Manicure Monday: Spring Pastels

Monday greetings lovely Spring flowers. I hope you all had a terrific weekend, enough terrificness to carry over to combat this Monday blue. Those four days after the weekend is always the hardest to get through, but I'm sure we can make it. Right guys? Right!

For those who aren't already aware, Spring officially begun on March 20th, a mere three days ago. When Spring is mentioned, pastels automatically jump into mind. For me at least. :) Although I don't necessarily follow the "only wear dark shades" during the Fall/Winter, I still do look forward to Spring/Summer to finally rightfully sport pastels and bright neons. And that is just what I did this week. I've been sporting dark colors way too often lately so it is definitely time.

SPRING IS HERE, SO LET'S BRING ON THE PASTELS!

Manicure Monday: Sapphire Siren

Monday greetings you lovely people! :) I hope you all had a terrific weekend. Oh glorious weekend came and left like a whirlwind, and here we are back at Monday once again. But fret not, we are only four days away from the next weekend. LOL.

When Monday rolls around, basically the only reason that makes Monday manageable is that I get to switch up my manicure for the week. Yay for keeping it consistent!

Winter is nearing the end and this week's dark color is a farewell gesture. Technically Spring will not start until the 21st of March, but considering how next week is St. Patrick's Day, my nails will have something to do with that. After that, bring in the pretty pastels and lively vibrants because Spring will be in full Spring. Who is excited??

Midweek Update: Harem by Illamasqua

Happy Thursday everyone! :)

I want to give y'all a quick update regarding my manicure this week. If you're just joining us, welcome! To bring you up to date, last Monday, I had used a Nail Varnish by Illamasqua called Harem, a beautiful creamy lilac shade, perfect for Spring.

You can read all about here, which is basically my first impression of the brand and how I liked it. Lemme just say, it didn't impress me then and there.

Comes to this past Monday, my manicure was still in pristine condition. Needless to say, I had quite a few praises for this nail color.

As you can see, for a old week old manicure, that is pretty impressive. Shine was still there, hardly any chips. You can read about how I changed my opinion about Illamasqua here.

But, what happens when that one week mark passes? Will the manicure still be in great condition? Or will it start to deteriorate that makes me wish I had done a new manicure on Monday? Hmmm.

Manicure Monday: Harem by Illamasqua One Week Update

Hey, hey, heeeeeeey you lovely gals (and guys). :) What a lovely way to start off the week, with rain, lots and lots of rain all day. I love it so much! Downside to all this rain is I am way too lazy to get out of the house. It's okay, I'm good at improvisation, I have plenty of ish to do staying in as well. So that was pretty much my day, stayed in, sipping on hot cocoa with lots of marshmallows, can't forget the marshmallows. :P Heehee. Uhhh... what now? Oh yeah, not all about sipping hot cocoa, I did work too, boring stuff. Mehh, like cleaned my brushes, dusted, cleaned and reorganized the makeup room. I also cleaned out my makeup, threw out the old ones and wiped down the ones I kept. Overall, it was a very productive day. I am kinda hoping it'll rain again tomorrow so I can have a reason to stay in to finish up, but let there be sun on Wednesday so I can head out for errands.

Anyways, new week usually means new manicure, however, I'm sure y'all read that biggo title up there stating that this is an update post. Haha. So yes, I am reporting back here with one week nails, using Illamasqua Nail Varnish.

Remember my manicure from last week? No? Not a problem, lemme help you out.

But aren't you curious as to how one week nails without a top coat would look like?

Manicure Monday: Harem by Illamasqua

Hello, hello my Monday blue jays. :P How are you all fending off this Monday? Two words for me, Manicure Monday.

Yep, it is that time of week again when I say "screw everything" and just dedicate a bit of time to do my nails. Because even if it is just for a brief moment, I am able to do something I thoroughly enjoy and just forget about everything else. It has been one heck of a week and a very eventful weekend. Life as I know it will dramatically change and I'll say it right now, it will be very stressful. Buuut, let's keep being optimistic and keep those negative feels far from the blog. :)

I finally got around to this Illamasqua Nail Varnish I picked up months ago. I was originally gonna wait until Spring, but what the heck, it is technically Spring/Summer here in the AZ already. And since last week, I had bright, semi-complex nails, I just wanted to go for nice, clean cut, basic nails.

 

If y'all can't tell, I trimmed my nails short again. I've been preferring this over long nails, or even medium length at that. It's just so low maintenance, I love it!

