Guest Post: Sparkly Tips

Today I have a guest post for you from my friend Ashley at Polished Components. I'm jealous of her OPI glitters! ~ Megan

Today is another fun set of tips from me.  I know you have seen several like this in the past from me, but I just love the look.  I think I really started to like the look when I went to get my morning bagel, and the lady working there has fake nails.  But her tips are always a fun and bright sparkly color.  So since mine have gotten to longer lengths I wanted to do some fun tips too.  

 We have a picture in sunlight and with shade.  This is OPI Show it and Glow it.

Now while I do this free hand, there are several ways to help you achieve a straight line.  Scotch tape, there are also actual french tip stickers that can be found at most places with a beauty selection.  Also cleaning up with remover when you are done is an option, even though I refuse to do clean up:)   I love this look since it tends to make my nails look even longer than they actually are.   

Well I hope you have enjoyed this post on my fabulous tips.  See you soon and stop by to say hi.

Guest Post: San Diego!

I'm on my honeymoon in the lovely San Diego and Cuti-CLUE-les did some fabulous nail art themed for our trip! I'm so honored that she would do special nail art just for us. Thank you! Be on the lookout for some honeymoon pics we're snapping along the way on my Facebook page. - Megan

Hey all! 

I am so happy to help out the lovely Megan while she is off getting married! She tweeted that she was looking for guest bloggers to keep her blog busy while she was away and I couldn't say no. How sweet that she still worries about her blog with all the wedding plans she has going on :P So as they are going on honeymoon in San Diego I thought a mani mimicking the skyline would be a nice idea :)

I am not familiar with American scenery whatsoever so I had to google it :P This is the picture I used for inspiration:

Here is my take on it:

For the background I used Catrice I wear My sunglasses at night. This is a gorgeous black polish that is full of glitter. This only needed 2 coats. The formula is a bit thick but I think its easy enough to apply evenly.

When the black was dry I just freehanded all of the details using acrylic paint. Acrylic is far easier to control when doing nail art. It also dries incredibly quickly so you don't have to worry about smudging your nails!

For the light reflecting in the water I just mixed each colour with a little bit of water so it was less pigmented.  This was the hardest part!! I've never done a city skyline as nail art before. 

I really hope ye liked this post! I'm so grateful that Megan let me loose on her blog today. I love doing nail art and I'm so happy with the way this turned out. Megan I hope ye have a magical day and I wish the two of ye all the best for the future :) 

Cuti-CLUE-les

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http://cuti-clue-les.blogspot.com/

Guest Post: Starfish Gradient

Our wedding had a naturey beach theme to it, so Alexis did a gorgeous starfish manicure for us! This is a picture my uncle took of the very beginning of our wedding. You can see my father giving me away, and the starfish in my bridesmaids' hair. Thank you so much Alexis. ~ Megan

Hi everyone! My name's Alexis and I'm extremely excited to be over on Megan's blog today! Thanks so much Megan for allowing me to do a post for you, I feel honored!
So, keeping in mind Megan is having a beach themed wedding I wanted to do something that sort of signifies or at least relates to the beach and weddings. I adored her cute starfish hairpins she showed on her blog for her bridesmaids so I took that into consideration and actually ended up doing my mani around the starfishes. I had one idea which turned into another which turned into this, overall I'm happy with it but I hope you all and Megan like it!

I know gradients were a big thing and they're sort of dying down now but I thought to myself, "What's a beach mani without an ocean inspired gradient?", do you all agree? I think the teal and blue combined with the white really brings to mind the ocean and well you already know about the starfish! :) I added a flakie topcoat just to give it some extra "special" and I thought it went along with the beach theme great!

