Loving gel top coat..

So last night, after my crazy two year old went off to bed I decided to do a nice design on my red nails. Right after I was done with my nails my body was too tired to wait for them to dry and I fell asleep. I woke up with my nails stuck to my hair, not a pretty sight =/ I didn't want to put another coat of just a regular top coat because I was afraid it was going to take a long time to dry and I do have that little two year old running around. lol So I decided to use a gel top coat and dry it with the uv lamp. Not only did the gel fixed all imperfections that where caused by me falling asleep last night but it made the polish extra shiny and it dried in a minute! Ready to start the day looking after my little terror :) The gel top coat is not a very well known brand, I got it on ebay from this seller:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=electronichomesland&ftab=AllFeedback&myworld=true


Bad pic alert!

Finding Fimo

So since I spotted a fimo nail art post in Chloe's Nails blog, I've been hooked. I've ordered up a ton and once I get a new idea in my head, another bumps my current mani right out. So my hands are super dry from all the nail polish removing, but it's so worth it - because this is fun!! Here's my newest fimo combo. China Glaze's "Shower Together" base coat, and Sinful Colors "Nail Junkie" as french tips. Nail Junkie is one of the neatest glitter swatches out there, as I previously swatched on top of a nice aqua Ulta base called Dance Teal Dawn last year.

So here is my creation of the day. My "Aloha, Bitches" french mani lol (have you seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall? It's totally a reference to the film)

3 Days Left To Win Deborah Lippmann And Nfu Oh Polishes!!! 75 Followers Gets Extra Prize!

Spread the word! 3 days left to enter and be eligible to win Deborah Lippmann's Razzle Dazzle, and Nfu Oh's 59.

And if we reach our goal of 75 followers, we will also be adding a swatch by Zoya. That'll be a surprise.

So please make your way to our original giveaway post, and sign up before it's too late! And stick around because another giveaway will be going on next month!!

http://apolishedlife.blogspot.com/2011/02/polished-lifes-first-giveaway-nfu-oh-59.html

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things ( Julie )

I was arranging my polishes out of boredom, and started to get creative and take photos of some really beautiful swatches. I grouped them according to type/color/glitter/flakes/etc and made it a bit artsy fartsy....check it out.

Which do you like best? Are there any here that you didn't know about? Any you might want to get your hands on?

(please click on the images to view them in all their glory!)

First grouping are my purples/indigos/eggplants/magentas/etc:

Zoya - Zara, Zoya - Deidra, OPI - Merry Midnight, Barry M - Dusky Mauve, Barry M - Indigo, Sinful Colors - Frenzy, Nubar - Violet Sparkles, Nicole for OPI - Step 2 The Beat of My Heart, Nfu Oh - 51

Next are my HEXAGON Glitters:

Deborah Lippmann - Today Was A Fairytale, Wet & Wild FastDry - Party of 5 Glitters, NYC - Starry Silver Glitter, China Glaze - Solar Flare, Hard Candy - Break Up, Hard Candy - Hot Pants, Deborah Lippmann - Ruby Red Slippers, Deborah Lippmann - Bad Romance, Nfu Oh - GS 05

And now for some Silver/Grey Swatches:

China Glaze: Fairy Dust, Zoya - Luna, China Glaze - Recycle, Deborah Lippmann - Today Was A Fairytale, Nubar - Antiquity Silver, China Glaze - Platinum Silver, Piggy Polish - Grey-T, Laura Mercier - Sterling, Nfu Oh - GS 05, Color Club - High Society

Care for some Powdery Pinks/Neutrals?

Barry M - Pink Iridescent, Zoya - Brenna, China Glaze - Innocence, Orly - Tie The Knot, OPI - Heart Throb, Essie- Pink Glove Service

And Last- this is for you, Erika- AVATAR swatches-

China Glaze - Dorothy, Who?, Piggy Polish - Navy I'm Right, China Glaze - Frost Bite, Chi - Midnight Rendezvous, Barry M - Indigo

It's bouquet with me by OPI for Sephora

I bought this a couple of weeks ago, but never really got a chance to use it yet. I havent been in the most creative moods lately when it comes to my nail polish, I can thank school for that one..

