NOTD: New Year's Firewrok's Inspired + Tutorial

I was going to try & figure out a way to make a fireworks-style water marble, but I didn't have time to play & experiment with polish to see what would work, and so I went at it freehand with a striper brush.  I used Orly Matte Vinyl as my base color, because initially I was going to leave the background matte - but I changed my mind.  For the firework bursts, I used China Glaze QT, OMG, IDK, DV8 & GR8, all from the OMG collection:

 

Here's the tutorial:

 

 

I thought I was going to have a quiet evening at home, but yesterday I got invited to a party!  Still debating if I should change my nails to match my outfit ... I'm a little nervous, I will only know a few people there, but I'm looking forward to it also =)

 

Thanks for reading,

 

~Colette

NOTD: China Glaze Swing Baby

I used this color in the Star of Bethlehem water marble, but I'm glad I made time to wear it alone.  It's got a really smooth foily finish, and the champagne color made me think it was an obvious choice leading up to New Year's =)  From this past fall's Vintage Vixen collection, this is China Glaze Swing Baby:

 

 

Gonna do a New Year's tutorial tonight ... but I'm not quite sure what exactly of LOL.  So we'll see =)  I'd like to make a resolution to keep up with comments this coming year ... but that would mean catching up in the first place!  Well, I have no plans, and there is (another) storm coming, so that may be how I ring in the new year.  Thanks for reading.

 

~Colette

NOTD: L'Oreal B. Rebellious & "Black" Holo Comparison

This was one of my best ever Dollar Tree finds, from the Bijou Crystals line, L'Oreal B. Rebellious:

 

 

Here's a look at it in motion, super bling:

 

 

Now for the holo comparison.  I had to put black in quotation marks because, come on - we all call them black holos, and we all know they're not really.  I only have one actual black holo, that shows the lie of the others =)  Left to right:  Color Club Revvvolution, Icing Blackout, L'Oreal B. Rebellious, OPI My Private Jet:

 

And since I had a couple of extra nails on the wheel, I did my other 2 versions of MPJ also ... left to right is original MPJ, sparse holo MPJ, and (although the pic doesn't show it well) blue flash MPJ:

 

 

There are a few others I would like to add to my collection, like Diamond Cosmetics Chainmail charm - what's your favorite "black" holo?

 

Thanks for reading =)

 

~Colette

Naked Nails 12-26-10

It's been a while since I did a naked nails post ... partly because I'm so far behind with other stuff, partly because they've been a mess under the polish LOL.  But I wanted to have my biggest canvas possible for all my holiday designs =)  Now that the holidays are about over though, I decided I should cut them down a bit before I had an accident, and get rid of some of the patches ... unfortunately I decided this like a day too late, after I managed to get a tear on my right index at the very start of the free edge =(

 

Here is the before - about 9mm of free edge on the left, a little shorter on the right ... middle was showing it's curve way too much also, some days worse than other for whatever reason:

 

And here is the after - about 6 mm of free edge:

 

 

Still long for most people & I guess they look good (if a tad chunky) but I just prefer them longer.  As if I had any doubt LOL.  Hopefully this will be the last time I have to patch the left index, the break is almost grown out to a decent length.  I don't exactly mind patching at this point, but this particular one has just been a PITA.  Only upside is that it seems to be growing out straighter than before, it was as curved as the middle still is.

 

I'm thinking about doing a test to see how fast I can whiten them up but I'm too lazy so far.  I was going to pick a treatment & do it every day, or every day I change my polish, and take pics each time ... but I just don't really care that much LOL, they're covered in polish all the time so what's the point?

 

Do you bother trying to keep your nails white?  What's your favorite product?

 

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Holographic Gold Foil + Tutorial

This was my Christmas Day manicure ... what better time for a super-bling mani?  Even one that wouldn't last that long.  I applied these holographic gold foils, "Vibrant Yellow," & I was prepared to be very careful with my hands for the day: 

 

Unfortunately, the wear was even worse than I expected ... if you know about foils, you probably know that top coat will make it wrinkle/crackle & the design just doesn't look as cool after that.  And so this time I thought I would skip the topcoat to keep as much of the holo bling as possible.  And by the time I got to my grandparent's house, they had already degenerated to this:

 

 

Now mind, the only thing I did was to put on my gloves & drive over.  They continued to scratch at the very slightest contact, and I eventually scraped the whole thing off, leaving behind the base color of Milani 3D.  If I ever put myself through this again, I guess I'll go with topcoat, even if it does crinkle.

