Fifth Anniversary Nails

Today's mani is themed for my anniversary, based on our wedding tattoos.  My husband & I usually celebrate (little celebrations) both our wedding & dating anniversaries, the wedding one is today (5 years) and our dating one is in October (8 years).

 On our wedding day

Mani & tattoos = after the jump :)

Mix & Match Mani

 This was a mani I had been looking at for a while now on Pinterest.  There are actually 3 version that I pinned; a blue one, purple one, & a red one.  When I looked into the blue one I found that the girl had actually done this design in a few other schemes as well.

Happy Birthday To Me

Happy Birthday to ME! My birthday is tomorrow so today I am sharing the nails I did for this weekend.  This post was inspired by this post by BadGirlNails. 

Spellbound Nail Giveaway Package

Hi Y'all!  Today I have a prize package I won from Spellbound Nails in her giveaway.  Without further ado, here are the awesome goodies!

All the goodies!

Caviar Nail Kit

Wallet, Lotion, Lip Gloss & Nail Polish

 Plum Out of Chocolate & Peppermint Pinwheels

from her Candy Coated Collection.

 

Plum Out of Chocolate & Peppermint Pinwheels

from her Candy Coated Collection.

Close Up of Plum Out of Chocolate

Close Up of Peppermint Pinwheels

I LOVE everything I got, I've swatched the polishes on a nail wheel and the formula is wonderful.  I switched to the wallet as soon as I received it, I've been wearing the lip gloss constantly and the lotion stays in my purse.  The only thing I haven't used yet is the caviar bead set because I haven't had anywhere to wear it yet!

Valentine's Nails- Dotticure

Happy Early Valentine's Day Y'all!

Here is my first of two Valentine's themed manicures this week, along with a fail nail.

First the fail, this is two coats Zoya Kimber with two coats Jindie Nails Be Someone Cute on the accent, no top coat.  I got this finished and just didn't like it :( BSC  is small pink, black, and white glitters, and it throws a purple iridescent flash.  Kimber is a hot pink glass fleck with gold shimmer. I love both colors, I just didn't like the warm toned Kimber with the cool toned BSC, so I changed it up...

With Flash, missed some glitter in clean up :/

Here is the second mani I did, a dotticure accent mani.  This is two coats of Zoya Kimber, and two coats China Glaze White on White on accent nail.  The polishes used on the accents, in order of dark to light, are: Orly Rock It!, Zoya Kimber, Pure Ice Strip Tease & LA Colors Bashful. One coat is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat. 

Natural Light

 Natural Light, Accent Close Up

Natural Light

Later this week I will have my Valentine's Day Mani and my Sally's haul from their 50% off Red Tag sale this weekend. Hopefully I can also get a Glitzology post up soon, as soon as I receive my polishes! 

*** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)***

Christmas Polka Dots

Merry Christmas (Again) Y'all :)

This is what I had on my nails Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I was really rough with my chevron mani and had a little tip wear (very little actually) and a few places were lifting up.  when I took it off, that mess was like cement! it took quite a few layers off my ring and pinky fingers :( 

This mani is made with Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips, in Haute and Naughty with polka dots in China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Sally Hansen Instadry Spring Green, and China Glaze White on White, with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top.  

I was not a fan of the strips, although this is my 3rd day of wear and i have no chips, lift or tip wear.  however when I applied them they looked as if i had immediate tip wear because i couldn't get the strips to wrap on my tips.  I also couldn't find a perfect size match on some of my nails so there is a naked strip on the side of those nails, and they didn't fit up to my cuticles so it looks as though my polish has grown out.  I did however like the ease of applying these and no dry time since this was a 2am rush mani.  I also really loved the color and the lack of wear after 3 days of opening presents and building baby toys.  I would be willing to try these again as i think maybe it's something i would like better after some practice.  These were part of a giveaway package I won from Radiant Brown Beauty. 

**update- i am now on my 5th day of wearing these and im bored so im taking it off. i have 0 wear. no more tip wear than when i applied them  and no chips!  on the other hand, I had a horrible time removing them! i used my usual method that works great even for glitter bombs, and it just made them gummy. when i finally got the color off there was a glue type residue left.  I didn't get it all off until i removed polish 3-4 times and filed my nails**

** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)

Christmas Chevron

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays Y'all!
Here is my final Christmas manicure, a Christmas chevron design :)  I hope all y'all have a great holiday weekend, we will be having lots of family time.

