Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. We had visitors from out of town, Hurricane Sandy/"Frankenstorm", and I finally ended up getting the nasty cold that has been going around the office.

But moving on. Since I have been feeling under the weather, but still wanted to do something semi-Halloween related for work today, I decided to go with some classic vampy french tips. Every time I look down at my nails I sort of chuckle, this isn't something that I would normally wear too often on my nails now a days but was COMPLETELY something I would have rocked all the time in High School. lol.

Polishes Used:

-OPI - Nail Envy

-Pure Ice - Scandal

-Kiss - Nail Art Striper - Silver Glitter

-OTD

Very simple and easy, and fun switching things up a bit. I think I get sick of wearing Halloween mani's on myself earlier than most people because my high school colors were black and orange, and my previous place of employment color was orange, so I get over orange pretty early. Although I love seeing all the other ladies awesome halloween mani's and I love that vampy colors stay around all fall and winter. 

Did you do anything special on your nails for Halloween? Were you effected by the "Frankenstorm" at all?

Two Birds - Donner & Blitzen's Snow Prints

I'm back! Sorry for being MIA this weekend. Like I mentioned on Friday, I had a lot going on this weekend.  It was really fun to spend some time with friends that we don't get to see that often.

Over the weekend I received my recent purchase from Two Birds. I ordered two pretty polishes from their holiday collection, Donner & Blitzen's Snow Prints and Santa's Underpants. You can check out their store on etsy here.

Polishes Used:

-OPI - Nail Envy

-Two Birds - Donner & Blitzen's Snow Prints

-Gelous

-OTD

This is a really pretty light white jelly polish with slight shimmer, blue micro glitters, small and medium white hex and a really lovely light blue/robin's egg medium hex. I am wearing 3 coats in these pictures and I think that's the prefect amount of opaque-ness. 

Do you own any Two Birds polishes? Which ones? 

Fall Into Autumn Challenge - Autumn Ombre or Gradient

Happy Friday!

I am posting my FIAC challenge today instead of the normal Saturday because of all the stuff I have going on this weekend. As I mentioned last week, there was some confusion as to what the theme was for these weeks, so I will be showing you my Autumn Gradient but some lovely ladies may be sharing their Halloween mani's.

So I have never been able to get my gradients to turn out right. I thought about just doing an ombre, but I thought, why not get the gradient another good old college try. Well, I guess I am improving, but my skills are NOWHERE near where I wish they were on this. (I do plan to try again though - maybe using a different sponge next time; one that is a little more porous)

Polishes Used:

-Sinful Colors - Hazard

-Sinful Colors - Gogo Girl

-Sinful Colors - Rich In Heart

Hmmm, I don't love this, but I don't hate it. I don't know. I really do like the color combination though and think I may do something with these again, striping perhaps. 

Make sure to check out the other ladies' lovely mani's :)

Target Beauty Bag

Today I got my Target Beauty Bag. I know some of you have yours, and some are still waiting, but here's what it includes:

All of those lovely samples and a packet full of coupons.

If you haven't gotten yours yet, don't worry, it should be coming any day now.

Heads up, this weekend is super busy for me. We are having friends in from out of town on Fri/Sat/Sun, I have a baby shower and Halloween party on Saturday and get to go to the Steelers game on Sunday. It's going to be fun but I may not be able to post. Guess we will see!

Julep - Blake and Color Mates - Glitter Glam

It's Wednesday, halfway through the work week; whoohoo!!!

Today I am wearing one of my new Julep polishes that I got from Essie in her giveaway. Here are some shots of the lovely Blake.

 Polishes Used:
-OPI - Nail Envy
-Julep - Blake
-OTD

For my first Julep polish, I really liked this. I don't have a yellow creme in this color and it was completely opaque in 2 coats.

However, since it is not springtime or a Steeler's day, I decided to spice this up a little with Color Mates - Glitter Glam.

Polishes Added:

-Color Mates - Glitter Glam

-NYC - Matte Me Crazy

I really like how this glitter looks overtop of Blake, however, this application was HORRIBLE. I bought the glitter in a 3 pack at Big Lots, and I guess I will have to say that I got my money's worth. This glitter had awful application and was like painting boogers onto my nails (sorry for the gross comparison). However, the look of the finished matte mani almost makes me forget about the application issues. 

