Lazy Person Nail Art (n_n)

        So today's post is going to be really short, since I was too lazy to remove Sally Hansen Grape Going! last night. I didn't want to leave it the same either though, so I used some of this mountain of nail art stuff and made a little spring-y nail look for myself.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    So this was really easy to do and took all of like three minutes. I just used some decals from God knows where...maybe Rite Aid, and a fimo butterfly. I wish I had done some sort of stamping on the background and it's a bit late for spring nails, but overall, I like it! 

Oh yeah, unrelated to this polish, but I wanted to let you guys know that I'm going to be extending my Lady of the Lake Giveaway for an additional three days. I won't be able to get to the post office over the weekend anyway, so I figured why not. The new end date will be June 20, 2011, so if you'd like to enter that, you have a little more time. 

And that's all I've got for today! Thanks for reading!

Sally Hansen Grape Going!

         For today, I've got another Sally Hansen polish. This time, it's Grape Going! (damn unnecessary punctuation) from their Insta-Dri Line.

Grape Going! is kind of hard to put into words. I guess it's a violet purple, metallic-ish looking base, with bright blue, iridescent shimmer floating on top of it. The shimmer also has a duochrome shift to it, where it goes from blue to purple. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    I think Grape Going! doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, because it's truly a lovely polish. And I know I'm gonna get beat up for this, but it's really what I hoped RBL Scrangie would be. In sunlight, the blue shimmer catches the light and stands out so beautifully from the base, but it's in regular light where Grape Going! really shines. With every movement of my fingers, the shades of blue and purple in the polish shift and flow smoothly over my nails, and the shimmer floating above it all gives Grape Going! this dreamy, fairytale-like quality that I just love. It's just so pretty, and especially if you can catch a sale, the price is really quite good.

   Formula-wise, Grape Going! was okay. It was a bit thin, but the Insta-Dri brush actually helped me with controlling it. It took three coats for full opacity and depth, which was fine, but unfortunately didn't dry as quickly as the bottle would have you believe.

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have a happy hump day! n_n

The Hungry Asian We Caught the Purp

       It's been a while since I've worn one of these, so for today, I've got another Hungry Asian original franken. Meet We Caught the Purp!

We Caught the Purp is a black creme base stuffed with glitter. There's tiny violet and green square glitter, as well as medium-sized blue, orange, and green hex glitter. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    We Caught the Purp is probably the prettiest black-based glitter I own. In sunlight, the individual colors of the glitter create this beautiful rainbow sparkle. The way that the colors twinkle and flash from the base, it's like having a galaxy on your fingernails. It's not quite as striking in lower light, but it's still quite pretty, and you can still see all the colors from the glitter. And it gets bonus points for such a cute name.

    But as one might expect, the formula for We Caught the Purp was a bit tough. It's a one coater (although I used two) and dried in a flash, but applying it smoothly was a bit hard because of all the glitter and I ended up needing three layers of topcoat for a glassy finish. The good news is that it was worth the pain in the end. n_n

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading! 

Sally Hansen Distressed Denim

    After enjoying Diamond Cosmetics Hot Summer Pink by itself for a bit, I topped it with Sally Hansen Distressed Denim, from their recently released Crackle Overcoat Collection. 

Distressed Denim is a cracking (haha I almost wrote crackhead) cobalt blue jelly.

Sunlight, no flash.

lmao at how my skin goes back to normal with the crackle shielding some of the pink insanity. 

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     I really like Distressed Denim. The bold shade of blue is really pretty to look at, and I am loving the jelly finish. Obviously, the jelly does have its limitations...over darker colors, Distressed Denim completely disappears because it's so transparent. But it looks amazing over sparkly things...I tried it over A-England Merlin and it was like O__O. Hopefully, I can show you it with glitter in a future post.

    In terms of formula, Distressed Denim is tricky tricky. The tips that I can give are to shake it up every few fingers, load a little more on the brush than you think you will need (because Distressed Denim is thin and the brush is skinny as hell), and to not worry about correcting bald spots or unevenness. And don't give up after one try! The first time I tried this, I was like wtf is this shit because it didn't really do anything. But after practicing with it a bit and getting a feel for how to apply it, it actually worked really nicely. 

  And the last thing is that I would not recommend that you buy Distressed Denim (or any of the Overcoats really) at full price. I paid $7.99 for this one at Walgreens and it's not worth that much, partially because it's not foolproof. So wait for a sale or coupons or something and you'll probably be much happier. 

And that's all from me today!! Thanks for reading, and enjoy your Saturday!

Diamond Cosmetics Hot Summer Pink

       I'm still trying to work my way through the Diamond Cosmetics order I made in February (I get so sidetracked ;_;), so for today, I have Hot Summer Pink from their Summer 2009 collection.

Hot Summer Pink is a hot pink base with a soft blue shift and some iridescent shimmer.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

       Hot Summer Pink is such a wonderful color for warm weather. It's super bright, bordering on neon, and I love how the iridescent shimmer dances in sunlight. I forgot to take the picture, but in lower light, you can really see the blue flash. While a bright pink with a blue flash is not the most unique concept out there, what really sets Hot Summer Pink apart from the others is the slightly fuzzy suede-ish look that it has to it. 

