Birthday Mani!

You know what I really can't stand out here, besides the disgusting heat of the Monsoon season?  Scorpions.  I hate them.  Last year, when we first moved down here, my husband was working back in Seattle for 3 weeks at a time and would be home for 1 week.  The first time he left, that very night I found a baby scorpion.  I lost it, freaking out because I did not realize scorpions could be THAT SMALL.  So as a mother, my mind instantly went to, "Oh my gosh, what if they are in the kids' beds in their sheets?  Or hiding in their toys?"  It pretty much drove me crazy, and I didn't really sleep much that night.  Luckily, my parents knew a great pest company who sent someone out to spray the inside and outside of my house.  Didn't really have any issues inside anymore, but I kept finding them in my backyard along the stone walls that surround it.

So I squished them with a rubber mallet.

Scorpions are nocturnal, and when under a black light, they glow green.  So I took my black light out back at night with my mallet and every time I found one on the walls or in the rocks, I squished it.  My total count by the end of the season (which lasts 2-3 months) was in the high 70's.  I frequently posted my adventures on facebook and apparently garnered a small following, because I had several people ask me how my "Scorpion Wars" were going, and referred to me as the Scorpion Hunter.

I was really hoping this year that I wouldn't have to deal with them again, since I've taken more precautions this year in preparing for them.  However last night, I found a juvenile one in the kitchen on the floor.  Not sure if it was in the house for a while, or if one of my dogs brought it in on their fur.  I went outside last night and found (and killed) 6 more.  I'm hoping it's just outside - I can handle them outside.  I just hate the thought of them inside my house.

Anywho, on to less spine-tingling subjects.

My birthday was this last Saturday the 28th!  Originally we were going to go to a lake and my dad and I were going to scuba dive, but due to a miss-communication, there wasn't any gear available to rent.  So, my mom and I had a girly day instead ^_^  Went to breakfast at our favorite French-themed restaurant, then a quick shopping trip at Penney's followed by our traditional birthday pedicures.  My mother never used to like the idea of someone touching her feet, but after I persuaded her to at least try a pedicure, she has been hooked ever since, and now for every birthday and mother's day, we go :D  I'm so proud <3

That evening I had more family over for a potluck styled dinner and some cake (duh).  It was a lovely birthday!  And of course, I did a special manicure for the day :D  I wanted to do something that reflected a part of me.  So I decided to try a scale pattern, because I not only love fish, I also love mermaids (and secretly long to be one).  Now most scale patterns I've seen on nails are painted over a gradient or solid color.  I did it differently, because I not only lacked a teeny tiny paint brush, I also lacked the ability to paint smooth, even scales.  I instead used my dotting tool and did individual dots (yes, it took me a very long time).  I think it looks pretty good for a first attempt, and a little more detailed!  Check them out:

Outdoors in direct sunlight

Outside in the shade

Light Box

Macro

I used Model City's "Fairy Godmother" for the base color, You Polish's "Rowena" for the dark blue, Colors by Llarowe's "Surf My Wave" for the medium blue, and a specially made light blue from Above the Curve.  All the colors went very well together, as you can see.

Like I said, not too shabby for a first attempt!  I was happy :)  And I didn't want to cover each nail completely, I wanted to be a little unconventional and do "patches" of scales on the other nails.  I got quite a few complements on them, too!  Hooray for progress!!  Next step is to try doing it the way I always see it done - by painting the scales on.  I better start looking for a teeny tiny paint brush!

I hope you all survive your Monday!! I'll have another new post for you tomorrow morning!

Polish Post: Dance Legend "541" and Starlight Polish "Dragon" Pics and Review

Hello you lovely people!  I hope you had a terrific weekend :)  I had a very pleasant birthday yesterday spent with my family ^_^  I experimented with a new nail design I had never attempted before and it actually turned out pretty well!  I will be taking fancy photos today and posting tomorrow.  For now, you will just have to make due with a post of "Dragon" by Starlight Polish, and a brilliant color from Dance Legend's Confetti collection - 541.  Not sure why there are no specific names for some of the Dance Legend polishes - they are all numbered (at least on Llarowe's site where I purchase this brand), some with a name, some just the collection name.  Eh.

Outdoors in direct sunlight

Outdoors out of sunlight

Lightbox

Let's start with Dance Legend!  This polish is the first I have purchased of this brand.  I had seen a swatch of this color by The Girlie Tomboy and knew I needed it.  I am a huge fan of neons, especially in the summer.  I don't usually wear them on my fingers, I actually tend to wear them on my toesies instead.  However I was inspired to wear this polish as a manicure because it is just such a lovely neon green!!  Application was nice and smooth.  Since this is a creme color, it was a little thicker to apply, and a little streaky on the first coat.  It only took one more coat to be opaque, though, and no streaks showed through at all.  This polish also did not chip in the 3 days I had it on, so I would say it has a very good wear time.  