Manicure Monday: Lunar New Year 2015

Hello Monday everyone! I hope you're all having a terrific start of the week. I am greeting y'all from my cousins' today, busy baby sitting a bunch of kids off of school today... Needless to say, such a chaotic start to the week. :P

Lunar New Years is juuuuuuuust around the corner, approximately three days away. A whole lot still needs to get done and be done. I have worked endlessly all weekend and we're not even halfway through with the chores. I don't think I'm gonna last until New Years. LOL.

Quick, short manicure post today before I get back with the kids.

Manicure Monday: Valentine's Day 2015

Hello Monday everybody! How was your weekend? Too short? Yeah... so was mine. Haha. Definitely cannot wait until the weekend is near again. Wooo!!

Can anyone tell me what this Saturday is? Well, for some, it is Valentine's Day while to others, it is also known as the Single's Awareness Day. Hahaha. Either way, there are plenty of chocolates and/or candies to go around for everyone, and everyone likes their sweets right? Another year that I will not be celebrating V-Day, last year being the first and this year being the second. But it's alright, it doesn't bother me because I am all for the festivities anyways. I will not be celebrating does not mean I cannot get into the holiday spirit. :P

Which is what this post is all about!! My manicure this week is totally V-Day inspired, pinks and reds and loads of hearts. So no mater if your single or taken, let's just beautify our nails for US! Yeah!!

Manicure Monday: Haze of Love

Monday greetings my loves! I hope you all had a great weekend. I had a very productive, yet awesome weekend so I can't complain really. :P

Who watched the Superbowl yesterday?? Maaaaan, wasn't that halftime show just freaken AMAZING?! Katy Perry was just perfect... Her makeup, her outfits, those shoes,  her stages, those backup dancer sharks. Hahaha, everything was awesome! Oh, and also good game too.

Back to business, today is Monday, also known as the day I switch up my nails. Welcome to another Manicure Monday post!! :D This week, I had a veeeeeeeery special someone help me pick out the shade. Said person picked "maroon" and maroon it shall be. Now, I am bad with colors but does maroon and the current color of the year, marsala kinda looks the same? Kinda? Maybe...?

 You be the judge. I'd say this is close enough and could be passed as being the color of the year manicure. LOL.

Manicure Monday: A Heart of "Jazzy Jade"

Hello, hello to you all. How are y'all doing on this Monday? Sooo yeah, y'all keep warm and be safe in this bipolar weather alright? Besides the blizzard in the northeast, AZ is actually experiencing a gloomy day ourselves, nothing too extreme but nonetheless something different.

So it is Monday, regulars would know what Monday means on my blog. LOL. Another week, another manicure. Last week, I sported blue nails, link is provided if you haven't already seen it; this week, this pretty jade color caught my eyes as I was going through my nail colors.

Isn't it just the most gorgeous shade of jade??? But of course, a simple white heart to contrast. :D

Manicure Monday: "Into the Blue" With You

I am definitely feeling the Monday blues today... Into the Blue that is, which are on my nails! :P No seriously though, anyone feeling blue? Because cheer up y'all, Mondays aren't the most favorite days of the week but it's just a day and we're already over it. So over it. :)

Manicure this week is blue because I had just received this gorgeous Nail Lacquer by Probelle in my January iPsy bag. Since I have no planned manicure for this week, this nail color came jussssssst in time.

This is by no mean a review... yet. I do hope that this manicure will last me until next, next week so I can give y'all a one week update. We shall see how well this nail color will fare on its own for a whole week. Testing out nail colors and trying out new brands is definitely a favorite past time of mine.

So let's see what we have here...

Manicure Monday: Many Shades of Purple

Hello all and Monday greetings! I was gonna wish you a happy Monday but I highly doubt that was true. Haha. I mean, I can't complain about my Monday but I'd much rather it be the weekend still. Just a heads up, I probably won't go anywhere this week because I have to babysit my baby cousin all of this week. I am great with children, but it's one thing to care for them at home then taking them out. This little one is two months shy of being 2 years old so she is one heck of a hand full.

She took a reeeeeeeally long nap earlier so I was able to do my nails real quick. I was so tempted to just do a simple, classic manicure but what the hey... Let's just risk her getting up. :P But don't get me wrong, I didn't do anything extravagant either, just kinda added a bit pizzazz from the norm manicures.

Okay, here we go before she wakes up and cries for her parents. LOL.

Manicure Monday: "Mr. Right Now" is "A True Romantic" detailed

Hello everyone and I wish you all a great Tuesday. Hope that all is going well for you all as well. Only the best wishes for my readers.

