Nina Ultra Pro Macchiato

By now it's pretty obvious that I like Nina Ultra Pro. Here's Macchiato, 2 coats.

Seriously...must work on photos.

At least they are color accurate pictures!

Nina Ultra Pro Mossy Britches

These pictures do not do this green justice! I'm gonna have to go outside in natural light more often. 

The problem is that I live on a main road, so I look like a total creeper to all the passersby hahaha.

Green with gold shimmer, 2 coats.

It's this dingy green in the bottle, but still manages to be flattering (in my eyes at least). 

Here's to stepping out of my comfort zone and trying crazy colors!

Orly Luxe

It's been a while! I'm thinking I may keep these even shorter and sweeter than before, maybe just making this a picture blog with the minimum requirement of writing. So here's Orly Luxe, gold metallic beautimousness! (I love this color so much that I had to make up a new word to describe it.)

This was my first Orly and it applied like an absolute dream. It looked like matte Minx.

On a little sidenote, my picture taking skills could use serious improvement. What is the secret?!

OPI Java Mauve-A

I'm really into granny salmon colors like this.

Java Mauve-A is a darker version of American Apparel Rose Bowl.

Let me tell you, I went to put this on and literally said "no f-ing way"....

ONE COAT.

That automatically makes a polish a winner for me. 

It doesn't hurt that it's so pretty too!

My first Butter polish

I'm still holding on when it comes to the no-buy, I don't go near polish because the flesh is weak!

This is Butter Jaffa. I had pictures without the stamp, but they were even more blurry than these 2 and not so great.

2 coats stamped with Nina Ultra Pro Smoke-N-Mirrors.

It's a lot brighter in real life, looks more orange on me than I would have suspected.

Close-up of the stamp.

After 2 days at work there's only a little bit of tip wear. In all, I think it is a pretty polish, but it's not a forgiving formula for people with shaky hands like me! There were some bald spots from using too much pressure on the brush. I think I'll save my $14 until I see some unique color that I MUST HAVE.

My no-buy ends on August 1. I am dying to get my hands on Zoya Penny, Trixie, a matte topcoat, Nfu-Oh 61, and Gosh Holographic. Poor poor bank account...

Essie Fair Game

Hey guys! This will be a quickie, I've got to get up early to go see a play in the city!

Essie Fair Game, 2 coats and topcoat.

This is a cornflower blue polish with a little shimmer. 

A mellow manicure, it wasn't all bright and out there. 

But the flash makes it look way brighter than normal so here's a blurry pic.

Here's my pet peeve regarding nail polish. Why are some batches so freakin' different?! http://rachelsnails.blogspot.com/2011/06/essie-fair-game-and-da-bush.html

Rachel's bottle is much much more gray. WTF

Anyways, I'm still trying to get my cuticles back on track so I'm trying to steer clear of photographing my hands lol. And I've still got a month of no-buy so wish me luck!

Back from the dead!

Hey guys. My dad gave me an awful summer cold that took me forever to get over. I had a fever, but I had goosebumps all over, I even had goosebumps under my jeans! In-sane. But I'm good now, and I want to show the couple of manis that I did as an invalid. LOL

This was Zoya Sooki with BM223 stamped with NYC Skintight Blue Denim Creme.

I've had this blue polish for years, best blue stamping polish I've had so far.

Wet 'N' Wild Fast Dry in Everybody Loves Redmond. This was 2 coats! 

I am still marvelling at the fact that each coat is dry in just a few minutes.

Check out my first scotch tape mani yo! This is Icing Twilight, a black base with little silver bits of glitter.

The glitter reflected red on top of Everybody Loves Redmond, it was really pretty.

And a little bit of Twilight goes a long way, one coat of glitter to fully cover your nail is unheard of.

OPI You Don't Know Jacques, 2 coats. 

This photographed kind of ugly but I actually enjoyed this manicure.

I haven't been treating my cuticles nicely, they are a hot ghetto mess at the moment! Gotta find a good cream to nurse them back to health.

Sookeh is MINE!

LOL I love it. And I've been saying it since Zoya Sooki came in the mail the other day!

Let me just say, in my humble opinion Zoya is lightyears ahead of all other nail brands when it comes to social networking. All of my Zoya polishes have been free thus far, besides shipping and handling. It'll sting if they ever slack up on their promos.

Everyone in the US: If you make a purchase before 6/6 using the code FS99 your shipping fee is waived! (One time use of course.)

This is a bit closer to the color of the polish. 

It's the color of blood *squirms*

1 coat would have been good for someone with a steady hand, but I used 2.

Sweet storage shed yo.

Sooki has a jellyish look to it, but it's opaque! 

Downside was tip wear. But I haven't met a polish/topcoat yet that could survive the Gap. I'm thinking of either konad-ing tonight or laying CG Ruby Pumps over it. Decisions decisions...