The topcoat is a beautiful, sparkly color called Dragon by Starlight Polish.  The company had a small sample set of 3 different sparkly topcoats that I decided to purchase and give a try.  I'm glad I did, because so far, the polish is beautiful!  Dragon is the first of the three I have used so far.  It has a gorgeous green sheen to it in the sunlight and an orange sparkle out of direct sunlight.  It is very thin, but one coat was all I needed over 541 to give it a slight sparkle.  The glitter pieces are so small in the polish that a little bit goes a long way.  Because it is so thin, if you wanted to wear only that color, I'd imagine it would take a good 4-5 coats (or more) to get it completely opaque.  I would suggest purchasing the full size bottle if you go that route, since these bottles are so small you would use up all the polish on one hand.

You can purchase Dance Legend "541" here.  It's on the lower end of the price scale for indie polishes at $9.  You can find Starlight Polish's "Dragon" here and you can follow them on Facebook here.  Give them a "like" and let them know I sent you ;)

You can find my personal Facebook page here.  Head on over and give me a "like" if you haven't already - I am having a giveaway once I reach 100 fans, and I'm nearly halfway there! 

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday!  I'll see you tomorrow with a special Birthday Mani post :)

Polish Post: Ice Polish PRE-RELEASE "Stepmother" Pics and Review

*PRESS RELEASE*

Oh man!! Two more days until the weekend!  This Saturday is my birthday ^_^ Going to a lake in the AM and a nice family get-together in the afternoon.  It will be lovely!

Since it is so very close to her release date, I thought I'd go ahead and do a polish post on the second color Ice Polish sent me to review for her.  This color is "Stepmother" and it is the villain polish to the "Cinderella" polish I posted about earlier (seen here).  Her summer series is called "Dreams Come True...Not If I Can Help It!"  She will have several princess themed colors with their villain counterparts available for purchase on June 30th.  You can check out some teaser swatches on her Facebook Page of some of the other princess and villain colors she is releasing.  Here are photos of "Stepmother":

Outside in Direct Sunlight

Out of direct sunlight

Light Box

This color is the perfect "villain" to "Cinderella."  It is a steely grey color reminiscent of the evil Stepmother's hair in the movie.  Direct sunlight brings out the beautiful holo shimmer that is also in the polish.  The wear time was just as good as "Cinderella" and lasted about 4 days before I noticed the tips starting to wear off.  The application was very smooth, and opaque with 3 coats.  Great polish all around!

Here is her etsy shop - make sure you add it to your favorite shops and check back on the 30th when she releases all her summer colors!!  I've got my eye on "Ariel" and "Belle" already ;)

Be sure to head on over to MY Facebook Page and give it a "like" or "share" - I'm having a giveaway when I reach 100 fans!

Polish Post: Colors by Llarowe "Gemini Rising" Pics and Review

I was up waaaaaaaaaaaay too early.  It's looking like a 4-cups-of-coffee kind of morning.  Anyone who knows me personally knows I am not a morning person.  Pre-kids, I used to be the person that stayed up till about midnight and sleep till nine or 10.  That changed radically after my first child, and I'm still trying to adjust :P

That being said, let's jump straight to the polish!  I'm not a chatty Kathy just yet ;)

I believe today Colors by Llarowe is doing a very small re-stock on their website (www.llarowe.com) of whatever polishes are listed - that means the summer colors!  Now as I said, it is limited, but if you miss any of them, they will be doing another re-stock soon.  One of the colors in this re-stock will be Gemini Rising, an amazingly gorgeous kelly green holo.  Check it out:

Outdoors in direct sunlight

Outdoors not in direct sunshine

Lightbox

Indoors 

Ho. Lee. Crap.  Amiright?  I mean, WOWZA, this color is a stunner!!  Green has always been one of my top go-to colors - polish, clothing, jewelry, shoes, etc.  I just love it, and it complements my red hair nicely.  When I saw this color in CbL's summer lineup, I had to have it.  Had to.  And now I do!!  And I'll tell you what - I'm gonna actually buy another bottle to have when this green runs out, because I will be using this color a LOT.

