Belated Birthday Haul and Winnings

Hey everyone!  I know I've been kinda MIA lately, but all with a good cause.  I spent a week without computer or wifi access, but made some great friends and reunited with some old ones.  (These same friends I spent about four hours konad-ing their nails.)  It's great to be home, but now I've got a lot of reading (and posting) to catch up on.


My birthday was just over a week ago.  Here are my nail related gifts from family:

China Glaze: Towel Boy Toy, Flip Flop Fantasy, Kiwi Cool-ada, Flying Dragon (Neon), Ruby Pumps, Watermelon Rind, For Audrey

Finger Paints:  Blissfully Blue

Orly:  Green with Envy, Lola

OPI Nail Envy, Seche Vite, and glass nail file

But there's more!  I was notified a few days before my birthday that I had won Midge's giveaway!  This was the first time I've ever won anything, and I was in shock.  The package arrived while I was away.  Here are my goodies:

Mini Mango:  Cuticle Remover, Mango Magic Oil, and Mango Mend

Borghese Stellare Notte, Milani 3D Holographic

China Glaze Flying Dragon and Flip Flop Fantasy

Claire's Cotton Candy and Revlon Ocean Breeze

To sum it up, I now have a pile of untried polishes begging for my attention!

xoxo Emma

Nail Envy Nail Strengthener by OPI

Happy Easter by the way!

Not gonna lie.  This stuff is the BOMB!  It's only the mini size, but when it's gone I'll be getting the full size for sure.  I got this from my lovely aunt (my little cousin, according to the label, but I know better :) ) for Christmas.  Before this miracle in a bottle, I could never get my nails much past the edge of my finger tips before they split, tore, or a combination of the two.  Now I have these awesome talons!

When I paint my nails, I use this as my base coat.  The bottle says to reapply everyday for a week, and then take it all of.  But I like cool colors on my fingers, so this is fast enough for me.

My nails grew well from Christmas to about Valentine's day, when I had multiple bad breaks and had to hack them all off.  I haven't had any problems since.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep growing my nails until summer, when I'll be doing a lot of work with my hands and won't be able to keep my nails long.  Cross my fingers!

What are your favorite nail protectors, strengtheners, ect?

xoxo Emma

Yoga-ta Get This Blue

Yoga-ta Get This Blue by OPI, in my opinion (for another opinion, click here), is kinda boring by itself.  Just another navy blue with shimmers.  But when I added "Oh Baby!" (because my right hand had sheet marks on it...shhh!), my boring mani became awesomeness:

but only when the light hits it like this

 and the green in the sparkles really shows through.  

One of my friends commented on my nails, saying how it was cool how they changed from blue to purple.  I was a little disbelieving at first, and of course had to wiggle my fingers around.  Sure enough, they reflect purple too, but rarely, so I couldn't capture that on camera.

I've been experimenting with my background.  In the first few pictures, I set up some white paper, and thought they looked quite nice.  But then I couldn't get the green sparkle to come through.  So I gave up and retreated to the bay window for better lighting.

What d'ya think?  Anyone have any amazing tips for saving dinged up, scratched up, or sheet marked nails?

xoxo Emma

A Disco Ball on My Nails!

I should really get the "lazy blogger" award.  I have no issue trying to find time to read other blogs, paint my nails, paint my friends' nails, take pictures (not as soon as I should, but before they get too chipped), and upload pictures...but somewhere along the way I lose the drive to actually post the pictures here.  So maybe a good idea would be to save a bunch of draft and periodically post them.  I dunno! But onto my disco ball from the vault...

OPI "Nail Envy" nail growth stimulater

free handed french tips using Wet n' Wild "French White"

konad bow using m59 in special polish in black

2 coats of Pure Ice "Oh Baby!"

2 coats of Wet n' Wild "Kaleidoscope"

and a topcoat, can't remember what though

In this one my nails are short (they're much longer now, since this was taken a month ago, gasp!), and my hands were really dry.  Thank goodness the weather has warmed up much since!  As much as I love this bow in other blogger's konadicures, I can't really say that I like it on myself.  My nails are too narrow and curved, so the image is distorted :P Perhaps it would look better on my thumb.

Oh, and I really adore glitter (made much easier with the foil removal trick).  See how it sparkles?

xoxo Emma