Beware! The Blob(s)

This is going to be a short one. The other day I did another blobicure. This time I used Orly's Liquid Vinyl and Zoya's Tomoko, which is textured. Using textured polish was no harder than using regular polish. Although because it was a blob of it, I found it didn't texture like it normally does. Or at least i wasn't going to sit around and wait for it to :P  Even though Tomoko dried way slower than it normally would, overall this mani took less time to dry completely then the one that was 2 creams. So if you want to try this and don't want to wait as long for it to dry, use a textured polish.

By the way, I had Korean the other day and it was AMAZING. I was going to photograph it, but I ate it. Also I just thought to myself "I would love some kimchi. I wonder if it would taste good in cereal" followed by "No, kimchi is there for you to use not abuse."

Barry M Blood Orange: Red, Glorious Red!

So when I'm in a rush my go to polish is anything textured, because they usually dry fast and are pretty. When I'm not in a rush, but I have no clue what polish to wear my go to is a red of some sorts. I have said this before and I will say this again, but a red just does something to you. It's like bold red lips, there's just something so classic and sexy about them that makes you feel great.

Today I have Barry M's Blood Orange, from the Gelly Nail Effects line. It's a beautiful classic red polish. I used two coats for full opacity, and the finish like all the other polishes from the Gelly line was super shiny. That being said you should know that I always photograph these with top coat and it pretty much looks the same. I just add it for protection mostly. My only "complaint" really's isn't just a Barry M polish thing, it's a red polish thing. I find red polishes tend to stain like MAD when you do clean up or take them off, so you have to be careful. It's the reason why by my cuticles you see red. It's from my previous manicure.

Overall if you are in need of a good classic red, and you can get your hands on this, it's a great option.

I FINALLY UNDERSTAND THE JOYS OF STAMPING!

Ever since I started stamping it has kind of been a massive pain. It would take me FOREVER to get simple designs correct. And up until now I always thought it was MY fault. Well guess what? It wasn't! It was all my stampers fault! I had one of those double ended pink and green ones, with the rubber stamper. I couldn't do full nail designs because the stamper physically couldn't stamp over my whole nail as my nails were too long and it was too hard to easily squish around it. But thanks to Robyn I now have a squishy stamper! It's like night and day. For the first time I was able to do full nail designs! Not only that but I was able to do it on the first try. I didn't even have luck like that with smaller designs on the bad stamper! I have seen the stamping light, and it is beautiful! All hail Robyn!

So today I have the A-Z Challenge. Last week I didn't do it, but not because I forgot. I actually took photos, wrote a post and then ditched it when I saw the photos. The nail art was garbage, and it wasn't my fault(This post should just be called "Don't blame me for my sub-par art"). It was just a bad product. Maybe one day I will post it.

Anyways for today the letter was P for Pale. I thought this would be a great chance to use one of my pale polishes. I have maybe 7 pale polishes so I decided to use what I think was my only untried. Sally Hansen Piqué Side(I have had this polish for months and I just got the name. Pick a Side. French Fail). The polish was a pale pistachio green with gold shimmer, and the formula was ok. Nothing really bad about it, but it didn't blow me away. I needed two coats for full opacity. Overall I loved this colour and it will be great for spring! For the stamping I used Sinful Colors Gold Medal, which I have used before for stamping, but with my new stamper it was sooooooo much easier to work with! Then I added some studs from the Born Pretty Store to just complete the look.

All in all I am pleased with this, and I can't wait to do more stamping!

Check out more from the A-Z Challenge!

An InLinkz Link-up

Zoya Tomoko - Let's Compare

So for the past four days most of my food has involved putting kimchi on it. I'm officially obsessed with it, and I am pretty sure you can put it on anything and it will taste fantastic. Kimchi Stew, Fantastic. Kimchi Risotto, exquisite. Kimchi Ice Cream, a taste like none other. Ok well the last one may not work as well, but the others sure do!

