Twinsie Tuesday: Inspiration From Your Family

This week's challenge comes from inspiration from a family member, and for me, that was my husband. 

OPI Dating A Royal. Something blue. I was thinking he'd give me some crazy nail art challenge but he actually didn't, as you can see. And for some reason, I think this really represents my husband. Blue is his favorite color, even though he always denies it. DAR is a nice creme blue. My husband is a really chill and easy going man and I think if he was a nail polish, this would be it. Dating A Royal, best name ever as well. 

What are some of your favorite blues?

Anna 

For more Twinsie posts, click the links below!

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace
Anna at Going to the Showing

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Heather at Peace, Love, & Polish

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Rachel at Top Coat It

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Traci at DrinkCitra

Read More

Twinsie Tuesday: Something Blue

You know I love me some indies!

This is Hare Afterglow. I absolutely love and adore this combination of glitters with the blue base. However, the consistency of this polish was so thin. So very thin. Just this, took about 7 coats and obviously time in between to dry. This was also a lot more sheer than I thought it would be. Maybe I was a little impatient though, I so almost felt like I wanted to do a different blue polish but I love this one so much. One other thing that I couldn't get over was the fact that it kept pooling in my cuticles. And as a blogger, you all know how horrific that is. Besides the thin formula, I'm really loving this!

With that said, do any of you have a solution to fixing thin nail polish formulas?
Anna

Also, don't forget to enter our Twinsie Tuesday giveaway! The time is nearing! Only 13 days to go!

For more Twinsie Something Blue posts, check them out!

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Heather at Peace, Love, & Polish

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Rachel at Top Coat It

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Traci at DrinkCitra

Read More

Twinsie Tuesday: Beach Inspired

Here in the Midwest, it hasn't been warm enough to hit the beach yet. Yeah, it's July and I have only been to the lake once. Boo! Hence the reason why I wasn't too inspired. But it's something!

Sation Board Girl Blue. That counts right? This is just a soft yellow toned blue. The application was ok because the formula was sort of runny but overall, it's definitely a gorgeous color.

Totally random but what do you call a wood that has nothing to do?

A board, a bored. HAHAHA Funny right?

Anna

Check out more Twinsie beach inspired manis!

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Heather at Peace, Love, & Polish

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Traci at DrinkCitra

Read More

Falling Star

I have been lemming this for some time now and was lucky enough to find it in a blog sale! Barielle Falling Star.

Falling Star is a dusty medium blue with tons of copper glitter. I was immediately drawn to this when I first saw it on a few blogs and I am so happy to say that I own it!

This formula was sort of weird. It was thick and goopy but runny. It pooled in my cuticles many times but I admit, it's worth it for this lovely!

For some reason, it reminds of a sister to butter London Two Fingered Salute (which by the way is on it's way to being added to my stash, currently as I type)! Except that this is different in it's own way.

So what do you think of this? Do you need to own too?
Anna

Read More

Leopard Print

This is just something simple and easy. It's a busy weekend for me! Got a full day on Saturday and church on Sunday! Then back back to school on Monday, boo. Fortunately, school seems to going well so far, yay for that!

This has got to be one of the easiest nail art techniques that even a nail art noob can do! I'm definitely a noob at nail art, and somehow I managed this!

For the very bright looking blue, I used Orly Skinny Dip. It's such a pretty color! It has a slightly purple shimmer in the bottle but not at all visible on the nail which is unfortunate. For the gold, I used Ulta High Roller and some acrylic black paint.

Well, that's it for now. I hope all of you have a lovely weekend!

Don't forget to check out my 2 giveaways! Click here for the Julep giveaway and here for my 350 followers giveaway!

Have you tried doing the leopard print?
Anna

Read More

Twinsie Tuesday: Floral Mani

You know what day of the week it is! That's right! Twinsie Tuesday! And this weeks theme is: floral mani.

Alright. I'm not much of a nail artist but I do enjoy doing it. So hopefully, my mani will be as awesome as my Twinsies'!

Red poppies. Yay or nay?

For the base I used Essie Looking for Love. It's the perfect jelly grey with lots of blue undertones, so technically it's bley, if you know what I mean! However, I LOVE it! It was a bit streaky with 2 coats but the 3 one covered it perfectly! Looking for Love is actually my first time using and I was really impressed with this one. As you may or may not know, Essie is one brand that I am not too fond of.

For the stems, flowers and buds I used acrylic paint. As you can tell, I almost always use acrylic paint to avoid any smearing and/or smudging.

So what do you think?
Anna

Go check out my Twinsies' floral manis!

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog
ChiChi at I''m just me...ChiChi
Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch
Tara at Polishy of Truth

Read More

Black and White Stripes are Breezi

I hope you enjoyed this one as much I as did. It's simple and cute - and most of the time that's what I like!

