Wet N Wild Back Alley Deals

outside sun

The other day my older son and I stopped in to Walgreens to kill some time. Of course this means we must look at all the new nail polish displays. We came across the new Wet N Wild glitters that just came out. We picked out two, the dark purple and the dark blue. Today I have Carter's pick, Back Alley Deals. This is a really pretty purple and pink glitter polish. It was a HUGE pain in the rear to work with. There is definitely a learning curve here and I am at the bottom. I tried it by itself first but after 3 coats I still wasn't satisfied. So I layered 2 coats of BAD (haha) over Sinful Colors I Love you. I Love You is pretty sheer but since I was layering it didn't matter. The end result is pretty but I had weird shrinkage and wrinkling on my right hand. Alright, enough babbling! Here are the pictures.

outside shade

So what do you think? I'll have to try the other one and see if it's any easier to work with. So far though, I'm glad I only bought these two. Have a great day!

indirect sun light

OPI Grape Set Match

OPI Grape Set Match is the second Serena Williams set that I picked up.  It came in a set with Servin Up Sparkle.  I just had to have this purple.  It really is beautiful.  This is three coats of GSM with one coat of SUS layered on top.  I definitely could have used a second coat of SUS.  The hex glitter just didn't want to come out and play.

outside sun

outside sun

outside shade

outside sun

As you can see there is a huge lack of glitter from Servin' Up Sparkle.  I will definitely use two coats next time I use it.  I love Grape Set Match!  Can't wait to wear it as a pedi color.  It's funny, I don't really like purple except in nail polish.  There are some great purple polishes out there.  What's your favorite?

Take care,
Sara

NOPI Give Me the 1st Dance

outside shade

Let me just start by saying that no I am not a Bieber fan.  I'm too old for that.  I do love this polish though.  Nicole by OPI Give Me the 1st Dance is a silver metallic/foil.  I'm really bad with finishes.  This is two super easy coats.  Don't think I'm a fan of the perfect stroke brush.  I would imagine it would be really hard to use if you had small nails.  Mine aren't particularly small and this brush fills my pinkie nail up.

Here in Phoenix, I don't have access to the cool pumpkin or snowman nail polishes they sell at Rite Aid.  My mom loves me though and brought back a few pumpkin polishes from a recent trip back east.  I decided to layer the orange and black string (bar?) glitter over my silver.  The glitter took a little work but I must say the end result made me very happy.  This is 3 coats of glitter, a coat of gelous and a topcoat.  There was a lot of stuff on my nails for this one, but the result is a cute, simple Halloween manicure.  

outside sun

outside shade (sorry it's so red.  I was wearing my favorite Dbacks shirt and the red is reflecting back)

outside sun

 Do you love or hate NOPI?  I don't mind it.  I know a lot of people really dislike the bottles.

Have a happy day!

Sara

PS* If anyone has a dying need to send me some snowman polishes, feel free :)  Just kidding but I do really wish we had a Rite Aid around here.

China Glaze It's Alive

outside full sun

Today I have the amazing glitter It's Alive by China Glaze.  This was the only color from the Halloween collection that really appealed to me.  This is two coats of It's Alive and topcoat.  Even after topcoat this glitter is super gritty.  I finally went out and bought Gelous to try over my next gritty glitter mani.  Hopefully it helps. 

outside full sun

outside full sun

outside shade

So what do you think?  Personally, I'm in love!  This will definitely not just be for Halloween.  I think I may still want to pick up the black with silver glitter from this collection.  I think it may be what I wanted Orly Goth to be.  I'll have to check the nail supply store next time I make it down there. 

Take care and have a great day!
Sara

Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid

shade

I've never tried Cult Nails before but recently they had a free shipping offer and I'm a sucker for free shipping. So I ordered My Kind of Cool Aid and Wicked Fast Topcoat. MKOCA is a grayed out lavender with a very subtle shimmer. I love this color. It looked amazing, applied great and lasted 5 days before I had time to redo my nails. This is two coats of MKOCA and I used Wicked Fast as my topcoat. Wicked Fast worked so well. I really liked it. I also tried it with a Zoya with not so good results but I think that may have been user error. I tried it later with another brand (can't remember which right now) and it worked really well that time too.

I will definitely be getting more Cult Nails when I can. I really want Clairvoyant, Let Me Fly and they recently said they may be releasing Captivated again. Can't wait!

mostly sunny

partly cloudy as you can see :)

I love trying new brands, especially when they turn out to be this great! What's your favorite brand?

Have a great day!
Sara

Wet n Wild Behind Closed Doors

Today I have the much coveted Behind Closed Doors from the Wet n Wild On the Prowl collection. I had pretty much given up hope that I would ever find any of these but then I stumbled across them in an Albertsons grocery store. Yay! So this is two coats of BCD over one coat of WNW Black Creme. I didn't love the way BCD looked by itself at three coats. I love it over the black though. Then because I can't leave well enough alone I matted it with a layer of Essie Matte About You. My only complaint is Matte About You took some of the color off the glitter so it looks like there are a few pieces of silver glitter mixed in. Oh well, now I know to put a clear topcoat on first then the matte.


*Both these pictures were taken inside with indirect sunlight from the kitchen window.

I loved this mani. It's one of my favorites in a long time. I picked up a few others from the OTP collection as well. Were you able to find any of these? What's your favorite?

Take care,
Sara

ABC's of Me

So I love getting to know more about the people behind all the blogs I stalk. If you don't like that sorta thing just go ahead and skip this post. Don't worry, I won't be offended :) So I found a new to me blog All the Pretty Polish and I totally stole this from her. You can read hers here. Go check out her blog. It's great! (Does anyone else hear Tony the Tiger when I say that?) Anyway, here you go.

