perfectly nude.

Just when we think we’ve figured things out, the universe throws us a curve ball. So we have to improvise, we find happiness in unexpected places, we find our way back to the things that matter the most. The universe is funny that way, sometimes it just has a way of making sure we wind up exactly where we belong.

~Grey's Anatomy

Ya'll really have NO IDEA how excited I am for this post today... I'm about to show ya'll what I think is absolutely my favorite mani that I've ever done on myself... truly. I've decided to seriously go on a no buy of polish after the end of this month because I still need to do the Zoya promo,... but my last buy of nail polish this month was the Revlon glitter fall collection. I had seen it swatched all over the place, and found the collection at Walgreens and picked it up,... I am absolutely IN LOVE with these. I of course had to use the pink one first, but I didn't want to JUST use the Revlon polish,... so I decided to use Zoya Minka with it.

Sidenote: I have a goal of using every single polish in my small stash before I purchase any new stuff,... this should take me months, so lets hope that I can stick to this!

makeup makes my world go 'round.

"Sometimes I wonder if anything's absolute anymore. Is there still right and wrong? Good and bad? Truth and lies? Or is everything negotiable,left to interpretation, grey. Sometimes we're forced to bend the truth, transform it, cause we're faced with things that are not of our own making. And sometimes things simply catch up to us." 

-One Tree Hill

When I first decided to make this blog, I knew that it wouldn't be all about polish,... because lets face it,.. I have yet to get super good at nail art, stamping, water marbling, or anything else, so some of my posts of the "color of the moment" get kind of blah and redundant. So, in making this blog, I knew this would be my place to post any makeup hauls, clothing hauls, quotes, polish, or WHATEVER I felt like at the moment.. Hint at the fact that this is considered, "my wonderland." So, today's post will be about my excursion to Sephora on Friday night. 

change.

Change can be so constant; sometimes you don't realize there's a change until its already here.

Okay guys... This is going to be a non-nail polish post...  my next few posts are going to be some "hauls" I've done lately, such as clothes and yes... nail polish. Today's post is going to center around a change I recently made. I tend to change my hair if I've just experienced a break-up or I'm going through a "trauma" of sorts... and feel like a change is needed. I'm experiencing some issues with someone that I considered a friend, and it's had me all torn up emotionally the last month or so... so last Wednesday I decided to get to my stylist and make a change. It tends to be cathartic for me, in that I make the change and tend to let the past go... so far, I'm taking it a day at a time and doing pretty well. Before Wednesday I was blonde with a black shadowbox in my bangs and the underneath of my hair.. I also had pink in there. I walked out a red-head, but kept the black shadowbox.

Bloglovin'

Again, sorry for the lack of bloggage, there is some coming soon, I promise! I'm finally feeling tons better where I don't feel I have to be in bed constantly, or doped up on cold meds! But, I've decided to join Blog Lovin' as well... just in case some people prefer to follow there.. just trying to make myself more accessible even though I'm fairly new to this whole thing... :) Hope you're all having a great weekend! Happy Saturday!

Sick!

My loves.. I'm so sorry for the lack of bloggage lately... I've been under the weather and trying to get better by sleeping and medicine! New blogs soon, I promise! How is your week going?

down the rabbit hole..

"Only a few find the way, some don’t recognize it when they do; some… don’t ever want to." -The Cheshire Cat, Alice

Happy Monday everybody! I hope you had a fabulous weekend! I'm going to continue to try to keep up with this posting almost everyday thing, but I can't make many promises. I work 10 hour days then get home and just wanna go to bed... not paint nails, haha. I had been painting my nails at work, til the love of mine started having asthma attacks.. and I don't think its fair for me to be painting my nails but telling others they can't SO. Its few and far between for me to get a new mani in, but I will try! 

Ya'll know how much I've been loving Midtown Magic by China Glaze,... I think its been on my nails in some form since I got it.. so today I'm gonna show ya'll some things I did with it... Warning, this is kinda picture heavy.

what a sponge!

