Budget-Friendly Feature -- Nina Ultra Pro Caribbean Blue

Hey there ladies and gents!

Today's feature will be Nina Ultra Pro "Caribbean Blue" I purchased this at Sally Beauty Supply during one of their Buy 2 Get 1 Free sales, so I paid $2.79 per bottle (that's also with my Club Card, of course).

She's a beautiful aqua blue. I've never been to the Caribbean, so I can't say for sure if this really is the color of the waters there. However, this does remind me of the beaches of Sarasota, Florida. The water there is so incredibly clear and gorgeous that you can see right through it.

Unfortunately this polish's formula is see-through, too. Even at three coats, there's still a wee bit of VNL. I usually use this as a topper. If you put this over black, it turns more green. I actually did a manicure once where I did a black-to-white gradient and put this over it. It looked amazing! Well, it looked mostly amazing--if my gradient skills were better it could have been phenomenal. It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but hopefully you get the gist.

One downside to the Nina Ultra Pro polishes is the brush. However, I think I'm in the minority on this. NUPs have a very wide paddle brush. For most folks, that's a good thing. For me, though, with my super narrow nails, it creates a problem. On my pinky and ring finger nails I actually have to turn the brush sideways. Otherwise, I end up with even more polish on my skin than usual. 

So is "Caribbean Blue" worth the $2.79 I paid for it? Yeah, I'd have to say she is. Would I pay $4.00 or more for her? Probably not. But at less than three dollars, "Caribbean Blue" is such a stunning color and very versatile as a topper, so I think it was money well spent.

Gifted Goodies

Good afternoon folks!

Today I'll be sharing with you some of the goodies I received over the holidays. But before I do that, I'd like to give some quick updates on some of the products I've already talked about.

First up, we have a couple of Wet 'n' Wild polishes: "Be More Pacific" and "Ready to Propose". Both of these are stainers. I wasn't terribly surprised about "Be More Pacific", as greens, blues, and dark reds do have a tendency to stain--especially in the lower budget brands. But I was rather shocked that the gold stained. It turned my fingernails brown! Honestly, though, staining isn't a major issue to me; my nails are always painted anyway.

As for the Born Pretty Store stuff, the stamper works beautifully. I love it. But the stamping polishes are garbage. They not only stink to high hell, the white doesn't even work at all! The black is okay, but not very pigmented. The nail studs that I purchased are okay, but the special shapes (hearts, stars, etc.) are too big to lay flat on my nails. However, I have very narrow nails with a very strong c-curve, so this might not be an issue for most people. 

I've also figured out how to get the Nicole Diary stamping plates to work (mostly). I was so used to working with the BMC XL plates that I was scraping and pressing my stamper too hard on the smaller, less deep images of the ND plates. It's still going to take some practice, but I think I can get all the images to pick up now.

Remember when I said that Jess warned about China Glaze "Combat Blue-ts" drying super fast? She wasn't kidding. You can get away with three strokes... maybe four if you're quick, but that's all the wiggle room you have. If you try to manipulate it too much, you'll end up picking up the polish you already laid down. Still, it's a stunning color, and the matte look is awesome, so I feel that it's well worth it.


Alright, let's get into the new stuff, shall we?

So, I know I said I was on a "no buy" for a while, but there were a couple opportunities I just couldn't pass up. 

The first was Zoya's Black Friday sale. Uhmmmm HELLO! Zoya for $3 a bottle?! How could I not take advantage of that? 

Prior to this sale, I didn't own--nor had I even tried--any Zoya polishes. So when the chance arose to snag some for so cheap, I was all over it. I wanted to see what the hype was about! I didn't go too crazy, though. Originally I had 9 polishes in my cart, but I reigned myself in and only ended up buying four. These beauties are "Ember", "Tangy", "Elisa", and "Katherine". 






