I have been wanting to try this forever but every time I went to put it on, I wasn't feeling the layering thing.  Weird I know.

One coat of CC Where's The Soiree? and one coat of It's All Bright With Me.  Oh and a coat of SV of course!  There are so many different colored flecks of glitter in here this photo does not even come close to doing it any justice.  Pink, gold, green, red and purple from what I can see.  The base is super sheer so I have not tried it alone yet.  Maybe next time with a french mani. 

I will be drawing a name later tonight or tomorrow for the Earth Day giveaway.  Have a great weekend!

I had no idea what I wanted to do with my nails so I pulled out random polishes, got out my brush and just did whatever my fingers chose to do.

This is how it turned out, a french chevron!  I dipped my art brush into CC Where's The Soiree? and freehanded the tips, when that dried I did the same for the red on top, Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar.  It still looked boring so I put China Glaze 5 Golden Rings over the black and finished with a coat of SV.

 Edit:  Thanks to everyone for letting me know that I made huge typos in both my photos and text down here.  No more making posts right before bed!  My pictures say Ruby Slippers but it is actually Ruby Pumps by China Glaze.  Sorry for the confusion!


Some of you requested a comparison between China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Nubar Fire Sparkle.

Outdoors, Ruby Pumps is 3 coats no topcoat.  Fire Sparkle is 3 coats, 1 coat SV, 1 coat normal clear coat, and then another coat of SV on top of that.

There is definitely a huge difference between the two, Ruby Pumps is smooth and the base is a nice and red jelly-like finish.  Fire sparkle is mostly dense red and orangeish glitter in a red base.   The glitter is so dense I had to do the SV sandwich to have a smooth surface for this picture.

Indoors flash.  I think they are both very pretty.  The only reason I would grab one over the other is the cleanup, Ruby Pumps wins that one hands down.

I took photos of my base color, Drama in the Dark by Nicole by OPI but I did not realize they were all blurry until I was looking at them after stamping.  Drama in the Dark is a sheer black base with teal and blue microglitter.  I am wearing 3 coats of it and it just looks black under Konad.

I took photos of this mani with 2 different cameras.

I took this photo using my mother in law's 12ish megapixel Canon DSLR on full auto with a macro lens and flash.  My fingers look a little leathery lol sorry.  But hey, my skin looks like.. skin!  I use her camera on a lot of my food shots.

This is my camera, a really old 6 megapixel Kodak point and shoot.  I used macro mode and flash.   Unless you are looking at this photo at 100% (which you cannot since I resize in half or so usually) it doesn't look THAT bad for nails.  I can't really say the same for portraits and stuff.  The more you zoom in the more grainy it gets.  I use this camera for all my nail shots, it has served me well so far!  :)

I put a little rhinestone on each flower, looking back I should have used colored ones!  Oh the stamp polish is China Glaze Millennium, love this for konading.  Have a great weekend.

Contest is closed!

To celebrate it's 10th birthday, Lancôme has launched a limited-edition collection called Juicy Tubes 100% Natural Origin.  The main ingredient is honey and the formula, flavors and pigments are 100% natural origin and preservative-free.

For Earth Day, Lancôme partnered with their spokesmodel Elettra Wiedemann’s charity called Justonefrickinday.com.  Their goal is to help other smaller charity projects.  They are currently working  together with The Solar Electric Light Fund to help raise funds to install solar panels that will give power to a hospital in Burundi.

How can you help?  If you go to Justonefrickinday.com you can donate a day or even just an hour of your salary.  You can enter your annual salary and it calculates it for you.  Of course you can also donate any amount you'd like. 

I am giving away one of the latest Juicy Tubes in Rose Pretty and a limited edition T-shirt made just for JustOneFrickinDay!  Lancôme is kindly sponsoring this giveaway for my readers. :)

Here is what you will win:

 Juicy Tubes 100% Natural Origin in Rose Pretty.

The winner will get to choose which T-shirt they would like, the first one is designed by Giambattista Valli (size small).

The other choice is by Rag & Bone (size large).  Just to clarify, you will win one t-shirt of your choice.

The Rules:

• Anyone can enter!  You do not have to be a follower. :)
• Only one entry per person.
• US and international entries accepted.
• Giveaway starts today April 22nd and will end in 1 week on April 29th.
• The winner will be chosen at random.

How to enter:

• Send an email to monolithguild@gmail.com with the subject line Earth Day Giveaway.  Any entries that do not follow this one simple instruction will be disqualified.
• In your email please include your name, then tell me anything else you want!

Oopsie, this is from March 11...

I got this one, the purple and green/yellow mood polishes. I also saw scented ones so I grabbed one of those too!



I had to cheat with cold water since I couldn't get my tips to get darker on their own. This is 3 coats with a coat of SV. It wore nicely for me although I only had it on for 2 days. When my nails are longer I will have to try this again!

Very pretty red with golden and pink flecks of glitter. I'm wearing 2 coats with a coat of Seche Vite.


Layered with a coat of NYC Starry Silver Glitter.  I always pick the bad layering combos! 

