Nails fit for dinner with the Boys Parents

Josh and I had a date to eat dinner with his family on Sunday, which of course always makes me nervous, when it shouldn't, but I can't help it. I love that boy and want his family to like me too :) Lucky, I took Josh to the Dentist earlier in the week and had the chance to browse through some magazines and by chance came across an interview with Essie Weingarten, the founder of Essie cosmetics. I wish I could remember which magazine it was in, but i read through sooo many waiting for him to finish with the doctor!!
Anyhoo, I know the article says "mother-in-law" but I took it's advice anyway because, well because it was sound advice. I had met Josh's family before, but I still want to do everything perfectly. Since Josh's step-mom is a super trendy lady, I took Essie's advice and went for a seasonal shade of polish, but amped it up a bit and made it almost a mock Burberry pattern. I loved this mani! I used Essence Irreplaceable as a base, and used 3 coats to get it to a nice opaque tone. I then used my new Konad plate and Butter London polish is Toff to do the stamping :) Finished it off with two coats of SV. You can sort of see in the picture above how the SV caused some shrinkage to my mani :(
I know you are dying to find out, but dinner went really well, like always. I love his family, they are incredibly nice people :)

He gives me butterflies Pink Wednesday

Yesterday at Ulta, something amazing happened. For their 21 days of beauty, they were having a huge sale on Butter London nail polishes: Buy one get one FREE!!! Ok, so I always wanted to try these polishes, but couldn't justify spending $14 per bottle for one. AND I had a $3.50 off coupon for purchases of $10.00 or more..So that being said, I took Josh to the dentist yesterday and while he was getting worked on, I snuck off to Ulta...where I bought two bottles. I thought I had satisfied my polish addiction lol. One color I picked was purely on the name "La Moss" I wasn't sure how I would like the color, but didn't really care. ha! So for pink Wednesday I decided to go for a vintage traveling circus inspired theme :)
I decided to use my good ol' Katy Perry Black Shatter from OPI on my thumb, over three coats of Butter London Queen Vic. I was a little disappointed in the quality of the Butter polishes, they were extremely thin :( I did three coats on my mani, and probably could have used a 4th. I like having my accent nail being my thumb for once :) it's cute in my opinion!
I stamped the butterfly pattern on my nails with one of my BM plates :) using Butter London La Moss! and I actually really really love the rich vintage red color :)
The polishes I used for my mani :) OPI black shatter, Butter Queen Vic, Butter La Moss.
AND my fabulous Ulta haul (I had to go back later that night and score two more bottles!) I got Toff, Wallis Queen Vic, and La Moss..

Josh is working a double, so I won't see his face until Friday night! Sad, but at least I get to squeeze in some time to do "me" things, like spend a ridiculous amount of time looking through my polishes, and cleaning up the mess afterward! ha :)

Facebook Official Nails

I was lucky enough to spend some much needed time with my man today :) One of the first things he said to me when I got to his house was "so I guess it's officially official" haha, since we finally came out on facebook with our relationship. Like I said in my post yesterday, we weren't making our relationship public on facebook for a few reasons, but yesterday I sent him a request to confirm our relationship, totally thinking he would ignore it. To my surprise, he messaged me on facebook and said "I got your request" my heart raced haha, then he goes "I confirmed it". I couldn't believe it!! I smiled super big, it's the small things in life that makes me happy lol. I'm glad that our relationship is finally "facebook official" even though we've been serious for a while now, it's nice to be able to proudly display that :P
ok ok, enough of my blabbering on to my nails! I used Sally Hansen HD nail color in BLU.. and I was awfully disappointed in this polish, it goes on very very very thin. I used 3 coats and I still feel its thin, I should have went for 4 coats.. Then on my ring finger I used my new Milani 3D holographic polish in HD!
I painstakingly hand painted the Facebook F logo using my Sally Hansen nail art pen in white, and the red heart with my left hand lol, using first my Art Deco Red glitter, and then going over it with Pure ICE Siren. I think they came out pretty well :)
Off to spend the evening with my man!!

