Showing posts with label hk girl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hk girl. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday, Classic

Good morning everyone! Happy Tuesday!

Today's theme is Classic... I thought about going with a classic French Tip, or a nice neutral Mauve, but the more I thought about it the more I kept thinking RED. Red is a classic nail polish color, I think it was one of the first colors worn on nails. Plus, I have a very "classic" red to share.

This is OPI Coca-Cola Red.


To me, this is a true "classic red". It's a really true red, doesn't lean orange or show any blue undertones (to me). It's just straight up red. Awesome red. Red based on the best soft drink ever invented, Coca-Cola. It's my weakness and I'm not ashamed of it. Judge me all you want, but please don't try and chastize me or lecture me about it. I know it's bad for me, I'm almost 34, I'll drink it if I want to. ;) haha :)

This mani is 2 smooth coats of Coca-Cola Red topped with HK Girl by Glisten and Glow. Truth be told this was on day 3 of my mani, I forgot to snap pics on day 1, and it held up so well I went with it. I wish I would've moisturized a little before I snapped the pic, but what can you do. 

I'm not a fan of red nails on myself, it's my husbands favorite polish color. Go figure. But I do love this one, even on me. Maybe it's just my love for Coke, who knows. 

So what do you all think? What do you consider a "classic" mani? 

Be sure to check out the other Twinsie's manis this week, linked below. 

Thanks for reading!

~casey

Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Kelly at Tuxarina
​ Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision
Traci at DrinkCitra


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday, Inspired by a Book

  Hello friends! Happy Tuesday! Slowly but surely I'm starting to feel like myself again thankfully. Hopefully I'll be back to blogging soon. 

Today's prompt is Inspired By a Book. Bet you all thought I would do Harry Potter didn't you... :) I was going to, but then I looked at the cover for the book I'm currently reading and decided I needed to do it. 

This is my mani inspired by City of Heavenly Fire, by Cassandra Clare. 


Oddly enough I liked my right hand more, that never happens. 



I read on a Nook Simple Touch, which means no color.... So here is a color image of the cover from www.cassandraclare.com. 


First just let me say that if you like young adult fiction, fantasy, good vs evil, all that stuff, you should check The Mortal Instruments series out. I'm having trouble reading it because I'm not ready for the series to end! I also read the sister series, Infernal Devices and loved them too. 

Ok back to the nails. For these I started with 2 coats of OPI Black Onyx then topped it with Glisten & Glow HK Girl topcoat to get it dry. 

I used so many colors I had to take this picture so I would remember. I think I'll just post it instead of listing them out. 


I used little pieces of Saran Wrap crumpled up to get this effect. With some colors I painted it on my nail and used dry Saran Wrap to blot some off. For other colors I put a few drops on foil and picked it up with my Saran Wrap and kind of stamped it on. There really wasn't much rhyme or reason, I just did whatever I thought it needed to look like magical fire. 

So I think I did ok, what do you think? Overall I was pleased with them and even wore them all weekend. 

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out my fellow Twinsies blogs linked below!

~casey

Amanda at Amandalandish
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Kelly at Tuxarina
   Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision
Traci at DrinkCitra 



Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday, Stripes

Good evening everyone and happy Tuesday! Sorry I'm late posting today, I just haven't been feeling 100% lately and needed sleep last night. 

For today's prompt we were supposed to do a mani with stripes. I wracked my brain over this one and couldn't come up with anything that interested me except for a mani I did a few months ago but never posted. 



This is the mani that I did for our anniversary weekend back in March. Just over 12 years we've been married, I can't believe how lucky I am sometimes! Mike's favorite polish color is red, so I started with Zoya Sooki. Then I decided to try my hand at the famous "amkuch" mani. (She made this design famous, you should definitely check her out on Instagram, her nails are AMAZING!) On my middle finger I did 2 coats of OPI This Gown Needs a Crown and added In True Stefani Fasion. On my ring finger I used 2 coats of This Gown Needs a Crown and added 1 coat of HK Girl topcoat by Glisten & Glow. Once that was fully dry I used my straight Nail Vinyls from www.nailvinyls.com to add stripes in OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Then I freehanded a little heart in Sooki. After everything was dry I gave all of my nails another coat of HK Girl and I was good to go!

