Yabba Dabba OOOH!

Get ready to go bowling, break out your foot-powered car, and get your Dino on! Today is the 50th anniversary of the 1st episode of the Hanna-Barbera classic, 'The Flintstones'!!! Fun tidbit- for the longest time when I was a kid- I always thought that Hanna Barbera was a person, not the last names of two people. I eventually caught on though... Today's nail art is a tribute to the stone-age smile-inducers- the Flintstones (and the Rubbles). On my left hand, I have Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles Flintstone, with Dino on the ring finger, and a closeup of Fred's garb on the pinky. On the right hand, I painted The Great Gazoo on my thumb, then Barney, Betty, and Bamm-Bamm Rubble, with Bamm-Bamm's club on my pinky.

I used:

Left:

Thumb: Fred Flintstone

Orly Snowcone as a base, with American Apparel Summer Peach for his skin, then mixed with Color Club Best Dressed List for his stubble. For his tongue, I used a combination of American Apparel Palm Springs and Orly Pixy Stix, for his eyes, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud and for the hair and outlines, I used American Apparel Hassid.

Index: Wilma Flintstone

Orly Snowcone as a base, with American Apparel Summer Peach for her skin, as well as as a base for her hair. For her hair, I used CND Electric Orange. For her necklace and teeth, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud, China Glaze Salsa for her lips, then outlined everything in American Apparel Hassid.

Middle: Pebbles Flintstone

Orly Snowcone as a base, with American Apparel Summer Peach for her skin, as well as as a base for her hair. Like Wilma, I also used CND Electric Orange for Pebbles' hair. Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for her eyes and the bone in her hair. For her dress, I used Pure Ice Wild Thing, then outlined everything with American Apparel Hassid.

Ring: Dino

Orly Snowcone as a base, with Color Club Ms. Socialite for the purple, then mixed with American Apparel Palm Springs for his muzzle. I also used this combination in a different strength for his tongue. For his collar, I used Zoya Yummy, with Barielle Aura Angora for his 'dog' tag. I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for his eyes, and American Apparel Hassid to outline.

Pinky: Fred's 'suit'

CND Electric Orange as a base, with Zoya Yummy for his tie, with American Apparel Hassid to outline, and for the spots on the orange fabric.


Right Hand

Thumb: The Great Gazoo

Orly Snowcone as a base, with L.A. Girl Army Green for his face, CND Green Scene for his shirt and helmet, a mixture of CND Green Scene and
American Apparel Hassid for his collar, Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for his eyes, and American Apparel Hassid to outline everything.

Index: Barney Rubble

Orly Snowcone as a base, with MAC Abalone Shell for his skin, then mixed with Color Club Best Dressed List for his stubble, American Apparel Manila for his hair, OPI Ginger Bells for his 'suit', and American Apparel Hassid to outline everything.

Middle: Betty Rubble

Orly Snowcone as a base, with American Apparel Summer Peach for her skin, China Glaze Salsa for her lips, Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for her eyes, and American Apparel Hassid to outline, as well as for her necklace and hair.

Ring: Bamm-Bamm Rubble

Orly Snowcone as a base, with American Apparel Summer Peach for his skin, Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for his eyes and hair, CND Electric Orange with American Apparel Hassid to outline and for the spots on the hat.

Pinky: Bamm-Bamm's Club

Orly Snowcone as a base, with L.A. Girl Army Green for the club, outlined with American Apparel Hassid.

Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

It's a living.

NEW Limited Edition Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Polishes

So I went to Rite Aid on my lunch, and what do I see.....the NEW Sally polishes!! I love my Rite Aid, they are always up to date on the new collectionc. I only grabbed 3, for the rest looked very common, imo.

This is Problem Child. Which reminds me very much of OPI's Merry Midnight. I think of Problem Child, as Merry M. little sister. PC, doesn't seem to have as big of, or as much flakies compared to her big sis. Still this color is beautiful!

This is Golden Ticket. Since it's sheer, I layered it over Problem Child, and really like it!

