Nail - Rainbow

This was one of those days when I spent soooooo much time doing a design and never managed to get a good picture! My hands were completely dried up no matter how much hand cream or oil I used. I pretty much photoshopped the crap out of these pictures to make my hands look normal. After this design I had to clip off the gel extensions I had on and now I'm giving my real nails some time to grow out a little bit before I try them again. 

My first race is coming up and it's the "Gay 5K" during Pride Week! I may have to try out another rainbow design for race day. 

Polishes Used:

L.A. Colors - Energy Source

Wet N' Wild - Dreamy Poppy

Sinful Colors - Innocent

Revlon - Tangerine

L.A. Colors - Palm Tree

Essie - Butler Please

L.A. Colors - Tropical Breeze

Revlon - Clear

OPI - Natural Base Coat

OPI - Top Coat

Supplies Used:

Vaga Brushes

Martha Stewart Glitter - Lemon Drop

Nail - Purple Two Ways

I did a couple of designs with my new lavender polish but I got super lazy and didn't take take many pictures. The first one I like because it looked like a starry night with lavender fading to purple fading to black. The second one I didn't like very much though. Maybe I'll improve on the first design and post it again! 

Nail - Green Chevron

I did my own gel extensions this week! I have really strong natural nails so I don't really need to do extensions, but I liked the idea that I can sculpt them to the shape I want. My natural nails can be bumpy and some curve more than others so with extensions they would theoretically turn out straight and smooth. They still turned out bumpy, but it was my first try and it's really not that bad. I had three break on my right hand but I was able to glue them back on without a problem. It was extremely time consuming but I had fun doing it! I never really liked getting professorial manicures even though they are much more skilled than I am and turn out better in the end. I always thought it was fun to do my nails. I remember having those peel-off nail polish kits as a kid and making all sorts of designs. I uess I haven't gotten over it!

I'm loving this green and grey color combination...

Polishes Used:

Sinful Colors - Innocent

L.A. Colors - Palm Tree

Essie - Chinchilly

OPI - Natural Base Coat

OPI - Top Coat

Supplies Used:

French Nail Tip Guides

Gelish - Hard Gel

EZ Flow Perfect C Curve Forms

Vaga Brushes

Globalbox LED UV Lamp

Nail - Leopard Print

This was my last full week of classes so I had SO much homework to do! We still have class next week but most of the big assignments have already been turned in. Now I can relax a little bit before finals week. Lucky for me I only have two finals and one should be a breeze.
My mom came out this past weekend to hang out with us and Ellie. We ran around all weekend and had lots of fun! I have lots of backyard pictures to share. I'm loving the warm weather and sunshine.

Ellie inspired my nails this week! My aunt got her this cute leopard print fleece onesie with a little hood and heart shaped knee patches. It was a little tricky to paint the heart and then put the gemstones on my nail but I like how it turned out.

Polishes used:

OPI - Bride's Bouquet

Maybelline Express Finish - Onyx Rush

Essie - Chinchilly

China Glaze - Bottoms Up

OPI - Natural Base Coat

OPI - Top Coat

Supplies used:

Cheeky Rhinestones

VAGA Brush 

VAGA Dotting Tools

Nail - Neon Pink

I love this look! It's so simple but the neon pink is adorable. I love how the green bow goes with it. I feel like Barbie. I've actually had a few instances where I wanted to flip someone off while driving (people honked at me for stopping for a school bus... really??) and I feel like it would be extra sweet to flip them off with this cute green bow on my nail... Is that's weird?

Anyway... It's getting closer to the end of the semester and the homework is piling up. Soon it will be summer break and I'll officially be a stay at home mom for a few months. Yay! 

I'm loving this spring weather... after so much snow being in my life the warm air and sunshine is amazing. I feel like I'm in California again.

