Quick Skittles

Hey guys! I hope you've all being doing alright. My essentials part of my program is almost done! I have practical testing to get onto the floor starting on the 19th.  Should be easy enough, I'll be doing a balancing facial, pst body wrap, evening makeup and a eyebrow/bikinI wax.

Here's a quick picture of some skittles I wore the other day! I can't find the orginal photo I took, but I do have the one I made into a collage.

I know I haven't been posting lately, but if you wanna see what I'm up too follow me on instagram! My username Is footballandfingernails

Have a great week!

China Glaze-Hey Sailor

I'm an awful blogger! School has been keeping me super busy, but I'm 3 weeks away from graduating out of the essential portion of my program. Hopefully after that I'll be a little less busy with homework, and I'll be able to post more. 
Last week or so, I pulled out Hey Sailor from the Anchors Away Collection.  This is also the polish that started it all.  I remember seeing the press release for it and just knew I needed ALL of them.  At the time, my brother had just joined the US Navy so it meant a lot to me. And mean even more to me now that I've decited to join.
Hey Sailor applies perfectly in 2 coats, and if you can't tell, this polish has been given lots of love.

Its been a while!

I've missed you guys! Life has been crazy lately and I feel so bad that I haven't been posting. Class has been keeping me crazy busy from 9-5 tuesday to saturday.  Luckily, I LOVE it.  I've been learning SO much about skincare. 
It does make me sad that my face, neck, and decollate look amazing, but for the first time in a while my nails and cuticles are looking so awful. :-(
Anyways. Here's my nails. I did a super quick mani with some nail art. I love the way these turned out, and they were a huge hit with the ladies in my esthetics class!
I hope you guys have an amazing sunday!

Gold and Red Saran Wrap Marble

Happy Monday! I haven't updated in a while and I've missed you guys!
Tomorrow I start my first day of class at TUBC! I'm a mixture of excited, and nervous as hell...to be honest, I've never gone to ANY school by myself before.  I've always been right next to my twin, so this is a completely new experience for me! I'm not sure if I'm more excited that school's starting or that during orientation I found out I get 50% off on all the new OPI collections that are available at my schools product store!

So here's my last manicure before I have to chop my nails down to nubbins to meet dress code. This is what I wore to my cousins fiancees bridal shower on Sunday.  Her wedding colors are black, gold, and red, so I figured I'd might as well go along! 
I used two coats of Sally Hansen Black Out, and Essie Good as Gold marbled with saran wrap except on my ring finger which is OPI An Affair in Red Square.

There is definitely a learning curve to this technique, as you can see on my pinky finger, I not only lifted up the gold, but the black as well revealing some of my nail.  I didn't bother fixing it, you couldn't really tell from far away.

I hope you all have a great week!

Adventure Red-Y and Gold Topcoat

Happy Monday!

I know I haven't undated since my VoxBox post, but as much as this kills me, I'm trying to ween myself away from always having my nails polished.  Starting November 6th, I'm taking classes to become a licensed esthetician! Not a lot of people know this, but before I ever got obsessive about nail polish I hugely into makeup.  Freshmen year of high school, my dream was it become professional makeup artist.  Things changed, I got tired of my makeup collection and moved on into polish. 
I really had no clue that I'd choose to go to school to learn about skincare...and makeup. 
I've never been interested really in skin care, except when my mother and I would go and get facial done, that was about the extent of how much I cared.  But, here I am! I'm so super excited actually! The bad part about going to school is that I can't have my nails painted!  :(
I DO still plan to join the US Navy...it's REALLY important for me to keep the promise I made to myself to enlist myself in the military.  I guess I'll just have a hustle on the side or something ;)

Anywhoos! Here's what I'm wearing.  2 coats China Glaze Adventure Red-y and 2 coats of SOPI It's Real! 18k topcoat.

I think I'm the only one who's in love with the small gold flakes in this opposed to the flakes in the Zoya or OPI version!