This is my FAVORITE of the 3 that I got, It's Sequin Scandal. A very dark olive/army green, with gold & green tiny glitter and what may be teeny tiny iridescent flakies, but not many, so don't get too excited.



People Say I'm Nuts

...but really, I'm just a-corny. :-D (bad joke)

A book came out yesterday from my FAVORITE author, David Sedaris, called 'Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary'. I bought it tonight, and I'm SO excited to read it. Seriously, if you haven't heard of him, or if you have, but haven't read any of his stuff yet, you seriously need to get on it. The man is a genius, and I've laughed more while reading his books or listening to him speak than I have at most comedians. His deadpan delivery and dry, self-deprecating humor will have you rolling, and I highly suggest, at the very least, LISTENING to one of his audiobooks. (My favorite is the Santaland Diaries, which chronicles his experience employed as an elf at Christmastime in a major department store) A while back, reader Shannon L. suggested that I do squirrel nails, and that got me thinking about acorns, and tonight, I joined both ideas together in honor of the new Sedaris book! :) The acorns turned out to be a funky version of a french manicure! (with lots of shading!! :-D)

and my nails with my new book.... :-D

I used American Apparel Palm Springs as a base, with butter LONDON Crumpet over it, then mixed OPI Ginger Bells with American Apparel Palm Springs and MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious for the tips, with a darker version of that mixture for the textured 'scales' on the acorn caps. For the shading on the acorn, I used a mixture of American Apparel Palm SpringsOPI Ginger Bells and MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious to shade, a mix of OPI Ginger Bells and American Apparel Palm Springs for the darker highlight, then pure American Apparel Palm Springs for the main highlight. For the thumb, I used OPI What's With the Cattitude? as a base, with American Apparel Palm Springs as a base for the squirrel, topped with OPI Ginger Bells, then a mixture of OPI Ginger Bells and MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious over that, then a few swipes of American Apparel Palm Springs around the eye, ear, and tail. For the eye, I used American Apparel Hassid, and for the grass I used CND Green Scene , L.A. Girl Army Green, and Pure Ice Wild Thing. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Stand on the magic star, and you can see Cher!!

HALLOWEEN NAILS & MORE!

Bewitching Halloween nails. This is a mix of stuff from just about everywhere lol.

New gel polish colors from OPI. I'm loving the new glitter colors.

More OPI gel polish.

The glitter is from sparklesnailproducts.com. The little clay leaves are from kennickkreations.com

I just love purple and green for Halloween. This client asked for tiger stripes a long time ago and she finally got them!

This is a glitter from sparkles nail products. So easy and so cute!

This is a glitter in #110 Caribbean Blue from sparklesnailproducts.com. I faded a little turquoise acrylic into it.

Surprise, surprise another glitter from sparkles nail art that I faded into a glitter from artglitter.com

Scotch Tape Striped Mani - Is my love for Turquoise Opal obvious?

I actually did this mani yesterday, but didn't get a chance to post it. I was trying to find other designs I could do, using scotch tape. Stripes came to mind. So I grabbed my trusty black, and Sally Hansens Nail Prisms Turquoise Opal, and started working on it. It was actually easier than I though, and I love this effect

This is with the flash on, see how much the turq. shows!!!

My Vegas Showgirl Mani

This is the mani design I chose today. As much as I like it, it feels very Vegas to me, lol. The gold is Color Club's Enchanted Holiday, from this years mini set. The black is my HG, Sinful's Black on Black. I used scotch tape for the diagonal design. If you're interested in doing this, I posted about it a little while ago, and gave step by step instructions.

 

Friki Tiki

I've always loved the aesthetic of tiki masks, and the funky feel they have. I like the different face shapes and facial expressions that you can see on them, whether silly or scary, tiki culture is awesome!! Today's manicure is my interpretation of the wooden tikis that are often portrayed for parties and shindigs. :-D

I used Color Club Best Dressed List as a base, then mixed with MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious to shade, and mixed with American Apparel Palm Springs to highlight. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Something I learned last night while making cookies- if you put chunks of caramel in cookies, you have to let them cool to remove them from the cookie sheet, otherwise you get a lot of broken cookies that you have to eat, because naturally, you can't give away broken cookies, now can you? (what, I think I've stumbled on a great idea here...more cookies for me!!)