Colors Used: Wet n' Wild - French White Creme 2 coats, (gradient from light to bright blue) Sinful Colors - Mint Apple, NYC - Water Street Blue, (accent nail) Starfishes are SC - Mint Apple and NYC - Water Street Blue, dots are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pacific Blue, Essie - Shine of the Times 1 coat, NYC In a New York Minute - Top Coat 2 coats.
I reallllyyy hope you all enjoyed this beach mani, I know I had so much fun stopping by! Thanks again Megan for having me, and thank you lovely readers for well, reading! :D  Also, I hope you and your (soon to be or already is depending on the date the post goes live) husband the best! Awww I love weddings! haha :)
- xoxo Alexis Leigh

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Daring Dahlia

The more I look at this color the more I like it. I'm honestly not into super bright pinks usually. Meet Daring Dahlia by Barielle.

This is a gorgeous bright hot floral pink with purple and pink shimmer. 

It is SO cute and the shimmer is really easy to see in person. 

I love it when my polish happens to match my outfit. I never have enough time or care enough to actually change it to match. And seeing as though I just got married, I thought I'd throw in a little ring bling :D!

You can buy Barielle polishes for $8 on their site. You get %15 off for registering with your email, and they're pretty much always buy one get one 50% off! Ulta also sells them and you can use their coupons if you'd prefer to buy them in person. Check out their Facebook page too! 

Guest Post: Trophy Wife

I'm getting married today and some lovely people have offered to help me out with guest posts. I can't wait to share details and pictures with you. Thank you so much for following me all this way! Here is a lovely guest post for you guys so I can enjoy the day spend time with my new husband. There will be quite a few more guest posts and scheduled posts from me to come while we're on honeymoon. Mandy picked a perfect polish with a perfect name for the occasion! - Megan

 

Hi there!  It's Mandy, from Mandy's Polish.  I am excited to be guest posting today for Megan.  I have been following her blog for a while now and love all the generous things she does.  I wanted to share a polish with you that is great for summer and the work place.  Right now summer is all about the neons, but some people may not be able to wear those colors to work, heck, they may just not be into neons at all.  I love this pink, it's very pretty and not too out there.  This is Trophy Wife from China Glaze, what do you think?

Thanks for having me Megan!!!

OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know

Sorry I've been slow with the posting ladies. I've been so busy making things and preparing for our wedding! We're getting married this Saturday June 23rd! Do a no rain dance! I have lots of guest posts and scheduled posts from me coming so it should still be interesting! I'm sure I'll share whatever wedding pictures I get as they come on my Facebook page as well. 

OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know was one of the only two polishes I got from the Holland collection. I really wanted a nice brown with an interesting flair.

This is a lovely chocolate brown polish with a hint of purple and it shimmers pink and gold.

Nummy nummy! The shimmer isn't crazy, but you can definitely see it with no trouble in person.

It does have a lighter side as well. Love this polish!

Starfish Hairpin

 I haven't done a crafty post in a while. With my wedding coming up in 9 days I've been making a million things. Pinterest is definitely your friend if you're planning a wedding. If you want to look at mine filled with wedding stuff instead of nail stuff, feel free. So here is how I maid hair accessories for my bridesmaids, and how you can too!

I saw these starfish hairpins and immediately wanted them for my bridesmaids. When I looked up where to buy them $14 a piece = $70 for one bridesmaid! Cute, but no way. So I set out to make my own.

 

 I found these rhinestone starfish for a little over $1 a piece on Etsy. They were cheap, cute, bam! They really don't have that brassy tone to some parts of them in person...probably the reflection of my orange camera. You can use all sorts of things instead of starfish - beads, buttons, old earrings, charms, anything!

I tried making these complicated wire swirls like I have on some of my hair things, but that was just too hard. So I just hot glued them to bobby pins! If it's just a decorative hair piece and not actually holding hair, you can hide the bobby pin, so no big deal! Hot glue isn't crazy about sticking to metal, so the first one I made popped off. If you squeeze the hot glue so that it goes all the way around both the bobby pin and the back of the metal bar, it stays together great! If whatever you're making a hair accessory out of doesn't have a metal bar and is just flat metal, you might want to give it a trial run or use a different glue.

I just threw my hair up to simulate a wedding updo (feel free to laugh) so I could see what it would look like. See!?! They look awesome! And more like $6 a bridesmaid instead of $70!! I love cheap crafting!

