First Try: Tribal

Happy Sunday Everyone!
So today's post is another installment in my ongoing First Try series.  Yesterday I was trying to decide what I should do with my nails, and I decided I would give tribal nails a shot.  I hope you enjoy what I came up with!

First of all, I apologize for my nub of a middle finger nail.  This is the nail I broke last week.  Anyway, I started with a base of OPI Suzi's Hungary AGAIN! from the new Euro-Centrale collection.  I will do a review of the polishes I got from that collection soon.  Anyway, in order to create the tribal, I used the black art polish I got from Franchesca's.  Good things: I like the effect that I got with the way the lines go in and out of each other.  Bad things: my lines are a little shaky, and I ended up making my hands a little too symmetrical.  Other than that I really like how this turned out!  I had a fun time deciding what to do for this.  I hope y'all enjoyed, and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below.  Have a blessed Sunday!
~ Mary Elizabeth
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 
1 Peter 5:6-7

Swatch Spam!

Hey there!
Today I am kind of going through my archive of swatches and talking about the polishes that I swatched and took pictures of but never posted about.  I have to let y'all know that my posts will be mainly older nail art things for a while.  This is due to the fact that I broke the nail on my middle finger this week.  Not just a little crack.  Half the nail is gone.  I won't be painting that nail for a while, so I won't be able to swatch for a while.  Anyway, on to the post!

 First,we have OPI Brand New Skates.  This is from a really old holiday collection.  It is a dark grey with multicolored sparkles.  I think this a pretty color, but the formula is a little thin for my taste.  It took a good two/three coats to get the solid color in the picture.  I added little snowflakes in the corner with my Kiss glitter polish.

 Next up, Essie Leading Lady.  This is from the 2012 Holiday collection.  It is a red with red glitter.  I like this one because it is a darker red.  Bright reds don't really work on my skin tone.  I also like that the glitter is not as hard to get off as most glitters. I used two coats for this swatch.

 This one is Butter London Dodgy Barnett. It is a silver holographic.  What I like about this polish is that it is it is holographic but not too linear.  I find that sometimes super linear holos can get a little distracting.  The downside to this one is that it takes about three coats to get a solid color.  It is beautiful, and definitely worth getting!

Last but not least, Zoya Charla.  This is a beautiful turquoise color with green shimmer. I love this color! This is the kind of color that I am always reaching for in stores.  The only downside to this one is that it stained my nails a bit when I took it off.  Other than that I had no problems with this polish.  I used two coats for these pictures.

So that's it for my first swatch spam! I hope y'all enjoyed, and have a terrific Tuesday!
~ Mary Elizabeth

Confetti Fade

Hello Lovelies!
So today I have a look for you that I did using some of the polishes I got from holiday collections.  I hope y'all enjoy!

So I started with a base of OPI Tomorrow Never Dies from the James Bond collection.  The blue/purple is the kind of color that I reach for a lot.  It's a color that I can wear without being too crazy.  The glitter I used is Zoya Electra.  This is a very nice bar glitter.  I like this because it is finer glitter than OPI Save Me which I don't own, but I have looked at it and decided I didn't need it.  The problem I have with bar glitter on the tip of my nails is that it tends to catch on things and scratch me.  However, it makes a very unique glitter gradient that is subtle yet fun.  I hope y'all enjoyed, and have a terrific Tuesday!
~ Mary Elizabeth

Nail Essentials Updated

Hey Guys!
I totally just realized today that I have been blogging for a whole year! So in order to celebrate, I thought I would redo one of my first blog posts ever: my nail essentials.  If you want to take a look at the original post, click here.  The things I use to take care of my nails have changed since then, and I think it would be good to update my post about them.

 First off, the products I use to keep my hands moisturized.  For my cuticles I use the Smith's Rosebud Salve.  I got mine at Sephora, but I'm pretty sure you can get at least a similar product at Bath and Body Works.  You can use this on other dry areas such as your lips and elbows and such, but I just use it for my cuticles.  This is a nice creamy product that moisturizes my cuticles like a dream.  It can get a little sticky, so apply it before my lotion.  The lotion I use is L'Occitane Creme Mains hand cream.  I like that it keeps my hands moisturized without being greasy.  The only caveat: it kinda smells like bug spray.  I can get over that though :) In late October when it began getting cold where I go to college, my hands got super dry, and my cuticles freaked out! I was getting hangnails left and right.  These products helped me get my hands back to normal.

