Youtube Tutorial Tuesday: Cartoon

Hey everyone

This Tuesday's video is again from Luxurious Nails. Last week she posted her cartoon nails. I have done them already and followed a different tutorial (I just haven't posted them yet).Which one did I like better read on to find out!

How cute is her voice? I'm from Kentucky myself and love hearing someone else's twang. Honestly I am not good at the whole "rimming" design. Can we also think of a new way to describe this design, rimming kind of skeeves me out. 

I think they turned out good. My lines were way too thick. I need a new striper bottle, mine is near it's end. I can always tell because they get so goopy. My preferred method is like a ruffian. You start off with a black nail and cover it with the color of choice leaving an edge. The only reason I prefer it is because of the awful job I do when tracing the edge of my nails. But the other method leaves you with limited color choices so I'll probably be using this method more once I get a new striper.

I posted these on Instagram and tagged Zoya since I used Katy for the pink polish. They commented on my nails and told me they were cute. It made my entire day!

Here's the my nails using the other method (the ruffian).

The polish featured here is Zoya's Pheobe. I loved the matte shimmer, but I had to put a top coat on it so it wouldn't chip. 

Did you attempt this tutorial? Send me your links below and let me know what you think!

MSMD Monday: Life's A Beach

Hey everyone

Today I tackle the great Nailasaurus. Last September she posted a mani for the Beauty and Beach competition. I'd just gotten acrylics done and I had to replicate this design she did on her perfectly square nails.

I started off with painting my nails 2 coats of Love and Beauty's Camel. Then I sponged on OPI's My Boyfriend scales walls. 

I actually left my nails with this French Gradient for a whole day. I really liked it and couldn't part with it right away. The next day took the white further up my nail and sponged on some of Zoya's Skylar (which I got on sale for $5.99 at Ulta!). And to make it look like foam I lightly went back over Skylar with MBSW. 

I love the final product. It was such a cute manicure. Here's a link to Sam's original nails: LINKAGE

I've gotta say I love posting my nails that are inspired by someone else and having them like it on Instagram. I feel like bowing down screaming, "I am not worthy." Geeky I know, but I can't help it. I really hope you guys liked this week's MSMD Monday, I know I did!

Nail Art Society March Bag

Hey everyone

This is not going to be a happy review. I am very upset. 

This is all we got this month. 

Nail Fraud stickers which are polka dots. (Some people got smiley faces). Hello you just gave me a dotter, I can do polka dots, why on earth would I want stickers that achieve the same look? 

Stella ceramic flowers in a lilac color. I'm curious about these, but not enough to where I would buy them in store. 

Micro beads. Mine are a copper color. I'm not a fan of the caviar manicure, but these are smaller than my other beads, so I'll give it another try. I also want to do a few lines with the beads. 

Fimo slices. If I wanted these I would buy an entire stick. Why did they only give  me a few slices?

Flowers. These flowers are a fabric and I have no idea how they are going to react in nail polish. I'm worried they are going to get ruined by a top coat.

The last part I'm actually curious about because I've never seen them before. These little half beads. They honestly look like little plastic beads cut in half. But they are so big I think they are going to be really neat. 

So out of a bag I paid $10 for I am interested in 1.5 things. Wonderful. I feel bad for the people that spend $19.95 on these. 

I went on their Facebook page after checking the reaction in Instagram. Everyone was complaining. The NAS was only responding to people who were missing pieces. Someone posted a photo of their container that was missing the Fimo slices. One of the people commented and below is what happened.0 

• Person #1 I believe the fimo fruit slices are supposed to be in there and missing. I was missing mine as well. N.A.S can you help us get some?
• 

  Nail Art Society Yes, we definitely resend these right away. 

  
  
• 

  Person #1 Thanks. I've been wanting the fruit slices for so long so I am excited. For the record, I have been enjoying my bags very much!
• 

  Nail Art Society Person #1 thank you so much for saying that. Maybe you could post it to our wall as some others have just been voicing there displeasures.
• 

  Me: You know I was going to keep my subscription and give you guys another shot after a super disappointing bag, until I saw this comment. A company should be addressing the people who are disappointed. It would be different if it was only 1 or 2 people. But almost everyone is disappointed. You have ignored everyone who has voiced their displeasure with this month's bag and your company. Instead you find the one person who was happy with their bag (which is okay, there's nothing wrong with likiing it) and tell them they should post that they like it to your wall for everyone else to see. I have no cancelled my subscription and I will not be back until I see some radical changes in this company. If I were The Creme Shop, Essie, Zoya, LVX, China Glaze, or OPI I would ask you to remove my name from your page. It doesn't look good for them or you when you go to a company's Facebook page and see nothing but complaints. I think the very first thing you should do as a company is redesign this whole operation. We should be able to see what we are paying for before we get it. And you should give us the option to skip a month or pick a different bag. That way you don't have an overwhelming majority of your customers disappointed.

