Angel Costume: Outfit, makeup & nails

I went to a costume party last night, and I wanted to film a video on the makeup I did, but I didn't get a chance to film. So instead, I took a bunch of pictures and I thought I would write up a quick blog post on what I did. I dressed up as an angel. It was a quick costume I threw together from things I had at home on hand, and a few other things I picked up from walmart and Salvation Army. I had a lot of fun creating the costume and the makeup look to go with it!

It was a masquerade party, so I wanted to focus a lot on the eyes, since that's mostly what you could see. I also focused on my complexion, because an angel's skin is bound to be flawless!

 For my makeup I used the following products:

Cover Girl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 Foundation in Creamy Natural
Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in light
Elf High Definition Powder
Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 hour blush in exposed (on the back of my cheeks)
E.L.F. Natural Radiance Blush in Flushed (on the apples of my cheeks)
E.L.F. Baked Blush in Pinktastic (as a highlight on my cheekbones and browbone
Revlon PhotoReady Bronzer in Bronzed and Chic
NYX jumbo eyeshadow pencil in milk (as an eye shadow base)
Eyetini liquid eye shadow in ambrosia (as a base for my crease color)
Coastal Scents Hot Pot in M01 (all over the eye)
Coastal Scents Hot Pot in HP-ME14 (all over the lid)
E.L.F. Custom Eyes Eye shadow in moondust (in the crease as a blending out shade)
E.L.F. Custom Eyes Eye shadow in Purple (to darken up the crease and in the outer corner)
Urban Decay Eye shadow in Uzi (in the center of the eye lid to add some sparkle)
Chella Ivory Lace Highlighter (in my water line)
E.L.F. Cream Eyeliner in black (to line my upper lash line)
Wet n Wild Color Icon Eye shadow single in Panther (to smoke out my black liner)
L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black Mascara
Kiss looks so natural lashes (cut in half)
Maybelline baby lips in pink punch
E.L.F. Luscious liquid lipstick in nude pink
E.L.F. Glitter Gloss in Golden Glitz (on the center of my lips)

My Costume:

Robe: a graduation gown I picked up at Salvation army for four bucks!
Mask: walmart
wings: walmart
white tights: walmart
white headband: forever 21
shoes: were a gift

Nails:

For my nails I used Julep's Dana, which is black light reactive and was a total hit at the party. And on top to add a little sparkle I did a coat of Julep's Paris.

Overall I was pleased with my costume! I hope you enjoyed!

Happy Independence Day!

If you are one of my American readers, happy Independence Day! If not, happy Friday! I thought I would share my patriotic manicure with you today!

The red nails are Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar with Julep's America the Beautiful on top. The Blue Nails are Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Blue It with New York Color Disco Inferno Top Coat. The white nail is Julep Brigitte with accents of Sugar Sugar, Blue It, Sally Hansen Celeb City and a bit of Disco Inferno right in the middle. I love the way these turned out!

St. Patrick's Day Manicure

I thought I would share with you my st. patrick's day manicure! I am Irish and proud so of course I had to do some green nails! I didn't do any fancy nail art or anything, mostly because my stamping attempt failed. But I was still quite pleased with the end result!

On my index, middle and pinkie fingers I used the China Glaze Magnetic polish in con-fused. I am not a big fan of the magnetic polish trend, but the magnetic polishes can still be used, just without using the magnet. It's a beautiful green shade that I think is perfect for St. Patrick's Day! On my ring finger and thumb I used Julep nail polish in Adrianna, which is a gorgeous light pistachio green shade that I absolutely love. And on top of that I used the Hard Candy nail polish in Emerald's Eve, which is a great glitter topper. It's got small pieces of emerald green glitter and larger gold glitters. It made the perfect glitter topper!

Overall I really love the finished look, and I was very pleased with all of the polishes I used! I highly recommend them all! Did you do anything special with your nails for St. Patrick's day? I would love to hear about it, so leave me a comment and let me know!

Julep Joanna and Zoya Monet

Hey guys! I've got more nail polish goodness to share with you today. This time, a quick Review on Julep's Joanna and Zoya's Monet. I wore the two together for a fun manicure so I thought I would share it with you.

