I'm Still Here, I Promise!

Hey everyone! Huge apology for being absent for so long! I was on vacation in Oklahoma from the 15th-22nd and the couple of weeks leading up to it were crazy busy and stressful! I was actually there during those awful tornadoes that went through. The one that went through the first day just BARELY missed us and we were even standing out by the storm shelter ready to jump in at any moment. The bigger twister on the second day was about 40 minutes away from us and we were so blessed that we are all safe and sound.

Like any vacation, I feel like I need a vacation to recover from it! So I'm hoping to have some posts up next week because I miss you all terribly! The worst part is that my nails are in terrible shape between traveling with 3 small children and the stress of the storms! But it's good to be back and see you soon! MWAH!

Avon Suede Soft Violet - Revisited and Redeemed

Happy Humpday y'all! I have a massively pic-heavy post for you today! I decided to revisit my very first mani that I ever did on this blog. As painful as it is to do so, I fee that this poor, poor polish was grossly misrepresented by my complete lack of skill, knowledge and experience! Oh how far I've come in such a short time!

 

The polish in question is a gorgeous purple beauty by Avon in their suede nail enamel line, appropriately named Soft Violet. And, like taking off a bandaid, I prefer to do this quickly and get it over with! Here is the awful pic that I originally used...

 

There are so many things wrong with this I can't even count! One of the biggest things that jumps out at me are the grooves in the base of my nails, especially on my ring and middle fingers. I had stupidly decided to trim my cuticles and misjudged the angle of the trimmer and cut a neat little furrow right into my nail beds. Some of you are probably thinking, OUCH! But I didn't feel a thing and I didn't even notice it at the moment or I wouldn't have done it to all the other nails too! If you peek back at my early posts, you will see that groove grow out verrrrrryyyyyyyy slowly! Then we have the fact that the paint job is patchy and you can even see my nail through it in places! Then comes the cleanup. While I have seen worse...I have DEF seen better! The photography itself wasn't all that bad but looking at it now, I think I would have preferred for it to be dark and blurry!

 

So I decided to correct this awful disservice that I did to this poor polish by revisiting it and giving it a new identity! Much better this time, don't you think?

 

Then I just had to slap on a coat of Seche Vite and whoa baby is this stuff GORGEOUS!!! These pictures don't even do this justice. It was so cool shiny and I really prefer it that way!

 

 

Then, because I wasn't ready to be done with her, I slapped on a coat of Catrice - Iron Mermaiden and some stars! This polish is a fabulous green to purple duochrome and looked purdy! 

 



Wow...that was a lot of pics but at least I can say that I did this polish justice finally and I no longer have to think of it as, "that ugly mani polish! 

Bright Dot Flowers Nails

It's been a whole week since I've blogged - BAD Lindsey! But I have something here to start the week off bright. No, that's not a typo - this mani is bright and bold!

 

I decided to try out the dot flowers that I learned how to do in a video tutorial by Nicole from Young Wild and Polished! You can find that tutorial HERE!

 

I'm terrible at picking colors to go together for a man but I really like how this combo turned out! The base is two coats of Barry M - Indigo. This polish is one of my top 12 in my stash. I did a vid about my favorites on my YouTube channel and you can watch that baby here! Warning - the video is over 11 minutes long because I love to talk! The flowers were done with Sinful Colors - 24/7 and Avon Nailwear Pro+ - Sunshine.

 

What do you think - do you like them, do you??

 

 

Hopefully I will see you again on Wednesday, barring any disaster - God forbid!

Rainbow Dots Nails!

Hello Monday warriors! I hope your weekend left you well-rested and ready for the week ahead - I know mine didn't! ;)

 

Today I have something simple and cute for you - rainbow dots! The base is three coats of Essie - Lapis of Luxury. It's such a pretty blue but so sheer! Then the dots, in rainbow order are Lancôme - Miss Coquelicot, Bettina - Resort Starfish then Art Deco Yellow. The green is a Pure Ice polish that the label has fallen off of and I'm too lazy to look it up! Then for the blue we have Pure Ice - French Kiss. Up next is Barry M - Indigo (which you can hear me rave about in my top 12 polishes vid here!) And last, but not least is Illamasqua - Prosperity! This was fun and simple to do and I love the way it turned out!

 

 

I hope your Monday is as restful and relaxed as it can be!

How To Make A Lightbox For Better Photography

I finally got a tutorial up on how to make a lightbox to improve your photography! It's super simple and super cheap (practically free!) Take a look and let me know what you think. I haven't actually watched the video myself because I don't like to listen to myself and I don't edit my videos so you'll have to let me know if it totally sucks! :)

MASH Nail Art Pens Mani

Hey everyone! I'm still alive - just seem to constantly run out of hours in a day!

 

I was so excited when MASH Nails contacted me and asked if I would like to review some of their products. I didn't have any clue what was going to come in this package so when I opened it and found, among other goodies, these nail art pens, I was pretty excited! I have always wanted to try out nail art pens but just haven't gotten around to trying any out. I've heard that they could be hard to work with and clog easily but I really liked these!! To get them started, you press the tip on a firm surface but I will warn you to be very careful. The black pen took a couple of presses but the first time I pressed the pink one, I ended up with a whole puddle of polish!

 

They have a nice, firm tip that's very fine pointed and as long as I took my time, I never had to go back over any of the areas to make it opaque, they worked like a dream! I certainly can't see myself replacing any polish with nail art pens but it could certainly be handy to have some basic colors around, especially for text! When I wrote "Love", it was like writing with a felt-tip marker!

 

 

I was also sent some of MASH's matte top coat and I really love the finish! It was more of a satin finish and was really, really smooth!

 

 

I also tested these pens out a week later and they are still working like a champ - yay! What do you think? At $5.99, they are mid-priced and I can see myself paying that for black, silver, gold and white! They would make adding little touches easy-peasy!

Work Appropriate Tape Mani

Happy wonderful Friday!! I'm not even sure I'm ready for Friday because I'm not sure how it got here... I remember Monday and then BOOM! Oh well, as long as it's here, I won't question it - don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

 

The mani I have today is so not "me" but I really ended up loving it anyway. That gorgeous bronzy, shimmery color is L'Oreal's Brit Invasion. This was one of the first polishes on my wishlist and I've had it for quite some time but I've just now gotten around to using it. It's really beautiful and I couldn't quite capture it in these photos. The gorgeous gray-blue color is L'Oreal's Rainy Piccadilly. It had a great crelly-type formula and is such a lovely color! I'm sure I'll clash with most bloggers out there as most people are posting lovely, bright, colorful nails and here I am with a Fall-type mani - oh well! I always had to be different growing up so why change now? I couldn't decide on whether or not to add the striping tape so I consulted my fashion expert...my 6 yr old daughter and she said it was a must! Once I had it on, I actually wished I didn't but it was a little late for that and it gives it a little "bling" that it was lacking otherwise!

 

 

 

I'm so excited - my hubby and I will get to go on an actual date tonight! My mom is taking my two older daughters for the night and my mother-in-law is watching the baby while we're out on the town!! Woo-hoo! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

 

Oh yeah, if you are interested in participating in a short-term nailart challenge, let me know! I'm thinking of a challenge where we post twice a week for 3-5 weeks (don't have that figured out yet), so a total of anywhere from 6 to 10 manis. It's sure to be a good time so let me know! :)