Mani Monday: Pretty In Pink Monday with Zoya Dita.

It's MONDAY!!!!!!!!!! More specifically: MANI MONDAY!!!  New start to the week = new manicure, but of course.  I am starting this week off pretty in pink.

Sadly, I broke my middle finger over the weekend.

Colors used for this manicure:

Zoya's Dita-  rich, deep pink cream

OPI's Pirouette My Whistle- Multi-dimensional hex and micro glitter mix

I topped off Dita with Essie's Matte About You to give the beautiful pink color a different dimension.  This color is usually pretty glossy, even without top coat.  The pink color is really receptive to the matte top coat, which gives it a rich and velvety look.  

I can never leave well enough alone, so I then added two accent nails in which I topped Dita off with glitter.   As you know, I always need more glitter in my life.  This is two coats of the OPI polish.  I do like this glitter because as you see it is how it goes on the nail.  With some larger glitter or glitter mix nail polishes I find I have to place the larger pieces so it doesn't do its own thing and clump up on the end....which can be nice if you are looking to do a glitter gradient, but not this time...Pretty In Pink Monday!!

Who Photobombed who?  

Dog Days Of Summer

This weekend my dog became a hipster.  I begged Frankie not to go that route, but he did anyway.  He has a new collar....

and it is SOOOO CUTE!!

Andy Warhol-like dogs wearing trendy sunglasses and mustaches.  This collar is so freakin' cute.  Thank you PetCo for having this.  It is so cute and colorful and....perfect inspiration for a manicure!!

For this manicure I started with two coats of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme Color in White On.  Then began my skittles neon manicure.

Colors Used:

green- China Glaze's I'm With the Lifeguard

yellow- China Glaze's Celtic Sun

pink- China Glaze's Pink Voltage

aqua- China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise

purple- Circus Tight Rope

Once all these great neon colors dried, I free hand drew the icons using my Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black.  This was then all topped off with my favorite top coat, Seche Vite Rapid Dry.

I tried to get a pic with Frankie today, but he was a bit fussy about having his picture taken.  He seemed to think we were going to go for a walk when I put his collar on.  Not sure where he got that idea from......

Foto Friday: Black and white cookie!

Today's quick foto post is inspired by black and white cookies.

I love sweets!!

Basic tape manicure with a white base coat....I think using Sally Hansen Hard as Nails White Out...I think....and the black is a Wet n' Wilds fast dry black.  And a glitter striper.  Sorry, the bottles are out of reach.  I will post the specific names in an update a bit later as I am running late for a girl's night dinner date.  :)  

Mani Cam with July Julep Box California Coast Collection

MANI CAM TIME!!!!!

Julep's California Collection for July was inspired by the colors of the coast...or as Julep puts it: "inspired by surf, sand, sunsets and the breathtaking natural beauty of the coastline."  I went with my It Girl Profile box this month.  Biggest reason for this choice?  Why, because there was a gorgeous texture polish of course!!  

Angela:  A deep sea blue molten

Nadia:  Sun-kissed golden frost

Tracy:  Sparkly ocean blue with a sea salt finish.

I really like Tracy.  It has a great sparkle, fine texture, and just the right amount of glitter to make this girl happy.

Nadia and Angela are not my particular favorites.  Both of them go on easily in two coats for maximum coverage.  Angela is actually pretty interesting in that when you first paint it on, it almost goes on as a flat black-brown color.  As it dries, the molten blue really pops out of it.   Nadia is a great yellow frost color that does shimmer nicely.  Both are just not colors I naturally gravitate towards.  But just watch, in a month they are going to be my new favorite colors!

Mani Monday: Orange Crush

Mani Monday time!  New week, new manicure.

Today is the last day off from work for my birthday mini-vacay.  It has been really nice to not be worried about work for five days.  Sadly, my time has come to an end.  Vacations really do ALWAYS go too quickly.  To cap the time off manicure wise, I wanted something bright.   

Orange Crush Ombre on a Bright Sunny Day!

Colors used: Julep's Parker, Zoya's Sharon, Butter London's Jafa, OPI's Brights Power, and little OPI Jinx.

Bright little orange ombre manicure to end the day.  Yay!

Sadly, I need to work with my camera a bit more.  It is not managing reds very well.  I noticed this when photographing flowers outside as well in good sunlight.  If anyone has any photography tips, I would LOVE to hear 'em!  

Side note...

For my birthday, I received a new rack for nail polish to up my total to two.  Hung this bad boy today so that my stash can have some breathing room.  I am trying so hard to fight the urge to fill up the space up!

Days 3 & 4 of my July 4th Manicure Bonanza!

It has been a pretty busy weekend here in my household between summer cleaning and organizing, to family and friend visits, and the ever present wedding plans, that I did not make time to post my holiday nails until now.  So without any further adieu, here is day 3 and day 4 of my July 4th Super Birthday Mani Extravaganza.....or, 7 days of holiday nails until July 4th.  

Day 3:  Fireworks Gradient

Sticking with my red, white, and blue color scheme, Day 3 features a couple colors we have already used, and one I am very excited to announce.  The red is Julep's Delaunay and the blue is Butter London's Blagger.  Saturday my July Julep Maven box came in the mail....which will be posted tomorrow...and I did add on their special glitter polish to my box.  It is the third polish in this picture and it is called Fireworks.  This polish is packed to the brim with glitter.  The glitter is both multi-dimensional large and small hex glitter in red, white, and blue.  You gets lots of glitter per swipe of the brush and I just love it!

I decided on basic red and blue bases to let the glitter take center stage.  I pulled the glitter down from the tip so that it looks a bit like a shower of sparkles and added the loose stars to the blue nails.  

Day 4:  Deconstructed Stars and Stripes Tape Mani

For today's manicure, I used the above colors:  Sinful Color's Under 18, Essie's Blanc, and Julep's Eloise.

I wanted to produce at least one tape manicure in this series, and this is it!  I started with the blue as a base and the moved to utilizing the tape to divide my nail in half for the coats of red.  But I needed more pizazz then to then tape it off again for the white.  Solution?  Dots of course!!  I think it gives it a hint of both whimsy and sophistication.  Not sure if one can be both, but I am running with it!

Day 2...Stars and Stripes

It is day 2 of our 4th of July Nail Week, Birthday Celebration, Nail Extravaganza! 
As I posted yesterday, my birthday is on July 4th and I am doing a week of 4th inspired and themed manicures.  Yesterday was a subtle pattern, while today is......

Stars and Stripes Forever.

For this flag interpretation, we went literal.  I started with bases of red and blue.  I took a a striper and added white lines to the red.  On the blue based nails, I stamped on the stars in white.  Cute, simple, and patriotic!