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!

Swatchfest!! WnW Pick your Poison, Different Dimension, Sinfuls, and Perception polishes

So I have been a busy bee with the swatching!   Lately, with school swatches are faster and easier for me to do and with all my latest purchases, the swatches keep coming.

I was recently able to get most of Wet N Wild's Pick Your Poison collection.  All except Poison Ivy which was sold out:(  Ill be keeping an eye out for that one.

I was also glad to find two pretties from Sinful Colors.  Mesmerize is a dark blue, almost purple.

Pumpkin Spice was a happy find and I had to have it.

I traded a couple of Julep polishes for this indie, Different Dimensions Sparkles Like Edward.  I love it soooo much!

I have been eying Speckled Sparkle for months on Perception's etsy page.  There was an awesome sale recently and I picked up minis of Speckled Sparkle and Deep Blue Something.   OMG!  I love this one!  The pic is two coats of Speckled Sparkle on top of one coat of Silver Dollar.

After seeing the video below and finally getting in my two Layla holos from Sneakpeeq.com I had to try dipped holos.  This is an awesome technique that I highly recommend after having tried it.  It evenly distributes the holo polish and helps make any polish holographic.

*UPDATE!*
I was able to get over to another Walgreens tonight and found WnW Pick Your Poison Poison Ivy.

It. Is. Perfect!

Discount Polish Haul, Sally Nail Mail, and a swatch of Vegas Night

A recent trip to my favorite discount beauty store yielded some more Kleancolor polishes as well as one more Ruby Kisses HD polish in Mystic Aurora.  Vegas Night had me drooling so I did a swatch that you can see at the end of this post and it. is. STUNNING!

On top of that, I also took a late night trip to Walgreens and found these two Black Radiance polishes.  The glitters in Party Girl Rock called out to me and B-girl was so stunning I just had to buy them.  There were two extra of each that I bought for a giveaway or nail polish RAOK.

In the same trip I also bought these Sinful Colors polishes.  They are soo perfect for Fall and Fig is like Dream On in its pretty factor but nicely toned down for colder months.  Winterberry is a frosty purple grey and I can't wait to see it on!  I am a sucker for blue polishes and I didn't already have Rain Storm and Ciao Bella so I snapped them up.

Yep, more from the Walgreens trip.  I finally saw the Wet N Wild Fergie polishes everyone was raving about but was soo bummed because the Walk of Fame star glitter was sold out!  (as if that ever stopped me--I later found two WoF at another Walgreens a couple of days later--awesome!)  I love the look of all of these!

I rarely buy InstaDri anymore but I saw these.  They both have a shimmer that is hard to tell in this picture but they'll look stunning on nails!

On one of my FB nail polish groups, someone shared that Sally Beauty had a super great sale on China Glaze polishes for $2.99.  The deepest discount only showed when you signed in to the beauty members account.  I filled up my cart with these 10 polishes and found a promo code that gave me an additional $5 off orders of $25 or more.  My total for these was a little over $30!

Last, I leave you with that Kleancolor Vegas Night swatch.  It speaks for itself!

Sinful Colors Lets Talk with Ruby Kisses HD Mardi Gras

Have I mentioned how much I love discount beauty stores?  Both that I go to have Klean Colors, NYX, and Ruby Kisses polishes for under $2!  Today I am showcasing Sinful Colors Lets Talk and a Ruby Kisses HD glitter polish called Mardi Gras.

 

Sunflower Nails -- A Tutorial

The husband and I went to Estes Park for a few days and I wanted some cute nails.  Sunflowers have been on my radar and after a Google images search I got some great inspiration.  I also had the time and patience to take tutorial pics so you can recreate the look if you like it!

I first started with Orly Bonder and then applied two coats of Sinful Colors Sweet Dreams.

I then used Sinful Colors Nirvana to paint on large brown ovals on to each nail in a random pattern.  Using Insta Dri Bronze Ablaze I accented the middle of each circle.

I then used Sinful Colors Snow Me White to draw in the base shape of the petals and leaves.

I then painted the petals with Sinful Colors Let's Meet and accented each petal with Sinful Colors Cloud 9.

Last, I painted the leaves with Sinful Colors Happy Ending and traced the outline of the flowers and leaves with Ebony Hates Chris.

 Hope you like!

Lush Lacquer's Flippin Out and some Crazy Awesome Nail Mail!

I was finally able to swatch my Lush Lacquer Flippin' Out.  Since I haven't received a replacement label from the recent name change, I'm just showing the bottle side not the label.  The name of this polish was recently changed and Lush Lacquer asks that we not use the old name--legal reasons, I suspect!  Anyway, this is Flippin' Out over Julep's Emilie.  Great combo, right?!

Yet another label problem with one of my nail mails-- I ordered Princess Celestia from Darling Diva Polish and the bottle was mislabeled.  The store owner is sending me a replacement label but I couldn't wait to show it to you.   Love it in the bottle and will soon have it on my fingers and toes!

 This next polish is Strawberry Limeade from Two Birds One Store.  It reminds me of a different take on Floam or Sand Art.  Soo pretty and says "summer" to me.

I get a lot of polish advice from following The Trace Face Philes blog and facebook page.  She said the Windestine store was open and so I ran over to score these two beauties.

 Someone else on Facebook posted that HSN was having a sweet deal on Deborah Lippman polishes.  Don't Tell Mama and Dream a Little Dream of Me are full size and were under $10 for the pair.  Brings my humble total of DL polishes to 5!

I must confess that I recently dropped my Julep subscription.  There was a little problem with my gift certificate order never arriving and I was given the run around by customer service. After not receiving their 2nd attempt of shipping I gave up.  Still, I love America and O Canada so I happened upon a deal where if I ordered two Julep polishes, I'd receive America for free.  I bought O Canada and the pre-order of Chelsea. So at $24 I got my polishes for $8 a piece.  I'll take that and no, Im not renewing my subscription!

 Last, I ran out of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, one of my nail art staples, and went to Walgreens to replace it.  I found the Suit Up with Haute display and bought these four lovelies too.   I now have 70 Sinfuls...omg!

So I am quickly approaching 500 separate, unrepeated bottles of polish.  That doesn't include the stuff I've bought for giveways.  What an expensive, rewarding,  and cluttering hobby this nail art thing has turned out to be!