Woeful Watermarbling

Greetings folks!

Today we'll be talking about this here watermarble mani:



Actually, I'm going to interrupt myself for a minute to make a plea. Can someone please come hold my hand while I attempt cleanup??? I've watched I-don't-know-how-many videos on cleaning up your cuticles, but I just can't seem to do it right. I either don't get enough off, or I get too much off and have this huge gap that makes it look like my nails have grown out for two weeks. BLARGH! Admittedly, it has gotten a little easier since I switched from my angled paintbrush to the e.l.f. concealer brush all the nail gurus talk about. But I still need quite a bit of practice. If anyone has any tips or tricks, please feel free to let me know!

Now, you might be wondering, "Why is this watermarble so woeful?" 


The watermarble itself isn't bad. I do like how the pattern turned out, and the colors (Color Club "Grand Dame" and Nabi "Metallic Champagne") work well together. But allow me to accentuate the issue here:

Yeah... now I remember why I don't buy light pinks. They do my skin tone no favors whatsoever. 

One of the things I like about watermarbles, though, is that they last forever. This one could have lasted me a couple of weeks... if I hadn't gotten tired of it after only a few days. I think I'll stick to my hot pinks and fuchsias.

Foolish Raindrop FAIL!!

Greetings folks!

Today we'll be talking about how horribly I botched this mani:



Yep, that's one hell of an epic nail fail, there. I was trying to be awesome like Cristine, but obviously it didn't work. 

I started off with "Bridge the Ridge" base coat ($5.49). I then applied one coat of Sinful Colors "Kryptonite" ($1.99). 

...Then I heard my son stirring in the next room. Awwwww crap. Figures he'd decide to take a power nap instead of a two-hour nap. I hurried and slapped another coat of "Kryptonite" on my nails and topped it with Seche Vite ($2.08) so I could resume the mommy role.

Without matte top coat

I ended up wearing that alone for a day, and I really enjoyed it. But of course, it wasn't the final look I was going for, so the next day I used a makeup sponge to add Sinful Colors "Kalypso" ($1.99) to the base of my nails to create a gradient. I did use some liquid latex around the nails to help with clean up. Here's the thing, though: the liquid latex I have is something I bought for two bucks from China. It's crap. I wouldn't recommend it. I would warn you what not to buy, but I have no idea what the name of it is; it has no markings on the bottle whatsoever. I should have taken advantage of BundleMonster's cyber monday deals and snagged some Poli-Peel... but... I'm on a no-buy. Sigh.

With matte top coat

Next came a coat of Wet 'n' Wild matte top coat ($0.99). And there, my friends, is where I should have stopped. This looked great! But no... No, I had to go and ruin the whole damn thing. 


Maybe if I had used a thinner top coat, or even just a regular clear polish, it wouldn't have turned out so awful. But I'm an idiot and decided to use Seche Vite for my raindrops for maximum shine. Unfortunately it ended up being more akin to maximum blobbage. 

Oh well, I suppose I can't vomit out awesomeness all the time.

Delectable Diamonds

Good afternoon all you shining happy people holding hands!

(Please forgive me... I'm on some pretty strong muscle relaxers, so I'll be even more odd than usual.)

Today I'll be discussing this here diamond manicure:

I started off with my Bridge the Ridge base coat. I then applied two coats of Color Club "Winter White".

Using BundleMonster's XL-10 plate and their "Electromagnetic" gold stamping polish, I stamped on the diamonds. I used my new BundleMonster double sided clear stamper, and it worked like a charm. I can't wait to try some double stamping with this puppy!

I topped the mani off with Seche Vite, as per usual. 

Next up? I have no idea. Probably either a gradient or a water marble...

Want sneak peeks of the manicures featured here, as well as some bonus manis? Feel free to follow me on Instagram @jennravenwing. Fair warning: there will be a smattering of adorable baby pics as well!

