Nail Fails

I've never addressed this on the blog before, but today... we're going to talk about nail fails! That's right, all the nail art attempts that aren't quite good enough to make it on the blog. I feel slightly bad about the huge amounts of time that passes between each post, so I want to discuss all my nail fails, which are (usually) the reasons behind my slow posting. Enjoy this collection, working backwards in time, of all my "brilliant ideas" that turned out to be less brilliant once on my nails.

The Boring Picnic Blankets
Okay, I guess I'm not totally dissatisfied with these. I don't know. For some reason they just bore me- I think there needs to be more to them. I tried to paint some ants on the thumb nail, and failed, so I gave up on any creative idea for the rest of the nails.

The Smudgy Ice Cream Cones
Eh. I tried. They look kind of ice-cream-y, I guess. I loved how the cones came out, but the actual ice cream just kind turned into smudgy blobs. Woops.

The Sloppy Gradient
I actually adore this gradient. I just forgot the cleanup before taking photos. Oh well.

The "Damn You Seche Vite" Nails
It's a short story: my Seche Vite started shrinking. Now I'm a happy user of HK Girl.

The Chubby Smiley Face

See, I was all pumped up for the Sherlock season 3 premiere, and I attempted to replicate the wallpaper design on my nails. It resulted in this mess. 

The Office Finale Nails

I forgot the yellow polish I used wasn't opaque. I hate visible nail lines. 

The Horrendous Nail Break

Of course my nail had to break before I could take my photos. Eh, the nail art wasn't that cute anyway (Also. Ick. The photo quality here. *shudders*). 

 Those are the only ones I could find for now- I think I may have deleted some of the worst offenders. I'll let you all know if I ever find the penis-gingerbread-men pictures, though (... don't ask).

I won't be seeing you all for a little bit- I'm heading off to Italy (Eee!) tomorrow, and I'll be back a week from Tuesday. I'm hoping to take plenty of pictures of my nails while travelling, so I'll put those all together in a post when I get back. Catch you all later!

I'm backkk!

Yeah, wow. Two months. I won't get into it all too much, but life in these past couple weeks has been crazy, stressful, and really not all that fun. This resulted in me feeling so exhausted by the end of every day that I couldn't find it in me to sit down for an hour or two to just paint my nails and pull together a post.

However, it's finally SUMMER! I survived the torture that is finals, and I'm done with the stress of social interaction for a whole three months. Don't get me wrong, I love (most of) my classmates, but I go to a tiny school with 60 kids per grade, and by the end of the year I'm honestly just sick of everybody. Now I get to chill at home, sleep in until twelve every morning, wear my pajamas all day, and sit around like the lazy couch potato I always dreamed of becoming. Huzzah! All of this relaxing has lowered the amount of stress I've been going through a TON, and so now I've (finally) got the motivation to whip up a post again.

Okay, a lot has happened in the past few months, so I'm just going to to quick little summaries of everything, plus the pictures that go with them. Enjoy!

Minecraft Creepers
These actually started out as a suggestion from my school's college counselor (long story... and yeah, guess who's starting to plan for college? This girl!). Y'all already know I'm a hugeee Minecraft addict, so of course I followed the suggestion!

The only reason I chose Creepers over anything else Minecraft-related was because they ended up being the least complicated design I could figure out. I might try something a bit more difficult in the future if I'm feeling motivated, but square shapes and nail art don't quite go together all that well. These are my second attempt at the design- the first time I used black polish and a dotting tool, and was left with a bunch of smudgy oval shapes on my nails. For these I used a fine-point Sharpie instead, and they came out ten times better. The base color is Essie - Mojito Madness (one of my favorite greens!). 

Pastel Polka Dots

Fast forward to Easter, with a different nail shape and a happy little holiday design. Yes, I can never decide what shape I want my nails to be. Square's so much better for nail art, but I gotta admit, stiletto nails make me feel just a bit bad-ass. Heh. 

I'm really satisfied with these! I'm not a pastel fan at all, but I had fun trying something bright and spring-y. These bring back memories of my Easter nails two years ago- my very first attempt at nail art! I tried to do cute little chicks, but I didn't have as steady of a hand back then as I do today, and they all ended up with really creepy misshapen eyes and messed up feet. Ah, well, we all have to start somewhere.

