Nail-Venturous - Evil Barbie

I teased you guys yesterday with a closeup of this polish... And now it's time to reveal it!
This polish is very special to me because I'm one of a few lucky people who own it!

Nail-Venturous - Evil Barbie
I've said this two or three times before, but I'll say it again! Amy from I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous is one of the sweetest people ever. Who makes some of the most awesome polishes ever. And she sent me this one.
Just look at that amazing creation! Hot pink with black glitter! Ooooh, Evil Barbie, how I love you.

You could wear this on its own but I wanted to conserve polish so I layered it over China Glaze Dance Baby which was such a good choice, because it let the base color of Evil Barbie really pop!

Here's a super awful messy picture, but I wanted to quickly show you just how bright the base of Barbie is! That's one very thin coat over Dance Baby, versus Dance Baby alone.
I layered it over a few pinks on a nail wheel to decide what to use, and this one is just perfect.

Beyond the great pink color and the awesome black glitters, there is also a beautiful shimmer!

I just looooooooooove love love it. Thank you SO much Amy! You are a doll!

I decided that this polish needed some matching stamping... which finally gave me a reason to use the Barbie stamp!

I thought this mani was pretty clever!

The Barbie image is from Konad m71.
The skull image is from an unnamed plate from eBay.
The chains image is from Bundle Monster BM12.

I love that little skull!

What do you guys think of this great polish and the matching mani?
I hope you love it as much as I do!

old school tattoo mani

Hey guys! I know I've been slacking on the nail art lately, so hopefully today's post can make up for some of that! Because this is probably one of the coolest things I've ever done.

Let's get right to it!

Boom! Old school tattoo style! I'm still wearing this mani right now and I can't stop staring at my nails.

I even managed to do it on my right hand! (Aligning all those stamps is tricky!)
This hand isn't as good though so here are some more photos of the other hand.

The base color for this manicure is Color Club - Nomadic In Nude from the Back To Boho collection.
(I previously stated that this was a dupe for Lippmann's Waking Up In Vegas but I have since learned that while they are dupes in the bottle, the Lippmann dries much darker.)
This is my favorite nude! I chose a nude base so it would look like black tattoo work on skin.

I used a whole bunch of different plates for this look. I'll try to list them all:
-Konad Q1 (sparrows, leopard print on thumb, some of the stars, lightning bolt)
-Konad m3 (stars)
-Bundle Monster BM-12 (spider web, some stars)
-Bundle Monster BM-206 (nautical star)
The diamond, rose, second web, and some stars all came from faux-nad plates from eBay.

You can't see this side of my thumb in the other photos, but this awesome guitar is from a Nail Art Diva plate. Their website is not working right now so I don't know what the plate is called and in advance - no, I can't get anymore of this plate, but if the website were working I think you could order it there.

I dotted into some of the empty spaces with a toothpick just to bring the whole thing together.
All my stamping was done with Wet N Wild Black Creme.

Apart from this being just a really cool mani, there happens to be a special reason behind it.
A lovely lady I met in the polish community, Brenda, has a very sick daughter, Dyan. Several of us have decided to create manicures showcasing Dyan's favorite things in hopes they will help raise Dyan's spirits in her recovery and let her know that we all love her and are thinking about her. Dyan loves tattoos so I came up with a tattoo mani!
Dyan is recovering miraculously and I wish her all the best in her journey back to health!
You can check out more "Team Dyan" manicures on Sonoma Nail Art and Polish Ninja.
I'll add more links here as they are posted.

31 Day Challenge: Day 14

Hi guys! I've only got just over an hour to make sure I don't lose the challenge at day 14! Haha.
I've had this mani done all day but I've had no time to post the photos! I'm still a busy post-birthday girl.

Today's theme is Flowers. I went through all my cheapie plates from eBay to try and find something cute, and I sure found a cute one!

Speaking of cute...

Look at the cupcake my friend Emma crocheted for me for my birthday! Awwww! Too cute. Thank you Emma!
Pictured with my cuppycake - the polish I used for today's mani!

This is three coats of China Glaze - Purple Panic which as you can see is not exactly purple, it is more of a pinky fuchsia. This is the third bottle of China Glaze that I ever bought! Haha. It is one of their neon colors so it dries semi-matte.

And here it is with the stamping! Isn't it cute?

I wasn't expecting to like this look as much as I do.
And the pretty shimmer of Purple Panic shows up better once you add topcoat.

I really enjoy that this challenge makes me do things I would not have thought of had I not been participating!

Look! Another birthday present! This super cute polish bottle is a Christmas tree ornament that my lovely friend Whitney sent me! It came today - just one day late. Thank you Whitney!

While we're talking birthday presents...

See those three cupcakes in the back? My friend Vicki (the baker discussed in this post!) made me cupcakes! There were 6 but we took care of the other ones...
I'll share with you what she told me - She was going to write Happy Birthday on a cake, but then thought to herself: "Wait! Rebecca Likes Cupcakes!"
And so, from my cupcake-inspired franken named Rebecca Likes Cupcakes, actual Rebecca Likes Cupcakes cupcakes were born.
Did I say cupcakes enough?!
Thank you Vicki!
(My mom bought me the cuppies in the front, how unloving! Hah!)

