New Year's Resolution

I don't normally do New Year's resolutions, but for the sake of my bank account, I needed at least one this year. Don't worry, it's not a "I will go to the gym", "I will quit smoking" (mostly because I don't smoke), kind of resolution. It's nail polish related and that's why I'm posting it here.

My New Year's resolution for 2012 is to not buy a new nail polish until I have tried all my "untrieds" at least once. I know, I know, I can hear the gasps from all the terrified Polish Addicts out there. How could I?! Why would I torture myself like that? But as I said, my wallet needs a break and I'm also running out of room for all of my nail related supplies. I've purchased and received a lot of polish over the last 3 months (by my standards) and the majority of them have been sitting neglected around my house.

Now this isn't to say that I can't buy other fun supplies such as micas and bases, but already made nail polish will be a no-no.

Hopefully I can resist picking up anything new for a while. Although resisting the OPI Nicki Minaj and China Glaze Hunger Games 2012 collections will be difficult if it comes to that. Let's hope it doesn't! I have a lot of nail polish to wear before then! (I counted and put all my untrieds in one place and I only have 16. That's not bad, right?)

Do you have any nail polish related resolutions for 2012? Or any other resolutions for that matter? Let me know in the comments section!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects: Winter Funderland

I guess I can owe my rekindled nail polish addiction to Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips. I was introduced to them earlier in the year by friends and family. They seemed so new and innovative, an awesome manicure with patterns that doesn't smudge? Who knew?! And the patterns are adorable. Now I've found that nail strips are popping up all over the place and there's a lot of awesome ones out there, but Sally Hansen still puts out a great product. And from there, a new obsession was born.

I picked up the Winter Funderland nail strips a while ago along with Plaid About You. I used Plaid About You for my Christmas mani, alternating the nail strips with plain red polish. Now for my New Year's mani I went all out with Winter Funderland, which is a black creme-like base with silver and blue hex glitter and fine silver glitter. 

The application was a little tough with this print. The strips felt a little thicker than usual, which made it a little more difficult to get them to stick. I finally got it to work though and the manicure came out pretty well. There was some chipping, mostly at the tips of my nails. Despite the application problems, I still love this print. I can't help staring at it, it's almost like looking at the night sky. To me, black, silver and blue just scream "New Year's". I think Sally Hansen (or any brand) should put out a polish version of this nail strip.

Below are my results. I apologize for the pictures, I've been having some photography issues (lack of space for my equipment and lack of good light due to living in the Northeast), plus I was under a time crunch. My cuticles are also horrendous on my left hand.

I promise this design is 10 times better in person, but you get the idea. The other great part about these nail strips are that even though I ruined one of the tips of my index finger nail today, I just touched it up with some China Glaze Liquid Leather and was good to go. You can hardly tell that I messed it up! Now that's my kind of mani.

Are you a fan of nail strips? Do you like Sally Hansen or prefer other brands? Let me know in the comments section!

Sally Beauty Supply Post-Christmas Haul

I guess you can call this my part two of my Christmas present/gift to myself segment for this year. Pretty much every store had some type of sale on December 26th and Sally Beauty Supply was no exception. I was armed with a $5 off $25 coupon and the hopes of clearance items up to 70% off. Upon arriving in Sally, I noticed that the polish on sale were from the China Glaze Let it Snow Collection and Color Club as well.

Above is my nail polish haul. Not including the giant bag of cotton balls, some Pure Acetone, Nail Polish Thinner and Seche base coat that I picked up too. I got everything for under $35! (Singing up for a Beauty Club membership for $5 was basically free because of my coupon.)

Starting from the left is China Glaze's Liquid Leather. Before picking it up, I didn't own a black other than my Kiss Nail Art polish. I've seen lots of great nail art using Liquid Leather and figured it would be a great core color to add to my collection. Plus, black polish is great for a base under all the glitter polishes I now own.

Next was China Glaze Poinsettia from the Let it Snow collection which was on sale for $3.29! All of the polishes from this collection were on sale for that price and I couldn't resist picking up Holly-Day and Champagne Bubbles as well. 

I also picked up Orna-Minted by Color Club for $3.99. It's a silver glitter-fest that looks so unique. The glitter almost looks like it's bent. 

I think I did pretty well on my Sally Beauty haul. I won't spam you all with bottle pictures because the China Glaze holiday colors have already been praised enough. 

Did anyone else take advantage of the day-after-Christmas sales? If you haven't, check out www.sallybeauty.com to see what's left on sale! 

Merry Christmas Haul!

Santa and his elves were very good to me this year. I received a lot of great presents that were non-nail related including a Keurig and a Soda Stream (I love my beverages). But of course I also received a good amount of nail related presents. Among them was a glass nail file, which I really needed. I lost my old one somewhere in my last apartment. I also got my much wanted Bundle Monster nail stamping plates, some Konad stamping accessories, a Bundle monster brush & dotting tool set and some glitter and pigments. My husband sure did spoil me and I felt like a kid on Christmas.