Influenster Beauty Blogger VoxBox!

It's all wet :(

I got approved for the Influenster Beauty Blogger VoxBox!  This is my first VoxBox that I've received and I couldn't be happier with what I got, here's a super quick review on everything I've gotten.

 NYC IndividualEyes Custom Compact in Dark Shadow-

I was super excited about trying out this product, but unfortunately I was disappointed in it.  The eyeshadow colors are a typical smokey eye quad, with an eyeshadow base, and an illuminator included in the palette . The pigmentation on the shadows are nice, but they certainly don't compare to my favorite eyeshadow palettes from  Urban Decay. The eyeshadow base applied nicely, I haven't tested it out for longevity yet, though.  The best part of the palette in my opinion has to the illuminator! The pearly white color looks amazing on my cheekbones as a highlight!

 Kiss Ever Pro Lashes Starter Kit- I'm not a huge fan of strips of false lashes. I have very small almond shaped eyes, and adding a full strip of lashes usually makes me look like a blow up doll. Although the lash strips are not ideal for my eye shape, I do LOVE the glue and the tweezer like "Pro Lash Applicator".

Bath and Body Works Mini Candles in Black Pepper Bergamot- I was surprised to see a candle in a beauty box, but I love this product nonetheless. The scent is described as "Intricate layers of spicy black pepper combine with uplifting bergamot and lavender in a fragrance inspired by fall's changeable days".  To me, this is lovely masculine scent, it's spicy, and for some reason it smells kind of sexy.

Eboost- this is the only product I haven't tried yet. This is one of those powders you mix into water that are according to the packaging is to help Energy and Immunity, and it's in an orange flavor. 


Goody Simple Styles Spin Pin-I am so excited about this produuct! The second I saw the spin pin package I pulled them out and put my hair right into a bun and forgot to take a picture! I have long, thick, hair, and I only need one spin pin to hold it all up. I also love how they had directions to 3 different hair styles you can create using these.

Not Your Mothers Kinky Moves Curl Defining Hair Cream-   When it comes to hair products, the scent is almost more important to me than how well the product works.  I was pleasantly surprised that I fell in love completely with the scent and how well this product defined my waves/curls. On the packaging of Kinky Moves it says it's been infused with grape seed and jasmine, and the grape scent really comes through! I loved how it smelled when combined with Aussie Sprunch Hair Spray.

Vitabath Fragrance Mist in Cupcake Couture Luscious Lemon Creme- I was one of the lucky people to receive an extra item, and this is what I got! It's a body spray that's supposed to be moisturizing.  I hate to say this, but, urm...the scent I received reminds me of this delicious Coconut Lemon Cake my Daddy bakes.  Yeah, it's that SWEET smelling.  I'm not usually a fan of sweet perfumes, the only one I own, and use regularly is Warm Vanilla Sugar from Bath and Body Works, it's sweet, and yes, I do smell like a cookie when I use it.  But! I smell like a sexy cookie when I wear Warm Vanilla Sugar,  Luscious Lemon Creme makes me smell like a ten year old.  Honestly, if I was ten I would be ALL over this scent, now not so much. The scent does remain strong for a very long time though, so that's definitely a plus!

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine-Lava

Hey guys!
I'm away for the rest of the week in the North Woods, but I had to show you what I finally got my hands on.

While I was happily stalking away the makeup eisle in the local Walmart where I am staying, I found Lava. I've been lemming this since I saw the promo, but for some reason I wasn't able to find anywhere near where I live in Chicago. But, as it usual, if I'm lemming something drugstore and we come up here, I ALWAYS find it at Walmart. They had a near full display of them too! The price wasn't bad to what I've heard some people were paying for them...this was only $6.

Lava is a little on the sheer side, but became fully opaque in 3 coats. The duochrome is pretty strong on its own but, I bet it would be even better layered over black! I'm sorry for the bad quality Ipad photos, I just couldn't wait to show you guys.

