50 Follower Giveaway and random photo spam!

Hi ladies, I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! I know that I usually blog on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays but I was too excited to wait! I had been sitting pretty at about 49 GFC followers and was pretty happy with that but was planning to do a 50 follower giveaway if and when I ever reached that point. Well, over this week it seems that I have blown past that to 56 and I could not be happier! So to all my new followers, welcome! So as planned, here is my 50 follower giveaway along with some random pictures of how I am spending my Saturday :)

Here is the picture of the majority of the prize. What is NOT pictured is your custom made full sized franken!

Alright my loves, now on to the mandatory contest rules and information:

* The prize includes one full size custom franken of your choice, 2 polish minis in Apple Sour Belt and Peachy Jelly Belly from the soon to be discontinued Sparkles by Julie nail polish line (find what's left of her polishes at her Etsy store), one bag of solvent resistant glitter which I myself have purchased previously and tested, and one mini L'Occitane Dry Hand Cream

* Swatches for the minis can be found here and here

* The giveaway is live starting now until 12 am 4/8/13

* This giveaway is open to US RESIDENTS ONLY, if it is found that the winner is not a US resident, the winner will unfortunately not be eligible and a new winner will be chosen (due to changing mail restrictions, I do not feel comfortable mailing internationally)

* I will establish e-mail contact as soon as I have a winner to hammer out the details and have up to 2 weeks to mail your prize package to you

Well that's it ladies, good luck and thank you again for all of your support! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Drugstore Digits Series: Blue Barracuda

Hello hello my lovely ladies and happy Friday. Hopefully everyone has a great weekend planned whether that be Easter, Passover, or whateva! Today marks the end of the Drugstore Digits Series and I would really truly appreciate any feedback you have so far! This final polish that was made is actually somewhat similar to a previous franken I created awhile ago and I didn't even realize it until I started writing this post. Also, PLEASE tell me you understand what I am alluding to with the name, if not, let's relive my childhood here (best show EVER). Moving on, I started with half a bottle of Pure Ice Oh Baby! which is a top coat made from fine blue shimmer which shifts to purple in a clear base. I then added about a quarter of a bottle of Wet 'n' Wild Fast Dry polish in Hannah Pinktana. Now I'm going to go ahead and stop here. I thought I was bad at naming polishes, but Hannah Pinktana?! Someone got PAID for that! Even worse, is this polish isn't even pink, it is a sheer purple polish with scattered holo microglitter. So yeah Wet 'n' Wild, way off the mark there, way off. Moving on, after adding the quarter of a bottle of Wet 'n' Wild, I then followed it up and topped the bottle of with Milani Neon Nail Lacquer in Fresh Teal which is pretty self explanatory (but watch out, this thing STAINS when used on its own). I mixed it together and what was created was a blue based polish with subtle blue to purple duochrome shimmer and holo. Pretty stinkin cool right?

The Stars of the Show

Bottle Shot in Lightbox

Bottle shot in low light; you can see the holo!

Macro, you can see the gorgeous blue shimmer, but none of the purple duochrome. I couldn't coax it out no matter how hard I tried.

Lightbox

I love how gorgeous and clean the blue is. Even without the shimmer I think I would be entirely ok with this polish. The formula was a tad bit thin and therefore required a little bit more work to prevent pooling and such. Opacity was sheer and it took about 3 thickish coats to get the opacity you see here. Leveling was not a problem, neither was balding, or dragging. It was pretty shiny on its own but swatches show one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry.

Well ladies, this concludes the Drugstore Digits Series, I hope this inspires you to find creativity in even the simplest of polish ingredients. Come Monday we will be back to the frankening and indie polish reviewing. I look forward to seeing you back and hope that you have a great weekend! Until next time, remember to always keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Cam From:

* Pure Ice Oh Baby!: Walmart

* Milani Neon in Fresh Teal and Wet 'n' Wild Fast Dry in Hannah Pinktana: Kmart 

Drugstore Digits Series: Disco Barney

Hello ladies, let me first off say that I know how utterly shocked and amazed you are that I am posting two days in a row, shout it from the rooftops! Haha just kidding but I do know thus far, I have been a Monday, Wednesday, Friday poster. So just for the final week of the Drugstore Digits Series, I upped the ante on the posting. Woooo, look at me go!

