Double Ruffian

Hey guys! As you probably know, the school year just started up last month, and I have been swamped. I’ve always heard that senior year was the busiest one, but I never imaged just how much work my senior project would be. I’ve barely had time to do my nails at all these past few weeks, and I confess, I’ve worn some of my manis much longer than I normally would, to the point where they’re so chipped up that I can’t stand it anymore. But anyway, I know that no one comes here to hear me gripe about my personal life, so onto the nails! This is just a simple mani today, and all with polishes that I’ve used before:

From cuticles to tips, I used Essie Penny Talk, Sally Hansen Lava, and Love & Beauty Fire & Ice.

I was originally going to just do a ruffian with Penny Talk and Fire & Ice, but then I saw Lava sitting in my drawer, so I ended up doing a double ruffian ombre type nail. I’m not sure how I feel about all the layers, but I do love the colors next to each other. What do you guys think? And I’ve been seeing tons of people convert to pointer almond shaped nails lately. I’ve always been a rounded tip gal for as long as I can remember, but I’ve been thinking about trying out the pointier trend. Any tips on converting from those of you that have taken the plunge?

Blind Mani – Fall Leaves

Hey guys! So it’s been steadily getting cooler where I live, and now we’re at the point where you need to put on a jacket before you leave the apartment, and the flip flops have been put away until next year. And of course, there’s my favorite part of autumn– the colorful falling leaves! So that’s where I took inspiration from for this mani.

I started out with Sephora by OPI in 212-Sephora. I have no idea what the name is supposed to mean…anyone want to clue me in?

Regardless of the name, this polish is gorgeous. It has a super dark brown, nearly black base and it’s loaded with golden-brown shimmer, flakies, and a sprinkling of holographic micro glitter.

Here it is on the nails! This is two coats. It’s hard to capture how pretty it is in a photograph, and this one really doesn’t do this polish justice. This polish makes my nails just sparkle whenever they catch the light. On the nails, I mostly just see the warm range of color in the flakies, but I do get an occasional flash of green and blue when I look at them at the right angle.

The  next polish I used was another Sephora by OPI one. This one’s Come to Pappa-razzi!

Come to Pappa-razzi! is a clear polish loaded with a blend of large gold hex glitters, medium black hex glitters, and small copper hex glitters. You know how some glitter polishes look great in the bottle but require way too much fishing to get a good amount onto the nail? Well this is definitely not one of them. I needed just one coat with no fishing to get a nice coverage of glitter.

And here’s the final look! I topped an accent nail with Come to Pappa-razzi! and stamped on some leaves with Essie Penny Talk and my BM m47 plate. Despite my awful stamping skills, I really like this mani. And maybe the broken up stamps make the leaves look more realistic? Maybe?

Anyway, I’ve definitely found some new favorite polishes for fall. What are your favorite fall colors to wear on your nails?

Blind Mani: Anniversary Hearts

Hey guys! So if you didn’t catch my tweet, yesterday my boyfriend and I celebrated our three year anniversary! In honor of that, I went with a simple (anyone else’s guys not enjoy the smell of nail polish and having to wait for your nails to dry?) mani with textured hearts.

First I used Essie Penny Talk on all my nails. This is actually the first Essie polish I’ve ever used! I know, I have no idea why it took me so long.

Penny Talk is a gorgeous coppery gold metallic polish. The application was easy– opaque in two coats, one if you’re very careful, and left minimal brush strokes for a metallic polish.

Next I added some hearts with Forever 21’s Love & Beauty Sand Lacquer in the color Fire & Ice….I think. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong! I mentioned before how annoying it is to not have the name of the polish anywhere on the bottle, but I looked up these polishes online and this one looked like a match.

Anyway, Fire & Ice is a textured polish with a red base and gold micro glitter flecks. Since I just used this for accents, I only used one thicker-than-normal layer. The sand texture was pretty smooth, although it would probably be more prominent with two coats.

And here’s the final mani! Obviously, the hearts are meant to represent my boyfriend and myself. I was pretty impressed with both of these polishes, although I have to say that I did have some problems with chipping with Penny Talk. I had a chunk missing on my thumb and significant tip wear in just one day of wearing it. I didn’t topcoat my nails because of the textured polish though, so it might do better with a layer of protection over top. And Forever 21, if you’re reading this, please please consider printing your polish names on the bottles!

So yesterday my bf and I celebrated by mini-golfing, eating out, playing video games, buying nail polish, and watching a movie. I want to know how you all celebrate with your significant other (or how you would like to if you don’t currently have one) and your best relationship advice!