Franken Fail, Paintball, Goofy Will & Nail Art!

Will & I played paintball last weekend and it was super fun! I've never been before but I can't wait to go again. I got the prettiest bruise ever on my thigh and Will shot me in the hand. The hand shot was hard enough to blast off some of my nail polish!

I didn't have enough time to completely redo my nails before we went out that night, so I used my smARTnails sticker stencils and China Glaze Ruby Pumps to hide the damage. Someday soon I'll have to use this sticker stencil for making comic book style word bubbles. POW! The base color is my first attempt at frankening a dupe for RBL 360 which is a dusty teal. This one is way too bright!

This next picture is just ridiculous! I was half asleep when we left for paintball and didn't check Will's outfit like I normally do. Believe me it's necessary! We stopped at QuikTrip for gas, I looked up and saw this coming towards the car. That's one of my wife beaters!! Geez Will. You can see more funny Will in this post.


Thanks for reading!
April

Sinful Mint Apple, Nail Stickers & ManGlaze!

This is three coats of Sinful Mint Apple, a lovely dark mint with silver microshimmer. Another winner from Sinful!

I decided to try some nail art stickers for the first time and I really like the end result.

The next day I decided to try my new ManGlaze polishes that I won from Sara of Daily Polish. So fun! I used Matte-Astrophe on my ring and pinkie and Hot Mess on the other two fingers.

Thanks for reading!
April

Essence Everybody's Talking About & Nail Art

I unexpectedly loved Essence Everybody's Talking About! I've already worn it twice because it just seems like a great summer color. I paired it with Essie Mint Candy Apple and one of my beloved smARTnails sticker stencils for this manicure. One of my favorite manicures for some reason!

Thanks for reading!
April

A Few Zoya Reds From Wicked & Wonderful Fall Collections & Nail Art

Zoya Kym is a lovely rusty red with glass-flecked, gold shimmer. This is 2 easily applied coats. Not my favorite with my skintone but a great color for fall nonetheless.


Next up we have Zoya Stacy. I think this one is gorgeous! This is 2 coats. I tried a french manicure with Zoya Cheryl.



Zoya Kristi is my new favorite red! Flawless, 2 coat application. Perfect red creme, neither to cool or too warm, just perfect! I used Zoya Kelly and my smARTnails stickers too for this manicure.


Here are my overall thoughts on both of Zoya's fall collections, Wicked & Wonderful.

Thanks for reading!
April

All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Zoya! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

Charlotte Russe Jade and Some Nail Art

I LOVE this color! I got tons of compliments on it. Easy application, three coats. This is my current favorite mint green. If any of you are still looking for the perfect mint, please check out this amazing post from Little Music Boxes!

This is the first manicure that I did with the fantastic smART Nails sticker stencils that I've been using lately. Not bad for my first try, but I didn't end up liking the color combo as much as I thought I would. I was going for a sort of art deco look. Maybe a coral would have been better than the berry, but I don't actually have any corals!

Thanks for reading!
April

World Cup Germany vs Spain

I didn't really care who won yesterday's World Cup match. Both teams are good but I never developed any strong feelings for either team. I had a good idea for German nails so I just went with that. This is my tribute to the German Machine, as people have been calling them during this tournament. I love how this one turned out!

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base for all of my nails except for the flag. I used a Tic Tac Red for that one. The next morning I cut a piece of painter's tape to block off the red stripe and painted the rest of the flag with Hassid and American Apparel Manila. Then I used more of my awesome smART Nails sticker stencils & China Glaze Millennium for all of the chrome machine parts.

I'm actually excited that both Spain & the Netherlands are going through to the finals. I liked all four teams but neither Spain nor Holland have ever won the World Cup. Now we'll have a new World Cup Champion no matter the outcome of Sunday's final!

A couple of my friends have been loyal Spain supporters and they painted their nails for Spain during the quarter finals. Here's Kim's Spain nails with a number 9 for Fernando Torres.

And here's Regan's Spanish flag nails on the left and Kim on the right showing their support for La Furia Rojas. I love this picture! Thanks for letting me steal your photos ladies.


Thanks for reading!
April

World Cup 2010 Argentina

Another exciting team out of the World Cup! I painted my nails this morning to match the lovely sky blue and white jerseys of Argentina. Sally Hansen White Out for the base and Color Club Blue Light for the stripes. I hate the Sally Hansen White Out and could use a recommendation for an easily applied white cream polish. Anybody have a favorite?
I guess I'm rooting for the German machine now.