From left to right (including the thumb) I used: Sally Hansen - Lightening, China Glaze - For Audrey, Essie - Play Date, OPI - Sparrow Me the Drama, and Essie - Navigate Her. The polka dots were made with China Glaze - White on White and a dotting tool. 

Prom Nails

Oh, yeah, I went to prom this year! Hooray! Not only did I get to spend a fun night dancing, though- a bunch of my friends let me paint their nails for the occasion. I somehow never got a picture of my own nails (the color I used was LynBDesigns - Purple Polish of Sex, if anyone is curious), but I took plenty of everyone else's. 

Here are Sally's nails. She just wanted something nice and simple to match her dress, so we just did two coats of China Glaze - For Audrey (okay, it might have been Aquadelic... I can never remember which one I used. Those two are pretty much identical anyway) with a coat of HK Girl on top. 

Up next are Alice's. We used LynBDesigns - So Changeable for her because her dress had both the blue and purple shades found in the duochrome polish. 

Donna originally wanted this same design but with silver instead of gold, but turns out I don't own a silver polish (gasp! There's actually a shade of polish that Allie doesn't own?), so we improvised a bit with the gold instead. This is Orly - Luxe with ELF - Smokin Hot on the tips (with a black line from a striper in between).

Here are the nails I'm most proud of! The prom's theme was the Great Gatsby, so Adina found some Gatsby-themed nail art for us to work off of. I couldn't find the reference we used for these, but I don't take credit for the design- the inspiration for the accent nails was found through a Google search. 

[Update: Found the source!]

Here's a closeup of the thumb, which I was super proud of. I hate how time consuming it can be to use striping tape, but that always makes it feel worth the effort when the design comes out perfectly!

Can you figure out which nails go with each girl? Hehe! 

Conclusion

Whew, it's nice getting back to blogging. I'm leaving in about two weeks for a trip to Italy (Eee!), so that will be another short break from the blog for me, but other than that I'm hoping to get back to a weekly post schedule. And speaking of Italy, let me know if you have any ideas on what I should do with my nails for the trip. I want to do a fun little "travelling nails" post where I take pictures of my nails in front of all the different places I'm visiting there, so of course my nails have to look extra cute for everything! 

Annnd that's all for now! I shall be back soon with a new tutorial- catch you all later! 

J'adore VoxBox Review

Hello universe! Geesh, I haven't been on here in a really long time. Hooray for school, stress, and life for getting in the way of my nail painting. Bleh!

Luckily, all that stress and icky stuff has disappeared for the moment, because it's spring break! Woot woot! Instead of vacationing in Florida like everyone else, I'm hiding inside at home recovering from the last three weeks of school (which have been insanely rough- I swear teachers secretly plot together to ensure all the tests and essays end up being due at the exact same time). Now that I've finally recovered enough (this recovery involved eating copious amounts of chocolate and marathoning all the seasons of Teen Wolf in less than a week), I'm back to the blog! Hooray!

Today, I'll be reviewing the J'adore VoxBox from Influenster. If you haven't signed up for Influenster yet, you  definitely should- all you have to do is sign up on their website, and you have a chance to get sent free items in the form of a VoxBox. Here's the one I got!

Ooh, so pink! The J'adore VoxBox was a Valentine'sday themed box, which is the reason for all the pink and red. I'm not exactly the largest fan of that holiday, but... look at that ginormous bag of Hershey's Kisses on top. So much chocolate. Thank you Influenster for providing me with chocolate as a suitable replacement for a relationship on Valentine's day. 

This silly kitty discovered the box pretty quickly:

... and then deemed it a suitable spot for a nice nap.

Now, onto the products! 

Boots Botanics Shine Away Ionic Clay Mask: $9.39

Yay, a clay mask! I'd actually really been wanting to try one for awhile, so I was super excited when this arrived in the box. The color was slightly icky, but the mask was really nice. It applied very easily, dried quickly, and washed off well. It left my skin feeling clean, but not too dry- I hate when masks completely dry out your skin. Ick! 