Before the pictures, I want to apologize how yellow the pictures look. As you can tell, I recently just started using a light box and I am still trying to figure this thing out. Oh how I wish natural sunlight was more dependable.

If any of you light box users have any tips and tricks, please be sure to let me know!

Now, for yellow pictures.

For the blue, I used Zoya Breezi from my post the other day. I love this color and can't get enough of it. After a about a day or so, I added the black and white stripes just to add a fun little twist. For the white base on the pointer and thumb fingers, I used Sally Hansen Xtreme White Out and just a plain black acrylic paint for the stripes. Boy does it take steady hands to make those lines! I must say that was a real challenge but I am proud to say they look pretty decent!

Again, please pardon my weird colored looking skin. I personally prefer natural sunlight but with winter coming around, I'll have to play around with time considering that we barely get enough sun time out. So hopefully soon the lighting will be perfected! In the mean time, please bare with me.

So please let me know if you have any tips! I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!
Anna

Read More

Breezi + Winner Announcement

I'm pretty behind this week and I can't believe that it's also mid August already. BOO! School will be here soon. Did this summer pass quickly or was it just me?

So, this is what I have for you today!

Zoya Breezi is described as a soft, dusty, dirty medium cerulean blue with an opaque cream finish. Such a vibrant and eye appealing polish. This applied perfectly and was super glossy! I love creme-y and glossy polishes! Breezi was released some summers ago and I still love it here in 2012.

Apparently Breezi is also a dupe for OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, which is great because I have been wanting that one for awhile. Yay for dupes!

Breezi is also another polish that purchased for a penny on Copious. You can see my post here about how I did that. It almost doesn't get any better than that!

Now onto what you all have been waiting for!

After going through the list of entries, I have had to delete some. There were many entries that blogged about the giveaway but did not enter in the extra information as wells the links to their tweets. I am sorry but this is only fair to everyone and I hope you understand.

With that, I am glad to announce the winner of my 200+ Followers Fall For Jessica Giveaway is April Gevedon! Congrats! You have been emailed. I hope to hear a response within the next 24 hours.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to everyone who entered! Look forward to my next giveaway!
Anna

Read More

Twinsie Tuesday: Glass Fleck

I have had such a busy busy weekend that I forgot it was Tuesday! Now onto today's Twinsie Tuesday challenge: glass fleck.

This past weekend was my son's very first birthday on Sunday. This past weekend was filled with many productive activities. Then Sunday came around and I soon as I got home, I showered and headed straight for the bed. So that is the reason why I am so very behind this weekend!

Before we get into the pictures, I want to give a warm welcome to our other newest addition Elizabeth at Did My Nails. We are so lucky to have her on board!

So now, let's move to the pictures that you all have been waiting for!

Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe. Isn't that a beauty? In a way it reminds me of Zoya Ivanka.

MMUTM covered perfectly in 2 smooth coats. The first coat was a bit streaky but 2 did the trick. MMUTM has blue-green glassfleck with an emerald base. You can't quite see the blue, which is a little unfortunately but still absolutely gorgeous. Just look at that bottle shot.

Some people consider this a shimmer/glitter, but I'd say this is in the flecked family.

What do you think, shimmer or glass fleck?
Anna

Check out my Twinsies' glass flecked posts!

 Amanda at Amandalandish

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog
ChiChi at I''m just me...ChiChi
Cordia at Srsly Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch
Tara at Polishy of Truth

And don't forget to check out my giveaway! It ends in 3 days!

Read More

What? Zoya For A Penny?

Yes, you heard that alright!

Thanks to Brandi over at The Collegiate Nail for introducing me to this; Copious.com. What is this Copious that I speak of? "Copious.com is social marketplace for buying from and selling to people." Simple as that. It's like a better version of eBay!

After clicking on the invitation, I created an account and that wonderful $10.00 was mine to spend on anything, whatever I wanted! They have many brands varying from Zoya, OPI, Nubar and China Glaze. It really depends on what people are selling.

With that, this is what I purchased my $10.00 credit on.

Yes, the famous Zoya Ivanka. Such a lovely color. This beautiful green-gold almost blue glass flecked polish. No one does glass flecks better than Zoya, hands down! And on top of that, the formula was perfect!

Now onto what you are looking for, the $10.00.

Just click here for the personal invitation.

This is a personal invite and that is the only way that you are able to receive your free $10.00 credit. Once you checkout, Copious.com will charge you a single $.01 (penny) just to make sure you are human. How awesome is that?

Now what are you waiting for?! Go get that free $10.00 credit!

