Frankenstein Nails for Halloween 2014

Good morning lovelies! I've been trying for WEEKS to figure out what kind of Halloween nails I wanted to do this year... and tonight I think I've finally decided on Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein nails! :) 

Now, forewarning, I'm not like super awesome at nail art or anything, but I can tell a BIG improvement from last year, and Halloween is my favorite time to do cutesy things with my nails! :) I still kind of want to figure out how to do some witch nails, or zombie nails.. 

SO without further adieu, HERE THEY ARE in all their not so spooky glory!

For this mani I used:

• China Glaze - I'm With the Lifeguard
• L.A. Colors Black Striper Polish
• Julep - Nicolette
• Julep - Rebel
• Sinful Colors - 24/7
• Pretty & Polished - Matte Topcoat

I've had this China Glaze for awhile now... I have absolutely NO idea why I hadn't used it until now.... because it's basically the most amazing lime green EVER. You can't tell in this picture because I used Instagram filters and whatnot, but here's a picture of it in all it's amazing glory pre-cleanup and pre-franken-nails!

Lime green WHAT!? This is with my matte topcoat over it, but it didn't really need it, as it's super neon and kind of matte already. I love it so much, like if I could only pick on polish color for the rest of my life, I'd definitely pick this one! What do you think?!

Okay so ANYWAY, this is a super easy mani to do, if you want a real tutorial, I can make one for you, so just comment if you do and I'll make a pictorial. :) I'd be happy to! I haven't made one in ages, and I kind of love making them!! 

Directions:

1. Paint nails your base green color.
2. After that's dry, on your three non accent nails, using a black polish and striper brush, make stick marks randomly over the nail. Two will probably suffice, as some of mine have three and look messy-ish.
3. Next, on the nails you want to be Frankensteins, paint in the hair using the same striper brush. I made my Franken... Man have squared off hair, and the Bride of Frankenstein have her classic big hair.
4. Next I drew on the mouth of my Frankenstein using the same stitch type design as the non-accent nails.
5. I let that dry for a minute to avoid smearing as much as possible, then used a larger dotting tool and my white polish (Nicolette) to dot on the eyes. I definitely had shaky hands last night when I did these and one of my eyes got a little wonky.. so be careful!
6. Then I used a small dotting tool to dot in the eyes with black.
7. Add the silver (Rebel) zig-zag streak to Bride of Frankenstein's hair.
8. Draw on pink (or whatever color) bow, and you're done with your nail art! Unless you want Bride of Frankenstein to have little eyelashes and a nose like mine, in which case you can paint those on whenever.
9. Topcoat and DONE! I used matte topcoat over these just because I'm out of regular. lol But either would probably look awesome!

SO yeah! Super easy semi-tutorial for your Sunday!

Anyone have any wicked awesome Halloween inspired manis to share?! I'd love to see them! I did some candy corns, ghosts, and pumpkins last year I think! I love Halloween Nail Art!!

Xx Ashley C.

Awesome Pre-Birthday Ulta Haul!

So it's that time of year. Valentine's Day, My birthday, Tax Time, Bonus at work time, School refund time... So I've been waiting and waiting ever so patiently (NOT) to go to Ulta and hunt for deals (Mostly on Nailpolish). I went on Sunday, and to my dismay, they closed at 6. I was super sad and went to Old Navy to buy flip flops and camis in my despair.

I went back tonight though! And in my opinion I got a PRETTY AWESOME HAUL! I don't have very many actual photos and no swatches yet, as I plan to swatch everything individually, but here is what I got!

Ulta was running a special on Nyx for Buy 1 get 1 half off, and I love Nyx so I HAD to get something from this deal! I picked up Nyx Matte Lipstick in Summer Breeze for $5.99 & Nyx HD Photogenic Concealer in Green for $4.99 (Half off, so $2.50!). I've been dying to try out some Green concealer for a long time to see how well it hides blemishes, so I'm pretty excited to try this out tomorrow! Definitely will post a review for you guys to let you know how it holds up! The lipstick I got is SUPER pretty. As you know I LOVE pink lippies & matte lipstick is pretty great too.