A-Z

the A-Z of me! + Stylish Blogger Award

I'm gonna do this just because I want to :)

A. Age: 23
B. Bed size: Queen. I don't need this much space, usually there's a pile of books on the other side hahaha.
C. Chore you hate: Ugh! I hate cleaning the tub and the dishes.
D. Day: Sunday, it's such a chill day!
E. Essential start to your day: I really have to have a good 2 hours to roam around and get situated before I have to actually do anything. Does anybody else do that?
F. Favorite color: I think I'm hooked on navy blue at the moment. Otherwise it's purple.
G. Gold or Silver: Both! I like to mix and match.
H. Height: 5'0". Been this height since I was 12!
I. Instruments: I played the viola for all of a year when I was in elementary school. My aunt just bought me a mandolin and a ukulele so I've got to start learning those. (Poor nails)
J. Job title: Sales Associate @ the Gap
K. Kids: Heck no! I have an 8 year old nephew and two sisters aged 7 and 1 1/2. It's enough to make you want your tubes tied ;p
L. Live: Long Island NY
M. Mama’s name: Sonya. She's pretty cool.
N. Nicknames: Boo, Adri, Tweety Bird (only my mom gets to call me that) and Bulldog (only my granddaddy gets to call me that, it's a loooooong story)
O. Overnight hospital stays: 1 day in 2006 when I got really sick in California after a car accident.
P. Pet peeve: Arrogance! Guuuuh it works my nerves.
Q. Quote from a movie: "Ay! Es cocaina!" ("Bedazzled" is hilarious, don't you dare judge me!)
R. Right or left handed: Righty
S. Siblings: Pfft last time I checked I had 4 sisters.
T. Time you wake up: Depends! I'm not a morning person so waking up around 10 is nothing short of miraculous for me.
U. Underwear: LOL pink grannies. I don't have anyone to impress!
V. Vegetables you dislike: Water chestnuts, that texture is sick. And squash makes me gag.
W. What makes you run late: I will show up super early somewhere before I'm late. I can't stand being late.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Head and chest.
Y. Yummy food you make: Pulled pork mmmm. And banana pudding.
Z. Zoo: I really enjoyed the San Diego zoo. They had an albino alligator, gorgeous!

The closest I'm gonna get to mannequin hands.( Love & Beauty Mauve)

Hi guys! It's been very hectic up here, what with going to Six Flags one day, working the next, and going to see "Hangover 2" that same night. I feel like I can't catch up on sleep let alone paint my nails. But yesterday I had some free time so it's time to get to swatchin'!

I love the look of the new Zoyas, but I'm gonna get the spoons before I even think about buying a nude. I tend to hate the mere idea of the look on myself, so this is probably as nude as it gets for me. FOR NOW.

(w/flash) Love & Beauty is Forever 21's line, and for $2.80 this is pretty fabulous. I could've done 2 coats, but I wanted 3. The bottle has shimmer in it, but I can't really see it even in the sun. This is a nice subtle color, not all in yo' face! I think it would look more pink on you fair-skinned lasses.

(Natural light)

(I'm tempted to call it 'natty light' from now on like the beer.)

This Silly Putty color works on me. I've got the sinking feeling this will be chipped to hell tomorrow, I'm changing the mannequins in the store tonight so my mani usually doesn't survive the night.

On another note, I've been using Essie's First Base basecoat and Good to Go! topcoat. The topcoat fastdries your polish, and the polish lasts a wee bit longer for me so I'm a happy camper.

Lastly:

I had to make a nail drawer! We'll see how long it looks neat like this. I'm gonna try to swatch everything before I buy more, but once the Muppet collection drops that will go out of the window.

Have a good one ladies!

Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday

OMG...THIS IS AMAZING.

3 coats.

Is this how it's gonna look in the sun tomorrow?! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

I'm going to Six Flags and we're leaving super early so I decided against a time-consuming mani.

I'll try and take a better pic when I wake up.

-edit-

I'm awake! And soooo hyped for Six Flags. The new Green Lantern rollercoaster opened a few days ago. I love the rollercoasters where you have to stand up through the whole ride!

Lying in bed last night, my nails still sparkled! I keep my TV on when I go to sleep, so the glitter distracted me for awhile lol.

Have a great day guys!

Free Zoya Nail Polish! And yellow might not be my color.

Nobody on my blog roll posted about it yet, but you can get a free Zoya from one of the last 3 collections until midnight! Get the deets here zoyanailpolish.blogspot.com

Okay, I decided to try Wet N' Wild's Fast Dry Polish. It was only $1.99 so why not right? Guuuuuuh, just look. This is "The Wonder Yellows".

 With flash. 3 coats and it was opaque, but...I am not feeling it. It's too much like the color of pee!