Today I have Zoya Tomoko. Now I love textured polishes, and I was admit I was a bit hesitant to buy any at first. Am I glad I ever took the plunge because I love all the ones I have. They look stunning, you can top coat them, and they dry super fast. This was no exception. Tomoko is a fine champagne gold texture polish. In my swatches I used 2 coats, both of which applied easily. If you would like to smooth this out you will need around 2 thick or 3 normal coats of top coat.

No topcoat

 Topcoat

Tomoko, reminded me of Barry M Majesty. Now I knew from the get go that they weren't dupes, but I decided to compare them side by side either way. They are both champagne golds, but Majesty is slightly deeper. The formula on Majesty is a bit thicker than Tomoko, but they were both just as easy to apply. Tomoko is a bit more glitter hungry when topcoated. Finally the biggest difference is while Tomoko is just fine glitter, Majesty is both fine and larger glitter.  Oh and Majesty is a bit harder to take off because of the larger pieces of glitter. One thing they did have in common was since they are both soooooooo jam packed full of glitter I find they look less textured then they actually are.

BLOBS! AKA Easiest Nail art EVER!

1) I am really into Korean food right now. I have always had it but for some reason I have been having it more often recently. I just bought a tub of kimchi and wow. Have you ever had Kimchi on a grilled cheese sandwich? If not, do it. DO IT NOW!

Did you go make one? Isn't it amazing?!?!?!?!?!?! Now we can move on.

2) I needed a fast manicure, and boy did I ever find it. It's easier than dots! All you do is paint your nails you base colour(Sally Hansen Pacific Blue), then once it's dried you put another coat of that colour on(a thick coat) and then with a contrasting colour(Ruby Kisses Blue My Mind), blob it onto the wet polish. Vola! Easy nail art. The only thing is it kind of takes a while to dry because the polish is thick. I'm not sure who came up with this originally but I have seen it time and time again on Instagram. So if you know, let me know.

Do you like Korean food?

Sheep? Sheep! Goat???

I feel really stupid right now. I was looking through some tumblr tags and I kept seeing sheep manicures.  Naturally because I am a millennial, I didn't take the time to read any of the captions on the posts due to my short attention span and my constant need for instant gratification. Finally after scrolling some more post it finally clicked! Chinese New Year is coming up! Turns out this year is the year of the sheep/goat. I'm not sure which one most people are calling it seeing as the Chinese only have one word for sheep and goat. Either way a sheep was easier to draw.

For this manicure I used mostly acrylic paint. The only part that is polish is the black around the eyes. My Seche was acting all weird for this manicure. It was SUPER bubbly, which is a first for me. Well it's been bubbly before, but It's been sitting on a table for at least 2 days untouched. How odd.

Are you born in the year of the sheep goat?

Indecisive Valentine

I AM WOUNDED!

What I thought was a crack in my polish, was actually a crack in my nails. It's been there for a few days but I only realised it was a crack today when it started to hurt. I fixed it with that Orly nail rescue, but I don't really like it because I feel I need to touch it up often. I usually like the teabag method, but for some reason my nail glue has been taking FOREVER to dry on the teabag.

Anyways let's talk Valentines day! Any one do/doing anything interesting? I don't celebrate the day, but it is a nice excuse to bake a totally unhealthy cake. I "celebrated"on Friday with the boy. We just hung out, ate cake that I had made, and then went out for dinner(In that order). And by went out I mean we walked outside, felt how cold it was, walked right back inside and ordered pizza and wings. I was a bit disappointed because were were going to get Korean, and I am in love with Korean food at the moment. I am REALLY in to it.

So that mani I wore that night wasn't the exact mani I started with. I decided I wanted to do some watercolor roses. Which turned out pretty fantastic(as you can see). Then I painted the rest of my nails red. Now I had these on overnight and it was bothering me that the red(Cult nails Quench), was a different shade of red. So the next day I HAD to take it off and I swapped it for  Sinful Colors Secret Admirer, which I thought worked way better! Then I added some rehinstones from the Born Pretty Store because faux gems make me happy. This is the third manicure in a row where I havent been happy with the first version.

Which version do you like best?

Lines are hard...

