Birthday Nails~ Neon Leopard Spots

Today is Friday the 13th and it's also my birthday! No worries about bad luck or anything like that though because the year that I was born, it was a Friday as well!  I always feel Fridays that land on the 13th are lucky days for me :)

I did some leopard nails today.  The base is Julep Kate and the spots are China Glaze "Pink Plumeria" with CG "Mahogany Magic" as the outline.  I topped everything with CND's "Sparkling Gold", a gold holo top coat and here is how it came out:

What do you think??

Summer "Mom" Influenster Voxbox

I recently joined "Influenster", a community that allows you to share your experiences with certain products.  You can win "badges" which help you qualify to receive samples of some of these products.  You know I am a makeup & nail polish junkie, but I am also a Momma.  That is why I was chosen to receive the  "Mom" Box of samples (called a "Voxbox") ...side note: are my "quotations" annoying you as much as they are annoying me? "Quote me on that") ;D

Anyhoo-back to my fantastic box!

This is the first time I've received a box from them, so I had no idea what to expect.  When it arrived, I thought it was pretty cool:

So I've had a few weeks exploring these items- now I'll let you know what I think!

Impress Press On Manicure: Admittedly, this is the part I was most excited to see when I first opened my box.  I've been curious about these very fashionable faux nails that have been popping up everywhere lately, but hadn't given them a try yet. The last time I wore false nails, I was between the ages of 10-14.  I CLEARLY remember asking my mother to get me a set for my 10th birthday (she did- yay!).  I would wear them while riding my bike and I thought I was so fancy.  These are much easier to put on than the fake nails of the past.  The set I received was purple:

 The packaging is adorable!  A little polish bottle shaped container with 24 nails:

The back of each nail comes already prepped with sticky stuff.  All you have to do is peel that clear tab off and press them on! SO much easier than the ones I tried before, where you had to put your sticky tabs on or use nail glue:

So, once they were on, they looked pretty good...

But, there were a few problems.  First, my nail beds aren't very wide.  My hands and fingers are the smallest part of me (for reference, my wedding ring is a size 4 1/2 :) so I typically don't fit well in "one size fits all" type situations.  The other thing is that these are not very curvaceous.  If you have any type of significant "C" curve in your nail, this will probably happen:

Another point I'd like to make is that my nails are on the longer side right now.  I think if I had nubs right now, I'd find these to be a better fit.

 They look super from this angle!  I am going to buy a few more of these to keep on hand for times when my nails are not as long.  They will be perfect to wear for a special occasion, and they have tons of cool designs!  The "wear" on them was fabulous too- very sturdy.  You don't have to worry about them falling off into your hair if you should run your fingers through it!

Next items, Stash Tea and Nektar Honey Crystals:

I received a full size box of Stash Herbal & Green Tea "Superfruits":

 And what goes better with tea than honey?  These packets of Nektar Honey Crystals are SO cool and innovative:

 Close up view of the honey crystals- much less trouble than regular honey:

I decided to try the blueberry tea first:

  The blueberry tea starting to steep; the color contrast was so vibrant:

 After about 5 min of steeping, the tea had a pretty blueberry color.  This smelled amazing! It tasted like a handful of ripe, mashed up blueberries were crammed into my cup.  So delicious and the Nektar Honey Crystals were the perfect sweetener for this!

Oooh, and for the snack with my tea, I had my Quaker Soft Baked Oatmeal Cookie!  Just kidding.  I ate that thing as soon as my box arrived :D  It was huge and soft and yummy. Reminded me of a homemade cookie:

After all my snacking, I couldn't wait to use my Dentek Floss Picks!  (C'mon, that was the perfect segue!!!!) I use these regularly, even before receiving them in my Voxbox.  I could not live without them!    They are great to keep in your purse as well. You never know when your going to have that annoying piece of popcorn stuck in you teeth at the movies, right?

Lastly, there was a full size bar of Ivory Soap.  Ivory soap is a classic.  It's been around for years- 1891 is when it first came out (with the slogan, "It Floats!").  When I think of Ivory, I think of the words "clean" and "classic". And then, there's the smell- that delightful, pure, nostalgic smell.  I kept sniffing my bar:

 Washing my hands with it, smelling that smell and feeling those bubbles, brought me back in time.  I was 3 years old again and my Mom was giving me a bath:  <3

Have you tried any of these products before?  What are your thoughts on the Impress Nails?  Are you a coffee or tea person usually? Do the pictures of my soap suds entice you?

Klean Color Concrete Gray & Holo Chrome Nail Polish

I did a Klean Color haul awhile back, and would you believe there are still about 6 of them I haven't tried?  Here are 2: Concrete Gray and Holo Chrome!

Concrete Gray is very reminiscent of Zoya Kelly- a blueish, grayish creme.  The good news- this is a one coater! The bad news- the formula is thick and gloopy.  I probably should've tried adding thinner to it, but you know that would require me walking up a flight of stairs, and that's just not happening today :)
My hands were slightly wet too, so I had some bubbling on a few:

I then topped it with one layer of Holo Chrome, a blue sheer based polish with fantastic holographic glitter!

 Even in the shade this polish is fantastical!