I took a few pictures of the polishes that I got because I'm so excited to use them all!

First up are the two Sinful Colors polishes I got. On the left is Fiji and on the right is Frenzy. I think they will be a great layering duo. My mother-in-law has great taste! I actually didn't ask for any specific colors for Christmas, just nail polish in general and I'm very pleased with the results. I did specifically ask for the Seche Vite Dry Fast Top coat, which I got and also can't wait to use.

Among my presents were these adorable Christmas themed decals by cina. I forgot to take pictures of my purple and white cina nail art pens, but you get the idea. I may have to save these decals for next year. I'm already onto the New Year's mani!

Christmas also made me the proud owner of a few bottles of China Glaze. I'm excited to see for myself how great China Glaze is. The first color up is Princess Grace. I think it will be a great base for nail art. 

My sister-in-law apparently also knows me very well and gave me For Audrey. I've been wanting this color for a while, but with Christmas coming up didn't have the heart to buy it for myself. I love this new addition!

So pretty together!

Finally, the last two are Lorelai's Tiara (left) and Blue Year's Eve (right). Lorelai's Tiara is from the China Glaze Eye Candy collection and is oh-so pretty. Blue Year's Eve is from the Let it Snow collection. Again, so excited to try both of these. All of the polish and nail art supplies I got for Christmas will keep me busy for months, not to mention the shopping spree I went on today at Sally Beauty Supply (but more about that another day). 

Lastly, I got some awesome Franken bottles or Franken Juggs as they're called. They're sold here on Amazon by ManGlaze and I think they will be great for frankening. I may even have to pick up some of their polishes one of these days. 

So what did you all get for Christmas? Did you get lots of polish goodies? Merry Christmas!

Sally Hansen Gem Crush collection

I went into my local CVS on Saturday for the Wet n Wild sale, apparently there was a sale for .99 cent Wet n Wild polishes for a sale price of .69 cents. I couldn't find any in my local CVS, just a few boxes of the mini sets. However, I did stumble upon this display of Sally Hansen's new Gem Crush collection:

All of the polishes in this collection look great. They are perfect for the holiday season. While I wish I could have picked them all up, I decided on taking home Cha-Ching! for $7.49. Cha-Ching! is a red and silver glitter polish. I own one bottle of no-name red polish, so I figured to make my decision easier, a red for the holiday season would be perfect.

I have yet to actually try the polish, but wanted to share the find. It's nice to see Sally Hansen getting into the glitter trend. I'll post a swatch later on. 

Essie: Aruba Blue

I wanted to put up a post to tide the blog over for a little. Last week I tried Essie's Aruba Blue from my eBay win. It's the color I've been most excited about out of the four. Here it is below:

It's so pretty and right up my alley in terms of colors. In 8th grade I remember wanting to wear blue nail polish, but I couldn't because I attended Catholic school and they didn't allow any nail polish. (How sad!) But now I'm an adult and can do whatever I want with my nails. (Hurray!) 

You'll have to pardon my lack of a swatch. I didn't like the way my cuticles were looking, so hence no pictures of the mani. I did love the color though. It applied nicely in two coats, though I probably could have gone with three. Even though Aruba Blue conjures up images of crystal clear water on the beach, it also can be used as a great holiday color. I will definitely wear it again and post a swatch, maybe even with a holo or glitter top coat. We'll see. 

I'm currently wearing Essie's It's Genius, so I have officially tried all four from the eBay lot. I've really enjoyed trying them all and I think they are all good additions to my collection.

In the meantime, Thanksgiving is this week and I'm pretty sure that as of tomorrow I will be the proud owner of a second cat! So here are some more pictures to enjoy until the next post!

It's Genius 

My eBay haul!

Essie on eBay: Lady Like and Case Study

eBay can be a wonderful site where you can get great deals and find limited edition or hard to find items. But it can also be extremely addicting. Bidding on an item is like gambling, but if you win you get an item you really want and if you lose, you don’t lose any money. It’s great, but can also be trouble.

As my love for nail polish was rekindled, so was my love for eBay and it’s selection of polish auctions. I recently won an auction of a lot of four Essie bottles pretty much by accident. I wasn’t planning on buying them, I was just curious if I could win the auction.

They were still at a decent price with the auction ending in under 10 minutes, so I put a bid in. Automatically I was outbid, so I tried again, and again was outbid. After a few more tries and telling myself I would only go up to x amount of dollars, I was the high bidder (and only 50 cents over my price limit). I sat there thinking that someone would have to outbid me in the last minute, but they didn’t. I was happy that I won, but then felt guilty for getting caught up in the auction and spending more on nail supplies. (I had told myself that I wouldn’t buy anymore nail polish that week.)

So there is the story of my love/hate relationship with eBay and how I came to own 4 new Essie colors, bringing my Essie collection total up to a whopping 5.

