Deborah Lippmann - Just Dance

Hi there! Today I'm gonna be posting a polish I meant to post about a long time ago but you know me, I get distracted.

Actually I have a funny story about this polish. You may know that when I go on vacation somewhere, I am pretty uncontrollable with my spending when it comes to stuff I can't get locally, such as Deborah Lippmann polishes.
Last year, I went to St. Louis, and I bought two DL's at Nordstrom.
Last year, I also went to Chicago, and I bought two DL's at Sephora.

Only problem is... I bought this one both times. I had no recollection of buying it before, I'm usually really good at knowing what I have and don't have. But at some point I noticed that it was there twice on my polish stash spreadsheet which got me thinking, OMG I totally did buy that twice. A major DOH moment. So I went to check my Lippmann's on my nice little shelf, and there is only one bottle of it there. So I said no, maybe it was an accident that I put it there twice on the list. So I check out my haul posts for the months I had both of those trips, and SURE ENOUGH, I have it in both of them. So I bought it twice. I definitely did. But I still cant find the second bottle?! Did I notice the mistake once before and give it as a gift or something and totally just let it all slip from my mind? I DUNNO.

Anyway. Here's Just Dance from Deborah Lippmann.
A polish so nice you might buy it twice.

I can't remember now if this is two or three coats, but I do know that there is no base color, just lovely full coverage glitter. Blue glitters are one of my favorite polishes to wear, and this one applies sooooo great.
I'm actually thinking of going and putting it on again right after I finish this post.

Such blue. Many Glitter. Wow.

The moral of this story is that we all need to settle down and not wind up buying two of the same pricey polish. Unless you mean to. Like maybe you like it sooooo much you need two. Because you never know when you might run out. Just in case. Right? RIGHT?

31DC2014: Day 24 + giveaway winner!

Hey everyone! Today we're doing the Inspired by a Book theme and as promised earlier in the month, I've done nails inspired by the new Ellen Hopkins book, Rumble!
Plus, head to the end of the post to find out who won the Ellen Hopkins giveaway! 

Tada! Once again I am really pleased with the end result of my book nails.
At first I wasn't sure if I was going to get the right effect but after I kept layering colors, it came out looking so close that they could almost blend right in!

I started with a base of China Glaze - Bahamian Blues.
I used various sponges and stuff to make different textures using dark blue (Zoya - Sailor) medium blue (China Glaze - Splish Splash) and white (Color Club - French Tip.) 
I used a black striper to create some jagged lines to mimic the cover even more.

And now... Without further ado... The winner of the giveaway is Mandy L!
I've contacted the winner and will redraw in the event of non-response.


What do you guys think of my Rumble nails?
Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 24 designs:

• 2013: Impulse
• 2012: Glass
• 2011: Perfect

31DC2014: Day 5

Hello and welcome to day 5 of the 31 Day Challenge! Bloooooooo day!

I had to get this done in a short time frame so I didn't have time for nail art, so I busted out a nail charm!

Urban Decay - Chaos is the base color. It's a great blue that they released this summer and obvi I bought it because I buy all of their shiz. The formula is great, two coats for solid coverage and no issues.

This skull charm is from the Bling It On Leather & Skulls kit from Nails Inc which I recently scored at Shoppers Drugmart for just $6. I don't remember what it was originally but it was a lot more than that for the specialty polish and four charms plus glue. I was pretty stoked and almost bought 2.

Dan says this looks very luxurious. I guess that means he likes it.

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 5 designs:

• 2013: Layers of Blue
• 2012: Blue & Purple Ikat
• 2011: Peppermint Fusion

copycat polka dots

Sometimes my bestie Chalkboard Nails will post a mani and I'm like "BRB doing it now." That happened recently when she posted these awesome jelly gradient polka dot nails!
I hunted for a dupe for the blue she used, pulled out the same purple, and away I went!

I love how it turned out! And it's ridiculously easy to do gradients with jelly polishes. You just keep layering it to build color towards the tip. Once you add topcoat, it's practically seamless. I've previously done it a whole bunch of times including here with a little tutorial, and here and also here.