China Glaze - Bottoms Up

OPI - Natural Base Coat

OPI - Top Coat

Nail - 90's Pink Grunge

To be truly grunge all you would have to do is slap on some black polish and let it chip off for a few weeks, but that's no fun unless you have better things to do like practice with your garage band.

For my index finger and pinky I painted on the China Glaze Bottoms Up first and then applied the Sinful Colors Black Crackle to the top after it dried. The crackle color is pretty matte itself but I still coated them with OPI's Matte Top Coat once the nails were completely dry.

My thumb, middle and ring finger I painted black. Then I used the striping brush to apply the pink stripes to my ring finger. I was so happy that the brush worked to well! It was really easy to draw the lines straight. I applied the matte to my ring finger after this as well.

For the flower pattern on my thumb and middle finger I coated the black with matte polish and then used a dotting tool to make slightly irregular flower shapes with the China Glaze Bottoms Up. On top of the pink blobs I again used the dotting tool to add Wet ' Wild Dreamy Poppy. Then I used L.A. Colors Palm Tree and a smaller dotting tool to add green leaf blobs (it's not so important to make it look perfect) Lastly I added some little pink rhinestones to the center of each flower.

Polish used:

Maybelline Express Finish - Onyx Rush

China Glaze - Bottoms Up

Wet N' Wild - Dreamy Poppy

L.A. Colors - Palm Tree

Sinful Colors - Black Crackle

OPI - Matte Top Coat

OPI - Natural Nail Base Coat

Supplies used:

Cheeky Rhinestones

VAGA Striping Brush 

VAGA Dotting Tools

Nail - Spring Patterns

Happy Friday! This week was a little rough for me. I totally bombed a math quiz that I spent HOURS studying for and I got another parking ticket at the school. Lots of really great things happened though. The highlight was that Ellie can WALK now! She's so cute wobbling around. She has a bruise on her butt from plopping down on it. After I came home from my crappy quiz day Ellie came wobbling up to me for a big hug. The sweetest!!

On to my nails for this week... I cut them short again because the length was getting annoying. Immediately after I cut them I found a video showing how to file perfect almond shape nails and I regretted it. I want my nails sharpened to a point like Miss Kitty! Also my nail art haul from Amazon finally got here. I have a whole set of nail guides in different shapes, gems, pearls, roses, bows, pink brushes and dotting tools. 

The husband will have to be on nail photo duty from now on because I can't get a picture with my real camera that is any better than my iPhone! I discovered that I cannot get it to focus on me if I set it up and move in front of it. Yay. I know nothing about cameras and the more I try to learn the more confused I am. It's worse than my pre-calculus class.

China Glaze - Lotus Begin

Milani Jewel FX - Lavender

OPI - Bride's Bouquet

OPI - Natural Nail Base Coat

OPI - Top Coat

Martha Stewart Glitter - Sugar Plum

XJ French Nail Tip Guides

I can't even get a good picture of flowers! WTF.

Nail - French Pink Bow

I finally got my pink bow nail charms! I love them!! I have to watch out for the bows snagging on things which is a little weird, but it's also pretty weird having my nails so long. I used to grow my nails all the time when I was younger. They are strong enough, grow fast, and I never really break them or chip them. With the military I usually kept them short even though I was allowed to grow them 1/4 inch (without nail polish.) It just felt too weird to get my hands dirty like that with long nails. Now I can have princess nails!

I stopped by Sally's Beauty Supply and picked up a couple of fresh new pastels to get me in the mood for spring. By the way, did you know it's snowing in Buffalo? Yay. Super yay. My new polishes certainly brightened up this snowy and dreary day. I can't wait to try them out!

OPI - Natural Nail Base Coat

OPI - Bride's Bouquet

OPI - Altar Ego

OPI - Top Coat

Charms - Tie Me Up, Pink

Swarovski Rhinestones  - Crystal Clear (similar)

Nail - Matte Grey and Glitter

I did little nail polish haul and received the first few of my items in the mail. I got the OPI base coat, glossy top coat and the new matte top coat. I think the matte top coat is the best nail polish purchase I've made in a while!

