Laid Back 31 Day Challenge- Purple

Hello again my polish loving friends! Just a quick post today. Here is my mani for Day 5 of the 31 Day Challenge- Purple. I started with a base of Spoiled Are Mermaids Real and then did the cloud design made famous by Nailside.  I didn't do such a good job on it, but it's my first time so I'm going to give myself a break.

So there ya have it! Lets see what everyone else did for the Purple Challenge!

Laid Back 31 Day Challenge-Pink!

Hi there! So we are already 4 days into the challenge and I'm just now doing a post.  Good thing it's called the Laid Back challenge!  I have been doing all the days, I just have been posting on Facebook.  You do know to look for me there right?  Just click here.  One of these days I will figure out how to put it on the side of the blog. Maybe.

Anyhoo, back to the nails! Today is pink, and while I had no intention whatsoever of doing a Valentine's Day mani, I decided to do one because pink + hearts = opportunity to go crazy girly.

                                Hearts and flowers and heart shaped flowers!

Ok lets list the polishes used in this, are you ready?
Base: Ulta Encore Pink with one coat of Essie No Pre-Nup. The Essie is a warm pink jelly and I used it over the Ulta because I didn't have the right pink I was looking for.
The big hearts: China Glaze Surreal Appeal
Hearts/flowers: OPI Elephatastic Pink, Zoya Kimber and Julep Joan.
Dots: Julep Joan.
I am really happy with this mani because I took my time doing it and I think it paid off.  I tend to rush things and then wonder why it looks like crap, lol. I also love how over the top happy and cutesy it is.  It reminds me of spring. What do you think? Too much? Not enough? Hate pink and you're skipping this post entirely? ;)
Oh! I forgot to add that I have a winner for the Giveaway!  It was sooo fun doing that, and I will definitely be doing another one!
I forgot to add the others doing the challenge! Ok, lets see if I can get this to work.

Cotton ball holder thingy

I have been meaning to post about this for about 6 months, and finally remembered it today. Do any of you have this neat little contraption from Sally's?

It's a cotton ball holder.  What they hell do I need a cotton ball holder for you may ask? Well, have you ever done a manicure and then messed up a nail and need to redo it, but you don't want to mess up your other nails trying to take the polish off of just one or two?

With this you just push the end and these little claw things come out.  Pick up a cotton ball with the claws, put your remover on the cotton and voila!

You can remove your polish without messing up your other nails and without trying to hold the acetone soaked cotton ball in the palm of your hand without it touching your fingers.  Do you know what else this thing is GREAT for? Cleaning your stamping plates and stamper!  Seriously, I love this thing so much I have 2 of them, in case I can't find one.  I don't know what I would do without it.

You can get them at Sally's Beauty Supply online and in stores.  Here's a link:

Manicure Saver!

That's all for today, but I'm doing the Lazy 31 Day Challenge (that started yesterday) and I might be posting them to my blog.  Remember if you don't see me here you can find me on my FB page. 

-EJ

Giveaway!

Hi!!! Long time no see? I hope you all have come over to my Facebook page.  I currently doing The Crumpets 31 Day Challenge and I try to post news and any sort of interesting (or not) bits much more regularly. Anyway, seeing as the title of this post is giveaway, I bet your not even reading this LOL!  So on to the good stuff!

My first giveaway, and I'm joining forces with the lovely and very talented Bibian of Manifix.   Bibian is giving away a Zoya Gilty Gift Box!

And I am giving away butter London in Jack The Lad, Sinful Colors in Nova a cute little nail care kit with toe separators, a file, buffing block and nail brush, and a green apple lip balm.

I will be putting the giveaway on my Facebook page as well. As soon as I figure out how to do it...

The giveaway will run through to the end of the month, there will be 2 winners and the giveaway is only open to U.S. addresses only.  If all goes well with this one, I will do an international one next month.  Please be sure to enter a current and valid email address so that we can contact you if you win! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm moving! But, all my friends live here!