      However, I had my issues with Hot Pink Summer's formula. I felt like it went on easily enough, but it didn't level correctly and looked a bit streaky to me. I finally got it even in four coats, which is what I'm wearing in the pictures. It also really required topcoat to look nice. However, I'm still going to keep Hot Summer Pink because it's a beautiful bright color and I love how it looks on me. Yeahhh conceited moment.

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic Friday! 

Tagapalooza!

     I was recently (jk, it was like months ago smh!) tagged in a few stuff and have been meaning to complete them and pass them on. This past weekend, I finally finally got off my ass and got them done, so let's get right into it, shall we? n_n


First, I was given a handwriting tag from Anna over at Loodie Loodie Loodie. Which btw, if you haven't been reading, you should definitely start. My nails are like 10x healthier because of her.
But anyway, for the tag, I had to handwrite the answers to the following questions:


1. What is your name/blogger name?
2. What is your blog's name/URL?
3. Write,"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
4. What's your favorite type of food?
5. What are some of your favorite makeup brands?
6. What are some of your nicknames?
7. What are some pictures you like to doodle?


And here are my answers:

 Yes, I know. My handwriting looks exactly like an one-armed fish wrote it while being electrocuted. I know.  

I also know that I'm like uber tardy for the party with this tag and consequently, I'm 99% sure that everyone has done this already. But if by chance you haven't, consider yo'self tagged. 

The second tag came from Rory at Varnish Vixen, and it was for a nail art challenge.
The rules were:
1. go to your lacquer stash
2. CLOSE your eyes and pull 3 random items - JUST 3


And from those three polishes, I had to create a mani, presumably a non-ooglay one. 
Because I am the polish gods' favorite joke, I ended up with:

China Glaze White Cap, L.A. Girl Punk and Nubar Earth. -____-

And here's what I made out of those:

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     To create this, I started with a layer of milky basecoat and then applied three coats of China Glaze White Cap. I used topcoat on it and let it dry for an hour, before proceeding to stamp on the ivy-ish pattern from Bundlemonster's BM20 plate, using L.A. Girl Punk. Punk is so thin that you can barely see it, but it's there. Finally, I used Nubar Ocean to randomly stamp on the little flower thingies from Konad's M20 plate. I was surprised at how much I liked this. Too bad the tip shrinkage ruined it. ;_;

The last rule is that you have to tag 3 bloggers, so I'm going to tag Another Bottle of Polish?!, Concrete and Nail Polish, and anyone else who wants to do it but hasn't been tagged. If you do choose to do it, please send me a link or leave it in the comments! I love seeing the stuff that people have come up with for this challenge. n_n

And the last tag was for the Top 10 blog award, and came from Beauty Shades! Thank you for the tag, girl! I really appreciate it! 

Purpley. n_n

The rules of this tag are that I have to name 10 of my favorite cosmetics and tag 10 other bloggers to receive the award. 

So my top 10 cosmetics would be:

1. Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

2. Shiro Cosmetics Eyeshadows (I own most of them and love all the ones I have)

3. Fyrinnae Eyeshadows

4. Reviva Labs Makeup Primer

5. Covergirl Lash Blast Fusion

6. Wet n Wild Cream Eyeliner

7. Wet n Wild Palettes

8. Milani Color Brilliance Eyeliners

9. Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation

10. Maybelline Volume Express Falsies Mascara

And in no particular order, I shall tag:

Silence is Loud

Loodie Loodie Loodie

Spaz and Squee

Maricza.com

C's P's

My Lucid Bubble

Nailtastic

Spooky Nails

Candy Coated Tips

Haute Lacquer

Wooh that was long, huh?

Lesson learned though....noo more procrastinating on tags.  x_o

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!!

A-England Lady of the Lake Giveaway

        For me, one of the most exciting nail-related events of 2011 was the launch of A-England. As a total book nerd and polish addict, I'd been so obsessed with finding a brand that could properly blend the two, and for me, A-England is that brand. Not only do the colors have this regal feel that perfect fits with the theme of the collection, but each polish color actually fits the character its named for. That's why I'm excited to be able to do this giveaway, even though it's a really small one. So what's up for grabs?

One new bottle of A-England Lady of the Lake!

Ahaha, like you couldn't tell from the title.

And here it is in action (don't worry, I'm wearing my bottle):

But anyway, rules to enter are:

1. You must be a follower through Google Friend Connect and you must have a valid email address. New followers can play too.

2. You can get one extra entry by liking A-England on Facebook. This is in your best interests too, because when there's a sale or special offer, it pops up on the Facebook page first.

3. This giveaway will be U.S. only. Sorry, international polish lovers, you guys can play next time!! 

4. Giveaway ends on June 20, 2011 at 11:59 EST. 

*This giveaway is now closed! Thank you all for entering!*