Mother's Day Flowers

Hello, Fireflies!

I'm not a mother myself, and this year, my mom is very ill.  I'll be visiting her today.  She is a master at gardening, with a vast knowledge of how to grow almost anything.  She loves flowers and plants, and I remember growing up with huge flower gardens, and the best home-grown tomatoes on the planet.

In The (Via)Buff #ViaBuff

Press Samples.  All opinions are my own.

Hello, Fireflies!

Do you ever wish we could just shed our skin, like snakes do?  Ok, ew, no.  But, I do sometimes wish it were easier to get smooth, healthy skin and get rid of all that dull, pore-clogging dead skin.  Have I found the solution in ViaBuff?

A Konjac With a Twist #oleavine

Product provided for review.  All opinions are my own.

Hello, Fireflies!

My days of splashing water and a little soap on my face are pretty much behind me.  I want, nay, need a tool to help me get the best cleansing and exfoliation possible to leave those dulling old skin cells behind, but it has to be gentle enough not to mar this aging face of mine.  My no-tugging, cleaning, and exfoliating daily tool?  A konjac sponge.  This one from Oleavine takes konjac to a new level, with an infusion of red clay.

Ever Wash Your Face With A Potato? You'll Want To With PureSol Konjac #KonjacSponge

Product provided for review.  All opinions are my own.

Hello, Fireflies!

Have you heard about Konjac?  No, not the TV detective who always had a lollipop in his mouth.. (that's Kojak, and I'm *totally* dating myself.)  Konjac is a sponge made out of an Asian potato plant fiber, and it's a total game-changer.

Let's Go Camping - Nature

Hello, Fireflies!

If you saw yesterday's post, I mentioned how much I love nature... well, I love watching it from behind my sliding glass door.  In the A/C. 

Last week, a dragonfly came into the house, and I swear it was 6 inches long.  Dragonflies are so pretty and interesting.. but not in my house.  It was huge, though, so I couldn't kill it and then have to wash bug guts up from all over, so the husband and I spent about 10 minutes shooing outside.  Where it belonged.

Now, you'd think that was a segue to a dragonfly mani, but no.

I've shown you this polish before, the gorgeous emerald creme Ulta Green And Wear It:

I took Sally Hansen Salon Mojito and sponged it over Green and Wear it, and then covered everything with a lovely flakie coat of Sally Hansen Triple Shine Pearly Whites.

I was going for a sunlit-dappled forest canopy look.  Sunlight flashing through the leaves like multi-colored flakies, you know?

Or like the wings of a dragonfly, as seen through a glass door, while seated comfortably on the couch in the A/C, lovely beverage in hand.

Bottle shot:  Ulta Green And Wear It, Sally Hansen Salon Mojito, and Sally Hansen Triple Shine Pearly Whites.

I also get the husband to relocate spiders, ladybugs, and butterflies, too, but any other bug inside is fair game for smushing. What do you do when nature intrudes inside?

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Purple Triangles

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Golden Oldie Thursday challenge is Purple.  I remember going on a hunt for this purple - once I saw swatches, it had to be mine! This is Orly Cashmere Cardigan in a sponge gradient with Sally Hansen White Tip.

Then, I took tape and made a triangle shape.  I tried to do a reverse gradient, but it came out mostly purple.  It would have looked cool, though.  Trust.

Topcoat makes it pretty.  I love topcoat.  It smooths out everything and makes it look like I meant it to look that way; like all my decisions were on purpose.  It's magical.

How cute are these triangle studs?

Bottle shot:  Sally Hansen White Tip and Orly Cashmere Cardigan.

Have you done a successful reverse gradient?  Any tips?

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday Stamping - Spring in the Garden

I think it was fate that the day I decide to work on my Adventures in Stamping challenge: Spring, is the day my Cult Nails In The Garden collection came in the mail!  I managed to use a few of the new polishes in this mani.

Let's Get Dirty.  I started with this interesting wax-finish polish.  It's not pink, it's not grey, I don't think it's taupe, but that's probably close.  It's like a ..dirty pink.  Wet, it has a sparkle, but it dries waxy.  This is ONE coat.  I'm impressed.

I knew I wanted to stamp over a gradient, so I sponged on some bright yellow You're My Dandy Lion.
This one is a glossy creme, but I wasn't worried about the mashup of textures, because I am stamping and using topcoat in a minute.

The tips got a sponge treatment of Kiss My Rose Bush, another waxy-finish polish, in a soft, but bright pink.  These three look so good together...

...that I had to topcoat at this stage, just to see what it would look like.  If I were stopping here, I would have tried to blend my gradients a little better, but I knew I was stamping, and it would hide a lot of imperfections in the mani.  Because, at heart, I am lazy!  Work smarter, not harder, I say.

Again, with the Cheeky Jumbo plate.  I think I could probably use this plate all year and not get bored.  Best. Plate. Ever.  I stamped with Morning Glory, a bright fuchsia creme.