I had a chance to try out some Eyeko polishes, my first impression was I liked their slim bottles.  I went right for a dark purple first!

These were sent to me for review by Eyeko, it does not alter my opinion in any way.

Purple Polish, 2 coats with a coat of Diamont.  This was very thick, I needed a few drops of thinner and application was still so-so.  This is a very bright purple.

Lilac Polish, 2 coats no topcoat.   I was so surprised I only needed 2 coats!  This one was also a bit on the thick side, I didn't add any thinner since I needed one less coat.  Very pretty pastel lilac creme.

Nude Polish, 3 coats no  topcoat.  I noticed this had a little shimmer to it, which I always find a pleasant surprise.  Even with 3 coats there is some VNL but the formula on this shade was excellent.  Smooth and easy to apply.  I don't think this color suits my skintone :(

Vintage Polish, 3 coats with a coat of Diamont.  This one was also a pain to apply, thick and goopey.  I do like the color a lot.  I decided to do a wear test using this one.  I think this photo is day 2 or 3, I added a nail decal from Nailene to spice it up a bit.

As you can see this wore really really well, I had to take it off on day 7.  Not because it was  horribly chipped, but because that's a long time to go wearing the same polish!  I have very minimal tipwear, and the only casualty was a petal of the flower decal on day 5.  I did some pretty bad Konad over it on day 4 lol.

Application for the most part was not the best, quite difficult actually on couple of them for me.  My favorites were Lilac and Vintage, very pretty pastel colors just right for Spring.  Wear was fantastic and I liked the cute labels.  

You can purchase Eyeko polishes at Eyeko.com.   Each polish is £3.50 and orders over $50 ships for free to the US.   

I had 2 bottles of Colorama Cupid's Wing so I decided to franken one of them.  Here it is before, a white shimmer.

I mixed in about 1 teaspoon of pigment. 

I was surprised at how pale yellow it turned out!  Definitely light and spring-y.  This is 2 coats and a coat of SV.

Cyberspace is very pretty even without sunlight, the bigger more scattered holographic pieces kind of reminds me of China Glaze's Kaleidoscope collection.



With flash. I'm wearing 2 coats, no topcoat. Unlike most holos this was easy to apply, no dragging when you go over a spot. A good addition to my holo collection!

So you missed out the first time? No worries. The surf nail polish colors are coming back in stock. Put your order in now so you don't miss out.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

ORDERS WILL SHIP AT END OF APRIL 2010
72 HOURS ONLY
Monday 4/5- 11AM EST to Wednesday 4/7 11AM EST

This very well known taupe was in my untrieds for way too long. It's a little darker brown in person, I only needed 2 coats which was a surprise. Topped off with Seche Vite and you're ready to strut your stuff! Okay maybe I shouldn't type out my posts after midnight when I'm tired haha.

Bottom line: I loooove YDKJ!

I wrecked my mani last night making a lightbox so here is some food. I put up a poll on my sidebar at the very top if my new comment system is working out for everyone. If you could answer it for me I would greatly appreciate it! Oh my ruined mani was China Glaze Orange Marmalade ;(

My filet with garlic mushrooms and grilled asparagus. One of our favorite places to eat out now is a local steakhouse and I can never venture away from their delicious filet! So hope you guys don't get sick of steak shots lol.

Alex got his with steak fries. I must have had half of those fries they were tasty! Hey there is a ketchup mid dip action going on in the back there.

My brother in laws rack of lamb.

We skipped dessert at the restaurant and went to Coldstone Creamery instead. I got the founders favorite!

Note to family:
Olivia and Mum, you guys had pictures with your ice creams but I don't know how camera shy you are. Remind me to ask at Cortney's dinner! Speaking of which, where are we going, Cortney?!

These were sent to me by Lancôme for review, it does not alter my opinion in any way.

Lancôme's latest in lipcolor: Color Design Matte Lipstick!

The shades are opaque and long-lasting. For me they last a very long time, about 5 to 6 hours. It feels very moisturizing and was not drying at all.

This is an amazing formula, it is so smooth and creamy on my lips. According to Lancôme, the new formula has a light-diffusing gel to mattify and soft waxes and emollients deliver modern slip.


Pink Preview.


Bronze Show. This is a nice creamy coppery brown shade. I love this one on me, it goes really well with my skintone and naturally pigmented lips.


Left: Pink Preview, Right: Bronze Show.

There are 8 shades total, the ones not shown are Red Haute, Posh Pink, Lucky Kiss, Corset, Plum Show and Stylista.

I am wearing Bronze Show. My photos do not do the matte-ness of these lipsticks any justice but in person they are indeed quite matte.

I am loving this lipstick! Take moisturizing, long-lasting, non-drying and rich opaque color and put it in an all-in-one package and you have Color Design Matte Lipstick.


These lipsticks are $22 and a Macy's exclusive, and you can purchase them now at their website, or from Lancôme's website.

Flawless is a dusty pink.  I love the color but hated it on me.  It made my skin look dirty if that makes any sense.  I tried stamping to make it better but it just wasn't meant to be.  This is 3 coats with a coat of SV, then topped with Sally Hansen Protein treatment over the konad.