sprinkle all the way

Heeeeello! As I sit here trying to locate textbooks for yet another semester of university, I stumbled upon something different: a really old manicure I never posted.
I'm pretty sure it's over a year old. What's funny is that I know exactly why I never posted it - I kept wanting to swatch all of these Sprinkles polishes from Nails Inc before posting a mani but then I just never got around to it! Maybe someday...

For now, a cute mis-matched-mani!

My dear friend Jini sent me three of the Nails Inc Sprinkles ages ago and I wore these right away!
The pink is Nails Inc - Topping Lane and the blue is Nails Inc - Pudding Lane.

One look at these bottles and you know I need them, right?
I've got all four of the full size colors and I really want the little limited edition Ice Cream set with the mint sprinkles polish but it was neverrrrr in stock at Sephora when I was ordering. Boo.

Seeing as it was so long ago, I don't exactly remember the formula on these. But it looks like it was good? Haha!

Makes me want to go put one on right now! That, or eat some ice cream. Or both.

i'm home! / april haul!

Hey everyone! Back to live posting here from RLN headquarters.

I had a fantastic time on vacation, spent a ton of money, ate a whole bunch of good food, and of course brought home a lot of polish.

I'm gonna start this post with my usual monthly haul list, and then move on to the stuff I got while on vacation!
Before I left for vacation, I wasn't really being as good as I should have been...

glittery purple zebras... they exist, right?

Hi everyone! Did you miss me?
Can you believe I didn't post for the last three whole days?!
Life catches up to you sometimes. I had a lot of school work and other things taking up my time.

But never fear... I always return.

To make my comeback, I'm posting some great nails I rocked a few weeks ago!

Purple, glitter, zebra... it doesn't get much better.
This idea came from a friend asking me to do her nails and do whatever I wanted. Somehow I landed on this, and then as soon as she left I did the same thing on my nails!

This look starts with 2 coats of China Glaze - Flying Dragon and one coat of Nails Inc - Bloomsbury Square.
I forgot to take a picture of this on my left hand so you get a messy right hand picture. Look at that great application... It's not usually that bad, promise.

Nails Inc is a bit pricey, but good news! Wet N Wild just released an exact dupe of this awesome purple glitter. It's called Back Alley Deals and it is in the Ice Baby collection. You'll only be able to find it at Walgreens. (Lucky me, my friend Sarah from Chalkboard Nails scooped up the ones I wanted and sent them to me! I got them today. Look out for swatches soon.)

Then I added the silver stamping with Sally Hansen Insta Dri - Silver Sweep and Konad plate m57.
And then... a coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust.
Add some Seche Vite and you're good to go.

I just love the super sparkly purple base with the tiny rainbow of Fairy Dust. And animal print makes everything better, right?

I love this last photo! Click it to enlarge it and see how deep the polish looks. I just love it.

So, sorry for being gone, but I hope you liked my return! I sure did.
And I promise I have lots of awesome coming up. And I mean lots.
(Eye Candy? Ice Baby? Scent-scous? Beyond The Mistletoe? Back to Boho? Pride? Oh my!)

these are a few of my favorite things

Teal. Gradients. Glitter. Sponging. Stamping. Stars.
Yes, these are a few of my favorite things. And here they all are in one mani!

Looooove this! Nothing better than a bunch of favorites!

This mani started out with 2 coats of Orly Bailamos.
Gorgeous 2-coat teal with shimmer!

I love this polish. I should wear it more often.

Then I began sponging on a shimmery deep teal from Forever 21, Love & Beauty - Green.
The names of the Love & Beauty polishes are hilarious. "Green" is not an accurate description of this polish, it is a dark shimmery, sheer teal with a slight duochrome effect.

Not blingy enough yet... Needs glitter and stamping.

Tada! I sponged on some glitter, Nails Inc. - Fitzroy Square from the Special Effects 3D Glitter line. Amazing teal glitter! My mom picked up that one for me in Vegas at Sephora!

I just love this. I'm going to stop saying that now.
The stamp is Bundle Monster BM14 with Wet N Wild Black Creme.

That picture is a bit out of focus but it is pretty!

I've had this on for 4 days now with no chips at all! I might have to leave it on for a few more :)
What do you guys think?

31 Day Challenge: Day 17

Ah, glitter. Today's theme is Glitter Nails.

I have a love/hate relationship with glitter.
I own a lot of glitter polishes. But do I wear them often? Not really.

Glitter looks awesome but it has quite a few annoying traits.
1) The removal. Let's not talk about how much fun it is scrubbing your nails for 10 minutes to get off all the glitter. You can use the foil method (tutorial here from Kayla Shevonne) but I just don't like doing it... So I scrub away. Or maybe sometimes possibly pick it off... But as a good nail blogger... Pretend I didn't say that.
2) The clean up. Got some glitter on your cuticles? Good luck getting rid of it. They don't call it "glitter herpes" for nothin'.
3) It is so hard to get even coverage on your tips. Now, not all glitter does this, but the one I'm showing you today does!
4) The wear time. I get mega chips with glitter polish within a day or two. Big chunks just pop right off. Sometimes entire nails just pop off in nail-shaped sheets! Sheesh.

Despite all the faults, I'm still addicted to glitter. So I keep buying it.
In Buffalo, I picked up this little baby:

This is Nails Inc. - Bloomsbury Square, which is from the Special Effects 3D glitter line.

Sephora had just begun carrying Nails Inc. right around the time of my trip so I knew I had to get my hands on at least one!
None of the cremes really wowed me but the glitters were awesome! I wanted all of them (of course) but, my mom was with me at the time, which ultimately meant I had to show some willpower and choose just one.
In typical Rebecca fashion, I picked the purple.

Ah, purple glitter. But not just any purple glitter! There is reddish-fuchsia glitter in there, too. You'll see that better in upcoming pictures.

I was expecting this glitter to be more dense - you're looking at 4 coats, and it needed all 4.
I was hoping that being a "special effect" meant it would be really good, application-wise, but nope.
It did dry pretty quickly though, and was perfectly smooth after one thick coat of Seche Vite.

The application problem I mentioned earlier is slightly visible in this photo. It's hard to get the glitter to adhere properly to the very edge of your nail and for someone crazy like me, it is quite annoying! It looks like your fresh mani has already been wearing off for a few days.

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of your right hand with a really large Canon Rebel camera? The button is on the right side of the camera, so you have to get in this awkward contortion so you can reach that button with your left hand... And then somehow get your right hand in front of the camera... And try to strike a nice "pose" ...It ain't happenin'. Sorry.

It sparkles pretty nice in the sunlight! But look at the glitter-free tips :(
(I didn't have my polish bottle close to me for these outdoor pics, so I held my OPI AvoJuice. Good stuff.)

Here is where you can see the difference in the colors of glitter. It's pretty unique, I don't think I own many glitters that are mostly one color with a pop of a larger, contrasting glitter.
Me likey.
Me wanty the other colors...

These polishes retail for $9.50 at Sephora in the states and I believe $12 in Canada.
Pricey, but not horribly so. Acceptable.

Are you wondering what else is coming up in the challenge? Here is a reminder...

What are you most looking forward to?