Person #2 Tara, from the looks of it they've not only ignored, they've also hidden or removed some of the complaint posts. Seems like they've removed some negative/disappointed customer comments from their main posts as well.

As you can see this post went all over me. I cancelled my subscription immediately. My biggest problem with this months bag was that it didn't have polish in it at all and the fact that everything in it I could buy at my local Claire's (except for the ceramic flowers). Why would I spend $10 for something I can go pick up for $6 and get one half off? Their customer service left a lot to be desired. And I honestly feel like there's a lot of false advertising. I would not recommend this company to anyone. I will certainly not be going back unless there is a complete overhaul to their company. As of today they are going back in and deleting the bad comments from their page as Person #2 mentioned that night. 

Pink Wednesday: Coral Glam

Hey everyone

I have a Pink Wednesday for you! Now this polish is called Coral Glam, but it's not very coral, it is a straight pink holographic polish. This polish is from Layla. I've never actually bough a bottle of Layla polish before because they are really expensive. Their holographic collection was $15.50 a bottle. I had honestly decided that I was probably never going to own one of their holographic polishes as sad as it made me. I just couldn't stand paying that much for polish. Not to mention that the bottle only holds 0.33 fl oz. China Glaze holds 0.50 fl oz and only cost $8 a bottle. Lucky for me I was in Ulta at the right time and happened to find my bottle buried under the Layla magnetics for $5.99. 

See this is hardly a coral polish? I really loved this polish. It was much more holographic than I was expecting. I have 2 polishes from the China Glaze OMG collection and they weren't anywhere near as holographic as this polish.

Both photos show off the polish with the flash on. 

Here it is with no flash and in the shade.

And in direct sunlight. 

This polish was so pretty. I recommend 3 coats. The first 2 coats smooth out any streaks and the 3rd makes the holographic finish shine brighter. I think this polish is fantastic. I still wouldn't pay $15.50 for it, but it is nice. 

Youtube Tutorial Tuesday: Little Green Men

Hey everyone

I wanted to start a new thing for Tuesday. I know one of my favorite things to do when I have down time is to surf Youtube for tutorials. One of my favorite people on Youtube is CutePolish. She posts the cutest designs (obviously) and she shows the easiest way to do it. I recommend any and all beginners to check out her page. 

CutePolish also does desgins for the DisneyStyle Youtube page. A few months ago she did a tutorial on the Little Green Men that I just couldn't miss. 

She did a french tip on her video, for mine I wanted to do a half moon manicure.

Aren't they just the cutest?! I loved these nails so much. I hope you guys like them too. For the Little Green Man I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lickety Split Lime. The purple for the half moons is Zoya's Mira and the blue is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Blue Away. The glitter is an Art Deco striper brush. 

What do you think of YouTube Tutorial Tuesday? Let me know in the comments!

MSMD: Cloud Mani

Hey everyone

I have a new Monkey See Monkey Do Monday for you. This week I'm attempting to tackle Nailside! It's a lot of pressure believe you me. But the cloud mani is one of my favorites. It looks like it would be difficult until you see her tutorial and then you all but smack yourself in the face because it's so easy. 

One of my favorite cloud designs of hers is called Fancy Clouds. So I had to replicate it. I'm going to be in a wedding in October and the bride had just decided on her colors, yellow and gray. 

The silver I used is my go to, Silver Mercedes from Pure Ice. The white is My Boyfriend Scales Walls from OPI and the yellow is Splendid from Hard Candy. 

It's certainly brighter than her Fancy Clouds, but a similar effect. I really enjoy doing cloud manis, you should expect to see more from me. I hope I did Nailside justice, let me know what you think!

Nail Art Society: February Bag

Hey everyone

Today I have a new product to show you. Pure Ice sent out an email showing off my nails along with about 30 other people who participated in the Pure Ice Your City contest. In the email there was a promo code for half off of Nail Art Society. Nail Art Society is a monthly subscription where you receive nail art and polish. This is designed to be the newest trends in nail polish.

Now if you go onto their Facebook page you will see a lot of people cancelling their subscriptions, at the time of this article posting I can tell you that I have already cancelled mine. I will be posting my 2nd and final bag next week. I was nervous going into this, but though, hey for $10 I might get some neat stuff.

It comes in a black bubble wrap envelope. Some people have complained that theirs came open, might didn't. Inside there was a card with some instructions on back on how to achieve the design on front. It came with a nail file block, Finger Paints in Expressionism Red (This is not one of the polish brands advertised on their website, by the way), nail lace, Love in cursive foils, chains, and a dotter. 

These little things were a total pain. They were very stiff and would not lay flat against my nail. I used a top coat to stick them on with and tried putting a top coat on top to hold it on, which is what I do with everything that I stick to my nails. It just wasn't working. In fact it almost ruined my Valentine's Mani. More on that mani later.