ORLY Cosmic FX - Galaxy Girl

Galaxy Girl

Hi guys! For today I have another stunning piece from the ORLY Cosmic FX collection: Galaxy Girl. Galaxy Girl is a brownish burgundy base filled with those amazing flecks. The flecks in this polish flash a color somewhere between teal and cyan and sometimes a bit of purple too. I love how it's dark with a twist, so it's still 'fun' - if you know what I mean. I'd say it's a pretty unique color, although there is already a dupe available in Mac's Venomous Villains Collection: Formidable! For me this is definitely a great color for Fall.

Application

Just like Space Cadet, I had no problems applying Galaxy Girl. I threw on three coats and it dried pretty quickly. I love how the sizes of the flecks are irregular, but the finish still remains smooth as glass.

I will write about every single polish in this collection soon, I could have made one post about all six of them, but I have more fun when I'm writing about them separately - if that makes any sense. Dd you get any of the ORLY Cosmic FX's? Which one is your favorite?

ORLY polishes from the Cosmix FX collection cost 10 USD each. You can get Galaxy Girl from eBay, TransDesign, Head2ToeBeauty etc.

Tarte Cosmetics Sale on ideeli!

There is a Tarte Cosmetics sale on Ideeli today!! it ends at 11:59 PST (so, approx 24 hours from this post). There are check stains, brow kits, foundations, mascara, and other odds n ends. Decent prices, too! :)

Check it out! Tarte Cosmetics Sale on Ideeli

Cross-hatching a Plan

So I broke down and checked out the MAC Venomous Villains collection tonight at the Pro Store. Bad idea. I have far more willpower than I thought, because it's all super pretty!! The mineralized shadows from Maleficent's color story are crazy sparkly and beyond gorgeous. The three polishes are pretty too, though, as I'm sure you know, two are dupes for the Orly Cosmic FX collection. The third, however, is called Bad Fairy, and is a magenta foil duochrome that flashes an orange-red color. Super pretty. While in the Forum Shops, I also came across Inglot, there is a STORE AT THE FORUM SHOPS NOW! (that is my excitement typing) I've never seen any of their products in person until tonight, and let me tell you, everything I saw was crazy awesome, and once I have money again, that place is going to be Dangerous (yes, capital D). Anyway- today's manicure utilizes Bad Fairy (yes, I broke down, I'm not a saint :-P)

I used MAC Bad Fairy as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the crosshatch design. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

This pictures don't do this polish justice. It's super shiny, sparkly, foily goodness.

He's Got a Way With Murder

We know him as Dexter, loving family man by day, serial killer that takes out the 'trash' by night. He's America's So-Called Favorite Serial Killer, and tonight IS the night... for the season premiere, that is. I'm one of the devoted followers of Dexter. Love the books, love the tv show. I actually SQUEALED when I saw the first commercial for this season on Showtime! Seriously. I re-watched the entire series AGAIN to prepare for tonight. :-D Lame? Perhaps. Awesome? Definitely. Today's manicure is devoted to the man who likes to dismember... Dexter Morgan. :) (I'd considered painting each nail a different color as an homage to the ice truck killer in the first season, but thought it wouldn't really be considered nail art, so I didn't) The cartoon Dexter on the thumb is a mash-up of Dexter Morgan, and the illustration style and some characteristics of Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory, I dug it when I first saw it, and thought it'd be a fun addition to an otherwise gory manicure. :)

and the close-up/right side up picture of Dex on my thumb:

I used Essie Bone Chilling White as a base, with A Beautiful Life Poison for the blood spatter and DEXTER logo. For the thumb, I used American Apparel Summer Peach for his face and neck, OPI Ginger Bells for his hair, Orly Snowcone for his eyes, and American Apparel Hassid to outline everything, with, again, A Beautiful Life Poison for the blood spatter on his face and collar.

