What do you get when you combine...

Essie's Lights, Action, and Mojito Madness + OPI black shatter + Rainbow Connection?

THIS, of course:

I did this manicure on Friday.  I started with stripes of the Essie polishes, covered it in black shatter, and then doused it in glitter.  Have I ever mentioned how OPI Rainbow Connection is one of my favorite glitter polishes? I love it.  It spices up everything. :D

I think it turned out pretty cool!

Weekend fun! + Another Blue Manicure

I had a pretty good weekend, hence the lack of blog updates.  I went out of town with family.  We went to the beach and then stayed at a hotel in a town a couple of hours away where my mother used to live.  We ended up eating at Don Cherry's restaurant and then going to a local bar for a beer.  I wanted to visit the famous "Jack's".  (It's not called that now, but everyone calls it that anyway. xD)

Don Cherry's has this AWESOME drink called the Electric Popsicle (as seen below).  It's sooooo good! The last time I had it I had a green popsicle; this time I got pink! I had to take a picture.  The beer wasn't mine, but Electric Popsicle wanted a friend. ;) 

Anyway, onto the nail polish!  I bought more. (of course!)  Yesterday I bought these for a dollar-something each at Walmart.  I actually really like these polishes! They're awesome, and an awesome price.

(L-R:  Sturdy Sapphire, Teal Steel, and Ice Queen)

I bought these on Friday; also at Walmart.  I've been meaning to try these Maybelline The Color Show nail polishes but haven't gotten around to it.  So...I bought a few.  Plus, I saw swatches of Wine & Dined on somebody's blog (I forget who; if I remembered, I'd post a link or something) and loved it!

(L-R:    Styled Out, Wine & Dined, and Amethyst Ablaze)

Obviously, with new nail polish comes a fresh mani.  I decided to try out Sturdy Sapphire.  Now, I will mention that this polish is quite sheer.  This is three coats:

I like it, though.  It applied smoothly and it didn't leave a million brush strokes.  It's really shiny and pretty and bright, despite the fact that it doesn't seem like a bright color! And, did I mention the price of these Hard as Nails polishes? You can't go wrong.

After those three coats I decided to add some glitter, so I used Ice Queen.  Ice Queen has light purple and bright blue hex glitter and fine silver glitter.  It looks really awesome paired with Sturdy Sapphire.  I had to do some fishing for the bigger chunks of glitter and I used two coats.  It's a very pretty glitter polish.

 Of course, I wasn't finished yet.  After the glitter, I then decided that "hey, since this blue polish is very sheer, why not try a glitter sandwich.  This is what it looked like: Not THAT much of a difference, as you can tell.  The first photo was taken with flash.

Last but certainly not least, I've decided to share my favorite cuticle cream with you all.  It's called "Nail Butter" by TVAL.  TVAL is a local store that sells 'homemade' beauty products.  They make the products IN the store! It's a pretty cool place.  They even sell cupcake shaped soap.  :D

Ever since I've started using TVAL nail butter, I've noticed my cuticles haven't been so dry and flaky.  Not so many "hang nails" either.  I like this stuff.  It works for me! It also comes in several different scents, or unscented.

HERE is the TVAL website.  You can order online and it ships internationally!

Swatch: Ruby Jewels

Ruby Jewels by Milani is such a pretty color and it was easy to apply.  I liked the formula and it did not take long to dry.  This was my first time using a Milani polish, and I'll definitely buy some more.

I didn't bother to put a top coat over it, but I'd recommend it.  I just got distracted and forgot about it.  Ooopsies!

My first indie polishes arrived in the mail!

I don't know what I was more excited to share with the world:  my first frankens, or a mani using my first indie polishes.

A while back I mentioned ordering from Glitrix and Dandy Nails.  Well, on Monday, Funhouse by Dandy Nails (along with Sandy's cute business card!) came in the mail, so I had to use it immediately.  SUCH an awesome polish.  It was too bad that I messed up my manicure, haha.  I do, however, have photos nonetheless!

I layered Funhouse over China Glaze's Hang Ten-toes and it looked pretty freakin' awesome!  I really need to create a contraption to help me take good pictures.  My camera does not do this bright mani justice.

I received the Glitrix polish on Tuesday, so you'll see a swatch of that one sometime in the near future.

Swatch: Bahamian Escape.

Oh, I wish I could go to the Bahamas! I guess wearing this pretty light blue cream by China Glaze will have to do! xD  This polish was really easy to apply and opaque in one coat, but I used two.  Some of my nails look a little rough, but I swear that's just me and not the nail polish itself.  The formula for this polish was awesome, and I LOVE the color.  I could not stop staring at it!