So what did you end up purchasing?
Anna 

*This  is my personal referral link above, and I receive a free $5.00 credit on Copious.com if  you use it

 and complete a transaction. After signing up, you can give others your referral link as well and get $5.00 for each invite.*

Read More

Blue Ranger

This one is the fraternal brother to a previous green version franken that I made a while ago. Except this time, this one is blue.

I named (actually the Hubby) named the green one Green Ranger after I blogged about so in light of that one, I thought Blue Ranger was the perfect name!

If you have ever frankened before, you would know that it is time consuming and it takes a lot of effort. It's more than throwing different glitters and polish together but it's making a masterpiece! And I think this may be one.

It was so hard to capture the shimmer and glitter. In the second picture, the camera couldn't make up it's mind and resulted with this slightly blurry one. But hopefully you'll get the point.

I frankened this one in the new Wet n Wild bottles and I hate those brushes. I haven't been able to come across a decent one yet, unfortunately.

As with Green Ranger, Blue Ranger has a minimal amount of glitter and shimmer. I love glitter but I don't like to add too much - at least in my frankens. This was opaque in 2 coats. I think I could have added an extra top coat to gloss it up and smooth it out but I am pretty happy with this.

What do you think?
Anna

Read More

Ink

I hope all of you had a great weekend! I totally forgot to take a bottle shot and I suddenly remembered when I already removed the mani. That sucks. Ever done that before? But, this one won't disappoint because it's so pretty!

 

At first when I saw this bottle, I wasn't too fond of it but I picked it anyways because I had seen a few people in the blogger community write about it. 

As soon as I polished and pictured this. I could mot believe my eyes. I was truly mesmerized. Look at it! How the blue and purple ultra fine glitter just meshes into together. The blur-ple color is just amazing. I am so glad that I picked this up.

I love finding those polishes. Where you think you might not like it but buy it anyway, and when you do try it, it looks absolutely gorgeous. It's such a wonderful surprise.

OPI Ink was perfectly opaque after 2 smoother coats. The formula and brush was perfect as I would always expect. 

Now this polish, certainly did not disappoint.

Do you own any colors similar to this? 

Anna

Read More

Sky High

Hello Friday!

Did anyone order any polishes from Pretty & Polished yesterday? Unfortunately I missed both. BOO! It's ok. I must save up for the China Glaze Bohemian collection that's suppose to be coming out sometime this month. So much for "No Buy July".

In the mean time, this is what I have for you today!

This little baby right here was so hard to photograph!!! I hate those kinds of polishes that just do not come out correctly in the pictures. They are a pain!

Ok, you see the third picture, that's exactly what it looks like in real life on the nails. Isn't that just gorgeous?! In the 2 photos above, you think it looks like just another plain metallic-foil'ish blue. But no, no it's not! This is truly a gem.

Color Club Sky High was perfectly opaque in 2 coats. The formula was smooth and perfect. I also picked up another bottle from this collection. Hopefully it's just as beautiful.

Have you picked up or want to pick up any of these from the Take Wing collection?
Anna

Read More

Twinsie Tuesday: Patriotic

This week's Twinsie Challange: Patriotic mani in honor of July 4th.

This one has got to be one of my least favorites. 1. I'm not much of a patriotic person. 2. I felt so limited. I didn't even like the one that I came up with.

Here it is. It's a mess and definitely not my best.

For the red, I used Ulta Non-stop Red, for the blue I used Revlon First class, then I used an acrylic white paint and Sinful Colors Queen Beauty for the glitter. I free handed the half moon so I hope it looks ok.

With that, Happy July 4th to all the Americans!

How does you patriotic mani look like?
Anna

Check out the Twinsies' patriotic mani! 

 Amanda at Amandalandish

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog
ChiChi at I''m just me...ChiChi
Cordia at Srsly Swatched

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch
Tara at Polishy of Truth

Read More

Jelly Jelly

You know I love me some good jelly sandwiches.

Since I couldn't find Essence Blue Addicted and Across The Universe is a bit out of my budget, this is what I have substituted it for.

I used one coat of China Glaze Ride The Waves from the neon collection, then one coat of Jordana Cosmic and repeated the same step for this beautiful result. Lovely much?

Both polishes were very easy to apply and the pigmentation was great.

Have you used Ride The Waves for a jelly sandwich yet?
Anna

Read More

Twinsie Tuesday: Metallic or Duochrome?

First and foremost, I want to inform you all that I am finally back on track with my blog and ready for this summer. Blog wise that is! Yesterday was my last day of summer classes, thankfully! And I should be finding out my grade here very shortly but that's beside the point.

 So, I want to thank all of readers and welcome my new readers. I have been super busy but I am looking to do a giveaway to celebrate my 200+ followers. I know, I’m pretty behind since I have more than 200 as of right. But fret no more! Giveaway to say thanks shall be coming soon!

