I can be festive too, you know!

I know I didn't do many "Christmas-y" manis, but I'm not one to get way into the holiday spirit. Besides, I quite enjoyed everyone else's holiday manicures! Santas, snowmen, snowflakes, reindeer, wreaths, gingerbread men, Christmas lights and trees: They were all super cute! So. . . I sucked it up and decided to decorate my nails for Christmas as well.
Began with a Color Club polish (forgot what color, but it's in the Rebel collection).

Stamped with my Bundle Monster plate and added the stripes with some handy dandy blue tape.

I really like this manicure. It's festive without being too obnoxious.

One that note, happy holidays everyone and enjoy your day! Oh, one more thing: I am itching for a New Year's mani and a DUEL (sans prizes, sorry). . . so keep your eyes peeled!

Ok, maybe too much inspiration?

What would you name this mani? I have no clue myself.


Yeah, yeah. Dry cuticles.
So sue me. It's cold here.

My roommate gave me this bottle of Light Grey by love & beauty (you can find it at Forever 21). I'm really digging the cool tone of this color; it's so winter appropriate. Added purple, green and white dots.

My roommate also gave me this bottle of glitter called Opal Speckle by Santee. Never heard of this brand before, so I gave it a try. I'm so glad my roommy gave me her old polishes that she doesn't want anymore. (More polish for me! Muahahaha!)

Jeez, why is it so hard to capture the damn sparkle?! Let's see if this blurry pic helps.

**Oh, on a side note. Remember that gold polish that I wanted to "steal" from my roommate (and no, I wasn't really going to steal it)? She bought a new bottle so she gave me her old one! Whoohoo! I'm almost jealous that she had better luck finding it than I did. It's so damn elusive!

Man, I need some inspiration here.

So, can you tell I'm running out of ideas for nails? Actually, I have tons of ideas, but the designs in my head never turn out quite the same way on my nails. It's a pathetic excuse, but it's true. This week's mani is super simple, as in just green and red nails with stickers. Pah.

The green is Envy by Ulta.

The red is Cabernet by Petites.



The red color is more like what's in
the bottle, not on my nail.

 One thing I really want to mention: this green has got to be the most gorgeous, opaque green I own. All my other greens are sheer and always show that visible nail line (*bleah*). Absolutely love this green! Slightly shimmery. Very nice dark shade. Covered in two coats. Yep. Wearing this color again soon.

Here is a shot in different lighting. The red is more color accurate.



My, erm, mani (I guess)

So I did this mani and didn't take photos until after I had done Jessica's nails. . .So I have some tip wear and my nails lost their glossy finish. I was too lazy for any touch-ups and besides, I don't exactly like this mani all that much.

It's a pretty blue polish by Tres Risk (it's been a while since I've worn blue now that I think about it).

There's glitter up near my cuticles, which I added after doing Jessica's nails. I just had to copy it, but I probably shouldn't have. The gray crap on the sides of my nails were supposed to be chain links from my Bundle Monster plate.

This mani is "meh" at best for me; don't exactly hate it, but I'm not in love either. *Tsk* Ruined some really pretty blue nails.

Look! I got tagged!

Hah, Serena from Lacquer Love has tagged me with this:

My very first tag- and from my first follower too! How freaking cool is that?!
On with the questions *rolls eyes dramatically*
1. Why did you create this blog?
     Two reasons:
     - I wanted to keep a visual portfolio of my nail designs
     - Too many polish review blogs (no offense, everyone) and not enough nail design blogs.
2. What kind of blogs do you follow?
     Blogs that do nail designs. And ones I think are amusing to read.
3. Do you have a favorite make-up brand?
     Smashbox, I guess. (I'm not in love or anything)
4. And a favorite clothing brand?
     Express, when it's on sale!
5. What make-up products are essential to you?
     - Face primer
     - Foundation
     - Concealer
     - Eyeliner
6. What's your favorite colour?
     Purple
7. What's your favorite perfume?
     Live by Jennifer Lopez (although I can't find that crap anywhere anymore)
8. What's the film you liked the most?
     What's with all the questions? Jeez. . . I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.
9. What countries would you like to go?
     Germany- those dudes over there are freaking hot.

Whoot, done! Now I choose to tag/award Swååfie! I love her freehand attempts, even when she thinks they are failures (which they're not!).

Speaking of fails, stay tuned to see my poor mani of the week.

Guest Nails: Jessica

A fresh set of hands today! We went with a wintery theme for her mani. Silver polish with blue and white snowflakes from my Bundle Monster plate.

The polish brand is Petite, and you can buy it any walmart for about two bucks. Oh, and that's glitter up near her cuticles (you know, like snow?. . .I tried).



All of her left hand.



And of course, her right.



Close-up of her thumbs. They were my favorite.

Overall, I liked this mani. You know, last month I did all gold and now, it's nothing but silver. The silver choice was unintentional though, I promise!

Guest Nails: Cristal

So, Cristal had a formal to go to and she was going to wear a matte silver dress. I talked her into doing silver matte nails to match (with some glitter, of course).

I freehanded her tips, so they aren't perfect. I semi-fixed that with some glitter lining!

Now, if you look closely at some of her nails there are some bald spots up near the cuticles. Apparently the Essie matte topcoat dragged some of the polish off when I applied it. Didn't even notice in real life (I only caught it when editing the photos). That made me a bit upset.

Used flowery stickers on her thumbs.

And yes, I caught the lifted sticker on her left thumb. I pressed it down afterwards and it stayed put, luckily. Cristal, if you are reading this, I apologize for the sloppy job I did! This matte coat might not have been a good idea after all. I promise your next mani will be much better. But your nails do look fancy otherwise!

