Subtle Ombre

It's the first day of Spring.  Spring and Summer are my two favorite seasons.  We started our little Spring garden.  Our sunflowers have already sprouted.  We have also planted carrots, tomatoes, cilantro, and marigolds.  It's always amazing to see how something starts from a tiny seed in dirt and grows into a beautiful plant or something we can eat at our dinner table. 
What I also enjoy about Spring is the pastel colors that are everywhere.  Today, I am wearing a subtle ombre using three of OPI's Softshades.  This was very hard to capture on camera. The gradient in person is more noticeable.  In pictures you barely can see it.  I tried different lighting to try and capture it and out of the 40+ photos, these were the best.  I initially started with being indecisive about which of my new Great and Powerful Oz softshade to paint on my nails.  The ombre trend is starting to show up around town and thought- hey, why not do an ombre with both colors.  I have Don't Burst my Bubble and I Theodora You.  I usually skip the tan shades like Glints of Glinda.  It's not flattering with my skin tone. 
I started off with 2 coats of Don't Burst My Bubble.  It's a pinkish white that self levels on the nail and is not streaky.  The next step I normally would do with a sponge, but since these are sheers, I painted directly onto the nails.  For this step, I pulled out I Pink I Love You from the 2009 Fairytale Bride collection.  It's a pink with a blue flash.  I kind of wanted my ombre to look like a bubble-hence the blue flash.  The last color is I Theodora You.  This is a more opaque pink and is the darkest pink in my entire stash of softshades. 

 

 

I'm really enjoying such a soft, delicate manicure.  My fingers even appear longer.  Have any of you tried any of the "Oz" colors yet and which is your favorite?

Teenage Dream

Happy Monday everyone.  The children are out on Spring Break this week.  Not sure what we are doing today.  Maybe garden,  fly kites, or kick back and watch a movie.  Maybe all of the above.   Today, I have a light and fun manicure to show you that fits in with our day.  This is one of the January posts that I'm going through.  When I opened it up, I was surprised to find that this post had been sitting in my draft folder completely finished.  I'm not sure why it  never got posted.  I opened it up and everything was complete.  Pictures were where it should be, labels and search description filled.  It was just never scheduled.

I had run out of my mini bottle within the first three weeks of purchase a couple of Januarys ago. I picked up a new bottle within that year. I finally got around to using it. That's what happens when you own a lot of polishes, it takes awhile before the same color gets used again. Eons ago, someone recommended Teenage Dream over Rumples Wiggin. I've had it on my "To Try" list ever since. I used two coats of each color. The result is very pretty and feminine. Of course this look can be achieved over any lilac or lavender tone. The delicate pink glitter in Teenage Dream stands out nicely over lilac.

I added some clouds using Konad m79.

St. Patrick's Day Mani

Here is my St. Patrick's Day manicure.  I started with two coats of Isn't It Romantic (an OPI softashade that flashes green).  On my tips is Twining Vines (a WNW limited edition).  I used a dotting tool to spread it upward.  I was trying to make it look like grass.  I then stamped using plate BM03 and Meteor (a green from Revlons Moon Candy series).  I used the Konad top coat so I wouldn't smear my shamrocks. 

 

 

 

 

Now I need to think about a Spring nail design and also an Easter design. 

China Glaze Tape Mani

I'm finally getting around to editing and posting my January manicures.  I usually write the post as my polish dries and take the pictures the following day.  The pictures are finally loaded onto my laptop and are being edited in between everything else.  In the January pictures my cuticles are ragged from the painting projects that I was doing.  I was still using lotion before and after painting the house but it still didn't help my cuticles.  My cuticles are healed, but painting starts again in April.  

This was supposed to be my first post of the year and was also my first patchwork tape mani. 

I hope everyone had a great holiday season! I've taken a break from blogging and painting my house to spend time with my girls while they were on Christmas break. I did not take a break from doing my nails. Today I'm showing you my New Years Mani. Instead of a glitter bomb, I did a simple tape mani that was on my "to do" list. I used China Glaze for my colors. Kalahari Kiss from this past summers On Safari was the base. Such a pretty neutral color. This yellow/beige is also on my list for a giraffe design. I then taped it off and painted No Plain Jane and then Jungle Queen-also from the On Safari collection. It looked fine as is, but since this was for New Years Eve, I added gems for sparkle.

Avon Green Tea Cuticle Serum

I wanted to do a quick review today about the new Avon Nail Experts Cuticle Serum.  It is such a great product that I wanted to share it with everyone.  There are a few products in my rotation for cuticle care.  OPI Avoplex Replenishing Oil, Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, ESSIE Apricot Oil (least favorite), Sally Hansen Healthy Cuticles Now, and pure Vitamin E.  The Avon Cuticle Serum is by far my favorite.  It's like a mini spa treatment for my cuticles.  There are little aloe beads that feel refreshing when massaged in.  It's not greasy and my cuticles feel soft and smooth right after. 

