Hit Me With Your Best Mermaid

Hello, Fireflies!

If you liked yesterday's Mermaid, maybe you'll like today's, too.  I know I do.  Deborah Lippmann does it again with Million Dollar Mermaid, a pale orange polish with darker orange glitter and a gold shimmer.

Ermagerd shimmerd!

I decided to play with Deborah Lippmann Hit Me With Your Best Shot, the Pat Benetar-inspired metallic grey polish.

I love playing with textures, and there's something interesting about pairing the soft, glowing Million Dollar Mermaid with the harder, edgier Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

Bottle shot:  Deborah Lippman Million Dollar Mermaid and Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

Do you like playing with textures in your nail art? 

Something Different Sunday - Oopsies

Both of today's posts are centered around something very near and dear to my heart - the 'oops'.  For example, almost every video I take with my camera is an accident, and begins with, "Oh, S#@%, I'm taking a video!"

I make a lot of mistakes.  Some turn out okay... some I sweep under the rug.  I have a very lumpy rug.

The first mani is a splatter mani I did for a friend.  It was my first one, and I had a lot of lessons learned. 

The main oops is that I didn't put some kind of balm or vaseline around her nails because some of that polish *stained* and would NOT come off.  So, even after lots and lots of cleaning and acetone, I could not get a clean mani.

I also think that smaller straws would work better.  And I have tried to use better lighting since then, too.  I can't remember all the colors I used, but I know that the blue base on the thumb is Nails Inc Baker Street, the orange is Island Girl Sunset Beach, the yellow is Zoya Pippa, and the splatter blue is Essence Let's Get Lost.

I'm glad that my friend Toni liked her mani, though, which is all that really matters.

The next oops isn't so much the mani.. but I forgot to take pix, so I had to steal this from my friend Jill's Facebook page.  Jill wanted a mani similar to one I had done before, but with some added stamping.  This is Color Club Over the Moon - in my opinion, one of the best blue holos out there - and probably Finger Paints Black Expressionism, my go-to black for stamping.

The last oops is in the art.  I had seen this mani from Raggio di Luna called 'falling black apostrophes on purple' that I loved and wanted to do a version of.  The colors I used were Deborah Lippman Brown-Eyed Girl, Finger Paints Paper Mache, and Pretty Jelly Hera.

Yeah, I did white apostrophies instead of black.  Do you see the problem yet?

Yeah, I unknowingly did a sperm mani.  FAIL. 

LOL.  Embrace the mistakes, because if you're not making any, you're not trying hard enough.

Red and glitter, glitter and red!

Over the holiday season, I've worn different combos of red and glitter, and I thought I'd compile some of them together to show you at once.  So many different shades of red now, and different ways to wear it, I hope one of them suits your tastes!

Have a Crows Toes Christmas!

I am fairly new to the Miss Pro Sation line of polish.  I reviewed a cobalt metallic blue polish sometime back that I found to be thick, and this one, Morning Haze, was the opposite.  I found it to be really sheer!  I didn't expect that.  Definitely a layering polish.

Only instead of layering it on top, I put it underneath!

There are a slew of Indie 'Christmas' polishes out right now, and most collections have a red/green glitter with gold or silver.  I decided I didn't need all of them, but thought that this one was one of the prettier of the bunch.  Didn't hurt that it's chock full of holographic glitter, which are my favorite.  This is Crows Toes Making Christmas:

As it turns out, it was opaque in 2-3 coats, so I didn't really need much of a base color anyway. I think it would look nice over different colors, though, especially if you have really long nails and don't want to put so much glitter on to cover any VNL.

I used Deborah Lippmann Honey Bee as a base color for the next Crows Toes glitter.  Deborah makes smooth, lovely formula polishes, and this is no exception.  It's maybe not the best color for my skin tone, but it's a very pretty polish.

Christmas Crow was pretty opaque in 2 coats as well, but if you look closely, you can see that some of the glitters reflect the same color as the DL Honey Bee.  Such an unexpected holiday polish color, but I love it.

Dark, brooding, but with such sparkle, perfect for a celebration.

Are you wearing more traditional colors like Making Christmas this holiday season?  Or is Christmas Crow more your style?

I would like some sauce with that. Nail Sauce!

I have two polishes from Nail Sauce by Felifel to show you today. 

Abalone shell probably didn't need undies, but I think iridescent polishes look great over a dark base.  This is Deborah Lippman Don't Tell Mama.  In my head, this polish is called Don't Tell Mama (the Babysitter's Dead)  I never even saw the 80s movie of a similar name.

Really, though, you should tell Mama that this isn't black.  It's really a very dark teal, but I couldn't get my camera to see that.

I love how Abalone Shell really looks like it's namesake over a dark color.  It's not flat by any means, and glows with the light.

The next Nail Sauce didn't need undies.  Apparently, I should have bought OPI Mad as a Hatter, because I keep buying Indies that play off of the name and idea.  I think Later Hater falls into that category.  It's gorgeous!

I love a nice, smooth, microglitter application that covers the whole nail and shines like a million jewels.  I couldn't even tell you what colors are in there, but I think it reads as a taupe.  A very blingy taupe.

These are two well-made Indie polishes that I enjoyed wearing.  If you'd like to check out Nail Sauce, you can find her Etsy shop HERE.  What's your fave Nail Sauce?

Guest post at Tips and Topcoat!

I'm very excited to be a guest over at Tips & Topcoat today!  I'm participating in 30-days of guest posts over at Lou's blog.  I hope you'll join me there, and if you're not already following Lou, please give her blog a gander.  She's got some pretty cool stuff, and she has amazing nail art skills!


