The Nail Junkie Spring Matte Pastel polish line Part 1 !!!! Violet matte

I have such an exciting post today!

My friend and fellow blogger, Aleta (TheNailJunkie.Com), has started her own line of nail polish (thanks to TONS of peer pressure... a lot from me but oh well you won't blame me when you see them!). Her first line is made up of Rose, Violet, and Daffodil pastel matte finish polishes, 5-color grass green fine glitter top coat, and matte top coat, ALL FOR SPRING!

I opened this up to a TON of goodies! Each bottle of polish was packaged in it's own bag filled with plastic grass tinsel, 3 rose scented glittery wax melts, felt nail polish remover wipes, handmade (my fave) hand (or body) sugar scrub, lilac scented oil spray, and a certificate of authenticity with the owner's name and their set number of the batch! I was lucky enough to get set #2, and especially lucky to see this line go from just ideas and colors on a spreadsheet to these GORGEOUS packages she makes up for sale :)!!!! Great job Aleta I am so excited for everything else you will put out in the future! 

So... on to the close ups!

Certificate of Authenticity (lists owner's name, # in lot, contents of package w/ detailed descriptions)

Felt nail remover wipes, she gives you a nice thick stack :) maybe 16-20 wipes?

3 mini rose scented pink and red glittery wax melts (if you don't have a wax/tart warmer most dollar stores sell them for... well... a dollar!)

The individual baggies with the plastic grass and polish. Pictured is,

Daffodil: Highly pigmented buttery yellow with a matte finish (this is my favorite color I LOVE IT!)

Lilac scented oil spray, great on the cuticles!

All of the polish!

Top L-R: Grass Green Glitter Topper, Matte Topper
Bottom L-R: Violet (Aleta named it after MY baby Violet! Thank you again!), Rose, and Daffodil... all matte.

Another shot of the bottles and their ADORABLE little diamond gems on top of the lids :)

Now the first of the matte pastels in this set that I want to show you...

VIOLET!!!!!!! Aleta is so sweet she told me a little secret while she was making these colors, that the Violet one was to be named so because of MY daughter Violet! I absolutely LOVE that she did that and THANK YOU SO MUCH ALETA! I will be sure to put this in Violet's polish stash ;)

The mattes in this line REALLY reminded me, especially in formula, to ManGlaze. You have gorgeous noticable texture and shimmer but you get a nice textured finish. Now the matte texture to these, I'd say would be in between the ManGlaze polishes and the Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love matte top coat... maybe closest to the ELF matte top coat. Not satiny but not dusty textured (that sounds bad but its best I could describe haha and it looks awesome)... so it was right in the middle nice and fluid when applied and dried in the same time as any matte finish I own.

These truly have an almost VINTAGE look to them, I suppose that is the pastel shade... but I love them... speaking unbiased I swear!

This is just 2 coats of Violet and no base or top coat.

This is 2 coats of Violet, and 1 coat of Matte Topper on the ring and little fingers only, no base coat on any.

1 coat of grass green glitter... LOVING the even coverage.

a coat of INM Out The Door top coat over the glitter, which after trying the others... I really didn't need!

If you like what you have seen in The Nail Junkie's Spring Nail Polish line set, you can purchase your own, but go quickly (you can click anywhere in this paragraph to go to the purchasing page) because they are selling QUICK! The set sells for $50 and Aleta will donate $5 from each set to the women's charity Women For Women (womenforwomen.org)! DO NOT MISS OUT ON THIS INDIE SET! Especially if you love matte finish nail polish!

Next post will feature the other two matte finish pastels, Daffodil and Rose!!!!!!

Take care,

14 Day children's Challenge - DAY 14!! LAST DAY! For my Violet...

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY OF MY 14 DAY CHALLENGE!!!!!! This was a hard one to finish, it really WAS a challenge.

So for the last day...
DAY 14 - A special mani for your child <3

Just a few days ago I received a surprise from my friend Destany (Confessions Of A Sarcastic Mom blogger), she sent a bottle of WnW - Buffy The Violet Slayer and a franken (handmade polish) she made for Violet called You're Turning Violet, Violet!  How awesome is she!!??!??!?! I decided to use these two for my special Violet mani :)

I wanted two do a two tone chevron, maybe make them blend but then wouldn't that be a gradient!? So scratched the blend and went with just the two toned chevron topped off with a single coat of NK glitter Magic with a green to blue shift in color, and I freehanded some cursive lettering to spell out VIOLET.