You can't really tell how green the concealer is because the flash totally washed this out, but it's like a mint color. :) Isn't the lipstick great!?

The next deal I got was their 2 for $12 China Glaze deal! I normally wouldn't even spend this much for a China Glaze but they had two colors that I really really liked, and one that I have been in search of for a long time. I can't wait to swatch these! I picked up:

China Glaze - It's a Trap-eze! (from the Cirque Du Soleil: World's Away Collection; White w/ lots of glitter)

China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy (from the Party Poolside Collection; Coral Neon)

The next item I HAD to have is Push and Shove from the OPI Gwen Stefani collection. It was $9 but it came with a mini basecoat too which is fine by me. This color supposedly only lasts like 24 hours but it is a Silver Ultra Chrome Mirror Polish. Like crazy chrome. I've heard mixed reviews, but it's too shiny not to have in my life. I can't wait to swatch it! :D

Next is the lovely Zoyas I added to my collection this evening. I decided the other day, that I don't have nearly enough Zoya in my life, and I saw some girls in my swap group talking about some being on clearance at Ulta. I had to dig deep in random bins of nail polish to find these babies, but it was totally worth it.

First up is Zoya - Blaze. The website describes Blaze as a full coverage, cool-toned mulberry red w/ micro fine diamond holo glitter. It's beautiful in the bottle, and I don't even really like red. Dug this out of the clearance pile for $4.99! Can't wait to swatch it! 

I also managed to find Zoya - Payton buried deep for $3.99! It's kind of similar to Blaze, but its described as full coverage, galactic cranberry with holo glitter. Definitely a deeper red!

My nails have been breaking and peeling up a storm lately, so I also grabbed a bottle of Butter London's Horsepower to try out. I definitely paid full price for this, $19, so I hope it's worth it. I've been using some Orly Nail Strengthener, but it just isn't really working out for me. So fingers crossed! Anyone tried this?

Last, but certainly not least, I redeemed my FREE birthday gift. CK One Mascara, valued at $18. I have no idea if this stuff is any good or not. I had no idea this was even a makeup line until I got the coupon for this, but I will definitely let you know how it works out!! It's weird because it comes with two different brush heads, I guess depending how how you want your lashes? I don't really know honestly I haven't used it yet... I just glanced at the bottle. But you can't beat free!!!

All in all, I am really pleased with this Ulta Haul. It's been quite a while since I've been able to buy anything cool for myself in such bulk. Overall I paid about $58 for all of this which isn't too bad considering I saved $27!

I also signed up for the Starlook's Starbox today, as well as a 3 month subscription to the Pretty & Polished Beauty Box! Which is really awesome and is selling out FAST! You get all kinds of stuff with their new sub, including TWO polishes that are ONLY going to be released in that month's box! How awesome is that?!

Anyone gotten anything great in a haul lately?! I'd love to hear about it! 

Goodnight everyone!

Xx Ashley C.

Merry Christmas Everyone! Santa Nails for Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my readers!! I hope you and your families have an awesome day today!! :D
For Christmas, I'm just going to show you my Santa nails I did last night, since these are going to be the last Christmas nails I post until next year. 2014 is going to be the best nail art year yet! I can feel it!! They are a little bit messy, but hey, it's all about the holiday spirit right?! My Santa looks kind of like a white Papa Smurf but that's okay :D

For these I used:
China Glaze - Just be Claws
Butter London - Marbs
Julep - Nicolette (This is a really awesome white, Chynel doesn't believe me, but I swear it rivals Cotton Buds by Butter London)
Julep - Minnie
Sinful Colors - Black on Black
HK Girl Topcoat! ( The best topcoat ever made, if you haven't tried it, do, because it will change your life!)

I know they're messy and this photo quality is awful but I think they're pretty adorable!!

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays you guys!

Xx Ashley C. & 2 Girls 1 Blog 

& Tiddle