Hershey's Kisses Milk Chocolates: $5.29 for 18.5 oz. bag / $3.28 for 11 oz. bag

Look at that beautiful bag of chocolate. So much chocolate. I have been constantly munching on these since this box arrived- om nom nom. I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to review this one. Come on, it's chocolate- what else am I supposed to say? Hehe. 

Frizz Ease 3-Day Straight Flat Iron Spray: $9.99

I seriously doubt it works this well...

Oops, so I actually haven't tried this one yet. You're supposed to apply it after getting your hair wet/showering, blow dry your hair, and then straighten it. Since I shower at around 11 every night, I'm pretty dang tired by that point. That means that after my shower, I have no motivation to spend another half hour blow drying and straightening my hair and all other sorts of time consuming stuff. I'll update this post if I try it eventually. I'm still hunting for someone else I might be able to try it on- even if I use it myself, I only have slightly wavy hair, so it wouldn't make much difference on mine.

KISS Looks So Natural Lashes: $3.99

Ah, fake lashes. Sorry, but I'm just not a fake lash person. I know it works for other people, but as a seventeen year old, I have a feeling it'd be a bit strange for me to wear these in public (also, I have no idea how it's possible to wear false lashes with glasses). I'll stick with my more subtle mascara, thank you very much. I did try them on, and for fake lashes, these look pretty natural, which I like.

Red Rose Simply Indulgent Teas: $4.49 for carton of 20 tea bags

TEA! Okay, I am a huge tea addict, so I was a teensy bit worried about this. I take my tea quite seriously, and I'm super duper picky, so I had a feeling sending me tea to review might not end too well. Keep in mind that everything I say is only my opinion- we all have different tastes in tea!

I got sent three of the creme caramel tea bags, and one of the lemon chiffon. I tried the creme caramel one first. This one's a bit strange. Since it's a caramel flavor, you'd expect it to be sweet... but it's not. It tastes like caramel, but it's not sweet. I don't get it. You'd have to add honey or sugar to sweeten it up a bit, but I feel a bit strange doing that because if I were to buy a caramel tea, I'd assume it'd be sweet in the first place. Not liking sweeter teas anyway, though, I wasn't too annoyed about it. I still  probably wouldn't recommend this one- it's just odd.

Onto the lemon chiffon- I liked this one much better! I was surprised about that, since I'm not a fan of lemon tea either, but this one's very nice. It reminds me of those lemon Girl Scout cookies that they stopped selling a couple years ago. I can't remember what they're called, but they were really yummy. This tea's very soothing and... lemon-y. It had just the right amount of sweetness for me. I also like that it's decaffeinated, because it would be a perfect tea to drink right before bed.

Hooray, that's it! Let me know in the comments which of these products you'd love to try, and if you've already tried any of them, what your opinions are. Hopefully (fingers crossed) I'll be back in a bit with a nail-polish-related post. See you all then! 

*Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided for free for the purposes of testing. All opinions are my own.*

Swatch/Review: Polish Your Hooves - Buttercup and In the Farmer's Garden

*Disclaimer: The polishes in this post were provided by Polish Yer Hooves for the purposes of reviewing. All opinions are my own.*

Howdy folks! Boy, have I been MIA for a while! Darn you life, getting in the way of my nail-polish-ing! Hehe. Anyway, that doesn't matter, because I have a whole bunch of stuff coming up in the next few weeks to make up for it. Just you wait! 

Anyway, today I have a slightly bittersweet review for an amazing indie brand, Polish Yer Hooves. It's sweet because... the polishes you're about to see are completely gorgeous! It's bitter because yesterday, it was announced on the Polish Yer Hooves Facebook page that Leigh Anne, the owner, would no longer be making her polishes. It's a sad day in the nail polish community when an indie brand shuts down, but it's always especially rough when it's such a new, promising brand. However, her Etsy store is only in vacation mode at the moment, and not shut down, so THERE'S HOPE! We're just going to keep hoping while I write this post that maybe the store will come back eventually, because her polishes are all completely stunning, and you are definitely going to be wanting these two once you read this post.