With Flash

no flash

Julep describes Joanna as a lilac frost. I sort of agree with that description. It is a lilac shade but it has a dusty sort of grey undertone that sets it apart from other lilac polishes in my collection. Neither of my photos represents the true color of this polish, though it's closer to the second photo- the one with no flash. It's truly a unique color- I don't have anything in my collection quite like it. And while it is a frost it's not super frosty, so I find it to be quite wearable.Application was pretty standard for Julep polishes. The brush on Julep's polishes are quite long, owing to the unique bottle shape, and so often, if you're not careful, the nail polish can drip down off the wand onto the brush causing the flooding of cuticles, or just too much polish. But if you're careful, it applies quite nicely. I didn't find it gloopy or streaky, and this polish didn't show brush marks like frosts often do.

To add a little something to this manicure, I opted to apply Zoya's Monet to my ring finger and thumb for some pretty accent nails. Zoya describes monet as a multi-colored cellophane holographic special effects topper. It's a very pretty polish. I found that the base that the glitter was suspended in was quite thick, so it wasn't the easiest polish to work with. I did have to dab a bit to get the glitter exactly where I wanted it. But this polish is just gorgeous. It reminds me that easter grass you get in an easter basket. Just beautiful, and worth the little bit of extra work in my opinion.

So there ya have it! Hope you enjoyed and found this helpful. I'll be back with more manis soon, I am sure!

Revlon Parfumerie Nail Polish in Wintermint

Among the lovely gifts my husband got me for Valentine's Day was this lovely little parfumerie polish from Revlon. It is the first of its kind that I have tried and I have to say I absolutely love it. 

Revlon's Wintermint is a sweet mint green color with blue glitter specs in it. It's gorgeous! It reminds me of the ocean for some reason. It took 3 coats to be opaque but was an absolute dream to apply. It wasn't patchy or thick. It just glided right on the nail And it's scented! It has the most lovely mint smell. Even now, hours after I polished my nails I can still smell the minty smell. It's so much more pleasant than the typical nail polish smell. The bottle is adorable as well, and while I was concerned that the small, rounded cap would make polishing difficult, I had no trouble with it at all. The Revlon Parfumerie line of polishes is quite extensive and I can't wait to try more of them! Have you tried any of this line of polishes? I would love to hear about your experience, so leave me a comment down below! 

My Valentine's Day Manicure

Hey guys!Happy Valentine's Day! I feel like all I ever post is nail polish related things, and this is no exception! I promise to get back into posting reviews and things of other products. Eventually. But fo now, I wanted to share my Valentine's Day Manicure with you!!

I went with a super simple, very pretty mani this year. I started out by painting all of my nails with one of my new favorite pinks, Zoya's Dot. I got this polish in my Ipsy bag (if you want to see what else I received in my bag, check out my video here) and it's the perfect milky baby pink. It just reminds me of strawberry milk. The formula on this polish is amazing. I didn't find it streaky or difficult to work with at all, and I was able to get it opaque in just two coats, practically unheard of for a pastel! Once the polish was dry, I did a single stamped accent nail. I used the BM02 plate from Bundle Monster and stamped using Wet n Wild Megalast polish in "I Red a Good Book" Because it was just a single thin coat of polish, it turned out a dark pink color, which I think looks perfect with "Dot".I topped it off with Sally Hansen's Strengthening Top Coat for some beautiful shine, All in all I am quite pleased with how it turned out!

Wet n Wild Candy-licious and Hard Candy Pink Taffy

Hey guys! It's been a while since I shared a nail of the day post, and since I did a pink mani for the first time in ages I thought I would go ahead and share it with you!

natural lught

With Flash

No Flash

I started out with two coats of The Wet n Wild Megalast Polish in Candy-licious. It's a beautifu mid-toned candy colored pink. It's a cream formula that glides on effortessly with the Manicurve Pro brush that I love so much! This is a fantastic color for spring and summer, and I figured, why not wear it in winter too? It's been so cold and dreary here, I just wanted a nice pop of color! Then to add a little bit more fun. I painted one coat of Hard Candy's pink taffy on top of candy-icious on my ring finger and thumb on each hand. This is a super fun polish. It looks just like taffy to me. This can be worn on it's own, but it takes about 3 coats to be completely opaque, so I decided just to wear it as a topper today, and I love the way it looks with candy-icious. Overall I really love this mani!

