Harry Potter Nails

It was one of the things that got me started on the road to nail polish addiction and I've tried four times to get it looking decent.

I finally pulled off Harry Potter inspired nail art. *Cue the angelic choir.*

I did striping on my left hand. I used two pieces of nail striping tape to mark off the area, then I pulled the tape off right after I added the accent color.

When I was done I knew I'd never get the tape straight on my right hand so I did dots on my right. I really can't decide which I like better.

My thumbs have the symbol for the Deathly Hallows.

I went by the colors in the books. If it isn't in the books, on Pottermore, or from an interview with J.K. Rowling herself... Well then it just isn't true. There are lots of fun things in the movies, but I don't take them as true canon. For today that just means that Ravenclaw colors are blue and bronze, not blue and gray or silver or light blue or whatever that is in the movies.

I spent a lot of time looking for good colors. I wanted them all to compliment each other and have the same slight metallic sheen. Here's the breakdown of what I used:

Pinkies are Slytherin, green and silver. Green is Sinful Colors 926 HD Nails and the silver is Wet 'N' Wild Fast Dry 236C Silvivor.

Ring fingers are Hufflepuff, yellow and black. Yellow is Sinful Colors 928 Let's Meet and the black is Sinful Colors 933 Secret Admirer.

Middle fingers are Gryffindor, crimson and gold. Red is Wet 'N' Wild Wild Shine 463 Jezebel and the gold is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 110 Wedding Glitters.

Pointer fingers are Ravenclaw (YAY!!!), blue and bronze. Blue is Wet 'N' Wild Wild Shine 443D Bijou Blue and the bronze is Revlon Parfumerie 100 Autumn Spice. Quick note about Autumn Spice, it smells. After it dries it has an autumn spice perfume that lasts as long as the nail polish is on my hand. It's weird, but not unpleasant. I looked for months to find a polish in the right shade of bronze. There are plenty of copper polishes out there, but bronze is hard to find.

My thumbs are done in white, Sinful Colors 112 Tokyo Pearl, and Deathly Hallow nail decals from Nail Thins. I used the original, regular sized ones since I was using them on my largest nail.

All my fingers have two coats of OPI Natural Nail Strengthener as a base coat and one coat of OPI Top Coat to finish it off.

Ipsy

I mentioned in the first post I did about my nail addiction that I signed up for Ipsy, this is the post where I get to tell you all about it. (In the spirit of full disclosure, if you click on that link and sign up for Ipsy then I get points towards free stuff. That doesn't color my opinions at all.)

I know it's been a long time coming, but I wanted to get a few months in. I wanted to be sure that I really do love it and that it wasn't some kind of fluke the first couple of times.

I love it!!

As I said before, Ipsy is a subscription service that sends out beauty products in a cute bag every month for a flat rate of $10.

Ten dollars is totally worth it. They don't cheap out on the products. Some of them are trial size, but even the smallest container of product that I've gotten is enough for many uses. A lot of the stuff I've been getting is full sized products. Some of these full sized products are worth more than the price I pay for the whole bag! For example, in my May bag I received a full size bottle of Nailtini polish (which I already blogged about) I was curious, so I looked it up and found that it sells for $13 a bottle and that doesn't even include the shipping.

I don't wear a lot of make up, but I do enjoy it. Even if I didn't wear make up at all I'd still love Ipsy. In addition to the make up and nail polish, I've been shipped hair supplies, sunscreen, moisturizer, a mud mask, and even a make up brush.

Here's the break down of the four months I've been subscribed and everything I've been sent! (Quick note: I was cleaning up my Google Drive and accidentally deleted a bunch of my pictures. I had to recreate March, April, and May. The pictures aren't as good, and some of the products look used because I've been using them!)

February:

A cute pink bag containing: POP Beauty Plump Pout Mini in Fuchsia Freesia (Love it!), skyn ICELAND Fresh Start Mask with Ice Age Mud (haven't used it yet), City Color Be Matte Blush in Fresh Melon (also haven't tried it yet), Zoya Nail Polish in Odetta (used it and liked it a lot!!), and a pair of J. Cat Beauty Eyelashes and Eyelash Glue (Used them with mixed results. The product is great, my technique... not so much!).

March:

This bag was made by an artist especially for Ipsy and is a representation of city streets. I've been carrying it around as a wallet, I totally adore it. It held: Pixi Beauty Flawless Beauty Primer (used it once, didn't notice much difference), bareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Lipstick in Get Ready (LOVE IT!! This tube has lived in my purse. It's tiny, but perfect!), NYX Love in Rio Eye Shadow trio in Segredos de Giselle (Also love and used many times!), and Chella Indigo Blue Eyeliner (used it and thought it was cool, but not for every day).

April:

Betty totally called dibs on this bag. A rock and roll theme was right up her alley! I kept the fun stuff inside: Big Sexy Hair Root Pump Volumizing Spray Mousse, Starlooks Luscious Longwear Lip Pencil in Naked, Elizabeth Mott pop! goes the shadow in Champagne, Dr. Brandt Microdermabrasion, and Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil travel size in Black Velvet. (I haven't used any of this stuff yet, but I'm looking forward to it all!)

