Boil Boil Toil and Trouble Ultra Purple Witch Nails

October 22, 2013happyjoylove Glitter/Holographic, Holiday/Theme Leave a comment

I don’t want to type much today. Here are my purple witch nails. I put loose glitter on the non-accent nails that make me think of mermaids. Usually I match my right and left hand, but in this case I only did a witch on my right. I love the purple color by Ulta, but I was having some trouble with the brush and also this color responds strangely to topcoats. Enjoy!

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Ulta Ultra Violet Femme for the purple background
Sally Hansen Xtremewear Black Out for the black witch’s hat and eye dots
Sally Hansen Xtremewear Perfect Pear-ing for the witch’s face
Sinful Color’s Summer Peach for the witch’s hair
Ulta High Roller for the gold buckle
Sally Hansen Xtremewear Wet Cement for hat accent
Loose glitter that I got from the Dollar Tree, woot!
Poshe Top Coat

I Vant to Suck Your Blooood! Vampire Nails

October 15, 2013happyjoylove Dotting, Holiday/Theme 2 Comments

After a lovely weekend of camping on the California Coast at Costanoa KOA my nails were tore up (literally I tore a couple nails) so I decided to just chop them all off. Even though they’re nubbins right now that doesn’t mean they can’t be cute! Vampire Nails I have to say there is something strangely comforting about wearing black and blood red nails. I think because it harkens back to my childhood days when my sister was goth and Elvira was on late night. Black nails were in 20 years ago and 20 years ago was a good time for me!

I used a fine paint brush and my homemade dotting tools to accomplish the designs and I think this design has a lot of versatility; you could just do the face and paint the rest of your nails black or red for a simpler version.

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Sally Hansen Xtremewear Black Out for the black base
Sally Hansen Xtremewear White On for the spider web stamping
LA Colors Blood Red for the red pinky and blood drips
Poshe Top Coat

Rainbow Fuzzy Nails – Contest Winnings Arrived!

October 9, 2013happyjoylove Brand/Product Reviews and Comparisons, Glitter/Holographic Leave a comment

So, I’m a little back-logged on posts, but better late than never! A while back I did a small post about winning a contest from Janella at boldnbeautifulmakeup.blogspot.com. She did follow through on sending the prizes (all the way from Canada!) and I was so excited that I wanted to use most of the colors all in one mani.

What does that mean? Rainbows of course! This was my last summer manicure before my Fall/Halloween transition (also look for a massive post coming up about Fall nails).

Fuzzy Rainbow Nails 3 For this manicure I used Color Club’s Take Wing as the base, two coats each, then coordinated the fuzzy coat colors on each finger.

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Pink – Color Club Wing Fling with Wool Lite
Orange – Sparkle and Soar with Peach Fuzz
Yellow – Daisy Does It with Fuzzy Fantasy
Green – Fly With Me with Fuzz-Sea
Blue-Green – Metamorphosis with Tight Knit
Purple – Milani Totally Cool with Tweedy
Poshe Top Coat

So long summer nails, welcome Fall!

Removing Glitter Polish Like A Pro

September 24, 2013happyjoylove Glitter/Holographic, Tutorials 4 Comments

In many cultures and civilizations there exist rights of passage where, upon completion, a member moves from one rank to another or is considered a more integral part of the group. I feel like in The Naildom (The Domain of Nails) having your first rage inducing hour-long session of removing glitter polish is a right of passage.

The problem is I don’t think this is a right of passage anyone should really endure, no matter how masochistic one may be. I don’t think you need to have shreds of cotton balls stuck to all your sparkle coated fingers while you’re spewing profanities (totally not speaking from personal experience).

I’m here to tell you there’s a better way. I’m here to help you transcend from your lowly nail scrubbing practice to the magical world of tinfoil finger hats (<—what?).

Steps To Removing You Sparkle Nails

Gather supplies – cotton balls or pads, tinfoil, scissors, polish remover (acetone works best, but is strong).
Use scissors to cut tinfoil into 5 squares somewhere around 3×3″ – play around with the size that fits your fingers best.
Put some polish remover on a cotton ball, place cotton ball on fingernail, then wrap tinfoil over fingertip and cotton ball together.
Repeat with four other fingers and let sit for 2-3 minutes. I like to do one hand at a time, but you can do all 10 fingers at once if you have the skill. If you only do one hand at a time then you can reuse the foil and cotton balls on the opposite hand.
Remove the foil/cotton ball from each finger, then reuse the cotton balls to EASILY swipe of the softened glitter polish.
Repeat on other hand.
I follow up this removal by scrubbing my hands/nails with a homemade coconut sugar scrub (mix sugar and coconut oil) which helps remove most of those leftover little glitter bits and also gives your nails/hands a punch of moisture and softness after soaking with the polish remover.
Bask in the glory that you just took off your glitter polish in a few minutes versus a few hours.