Hundred Dollar Birthday Haul

I know, I know... I said I was going to do a "BornPretty Bitchfest" post next, but I decided against it. Why? Because we all have enough negativity in our lives, and me going on a 400 word rant doesn't help the situation. And now I'm extra glad I didn't, because BPS actually came through at the very last second!

So let's get on with the haul! So... technically I spent a bit more than $100, but $16 of that was shipping. I snagged some great deals, though!


First off we'll start with the three items I ordered from Born Pretty Store. I did pay the extra $3 for tracking (which didn't work) so in total my order came to $12.87. 

The first item was a 3-piece stamping set--jumbo clear stamper, scraper, and lid--for $2.99. That's a steal! I really wanted a lid because keeping cat hair off my stampers is almost impossible. I haven't yet tested the stamper out, but it feels nice and squishy and semi-sticky. The scraper is pretty small and incredibly stiff, so I probably won't use that. 

The next item I ordered was some studs for $4.89 (they're now on sale for $2.99... go figure). It's a mix of silver and gold studs in varying shapes and sizes. There are approximately 200 pieces in this little tiny wheel. What I like about them is that they lay fairly flat--they don't stick up crazy high on the nail like my rhinestones do. Working in the food industry, the last thing I want is something snagging on my nail decor and it ends up in someone's dinner. 

(I do wear gloves when I'm around food but still... you can never be too careful.)

The last thing I got from BPS was a set of black and white stamping polishes for $1.99. I wasn't really looking for black, but I needed a good opaque white and they had this set of 5ml bottles, so I figured what the hell. I haven't tested these yet either...

Hey, gimme a break. I just got this stuff TODAY.  ON MY BIRTHDAY.  That was a close one, Born Pretty... verrrrry close. I ordered on October 11th... 


Next up we have the three L.A. Colors polishes that I picked up from Family Dollar for $1 a piece. 



The first is called "Sunkissed" and it's... it's... phenomenal. It's a burnt orange with tons of gold shimmer. 

The second is a pink! I don't know why but I've been gravitating towards pinks lately. Maybe my hormones are still messed up from becoming a mommy, who knows. But this lovely polish is called "Pink Sizzle" and oooooh does it sizzle. 

The third is called "Dazzle" and it is very similar in color to "Pink Sizzle" but it has lots of luscious silver shimmer.





Another thing I purchased was a "big ticket" item. This baby cost me just under $30, but I did get free shipping. Since my polish and nail art supplies were beginning to spill over the lovely shelves that my mom built for me, I decided I'd get a bonafied nail polish rack. Tada!

I got this rack on ebay. I've calculated that she holds about 102 polishes. Unfortunately I didn't count how many I had before I ordered her. Including the birthday polishes I got, I have 130.

Now, for a polish collector, 130 bottles is chump change. For me, however, it's quite a lot. Therefore I'm now on a "no buy" until after Christmas (at least!). Gotta save up my monies to spoil my little boy for his first Christmas! 

Anyway, I've got my favorites in the rack and a few in my "boo box". Doesn't it look spiffy? And now I have room on my shelves for all my nail art supplies! Yay! What's that? Why yes, my favorite color is blue! 



Next in my haul I made an order from Nabi. Nabi has a shop on ebay, which is where I purchased mine, as well as on Amazon. These are all-around great polishes, but they do have one downside: they do tend to get pretty thick after a while and unfortunately polish thinner can't always save them. Nabi does have a wide range of colors, though, and they're inexpensive. In fact, the more you buy, the more you save. A couple of years ago I bought a lot of 20 polishes for $24 (iirc). She's got a deal now on ebay where you can get 20 colors of your choice for $20 and some change. I went for a much smaller lot this time and purchased three of Nabi's "Metallic" polishes for $6.36 with free shipping. That puts each polish at $2.12.

The first one I got was "Metallic New Gold". I've been looking for a really yellow gold for a while, and I thought this would hit the spot. Unfortunately, it's got more shimmer than base. At two coats, it's not quite opaque (as can be seen in the swatch). I'm hoping three coats will get me there, but I haven't tried it yet. It is definitely the color I wanted, though.

