Quick Nail Art & a Short Family Story

Sometimes, like me lately, you just don't have time to sit down and do the nail art you really want to. An easy way to get a noticeable result is to use different types of polish.

For this mani I used Julep Paula as a base. If you're a purple/blurple lover, you'll love this. It's probably one of my all-time faves. It is SO gorgeous! For the tips, I used Sinful Colors Blue Persuasion. It's very similar in color, but it's textured. Since I did the tips freehand, they were far from perfect. So, I added a stripe of silver. I was hoping it would hide my messy lines, but alas, I need more practice with my striping brush too. Hahaha! I used Sally Hansen Color Foil in Sterling Silver for the stripe.

Julep Paula & Sinful Colors Blue Persuasian

 

Added a Stripe of Silver

Sorry, I know the pics suck, but I was originally supposed to pick up my half-brother from the airport that morning. As a matter of fact, the 2nd pic was taken while sitting at a Starbucks waiting. It was my first time meeting my half-brother and the first time he & my dad have seen each other in 37 years! It was such a happy week for our family. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and have a blessed new year!                                                                                               xoxo ~Tabi

Bonus: Family Pic! (Blocked out the kids' faces for privacy/safety.)

New Year's Day

NotD: JulieG Tahiti Swatch & Simple Nail Art

Well hello there! I know, I know. I said in the last post that I was back, but I'm for real this time. I think. Haha. So let's just jump right in, shall we? I ordered the JulieG/Jesse's Girl Cruise Collection from Groupon. While I love the colors, I think I got a faulty batch. It's a little thick so I can't use thin coats. What I had to do was be generous and remove the excess otherwise it wouldn't apply smoothly. I have other JulieG polishes and have never had this problem. So, I don't know if it's their fault or perhaps Groupon's. Either way, I still absolutely adore the colors. Especially this first one I'm showing you.

JulieG Nails - Tahiti

JulieG Nails - Tahiti

JulieG Nails - Tahiti & Sinful Colors - Blue Persuasion

JulieG Tahiti is not only a gorgeous springy/minty green, it also has a hint of glass fleck shimmer. There are so many shades of spring/mint green out there and most of them are cream. So, the shimmer really makes this polish. I tried to show it in a few different lights and then decided to do some simple nail art too. I used Sinful Colors Blue Persuasion for a simple tape mani. It's probably one of my favorite textured polishes. I just LOVE blue-violet colors.

So, that's all for now. I'm just getting back in the swing of things, so hopefully I'll be posting more regularly soon. Thanks to all of you lovelies who have stuck with me.     XOXO ~ Tabi

Hidden Gems - Swatch & Review

Wow. Do you ever feel like you really got your life together? I can't believe I'm actually posting again so soon!  I mean, I've just got so much going on lately it's kind of a miracle. But I know it won't last long. Something, somewhere, will fall by the wayside as I get back into nail blogging. I hope not, but you guys probably know what I'm talking about. Something's gotta give, right? Haha!

So, today I have L'Oreal Hidden Gems. This is another I picked up over Thanksgiving. It is SO gorgeous in the bottle (which of course my thoughtless self didn't take a picture of. OOPS!), that I couldn't pass it up. A textured duo-chrome?! I had a feeling it wasn't going to show up as strong on the nail, but it was still such a pretty color. You can click on the images for a closer view.

L'Oreal Hidden Gems

Hidden Gems textured nail polish

L'Oreal textured nail polish

2 Nails with Topcoat

I tried to catch the pretty purple color hidden in there the best I could. I've seen some other bloggers catch it beautifully. I showed two nails with topcoat thinking maybe the duo-chrome would show more. Nope. Less, actually. But while it's not obvious, it definitely adds depth and dimension. I love this polish so much. For some reason, it reminds me of Starry Night by Van Gogh.

As for formula, the texture is great and this is only two coats, but in the sunlight you may notice that two coats isn't quite completely opaque. Also, the wear wasn't as good as the Sinful Colors textured polish in my last review. I had noticeable tip wear the next day.

Overall, I love the color, depth, and texture and I'm glad to have it in my collection. But for the price and size of the bottle, I probably wouldn't get another unless I knew the formula improved.

Do you have any of the L'Oreal textures? What do you think of them? Thanks for reading!

I'm Alive! Finally a New Post?!