Natural light. When I looked at my hands from a certain angle, I got this color and a murky color like my nails were just dirty or something. Now I'm REALLY scared to try my neon yellow.

In real life, I looked jaundiced!

On the upside, this polish does claim to be absolutely dry in 60 seconds. And it was pretty close to that for me. The brush was fantabulous.

I'll buy more of these, just not the yellow. That goes into the giveaway pile!

Icing J'Dore

The name of this polish makes me throw up in my mouth a little, but it's a pretty robin's egg blue!

2 coats, three would have been better but I was planning to konad afterwards so I didn't add another.

Sadly, the konad is fuuuuugly. I'm looking at my nails and shaking my head LOL.

Sometimes I should just leave well enough alone and enjoy the dang polish!

Some pinks and a konad!

This is my new love, American Apparel Rose Bowl!

2 coats and it was perfect!

It's a little more peach than pink on me.

I got my new Bundle Monster plates heeheehee. I actually ordered them a month ago.

But I accidentally sent them to my mom's house -.-;

Totes worth the wait though, see how much more of my nail they cover? 

I stamped with Nina Ultra Pro in Velveteen Rabbit. 

And this isn't the most beautiful pic ever I know, I just wanted you to see the stamp! Still figuring out my camera.

OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, 3 coats.

Don't get me wrong, this is a beautiful cloudy pink. Just not for me.

I gave it to my coworker who better use it!

Zoya Lexi! 2/3 coats (I forget)

I could not get a proper picture of this gorgeous color!

It's a pink-purple polish, but it also has little pink and blue bits of glitter in it.

Waaaay better in real life than this pic.

I figured I'd keep it short and sweet this time, the pictures are starting to overflow on my computer. I bought one of the new AA Neons on my last haul. It is my first yellow polish, I hear they're a pain in the butt so I'm crossing my fingers!

OPI Tutti Frutti Tonga

I did go shopping the day the PotC collection came out, but I only bought Sparrow Me The Drama. I'll swatch that when the fervor dies down!

Sadly, I effed up my nails BADLY the other night at work. A good 5 of my nails had the top layer lifted from the rest after all that manual labor *retches*

Not to be deterred, the other day I attempted to do my nails in Black Cherry Chutney. I didn't take a pic before work due to cleanup issues, and less than 10 minutes into my shift my nails were darn near disintegrating! So I'll maybe try out some marbling combos on here while I heal up. On to the polish!

 This is 2 coats of TFT. It's more sheer than it looks in the bottle, and the gold shimmer doesn't show up as much. But it's a pretty frosty pink and I hadn't worn a frost in a year or so.

I forgot that you had to take a little more care in application with a frost, so there were some streaks. But nothing I would spaz out about. This one will probably end up swapped with somebody or given away.

OPI My Chihuahua Bites

Take a gander at my first foray into corals! With a name like "My Chihuahua Bites" you can't go wrong.

In real life, this leans hot pink on me. 

I'm on the fence about it because it comes off as "Real Housewives of Orange County" to me.

But it may also be because I feel like this is a perfect summer color.

I went to my very first Yankee game! The Padre and I had a great time, it was really windy though so we had to break down and buy long sleeved shirts from the merchandise store. Hooray for memorabilia!

Beautiful stadium right? It's still pretty new, and it was the perfect weather to see a baseball game.

The OPI applied nicely, opaque in 2 coats but I made it three. I did work an overnight last night so the tip wear was prominent. I don't tend to wear any bright colors so I might just be a little antsy about taking that leap. I'll try it again when I go to the beach!

American Apparel Malibu Green

I am on an American Apparel kick right now, I promise I own more than this one brand! However, Malibu Green is a keeper for sure.

It's leaning much more blue in this picture, this green is like a richer Crayola sea green marker. 

So beautiful in real life! I also gave myself a pedicure with this but I've got a complex about toes so I won't be plastering them on the site anytime soon.

Opaque in two coats, but I added a third. This is with topcoat. The only downside to such a great pigmented polish is that it stained my nails, thank goodness I had a basecoat on!

I did try to konad this, but my white polish was not working at all. I may be caving in and buying the konad white polish eventually.

Next post will be OPI "My Chihuahua Bites", my first foray into corals.

Konad Fail

I took the Pintos N' Cheese thing way too far. (American Apparel Pinto with Manila stamped on.)

UGH! It looks like ketchup and mustard in the process of being mixed together.

I had to wear this during my whole shift, it was miserable.

One of my coworkers asked me what was the matter and I showed him my nails. He goes "Eww." 

All I could do was laugh!

I'm going to show you guys the good, the bad, and the fugly on this blog so be prepared!

Today I gave myself a break and did a glitterbomb of a manicure so they look much better.

