Valentine's Day Nails

Blogging from my phone today cause I wanted to show y'all my nail look that I had created for my anniversary and Valentine's Day, our anniversary is 4 days before. I am so happy with the way this came out! When I first got ready to do my nails I had picked out one stamping plate and two nail polishes, I ended up using three stamping plates and four nail polishes. 

The polishes I used were Jamberry and Raspberry Sorbet from Duri Cosmetics, Snow Me White from Sinful Colors and Mer-Magical from Pure Ice. The plates I used were plate F11 from Born Pretty Store; it's one of those French tip plates, Mash-48 I'm pretty sure I got this off Amazon and the last plate is also from Born Pretty Store it is plate number QA91. 

I used Raspberry Sorbet as my base color, I love these Duri polishes they dry super duper fast! On my ring finger I used the LOVE image from QA91 I made a 4 square checkerboard pattern using Jamberry and Snow Me White on the image, scraped it and then stamped it. I used the same technique for all the stamping in this nail look. I took the French tip plate and used the heart pattern and stamped my middle finger and also my thumb. After stamping I felt like there was too much 'blank' space between the stamp and the other part of my nail, so I filled that space in with Mer-Magical for a little bit of sparkle. For my little and index finger I used the Mash plate and stamped heart clusters. 

I am seriously so in love with how this turned out! I don't think I have ever used more than one stamping plate for one nail look, but now that I have I will do that more often. 

I hope y'all enjoyed this as much as I did!  Have a great rest of the weekend :)

Christmas Nail Ideas

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I think I am finally on the mend from this sinus/ear infection! Once I did start feeling better all I wanted to do was my nails LOL and lets just say, I should not do my nails if I'm feeling the least bit out of it.

I wanted to work on some Christmas nail designs/ideas and I knew I had some Christmas decals from Born Pretty and I figured that would be the easiest thing to do to my nails. I had a great idea in my head but I don't think that it transferred over well from my head to my nails. So the first thing I did was start out with a white base (Avon Iceberg) then I did the 'saran wrap' technique on all but my accent nail, using Cherry Merry from Duri Cosmetics. On my accent nail I added a super cute Christmas tree from the Born Pretty decals. I think my issue with this is that it's a whole lot of red and just a hint of green. I'm thinking instead of using red for my other fingers I might should have used green. What do y'all think?

This next Christmas inspired mani is a very simple subtle look that can be created using any nude polish as a base and adding a red, gold, or green glitter to the top. Here I used Shore Bet from Pure Ice for my base and Sinful Colors Gilded for my glitter. It is a beautiful red and gold mix of glitter that gives a little bit of life to the nude polish. I think this would be great for a Holiday wedding or an office party where crazy nail polish is frowned upon.

I have a couple more Christmas themed manis in mind, but not sure if I will get around to doing them before Christmas. I will try my best though :)

Now I'm off to catch up on blogs that I read, I have almost 2 weeks of catching up to do!!

Essence Me & My Lover, Plus More

Happy Friday! Today I have Essence Me & My Lover, courtesy of Lizzy! Love, Love, Love this polish! It comes off as a pinky toned red, hope that makes sense, with gold and what looks to be fuchsia colored glitter. Know what makes it even better?? It's a texture polish, Long Live Textures! The sparkle on this polish is beautiful but my camera did not want to capture it. Didn't help that my regular camera hates any shade of red or pink so I had to use my phone for all the pictures in this post.

Application of this polish was flawless, dried super fast, as I have found with all the Essence polishes I have. I applied 2 thin-ish coats. You can see a hint of the sparkle on my pinky

Me & My Lover reminds me of Ruby Mine by Sinful Colors, it was in their Crystal Crushes collection, I'll do a comparison post in the near future.

Also wanted to show y'all what I have on my toes, because I,m loving it! I used 2 coats of Duri's Peach Buzz, from their Tutti Frutti Collection, and topped it with a coat of Mer-Magical from Pure Ice.

Warning: TOES for those of you that do not like feet/toes ;) so just scroll by really fast to the next part of this post.