So anyways, today's post I named Disco Barney and you will see soon enough why. I was thinking of taking it in another groovier direction but decided to keep this G rate (hugs not drugs kids!) I started off with about a third to a half of a bottle of Color Club Gingerbread from the 2011 Beyond the Mistletoe Collection (a Ross store gem!). Gingerbread is a gold holo glitter topper. I then globbed in a liberal amount of Milani One Coat Glitter in Purple Gleam (fine purple glitter). Now I know globbed is not the most eloquent way to put it, however, given the thickness of this polish, it is probably the best description I can give it right now. I then added a few drops of Color Club Ultra Violet, a neon purple with fine blue shimmer from the 2009 Electro Candy Collection (another Ross store find!). Finally, given the thickness of this polish due to the glitter content, I thinned everything out with a little Rimmel Lasting Finish PRO in Crystal Clear. An important thing to remember that I may have neglected to mention before, when frankening with drugstore polish, keep in mind the consistency of said polish. You have to watch the ratios of when you mix a glitter and non glitter polish as thinning out the glitter too much will cause sinking. That's why when I create my polishes, they are always at their thickest and easily thinned down by clear coat. So after mixing everything together, here is what was created:

Le ingredients (see what I did there? The "le" makes it fancy AND French! Lol)

Bottle Shot

Macro shot, while unforgiving to some of my polishing mishaps, its great at showing the depth and different nuances of the polish

Lightbox Swatch

So that's it for Disco Barney ladies, and awesome purple based glitta bomb. Pictures show two coats with one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry. It was opaque in two coats, dry time was actually pretty quick given the neon base, and it required minimal help with leveling. And as I depart I ask that you remember to always keep it classy and creative, and also, check out this weird stuff that I found when I tried to google Disco Barney, lol.

xo

Today's Supplies Came From:
* Color Club Polishes: Ross
* Milani One Coat Glitter in Purple Gleam: Target
* Rimmel Lasting Finish PRO in Crystal Clear: Walmart

Drugstore Digits Series: (Insert name here)

Hello ladies, halfway through the week! I don't know about anyone else, but if the week wanted to hurry up at all, I'd totally be ok with that. Work?

So anyways, today's polish is super simple, I used about a third of a bottle of Spoiled by Wet 'n' Wild Let's get Sushi a lovely coral color with muted shimmer (and pretty opaque to boot!), I then added a liberal amount of Nicole By OPI's Disco Dolls a gold micro glitter with larger multicolored glitter. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much of this I put in because this stuff was stupid thick and it kind of just got globbed in the bottle. I followed it up by topping the bottle off with Rimmel Lasting Finish PRO Crystal Clear top coat to thin out the thickness of the polish due to Disco Dolls. When mixed, the base color definitely darkened a bit due to the gold glitter but it still seems super summery to me and reminds be of beaches, bright sun, and tans! So I'm sorry my loves, she will remained unnamed as I am stumped but here she is:

Ingredients

Finished product

Macro, I love the depth that the glitter gives the overall color

Lightbox

Lightbox

Well this is my nameless wonder. She was opaque in two coats and probably still could have used a little more clear coat to thin the polish out. But it definitely was easy to manage. No pooling and dry time was pretty average. All pictures show one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry. She may be nameless but let's face it guys, she's not going quietly.

This is it for this franken, it's super easy and I feel like the effect is so much more complex than the process, which I dig. Hope to see you around next time for some more drugstore creations, I still have a few up my sleeve!

Can't wait to see you back and until then, always keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's supplies came from:

* Nicole by OPI Disco Dolls: Target

* Spoiled by Wet 'n' Wild Let's Get Sushi: Walgreens

* Rimmel Lasting Finish PRO in Crystal Clear: Walmart

Drugstore Digits Series: Aquila

Hi ladies! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Over the weekend, a couple of girlfriends and myself put on a baby shower for our friend Heather and as a thank you gift, she had a tumbler made for me with my name and my blog's name on it. It is super cute and super thoughtful. I will post pictures soon!