So yesterday I finally uploaded the post that I was asked to do a month ago. I am behind on a lot of materials, and I know excuses aren't going to make any difference but I promise you, once this dark time is over, I will be back with 200% effort and 300% dedication.

If any of you somehow missed it, I did a guide on how to Winterize your nails yesterday. My 6 step guide on how to keep our nails clean and healthy over the long, dreary Winter months.

Today, however, I will go into details about this week's manicure using Sephora by OPI and Julep Nail Colors.

How To Winterize Your Nails - Julep Exclusive Guide

Hello Monday my pretty blog explorers! Hope the beginning of the week is treating you well. For a few, this is actually the first day back from a very long break, I can only imagine how long and tedious this day is. But fret not! Now that we are home, it's time to pamper ourselves with a nice calming manicure. Does that calm you or is it just me?

So a while back, I teased an exclusive tutorial from Julep but I never actually got around to it until today. I actually attempted the guide twice but I was not completely satisfied with the results so I ended up scrapping it. Since today is the first manicure related post of 2015, I figured it should be a great idea to finally get to it.

So to brief y'all what this is about, I was contacted by a rep of Julep about a month ago; I am amongst the few beauty bloggers chosen for this special project. For the record, this is NOT a sponsored post. I will indeed inform y'all if I ever do a sponsored post, I would not lie about that. This is just a campaign Julep has going on, on how to maintain our nails during the Winter time. I was sent this tutorial guide and was asked to create my own guide, with my own products using the tutorial. With that said, everything mentioned in this post are all bought by my own money and was NOT sent anything. This is also not a review post so I will not be talking about anything except for the steps.

 If you are interested to see what Julep and myself have in store for you, please click the link below to view more. Happy manicure. :)

Manicure Monday Mania of 2014

Monday greetings everyone!! Last Monday of 2014, which coincidentally also means the last Manicure Monday post of 2014. Yep, just like that, another year is coming to an end and a new year is about to begin. Bitter sweet to see 2014 go and 2015 come, but so is life.

In honor of the last Monday, I wanted to use today's post to basically go through all of the manicures that happened this year. If you have some time, please feel free to go though the list. Let me know which ones you like; any you'll try out yourself?

I will post this week's manicure tomorrow or Wednesday, I know, it will be a late post but we gotta do what we gotta do. With that that said, after this post, I will see you all back here for another Manicure Monday official post in 2015.

Hope y'all will enjoy!! :D

Christmas 2014

"Pink Popsicle" One Week UpdatePink Popsicle

"Keep Me On My Mistletoes" "Mr. Right Now"

Thanksgiving the Turkey

Manicure Monday: Christmas 2014

Happy Monday before Christmas everyone!! D-3 until the final countdown, but who's counting. Haha. I hope y'all had a great weekend! Did y'all get a chance to check out my skincare posts all weekend long? It's never too late, a warm mask for a chilly day, a DIY mud mask or even a simple almond scrub to cleanse the pores. Chem em out and pamper yourselves over the holiday break.

Speaking of Christmas literally being around the corner and given that today is Monday, today's manicure will be Christmas inspired! Many of the designs were done last year but I really adored em so I created them again this year. If you are interested in the Christmas 2013 manicure, please just click the link, provided for your convenience. :D

So let's get started! Below are the cutesy manicures for this year. Pick and choose your favorite and let me know which ones you will be trying out yourself or just simply love. :)

Manicure Monday: "Pink Popsicle" One Week Update

Monday greetings to all my lovely Autumn blossoms. :) And just how are you all doing on this lovely Autumn day? The weather has really gotten cold Bundle up and keep warm my pretties! Don't want y'all to catch a cold now.

If you are a regular to my blog, you'll already know this but if you're a browser or a new follower, Monday's are usually, always manicure related. I usually switch up my nails on Monday and do a post entry about it. It's been a good while but today's entry will be an update rather than a new manicure. Why might you ask? Well, take a looksy below and you can probably understand why I couldn't bring myself to remove this manicure.

 

Yes, what you see here is not fresh paint, nope. This is one week old nails WITHOUT a top coat.

This is my first time using Pop Beauty's nail color so I didn't know what to expect. Usually, when I try out a new brand of nail color for the first time, I risk it and do not use top coats, for obvious reasons. I usually don't do update posts, not unless the nail color deserves recognition as an outstanding nail color. In my opinion, Pop Beauty does deserve a shout out! From the formula to the application to the long wearing, everything is a thumbs up in my book. I am glad I was able to pick this up from Hautelook for only $3. I will definitely keep my eyes on Hautelook for the next Pop Beauty event.