The second polish is "Metallic Champagne". This is another pink, and although it's quite a bit darker than I expected, I really do like it.

The third Nabi is "Metallic White". I wasn't sure what to expect from this. How could a white be metallic? But it does indeed have a metallic--almost frosty--finish. I was amazed at how opaque this was at one coat, but did two on the swatch anyway. It does show brush strokes a bit, but that doesn't really bother me all that much.





I also decided to give head2toebeauty a try, since I had heard Phoebe talk about the site a lot on her YouTube channel. Fair warning though: their shipping is not cheap! I paid $12.97 for shipping, bringing my grand total at the e-store to $52.16. But it was so worth it!

Why was it so worth it? Seche Vite, my friends. Seche Vite. They have a "professional kit" that includes a regular .5 oz bottle, as well as a 4 oz refill bottle. That's equivalent to nine bottles of Seche Vite... for the jaw-droppingly low price of $18.75!!!

WHAT!?!?!?

Yep! Seche Vite for TWO DOLLARS AND EIGHT CENTS PER BOTTLE!! Even if you tag on the shipping cost for my whole order, that makes each bottle only $3.52. That's less than half the price Sally Beauty Supply charges. Score!!

I also snagged a polish corrector pen for 99 cents. I'm not so keen on this just yet. Don't get me wrong--it works well. However, it's very stiff and it hurts my skin. Maybe after a while it will soften up a bit? I hope so, because in the meantime I'd rather just use my angle brush for cleanup.

I got that liquid pump for $5.95, hoping to put acetone in it. The description for it said it could hold "polish removers" and didn't say anything about not putting acetone in it like the other pumps did. Sadly, when I got it, there was a note inside that said "DO NOT USE ACETONE". Well... fack. So now it's holding my cuticle oil. It's also incredibly noisy to pump. I hate to say it, but I would definitely not recommend this particular pump.

And of course, I purchased some polish. China Glaze for $3.25? Color Club for $3.50? Yes please!

The first swatch is Color Club "Winter White". And yes, it is very similar to Nabi "Metallic White". This is a frosty finish, though, and has a bit more of a silver tone to it. As with most frosts, it does show brush strokes a smidge. Again, though, I don't mind.

The other Color Club is "Grand Dame" from... the English Garden Collection, I believe. You guys... these are my first Color Club polishes and I can now see what all the fuss is about. I think I'm in love. Grand Dame went on so smooth! It's easily the best polish I've ever worked with. It's a beautiful deep silver. I don't think this is a duo-chrome, but it sure does pick up colors around it. It's almost mirror-like.

Next we have China Glaze "Jolly Holly" from a holiday collection a couple years back. I've been seeking a nice forest green, and this one is lovely! 

The second China Glaze is probably my favorite polish in this whole entire haul. When I saw Jess swatch this in her review of the Rebel Collection I just knew it had to be mine. I present to you "Combat Blue-ts". It is a gorgeous matte blue with the slightest blue shimmer. Gah, I'm drooling just looking at it. See? I must be hormonal with all these pinks and mattes and whatnot. Jess did warn that it dries super fast, so you shouldn't manipulate it too much. I didn't have any trouble with the swatch, but then... a nail wheel is much easier a canvas than real nails.

They also sent me a free 100/100 grit nail file. I'll probably never use it, but it was a nice gesture. If you haven't yet checked out head2toebeauty, I'd say give it a go. I'd certainly buy from them again.

I also snagged six polishes from Walgreens. Know how much I paid for all six? $2.42 including tax. That's 40 cents per polish!

...But I totally cheated and used my rewards points for $5 off. Go me!

The first one is Sinful Shine "Kryptonite" from the Kylie Signature Collection. This was on sale for $1.49. It's an absolutely stunning teal with green and blue shimmer. It's a little thin, so depending on your application you may need three coats. I did two for the swatch.