The application was GREAT!  Every holographic polish I have used from CbL thus far has gone on very smoothly and is opaque in one coat, though I did two (I usually always do a minimum of two).  Going on day 3 and still no chipping or worn-out fingernail tips.  There's really nothing I could say negative about this polish.  It is amazing, and you need it in your life!!!  

By the way, the gold dotting on my pointer finger is the Gemini constellation :)  I used one of the freebies I got from CbL in the color "Silver and Gold" (I do not see it on their site, so it is probably discontinued).  Hard to see it over the power of the holo in the polish, though, but I really don't mind ;)

Here's a direct link to their polishes:

http://www.llarowe.com/shop-all/colors-by-llarowe.html

As far as what time they will be re-stocking, it will be at 11am PST, and again at 6pm PST.  

Have a great Hump Day - the week is almost done!! I'm going to go get coffee cup number 2 :)

Toesies I Knowsies

Remember a few posts ago when I had said poor Tuesday doesn't really have a title?  Well, guys, I found one for it - TOES!!!!  Toesie toesie toes toes!!!  I rarely if ever see any kind of blog post with super cute pedicures.  It is probably most likely due to the world's general aversion to bare feet.  I've known a few people who hate feet and the idea of doing anything with feet because they are "gross."  While I agree that yes, there are some gnarly feet out there, I disagree that we should just avoid feet and toes altogether.

Well, I'm BREAKING THE BOUNDARIES!!

I'm gonna do a "Toesies I Knowsies" post every Tuesday of a cute pedicure, I will even model it on my own feet.  The fact is nobody has super beautiful feet - I mean come on, we shove them in socks and shoes and are walking around on them all day.  Hard knock life.  So I'm going to show you my feet!  No shame!  And you can either cringe if you'd like, or you can admire the cute pedicure :)  

So, without further ado, here is the first Toesie Tuesday Pedi!  I used two of I Love Nail Polish's new summer colors - "Purple Plasma" and "Rehab."  These colors are lovely!! They look great in the sunlight when wearing something open-toed, especially flip-flops.  Check them out:

Fully opaque after 2 coats, smooth application, and the polish dried pretty quickly without a quick-dry topcoat.  I love the light holographic sheen to these two colors!  They are just gorgeous!!

I used a dotting tool for the little dots on each toe.  It is a cute, subtle design that helps accentuate how complementary the colors are together, though the turquoise dots did not stand out as much over the dark purple.  

Hope you enjoyed this introductory Toesie Tuesday post!  Watch for another one next Tuesday :)

Polish Post: Karma's Kiss "Pennies For Your Karma?" Swatch and Review

Well, it's Monday again.  I feel like it was just last Monday -_-  Anyone else feel that way?  Weekends are just too short.

So, how about a Polish Post about a new indie polish?

I was a swatching machine yesterday!  One of the colors I did is called "Pennies For Your Karma?" by Karma's Kiss.  Check out the pics below:

Outdoors in the sunshine

Outdoors in indirect light

The color is just lovely!  It is a coppery metallic with a stunning holographic shimmer in the sunlight.  The application was silky smooth with no streaking, and was mostly opaque after 3 coats (4 coats ought to do it).  Dried in minutes, too, which is helpful if you do not have a quick-dry top coat on hand.  "Pennies For Your Karma?" is a definite keeper!  

As I said earlier, Karma's Kiss is a new indie polish maker.  She just opened shop last week!  She had a super awesome deal going on where she included a freebie surprise polish with orders placed at a specific time during her opening day.  I got it ;)  Here are some links to her sites below:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karmaskisslacquer?ref=br_tf

Website: http://www.karmaskisslacquer.com/

She's offering 20% off all orders of $10 or more right now, so head on over and pick out some beauties!! Give her a "like" on her FB page, too, and let her know I sent ya ;)

I hope you all survive your Monday!  Let me know what you think about the color in the comments below :)   

    

Polish Post: Colors by Llarowe PRE-RELEASE Summer Colors "Connie's Nosy Neighbor" and "Holiday Road"

Phew, what a mouthful of a title!  I opted to leave out "pics and review" - figured it's pretty much understood at this point ;)

So if you are following my Facebook page (which you totally should, because I am having an awesome giveaway when I reach 100 "likes"! Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/MomMrsMe ) then you saw my post earlier of the many bottles of CbL's Summer colors that came in this week.  I pre-ordered 10 polishes, and let me tell you, it was tough picking which one I was going to try on first!  They are all gorgeous!  I decided on two colors that I knew would look great together - "Connie's Nosy Neighbor" (the purple) and "Holiday Road" (the bright green.)  Check out the pics below:

This is what the polish looks like indoors out of direct sunlight

I will be wearing Holiday Road again soon, so I can get better shots of that polish.  There is a beautiful hot pink/reddish sparkly shine to it in the sun that my pictures did not capture this time around.