People always talk about that moment when they fell for their best friend. There never was a moment for me and mine. I've always loved him.

~Michelle Burns

So first things first, thank YOU to all those who have decided to follow me,.. I never ever expected to have a following, lol. This was sort of just going to be my creative outlet, but I'm so glad to have you guys :) Secondly, I've started making some edit's to my sidebar over there and made me a spiffy little blog header (Which im having a difficult time deciding which of the 3 I made to use, lol) via Shabby Blogs. What do ya'll think??

Today I am presenting sort of a nail fail/nail success... nail fail because it didn't turn out how I wanted it to, and I wanted to take it off ASAP before I added an element to it, and nail success because its the mani that made me comfy with sponging,.. it was only my second time, and I'm feeling more and more confident every time!

L-R: Sally Hansen - Lacey Lilac; Zoya - Yummy; Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow

Click below to see the result!

Such magic.

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

I cannot seem to stop using CG Midtown Magic... it seems to always find its way into my mani's lately,.. I think I need to lock it away somewhere safe! However, Midtown Magic did not make it into the below bottle shot... and, you gotta love the random places I take pictures, lol... I don't have anything setup at the moment for my pictures, so I take them wherever I can! 

L-R: Sinful Colors - Sugar Sugar; Sinful Colors - Folly; Sinful Colors - Queen of Beauty

Give.

‎"if you want to get love, then give it. if you want to feel some forgiveness, then you gotta let go and do some forgiving of your own. if you want a friend, then be one. a little kindness, show some. you'll be surprised at how much finds it way back home. it don't matter what  it is. if you want it... give."

-LeAnn Rimes

In honor of a very special anniversary to me today, I present to you a very simple mani... 14 months ago today I met the one that would forever alter the course of where I thought my life was going. My best friend, my compass, and the apple of my eye. Never in my life did I dream I could love someone this much. Yellow is his favorite color. Honestly. I hate yellow. I rarely wear it and I rarely ever wear it on my nails. However, I am lemming for Pippa by Zoya,... anyway. I didn't really have time to do anything super elaborate, and lets face it guys, I'm still kinda learning... lol. But I did want to honor the occasion in a way that only we will notice... (:

The colors: Sinful Colors - All About You; Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow; Sinful Colors - Lets Meet; Sinful Colors - Snow Me White.

oops!

"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?"

Today I have for you.... a nail fail. I have had several of them, but this is one that I actually documented. I'm not quite sure what my original thinking was or where I was going, but it turned out super ugly and messy. I think maybe I was just going for a diagonal, alternating rainbow affect.. but instead ended up with goopy sloppy lines! I wonder how it would've turned out had I thought to put black crackle over top of it... I'm not super steady with my hands anyway, my hands have shaken my whole entire life... some days are worse than others. SOOO, i'm going to blame this nail fail on shaky hands instead of lack of artistic ability... (:

So, these were the colors I chose... From L to R we have: Sinful Colors - Snow Me White; Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow; Sally Hansen - Green with Envy; Sally Hansen - Lacey Lilac; Sinful Colors - Cream Pink and Zoya - Yummy.

And for the nail fail....

I think had my hand been steadier and been able to do semi-straight, not squiggly lines, it MIGHT have turned out okay. I was kinda bummed that I didn't try to use CG Black Mesh over top to see how it cracked. Sigh. Hindsight is always 20/20 vision! 

Its my party..

"Tough times don't last... but tough people do."

Today I have for you... my birthday mani (even though my birthday was the 4th!)! My awesome friend Summer gave me some color club polishes for a birthday present, so I wanted to try them out first chance I got, and low and behold it was my birthday night... I didn't do anything supa fly or fabulous, because ya'll, I'm still new at this and learning, but I came up with something that suited me and my personality. 

This is the lovely set she got me! I LOVE these colors,... well for sure the two that I've used I love. Do these have names? I couldn't find them, but I used the dark grayish color on the end, and the pink! 