Here's how the polishes arrived. Look at this cute packaging! If you hadn't caught on yet, Polish Yer Hooves' brand is completely centered around cows. And boy, Leigh Anne definitely goes all in for the cow theme! Cow business card, cow labels, cow tape around the polish lids, a Cow Tale (yes, you're seeing an empty wrapper in the bag, because I couldn't restrain myself long enough to take a picture before it was eaten), and even little cow-shaped confetti in the bottom of the bag. 

And onto the polishes inside the bag:

First off, we have Buttercup. Buttercup is a STUNNING bright yellow polish with a pearl finish. I was a little skeptical of this one before trying it, since I'm pretty picky about my pearl polishes, but just look at it! SO GORGEOUS! 

As you can see, one coat wasn't quite enough, but you could definitely get away with two if you wanted. 

In the next three photos, I have three coats of Buttercup with one coat of HK Girl top coat. 

Eee, isn't this so perfect for spring? I feel a little strange wearing such bright polish in the middle of Illinois' disgusting weather, but once everything warms up and the grass is no longer covered in two-week-old snow, I'll be rocking this polish all the time!

And now for the second polish, In the Farmer's Garden (which I'll be shortening to ITFG, because I'd really rather not write the entire name out every single time). ITFG is a mix of pink and lilac flower glitter, small silver hex glitter, and various shapes of small green glitter, all in a clear base.

Here I have one coat of ITFG, plus another coat of HK Girl, shown over Buttercup.

As the base was very thick, application was a teensy bit difficult, especially with getting the flower glitter to look nice, but since this really comes with the territory of larger glitters, I've got no troubles with it. Just keep it in mind when buying!

So there we have it! Let me know your thoughts on these two in the comments. It's a little strange writing a post for polishes that are no longer on sale, because I can't just refer you to the store and tell you how much I recommend buying them, but I can say that if you ever find Buttercup or ITFG in a blog sale somewhere, grab it, fast! I mean it! These colors are so sweet, spring-y, and adorable, and just plain fun to wear.

In conclusion: Cows+cute polish names+awesome application+flower glitter+happiness=Polish Yer Hooves=awesome nail polish. Yeah. Peace out.

*Disclaimer: The polishes in this post were provided by Polish Yer Hooves for the purposes of reviewing. All opinions are my own.*

LynBDesigns - Mind Palace (Swatch/Review)

Well, hello there, everyone!

Wow, this post is really late in the week, isn't it? Please thank some darned malware for that. I got it fixed yesterday, but geesh, was that annoying. I could keep any web browser up for about three minutes or so until the computer would be attacked and I'd have to re-open everything, which meant writing a post was almost impossible. Sigh. But finally, I'm back with a post! I'd already written out some catchy intro related to the Superbowl (I'd started writing this on Sunday before all my computer issues) but as that would make no sense on a Wednesday, we're just going to jump right on into the post.

Enjoy today's swatch/review of LynBDesigns' Mind Palace! 

First thought on this polish: Look at that glitter.

Second thought: That jelly, tho.

Third thought: And so much Sherlock fangirling to go along with it.

Final thought: Pretty much the most awesome polish ever. 

So yeah, in case my little commentary up there didn't give enough information, this polish is pretty dang amazing. Here I have three coats of Mind Palace with two coats of my good ole HK Girl top coat to smooth it out. Application was perfect. Drying time was wonderful. Seriously. Perfection. Add on top of all this the fact that Mind Palace is based off of Sherlock, and you have a complete winner. However, after putting on this polish, I wasn't able to think too much about the whole Sherlock side of it - this image below basically sums up everything going through my mind at the moment. 

Yeah. I'm a huge sucker for jelly polishes, aren't I? Oh, who can blame me, though? Mind Palace is GORGEOUS. I can't say enough about how much I recommend this one- just go buy it, now, please. Seriously. You will not be disappointed. So much squishy jelly glitter perfection.

Annnd that's it! In case this post hasn't already sent you across the internet to order Mind Palace, it can by found at LynBDesigns' Etsy store for $8 a bottle. Yupyup! 

Thanks for reading! I'm going to try to get back on a weekly Sunday posting schedule again, but we'll have to see if that actually ends up working or not. So see you all Sunday... or... whenever!