Don't let me forget to update this with pictures of them actually wearing them at my wedding! :D :D
Aaannnd here they are :D

Here is my Bridesmaid (SIL) and Matron of Honor (sister) wearing them. The picture is so pretty I couldn't make myself crop it, but you can see the hair pieces better if you click on the picture. 

 Here is my SIL wearing them :).

I Graduated College!

 I graduated college with a degree in Therapeutic Recreation and my school life is finally over! Onto bigger and better things!

I wore Barielle Wool You Marry Me with Zoya Chloe on top. The name is fitting for my upcoming wedding, don't you think? :D

 

We also harvested our first blueberries of the season, and have been getting more and more since. They match!

Here is Barielle Wool You Marry Me by itself. It's a lovely rich burgundy purplish creme and a one coater. Flawless!

And here is one of my graduation pics where you can see my nails. I love this combo!

You can buy Barielle polishes for $8 on their site. You get %15 off for registering with your email, and always buy one get one 50% off! Ulta also sells them and you can use their coupons.

ManGlaze Super Haul

 So I won this super huge ManGlaze giveaway forever ago. I knew I wanted to do a post with all the labels and everything, and it just took me ages to get around to taking so much time to edit pictures. So here is my haul, and you'll be seeing these swatches around! Thanks again ManGlaze and Lacquered Lover!

I got Fuggen Ugly, ILF, Lesbihonest, Santorum, Matte is Murder, Mink Mitten, Royal Matterimoaning, and Fuck Off and Dye

Here you can see the name of the polish matched up with the color. They're of course in the same order.

I got the package directly from ManGlaze, and they sent some awesome swag: guitar pick, business cards, post-its, awesomeness.

Here are the label pictures I put together from all 4 sides of the bottle so you can see the whole thing in all its glory.

Lesbihonest


ILF


Fuggen Ugly

Fuck Off and Dye


Matte is Murder


Santorum


Mink Mitten


Royal Matterimoaning 

Isn't their art interesting? ManGlaze is a pretty awesome brand. You should like their Facebook page because they're just hilarious. That's also the cheapest place to buy ManGlaze from then, as it's already discounted 10% at $11.82 with a couple colors selling for $5.99.

Memorial Day Man

So when Jeremy painted my toes for Memorial Day, I painted his! I usually do give him a manly pedicure just trimming his toes, filing, and doing the cuticles. He never even lets me put a clear coat or anything on. He told me his nails were peeling, so I buffed them a little and convinced him to let me use a clear nail treatment on him to help his toes. I used Barielle Fortifying Nail Builder. Since I had already painted the clear on his toes, he didn't even notice as I was painting them again...

I got all the base colors done before he even noticed! I call it the ninja tactic...distraction and quick reflexes. Then after he exclaimed, I convinced him it would look worse if I didn't finish the nail art :D.

I used Manglaze Royal Mattermoaning for his other toes. For the flag I used WetNWild White Out, China Glaze Hey Sailor (red), and Zoya Breezi (blue). I really needed a new plain white, but this one was just okay. It was a little uneven and streaky, and of course he wouldn't let me do a second coat.

Here is a close up of the nail art I did by hand. I added a matte top coat to make it match the rest after a while, but it still smeared the red. I love it!

Have you ever polished your man? Do you want to?

Memorial Day Fun

 I've been super busy making 18764 things for my wedding that's coming up soon. We did manage to have some fun for Memorial Day though! We had friends over for a barbeque, and Jeremy painted me toes :P. It's always nice. 

 
We used Nerdlacquer Antisocial Media, and I added some fine red bar glitter on top to make it more festive.

Here is the bottle pic....love it!

Close up of just Antisocial Media

It's a nice blue jelly with silver shimmer and silver and blue hexes in small, medium, and large. The silver sometimes looks a nice charcoal, and the silver glitter sometimes looks blue through the jelly polish. It's really interesting!

And here it is with the fun red bar glitter. I tapped it into the tacky polish and topcoated it. I recommend a different method though, because I did get a little in my top coat bottle.
And after he painted my toes....I painted his. You'll see that later :D.