Are You Looking At My Ass?!

Today, the decision to get the hell outta dodge was made, so Chris, the hound and I headed up to Red Rock Canyon and did some walkin' around, some hiking, and some burro-touching. (Doesn't that sound like a extremely perverse sex act?) We went to a few different areas up at Red Rock, we saw a Gray Fox, some chipmunks, a Jackrabbit (I think it was a Jackrabbit- it was a rabbit of some sort- picture is below), and some WILD BURROS!! (which I got to pet!!! <---They LOVE having between their ears scratched!!) The burros were walking across the road, and apparently they're friendly, so people often stop and the burros walk up to you. Two of them let me pet them, but the baby burro just wanted me to give it food, it was NOT about the petting. Fun thing we learned today is that Homer, the hound, is part mountain goat, he was jumping up rocks, etc. that even the two of us HUMANS were having issues with- and mind you, Homer is a 15 pound ham of a dog. (pic later) Today's manicure is in honor of my staycation today. :) The thumb is the rocks that had stripes of different color in the stone, the index finger is the cactus that stuck prickers in my jeans that later attached their barbs in my LEG (oooouuuuucccch!), the middle finger is one of the burros I pet, and the ring and pinky finger are another part of red rock canyon! :)

I used OPI What's With the Cattitude? as a base for all nails. For the red rock themed nails, I used OPI Ginger Bells for the rocks, with American Apparel Palm Springs to highlight, and mixed with Barielle Unraveled Rust to shade. For the cactus, I used Pure Ice Wild Thing as a base for the cactus, and then a mixture of OPI Green-wich Village and OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow in different quantities to make the different shades of green on the cactus, and for the cactus pears, I used Color Club Ms. Socialite, and for the cactus spines, I used OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow. For the burro, I used MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious for the majority of the burro, for the muzzle, ears, and around the eye area, I used American Apparel California Trooper, which I also mixed with MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious to highlight the coat of the burro, and American Apparel Hassid to shade and for the eye and nose. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Some pictures from today...

Burros!!!

Gray Fox

The Jackrabbit (?)

Me and the hound.

Me and the hound again- about a mile into a hike and sweaty. :-D

Red Rock

Stripey rocks at Red Rock

Red Rocks

Yup, that's me, and I'm petting a WILD BURRO!!

(Now THAT'S a nice ass.)

Under Construction

With it being Labor Day weekend here in the States, lots of people are on vacation, and vacation means road trips!! A familiar sight to most travelers this weekend will be those ubiquitous orange signs. 'Left Lane Closed Ahead', 'Workers Present', 'Prepare to Stop', 'Detour'. These signs mean waiting is ahead! :-D In Michigan, the old joke was that the orange traffic cones were the state tree. :-P As an homage to all the travelers out there this weekend, I decided to do a construction sign manicure!

I used OPI Alpine Snow Matte as a base with Color Club Wham! Pow! over it for all nails but the ring finger, where I used OPI Ginger Bells as a base, with CND Electric Orange over it. For the black, I used American Apparel Hassid, and for the stripes on the traffic barrel, I used OPI Alpine Snow Matte with Sinful Colors Smokin' Hot over the white stripes to give them the 'reflective' shimmer, and Color Club Wham! Pow! for the orange stripes, with Sinful Colors Smokin' Hot over it for the reflective shimmer. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Gotta love construction, and it's seemingly EVERYWHERE in Vegas.

On Fire-fly!

As the proverbial last weekend of summer is upon us (yes, I'm aware we technically have a few more weeks of summer), what better for today's manicure than a summery design? When I think of my summers as a kid in Michigan, I remember nights where fireflies filled the night sky, dancing here and there with their glowing butts. Fun (albeit cruel) fact, you can smear the butts on your skin and it remains glowing. (I learned this as a kid) Today's manicure was inspired by the bugs that light up our summers, fireflies!! :) Thank you to Chris for this idea!! :) (I was braindead today)

I used OPI What's With the Cattitude? as a base, with Orly Snowcone to shade, China Glaze Millennium for the mason jar lid, then mixed with American Apparel Hassid to make the rings on the lid. I also used American Apparel Hassid for the firefly bodies, with Hot Topic Glow-in-the-Dark for the butts, and Essie Bone Chilling White for the wings, as well as the jar highlight. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Ok, back to the Little House on the Prairie marathon. I'm officially sucked in, and there's no stopping now. Enjoy your labor day weekend!!! :)

Argyle Style

A week or so ago, I got an email from Barielle about their new collection for fall- lovely browns, rusts, and golds. It took everything in my power not to buy them all. I even managed to talk myself out of even just getting a couple of them. However, I was not as successful when I was perusing my local Ulta a couple of days ago and happened to see the display of them, in all their autumn-colored glory. (when did Ulta start carrying Barielle colors? I knew they carried the treatments, but color? awesssome, I won't have to order!!) I got away with only getting two of them, with a coupon at that!! Anyway, polish colors made me think of old Grandpa socks- argyle style. (My buddy Jordan has a mini-obsession with argyle socks- he even has hot pink ones!)