I loved this mani so much that I've been saving it in my phone for months waiting for the perfect time to post. This was the perfect time! 

I hope you like this mani! I definitely need to try this again once my poor little teeny ring finger nail is back to a normal length! 

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out the other Twinsie's blogs linked below to see their stripes!!!

~casey

Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Kelly at Tuxarina
​Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision


**The products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use.**

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday, Inspired by a Beverage/Food

Good morning everyone! I hope you're all doing well. I'm doing ok, I've been better but I've been worse so I'm going with that. :)

Today's prompt is Inspired by a Beverage/Food.Well with OPI's recent Coca-Cola collection I had to go with my very favorite soda, Vanilla Coke! Here's my disclaimer, yes I know it's bad for me. So don't even start with your lectures and facts and figures... I get it. I'm 33, I know. But it makes me happy... so I drink it. It's my decision after all. :)


For this mani I started with 2 coats of OPI You're So Vain-illa then topped it with Glisten & Glow HK Girl. For the soda and bubbles I used acrylic paint. (If you'd like to see how I make my bubbles you can see a pictorial I did on Amanda's blog here!) Then I sealed it all in again with HK Girl

These didn't turn out quite how I imagined, but they get the idea across! They also remind me of a concoction I've seen Cristina Alvarado (Her Instagram is here, you should be following her! Her work is AMAZING!!) drinking; a mixture of Coke and Evaporated Milk. I want to try it so bad but haven't yet. It isn't that bad for you is it? 

So what do you think? Do these remind you of Vanilla Coke? Or maybe evaporated milk and Coke. Any of you had that mix? What does it taste like!?! 

Be sure to go check out the other Twinsie blogs to see how they interpreted this theme!!!! Linked below!

Thanks for reading!

~casey
Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Kelly at Tuxarina
​Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday: Favorite Nail Polish Brand

Good morning everyone! Happy Twinsie Tuesday! 

Today's prompt is Favorite Nail Polish Brand.... this isn't a difficult question for me at all. My favorite nail polish brand is OPI. Picking which colors to use on the other hand, that was agonizing. :) The reason I love OPI so much is the amazing formula. As much as I love glitter, creams are my favorite. And OPI does cream polish like no other main stream brand. Zoya is a close second, but OPI will probably always have my heart. Besides the formula, I am in love with that Pro Wide brush. It's just the right width for my little nails, makes my manis so much easier. 

So then I decided I needed to come up with a design. I debated just a regular 1 color mani... nah, couldn't do that. Thought about mixing in another brand, nah... I wanted all OPI all cream. Then I remembered Saran Wrap. And here is what happened next.











For this mani I used both methods that I've seen for Saran Wrap manis, the kind that removes polish and the kind that dabs it on. First I started with a base of 2 coats of OPI Miss You-Niverse, although 1 would have been plenty. Then I added a coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl Top Coat to speed up the drying process. Once it was dry, I painted on a fairly thick coat of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. (My all time very most favorite ever white. I may or may not have 5 backups of this beauty...) Before that was dry, like immediately after painting it on one nail, I took a piece of saran wrap that was crumpled up and dabbed it on he nail. This will take parts of the white off in kind of a folded pattern. After that had dried I dropped some OPI I'm Feeling Sashy on a piece of foil and dipped some more crumpled Saran Wrap in that, dabbed some off, then dabbed some on the nail until I was happy with it. Once that was done I cleaned up my cuticles, topcoated, added drying drops, and called it good.

Now here's the thing with nail art like this... if you're like me, you won't be happy with it. Not at first. I've learned to never make a decision until you add topcoat. And this is a perfect example. I should have taken a picture of it before topcoat. It was a hot mess, all lumpy and rough and uneven. But then I added topcoat and it turned into some pretty awesome art. I'm not 100% happy with it, I see flaws I'd like to have avoided... but overall I really like it. It reminds me of whispy smoke in the best possible way. 

What do you all think? Have you tried Saran Wrap nail art? Do you think the trend is passed? I don't think so, I really like this one and plan to leave it on for several days. 

Be sure to check out the other Twinsies (linked below) to see what they came up with to showcase their favorite brands! Follow all of use on Instagram and Facebook too!

Until next time!