"Ember" is so amazingly luscious. When I first received it, I was worried. I thought, Oh hell, this looks a lot more orange than it did on my monitor. But then I swatched it. I am so in love! I know this sounds crazy, but if I ever run out of her, I might actually pay the full $10 for another bottle. She's a bright orangy-red with an amazing luster--damn near chrome-like. "Tangy" is a funky, fun green shade unlike anything I had in my collection. "Elisa" is a gorgeous crimson red. I'm not normally a fan of reds, but this Zoya is amazing. "Katherine" is a deep purple jelly. I wanted a jelly because I'd like to try pond manicures and jelly sandwiches. I've never worked with jellies before, so I was a little surprised at how streaky it is. However, I'm still excited to work with it. All of these polishes just glide on like butter. The hype for Zoya is well deserved!

Another deal I wanted to take advantage of was the $5 off coupon from Sally Beauty Supply. I was given this coupon when I went in to grab some acetone and nail wheels. You could get $5 off any purchase of $5 or more. So I figured I would grab China Glaze "Tis the Sea-Sun" from their recent Seas and Greetings holiday collection. Surprisingly, I didn't have any corals in my collection, so this was a great addition. Between the coupon and my Beauty Club Card, I paid $1.49 for the polish. 




Now on to the presents! My dad did a great job picking out some polish for me--so good, in fact, I can't help but wonder if he had help from his wife... hee!  He sent me the 12-piece Kleancolor metallics collection. Now, in reviews I've seen online, the original collection that was released two years ago had a "Metallic Black". Whether it was a packing error or whether they've replaced that original black I'm not sure, but in its place I received "Golden Nightmare" which is a black with gold micro-glitter. The other colors in this collection are white, orange, red, pink, mango, yellow, green, sapphire, purple, fuschia, and aqua. 


These colors are soooooo gorgeous. I'm in love with the entire collection. A lot of these are one-coaters. The white does take two, but... it's white. That's to be expected. They're amazing on their own, but folks... if you slap a glossy top coat on 'em... they come alive!  I've heard that Kleancolor polishes work great for stamping, too. I can tell you, though, that the white and the "Golden Nightmare" do not work. I think they have too much shimmer/micro-glitter. The price point is great, too. You can get this whole set on Amazon for $11.99, which puts each polish at only a dollar!

Unfortunately, there are some downsides. These polishes do stink a bit. And... they bleed. I'm not sure what it is, but once you put a top coat on these bad boys they will melt right before your eyes. If you're doing a plain mani, this is a boon. But if you're trying to do nail art, it's definitely a bane, as can be seen in this photo of a recent mani. I thought perhaps I hadn't let it dry long enough, but that proved not to be the case. I let the other nails dry overnight, and the next morning made sure to float my top coat. Yet I got the same result. I sat there and watched in horror as it bled more and more as the top coat dried. 

Still, for the price and the color payoff, I think these polishes are great.




I asked my mom for Sinful Colors "Snow Me White" for Christmas, but as per usual, she took it 18 steps further and got me all these goodies!


The first item was a package of plate sleeves from Bundle Monster that hold various shapes and sizes, along with a pouch that can hold my stampers, scrapers, and other stamping supplies. These are sturdy sleeves with metal ringlets--they'll hold up for a while! The only downside is that they're not completely clear, so it's a wee bit hard to see the images through the plastic.

She also got me a 25-piece round plate set from Bundle Monster (plates 301-325) and a 25-piece round plate set from Pueen (plates 01-25). It's taken me a bit of practice to get used to these plates, as I had the same heavy-handed issue that I did with the Nicole Diarys. But both sets have some awesome images. I'm excited to use them! 

Instead of the Sinful Colors polish I asked for, Mom got me the Bundle Monster duo of "BAM! White" and "Straight Up Black" stamping polishes. Both work great. "BAM! White" is very opaque! I highly recommend! 

She also got Bundle Monster's "Poli-Peel", which is a liquid latex barrier. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm betting it's a lot better than the crap I got from China. Especially since said crap is now completely dried out and unusable. Pbbt. 


That's all I have for you today! Now that the holidays are over hopefully I can catch up on some of the manis I've done. 

