Happy Halloween!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

I've been super busy with work, so sorry about the late post. And I did this mani at 1 AM, so sorry about the bad gradient! Nothing makes me wish I were a kid again more than Halloween and this Halloween it seems more so than usual. I hate working on Halloween, I think we should have it off!!

Polishes used- old Color Club black creme, OPI Angel with a Lead Foot (white), Sally Hansen Tribal Sun (orange), Sally Hansen Lightening (yellow). Tools used- dotting tools and sponge.

 Hope your Halloween was spookier than mine!

OPI Hawaii Spring/Summer 2015 Swatches- Ladylike Dots!

*sent for review*

I have three more of the lovely OPI Hawaii polishes for you today. I'm really enjoying spending a little more time with this collection. Sometimes I feel like some great polishes get a little lost in the massive whole collection swatch posts. This way, we can get to know some of these gems a little better. Like OPI Do You Take Lei Away?, for example. Do You Take Lei Away? is a creamy pale beige. This seems to be very neutral in tone, not too cool, not too warm. I read somewhere that OPI wanted to make this sort of color in a shade that would flatter a wide variety of skin tones and I think they succeeded with this one. It looks great on me and I think it will also look stunning on darker skin tones as well. 

This is three thin coats of Do You Take Lei Away?. If you tend towards thicker coats, two should be just fine. This pretty well pigmented and despite the pale shade, I didn't have any problems with streaking. It has a great consistency and was easy to apply.

OPI Suzi Shops and Island Hops is a pale whitened bubblegum pink creme. It's paler and more stark looking than your typical bubblegum pink, but still nicely flattering. I am not a huge pink polish wearer, but I can see myself rocking this quite a few times. If you are more tan than I am, I bet this will look amazing on you!

This is three coats of Suzi Shops and Island Hops. I needed a third coat to make it fully opaque and smooth, but two coats might be fine, as it was pretty pigmented. It was pretty easy to apply too, I just made sure I let each coat dry in between, as colors like this can be streaky if you don't.

OPI Just Lanai-ing Around is a really pretty mauve-y purple with some hidden shimmer. The shimmer is not in your face, but it kind of adds some depth and shows up the most in bright lighting. The color is an interesting mix of pink and purple. I would maybe call it mauve, but it's not a dusty mauve, it's more like the color of a beautiful Hawaiian flower. I have seen some people call it a grandma shade, and first of all, I hate that term. Grandmas wear a wide variety of colors these days. Second, I find this to be a very fresh looking color, especially against my pale skin tone. I am really loving it a lot and it definitely will get a lot of use here.

This is two super easy coats of Just Lanai-ing Around. It's nearly a one-coater, that's how opaque it is! It applies effortlessly. I wasn't expecting this to be a favorite of the collection, but it might just be one!

For my fun look for this collection, I decided to dot on some Just Lanai-ing Around and Suzi Shops and Island Hops over Do You Take Lei Away?. It's kind of a ladylike looking dotticure and I love it! These three polishes work really well together for nail art purposes. I can think of several other looks that would be great with these.

These polishes worked really well for dotting. I used two different sized dotting tools for this look.

*sent for review*

I'm definitely having fun with this collection so far! It makes me envision myself "lanai-ing" around on a beach instead of shoveling my driveway for the 900th time! Thanks for mentally transporting me to Hawaii, OPI!

The OPI Hawaii collection is available now at Ulta, Ulta.com and fine salons.

China Glaze Party Hearty and Christmas Tree Accent!

*Some products sent for review*

The last week of dance classes before Christmas, we always do little Christmas parties for the kids. We have a snack (junk food like chips and cookies!) and they do a grab bag gift exchange. The kids looks forward to it every year and I wanted to have something fun on my nails for the week. I have to wear China Glaze Party Hearty at least once a year, so I decided to do that over OPI Angel with a Leadfoot. For my accent nail, I made a Christmas tree with Scotch tape and Revlon Posh. The "ornaments" on the tree are OPI Unfrost My Heart applied with a dotting tool. I dug out a silver star glitter from a bag of spare glitter I had and used that as my Christmas tree topper.

Overall I think the tree is super cute. I might do it again for Christmas day. This came out a little crooked, but I always get a real Christmas tree for my house and they are never perfectly symmetrical either LOL! Also, every time I do a mani with Scotch tape, I get impatient and take the tape off before I should. So when I do this again, I will have the patience of a saint and the edges will be cleaner!

*OPI Angel with a Leadfoot and Unfrost My Heart sent for review*

What kind of holiday nails are you rocking this weekend before Christmas, if any? Don't forget to enter my Sally Hansen and NYC giveaway that ends tonight!

Lynnderella Mickey Says Boo and a Black Kitty!

