I'm back and I'm reviewing a Pinterest idea & polish

Hey everyone! Kourt here FINALLY. A lot has happened to me since my last post. I am now a single lady again (oh oh oh), I moved out of my parents house and into my own apartment, and lastly (for the most part) I'm done with all the kidney problems I experienced in 2011. So I'm back and ready to give my opinions once again :)

So I'm a Pinterest addict and sometimes I think to myself  "maybe I should stop at 30 pins a day..." but then I come to my senses and realize how silly that is. People need my pins and I need my pins!!!! I'm a pin-oholic and obviously not afraid to admit it. OK so to the reason I mentioned Pinterest is because I wanna do periodic posts on nail designs or techniques as well as beauty tricks just to try them out and see if they work. Gotta keep up with the Jones's here ;)

So for the first Pinterest idea that caught my eye, you can find it  HERE. It's basically using Aquaphor around the nail before you paint your nails and if you happen to paint your skin by accident you can wipe it away. First of all Aquaphor is almost like Vaseline and you can get it pretty much anywhere for less than $5. Luckily I had some already because I got my first tattoo and you are required to put it on your tattoo everyday to help it heal. Back to business...I rubbed the Aquaphor around my nails before I started. I then started all the painting. So my shaky hands did end up getting nail polish on my fingers and surprisingly the Aquaphor method worked. Now I suggest using a q-tip that has the pointy end. I didn't do that (stupid me). I used an orange stick and it ended up pulling some of the polish on the nail. So I suggest just not using an orange stick at all. This is definitely something I will keep in my book of tricks in the future :) And I'm happy there was another use for Aquaphor because I couldn't think of what else I would use it for!

Now, onto my mani. This is gonna be a downer, for me at least. My sister and I were out shopping and I picked up Sinful Colors Pull Over and China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Glam-More. I am disappointed in both of these. First the SC Pull Over was streaky and it took 3 coats to look decent. I love the color which is like a school bus yellow LOL. I don't think I would wear it alone, I might layer something on top of it. This particular time I layered the Glam-More on half of each nail. My original plan was to use gold striping tape to separate the 2 colors. Well I was so disappointed in the Crackle (or lack there of) that I didn't even bother with the striping tape or a clear top coat :/ I love CG's other crackles but I think they missed the mark on this one.

Onto the pics!

Sinful Colors Pull Over, China Glaze Crackle Glaze Glam-More and Aquafor

3 coats of SC Pull Over (sorry if it doesn't look like my best, it's been a while since I painted my nails lol plus my hands were shaky from the back medicine)

SC Pull Over w/ CG Crackle Glaze Glam-More

So there we have it. Have any of you had any luck with this crackle by China Glaze? If so I'd love if you let us know whether it worked out for you or not! Anyways it's good to be back and I'm going to try my hardest to post more. I've got ideas planned! I leave you with my new tattoo :)

Nails of the Day-Easter Manis

Hello Loves
Gabbz here again.......HAPPY EASTER!!!


Isn't this baby chick the cutest?!?!


Today I wanted to share with you 3 Easter manicures my mom and myself have been and will be wearing for easter.

First I'll start off by saying that all 3 manicures started with 1 coat of Maybelline Express Finish in Brilliant Sparkle. I wanted the nails to look like an eggshell-ish color so I decided to go with this pretty milky opalescent color.

Brilliant Sparkle is very sheer as you can see but you can see the pink sheen.

Brilliant Sparkle indoors with flash
and all manicures started off with 1 coat of China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat

Before we get to the fun manicures. Here's what I used for some or all.

Sinful Colors in Mint Apple. ULTA nail Lacquer in Last Fling,Before the Ring, Hard Candy in Sky, Sinful Colors in White and a peachy pink color(name came off) ULTA in Limelight, LA Colors Art Deco in Baby Pink, Yellow, Bright Orange, Intense Pink, China Glaze Fairy Dust. I also used this dotting tool set I bought on Ebay and an 18/10 Loew-Cornell Spotter brush from Michael's.

So the first look is a Speckled Egg manicure. I just dabbed different color polishes onto a piece a paper and dipped a large end from one of the dotting tools and made dots on all nails. Then I took the smaller end of the tool and did the same thing. If you don't have a dotting tool it's ok, I've used toothpicks and an end of a bobby pin to achieve dots.