Have you ever had a glitter that sucked? Did you keep it and try to salvage it or did you just throw it away (like I want to)?

Upcycled Mani - Let's Add some Stamping!

I liked my mani from yesterday, and last night I had my plates out, so I decided to add some flair to my mani. It ended up looking a little more Christmas-y than I had anticipated, but that's OK.

Polishes Added:

-Sinful Colors - Snow Me White

-OTD

-BM-321

What do you think? I really like this stamp design and will probably end up using it a lot during the springtime/summertime with some fun bright colors; this looks slightly like snowflakes to me since I used this color combo, and snow is the last thing I want to bring to Pittsburgh!

Short and Sweet today loves!

Essie - Plumberry with Glitter

I hate Monday's. Pretty much every Monday. Always so hard for me to get up and go back to work after the weekends. Once I am at work I don't mind it, but getting out of bed on a Monday morning is just not for me. LOL.

Today I am wearing Essie - Plumberry topped with a homemade glitter :)

Polishes Used:

-OPI - Nail Envy

-Essie - Plumberry

-Homemade Glitter - I haven't named it yet; lol

-OTD

In my photos, I am wearing 2 coats of Plumberry topped with 1 coat of glitter. Last month, I made this glitter during a girls night with my friend Brigitte of Color Me So Crazy. It has baby pink and black micro glitters and small silver hex all in a clear suspension base. Although, I have to say that the pink glitters look silver/gold in this picture. Still cute and simple, and next time I will probably try it over a lighter color like light pink, nude, or white. 

Have you ever made any of your own glitters/polishes?

Super Miscellaneous Sunday Post

Today's post is full of random/miscellaneous stuff; lol.

1). I recently won a giveaway from Essie Rae at I Heart Pretty Polish. The prize was a free Julep box of my choice for this month. Everybody loves winning giveaways, but I do not own any Julep polishes so this was exciting for me. I was able to choose which type of box I wanted to receive from Julep, so I selected It Girl. If you would like to sign up to receive an It Girl box for $19.99/month, you can here.

Here are the polishes that I received:

From Left to Right we have Morgan, Blake & Claire. 

As you can see, I hadn't even removed the polishes from their wrapping because I was so excited to receive them. I love how Julep polishes have girls names for their polish names. These also came with a cute lunchbox size re-usable bag. 

2). My coupon for Born Pretty Store is still good and active, so don't forget to use it when you're shopping for your nail art supplies. 

Also, if 10 of you lovely readers use this code, Born Pretty Store will host a giveaway on my blog; and who doesn't love giveaways!

3). Finally, I have 81 followers on my Facebook Page. I will be having a mini-random drawing for my Facebook followers to win a small prize.  

The prize/drawing is in no way sponsored/supported by Facebook. Just something fun I am doing for the followers. If you don't follow and want to, feel free :)

Happy Sunday Loves!

P.S. Since it's Sunday, and a FOOTBALL day all day long (at my house at least) I will leave you with this :)

Fall Into Autumn Challenge - Halloween

This week there was some confusion on the theme and if it was Autumn Ombre or Halloween, but I went with Halloween because that's what the banner said and I had something in mind. Either way you will get to see a little bit of both from the ladies, and same with next week too.

There have been a lot of fun fall/halloween manicures floating around the blogosphere and Pinterest. I was inspired by this mani done by ThatLeanne.

Polishes Used:

-OPI - Nail Envy

-NYC - Sidewalkers

-Wet 'n Wild - Sunny Side Up

-Kiss Nail Art Striper - White

-Kiss Nail Art Striper - Black

-OTD

-Rhinestones

I made this mani my own by switching up the colors and using the grey and adding rhinestones. I really like how this turned out except that I felt like I was doing it backwards. If I ever do this mani again, I will do the webs on the other side of my nails; it feels like they are facing the wrong direction, if that makes any sense? haha.

What do you think? 

P.S. Here is a list of the upcoming week's themes for the Fall Into Autumn Challenge