I also got some FANTASTIC news today! About a month ago I was nominated for the local My Choice Voice awards (a local award program held by our newspaper where any US resident could vote for the Lehigh Valley's [Pennsylvania] best blogs) under the Misfits: Defying Categorization and the Style Scene category! Well.... I WON THE STYLE SCENE CATEGORY! YAY! Thanks to my friend Traci for letting me know or I would have missed it! (Click on this paragraph and it will take you to the listing in my newspaper's website!)

14 Day children's Challenge - DAY 13! Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings The Blues

For Day 13 of the children's nail art/color challenge I really had a tough time, even more so than the others, because Violet is only months old so I really couldn't go off of my spreadsheet list of polish I have...

Day 13 - Youngest child's age (go off of your list of nail polish and choose the number corresponding with their age)

Since Violet is only 7 months old I decided to go with my most recent polish since I haven't had a chance yet to add it to my list of what I own; Deborah Lippmann - Lady Sings The Blues

Lady Sings The Blues is an AMAZING glitter, I got solid coverage in 2 coats! I love love love the dark navy jelly base, the base is loaded with fine and medium sized hexagonal silver glitter and pale blue hexagonal glitter. Super easy to apply and no issues with glitter removal either. This is my 2nd favorite Deborah Lippmann I own :) (#1 is my newest yet to arrive, Ray of Light... its a flakie polish!)

These are both with NO top coat :)

ALSO... have you seen the new ZOYA Share The Love? https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/0102AA72 if you sign up under someone's link (this is mine), they get points to buy $off and you get $5 coupon and of course an account to share the love yourself and receive points!

Take care,

14 Day children's Challenge - DAY 12! Violet loves green beans!

Here we are on DAY 12 (2 days left) of the challenge and I was yet again stumped as to what to do! Where is my head lately with nail art ideas!? haha

DAY 12 - Child's Favorite Food...

All of yesterday I really gave some thought to Violet's favorite food, obviously it is a pureed food or formula since she has no teeth and is only 7 months old heh, and really the only food she gets super excited over and eats a whole jar in a sitting... is GREEN BEANS (peaches are a close second though)!

You know what that means?! She is JUST like her mommy :) (hey thats me!) and loves green beans (especially the country cooked ones from Cracker Barrel restaurants OM NOM NOM NOM)

So instead of just doing green bean pods I wanted to do what it looks like before she eats it... mushy and green gloppy goodness! haha honestly it doesnt taste or smell bad... it just looks that way haha. The coolest way (and really the only way i could justify a nail art for pureed food) is the "watercolor" technique. This is done by putting a base color on in say 2 coats, and then another coat after its dried, of a different color... then taking a wider art brush dipped in acetone/remover, you run it down the nail until the bottom color shows through. I saw the idea elsewhere but my friend Jacki at Adventures In Acetone found me another blog (polishfixation.blogspot.com) that described how to do this different effect!

Here is what her green beans looks like...

 OM NOM NOM NOM GREEN BEANS!!!!!!!!!! mushy mushy mushy green beans! haha

Here is just 2 coats ULTA Limelight, used for the base color.

2 coats of Orly Jungle Love, over Limelight

2 coats of Orly Jungle Love, over Limelight... slightly can see through it.

I then used my fan brush dipped in acetone remover to make cuticle to nail tip strokes in different directions and sometimes just the tip of the fan brush was used.

This is the GREEN BEANS mani finished, no top coat.

again.. GREEN BEANS mani finished, no top coat.

and here is the green bean princess herself!!! with a green bean 'stache!!!

YUMMMIES!

Take care,

14 Day children's Challenge - DAY 11! Violet's Fave Animal...

Doing the nail art for this mani last night was a lot harder than I anticipated, only because I kept having to get up and put Violet back to bed, she was sooooo fussy last night. Thank goodness it only lasted about 2 hours but still, I am exhausted!

Here it is... DAY 11 - Your Child's Favorite Animal

Well since Violet is only 7 months old she doesn't really see many animals often other than Thing 1 and Thing 2 (our two turtles), Peeta (the fish), and Muffin (our cat)... all others she just sees in passing or her puppy when we visit my mom. So I would have done the turtles because she really enjoys when I put them in some water in the bathtub and she can watch them swim around, but I already did that for her wall art day.. so Mufffin it was!

One thing I did learn, my cat Muffin, is a great model for art haha he sat so nice for me while I modeled this art off of his coat patterns :)

First here is a picture of Muffin and Violet from Christmas so you have an idea what he looks like...

