Flowers

Twinsie Tuesday - Inspired by Your Hometown

9:00:00 AM

Press Sample
Good morning polished peeps!  Going to be a fast post today because I'm writing this right now at almost 1am with a half completed manicure.  I need to get better at editing the photos then right after writing the post right after I'm done doing so.  I probably won't change and will still procrastinate until the bitter end, but what can you do?

Today is Tuesday meaning it is again Twinsie Tuesday!  Today we are creating manicures inspired by our hometown.  Now, I'm kind of a private person when it comes to this blog.   I haven't really stated where I'm from because the internet can be a kind of a huge place and I'm never sure who is reading this blog.  So for today's post, I'm kind of remaining anonymous and not sharing where I'm exactly from, other than I'm in the United States.

Where I am located, Spring is finally arriving.  The leaves on the trees are peeking out, the crocuses and daffodils have bloomed, the tulips are on their way, and the grass is turning greener by the second.  After the long Winter we had, despite this being a cold Spring, I am welcoming it with open arms.  I don't even care that it's going to rain today, it's better than snow.

For today's manicure, I decided to do something very Spring-y.  That of course, flowers with pastel colors!  I also used my newest obsession, the OPI Matte Top Coat that I used last week.  I told you I was going to go matte crazy.  

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Mary Kay - Lemon Parfait
  • OPI - You're Such a Budapest
  • Sally Hansen I <3 Nail Art - Purple Violet
  • Sinful Colors - Pistache
  • Zoya - Hunter
  • OPI - Matte Top Coat
There is nothing that I love more than a floral manicure such as this one.  Roses are one of my go-to favorite floral designs.  I think I've gone rose happy in the past few months on this blog after a huge hiatus for about a year.  I don't know why I stopped, but now I just cannot get enough.

I cannot get enough of the base color for this manicure.  Lemon Parfait by Mary Kay was another polish that my friend provided me for review as she is a consultant for the brand.  I think I love this color better than Carefree Coral, and that's saying a lot since I am not a yellow person.  I just never think it looks right on my nails.  This polish is a perfect pastel lemon-y yellow which is truly a cream polish.  It kind of dries with a semi-glossy semi-matte finish.  It was a bit patchy with two coats, so I added a third to even things out.  You could get away with two coats if you did one thin followed by a thicker second coat.



While Out the Door was not used as the final top coat for this manicure, I did use it to first seal in my design before adding the matte top coat.  This tip was provided to me by some of the lovely ladies of The Beauty Buffs a few weeks ago when I was shopping around for matte polishes.  I never asked specifically why these ladies put on a glossy topper before the matte, but I think I figured out why on my own.  Do you see how smooth the design looks?  The first coat of the glossy top coat evened out any uneven bumps I had from doing the art, then the matte went over it and literally created one even surface.  My nails almost looked like I was wearing appliques.

Speaking of Beauty Buffs, this would have been the perfect yellow manicure for last weeks theme.

What do you think?  Liking the roses?  Fan of the yellow base with the purple flowers?

 As always, don't forget to check out the other Twinsie's posts!


Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Rachel at Top Coat It
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Traci at DrinkCitra

Well I guess I lied about the whole short post thing lol.

Until next time, <3

**Some products in this post were provided for review, please see my disclosure policy**

Matte Mani

Twinsie Tuesday - Matte and Gloss Combo

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  How are you today?  I'm doing well.  Yesterday the weather was gorgeous and I was finally able to clean out the inside of my car.  Love doing that annual car Spring cleaning, especially since all Winter I rarely clean the inside due to the cold temperatures.  Now I feel like I have a new car again.  And of course, I got the cleaning done just in time for another cold front to move in.  Oh well, I'm happy.

Today is Tuesday, meaning yet another Twinsie Tuesday!  I had a minor panic attack over today's post because I didn't have anything planned ahead of time like I usually do.  With Easter week on the blog last week, I kind of got delayed with my other posts.  It's going to be kind of crazy for me, but I'll get through it.

The Twinsie Tuesday theme for this week is matte and glossy combo looks.  I've never done a combo look before so I was rather excited to finally create one.  Only problem, my matte top coat really wasn't my favorite.  I bought forever ago a bottle of NYC Matte Me Crazy, which I loved, but it always gets goopy halfway through and it takes a long time to dry.  I needed something new.  I asked the lovely Beauty Buffs what their favorite matte top coats were and majority of them responded with the OPI Matte top coat.  So on Friday I went to my local Sally Beauty and snagged the last bottle.

For today's manicure, I copied The Polishaholic's matte/glossy quilted nails.  I loved Jen's design back in 2012 and still constantly look at it with the intent of re-creating.  Now, I finally got the chance!  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Sinful Colors - Charmed
  • INM - Out the Door (Shiny Top Coat)
  • OPI - Matte Top Coat

 So loving this look and all the polishes used with it.  Orly Liquid Vinyl is my favorite black polish ever.  It applies smoothly and evenly in two coats.  If you really wanted to, you could get away with one, but sometimes when I apply a base it's a tad streaky.  Even though some things can be a one coater, I never do one coat.

When my black base was dry, I topped all my nails with INM Out the Door.  When I started blogging, I didn't own a fast dry top coat.  I asked around and found that many girls loved SecheVite and Out the Door.  I went out to my local beauty store and found bottles of both.  I first picked up SecheVite but saw that pesky cancer warning on the back and decided to put it down.  For as much top coat as I go through, I don't want to be exposing myself to nasty chemicals that much.  I then picked up the bottle of Out the Door, which is a tad cheaper than SV, and doesn't contain the chemicals.  I gave it a whirl, and never have looked back.  I love the stuff.  For me, it dries fast and doesn't smudge my nail art.  I love it so much that I buy the big 73ml bottle.

So my nails were super glossy and pretty, so it was time to add my quilted design.  On all my nails, I applied 6 pieces of nail art tape creating the quilted pattern.  For my matte nails, I did two quick coats of OPI Matte top coat.  Holy crow, this stuff is AMAZING!  I removed the tape and literally two minutes later the matte top coat was dried with a perfect finish.  I have not one single complaint and now am going to be doing many matte designs in the near future.


For my glitter nail, I used Sinful Colors Charmed.  This polish is so so so pretty.  It is a very fine silver glitter with pink, green, and blues mixed throughout.  It kind of reminds me of a extremely shredded version of a rainbow glitter.  My camera couldn't capture the colors how I wanted to, but trust me, it's an amazing polish.  I did two thin coats then removed the tape and added a quick top coat of INM Out the Door.

Almost had an uh oh, when I was applying my OTD to my glitter nail, I almost started to apply it to my matte nails!  I would have been so upset because I'm super happy with my tape design this time around.  I don't know how I did it, but almost all my nails look identical.  That never happens to me when I do tape mani's!

What do you think?  Like this matte/glossy combo?

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsie's posts!


Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Rachel at Top Coat It
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Traci at DrinkCitra

Until next time, <3.