I'd also like to apologize as I have not been commenting. Just because I don't comment doesn't mean that I didn't take a look, so forgive me/.

So this week’s Twinsie challenge is: metallic or duochrome.

 

And this week for me has got to be a duochrome. You know I love me some duochrome! So I especially saved this very special polish for this very special post. I received this polish in a swap with Abbie over at AbbieNail. She's a real sweetheart so you should check her out. 

On the other hand, the United States nail polish community is truly and unfortunately deprived of Models Own. 

In some angles, you can see the maroon, red, copper and bronze. 

Look at all that beautiful-ness on that cotton ball.

This is Models Own Purple Blue from the Beetlejuice collection. Oh how I yearned for these polishes. And the sweet Abbie picked this up for me. Yes, let's face it. I'm sure and aware that you have seen this swatched a thousand and even a million some times, but how can you turn away from this beauty? 

Purple Blue is a purple-blue duochrome with pink and gold glass flecks seen as you shift your fingers around. I am amazed and in love with this. The formula was a bit runny and thin as this is 3 coats that you're looking at, and I am not much of a 3-coater person. Ok, seriously. How come someone pass up this jam packed gorgeousness? 

Can I say one more time that the US is deprived of Models Own and all other awesome international polishes? Would you agree?

Anna 

Take a look at the other Twinsies'  awesome metallic and duochrome goodness!

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog
ChiChi at I''m just me...ChiChi
Cordia at Srsly Swatched

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch
Tara at Polishy of Truth

Read More

Twinsie Tuesday: Half Moon Mani

This weeks theme was a real challenge and made me cringe: half moon mani using a neon and a pastel.

The neon and pastel together on a nail makes me go cray cray. I can definitely do it if it were clothing articles put together to make an outfit. Or maybe it was just me who couldn't pull off the neon and pastel half moon mani. This was a real hot mess. 

For the pastel mint, I used Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet and a blue neon polish that I will be doing a post on soon. So stay tuned! Both polishes applied perfectly and evenly in 2 coats.

I freehanded this bad boy because I didn't have enough time to allow for the mint polish to dry and adding then adding the guide before adding the blue neon.  Lately, my Twinsie Tuesday posts haven't been the greatest. I need to get back in game! So please excuse my slack. I also had a hard time because I couldn't decide what was a good combo for a neon and a pastel to be put together to form a half moon mani, so I hope it doesn't look too bad!

On a side note, only 1 more class lecture then finals and summer break is finally here! Woo-hoo!

What are some neon and pastel combos you think would look good together?
Anna 

Check out the other Twsinsies' neon and pastel half moon mani!

 Amanda at Amandalandish

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog
ChiChi at I''m just me...ChiChi
Cordia at Srsly Swatched

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch
Tara at Polishy of Truth

Read More

Cool Couture

Ever had that feeling where you sort of didn't really know if you spelled the word right? Like it was the only way that you had been spelling it all your life but the word just looked entirely wrong? Yes. That was  me today. I had to Google "couture" to make sure I spelled correctly because I didn't have the bottle in front of me. Boy do I hate this feeling especially when I'm in class!

So this is my very first and only Maybelline polish, Cool Couture. The shimmer in the base color really caught my eye as I don't often look at the polishes that Maybelline carries. However, this one is just gorgeous!

 Look at the beautiful shimmer!

Maybelline Cool Couture is a slate blue leaning grey with blue'ish-green shimmer running through out it, like a touch of Charla thrown in. This was 2 lovely coats. Isn't she gorgeous? I can say that I don't own anything like it. If only Maybelline made more unique polishes like this! But that would mean less money in the pocket, so I guess it's a good thing, sort of not really?

Well, I hope you all are having a great weekend so far! 

What are some of you favorite drugstore brand polishes?

Anna

Read More

First Class

Hopefully all of you are having a great weekend! I went to the drive in theater with my family Friday night and man it was cold! Anywho, I wanted to share a picture of my boss man:

He had his own little chair. Not that he could sit much in it, but I thought he looked so darling cute! We also barbequed. While barbeque'ing my nephew who is 5 years old wanted to feed my son but I said no, then my younger nephew stated "Auntie Anna, if he eats hot dog, then he will die right?" I just giggled and explained to him that he wouldn't die but something bad could happen. Oh the little minds of little ones!

Anywho! I've got this Revlon Target exclusive for you! This was 1 smooth opaque creamy coat. First Class is a nice dusty blue. I could not believe at how opaque it is!

I'm not much of a blue polish kind of person but I have been wanting to expand my horizon, or rainbow? And this is a perfect blue. I love it against my skin tone. Look at how shiny it is. 1 coat and 1 top coat and viola! Perfection!

Do you own First Class? Or would like to own it?

Read More