In Love

Ok this is by far my favorite manicure I have done so far and super simple!  I have been seeing all over pinterest nails with the middle finger painted with glitter then another finger with a design on it so I wanted to try a look out like this for myself!

I did my normal manicure to start this off.  I started with my favorite base coat Essie Protein Base Coat, then followed by a thin layer of Nicole's Selena Gomez line (and why does everyone and their mom's have a nail polish line now?), the shade is of course called Selena (dumb.  but a cute color).  Then I followed this up with a thicker coat of Selena (every time I write Selena I realize how dumb the color name is).

Then on my middle finger I used Essie's A Cut Above (see this color has a cute name and its not by some girl off the disney channel).  I used Stripe Right's White to paint a heart on my ring finger.  With the Stripe Right polishes its super simple to create a heart.  It can be done by basically just making a "V" shape and then filling in the "V" thicker where you need it.  Then I finished this off with my favorite Seche Vite top coat.  Enjoy :)

xoxo Lea

Classic French

So I did a french manicure on my toes a week ago and fell in love but I would never show you guys my toe nails, not a huge fan of feet, so I did it on my finger nails a few days ago.  I used Better Together by Essie, which gives it a more natural/ pink tone so if you prefer a more neutral look you can try other colors.

So I start this off the way I start off all my manicure with my Essie Protein Base Coat, then with a thin layer of Better Together.  Then I used Stripe Right's White to do my tip.  I use this because I really like a really thin tip on my nails.  If you prefer a thicker white tip then band aid strips or tape work really well so that you can have that perfect straight line.  Then I cover this with another thin coat of Better together so that the tip is not stark white and the nail is a little more pink and topped it off with a fairly thick coat of Seche Vite top coat!  Hope you love this classic look as much as I do.

xoxo Lea

Stacked Hearts

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  I had to of course do my nails for valentines day!  I found this on pinterest and just had to try it!

Ok so I first have to say this was incredibly time consuming and did not turn out exactly the way I wanted it to but it's cute when it's all finished.  It took me well over an hour from start to finish because for each color it needs to dry completely or the stickers will rip off the color you just finished obviously.  I'm impatient and my left hand (my first try at this) did not try out that well because I didn't wait long enough before coats.  But I'm going to walk you through the steps!

First start with your base coat, which is extra important when using reds because reds tend to stain your nails, I used my Essie Protein Base Coat.  Then I started with my lightest shade (the picture from pinterest shows starting with the darkest color,  I didn't want to do this because it would make covering the base color harder leading to more coats and a crazy amount of polish).  I did two coats of my lightest shade (Selena by Nicole), my first being the thinnest I could possibly get it and the second be fairly thin as well.  This once again was just so I didn't have a ton of polish on my nails by the time I was done.

Very thin first coat of Selena by Nicole:

Second coat of Selena by Nicole:

Then apply your stickers close to the top of your nails to create your first 'heart' shape:

And apply medium shade, Camera by Essie (do to all nails):

Then apply your stickers the same way but half way down and apply your darkest shade (She's Pampered by Essie) and your top coat, I used Seche Vite:

Happy Valentines Day!

xoxo Lea

Idaho Potato

So all over pinterest I have been seeing these awesome nails that half the nail is diagonally glitter and and other half solid and so of course I wanted to try it!  I did this manicure with Idaho Potato by Urban Outfitters.  For my glitter I used SIDECAR by Urban Decay.

I started out with my typical manicure using Essie's Protein Base Coat, then a thin layer of Idaho Potato, followed by a thicker layer of Idaho Potato.  Let this dry completely before you go onto the next step or you are going to create a mess for yourself!  I used literally the least sticky tape I could find (just regular scott tape) to be sure it wouldn't rip my first color off.  Lay your tape diagonally across your nail making sure it is completely stuck along the line you're going to paint against.

Remove the tape and apply your top coat, I used Seche Vite.  I loved the way this turned out and I hope you do too!

It's easier to see the detail with this filter over the picture from Instagram so I'm adding it!

xoxo Lea

Scuppered

Hey everyone!   So tomorrow I am heading to Vegas for the next 5 days so of course I had to do my nails in something fabulous!  I decided since it was a special occasion I would use a special nail polish, Butter London's Scuppered.  So if you don't have anything by Butter London I don't blame you at my unemployed budget Butter London is definitely not it in any more but I bought this back when I had a job.  It is also not the easiest brand to find, I found mine at Macy's but Ulta sometimes will have this brand and you can find it online of course too.  Butter London goes for about 14$ a bottle but there shades are INCREDIBLE!  Their sparkle shade above anything else are definitely worth the extra cash.

So from the picture it may be a little difficult to tell but this shade is so amazing bc it is a dark gold that is made up of like hundreds of different sparkles but it goes on smooth just like a solid shade.  It also has some green sparkles through out.  Hope you love this color as much as I do :)

xoxo Lea

Better Together

Hey everyone!  So I had an important interview on Friday and so of course my nails had to look great!  I didn't want to draw too much attention away from my work so I went with a simple color but one of my absolute favorites, Better Together by Essie of course.