Thanks for reading!
April

Soccer Nail Art

I did these for a nail art contest over at Linnie's Favorites. I used BB Couture Poison Ivy for the grass, Konad plate M57 and Sally Hansen White Out for the net, and Migi Nail Art pens for the goal posts and the balls.
I decided to go with the traditional soccer ball pattern instead of the official World Cup 2010 Jabulani ball. The Jabulani just isn't very recognizable or interesting compared with the traditional pattern.
I love how these turned out! You can check out the other great entries and vote for your favorite here. I voted for Claudia!

Thanks for reading!
April

World Cup 2010 Japan

Another heartbreaking World Cup game today as Japan gets knocked out of the tournament after a scoreless game with overtime that had to be settled with penalty kicks. The Japan team has recently been called the Samurai Blue so I used OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui for most of my nails. I then proceeded to use up lots of time, 2 different white polishes and a few reds to try and make the darn flag! I am not good at making a perfect (or even a decent) circle with a brush! I repainted that nail three times and this is after I had tried out various methods on a nail wheel. Blech. It still turned out ok eventually though.

Thanks for reading!
April

World Cup 2010 "Group of Death" Nail Art

I used my new ManGlaze Matte is Murder for last week's Group of Death games in this year's World Cup. Here's a definition of the term from Wikipedia.

A group of death in a multi-stage tournament is a preliminary group which is unusually competitive, because the number of strong competitors in the group is greater than the number of qualifying places available for the next phase of the tournament. Thus, in the preliminary round, one or more strong competitors in the "group of death" will necessarily be eliminated, who would otherwise have been expected to progress further in the tournament.

Brazil & Portugal made it out this time but Ivory Coast had to go home.

I won all of the ManGlaze polishes recently from Sara of Daily Polish. Thanks again! I used my amazing smARTnails sticker stencils and ManGlaze Hot Mess & Fuggen Ugly for the skulls.

Here's a shot of ManGlaze Matte is Murder before the skulls. It was easy to work with and required three coats.


Thanks for reading!
April

World Cup 2010 South Africa

Ashley did this manicure for the opening day of this year's World Cup. I don't have the patience to do something as intricate as the South African Flag! The Daily Nail made the flag on most of her fingers! I know Ashley used Ruby Kisses Caribbean Blue, but I'm not sure what else went into this one.

Well, the host nation, South Africa has been eliminated and so has France. This is the first time that a host nation has ever been eliminated by the round of 16. Poor France just had a giant meltdown this World Cup! What a mess! Since we won't get to see them any more this time around, I'm picking a couple of their players for today's World Cup hotties.
First we have Yoann Gourcuff. Yoann was sent off today with a somewhat questionable red card.
I have to include Thierry Henry! Henry is without a doubt one of the most attractive footballers ever. We have links to plenty of pictures to prove it. Sweet jesus, he's hot! I went straight to Ashley for help with this one because I know she already has a large collection of Thierry Henry photos for her wonderful screen saver which features a slide show of beautiful men from all over the world.

Thanks for reading!
April & Ashley

World Cup 2010 Ghana

Ghana was one of my favorite teams last World Cup and they are this time as well. I used China Glaze Solar Power, a Tic Tac red, & BB Couture Poison Ivy for the Ghana Flag. I painted my nail yellow and then the next morning, I used a strip of blue painter's tape to make the green and red stripes. I used my smARTnails sticker stencils for the star. One coat of one of my favorites, Sinful Secret Admirer for the rest of my nails.

World Cup fever is real and I have it! It's safe to say that the World Cup has taken over my life. I've watched all but one game! I'm way behind on the blog! I was supposed to start my blog anniversary giveaway on the 17th but I STILL haven't had a chance to get to it. I promise I will soon.

I wanted to post this yesterday, but no time! So yesterday's World Cup hottie of the day is the entire team of Ghana! Especially Ayew & Gyan!

Thanks for reading!
April

World Cup 2010 USA

I did this manicure in support of USA in today's USA vs England World Cup match! I like England's team too, but I've got to root for the home team!

I used smART Nails that I won from All Things Beauty With Skye & I love them!!! So easy & fast with practically foolproof results! smART Nails has an amazing website with lovely pictures and great video tutorials. I love Konad, but this is easier. smART Nails ends up being more expensive than Konad since you can only use each sticker stencil a few times, but I think they are totally worth it! Easy to get great results when using your non-dominant hand too. I used Ruby Kisses Caribbean Blue & Tic Tac (unnamed) and Sally Hansen White Out for the stars & stripes.