To be honest, this is probably going to get tossed in a box. I have no idea what I would do with this. I'm not a fan of putting full sheets on my nails. I don't have huge nails so this just seems like a waste. 

This is the dotter. Look how tiny it is! This was the best part of the whole package for me. I have lots of dotters, but not one this tiny. 

The bottom is the size of a small dotter. Just fabulous.

I'm not sure what I'm going to use these chains for. I'm tempted to paint them black and use them in a mani. I'm not a fan of the color of gold at all. So I'll have to tweak these for sure. 

I used the block to file down my acrylics (oh yeah I got acrylics for 2 weeks so be on the look out for long nails!). And the Finger Paints I have used only when I needed red for my Minion nails which I haven't posted yet. :)

I got all of this for $10. Which for the most part is a fantastic deal. But I have a discount on the whole program. Most people pay $19.95 for this, which I really wouldn't have been thrilled with. Especially considering that I only plan on actively using maybe 3 items. 

I also didn't like that these all came out with a theme for Valentine's Day. I got mine in the mail on Valentine's Day. By then I'd already picked out my mani for the day. And I tried before I went out to eat to attach the LOVE piece to my thumb, my biggest nail. It was a completely fail. And I do not plan on using those again. They ship out on the 9th or 10th of every month so with Valentine's Day right on the edge of that I would have rather received a random sort of things,  not something that is designed for a holiday almost on it's way out. 

Keep in mind I kept my subscription for another month, and March's bag is a doozy, so keep your eyes peeled next week for that review! 

Inspired by Pinterest

Hey everyone

I love surfing Pinterest. I spend way too much time on that website. Every once in a while I find inspiration on a board other than nail art. This time it came from a dress. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/172262754469200741/

This dress to be precise. I love the colors and the rose pattern. Sadly I have yet to purchase the 2012 Bundle Monster Set so I had to pick a different flower type. But I think I made it work. I started off with Love and Beauty's Camel. Then I used alternated stripes with Zoya's Ali & Wet N Wild's Blazed. I then grabbed OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls and tried it for stamping purposes. It turned out great. Which just means that I'm extra happy that I bought a 2nd bottle of MBSW. I used Bundle Monster's BM-205 for my flower design.

How cute were these? I think they turned out great. My favorite nail is my thumb. I love the way the colors are lining up and the stamp was perfect!

Feathers

Hey everyone

Today I have a gradient stamped mani for you. I was looking for a delicate design and when I think delicate I think of soft colors. I used OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls as the base. Then I sponged on Zoya's Dove followed by Zoya's Caitlin. At the time I wasn't sure if I was going to stamp it or not, but feather manis also scream delicate to me. So I used Bundle Monster's BM-214 with my favorite silver stamping polish, Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes. 

It wasn't a perfect gradient as you can see on my ring finger, but I like the imperfect gradients. The feathers stamped perfectly. I really liked this manicure. 

Where's The Party

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I went to Ulta a while back when they are redoing the Essence bottles. All of the original bottles were marked down to $0.49 a piece. One of the beauties I purchased was Where's The Party. It's a duo-chrome and to be honest I was seriously hesitating because I've had pretty bad luck when it comes to duo-chromes. They typically look pretty and then are super weak when swatched. Where's The Party is not one of those polishes. 

It's not a strong change, mainly on the edges, but it's still there.

I really like this polish. Just wish the brushstrokes weren't so bad. I added some pearls as well to make it extra pretty.

SWAK: Sealed With A Kiss

Hey everyone

I'm trying to catch up on all of my February posts. I didn't do a lot of nail art and even less posting. But I'm working on playing catch up. And I'm even doing a Stamped Sunday! Progress!

This was for a February Nail Art Challenge on Instagram and it was kisses. I knew I was going to do a SWAK design. I started off with 2 coats of my favorite white, OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Then I grabbed Wet N Wild's Ebony Hates Chris and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's Wined Up. I grabbed Bundle Monster plates BM-201 for the chevron print & BM-02 for the lips. 

I loved these nails so much. They were so cute. I love combining stamps and colors together. The 2nd edition of the Bundle Monster plates still didn't agree with my thumb size so I had to turn it sideways. But it still works. :)

Tara's Nail Polish Featured!!!

Hey everyone,

Some of my polish was featured on Mommy Loves Nail Polish today. Please head over to her page and check it out!

Click Me!!!

No Ordinary Princess by Tara's Nail Polish

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Today I'm going to show of the rest of my "No Ordinary Princess" collection. These polishes were designed for the other princesses/Disney heroines that don't get the credit they deserve. I've previously shown Mulan and Pocahontas here. Today we are going to feature the other 3.

First we have Tiana.

Tiana is a minty green with a gold shimmer. The pictures are shown with 3 coats.