A – Age: 33 (The nail blogging world makes me feel really old sometimes)

B – Bed size: Queen

C – Chore you hate: Umm...all of them? I particularly hate mopping.

D – Dog’s name: Cooper and Kali

E – Essential start your day item: Two little boys waking me up.

F – Favorite color: For my nails, gray. Otherwise, orange or green.

G – Gold or Silver: Silver

H – Height: 5'5

I – Instruments you play: Does the radio count?

J – Job title: I'm a mommy first but I do work a retail job 2 nights a week to give my husband time to take care of the boys by himself. It's good for him and me.

K – Kid(s): 2 boys, 8 and almost 4

L – Living arrangements: Live in my little house with my husband and boys.

M – Mom’s name: Carrie

N – Nicknames: Not really any, my husband calls my wifey a lot.

O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: None for myself, but when my youngest was 2 months old we spent 3 nights in the hospital b/c he had pneumonia.

P – Pet Peeve: Where to start? Drivers who don't pay attention to pedestrians. I spend a lot of time walking.

Q – Quote from a movie: This is public school. If I can keep the girls off the pole and the boys off the pipe, I get a bonus. ~Easy A I have a thing for cheesy teenage movies. Clueless and Easy A being my favorites.

R – Right or left handed: Right handed

S – Siblings: a younger brother and 16 year old twin sisters (one of which shares my love of nail polish?

T – Time you wake up: 630 am.

U- Underwear: a requirement

V – Vegetable you dislike: brussel sprouts

W – Ways/Reasons you run late: I'm a mom of two little boys. It's tough getting out of the house sometimes.

X – X-rays you’ve had: teeth and knee

Y – Yummy food you make: I can't cook to save my life. I married a man that cooks. I do like to bake though.

Z – Zoo favorite: Buffalo

Well there you go! That's me in ABC order. If you decide to do this, leave me a link in the comments. I'd love to read it.

Sara

China Glaze Concrete Catwalk and CG in the City

full sun

So are you all tired of gray yet? No? Good, me either! I knew I would get Concrete Catwalk as soon as I saw the pictures. Such a shiny, pretty gray. Looks like wet cement. My pictures are two coats with no topcoat. Usually I always have topcoat on in my pictures but I was getting ready to layer CG in the City over it. Now I hadn't even planned on getting CG in the City but then I saw this mani (scroll down a bit to see it) over at Rebecca Likes Nails and this mani (her's looks way better than mine) at Ice Queen's Nail Parlour. I know, I know...I'm a huge copy cat but both of these are amazing. Check it out!

shade, so shiny

full sun, so sparkly

shade

Now I want to layer CG in the City over everything. What else should I try?

Have a great day!

Sara

OPI Muppets Giveaway at The TraceFace Philes

Awesome Muppets giveaway at The TraceFace Philes. One person will win the whole collection. You have until 11/11 to enter.

A Polish Change Giveaway

Hi Everyone,
Sorry about the lack of posts lately. My son is out of school on October break and I haven't had much time. Should be back to regular posts next week. I don't remember having any sort of Oct break when I was in school, but I guess that was a very, very long time ago.

You need to go check out this amazing giveaway at A Polish Change. Click here to go to the post. One person is going to win a super cool prize. I would love to win this! I want that CQ polish sooo bad but that's not a brand I can get around here.

Take care,
Sara

PS~I have 20 followers now and just wanted to say a big THANK YOU!

Color Club Alter Ego

outside sun

I just love shiny things, especially shiny nail polish. Color Club Alter Ego is a really pretty metallic purple that is almost a foil. It looked super purple in the sun and less so in the shade. I really enjoyed wearing this color. I think it would look great with some stamping over it. I was just too lazy to do it :)

outside shade

outside sun

The more I use Color Club the more I love them! What's your favorite Color Club nail polish?

Take care,
Sara

Zoya Tao

I'm sure I've said it 100 times but I love gray nail polish and Zoya Tao is no exception. This is two coats of sheer perfection. I like that this has some shimmer to it but isn't very in your face about it. Does that make any sense at all? I may even wear this to my husbands corporate work party in a few weeks. It's like prom for adults. We get all dressed up and eat fancy food while listening to people give speeches. My dress is black so I think Tao would be a great choice. I'll probably go with something that has a little more color for my toes. If you guys have any suggestions I would love to hear them.

outside sun

outside sun to show the awesome shimmer

outside shade

I think the shade pictures show the color at its most accurate and the sun pictures show the amazing shimmer. I just love this polish!

What's your favorite gray polish? Wait maybe you shouldn't tell me. I'll probably just run out and buy it :)

Sara

Color Club Perfectly Mol-ten

Today I have the most perfect (haha) green foil nail polish. I actually have some other stuff I was going to blog first but I put this on today and was blown away. I love foils. They are one of my favorite finishes, so I was super excited when Color Club put out a collection of foils recently. My 3 year old picked the green for me to wear first. At one coat this polish is almost perfect. At two coats it is perfect. This was so easy to use, it almost applied itself. After my experience this morning I can not wait to try the rest out. I'm really excited to use these for stamping and for making stripes with the striping tape.

outside, partially sunny

outside shade

again in the shade to show off the sparkle

So what do you think? Do you own any of these yet?

Take care,
Sara

Cult Nails Giveaway!

Maria of Cult Nails is having an amazing giveaway. One lucky person will win 12 polishes. I just placed my first Cult Nails order yesterday and can not wait to become a member of the cult :) Click here to check out the giveaway. Hurry up and do it! You only have until 10/6.

Don't forget Cult Nails is having free shipping right now through 10/6. cultnails.com