Red is Pure Ice Creme Siren with China Glaze Ruby Pumps.
White is China Glaze White on White with Orly Winter Wonderland.
Green is Sally Hansen Instadry Spring Green, China Glaze Paper Chase and Sinful Colors Call You Later.  Two coats Sally Hansen Insta-dri Topcoat. 

   *** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

Candy Cane Nails

This is my first of (at least) 3 Christmas themed manis :)

This week is candy canes :)

I started out with one coat Pure Ice Creme Siren, over basecoat. Then 2 coats China Glaze Ruby Pumps, one coat was fine but i wanted to build some depth. White stripes were done with L.A. Colors Art Deco. Sally Hansen Insta-dri Topcoat.

Sorry for the picture overload, but i had a lot of matching props :)

 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

We're off to see the Wizard...

This week's mani is inspired by The Wizard of Oz, one of my favorite movies!

Pinky- Dorothy's Dress
2 coats CG White on White
Lines are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away frankened with CG White on White

Ring Finger- The iconic red shoes.
3 coats CG Ruby Pumps. Two coats was opaque, i just did three to block out the magenta jelly base this polish shows on my nails when held to the light.

Middle Finger- The Tin Man
2 coats Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. Heart is Pure Ice Creme Siren and buttons are Sally Hansen Fastdry Ebony Hates Chris.

Pointer Finger- The Wicked Witch's Stockings
2 coats Sally Hansen Fastdry Ebony Hates Chris. White is L.A. Colors Art Deco White.

Thumb- Yellow Brick Road
2 coats Ulta Sun-sational frankened with Ulta Sun of a Gun. Lines made with Ulta Sun-sational frankened with a no name brown from The Color Workshop.

All have one coat base, and 2 coats Sally Hansen Insta-dri Topcoat




I also got my free Zoya Storm in today along with an acrylic nail sample of their Designer and Diva Collection NYFW 2012.  I really like FeiFei, Daul, Toni, Natty, Moot, and Song.

Rekha, Toni, Monica, Natty, Evvie, Noot

 Elisa, Suri, Song, Ray, FeiFei, Daul

 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

Week 5 of October manis- monster mash

This weeks mani is to match my Halloween costume for trick or treating with my son :)


Here is a picture of his costume...

And here is a picture of my hat,  and im also wearing matching legwarmers and fingerless gloves with a black sweater and jeans...

I went through 3-4 design concepts before i decided on this one so i hope y'all like it!

2 coats Pure Ice Splash, 1 coat Sally Hansen Instadry Spring Green, stripes are L.A. Colors Art Deco White, stitches are Wet N Wild Fastdry Ebony Hates Chris. One coat Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.


The Splash was a bit sheer but workable, the Spring Green was thick but most the Instadry polishes ive tried are. Very little smudging with this new top coat. I was using Sally Hansen Instadry Clearly Quick which i think was just a clear polish.


Not sure what is up for next week so it will have to be a surprise!



 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

Week 3 of October manis- candy corn mani

Ive been looking forward to this mani all month :) no base coat, two coats of yellow Ulta sun-sational, orange stripe is Ulta Sun of a gun, and white stripe is China glaze white on white, top coat is sally hansen instadry clearly quick.

unfortunately i forgot my base coat until i had one coat of color on already. Im lazy and had a 8.5 month old who is teething so no base coat for this one and ill just deal with the staining later. (the yellow stained in the three minutes of me testing the color)

sun-sational yellow was horribly streak and full of brush strokes even with 2 coats. Its also brighter than what i wanted but the polish is not to fault for that. Sun of a gun orange was fine, nothing bad to say but nothing amazing either. The China glaze white on white is amazing. It covered yellow, orange and black when i was testing colors. And that was with a quick one coat.

All in all this worked out well, except that my freehand stripes aren't nearly as pretty on my left hand and When i added my clear coat the Sun of a gun bled on a few nails. Im not sure why, nails were completely dry as i did my clear coat nearly 24 hours later..

 Next week will be frankenstein :)

Oh and to update on that peel off layer? It did not work with mod podge. I plan to try again but i don't have high hopes this time.

 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/