Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Zap! Pow!

Hello!

So I'm coming to the last of my back-logged manis. I'll have to start taking pictures daily again which is kind of sad. :( I kind of liked having pictures on my computer to just choose from and upload quickly instead of taking them, loading them onto my computer, editing, then uploading.

This design is probably one you guys have seen before, especially if you follow a lot of nail blogs. If you haven't already, you should take a moment to go check out Nailside because that blog is awesome. She does the absolute best tape manis and posts a bunch of tutorials as well. After seeing a bunch of different takes on the lightning bolt french, and seeing the fabulous ones posted on Nailside, I knew I needed to try it. The one I did is based off of the double lightning bolt. I'm not the best at tape manis, I usually fail pretty hard at them. But I followed the tutorial to the tee and was pretty impressed with myself on the way it came out. But it does have a few flaws.

The pictures are horrible too by the way. They're BLURRY, the lighting is all wrong, I used the flash, they're just bad. But they were taken in a hurry, so sorry!!


For this I used WnW French White (do not recommend using- its like painting your nails with white out), Orly Gumdrop and WnW Black Creme and topped with super goopy SV.

Evidently, white polish gives me major lobster hands so please ignore them!

The SV also smeared some of the black so that's the black gunk you see.


So after doing this mani, I loved the look, but decided I really should have rethought my color choice. Plus my execution could have been a lot better. So I did it again!!

YIKES!! Excuse the lobster hands, tip wear, funky gap line from 2 AM clean-up..., and just overall ugliness of the picture!!


I liked the results slightly more the second time around but there are still major flaws. Which of course macro makes look even worse!

For this I used WnW Black Creme, SH XW Green With Envy and Sinful Let's Talk layered with Zoya Mimi on top, with some goopy, bubbly SV.



So yeah, there are my two kinda unsuccessful attempts at the double lightning bolt. Maybe I'll try it again someday and the third time will be the charm!

Hope you all have a great day/night!

Thanks for looking, commenting and following!

Fiona

Monday, September 5, 2011

Lazy Labor Day

Hello!

Like our new header? (Its should be up soon if its not already...) I made it myself using the fabulous tutorial made by Aimee'sNails seen here. I had a little trouble while trying to upload it though. Apparently I've exceeded my photo upload limit and I tried deleting a few photos, sidebar stuff, and it still wouldn't let me. So I've sent it to Amanda and hopefully we'll be able to get it up from there.

So today's post is another old mani that I wore, maybe 2 weeks ago? Maybe more like 3? I don't know. Anyway. This was my biggest lemming so far in polish that I have killed: China Glaze Starboard. It is totally as fabulous as I thought it would be and I love it! Although, I am a biased green lover...

I actually took notes on this the day I wore it (I am so proud of myself!!) So this is what I had to say about it when I wore it: Creamy, pigmented, more olive-y on me, good wear time, 2 days, no chips, tipwear without SV.

Here's 2 coats, no SV, under my LED desk lamp.

My camera, unlike me, is not a green fan and could not properly capture this color. All these pictures show it much too saturated and bright. Its really darker and dustier in real life. And as I noted above, it seemed to look more olive toned on my skin than in swatches I'd seen or in the bottle. Its probably the pink tone of my skin or something...




Here's a picture taken by the window in natural light. It shows the true color a little better but its not great quality.


And here's me playing around with iPhoto, trying to edit the color to look more true. Please excuse my weird corpse-y hands and the pixelatedness... This is pretty darn close to the actual color.


I hope all you Americans had a safe and relaxing Labor Day and everyone else a great Monday!!

Thanks for looking, commenting and following!!

Fiona

15 Weird Facts

Hello!

I copied this from rebecca likes nails because it looked fun and I love survey type things.

Hey guys, it's Amanda. I know that this is Fiona's post, but this did seem like a lot of fun, so I'm the one answering in purple!

1. What’s a nickname only your family calls you?
My mom calls me "Fionie Bologna", my brother calls me "Foam" because that's what he used to call me before he could say "Fiona", my uncle calls me "Fie" as in "Fie-ona from Vir-ginia" and my aunt calls me "Tweety Bird."