I used this on top of Zoya Icicle( 3 coats) and then 2 coats of IBWM. It prolly would have came out a bit denser with 3 coats, but I think 2 is pretty good for me.



I need to get out of this polish funk and start doing something like Julie, Renee, and Tammy and change it up!

Fimo Butterflies For The Ring fingers! SO cute (Julie & Tammy)

I found these on eBay, came out to about $3.00 and they arrived the next day...no joke! I just ordered a bunch more. They're made from fimo clay. These are butterflies, but there are also fruit slices, hearts, stars, flowers, animals, etc. I got mine from a seller in NY, but it seems most are based out of Asia. So if you're in the US and are looking to get them sooner, try this link.

This is what Tammy did - a nice bright pink by OPI with a blue fimo butterfly-

And I did Indigo by Barry M, a blue/black butterfly, and a top coat of China Glaze Golden Enchantment

Here it is blurred so you can see the rainbow sparkles:

Oh and don't forget - there are only 4 days left to sign up for our Nfu Oh & Deborah Lippmann giveaway! So get on moving to that post and enter!!

:)

Walgreen finds(erika)

Last weekend I took a trip to Walmart with my mom. I was hoping to see if they had any Hard Candy left. Now I am aware of how the walmart is around my grandmother's. Well walmart did shock me when I went into the cosmetics aisle. They had... 2 colors. Sky blue( which i own already) and this horrid yellow. Blech. So I ended up going home with nail polish remover and cotton(whoa, big spender here). Right next to the walmart is a Walgreen's. I went in, and saw a Wet n Wild display. And literally grabbed the last 5 colors they had. In no order in particular:
Buffy the violet slayer, Gray's anatomy, Hannah Pinktana, Party of five glitters, and Blue wants to be a millionaire. I was shocked they had Party of five glitters as It seems to be hard to find from a few bloggers.

Party of five glitters, this one is insane with glitter

Hannah Pinktana, awful name- beautiful pink

Buffy the Violet Slayer, this one was hard to photograph but this is as close as I could get it to look. Gorgeous purple! And Gray's Anatomy. This is a great dupe for Zoya Ki and Deborah's Lippmans Wicked game.

And last but not least, Blue wants to be a millionaire. This is a hard one to describe. I would say that its par with the Milani Prisms. I own Cyber space, and its almost the same color but this one is not as much as blue. 

Now the only reason I left with five nail polishes is because A- Who the hell will know if and when I find them again and B) it is Wet n Wild, super cheap. These are 1.99$ and the colors are amazing. Now will they chip faster, who knows. But for 2$ I really do not care. So ladies (and guys) if you see these in the store grab them, they are selling out fast! Believe me! Now I'm aware my blogging has slowed but I will be back with my past few manicures. Tisk, I know..so lazy!

Week 2 in recovery (Renee)

While at home recovering, (and let me tell you, it gets old FAST) I decided to give myself another manicure (it's amazing how nail polish chips off, even when you aren't being super active!). Disclaimer: any resemblance of this manicure to anyone's, living or dead, is strictly coincidental ^_~
It's my first time doing such an intricate design, but since nail design is HUGE in Japan, I decided to try it for myself (trust me, it gets SUPER crazy here, including 3D plastic objects and other things). My design is much tamer, though I have to take a pic of the nails I bought on here sometime.

I started with a Jordana salon formula in frosted pink that I had totally forgotten about. What's nice about this polish is it contains the powder of actual pearls (or so the label states) which gives it a natural and pretty pearly sheen.
Next, I used Maybelline Express Finish Glitters (remember those?) in Mandarin Mars to put on the tips in a triangle twist on the french manicure design. I have some more Maybelline Express colors, I just need that polish reviver and I'll be busting them out ::winks at Erika::
Then I put dots of NYC polyester pink on the tips, and above I painted hearts. They may look like the same color, but they're not, the middle is red and the two sides are dark pink.
Finally, as gel nails are really popular here, I used a gel-look topcoat from Japanese brand Coffret D'or, mabe by Kanebo (though it's hard to see in the pic.)

To make my designs, I use a nail brush that I bought here for the equivalent of a whole dollar! Even better, the brush actually comes apart and snaps into itself, making it much more portable.
The lighting in the pic is casting some weird dark shadows on my fingers..0_0

I'll be back again soon with beauty tips!