Did you watch Dexter tonight? It was a good one, for sure. I freakin' love this show!

Beauty Salon Dimensions 2010 & A dupe for Chanel Paradoxal?

Beauty Salon Dimensions Event

Hi guys! Today Daphne and me went to an event called Beauty Salon Dimensions. This fair is visited by cosmeticians and nail techs mostly, but everyone is welcome there. A lot of awesome brands were present, showcasing their beautiful products. Nailwise, you could visit stands with brands like China Glaze, OPI, CND, Herome, Trind, Nfu Oh, and the list goes on.
The Netherlands is a bit behind when it comes to new collections, so unfortunately I won't be able to present hot scoops to you, but I do have some eyecandy for you to see. Read More after the jump!

Trind Cosmetics

Dutch brand Trind Cosmetics gives us a sneak peak of their newest collection for this winter. Pretty huh? The representative told me Trind adds four new colors to their selection every winter and summer, so I'll definitely keep an eye out for those!

Nfu Oh

Nfu Oh Nederland was there as well. I've never seen so many Nfu Oh's Together. Heaven! I've added a lot of these to my ever-growing wish list.

OPI

OPI had such a beautiful and impressive stand. Their entire range of products were beautifully showcased. The products were selling so fast they had to keep restocking non stop. I was really hoping to catch a glimpse of the Burlesques, but as I mentioned before, Holland is a tad slow.

OPI's current Designer Series Collection. The two new shades Magic and Radiance were also there. DS Magic looked insanely close to my manicure of the day: ORLY's Lunar Eclipse! Dupe alert?

OPI Swiss Collection swatches, how convenient!

I also took this picture of the Go Goth! collection. They sold these mini packs as well, too bad I couldn't purchase anything since I'm just a consumer.

Hollywood Nails

I LOVE discovering (new to) me brands. Hollywood Nails is a German brand, but their products are available in 12 European countries. I picked up four polishes here, 3 of them cost 2.99 EUR and one of them cost only 0.99 EUR! I hope I will be able to swatch these soon, they're absolute stunners. Further down in this post you will see #509 compared to a high end nail polish..

Aren't these pretty?! From this collection I bought #04 and #509.

ProNailFoil

ProNailFoil is a company that specializes in foils for nails. Appliques seem to be hotter than ever! They gave a nice demo and they looked really cool. I didn't really like the designs that much, but they did have a huuuge selection to choose from.

Chanel versus Hollywood Nails

Woah look at that! The colors in this picture aren't true to life AT ALL, but it shows the similarities very well. The base color and even the shimmer is practically the same! The shimmer in Paradoxal is a little bit bigger, but damn, it's close. I'd say this is closer to being a dupe than Models Own's Purple Grey! And it only cost me 3 euros.

Overall

I had a great time today! I absolutely loved oogling all the pretty polishes and makeup. I've bought some awesome polishes by Hollywood Nails and the new fall colors by CND. Score! Me and Daphne had a really nice talk with one of CND's representatives from BeautyXL and she told us CND will be releasing a gorgeous deep navy blue polish this winter. Can't wait!

I hope you enjoyed this little report of our day, thanks so much for stopping by!
- With love, Michèle

ZOYA Wonderful review

Hello my Sweet Nail-Art Lovers.
Today i am posting my review of new "Wonderful" collection by Zoya, that i recently received in my mail. I will Also soon post the rest of Zoya's Seasonal called "Wicken" .
Even that i was so excited to get it and try these colors out, every time i look at these polishes i have a deja vue feeling. I mean don't get me wrong, colors are gorgeous, and quality is as always outstanding, however some of the polishes really reminded me other colors by zoya.
I also want to mention that i was surprised with how colors came out on the nails, some look way much nicer that my first "bottle" impression. My only wish for Zoya, is to stop cloning redish colors and add a litle spalsh on something unexpected. May be more in blue tones...
Anyway, here are pictures, so you can judge yourself.
Shawn

Cola
Kristi
Burke
Stacy
Kelly