My dad calls me Trixie as in Speed Racer's girlfriend Trixie; don't know, don't ask. 

2. What’s a weird habit of yours?
 I have OCD (diagnosed and medicated for) so I have a lot. Like always arranging things by rainbow order, checking door locks and outlets, touching the top left and then right of the shower before closing the curtain, eating small things (M&Ms, peanuts, ect) 2 at a time... the list goes on and on...

When I go into a store that has those plastic gift card at the register, I find myself rearranging the gift cards so that they are in a perfect bunch. It bugs me if they aren't all perfectly straight or the designs don't match up.

3. Do you have any weird phobias?
Ceiling fans... long time childhood fear.

A single straight black line. I don't know why, but a single straight line has always creeped me out since I was a kid. I think it has to do with heart rate monitors and they way the line looks when it flat-lines.

4. What’s a song you secretly love to blast and belt out when you’re alone?
I have many, many but one that comes to mind is Telephone (the Glee version of course!!)

Like Fiona, I too have a lot of songs like that, but I do like to play "Foreplay/Long Time" by Boston when I can.

5. What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?
This is weird and kinda of prejudiced, but people with the speech impediment where they can't pronounce their "r"s, like Elmer Fudd... "waskly wabbit"... slamming doors, spitting, people who don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom... *begin rant* Also, this one is also weird but it makes me SO ANGRY for some reason: people that don't know the sex of an animal and just assume and call it either a "he" or a "she". IF YOU DON'T KNOW, CALL IT AN IT! I hate it when people are at my house and call Marley a "she", I correct them, and they continue to call him by the wrong address. I also hate it when people call inanimate objects "he" or "she" like boats and Zoya polish. Its a thing, its doesn't have a sex, therefore its an "IT"!!! I don't care if Zoyas have female names, its still a bottle of nail polish, so it should be called an "it" not "she"!!!! Grrr, this makes me soooooo angry!! *end rant*

People who sing very softly. My mom is guilty of this. It bugs the crap out of me when she sings a sing on just a barely audible voice and I want to yell at her to stop. I feel that if you're not going to sing at a normal voice level, then don't sing at all.

6. What’s one of your nervous habits?
Playing with the ends of my hair, or sweatshirt strings or other piece of clothing

Adjusting my shirt; either pulling up the collar or pulling the hem down.

7. What side of the bed do you sleep on?
The middle, I always have my bed to myself at home and at school

Both sides; I have a twin bed at school and at home so I sleep on both sides of the bed.

8. What was your first stuffed animal and its name?
I don't know if it was my first but I had a tiny teddy bear named Natasha.

I had a stuffed beaver when I was a baby, but I don't know if it had a name.

9. What’s the drink you always order at Starbucks?
I don't go to Starbucks but the library cafe at school serves Starbucks and I order a Caramel flavored iced coffee and drink it almost black (a little milk) and some Equal.

Easy; either a medium Double Chocolatey-Chip Frap with whipped cream or a medium Hot Chocolate. I refuse to call a medium a grande however.

10. What’s a beauty rule you preach, but never actually practice?
I don't really preach anything but there's plenty of beauty rules I don't practice... but I won't go there!

I don't preach anything either because of the whole 'pot-kettle-black' thing. That way you can't be a hypocrite. I might preach about wearing a base coat, but I do wear a base coat all the time,

11. Which way do you face in the shower?
Its depends on what I'm doing, I guess I spin and face both pretty equally.

Both ways; I don't see how you could take a shower facing only one way.

12. Do you have any weird body skills?
I can almost touch my tongue to my nose, I have super grippy toes and can pick things up with them, I can also stand on my toes curled under...

I can roll my tongue, that's pretty much it.

13. What’s your favorite comfort food that’s “bad”, but you love to eat it anyway?
Oh jeez, the list goes on forever, I don't really have a favorite. I love Ben and Jerry's (Phish Food, Half Baked), really, really greasy cheesy pizza with ranch dressing, chocolate cake, chocolate pie, cheesecake, cheese danish, cinnamon rolls, Smartfood, Doritos, Kraft Mac n' Cheese made with extra butter and salt added, Pop Tarts, cheesy noodles, cheese, I think you get the idea... I'm bad!!