~casey

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


**All polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use.**

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday Valentines Inspired Nails

Good morning everyone! Again, I'm sorry I've been a bit absent lately. I feel like a broken record, but life has just been crazy. I'm hoping things will calm down very very soon. :) 

Today's Twinsie Tuesday prompt is Valentine's Day Inspired nails. This type of prompt is easy for me... I love Valentine's Day. Sure, I'm in a happy marriage and am absolutely crazy about my husband. Yes, I'm one of "those" people, I love him more and more each day. I wouldn't sugar coat it though, marriage is hard but it is so worth the work. But we take care of each other, and I love knowing that he's who I'm going to be with for the rest of my life. That's a wonderful feeling. And yes, I'm a sap. But it is all truly how I feel. I wish everyone had what I feel like we have. But, all that being said, I think I would love Valentine's Day either way... because I think love is a great thing to celebrate. All kinds of love in all shapes and sizes. AND hearts! Come on, what's not to love? :) Next to circles/swirls it's my favorite shape.  

So here is what I came up with for today. I have more Valentine's Manis coming this week. 






For this mani I painted 3 thin coats of Pipe Dream Polish McPolish's Awesomesauce on all of my fingers but my ring finger and thumb. Then added 1 coat of Gelous and 1 coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl topcoat. Awesomesauce is a thermal polish, but I don't think it liked me much. I didn't have much luck getting it out of it's cold state, which is what is see in the pictures. The bottle is a bit lighter, that's more what it should be when warm. To be fair my fingers were freezing all day the day I did these, so that probably didn't help. And I was so anxious to try another mani I didn't leave them on long enough to play. But either way, I love this polish. The formula was fantastic and I'm a total sucker for gray, pink, and black. Perfect combo! Unfortunately this polish isn't currently available but I think April is planning some similar polishes in the near future.

On my ring finger and thumb I used 3 thin coats of OPI Strawberry Margarita. I'm so glad that Elena from ecklipsedbycolor and Kelly from Tuxarina bullied me into buying this one. (hehe... like anyone has to bully me into getting a new polish) It's such a perfect pink! After Strawberry Margarita I applied HK Girl and waited for it to dry completely. Then I used some of my newest Make It Stick Designs decals. April had a giveaway recently and I won! How exciting is that? I love her decals, especially these smaller ones like the key and the heart. I topped those with 1 coat of Gelous and 1 coat of HK Girl as well. They are sturdy decals so you need some thickness to your toppers. I've also ordered some of her decor for my mom and loved it too. You should definitely check her out!

So what do you all think? I loved this mani, even though I only wore it for a day. I have lots of Valentine themed ideas for you so I'm hoping to do several manis this week. 

Be sure to check out my fellow Twinsie's linked below! I can't wait to see what they came up with!

Until next time!

~casey

**The Pipe Dream Polish in this post was provided to me in exchange for a fair and honest review**


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


Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday Red Nails for American Heart Month (Heart Disease Awareness)

Good morning polish friends! I hope you're having a good week so far! So far my week is good but a bit hectic. 

For today's post our prompt was Red Nails for American Heart Month. Whenever I think "perfect red polish", I think Zoya. I've got 2 perfect reds from Zoya, today I decided on Rehka. 



For this mani I applied 3 thin coats of Rehka followed with 1 coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl Topcoat for extra shine. 

Look at that red! Look at that shine! I love these. I will admit that red polish is NOT my favorite polish. I love it in theory, and I love it on other people, but I'm not crazy about it on my hands. And I'm REALLY not crazy about working with it. It stains my skin so easily... so I have to be extra super duper extremely careful with my application so that I don't need much clean up. I think I did a pretty good job here. And lets be honest, it's hard to make this polish look anything but beautiful. 

Sorry I didn't get any nail art done for ya, crazy hectic day Tuesday taking the dog to the vet for a teeth cleaning. I took her to my parents vet 40 miles away, then got too chatty when I picked her up after work and didn't get home til almost 10. Whoops. :) 

I hope you love this red! Zoya has some amazing polishes, you definitely need to try some out if you haven't yet. 

Thank you for reading! Be sure to check out my other Twinsie Tuesday friends for their Red Manis for American Heart Month! See below for their links! 

~casey

**All polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use.**

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


Friday, January 31, 2014

Happy 2nd Anniversary Twinsie Tuesday!


