before i was good at nail art: from the vault part 1

Before I start this post I want to talk a little about my Head and Shoulders hair stripping attempt, because I got a lot of questions about it.
It did take a good bit of the color out of my hair. But not enough, and my red did not come out the way it should have. (It should be fire engine but instead it is more like a very deep auburn.)
I put it on wet hair, lathered it, and left it on for 20 minutes.
It did remove a lot of the color. If you are looking to lighten/fade your color, this could be a good thing to try. (Obviously only on dyed hair.)
But if you need to lighten more than 2 or 3 shades, you're going to want to see a professional.
(And I am going to see a professional, my friend Kathryn, to fix it. Hi Kathryn!)

Anyway.
I have a semi-hilarious post for you today.

I decided it would be funny do a mega post of the crappy/occasionally good designs I did when I was just getting the hang of nail art.
So I got all the pictures ready, watermarked them even though I'm sure I didn't need to because no one will want to steal them, and here they are for you!
(I watermarked these ages ago with my old watermark - I've been saving this post for sometime when I really had nothing else to post. Haha.)

Without further ado, here are 13 pictures from my early adventures in nail art.

my first drippy manicure!

Hey guys!
Nail art post today! I need to start trying to do more of these.

I am currently sitting on the couch, with my hair covered in Head and Shoulders, and a shower cap, and a towel, trying to semi-strip or fade my hair color. This is an awkward feeling. It is bubbling.
I just need to lighten my hair a few shades before I dye it back to my usual red.
I feel silly.
(If this sounds weird to you, Head and Shoulders is really strong and bad for colored hair so a lot of people use it when they want to lighten their color.)

Anyway.
I was wearing this lovely color a few days ago:

Essie - Lapis of Luxury. Such a pretty periwinkle blue.
My friend Emma gave this to me! Hi Emma!!
:)

I really wanted to do some art but I could NOT figure out what I wanted to do.
And I stood around staring at my polishes trying to figure out what to do.
I found the color I wanted to use with it - Color Club - Uptown Girl. I knew the colors would look awesome together because they're both muted shades.

After seriously about 20 minutes of pondering, I decided to try a drippy mani!

It didn't turn out as perfect as I had hoped. It's decent but not great.

You might notice the giant piece of hair or bristle or whatever it is on my ring finger.
It came from the brush on a brand new bottle of Seche Vite.
I saw it go onto my nail and said "NOOOOOO," but I knew I couldn't get it off without ruining the manicure.

I did this with my dotting tools, I used a bunch of different sizes to create the different drips.

I really liked this and I want to try it again.
I'm considering a neon green and pink one as my Katy Perry manicure! Maybe with the colors from Starry Temptress! Ooh, I like where that is going. Haha!

I've had this Head and Shoulders on my hair for 15 minutes now... I wonder how long I should leave it...
Wish me luck!

back on crack: china glaze - fault line

Hey guys!
Because of all the hype over the new China Glaze Crackle Metals I decided to post a crackle mani from a few weeks ago.

I don't think I'm going to get all the Crackle Metals. I want the gold one but that's about it, I think.
I feel like if I bought them all, they would probably only get used once.
I bought all the first set of CG Crackles (besides the black) and I have only used 2 of them on a regular basis. Out of the other three, 2 of them got used once, and one not at all.
How many crackles can you need?

This manicure was the first and only time I've used the purple crackle, China Glaze - Fault Line.

This is over OPI - Mermaids Tears.
These crackles dry matte, and I really hated the look of this one matte. So I added Seche Vite!

Much nicer! But flash likes to make this look nothing like what it actually looks like.

That's better. I really liked this combo.

I like the shade of the purple but I wish it cracked a little more.

The color of this one is similar to Senorita Bonita.

Okay, I wrote all of this post, except this paragraph, 6 hours ago. And I spent that time in the hospital with my mom. We were convinced she fractured her ankle and it took 6 hours for them to tell her it wasn't broken and to put a bandage on it. Sigh.
I was going to make this post a bit more interesting, but now I'm too annoyed. Haha!

german giveaway swatch spam part 2

Hiiii. More exciting international swatches for you today.
I'll get right to it. I'll start with one of my faves.

Essence - Choose Me!
This wasn't one that I won, it is one that Martina included because she saw it on my wishlist, which was the cutest thing.
It's just so pretty and sparkly and teal and turquoise and green and blue and glass-flecked. Love.

This swatch is 3 coats, with the pinky being one coat over 1 coat of Orly - Bailamos.
This is one of my favorite polishes ever now. This is a small bottle, so thankfully I have a big bottle of Orly - Halley's Comet coming from Shadow, and they're dupes. (Along with Zoya - Charla and OPI - Catch Me In Your Net, which I don't have.)
I'll never run out!

This next polish was also one included from my wishlist.
Take that, wishlist!

Essence - Where Is The Party?
Cool purple shimmery greenish grayish duochrome.

The bottle shows a whole lot of colors but they're not all visible on the nail.

2 coats.

And the last of my Essence Color&Go's:

Essence - No More Drama.
This is a nice lavender creme, it's a bit darker than other similar colors I have. 2 coats.

Time for magnetic polishes!

I was really excited to try these out.
You hold a magnet over the polish while it's still wet, and it creates patterns in the polish.

Essence Metallics - Steel Me.
On this hand, I used the magnet that comes with them, and I tried different patterns on all my nails.
The vertical and horizontal work the best as you can see. I tried diagonal on my ring and pinky fingers but barely got any results.
For this one, the first coat was a bit sheer, so I let that dry normally and then used the magnet on the second coat.

Essence Metallics - Nothing Else Metals.
This one is a chrome finish and therefore it was a bit hard to capture the magnetic patterns.

On this one I tried different magnets from my fridge... and you'll notice that one worked a little too well...

The polish actually jumped from my nail to the magnet. Haha!

These were really neat polishes to try out and I'm happy to have them in my collection!

Last but not least...

Nfu-Oh - #60.
My very first Nfu-Oh! The bottles are just so pretty.

The flakes show more colors in the bottle than they do on the nail.

They mostly show a deep red-orange on the nail.

But they do go a bit golden/greenish on certain angles.

Originally I thought this was going to be a lot like Joe Fresh - Twilight but they aren't too similar.
Since swatching my Twilight I swapped it out, but I did have it on a nail wheel before that so I was able to compare these two.

They look more similar in the bottle than they do on the nail.
Twilight's base is a bit thicker - 3 coats vs 4/5 coats.

That's all for me today! I will have the last 6 polishes from the giveaway to show you whenever we get a bit of sun, so the potential holos can show their stuff!

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.

:)