Cleopatra in New York by Deborah Lippmann

There's not much to say about Deborah Lippman's Cleopatra in New York except when I saw it I immediately said "gotta have it!!".  Deborah Lippmann's website describes this polish as: gold studded black (glitter) new - limited edition!

Deborah Lippman really needs to start taking it easy on me.  I can't keep buying her polish because it will surely break me...but it's all soooo preeetty!!!  Ack!! What's a girl to do?  I always justify it by telling myself that at least I don't have a shoe obsession.  Shoes are waaay more expensive.  Fortunately for me, I don't currently have any other DL's on my "want" list or pinned so I can take a breather and so can my wallet.  For now.

Here's Cleopatra for you.  This manicure consists of the usual Bonder base coat, several coats of Cleo.  DL glitters seems to always be a cinch to apply, no need to use the glitter "splat" method (it's so glitter packed!) and dry time is no worry.  After drying, I topped it off with a generous coat of SV.

Is it just me or does DL have the lotsa-gorgeous glitter suspended in a colored base thing down to perfection? 

I purchased Cleopatra in New York on sale via Amazon.com for $16.00 which included free shipping.  What a deal!

Do you have any DL in your collection?  If not, do you think you will ever give her a try?  

Until next time.  ☺

Halloween Dot Mani

This Halloween Dot Mani was inspired (thieved!) from Kayla Shevonne's blog.   Hers looks much neater than mine, but she is a true nail artist and I'm just a mere amateur and copy cat.

For this mani I whipped out my dotting tools and used the following colors:

• Black base:  Essence Black is back
• Orange: Pure Ice Hot Tamale
• White: Ulta Snow White
• Purple: American Apparel African Violet
• Green: Blush  no name 

Topped with a coat of SV and there you go.  

Happy Halloween!!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects - Stud-io Time

Howdy, folks!  I can't believe October is almost gone.  It just got here, didn't it?  You wouldn't know it's October by the temperatures were still getting here in AZ.  I can only hope that by Halloween our highs will only be in the high 80s.  :::crossing fingers:::  The evenings here are pretty gorgeous though.  I definitely have nothing to complain about when it comes to that.  Right now its 71 degrees out.  It's the perfect weather to have dinner out on the patio of a restaurant, which I did last night with several of my girl friends.  It was quite lovely.

So I have bought several of these Salon Effects kits and have never tried using them until a couple of weeks ago.  I don't know what it was about them, but I think I thought they wouldn't work and I wasn't ready to flush what I spent on them down the drain so quickly.  Well, I finally sucked it up and decided I would finally give them a try.  I bought this set at Ulta for half off about 8 months ago!  I opened the box and was ready to get down to business when I realize one of the sets of strips was missing.  The box is supposed to included 2 sealed packets of the various sized nail polish strips- one for your right hand and one for the left.  It's also supposed to have an orange stick and a small nail file.  This box had the orange stick and one set of the nail strips.  I was robbed!!!  Lesson reluctantly learned.  If you see these on clearance, check the box to make sure everything is there before you buy or be a sucker like me.

Because of the above, I decided to still use what I bought and came up with an accent nail mani using the Stud-io Time strips on every other nail, alternating with OPI's Sanguine.  I'm not going to go into the application process because you can watch a fantastic video instead, if you would like: Nail Strip Application Tutorial.

I wasn't sure what to expect with these nail polish strips, but they turned out to be pretty cool.  There was some very obvious lifting that occurred immediately on only my thumb nail near the cuticle line  (I think I should have watched the tutorial first!).  No matter how hard I pressed down on it, it kept popping up.  Even still, it wasn't really a problem - it didn't get snagged in anything and pretty much stayed the same degree of separated the entire time I had them on, which was about 4 days.

Here's how to make the best of half of a box of nail polish strips:

You can really see the lifting up of the strip on my thumb in this one. :(

What do you think?  Have you ever tried nail polish strips before?  If you have what was your experience?  Any tricks or tips for flawless application?

Until next time.  ☺

Cookies n Cream Mani a la Sticks 'n Stones by Cover Bands Lacquers

Today's NOTD is cookies n cream.
I looooove this look.  Solid white polish topped with a black and white glitter.  Reminds me of cookies n cream ice cream (hands down my favorite ice cream of all ice creams).  Mmmm.....ice cream.  Hits the spot, especially during these hot AZ summer months.  Ii-iiice Cree-eeeeam.

Behold!  I started with my go to Gripper base followed by 2 coats of Snow Me White by Sinful Colors.  Then I used the "splat and smooth" method to apply Sticks 'n Stones by Cover Bands Nail Lacquers via Ninja Polish.  Topped with SV.  And presto!:

The white hexagonal glitter is so sweet!

Photo cred: http://www.mylot.com/w/image/2324245.aspx

Black and white bar glitter too!  Oh my!!

A little flicker of holo.  ☺

There you go.  What do you think?  Do you likey?  I sure do!

Until next time.  ☻

The New Black - Making Ombrè Manis EASY

I finally picked up one of the Ombrè Shades manicure sets by The New Black the week before last.  I chose the black to silver set called Graffiti, but they also offer sets in pink to red, light to dark purple, light to dark blue and quite a few more.  I've wanted to try an ombrè for a month or two now, but I didn't want to spend what I was sure what would be forever trying to go through my nail polish stash to find colors that would be right for it.  The New Black makes it so easy to get the look without the hassle and can be found at Sephora or Nordstrom and on HSN.  I got mine through Sephora online and for $22.00, which is not a cheap price for 5 small .4 ml polishes, but it's also not something that's going to necessarily break the bank either.  I had a couple of other items I needed ti pick up so shipping ended up being free and also fulfilled my desire to get packages in the mail ♥

The polishes themselves were very easily to apply.  Each has a nice formula and actually dried rather quickly.  I ended up using 2 coats of each topped off with SV with the exception of the silver glitter, which needed 3 coats.

Here ya go: