Waking Up In Vegas

  For Christmas, my sister Christy totally spoiled me.. again.  Some of you may remember that she bought me an early Christmas present of six amazing Deborah Lippmann shades (I have worn 4 of the six and can't wait to try the other two).  However on Christmas Day she got me even more Lippmann!  An awesome set with two colors, base and top coat, polish remover called their "Get Nailed" set, as well as the polish featured here!

Outdoors, shade, no flash

  I went all out Lippmann with these nails - I started with their ridge filling base coat, which I really liked a lot!  I then added two coats of Waking Up In Vegas, which is a "greige" (as I have seen it called, gray/beige), or a kind of taupe creme.  When I first saw this one I wasn't sure if I would like it on me - these neutrals really have to look right with your skin tone!  But I loved it.  Absolutely loved pretty much everthing about the polish, actually.  I really think this is a fabulous color, very trendy and wearable for professional situations.  The application was fairly flawless and was almost a one coater, totally smooth and this held up really with with basically no chipping!  I then added a design with Konad plate m60 for the design in Konad Special White.  I topped it all off with a coat of Deborah Lippmann Addicted To Speed, which is a really nice top coat - just as speedy and glossy as Seche Vite but I felt like there was less tip shrinkage.  Maybe I have a new favorite top coat?

Outdoors, shade - not color accurate

  I wanted to include a picture of the polish alone, to show how perfect and smooth it was!  Unfortunately, I was still figuring out how to use my new digital camera I got for Christmas, so the color balance was a little off because I had it on the wrong setting.  Oops.  The color is much more accurate in the first shot.  I finally think I have gotten the hang of the new camera now and hope it will make some of the pictures on my blog even better!

Blogger Award!

  I recently was awarded my first blogger award!  I was tagged for the Stylish Blogged Award by JUST SOME NAILS BY MJ - Thank you so much! :)

  Here are the rules for this award:

  1.  Thank and link the person who gave you this award.

  2.  Share 7 things about yourself.

  3.  Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers

  4.  Contact these bloggers to tell them about this award!

  So.. here are my seven things.  Some of these might be new bits of info, some might not be.  :)

  -  When I was younger, not only did I bite my nails until they bled, I also hated the feel of nail polish on them, because I felt like the couldn't breathe!

  -  I also used to bite my toenails.  Yuck, I know.  ;P

  -  I have five pets: two Bengal cats Leo and Luna, two gerbils Navi and Ciela, and Silv the snake, who I rescued from my backyard when he was this close to death.  He still refuses to eat so I have to tube feed him.  It is weird.

  -  I can't stand having a 'gap' on my nails in between my cuticles.  I have tried it a few times and it drives me nuts, I pick at the polish, and if I pick it off I am tempted to bite.  This is why I would rather have slightly messy cuticles than a nice little gap.

  -  I do not wear makeup.  At all.  Occasionally I will put a little bit of.. something that I don't really know what it is called under my eyes if they are exceptionally dark, and if I really feel fancy I might put on a light cream eyeshadow and some lip gloss.  But mostly I wear nothing.  And I really don't think I look that bad with nothing either.  Although I did wear makeup for my wedding two years ago.

  - I am also insanely freckly.  In the summer my face kind of starts to look like a giant freckle.  You can see this in the picture that is my profile picture here, because it was taken at the end of our beach vacation.  I like my freckles.

  -  I oscillate between being an excercise freak and not caring at all.  I will spend maybe 3 months working out every day (or at least 6/7 days a week), and then just totally go back to doing nothing for another few months.  I have been doing nothing for quite awhile now.  It is time to get back into exercise freak mode!  I am actually wearing my cute little workout tank under my sweatshirt right now to convince myself to go tonight.  :)

  Okay, now on to the 15 people I am tagging!  This was hard, because I really tried to look for somewhat more recently discovered bloggers, although some are not super recently discovered.  And some aren't really new bloggers in general, but they are new to me.  There are a lot of amazing bloggers out there though, so if your blog isn't on this list don't feel too bad, it was insanely hard to pick.

1.  ART: MY WAY!

2.  SHORT AND SWEET NAILS

3.  THE COLLEGE STUDENT'S NAIL GUIDE

4.  THE POLISHED PERFECTIONIST

5.  NEVER ENDING OBSESSION

6.  PRETTY IN DAYTON

7.  STARVING NAIL ADDICT

8.  MIRANNIE'S NAILS

9.  NAIL POLISH ADDICTION ANONYMOUS

10.  HELI'S BEAUTIES

11.  JESSICA V. POLISH

12.  KATRINA'S NAIL BLOG

13.  COLORES DE CAROL

14.  GILDED NAILS

15.  BEAUTY BY KAYLA SHEVONNE

  You all have amazing blogs - I can't wait to read your fun facts! :)

Cinnamon Spice (Or is it...?)

  I think this is the last pre-Christmas mani I have left to share with you all!  This is a manicure I did using a mysterious Nubar polish (my first Nubar) as well as bundle monster plates.

Outdoors, shade

  For these nails, I started off with three coats of... mysterious Nubar.  Why mysterious?  Well, this polish is labeled as Nubar Cinnamon, however after running a google image search on Nubar Cinnamon I have decided that this most certainly is not it.  If I am incorrect please let me know, but this is what my own sleuthing has told me.  If you think you know this polish, also please let me know, I would love to know its true name!  No matter what the name, I really like this polish; a gorgeous rosey pink with a bit of shimmer to it.  Great application; I was really pleased with my first Nubar experience!

Full Sun

For the design, I used Bundle Monster plate BM20 with Essie Little Brown Dress to add the bass pattern, and BM04 with Konad Special White to add the detail to the ring finger.  I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.  If anyone knows the mysterious polish name, let me know! :)

Some Enchanted Berries...

  This is another manicure I wore before Christmas, using one of my fabulous Deborah Lippmann polishes!

Indoors, artificial light, no flash

  For these nails I started off with two coats of OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries, one of my favorite pinks.  It is a bright berry creme, with really nice application.  On top of this, I added two coats of Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening, which contains both large hex and small pink glitters.  It is a much more dispersed glitter, which I think would be very hard to achieve opacity with.  However it works great as a topcoat!  These were very fun (and very pink) nails - I am loving all of these chunky glitters!  I have now worn all of the polishes in All That Jazz trio by Lippmann and they were all great - definitely worth getting if you haven't yet!

Artificial light

Sparkle-icious!

  Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and are getting ready for a wonderful New Year!  Sorry I have been a little absent lately, but we have out of town guests (including my adorable niece!!) and I have just been super busy spending time with family!  But don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you all! :)

Outdoors, shade

  I wanted to share with you a manicure I wore before Christmas, OPI Sparkle-icious.  This is an amazing glitter, it looks like Mardi Gras on your nails!  One of the super chunky glitters from the Burlesque collection, this is full of equal parts blue, magenta and gold glitter.  It is bling-tastic, haha.  This was four coats - I think it was fairly decent in three, but it seems like lately I have always been erring on the side of one extra coat.... so four it was!  Application was great, for a glitter - just make sure you give it a bit of time to dry in between coats, which honestly isn't that hard since it dries pretty quick.  Removal is a pain as always for these chunky glitters, so be prepared to bust out some foil!

Outdoors, full sun

  While it was hard to capture a picture of just how sparkly this one is, the picture above does it a little bit of justice.  Definitely a keeper.  I love this collection!

  Only 10 more followers until I hit 300!  I have started coming up with some great ideas for the prizes of the 300 follower giveaway, so be sure to stay tuned for that.. :)