Here's some teasers on how I started the mani, which was inspired by a Robin Moses Art Deco design.  This is Deborah Lippman Dream a Little Dream.  It's very sheer (this is 2 coats) but so pretty!  I don't think I'd ever wear it on its own, but it was lovely as a part of this mani.  It added a nice shimmer and sparkle - very ethereal, light, and dreamy.

Then I made chevron French tips.  One side was China Glaze Pelican Grey.  This is a pretty watery polish.  I'd never used it before, and knowing what I know now, I'm not sure I would use it for precise nail art again.  It was really difficult to make crisp lines without tape.  Love the color, though.

The other side of the chevron was made with SpaRitual I Am The Light.  I'm not a huge lover of pink, but this is a great soft pink.  This formula was the opposite of Pelican Grey - almost a little too thick for nail art.  It did level out eventually though, but I did end up using a small paintbrush to make crisper lines on both colors.

Head on over to Tips & Topcoat to see how I finished off this mani!

Speak up, I can't see you!

I kinda like entering contests.  They make me do things I wouldn't necessarily think of doing!  This contest entry was for Jilltastic Designs outrageous mani contest.  You had to enter a design that was outrageous or made a statement.

ETA:  I won second place!!  Check out the contest winners here.

The only outrageous element of my mani was this crazy color.  A few years ago, I would have never thought to buy a color like this.  Kinda gave me lobster hands, too.   This is Deborah Lippman Almost Paradise.  Ok, two outrageous things - why would anyone pair that color with that name?  Someone has been sniffing too much polish.

My statement?  Quit making blog fonts so damn tiny!  I'm old, I can't read that tiny crap.  And I don't feel like zooming in for each blog that does this.  I already have my font enlarged on my screen so I can read everything else.  Anything under 12 pt is unacceptable, people!

(Thumb - glasses, index - ?Can you Read this?, middle - magnifying glass, ring - disappearing dots, pinky - squinty eyed person.)

What's your statement? 

Let's hear it for Neiman-Marcus!

This past Saturday, the Central Florida Beauty Bloggers put together an event with the cosmetics dept. at Neiman-Marcus.  I know this blog is mostly about nail polish and art, but it was so amazing, I have to share.... and it inspired some nail art, too, so stay with me!

The morning began with mimosas!  How awesome is that.  They also had some breakfast pastries and coffee drinks... but champagne!  Already I'm feeling like a VIP.

We split into groups and switched between 4 counters with various product lines set up.  I don't think we heard about everything, but we got a lot of info.  Seriously, these people know what they are talking about.  And each representative is trained on other product lines, so if they don't have something in their line that meets your needs, they can direct you to another product line that does.

My first stop included one of my favorite experiences - the perfumes.  I love perfume, but I have so many, I wasn't looking for any more.  They gave us a few samples, and we got to smell a few more.  And I have a new favorite - Bottega Venetta.  It is the most sophisticated fragrance I've ever experienced.  I went shopping at Target later, and felt like a princess walking around the Taj Mahal.

 
POLISH!  Unfortunately, we didn't get any polish samples. But I can't wait to go back and try some.  This line is exclusive to Neiman's, and is called Le Metiere de Beaute.  Look at those colors!

Chanel had another amazing nail polish line.  In fact, they said that they can hardly keep it in stock!  They only had one or two bottles left.  I will admit to buying a few dupes of some of their famous colors.  In general, I prefer makeup counter products to drugstore ones, with a few exceptions.  I won't always spend the money on the expensive stuff, but I always notice the difference when I do. 

At the end of the breakout sessions, we all gathered together at the Deborah Lippman table, aka Polish Mecca.  You could almost see the sky part and the single beam of light that shone down on the table, and hear the angels singing. 

We were all taking notes about the products and new polishes... and our personal lemmings, I'm sure!  Don't we clean up nice?  Everyone was so dressed up and looking good.  Neiman's gave us all a bag with some information and samples to try - and if you go, you can get samples, too. They really want to make sure that you're going to be happy with the product you buy.

I really can't stop gushing about the experience!  Thank you so much, Neiman-Marcus!

After the wonderful experience at Neiman-Marcus and their obvious love for Deborah Lippman, I was inspired to break out a couple of my Lippmans and do a mani.  I picked up the Footloose collection at HSN on clearance, and I'm glad I did!  They really are among the best polishes ever.  They are 5-free, and not tested on animals.  All Deborah Lippman polishes have nail treatments right in the polish - so your nails are stronger and healthier after you use them!

I started with two coats of Let's Hear It For The Boy, a pale baby blue.  If you love pale blue and hate that chalkiness that some pastels have, you need this color.  I know my application wasn't perfect here, but I knew I'd be covering it with nail art, so I forged ahead.

Next, I created a Ruffian with DL Dancing In The Sheets.  This is a gorgeous blue with hints of purple.  I don't know if it's technically a duochrome, or a blurple.  The first coat has a lot of the purple undertones, and the second coat brings out the royal blue.  It has amazing depth, and look at that shine!  This is two coats, no topcoat. 

As much as I loved this, I noticed that the Ruffian style makes my short nails look even shorter, especially on my right hand.  It may not be the most flattering style on those of us with short fingers and small nail beds.  So I added some flowers and filigree to distract the eye and keep me busy for a little while.  I think it looks like a damask fabric.

DL polishes usually run $18-$20.  They are so worth it... but I'm glad I got mine on clearance! 

And, if you get a chance to shop at Neiman-Marcus, do.  Their staff is so knowledgeable, so focused on customer service.  I can't wait to start trying some of my samples.  I'll be sure to let you all know what winners I find.

Thanks again, Neiman-Marcus!