These are similar to the Halloween nails I did with Birefringence a few days ago. This time I used 2 coats of I Love Nail Polish Cygnus Loop. 1 coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. I placed a few stars & moons from Revlon Celestial FX. Then I stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep and used Winstonia Store plate W116. I finished everything with 1 coat of Seche Vite topcoat.

I did some early Halloween nails today with I Love Nail Polish, Ultra Chrome: Birefringence & China Glaze Fairy Dust. I stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep and used Winstonia Store plates W116 & W102. I finished with a topcoat of Seche Vite. I absolutely love how these turned out! Birefringence changes so many colors at different angles, and the China Glaze Fairy Dust gives it sparkle.

I was excited to try out my other Messy Mansion stamping plate, MM06. I tried the damask pattern this time. It's a little tricky to center on the nail, but I still think they turned out pretty.

I used China Glaze Flying Dragon for my base. I got a mini bottle on eBay. I'm glad I did get a mini and not a full size, because it takes longer than usual to dry, even with Seche Vite fast dry topcoat. I did 3 thin coats.

I've never had a problem with China Glaze's formula before... but this one was tricky to work with. It's a royal purple color with blue & pink micro glitter. It dries gritty & matte, so you need a topcoat to make it shiny. I stamped with Maybelline Color Show Metallic's in Bold Gold.






Disclosure: The products above were purchased with my own money. I was not asked to blog about them.

P.S. I also did a little video showing how I paint my nails. Mostly because I get asked a lot how do I keep my nails so neat when painting. It's not really a tutorial, it was mainly to show people after painting my nails for 3 years straight every 1-2 weeks, I've developed a steady hand- so it is rare that I ever have to do more than swipe of a q-tip if I do get paint on my skin.

Now.... the only exception to that is doing a gradient or stamping... those are messy and you will get paint on your skin, I do! I don't have a tripod, so I balanced my camera on a book, lol. There's no sound... but you get the idea!

After posting about some of the Zoya summer Pixie Dusts, I went and also ordered Destiny. A pretty orange coral.

I found some of the new L.A. Girl 3d Effect polish on eBay! I still have to swatch them and I'm planning on doing a gradient with them!
My first Konad mani! I just stamped over my Esscense polish to test it out, so there was some tip wear, etc. My new shorter stamper is a lot easier to handle than the longer one I was using before.
I also found a nice large plastic container to store all.... 104 of my nail polishes in. I organized the polish by brand in little plastic baggies.

My 2nd Lush Cosmetics order finally arrived. (My 1st Lush experience). I had to get more of that citrus soap that smells like lemon drops (Sexy Peel). I also got facial soap (Fresh Farmacy) & a herbal deodorant (The Greeench). They also sent me a sample of demon in the dark soap. It smells like mint, it's yummy!



Let's talk deodorant. Before my job relocated to Center City in early 2010, I used to drive to work. It took 10-15 minutes. Now I have to commute on the train for 45min to 1 hour. Not to mention all the walking and anxiety of commuting. And the air not working sometimes on the train when it's hot out! I started having embarrassing issues with deodorant failing... I never had this problem before when I just used to drive to work! Arrgh!

Below you can see just how many different deoderants I've tried....


The Crystal worked for a little while. Then I guess I became immune to it. Tom's... doesn't last all day. Regular Dove and Degree same thing. I was using clinical protection Mitchum and that worked. I just switched over to Dove clinical protection when I ran out of Mitchum. That's been working pretty well, but it's expensive and I don't like the scent too much. That's why I decided to give the Lush deodorant a try. I'll update this post after I've worn it a week and let you know how it holds up!

Edited 5-10-13: The Lush deodorant held up pretty okay. It kept away odor, but it was not so good at being an anti-antiperspirant. Still, it is something I would continue to use. I want to try their T'eo bar.

And.... nail mail! Purple is my favorite color. It was even included in our wedding & reception. So you would think I would have more purple nail polishes, but I really don't. I have more blue and aqua nail polish. I ordered these two pretty polishes on eBay!

My not so creative Christmas and New Year's nails. I had wanted to do red/white candy cane stripes on my ring fingers, but it turned out looking more like a bloody mummy...so yeah... I just went with something simple, lol!

These aren't new polishes. The Sally Hansen Celeb City I've owned since 2010. And my ring finger has China Glaze Make A Spectacle layered over the silver.


One of my new favorite polish brands is Zoya! I first bought three of their 2012 Holiday collection. Blaze, Aurora & Storm a few months ago. And then with the $20 Amazon giftcard I earned from Valued Opinions, I bought two more polishes.


Just a quick bit of info about Valued Opinions. I like it better than Swagbucks because you earn money faster. You do online surveys, some you may qualify for and some you may not. I joined for free in September 2012 and I earned my $20 by December 2012, so not bad at all! Even better when I claimed my $20 giftcard from Amazon, the code was sent to me instantly through email! So I got to buy my nail polish on Amazon that same night. (You can also get a Visa card, or Macy's, Itunes Giftcards, etc.)

And Zoya Roxy. Zoya Roxy didn't want to photograph correctly. But it's a magenta jelly polish with silver sparkles in it.



Disclosure: Valued Opinions did not ask me to write this blog. I wrote it because I enjoy doing the surveys & earning giftcards. The two polishes below were purchased with my $20 reward from Valued Opinions. The rest were purchased with my own money.