Don't worry, you can come with me :)  As you can see, I rarely post.  I have good intentions, but, they never come to fruition. So I was thinking about it, why don't I post here? What's holding me back?  I decided that it's kinda lonely. I like the back and forth that a conversation has.  I don't just want to share my polish and nail art, I want to talk about it with people. So in comes Facebook.  Everyone has a Facebook account (well most everyone) and I'm on there way too much as it is, so the answer was clear.  I shall "blog" on Facebook!  Please come and follow me at www.facebook.com/CoatOfManiColors  I still may come by here now and then when I want to do a long post, and if I do I will let ya know on my FB page.  I look forward to many more posts and actually being able to talk to you guys. Hope to see you there and tell your friends ;)

I stole your crayons!

Hiya! So, recently I have been having a major creativity block. I couldn't think of anything to do with my nails and when I thought of something I was just blah about it. Now, you all know that my momma lives with me right? Yeah, so she can be pretty awesome sometimes and during one of her manic episodes she wrote out a list of ideas and one of them was crayons. I love crayons and coloring.  I still color sometimes as a way to de-stress and clear my head. And who doesn't love crayons? They're colorful, they smell good, they bring you back to your childhood and OH the endless creative possibilities crayons have! So yeah, crayons are good.

I used a mix of polish and acrylic paint for this.  The base yellow is Nina Pro- Like Butta topped with Julep Daisy because Like Butta was a tad too mustard-y looking. The dark green for the crayon box details is Finger Paints-Tough Art to Follow. The rest is acrylics, because I thought polish would be too thick for the little crayons but, now I think if you thinned it out a little it would work and using polish would have better color crayon possibilities :)

I also didn't want to make the mani "too perfect" I wanted it to look cute and whimsical and sort of sketched in, which is a good thing because I can't do "perfect" so this is a fun one to do if you feel like you can't do nail art.

So that's about it.  My mom did a cool thing and I'm feeling more inspired. Good stuff Maynard!
'till next time!
-EJ

Just a thought, and quick review of sorts.

Hey guys! Today I read a post from the fabulous Man Polish which you can find here http://manpolish.blogspot.com/2012/09/show-me-polish-economics-of-packaging.html#comment-form

I found this very enlightening! I have a Julep account and while I find their polishes to be mediocre at best, I am in love with their other products. The Best Pedi Creme Ever, really is. Their Reveal Nail Growth Serum is outstanding, but their polishes really kind of suck and their half gone after one mani. I've only gotten 3 shipments and one of them was because I didn't "skip a month" in time. Luckily that was a good thing because that one contained a truly unique color. I can't find it right now, but it was a seemingly standard black in the bottle, wtf? I can't believe I just paid premium price for a standard black when I love my .99 WnW black cream so much. But hold the phone! I swatched it out on a nail wheel and ooooh! What an unusual color! It's not black, it's not dark charcoal gray it's the color of a black cotton sweater that has been washed a few times. It's a faded black. It's truly unique (to my collection anyway) and dare I say, worth the money. But, except for this fluke, I have found the rest of their colors sheer and needing 3+ coats and therefore using up half the bottle. I will be cancelling my subscription after reading this post from Man Polish because it is right on. Simple math. I would rather have some A Englands or Zoyas any day. But I will still fork over the cash for their beauty products. Have you seen the ingredients on the foot creme and prep? I'll say it again, outstanding! So in a nutshell, in my humble opinion, Julep polishes = $$$ and meh quality. Their beauty products= $$$ WOW! But I'm still going to cancel, or try to remember to skip all months except when they include products. This is just my opinion and reaction to Man Polishes post. Nothing more. No one asked me for this opinion. The opinion is free and you get what you pay for ;)

I will post pics of the black polish as soon as I can find it...

I found it! This is Julep Brandt. The photos are a little Q&D but you get the idea of the color which is pretty dead on in the pics. One more for good measure?

So there ya go, I hope no one was terribly offended my post today, everything I said was just my opinion and I wrote it on my blog. You may take it or leave it. That's just one of the good things about being an adult, you don't have to live by others opinions and ways of living. If you can think of any more reasons it's good to be an adult, please, let me know.  I can't think of any others!
Thanks for stopping by-
EJ