The second is Sinful Shine "Kalypso", also from the Signature Collection, and also on sale for $1.49. Did I mention blue is my favorite color? This one is breathtaking. It's a luscious cobalt blue with blue shimmer. There are two coats on the swatch, but again you may need three if you tend to apply thinner coats.

The third--oh, look, another blue!--is Sinful Colors "Midnight Blue" which was marked down to 99 cents. This color lives up to its name. I'm already picturing the starry night manicure that I could do with this beauty.

On to number four: Wet 'n' Wild "Grape Minds Think Alike". All of the Wet 'n' Wilds were 99 cents. This one doesn't remind me of grapes at all. It's much more berry-like in color, which is precisely what I wanted. This could potentially be a one-coater, but I used two for the swatch.

Number five is Wet 'n' Wild "Ready to Propose". This is a nice, simple gold. It's a hair or two lighter than Sally Hansen "Golden-I". I bought this because I really want a good gold for water marbling, and I think the Nabi I purchased isn't going to work. 

The last polish is Wet 'n' Wild "Sparked". I've been eyeballing this for a while now, but I tend to shy away from glitters. I finally decided to snatch it up and I'm glad I did. This is a very dense (though not quite "Studette" dense) pink and silver glitter. I believe the base is a very light pink, but don't quote me on that. The swatch is two coats, and I think it could easily be opaque if you used the sponging method.

And that concludes my hundred dollar haul. But wait! Wanna see what my mommy got for me? Yes, I'm now 38 years old and my mom still spoils me rotten. 

I don't have any prices on this stuff, 'cause, y'know... that'd be rude to ask. But I wanted to share all the fabulous goodies I got for my birthday!

First up, because my Born Pretty tracking said that my package was still in Asia, my mom got me a BundleMonster double-sided clear stamper (with caps!). I've already tried this puppy out, and I love it. The only (minor) negative is that in order to see through it, you have to take out the end that you're not using. I worry that that may shorten the life of the head. Otherwise, though, it stamps like a dream. It also came with two card-scrapers, which I have discovered I like better than the standard scrapers.

She also got me two more pump bottles that are much quieter and that are safe for acetone! Yay! Now I just have to figure out what I'll put in the second bottle. 

The last nail-related item she got me was a set of five stamping plates from Nicole Diary. Regrettably, they're not the best. They're very thin. So far I haven't had much luck picking up the images even with stamping polish. I'm hoping the Born Pretty stamper is sticky enough to help. There are some cute images on the plates that I'd really like to make use of!

Alright, this long ass post is finally done! Next up? Delectable Diamonds!

Dabbling in Dots

Greetings folks,

Today we'll be discussing this here dotticure mani:



I'm not 100% certain where I got the inspiration for this, but it was probably in one of Jenny's "Easy Nail Art For Beginners" videos.

I started with Pure Ice "Bottom Line" base coat ($1.97 at Walmart). I then put down two coats of Wet 'n' Wild "Be More Pacific" (97 to 99 cents at any drugstore).

I then used my largest dotting tool and some Nina Ultra Pro "Ink-ling" ($4.19 at Sally Beauty Supply with card--I always buy them when they're B2G1, bringing the price of each to $2.79) to lay down one or two dark grey dots on each nail. I repeated this step with some Wet 'n' Wild "French White Creme". Flipping the dotting tool over, I made smaller dots randomly around the large ones. Going back in with "Ink-ling", I placed small dots inside the large white dots. I used "Be More Pacific" to put small dots inside the dark grey dots.

I got my dotting tools for Christmas last year, so for me they were free. Woot!  However, I think I've heard Jenny mention that you can get some on Amazon for a dollar. Even if you do end up having to pay more for them, dotting tools are well worth the investment because you can do innumerable designs with them.