One dollar never got me so much before.

November is over, and I can wear my sweet new Sally Hansen Purple Diamond. Hello, my precious!

No top coat on this puppy!

I am freaking in love. I couldn't stop staring at my nails.

Couldn't stop taking photos either. This holographic effect boggles my mind.


Oh you beautiful beast, you!


Did I mention I was in love with this color? It was so pretty I couldn't bear to put any designs on it, so I wore it "as is" for about two days.

Then I tried to make it festive with my Bundle Monster plate and used a matte top coat.


Had to re-dot the berries with
my dotting stick.



Wore this design for a couple days too.

And today, I put a shiny top coat on.



You're looking at over half a week's worth of wear.

(Sorry about the inconsistent coloring of my photos, I used a different camera each time.) Best dollar I ever spent in my life. I'm hoarding more bottles of this as soon as I can.
So, why did they discontinue this polish? Was it because too many women were killing each other for a chance to wear this color? (I know I would might have).

DollarTree scavenger hunt and How the heck. . .

. . .did I end up with more polishes?! Before I ever thought about writing a blog, I owned less than a dozen nail polishes. I had what I needed. But for some reason, the more blogs I read and the more polishes I learn about, the more my collection seems to grow. (Damn you, addictive blogs!) Ha ha, now I have bottles all over my room. I don't even use my microwave because I've stacked my polish in front of it!

I miss you too, Microwave.

Thank god I'm not alone in polish hoarding. And that my stash is still relatively small (I only have what, 40 bottles or so?), though for how long is questionable.

Does anyone recognize that evil bottle in the red circle?
Take a wild guess!

   Of course, I gotta tell you about my latest haul (oh god, I'm calling it a haul too). Some of the blogs I follow have mentioned Sally Hansen's discontinued polish line- Nail Prisms (you know, the shiny holographic looking polishes). When I saw how gorgeous the purple polish was, I went DollarTree hunting.
   Here's how I justified my search: "Oh hey, purple is my favorite color and I can never have too many purples. And it's holographic! I don't even own a holographic polish. Definitely need one of those. Plus, it's only a buck. Come on, go look for it."
   Yes, I talk to myself. Don't ask.
So I searched. No luck. All I found were the scary, murky polish colors. . . and I get the feeling that they weren't those colors originally. . .ew.
   Anyway, the other day, I got lucky! Found me that purple! Not only that, I found the red one too!! Whoo-hoo! Slight dilemma: They were sold in two-packs, but not together. That means I would end up with two extra bottles of nasty polish. Hmmm. Luckily every pack I came across was already torn open. I switched the polishes so that I would end up getting the purple and red together. The cashier lady didn't care either way, and I got two pretty polishes for a buck! Ah, it was a worthwhile search.

Can't wait to try these pretties out!

I also caved and bought these things (even though I'm not a glitter fan)-

Now, I have a question: What other colors did Sally Hansen have besides the red and purple? These bottles are gorgeous and I want to get the other colors too (if they even exist, that is). Anybody know?

Guest Nails: Cristal

Cristal's nails again! We started off marbling all her nails with different bright colors: It was. . .not pretty. So, we just stuck to two colors. Green and pink. Have to say, they turned out nice.

Excuse the messy cuticles. Like the dope I am, I did the clean-up after I took pictures. I might never learn to do it the right way.



Her thumbs. Me likey.

And have a happy Turkey Day! (Or just a happy day in general!)

Keep on keeping on.

Whew! Painted my nails before I chewed on them (yay, me!). Kept my gold theme going for November and also kept it simple- my hands were shaking so bad when I was previously working on the penguins' faces. Freehand is definitely not my friend, even for simple dots.

So, started off with gold nails. And by the way, this is the most beautiful gold I have ever used, but it's not even mine! It's my roommate's. She bought this at Forever 21, so I went hunting for it. All they had was bronze. Humph. I think I might have to steal this from her. (Actually, I'm going to visit my family in a couple days, and luckily, they live in a real city unlike me. One that has two Forever 21's. So guess who's going to be hitting up the stores as soon as possible? Hell, I'm buying several bottles if I can find this gold!)

The bottle says Love & Beauty.

Then threw on two different patterns from my Bundle Monster plates. *God, I love my plates!* Then centered each "flower" with a stone-looking sticker.


Intentionally not showing my thumb.
It's an embarrassment.

This hand is slightly messed up.

Yeah, my right hand's not as nice. There's smudges of paint on my index finger. I forgot to take pics before I did a manicure on my friend's nails, and then I suddenly remembered to. Haha, it was a funny moment-

Me (while in the middle of painting her nails): Oh shoot! Be right back!
Cristal (walking into my room): What are you doing?
Me (squatting by my lamp with my camera): I gotta take some pictures of my nails!
Cristal (backing away): Oh, o. . .k. . .

She probably thought I was nuts.

Sad day.

My nail split- again. This time was worse, much worse.

Ugh. Right where the smile line is. It tore when I was opening some stupid juice bottle. I guess I should be grateful (it could've torn all the way across and caused some bleeding). Still. I'm not happy. Had to clip the nail down before more damage was done.


Sigh.

Nubbin again. Eek, and it looks like it will take over a month to grow this beast out. Now, I was torn between filing down all my nails so that they'll grow evenly together, or just maintaining their length until my thumb grows out. The second option won out. (I've never had nails this long before)! Since I've shown you my torn nail, I figured I might as well show you my naked nails. Be warned.

Argh! I'm so tempted to chew on all my nails now! Gotta paint them, fast!