Ermahgerd, I'm so so so sorry, guys. I have been SO very distracted with the holidays and life in general that I honestly haven't even been painting my nails. BUT! I finally got around to it this week. Yeah, I can't believe it either. (^_^;)

So, like every year, we went to VA for Thanksgiving to spend it with my husband's family. And of course, since we don't have Rite-Aid in FL, I had to make a stop. Right? Well, I ended up picking up way more polish than I ever purchase at once. So, be expecting more posts to come.

First up, Sinful Colors Blue Persuasion. It's a gorgeous blurple textured polish with purple glitter. You guys don't even understand!!! Blurples are my ultimate fave shades. So, of course I'm dying all over the place. Yes, it's that good. If you like blurples, anyway. (^_^)

Sinful Colors Textured Polish in Blue Persuasion

Sinful Colors Blue Persuasion

So, just to get back into the swing of things, I'll keep this short. Great coverage in 2 coats and excellent texture. Also, great wear for no topcoat. I know I'm not like most polish addicts, cuz I'm too logical to spend too much for one polish. But when can get such great quality for so cheap, why should I? Well, indies don't count, cuz they're fabulously unique and doing things big brands won't. But we all know that.

And that's it! Again, I'm sorry I've been M.I.A. Thanks for sticking around. Hope everyone had an amazing holiday season and hope your new year is off to a great start. XOXO ~ Tabi

Mint Mani for Talia Joy

I know I'm late, but one day isn't enough to honor such a brave girl anyway. So, here is my mint mani for Talia. I saw some Sally Hansen Sugar Coat colors on sale at Target and thought Sour Apple would be perfect.

Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in Sour Apple

 I mixed brands of textured polish for a shimmery, pastel dotticure. The dots are both JulieG Frosted Gumdrops polishes in Blueberry Fizz and Crushed Candy. The colors seemed to embrace youthfulness. Together with the sparkle in the Frosted Gumdrops, I hoped it would be a good representation. No matter your age, you can shine bright and leave a mark.

Textured Dotticure

Mint Mani for Talia Joy

For those of you who don't know, I lost my sister to cancer. So, this post is for anyone who's lost someone or knows someone fighting. My heart and prayers go out to you.

XOXO ~ Tabitha

Frosted Gumdrops - Frosted Tips 2 Ways

To continue my Frosted Gumdrops non-swatch posts, today I have two more to share. I decided frosted tips was a good play on the name. So, I did one over Crushed Candy and one with Blueberry Fizz as the "frost."

Remember how I couldn't get Blueberry Fizz opened? Well, my husband couldn't either. He's 6'2 and works out 4 times a week! In his defense, he also has really large hands, so gripping that little lid couldn't have been easy. How did he finally get it open? With his teeth. Yeah, so now my lid looks like this on either side. Haha.

Ok, on to the manis. The first is Crushed Candy with Sinful Colors Candy Coated. You see what I did there? LOL. Here it is.

JulieG Crushed Candy & Sinful Colors Candy Coated

JulieG Crushed Candy with Frosted Tips

Next, I decided to use Blueberry Fizz since it's blue and frosty looking. ^_^ This is over Millie, one of the new  Julep polishes I got. Sorry for the crappy pic. I was having issues with Millie. That's for another post, though.

JulieG Blueberry Fizz over Julep Millie

So, that's is for this post. Are there any ideas you'd like me to try with these polishes? Let me know. Have a fabulous weekend!

NotD: Rock Candy Plus...?

So, I know a lot of nail lovers out there took advantage of the Groupon deal for the Julie G Frosted Gumdrops Collection. That means, there are tons of swatches circulating and you don't really need another, right? So, what I'm going to try to do is find out what other nail art techniques will work with these. But I'm going to give you a swatch first anyway. Haha.

JulieG Rock Candy

Since they're textured, I'm pretty sure it will be nearly impossible to effectively stamp over it. So, my first attempt was saran wrap. I know it's not going to get the same effect, but I wanted to see what it would look like. I used black so it's easy to see, but I think I would have liked it much more with a different color. All the texture is still there, though. Anyway, here it is.

Saran Wrap Nail Art over Textured Polish

Sorry this is smaller. The other one was taken with my camera at home. I don't know why my phone pics are always so small. But you can click and enlarge it a little. So, what do you think? I think I'm going try sponging next. Any other suggestions?

As always, thanks for reading. Have a wonderful weekend!