The blue base is Color Club - Bright Night.
The purple jelly is the appropriately named China Glaze - Are You Jelly?
My go-to white for stuff like this is Color Club - French Tip. 

My stupid camera is giving me mad grief lately and I couldn't get it to really take a warm enough photo (and I don't have Photoshop on this computer) but the above photo from my iPhone shows the colors much more accurately! The jewel tones really go great together and the polka dot pop makes it even better.

Do you often see a picture of a manicure and feel the intense burning desire to create it instantly? Let me know which manicures had you running to grab your polishes and start a masterpiece!

Maybelline - Nighttime Noise

Hey guys! Hopping on late tonight to get this post up for you because I love this polish!

Maybelline - Nighttime Noise (over Lime Crime - Once In A Blue Mousse)
This is a new matte glitter topper from the Street Art collection of Maybelline's Color Show line. The collection has four or five cool glitters but the two blues really stood out to me and followed me home.

As you can see there are many different shapes and sizes of glitter, plus the formula was wonderful. I did two coats for my mani for the coverage I wanted. It's so fun!

I definitely recommend these glitters! Plus they're so affordable, just around $3. Pick them up if you spot 'em.

OPI - Kiss Me At Midnight

Hello everyone and Happy New Year's Eve! I decided to hop on here today and post a very appropriate polish for tonight's festivities. Been slacking off again of course - but I've already got big plans for the new year so never fear, I'm not giving up on ya!

Before I jump into today's post I wanted to let you know that I am guest posting today over at work / play / polish. The lovely Leslie has been working so hard to make a big blogger collaboration in support of the Polished Girlz organization, and you should definitely check it out. Check out my contribution here.

And now, polish time!

OPI - Kiss Me At Midnight is a beautiful sparkly blue Liquid Sand shade from this holiday's Mariah Carey Collection. It covers in just two coats and it dries very quickly and solidly, unlike some other textured polishes I have tried. Despite being matte, these glittery offerings from OPI are not dull at all!

I have a personal motto which is "Buy ALL the Liquid Sands!"
I figured that they wouldn't make so many though... And I've missed a few. But I'll probably catch up!

I find that these wear extremely well also. I just wore another one for like a week without needing to change it and that's shocking, especially considering you don't wear topcoat!

Who will you be kissing at midnight? ;)

piCture pOlish - Super Styling (+leggings!)

Hey guys! Time to post swatches of the beautiful polish that came with my beautiful leggings.

piCture pOlish, thank you for being geniuses and creating these leggings.
If you follow me on Instagram (or saw my October haul) you'd already know how in love I am with them.
Best piece of clothing to ever grace my body with its presence.
But what makes them even better? They come with a gorgeous polish!

piCture pOlish - Super Styling
This is seriously my new favorite PP (besides mine of course.) Good loooooooord I love it!!
I actually wore it twice in a row. I took it off to put on a new color and then I put it back on. Yes.

This color was inspired by Fashion Polish and I gotta say, PP girls, if you wanna do a purple like this inspired by me to release with more leggings, I will be the first on the pre-order list! HA!

So delightful. I wanna put it on again right now!

You can get Super Sytling on its own from www.picturepolish.com.au or through other international stockists. But of course I think you should get them with the leggings. Totally worth it.

Time to go take some more artsy Instagram photos of myself wearing them... Hehe!

31DC2013 - day 28

Hey guys! The 31 Day Challenge is finishing... today is Day 28! The theme is Inspired By A Flag.
I find this prompt to be a weird one because I don't see flags as particularly inspiring, but I thought of a good one this time, the TOMS flag!

White stripe on a blue background! Simple yet effective.

I used Essie - Rock The Boat as the base color. Three thin coats for full opacity. Let it dry with some Seche Vite and then I added the white stripes using Sally Hansen Insta Dri - Whirlwind White and some tape to make it sharp. Easy!

I sell Toms in the store where I work and I fully endorse them, not just because of their business plan but also because they are ridiculously comfortable.
Confession - I have 13 pairs. Maybe I'll Instagram a photo of all of them soon... Haha!

