a simple unassuming black polish. When you see it shimmer, that's when it's personality comes out. I love those pink and purple flakes in there.

I JUST checked and Wai'anapanapa is still available on the Elevation Polish web store. 

As I said yesterday, restocks happen on the 7th of each month at 9pm and the 22nd at 9am.

There's always something great there, and if you get lucky you can get your hands on a rare SBP!

Happy Monday, and have a great week.

ELEVATION POLISH

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Elevation Polish - Sunset Among the Palms

Oh how hard it is to be selective when ordering from Elevation Polish. As you may or may not know, Lulu just released her Hawaiian collection. There are many, MANY beautiful colors to be had. I, however limited myself to two colors. I took a much appreciated recommendation from my friend Jenne at Polished Pathology. She told me for sure that one of my colors had to be Sunset Among the Palms. I was leaning towards something different, but I'm glad she recommended this one, because it's beautiful.

Sunset Among the Palms is a gorgeous purple/pink filled with gunmetal flakies and a scattered holo effect. Application went on smooth as silk, I have on two coats of color and one coat of Seche Vite.

Look at those pretty flakies that are coming through in this pic!

Unfortunately the sun hasn't been coming out to play, here in Minnesota, so the holo won't make an appearance today.

These pictures are very color accurate, in my opinion. Pink/purples can be a brat to capture in pictures sometimes. The only inaccuracy is that my pictures don't do this color it's justice. I am so glad I listened to Jenne and got this color. You should get it too.

As I've told you before, Elevation restocks happen on the 7th and the 22nd of each month. The 7th at 9pm and the 22nd at 9am. At the moment this shade is sold out. This is part of a regularly stocked collection, but can sell out fairly quickly. If you want to grab this, or any of the other Hawaiian beauties get on over to Elevation's online store and grab some for yourself!

ELEVATION POLISH

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A England - Sleeping Palace

It's Friday, people! Woo hoo! Actually I'm not all that excited because I work Saturdays, so Friday isn't Friday to me.

I've been on a cleaning spree today, and decided to take a break and post my mani from the other day.

I finally used A England's "Sleeping Palace" which is part of the Burne - Jones dream collection. The website is listing it as sold out, but with a little googling I'm sure you could get your hands on it.

Sleeping palace is a lovely dusty plum with a subtle golden shimmer. It also has a soft holographic effect as well. 

In my photos I have on ONE coat of Sleeping Palace and one coat of Seche Vite.

I've never experienced my topcoat dulling the holo in a polish, until it happened with this one. You can still see the holo, it just isn't as strong. Still beautiful though, right? 

I added some nail stamping to this color, because it seemed appropriate.

"Crown your hands and feet". 

Don't mind if I do,

I stamped this mani with Sally Hansen's gold color foil shade and used the Cheeky Jumbo Princess Charming plate. The crowns are the perfect addition, aren't they?

Have an amazing weekend!

OPI Holiday 2014 - Comet in the sky

Hi all! I have one of the glitter toppers from the OPI/Gwen Stefani Holiday 2014 collaboration to show you. I have to say...I wasn't super excited about this collection when I first saw it. Don't get me wrong...this collection has some very nice colors and when it comes to quality product, OPI has it on lock. I was in store at my favorite cosmoprof and got to see the colors in person. The one that really stood out to me was a glitter topper called "Comet in the Sky".

It's kinda fun, isn't it?? I had to have it, simply because the bottle itself looks so beautiful. I'm a sucker for iridescent sheer flakes and glitter, so the combo of that and black is super cool to me. 

In my pictures I am wearing two coats of Comet in the Sky over two coats of OPI's French Quarter for your Thoughts. 

It's a chunky glitter so it definitely needs a generous portion of topcoat to smooth it out. I really like this, as far as glitter toppers go. No fishing for big pieces, and all of the glitters place themselves really nicely.

Now that I've tried this one, I might need to go grab the other glitters in this collection!

Thanks for reading! Have a fabulous day!

Galaxy Nail art

Brrrrrrr! Up here, in the great frozen north, we are having our first BIG snowstorm of the season. My plans are to stay inside all day unless I absolutely HAVE TO go outside.

I was feeling a little uninspired yesterday when it was time to decide how to do my nails. I'm always enamored with the night sky and what's up there in outer space. I came across a photo on Reddit and I felt like it would be a good one to inspire my nail art for the day.

This is two photos stitched together of the Orion Nebulae. [Source]

So beautiful.

Here's my nails, inspired by this amazing photograph.

Depending on who you ask, galaxy nail art may or may not be the "thing" anymore. Either way, I sure do like it. It's a fun, and super simple way to make your nails look super cool!

I started off with a black base, and then sponged on different layers of blue and purple shades. I added a few stars and then topped it off with a layer of Fairy Dust, by China Glaze.

Twinkle, twinkle!

Since the snow is coming down, and I don't have a whole lot to do, I think I'll go think up some more nail art ideas!

Thanks for reading!