Lights and Sirens missing my man

Today Josh is working again :( But before I get to that let me recap on our awesome day yesterday: it was amazing. Best part was getting cuddles all night long! I win :) Anyway, so since Josh was working today I figured it was the perfect time to try my new ICE Siren nail polish! I loved the formula, and used two coats. I then stamped Color Club Hey Gorgeous over it :) and finished it off with a coat of SV..
so Josh worked today as a paramedic at a pretty busy station. The guy that normally cooks dinner for him was not going to be in today-so I almost too happily offered to cook for him. I did, and was about to leave my house when he texted me to let me know he had to go out on a call..he got back an hour later and told me to come, and I did, I saw him for a total of 3 minutes before he got another call and had to go be a hero. I'm so incredibly proud of him, even though I miss him like crazy! (photo borrowed from Alex_English flickr)
Here are the polishes I used, sorry for the crappy lighting, my camera battery was dying :(

One last thing, Josh and I were keeping our relationship pretty low key for a few reasons, but finally made it facebook official tonight, I call that winning <3

EMS Nails for Pink Wednesday

I was studying for my EMT test last night, and was getting distracted by my nails and realized I needed to take a break from studying and change my polish! :) Since Josh is a paramedic, I was definitely in the EMS mood! I got my inspiration for this mani while surfing the web a little while ago, I wish I still had the inspiration picture so I could credit the artist! :( Anyway, I used two coats of Color Clubs black holo Revvvolution, and then painted the EKG heart beat on my nails, because my boy gives me a humming bird heartbeat! Painting the beat took a decent amount of time since I used a tooth pick to do it lol
And since there was no way I could repeat the process on my right hand using my useless left hand, I opted to try another of my new Kleancolor Holos, Chunk Holo Black :) I topped both hands off with a coat of SV, as you can see in the picture above the SV did cause a bit of srhinkage :(
Here are the polishes I used in all their glory :)
Then, I made a pit stop at walmart on my way home from my man's house, and of course had to look at their polishes, where I picked up these two beauties purely based on their names:
Rescue Me and Siren. Yea, my boy has me in an EMS mood <3

Holo Fuschia Nails per the boyfriends request

Yesterday I spent a wonderful day on the boat with my man and his younger brother, Randy. :) When we got back to my place I had a very special package waiting for me-ahh exciting! My package of 9 Kleancolor Holos had arrived :) So my boyfriend got to see my nailpolish excitement first hand lol I have spared him the horror of watching me have anything to do with nail polish :P Anyway! I asked him what color I should use first and he picked out Chunky Holo Fuschia, so who am I to say no to my man??
Since the holos looked pretty sheer, I started my mani with one coat of Kleancolor Metallic Fuschia :) Which is one of my favorite polishes, it goes on so smoothly and it's super metallic, and dries very quickly.
I then put two coats of Chunky Holo Fuschia on and completed the mani with a coat of SV. I LOVE this holo, it's very eye catching and sparkley. I went outside to take pictures and couldn't believe the shine this polish puts off. I can't wait to use the rest of the collection!
Here are the polishes I used: Kleancolor Chunky Holo Fuschia, and Metallic Fuschia.
Here are the boys on the boat yesterday, Josh (my man) on the left and his younger (and single) brother Randy on the right :)
Annnddd! Here's my loot! colors: Chunky Holor Teal, Chunky Holor Poppy, Chunk Holo Scarlet
Left to right: Chunky Holo Bluebell, Chunky Holor Clover, Chunky Holo Black, Chunky Holo Candy..Below: Chunky Holo Fuschia, Chunky Holo Purple

Pink Wednesday & Cotton Candy Feelings

It's Wednesday!!!
My variation for pink Wednesday this week, is brought to you by my girly in love heart haha! I literally have felt like the biggest dreamer the past few days, its funny how boys can do that to a girl! Anyway! So here is my fun Pink Wednesday mani :)
This was my first time experimenting with the Sally Hansen nail art pen, which I found annoying to use at first. Since it was new the polish wasn't flowing out thick, and I had to go over the designs a few times before they even became opaque. It was quite discouraging and also caused some flooding in the designs. :( I added some Swarovski rhinestones for sparkle...and quite frankly because there was absolutely no way I could hand paint little designs using my left hand!
So my right hand just got a ton of different bling added to it :P But I do love the contrast between the two hands, my left hand is all girly and drawn and my right hand is just like a rock star lol Reminds me of Taylor Swift a bit!
Here's everything that was used (SV isn't pictured) Sinful Colors Pink Forever; Orly pink glitter (no name); OPI Princesses Rule; Essence You Belong To me; Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in white
I actually met up with my friend Jess at Starbucks and we caught up on life and she watched me paint my nails lol
She captured the moment for all you guys :) haha, we definitely left Starbucks smelling like a nail salon, whoopsies!