May:

This leafy bag had fun stuff that's making me long for sun and sand: Hang Ten Classic Sport SPF 50 sunscreen, Pacifica Mineral Eye Shadow Duo in Moonbeam and Unicorn, Nailtini Straight Up Color Nail Lacquer in Champagne (already blogged about this one!), Pur~lisse Pur~Moist Hydra Balance Moisturizer, and a Crown Brush Pro Blending Fluff Brush.

I'm having a lot of fun, every month is like Christmas! As you can see, I'm getting some really quality stuff for a really reasonable price.

Champagne Nails and a haircut.

My last manicure chipped, so instead of a Sunday manicure I had one on Friday.

I actually took the nail polish off on Wednesday and just painted my nails with two coats of OPI Natural Nail Strengthener. I just couldn't decide what to do this time. There are so many ideas buzzing around in my head but nothing seemed right.

Turns out I was waiting for a reason! My May Ipsy bag came on Friday and included a bottle of Nailtini Lacquer in Champagne. Talk about serendipity!

Two coats of OPI Natural Nail Strengthener and two coats of Nailtini Lacquer in Champagne

I really like the Nailtini Lacquer, but I'm not sure how I feel about the color. Sometimes I think I like it, then I see it in a different light and I'm not so sure. It's a pretty shade of copper-y beige, with a pearl glimmer. I just don't know if I like it on me. Feel free to let me know how you think it looks, I'd love some honest feedback.

There is another thing I'm not sure how I feel about.

I had my hair cut on Tuesday. I wanted to go much shorter for summer. I took a few ideas into the stylist, told him I wasn't afraid of going short, and then told him to do whatever he wanted.

It looked great when he was done, after he blow dried and styled it. I totally loved it.

The after pictures were taken by Joshua, the super talented stylist who came up with this look.

I did a little tweaking in the car and liked it even more.

But now that I've had it for a few days I'm not sure how I feel about it. I wore it today with no product in it at all and that's clearly not something I can do.

Eric told me it looks like something bad happened to my head, "Something that wasn't supposed to happen." Shanon said it looks like something from the 80's a la Cyndi Lauper. It's definitely much spikier when I don't have stuff in it.

I'm thinking it's a little more avant-garde than I'm used to. As it stands right now, I think I'm going to grow it out for a while and then go in for a simple pixie cut. Then again, I'm also considering dying it light blue with dark blue accents.... I do know I need more time to play with it, so don't be surprised if I post more pathetic selfies!

The Addiction is Over

As much as I love it, I've come to realize that I just can't do it any more.

Picture via Wikimedia Commons

I am giving up Dr. Pepper.

It's that time of year where I've got to work to stay hydrated and I've noticed that if I get a Dr. Pepper in the morning I don't drink enough water the rest of the day. I just can't do that and be healthy. I've got to cut the DP out of my life. Not only am I giving up Dr. Pepper, I am giving up all soda. All of it.

I've gone Cold Turkey. No weaning myself off. I have ripped the Bandaid off quickly. My name is Heather and it's been 5 days since my last Dr. Pepper.

Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

Sparkle Nails

For unknown reasons I got bored with the pink dotted nails rather quickly, so I took that polish off and did this new look last Thursday. My allergies have been making me miserable, so I'm just now getting around to posting about it. This picture was taken today.

I did a base coat on these french tips. Last time I skipped it because the Nailene Perfect Tips pull the bottom polish off. I noticed a big difference in the quality of the overall manicure, however, so I went ahead with a base this time as an experiment. The stickers did pull up the base coat, but only on a couple of nails. I think I need to do a little more experimentation to see what it is that causes the damage. I really like the look of french tips, but I want to use different polishes without having the stickers peel up the base color.

The tips were done with one thick coat of Sinful Colors 112 Tokyo Pearl. The glitter is a personal favorite, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear 180 Disco Ball. It's a great holographic glitter with lots of different sparkly colors. It kind of reminds me of Aurora Borealis Swarovski crystals, my favorite color of the Swarovski bunch. I followed up with two coats of my OPI Top Coat for good measure.

The glitter polish had kind of a weird reaction on the white tips. It almost looks like it caused dimples. I'm not sure if it's a trick of light from the glitter, or if it actually made divots in the polish. Either way, it's kind of an interesting texture.

Pink and Silver Polka Dot Nails

I bought a super cheap set of dotting tools on Amazon and I've been playing around with them and finally had something that turned out halfway decent.

Standard base coat with Opi Natural Nail Strengthener. The pink is three coats of Wet 'N' Wild Wild Shine 402 Tickled Pink. I did the dots alone ahead of time (I still can't do much with my left hand) and then added them on top of the pink. The silver dotting is Sally Hansen Hard As Nails 850 Pumping Iron. Followed up with at coat of Opi Top Coat. 

With all this nail art I'm doing I'm really learning that you get what you pay for when it comes to nail polish. Unless the cheaper brands have a color that I just adore, I'm better off going with a higher price point. When it only takes one coat of polish instead of coat after coat, I'm really saving money. Using the cheap stuff is okay for nail art, but really not good for covering my whole nail.

In other nail art related news, I've been trying and trying to do a Hogwarts style look. I must be under some kind of jinx! I've tried three times and every time it turns out terribly! I'm not giving up though! This will happen!!