These two polishes are thicker when applying because they are jelly based, which means they also take a little bit longer to totally dry.  Four coats should make the polish opaque - I stopped at 3. While they are thick, application is still smooth and not streaky or goopy, which was really nice.  The polish dried with a matte and somewhat textured finish, but if you want something more shiny, just add a nice topcoat (as I did in the pictures above).  The wear time is great, as per the norm with CbL polishes - these pics are after 2 days with no chipping or smudges.  The colors are just brilliant, and truth be told no camera is going to really capture the beauty.  And as always, the colors are 5-free and cruelty-free :)  Overall, I am a very satisfied customer!

I am not sure when their Summer collection is going to be officially released, but you can find the colors at the link below:

Website: http://www.llarowe.com/shop-all/colors-by-llarowe.html

Follow their Facebook page, too, to get updates on the Summer Collection release date:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Colorsbyllarowe

On their store website, you can add the summer colors to your wishlist and once they are available, you can add them straight to your cart from your list.  Makes it a lot more convenient then hunting down each individual one once they release.  Head on over their and check out all their summer colors!  I have 8 more still, though I'm not sure I will get them all swatched in time before they release.  We'll see :)

Have a great Friday tomorrow, and a fabulous weekend!  Any exciting plans?

Polish Post: Ice Polish PRE-RELEASE "Cinderella" Swatches and Review

*PRESS RELEASE*

I hope everyone had a lovely Father's Day! I started mine first thing with my Dad, running a 5k at 6:30am.  Because, you know, I'm a glutton for punishment :P  In all reality, I just love running 5k's with my dad!  Sunday's run was our 4th together - he makes a great running partner, and is always encouraging me to keep going and that I am doing so well.  But most importantly, he tells me he is proud of me, and those are the best words I can hear from him :)  The rest of the day was spent with my kids and my husband, him relaxing for his day and both of us getting various chores done around the house.  Yeah, we live the high life ;)

I did have time to make a sudo-crappy light box yesterday!  I used an old diaper box and tissue paper.  It's actually not bad, and serves its purpose pretty well, I just need to invest in a whiter light.  Currently the only bulb I have for the lights I use over it are all yellow.  Oh well - it's progress!

Now, on to the polish!!

The company is called Ice Polish and she is fairly new to the indie polish making industry.  I had contacted her a few weeks back when she had called for bloggers who were interested in swatching some new colors.  Luckily for me, she decided to send 2 of her new colors to me to swatch and review!!  So, this post is going to cover one of those two colors - the other will be coming later this week :)

"Cinderella" is the name of this polish, and I have to tell you, it couldn't be more perfect.  The color is practically identical to the powder blue of Cinderella's ball gown in the original Disney version.  There are flecks of silver glitter in the polish, and in direct sunlight, there is a delicate holographic shine.  It is a very lovely polish!!  Check it out!

And here are two pics of the polish in my light box.  You can tell the light used was yellow :-/

The fact is, though, that none of these pictures will really do the polish justice.  It is one you will admire most when it is on your fingers :)  

Fun fact: all of these pictures taken of the polish on my fingernails are from today - 4 days after I put it on.  The polish has not chipped, smudged, nothing for an entire 4 days.  That's freakin' impressive.  Amazing wear time aside, the polish has a very smooth application, as well.  Did not thicken as I progressed, and is opaque after 3 coats, though I felt 4 coats rounded it out perfectly.  The polish is also 5-free!  

You would be very wise to keep your eye out for the release of this polish, and snag one while you can! I am not saying that because she asked me to swatch her polish.  I say that out of honesty.  You know how I can tell it's a good polish?  When my husband says something about it without being asked.  This polish is the first I have worn around him that prompted him to say, "Wow, I really like that color on your nails.  That is my favorite of all your polishes you have worn so far."  

Do you know how much polish I have???  ...A lot.  If I answered you with a number, I'd have to admit I have a problem.  

So, here's some info on Ice Polish so you can keep in touch and up to date:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IcePolish

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/IcePolish

Instagram: http://instagram.com/ice_polish

She just released her Friday the 13th special colors "Bloody Good Day" and "7 Years Bad Luck" in her Etsy shop. Check out her FB page for a promo code to get you 13% off your order through Tuesday night.  Let her know I sent you ;)

Hope you all survived your Monday!  Watch for a polish post this week about the 2nd color Ice Polish sent me.  Any guesses as to what it is called?? :D