The work space haha I love spending time with good friends and nail polish! And after our lovely time at Starbucks I got to meet up with my man for a perfect end to my evening <3

How to: Stamp your nails

By reader request :) A quick picture tutorial on how to stamp your nails. Woohoo! So, first I put on 3 coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.
I know its a little sloppy, but stamping in itself is a messy process :)
So, pick out the plate you'd like to use! I use Bundle Monster plates, and my Konad stamping system. Pictured above is the polish I chose to use for the stamping, my stamping plate, my stamper and my scrapper.
Step 1) cover the stamp you pick with your nail polish choice, it's generally best to use a deep opaque color that shows up vividly in one coat. I used Essence Just Rock it!
Using your scrapper, scrape off the nail polish, so what remains of the polish is stuck in the stamping plate etching.
Immediately roll your stamper through the nail polish so it picks up the design.
Then, roll the stamp out on your nails.
and Ta-da!! perfectly manicured nails :) As you can see from the above picture the stamp tends to get on your fingers, but its easy to clean off with some polish remover or warm water :)
The aftermath of nail stamping :)
The finished product!!

China: As in my heart is as fragile as

I promised a reader of mine that I would post a tutorial on nail stamping, but before I get to that (prefaced since this mani is in that tutorial) I wanted to take a minute to get something off my chest.

This is me. I'm 23, I'm a student in university. I've gotten my heart broken in the past, broken is an understatement. I've gotten my heart shattered. And you know, when you have your heart broken it's never fully whole again. You always leave a piece of it with the person who smashed it. But finding a guy who makes your heart feel whole even without all the pieces is what I call real love.

Some say that true love happens instantly- at first sight. Others say it grows over time. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I believe that when you find true love, it happens instantly. Picture The Notebook style love, or better yet, the Adjustment Bureau.. You may not want to acknowledge those feelings exist, but no amount of denial will change the way your heart feels. And whats more amazing than falling in love? Thinking you have known love in the past, but then the day comes when you really, and I mean really find the person you are in love with. Wow, it is practically earth stopping.

So, why am I writing this blog post? Because, well, because I can. And while I may be a strong individual, I'm still fragile. We all are, no matter how tough we think we may be. Falling in love, makes you vulnerable.

Meet the Parents take 2 and Purple Birthday Nails

:) Josh is one of the lucky people who have two fantastic families. I was blessed to meet one side of them last Monday (I blogged about it!) and yesterday I was able to meet his other side! It was a grand family get together, with a ton of his aunts, uncles, grand parents and cousins. Everyone was so sweet!! So for the occasion I decided to paint my nails in happy southern girl colors :P I used two of my new polishes! I feel like the combination is similar to Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday in more muted tones :)

I used two coats of Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, which is just the prettiest shade of lilac purple I've ever come across: (please excuse the messy paint job, i was in a hurry to get ready to meet up with Josh!)
I then added a few coats of NYC Starry Silver Glitter. I liked this polish a lot, but it was EXTREMELY difficult to get the large glitter out of the bottle or to stay on the nail when spreading it out. Putting on this top coat of glitter took me about 15 minutes :( I'll have to experiment with ways to get better results with the glitter next time!! I finished off the mani with 1 coat of SV.
I wore a sweet little Hollister sundress with these nails and it pulled together perfectly for the event!
And I know since I blog about him so much, you all would like to have a face to put to the name! Here's Josh and me on his Birthday on Friday :)
And here!!! are the delicious sugar cookie candy bars I made for his family's bbq! They were super yummy and everyone loved them!! Another fantastic recipe from my new cookie book :)