Finally today a little Friday Fun! My hubby had all week off from work and he decided to play a little pratical joke on me. I always take my wedding rings off when I do the dishes and I have a habit of forgetting to put them back on as soon as I get done with the dishes, and get caught up in other chores around the house. Well yesterday my hubby locked them up and hid the key from me LOL

I did finally find the key and was able to release my rings! Such a jokester!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend :)

Memorial Day Nails

My plan was to get this up yesterday, but as we all know that did not happen LOL then I was goning to get it posted this morning before I headed out to the event I was attending and I just didn't have the time. Better late than never right :)

I used Cherry Merry and Lucky Strike fom Duri Cosmetics and Snow Me White from Sinful Colors. I painted all my nails, except for my ring fingers white, put down some striping tape and painted them again with Cherry Merry. I used a holographic Color Club polish for my stamping. I would tell you what plate I used, but I'm too tired (lazy) to get up and go see which one it was, if you really want to know let me know in the comments and I'll let you know ;)

I hope you all have had a great weekend! I will be back Monday with a look at the Spring Voxbox from Influenster!

Duri Cosmetics: Tutti Frutti

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I wanted to share the rest of the Tutti Frutti collection with y'all today. This is an awesome collection of 12 polishes for Spring, there is a mix of pinks, reds, oranges and fuchsia shades and they range from light to dark.

The 12 colors Tutti Frutti Collection are:
Jamberry - A bold saturated clear pink
Queen Mangosteen - A deep radiant rich mid-tone lavender pink
Dragon Fruit - A multi-faceted, vivid, bright fuchsia-based pink
Peach Buzz - A modern twist on peach with a bubblegum pink finish
Raspberry Sorbet - A plump berry mash rich in raspberry and pink hues with a hint of rosebud
Plum Seduction - an eccentric high wattage plum-fuchsia matte
Orange Karma - A vibrant exuberant juicy orange
Wild Berry - a cool, clean, moist red berry hue
Strawberry Feeling - a luscious strawberry pink metallic
Cherry Merry -  a ripe, reflective cherry red
Apple Temptation - A bright and light sweet apple candy red
Currant Temper - an addictive raisin-plum with metallic glimmer

Jamberry and Raspberry Sorbet: I really love both of these colors and love the look I was able to create for Valentine's day using them.

Orange Karma and Plum Seduction: Lovely water marble

Water Marble: Duri Cosmetics Orange Karma & Plum Seduction

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The past couple days we have had warmer weather and it's making me long for Spring even more so I thought I would do a fun and colorful mani that would look great for the spring and summer. I used Orange Karma and Plum Seduction from Duri Cosmetics 2014 Summer collection called Tutti Frutti.

Orange Karma is a gorgeous bright orange cream polish and Plum Seduction is a beautiful Fuchsia-Purplely color that dries to a matte finish. Plum Seduction reminds me a lot of Sinful Colors Dream On, need to do a comparison post on them.

I will have to say Orange Karma worked great as a water marbling polish, but Plum Seduction did not and I think it was just because it's a matte finish and it dries quicker than regular polishes. Overall I like the finished look that I got.

Please excuse the cell phone photo, my regular camera hated these colors and would not cooperate to save my life. I seriously took over 30 photos of this nail look and the was the best photo out of the bunch.

Duri Cosmetics nail polishes can be purchased online for $6 a bottle.

Valentine's Day Nails

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♥♥♥Happy Valentine's Day♥♥♥

Valentine's Day, the perfect day to break out all the pink nail polish, what am I talking about any day is a good day for pink polish! My Valentine's Day mani features two new polishes from Duri Cosmetics Tutti Frutti Spring/Summer 2014 collection, Raspberry Sorbet and Jamberry.

Jamberry, I want to say is a baby pink by just looking at the bottle, but it's just a little bit darker looking on the nails. It's a cream polish that dries super fast. When I first applied this as my base color I didn't really like it, but the longer I wear it the more I like it. I think it would look cute on the toes for spring.

Raspberry Sorbet is a super pretty, darker pink color, that in my opinion looks like it could possibly be a jelly polish, I will need to experiment with it a little bit more. This one took a little longer than Jamberry to dry, but I love it!

Another thing that I love about all they Duri polishes I've tried is that they all dry with a nice shiny finish to them. I do apply a top coat over it just to protect my mani though. All Duri polishes retail for $6.00 and are available at Duri.com as well as salons and specialty stores nationwide. Duri polishes are also free from DBP, Toluene and Formaldehyde.

