Gnarly Gnails: February 2013

February Faves

Thursday, February 28, 2013
By Missy
2 Comments

I have no shame - I stole this idea from Kirsten of The Geeky Owl, who stole it from Emma of Manicurity. We're all friends here, no reason we can't do some sharing!
Oddly enough, before I saw Kirstens post, I was thinking about how I wanted to do some more sharing posts, roundups and the like.
So let's see...

Favorite New (Tried) Polish
Julep Joan:

Favorite New (Untried) Polish
My new Adventure Time Polishes

Favorite New (Tried) Indie Polish
Whimsical Nail Polish - Kitty Glitter

Favorite New (Untried) Indie Polish
The newest one to my collection is Lynnderella She Lived In a Swamp, and probably my most anticipated out of my untried pile - you'll actually see it tomorrow!

Favorite New (Seasonal) Collection
Not really seasonal, but I think the thing I'm currently most excited about is the new Hard Candy line of polishes:

Photo Source - Teen Vogue

Favorite Manicure You Did This Month
I had a few I really loved this month, but the Hot Pink Splosion is probably the most favorite:

Favorite New Technique or Tip
Quiliting - which I did here:

Favorite New Makeup Item
Not so much makeup, since I hardly wear the huge arsenal I have, but I am super loving this product right now:

Photo Source - Beauty Crazed

Favorite TV Show right now
Doctor Who. I finally caved to mass hysteria over this show, and now me and my boyfriend are both totally enamored with it.

Currently reading
I just don't read. I used to love to read, but I don't give myself the time for it anymore!

Brand: Catrice

Fire Opals

Thursday, February 28, 2013
By Missy
4 Comments

Its the last day of Catrice Week on the blog - In my mass need to use my untried polishes I managed to get through almost all of my untried Catrices.
In total I used up 12 of them, plus 2 more I haven't shown here and I have 2 left in the pile. So wow - good job!
For the last day I decided to go with something simple but stunning, and since I think I've worn a flakie polish like twice since I started blogging, it just felt right today.

Here we have Pimp My Shrimp and Shake It! Flake It!

A base of 3 coats of Pimp My Shrimp, which is a juicy jelly peach. There is still slight nail line showing, but its still a gorgeous jelly that would be really pretty with some chunky glitter!

On top I applied 2 coats of Shake It! Flake It! which is the fiery type of flakey that shifts from orange to gold to green.

I finished this mani with a matte top coat - I always love how it seems to stop the flakey in time and only show one or two of its faces.

Its so fierce and fiery!

I hope you've enjoyed Catrice week.

I'd like to thank my awesome swap buddy Angi, who has gotten me about 97% of my Catrice collection, which is only available in parts of Europe.

Brand: Catrice

Catrice Greens Part 2

Wednesday, February 27, 2013
By Missy
9 Comments

Day 4 of Catrice Week sees a couple more greens!

So todays greens are Sold Out Forever (2nd version, which barely is even a green, but since the 1st version is much greener, I plop this in the green category) and It's Rambo No. 5

For fun, I decided to make some zigzag decals instead of tape to nail method. This is much cleaner looking if you have the extra time. Basically, you paint your polish onto wax paper or plastic, once its dry you peel it off and cut your strips with pinking sheers or craft scissors.

I started with a base of Sold Out Forever, an icy mint with a super subtle but gorgeous shimmer, which you certainly won't be seeing in these pictures, sorry!

My cutout strips were done with It's Rambo No. 5 - after my base dried, I applied these and trimmed to fit.

I then applied a generous coat of top coat to seal them on.

Any residual edges can be cleaned up with your normal cuticle cleanup method, the strips are polish and removal is exactly the same!

Brand: Catrice

Quilted Pink

Tuesday, February 26, 2013
By Missy
5 Comments

Woo. Hellooooo Tuesday.
Got home late Sunday night from a little overnight trip we took to Illinois. It was a good time, we never go anywhere and have a junko car, so we had a blast getting away and driving in my boyfriends moms car for the weekend, it was like driving a fancy spaceship. But now we are home and I feel like I'm STILL trying to catch up from it, sleep-wise. My boyfriend won $400 at the casino while we were there, so not only did he buy me a new laptop, but he also bought me some running shoes, a wicked awesome doctor who shirt AND some of my wishlist nail polishes!! He done alright this weekend....
And on a sidenote - I HATE Windows 8. bleck.

As Day 3 hits on Catrice Week, here is some pink for ya. Along with, yet another Million Styles Top Coat!
For this one I did something a little different, which I will explain as I go along.