 The nail polish remover I have been using is the CVS regular polish remover.  I like this one in particular because it seems to take off my nail polish more quickly.  Plus the smell is not as bad as most of the remover I have used.  I never go to fancy with my nail polish remover because I am just not willing to pay the money for the OPI or Zoya ones.  The cheap drugstore ones seem to work just fine for me. 

 Now, on to base coat.  I have been using the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure base coat.  I have mainly been using this one because I ran out of my OPI one and needed a new base coat, so I got this one in a pinch.  It works pretty well.  I like the smooth base it gives, however it seems to peel a little more than the OPI.

 For top coat I have been using Sally Hansen Insta-dri anti chip top coat.  I like this because it drys quickly while still giving a shiny finish to the nails.  It's also a lot cheaper than the Seche Vite top coat. 

I have found that for nail clippers, straight clippers are the way to go.  I am not positive what brand these are, but I love them! I have noticed that curved nail clippers tend to cut my nails too short.  The straight ones just give me more control.

One thing that I don't have a picture of that I use in my nail care is a glass file.  I don't have a picture because I recently broke mine.  That's what happens when you drop a glass file on tile dorm floor.  Anyway, I find that a glass file makes my nails peel less than a normal emery board.

I hope this was informational for you, and happy one year blogiversary (close enough anyway)!  Have a top notch Tuesday!
~ Mary Elizabeth

Long Time Coming Holiday Nails!

Hey Everyone!
Today's post is going to be about a look that I did a while back with two of the polishes from Essie's holiday collection.  I planned on posting this earlier, but time got away from me.  Anyway, I hope you like it!

For the base color I used Essie Leading Lady. This is a glittery, dark red color.  For the side argyle-type triangles, I used Essie Beyond Cozy.  This is a very solid silvery glitter.  To get this style I cut triangles out of scotch tape and placed them on the top and bottom of my nails.  Then I painted Beyond Cozy on the sides of my nails.  Then I removed the tape.  Some of them I had to fix afterwards.  Finally I finished with one coat of top coat (I'm not positive which top coat I used though).  I hope y'all enjoyed, and I hope you'll try it out yourself!  Have a terrific Tuesday!
~ Mary Elizabeth

OPI Skyfall Swatches

Hey There!
So today's post is swatches of the polishes I got from the OPI Skyfall Holiday collection.  I only have two, but my roommate got a couple more, so maybe I can borrow hers when I get back to school.  Anyway, lets get on to the swatches!

 The first polish is Goldeneye.  This is a warm golden color.  The consistency of this polish is really interesting.  It is kind of flaky, yet goes on pretty solid.  It takes a good two coats to get a solid color, but when a solid color is achieved it has a really nice metallic effect. 

This polish is Tomorrow Never Dies.  I have been eying this one for months and just got it recently.  It is a blue-purple color with a little bit of a sheen.  This may just be one of my new favorite polishes.  You could probably get away with using just one coat, but I used two just to make it a little more solid. 

Overall I love both of these colors.  I would definitely recommend both of them.  When I get back to school I will swatch the ones my roommate got.  I hope y'all enjoyed, and I hope you have a great day!
~ Mary Elizabeth

Christmas Nails

Hello There!
So today I decided to share with you the two nail designs I did for Christmas! I love just about any holiday that has theme colors because I can do things like this.  I hope this gets you back into the Christmas spirit :)

 This nail design is the more complicated of the two.  For the base color I used Essie Clutch Me if you Can Zoya Frida on the ring finger.  I like Clutch Me if you Can rather than a stark red because it looks better on my skin tone.  Reds usually tend to wash me out, so I tend to go for a darker, more burgundy shade.  For the tips I used OPI Goldeneye from the James Bond collection.  This one is a little thin and flaky, so it took two coats to get the tips solid.  For the stripes I used my Kiss nail art polish in gold.  I topped it off with Sally Hansen Insta-dri top coat.

For this look I started with a base of OPI Care to Danse.  I always use sheer polishes like this one for french manicures.  I used Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Honeymoon Red for the tips.  This is the exception to my no red rule.  For the glitter fade I used OPI Getting Miss Piggy With It.  This made a great glitter fade, oddly enough.  I thought the red would look weird on my nails, but it actually looked fantastic.  So there's my holiday nail fun!  I hope you enjoyed it, and have a wonderful week!
~ Mary Elizabeth