On to the mani! Like I said I used Jamberry for my base color then I used Raspberry Sorbet to stamp cute little hearts on using Mash plate number 48. Even though I smudged my hearts a little I still really love this mani, I just think it's really cute and so appropriate for Valentine's Day.

No Flash

With Flash

What kind of manicure did you do for Valentine's Day? Any plans for VDay?
Hubby and I already celebrated VDay when we celebrated our wedding anniversary on the 10th! I think today we will just go out and play in the snow :)

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Review: KKCenterHK Rubber Stamping Plate

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I have seen these rubber stamping plates while browsing on the web and I had always wondered about them, so I decided to give one a try. I got the N.NAIL Heart Rainbow Kiss Star Flower Footprint Soft Stamping from KKCenterHK. The tops of the plates are made of plastic and then the bottom side of the plates are made of soft rubber. 

These plates work a little different from the metal ones, you still apply polish directly to the plate, but instead of using a scraper you just wipe the whole plate across a paper towel to get rid of the excess polish. I had to wipe the plate a couple of times to ensure that all the excess was gone, but I still ended up with what looks like smudge marks on my nails from a little bit that was left on the plate that I could not get off. After you have wiped the plate off you take the plate and use it as your stamper to stamp the design on your nail.

I feel like I need a little more practice with these types of plates before I can get my stamping to look good. Just like when I started stamping using the metal plates, I needed practice for that too :) I will say I like these rubber plates because I feel like there is less clean up, you don't have to bothering with scrapping it with the scrapper then cleaning that off each time, then having to clean the plate and the stamper. Much easier to have it all in one. I would also recommend that before using the plate you take a Q-tip with some polish remover on it and give it a good swipe to get any lint off that may be clinging to it.

Here is the look I got with my very first time using this plate. I'm sure you will be seeing me use this plate in more nail art posts.

Base color is Duri Grey Area and for my stamping I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Have you used stamping plates like this before?

Take 10% off your order with coupon code SBB2013

Duri Truth or Dare 2013 Collection Part 3

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Today I am back with my the final part of the Duri Truth or Dare 2013 Collection review/swatches.

Just in case you missed part one and or two of my series: If you are not familiar with Duri Cosmetics they were established in 1990 and carry over 200 shades of nail color, nail and hand treatments as well as some depilatory supplies. These products can be found in spas, salons and purchased on Duri's website.

Duri was nice enough to send the entire 2013 Truth or Dare Collection out to me, to try and review. Today I will be sharing the last four shades from the collection with you; Berry Vague, Murky Answer, Grey Area and Lucky Strike

Up first today is Berry Vague, a gorgeous berry toned creme polish. I am in love with this polish, I think berry shades are great for fall and winter and would look fabulous with some gold glitter accents! I would like to point out I have 2 coats of this polish on all fingers except my middle finger, I smudged it so I just added another coat to smooth it out. I personally think it looks better with 3 coats. The only issue I had with this polish was the cleanup, as you can see from my cuticles. I have a hard time cleaning up colors of this shade.

Up next is Murky Answer, I really love this shade! It is a purpleish grey creme color, my swatch is showing up a little more on the brown side :/ This is with 2 coats. I also think this one would look good with gold glitter.

Now we have Grey Area, which is like the name says, a Grey creme polish. I really like grey polishes in the fall and winter because it's a great alternative to black. You get a nice wintry color that's not so harsh looking. If you haven't already noticed I love glitter/shimmer in my polish, so in the 2nd photo of this color I added some pink glitter just to show how you can play up this polish. Each photo is 2 coats of Grey Area.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Lucky Strike a beautiful shade of blue. In the bottle I can see a hint of blue shimmer, but it did not transfer well on to my nails. If I was out in the sun I could get a very slight hint of the blue shimmer on my nails but not a lot. In any case this is still a gorgeous polish and quite unexpected in for a fall color, but I really like it!

I love the quality of these polishes, and for $6 each I think you are getting a great product! The all go on your nails so smoothly, they all have rich colors to them, and my favorite things about them are how fast they dry and how incredible shiny they are!

What color(s) was your favorite from the collection? Mine would be Berry Vague and Grey Area.

Thanks again to Duri for letting me try out this collection!