Sakura Cherry Blossom Nails with Matte Green Base

September 16, 2013happyjoylove Brand/Product Reviews and Comparisons, Dotting, Glitter/Holographic, Tutorials 4 Comments

Happy Monday. I’m submitting this post a little out of order because after I wrote my draft I somehow didn’t save it properly so I have to reeeewwwrrrriiittteee it. Anyway, Arizona Iced Tea anyone? I can’t say this mani was inspired by the drink of my childhood, however, it definitely is reminiscent of their old can. I did also have someone tell me it reminded them of a porcelain teacup.

Polish Performance

This manicure was my first attempt at using a matte top coat as well as my first time using Sally Hansen’s Complete Salon Manicure line. I will say I now know why this line runs for around $8 versus the the $2-3 you’ll pay for their Xtremewear line. The brush is amazing! I had to do ZERO clean up on this manicure because I had so much control with the brush and polish. It’s very soft and it has a rounded shape that fit the curve of my cuticles perfectly.

I was quite surprised at how thin one coat of the polish is…so surprised that I took a photo.

1 Coat of Sally Hansen Jaded

I used two coats, but really I think this polish would be best with 3 or 4 if you want full opacity. I definitely like the color of it too and I will say that these photos don’t do it justice (the pics look a little more grey and less green).

The matte topcoat did what it said, it turned super shiny polish into a smooth flat matte finish. I did notice some micro bubbles and I’m not sure whether it was from the top coat or from not letting the colored polish below dry long enough. I was on the fence about matte manicures for a long time, but this experiment has definitely changed my mind and I look forward to playing with more options!

Techniques:

The branches were just a simple few lines drawn with a fine paint brush and the flowers involved using one of my jenky homemade dotting tools (read: a sewing needle stuck into the pink eraser of a pencil).

Place 5 dots of polish in a circle and then place the needle in the center of each circle and drag a line towards the center. This will create the look of dimensional petals. I put a dot of CG Fairy Dust in the center of each flower for extra pop. You can always use a different number of dots to get a variety of flower patterns.

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Green Base – 2 coats Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Jaded
China Glaze Matte Magic Top Coat
Branches – Ulta Taupe On A Rope
Flowers – Essie Luscious Lips
Flower center accents and forefinger – China Glaze Fairy Dust

What are your favorite polish colors to make matte?

RAINBOW SPARKLES! 3 Color Glitter Gradient

September 15, 2013happyjoylove Glitter/Holographic, Tutorials 4 Comments

So. Much. Sparkle

Roses are red

Violets are blue

I love rainbows and sparkles

So look at my freaking nails!

Technique:

This is three coats of each color. Basically I put gold at the base of each nail, then went back around and put green in the middle of each nail, then painted blue on the tip of each nail. Rinse and repeat two more times. These do not have a top coat currently, although I may add one on to see how it looks and to make the polish hold up.

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Gold – Ulta Boogie Nights
Green – Pure Ice Treasure Hunt
Blue – Ulta Indigo-Go Girl

Weekend Wedding Nails Plus a Refresh

September 8, 2013happyjoylove Brand/Product Reviews and Comparisons, Glitter/Holographic Leave a comment

One of my friends all the way back from high school had her wedding reception this past weekend so I decided to do a simple white pearl manicure with heart accents to honor the festivities. I achieved the shimmery white by using one coat each of three different polishes listed below. The adorable gold hearts are from the stud set I previously spoke about from BornPrettyStore.com.

Halfway through the week I opted to refresh the manicure by painting different China Glaze polishes on each hand. The left hand got two coats of CG Seashell while the right hand got two coats of CG’s Holographic Not in This Galaxy. I love how Seashell looks; it is painted over the white so I’m not sure how that influenced the color, but it’s a “just right” color for me….and it’s very shiny.

The other CG polish has very fine holographic particles so it is quite subtle (not really noticeable indoors, sunlight really does the trick for this one). When inside, it looks more like a metallic polish, when outside you can see the full holo spectrum.