 

(The first time I wore foils, I did a topcoat comparison, and you can check it out HERE if you're interested)

 

I did shoot a quick tutorial on the foil application - my sloppiest one ever I think LOL, but you get the drift:

 

 

Have you ever tried foils?  Any magical secrets to share for better wear and/or better application? 

 

Thanks for reading =)

 

~Colette

NOTD: Red, Gold & White Christmas Water Marble + Tutorial

I actually meant to get this up yesterday, and didn't get around to it.  I had an excellent Christmas Eve as well as Christmas Day - my mom is really great at paying attention during the year when I mention liking something, then I get it for Christmas & I've forgotten all about it, so I'm totally shocked & happy =)  I got a Shiatsu foot massager & a jewelry box among many other great gifts.

 

This is the manicure I wore Thursday & Friday - my last successful Christmas mani I'll admit.  I thought I do foils for the big day - Jeez, what a huge FAIL.  But it will still get it's own post, I got some OK pics the 5 minutes they stayed looking good.

 

For this marble, I started with a base color of Finger Paints Spun Sugar, a creamy off-white,, then marbled SS, Finger Paints Butterscotch Cookie & Sally Hansen Perfect Match:

 

My favorites were my left pinky, ring & thumb, and my right thumb.  Here's the tutorial:

 

 

Did you get what you wanted from Santa?  I hope so =)  Thanks for reading.

 

~Colette

Christmas Shoes!

No, not the song ... God, that has to be one of the weirdest, saddest, most depressing songs ever!  Or would be if it didn't make me LMAO every time I heard it.  Anyway, I'm talking about a couple of Christmas presents from me to me.  First, I had a blue pair of Sketchers that were just in such sad shape, actually had a hole in the side LOL, so I replaced them with this black & white pair:

 

 

I love me some Sketchers =)  I like how these have just a little bit of bling silver on them too.  Then, I just happened to see these Elle mules on sale, I'd seen them before & even tried them on, but didn't want to pay full price - but at better than 50% off, I could no longer resist:

 

Yeah, those heels are 5 1/2 inches =)  But they're so comfy!  The platform at the front is like an inch and a half so it's really only like 4 inches.  With being dumped on snow AGAIN (7 additional inches since last night) I won't be wearing these actually outside for a while, but I can wear my Uggs & bring them with to work =)

 

Hope you guys are all having a great holiday!  & thanks for reading.

 

~Colette

NOTD: New Year's Bling Silver & Black Sponging + Tutorial

I've been wanting to revisit this design ever since I did it in blue glitter.  This time I used China Glaze Fairy Dust, Nova, & WnW Black Creme:

 

Here's the tutorial:

 

 

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Star of Bethlehem Water Marble + Tutorial

So I did marble on top of China Glaze Cheers to You, although I wasn't able to use that color in the marble ... it just wasn't flowing smoothly in the water for the design I was trying to do.  The blue is China Glaze Little Drummer boy, and since CtY wasn't working, I grabbed China Glaze Swing Baby - it is kind of metallic taupe in the bottle, but in the water & on the nail, especially over my existing mani, it goes much more silver.  I'd like to wear it alone sometime.  You can interpret this design in several ways, but to go with the holiday I'm sticking with the Star of Bethlehem:

 

Here's the tutorial:

 

 

Thanks for reading =)

 

~Colette

Cookie Day Part 2

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year, right up there with Christmas day itself =)  Baking, frosting, exchanging & making up trays, we did 13 tins & trays for family & friends this year:

 

 

And here are the cookies!  Lime Coolers (made by mom):

 

Sugar cookies with sprinkles:

Apricot nectar cookies (me):

Sesame seed logs (my aunt):

Gingerbread people (made by mom but decorated by me):

Marzipan balls with frosting (grandma):

Haystacks (grandma):

Nut butter balls I think ... I don't eat them since I'm allergic LOL (grandma):

Sesame cookies (grandma):

I don't know what these are called a lady at my mom's work didn't want to take home the leftovers so she gave them to my mom:

Rosettes (my aunt):

Fruity foldovers in lemon curd & blackberry (me)

Two kinds of toffee (also from mom's work):

And of course the frosted sugar cookies:

Here are some of my favorite decorated sugar cookies:

 

 

Want to do your own cookie marbling?  I did a tutorial:

 

 

We're in the final countdown, I can't believe it's less than a week until Christmas!  I am actually done with shopping & wrapped everything tonight - are you done, or still running around?

 

Thanks for reading.

 

~Colette