The Boys of Fall

Yes, Kenny Chesney reference. I am still basking in the glory that was his concert. 

But, I am slowly coming to the realization, 

that summer is over. 

:sad face:

School is starting and football season is under way.

I don't know anything about football, except there are guys in tight pants. 

It's cool. I like the get together's, drinks and the snacks that come with football season though! 

I love hosting parties eating snacks!

This past Thursday I went to a Preseason Patriots Game vs the Giants. 

We won! 

I am that girl that lightly claps while looking around to make 

sure other Patriots fans are clapping with me.

I bring the snacks and a smile to the party.

This was the mani I wore for the occasion. I used a SH Basecoat and 2 coats of OPI Into the Night.

This was a nice blue, but it was a little sheer and the formula was thin. I used 2 thick coats for opacity here. It chipped after just 2 days though, weird formula on this OPI. I usually get better wear.

For my football accent nail, I used 2 coats of OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys, (My name isn't Suzi, but I sure love me some cowboys) and following this pinterest tutorial, I used a mix of Essie Jazz and SLC to make small dots. I then used an Art Club white striper to make the football laces.

Of course, I wanted to pay tribute to the football players tight striped pants, so I added 2 stripes of a bluish Art Club striper silver on my pointer finger. I added dot sticker gems to my middle and pinky fingers. 

NYC topcoat over all except the football, I used a Sephora OPI matte topcoat.

Yay for a day off tomorrow! Stay tuned for a review of 2 polishes from
Glitterfied Nails Team Spirit line tomorrow for
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL.
I hope there actually is football on tomorrow.

Do you like going to football games or do you wonder why the lines of 

scrimmage are on the TV but aren't on the field in real life? 

Summer meets Fall

"There are no happy endings. Endings are the saddest part. 

So just give me a happy middle and a very happy start."

-Shel Silverstein

It's the last weekend of the Summer. 

Because we are heading into Fall and I am not ready for summer to be over, 

I decided to do a Summer meets Fall mani. 

Featuring some nail art using one of the Essie Fall 2013 collection polishes paired with leopard print and of course, NEON!

Essie The Lace is On is a gorgeous cool, deep and shimmery fuchsia. Perfectly opaque in 2 stunning coats, this polish seriously radiates from within. I love the depth and shimmer in this! This is my favorite from Essie's Fall collection.

I paired The Lace is On with an accent nail of Layla Soft Touch 01, 2 coats.

Using a dotting tool and Essie The More the Merrier (green) and Fresh Paint Guava (neon peach), I added spots on my index and my ring fingers.

I used a smaller dotting tool and an Art Club black striper to create the circles around the spots. I filled in some empty areas with solid black dots.

I love how this came out and I definitely think I am capturing the best of both Summer and Fall!

Are you ready for Fall?

Tips On Tuesday: Polish Revival

One thing I am glad about with the cool weather coming is less goopy nail polish! When the weather is nice, I love to paint my toes outside by the pool or on the porch. But the heat always causes my polish to thicken up, which makes it harder to work with. 

Just recently, I bought my first bottle of Poshe Polish Reviver from Ulta to thin one of my polishes that had thickened up. Polish thickens up for a lot of reasons. Sometimes I have a brain fart and leave a bottle of polish slightly uncapped on my desk overnight. It happens. 

Other times, it is a favorite polish for nail art and I am always opening and closing it. Or it is just an older polish that has been sitting for awhile. Whatever the reason, a polish thinner will definitely liven it back up! Don't ever use nail polish remover to 'thin' a polish! It will ruin it!

This is the Poshe Polish Reviver I picked up. I had never thinned a polish before, despite having several that needed it, so I followed the directions on the back!

I grabbed the Poshe Reviver and Essie In the Cab-ana that had gone goopy on me.

All I had to do was uncap the polish, clean the neck of the bottle, and drop 1-2 drops into the bottle. Because this was my first time I started with 1 drop and checked the consistency before adding more drops. I used 2 drops in this polish.

After adding the Reviver, I rolled the polish between my hands. I did give it a couple good shakes to make sure the Reviver was fully distributed in the bottle.

The polish was good as new after and had a much better consistency than before. I have been using this to thin several of my polishes. I even used it on an NYC Top coat that had thickened up as I got down to the bottom of the bottle. It didn't change how fast or clear the top coat dried and worked perfectly to thin it up. I am pretty happy that I picked this up, because I definitely would not want to throw out a polish when I can use a thinner to make it easier to use!

Have you ever used a polish thinner before? Do your polishes tend to goop up on you in the summer?

Happy Tuesday!

No Shoes Nation

I refuse to accept that fall is coming until I attend CountryFest at Gillette Stadium every year.

Kenny Chesney has headlined for the past 3 years, with some pretty great openers. This year Kacey Musgraves, Eli Young Band and Eric Church opened. 

I love Eric Church (those sunglasses!) and he was really amazing live. 

Kenny always puts on an amazing show too!

The tour this year was called No Shoes Nation and the tour flag was a skull and crossbones.

I really liked the tour logo so I wanted to incorporate the skull into my mani somehow, while still keeping it light and little country.

I started with a SH base coat and 2 coats of Julep Eloise. Eloise is a rich deep blue and is one of my favorites. I  will most definitely be using it a lot in the cooler weather.

The skull and crossbones is from an Elegant Touch sticker set I got at Ulta. I thought it was pretty close to the skull on the tour flag!

Not bad, not bad.

I wanted to offset the skull with something dainty and flowers were just the thing.

Using CG White on White and one of my nail art paintbrushes, I painted on long petal flowers. I used Essie Bass Fiddle for the reddish pink centers.

Using a dotting tool I dotted some small dots coming from the flowers using Color Clubs Harp On It. While it wasn't my favorite design, I think it came out pretty cute. I used one coat of NYC topcoat over all to seal in the design. 