Wet N Wild Megalast in Candy-licious can be purchased for $1.99 or less anywhere that wet n wild products are sold. (I picked up mine at wal-mart for about $1.75)
Hard Candy Pink Taffy can be purchased exclusively at Wal-mart for $4.00

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge Day 16: Inspired by a Christmas Song

Yep, I am still a couple of days behind! Sorry! But, I am super excited about the theme for Day 16! Inspired by a Christmas Song. One of my favorite Christmas songs is "Silver and Gold" by Burl Ives. I couldn't help but do a silver and gold manicure!

After I applied my base coat to protect my nails, I applied two coats of Julep's "Amity" Technically this is a white gold shade, not quite silver, but I feel like a super metallic silver color wouldn't have worked as nicely with gold. Once "Amilty" was completely dry, I sponged the gold I chose to use, China Glaze's "Mingle with Kringle" on just the tips. Then when that was dry, I added just a bit of chunky gold glitter, Elf's "Gold Star" to the tips of my nails by just dabbing the nail polish brush. Overall I think it's a beautiful manicure. I love the mix of silver and gold and the added bling that the chunky glitter adds. Gradient manicures are so fun, aren't they? Everytime I look down at my nails, I start singing that song, too, which is really putting me in the Holiday Spirit! It's just a week until Christmas! I hope you're all having an amazing Holiday season so far, and I hope you'll join me tomorrow for my next themed manicure for this challenge! See ya soon!

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge Day 15: Something Cozy

I was stumped for quite a while on what to do for the theme something cozy. So I went ahead and typed "Something Cozy" into google images and the first thing that popped up was a picture of a ball of yarn. That inspired me! I couldn't actually paint a ball of yarn onto my nails, because as you've seen, my nail art skills are abysmal. So I went another route.

I opted to go with the Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat polish in "All yarned up" for two reasons. One, because yarn is cozy. And two becuase fuzzy coats are cozy too. Yes, it's corny. It's ok you can laugh. Regardless,  I like how this mani turned out. For undies I used The Ulta Salon Formula Nail Lacquer in "Set the Nude" Then I applied two coats of "All Yarned Up" and to finish the look I applied the Elf matte top coat for a nice change to my usual ultra shiny manicures. What do you think?

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge Day 14: Glitter!

We're not even going to talk about how far behind I am in this challenge. We're just going to get right into the manicure I created for the theme for day 14: Glitter!

I started out with a base coat and then painted my nails with a black polish. I used Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme. Then I added two coats of one of my favorite glitter polishes of all time. It's Revlon's Scandalous . It's absolutely beautiful and I searched high and low for it when I first bought it. It's a dupe for a Deborah Lippman polish, and I think it's stunning this time of year!

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge Day 13: Snow

The theme for Day 13 of the challenge is snow! I really wanted to do another stamping mani and here's what I came up with! I love this snowflake manicure!!

I started out with a white base color. I used Sinful Colors "Snow me White." Then, using the bundle monster image plate number BM14, I stamped on the snow flake design in a random pattern on each nail with Sinful Colors "Endless Blue" Then when that was dry I added a Shades of the Season Glitter polish. They don't have names, but this one is a really pretty iridescent glitter that looks so beautiful with this manicure. Just like fresh sparkling white snow. Considering we got 8 inches of snow dumped on us today, this seemed like an appropriate manicure!

Be sure to check back again and see what I come up with for the rest of this challenge. :)

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge Day 11

Well, I have managed to fall a day behind in the challenge. I suspected that would happen. I am certain it won't be the last time. In fact, If I finish this challenge by the new year I will be happy. haha. The theme for Day 11 was gifts.

The purple-y shade I used is China Glaze Positively in Love. It's a magnetic polish. Obviously I did not use the magnet. The green shade is Pure Ice Not Now. And the little bows are decals that a friend from a nail polish swap group sent me that I have been wanting to use for a while. They are actually a little small for this design, but I decided to use them anyway and I think it's cute!

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge: Days 9 and 10

Today I am bringing you yet another comical attempt at nail art. I hope you're ready to laugh! Note: Ignore the abysmal state of my hands. They are dried out from the acetone I use to remove my nail polish, and I took these photos before I moisturized. Sorry!

Day 9's theme was pine. I decided to attempt little pine trees on each of my nails.

I started out with a base of Julep's Dendrie, a soft grey cream. Then I used a little nail art brush to add the tree details. The brown is Elf's Chocolate. The darker green is China Glaze Holly Day. And the khaki green shade that I used to add accents is Sinful Colors Beau Khaki. You can see some of the trees got a bit smudged, but overall, considering what a novice I am with the nail art brush, I think I did a decent job.

