I got the blues...

Lol.  I loved the bright yet dark quality of the blue in the China Glaze Anchors Away collection.  It's just such an amazing blue!  It's dark and navy-like, but still bright and royal.  It's a very amazing color.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze First Mate with a black and silver glitter stripe, both from Stripe Rite.  I added a butterfly decal on the thumb and ring fingers which are from Viva la Nails.  I thought it would show up a little bit better than it actually did.  The China Glaze applied like a dream, it gives great coverage and it's just SO pretty, you could lose yourself in it!!

Excuse the mess, lol.  I hadn't cleaned up my fingers yet.  But how pretty is this?!  I love it.  It's so creamy and beautiful.  LOVE!  What do you guys think?

American Apparel California Trooper

I want something pretty, so I was looking through my stickers and stuff.  I found some water decals from Viva la Nails that looked so pretty, so I decided to try them out.

This is 2 coats of American Apparel California Trooper.  I love this color.  It's a khaki, but light and greyed out some.  It's subtle enough to be "work appropriate" I'd say.  But it's still interesting.  Application was smooth and even, good coverage and opacity.  I love this brand.  Wear is good on this too.

I topped it with Viva la Nails water decals.  These are so easy to apply.  And they're so thin that they don't pull up or stick up through the top coat.  I even had someone ask how long it took me to paint them!  Hah.  Obviously that guy doesn't know me at all... I don't spend that much time on my nails, lol.

I really liked this mani.  It was super easy to do, but really pretty!  What do you think?

Happy New Year!!

A little belated... but Happy 2011!!!  I hope this year is a lot better than last year.  I suffered a great loss in 2010, but I'm better for it now and I'm thankful that I was strong enough to keep going.

How cool is this?  I used 3 coats of Sephora by OPI 212-Sephora as a base.  It's an amazing black base with copper flakes and gold and iridescent small glitter.  I used Orly Luxe on the tips.  Then I added some Viva la Nails stars and hex glitter.  It was very fitting for the occasion.

So pretty!!!

Last shot, lol.  I loved this one.  I think it came out pretty and I got compliments as well!  :)

Funky Frenchy

For this mani I wanted something simple, but still pretty.  For some reason I just love the french mani look.  But it's kinda boring unless it's a "funky french" which is just using a color instead of white.  Anyway, I liked how it turned out and I got lots of compliments!  This is actually a bit of an oldie... but I love it!

I started with 2 coats CND Putty which is pretty sheer beige.  It basically just evens out your nails so they look perfect.  Application on that was amazing, as usual.  I love CND polish.  Then I added 2 coats of OPI Yodel Me on My Cell for the tips.  I put a stripe with Stripe Rite White on the bottom edge of the teal to cover up my not-so-great edge, lol.  I also put some Stripe Rite Silver Glitter on that edge.  Then I added some stickers from Viva la Nails and topped it all with 1 coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust, a very small holo glitter.

Pretty!  Now to me, this looks like straight up teal.  However, I had a few people ask if I had on "Eagles green."  I guess they're close, but not really the same to me.  Not to mention I could really care less about sporting football colors on my nails.  I happened to wear this mani on the weekend, so I guess that's why people assumed.  Oh well, lol.

Victorian Flowers

I was in a summery mood and wanted to do something pretty and girlie. I looked through my stash and pulled out some decals that I got from Viva la Nails.  They are very elegant roses and I picked a nice peachy orange base to go with it.

This is 2 coats China Glaze Peachy Keen as a base.  I topped that with 2 coats Savvy Magic Pumpkin.  Then I used the rose water decals from Viva la Nails along with some of their small gold rhinestones on the thumb and ring finger.  Topped everything off with Seche Vite.

How pretty is that?  This mani felt very elegant.  And it reminded me of the victorian era, which I love.  I felt very pretty wearing this, hehe.  Application of both polishes was good.  The China Glaze went on nice and smooth and gave good coverage.  The Savvy is really cool looking, but not very pigmented, which is why I used the ChG base.  I just love the shimmer and yellow and green flash it gave the mani.  Made it much more interesting.

Viva la Nails Review

So pretty and funky and cool!  How did I do it?  With the help of some goodies from Viva la Nails!!

I heard about a sample package you can get if you blog, so I ordered one!  It's coming from overseas (I'm in the USA), so it took a while to get here, but it was worth the wait!  So much stuff and everything looked awesome.  Here's the haul...

Such a great variety!  Something for everyone really.  I like it all.  I will say, I got a lot of yellow, but that's ok, it's a pretty good color to work with as far as accenting goes.  Gold and silver go with everything, lol.

I immediately picked out the star shaped dazzlings.  For this mani I started with 3 coats of OPI Rumple's Wiggin on all but the ring fingers.  On the ring fingers I used 3 coats of Avon Jade.  I used the Hollow Stars in Mauve on the ring fingers putting one outline and 2 centers on each ring finger.  I put a random number of Punched Stars in Azure on the remaining fingers.  Then I figured it needed some extra bling to make it nice and fancy so I threw on some of the Glitter in Green.

OMG!  It's righty!  Haha.  I don't often show my right hand... usually because it looks ugly... but this time it came out cute!

Right hand closer

Left hand closer

I think these nail art items were super easy to work with.  The dazzlings are thicker, so I put on a good thick coat of regular clear and then 2 coats of Seche Vite on top.  I did still have some corners that were pointy, but I kept the mani on for 4 days and nothing ripped off!

All the nail art items featured in this post can be purchased at Viva la Nails website for under £2!!!

[All nail polish in this post is my own and was purchased by me.]
[All Viva la Nails products were provided to me for review.]