So today begins the second and final week of the Drugstore Digits Series and I have a few little gems to show you this week. This polish started with about half a bottle's worth of Pure Ice Busted, which is a top coat with a sheer purple base and shimmer that shifts from purple to gold. I then added in about a quarter of a bottle's worth of Essie's Stroke of Brilliance, a stone blue metallic glitter topcoat in a clear base. I finished off the bottle with Wet 'n' Wld Black Creme, shook it, and friggin fell in love with this polish! I dubbed in Aquila which is Latin for "the eagle" and represents the bird who carried Zeus's/Jupiter's thunderbolts in Greco-Roman mythology (schoolin you on some knowledge!):

Here are our ingredients

Here is the magic sauce all mixed together. Tell me that doesn't look like a constellation?

Direct Sunlight

Lightbox; you can kind of see the duochrome shimmer here, gorgeous!

Lightbox

As you guys can see, I'm trying to improve the quality of my photos and I did that by using a lightbox to take my photos. I definitely think its an improvement but like anything else, it's going to take some tweaking. So bear with me folks!

Anyways, Looking at Aquila, I was reminded of another otherworldly polish, what do you guys think? Pretty similar but definitely not the same. As for the polish itself, it was made rather sheer so that you could incorporate the glitter and the shimmer, so it required about 3 coats to be opaque. However, it self leveled on its own and did not pool or anything like that.  Also, does anybody else think of this when they think of space? No? Just me?

Well that's it for today ladies, I actually have four posts planned for this week instead of three so really, TRY to contain your excitement! See you back on Wednesday for another awesome drugstore franken. Also, let me know what you think of the new photography, I def think its an improvement!

Until next time, remember to always keep it classy and creative!

Today's Supplies Came From:

*Essie Stroke of Brilliance: this was gifted to me but can be found and CVS or most other drugstores

* Pure Ice Busted: Walmart

* Wet 'n ' Wild Black Creme: Walmart

Drugstore Digits Series: Midnight Mayhem

Hello my loves and happy friday to you all! Hopefully everyone has something planned, or at least plans to relax! I've got a couple things planned and a friend coming into town so I'm pretty happy. Today's polish is pretty simple and I was definitely pleased with the results. The base started with about 2/3 of a bottle of Jordana Gemstones (medium sized and micro sized hexes in pink, gold, silver blue, green, and red in a clear base). I then added about 1/4 of a bottle of what I can only deduce to be Color Club Sugar Plum Fairy, a light purple holo glitter topper in a clear base, which was found in a set I purchased at Ross. I then filled the remainder of the bottle with Milani Black Magic which I found on clearance at Target (what what!). After being shaken, not stirred, I had a black jelly polish sprinkled with multicolored and holo glitter. I appropriately dubbed this Midnight Mayhem:

Oooooh shiny! Bottle shot

The main ingredients

Indirect lighting

Flash

Flash

This polish is so fun and interesting! It was completely opaque in two coats but was pretty gritty so it required at least one cat of topcoat. Well ladies, that's it for today. I'm keeping this post short and sweet. See you back next week for the second and final week of the drugstore digits series. Have a great weekend!

Remember, always keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Are From:

* Jordana Gemstones: Kmart

* Milani Black Magic: Target

* Color Club Sugarplum Fairy: Ross

Drugstore Digits Series: Bridge Over Troubled Waters **PIC HEAVY**

Well ladies I have done it again, I have gone and made an utterly lovely polish and screwed it up with application issues. However, I think this one MIGHT be saved with careful application and patience (which let's face it, I am to patience what Tim Tebow is to being a good NFL player <--- UF ALUM BURN). I only used 3 polishes for this franken and they are Spoiled's Deeper Dive (a gorgeous deep blue jelly with oodles of color shifting flakies),  Revlon Minted (a super streaky mint cream), and Sinful Colors Happy Ending (a yellow based green with bright golden shimmer). The Majority of the bottle (about half) was taken up by Deeper Dive as I wanted you to be able to see the flakies no matter what. The remainder of the bottle was filled with Minted and Happy Endings (am I the only one who's mind goes to a dirty place with that name?). I should have known there was trouble afoot when I tried to shake this thing for a solid 30 minutes and it still did not want to mix readily, when it finally did, here is what we had. Now I warn you, this is PIC HEAVY to try and show you all the aspects of the polish

These multiple next few photos are to try and coax the flakies to come out. Mission...semi accomplished?