Day 10's theme is lights.

I used Wet n Wild Wild Shine in "French White Creme" as the base color for my nails. The Black that I used for the cord on the lights in NYC Black lace creme. I used a little nail brush to draw on the cord, and then used a small dotting tool to add the lights. The red is NYC "Big Apple Red" the purple is NYC "Purple Pizazz" and the green is NYC "High Line Green"

Hopefully as I continue on with this chalenge I get better at this whole nail art thing. At least my nail art attempts are good for a laugh!

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge: Days 7 and 8

I was so busy yesterday that I didn't find a free moment to photograph my nails and write up the blog post. I did find time to create the mani though. It's laughable, but I thought I would share it anyway. The theme yesterday was Ornaments, and so I attempted to free hand an ornament on each nail. It looks like my 5 year old did my nails, but hey, at least I tried!

I used my usual black and white. Wet n Wild Wild Shine "Black Creme" and "French White Creme" For the red, I used China Glaze "Poinsettia". The Green is China Glaze "Holly-Day" The Gold ornament is done in China Glaze "Gold Fusion". The Silver Ornament is Milani "Tricky Treat" and the Blue ornament in the Sally Hansen complete Salon Manicure in "Nightwatch"

Day 8's theme for the challenge is Starry Night"

For this design I used the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polish in "Nightwatch" as the base. It's a bit darker than it shows in the photos. Then, as accent nails I painted the Step 3 polish from the Kiss Gradation Set in Film Noir. It's a pretty holographic glitter polish that I think gives the look of a night sky spattered in stars. Then, I used the  Konad image plate number m3 and stamped the star design using wet n wild wild shine "french white creme" on the remaining nails. I love the overall look.

So there ya have my designs for days 7 and 8. Be sure to check back tomorrow when I attempt a design for day 9, when the theme will be pine!

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge Day 6: White!

Today's theme for the Advent Calendar Nail Challenge is white. It's the last of the color themes. Starting tomorrow I really have to get creative. For white, I wanted to do something classy and simple. Here's what I came up with!

I started out by applying two very thin coats of the Nailtini polish in "Frappe" It's a very sheer pinky nude color that doesn't show up much, but I just wanted something to add a little shine to my nails. Then using a small dotting tool and Wet n Wild "French White Creme" I added the dots and I also painted along the very tips of the nail with that same dotter. I love the overall look! Very feminine and pretty in my opinion. And super easy to re-create!

I hope you enjoyed My White manicure! Be sure to tune in tomorrow and see what I come up with for the theme: Ornaments!

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge Day 5: Blue!

Today's theme for the Advent Calendar Nail Challenge was blue! I couldn't decide which blue I wanted to use, so I decided to use a few of my favorites and create a sort of mix and match mani! I really love the finished result!

On my pinkie finger I simply did two coats of the Wet n Wild Fergie nail polish in the color "Havasu Blue". For my ringer finger, I did three coats of Sinful Colors "Cinderella" and on top of that I did two coats of the China Glaze glitter polish in "Bells Will be Blinging" My middle finger is Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in "Blue It" with Wet n Wild Wild Shine polish in "French White Creme" dotted on top. My index finger is the same "French white Creme" with all three of the previous blues I mentioned done in the saran wrap method on top. And my thumb is once again "French White Creme" with a design from the Bundle Monster BM02 plate stamped on using the Fergie Polish in "Havasu Blue" again. I love the way the different blues compliment one another and adding the same blues in the different designs help tie each nail together to make it look cohesive and cute! I really love this mani and I am going to be sad to take it off tomorrow, when I do day 6 of the challenge!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Be sure to follow me so you won't miss a single day of the Advent Calendar Nail challenge plus lots more!

Advent Calendar Nail Polish Challenge Day 4: Silver!

Today is day 4 of the Advent Calendar Nail Challenge, and the theme is silver. I painted my nails plain silver early this morning, and then it took me nearly all day to decide what else I wanted to do. I decided I wanted to do a tape mani! It's been a while since I did one, and this one didn't turn out perfect by any means. But it's nice enough, I like the finished product! I didn't bother to clean up around the edges, since I will just be scrubbing this off tomorrow for tomorrow's design. But I am pleased with the look overall!