I won't bore you with all of my birthday gifts, but I'll have many more polish-related birthday gifts to show you guys in the coming days as they arrive. So many of my lovely "polish friends" were so generous and I had the best birthday ever!
Not to mention the birthday money I promptly spent on polish... Of course!

Bonus birthday picture...

This was my birthday cake! I made it all by myself.
I had a very Hello Kitty birthday. Cake, calendar, cards, pajamas, floormats for my car... LOL. I swear I turned 21 and not 12.

Goodnight guys! (Or good morning/afternoon, wherever you are!)

Born Pretty Store review!

Good afternoon everyone! Today I have an exciting post, as well as exciting news.

I'll start with the news.
Remember my piCture pOlish blogfest post? Well, the girls at piCture pOlish liked it, and I get to have a giveaway for you guys! One of you will be winning 3 lovely piCture pOlishes of your choice. The giveaway is going to start tomorrow so have an eye out for that post!

And now for today's exciting post.
I was recently given the chance to review a product for Born Pretty!

I chose to review one of their plates, m56, and they also sent me a stamper and scraper!

It's no secret that many bloggers love Born Pretty. They have great products at amazing prices. And they ship free, world wide. What more could you ask for?
I've purchased things from Born Pretty before which is why I have no problem advertising for them - they are an awesome company and I am very pleased with their products.

I always wanted Konad plate m56 for the bow image, so I decided to try the Born Pretty version. You can buy this plate here for $2.99, or you can get a set of 16 Konad-style plates here for $18.48. (Awesome deal! It includes all my favorite plates, too!)
You can purchase the stamper/scraper set here for $2.03.

The stamper and scraper are your usual rubber stamper and metal scraper.
Personally I prefer the plastic scrapers because I find you need to press harder with a metal one to get all the polish to scrape off. It still works fine, you just need a bit more effort.

The plates come with an easy-to-remove blue film! The fact that it is blue really helps get it off.

Here is a closeup of the plate. It is etched perfectly and has no flaws.

All the images transfer well and without problems! (2 of the hearts stuck to the stamper because I waited too long to transfer, but that was my fault, not the plate.)
Two of the images are a bit too small for my thumbnails (the swirls and the flowers) but not everyone would have this problem.

I've wanted that cute bow for a long time, so I couldn't wait to do a mani with it!

I started with 2 coats of Essence - Movie Star, which Traci sent me! Thanks Trace!

Movie Star is a dark gray creme that is perfectly opaque in 2 coats.

I wanted this polish because I wanted a darker gray than China Glaze Recycle.
Looking at the bottles, the two aren't very different from each other so I was a bit disappointed at first.

But, Movie Star dries darker than bottle color, so it ended up being exactly what I wanted!

In the above picture, I am holding the Recycle bottle. You can see how Movie Star is much deeper.
I think this might be a dupe for China Glaze's Concrete Catwalk from the new Metro collection but I'm not sure if they're exact. Either way, this polish totally kills my need for a dark gray!

Now for the bows!

Sooooooo cute!

As you can see, it fits my thumb perfectly!
I stamped with Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Presto Pink, and added 1.5mm pink rhinestones to the bows.

I am a bow addict. If it has bows, I want it. Stamping plates, clothes, you name it.

That's it for my review from Born Pretty! I want to thank Born Pretty for providing me with the opportunity to do this review. I wonder what I'll order next!

Oh, here is something else you might want to check out on Born Pretty...

Hello Kitty Stickers!! Bows!! I can't wait to use these. (BP did not send me these to review, I got them free in a Twitter promotion last month!)
You can buy them here for $2.88!

Don't forget my coupon code!

Have a lovely day!

(Certain products in this post were provided to me in exchange for an honest review.)

hello kitty shoes. and hello kitty mani.

Hi guys! Later than usual post from me today - I knew I wanted to post this manicure today before I even have it done! Haha.
But first... the shoes.

A few weeks ago, Sarah from Samarium's Swatches bought these shoes and showed them off on Polish-Aholics Anonymous.
And thus began my quest to own them. 
I pretty much exclusively wear Vans, except in the winter when I break out the boots. I even have Vans flip flops for summer.

I knew I wouldn't have a chance at waiting to go to Buffalo and go to Journey's to get them, because they would be gone by then.
And Vans only ships to the states. I thought my quest was over. And then I remembered my mom's friend who is living in Texas for a year.

I emailed her. Asked her to please let me send them to her and have her bring them home next time she was coming back. And she said yes. And she said she was coming home 3 weeks from that day. 
It was perfect!

Even the box is cute.

Even the tissue paper is cute.

And stickers, too!

When I opened them I knew I had to do matching nails. But would I have the right pink?
(Of course I did.)

China Glaze - Rich And Famous. One of my favorite pinks.

2 coats!
And then the stamping started, with my Hello Kitty fauxnad plate and Wet N Wild Black Creme.

Perfection!

Love it.

So much.

I pretty much don't have anything else to say about this mani!

Happy feet.

Happy nails.

:)