Pop Beauty Nail Glam Nail Polish in Pink Popsicle
Sephora By OPI Nail Color in It’s Bouquet With Me

Just a reminder of how the fresh manicure looked like last week…

Not much of a difference I dare say. With the exception of my nails growing and the slight chipping at the tip. For the most part, no fading, no major chipping or anything of that sort. I think it is rather important to mention that I did NOT apply a top coat to this manicure, so all the props goes to Pop Beauty. I did however use a base coat, so for what it’s worth, the combination of drug store nail colors I used all can last for more than a week.

If you are interested in how I created this manicure, please feel free to visit my manicure post from last week called Pink Popsicle ; just clicky click on the link and it should take you to said post.

That shall be it for today. Enjoy the rest of your night. As always, much appreciation for your visits and taking time to read. Enjoy the rest of your day now my pretties. Please do come back real soon. :)

Manicure Monday: Pink Popsicle

Hello pretties, all my pretties, you pretties. Hahaha. I am in such a great mood today and I am not sure why! And I frankly don't need to know why!! :D

Switched up my nails today to a pretty pink. Pink is my happy color. I either wear it because I am in a great mood or I wear it to put me in a great mood. Today's choice of pink is called Pink Popsicle and it's from Pop Beauty. This is the first time I am using this ever since ordering it from Hautelook a while ago. I actually did a post about it, click here if you're interested.

I also used a glitter top coat from Sephora by OPI that I also ordered from Hautelook. You can also check that out above! :)

Pop Beauty Nail Glam Nail Polish in Pink PopsicleSephora By OPI Nail Color in It's Bouquet With Me

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamond Shine Base & Top Coat

Pink Popsicle is a pretty pale pink shade. It is not too pale that it is almost white, but not too pink that it is bubble pink. Which is great because I own nothing like this shade. It is truly very beautiful.

The formula is very creamy and more on the runny side. Ya know how some nail colors can be a bit too thick and makes the application so much harder? Well this applies like a dream. Two thin coats and it is good to go. The shin is amazing as well; what you see in the pics above are its own shine, no top coat necessary. Dry time takes about 15 minutes for the first coat, and about half an hour for the second coat.

I am not really liking the glitter formula from Sephora by OPI, it is too watery for my liking. Unlike nail colors, I prefer my glitters to be more thick. This is not by any means a bad glitter; I can definitely use it for other things.

Thank you for visiting and thanks for reading. Please come back soon! :)

Manicure Monday: "Keep Me On My Mistletoes" "Mr. Right Now"

Hello Monday everyone!! How was your first Monday back to work after a looooooong, food-filled weekend? Haha. :P On the bright side, we are now in December, the last month of 2014 already. 20 days until it is officially Winter and 24 days away from Christmas. It's all happening so fast it feels so surreal.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it was one heck of a weekend for me. Shopping, dinners, gatherings, everything threw my sleeping cycle out of whack and I could not sleep for the life of me last night. I literally laid there wide eyed, staring at my ceiling then as I drift to sleep, I somehow jerk up and cannot fall asleep again. That, mixed with tossing and turn and the lack of getting comfortable. I probably slept no more than two hours combined so needless to say, I am running on no sleep and zero patience. Imma further tire myself out by killing myself working out. Hopefully that's enough to make me just pass out tonight.

Anyways, it's Monday so y'all already know what day it is!! Yep, time to switch them manicures up! It was one heck of a task to accomplished, I've realized if you are as dead tired as I was. Since it is December, I felt festive and wanted red talons. I ordered a bunch of Sephora by OPI nail colors from Hautelook on several occasions and I have yet to even use all of the shades. Amongst the shades was a deep, cool-tone red called Mr. Right Now which caught my eyes when I was going through the nail colors. And that is what I used today. :)

Sephora by OPI Nail Color in Keep Me On My Mistletoes & Mr. Right Now

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamond Shine Base & Top Coat

In person, the shade is a cool-tone red shade but from these pictures, they appear to be a warm red. Either way, the shade is super gorgeous, wouldn't you say so? I figured having red on all ten fingers might be too boring so I used a gold for my accent fingers.

Both shades required two coats to appear even and streak free. As always, I did two thin coats, allowing each coat to fully dry before applying another, which did not take long at all, maybe 10 minutes tops.

