Alphabet of Polish – G

Alright girlies! I know the posts have been sporadic and for that I apologize. I know it’s not an excuse but this schedule is killing me. Working overnights is hard. Real hard. I have been at least trying to make a post a week and I am definitely keeping up with y’all!! I love all the new posts, colors, and products I’m seeing!

So, I promised I would give you a view of my new hair color that my daughter picked out! I’m in love with it!!!

Arabella did my hair for work yesterday. I was totally stylin’ with that flower! Everyone at work loved it!!

Now on to my “G” polishes. The first one I did, I created around using Julep’s Ginger holographic sand polish that came in a recent Maven Box that was surrounding celebrity women. I fell in love with it and couldn’t wait to use it!! I paired it with a navy called Game On from Victoria’s Secret’s previous polish collection, the ones in the round bottle not the new rectangle ones.

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I’m so in love with Ginger!! It is such a nice subtle holo!!! Can’t wait to wear it again!!

The second mani I did was slightly lame… It was close to St. Patrick’s day and I had forgotten that I could use color names and not just polish names for my alphabet!!! I decided on Grey and Green. I used Essence’s Grey-t to be Here and Sinful Colors Call Me Later, I got this one in our Secret Santa at work!

I was totally meh on this. I started with plain grey and Ashtree said it was too boring so I added little swirlies to them! It was fun, I guess.

I’ve got something exciting up my sleeve for “H”!!!! I mean like real exciting!!! You’ll have to come back to see!!!! (Is that a cliffhanger or what?!)

-Coral

Alphabet of Polish – “F”

I’m not sure how many of you have been keeping up or counting down like I have been but Ashtree has been MIA because she is moving… BACK HOME!!!! Well, she is actually home for a month and then will be moving to her new home. Her new home is only going to be a couple hours away instead of thousands of miles!!!! I can NOT explain my excitement!!!

On to the good stuff. I know I’ve been slacking but work is kicking my butt. I’ve still managed to keep my nails done and up with my alphabet but posting has been a little more difficult.

I was really excited about my first “F” mani. I was finally going to be able to use Frida by Zoya!!! I had gotten this during the 3 free polishes sale Zoya did awhile back. Logically, I used Frida to do a jelly sandwich, which I always get tons of compliments on. I paired it with FeiFei by Zoya. I’m not a fan of the combination but I didn’t want to redo it. So here it is

While I REALLY loved the jelly sandwich I feel like I probably should have paired it with something that matched a little better and probably something a little more plain so they didn’t compete with each other so much.

For my second “F” mani I made a trip to Meijer. For some crazy reason Meijer has really stepped up their polish game. On a recent trip I found out that they have started carrying Color Club and had a ton of holos! Be on the look out for the one I picked up in my “H” mani. Sorry, got off subject there for a minute. I got Studio M in Foil Me Once and Sinful Colors in Fig. I feel extremely weird picking out nail polish simply based on their first letter. I’m such a weird-o.

Alphabet of Polish – E

I can not even begin to tell you how very excited I was to get to letter “E” so that I could try Evangeline that came in my Cupid Mystery Box from Julep. I had heard originally that Evangeline was the mystery Holo that was claimed to be included in some of the boxes but then I read, somewhere on the Interwebs I unfortunately can’t remember where, that the poster had contacted Julep and was told it was a misprint that there wasn’t actually a mystery Holo going out.

So… I’ll give my take on it. I think this was what they were portraying as a holo and got horrible feedback that it wasn’t very holo and had to cover their hind ends.

Evangeline gives a slight holo appearance in the right light. It is nowhere near what most other holos are. However, it is still absolutely gorgeous. I mean I LOVE it. I even felt like my nails were glowing when I was wearing it. I got tons of compliments on it. I can not wait to wear this again!’

Now for the good stuff!

Please ignore my polish-free ring finger… For some weird reason there was a hole in my polish so I took it off and redid it quickly. This polish dries so quickly that it was no problem to redo it to be completely happy with this mani.

You can kind of see the holo in these 2 pictures. It’s pretty just not over the top holo.

I am in love with this color. I really can’t wait to use it again for a good solid easy mani.

I got Ulta’s new ad… They had their Ulta brand items on sale, buy 2 get 2 free. Eek! I was so excited. A chance to get new polish. Sold. I made a trip. I mean, I had no ideas for my second “E” mani and I didn’t have any pastel polishes to make what would appear to be eggs. So the mission was on. I probably looked like a little weird-o looking at all the polish names trying to find one that started with the letter “E”. I found some though. Before I get to the mani I want to show you the underlying reason I went. On the front of the Ulta catalogue was OPI’s new Euro Collection. I fell in love with one of them. I am lucky to have gotten it because there were only a couple left when I went in. I’ll show you that one first.

Polka.com!!! I can not wait to use this either!!! O my!! I love it!!!

I also found OPI’s Designer Series in Extravaganza. The swatches I’ve seen online are gorgeous. I can’t wait to use this one either. I just had a slightly more exciting mani planned. But here’s Extravaganza in all it’s glory, well all the glory my little iPhone camera could catch.