 *Sally Hansen Pumpkin Queen sent for review, everything else purchased by me*

I'm dropping in late today with a quick post. I REALLY wanted to show you my Halloween treat I bought for myself, Lynnderella Mickey Says Boo, but I have strep throat and generally feel like death, so I'll be brief. This is Mickey Says Boo over an unnamed Color Club mini black creme. The accent nail is Sally Hansen Pumpkin Queen with a little black cat face. I drew the cat face with a black sharpie and dotted on the eyes using AEngland Princess Sabra/Tristam's Eyes (it seemed appropriate!).

I LOVE Mickey Says Boo!! I wanted it so badly last year, but it was too expensive. I'm glad the price was reasonable this year. The sharpie kitty looked better in person, by the way. Here it looks kinda streaky, but it didn't in person (to my fever ridden brain anyway).

I have one more Halloween thing to show you tomorrow, and I can't decide if Mickey Says Boo will be my Halloween mani, or the thing I'm showing you tomorrow... Not that I'm going anywhere on Halloween with strep throat! Lynnderella Mickey Says Boo is not currently available, but I believe it will be around again on lynnderella.com and the Lynnderella StorEnvy.

Also, don't forget my Halloween giveaway ends tonight!!!

Zoya Ignite and Entice Tone on Tone Dot Mani!

 *Sent for review*

My Zoya Ignite and Entice bottles are sitting on my dresser right next to each other right now (still need to go get Helmer #3) and I love the way they look all together. I decided to try a kind of tone on tone dot mani with Zoya Claire and Teigen. I applied two coats of Claire and used a Born Pretty Store dotting tool to apply Teigen. The effect is subtle, but fun.

I think this looks a bit better in person, but I still like it in the pictures. The Ignite and Entice polishes are fun to play around with. I can see this idea working well with Remy and Ryan, or for a less subtle look, Claire and Autumn.

*Sent for review*

I'm loving my Entice and Ignite polishes. I think they'll become some of my most worn polishes this fall! Zoya Entice and Ignite collections are available at zoya.com.

More Fun with OPI Sheer Tints with a Muppets Guest Appearance!

 *sent for review*

 I just can't leave these OPI Sheer Tints alone, they are so much fun! I did this look using a couple of different sizes of dotting tools. I was going for a soft, blended together look, not really a perfect polka dot look, so I kind of squished the different colors into each other when I was dotting. I started with a base of OPI My Vampire Is Buff and then made dots with OPI I Can Teal You Like Me. Next I dotted on OPI Don't Violet Me Down, I've Never Amberrassed and Be Magentale with Me, kind mixing all the colors together.

I think what I love about these is that they look great no matter what you do with them. They're very hard to mess up! 

I mentioned in my OPI Muppets post that I wore International Crime Caper and Muppets World Tour for 5 days. Well on the 5th day, I decided to jazz it up by layering one coat OPI I Can Teal You Like Me on top! I love this too, it looks like I just dyed an egg for Easter! I am a little obsessed with the Sheer Tints right now, I think you can see that!

*sent for review*

OPI Sheer Tints are available now at professional salons, Ulta and Ulta.com. They come in a mini set too, if you want to just try them out!

I Try My Hand At Dotting with Born Pretty Store's Dotting Tools!

I finally tried a dot manicure and I totally see why people do it all the time!!! Those freakin' dots are so dang cute! Born Pretty Store sent me this fabulous package of 5 double-ended dotting tools. This set has an excellent selection of 10 dot sizes, ranging from one that was probably too large for my tiny nail beds, to a teeny pinprick size dot.  The handles of the tools are a pretty marbleized pink and white design, so if your nail tools are left lying around, at least these look nice! 

I found these dotting tools to be a perfect size for me to hold and feel like I had complete control over the tool. I am also really pleased with the size selection here and I will never need to purchase another dotting tool in my life!

I wanted to try these tools out first using three of the polishes from OPI's spring Euro Centrale collection (swatches here and here). My base is three coats of OPI My Vampire Is Buff, and the dots are OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and OPI... Eurso Euro. I see a few mistakes in my dotting here, but it was the first time I've ever attempting a dot mani, so I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out!

 Along the way, I learned some things about dotting, like don't press to hard and make sure you have enough polish on the tool! I need some more practice, but luckily, I already have another dotticure in mind (you'll see!)! See my little smudgy dot below? Another thing I learned is to not drink 3 cups of coffee before dotting...

If you're looking for dotting tools, I definitely recommend this set from Born Pretty Store, my favorite place for nail art. Aside from the practicality of the tools, the price is right! This set of 10 different sized dots is only $4.74! You can also get 10% off of your order with the code "ERJ61"!


Products sent for review. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.