I started out by polishing my nails with the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear nail polish celeb city. Then, when I figured out what I wanted to do, I used scotch tape and taped off half my nail in a diagonal design to create this cool look. I painted over the tape with Wet n Wild Megalast polish in Clack Creme, and then removed the tape to get the two toned effect. Then once that was all dry I went over the whole thing with a Silver glitter Shades of the Season polish. I think it's a great look that would be perfect for the holidays, which makes it perfect for this challenge! What do you think?

Be sure to come back tomorrow to see what I come up with for tomorrow's theme, which is blue!

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge Day 3: Green!

The theme for Day 3 of the advent calendar nail challenge is green, and I was super excited for this one! I purchased a nail polish that has been on my wish list for ages a while ago and I thought this was the perfect chance to use it! There isn't much art to this particular manicure. Not like yesterday when I did the stamping. But I love it nonetheless. I just wish the picture did it more justice. I found it hard to capture how pretty this is and have it look true to color. I did my best. You all know I am no photographer.

Sorry about the dreadful photo. When I attempted to take it using the flash it turned the green polish I used this bright neon green color, that was not at all true. So this was the best i could do. I used China Glaze Holly Day as the base color. It's a gorgeous christmas tree green from a holiday collection three years ago, if I am not mistaken. And then, the star of the show is Sinful Colors Green Ocean which I put on top. It's a gorgeous green flakie polish that I believe they re-promote every year around St. Patrick's day, but that I managed to find randomly in a sinful colors display at walmart a month or two ago. I love it, and I think it makes the perfect green manicure for this challenge!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Be sure to follow my blog so you don't miss the rest of this challenge! Tomorrow's theme is "Silver"

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge Day 2: Gold!

Day Two's theme is gold. For this one, I decided to do a bit of stamping. It's been a while since I stamped!I started out with a plain black base and then stamped with gold to fir the theme. I used a bundle monster plate, and the specifc design that I chose is a bit too small for some of my nails, especially my thumb. So instead of stamping them and having the design look wonky, I painted my larger nails- my thumb and my ring finger a sparkly gold.

The black base color is the Wet n Wild Wild Shine polish in Black Creme. I stamped my first, middle and pinkie fingers using the China Glaze polish in Gold Fusion, which is actually a magnetic polish. The magnetic polishes make great stamping polishes because they are thicker than the average polish so they work wonders. I used the bundle monster plate number BM19 and the accent nails are polished with China Glaze Mingle with Kringle. I could have used the same polish I used for the stamping, but I liked the idea of a bit of sparkle. I like the finished result a lot!

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to come back tomorrow to see the next design in the challenge. Green!

Advent Calendar Nail Challenge: Day 1

If you follow me on instagram you might have already seen that this year I am going to attempt to participate in a manicure challenge that I came across while searching for inspiration for nail art for December. It's the Advent Calendar Challenge, which was created by someone named Kristi and Happy Hands and it goes a little something like this.

So each day you create a manicure based on the theme for that day. I thought this would be a great way for me to get back into nail art and challenge myself a bit, all the while giving me fun things to share with you all here on my blog and get me in the mood for the holiday season!

So hopefully everyday leading up until Christmas I will be posting a new fun manicure to share with you. I can't promise I won't skip a day here or there. And I can't promise that each day is going to be amazing, since I am still very much a novice at this whole nail art thing. Needless to say some of my attempts might not be all that "artistic" at all. But, while this is a challenge, I mean for it to be fun so I am going to have fun with it, do my best and not take it terribly seriously! I would love it if any of you would like to join me and begin this challenge as well. Even if, since I posted this so late in the day, you have to start a bit behind.

Day 1 of this challenge is just Red. So I started out super simple!

I painted my nails with two coats of the Sinful Colors Nail Polish in the color Sugar Sugar, which is a gorgeous Metallic Red. Then for a subtle added touch, which doesn't really show up at all in the photos, but promise me it's there, I added a coat of the Wet n Wild Megalast Polish in the shade On the 101 which is a sheer black base with medium red hex glitters. I applied this very thinly so the black base wouldn't effect the color overall much and would just add some subtle glitter. I really like the way it turned out. I wish it translated better in the photos.

So that's it for day 1 of this challenge. I am already thinking about creative ways to create my mani for tomorrow when the theme will be "Gold"! I can't wait! Thanks for stopping by! And if you are interested in getting a sneak peek of these manis before they hit my blog, you should add me on instagram, username Jwhackers, since I will be posting my manicures there as well!!