Frozen Jellie Sandwich

Babies are so time consuming but I did have time to do my nails today even with my little one having a cold.  Back to the Frozen themed Funky Fingers, I have Elsa for you today.  Elsa has baby blue matte glitters, white snowflake glitters, and white matte glitters of varying sizes.  I found a Wet N Wild Wild Shine polish called Gyp-Sea Green that is a blue green jellie to pair with it and sandwiched Elsa in between the coats to peek through.

Now lets get back to the last days of summer and forget about the looming winter! 

Merritt's Toes and Funky Fingers Anna, inspired by Frozen

I did get around to painting my new baby's toes.  I used Sinful Colors Soul Mate and a rapid dry top coat right before we went to a family event.  I painted them while she was awake and I wouldn't recommend it because there was a LOT of clean up to get them looking like this.

Next, a polish friend mentioned that there were three Funky Fingers nail polishes based off of Frozen characters so I headed over to Five Below today and bought about 10 Funky Fingers polishes including Anna.

Anna is a glitter topper in a clear base with white snowflake glitters, white hex glitters of a few sizes, white micro glitter, metallic purple hex glitters, metallic fuchsia hex glitters, and matte grey hex glitters.

I decided that my undercoat polish would be essence colour and go breakthrough a fuchsia with purple leanings.

Here is my manicure with Anna and breakthrough in full sun:

and here is my manicure with Anna and breakthrough in shade:

What do you think?

There are two other Frozen inspired polishes I'll be posting up soon so check back in a few.

Baby Time OR What I wore to Labor And Delivery

On Friday night, June 20th, I was 38 weeks and 6 days along in my pregnancy and I knew something was up.  I had had an OBGYN appointment that morning and the doctor stripped my membranes (don't ask if you don't already know--suffice to say, it helps start labor if you are ready).  It apparently worked too well because I had some strong but irregular contractions later that day  and then suspected my water had broke after dinner that I barely ate.  Since I wasn't at all sure and my husband and I both were exhausted from our week, I decided to do my nails just in case before I went to bed.  (Note:  Most medical experts say to head to the hospital if you suspect your water has broke so please do not follow by my example if you are in the same predicament).  I decided on Sinful Colors Steel My Heart with Mentality Zenith on top it.  Zenith is a glass fleck top coat with flashes of red, blue, and purple.   Perfect for a little baby girl's birth right?

My toes were already had Sinful Colors Curry Up so I was completely polished up.  It turned out to be good planning because by 4am Saturday morning, I was more certain about the whole water issues and woke up my dear husband to take me to the hospital where we tested positive for amniotic fluid.   I won't go into the details but our little Merritt Gillian was not born until the next morning, Sunday, June 22nd at 10:24am.  She was 6lbs and 14 oz of girl, 20.5 inches long, and had a full head of hair.

 As you can see, my midnight manicure paid off and was still looking great when holding my brand new baby girl.  

 

Here is her little face with a rare wide awake expression.  Don't you just love those cheeks!

And last, here is she and I tonight on the 4th of July after spending time with friends.  These are the moments to remember.  Her daddy and I are so in love with this sweet girl!

Can't wait to polish her sweet little toes!

Funky Fingers Finds at Five Below in Maryland

 I am currently visiting family and attending a conference on the east coast and even though Five Below stores are finally open in my area, they haven't really changed up the kinds of polishes they carry at my stores.   I walked into a Five Below today and picked up these three pretties.

First up is Heart Attack which looks so indie, right?  This polish is full of white, pink, hot pink and red glitters of various sizes and shapes, even hearts and giant hexes suspended in a clear base.  Certainly very Valentine's Day.  

 Here is Heart Attack over Midge, which I'll share later.

Next is another glitter topcoat called Lady Charlotte.  Since my first name is Charlotte I had to get it.  Lady Charlotte has metallic pastel pink, pastel purple, and micro taupe glitter.

Again, I put Lady Charlotte over Midge to show off a swatch.

Last, I have been looking for Midge and finally found a store with it.   Midge reminds me a lot of Zoya's scattered holo Blaze that is a bit more fuchsia than red in color.  This polish sparkles like crazy and the only thing better than a holo polish is a holo polish that doesn't break the bank.   At $1.67 plus tax (3 polishes for $5) you can afford this polish and a couple more without any purchase guilt.  I'm kidding, of course, nobody gets purchase guilt with nail polish ;)

I snapped this dud of a photo and the realized the out of focus aspect really showed off the holo effect.

Overall, I think these polishes turned out pretty good on quality and value l and I hope that Five Below/ Funky Fingers continues to come out with interesting glitter topcoats and holographic polishes.   Someone please tell them that neon polish is over? 

Holo Club Franken Nails to distract me during jury duty...On my birthday :(

The county I live in decided to hand me a Christmas present...jury duty on my birthday, tomorrow.  I fear that tomorrow will be a tedious event whether I am picked for a jury or not.   Might as well have some shockingly holo'd out nails, right?

