Friday, September 28, 2012

Smooth Sailing

Good evening! Sorry for the few days of no posts...my daughter got crazy sick, and I haven't been sleeping. Her oxygen levels got pretty low, so I had to literally stay awake all night to make sure she was still breathing. Scary stuff. But she is better, and things are all right! :D

I have a beautiful manicure to share with you all. Unfortunately, I had some tip wear and chipping by the time I got around to taking photos, but I still think it is beautiful.

On to the manicure!

Here's what I did:
1 coat Nail Magic
1 coat Gelous
2 coats Essie Smooth Sailing
I used BM-316 and Essie No Place Like Chrome for the stamping
1 coat Seche Vite





Hope you all enjoy!

Until next time...

Christina

Friday, September 14, 2012

Autism Awareness

This manicure has a special meaning for me. My youngest daughter is being tested for autism. She sees therapists, speech therapists, has been poked and prodded, and we still aren't sure what exactly is wrong with her. We are doing one of the many autism tests next week, so hopefully it'll shed some light on why she has developmental delays. I have always been a huge supporter for autism awareness. I bought the Scentsy warmer as soon as they came out and expressed that they would be donating to Autism Speaks. I also have donated about $100 to Autism Speaks with my jewelry company. And now that I have a daughter who might be autistic, the efforts I have put towards the awareness of autism mean so much more.

On a side note, and I know some of my IG followers have already heard a version of this, but it needs to be said. I am so incredibly proud of my daughter. I am SO proud to be her mommy. She works so hard, and she is trying SO hard to communicate. We have extremely rough days, and I go out of my mind trying to figure out new ways to keep her from harming herself and others during her "melt downs", but it is all 100% worth it. Every time she smiles at me, and actually looks me in the eyes...I know it is all worth it in that split second, because no matter what people think about developmental delays, I KNOW my daughter is loving, creative, caring, and SO incredibly smart. I couldn't have asked for a better little girl. And God has truly blessed me. I have the patience to help her, and thank the Lord, the resources to get her the best care I can possibly get. I worked with a Special Education class in middle school, and enjoyed every second of it. I gave up my summer in 7th and 8th grade so I could help these kids, who were my age, learn and grow. Even when I was 12 years old, I knew God had a plan for me, and I knew it had to do with what I was doing. I can't express how lucky I was to be able to work with and become friends with these incredible people. And now I can use what I learned so many years ago to help my baby girl.

Here's what I did:
1 coat Nail Magic
1 coat Gelous
1 coat NYC French White Tip
I used Wet N Wild's I Red A Good Book, Revlon Coastal Surf, L'oreal Jet Set To Paris, and Color Club's un-named yellow. I took a make up sponge, soaked it in water, placed these four colors on the sponge and blotted them on. As they mixed, they created the purple and green. :)
Then using BM-319 and Konad Special Black I stamped on the puzzle pieces.
1 coat Seche Vite

This was an extremely emotional manicure for me. I don't even know how long I cried after doing this and creating the description for IG. Being a mother to a kid who has special needs is hard. And since I'm doing it alone right now, it takes a toll on me. I needed that cry.

I hope you all enjoy this manicure, and sorry for the lengthy chatter. :D

Until next time...

Christina

PS: Please, if you have the funds, go to www.autismspeaks.org and donate. And spread the word! It would be amazing if one day we could find out more about autism!

Disclosure *I was not paid for this review. I was not given the polish for this review. I paid for the polish with my own money. This is purely my own opinion, thoughts, and suggestions about this polish.*



Thursday, September 13, 2012

Owls

Because I am hosting a contest on IG, with the theme being owls (which ends on the 15th!), I wanted to show my followers that doing owls is easy peasy, even for a person who isn't good at doing nail art. And I sure am not good at doing a lot of nail art.

This manicure is inspired by Cristina over at Let Them Have Polish. Check out her blog HERE!

Here's what I did:
1 coat Nail Magic
1 coat Gelous
Then I took reinforcement stickers and placed them at the bottom of my nail, and painted the tips. All colors are apart of Color Club's All About Color collection...again, they still don't have names. I used a dotting tool for all the details.
1 coat Seche Vite


Mine don't look nearly good as Cristina's over at Let Them Have Polish, but hey, I tried. :D

Hope you all enjoy!

Until next time...