Pink n Purple Polka Dots (Tammy)

My very first post... :)he-he

My nails are wrapped in acrylic in this picture, since I have been experimenting with all of that because my nails ALWAYS break if not wrapped. But since then I have changed to gel and I am in love. I think acrylic is harder to apply.
Anyway, that day I was in the mood for dots. I hadn't really tried to do it and didn't really know how to but the first thing that came to my head was tooth picks. I applied one coat of Nailtiques Nail Protein Formula 2, two coats of pink (I had just got it from Julie :)). I cut the tip off the tooth pick because I wanted a decent size dot, put some purple nail polish on a napkin and dipped the tooth pick in it. It took me a couple of dot mess ups to get it right but I liked the end result. After a day and a nail accident, I decided to reverse the colors on the index fingernail. I actually liked it better this way.

Colors:
Pink: China Glaze - Strawberry Fields
Purple: Eva - Purple (Didn't use a big name nail polish.)

Sorry for the crappy pic but don't have a really good camera yet ;)

Sunday Manicures With The Ladies (Julie)

I brought my big old Caboodles full of polish (& then some) over to mom's today so we could do nails. Myself, my sister-in-law Tammy, and mom.

Tammy is a big Nfu-oh fan, mainly the flakies - so she used 2 coats of 056 on top of a pretty sparkly green by Confetti.

Mom likes pink, always has! So we did Razzle by OPI - and blinged out her ringfingers with Nfu-oh GS 04

And last, I am really on a red kick - so used my favorite Ulta red, and used OPI Shatter on my ringfinger, and a little jewel to top it off.

Hooker Red French Manicure For A Party In NYC Tonight! (Julie)

I just felt it was appropriate- it's been a while since I glammed up. Today, in the mail, came my order from fabuloustreet.com for NFU oh GS14 which is almost always sold out! I had already done my nails a nice candy-apple hooker red (Ulta professional - I call it my hooker red because I can never remember the name of it!) for tonight's events, and I *really* wanted to use the new Nfu Oh, so I got a little innovative, and broke out my french mani strips and voila! Hooker red/sparkly french manicure was born! And NOW i'm ready to go out :)

Oh and pleeease don't forget to sign up for our giveaway! 9 days left!!! See older posts for details.

***This look was inspired by Chloe's Nails -an incredibly talented artist (who I can see I share a lot of creative visions with!) She does so many glitter-tastic manis, and french tips, and her photos are so beautiful! Please do check out her blog if you're not already a subscriber!

Manicure for Grandma (erika)

Its my grandma's 73rd birthday in a few days and she is one of those woman who hardly do anything for themselves, she is just one of those kind of people who does everything for other people and nothing for herself.


Last night I went home for the weekend and I saw her nails, let me tell you folks it was not a pretty sight! I told her I was giving her a manicure and wasnt taking no for an answer. Luckily I had some manicure things with me, and she picked Nubar "Jewel" (that was given to me by the lovely Julie) which was kind of surprising to me. She usually picks colors like pink..pink or pink.
                                                               Here are the results!

My manicure of the week is coming up!

A Vat of Vite and Essie's Mesmerize (Julie)

Wandered into Diamond Beauty Supply today in Oceanside, NY and saw something I've never seen before. A vat of Vite. For $19.99. 4 fl. oz, and a regular sized .5 oz. vite came in the set! And a little funnel for easy refilling. What a great buy! It's basically for the price of 3 Seches (they're normally $6 to $7 each + tax here) you get 9! Did I do that math right? lol.

And after little self-convincing, I also picked up a bottle of Mesmerize by Essie. What an incredible color and formula. It only needed 1 coat on top of CND Stickey base coat for full and bright coverage.

It's slightly similar to Barry M's Indigo, only this is much bluer. In the bottle, Mesmerized appeared to be a softer more powdery blue, but when applied, proved to be more boastful, which was a pleasant surprise.

If my fingers look odd, it's because my middle nail chipped on the side so it looks REALLY off.

And here is Zoya's Sparkle top coat that I LOVE! Had to bling this up.

