Zoya Zuza with a heart

Hello there lovelies! How are you tonight? 

This mani was really fun for me. I received my Zoya Surf collection a day early, and when I got home from work there they were, waiting to be loved on! It's a beautiful collection. I'm a sucker for foils and  these made me squeal like a little girl. Zoya really delivered on this one, and remains my favorite brand. Let's take a look at the first from this collection, Zuza.

Zuza is a soft, dusty teal with a lovely foil finish. She applied like butter with no streaking, pooling, or dragging. Shown are two wonderful coats.

This is without a top coat. Isn't she gorgeous? That silver shimmer rocks my world.

I decided to glam Zuza up after a day of wear. Work always gives me major tipwear, so this was a great mask for the imperfections. I used black acrylic paint from a set I found at dollar tree and some nail art brushes from Ebay. I got 15 brushes for $3.00 and some change- suuuch an amazing deal! I always loved THIS tutorial from Nailside. The white dots were done with a dotting tool and then covered with a thin coat of Seche Vite.

What do you think? I'm so pleased!! The other hand doesn't look so good, but it's a work in progress. :)

Hope your Saturday was lovely. Thanks for coming by!

-Rachael

Pretty & Polished Jawbreaker

Hi everyone!! How are you? It's Friday night so I'm hoping most of you are out having a good time. If you're like me, you like staying in where no scantily clad schwasted skanks are out on patrol for guido steroid pushers. No offense to steroid pushers or skanks. Or whatever.

So, if you're like me, you're guido and skank-free at home, painting your nails. This polish arrived yesterday. Pretty and Polished Jawbreaker. Let's take a moment to gaze, and wipe the drool from our chins.

Jawbreaker is a handmade polish by Chelsea Marie of Pretty and Polished. HERE is the link to her etsy shop. She's on vacation but stocks pretty regularly. Even so, Jawbreaker is hard to come by, and goodness... isn't it obvious why? It's beyond gorgeous. This is 2 coats and one coat of Seche Vite.

Jawbreaker aka Best Friggin Polish Ever is a white base filled to the brim with multicolored and multisized (that's not a word but I don't care) glitters. Square red, yellow hex, blue hex, purple circular, and MOOORE. It's insane. I stared at my nails allll day. It's a little thick but nothing unmanageable. I. EFFING. LOVE. IT.

I got compliments on it all day. Rightly so! The people of the panty-verse need to recognize great polish while I'm ripping sensors from their overpriced v-strings. AKA assfloss. 

I'm at 100+ followers... you guys are amazing. I'm so happy to have you all here and I hope that I can make you smile. If you laugh, for goodness sakes TELL ME, otherwise I feel like a wannabe comedian at the mic listening to the crickets chirp. Or whatever crickets do. I don't hang out with them much.

GIVEAWAY SOONNNN.... Stay tuned, perky ones!

Love, 

Rachael

Essie To Buy or Not To Buy

Hey everyone!! There's so many of you now.. Makes me a little nervous! And excited!!

Here's a quick post of a pretty polish that I'm not sure I love.

Essie To Buy or Not to Buy is relatively new, I believe, and it's a pretty boring, typical pastel lilac creme. In the bottle there's this gorgeous pink and blue shimmer that drew me in like a polish lover to a black label OPI, but it does not translate to the nail. At all. In any way. I waved my hands around like a fool in lamp light, artificial light, sunlight, black light, Coors light... okay, I'm kidding. 

See? Pretty, but so boring. Formula was alright, a little dragging even though I waited a few minutes in between coats. This is three, and the effort was not really worth it.

Can you kinda see it?  GORGEOUS. But on my nails.. nada.

Sooo Essie got stamped in the face with Kleancolor Metallic Black and a cute leopard/cheetah/whatever stamp, then a coat of SV. Better!! 

What do you think of To Buy or Not to Buy? I think the name is ironic. 

VERDICT: I should've have bought.

Stay tuned for my 100 Followers giveaway!! 

See you soon :)

-Rachael

50 FOLLOWERS GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

OH MY GOODNESS. You guys are amazing. The giveaway has ended, and I want to thank each and every one of you for entering and supporting my little hobby! I've hit 100 followers by some miracle and will OF COURSE  need to have another giveaway soon. I've already purchased the prizes! Yes I said prizes! Multiple winners! So if you didn't win this time, stick around for more charming me and another chance to win :)

YAAY

Belated St Patty's Mani!

Hey hey! I'm a terrible blogger.. been a few days since I posted. I'm sawwy :( Work has been aw-ful this week, and when I get home I usually crash land somewhere comfy. 