Don't forget to enter my giveaways!

explodingmary Art Wallet Giveaway! Ends 6/17.
Cream Perfume Company Review & Giveaway! Ends 6/15.

Thanks for reading!
April

Latest Water Marble

I love water marbling! It's pretty easy and the results are cool. This is a base of Essie Adore-a-ball, marbled with Essie Mint Candy Apple, American Apparel Hassid & Essence Go Wild. All of these three polishes worked great for marbling!

There are lots of great tutorials around for doing a water marble, so I'll just tell you what I do differently.

I start by grabbing whatever chapstick I have around and putting that around my nails to make cleaning up my skin much easier. I've tried tape, but i thought it was annoying. Vaseline put on with a brush works great too, but the chapstick is the easiest thing I've tried so far.

I use a dish that is large enough for there to be some water surface without any polish. I then dip my finger straight down into the water without polish and bring it face-up under my favorite part of the design. I think most people put their nail face-down into the design, but I find this awkward. It works great for most people, but if you're feeling frustrated with that method, try it this way and see how it goes.

The part I would really like to improve is making designs in the polish after dropping them into the water. Does anyone have favorite links to tutorials?

explodingmary Art Wallet Giveaway! Ends 6/17.
Cream Perfume Company Review & Giveaway! Ends 6/15.

Thanks for reading!
April

P.S. I can't wait for the World Cup!!!!!! Who's the sexiest player this year?

Essie Downtown Brown & A Konad

Essie Downtown Brown looks like cherry cola! I really thought I would like this one more. Maybe it didn't do anything for me since it's not fall or winter right now. This is 3 coats.

I used American Apparel Poppy and Konad plate S6. Not a very successful color combination but I sure do love this design!

Just a few more days to enter my Zoya giveaway!

Thanks for reading!
April

Toma Purple Mist To Grey Mist & A French Manicure

I've never posted NINE pictures of any polish before, but this one deserves it! Toma Mood Changing Purple Mist to Grey Mist is one of the most unique colors I've ever seen! I have no idea how to describe it so I'll just let you look at the pretty pictures. Gorgeous!






I did a french manicure using China Glaze LOL. I didn't end up liking the color combination as much as I thought I would though
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I would buy this in a heartbeat if I could find it anywhere!!! What do you think ladies, should we petition Mad Beauty, who took over Toma, to bring this color back?

Thanks for reading!
April

Enter my giveaway here!

Toma Forest Green to Teal Mood Changing and Blackboard Nail Art

This is another Toma that I borrowed from my friend Kim Jantz. It's says mood changing on the bottle and it does change with heat but nothing like the recent Claire's polishes. The name really says it all with this one, sometimes it looks forest green and sometimes it looks more teal. It ALWAYS looked drop dead gorgeous though! I can't find anywhere to buy this one online or I would be getting it immediately. If you love green this one is very unique! Most of the time it looked more forest green on me but I tried to capture the more teal side in the next pictures.

Man, looking at these pictures again makes me want to go put it on right now! The color really reminded be of a blackboard from elementary school, so I decided to write some of the alphabet in white "chalk". I used my trusty Migi Nail Art Pen for the letters.

Awesome. Then I tried China Glaze Matte Magic on top and I think it looks even more like a blackboard. I love it when the manicure that you've thought up in your head actually turns out the way you imagined!

I have one more Toma to show you and it's also a real stunner! I'll post it sometime soon. If anyone knows where to get these old Tomas, please let me know! I've tried 3 and they are some of the most gorgeous colors I've ever seen!

Thanks for reading!
April

Enter my giveaway here!

Unknown Toma, Blue Leopard Nails & Awards

This is a Toma that I borrowed from my friend Kim Jantz. No label to identify the color, but I know it's from 2000-2006. She did graphic design for a beauty supplier during those years and has tons of OPI's, CNDs from that time period. Were there any amazing colors from that time period that I should go hunt for at her house?
This is a lovely navy blue shimmer that never looks black. Very pretty!

I'm not really into leopard print but I hadn't used that Konad image (M57) before so I just went for it. I kind of love it! I used Maybelline Matte Blue for stamping.

I don't think Mr. Acorn approved though. I don't know why, but this picture cracks me up!

Thanks to all of the lovely ladies from around the world who have tagged me lately! Here's a list of their blogs. I love finding new nail polish blogs!!!
Biba's Beauty Corner
R3 Daily
Amused Polish
How Doth the Little Crocodile
Mai Senza Smalto
Konad & Me
Thanks again ladies! I wish you all many more new readers!
April

Enter my giveaway here!