Just for good measure I thought I'd show you a picture of the lake where I'm staying. Beautiful right? The only downside is that it's crazy cold up here! Its about 45 degress right now, but luckily it warmed up from this morning.


I hope you guys have a great rest of the week!

This Is Halloween-Horror Movies

I joined a new challenge! This time it's Halloween themed and I'm so excited about it!

This first one is Horror Movie, so today I have Carrie inspired nails!

I did blood dips on every nail except for the ring finger, which i used a dry brush method to make a fire.

 I'm not really crazy about how these turned out though. :(

But on a better note! Picmonkey has Halloween themed editing stuff! If you can't tell I got a little more than excited using them!



Only 30 more days until Halloween! 

Butter LONDON order from Coterie

Hey Guys! Thanks to the lovely ladies over at PAA, for letting me know about this deal, I got 3 Butter LONDON polishes, and a topcoat for only $11! GURL I don't even... I love Butter LONDON, but I don't like shelling out $14 a bottle.  When I saw this deal I almost died.

Here's the three I picked out.

All Hail The Queen. I'm not as big as a fan of this as I thought I would be.  In the sun OH MY...you can see the holo-y goodness. Indoors, it's not that spectacular. Maybe with a coat of spectraflair, I'd like it better.  Formula was great, two coats.

Bluey.  This one was a little sheer, so I used three coats for it to become fully opaque.  Bluey is stunning. 

I love the little blue sparklies that come out in the sun.

And here's West End Wonderland.  Beautiful gold with some copper glitter.  Typical glitter formula, dried very quickly, and a definite topcoat eater.


So there's my Coterie order in a nutshell.  I'm not exactly sure how I'm feeling about the Hardwear P.D. Quick Topcoat.  I'll just have to see when I use it for a full manicure.  If I don't like it then at least I didn't spend $18 on it.  Which to be honest I can't see why anyone would spend that much. My go to topcoat cost's $1.74 at target and dries after on me than Seshe Vite did.

I hope you guys have an amazing day!

Nailene Nail Studio Petites and China Glaze Prey Tell

Hey lovely readers!

On Monday night I broke the middle finger nail so bad on my left hand, I had to cut down all of them to teeny tiny nubbins.  As all of you know, I've been sucking majorly in the blogging department.  I really didn't want to have to show you my nubs.  So, I wondered my happy way over to CVS last night to pick up some glue on nails. I ended up purchasing Nailene Nail Studio Petites, and I LOVE them. 

I have small hands, and the smallest nail beds, most fake nails look AWFUL on me, and they never fit correctly and I end up having to file the sides down to have them fit my nail bed correctly.   And to be completely honest, I'm way to lazy to want to do that! I didn't have to file down any of the Petites, and the length is perfect, way longer than my nubs, but not talon like. 

I wasn't really in the mood for a french manicure, so I painted over my the fakes using China Glaze Prey Tell.

Prey Trey applied beautifully in two coats.  The color is a pretty straight forward deep red vamp. I'm not exactly sure what to call this finish...jelly-creme? Or just a jelly? Either way, it's gorgeous.




Do any of you use fake nails on a regular basis? I'm starting to love these more than my natural nails!

September Julep Mystery Box

Hey guys!

My "polish lovers" mystery box from Julep came in the mail.!The mystery box cost $20 and you can get a box worth between $60 -$200.  This is my first time purchasing a mystery box and I'm super happy with what I got, even if the total price of the box wasn't worth $60, its actually worth $54...but who's counting right?!

All four of these polishes came wrapped in bubble wrap inside the Julep reusable tote bag they sent in the August Maven Boxes.  I already have one of these and plan on giving one to my mom.  They're the perfect lunch size bag.

To start off I'll show you the "mystery girl".  On the facebook page they announced some people who purchased a box would be receiving a polish that hasn't been released yet, and because this baby doesn't have a name, I'm assuming it's one of those that haven't been released. 