About two weeks later, my Essie polishes arrived in the mail. There was a picture with the eBay sale of course, but it’s always different seeing them in person. I split the polishes into two groups for the blog, since all four are not part of a specific seasonal collection. The first two are Lady Like and Case Study, which are from Essie’s Fall 2011 Collection.

Lady Like is a mauve creme, which at first reminded me of the types of shades that my mom usually wears. It is not a bad thing, but from the bottle it looked like something that I normally wouldn’t pick out on my own. After applying the two coats and my top coat though, I was pleasantly surprised. The Essie polish applied very well and the color definitely grew on me as I wore it. It’s a flattering shade and perfect for the fall. It’s subtle and understated, making it one classy color that lives up to its name.
I can’t say that trying to photograph the color went as well as the application, but it may be because I took the pictures at night with just one light. Here are my results below:

I kept Lady Like on for two days, removed it of course, and then applied Case Study. Case Study, being from the same collection, applied just as well as Lady Like. It is also a creme polish, but in a light brown /  taupe shade. Again, it is not a color I would normally choose for myself or catch my eye in a drugstore, but I also liked the color more than I thought I would. From the bottle it looks like it would come out a bit lighter and for some reason I kept thinking Case Study would be more of a khaki color than a taupe. 

Here are my results below:

I wore Case Study with a purple top and the colors complimented each other well. For my job in a non-profit office setting, the color was perfect. I also liked how shiny both Lady Like and Case Study were with just one top coat of Brucci’s Acrylic Top Coat. 

 
I’m enjoying trying different colors and getting acquainted with the Essie brand. I can’t wait to try my two other Essie polishes! I was prepared to give both colors a Fail’d It, but after wearing them, I would give both a Nail’d It!

Districtly Speaking: The Hunger Games Collection

Yesterday I was catching up on some of my favorite blogs and came across some very exciting news on All Lacquered Up. Well, it’s exciting news if you’re a fan of The Hunger Games trilogy of books and looking forward to the release of the first movie in March 2012. I myself am a fan and cannot wait until the movie. Although I hope the movie can do the books justice and it must be at PG-13 movie, at least, none of this PG stuff. But that's a post for another blog.

Along with the movie, nail polish enthusiasts will be able to purchase a collection by China Glaze that is inspired by the characters and events of the books. You can read the post and see the first preview of the colors here!

I am very excited about this collection and have a feeling that I’ll have to splurge in March to buy the Hunger Games China Glaze collection, or as much of it as I can. I think that it will be very hard to find given their popularity, but I’ll try my best.

My favorites so far from the one picture I have seen are Primrose, Catnip, Cinna-mon, Fire in Flight, and Flaming Gems. Okay, they all look amazing, but I think those will be first on my list to pick up and then share the swatches with all of you!

Inspired by the news, I even took a picture of my Hunger Games trilogy. The books are just so pretty.

Who else is excited about the movie and the nail polish collection?

Welcome and First Mani!

Welcome to my nail blog, Nail'd It! I have always enjoyed nail polish and doing my own manicures and pedicures. My motto is why pay someone when I can do it myself and spend that money on a good bottle of nail polish.

Most of my manicures in the past have been simple; just a plain mani with one type of nail polish and no designs. Little did I know I was missing out on amazing nail designs. Thanks to the blog HelloGiggles, I was exposed to the world of DIY nail art and numerous other nail blogs and Etsy shops. There are some very talented ladies out there and it inspired in me a new appreciation for nail art and nail polish.

This blog will contain my nailventures, if you will, into the world of nail art and my journey from nail n00b to hopefully nail pro. I hope you'll enjoy the ride and my trials and tribulations.

My first featured mani is one I will call "Vanilla Funfetti".

For the base I used Brucci Nail Hardener in "Snow White". I haven't worn white nail polish, with the exception of french tips, in years. I thought white would be a welcome change from the typical mani. The white didn't apply as well as I would have liked, but it may be due to the lack of a base coat. (I know, I know, I should use a base coat, but I have a bad habit of never using one. I'll change that soon.)

On top of two coats of Snow White, I used "Party of Five Glitters" from the Wet n Wild Fast Dry collection. It's a polish with assorted sizes of blue, green, silver, red and fuchsia glitter with a clear base. The glitter was a bit more sparse than I would have liked. I had to play around with the coats before I found a good balance, but also had to be cautious about not ruining the white base. 

To top it off I used an Acrylic Top Coat by Brucci. And there you have it, the Vanilla Funfetti design! I've had the mani on about a week now and there has been hardly any chipping. For my wear and tear on nails, this is great. The pictures were taken on day two. 

 The products:

Brucci "Snow White"

Wet n Wild's "Party of Five Glitters"

So there you have it! I've really enjoyed this design all week. Snow White stands out nicely and the Party of Five Glitters adds a pop of fun to the whole thing. What do you think, is this a Nail'd It! or a Fail'd It? Also, do you consider a Franken to be layering polishes or strictly mixing in a bottle? I'm curious and have a lot to learn, so leave some comments. Until next time!