Bestie Twin Nails with Maja!

About two weeks ago, Maja (@nailaholic_) was sweet enough to ask me to do Bestie Twin Nails with her on Instagram! I felt bad because I had to delay so much. I work at a bank, so I don't get off until late. She lives in Europe, so the time difference played a part as well. Finally we picked glitter, light blue gradients, and basket weave monochrome nails and they came out amazing! 

Yes that is blurry. ^

But I got it from Instagram and the app made the picture look weird. 
Here's the original picture that I posted earlier today. 

Anyway here are solo shots of my half of the mani. 

The colors I used for the gradient were:

(in order)

Revlon: Dreamer

China Glaze: Bahamian Escape

China Glaze: Sunday Funday

Silver Holo Glitter is China Glaze Glistening Snow

Black is OPI Black Onyx, over Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

These were so fun to do, and Maja is very talented. I love this mani so much! 
Hope you guys like it too! 
♥

Duri Rejuvacote!

In my last post, I mentioned that I bought Duri Rejuvacote base coat to try to help strengthen and lengthen my nails. These are my naked nails after some TLC and one coat of Rejuvacote. I am going to post another picture and a comparison of my nails after one week. I was really nervous with trying this product because I have very sensitive skin. I read a ton of reviews online and on Amazon.com saying that this basecoat cause allergic reactions, and made the nails feel like they were burning. 

Before I bought this I put one coat on my nail in the store, lmao ratchet I know. But I wanted to see if I'd have the same reactions. I didn't and I put it right in my cart and went home and used this bad boy. I'm so excited to see my results. My Cinderella hand (right/dominant hand) had the ugliest little nubbies that were uneven and didn't grow very well. So hopefully they soak this base coat right up and grow grow grow! 

  

LEFT HAND

RIGHT HAND

Yessss, my right hand is ugly af. Hahaha, I try to keep them looking pretty but they have been breaking so much more than my left hand. Everytime they break and re grow, they break again. Hopefully Rejuvacote makes life easier and better. ♥

Happy Hump Day! Recent Nail Haul!

I had a nice little nail haul last weekend! I went to Wal-Mart, Target, and a local nail salon where my sister got her eye brows done, haha. Here's what I got! 

Top left to bottom right: 

Hard Candy: Crush on Raisin, a reallllly pretty metallic flakie gold rose. 

Maybelline Color Show: Gilded Rose, beautiful gold shimmer with light pink and rose gold hex glitter. 

Salon Perfect: Touchy Feely, tiny black and white glitter topper :] I am so excited to use this!

Duri Rejuvacote basecoat: I am excited to start this and see how it works for my nails. 

OPI: My Boyfriend Scales Wallls, an off white, DS Mystery, a deep blue with color changing flakies, and It's My Year, a maroon jelly with a gold shimmer. 

Shea Moisture Coconut and Hibiscus Shea Butter Hand Cream: This hand cream is my new salvation. The smell is so amazing and it keeps my hands so soft and moisturized. It apparently brightens and tightens my skin and I have seen a difference in the way my hands feel. I work at a bank, so dealing with money really does dry my hands out. This hand cream is amazing, a little goes a longgg way and it's basically free of everything. I recommend this hand cream to the fullest. I love it. & It was pretty cheap!  

These were from my boyfriend for Valentine's Day. ♥ Didn't he do such a great job!? I couldn't believe it. I love him so much, hahaha. He knew my day wouldn't we complete without some nail polish.

Top left to bottom: 

Julep Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum: This pen is so convenient, I carry it in my purse to work instead of big bulky Lemony Flutter. & I use it in between customers when my cuticle's are extremely dry. I love how the serum dries immediately. I hope to see results soon.   

Zoya: Lo, Maya and Carter. The first two are so summery and with all this snow we've been having in Maryland I am ready for summer! Lo is a hot pink cream, while Maya is a coral/peachy crelly. Carter is a purple pixie dust. Zoya's pixie dust is so amazingly beautiful and sparkly. There's no description, you just have to get it and see for yourself. 

Essie: Nothing Else Metals and Ignite the Night. These two have been on my wishlist from Amazon for a while and he knew it. ♥ lilac metallic and silver/black dense glitter. Need I say more?

Sephora Formula X: Love Chemistry and Danger Zone. Love Chemistry is completely similar to the Maybelline Gilded Rose. Almost a dupe. Still glad to have more than one. Danger Zone is a neon coral/orange with pink shimmer. ♥ 

Here are two pictures of Love Chemistry and Gilded Rose together for comparison.

Maybelline Color Show Gilded Rose: $4.00 Walmart

Sephora Formula X Love Chemistry: $12.00 Sephora

If you're looking for a cheaper polish I would suggest the Maybelline, but since I love polish and couldn't really care I would've paid for either one. They're both beautiful and I can't wait to play around with them and match colors and overlay them. 

