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

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

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

I'm Finally Back to Posting! Amazing, Huh?

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to apologize to all of our followers and readers out there for the extreme lack of posts this summer. I'm just not happy with myself over it since while I did have sometime this summer in which to post, I had a lot of cool colors that I wanted to show you guys but didn't. I literally didn't have the energy in which to do so or the time, and when I did the nail polish on my fingers was destroyed from work. But that's over with now, and I'm back to posting regularly once again.

Tomorrow Fiona and I are going back to school. We were supposed to be going back over the weekend, but due to "Hurricane" Irene hitting New England (where we live), our school pushed move-in day back to Tuesday, the 30th. It was probably a good thing we weren't up there just because of the extensive flooding part of our campus suffered. I'll have to go take pics to show you the water levels; it's just mind blowing to see how high the water is and all the buildings and other things underwater.

But I do have pics to show you of a couple of the Zoyas that I bought during their last insider promo. I have to share with you today Zoya Norra and Jem,

Zoya Norra Norra is from the Divas collection that was originally released for Fall 2007. This is quite the interesting color. In the shade, this color appears as a red-tinged plum with a hint of silver shimmer in it like Zoya Marley. In the sun, the color appears as a maroon color or as a red-violet color. This was three coats of Norra with a coat of base and top coat. The formula was great just like any other Zoya polish that I have.

 I had ordered Norra as a spoon from Zoya, and I kept coming back to it when I was trying to decide on colors to order. The color intrigued me because it wasn't like anything else that I had in my collection. Norra is a shade that can be called a 'sleeper shade' since it's an awesome color that isn't that well know or as popular as other colors. I'm very happy that I got this color. It's a great color for fall/winter or an anytime color. 

Shade

Zoya Jem. Jem is from one of this year's Fall collections called Mirrors. Jem in person appears to be plum colored with red/pink and bronze colored sparkle to it (as shown in the bottle).

Oh. My. God. This is such an awesome color! Jem is like the little kid sister of Zoya Yasmeen (based on color) and Valerie (based on sparkle). If you mixed Yasmeen and Valerie together, you'd get this color. I know that a lot of other bloggers are saying that Jem and Valerie are dupes of each other, but I've compared Jem to a spoon of Valerie, and they are different enough to me that you could have Jem and Valerie and be fine. But then again I think that Jem is closer to Yasmeen than Valerie.....

I also can't stop looking at this color since I put it on Thursday just because it's such an awesome color to look at!

The next two photos are a little blurry, but you can see the sparkle in Jem a little better.

Did I mention how awesome she is?

Jem gets a big old HA BISKY!!! from me!

And since I haven't posted in a while, here are a couple photos of our family dog, Hunter. He was watching me take pics so I snapped these two photos of him!

"What 'cha doin'?"

Thanks again everyone for reading!

Hey Look, I'm Posting!!

Hello!

Hi guys! Well, the mood struck and I felt like posting today. Mostly because I made this awesome franken last night that I just have to share with you guys. I've been frankening a lot lately. Mostly due to my desire for new polishes and my broke ass can't buy any new ones so I've been making "new" ones. I've had some successes and some fails. My recent fail you won't get to see because I dumped it out and tried again. That one was actually my first attempt at what ended up being this one. That one began with about 1/4 Sinful Daddy's Girl and 1/4 Orly Blue Collar with assorted glitters thrown in. Note to self and all frankeners out there: do not mix a dark jelly with a dense creme. You will get a funky dark gray blue color that is like Zoya Caitlin but ugly and chunky and sticky.

What I was trying to make was a purpley blue mulicolored glitter. The key is to just mix glitter polishes and don't try to make a base color because the base color will overtake the glitter. All of the glitter polishes I have are in the blue and purple family, besides being silver, so I figured why not mix them all together!!? And it worked out beautifully!

I call it Brittany S. Pierce (more on that in a minute) and here's the recipe:
About equal amounts of each (I only filled a 15 ml bottle about 1/4 full):
Zoya Roxy
Nina Ultra Pro Purple X-ing
Pure Ice Beware (fine silver glitter)
Pure Ice Strapless (fine blue glitter)
Pure Ice Cheatin' (fine blue/purple/pink glitter)
Wet n' Wild Kaleidoscope (chunky holo glitter)
Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple

And a shake a shake a and voila!! Gorgeous! This actually shakes together so nicely too. Ugh, I hate shaking together dense cremes, I actually bruised my palms rolling a bottle back and forth while frankening... =P

So the name. I'm a recent Gleek, and a total and complete Glee fan its ridiculous. I just recently watched the whole first season on Netflix and then was able to find a site that had all the episodes for the second season as well. I was hooked immeadiately!! Its so so so so so good, I'm in love!! While I was frankening this polish I was listening (and singing along to) Glee songs so figured the name has to be something to do with Glee. I know $OPI (Sephora by OPI) did a Glee collection either this year or last year... anyway. They named the polishes after most of the characters but skipped a lot of them. One of which is Brittany, the adorabley ditzy Cheerio, who's one of my favorites. I think her character is one of the funniest on TV!!
Watch the video, this has the best Brittany moments. I know its 9 minutes long but its totally worth it!!

I really think Brittany would like this polish (I hope she would!!) especially because its sparkly and has rainbow glitters!

Here's some more pictures. These are all indoor under my LED desk lamp because its raining.

Oh and this is 3 coats with no SV because I'm all out. Plus, I think you guys will notice I've cut my nails. I liked them long but I was terrified of a bad break and with fall coming and the start of wearing darker colors (not that I follow seasons anyway) I think darker colors look better on shorties.

Well that's it. Hope you enjoyed.

Thanks for looking, commenting and following!!

Have a great day/night!

Fiona

Because Once Again I'm Procrastinating?

Yeah, I have stuff to do before I can go to bed, but I'm procrastinating by watching YouTube (again), and watching the boys from The Microwave Show microwave.... makeup!

So, if you've even wondered what would happen if you microwaved a bottle of nail polish, acrylic nails, AND foundation at the same time, well, watch the video below and find out!

Hope you all found that funny or a little entertaining!

-A