After they were dried I used 1 coat of Fairy Dust and finished it with 1 coat of Sheche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.

The next look is one I did on my Mom's hands. I made them look like little Easter eggs on her nails.

My mom had painted her nails with Brilliant Sparkle. I told her I was going to do an Easter egg mani but wasn't sure how it would look so she she left me use her as a guinea pig lol.

I painted her nails as you can see with Baby Pink, Mint Apple, Yellow, and Last Fling and the peachy pink polish. For the zigzags I used the art Deco polishes and used the dotting tools for the dots on the nails.

And because I'm obsessed with glitter I used 1 coat of Fairy Dust and finished it with a coat of Seche Vite.

And lastly the look I will have on for Easter Sunday . I decided to do a water marble mani. I've done a couple of these looks in the past and you can see a how to I did here.

I used 4 colors for this look. The peachy pink, Sky, Last Fling and Mint Apple.
It was so nice and sunny outside so I took these in my back yard.
The only think I didn't like were the bubbles, but I have a solution fot that ;)

I like that each nail is different.

Here are both hands, indoors with flash

And the fix to all or most nail imperfections....GLITTER!!!! lol I used 1 coat of, you guessed it, Fairy Dust.

Here they are all done up and in the Sun

And again here are both hands topped with Seche Vite.

What do you think? There's a little something for everyone :)

Hope you all have or are having a great Easter Weekend!!

China Glaze: The Hunger Games-Stone Cold

Gabbz here :)

Keeping with the whole Hunger Games theme, today I have a China Glaze polish from the Capitol Colors Collection. This collection consists of 12 polishes, each color corresponding each district in The Hinger Games.I promised myself that I was only going to purchase colors I "needed" and will actually wear lol.

So from this collection I purchased 5 out of the 12 colors. Today I will show you Stone Cold. Stone cold represents district 2, the masonry/stone mining district. Which I think this color if very fitting.

Stone Cold has a matte polish. I was a little iffy about getting this color because it was matte but you can always use a topcoat and make it glossy. Stone Cold is a very dark/charcoal gray with medium sized silver glitter. I did find that it went on a little patchy at first. I think maybe I was waiting to long to apply it because it seemed to be drying and would drag. But it that can also be that I had my ceiling fan on the whole time...oopsie. Other than that it's a very nice polish. I thought it would be rough for some reason but it wasn't, it was very smooth.

Let's get on with the pictures!

Here's 1 coat of Stone cold. Over 1 coat of China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat.

In the picture above you can see some of the patchiness I was referring to, especial in the pinky nail

This picture is 2 coats. No patchiness :)

Here it is with flash. I'm very happy I purchased this color. Especially since it's a matte finish. I'm all about the sparkle and shine, but I love it.
(indoors w/flash)

Without flash but under a lamp

I was trying to show the matte finish.

And of course I had to add a topcoat
Here it is again with the flash

Take a look at the closeup shot taken under the lamp. I love that when you add the topcoat the silver glitter pops. It even made the polish look black than a charcoal gray.

Here's the finished look :)

So what do you think? Did any of you pick up any of the China Glaze Capitol colors? If so, which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.

Effie Trinket (The Hunger Games) inspired mani

Hello Lovelies, Gabbz here

I know long time no see. We (Kourt and myself) have been going through some difficult times and unfortunately put blogging aside for awhile. I will tell you this, we have not left our nails naked lol. We have been keeping up with the latest trends and will try harder to keep you all posted and up to date as well.

Today I wanted to share with you a quick mani I created inspired by The Hunger Games movie that just premiered.

I had the opportunity to watch a sneak peak of the movie on Wed before it premiered on Friday. Now I haven't read the books but my best friend had been talking about this series for over a year now. And I have to say, I'm more intrigued to read the books after watching the movie.

In the movie previews, it shows Effie Trinket selecting the names in the District 12 reaping. I didn't pay much attention to her then, but while watching the movie the one thing that stood out to me of course were her nails. She had this really dark berry color with gold on the tips. I just thought that was a pretty combination, so I had to recreate it.


Here are some of the pics I found through Google images of Effie's nails that I was inspired by.

