 | Hey guys. I've been taking a few days off from blogging this week...but I'm back today with something that is probably the most special and heartfelt thing I've put on this blog to date. This week the world lost a truly amazing human being - young Talia Castellano aka TaliaJoy18 lost her battle with cancer, and though it was hard not to cry at this news, I found nothing but smiles when I chose to spend a good part of Tuesday re-living some of my favorite videos of hers. As I told a friend of mine - watch them...they won't make you sad, they will make you smile - because Talia always wanted people to smile and never feel bad or sad for her. |
Talia was a true star - thanks to Nicole of Nail Polish Wars you will probably see a HUGE outpouring of mint manicures in honor of this truly special and unique 13 year old girl today.
I've watched Talia's videos since just after starting this blog, and I have to say - she was definitely the funnest and most colorful makeup artist I've ever watched. She had more spunk and sass and talent than people I know twice her age...
I don't usually use this blog as a personal forum but I have to say that cancer really sucks. It took my mom. It took my grandmother. My maternal grandmother as well as my cousin are, however, both survivors!
Unfortunately, the same day that Talia passed away this week, so did a very close friend of my boyfriends, from stupid ass cancer.
Sprinkled in with today's memorial manicure you will find some videos and pictures of Talia.
The reason behind #mintmanisfortaliajoy is this picture above.
Taken just days before Talia passed, this is a photo of her and her mom with matching mint manicures.
This video put a smile on my face so hard the first time I saw it - talk about personality:
How about we get to some nails?
For this manicure I used quite an array of mints.
L to R:
Orly Jealous Much?
Color Club Blue Mint
Color Club Blue Mint
Barry M Greenberry
Elevation Polish Dzhangi-Tau
Essie - Naughty Nautical
My base is a gradient of Orly Jealous Much, Color Club Blue Ming and Barry M Greenberry.
On top of the gradient I added Elevation Polish in Dzhangi-Tau - one half of the Geo Duo and just a gorgeous glitter combo of white and pale mint glitters.
The 3D bows were molded using the Bow Mold I reviewed HERE from KKCenterHk, which I then painted with Essie Naughty Nautical (plus a little Godfather of Pearl by Catrice)
The heart on my ring finger and the bow on my thumb were both made using Picture Polish Sea Jewel and outlined in black polish.
RIP Talia!
I also wanted to add this video the local news did on Talia after her passing:
FOX 35 News Orlando
There will be a public memorial held for Talia in August - and if you are interested in donating to the Base Camp Children's Cancer Foundation that was Talia's favorite - you can find out more information HERE.
One last thing before I go...Talia posted this BUCKET LIST on Facebook before she passed away - find something here and do it for her:
 | OMG I did it! I love it when I can start a challenge and make it all the way through! And I did! So this is the last day of the Untried Polish Challenge! This is one of my favorite manicures from the challenge - the prompt for this final post - A Gift. Well, how about a bunch of gifts?! |
YAY!
So...how many polishes did I end up using for this challenge, you ask?
29!
Pretty good considering it required 19.
Of course, the point was to wade through your untrieds, and I can guarantee in the time it took to do this challenge I accumulated way more than 29 new ones. Some of the ones I used during this challenge were even ones I got after starting. Yes...the cycle never ends. It's all for science, I swear.
Not only does this post include the challenge, but it also includes TWO reviews for items from Born Pretty Store!
For todays manicure I used these new striper brushes I received for review from BPS. You can find them HERE and they go for an awesome price (for a pack of 3 different sizes) of only $2.29
The brushes come in a plastic sleeve and each one is capped so the bristle bits don't get messed up!
While there are no numbers or identifying marks to tell the brushes apart, they ARE all different in length, circumference of the brush bristles seem to be about the same though.
I'm also reviewing these amazing NEON metal round studs! They come in a pack of 200 for $5.73 and are available in many colors HERE (I'm using Color #3)
And my untrieds for today are:
Gina Tricot - Cream (A gift from Ashley)
Gina Tricot - Candy Pink (A gift from Ashley)
Color Club - Ultra Astral (A gift from Kirsten)
Orly - Jealous, Much? (A gift from Taylor)
Weeee! I'm so in love with this manicure! It is so bright and peppy!
On the square color-blocked nails I did a simple half and half with the Cream and Candy Pink shades. Then I taped off squares and did either Jealous Much or Ultra Astral, and then I outlined in the opposite.
On the accent I did a zig zag, outlined it and accented it with the studs. For all of the lining, I used these brushes and they are AWESOME! I have a full nail art week coming up this week and I used them in every single manicure for it and they work like a charm! I don't even know how I lived without them.
As for the studs...can you say need every color? Yeah, me too.
Here is a coupon code, go get yourself some:
I know there is now a 2nd round of this challenge going around, but make sure and check out all of the ladies I did the first round with:
Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side
Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art
Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish
I have a couple more products to review today - this time from KKCenterHK - the awesome superstore that carries a TON of stuff!
Let's get right to it and I'll walk you through it!
Items In This Post:
OPI Liquid Sand - Honey Ryder
OPI Liquid Sand - Solitaire
KKCenterHK - BLUESEA Bow Tie Nail Art Decorations
KKCenterHK - N. Nail 2.5mm Circle Glitter in Black
Orly - Luxe
Candy Lacquer - Cold Hearted
Here are the polishes I've used in todays manicure.
