ARTSY WEDNESDAY: Green

Ok, so I kind of cheated today. I've been in love with Rimmel Mintilicious, and so I really wanted to use it today, even though it's a minty-blue. It always comes out very blue in my pictures:

I sponged on Essie Stylenomics on my ring finger to make the gradient. (There's a good tutorial here on sponge gradients.) I then topped all my fingers with Revlon Stunning and NYC's matte top coat.

Unfortunately, as you can probably see, NYC's matte top coat doesn't work too well with lighter colors.

Check out what the other girls did this week:

Lab Muffin - Maria's Nail Art - Unnaked Nails - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Makeup and Masala - Every Little Polish

Paint it Blue: Swatch and Review: Sally Hansen Mermaid's Tale Nail Polish

April is Autism Awareness Month and to show my support I decided to paint my nails blue.

I have helped put on my college's version of the Special Olympics the past 3 years, and so this is something that is dear to my heart. The children who come, which include autistic kids, and their friends and families go through so much, and so I always loved the day of the Special Olympics when I watched how much the children enjoyed the activities we planned for them as well as heard from parents and families who told us how much our event means to them. There's still a lot that we don't know about Autism, and awareness about Autism is the first step to learning more about this disorder.

I thought this would be a perfect time to try out Sally Hansen's Mermaid's Tale. OH MY GOODENSS. IT'S SOOO PRETTY. I fell in love with it immediately!

Mermaid's Tale is a dupe of Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe. This polish has blue and green hexagonal glitter in a blue jelly base. Because of the base, it would take probably around 3 or 4 coats by itself, and so here, I did one coat of it over one coat of Julep Donna, which is a dark teal/blue-green that is similar to Nicole by OPI's Khloe had a Little Lam-lam. Mermaid's Tale was really easy to use: there's a LOT of glitter in it, and the brush made it easy to get a lot of glitter onto your nail. It only took me one swipe to get the amount of glitter and color I wanted; I didn't have to try and place the glitter like you have to for some polishes.

Because it has a jelly base, it did take a while to dry, so try using it before you watch a movie or do something where you won't be moving. I used it before my boyfriend and I went out since I knew we'd be stuck in traffic for an hour, which was plenty of time for it to dry. :)

I really hope you guys like this color, because I am IN LOVE with it!!! I haven't been this excited about a polish in a LONG time!!! I definitely recommend getting it!

Hope you guys are having a great week!

xoxo,

Polka Dotted Nail Art with Milani Hot Pink + Tutorial

Happy Easter everyone!!! I got a bottle of Milani Jewel FX in Hot Pink as a part of my Spring Break shopping haul, and I used it this week to do nail art. One of my roommates said they reminded her of Easter eggs, so I thought it would be appropriate to post it today:

Nail art using Wet n Wild Tickled Pink and Milani Hot Pink

This Milani polish took some patience to use. It was nice that there was a lot of glitter in the bottle, but when I applied it, it would come on my nails in clumps. I had to put a drop in the center of my nail and then spread it on the rest of my nail.

Picture of Milani Jewel FX in Hot Pink

I did 2 coats on my accent finger and then used a toothpick to pick a few pieces of glitter out of the bottle and cover the remaining bald spots. If you're interested in how I did the polka dotted nails, see the tutorial below:

1. Paint a base coat and a coat of the color of your choice (here, I used Wet n Wild Tickled Pink).
2. Wait for the base to COMPLETELY dry. Use a toothpick to pick one glitter piece off of the stem of the brush. It's easier to avoid getting pieces that have clumps of the clear base this way.
3. I started out by making a row on the bottom of my nail. Then, I put the next set of polka dots in the spaces between my first row.
4. After making my first two rows, I lined the dots in the third row up with the ones in the first row and the ones in the fourth row with the ones in the second row. I kept doing this until I finished the nail.

I actually really liked how this turned out and may try it with some of my other glitter polishes in the future. I hope the tutorial is helpful!! Let me know if you try this! :)

Rainbow Glitter Sandwich Nails + A Reminder About Our Stila Giveaway!

Hello dear readers!!

I got a multi-colored glitter, Milani Gems, as a gift last year and haven't used it much because there are only a few colors that I really like it over. However, a few weekends ago, I thought I would try using it in a sandwich. I think it looks pretty cool; it ended up looking like confetti. 

I did one coat of Julep Kelly, one coat of Milani Gems, and another coat of Kelly. Milani Gems is similar to OPI Rainbow Connection and Nicole by OPI Rainbow in the S-Kylie.

Just a reminder that our Post Holiday/New Year's Giveaway ends in 10 days!!! We're giving away Stila's "Under the Mistletoe" palette and 3 of their holiday lip glazes (Left to right): Jingle, Joy, and Holly. The palette is an $85 value and Stila lip glazes sell for $22 each, so the entire package is valued at over $120! Stila lip glazes are WONDERFUL and so you don't want to miss this!!