Hope you guys had a wonderful day! ♥

800 FOLLOWERS!

WOW. I hit 800 followers on my Instagram! ♥ I'm forever and ever grateful. My last post I said how amazing it is how much I have grown with doing my nails. Doing my nails have released so much stress and have made my life more enjoyable. Screw partying and going out all the time. I rather stay home and paint my nails. Hahah, can't say that'll stay the same when I turn 21. Anyway, I will do a mega giveaway when I reach 1,000. These milestones are so amazing and I love the IG Nail Community. I have met so many of the nicest people ever on there. We're all one big happy nail loving familia. ♥

Anyway, no more sappy stuff. Back to nails. Hahaha, I was up late one night and in the mood to play around with polish and stamping where I decided to try to recreate a beautiful cut out mani by Paola (@just1nail) Of course my lines aren't as neat and thin as hers, but I still loved these. ♥

I used China Glaze High Hopes and the striper part of my black Nubar nail art pen. These came out great and they were nice to look at. 

Then and Now Pastel Gradient!

Day 11 for the Nail Art February challenge on my Instagram was themed Pastel! I re-did a mani that I posted on my personal Instagram on Easter March 31, 2013! So 11 months ago vs. my nails now. ♥ 

I did a gradient with China Glaze Sweet Hook, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, and Essie Play Date. Topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust on the ring finger. 

Here are my nails from 11 months ago:

Terrible Lighting. 

Terrible Cuticles.

Terrible Clean up.

Gradient looks thick.

Where are my nails?

Hand pose is weird. Looks strained.

Here are my nails 11 months later:

Much better right? I think the biggest thing I ever learned was proper clean up. I love doing my nails and they're not perfect - but I love how much I have grown and how much I have learned in 11 months. I thought I was doing something cool then and now.....I'm so proud of myself. 

Valentine's Day Nails!

Another favorite manicure has to be the nails I did inspired by Valentine's Day! I bought a new stamping set from Pueen on Amazon called the "Stamping Buffet Plates"! They are full imaged plates and they are amazing! This was Day 7&9 of the Nail Art February challenge that I posted on my Instagram. The themes were "XOXO" and Hearts. 

I used OPI Mod About You for the pink, and I stamped the hearts over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I used MBSW on my ring finger, and used my black Nubar nail art pen to write XOXO. On my pinky and the bottle I'm holding is China Glaze Hello Gorgeous. Holo dense rose glitter. So pretty. 

I loved this manicure so much. The simple to better for Valentine's Day, and it probably only took me like 20 min to finish both hands. I love stamping, it's so simple and quick. Hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine's Day! ♥

First Indie and Valentine's Day Nails

Two Saturdays ago I received my first Indie polish! I bought a limited edition Valentine's Day glitter bomb from Laquerlicious! I love Michelle's polishes. I always see beautiful swatches and although I only own one bottle I am already addicted. 

This is ONE coat of Laquerlicious V-Day = D-Day over two coats of China Glaze Pink of Me. I couldn't even begin to list the amount of glitter in this polish. & There is a slight pink/purple shimmer to it. I love this so much. Every nail had different glitters on it, which made them all unique. 

So I made a little video :) 

Okay....sooo that video sucked but I can't figure out how to make it look as good as it does on my computer. :( Frustrating. But, anyway you can see the holo glitters flickering and there's just so much glitter in one bottle. 

There's holo circles, hearts, stars, etc. Black hearts. Skull and crossbones. Matte glitters. Bars. So. Much. Glitter. The formula was perfect, and there was so much glitter with one stroke. I of course fished for bigger glitters, since they all sunk to the bottom. I didn't wait to flip it over for a couple of minutes, haha. I was too excited! 

I will be of course buying more and more Laquerlicious to review and rave about. The formula and glitter pay off was amazingly great. I wore this many for about three days before the China Glaze began to chip, and before I decided to do a different Valentine's Day Manicure. Hope you guys liked these! 

Re-Creation!

I'm so happy to say that I actually completed the entire Nail Art January challenge by Californails on Instagram. These nails were for Day 28: Re-Creation. I took it as a recreation of another nail girl's nails, although I saw some girls do a recreation of their own mani from long ago. I did a recreation of Nadia's (@allnailseverything) who is crazy freaking talented, and my nail bestie. They weren't nearly as pretty as hers but I loved these nails. This is probably one of my favorite designs I've done. 

I used OPI Black Onyx, and My Favorite Ornament (gold glitter), red striping tape, and studs that I got from Amazon. This mani was hot, I loved it so much.