For this manicure, I chose to use Color Club Over the Moon and a franken I mixed a few months ago with a shimmery light blue base with gold, green, pink, and blue glitters of varying sizes and matte orange club glitter.  I call it Club Med.  

I think I shall be suitably entranced by this manicure while contemplating meting out justice!

Super Quick Mani: Another Chirality Mystery Polish and a Peita's Polish LE

I know, I know-- it has been a while.  Since I last posted many, many milestones of epic proportions have occurred.  For one, I am now fully graduated with a masters degree.   Additionally, it wasn't just my last semester of grad school that was making me feel very tired and nauseated.  (drum roll)

We found out we are expecting our first child at the end of June!  Perfect timing right?  Well, let me tell you...all my good intentions to begin blogging again went to the wayside during the duration of my first trimester because I couldn't handle strong smells.  BBQ, citrus, nail polish, cleaning supplies, etc made me want to hurl. 

In two years I have never had as many sets of naked nails as I have these last 14 weeks.   But I do feel better, the holidays were great, and the fumes don't bother me as much so I painted my nails tonight and took pics.

Onto the polish...

You know I adore Chirality polishes, especially the Mystery ones.   This was my most recent Chirality purchase and its a beauty.  The color is a sooty violet holo that I am calling Burnt Amethyst.  Its an understated scattered holo with highly pigmented color.  Chirality polishes can be purchased here and more specifically you can get your own mystery polish (at your own risk) here.  Of course, you may or may not get a holo!

Also, although I didn't mix up a lot of polish in the last few months, I did participate in a polish maker swap with a handful of ladies from Austrailia, Denmark, Brazil, Canada, and the United States.  Peita of Peita's Polish participated as well and sent everyone a special matte and metallic glitter topcoat full of purple circle glitter varying finishes and sizes.

I do love circle glitter and it works well with the Chirality Burnt Amethyst polish.  Take a chance on either of these indie brands and you won't be disappointed.  You can buy Peita's Polishes here but just be aware that since Peita is in Australia, your shipping will be steep, $15 for just one bottle. Dotti, as far as I know, is not available to buy but keep an eye out and she may post it or a similar polish!

As for bebe, we don't know if it will be a boy or girl yet but that should be easy to figure out by my next ultrasound.  Maybe I'll announce with a franken!  We'll see.

Rare Nail Art: Zombie French Tips

One of my top bucket lists items is to be a zombie extra in a tv show or movie so the only way I tide myself over until that happens is to occasionally zombify myself for Halloween.   This year, Halloween proper was a bust because I had to work at my internship however, a conference I was attending a couple of days before had a Halloween party.  I bought a Zombie prom queen getup and changed the sash to be "Miz Livin Ded 2013" in bloody finger painting complete with a blood, gore, a fancy ball gown, and a black metal tiara.

Well you can't do zombie without zombie nails so check out my zombie french tips!

I was thinking of a beauty queen clawing her way to the top so the nails are broken way down into the quick but you can still see that she once had a pageant ready mani.  These hurt me just looking at them but they were fun to do.  I just cut down false nails with small scissors and nail clippers and then glued them onto my clean, unpainted nails.  Then i added all the colors.  I think nails like these are ok to be messy so the effect is more grotesque! 

Anyway, grad school still marches on but I am graduating in December!  Oh, all the free time I'll have!  Can't wait to get back to frankening and polishing!

Oh My Word!! ILNP Ultrachromes Waterfall Manicure

Hello again, world...

No, I am not back in the swing of blogging with a full time job, my last semester of grad school, and a temporary internship.  However, I have been busy making polishes (see my Polish Lab tab) and buying polish.  My stash has grown exponentially!

When I saw swatches of the I Love Nail Polish Ultrachromes, I knew they had to be mine so when the pre-order went down in epic fashion last month, I bought all four.

 First you have Birefringence (the one I am holding in the pic),which shifts from blues, purples, reds, oranges, yellows, and a hint of green.

Next you have My Little Glacier, which shifts from blue to silver, purple, red, and orangy-yellow.

Then, there is Cyngus Loop which shifts from purple to orange, red, yellow and a bit of green.

Last, top right corner of the pic, there is Mutagen, which shifts from green to red to blue, and purple and even some orange


Now seeing them in all their chrom-y glory, I also knew that I had to figure out a mani to showcase all the amazing colors and shifting.

I have been wanting to do a waterfall manicure and it incorporates a lot of contrasting colors so I thought it would work. Did. It. Ever!

Behold...

 Yes, I know...I will be staring at these nails for days.  I think if I had to pick one manicure to take with me on a desert island, this would be the one.  After all, it goes with EVERYTHING because it shifts to EVERY COLOR!  Its the Aurora Borealis for your nails.   I stand by that!

Sorry if you don't get my nerding out over this polish but if you do, please find someway to get these!

You may be able to order them now or at some point soon via the ILNP website.   Do sign up for the newsletter which will help you find out when the restocks are.

Hope you try this with your ILNP Ultrachromes.  Share them with me, ya'll!

XOXO,
Char