april haul + follow me on instagram!

This month, I did really good with my polish-buying!
SUPER good actually, considering I went on a little trip! Let's all be proud. Here it is:

I got some indies for review:

Serum No. 5 - Day GlowSerum No. 5 - Sky Lights
Serum No. 5 - Forest Lights (mini)
Serum No. 5 - Poppy Fields (mini)
Serum No. 5 - April Showers (mini)

Animeniac Cosmetics - S.H.I.P
Animeniac Cosmetics - Chibi (mini)
Animeniac Cosmetics - Late Night Reading (mini)
Animeniac Cosmetics - Jolted (mini)

Picked up two Zoyas:
Zoya - Nyx
Zoya - London

Bought a lot of Hard Candy... But they're pretty cheap:

Hard Candy - Pixie Pink
Hard Candy - Gummy Green
Hard Candy - Pink Taffy
Hard Candy - So So Sequin
Hard Candy - Party Central
Hard Candy - Black Tie Optional
Hard Candy - Mermaid Magic

And then, in St. Louis, I only bought three polishes!:
Deborah Lippmann - Do The Mermaid
Deborah Lippmann - Just Dance
Julep - Rebecca

I hated to actually buy a Julep, but when I saw my name there on the display at Sephora, I snatched it up real quick. The Lippmanns were from Nordstrom - expensive, but hey, I was on vacation!

So, if I am not forgetting anything, I only purchased 12 polishes this month. Wow!
But I did buy a lot of other stuff while I was away...

Just for fun, there's some of what I bought in St. Louis. We went to two huge malls in one day and this is what happened... LOL. I took this photo after unloading it all in the hotel room.
I am so obsessed with my giant Betsey Johnson weekender and iPad case. I actually picked up more Betsey things from Macy's too, the next day. There were some ridiculous sales. $60 wallet for $20? Yes please! And can you believe I only paid $42 for the huge bag?! I LOVE SALES.
Plus I'm so excited to try my new goodies from Sephora (NARS Orgasm blush and Bare Minerals foundation and a sample of Urban Decay Naked Beauty Balm!) 
Lots of Hello Kitty stuff followed me home, too, of course.

And now a bit of news - you can now follow me on Instagram! @rebeccalikesnails
I tried using it for a little while just as a personal account and I liked it but couldn't get too into it. But now I'm gonna use it for my blog with some personal stuff mixed in and I think it will be a lot of fun!
I just posted a pic with one of my new Lippmanns... Check it out!
(And while you're at it, check out this photo from @chalkboardnails to see some of my crochet skills.)

One last thing...

my (non-winning) entry for Gel II's Reaction Contest!

Hey! This post will just be a quickie because I've only got two pics. My camera was NOT cooperating on this day! Too bad, considering I was trying to win a contest. Haha!!

Gel II had a contest where you had to use one or more of their Reaction color-changing gels to create a manicure. I wasn't too happy with what I came up with, but I ran out of time to do anything else!

You may remember from my original review post, but when your hands are warm, this polish is pink!

And when you're cold, they're purple!
But I'm just too damn hot to keep them purple for very long. (In more ways than one. Heh. Heh. Heh.)

I did a glitter gradient with some loose silver glitter on top of the gel, and added the star stamp from Bundle Monster BM-21.

It is cute, but I knew it wasn't gonna be a winner. There were some seriously cool entries! Oh well! I tried.

I'm back home tomorrow - haul post time? Perhaps!!

Product provided for honest review.

two random glitter bombs

Herro.

Sometimes, when I'm fooling around with new polishes, I end up just layering a bunch of them together to see what happens.

This one is so beautiful but sadly it was just too many coats and it was taking too long to fully set, and I took it off. :(
Here's what it consists of:
American Apparel - Hunter (2 coats)
piCture pOlish - Festival (3 coats)
Shimmer Polish - Jenny (1 coat)
OPI - Yule Love This Silver (1 coat)

Sparkly and greeeeeen. So purdy.

Here's another random mix that was on my other hand at some point last week:

I love this more every time I see the second photo!
The base here is OPI - Suzi Skis In The Pyrenees Suede, and on top I layered two new glitters.
Hard Candy - Party Central
Hard Candy - So So Sequin
I'm gonna try to get swatches up of all the Hard Candy glitters that I bought at some point, but let me just tell you for now, you need these!! Loving it. So hard.

Hooray for glitter bombs!

my first ombré! with butter london jelly

I do gradient nails all the time. So how come I haven't done an ombré until now?

It's a bit streaky, because I did it by layering more and more coats of Butter London - Stroppy, a sheer purple jelly with shimmer, over the light purple creme of China Glaze - Light As Air.

It was hard to get even coverage, especially on the one-coat and two-coat nails, but I really like how it turned out! Very subtle, but still noticeable, and it was one of those manis that feels "chic" on your nails. Do you know what I mean? Of course you do. You're reading my blog, after all, you must be nuts like me.

I definitely wanna play more with ombrés now! But I would probably have a hard time trying to pick out polishes that work together instead of doing the layering thing. Hmm... We'll see!

Tonight I will be seeing my favorite hockey team, The Chicago Blackhawks! They will be beating the crap out of Dan's favorite team, the St. Louis Blues. Be sure to watch the game and try to spot us in the crowd! HA!

:)

Sonoma Nail Art - Pink Clockwork

Where in the world is Rebecca right now? On a plane to St. Louis... I'll be back soon! But there are posts scheduled, never fear, I am never too far away.

Today's polish - a special glitter from a special friend!
I love Michelle from Sonoma Nail Art and her beautiful creations.

Sonoma Nail Art - Pink Clockwork
I bought this polish from my phone while visiting my uncle in a hospital in Toronto. Dedication. HAHA.

Here I've layered it over OPI - I Theodora You, a pretty pale pink to help set off the glitter.
I've got the whole Oz The Great And Powerful collection from OPI and I will have swatches of all of those up at some point after I return home!

All kinds of pretty pink glitters and some silver, too! One coat of topcoat and it is perfectly smooth.

So into it. I put it on within an hour of receiving it in the mail! That could be some kind of record.

Thank you Michelle for creating this pretty! Next time I think I'll layer it over black because I saw Laurie of Dressed Up Digits do that in here post here, and that's why I bought it in the first place!! Gorgeous.

You can find Sonoma Nail Art on Etsy! This one is not currently in stock but it will be back at some point.
There are so many nice ones in stock right now... Must resist...