Today I'm using Holo Que Tal and Wrapped Around My Finger

Wrapped Around My Finger is a gorgeous dusty pink creme and it was the base of this manicure. 2 coats.

Holo Que Tal is a shimmer base full of pink to orange shifting particles and it is what I used over my pink base.

While the polish was still tacky, I took a business card and dug ridges into the polish to create the quilts. I had been thinking for awhile about how I could achieve a quilted design without using striping tape (too thick) or freehanding it (too skillful!) - so this was it!

After I had all of my quilts in check, I added top coat one nail at a time and added my gold bullions/microbeads to each intersection, then one more coat of top coat!

Brand: Catrice

Catrice Greens

Monday, February 25, 2013
By Missy
2 Comments

Back at Day 2 of Catrice Week and today I'm showing you a couple of green shades I have yet to try out.

Here we have King of Greens, Take it Mint and Million Dollar Baby

For this lovely mani, I started with a base of King of Greens then i sponged between it and Take It Mint until I had achieved the splotchiness that suited me best.

Then I applied one coat of Million Dollar Baby, a gorgeous gold glitter in clear base.

Finished off with a matte top coat - this would make a nice little St Pattys Day mani.

Brand: Catrice

Catrice Blues

Sunday, February 24, 2013
By Missy
2 Comments

I've dubbed this Catrice Week on the blog.
In a massive attempt to work through my untrieds, I am going to try and polish off all of the Catrice polishes in my untried pile this week!
Today I'm showing you three of the blue shades (ok, 2 and a top coat) that remain untried, until today!

Todays players are No Snow Petrol, Godfather of Pearl and George Blueney

So for this, I started with a base of No Snow Petrol, a gorgeous aqua/teal with a bluish/purple iridescence.

Then I added Godfather of Pearl over the top to give it some funky shimmer! Godfather of Pearl is a clearish base chock full of shimmers of the blue and green variety.

Then I taped off a cross design on my ring finger and sponged on George Blueney and topped it with some more of the Godfather of Pearl.

Whatcha think?

I enjoyed this nice little bit of blue in the dead of winter!

Brand: Julep

Put Up Your Dupes - Julep vs Pure Ice

Saturday, February 23, 2013
By Missy
4 Comments

Been awhile since I did a Dupe Comparison - lets check this out!

Todays Contenders are Julep Petra versus Pure Ice Iced Merlot

Looking pretty similar in the bottle, no?

These two polishes are a red raspberry crelly base with pink and blue shimmer, that primarily flash pink on the nail.

I turned my fingers so many different directions and found NO differences in these whatsoever.

Furthermore, formulas were exactly the same, though the Julep was slightly slower to dry - giving the HUGE advantage to Pure Ice for being twice the size and 1.99 vs Julep $14 price tag.

Each show two coats and one coat of top coat. The index finger is slightly darker because it has a third coat due to it drying so slow i bumped it!

We have a WINNER - Pure Ice Iced Merlot!

Brand: Julep

Julep Joan

Friday, February 22, 2013
By Missy
3 Comments

Lately, Julep has really been killin' it with their monthly box choices.
Makin' it hard for a poor girl like me to decide what I want!
One of my recent box acquisitions is this lovely - a raspberry/gold shimmer called Joan - named after famous Silver Screen Siren - Joan Crawford:

Holy bazoobs - do you see that?

This is 2 coats of Joan and 1 coat of Julep Quick Dry Top Coat

The shimmer in this is really more of a golden flakie, so that pretty much makes it even more awesomer than you would even expect or know what to do about!

If you aren't a Julep Maven, you are really, truly missing out.
Even this month right now they have some amazing boxes to choose from, and even more amazing add-ons.
All you do is take a test, and it chooses the box best suited to your results.
You can get your first box FREE using code FREEBOX, too!
You can CLICK HERE to get started!

Pattern: Rainbow

Rainbow Monsters

Thursday, February 21, 2013
By Missy
5 Comments

Hey guys!
So I disappeared for a few days there. Well I'm still working without a computer, plus I came down with bronchitis Saturday so that knocked me out for a few days. But here we are, trucking through the week...now that I'm starting to come out of my sick shell, I have to plan to go out of town for a few days and here comes more stress! Some people wonder how a person with no job can be so stressed!
If you follow me on Instagram, I showed you a picture of this mani, albeit a very blurry one, but hey, it can only get better, right?

So this weekend we had a party for my boyfriends son, which I ended up missing because I got sick! But we did go to the discovery museum that morning so I got to rock them somewhere at least.