New 31DC: Cheer Yourself Up

Today is my 100th post! It's also a really hard choice for me. I really don't have a go-to polish, color, or look to brighten my day. It really depends on my mood--I love a good bright pink, but also a good shimmery dark polish. I love a clean, smooth finish and tons of glitter. I love seasonal looks as well as old faves. This is hard because I really don't have one sinlge favorite--most any polish can brighten my day.
So, with too many options, I went with a look that I like but have yet to photograph and post.

*1 coat Yello-Out
*2 coats China Glaze Life's A Beach
*2 coats Nubar Black Polka Dots
*1 coat Out The Door

I love a good pink with black glitter!  I'm a little obsessed with black glitter in general and am out to find the perfect one.  Currently, I have Black Polka Dots to use.  This is a clear base with micro square glitters and larger hexes.  The bigger glitter are harder to place evenly, so I kind of swirl the brush in the bottle before applying it.  This is a pretty sparse glitter, in general, which is good for showcasing the base.  It does try the obsessive perfectionist in me, though, to have the nails be unbalanced in glitter, but I just can't resist it!

 

Love's A Beach is yet another awesome newbie from my wonderful momma.  It applied perfectly in 2 coats.  As a neon, it has a semi-matte finish to it, which is really not my favorite, but glitter and/or a top coat fix that right up!  I'd call this a neon Barbie pink, a medim pink that leans warm (the first 3 pictures are truer to color than the last).  It is also packed with a hidden shimmer, not a true cream finish.  It's a really pretty polish and I'm excited to see it out in the sun!

 

 

 Do you have a go-to look when you need a smile?  Have you found the perfect black glitter?  Do tell!

3DC: Inspired by a Color

3 weeks in!  I really did not think that I would make it this far into the challenge because it's pretty demanding, so I'm pretty proud of myself.  Today kicks off the final third: inspirations.
Inspired by a color is a little bit unfair because I have already posted color inspiration manis here, here, and here for Go Pink Wednesdays, and I'll have a couple more coming.  But, a challenge is a challenge, so I went ahead and tried another one.
I bought MaxFactor's Fantasy Fire on a blog sale a while back.  I know that this is super sought after and have been hesitant to use it because it's so small!  I decided to kind of let this be my color inspiration today.

The red/purple combo with the dark blue base is really pretty.  I have quite a bit of nail art coming up this week, so I really just wanted to do something simple and easy, and there's not much that's easier than layering glitter!  You can see the sparkle of Fantasy Fire in this next photo:

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
*2 coats Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Co-bolt Blue
*1 coat MaxFactor Fantasy Fire (ring finger)
*1 coat Finger Paints (thumb and middle)
*1 coat Nubar 2010 (index and pinkie)

 

 

I used 1 coat of Fantasy Fire over the navy Co-bolt Blue.  It's hard to really see in these photos, but in real life the pretty purple-red shimmer is very strong.  I hate that this is so expensive and hard to come by because I'd love to use more layers of it, but that bottle is so tiny!

 

I wanted to play with the red-blue color combo, so I used red-shifting flakies over the top of the navy.  I decided to use both Nubar 2010 and Finger Paints Flashy to compare them.  They both have red flakes of glitter that lay flat and are really easy to apply.

 

 

The flakes in Flashy are consistently a bit bigger than 2010, but the two are really close to each other.  I didn't think they'd be so similar when I used them because the bases appear so different, but it's really pretty hard to tell them apart on the nail.

Do you own any of these pretties?  How do you pair your flakies?  Any cool combos I should try?  What about Fantasy Fire?  Do you have it?  How do you use this tough to find jewel?

Loss

I was about to write about my own personal little loss, and it sounds so lame considering that today is the 11th anniversary of the attacks on our country.  Today was an odd one.  Last year was so monumental, so salient with all of the memorials and reflection.  Everything came flooding back from that morning, those days, the before and the after.  It was all we saw and talked about, a big shadow that loomed and left the day heavy. 
Perhaps it is because I worked today.  Perhaps it is because the tenth anniversary is behind us and it left some relief in its wake.  Perhaps it is simply too far away to touch me today.  Whatever happened, every time I wrote the date it jarred me.  It was a little reminder that my world will never be the same, never be as safe.  It was also an oddly normal day.  There was no fanfare in my world, no quite and sorrow.  It was every other day.  It was weird. 

Last weekend I got a new car.  I had to say goodbye to my before, to the car that I learned to drive in.  After 12 years, I had to let go of so much as I handed over the keys.  My new car is reliable and wonderful, but it was bittersweet.  I took pictures to remember it by, every little detail: my steering wheel, worn where I hold it, my license plate, my high school parking permit that will never come out.  Then I lost my camera.
Luckily I have been blogging and uploading pictures weekly, so that is really all that was lost.  Nevertheless, it was really sad for me to lose the memory of my car.  It was something to hold onto, something to look back on, and it disappeared.
All of this is to say that I won't have pictures for a while.  I will still keep up a (pretty boring) blog, but it will be a while until I can afford a new little camera.  But I do want to remember colors and combos I like, so I'll be keeping my log here.  It will just be much less colorful.

I wanted something bright and easy this week, so I dove into my new BOGO Zoyas that just came.  I went with Starla.  This bright (almost neon) pink has a subtle micro shimmer that dances in the sun.  It was much thinner than I expected, so I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  I used three coats of Starla and then added two coats of Nubar Black Polka Dots over the top.  I love black glitter!  To set off the pink, I used two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out on its own on my ring fingers as an accent.  Then, to amp up the shine, I used a thick coat of Hoof Lacquer.
I am really enjoying the bright shimmer/glitter with a dark cream accent.  I have some extra days off this week, so I think that I will need to play with some new additions to my collection (hello Butter London BOGO!) but I really like this one right now!

TRUly lovely

It's been a long, tough week. I'm happy for a couple of days of rest and wanted to give my nails some well-deserved loving. I took off my UPS mani, filed down my little brokens, and even put on a base coat. And then I slept.
I wanted to put up a new, current manicure, but instead will show one I did while my mom was in town last month that I did not post. I was inspired by this lovely combo that was posted over at Nail Loopy. It's one that makes so much sense, as soon as I saw it. Also, I adore her blog, so I'm excited to try my hand at what she does!

<Insert photo here, if blogger weren't being obnoxious!  Ugh!>

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
*2 coats Zoya Tru
*1 coat Nubar 2010 on accent finger
*1 coat Out the Door

Blogger is killing me right now.  Totally.  But, I really wanted to give some credit for a great mani that I adored, and I don't know when it will let me get my pictures up, so this is it.
Tru is such a pretty, dusty purple shade.  It translated much darker on my nail than I thought it would, but I got over that.  The shimmer is absolutely gorgeous in it.  It is such a strong pink/red shimmer in the sun that it's hard not to just stare at my hands! 
Instead of Chole, which is on my wish list, I used Nubar 2010 as my accent because of the strong red shift in it.  This was the PERFECT color compliment to the shimmer in Tru.  It looks like it is made to pair with it.  It is great coverage in one coat, but sparse enough to let the color and shimmer of Tru show through.  I really was sad to see this combo go. 
Sorry that there is no visual for this one, but I guess you really aren't missing too much.  Head over to Nail Loopy to get the idea and fall in love with this combo!