Materials used: Pure Ice "Bottom Line" base coat, Wet 'n' Wild
"Be More Pacific" and "French White Creme", Nina Ultra
Pro "Ink-ling", Seche Vite, dotting tool

Finally, I finished off the mani with Seche Vite ($7.99 at Sally's).

Next up? Born Pretty Bitchfest!

Striped and Sassy and Halloween Horrors

Good evening folks. 

Just as a head's up, I might be a little discombobulated today. Little Devin had his six-month checkup and vaccinations today, plus Mommy nearly cut off the tip of his finger trying to trim his nails... so he hasn't been in the best of moods. If I leave any important info out, just let me know in the comments and I'll try to fix it.

Anyhoo! I have a bit of catching up to do, so I'm going to plunk two manis in one post.

First up we have this simple look that I created with striping tape:

For my base coat I used Bridge the Ridge ($5.49 at Sally Beauty Supply). I then applied two coats of China Glaze "Frostbite" ($3.25 at Sally Beauty Supply, B1G1). I love this color so much that I actually wore it alone for a day. 

I then applied some striping tape that I purchased at Sally's. I got 10 rolls of varying colors for $8.99, putting each roll at ninety cents. 

This was only my second time playing with striping tape, so I didn't go too crazy. I chose a simple geometric pattern, and then painted China Glaze "Icicle" ($3.25) over the top. I removed the tape while the polish was still wet to keep the lines nice and clean. 

Materials used: Bridge the Ridge base coat, China Glaze
"Frostbite"and "Icicle", Seche Vite, striping tape

For my top coat I used Seche Vite ($7.99). And... you guys.... I've been watching a lot of Phoebe's videos lately and she mentions Head2ToeBeauty quite a bit, so I decided to check it out. I found such a steal on Seche Vite! I'll talk about that a bit more in an upcoming birthday haul post. 







Next up we have my Halloween mani. I'll be honest... this was awful. I logged it as a NailFail.

Since I had only slapped this on Sunday evening, I knew I wouldn't be wearing it long so I applied Sally Hansen "BIG peel off base coat" ($5.49 at Walmart). 

I then laid down one coat of Nabi "Neon Orange" ($1.20 on ebay). Again, I'll go over the Nabi polish brand in the upcoming haul post. 

I then used a makeup sponge to dab on three thin layers of the "Neon Orange" and Wet 'n' Wild "Black Creme" (97 cents at Walmart) to create a horrifyingly sloppy gradient.

Materials used: Sally Hansen "BIG
peel off base coat", Wet n Wild "Black
Creme", Nabi "Neon Orange", Seche Vite,
skull decals

The stickers I used came from a huge lot of decals that I got years ago for $4. And when I say huge, I mean I won't be able to use all of them even if I applied some every week for the next ten years. If I recall correctly, I got them from China on ebay.

I topped the monstrosity off with Seche Vite, 


Next up? I have no idea! I still have the half-peeled Halloween horror on my hands...

Don't Dilly Dally!

Okay, back to the nail stuffs!

Today I'll be talking about this here super simple mani. And I'm going to eat my words, too. 

For this mani I started off with the Bridge the Ridge base coat ($5.49 at Sally Beauty Supply with card). I only did one coat, since it doesn't seem to make that big of a difference with two. I figure I'll just use it until it's gone and then go back to my normal Pure Ice "Bottom Line" base coat.

For the base color I used the Sinful Colors "Rise and Shine" ($2.02 at Target) that I wasn't so keen on. At least on the swatches.... But WOW! Once I actually got it on my nails?? I don't know if it was due to my skin tone or what, but this color after two coats really popped! I can honestly say now that it's one of my favorites.

I then applied one coat of Sally Hansen "Pixel Perfect" ($2.49 at Target). Now, when I say "applied", I mean "fished and swirled and globbed". Then I applied a second coat. And then a third... Ugh, okay. I got all excited with the Sinful Colors, but I guess this stuff is still as lackluster as it was when I swatched it. Oh well, at least there's an awesome color under there. 

