Nailventurous - Orange You Unique

I was one of the lucky few who were able to score a few lacquers by Nailventurous when she launched her Etsy store.  She sold out in minutes.   Thankfully she's adding new inventory tomorrow.  I'm hoping to nab a bottle of Floam.

I got my Nailventurous lacquers in the mail today and had to try on Orange You Unique first.  I absolutely adore this polish!

Matte

Getting really into Essie - Matte About You topcoat.

How to spice up an otherwise boring manicure

China Glaze- Stole Cold/China Glaze - Electrify

Checkered

This was fun to do!

My first nail wheel!

I didn't bother to clean up because I was too exhausted by the time I finished it.  The designs are simple, but I like them.

My kind of lady

Seen here.

Oakland Outlaws mani

It's my Oakland Outlaws manicure!  Tonight's the season opener for the Bay Area Derby Girls, and it's featuring the Richmond Wrecking Belles against the Oakland Outlaws. Both teams are awesome but I'm hoping Oakland wins.

Red polish with black matte.

My You're Awesome Day manicure

I wish Valentine's Day was about celebrating universal love, not celebrating a traditional relationship. It doesn't seem fair to all the awesome folks who for whatever reason aren't in that situation. Today I celebrated You're Awesome Day.

Sparkle Power or Somerhing

The base is China Glaze - Recycle and the glitter is Deborah Lippmann - Happy Birthday

Golden bubbles

I'm giving Sephora Nail Bling Gold Bubbles a try for an event I'm attending this evening.  I don't think they'll wear well but for a one night deal they're a safe bet.

Cat nail stickers - I am DYING right now

This morning I decided to check eBay for some cool and inexpensive nail stickers and I found this:

I have never seen anything more awesome than these nail stickers.  Unfortunately the seller is out of the UK, so I have zero chance at purchasing these unless I have them shipped to a friend in Europe or I pay an incredible amount of money for shipping.

Sucks, because these are the coolest nail stickers I've ever seen.  CATS.

Went a little bit nuts with polish today

I couldn't settle on one or two colors so I ended up with this.

Batman!

Black and white and silver

Gave Nail Slide's freehand cloud tutorial a try. I like the result.

Wacky

Lisa Frank nails

I've been a fan of nailside for quite some time now, so I figured I'd give her double lighting bolt tape mani a try.  I didn't follow her directions though, as I wanted mine to look more like spikes. I really like the way it turned out!I used Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, OPI - Did it On 'Em and China Glaze - Awaken.

Pink, black and white leopard

I used Loreal - Raven's Dream as a base and used YSL - Noir Brillant and Sinful - Snow Me White for the dots.

Gold dust

Two coats of China Glaze - Westside Warrior and two coats of Essie - As Gold As It Gets

Worst marbelizing EVER

My boyfriend summed it up best: "It looks like bad 80s art." This was applied and then removed almost immediately. Boo.

Neon

My first foray into neon polishes.  Whoa.  This needed to be covered, and quickly.  I was worried about sudden blindness occurring.

So I did this:

How to add some sizzle to an otherwise boring black mani

Glossy black polish + Essie - Shine of the Times + Essie - Matte About You

Julep Maven polishes for January

I'm a member of a fun nail lacquer program called Julep Maven.  Julep is a nail polish maker and it offers a program where you pay $20 a month and they send you curated polishes from their collections. 

Pros: 

- Julep's polishes are $14 a pop, so if you get two or three polishes (typical) you're saving a good chunk of change. 

- Each month, Julep emails me a preview of what polishes and/or hand treatments/fun stuff they'll be sending me.  If I don't like what I see, I can ask for a new "shelf pull," and they'll send me something different.

Cons:

- The Julep Maven program is marketed as an insiders club, where the polishes you'll be receiving are what it's sending to fashion magazine editors.  Meaning, these are the best new polishes for the current season or next.  I don't think that's a true statement, as they've tried to send me the same product twice in a row.

Anyway, January's Mavens box arrived last week and I tried all of the polishes it came with today.  

Each manicure has a base coat of Julep - Nail Therapy and a top coat of Julep - Fast Dry Topcoat.

Julep - Megan

Outdoors

Indoors

Julep - Hayden

Outdoors

Indoors

 Julep - Leah

Outdoors

Indoors

What do you think of these colors?  I'm not really feeling any of them, as I don't think they work with my skin tone and the colors aren't my style (I thought differently before I tried them on my own nails!).  Also, Hayden was a little too thick during application.

New Years

Burgers and nails

One of my favorite nail blogs is Burgers and Nails, which is exactly what it sounds like.  I took this photo today and plan on sending it over to them.  Hopefully my burger and nails will make it onto their blog!

UPDATE:  My burger and nails made it onto the site!

Stamping

I'm getting really into holographic nail polishes

Outdoor with natural light

Indoors with artificial light.  What a difference!

Possibly my favorite lacquer of 2011

I think my favorite nail polish of the year is Nicole by OPI - Come In From the Coal'd.  There is so much glitter packed into this bottle; the look above only required two coats.  It's bundled in a holiday kit from Nicole by OPI called Merry Must Haves Kit - Pewter/Red, which you can buy at Target for a mere $10.  Since a typical bottle of Nicole by OPI is in the $7 range, this set is a deal at $5 per bottle.  This set won't be around for much longer, get yours soon or else you'll have to borrow my bottle.

I hope you and yours have a delightful holiday weekend.

My kind of holiday manicure

Come Christmas, I'm not one to paint snowmen and Christmas trees onto my nails.  I'd rather just embrace the holiday color palette and try different manicures with red, white and green (and gold! you can never have too much gold!).

Simple red manicure with a gold glitter gradient

I have about a billion red nail polishes, but right now I'm really feeling Sinful Colors - Gogo Girls. It's the red on my nails now. I used China Glaze - Cleopatra for the glitter gradient because the glitter is small and subtle. It's easier to achieve a gradient with it.

Originally I was going to use Sephora by OPI - Only Gold For Me. After one try on my thumb it turned out that it's just too chunky a glitter for the effect I was going for. Hope everyone's having a smooth week!

Marbleized

Marbleizing sans water.  I'll try to write a tutorial on how to do this.  This is my favorite manicure so far. 

My right hand is easier to work with because I'm left-handed. 

One of the rare occasions you'll see my left hand.  I'm so bad with my right hand, that I can't even keep the camera from shaking.  Anyway, I'm still really into how my left hand turned out.

In the thick of it.

Gold and black

Holiday mani

Black and white snowflakes on glittery gold.

Black stripes