 

It has a spatula instead of a brush. At first it was awkward to use, but I've goten used to it.

 

 

This was a gift from my grandma, so I'm not sure the cost. 

 

 

Eurso Euro and When Monkeys Fly

Im going to start off my saying that I've been in the market for a royal blue cream polish. Revlon Urban, Revlon Superstitious, and OPI Dating a Royal have been candidates. These are readily available and I can get them any time. Currently, I'm on a no- buy for nine weeks. It should have been easy since I started the no-buy the day after I picked up the Euro Central mini pack, two of the Oz glitters, and already owned the 3 out of 4 liquid sands. I apparently have no will power and caved the first week. Yes, I did. I bought four OPI in one day. It was Women's Day and I could give you a hundred excuses to justify it. I wanted Don't Burst My Bubble, and since it is limited, I couldn't wait nine weeks. The salon didn't have the Oz collection and I picked up Eurso Euro. Which is also limited and a shade that I had needed-yes needed- for my collection. It it very beautiful. Almost a one coater. It does have a unique odor to it. No one else has mentioned this on their blog and I'm wondering if its just me. The smell reminds me of Sally Hansens X-Treme Wear in Pacific Blue. It might have the same type of pigments in it.

I'm showing this gorgeous polish with a coat of When Monkeys Fly from the OPI Great and Powerful Oz over it. This polish has created such a negative stir in the blogging community. I wanted to say something positive about it by first saying that at least all of those controversial hex glitters don't have to be fished out and flow smoothly on the nail. Also, the small holo glitters are just stunning. And lastly, if you press the hex glitters down when it's tacky, it will lay flat. Add a coat of Seche Vite and it is good to go. Is that something we should be doing with glitter? Of course not. Did OPI mess up? Yeah, they did. Will this polish be remembered? Not in a positive way, but it probably will be still talked about years from now-kind of like OPI & Apple Pie. Remember that polish? I will continue to use my When Monkeys Fly because I don't think it's that big of an issue. It takes special application like how some softshades, pastels, and chromes do. It takes patience but the end result is pretty.

 

My bottle doesn't have the apostrophe in Monkeys like some others do. 
 I got it from Trade Secrets.

 

I also wanted to add that with my purchase of Eurso Euro, I managed to find a lemming of mine for a while. Isn't it Romantic from the OPI FairyTale Bride softshade collection in 2009. I also found Venus De Violet which was a re-release in 2009. It is a very unique color. If that's not a reason to break a no-buy then I don't know what is. I did get Don't Burst My Bubble. I ran in Trade Secrets and scooped that up. I am still going to try with the no-buy for the remaining eight weeks. I'm waiting for the OPI Bonds Girls in May and that is what started the no-buy. I want Honey Ryder and maybe a second color when I see them in person.

Lights of Emerald City

Oh my, another month is gone and a whole bunch of pictures are in my camera waiting to be posted.  Hopefully I'll be able to get everything up this month.  I'm still having trouble with my computer uploading pictures to my blog.  I have to toggle between the laptop and Ipad.  Which resulted in my extensive February Haul post being deleted TWICE.  I didn't have time to rewrite it again.  What happened was that I was writing the post on my laptop and emailing the pictures to the Ipad to be inserted.  Even though the writing was saved, the pictures kept deleting everything that came after where that picture should be.  The pics show up scripted on the Ipads Blogger app and mixed in with what I write.  I have to save to keep the pictures in and then hit refresh on the laptop.  Once I do that, the Back button won't bring my writing back.  Anyway, shows how much I know about computers. 

Today I am home sick and can't get much done except maybe my nails and a post to go with it.  I am using OPIs Lights of Emerald City from the new Great and Powerful Oz collection.  I got this one and When Monkeys Fly.  
I tried LoEC over a purple initially and it reminded me of the lantern scene from Disneys Tangled.  The second attempt is over 2 coats of Who the Shrek are You? (OPI) and a coat of Milani 3D holographic in Hi-Tech.  I wanted it to look like "The Lights of Emerald City"  but it looks more like a field of dandelions to me.  Which is fine.  It's perfect for Spring.

 

I used 2 coats of LoEC.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if my pics are blurry or it's just me.  I can't see from my left eye clearly today and everything just looks hazy.  I didn't edit my pictures either.  *note- I added 3 more edited pictures.  They look kind of blurry also.  I took indoor and outdoor. 

 

Another note- the pictures loaded from the laptop after four attempts.  It always says server failed.