Have a fantabulous day!

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.

Welcome to Mani on a Budget!

Greetings, ladies and gents.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jennifer Ravenwing, but I prefer to go by Jenn. I'm a single mom to a beautiful five-month-old boy. I work full time as a delivery driver (it's not glamorous, but it pays the bills and I get to show off my manicures to lots of different people). I love doing my nails--it's relaxing and it allows me to delve into my creative side.

But here's the thing: I have a mortgage to pay and diapers to buy, so I need to be able to do my nails without paying an arm and a leg. Hence, mani on a budget!

In this blog I'll show you the manicures I create using nail supplies that cost five dollars or less (with a few exceptions). So if you're here looking for the latest trends or the must-have current mainstream polishes, this isn't the blog for you. I change my mani at least once a week--twice if my son lets me--so longevity isn't a major concern of mine. Therefore, I really don't see the point of paying fourteen dollars for a bottle of polish. Do the expensive brands have polishes that I'd love to play with? Sure. Hell, if F.U.N. Lacquer wants to send me their entire lineup for free, I wouldn't turn it down! But I can still make some pretty awesome looks with regular drug store polish, which is good enough (and cheap enough) for me.

I'll also be sharing what nail goodies I buy, where I buy them, what price I paid, and what I think of the products.

In fact, let's do that now. I recently made a trip to Sally Beauty Supply. I do have a Beauty Club Card, and will try to stop in whenever Sally's is having a sale of some sort. Here's what I picked up:

 China Glaze was buy one get one free. With my Beauty Club Card, I paid $6.49 for both, putting the cost of each at about $3.25. The blue on the left is Frostbite, and the silver on the right is Icicle. These are the only China Glaze polishes I own, as they're normally out of my budget. Frostbite is amazing. I live for the bright cobalt and aqua blues. It's opaque in two coats and dries pretty shiny. Icicle is nearly a one-coater, but I would go with two just to be safe. I'll probably be pairing these two together in the future, most likely in a stamping manicure.


I also grabbed an ASP crystal nail file, which was on sale for $2.99. I've heard that the crystal/glass files are a lot better for your nails than the cardboard variety, though I can't confirm that myself. I have used this once, and I will admit that it did leave my free edge much less straggly. Plus it was much faster taking down my length. I approve!

The next item is a bottle of Blue Cross Cuticle Remover. This cost me $4.99 for a 16 oz bottle, and those 16 oz will go a looooong way. My cuticles never want to cooperate. So I thought maybe it was time to just remove them completely. But... I can't seem to get this remover to work. Chances are I'm doing something wrong because this stuff has gotten rave reviews everywhere. It does make it easy and painless to push my cuticles back, but it doesn't outright get rid of them. Perhaps I'm not leaving it on long enough? Or maybe I'm not applying enough? If any of you have used this and have any tips or tricks for me to try, please let me know! Also, if it makes a difference, I never ever use cuticle nippers (I almost typed "nipples" in there... d'oh!). Just the thought of getting those nippers anywhere near my nails makes me cringe. 

The last item I picked up... well, I did a no-no. I went beyond the budget. I paid $5.49 for ACI's Bridge the Ridge base coat. Supposedly this stuff fills in ridges and creates a nice rounded surface for your polish to glide over. This product also got great reviews, and it's also not working for me. Maybe I should try the stuff that nobody likes? Heh! Anyhoo... when I first put it on, it does round out the nail, but then the inevitable happens and it falls victim to the valleys. I've only tried using one coat, so I'll probably try two coats to see if that helps. Generally by the time I have a top coat on, my ridges don't really show, so I'm not sure why I bothered to buy this... especially at that price. However, this stuff did result in much less tip wear than I normally get in a week--even on a gradient--so I was pleased with that aspect. Was it worth going over the five dollar limit? Well, I can't really say yet, as I haven't tried the two-coat approach. But if I were to decide this very moment, I would say no. I'll try to remember to update you on that when I double coat. 

And that's all I have for you today. Stay tuned for the manis!