So I have been wanting to do fishnet stocking nails for a while now but I figured now was the perfect time. First off let me apologize for my sad dry hands, as I had to redo some nails a thousand times. I kept messing up the netting. I know it does not have to be perfect, but I really wanted to to at least looks somewhat even.

When I was done I realised it looked a bit plain(and I'm also on a do my manicure, and hate something about it kick). So I though it would look really cool with cartoon hearts. I originally tried outlining the heart but it highlighted how eneven my hearts were. So I just had to stick with the reflection lines(?) I don't know what those things are called. Shine marks? Anyways I mattified the whole thing and it finally came together!

Will you be wearing fishnets this Valentines day? BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT!

Ps. Apart from the sheer black polish I made, everything else is acrylic paint.

Oh...

So this weeks A-Z challenge(N for New) was actually an accident. Originally I was just going to swatch Rose Hip, as Valentines day was coming up and this was one of the few pinks I own. I decided I wanted to add a kiss decal to the swatch as I felt like it wouldn't away from it, and it would be Valentine-y. Huge mistake. Turns out I hate how the kiss looks on the nail. So in order to fix this I quickly had to turn this into something new. So I added Barry M Majesty, to cover up the kisses, as well adding it to make dots on all the other fingers. Now It's not crazy nail art, but it's simple and pretty!

Rose Hip, a pale pink pastel, went on easily. It was 3 coats, because the first two were patchy, but I kind of expected that from a pastel. Despite that I was pleased with the formula and didn't have any issues with the actual application. I am not a big fan of pink polishes, but when I do find one I like, it is usually a pale pink like this.

Yucky decal. BLAH!

 Much better!

Check out all the A-Z challenge participants!

An InLinkz Link-up

Unintentional Wear Test - Barry M Majesty

As usual I am late with my A-Z challenge this week, but I have a good reason! Thursday I was going to do it, but then I had to transcribe a video. I don't know if you know anything about transcribing videos, but it is tedious. You sit there and type word for word what someone is saying, and what time in the video they started talking, and when they ended. Transcribing 5 minutes of dialogue takes about an hour, maybe a bit more. And if I have learnt anything from this it's clear to me that we say "Um" too much. Anyways through it all the polish I wore was Barry M Majesty. I ended up wearing the polish for days. Normally I would have wanted to take it off sooner, but it lasted sooooooo long.

Majesty is a champagne gold, textured glitter with both fine glitter and larger pieces. I goes on the nail a bit darker than the bottle looks. I used 2 easy coats, and it dried in no time at all. At the end of day two I put on 2 coats of clear polish and one coat of top coat.  It smoothed out easily. So easily that had I known I could have used only one coat of clear and one coat of top coat. It wore like iron for almost 7 days before it chipped. A+ from me!

No Topcoat Day 1

 Topcoat Day 6

I Like Chocolate! I Like Strawberries

Put them together and what do you get? Magic. Pure magic.

Oddly enough while I love chocolate covered strawberries, I don't like them after the chocolate has hardened. Give me a chocolate fountain and fruit! I decided since this was the first day of February I would kick it off with some Valentines Day nails. Now I'm not the typical romantic type, I mean last year the boy and I ate wings in bed and drank.  In theory I like the idea of a candle lit dinner and all the mushy stuff, but it's just not for me. That and I have horrible vision, I don't even like dimly lit bars.

Anyways I got the inspiration for this from Ariana at Gottahavepolish. I loved the concept and I thought it would look pretty neat with my pointy nails! To get this look I started with a base of Revlon's Red Carpet, followed by adding the stems using Orly's Lucky Duck and the seeds with acrylic paint. Then I added OPI's Suzi Loves Cowboys for the chocolate and I put topcoat on it. Then I went over just the brown with Essie's Matte about you to give it more of a chocolate look. Finally I did the sugar spun method(let a bit of polish get goopy and then string it over the nails) using OPI's Alpine Snow. Ariana has a video tutorial up as well, but she does her's in a slightly different order.

Are you a romantic?

Ps. Sorry for all the red in my cuticles from my previous mani. I did not think it was that noticeable :P