I have to say the consistency of both these polishes was great (not thick) and the brush was high quality and thin for accurate application. Even though it’s September I feel like I have February Valentine nails going this week!

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Sally Hansen Satin Slipper (for the original white manicure)
Jesse’s Girl Firefly (for the original white manicure)
Ulta Diva (for the original white manicure)
China Glaze Seashell
China Glaze Holographic Not In This Galaxy
Poshe Top Coat

CONGRATULATIONS LIESA AND JOHN! I WISH YOU MANY YEARS OF JOY AND HAPPINESS…and beautiful nails 🙂

What a beautiful bride!

Holy crap I won more stuff!

August 31, 2013happyjoylove Uncategorized 1 Comment

There’s a saying about adding insult to injury, but I feel like this weekend just started out as the opposite of that saying. Not only is it a 3 day weekend, I also just woke up to read an email saying I won a contest from My Life of Makeup, NailPolish, and Beauty Addictions! Her site has some great tips and reviews for both nails and other beauty products.

Apparently entering contests actually pays off and I’ll soon be the recipient of the full Fuzzy Coat collection. I guess it works out that Sally Hansen didn’t send me them :). Thanks so much to Janella for putting on the contest!

Studded “Princess” Nails – Covergirl Timeless Rubies and BornPrettyStore Studs

August 29, 2013happyjoylove Brand/Product Reviews and Comparisons, Glitter/Holographic, Tutorials 1 Comment

I feel like playing Mario Brothers after doing this manicure – am I dating myself? This design makes me think of princesses, specifically Princess Peach; obviously the pinkish color contributes to the thought, but I think the gold studs (especially the diamond shaped stud) actually remind me of a crown.

https://nailsmiles.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/fdcbb-princess-peach_420_1194999440.jpg

What is Princess Peach doing in this photo?!

This manicure is done with Covergirl’s Timeless Rubies polish. This is the first time I’ve bought their stuff and I’d say the color itself is great. I don’t think these pictures do the color justice and it was such a busy week that I didn’t make the time to shoot photos in different lighting for the best effect (these photos were actually taken in the parking lot of my work).

It’s a combination of a shimmery look, a bit metallic and a bit of a duochrome as well. Depending on the lighting orange and gold pops out from the pink, and even a bit of grayish blue? The brush was fine and the polish was thin enough to control the two coats I did; not sure if a third coat would make much of a difference. I didn’t get any big chunks chipping off, but the tips did start to wear pretty fast within the first few days.

The studs I used are from BornPrettyStore.com and they’re a pretty good deal for over 200 pieces. They have a bunch of other really cute stud options including a new set of colored dots. When my set arrived it was a bit messed up from the transport so the tiny dots were everywhere (see below), but it actually only took a few minutes to fix and organize.

After almost a full week of wear all the studs are still stuck to my nails and they don’t get caught on anything. I was impressed with how well the larger diamond shaped studs curved to fit my nail (which I’ve found can be an issue when attaching larger accessories). I’m excited to play around with the other shapes and get some creative designs! Use code EAG10 for 10% off an order at their online store!

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Covergirl Outlast Timeless Rubies (2 coats)
Pinky tip has China Glaze Angel Wings (which is gorgeous/holographic and you can’t tell from the photo)
Poshe Top Coat

Sally Hansen Prizes Finally Arrived!

August 29, 2013happyjoylove Contests Leave a comment

As you may recall from a previous post back in July, I won a Sally Hansen’s Take It Off, Show Off contest for my Fourth of July nail art. Well, my prize bag o’ goodies arrived in the mail Saturday, check out the spread!

Sally Hansen didn’t specify what the prize pack worth $100 would include so I spent the entire month of August predicting what I thought would show up in the mail. Most of my guesses were about right on what prizes they would send – a spread of their newer skincare line of products, some polishes, some Salon Effects polish strips plus a matching file and toe spacers. I thought for sure they’d send a few of their newest polish lines “Fuzzy Coat” and “Sugar Coat”, but that’s where I was wrong! 😦

I’m very grateful for the fabulous package; the only real tragedy is that I already own two out of the three actual polishes that they sent me! Fortunately, the one I don’t own (the muted mint green “Jaded”) is one I’ve been eyeballing for a long time. Strangely enough, I think I’m most excited about the zebra print toe separators for pedicures because my old set disappeared :). Thanks again to Sally Hansen for the goodies!

Keep an eye out for an upcoming contest I’ll be posting where you can get some Sally Hansen’s products and more for free!