This is exciting also. Hopefully I’ll find a way to wiggle this into a different letter of the alphabet. If not, it’ll be one of the first ones I use after I’m done.

So now that you’re bored to death… Behold my 2nd “E” mani. I love it!!!

I started with Ulta’s Eye Popping Poppy and tipped it with Ulta’s Envy. Super cute but my brain started churning…

Eep!! So excited! I had seen this strawberry mani this past summer and hasn’t gotten around to doing it. It SO put me in the Spring mood. So fun!

Now, a couple of announcements… I got myself a new camera… A Nikon D5100… I’ve had a dSLR before and was in love. I can’t wait to start taking pictures again. Of course, I will be testing out taking photos of my mani’s so you’ll have to bear with me while I test things out. Second, as much as my last “E” mani put me in the Spring mood, in Ohio it’s Sprinter… It should be Spring but we have 7+ inches of snow on the ground. I work until 5AM and seriously felt like I would end up a victim of the White Plague this morning. Needless to say I made it home, even if it took an hour and 15 minutes more than normal.

I hope that you are all enjoying your week! Hopefully, on Saturday you’ll see the “F” post from me… I’ve got a lot going on at work but this is still a priority.

-Coral

Alphabet of Polish – D

Time for my “D” polishes!!! Woo!!! I did really like both of these manis. I got a ton of compliments on the second one I’ll show you. Before I overload you with pictures I want to let you know that this “Alphabet of Polishes” has really been fun and frustrating. What in the world am I going to do for letters like “K” or “X”. O boy…

On to my first “D” mani… I used Julep’s Donna and Pure Ice’s Draped. Draped is one of Pure Ice’s matte finish polishes they had out around the holiday. I love it!! I left it with a matte finish for this mani.

I really like Donna. It’s a n interesting blue color I got during Julep’s sale that supported Human Trafficking.

I had some serious bad luck with my car while I had this mani on. Now I’m not saying it’s the polish but… If the shoe fits. Haha! Anyway, I got a flat tire on the highway, my second one this month! Stupid low-profile tires. They’re killing me. I had to sit on the side of the highway waiting for my Mom to come pick me up and for the tow truck. My Mom finally got there, I called the tow guy and we were on our way. I had to get something out of my Mom’s trunk for her on my way to her car and this happened…

Not only is this ugly but it hurt!! It hurt bad!! Ugh! Had to cut all my nails down so they would match. The tips of my fingers were so sore and my fingers look so fat with short nails!

For my second “D” mani I did dots. Of course. I used Zoya’s Ginessa as my base coat. This is a really shimmery white color. I wasn’t sure what in the world possessed me to get this color but I actually really liked it. It really made my dots pop! For those dots I used Julep’s Bethany, which is a gorgeously bright orangish pink. I love it as well. I can feel a lot of use in summer coming with this color! I got tons of compliments on this mani. For some reason no one believed I did the dots myself.

Sorry for the messing pictures. Sometimes I forget to retake my pictures after I’ve bombarded Ashtree with my art! 🙂

“E” was difficult. I had Evangeline from Julep’s mystery Cupid box I recently got and was excited to use it. The second “E” mani was much more difficult. But I made it easier with a trip to Ulta! Yay! Look for my “E”‘s in the next couple of days!!

-Coral

Alphabet of Polishes – C

I was sooo excited to get to the letter “C” because I had just recently gotten Claudette in my Julep Maven box and I really wanted to try it out!! Not to mention it is a reddish color and Valentine’s Day was coming up.

I have 2 different “C” mani’s to show you. The first one is with Julep’s Claudette and 2 of Julep’s loose glitters, red and silver. The red glitter was really pretty until I topcoated it and then it got a little weird.

The red glitter looks almost clumpy, like it soaked up ALL my top coat. Note to self, fully think out mani’s so that I don’t end up with red polish showing under my silver glitter. POLISH FAUX PAS!!!! I got tons of compliments on this mani and I am in love with Claudette!

The second mani I have is with Julep’s Courtney and Essence’s Chic Reloaded and OPI’s Nothin’ Mousie Bout It. I put Courtney on my thumb, middle, ring, and pink finger; it’s a perfect green for spring and really put me in the mood for warmer weather (ask Ashtree, that’s incredibly hard to do!!). I then put Chic Reloaded on my pointer, only one coat, and layered 3 layers of Nothin’ Mousie Bout It over it. I wore this for Valentine’s Day, I loved that it wasn’t your traditional red, pink, or white.

I don’t have much to say about this except I’m going to use the crap out of that green! I love it!!!

I am testing out HK Girl top coat from Glisten & Glow. I can’t wait to let you all know how it works out. I know Danette from No Bottle Left Behind loves it! Look for that “review” with my letter “E” manis.

So as you can see above, I’ve already moved on to “E” with my letters. The Internet has been giving me fits so expect another alphabet post in the next day or two showcasing the letter “D”. I sounded like Sesame Street!! This post has been brought to you by the letter “C”.