At first, "Mystery Girl" disappointed me, because I thought I'd have a couple of dupes for her(Sinful Colors Nirvana being one of them). But, because it was pretty gloomy out today in Chicago, I went into my bathroom to take my photos, she became this gorgeous mushroomy green color! She's that GORGEOUS "ugly" color!  The formula was fantastic as all Julep's I own are. 2 coats.

 Next up is Zoe.  Zoe is a beautiful bronze with a bit of gold glitter, which surprised me, as I've never seen the gold glitter in any swatches I've looked up.  Julep describes this as zesty, smoky burnt umber.  I wonder if she has been discontinued, I can't find her on the website at all.  

Zoe has an amazing metallic finish, applied beautifully in 2 coats.

Michelle.  A gorgeous deep navy creme.  Another one that I wonder if she's discontinued.

Has to be one the worst pictures I've ever taken... I'm so sorry.

I applied two coats, but you could definitely get away with one.  She's such a stunner, I have such a thing for deep blue polishes.

Lastly, here's Melissa.  Julep describes her as a "Sheer opalescent shimmer adds a soft glow when used alone and a high-fashion holographic effect when used over another color" I wouldn't say she gives a "holo" effect when applied over another color. But, the beautiful green duochrome shines beautifully when applied over a darker color.

This is Melissa after 3 coats. I still have a bit of VNL, but this is one of my favorite kind of polish to use when I do a sorta classic french tip. I used to use Wet N' Wild Ice Blue Pearl with a white tip when I was in middle school.  IBP has more of a blue duochrome, and I can't wait to try it out using Melissa! 


I hope you guys have an amazing rest of the week.  Did anyone else get the September mystery box? 

Camo and stamping for the first time!

Happy Labor Day!

 Apparently, I'm awful at keeping promises, It's been a while hasn't it?


 I stamped for real for the first time. 

Like the artsy-ness of this? That wasn't supposed to happen. 

I started out with 2 coats of Zoya Dree, and applyed random spots of China Glaze Westside Warrior, Essie Case Study.  Stamped using a Salon Express plate with Zoya Codie. BAM. Camo nail art.
Stampings a lot harder than I thought it would be.  They aren't perfect, but for my first time stamping a full imagine, I'm very pleased with what I got.  :)
Using Codie as my stamping polish probably didn't help, as I had to go back in with a detail brush, and fill in some of the spots that weren't as opaque as I would have liked.  


Have a great week!

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple

Happy Thursday!

I've been lemming the Kleancolor chunky holos for the longest time, and I finally got my hands on them thanks to a $10 Copious credit.  All of the beauty supplies around me carry Kleancolor, but have none of the chunky holos.  I was so excited to get my hands on the mini set of them.

Sorry about the obnoxious gap and tip wear!

I applied one coat of Chunky Holo Purple over China Glaze Jungle Queen that I showed you guys yesterday.  I don't know why I didn't believe anyone when they've mentioned this, but Kleancolors reek! While wet, I got a lovely whiff of a mixture of what to me smelled like motor oil, and the rubber smell of cheap gym shoes. Once dried I haven't noticed much of a smell.  But it's pretty bad when it's wet.
But, besides the smell, CHP is beautiful, and I can't wait to try out the other ones!

China Glaze Jungle Queen

Happy Wednesday!

I know I promise I'd get back to posting more regularly, and I haven't.  I had a nasty, infected ingrown nail, and I wouldn't want to subject you to having to witness the ugliness.

   Now that my nail is all back to normal, I have China Glaze Jungle Queen to show you.  This is two coats, and applied beautifully, I have a but more gap than usual because I pushed back my cuticles without thinking before I took this photo.  I also took a good chunk out of my ring finger with a paring knife...which is why I have the awkward, scary, clumpy tip going on. 

Look! It's even scarier up close!