The BLUESEA Bow Tie Decorations come 2 to a pack and retail for $4 (at time of publishing, this item is currently out of stock on the website but plenty of other cute bows are still available by clicking HERE).
The N. Nail 2.5mm Black Circle glitters come in a HUGE jar - like a lifetimes supply huge. It says 10g, its a ton. It's available HERE and retails for $8.00 - it comes in a ton of other colors also.
Here is a macro of the glitter in the jar. The glitters are kind of stuck together in some places, like they've been cut but not separated - so be sure if you purchase this product to keep that in mind before you get down to business with it - you don't want to grab a big chunk of glitter when you only mean to grab one!
And now we come to the nails! I started this mani with 2 coats of Orly Luxe on all nails except my ring/accent. For my accent I started with 1 coat of Solitaire Liquid Sand by OPI.
Then on my regular fingers I applied a few of the circle glitters haphazardly, followed them with a coat of Candy Lacquer's Cold Hearted white glitter polish and then added a couple more circle glitters. I wanted to give the appearance of the black glitters being a part of the polish.
For my accent - when Solitaire dried I did a gradient using her and Honey Ryder Liquid Sand by OPI to get a cool white to gold texture gradient!
Then I finished the accent nail up by adding the cute bowtie decoration!
I thoroughly loved this manicure and these products! I will never use that entire jar of glitter and the bow ties are reusable as long as I don't lose them when I wear them!
You can get 10% OFF any purchase at KKCenterHK by using my code:
LASTLY - Tell me in the comments - do you prefer this smaller size of photos or my standard bigger ones? They are always clickable to make fullsize/larger, but I wanted to know your thoughts with the top navigation header being stationary now if this made it easier to see the picture in its entirety if I made them smaller....?
**some products in this post were given to me for free in exchange for my honest review**
I've been LOVING the idea of coloring in my stamping designs like an adult coloring book lately.
It's awesome when you can take a standard black or white outline design and color it in to be truly awesome and one of a kind looking, freehand almost! Taking a spin from my Floral Grunge Tutorial, this is another similar technique with the decal part of the tutorial.
Items In This Post:
Konad Special Black Polish
Orly - Hot Shot
Orly - La Vida Loca
Orly - Jealous, Much?
Fingerpaints - Blue Raspberry Taffy
Color Club - The Lime Starts Here
Bundle Monster - BM322 Stamping Plate
How much do I love this mani!? A TON! I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but with challenges and laziness, well, I just now got around to doing it this morning!
The technique is quite simple, though it is time consuming. But now that I have a new workspace setup, I wasn't hunched over on the floor painting and then trying to get back up like a granny afterwards!
Essentially - you top coat a sheet of wax paper making the top coat as big as it takes for as many nails as you want to do this for. Also, an important point, make sure you don't do your designs right up to the edge of the top coat, leave some room to peel it off and have tears.
After the top coat dries, stamp your houndstooth, then fill in the clear places with random neon polishes. When dry, peel off the wax paper and cut to fit your nails.
For this mani, I did two coats of white polish, quick dry top coat and about 10 minutes later I was able to apply a clear polish and apply each decal, one nail at a time.
Cleanup with a brush and acetone and top coated!
I knew at some point I was going to need to work in a St. Patty's Mani alongside the Indie Month challenge I'm doing - so this is the one!
Welcome to the last day of Shimmer Week on Gnarly Gnails!
I've saved MY favorite for last.
I've saved MY favorite for last.
The lovely Cindy of Shimmer was kind enough to send me a bucketfull of her beautiful polishes to review.
Since I had so many to work with I decided to swatch them a bit differently. Each of the 10 polishes I have to show you this week will be done as 50/50 Manicures so you can see the base vs. over the base, to see how well these cover. I will walk through the review picture by picture. Let's get started.
Rochelle:
 |
| I am pairing Rochelle with Orly Solid Gold - pretty much my most favorite gold polish ever on earth. |
 |
| Cindy from Shimmer describes Rochelle as "Red and Gold glitter polish, with a hint of Copper and..." - Oh yeah - some of my favorite colors all rolled into one! This macro shows off it's fiery awesomeness! |
 |
| As you may have come to know - here is the famous 50/50 Shimmercure! You like that? Then you must love this! If you are a fan of hot, passionate polishes, this one is for you! |
 |
| Sorry bout the nubber there, I broke my nail right as I was doing this mani - how typical. Anyway, this is one thick coat of Rochelle over 1 coat of Solid Gold. How opaque and awesome is the coverage on Rochelle?! |
 |
| It smooths out so beautifully, too. Look look! |
 |
| As a sidenote, Orly Solid Gold is a dream polish. It dries matte, is good for stamping and is opaque in one coat. |
 |
| LOOOOOOVE!!!!!! |
Rochelle was a polish I was not expecting to like, let alone LOVE!
I have recently become a huge fan of fiery polishes like this, but this is the first one I've ever tried. How weird of me to like anything red and polish related at the same time...but I DO!
And - I also have a good friend named Rachelle (close) so it's kinda cool for that too. The Shimmer brand is VERY consistent with every single polish you can expect great coverage and an easy peasy application! They do dry gritty, which is why each one I finish off with a coat of Gelous and then a standard Quick Dry top coat. Shimmer can be found on Etsy and they retail for $12 per bottle.