The next day I added some Sinful Colors - Purple Diamond on top of this mani just to see how it looked.  I liked THAT too, but I ended up taking it off just to try something else.  This is what I do when I buy a ton of new polish.  Nothing can stay on longer than a day or two.

ZOMG, FRANKENPOLISH!

I said that I had some awesome stuff to post, right? Right.  My first two frankens.  I would like you to meet  Key Lime Pie and Strawberry Cheesecake.  Okay, so the names aren't very creative, but...I digress.

I made Key Lime Pie a while ago.  The bigger shredded glitter ended up sinking to the bottom and bleeding, which helped create the shade of green that it is (so I like it anyway!).  The formula is thick and sort of hard to apply, but overall it looks pretty good.  I like it for my first franken!

I made Strawberry Cheesecake yesterday.  I used a few shades of pink in it, some pink glitter polish, purple glitter polish, gold glitter polish...a little bit of clear polish to give it a bit of a jelly-ish look.  It was fun to make, and I like the way it looked on my nails.  It was pretty easy to apply as well.  :)

Sooo, what do you think?!

Please ignore the fact that my nails on my right hand grow in odd angles (maybe I squished my middle finger as a child? I do not remember!) and my cuticles are dry and gross.  I am working on that!!!

Sinful Colors committed a sin?

I guess they're living up to their literal name now.

I only recently purchased my three Sinful Colors polishes and I like them.  Unfortunately, this morning while reading Polish Pixelle's blog, I found out that the company, owned by Revlon, has stolen photos from fellow bloggers for their pamphlets.  Isn't that crazy?! (AND LAZY!)  Ironically, they weren't even photos of manis that contained Sinful Colors polishes, nor did the techniques written in the pamphlet correspond with the photos.

Me thinks that I shall not be buying anymore Sinful Colors polishes until they own up to what they did and apologize! A big company such as Revlon should know better!

You can read more about this here: 

http://glamonthecheap.blogspot.ca/2012/07/so-here-i-am-doing-post-after-post.html

and here (including photos!):

http://the-swatchaholic.com/?p=6081#more-6081

CRAZY!!!

Anyway...

I did not end up blogging any swatches or manis yesterday, but I did end up creating a franken! I will post photos later; I promise!

Hello there!

Unfortunately, the past few days have been quite busy, therefore I've been unable to post; however, I do have a couple of cute manis to show you this week! I also have some neat ideas up my sleeve, so my nails will be looking pretty funky later on.

I went to Chatters on Saturday and picked up OPI DS Temptation, OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, and a couple of China Glaze Summer Neons (I'm With the Lifeguard and Hang Ten-toes...I think I bought Hang Ten-toes! It was one of the pinks!).

I'll post pictures of these polishes later, but for now...I'm at work.  SHHH, I'm not slacking, I swear! xD

I'm currently wearing Don't Touch My Tutu, and I also have a couple of pictures on my camera, but I'm not sure if I'll post them.  It was a rushed manicure and it does not look very nice.  I really love these OPI New York City Ballet Collection polishes, though! They're sheer, but so pretty!

YET ANOTHER giveaway!!! This one's by iHeartPrettyPolish.

iHeartPrettyPolish's 100 Follower Giveaway!

(photo credit:  http://xoxo-jen.blogspot.ca )

iHeartPrettyPolish is having a giveaway to celebrate gaining 100 blog followers, and the prize is a bottle of Whimsical Polish (color of your choice!!!) by Pam! Isn't that exciting?! I really wish Pam shipped to Canada, because I'd die for some of those polishes!  They're some of the prettiest works of art I've ever seen.

You should check out iHeartPrettyPolish and this awesome giveaway.  Who knows, if you enter, you may just win. :D

Kayla Shevonne is giving away China Glaze's On Safari Collection!

ANOTHER GIVEAWAY! This is exciting; two very cool giveaways in the one day!

Kayla Shevonne is giving away the FULL China Glaze On Safari Collection! She received a second set of the polishes just after she already purchased them for herself, so now she's doing a giveaway just 'cause she's awesome.

Kayla Shevonne's On Safari Giveaway!

I don't know about anyone else, but I love most of these colors! Here's a photo of the polishes:



Check it out! You  could win some awesome nail polish!

365 Days of Color GIVEAWAY!

Hey guys, Sunny at 365 Days of Color is having a giveaway to celebrate reaching 2000 likes on Facebook! She is giving away 4 mini polishes from her own new Toxic Love Collection.  The colors are so cool; I'd love to get my paws on a few of those, so if I don't win, I'll probably have to buy!

365 Days of Color GIVEAWAY!

And here's a picture of the awesome polishes (L-R: Chemical Romance, Killer Kiss, Deadly Attraction, and Dangerously Beautiful):

She also has swatches of these pretty colors on her blog if you'd like to see what they look like on a nail.  :)