 Ah...Jungle Queen.  So pretty.  In the shade, I love the smokey greyish purple but in the sun it's stunning.  The gorgeous purple flash you see in the bottle comes out to play.



In other news, I started a new blog to track my progress in my weight loss, and my enlistment process.  The name is just a place holder until I come up with a better name.  If you're interested in reading it you can click here.

China Glaze Electrify

HAPPY FRIDAY!

1 coat China Glaze Adventure Red-y

1 coat China Glaze Electrify

1 coat Gelous

1 coat NYC Topcoat

When I first applied Electrify, I'm not going to lie, I hated it.  But, I took my lazy butt out into the sun, and I fell in love.  The gold and red glows beautifully over Adventure Red-y.

Hmm...I guess I'm a woman of few words today, I really have nothing else to write.

I hope you guys have an amazing weekend!

Purple Stripes and Polka Dots

Hi! I've missed you guys! To be honest I don't have any excuse for not posting. To be honest, life hasn't been all that exciting, since I won't be returning to school in the fall like my twin, and the enlistment process for the US Navy hasn't progressed at all. 
Probably won't help that I've gained around uh..15 pounds...which is 15 pounds heavier than my weight limit.  So I'm back on the Soup Diet, which (thankfully) I lose 15 pounds in 7 days while I'm on it.  I know, I know, it's not necessarily what you'd consider to be healthy...but it works very well, even if it does get me incredibly sick for a week. 

In better news, I have a manicure to show you guys! I'm super excited about it because I knocked off 3 untried from my list, and I used some striping tape!

I started off by apply 2 coats of Julep Isla which was one of the polish's in my August Maven Box. 

Because it was disgustingly brushstroke-tastic, I sponged on a 3rd coat of Isla.  Which looked so much better than if I left it alone, even if I did get a couple of bubbles that showed up after sponging.
Oh, that's Jackie, she's my twins Guinea Pig, and my buddy while he cleans out her cage. 

I originally didn't plan to use Nubar Black Polka Dot, but it looks so pretty next to the pop of color on my ring finger!

For my ring finger I used striping tape, and painted on a gradient type look using Funky Fingers Riot, Confetti Belle of the Ball and China Glaze Sweet Hook.



I promise I'll get on to posting more!

Zoya Wedneday and Essie A Cut Above

Heya! I hope y'all have had a great weekend! Mine was semi-eventful because my best friend is back in town from Arkansas! I was so EXCITED to see her! She went through my new helmer (I made Elle into my nail polish hoarder apprentice lol), and she met Woody as well!

 Before I can buy any new polish I have to get through ALL of my untried polishes.  I haven't counted all of them, but its mostly China Glaze On Safari and Hunger Games Collection, a couple of Essie's, and a handful of other randoms.

Here's 2 of those in the untried stash, Zoya Wednesday and Essie A Cut Above. Wednesday applied beautifully as most of my Zoya's do in 2 perfect coats. Wednesday has that China Glaze For Audrey type of look but to me it seems dustier.

Then I applied Essie A Cut Above. 1 coat ,and it applied nicely. 

In other news...my twin, David,  Found. This. Blog. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I haven't told ANYONE about this besides my sorta boyfriend.  It was a lot less awkward than I thought, bit I made him promise he would tell no one.  Not that I'm embarrassed but because of the simple fact that my mother would readily tell everyone, and um, no thanks. My entire family doesn't need to know. 

A- England Tristam

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Here's Woody "helping" me take pictures. Such a sweetie.

And here's the polish! A- England Tristam.  I picked this up and Lady of the Lake  when they had the Mythical 5 sale going on. I thought it take much longer to get these, but the shipping was free and SUPER fast.

Tristam is a gorgeous blue color...it didn't photograph quite right, but at least you can see the holo goodness.  2 perfect coats.

And then I spectraflaired the thumb.  Couldn't help myself.

Have an amazing weekend!