County Fair Nail Polish -- Migi Nails!

I went to a neighboring county fair with my dad and brother at the beginning of this month. Didn't plan on buying anything, but I walked through the expo hall and there was this woman selling these nail art pens. She saw me looking and asked if I wanted a nail design, so I went ahead and let her. I happened to have plain nails on, so she had no idea what kind of nail addict I actually am. Anyway, she drew some cute flowers on my right ring finger just by doing some simple dots, and then a "french tip" on my pinky. Not a big fam of the french tip (mostly because I always fake like my tip are longer than they naturally are) but I really liked the pens. Plus they came with a lifetime refill offer, so how can you pass that up?

So here's the set I got. I had to ask her which one is the most popular because I really couldn't decide, and she recommended the basic set that has all the colors plus black and white. They were also selling the extra pens with glow-in-the-dark polish and clearcoat/rhinestones, normally $10 each but on sale for 2 for $10. So It was a total of $35 for everything.

Still getting the hang of it. It's REALLY tough for my left hand to hold the pen steady, but I'll get it eventually. I love that they're both regular brushes AND intricate pen tips. It will come in handy!

Nail polish seizure

Waiting for my nails to dry. I hate it when I have great plans for my nails and they don't come out as spectacular as I wanted them to. Ah well.

Anyway, I'm waiting for my nails to dry after spending about an hour of layering different colors, experimenting with combinations and stamping stamping stamping. Then I sign in to read Polish or Perish's latest blog and almost have a heart attack thinking about how wonderful it would be to haul like that! I am really glad that I'm having fun really diving into this nail blogging online community. It's so fascinating.

Then I go and pull a crazy and look up "nail polish lot" on eBay and have what I can only call some kind of seizure. It makes me kinda crazy to know how much nail polish is out there. Fortunately I've already officially begun my "save, don't spend" shopping diet so I'm not in any danger of binging. I may be having a lot of fun in the coming weeks layering colors on top of each other to mimic some of the new colors I would have bought if I were allowing myself to spend the money on more polish. :)

New blog entry should be coming in tomorrow, assuming I don't mess these nails up when I'm sleeping tonight.

Here's a preview of tonight's experimental laboratory: (the markers belong to my brother... I'm using his coloring station at our table)

Haul it in! I love free stuff - Third Haul of 2011

I successfully reached a $25 Amazon.com gift card reward through my Amazon Visa and decided to use it up on some nail stuff I've been wanting for a while now.

I got these from the Amazon seller named "KJ Beauty Store." I have nothing but nice thoughts about them due to this order. Everything went very smoothly. Technically each item that I bought from them had a shipping fee of $2.99 to $3.99 but when I paid for it all together my shipping was only $5.99 total, so that's awesome. Highly recommend KJ Beauty Store on Amazon.com for your Konad needs. 

From left: Konad Black Nail polish and Yellow Nail polish, Konad OneTouch Remover bottle, and Double-sided Konad Stamp set

1. Polishes: I have been wanting to print a vivid black print onto my nails ever since I started working with Konad but none of my black nail polishes ever quite did the trick. Konad's expensive though, so I couldn't just go and use $8 to buy a simple black nail polish. Good thing I got these for free! The yellow one was one that I bought on the fly, because I knew I wanted another color but wasn't really sure which one. I can see myself doing some yellow stamping on a dark base color. That'd be cool. Bumble bee nails, anyone? I'm excited.
2. Bottle: I was really happy to find that Konad makes these because for the past few weeks I've been wanting a bottle with a push top like this one. I considered getting one from Sephora. My sister is a regular reviewer on there so she reads reviews on a lot of products and she actually told me that their bottles are kinda iffy -- like I'd have to buy one and make sure it works and then keep exchanging it until I get a good one. Not really worth my trouble, plus $11 bucks for a plastic bottle? I even looked through Target and Walmart because I vaguely remember using a toner (that didn't work well on me- was it Almay?) that had that kind of dispenser on the bottle. I figured the drugstore product would coast me about $5ish and I could just dump out what's inside and keep the bottle. But no luck. Really glad I found this on eBay and then got it for free on Amazon. It works wonderfully and will surely come in handy.
3. Double Stamper set: I've been wanting this for a long time too! Mostly because I thought it would be smaller, actually. :| But it turns out that having a bigger stamp is pretty convenient for me because I have large hands for a girl, and this one is more comfortable to hold than the one that came with the set that my sister bought me. I think it will really come in handy to have two scrapers too, because I noticed that sometimes I get polish buildup while I'm doing my nails and I have to stop and clean it off -- which kinda puts me at risk for getting cotton lint on my newly painted nails. Or maybe I'm just making up excuses for using my gift card on something like this. Either way... I'm happy I have it. :)

Till next time. Comin' up: Half-moon manicure /slash/ reverse-French manicure!

Haulin' out! - Sally Beauty Supply

Another haul because I'm so spendy lately. This one's thanks to my Sally Beauty Supply membership. I got a coupon in the mail that said if I spent $25 or more I'd get a free travel flat iron. Technically I already have a flat iron and don't even know how to use THAT one, but my sister had been wanting to try for some time so I used her as an excuse to BUY STUFF. That "buy stuff" should really be in bigger caps and larger font. Anyway, I went around Sally's with my basket and threw this stuff in. This is just the nail stuff I bought (to get to $25 I had to buy some other stuff but since it's not nail-related I thought I'd leave it out of the haul.)