For the price, Klean Colors (especially the glitters) are killer!  I love them :D

Wet N Wild Fergie Collection: "Hollywood Walk Of Fame" Nail Polish

I finally found another Walgreen's close to me that has these frickin' Wet N Wild "Fergie" polishes.  I love this one-"Hollywood Walk Of Fame".  It has a clear base and multicolored star glitters and small bars.  So cute!  

I layered it on top of Sinful Colors "Star Fish", a cool pink creme:

(2 layers)

A little placement is necessary with the stars, but really you have to expect that of any glitters that have larger pieces inside.  The good news is that this has plenty of stars in the bottle, so getting them on your brush is no big deal:

Another win for Fergie!  I love it, although I can sort of "feel" the stars on my nails.  I probably should have doubled up on top coat.

What do you think of Hollywood Walk Of Fame?

Julep Maven Box for July! (American Beauty)

Here are some pictures of my Julep Maven Box for July!  I am usually the "Boho Glam" style, but I switched things up this month and picked "American Beauty" instead.  I was really excited about this month's box when I got the preview email.  Not only were there 2 cool polishes and a lip gloss, but this was the box that also contained the free "America" polish for the 4th of July!  To take it one step further, I did something else that I usually don't do- I "added on" the other special glitter polish for the month, "O Canada" (Julep gives you the option to add on to your box for a discounted price).

Such cute packaging and some candy fire balls too!

My add-on shipped seperately, so it has a pic all of it's own :D  :

O Canada

Here is "Lynn" (described as "nude blush pearl").  I did 3 layers here. The formula was great, although a little sheer.  The brush strokes tend to show up on this one too, so I went over them lightly with my clean up brush dipped in acetone and it smoothed them out and made the strokes less visible.  "Yumi" ("pink opalescent multi-dimensional glitter" is layered on my ring finger:

Here is the lip gloss, "Peony".  This color is designed to match the nail polish "Lynn".  The consistency is great on this as well- not too thick or thin, and not overly sticky.  It has a small brush applicator.  The smell (something very important to me in my lip glosses) was nice- it reminded me of a vanilla sugar and it wasn't too overpowering.  The color is very sheer and natural:

Here is a shot of "America" from my post the other day (layered over Julep Catherine):

I haven't tried "O Canada" yet, but plan on doing it soon!  I LOVED my box this month - I feel like the boxes have been getting more exciting lately!

The Lazy Days Of Summer Challenge: Day 4-Flip Flops

I'm on Day 4 in The Lazy Days Of Summer nail art challenge!  The theme for Day 4 is "Flip Flops".

I used Wet n Wild "I Need A Refresh-mint" for the turquoise and then topped those with China Glaze "Fairy Dust" (which, OMG, is awesome!).  For the other nails, I used Sinful Colors "Island Coral" and then using a dotting tool put white polka dots on top.  I used OPI "Onyx" for my straps.  I wish the straps came out a little less lumpy, but hey- it was my first try ;-)  I used a silver accent 'ball' to top off the straps:

Here is the line up for the rest of the challenge!

Icing "After Party" Nail Polish

How's your Saturday going?  Is it hot like mine??  I am not cut out for mid-90's.  If the heat could just peak at 80, I'd be happy.  Well that's all my pissing & moaning for today :D

Here is another nail polish from Icing!  "After Party" is a multi-colored, shard type glitter in a clear base.  I used one layer on top of 3 layers of Petites "Utopia":

"Utopia" is a teal polish with a duochrome flash.  It can look turquoise and then dark blue depending on the lighting:

 Topped with "After Party":

This picture is with no flash, which makes it look crappy indoors, however- I like how you can see the contrast of the glitter vs Utopia here. This is closer to what this combo looks like in "real life":

I really love Icing polishes.  I feel like they stay "up" with trends and keep things interesting. I will leave you with a parting shot of my lil Sister's nails.  She was visiting me and we used Icing "Lipstick & Lovers" on her nails, which I hear tell is pretty close to Butter London "Disco Biscuit":

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Wet N Wild Fergie Collection: Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night

Limited released Wet N Wild collections are the bane of my existence. I love them so much and always have such a difficult time tracking them down (which is probably why I love them so much in the first place- you know, the whole 'hunting & gathering' thing that is inside all of us.  All worth it for the rush of joy that I feel when I finally track down what I'm looking for!).  This new "Fergie" collection (named for Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas, who is a WnW Ambassador) is not available everywhere.  I've checked several Walgreen's (7 total) and was finally able to find one (in Massachusetts, I might add- while we were visiting family) and they didn't even have all of the ones I've seen online. "Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night" is the ONE I was after- it's a clear base with small black glitters and larger gold hex glitters.  It is fantastic.

PS. Do you know how weird you sound asking the teenage girl working at Walgreen's if they have the new "Fergie Wet N Wild" polishes?  I mean, it didn't stop me from doing it, but I did sound like a weirdo, especially since the girl had NO CLUE what I was referring to!

Here it is, layered over Cult Nails "Devious Nature":

(2 layers of Devious Nature; 1 layer of TGBAGN)

And here's a shot of Devious Nature before I layered over it.  Such a perfect hot pink and it applies like a jelly-creme.  Delicious!

Have you been able to find these near you? Which Fergie polishes are the must haves?