I will admit that after a few days it did grow on me a little. But I highly doubt it'll get worn very often.

And then there was the fact that I put on a regular base coat instead of a peel off... what the Sam hell was I thinking?! I figured this was a good time to see exactly how much product I needed to use to get glitter off. For all ten fingers I ended up using two pads and five soaks in the acetone.

I would say that's still more cost-effective than a $10 bottle of UNT. Albeit severely more time consuming...

And there's no peel porn...

Next up? Striped and sassy.

Target "Treasures"

Good afternoon folks!

Now, you might be wondering, "Why is 'treasures' in quotes?"  Well, see, when I was at Target all these polishes looked to be treasures. Then I got them home... 

Let's take a look at each in detail, shall we?

First up we have "Jazzy Jade" from the Sally Hansen Xtreme wear line. I paid $2.49 for this. In the store this looked like a gorgeous opalescent green jade. However, when I swatched it, it looked... well, it looked terribly boring. And it was very similar to Wet 'n' Wild's "Be More Pacific", which I already have. I'm not a fan of having dupes--that's a waste of my hard-earned money. To be fair, though, I do not top coat my swatches. Maybe the opalescence will pop if I do. I'll have to keep you updated on that.

Next I purchased Sinful Colors "Rise and Shine" for $2.02. I'm not sure why I purchased both of these, as they're very similar to each other. And again, it looks much like "Be More Pacific". This polish was almost opaque in one coat, though. You could probably get it opaque in one coat if you did a thicker coat. 




Then we have Sally Hansen "Pixel Perfect". This was $2.49. It's a black and white matte glitter in several shapes and sizes and has a clear base. From the look of the bottle, you'd think it was fairly dense. NOPE! Far, far from it. I had to do quite a bit of fishing and maneuvering to get this stuff to look decent on the swatch nail (the photo is over "Jazzy Jade"). I also tried sponging, to no avail. All I accomplished with that was getting glops of glitter in one spot. The swatch shows about three coats. 

I don't normally go for pinks, or holographics, or glitters, but this one... man, it just looked amazing in the bottle! This is Sinful Colors "Pinky Glitter", that I bought for $2.02. It's a sheer pink base with holographic glitter. It's... it's pretty, I won't lie. But it's so sheer that even three coats won't get it opaque. You could use it as a topper, but then of course you lose that pale pink finery, and there are better holographic toppers out there. I may try this over a white base in the future, because overall I really do like it.


The last polish I purchase was another Sinful Colors for $2.02. This is "Cinderella". It's a sheer baby blue with a lovely pink shimmer. And it, too, is so sheer that three coats won't get you to opacity. I tried this one over black and was surprised to find that I didn't like it--I normally like everything over black. However, I did try two coats over white, and that fixed the opacity issue, but the blue was much paler than it shows in the bottle.



Overall I was pretty disappointed with my purchases. Normally I get pretty good stuff from both these brands. I guess my game was just off that day. Here's to hoping for better luck next time!


Next up? I eat my words!

Frilly French

Short story time!

It's 12:30 at night. I have to be up at 8 to go to work. I'm exhausted, and I know my son will be waking up soon for mommy milk. I need to go to bed. But...

...My nails are bare. 

Oh no!!

That is simply unacceptable. I must do something with them. Something quick and easy. Stamping? No... too messy. Watermarble? Ha! No way. Gradient? Uhmmm no. Something with striping tape? Pbbt. Might as well stay up all night if I wanted to do that. Plain polish? Hmm... tempting, but I just did that. What can I doooo?

Aha! French tip! Quick, easy, classy. 

I slap down some Bridge the Ridge and make a grab for my Finger Paints "Paper Mache". I'm halfway through my second coat when I hear my little guy stirring in the next room.

Shit! Dry faster, paint faster! Faster, faster, faster!

Finally the second coat is on and dry. The youngin' seems to have gone back to sleep. Whew! Disaster averted. I snag the Seche Vite. We're in the home stretch! First four nails, done! Twist the hand to get the thumb...