After my nails were all beautifully applied, it still looked kinda plain so I dipped a toothpick into Keep Me On My Mistletoes and created a free-hand bow on my thumb. I should have stopped there but I went a step further and created several red bows on my gold accent nail.

I did not apply any top coat to these nail colors. The shine you see is all Sephora by OPI nail color's shine.

Thank you for visiting and thanks for reading. Please come back soon!!

Manicure Monday: Thanksgiving the Turkey

Happy Monday all! D-3 until Thanksgiving!! Who else is counting down? LOL. Just thinking about the food is enough to make my mouth water... Ahhh... It'll be so worth it though. :P

As always, Mondays are for manicures and this week is no exception. I wanted to keep the Thanksgiving theme but not be too serious about it nor go all cray-cray neither. Whenever I think of Thanksgiving, turkeys immediately jump into mind, followed by the Cornucopia and pumpkins and all that stuff afterward. But a turkey though... the one still alive and gobbling away, not the one that's set as the centerpiece on Thanksgiving day. LOL. So that's where I got my inspiration from. I know that turkeys do not have color tail feathers... I am actually afraid to look at a real turkey. They're so scary and they look mean! But remembering back to elementary school, whenever this time of year rolled around, we would make turkeys using our hands, the fingers are the tail feathers and we would color them in right beautiful colors. Ahh, good times.

Without further adieu, I'll like to introduce y'all to Thanksgiving the Turkey and all his bright tail feathers. Haha. Gobble, gobble.

He looks like a deer in headlights all shocked and wide eyes. Haha. I totally did not mean to do that. I am not complaining though, I think it adds character to Thanksgiving the Turkey. :D

Nirvana, Cover Me In Petals, What's Your Sign?, IM Beauty, 24 Karat, Rise & Shine, Big Apple Red

 

TURKEY - Sinful Colors Professionals Nail Color in Nirvana
ORANGE - Sephora by OPI Nail Color in Cover Me In Petals & What's Your Sign?
YELLOW - Sephora by OPI Nail Color IM Beauty & Sinful Colors Professional Nail Color in 24 Karat
GREEN - Sinful Colors Professionals Nail Color in Rise & Shine
RED - NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel in Big Apple Red

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamond Shine Base & Top Coat

I applied two thin coats of each nail colors for every one of my nails. As for the top glitter coats, I applied only one thin coat. And that's it. Very simple and easy but it shall entice the children on Thanksgiving day. LOL.

Thank you for joining me yet again and thanks for reading. Please come back soon! :)

____________________________________

SONG(S) OF THE DAY/MOMENT

Manicure Monday: Zoya

Monday greetings my pretties. I hope y'all are having a lovely Monday because it is one fine, new day and I am grateful to be healthy and alive. Thanksgiving will be 10 days away, don't just wait until then to be grateful and give thanks. It should be done year round, all the time, for the big, small and not so little things. Around this time, every year for the last 3 or 4 years, I would donate food, canned goods and/or clothing and would make time to volunteer. I know it's not much, but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. The Holiday Season is to spread warm love and joyous cheers, and I try to do exactly that.

Any who, today's post was originally supposed to be a tutorial on How To Winterize Your Nails but something came up midday and I was unable to finish it so as a back up, today's post is of my manicure for this week. I doubt that the tutorial will be able to go up next week as well because I will be doing special Thanksgiving manicure. I'm guessing that the tutorial will go up in about two weeks. I apologize to those who were looking forward to it. 

Zoya Professional Lacquer in Julie & Neve

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamond Shine Base & Top Coat

Julie is the lavender shade and Neve being the deep, dark blue. Both shades took two thick coat to come out evenly and streakless. The waiting time to dry is approx. 20 minutes, but even so, do be care not to touch it or it might dent or be messed up. 

I did use a base coat to protect my nails but I did not use a top coat. I hardly ever do wear a top coat, not unless I know that I need my manicure protected until the end of the week or else I just allow the nail color to fend on its own.

Again, I'd like to apologize for the confusion and delay. But please try to understand that in life, unexpected things occur that I cannot control. I'd like to thank you for your understanding. Like I said, the tutorial will go up in about two weeks. I want to do it to the best of my ability and not just BS it, because you guys deserve the best.

Although here are the steps I have created earlier. I am not 100% satisfied with the way it came out so I will redo them but just so you can get the gist of it.

Y'all enjoy the rest of your night now. Thank you for visiting and thanks for reading, Please come back soon. :)