31DC2013 - day 25

Day 25 is Inspired By Fashion and I've got 25 minutes to write this post before midnight!

I work in a clothing store so I am always surrounded by cool clothes with nice patterns, and I chose one of my favorite Volcom shirts to mimic.

Tada! (Sorry for the little bits of black residue I could NOT get off and did not have time to get off.)

Because I needed something easy, I decided to go with a stamping image from Mash, plate Mash-42.
The base color is Color Club - Bright Night from the Kaleidoscope Collection and I stamped with Konad black special polish.
I also used Color Club topcoat from my Kaleidoscope set because it was nearby and I smeared my stamping a little. But my Seche Vite has been annoying me lately so whatevs.

But wait... I guess this kinda applies more to tomorrow's theme of Inspired by a Pattern, doesn't it? Oh well, this is a shirt!!!

Working in a clothing store where you like all the clothes is HARD. Good thing there's an employee discount!

I finished the post with 15 minutes to spare... Phew!

31DC2013 - day 13

Hey! It's my birthday! I'm in Chicago! I'm at Riot Fest! All is dandy.
And today is Animal Print day for the 31 Day Challenge! My favorite day, obvi.

Okay I cheated a tiny bit with this mani and added leopard over my gradient from Day 10, but can you blame me? I had to do almost a whole week of posts in advance...

The gradient was done with two polishes, Ciate - Pepperminty and Ciate - Kiss Chase. I used a sponge (and patience) to create the look.

I added dots with one of my all time faves, China Glaze - That's Shore Bright, a neon purple. I just did messy dots with the polish brush.

And then I added the black detail with a small dotting tool.

Gradients with leopard print are just so beautiful to me and I would seriously wear this every day if I could only choose one type of design for the rest of my life. Soooooo into it. And I know you guys are too!!
Prob one of my favorite manis ever.
Happy birthday to me!

31DC2013 - day 12

As this post goes live, I will be on my way to Chicago!
I am the most excited human in the wooooorld. I am going to Riot Fest, a 3-day concert festival with seriously almost all of my favorite bands.

This will be my third time taking a trip to see blink-182, and I am more excited now than ever because I am so healthy and happy and I will finally be able to fully enjoy myself!
Seeing blink would be enough, but throw in all the other bands I love (Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Say Anything, Against Me, Rancid, the list goes on) AND put the concert on my birthday weekend, PLUS put it in Chicago, the home of my other obsession - the Stanley Cup champions, The Chicago Blackhawks, and basically I could not ask for anything better.
It's like the universe said "Hey Rebecca, you're finally in remission, here's your dream come true!"
So exited. OMG.

So. After that little happy outburst, let's get back to the challenge!
I am keeping my challenge going despite being away this week.
Day 12 is Stripes.

Didn't wanna do regular ol' parallel stripes so I went for something a little different. I started with the center stripe and just let my imagination do what it wanted.

It's kinda like a blue stripe sunburst!

I started with a base of Essie - The More The Merrier from the Naughty Nauticals collection (which I will swatch sometime soon!) and I did the stripes with a blue striper from Art Club.

Love this shimmery green!

I think these were a nice take on the stripe prompt! I'm looking forward to seeing more stripe manis :)

31DC2013 - day 10

Day 10! We are one third completed!

I am making this post from my phone while waiting for my class to start so please excuse me if it looks wonky or anything.

Today's theme is Gradient Nails. 

I love doing gradients so I love this day!

I decided to do a simple gradient with no other stuff on top to take away from the colors. And believe it or not I only used two polishes to create this look!

I used two colors from Ciaté that came in the Very Colourfoil Manicure sets (one of which I posted yesterday for my metallic mani and yes I went out and bought a second kit last night.)

The tiffany blue is Ciaté - Pepperminty and the pink is Ciaté - Kiss Chase. 

I did the gradient with a sponge as usual and I'm really pleased with how the colors blended. 

There's a pic of Pepperminty on its own for good measure. 

Thanks for making it through the first section of this challenge with me!
Take a look at the challenge pic to see what is still to come.