This is my St Patty's Day mani!! It was so easy to do, and I promise it looked better in person. I got tons of compliments on it. I did two coats of Orly Bonder Base Coat, then two coats of Essie Pretty Edgy. Then I freehanded the tips in China Glaze Blonde Bombshell. Middle finger- Two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White. Then I used a random stamping plate I won in a giveaway for the adorable clover. Pretty Edgy wasn't opaque, so I went over it with a dotting tool. Then I did random polka dots of Blonde Bombshell.

I really enjoyed this mani, and the beverages I had last night. Whew. I deserved it, though!! Maybe..

Hope you like it! Sinful Colors swatches to come tomorrow. What did you do for St. Patty's Day??

Don't forget the giveaway!! Ends in a week!

Zoya Caitlin & Essie Shine of the Times

Hi everyone! How are you? Tonight's post is short and sweet. I did this mani a few days ago and loved it, but for some reason I cannot explain, it smudged horribly minutes after I took these pictures. I just took it all off and moved on. Sad right? It's pretty!

This is two coats of Zoya Caitlin, a beautiful blue toned grey with incredible application. Zoya is my all time favorite brand. The more I use them, the more I fall in love! (I just ordered six more, coughcough...) Caitlin has great dry time, so I don't know what happened with the smudging. I used two coats of Essie Shine of the Times and one coat of Hard Candy Matte-ly in love. Pretty pretty. I'll attempt this again soon!

What do you think??

Hope you're having a great week!

Color Club Lumin-icecent

Hi there! How was your weekend? I hate to start on a sad note, but I found out that an old friend succumbed to a rare bone cancer yesterday. She was nineteen, and my heart broke when I got the news. We weren't incredibly close, but Becca was a sweet, shy girl, and the world is darker without her. I apologize in advance for any morose-ness. (is that a word?) I'm sure I'll be back to perky and bitchy and silly soon :)

This man is one of my favorites. The base is one of my top lemmings, conquered by the wonderful Gina Marie over at Adventures in Mani-land. Go check out her blog! She's fab, and so is this polish. It's Color Club Lumin-icecent, from the Foiled Collection. It's gorgeous. Obsessed.
Only issue is that foils cling to my ridges, yeah I'm looking at you index finger. Jerk.

I stamped with BM plate 21 in Kleancolor Metallic Black. I love how it really pops after a coat of SV.

So pret-tay, like model oh cheeleedah

Hope you like today's post. :)

Don't forget about my GIVEAWAY!!

-Rachael 

OPI Cuckoo For This Color

Hello everyone!! How was your day?? 

This mani is OPI Cuckoo for this Color. It's one of the polishes that you can win in my giveaway!! Don't worry, this is my own bottle. :) A really beautiful, shimmery dark green, CFTC has lovely application and is opaque in two coats. Dry time is average, sped up by a coat of Out the Door. I wanted to glam it up a little bit, but for now this rich green is gorgeous by itself. What do you think?

Thanks for coming by! Have a great day!

-Rachael 

Essence Dress For a Moment

Hello there! How is everyone?? Today's mani is simple, as far as nail art goes, but I'm pretty proud of it. I lost my striper brush, so some dinky paintbrushes are going to have to do. The base color is Essence Color & Go - Dress for a Moment. The black and white dots were done with the tips of kebab skewers (cheap dotting tools!) in Sinful Colors - Snow Me White and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Black Out.  The stripe and swirlies are China Glaze - Urban Night. 

Simple! Just a dotted french. Really diggin' it, though, so this will prolly come back in other colors.

top coat of Seche Vite.

Pics make all the flaws stand out big time. I think it's kinda cute! What do you think??

ALSO, don't forget to enter my 50 followers giveaway!!!!! 

Have a great night :)

-Rachael 

50 FOLLOWERS GIVEAWAY

Seriously. 50 of you guys read my little blog. You. Are. Fabulous. Thank you all so much for your time and your sweet words. I'm such a happy girl!

I've been itching to host my very first giveaway since this blog was started. Giving gifts is sooo much fun, and I wish I had the funds to treat each of you for being so wonderful. Maybe one day... :)

SO. Here's what you can win!!!

Up for grabs, from left to right...

Sinful Colors Olympia, OPI Cuckoo For this Color, China Glaze Lorelai's Tiara, Sally Hansen Nail Strips in Purple, China Glaze Electrify, Revlon Whimsical, and Sinful Colors Cinderella!!!

There are a few little extras that will be a surprise, plus a mystery polish or two. I LOVE YOU GUYS. Hope this shows a little tiny bit of how much I appreciate you.

Since this is my first time using Rafflecopter, PLEASE email me if there are any problems. You have lots of options for entries :)

Please note that this giveaway is United States ONLY. I deeply apologize for this, but I'm workin' my butt off and putting aside dollah bills, so the next one can be international. Folding panties at the lingerie hellhole doesn't pay much =/

I will  check entries. The winner will have 48 hours to reply, and after that a new winner will be chosen.