Any dessert that has chocolate in it. And chocolate itself, but I like dark chocolate which is actually good for you though so......

14. What’s a phrase or exclamation you always say?
I don't know... Amanda can't think of one either...

Fiona says I say 'yeah' a lot, but I also do use crap and s*** a lot. Yes, I have a dirty mouth and probably need some of that Orbits gum to clean it up.

15. Time to sleep – what are you actually wearing?
It depends on the season and where I'm living: at home in warm weather, I wear an oversized old T-shirt and undies and at school I wear the same kind of shirts and printed PJ capri pants. In colder weather at home and school, I wear the same kind of T-shirts, sometimes a sweatshirt if its really cold, and some kind of cute print PJ pants (snowflakes, ect)

No matter what the weather, I always sleep in an old tee-shirt and a pair of shorts. I get hot when I sleep so that's why I can wear shorts to bed in winter b/c otherwise I sweat to death.

Well that was fun! I might post again later if I get around to it... we'll see.

Feel free to copy this and do it but it would be awesome if you tell me if you do so I can go read your answers... I'm kind of a nosy person and love to read other people's answers to these things!! :D

Have a great day/night if I don't post again today.

Fiona

Happy Labor Day to all of our American readers out there, and happy Monday to the rest of the world!


-Amanda

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Playing Catch Up

Hello!

So... sorry about neglecting my posting duties. My laziness just gets to me and time gets away from me. But now I'm back in school and while that should mean less time to post, being on a schedule actually helps me remember to post so I should be posting more frequently. Hopefully.

Today is the first day of classes. It would have been yesterday but due to Irene, the move in date for school was postponed from Saturday and Sunday to Tuesday. I'm wearing a tape mani inspired by Nailside using 3 Zoyas, which you will see sometime. But today I need to start posting from my backlog of pictures... once I get through those, I start showing current manis. 

So first is OPI No Room For The Blues. This was a huge lemming of mine from the time when I first got into nail polish in January and saw it on Chloe's Nails. I recently was able to get it my Ulta haul. Its not super unique, just your average bright sky blue. The formula is good. You can probably get full coverage in 2 coats if your nails are less stained than mine. My staining has gotten so bad that I have to do extra coats of light colors... :/ So I did 3 coats for the pictures. This is without top coat because at the time I was out of SV. I personally find that OPIs take a longer time to dry and don't wear very well, unless you use top coat. I don't regret this purchase but thinking back, I do wish that maybe I had used that $8 for a more unique polish.

These pictures are all under my LED desk lamp.





Next is a franken I made when I seriously needing a bright coral color (for some reason... probably because it was the middle of summer and it felt like a summer-y color.) To make it I used my franken that I called Pretty in Peach, which was too manikin hands on me and turned it coral. The original franken, Pretty in Peach was made of about 1/2 bottle of Sinful Snow Me White, 1/4 bottle of SH XW Sun Kissed and about 20 drops of a yellow creme. To make it a bright coral, I added a significant amount of Sinful Pink (neon pink), about 20 drops of CG Heli-yum and about 20 drops of Zoya Rica. The sparkle in Rica doesn't really translate onto the nail, however.


You can see in the bottle some of the sparkle (in some of the pictures... if you look really hard!), as well as that it doesn't look mixed all the way. It was, I shook the living hell out of it, and it was all mixed on the inside. I'm really happy with this franken, its the exact color I wanted. It took me a while to come up with a name for it but I finally called Malibu Barbie.

These pictures are all 3 coats with SV taken in sunlight.




I even did a matching pedi!






That's all for today. I have class in about 10 minutes, or that's when I'm leaving. I want to be there early and I'm still not sure how long it takes me to walk from this apartment to the science building.

I hope you all enjoy your day/night!

Thanks for looking, following and commenting!

Fiona