A Gift from the Polish Gods!

I am not the kind of girl who takes huge risks in polish yet. If I think there's no way a color will look good on me, I usually pass it over.

Two days ago, I bought American Apparel Pinto on a whim, telling myself "This will probably look like crap on you. Just be prepared." My life has been changed!

This may be my favorite polish ever. 

It's exactly the color of Taco Bell's Pintos N' Cheese!

Which would make you think it would be an ugly nail color right?

WRONG.

2 coats, natural light. OPAQUE IN ONE COAT. Less glossy in real life, which I loved.

I lose it over nice creamy polishes.

It's like the color of old bricks and pueblo roofs! I may konad it tomorrow with Manila to keep up with the Pintos N' Cheese motif.

I just went on another massive polish bender for my birthday today, AND I got the new larger Bundle Monster plates. So I'm gonna stop buying polish and start using what I've got. I've got plenty to swatch and fiddle around with!

American Apparel Hunter (with a dash of Konad)

This green is soooo nice! It's just like the forest green Crayola crayon. Application was smooth as usual, and I actually did a decent job with the stamp! Woot!

The stamp is harder to see in real life because the polish is so dark. It's the awesome leaf design, I'll definitely use it again with my light green polish. Maybe Hunter for the base and the light green for the veins?

I am still not ready to shell out six bucks for a "special konad polish" when Claire's and Wet 'n Wild's black does the job. (Plus WNW is 99 cents at the grocery store.) (Icing Chip Resistant Base/Top Coat, Claire's "Black Hole")

That bottle cap is covered with blue polish from a marbling escapade. I had polish all over my legs as well. But it looked great, which is the whole point!

While I do love this color, it's a bit darker in real life and I feel like it would look much nicer if I were formally dressed. Is that weird considering it's American Apparel?

Essie St. Lucia Lilac

The last time I went on a massive nail polish binge, I figured I should grab at least one Essie to see whether it was worth the hype. IT WAS.

This is St. Lucia Lilac, soooooo pretty and pastel! And it doesn't make me feel ridiculously girly in the process, which is a plus.

I am attempting to get my konading skills up to snuff. These were crooked but my coworker still squealed when she saw them and asked me to do her nails one day :) 

My dad told me to pretend like I meant to do them like that :(

I didn't know how the brush was going work, it is thinner than others. All went well for me though, I think I only did two coats this time around. And the formula was perfection.

American Apparel Manila

I tried this polish a few weeks ago, and it was all jumbled up and clumpy due to the bus ride from hell I took on my way home. Seriously, the driver was crazy and I thought I was going to die.

But here I am trying it again and I really loved it! A nice goldenrod color that will look better on me with a tan in the summertime.

Precisely the color of a manila envelope! I did have the goofball moment of wondering WHAT this polish had to do with the capital of the Philippines. (w/flash, 3 coats)

Gratuitous bottle shot.

These are so inexpensive, and online I see they are 7/$32. Not bad at all. Opaque in 3 coats, application was a breeze, and it lasted through my shift, so I am one happy camper.

Tomorrow, Essie swatch with a Konad attempt!

Gap "Ballet"

Disclaimer: Yeah, I work for the Gap as a lowly sales associate. I don't own stock or anything. I will speak about this polish honestly.

I was so excited to test our new nail polish out and this was kind of a let down. I love pretty ballerina pink colors, but whenever I buy them I find myself having issues with opacity and general streakiness. You could always do the white polish first, but I would much rather have a polish that works on its own. If anyone knows of this wonderpolish please let me know!

The gratuitous bottle pic. I've got child-sized hands so unless I'm holding a mini bottle I have trouble with my fingers getting all the way round. And believe me, this color was three coats and it does not look that nice up close.

What I can say it that Ballet has lasted for 2 days with minimal chipping on my fingertips. Working with clothing hard tags, a manicure usually doesn't last after a shift at work. It has potential, so maybe I'll stop being a lazy bum and apply a white polish first next time.

Next week, I think I'm sucking it up and buying a Deborah Lippman. Exciting!

I'm a noob, bear with me.

To whoever may read this blog:

Hi, I'm Adrianna. Just a couple of things I want you guys to know right off the bat. 

I don't know lacquer lingo, but I'm getting there. I'll stick to layman's terms for now.

Sometime in the last year or so, I've gotten really interested in nail art and polish. 

I'm just learning the basics, so you'll see some screw-ups, some fugly cuticles and the like. 

I'll always give credit if another blog gives me an idea. I am a huge fan of several blogs, I won't pretend like all these things come from me alone.

I'm nowhere near receiving samples from different companies, but I will be honest about it if that ever comes to pass.

As you all know, a polish can look very different from one skin tone to another. I hope to add another color to the spectrum. 

Hope you guys enjoy.