You can really see the shimmer in this photo. To be honest Tiana is probably my least favorite out of all of the collection and it's still beautiful. 

Next we have Megara.

This picture has an OPI glitter sandwich on my ring finger as well. This polish is purple with a purple and gold shimmer. This color is so pretty. And the shimmer is so just wonderful. I love this polish way too much.

Lastly we have my favorite, Merida.

Merida is a strange polish. It starts off nude with a small shimmer then as you add more coats it turns from an almost coral color to an orange polish. It's jammed back with a gold shimmer, see for yourself.

I had to include a blurry shot so you could see how pretty it is.

I wanted to do a design featuring all of the polishes so I  painted them on in a rainbow pattern and stamped crowns on top. I also added a matte finish to make the shimmers stand out.

Why I haven't shown these before is beyond me. I'm waiting on some glitter so this collection is actually on hold which makes me sad, but I can always take requests for them. I hope you all have enjoyed "No Ordinary Princess" as much as I have.

February Haul

Hey everyone

I've never done a haul post before! I collected a lot of polish this month so I thought it would be quite appropriate. Plus my quasi-resolution was to be a better blogger. This is my attempt. :)

So that's the entire haul. 21 bottles of polish, 1 mini-bottle of cuticle oil, 2 sets of nail art designs, and 5 nail art pens. I also received my February Nail Art Society box too which is why I have an odd number of polishes, I included the polished I received in this haul. I will be doing an actual review on the box soon. Before I get my March box, I promise!!!

So you saw that I bought white flocking powder. I saw this set at Rite-Aid and bought it too. Now I have black and white. I'm so tempted to attempt a zebra design, just not sure how I'd go about that. 

I got this set at Rite-Aid as well. It looks to just transfer with water. There are 30 sheets with 4 different designs. I'm quite excited to try this out!

I'm thinking my local Sally's received their Cirque du Soleil set late, because they have been trying to get rid of it. They've had it marked down buy one get one free for a while now. So I bought Creative Fantasy and Get Carried Away by China Glaze.

A few days later I went back to Sally's and saw they had new Orly bottles. The old bottles made Orly unique, now they kind of look like everyone else. At the same time, I like the new black lids. So if you bought any of the new bottles you go one of the old bottles for free. They literally had 2 boxes full of these polishes. Plus they received a ton of the cuticle oil by accident. So they were giving that away too. I got Snowcone & Des Fleures in the new bottle and Plum in the old bottle.

Did I mention I have 2 Sally's in my town? Yeah, I'm lucky. Expressionist Red came in my Nail Art Society bag. But I went to the other Sally's and they had a promo where you bought a bottle of Fingerpaints and got a cute little black purse free. I bought Micheltangelo & 15 Minutes of Frame And if you renewed your Sally's card you received any of their Ion Hair Products $8 and under for free, so I got a can of hairpsray too. I almost always walk out of Sally's with free stuff, :)

I cannot stress enough how important it is to check the end caps when you go to a store. The best deals are always at the end caps. And Target and Walgreens always have beauty stuff in their end caps. Target had the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Co-Balt Blue marked down to $1.78! Walgreens had Loreal in Tweet Me and Revlon in Jaded Night.

Walmart still had their new Pure Ice display up so I picked through it and found more polish that I wanted, of course. We have Over You, Never Satisfied, It's Complicated, and Sheer Luck. I've bought 9 or 10 of the new collection, I need to swatch them soon and post them.

I was at Walmart the other day and happened to look through this pile of mixed up polish that doesn't have a place in the racks. Tucked in the very back was this package. Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens are about $8 a piece and this pack came with 5 for only $10. I could not pass it up. It was the only one of it's kind and I had to have it. It did come with a Red that I already have and 2 Chartreuses, but I think for $10 I can make do. :)

I fell in love with Jindie Nails over Instagram. The polishes are so pretty. Then I saw Candyland with it's neon glitter, I knew I had to have it. So I start looking all over and see it at Llarow, but they are doing a restock soon so I go to Jen's actual Instagram to see what to expect, turns out she made a Remix to Candyland named Candyland Remix. So I not so patiently waited and as soon as I got my email saying it was in stock I bought it! I love this polish so much. The picture doesn't do it justice and that's kind of on purpose because I want to have it's own special post. 

Lastly I got these little beauties. I blame Let Them Have Polish for this purchase. She posted swatches on her Instagram and I ran right to Milani's website and bought 5 out of 6. The only one I didn't buy was the dark purple because the "fuchsia" looked pretty purple to me. You guys are going to love these, I can't wait to show you the swatches. They come in Tainted in Red, Yellow Mark, Aqua Splash, Spoiled in Fuchsia, and Shady Gray. 

So there it is! My entire February Haul. I hope you enjoyed it and I cannot wait to show off all of these polishes to you!