FACK!!

I've smudged my middle nail... Appropriate, since I'm now cursing and flipping off random inanimate objects in the room. 

But it's now 1 a. m.  Screw it. I need sleep. I finish top coating the rest of the nails. I can do something more with the mani tomorrow after my ten hour shift. 

I double check to ensure the Seche Vite is dry, change into my jammies, and crawl into bed. After a bit of flip-flopping to get comfy and to make sure I won't get sheet marks on my nails, I close my eyes and prepare to surrender to dreams.

And, of course, that's the very instant my son wakes up crying for his next meal. 

Sigh. The joys of motherhood...

The end!

But, thankfully, not the end of the mani!

The next day at work I kept trying to think of something that would add a little pizazz and also help me cover up that smudge. Then I remembered something that I had seen Yagala do... a frilly, fancy french tip using stamping. 

Game on! I used BundleMonster's XL-06 plate and the same polish I had used for my tips. This was the end result: 

It's a bit more... delicate than I'm used to, but I liked it nonetheless. Besides, it distracted from the smudge nicely. Though, if my brain wasn't so sleep deprived, I probably could have done some "polish surgery", as Colette calls it. Ah well, live and learn.

Next up? Target treasures!

Glittery Golden Goodness

Good afternoon ladies and gents!

Today I'll be raving about this here polish:

This is Pure Ice "Studette". I bought it for $1.97 at Walmart.  It's a clear base with tons of gold glitter, some silver glitter, and some red glitter. And it is dense. "Studette" is so blingy, my camera had a hell of a time capturing it, as you will see. 

Below are my swatches. The nail on the left is two coats of "Studette" on its own. On the right is one coat of "Studette" over black polish. 



I'm guessing you could probably get this opaque in three coats, it's that dense. Or, you could sponge it on using a makeup sponge as I did for the manicure I'll be featuring in the next post. 

The still photos don't really do "Studette" justice, though. I tried to get video of this golden goddess's blingery, but it was just too much for my poor camera and it decided to focus on the boards of my deck instead. Hopefully you can still get an idea of how awesome this polish is.

So, do I think this glitter polish was worth the $1.97? Abso-freaking-lutely. Go get ya some!

BundleMonster Booty

Greetings folks!

Today I'll be going over the BundleMonster goodies I ordered from Walmart.com a couple of weeks ago.

First up we have the BundleMonster stamping plates. I got a collection of ten extra large stamping plates for $31.99 with free shipping. There are twelve full size images--images that cover the entire nail--per plate. That's a total of 120 images to choose from. Break down the math and that equates to just under 27 cents per image. Good luck finding a Konad plate for that price! Generally speaking, Konad plates tend to go for around a dollar per image.

I got the ten-piece XL set #1, BM-XL01 through XL10. There are also sets #2 and #3 available for the $31.99. They have other sets available as well, but these are the best deal in my opinion.

These aren't your typical "cheap", shoddily made, so-thin-you'll-cut-yourself plates. BundleMonster puts out some high quality stuff, and these plates are no exception. They have a sturdy plastic backing and arrive at your door with the blue protective film. They stamp very well, even with most regular polishes.

I also snagged the BundleMonster Creative Art Polish Set #3 for $11.99. There are six stamping polishes in this set, putting each .4 oz bottle at $2. Not too shabby, right?

This is their "metallic" set of stamping polishes. Going from left to right, we have: "Wavelengths", which is a nice royal blue metallic; "Optical Illusion", which is a metallic purple; "Seeing Rainbows", which is a spunky--yet not all that metallic in my opinion--pink; the burnt orange/coppery metallic "Visionary"; a deep burnished gold called "Electromagnetic"; and finally "Chromo", which to me looks much more gunmetal than chrome.  And then as an added bonus, there's the cat hair that always makes a cameo in my photos...