Christina


Disclosure *I was not paid for this review. I was not given the polish for this review. I paid for the polish with my own money. This is purely my own opinion, thoughts, and suggestions about this polish.*

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Success!

I finally did a successful water marble!!!!! Look!!!

Here's what I did:
1 coat Nail Magic
1 coat Gelous
1 coat NYC French White Tip
Then I took all of the colors from Color Club's All About Colors collection (which of course are unnamed....) and a Dots Neon Green and dripped them into water. I literally spent the previous day looking at water marble videos...so if you are curious as to HOW I did this, check out YouTube! :D
1 coat Seche Vite

Rainbow Rainbow Rainboooow! <3

Hope you all enjoy! <3

Until next time....

Christina


Disclosure *I was not paid for this review. I was not given the polish for this review. I paid for the polish with my own money. This is purely my own opinion, thoughts, and suggestions about this polish.*



Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Hoot Hoot

Again, I am going to apologize for the lack of photos. I took a ton of photos...but they were all the same pose. I don't know what was going on in my head that day, but apparently getting different angles of this manicure wasn't one of them...Lol

ALSO! All my Instagram followers, I am hosting a contest!! Check out my IG: @manicuremommy for details!! <3

Here's what I did:
1 coat Nail Magic
1 coat Gelous
2 coat Wet N Wild On A Trip
2 coat Sally Hansen Cafe Au Lait (On my ring finger)
I used an un-named Color Club teal for all the teal details, and Orly's Crush On You for the beak.
1 coat Seche Vite

I watched a YouTube video on how to do this owl. You can find that video HERE!

Until next time...

Christina


Disclosure *I was not paid for this review. I was not given the polish for this review. I paid for the polish with my own money. This is purely my own opinion, thoughts, and suggestions about this polish.*


Monday, September 10, 2012

Lucky

I have an Indie polish to share with you. The seller is currently on vacation until the 20th of September, but here's where I found this polish: Enkelini Nail Polish

Here's what I did:
1 coat Nail Magic
1 coat Gelous
2 coats Enkelini Lucky You
I stamped the design using BM-305 and Konad Special Black
1 coat Seche Vite

This is supposed to be a dupe for Max Factor Fantasy Fire or Clarins 230. I also have another polish called Ringer by Darling Diva Polish, but Lucky You is MUCH more opaque and can be used on its own. :D

I wish I had taken more photos of this, but for some reason, I literally only took two. :(

Well, until next time...

Christina

Disclosure *I was not paid for this review. I was not given the polish for this review. I paid for the polish with my own money. This is purely my own opinion, thoughts, and suggestions about this polish.*


Sunday, September 9, 2012

Shine shine shine

A lot of people have done this manicure, and for some reason I never tried it. Boy was that a mistake. I am in loooove.

Here's what I did:
1 coat Nail Magic
1 coat Gelous
1 thick coat Pure Ice Black Rage
1 thick coat Essie Shine Of The Times
1 coat Seche Vite

Look at that color shift. Yum!



Hope you all will try this, and I hope you enjoyed! <3

Until next time...

Christina

Disclosure *I was not paid for this review. I was not given the polish for this review. I paid for the polish with my own money. This is purely my own opinion, thoughts, and suggestions about this polish.*

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Three Way Gradient

Gooooood morning! I am trying to be less MIA lately, but with a huge problem with the internet, lots of appointments, and two tornadoes I call children destroying my house, I've had a hard time coming back. But I promise to have some AWESOME manicures for ya!

I also have decided to do less typing and trying to do more photos. Let me know if you'd rather hear me blab on. LOL.

Here's what I did:
1 coat Nail Magic
1 coat Gelous
1 coat NYC French White Tip
Then I followed a tutorial by an IG gal I follow. The link to her blog and tutorial is HERE!
And the link to the actual tutorial is HERE!
Please go check her out, she is AMAZING.
I used Revlon Coastal Surf and Orly Green Apple alongside NYC French White Tip to create this gradient effect with a make up sponge.
1 coat Seche Vite

As Aubrey explains, the REAL trick to this is wetting the sponge before applying the polish.





I hope you all enjoy this, and I promise not to be so chatty next time. :D

Don't forget to check out Aubrey's blog! <3

Until next time...

Christina

Disclosure *I was not paid for this review. I was not given the polish for this review. I paid for the polish with my own money. This is purely my own opinion, thoughts, and suggestions about this polish.*