(I do not own these pictures-no copyright infringement intended)

Here is my take on her nails.


To recreate this look I used 1 coat of China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat. For the berry color I used OPI The One That Got Away and for the gold I used Orly Luxe. I used the sponge technique to achieve the gradient look which I've done in the past and you can see here. Then topped off the look with a coat of Seche Vite Dy Fast Top Coat.



What do you think? Have you read the books, or watched the movie? What was you're favorite part? Tell us in the comments below and may the odds be ever in your favor.

OPI Katy Perry Collection:The One That Got Away w/ Black Crackle

Hello Lovelies

Hope everyone is having a great start in the New Year.

I've been hearing Katy Perry's song, The One That Got Away a lot lately in the radio and decided to dust off my polish by the same name and show it off.

Let me say that The One That Got Away was part of the Katy Perry by OPI limited edition collection that came out I think around this time last year. But before I decided to post about this color I looked online and saw that it still available through some e-tailers as well as on Amazon. So if you really like this color, you might be able to get your hands on it.

Here's what I ended up with.
The One That Got Away w/China Glaze Crackle polish
in Black Mesh

2 coats of The One That Got Away over 2 coats
of China Glaze Base Coat

I really like this dark raspberry color, mostly because it's packed with
metallic shimmer in the same tone.
The only thing is if I were to wear this color alone, I would probably
do 3 or 4 coats just to make it darker.

Now I didn't want just to polish my nails, I wanted a little something extra. So
I decided to add some Black Shatter, that also came out in the Katy Perry collection.
I went to open bottle and it was just impossible to get open.
So I grabbed my China Glaze Crackle polish ,which gives you the same effect
and used that instead.

Above we have CG Crackle in Black Mesh over One That Got Away. Black Mesh dries
matte so if you want to bring out the shine, you must
add a topcoat like I did below.

One Coat of Seche Vite Fast Dry Topcoat. As u can see I
need a new bottle lol. I love that stuff.

So there you have it, hope you enjoyed this quick mani :).

New Year's Blingstastic Mani

Gabbz here


Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!!

This year has been an amazing one, especially since it's the year Kourt and I started out bloggy blog :) Thank you all for your support and we're excited for what 2012 has in store for us :)

For this look, I decided to recreate a look from youtuber simplelittlepleasures, you can check out her channel here. She has amazing tutorials and the look I did was called New Year's Bling Silver & Black sponging tutorial which you can watch video here.

So on to the look......

So pretty...can't stop staring at them lol

Materials: a piece of a new kitchen sponge, a wedged cosmetic sponge,
China Glaze Fairy Dust,
OPI Serving Up Sparkle, and Wet n wild Black Creme

One coat Fairy Dust

Serving up Sparkle sponged with cosmetic wedge

Black Creme Sponged with the kitchen sponge

The final look: 1 thick coat of Seche Vite

So there you have it,my New Year's mani. Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year :)

Snowflake Mani

Hey Gabbz here

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and hope you got everything in your wish list :)
And if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a Happy Holiday.
I just wanted to show quickly the nails I have been wearing for the most part this month.
I know it's a little late but I wanted to share this simple and easy look. There's also a bonus pic of my mom's nails too.

Now all looks are they same, just different color combinations. For all, I used 1 coat of Seche Plus Fortified Strengthener as a base, 2 coats of main color and topped them off at the end with a thick coat of Seche Vite. The stamper and scraper are from Konad. The stones I bought in a kit from a dollar store and the snowflake is from Bundle Monster's first kit: image plate 14.

Base color is Hard Candy in Sky then I Stamped the snowflakes using Ulta brand polish in Blue Streak and the glitter is China Glaze in Fairy Dust.


This one is my favorite. It's more me, especially since it's a pink mani. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in Twisted pink for all nails but ring finger. For the ring finger(accent nail) I used OPI in Go Go Pink. The Snowflakes were stamped with Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in White on and on accent nail I used Twisted Pink and the glitter is Orchid in Bedazzled!.

And of course my mom wanted the same look. For her look I used Milani One coat glitter in Red sparkle. Used Sally Hansen in White on for snowflakes and used Orchid in I met him in prism just on snowflakes so they sparkled too.

Tell us below what manicure you had this holiday season?