Flash

Bottle shot with flash

 

Bottle shot no flash. I found you flakies!

The contenders

Now to get to the down and dirty, this polish was THIN and pooled. Not only that but this thing created bald patches like I have NEVER seen when I went over the same spot twice. These swatches show two thick and semi dabbled coats. There is hope though, I really think applying this polish more slowly and waiting longer between coats could do this thing a WORLD of good. Plus, I don't want to give up on it just yet, look at that gorgeous, vibrant, rich teal jelly color. I DIE.

Well, that's all for this delinquent polish right now. Like I said, I won't rule her out but she will not be able to play if she can't do it nicely. So maybe she should go and think about that...

So ladies, see you back on Friday for another Drugstore Digits polish and remember to always keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Came From:
* Spoiled polish: Walgreens
* Minted: gifted from my friend Alana
* Happy Endings: Target

Drugstore Digits Series: Neon Spit Fire

Hello ladies and I apologize, I usually post on Mondays but for some reason it seems that my scheduled post never posted, meh. I am super excited about this week too, so sorry for the delay. So this week begins week one of a two week series that I have dubbed Drugstore Digits; or frankens that are made entirely through purchasing and mixing polishes found in your local Walmart, CVS, Sally's, etc. (made especially for those ladies who want to franken on a smaller scale). So on we go to our first franken of the week, Neon Spit Fire!

This polish started with about half a bottle of NYC Big City Dazzle, a red based multi glitter. I chose to start with a glitter base this go around because glitters require a thicker suspension base to suspend the glitters and therefore, it will ensure good suspension of the remainder of the polishes you choose to mix in. I then added a few drops of Pure Ice Spit Fire, a lavender holo glitter in a clear base. I followed that up with about an 1/8th of a bottle each of Milani Neon in Pink Hottie and Pure Ice Tease (a great hot magenta jelly withe gorgeous magenta to blue shifting shimmer). I topped it off with the remainder of Big City Dazzle, added some mixing balls, and Harlem Shook that thing (bad joke? You know what's worse? The ACTUAL Harlem Shake) What came out was a hot neon pink base sprinkled with microglitter:

Flash

No flash

Flash

Here we have the league MVP's

So this is Neon Spit Fire, a name that was clearly created be my just sticking two of the polish ingredients names together (creativity and eloquence all in one package here folks). Though it's not necessarily something I see myself wearing often, I do like that the pink base matches enough with the microglitter to keep it looking well put together, but not so much that it is obnoxiously matchy matchy. The formula was decent, there was decent glitter coverage. The first coat is a little streaky and very sheer. Swatches show three coats plus one coat KB Shimmer Clearly on Top for topcoat. It self leveled well but did dry to a little bit of a gritty and matte finish.

Well thanks for tuning in to the first installment of Drugstore Digits. As always, remember to keep it classy and creative and I leave you with this little gem, the REAL Harlem Shake

Today's Franken Supplies Came From:

* Target

* Kmart

* Walmart

Super Quick Post!

Just to tell you ladies Happy St. Party's Day! Here is a quick eye look and mani I did using the Sephora + Pantone Universe Palette (using all three green shades) as well as Finger Paints Tough Art to Follow and KB Shimmer's Pastel Me More (review coming soon!). Did you guys do anything fun?

