NOPI-Yellow It's Me & Deborah Lippmann-Oh! You Pretty Things

Yay! It's Friday! Though I am not all that excited because that just means there is one measly little weekend separating me from my first day of classes. However, I am excited to post another swatch! Today I have Nicole by OPI-Yellow It's Me and Deborah Lippmann's Oh! You Pretty Things.

This is Yellow It's Me. I picked this up at (Surprise! Surprise!) TJ Maxx for $2.99. I am not entirely sure why I grabbed this one since I'm not a big fan of yellow polish but I noticed it had a coral shimmer to it so I thought I'd give it a try. 

This is two coats of Yellow It's Me. WAY to bright yellow for me. It was a bit hard to notice the coral shimmer unless my nails where in direct light. Because of this I decided to add more coral shimmer to the manicure. 

This is Deborah Lippmann's Oh! You Pretty Things. My wonderful mom purchased this for me at TJ Maxx for $5.99! 

This is after one coat of Oh! You Pretty Things. You can see that there is a lot more coral shimmer and it also toned down the brightness of Yellow It's Me. 

This is after two coats of Oh! You Pretty Things. It turned the yellow to kind of an orange color, which I liked, and the shimmer looked great! Both of the colors went on well; however, they are both sheer colors so you can, if you look really hard, see my nail line. 

Essie-Absolutely Shore

Hello and good morning! Finally I have a swatch to post! I did take pictures of a few manicures that I had done while I was at the cabin but the pictures just did not turn out that great. I should really ask for a new camera for Christmas, or a new phone with a better camera.

Today I have Essie's Absolutely Shore which I purchased a while back at TJ Maxx for only $3.99. Essie nail polish usually retails from $7.75-$8.00, so four bucks is a darn good deal.

I Looooooove this color! I actually wore it for about four days, which is a long time for me. The Essie website describes this color as "a soft sea foam green" which is pretty much how I would describe it.

This is a creme polish and I used three coats plus a top coat in these pictures. I feel that I would also describe this color as a light mint color because sometimes when I look at it, it looks like a really soft, pale shade of blue.

The polish went on smoothly and dried pretty fast. I used to think Essie polish was a waste of money since the bottles of polish are only .46 fl oz instead of the normal .5 fl oz, but as long as I can keep getting them for four dollars at TJ Maxx instead of eight I'll think they are a good investment. This is only my third bottle of Essie nail polish. 

Up North

Since Saturday afternoon my family and I have been enjoying a week up north in Longville, Minnesota. Today we just got back home and now I am back to "real life" and about to start classes in a week. Boo!!

I had planned on posting swatches while at our cabin however the internet there was not that great making it painfully slow to upload pictures. Since I don't have a swatch prepared for this post I thought I would just share a few pictures from our little vacation.

Here is a picture of my dad and I fishing on Jack Lake which is a private lake that we rent for a day every year. The fishing boats little motor ran out of power so my dad is paddling us to our next fishing location. 

This if the view of Girl Lake from our deck. I love being right on the water. 

This is a picture of my dad, me and my mom. We were out boating around on Woman Lake 

Here is my brothers plate of food from the annual Crayfish feed. I don't normally eat these, they are a pain in the ass to get the meat out of and it is such a small amount it almost isn't even worth it. 

While at the cabin my dad taught me how to play cribbage. He surprised me with this awesome cribbage board and we played every day. 

Last but not least this is a picture of my mom with the beast of a northern she caught on Jack Lake. It was 32 inches and is probably the biggest fish any of us have caught out of the 12 years we have been going to our cabin. She released this fish, just like we release all the fish we catch =) 

Nicole by OPI-OMB!

Hello & happy Thursday! I know it has been a while since my last swatch but, as I said before, I've been busy partying it up in Minneapolis & Rochester for the past few days and packing to head up north to my cabin next week.

Today I have for you NOPI-OMB! I let my sister pick out the color for this post since I had no idea what color to paint my nails.

This is part of the Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber One Less Lonely Girl Collection. Though I am NOT a fan of Bieber I like the polishes in the One Less Lonely Girl collection and I also like that I got them at ShopKo for $3.99 a bottle. 

Boo for crappy pictures! This is a nice red shimmery polish. It is super shimmery though you cannot tell from the picture. This manicure has three coats of OMB! 

Not the best clean up job but here is a picture that is more true to the color of the polish. It really is a lovely red loaded with red shimmer. I liked the brush on this polish, its the "perfect stroke" brush, as far as getting good coverage on my nails, but it seemed like the brush scratched the polish out of place as I kept painting.

However the manicure turned out nicely and if you are a red polish person you have to get your hands on this one! 

MIA

Sorry I've not been posting lately! I've been busy "partying" up in the Cities and back home. I've also been packing to head up north to our cabin for a week...

Not the most gorgeous cabin on the lake but we are right on the water and have a fabulous view!

I haven't been painting my nails as much lately I've been trying to keep a mani for at least three days since classes start at the end of August and I will have to cut back on painting my nails. =(

Hopefully tomorrow I will have a swatch for the blog!

Base Coat

I haven't painted my nails for the past couple days so I decided today I'd share the base coat that I use before I paint my nails.

But first some super exciting news....I have hit the 300 bottles of polish mark!!! YAY!! Thanks to the help of my mom, my sister, and some awesome polish deals I now I have 307 bottles of polish!

Anyway here is the base coat that I use...

This is Pro FX complete 3 in 1 Top coat, Base coat, and nail strengthener. This bottle is huge and I think I purchased it for around $5 at WalMart. I do not use this as a top coat because it doesn't give me the shine that I like with my manicures.

Why wear a base coat? 

The base coat is the most important part of the manicure! This protects your nails from over drying like they would if you applied polish directly to them. It also protects against staining. Ick. Before I cared about my nails I used to apply polish directly to them and the dark colors would leave disgusting stains. I have also noticed that using a base coat keeps your manicures looking better longer, which is a plus!

So even if you are feeling lazy DO NOT SKIP THE BASE COAT! It's the most important part of having an amazing manicure!