I used Barielle Unraveled Rust as a base for all nails but the ring finger, where I used Barielle Aura Angora as a base. For the argyle design, I used the same two colors, and reversed them, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the diagonal lines. I then topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Well, that really socks.

On a side note, if you live in Las Vegas, you need to track down Slidin' Thru, the slider truck, it will change your life.

It's Matte-ning!

So I did a bunch of swatching today that I hope to get up on the Reviews site in the next couple of days, and the last polish that I swatched was Borghese Mediterraneo Sea. It seriously caught my eye when I was Ulta last and I'm SO glad that I decided (after much hemming and hawing) to get it. It's a Matte denim-colored base, with multi-colored glitter- much like if OPI Mad as a Hatter had a baby with a matte blue. (really descriptive, eh? Couldn't think of a matte blue off the top of my head) Today was crazzzzy. I decided this afternoon that I needed to get out of the house, so I went to the $1.50 theater here in Vegas and saw Knight & Day (don't judge me), and on my way out of the parking lot, some lady backed up into my car, with her bumper scraping down the entire side of my car past the middle of the passenger door. The irony? She had just gotten her nails done and was driving in a way as to not damage them. :-P I decided to make myself feel better, so I went to Arby's for dinner. lol Anyway, grumpy nail blogger = simple nails.

I used Borghese Merditerraneo Sea as a base, with China Glaze Millennium for the flowers, which I randomly painted on each nail. The glitter in Mediterraneo Sea makes a VERY textured nail surface, it's kind of interesting actually. I kind of want the other matte glitters from this collection because this one is so damn rad.

And as a bonus- a recent craft project (I posted this on Twitter yesterday, so you twitterers have seen it), my brand new slouchy hat. It is the very first hat I've ever made!! :)  (I love it)

Let's Go For a Dip!

A FUN DIP!! I love candy of all kinds, but I particularly love all that is sour, tart, and fruity. Lik-M-Aid Fun Dip definitely falls into that category. The sugary-rush of goodness that rolls over me when I eat it makes me happy. (it makes my dentist happy too!) Today's nail art is dedicated to this tooth-decaying delight!

I used OPI Alpine Snow Matte as a base, with China Glaze Flyin' High mixed with OPI Gargantuan Green Grape for the 'wet' sugar powder, OPI What's With the Cattitude? sponged over that, and a smattering of OPI Alpine Snow Matte sponged over that to help it look like powder. For the cherry sugar powder, I used the aptly named Orly Pixy Stix for the 'wet' sugar, and Orly Cotton Candy sponged over it, with a small amount of OPI Alpine Snow Matte sponged on top for a powdery look. For the grape sugar powder, I used Eyeko Lilac Polish for Lovely Nails as the 'wet' sugar base, then sponged Orly Lollipop over it, and a touch of OPI Alpine Snow Matte over it.

I had to break some Fun Dip out, it makes me a little... well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words right?

Zoya Wants to Spoon With You!

If you're anything like me, you've bought a polish, only to get it home to discover that you A. Have something exactly like it B. You hate it, or C. It just doesn't work with your skin tone...at all. :-O Zoya has come up with a solution for it, which I think is so simple, yet so brilliant...Zoya Color Spoons!

Zoya Color Spoons are the newest way to shop for polish online with no risk! In their words:

'This is same Zoya color that comes in the bottle poured into small nail shaped wells to create a tester color spoon - you can see every subtle detail of the color and hold it up to your nail to see exactly how it will look.'

The spoons cost 50¢ each, and ship free, but the best part? Every cent you spend on the spoons goes towards a future purchase on Zoya.com, so you really are getting all of the awesome, with none of the cost.



Here’s how it works...

Simply visit www.zoya.com, select a color(s) to try, click on the coordinating Zoya Color Spoon option in the product ordering area to add the color spoon to your shopping cart. Order as many as you would like. After your order has been approved and processed, zoya.com will ship your selected color spoons out for you to try and email you a confirmation along with your spoon value code (code will also be available under the “my account” section of www.zoya.com so you never have to worry about losing it).