New followers are so very welcome to follow and enter. Please stick around :) I'd love to have you here!

Kleancolor Teal Marble and Orly Rage

Hello lovely readers! I did this mani last night, when I had a little patience to spare after work. It was my first taping mani and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's definitely not perfect, but it was fun and I'll definitely be doing this again! I started with two coats of Kleancolor Teal Marble, a really pretty shimmery teal with iffy application. I had to reeeallly wait for it to dry before the second coat, and even then I had some dragging. I had great control, though- the brush was nice. After the second coat, I was very pleased. I did a coat of SV to make it less likely to budge after it was taped.

Then I taped off a random angle and I used one perfect coat of Orly Rage, a gorgeous rose gold foil. I loooove this polish, and thought it looked pretty cool and edgy with the teal. Then I used a crappy little brush (my striping brush is missing... hmm) and freehanded the black lines. I liked the way the black separated the colors. I really liked this mani! What do you think??

lamp light

the tape did weird things to my ring finger... lame.

Thank you all for reading! Happy Saturday evening!!!

-Rachael

China Glaze Harvest Moon, Foie Gras, Luxe and Lush, & Fast Track

HUNGER GAAAMES POLIIIISH

I swatched all my new pretties tonight, and this post will feature four of them. First up is Fast Track, a gorgeous beige base packed with gold glitter. This is two coats, no top coat. No bubbling or pooling.

natural light

Gorgeous isn't it? Messy cleanup.. I was too excited to be patient!


Harvest Moon... one of my favorites. Wow. This is a bronze metallic-y foil-y perfect beauty. One coat, no top coat.

sunlight

YAY.

And here we have Foie Gras. This is a very dusty purple based brown creme... or something. It leans sort of purple on me, but definitely has strong brown undertones. Creamy and perfect. Two coats, no top coat. Unexpectedly... my third favorite. 

drumroll please....

SERIOUSLY.

This is Luxe and Lush on top of Foie Gras. It looks like a rainbow-ish campfire on my nails. Luxe and Lush is a gorgeous blend of mylar flakies that flash every color you can imagine. I'm in love.  Tough to apply... definitely need to be scooched around for full coverage, and two coats of SV to smooth it out. Regardless, I'm obsessed.

So, what do you all think? 

Hope you had a lovely day!!

-Rachael 

HUNGER GAMES

Just to let everyone know, Sally Beauty Supply has the China Glaze Hunger Games Collection out as of today :) My local Ulta stores did not have it yet, and neither did Beauty Brands. It's a good idea to get this collection at Sally's anyway, if you can. They're 2 for $10 right now, which isn't a promo to beauty club card holders since they're $4.99 regular price anyway. For everyone without a club card, they're usually $5.99 regular price. It's worth it to get the card btw. $5 for a year and you get a discount on every item in the store. 5 polishes and it's paid for itself. ANYWAY.

I bought eight of them.

When I get paid I'm going back for Mahogany Magic, Foie Gras, Hook and Line, and Dress Me Up. The others I snagged because two of my favorite Sally's are already running out, and they're the ones going first. Don't get me wrong, I need the whole collection! I just have to weigh gas for my car and $60 worth of polish against each other.

We all know which will probably win.

Swatches to come! I'M SO FRIGGIN EXCITED.

You can watch the trailer here!

No words to describe how excited I am.

AHH.

Check Out My RACK

hehe... dirrrrty title! ;)

My cousin and I found a video tutorial for foam board polish racks. I've been looking for some on the internet, but they're expensive, so this was a great alternative. You can see the tutorial here.

I got the foam boards at WalMart for $2.88 each, and the polka dot duct tape for $3.44. I already had a little box cutter and glue gun. This makes my total cost about $14 after tax. Mine will probably hold about 85-90, give or take, and also given the size of the polishes.

I have to fix the bottom slat. My cat thought it would be nice to pounce on it. Thanks Mia. Other than that, it's very sturdy. The shiny spots are hot glue... haha. They aren't as noticeable in person. Obviously it isn't perfect but it's right beside my desk, and I love it. I keep staring over at my polish instead of doing Intro to Law homework. Whoops...

Half full. I wanna fix those to bottom slats before I put in my China Glaze. I have more polish sitting in a little melmer, so I need another rack already. To alleviate some of this problem...

....this happened!!! It's a little baby one that sits on my desk! Top 3 rows: Sinful Colors. The last row holds top coats and base coats, etc. The fourth row now holds Sally Hanson Xtreme Wear. You can see my Essences and Essies on top of the big rack now.

I love these. Seeing all my polish out is soo nice. I think I'll get a "real" rack sometime when money isn't so scarce, but for now, this works just fine. I still have about 85 polishes hanging out in my melmer. Poor things need space too!!

What do you think of these? How do you house your polish? 

Thanks for coming by :)

-Rachael