Neon Marble

Hi Everyone!

I want to say thank you so much for the warm welcome after my last post! It was like a huge hug after being away for so long and your support and encouraging words truly warm my heart! I'm looking forward to playing with polish again and sharing the results with you. Hugs!<3

Today I'm super excited to show you the manicure that I've been wearing for the past few days because its a water marble and its neon! Need I say more? Marbling and I don't usually get along. I end up spending an inordinate amount of time trying to do it the usual way before I finally give up and 'cheat' by creating decals. To save myself the frustration and wasted polish, I thought I'd be smart and head straight to making decals. You may have caught a sneak peek of this if you follow me on Instagram. Well let's just say that didn't turn out quite as planned so I ended up attempting the traditional way of water marbling instead...

Guilty Hello!

Hi Everyone! (Or anyone still out there? :))

Long time no see! Is that even appropriate to say to people I have never actually seen before? In any case, I recently realized that (last 4th of July mani not including), it has been a year since I have last actually blogged. What is even more sad is that I can count the number of manicures I have done during that year on just my two little hands. And in that count, I'm including just polished nails that didn't involve any nail art. Pathetic, right? Friends and family that used to comment on the oddity of seeing my nail unpainted now did a complete 180 and mockingly stare when spotting color.

It is not that I didn't miss creating nail art, it is just that I had a lot going on at the time. I got busy, started working night shift and just sort of shut down when it came to doing my nails. If I couldn't do it all; swatch, review, create nail art, blog and keep up with social media, I wasn't going to do anything at all. Somehow in a weird and bizarre way it made sense back then then, even though it doesn't so much now. I think I was so used to blogging about every mani that I created (whether I ended up actually wearing it or not), that in the back of my mind it seemed logical that if I didn't have time to photograph and blog about a manicure, I would put off creating it. Recently a friend gently (or rather not so gently) pointed out that I should be able to make time for myself at least once a week and create a manicure, even if it is just for myself and not something I blog about. So simple, right? Since I can't really argue with that logic, that is exactly what I hope to do...

My 4th of July Mani!

Hi Everyone!

I hope all of you who celebrate the holiday had a Happy 4th of July yesterday!

I spent my 4th at work as usual, but I was able to sneak out for a break just in time to catch a bit of the gorgeous fireworks display over Puget Sound. I hadn't intended to do a manicure for the occasion because I really had nothing special planned for the day, but a co-worker shamed me for not rocking some red, white and blue on my nails as I used to. I promised her I'd get my act together at least for 4th! So that's how I ended up with some nail art for the first time in months! Just slightly ironic that on independence day, I gave up my freedom of sleeping in late to get up and do some nail art ;)

UberChic Collection 2 Stamping Plates Reivew

Hi Everyone! Today I'll be sharing with you my long overdue review of the UberChic Collection 2 stamping plates. Long overdue is something I'll be saying a lot in the coming posts as I try to wrap my head around and make time for blogging again. Hopefully as they say though, it is better late than never. These plates were kindly sent to me by Brittany, the creator of these gorgeous designs. It didn't take long for me to fall head over heals for these gorgeous large yet very delicate patterns...

Delicate Stamping

Hi Everyone! Happy Friday! Today I would like to show you a manicure that I wore for a solid week after swatching the Glam Polish beauties which I posted about earlier this week. If the manicure hadn't started growing out and driving me nuts, I would have happily continued to wear it. It is rather 'simple' as far as some of my manicures go, but somehow it didn't seem to call for added embellishments. Sweet and delicate was just what I needed...

Wish Upon a Star

Hi Everyone! Today I would like to show you a manicure that I created shortly before my blogging break. I had been playing around with UberChic plates and preparing my review of them (which is still in the works) when I came up with this. One of the images that I really loved is this skyline with stars. I can see it used in may different ways and right now I imagine it over a sunset gradient with black stamping. At the time that I wore this, it was still winter and somehow the black night sky was more my mood than a warm spring/summer sunset...

Review and Swatches of Select Glam Polish Cast A Spell Part 3: The White Witch Collection Shades

Hi Everyone! Remember me? It has been nearly two months since I last sat down to write a post. First, let me start out by apologizing for my sudden disappearance. Someone very close to me passed away leaving me feeling empty and wanting to spend time surrounded by family and friends. Something as simple as cuddling on the couch with my bf to watch TV suddenly became a bigger priority than making one more swatch or writing one more post. I realized just how much time I had been sacrificing for this hobby instead of making time for people in my life. I couldn't even bring myself to go into my polish room and simply paint my nails. They were 'naked' for more than a month and believe it or not, that somehow feels like an accomplishment. Each day I kept telling myself that tomorrow I would get back to swatching/blogging, but the days came and went and my nails remained bare. I finally started going back into the polish room a few weeks ago, first to file/reshape and recondition by then broken and dry nails. Then I would go in, look at some gorgeous polish and walk out. The next day I went just to look through the stamping plates. Baby steps! Finally I had the guts to not only polish, but also photograph my shaky hand. Today I sit here writing this post and trying to decide if I've said too much, but hoping it will explain my disappearance. Does this mean I'm back to full time blogging? No, and I don't think I ever will be, but hopefully some blogging is better than none!

To say that this review is overdue is quite an understatement. The beautiful Glam Polish Cast a Spell Part 3: The White Witch collection launched in early March with perfect glittery pastel shades. Rachel, the mastermind behind Glam Polish, has been incredibly understanding about the delay although my feeling of guilt remain. Hopefully you will also forgive the delay and enjoy these swatches as much as I've been enjoying wearing these lacquers and making them my foray back into the world of polish...