The way I showed off Muffin in this art, I needed a background... I REALLY wanted to show off my newest Lacquistry polish NAMED AFTER ME!!!!!! It's called Casandra's Peacock and you can purchase this from the Lacquistry Etsy shop it is part of her core line of colors! ( I will be doing a full mani with this after the challenge, its so nice you gotta wear it twice or thrice or so on! haha)

For this cat art I used 2 coats of OPI - Alpine Snow, and black and peach acrylic paint for the nose and features, and China Glaze - Stone Cold for his black patches and spots, lastly 1 coat of an unnamed blue jelly from H&M for the background, 1 coat of Casandra's Peacock over that blue jelly... THEN, I topped off JUST the background with Nubar Diamont top coat, and I topped off JUST Muffin with Hard Candy - Matte-ly In Love matte top coat to show some fluffy textured look for him. It kind of worked... maybe if I had a better matte top coat! I only used 1 brush for this, a thin nail art brush not a striper though.

So........... HERE IS Violet's favorite animal, our cat Muffin, in front of a beautiful background of Casandra's Peacock by Lacquistry....

Here is another shot of Violet and her buddy Muffin... (sorry it is blurry I caught this with the web cam)

 Take care,

Hunger Games Midnight showing nails!

Tonight I will continue the 14 Day Nail Art/Color Challenge but I forgot to show off my nails from Thursday night's Hunger Games midnight showing mani!

I totally went "Capitol" to the premiere with gold and pink eyeshadow and gold lips, and my nails had 2 coats of China Glaze - Fast Track (from the Colors of the Capitol Hunger Games collection), inverted triangle french is China Glaze - Smoke and Ashes (from the same collection), and then on each ring finger I had used the "newspaper transfer" method where you can also use a paper with an inkjet printing (what I did) to put mockingjay pin silhouettes on them!, and then topped every nail with the inverted triangle french tip with Luxe & Lush (also from the same collection)!

China Glaze - Fast Track is sooooo pretty, (I have heard it compared to Essence color & go - Irreplaceable [which I own], and in comparison the Irreplaceable is a lot more frosty and less glass fleck-y haha) its a pale creamy looking beige with golden glass flecks in it that reaaaaally pop it out.  Smoke and Ashes is also another glass fleck in the collection where it's a charcoal to blue to green fleck in a black base, nice and thick for nail art! As far as Luxe and Lush goes... I like it but I don't... It was a mix between a thin mica flakie (think Nubar - Nubar 2010) and a chunky mylar flakie (think Color Club - Covered In Diamonds) so it was fine to work with but it dried with some of the flakes pointing up and drying sticking up like that... not always fun unless you have Gelous glitter tamer or something of the like.

China Glaze - Fast Track (2 coats)

China Glaze - Fast Track (2 coats)

I used the "transfer method" where you can use images or words printed onto paper with inkjet or a newspaper clipping works even better ( i used a computer printout, and im sure you can also use water decal slide paper) and you place the image on paper against the nail image touching nail bed and hold a cotton or wipe soaked in rubbing alcohol onto the paper on the nail until you feel the image has taken to the nail enough.

My mockingjay <3

I thought at first that i nicked my index finger (1st nail on left) but it is a flake from Luxe and Lush haha

finished mani (next time i may use tape to do the triangles instead of free handing them)

Hope everyone had a very happy Hunger Games! If you haven't read the books I HIGHLY suggest you do so, and also see the movie it is EPIC and wonderful... but do NOT think it will be on point with the book. 

Look for another post later tonight! I have really been procrastinating on doing the Day 11 challenge, Child's Favorite Animal because I really don't know what to do for it! Violet hasn't seen many animals yet.

Take care,

GIVEAWAY WINNER! Hunger Games inspired custom polish by FEVERlacquer!

GOOD MORNING LOVELIES HOPE YOU HAVE A VERY HAPPY HUNGER GAMES!!!

TODAY I AM ANNOUNCING THE WINNER OF THE HUNGER GAMES INSPIRED CUSTOM POLISH BY FEVERLACQUER, YOU AND ILL BE SAFE AND SOUND!!!!!

MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR!

CONGRATULATIONS AMANDA F YOU ARE THE WINNER!

I have emailed the winner and she has 24 hours to respond! If she does not respond within 24 hours I will choose another winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE MOVIE WAS SOOOOOOO GOOD PEOPLE GO SEE IT!

Take care,