California Raisin

Hello and welcome! It's another terrible polish name brought to you by yours truly! But I grew up with this so I know, there's no shame in my game! I started today's polish off with half a bottle of TKB's Luster base and I added quite a few drops of Sephora By OPI's Dangerous (its a gorgeous dark true purple with subtle shimmer). I then added about 1/4 a bottle of TKB Magic Diamond base which is a sparkly dark metallic silver (TKB does warn to use this base with darker colors as this base tends to muddy lighter base colors). Finally, I followed it up with a couple liberal scoops of Wonder Beauty Products's Prismatic Platinum Illusion Powder size 35 micron. Now let me tell you about Prismatic Platinum, this stuff is a dead on dupe for SPECTRAFLAIR. It has a fine powder particle size and mixes just as readily with polish to provide a linear holographic finish, I love this stuff. What was creted was a gorgeous rich purple that shows more metallic in the shade from the Magic Diamond but lights up with linear holographics when in the light. This is California Raisin!

Bottle shot

Shade. You can see the metallic finish coming out most on the index finger

Flash

Flash... oh, hello holo! Fancy meeting you here...

So this is California Raisin folks. She spread easily, did not pool, was opaque in two thick coats, and self leveled well. Dry time was a bit above average.

So if you are still with me, I'm super excited to tell you about the next series I have planned for the blog! I know that alot of you may be curious about frankening but maybe on an even smaller scale than what I am doing now. So that being said, I'm introducing the Drugstore Digits series. In this series I plan to make my frankens ENTIRELY out of polishes that can be found easily in a drugstore, Walmart, Target, Sally's, etc. thus making these frankens very easily accessible! I'm looking forward to seeing what we can come up with! Again, any suggestions are welcomed!

Well that's all for today ladies, I hope everyone has a great and safe St. Patty's Day! Don't get pinched! And remember to always keep it classy and creative! 

xo

Today's Supplies Came From:

TKB Luster Base and Magic Diamond Base: TKB Trading

Sephora By OPI Dangerous purple nail polish: Sephora

Prismatic Platinum Illusion Powder size 35 micron: Wonder Beauty Products

Nerdicon

Hi ladies and sorry about the super late post! Life has definitely gotten in the way this past week or so but I promised myself that no matter how crazy my life got, my blog would stay constant, hence, the super late but still normal Wednesday post! Today's polish idea comes courtesy of my friend Maureen. She is going to Megacon this coming week and asked me to make her something to match the outfit she was wearing. I started off with half a bottle of TKB's Glamour Base. I followed it up by adding a few drops each of Milani Neon in Totally 80's, Sinful Colors Happy Ending, and Color Club What A Shock! (all bright greens, one pulling more blue and the other two pulling more yellow). I then added two to three good sized scoops of matte sunshine .015 hex and black .025 squares. I finished it off with one good scoop of Luminosity holo glitter, topped it off with suspension base, and shook that bad boy like a polaroid picture. While making this polish, I couldn't for the LIFE of me remember the name Megacon so I just went ahead and named it what I did affiliate with, thus the name Nerdicon (please don't take offense to this, Megacon DOES seem awesome!) :)

Blurred bottle shot, you can see the glitter and a little bit of the holo coming out to play

Flash

Shade (ugh, bad lighting but I took this picture while babysitting and this was all I had to work with)

Flash with bottle

This polish is a little sheer as it needed to be to be able to allow the glitter to show through the layers. However, it was opaque in 2 thick or 3 thin coats. Seeing as much of this base is neon, the polish did dry a little matte so swatches show one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-dry as top coat. The glitters were easy to get out of the bottle and spread on the nail. Now let me tell you, this is not necessarily a polish that I would think about making on my own but I definitely dig it. I hope Maureen loves wearing it at Megacon!

Well that's it for Nerdicon, looking forward to Friday for another franken. Plus, I think I have an idea for a new series and I am pretty excited to share it with you guys! So until next time, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Came From:

* TKB Glamour Base, .025 Black square glitter, and Luminosity holo glitter: TKB Trading

* Matte Sunshine .015 Hex: You Mix Glitter (unfortunately, it seems they are out of the .015 size however, they do have the .040 size so the glitter will be a tad bit bigger)

* Sinful Colors Happy Ending and Milani Neon Totally 80's: I found mine at my local Target but these are pretty standard drugstore colors

* Color Club What a Shock!: I found mine in a set from Ross but they can also be purchased on both Amazon and Ebay