Good morning everyone! Today I have a very special post for 2 special reasons. Firstly this is a special edition Twinsie Tuesday post (which is why it is on a Friday) because it marks the 2nd anniversary of the first Twinsie Tuesday! The second reason that this is a special post is that it is my 100th blog post!!! Can you believe it? I can't believe it. When I started this little blog back in July I wasn't sure what was going to happen. Since then I've become an official swatcher for a couple of wonderful indie polish brands, I've swatched several other indie brands, and I've been asked to join Twinsie Tuesday! I am so thankful for the friends that I've made through this little adventure and I am loving every minute of it. Plus my therapist says that I can not give up the polish thing because it's good for my mental health. Strict doctor's instructions here folks, so I'm not going anywhere. I'm getting closer and closer to 2000 followers on Instagram too, crazy that 2000 people want to see pictures of my nails and randomness.

Now on to today's post. For our special anniversary post the prompt was Inspired by Another Twinsie's First TT Mani. The Twinsies that we were to be inspired by were assigned and I got Marisa from Polish Obsession. Marisa was one of the original Twinsies, how cool is that? Their first theme was International Polish. Head over to see her original post here. Well, I only have one international polish (for now) and it is a lovely bottle of Glam Polish and Aussie brand that I'd been wanting to try for a while. My friend Sarah sent it to me as a gift last month and I hadn't tried it yet, so the timing was perfect. (Go check her out, she's got an awesome online store in the UK selling all kinds of nail charms and goodies, seriously cute stuff. And her Instagram, cutest cats ever and some awesome manis!)

Sarah and I share a serious love for all things Despicable Me. If you haven't seen the movies, you really need to watch them. They are adorable and funny with a nice moral to the story, just like any good cartoon should be. :) So when she went searching for a polish to send me as a sweet little gift she chose Glam Polish and a polish from their Despicable Me themed collection Mayhem & Madness.

This is So Fluffy I'm Gonna Die!!! More details and pictures after the jump! (including macros!)



Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday, Seasonal Gradient

Good morning friends! I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I've been so busy at work lately that I haven't had much energy to do any blogging. BUT, this is Twinsie Tuesday, and I will always make time/energy for that! 

Today's prompt is Seasonal Gradient. This could be interpreted a lot of ways... but after seeing The Base Coat's Instagram post of a gradient using Zoya Carter and Arabella, I KNEW I had to do something similar. But I needed seasonal... automatically my mind went to wintry blues and silvers. 



For this manicure I started with 2 coats of Zoya Pixie Dust in Nyx, a lovely light silvery blue. Then I sponged on Zoya Pixie Dust in Sunshine, the most amazing deep navy blue Pixie you've ever seen, at the base of my nail. On some of the nails I got more Sunshine than I wanted, so I just sponged on more Nyx until I was happy. Gradients with Pixie Dusts are SO MUCH MORE FORGIVING than gradients with cream polish. Oh my goodness. Especially with these two, because they both have the same silvery glitter base... they just blend together seamlessly. 

Of course I had to throw some topcoat on there just to see what happened. Holy sparkles batman! 




Pixie Dust's can be kind of hard to get smooth and glossy. Any textured polish is for that matter, probably because they are designed to be textured. But if you use the right stuff you get amazing payout. For this ultra shiny and sparkly look I added 2 coats of ACI Gelous from Sally's and 1 coat of HK Girl Topcoat by Glisten and Glow. Wowza! They look like they're set in resin or something. Isn't it incredible? I've been wearing these since Sunday night and I love them. I am being very careful while driving though, it's been sunny and we all know how distracting glitter can be in the sun. No more car accidents for this girl for a long long LONG time please. 

So what do you think? Have you tried a gradient with Zoya Pixie Dust? Trust me, you really should! Find 2 that have a similar base glitter color and go for it. Do you like the matte or glossy finish better? I love them both, but my heart has to choose the glossy if I had to pick one.

Zoya nail polish can be purchased at Ulta, www.zoya.com, and many salons across the US. I get most of mine from the website, and I'm not ashamed to say that I own almost all of the Pixie Dusts. They are by far my favorite textured polishes out there today.  

I hope you all enjoyed this mani as much as I did! Be sure to check out the other Twinsie Tuesday Bloggers! Links to their blogs are below! 

