Pure Ice: Getting My Green On

Happy St. Patrick's Day! This is a fun day where anyone can claim to be Irish and no one is offended. I'm Irish, so I say the more, the merrier!

This is a fun holiday for manicures. I've been seeing such cute ones all over blogosphere. Here, let me contribute...

What could be more Irish than a.....French manicure?  LOL And the French manicure was invented by an American to give models and TV stars a manicure that was timeless. Oye! So here is my Irish twist to it...

I started off with Pure Ice in a smashing, metallic green. I love that high shine! And I did my nail beds with Sinful Colors 'Social Ladder'. It has just a bit of shimmer to it as to not make my manicure look flat. I used French tip sticker guides to do my tips and would have loved to have rounded it off with a stripe of gold. But,  I had done good so far, I didn't want to take a chance of ruining it!

I did test a few tips on my right hand with Pure Ice Crackle in metallic silver. I tried it both vertically and horizontally. I ended up liking my manicure without the crackle but it did add a neat twist to something already twisted.

And this mani was an attention-getter too. I got many compliments on it. I think my nails were just the right length for this look too. So I can say, I had a touch o'Irish in me this week. ;)

Special thanks for Bari Cosmetics for providing me, as part of the Central Florida Beauty Bloggers, the Pure Ice Crackle and Ice Duo Lightning Strikes.  You can visit Bari Cosmetics on their Facebook page: http://facebook.com/baribeauty.

Twinkle Toes Show For The Giveaway

I'm hosting a giveaway that ends November 27, Saturday, at 10 PM EST.  Click on over there and enter.  There are some gorgeous glitter polishes in this prize.

Many times when I'm out blowing money  shopping, I am on the lookout for items what would make a fun giveaway.  I was really excited about this one.  And rarely usually I will want one of the items for myself.  This polish was one of them...

The boutique 'Forever XXI (21)' has some of the cutest clothes, jewelry and cosmetics.  There are 2 huge stores here in Orlando at malls.  Fortunately, I have clients I visit in both of these malls.  I wonder, sometimes, if having clients in retail establishments is a good idea.  That's because it tends to GIVE me ideas.

This is where I found all the glitter nail polish for my giveaway.  Forever XXI calls their makeup line 'love and beauty.'  As you can see on the label, they are not expensive and they are gorgeous.  But, do they perform well?  I did a pedicure to test it out.

This particular one is a medium dark purple base that has iridescent micro glitter in it.  The glitter is so tiny I couldn't tell, easily, if it was a bunch of different colors or all iridescent.

Here, I have put on 3 coats to get to opaque.  3 coats isn't too bad.  But the negative was that it did puddle around the cuticle.  I don't know if it would have done that on my finger nails, but I did use some back strokes to even it out.  Albeit, it's hard to see in the photos, the glitter is noticeable.   I think the middle photo above shows it the best, however, it shows up very much like what you see in the bottle.

I'm glad I got the purple for myself.  Though, I am sorry it just has the name 'Dark Purple.'  I hope the winner of the giveaway will not only give these a good home but maybe some come up with a few cute names.

Have you entered the giveaway yet?  Whatcha waitin' for!!!

Do Something Outrageous

Pure Ice has some creamy foil colors that run the rainbow spectrum.  And I like the look of foils.  However, they are not the friendliest polishes to use.  I have found that they can be streaky or bubbly, or both.  This one is both.  

Outrageous is a silvery lavender color.  The picture of my hand, in the sunlight, gives its truest match to how it looks in the flesh.

                                                   Here it is in sunlight.
                                  Oh, the font color matches my nails!  ;) 

                                      Here it is in defused sunlight.

                            Again, in defused sunlight, just a different window.

The polish has curled up along the edges.  I'm not sure why that happened.  And the pinky has a smudge mark that has gone unnoticed until I took a super macro picture of it.


Outrageous is a pretty color.  It just shows too many flaws.  These nails have an OPI base coat and a mystery top coat.  I also put 2 Seche Tops on then, topped it all off with Quick & Slick Ultimate top coat.


I had this manicure done professionally.  And, just to let you know, I am a newly, reformed cuticle biter.  I mean NEWLY.  Like just 4 weeks ago.  I have tried lots and lots of things for over 40 years to try to stop this habit of biting and picking on my cuticles.  OMG!  I can't believe I just admitted '40 years'!  Anyhoo, I had never gone over two days without resorting back to ruining them after the nicest manicure.  What was different about this time?  Hmmmm...I'm really not sure.  Maybe reading incisively lots of nail blogs?  Wanting to write my own nail blog?  

And this is one of the least desirable times in my life to undertake trying to break this habit.  But I'll take it!!!  After the second week, I had already invested enough time that I knew it had 'taken.'  So with 4 weeks, I'm doubly committed to keeping my digits out of my mouth.  Did I just say '40 YEARS!?'  To say the least, I'm proud of my accomplishment that has eluded me for so long.  So, my dear readers, be gentle with me on how my cuticles appear.  OK? :)


Have you been a former nail biter?  What did you do to stop biting?  What do you think when you see someone biting their nails?