-Coral

I fibbed… Another “B” polish

My last post told you all I was moving on to “C” for my alphabet mani’s, however, an awesome girl at my work got me one of Victoria’s Secret’s new polishes!!! It just so happened the name started with a “B”, the letter I just so happened to be wearing at the time. I HAD to try it out.

I started with Julep’s Helen for my basecoat. This color is HORRIBLE on my skin. Definitely gave me dead hands. I’ll use it for basecoats only!

I just got this polish in my last Julep Maven box. I was really interested in Claudette that came with it and my instinct about this looking gross on me was right. Eek.

I then added Victoria’s Secret Backstage over top. My fingers were glowing!! I LOVED this! It was so gorgeous!! I tried Victoria’s Secret top/base coat as a basecoat with this polish and unfortunately big pieces of polish ended up pulling up in a couple of days. I’ll definitely be using this glitter again!

I apologize for the messy pictures, I totally forgot to get pictures of this cleaned up. I wanted to get it in the sunlight but have been working like crazy and totally forgot. Hopefully the polish gods forgive me.

I have my “C” colors ready to go but I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much Coral so I’ll let this beautiful glitter mani set in before I post my “C” polishes!!!

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!!

-Coral

First Attempt At Stamping

I’m officially addicted. I will be stamping like crazy in the upcoming weeks but this is my first ever attempt.  I think it turned out really well.  🙂

❤ Ashtree ❤

Super Bowl Water Mani

It is Super Sunday!

This was my first attempt ever at a water mani.  I used the “spray” “torn” or “hole” method, whatever you want to call it.

I used room temperature distilled water, dropped 3-5 drops of the color in, and then sprayed it with nail polish remover, dipped (slowly at a bit of an angle) my taped finger in.  Used the end of a paintbrush to collect the extra color then slowly pulled my nail out. As you can see, the gold on red didn’t work quite as well.  The gold didn’t really do what I wanted in the water, but I stuck with it because.. well I’m lazy lol.

I chose the colors to match the teams playing in today’s Super Bowl, I have zero attachment to either team so I went with both 🙂

❤ Ashtree ❤

Alphabet of Polish – “B” is for ball and Baltimore

I hate to start this post off negatively but I’m going to have to. I am so disappointed in Julep’s new Freedom topcoat. I was so excited to try it with all it’s build up however I was left feeling extremely disappointed.

I did my nails on Wednesday evening. Thursday early afternoon I had to take my daughter to the doctor while there I looked down and saw that 3 of my nails had chips on them. Then I reached into my back pocket and a big chunk of polish lifted off my ring finger.

So, I came home and did some patch work. Fixed the chips the best I could and did another 2 layers of topcoat in hopes that this would protect my mani until the Super Bowl.

Here’s the mani:

This is my 49ers hand. I used Essie’s Good as Gold for my base and then added Julep’s Petra on top to do my Saran Wrap technique.

This is my Ravens hand. I used China Glaze’s White on White for my base and I put Sinful Colors Let’s Talk on top to do my Saran Wrap Technique.

Now obviously this is before cleanup, so for that I apologize. I did have some issues with taking my base layer off as well. This has been a rather frustrating mani. On my middle finger accent I used Revlon’s Hot for Chocolate and China Glaze’s White on White for my football laces.

Here it is all cleaned up.

As you can see in my Ravens hand, my thumb now has a big chip and the Freedom topcoat has caused enough shrinkage to lift my polish. I just can’t believe how disappointing this topcoat is

Unfortunately because of the issues I have with this mani I’m going to have to change it before the Super Bowl even comes on.

My quest continues for my perfect topcoat. Coming up next… “C”… What to do, what to do?

-Coral

Alphabet of Polish – “A” is for Armed and Ready and Annie

So, I’ve been lacking nail ideas lately. I decided I would go through the alphabet with my nail polishes, using either the name of the polish or the actual color. Today I have 2 “A” polishes for you.

The first “A” polish I have is Essie’s Armed and Ready. This is a gorgeous color in the bottle, an olive green with gold shimmer. So cute. However, it didn’t translate to the nail as pretty.

While I liked Armed and Ready I wanted to at least get 1 good blue mani in before the end of January. I supported Julep during their January Blues for Human Trafficking Awareness but I wanted my nails to support it too. So I used Annie from Julep and Essie’s Good as Gold for the accent feather.

I absolutely love Annie and I got tons of compliments on it. However, I am coming to realize how horrible I am at doing ANYTHING with my left hand. The difference is pretty disgusting. I guess I need to find some left hand training exercises so that it can be a little smarter! Haha!

Before Sunday I will be posting my “B” nails, they of course work out for the Super Bowl! I tried Julep’s new Freedom TopCoat. I was sooo excited for it. However, I painted my nails last night and today had 3 nails that has chipped. I found a way to touch them up and am trying the topcoat again, I hope it works…

-Coral