Talk to you soon! 

~casey

**All products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use.** 

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


Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday: Nails inspired by one of your family members.

Good morning everyone! I hope you're all having a great week so far. Mine has been hectic, but I can't complain too much... I am already ready for another weekend though, it's going to be a long week.

For today's Twinsie Tuesday post the prompt was nails inspired by one of your family members. That was easy for me, my husband Mike. At the risk of getting a bit sappy, my hubby really is my best friend. This last couple of years have really proven just how lucky I am. He's taken care of me through 2 surgeries, some seriously heartbreaking self discovery, my first car wreck, (the wreck and 1 surgery in the last month... whew) and many many other things. I won't go into all the details, but I love the guy to pieces. This March we will be celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary and I love him more and more every day.

SO, lets get beyond the sap. Besides all of that greatness, he supports my love of polish. He teases me about it naturally, but he's super supportive. He is constantly combing the net for deals (of any kind), and when he finds anything polish related he lets me know. He "oohs and aahs" my nail mail, tells me my super sparkly polishes look like a bass boat, and compliments my nail art. Usually his answer is "That's pretty fancy", which is my favorite response.

So when I saw the family member inspired nail art I knew it had to be him. I've been wanting to do a Mike themed mani for a while, but this was the kick in the pants I needed. My husband is a serious Dodge (MOPAR) lover. His baby is his 2012 Blacktop Edition Dodge Charger. It was our first (and probably only) brand new car, and we both love it. But he definitely loves it a little bit more than me. The one deal we made when we bought the car was that we would start taking a road trip every year, and so far we've kept the promise. (This car isn't just beautiful, its comfy.)

So here is my Dodge Charger Black Top tribute manicure.




My inspiration, the Dodge Logo. 


And our Black Top Dodge Charger. 
Photo courtesy of my lovely and talented sister-in-law, Jen from Images By Jen Photography
Click here for more photos from the Charger's photo shoot. (Yes we had a shoot with the car, the pictures turned out incredible!)



Since the Black Top Charger is black on black (black wheels, black paint, and ours has pretty dark black tint) I went with a mostly gloss black manicure using 2 coats of OPI Black Onyx topped with 2 coats of HK Girl Topcoat by Glisten & Glow. For this car it has to be ultra glossy black. For my Ring Finger I decided to do a take on the newer Dodge logo. Mike's car doesn't have these red stripes on it anywhere, but I like the way they look and they made the accent nail pop. For this nail I started with 2 coats of Zoya Sooki then topped it with 1 coat of HK Girl Topcoat. It's fast drying, and since I was using tape I needed that.

Once it dried I used my Nail Vinyls for the very first time. Let me stop here and throw in a little review. This vinyls are amazing. I've used vinyls before and loved them. (Make It Stick Designs on Etsy makes some BEAUTIFUL nail vinyls, including chevrons. These are designed to leave on the nail.) But this was my first experience with vinyls that are made to be removed. You let your base dry, apply the vinyls making sure they are completely adhered to the nail, then top it with your 2nd color. (black in my case) Before that dries you gently remove the vinyls leaving crisp and clear stripes. I've been battling tape for quite some time now... striping tape and masking tape cut with craft scissor or regular scissors. It is a pain in the butt. The tape is hard to get even, usually too sticky so you have to fight it to get it off, it smudges the lines, on and on. It's a huge headache. These vinyls have just the right amount of stickiness and weight to make them extremely easy to work with. I am in love. My first order was 300 chevrons and 200 straights (various sizes), and I think I will be ordering more very soon! 

Overall I love this mani. I didn't wear it for long, I had a serious itch to do more nail art. Mikey loved them, they were a subtle tribute to his beloved car. Someday I will do a MOPAR manicure, but that's not going to be any time soon. I have to wrap my head around it. :)

So what do you all think? I hope you like them! Hubby did!

Be sure to check out all of the other lovely Twinsie Tuesday bloggers (links at the bottom of the post) for their posts this week! I can't wait to see what everyone has in store!!!

See you all soon! Be sure to follow my Instagram for more current nail pics and weird little snippits of my day to day life. (which is boring, but sometimes I catch a funny pic of the fat dog or cranky cat.)

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