So I did my standard manicure with my Essie Protein Base Coat, a thin coat of Better Together, followed by a fairly thick coat of Better Together.  This is pretty necessary or you will have to do a third coat to get the color.  I find doing a third coat to not be a very good option only because it makes the polish peel easy.  Then I topped this off with my new favorite top coat Seche Vite!  Seche Vite makes a super shiny finish and makes your manicure last!  Hope you enjoy!

xoxo Lea

Smokin' Hot

Ok so I did this a few days ago but am just getting a chance to share it!  This is one of my favorite colors by essie, a great shade of grey :)  I also am trying out a new top coat that my friend +Beth Adams has told me about before called, Seche Vite.  I actually LOVE this top coat and may be changing my mind on my favorite top coat.  It's much smellier then my Sally Hansen but it goes away once it's dried, it has great shine, and I have had this color on my nails for 3 days now and you can see I don't have any chipping yet!  Over all I'd say I'm in love :)

xoxo Lea

Matte Polka Dots

So I was on Pinterest and came across these adorable polka dotted nails and since I got my dotting tool from Sephora I wanted to try it out!  I also have yet to do a review for you guys on my matte top coat so I thought I'd incorporate that into this look :)

What I found on pinterest:

I used my Essie Protein Base Coat of course, with "Where's my Chauffeur" by Essie on all my nails besides my ring finger, and "Butler Please" by Essie on my ring finger.  Then the opposite color for polka dots on each nails.  Then I used my Orly Matte top coat, which in theory is amazing because it can take any color and make it matte but I think I'm too in love with super shiny nails to love this.  Not only that but this Matte top coat is not very Matte.  I definitely want to try Essie's "Matte About You" and see if this will change my opinion on matte nails.

I plan on trying this again in another color combo as well!

xoxo Lea

French Tart Deco

Ok so today I did a little modified french manicure!  I used Essie "Tart Deco" to do a basic manicure first, Essie protein base coat, a thin coat of "Tart Deco" followed by a thicker layer of "Tart Deco".  Then I used Stripe Rite Gold, this brand of nail polish has a very fine brush to make drawing the thin tip easy.  I just carried the brush across the tip of my nail.  Doing my right hand, since I am right handed was more tricky so I kept the brush still and rotated my nail.  This made it much easier to make a clean straight line!  Then I topped off my modified french manicure with Sally Hansen Mega Shine!  Hope you enjoy!

xoxo Lea

CREEP

Just wanted to give a quick review on Creep from the Urban Decay NAKED pallet!  Love love love the color!  Great black with a tiny bit of sparkle.  I will stay the first coat does not cover well at all.  It requires a pretty thick second coat.  Over all though I love this color.

On another note I'm starting to feel like the bottles in the NAKED pallet will most likely run out and/or get dried up pretty quickly.  After one use they get a little thick and goopey :(

xoxo lea

NAKED & SIDECAR

Ok so I'm Back!  California was great but i completely forgot anything for my nails!  That was awful...  Now I'm back to testing out the Urban Decay NAKED platte!

So I did my normal manicure of an Essie Protein Base Coat, the I did a then coat of Urban Decay's "NAKED" followed by a thicker coat of "NAKED".  I top it off with a little "SIDECAR" as by Urban Decay (both off the NAKED pallet).  Then topped the whole thing off with with Sally Hansen's Mega Shine top coat!

I actually did this two days ago, I have been much busier then I normally am so I am just getting around to writing this!  But the nail polish is beautiful and has lasted three days now without chipping!!  Overall I would say I am just in love with this color combo!  I'll do reviews on both colors separately another day :)

xoxo lea

HUSTLE

So I started off this post wanting to try "SIDECAR" by Urban Decay from their NAKED pallet but i tested it on my thumb and it is completely sheer, the sparkle is beautiful don't get me wrong but the color in the bottle is just so amazing I'm sad it doesn't show...

So Instead I am going to go with "HUSTLE" by Urban Decay from their NAKED pallet, a beautiful rich purple.  I am going to do this as I would any other manicure, Essie Protein Base Coat, a thin coat of "HUSTLE" followed by a thicker coat of "HUSTLE" and finished with my Sally Hansen Mega Shine Top Coat.

 

The color is amazing but I will say if you're someone who doesn't use a top coat you will want to for this , it dries fairly dull but is beautiful with the top coat!  I also tried my tiny paint brush from Sephora. It works ok to clean up nails, nothing amazing.  I'll get back to you with how it works for detail work!

Off to CA in the AM so I'll test out the rest when I can :)

xoxo Lea

NAKED

So after a long search through Mesa's beauty supply stores and still no dotting tool I went online and found one for only 10$ from Sephora that also came with one of those tiny brushes to do clean up and some designs!  Super excited.  But even more exciting is when I was on the Sephora website I stumbled across the Urban Decay (my most favorite brand to get eye shadow from) has a Naked Pallet in nail polish! So of course I had to order that.  The reviews basically said that they were much tinnier than the customer had expected and I will agree with that.  It was also more then I would normally spend but the set does come with 6 polishes and at 26$, so at about 4.30$ a bottle it wasn't actually too bad at all!


On the left is the dotting tool, which is double sided, and the thin paint brush on the right.  They feel like good quality especially for the price so I am excited to try them out!

So as I said before these are smaller bottles and there are six in the set.  Working from left to right the shade colors are: Naked, Sidecar, Toasted, Smog, Hustle, and Creep.  I will say the colors are seriously amazing!  So excited about these!

I'm going to do a review of one of these colors tonight!  The rest will be to come!   I'll be in CA for the next 8 days so posts won't be as frequent or maybe not at all?  Talk to you soon :)

xoxo Lea