Picker upper for rhinestones, Sally Girl Nail color "812031" and Nail Art clay decals #380275 Blue Denim

1. PICKerr UPerr: You might recall from my attempts at rhine-stoning that they're hard to maneuver when you're using bitty little tweezers to pick 'em up. I may or may not have mentioned that. I really can't remember. Lemme go look. Nope, didn't mention the tweezer difficulty, but here's the post where I tried some rhinestones if you're interested. 
2. Sally Girl silver sprinkles: I call them sprinkles. :) I've been wanting some silver ones for a while now but never really felt the need to go into Sally's and charge .79 cents to my credit card. I love these sprinkles. I have the gold ones and the pink ones too. It's amazing how much they help "busy up" my nails when I'm really in the mood for sparklies.
3. Nail art clay decals: These are so frickin' cute. It probably didn't help that the package is "blue denim" themed so I automatically liked the color scheme. They're so frickin' cute. It includes flowers, butterflies, hearts and feather shapes. I'm really excited to use them. My sister -- the one who loves bunnies and anything "little," really -- could barely handle how cute they are. I let her have one as a gift. It's in her wallet. :D

I be haulin' - Beauty Outlet

I am apparently not over my "it's Christmas time to spend money" bug... so that combined with my laziness equals multiple blog entries that make me look like I went on a spending spree of nail supplies. Hoorah.

I kinda went crazy at my local Beauty Outlet because their nail polish inventory has increased immensely since the last time I was there. Another thing that got me to buy stuff was that they now have a roll of scotch tape hanging by the polishes and you can use that to test out the colors. No more blind purchases. Yay!

From Left: OPI Nail Lacquer "My Private Jet"; Seche Vitte Dry Fast Top Coat; Orly "Limelite"; OPI Nail Lacquer "Ski Teal we drop"

1. OPI "My Private Jet" : Haven't used it yet but I got it because it basically dries with a really "dense" and "mineral-y" look, like a granite countertop. So cool.

2. Seche Vitte: I joined the ranks and bought a bottle of this so-called "Best top coat" from all the nail blogs I read. And I love it. It's thick but doesn't smudge my Konad nail polish and only needs one coat, versus the 2 coats I needed with my Avon top coat. Looks like I'll be changing that blog entry that says what my top and base coats always are. Oh ya and I just realized I actually bought this on eBay, not at Beauty Outlet. Yay eBay bucks that get me a free top coat that's way better than my old one.

3. Orly "Limelite": Not much to say yet, since I haven't used it. But I had never seen a shimmery color like that before so I went ahead and bought it. 

4. OPI Ski Teal We Drop: I love this blue. My sister commented last night that it looks like algae green, which is true in indoor colors. Then in daytime it's blue again. Nail polishes with color-changing-trickery are always awesome. I used this color already on my recent half-moon nails. So lovely. 

And one last thought ... am I the only one who imagines cheezburger cats saying "o rly" when I see the brand "ORLY?"

December 2010 Haul

It's been a while since I bought these but I thought I'd share anyway.

1. Sally Hansen Insta-dry #250 "Lightening" from Walmart
2. Sally Hansen Insta-dry #16 "Blush Rush" from Walmart
3. Konad stamp plate m60 and m79 from the seller "trendservices" on eBay

On the polishes: Whoever said those nail polishes are insta-dry was wrong. They take forever to dry! Luckily I really enjoy doing my nails so it didn't make a difference that I had to wait for them to finish. :)

On the plates: I noticed when I've playing around with konad stamping that I needed more full-nail stamps, so I found these online and ordered them. They've been great! 

Another Haul!

Yaay, I am SO official, another HAUL! These are some purchases I made at Sally Beauty Supply after having a crappy school-related meeting where the lady I was talking to wasn't very nice to me. My solution? Starbucks Javachip and Sally nail stuff. Bad mood crisis solved!

From Left to Right:

1. Sally Girl Nail Color #812047: I knew I needed this color for previous nails, but I can't exactly remember what I needed it specifically for. I haven't used it yet, but it should come in handy.
2. Sally Girl Nail Color #812070: Gold confetti circles! This one is so fun. I used it in my last Christmas nail set. Click here to check it out. A little gold flourish without having to stress out too much about it.
3. China Glaze Nail Lacquer with Hardeners in #718 Watermelon Rind 80226: This is the Christmas green I needed. I don't really have greens in my collection, but I needed it for the Christmas Nails. Worked well, but a little more transparent than I was expecting. The nice thing is that I got a Christmas green that I can also use over the rest of the year too. That was the challenge in finding just the right color...
4. China Glaze Matte Magic - Flat Finish Top Coat: This stuff was on the sale rack and I figured I'd go ahead and try it. I haven't tried it myself yet, but my sister loves it. She wants nails that aren't too girly (which is difficult to accomplish) and she wanted a top coat to keep her nails strong, and this stuff is apparently the stuff of miracles for her. She said it started chipping off, but probably because she had already put on base coat and top coat and THEN this stuff, just cause she was excited about it when I brought it home. We're thinking it'll work better if its put on top of a basecoat instead.
5. Cina Stickers: Holiday Cheer: Soooo cutie. Love the reindeer and santa. Used them in my Christmas nail set as mentioned above (clicky here)!

Yay Haul!!