I like my index and pinky fingers the best. Side flowers are a lot easier to create!

I had so much fun at CountryFest this year! Maybe too much fun because I spent most of Saturday in bed watching The Newsroom (all 6 episodes of Season 2...).

YOLO?

Until next year, I guess I am just going to have to rock out to country 'concerts' in my car.

What do you have to do before summer can end? Did you attend any concerts this year?

Happy Sunday! 

(Next weekend is a long weekend! Woot!)

Once in a Blue Moon

Once in a blue moon, I skip Tips on Tuesdays. 

Tonight, I am going to replace ToT with a space theme mani because of the 

BLUE MOON that can be seen tonight. 

The moon isn't actually blue, but like the saying, it means that it is a rare occurrence. 

There are usually 3 full moons in every season, but every once in a blue moon awhile there are 4 full moons in a season. The 3rd full moon, out of the 4, is the "blue moon". 

Go see it then come back and read! This type of blue moon won't be around again until at least 2016. 

Galaxy Mani's use quite a few different polishes. But all you need besides polish is a makeup sponge and a paper plate! They are so easy to do, and the design always comes out really cute.

I started with a SH base coat, and 2 coats of Carpe Noctem Cosmetics Pro Amico, a deep purple, with a pink shift, that is almost blue here in these photos.

Dripping polish onto the paper plate, I used a makeup sponge to create a line of Color Club Twiggie (green) on all my nails. Then I sponged a line of Sinful Colors 24/7 (hot pink), and then a line of Layla Soft Touch 01 (silver glitter).

Because of the many layers of polish used in creating this, I waited a little before I added a top coat of my Carpe Noctem custom glitter topper. Then I added one layer of NYC top coat!

Will you be stepping out to get a good look at the blue moon? Have you tried a galaxy mani?

Happy moon viewing! I am off to check that baby out!

The Traveling Postcard

Sunday! I don't even care that the weekend is over, because I am so pumped to get this week under way. This coming weekend, I am going to Country Fest at Gillette Stadium to see Kenny Chesney, Eric Church (!), Eli Young Band and Kasey Musgraves and I couldn't be more excited. My friends and I have been going every summer since we graduated and summer just can't end without live country music.

So every now and then I think I might do a post like this that talks a little bit about my interests outside the world of nail polish. With nail polish of course!

On a recent trip to Walmart, I finally spotted the Fing'rs display that I have seen numerous bloggers talk about. I ended out picking up 2 sets of nail tattoos, that reminded me of 2 of my other hobbies.

Here's a snapshot of one of the packages. The front and the back with directions.

When I am not working, blogging and doing regular life things I am most fond of being:

A Traveler and Postcard Collector. 

I didn't manage to travel anywhere this summer, but several of my friends and family members did! And they sent me postcards along the way, which makes me so happy! 

My goal is to one day have a postcard from all 50 states.

I am well on my way with postcards from 27 states.

And 18 different countries.

From several different continents.

I store all my postcards in a fancy box I found while antiquing in New Hampshire.

I have hundreds of postcards. I am pretty proud of my collection.

I was super happy to find these nail tattoos from Fing'rs, especially since I could tie them into my other favorite hobbies. These were super easy to use. I painted my ring and middle fingers with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I cut the paper to size, peeled off the plastic covering, dipped in water for 10 seconds and pressed it onto my nail. The design slid right off onto my nail and I used polish remover to clean up any over hang around my nails. It was just like those temporary tattoos you had when you were little!

You have to be sure to use a topcoat or the design will come off when it gets wet!!

Unfortunately the design only lasted about 2-3 days for me before it started to rub off when I got it wet. I don't think I put enough top coat, but I really liked how easy they were to use and how cute they turned out. Anyway, my accent nail is a road map design, to symbolize the traveler in me. My middle finger is the postmark from a postcard, with writing. Which reminded me of this:

My oldest postcard, postmarked February 23rd, 1925. The 1 cent stamp is still attached. Turns out, my grandmother's family has a whole bunch of travelers! I started collecting postcards when I was 7 or so, my first trip ever was a trip to Florida (to visit Disneyworld), where I got my first postcard.

My grandmother let me have all of the old postcards she had from her family. I have taken good care of them. I have a bunch with the stamps still attached!

Here is another photo of my fun traveling mani and a postcard I received from my friend who is off in Texas this summer learning how to be military police for the Navy. As you can see, we can't wait to be reunited!

What do you collect?

Polishes used in this mani: Carpe Noctem Cosmetics Gallifreyan Sunset and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

Water Water Everywhere!

During my most recent giveaway, I asked you all to write a blog post comment answering the question "What is your favorite summer activity?". 

A lot of you answered SWIMMING! Only one of you answered Concerts. 

Which happens to also be my favorite summer activity!

The pool water inspired this most recent mani. 

I've also been pretty into using Saran Wrap to create some funky designs on my nails, which is what I used for this!

I love the Saran Wrap technique because it really is super easy to do and you can get some great results! I started with a SH base coat and 1 coat of Wet n Wild Teal Me Slowly.

Then using the Saran Wrap technique I lightly dabbed on Essie Avenue Maintain and China Glaze White on White on top of that. My index finger is 2 coats of SH Gem Crush Showgirl Chic over a PVA base coat. 

PS. I am testing out a lot of the questions I had gotten surrounding PVA Glue after my post HERE.

I put one coat of NYC top coat of all to seal in my design! 

I am not sure if this ended out looking totally like the way water looks in the pool with all the reflections, but I think I got close!

Have you tried the Saran Wrap technique? Tips on Tuesday Tutorial coming soon, maybe?

Now the sooner I get to sleep, the sooner it will be FRIDAY! 

WooHoo!