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!   

Cynthia Rowley-Neon Pink

I have decided to suck it up and paint my nails even though the cut on my finger isn't completely healed. As I said in my last post I wanted to swatch the Neon Pink color from Cynthia Rowley as soon as I could so that's the color I went with.

Here is the bottle of polish. Even in the bottles this color is BRIGHT! 

Here is the manicure! The polish goes on smoothly and has a matte finish to it. Of course, as always, I put a base coat on before applying this polish because this would definitely stain your nails. I applied three coats of the neon pink and to finish the manicure I used Jessica Cosmetics Brilliance High Gloss in a Flash Top Coat.

Here is the polish with the flash on my BlackBerry. Shocking! It really is that bright. As I said in yesterdays post I am not really one for neon polishes but I really like this color. It's like party polish and it's Suhweet! 

I think I am going to try to wear this polish as long as I can so I don't have to deal with getting nail polish remover in the cut on my finger. OUCH! 

Cynthia Rowley Nail Polish Sets

I LOVE TJ MAXX!! It is like my secret designer nail polish spot. I used to never find nail polish at TJ Maxx. Every once in a while they would have a set of obnoxious neon colors by a brand I'd never heard of but lately it seems they are always having awesome nail polish deals.

Today I am going to show you two sets of polish I picked up from TJ Maxx a while back that I absolutely love! They are by the fashion designer Cynthia Rowley. I know that the nail polish brand Zoya had bottles of polish for Cynthia Rowley and that Cynthia Rowley had "nail stickers" but I was not aware that she had bottles of polish...until I found these.

Here they are! I can't find these online anywhere so I do not know what they would regularly retail for. The first three bottles in the picture I got for $6.99 and the last two were in a separate set for $5.99 ((I think)). Also, None of these polishes have names to them but that doesn't really bother me. 

The first color is a super bright neon pink. I don't normally go for neon polishes but I kinda dig this one and I intend on swatching this polish ASAP. Maybe even tomorrow though the cut on finger still really hurts =( 

The next color is a bright almost neon blue. Love! The polish looks a little soft in the picture but its much brighter than this. I thought it was close to a Tiffany blue when I first saw it but I compared it to one of my T&Co. boxes and this color is much darker. 

This color is also another bright one but I wouldn't consider it a neon. It is a coral color and I cannot wait to wear it. I think it's a perfect color for summer since it is more of an orange color than a pink color. 

The first polish that came in the second set I bought was this gorgeous shimmery pink. I haven't worn this yet but it seems like it will have a metallic like finish to it. 

The last polish I have for you is this soft pastel pink color. I love this color and can't wait to swatch it! 

If you are ever looking for nice nail polish for a good price, check out TJ Maxx. I usually find their polish on a small display stand next to the jewelry ((almost always by the dressing rooms)) but in other TJ Maxx stores I have found it mixed in with the make-up, hair products and perfume, so you may have to hunt for it. 

Jessica Cosmetics-Sunrise

It has been a few days since my last post. Whoops. But tonight I have one of the polishes that my sister picked up for me at TJ Maxx it is Jessica Cosmetics-Sunrise.

When I saw this color in the bottle I liked it a lot. The shimmer was great the color reminded me of fall, my favorite season, but I wasn't sure it was one that I would like to wear. This is one of my first brownish, orangeish colors and I did not think it would look good with my skin tone ((Gah I sound like my mom)).

I thought this color looked alright. It isn't one of my favorites and it isn't really a Summer color, but I will definitely utilize it in the Fall. 

Here is Sunrise with the flash on my camera. I absolutely love how shimmery this color is and it goes on very smooth and easily. This manicure has three coats of Sunrise. Again, I know the quality of these pictures are not the best because I am back to the camera on my BlackBerry. It seems I have misplaced the charger for my "real" camera. Oops! 

Unfortunately I will not be able to post swatches for a little bit. Somehow I cut the skin on the side of one of my fingers right next to the nail. It is painful to remove polish so I have decided to give my nails a little break. Hopefully not for too long though!