Duri Truth or Dare 2013 Collection Part 2

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Today I am back with Part 2 of my series on the Duri Truth or Dare collection. I am still loving these polishes and all the great colors. Just for an FYI my camera does not like pink or red colors, I adjusted some of the settings when taking the photos for a few of these polishes in a effort to get the most accurate color of the polish as I could, so if my skin or the grass in the background looks a little off, please disregard that and just focus on the fabulous colors in this collection :)

L-R Coral Start, Fuschia Finish, Question Mark, Double Dare

Just in case you missed part one of my series: If you are not familiar with Duri Cosmetics they were established in 1990 and carry over 200 shades of nail color, nail and hand treatments as well as some depilatory supplies. These products can be found in spas, salons and purchased on Duri's website.

Duri was nice enough to send the entire 2013 Truth or Dare Collection out to me, to try and review. Today I will be sharing four more shades from the collection with you; Coral Start, Fuschia Finish, Question Mark and Double Dare.

Coral Start is one of the prettiest coral colors I have seen. It's a creme polish and goes on really smooth, I did have to apply 3 coats of this so my nail line was not visible and with as quick as this polish dries that was not a problem. My swatch below came out way more orange that it actually is. The bottle shot above gives the accurate color.

 

Up next is one of my favorites from this collection and is currently on my toes, is Fuschia Finish. It is a gorgeous fuschia/berry creme color that I think would make a good spring or summer shade, it's just so bright and vibrant. I also think this would be a good alternative to red during the Holidays. Was opaque in 2 coats.

Next is Question Mark, a deep berry colored creme polish. I will be using this shade a lot this fall and winter. I think it would look great with some gold nail art or a gold accent nail. Swatch is 2 coats with no top coat. It was a little difficult to clean up, but I have that issue with most berry colored polishes. It's just a beautiful shade and I can't get over how shiny these polishes are without a topcoat! 

Last one for this post is called Double Dare. If you are in the market for a classic red creme polish for the Holiday season I highly recommend this one, opaque in just 2 coats and such a beautiful shade of red. This is more of a true red in person.

Next Monday I will be bringing you the final four colors from this collection; Grey Area, Murky Answer, Lucky Strike and Berry Vague. 

Duri Truth or Dare 2013 Collection: Part 1

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Welcome to a new mini series I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks! I will be showcasing the 2013 Truth or Dare Collection from Duri Cosmetics!

If you are not familiar with Duri Cosmetics they were established in 1990 and carry over 200 shades of nail color, nail and hand treatments as well as some depilatory supplies. These products can be found in spas, salons and purchased on Duri's website.

Duri was nice enough to send the entire 2013 Truth or Dare Collection out to me, to try and review. Today I will be sharing four shades from the collection with you; Sheer Bluff, Naked Truth, Pink Player and Lilac Liar.

L-R Sheer Bluff, Naked Truth, Pink Player, Lilac Liar

All four of these polishes went on like a dream, very smooth. I did not have any issues with balding of the polish or with it running down and filling my cuticles. I was really impressed with the formula, not only for the aforementioned reasons, but also because it dries super quick, we're talking 5 minutes! The finish is super shiny, in my swatches I did not add any topcoat and each swatch was with 2 coats of polish.

Let's take a look at the colors!

First up Sheer Bluff I'm gonna call this a gray lavender. It is a nude gray color but it has a hint of lavender to it, which did not show up in my photo, beautiful color. The only thing I did not like about this polish is that in the bottle you can see tiny flakes of gold/brown shimmer, but it did not show up when I painted my nails.

Naked Truth is a very pale, pastel pink cream polish. It's is a very delicate looking pink, would be great for a wedding!

Pink Player is a rosy colored pink cream polish. When I put this on the first thing I thought of was my Grandma, it's a very pretty color and something that she would totally wear on her nails.

The last color for today is Lilac Liar, also a cream color. To me this is a pink shade that leans toward purple, I don't really have a good way to explain the color, but I really like it! Beautiful color for spring.

I also want to comment on the packaging, I'm a sucker for unique or interesting packaging. Duri's polishes are bottled in a square shaped glass bottle that features the company name on all four sides. I really like it because it is raised up off the bottle just a little, which is not something I have not seen with any other company. I just think it looks really classy.

The brush is just a standard polish brush. There were no stray bristles and they were all even.

Duri polish comes in a .5fl oz bottle and retails for $6.00

Can't wait to see the rest of my swatches from the collection? Be sure to check back next Monday when I will be showing Coral Start, Fuschia Finish, Double Dare and Question Mark!