I love how the stamp pulls all the colors together and just pops.  Reminds me a little of my youth in the 80's. 

If you'd like more info about Cult Nails, you can find them on Facebook, and on their webpage.  The In The Garden collex pre-sale is over, so you can now buy each color individually if you'd like.  There's also a traffic-cone orange creme, Ay Poppy!, in this collection that is pretty cool.

Getting ready for Easter, and Spring - Butter Pastels

I am reminded of a scene in 'The Devil Wears Prada' where the fashion editor is sarcastically saying how flowers and pastels for Spring are so new.  They aren't new, but they are pervasive!  And, if something says Spring, it's the new collex from Butter London.

I found all of the colors in this collection to lack the signature creamy-ease-of-application most Butter Londons have.  Pastels are notoriously tricky to apply, and these were no exception.  You'll notice in many of my swatches that I had trouble with patchiness and leveling. 

Molly-Coddled.  Red-toned lilac creme.  Probably the easiest to apply, but needed 3 thin coats for opacity.

Kerfuffle.  Beautiful color, horrible clumpy mess.

Fiver.  Palest mint-green.  Mint greens are huge this year, and this one is the lightest I've seen.  A little troublesome, maybe, but I think it was worth the effort.

Cuppa.  A nude creme that oddly seems to fit with the pastels.  A great nude for my very light, still-winterized skin.  I used it as the base color for my Easter-ish nail art.

I took a makeup sponge and dabbed all of the other colors in different places all over Cuppa.  Topcoat is a necessity to make this kind of nail art look sufficiently blurred together.  I almost stopped here, but I ultimately couldn't resist adding a little more.

With a dotting tool, I made large dots in all the different colors all over the nail.  To get the depth and layering of colors, I went back over each nail at least twice with each color.

Pastel jumble!

Bottle shots.  I'm missing Jasper, the yellow, and Fruit Machine, the pink from this collection, if you're wondering if there's more to it.

Which do you like better - the watercolor look, or with the dots added?  Would you rather have dots on a skittles mani?  What are you doing for your Easter/Oestra/Spring Fling Thing mani?

Undah da Sea...

The star of this mani is Revlon Royal, a dark blue jelly that has almost a vinyl appearance when dry.  Look into it's depths, it's delightful shadows of darker blue. 

I decided to try a sponging method where two colors go on the sponge and mix up a bit.  The green is China Glaze Cha Cha Cha, and the blue is Finger Paints Late Night Rendezvous.  Both polishes have a metallic-like sparkle to them, giving Royal a deep, oceanic feel.

I envisioned a giant sea turtle swimming among the waves, so I stamped him in black, which was hard to see.. so then I stamped over in white. 

Then, I dabbed on a little a-england Dragon, because I thought the turtle should be green.  But now you can't hardly see the turtle...

Right hand:

Well, maybe I should have left well enough alone, but you don't know if you don't try... I still like the idea of my turtle swimming along...

Bettina BOLD!

One of the brands I was most excited to try from our Central Florida Beauty Bloggers' meeting was Bettina.  One of our members has a great relationship with them and exudes pride when she talks about this brand.  It's infectious!

This is Bettina Sherbet.  I was expecting a softer shade, a creamsicle color... nope!  Sherbet is a bright, beautiful, glossy orange.  This is two coats, no topcoat.

 For fun, I sponged on some of Milani Fuchsia Fierce on the tips for a fiery gradient.

 And, I added a bit of a Color Club iridescent pink to the accent nail.  I should have stopped myself.

Topcoat finishes blending everything and smooths out the sponge marks.  Bright summer mani!

Have you tried Bettina yet?

Big springtime flowers

I have totally gotten the Spring bug this year.  Spring is very short-lived here in FL, but this year, we've had a couple of revivals of cool weather, and I can turn off the A/C and open the house and take naps in the cool, cool breeze. 

If I were Southern, I'd make a mint julep and sit out on the verandah.

I saw this mani on NailNerd, and wanted to try to make my own version of it.  You should click on that link and see hers.  I won't lie, it's so much better than mine... but I'm working on it!

I started out with a base coat and one coat of China Glaze Lemon Fizz.  Then, I sponged some LA Girl Matte Orange on it.  I then took black polish and a striper brush and started painting the outlines of my flowers.

Then I filled in the petals with China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le.

Then I painted in the centers with more Lemon Fizz and some Arissa Coral, and added some to the background as well.  I also added some shading to the petals with Revlon Grape.

Topcoat makes a lot of difference with nail art, I'm finding.  A nice coat of Seche makes all the colors pop and softens the whole look.

I even painted my right hand.. and I'm not ambidextrous.  I wonder how many manis I have to do before I become ambidextrous...

Doesn't it look like this pattern should be on some Tuscan-inspired pottery or something?