Oh! I swatched the Cult Nails "Iconic" and just added to the old post, so you can see my swatches of this fabulous brand here. Also want to mention that on my 3rd day of wear, there was still not even one little chip!! Amazing long-lasting formula. Kudos, Cult!

And don't forget to enter our absolutely free to enter and free to win contest for a bottle of NFU Oh 59, AND Deborah Lippmann's Razzle Dazzle. With such a small group of followers, there's a huge chance you could be the winner. You have nothing to lose so please enter! Click here! Giveaway ends Feb 28th. Winner announced March 1st at 1pm est. time.

Ohayo (Good Morning!) Polished Fans (Renee)

Been away a bit due to a foot surgery, and yesterday I decided to give myself a much needed manicure :)
All polishes I used are Japanese drugstore brands except the nail decals (Broadway Nail Art.)  Nothing too fancy, but I created a simple yet elegant look that is easy to re-create!

First, I coated my nails with basecoat.  Then I applied two coats of beige polish, to give a nude natural look.  Then I painted the tips with dark pink polish, painted the border between the pink and beige with a thin line of gold glitter with a nail art brush, put flower decals on my ring fingers and thumbs, and topped it off with two coats of clear coat.

Now, forgive me if this is late, (remember, surgery and the fact that there are no Sephoras in Japan) for all those ladies who love everything Kawaii (cute) I found the Hello Kitty for Sephora line, including nail polish!  The packaging is to die for cute, and the color swatches look really good too.  Here's the Sephora stock photo:

Pink Sprinkles looks so pretty!  I might have to nab me some..
Until next time polished fans!

A Polished Life's FIRST GIVEAWAY! CONTEST CLOSED March 1

Hellllllo everyone! We are thrilled that we are slowly (but surely) getting followers. So to celebrate, we are offering our very first nail polish giveaway. If this is a success, we hope to have more giveaways once a month or so, so stay tuned.

The giveaway will be two gorgeous high-end nail polish brands. Deborah Lippmann, and South Korea's infamous NFU Oh.

**NEW - IF WE REACH 75 FOLLOWERS BY THE CONTEST END DATE, WE WILL THROW IN A MYSTERY NAIL POLISH BY ZOYA!!!**

Our own photos are soon to follow - but for now, here are some stock photos!

Here is a close-up of Razzle Dazzle :)

We invite our current followers and future followers to join and enter to win these beauties.

RULES:

- Follow our blog AND leave a comment on this post with your e-mail address so we can contact you if you are the winner (IMPORTANT!)
- Enter the contest before 12am, March 1st (eastern US time)
- (optional) Comment on any other old blog post of ours, and we will enter your name TWICE!
- A winner will be picked utilizing random.org on March 1st, and the winning results will be posted in a new blog post at 1pm eastern US time that same day. The winner will be contacted for their address, and their items will be shipped out immediately following.

- International entries are welcome, and encouraged!

(we will delete your comments from this post after the contest has expired, for the safety of all parties e-mail addresses and such, but we do recommend that you put spaces and/or dots when you post your e-mail address here, to bypass spambots)

Valentine's day nails (erika)

So as promised from last nights blog, here is my valentine's day look.

 

Using the flash.. good but also bad...(grrr tip wear!!)

Yes, I know the picture isn't the best, but after taking about 15 pictures I gave up. I know.. terrible, a nail polish quitter. 

I do have something to confess, that may shock you. I really do not like valentine's day, or how my family mispronounces it every time "valentime's day". You would think that a person who loved chocolate, hearts, and the color red would go lady gaga over it. But alas, I could care less. Can you tell I didn't receive a lot of valentines as child..or hugs for that matter?

But this is a great excuse to swatch my new China Glaze "ruby pumps" from their Wizard of Oz series. I have Dorothy Who? the amazing blue sparkly masterpiece, so I knew that the red would not disappoint. I added a simple white outlined heart, just something simple and classic. Like moi of course;)

I am going to (finally) do a blog about my recent stashes that I have acquired over the past month. I used to be one of those people who hated "hauling" I felt like it was just plain showing off, but now I know its just a way to show the new polishes that are out there, to drool over of course, ha ha.

But alas, I must go, but I do promise a haul blog! Ta ta for now:)