My apologies, I didn't realize these were so blurry til I got them on my PC,... and its obviously too late to take new pics, haha. But basically, I did all but my ring finger in the grayish color. And of course an accent nail. But.. as much as I loved this.. it just didn't have what I wanted on my birthday.. 

Enter Spark by Wet N Wild! Ya'll know I'm a glitter addict! I had to have SOME glitter somewhere.

All in all, I liked this one... I only wore it for my birthday though. I'm interested to see what my little brain will conjure up next for these color club polishes. This was honestly the first time I'd ever used Color Club and must admit, they are impressive! Can't wait to get more!

Breakfast at Tiffany's.

"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls." ~Joseph Campbell

Today I've decided to feature my go to color; my favorite in the entire world (at the moment); For Audrey by China Glaze! For Audrey is absolutely my go to color. When I have zero inspiration for what color I want to wear that day, its always this one. I wear it on my toes constantly! I must give credit where credit is due, however, and say that if Summer over at Groupie Glam, one of my dear dear friends, hadn't told me to look at swatches of it... I NEVER would've purchased it. I just never would've thought it was appealing... But, how clever of CG to also make For Audrey into a Crackle and call it Crushed Candy. But, crushed candy, has been in my crackle/shatter collection for awhile, and I've yet to use it.. maybe thats my next mission...

SEE! they are exactly the same! Was I the only one that didn't notice this until I had both For Audrey and Crushed Candy in my stash?

Here it is all by itself,... sigh. I just absolutely love this color. Maybe because I have fancy dreams of maybe getting a Tiffany ring from my prince charming someday?!

and this, my friends, is one of my absolute favorite ways to wear this polish... with OPI Silver Shatter on top! I came up with this idea one day when I was staring down at my stash of polish and knew I wanted to wear For Audrey but wanted to spice it up a bit... the affect was amazing and I got SEVERAL compliments on this mani. I actually wore it for days.

With flash. Absolutely beautiful to me! So basically, this was just base coat of Gelous, 2 coats of For Audrey, one coat of OPI Silver Shatter, and no top coat. 

So,... what do you think? Hit or Miss?

The Life I Know.

‎"she wakes up in the morning with a smile on her face knowing that yesterday when she needed him.. he was there,.. and today when she looks for him... he'll be in the same place."

Today I have for you my current manicure featuring some polishes from my most recent mini haul. I have to admit it; I am a glitter addict. I go completely crazy anytime I see ANY glitter polish, especially if it looks pretty to me. I was a little unsure of what I wanted to do, so I just kind of went with it. The result was 3 coats of CG in the City and sponged tips with Midtown Magic... both from the Metro Collection. I have to say, I am kind of impressed with the result even if no one else is, only because this was my first time EVER using a makeup sponge to sponge on polish,... and I actually LOVE the affect. So we'll see what else I can come up with. 

Gotta love the claw pictures. This was the best picture I could get, considering it was night time when I did this. I absolutely LOVE both these polishes. CG in the City got surprisingly opaque with only 3 coats, but I kinda wish I'd used a base coat. Midtown Magic is just... amazing. Its so pretty in the bottle... I can't wait to do a full manicure with it! Again its kind of reminiscent of both Sloane and Rich in Heart, but I think there are some major differences. Whats with me buying the same color family?

Holding both the new precious additions to my collection. Forgive the lack of clean up. Its late. I want to go to bed. Lol.

Ah, so in love! 

Edited this post with a flash pic to show all the glittery goodness! I'm IN LOVE.

What do you guys think? Was this a hit or miss? I THINK it would've looked better with Minka from Zoya underneath CG in the City, but I'm not entirely sure that it would have the same affect. I'm still learning! :)

  

You're all I've got.

"We are joined by the bonds of love. And you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds. And you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords."