Also, if you're curious which stamper I use, it's the Winstonia double-sided semi-squishy stamper. I paid $4.95 for this, but unfortunately the price has gone up a bit since then. I believe they're now either $5.45 or $5.95. You might be able to snag one on ebay for cheaper, though. I'd kind of like to get a colored head since stamping white polish is a bit tricky, but that's a luxury I'll probably have to pass on.

Anyhow, I'd recommend the aforementioned BundleMonster plates and polishes to anyone. They work very, very well and can add a lot of dimension to your manis. If you're anything like me and can't freehand paint to save your ass--not even stick figures--then stamping is definitely the way to go.


Next up? Golden glittery goodness!

FALLing for the Mani

Good morning! 

Today I'll be sharing how I did this fall colors inspired mani. 

I started off by using the Bridge the Ridge base coat I talked about in my last post. This is actually last week's mani, so I had only tried the one coat. The sunlight glare kinda shows how bad my ridges are--especially there on my pinky. Normally, however, the ridges don't show too horribly once my top coat is on. 

I then put down one coat of L.A. Colors "Hottie". This is a bright orange...

Let me interrupt myself here to say that I normally don't wear oranges or yellows. But hey, it's fall, right? It's a great excuse to break out of my norm. May as well throw both of my least used colors on there. 

Anyhow, as I was saying... "Hottie" is a bright pumpkin orange. And you can find L.A. Colors at most dollar stores (Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, etc.) for... yep, you guessed it! A dollar. 

I then used "Hottie" and Pure Ice "Show Stopper" (a banana yellow) on a makeup sponge to create a gradient. I did four coats, but I honestly could have gotten away with three. As far as I'm aware, the only brick-and-mortars that carry Pure Ice polishes are Walmart and Big Lots. I typically get mine at Walmart, and they cost $1.97.  

Now, I'll be honest here: gradients are not my specialty. No matter how many of Cristine's videos I watch, I just cannot get the dab dab dab correct. BUT! I sucked at watermarbles and stamping when I first started those, too. I just need more practice with gradients.

(My son is practicing his raspberries here next to me... it's totally cute and totally distracting, so if I'm bouncing around a lot, I apologize!)

After the gradient, I applied a fast drying top coat. I then used BundleMonster's XL07 plate and "Visionary" to stamp on the trees. I'll go into more detail about the plates and polish in my next post. I know, I know... the trees have blossoms on them, which screams "SPRING!" instead of fall, but it was the best image I had available. I'm SORRY, okay?? I'm sorry! 

Remember when I said that I use products under five dollars with a few exceptions?  Yeah, I'm about to lay an exception on ya. The same fast drying top coat I used between the gradient and the stamping is the top coat I use to finish all of my manicures (except of course the matte manis). I use Seche Vite. This stuff isn't cheap. With my Beauty Club Card I can get it at Sally's for $7.99. That's not chump change when you're on a budget. Is it worth it? Hellz yes it is. Seche Vite dries soooo shiny! It does a fairly good job of hiding my ridges, except when a glare hits them. It also doesn't smear your polish as other, cheaper top coats are wont to do. It is amazingly smooth and easy to apply. And the best thing of all? Seche Vite circumvents "The Phenomenon". You know what "The Phenomenon" is. We've all been there. "The Phenomenon" is that occurrence--I often wonder if it's an ingredient in all polishes that causes this to happen--when you've just finished your mani and you suddenly and inexplicably have to pee, right now! Don't fret! Throw some Seche Vite on your nails, wait five minutes (do the potty dance if you have to, but those five minutes will pass, I promise), and then you can safely--yet carefully--undo the button on your jeans.


...Or untie the ties on your jammies if you're still in them, as I often am. 

The point is... Seche Vite dries super fast. This stuff has literally saved my mani countless times. So yes, I do feel that it's worth going beyond budget. Can you survive without it? Sure, if you have a lot of time on your hands. As a working mom, I don't. So this is a must have for me.



Stay tuned for the BundleMonster booty!