We Stole the Statue of Liberty!

...the small one, from Las Vegas!!

HAHA, I'm so ridiculously excited to see this movie- the trailers crack me up. "IT'S SO FLUFFFFFY!!!!" and "Is this annoying??" make me laugh every damn time. Today, since I'm going to see Despicable Me tonight, I decided to paint the hilarious Twinkie-shaped minions on my nails, and the silhouette of 'Gru' from the movie logo on my thumb. Seriously silly.

I used China Glaze Happy Go Lucky as a base for the minions, and Zoya Jancyn as a base for the thumb. For the overalls on the minions, I used Pure Ice French Kiss as a base, with a mixture of Pure Ice French Kiss and Orly Snowcone to make them look like jeans (like in the pictures), for the buttons and chest logo, I used American Apparel Hassid. For the glasses, I used a mixture of American Apparel Hassid, American Apparel Factory Grey, and Pure Ice French Kiss for the goggles, with American Apparel Hassid for the goggle strap. For the eyes, I used American Apparel Cotton with American Apparel Hassid for the pupils. I used Zoya Jancyn to shade the bodies, American Apparel Hassid and A Beautiful Life Poison for the mouths, and American Apparel Hassid for the teeth. For the tongue, I used Essie Foot Loose mixed with American Apparel Cotton and CND Electric Orange, then added A Beautiful Life Poison to the mixture to shade. For the 'Gru' silhouette, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud. Topped everything off with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

MIX IT UP

Click directly on this picture to get a better view. There are hollow dots so you can actually see through the nails. All of these colors are from the Young Nails neon collection. I painted the white circles with a nail art pen.

This is glitter that I purchased from dollar nail art. I mixed the glitter with clear acrylic to make it super easy to apply. The purple background color is lava lamp art glitter. The ring fingers have 3d stars and the green acrylic is art glitter in fishnet.

On these nails I painted an abstract design on the black. Scroll to the bottom of this post to view the matching toes I did with these.

I have done a lot of flags this July. They are each a little different. I call this one my Dr. Seuss flag it curls in at the end a little. Just always having to get a little artsy and creative whenever I can.

On these nails we were trying to achieve the color apricot. I wish you could see the color in person because it is beauuutifullll. I faded two colors together.

This is opi gel polish in black onyx with a base coat of happy anniversary.


I have done soooo many cute toes lately, I'm frustrated because it is so hard for me to get a good picture of toes. I just can't get the right angle or lighting and the coloring turns out all wrong in the picture. I would appreciate any photography advice. I did think these pics turned out ok but the toes were much cuter in person. Grrrrrr

Deborah Lippmann - Ruby Red Slippers

Celebrating!

Hi guys! What's up? Today may not really be the time for vampy colors, since it's an excruciatingly hot summer day, but today is the day I've been blogging for six months so I wanted something festive! Only six months, it seems so long already!

Glitter

I think this polish is just fabulous! Red Ruby Slippers by Deborah Lippmann is a black jelly base with a mix of small and big hexadecimal hexagonal red glitter. Absolutely divine. It's like China Glaze's Lubu Heels on steroids!

Application

Polishes like these are never the easiest to apply though. You really have to be careful when it comes to the placement of the glitter, it can be all over the place! I actually had to use a stick to immediately push the glitter back in, away from the cuticle, while it was still wet. Normally I like to layer wet over wet, but this one needs a little bit of drying time between layers. But it's so stunning to look at, that I'm gladly taking this for granted!
You can wear this at two coats, but I applied 3. It does dry bumpy and not so glossy, so you definitely want to bring out the top coat. I applied 3 layers of Nubar Diamont to create a smooth glossy surface.

Deborah Lippmann polishes cost between $16-$20 for 15ml each. You can order them online at deborahlippmann.com

Thanks so much for stopping by and see you next time!
- Michèle

Review: Zoya Remove +

Zoya Remove Plus Nail Polish Remover

"Zoya Remove Plus is an award wining, gentle, yet highly effective 3-in-1 nail polish remover, nail prep and nail conditioner. Longer nail polish wear starts with Remove Plus.
Polish remover is just the beginning of what this wonder 3-in-1 formula achieves. Clean and prep nails while moisturizing, nourishing and fortifying the nail plate for guaranteed extended polish wear. Nails are left without a trace of nail lacquer, without streaking or staining, hydrated and ready for a base coat."

Zoya Remove +

I received a mini bottle of Zoya's nail polish remover "Remove +" as a gift with an order and holy crap, I think I love it. There's not much in the bottle, only 2oz or 60ml but it was enough to suck me in.
I'm surprised that a formula with litte acetone in it does the job so well. It removes polish super fast, without a weird residue.

The thing I like about it the most is the fact that I can use this and my cuticles stay intact. They don't turn white, wrinkly or dry. No, they stay exactly the same. Normally, I can't swatch 12 polishes in one go because my fingers WILL start to decompose. Not with this. I'm being super thrifty with it, because I don't want to run out already!
It also takes pretty good care of glitter. I Remove + on OPI's malicious Absolutely Alice and it didn't take me hours.

Have all that and smell nice too!

If it works this good, it probably smells like chemical waste right? No, not at all! It's pleasantly fragranced, it smells like lavender, but not too strong.
Zoya Remove + comes in different sizes, besides the small one I got ($5.99 for 60ml) they also have the handy Big Flipper bottle ($9.99 for 240ml), that one has one of those nifty dispensers. They also have a big refill ($25 for 960ml).

What's not to like?

For me there are only two disadvantages, the availability and the price. Zoya isn't available in stores around here, so I'd have to order online, and I go through a LOT of remover. It isn't really cheap either compared to other removers I've been using. But if I could get my hands on this high quality product easily, I'd just suck it up and get it all the time. If you swatch a lot, I'd say it's absolutely worth it.

Ingredients

2-Propanone (Acetone), Water (Aqua), Glycerine, Fragrance, D and C Violet #2

Visit the Zoya Website