~The Princess Bride

SOOOO. I know I said I was going to try to have a no buy September or October,... well. That all COMPLETELY went down the drain. However, I'm justifying by saying.. I will only buy polish if a) I have a coupon for Sallys b) if Walgreens has amazing sales on Sinful Colors/Wet N Wild and c) if I find a goooood deal. With that being said, I've made a couple "mini" hauls the last few days. The first was Friday morning on my way to work, and the second... Today at Sally's. Gotta love the 15% off coupons in the mail.

My first haul was Walgreens + OPI Absolutely Alice which I had been lusting after for the longest time:

L to R we have: Sugar Sugar - Sinful Colors; Ebony Hates Chris - Wet n Wild; How I Met Your Magenta - Wet n Wild; Rich in Heart - Sinful Colors. ANDDDD the star of this set is, OPI Absolutely Alice. Which a friend of mine ordered from a friend of hers.. and now.. it is my new favorite in my collection :D

My second haul was today,... I got my 15% off coupon in the mail from Sallys, so of course... I can't turn that down:

L to R we have: California Mango cuticle remover; CG in the City - China Glaze (from the Metro Collection);  Midtown Magic - China Glaze (from the Metro Collection); Dorothy Who? - China Glaze (from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection); California Mango cuticle oil; and just a little blinged out nail file I got for .69 cents.

I'm still not exactly QUITE sure why I got Dorothy Who, other than I want to see for myself if it is anything like Absolutely Alice from OPI,... man I'm so in love with Absolutely Alice.. but it is the WORST polish in the world I've ever had to take off! For now, I'll bid you adieu and hope that you are having a fantastic weekend... :)

Rich in Heart

First of all, major apologies for not posting lately.. I'm such a bad blogger! I'm attempting this "blog from the iPhone" thing to see how it turns out.. It may be easier for me to blog this way, since I'm not always near my PC.

Today is just a quick post to show you the color I'm rockin' today in anticipation of fall weather! It's called Rich in Heart by Sinful Colors,... It reminds me a lot of Zoya Sloane... Comparison post soon?

Without further ado... Rich in Heart! Minus cleanup and amazing cuticles! And minus a bottle picture.. I haven't mastered those yet.

Zoya

So sorry that I have not been blogging. Its actually my birthday weekend, and I've had some plans and have been away from my computer. Today, I decided to blog about my most recent Zoya haul. I'm attempting to have a no buy September and October, because I've literally spent SO MUCH money on nail polish in the last 3 months, lol. I have some that I haven't even used yet, so I'm going to let those curb my addiction for awhile. Not to mention Summer over at Groupie Glam bought me some nail polish for my birthday... along with this FABULOUS beautiful pink picture frame... she knows me so well!

I did the last Zoya promotion (not the free shipping one going on right now), and wound up buying 4 polishes... I have definitely become a big Zoya fan, I love their polishes... not to mention that all their polishes have first names.. I really wish they'd make a Desiree. That would make my year SO amazing! haha.

From the top and going left  we have: Yummy, Mimi, Tallulah, and Sloane

A closer view; I know my pictures aren't great.. these were all taken before I had the mindset to blog!

REALLY bad swatches and only one coat. Index is Sloane, middle is Tallulah, ring is Yummy, and pinkie is Mimi!

The star of my haul?

Sloane!! I love her so much! But I'm more of a vampy kind of girl when it comes to polish in the fall. Sloane is absolutely going to be the star of my nails this season. 

And last but not least, I don't know if there is a universal rule about not posting pictures of ourselves on our blogs, but I had such an incredible time at my early birthday dinner last night with friends, that I wanted to post my favorite picture from the evening. 

We have me in front (from the left), then Spen'sar who is the mommy to my niece who is due to be born in December (we are not real sisters, more like... surrogate sisters. We are extremely close.) Then my Summer sky!

And this.. is my personality at its finest! I'm sure ya'll really wanted to see this! 

Again, if there is some rule to not posting personal pictures on a nail/whatever blog, please let me know. I don't want to break any rules! Haha, but I'm still new to all of this! Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend... less than 14 hours til my birthday! I'll be halfway to 30... sighhh.