Essie - Chinchilly

Bedhead - Health Goddess

OPI - Natural Nail Base Coat

OPI - Top Coat

OPI - Matte Top Coat

Nail - First Junk Nail

Today I just said screw it. I'm putting sparkles on my nails. It's my first attempt so I didn't expect it to be brilliant but I'm posting it anyway.  I'm still waiting for all my cute nail supplies to arrive so I can practice for now.

Spring break is here! I can't believe it's been that long since classes started. I still have so much to do and time just keeps flying by. Ellie is going to be one year old soon, how insane is that?

Essie - Mint Candy Apple

Essie - Ballet Slippers

Nail - Pink Glitter

I was searching for my Swarovski crystals to put on my nails after I painted them with this cute light pink color. Of course I made the mistake of painting my nails first and then needed to go through my dresser without smudging my nails... So instead I found this jar of Wet N' Wild makeup glitter that I had for some reason. I don't think I ever used it. I know I had a Mac one but that's been lost for a while now... But yeah, what do you even do with makeup glitter?? I supposed it's a makeup artist thing. I decided to dip my nails in it and it came out pretty cute!

Do you remember back in the 90's when that glitter gel was a thing? People globbed it on their eyelids and in their hair and on their cheeks! Yuck!!

Essie - Ballet Slippers

Wet N' Wild MegaSparkle Confetti - Pink Pussy Cat

Somebody wanted to check out the glitter for herself!

Nail - Mint and Metallic

I had a massage today. I'd been talking about getting a massage for years and I never did it even though I've been having issues with my shoulders. On Valentines Day Joe surprised me with a gift card for a deep tissue massage and it was soooooo great! My shoulders still cramped up today but I can tell it will improve with time so I made another appointment for next month. I think my shoulder issues must have come from a combination of ruck marches, computer drafting and being so cold all the time that I scrunched up and got all tense.

I took pictures of my nails at the spa in the morning while the sun was shining through the windows. It was so nice and bright (a little too bright) but it was deceiving because it was so cold out. A big difference I noticed between Alaska and Buffalo is that Alaska is colder and it's dark all the time, but in Buffalo people just LOVE to complain about winter! Alaskans hardly ever complained but they had it worse.

Of course I complained all the time because I'm not a native Alaskan.

I really can't wait for the snow to go away! It just piles on and on. Oh, how I miss California.

Essie, "Nothing Else Metals"

Essie, "Mint Candy Apple"

Revlon, "Clear"

Nail - Pink and Black Ombre

I used to try to do a "weekend nails" feature since I wasn't allowed to wear nail polish during the work week, but now that I'm free I can have my nails pretty every day! I don't really know what to call it now and I don't want to lie and promise to do my nails every weekend (yeah right.) Soooo I suppose just "Nail" is good enough for now.

Like my super-basic-girl selfie? Painted nails, Sephora shopping bag and Flat White Starbucks latte! I wasn't wearing Ugg boots though, so don't worry.

I actually went shopping today! I was on a mission to find this eye shadow pallet from Becca called "Ombre Nudes" that they didn't have at the Sephora in JCPenny. They had it at the full Sephora store in a different mall and so I got it there along with an Anastasia Beverly Hills eyebrow brush.
I also discovered a Lush store! I had heard about it but never thought I would have a local store. I picked up a vanilla bath bomb, massage bar and a very nice store associate with blue hair gave me a sample of the color treated hair shampoo. I'm excited to try it out!

I know ombre is very 2013 but I really don't care. It looks awesome on nails and is so easy to do. I find that those nail stickers just peel the polish right off. I guess I have't gotten the hang of them quite yet.

Polishes used are:

Milani Neon "Pink Rocks!"

Mabelline Express Finish "Onyx Rush"

Revlon "Clear" as a top coat