Pinkies For A Penny

A New World: A Few Announcements And A Goodbye

2015-01-29T00:00:00.001-08:00

Hello Gorgeous! I hope you're having a wonderful hair day :) Well hold on to your hairspray, I've got some news for you.

After 2.5 years here at Pinkies For A Penny, I needed something new. A new name, a new layout, and a new start. I got a push after I noticed that Blogger was deleting pics from my old posts. I discovered that you only get so much space with Blogger, and after that they start making changes )(without letting you know) to make room for new posts.

I couldn't let them to do that to you guys, or to me. So I reached out to a friend who provides hosting, and make a move over to Wordpress, self-hosting, and a 400gb storage limit.

With this move, I'm making changes to a lot of things. Okay, almost everything. I'll be using better lighting for my pics. Using different tools for my watermark. The layout of the blog will be different. There will be a jump, to show more posts per page.

Finally, I'm going to be posting twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays. For a while, Thursdays will be Throwback Thursdays where I redo the manis that got lost, or that I loved and want to try again. Mondays will be the usual type of posts, and once I start school, I may add another day where I let you know about what I learned.

I am a mixed ball of emotions about this. First, I'm excited to finally be away from something I no longer am. I've been planning this for a very long time. I'm scared that I'm going to fail, as I'm not familiar with Wordpress. I'm anxious, because I am not good with change. I literally had a breakdown and needed to take my "Xanax for beginners". I'm happy with my new look, and I am sad to say goodbye to Pinkies.

But it's time.

Goodbye, Pinkies For A Penny. It was a good long run.

Please click here to visit the new site.

An Extra Post: The Leibster Award.

2015-01-26T13:55:00.003-08:00

Happy Monday Gorgeous! I hope you're taking it easy to day after a wonderful weekend :)

Today has been a really crazy day and it's only noon... I'm trying to gather everything to get my taxes done, but the notebook I spent an accumulated HOUR filling out when I was getting ready to donate stuff to goodwill has disappeared. So I've spent the morning cleaning my room and searching my parents' apartment for it. I can't find it and I'm almost in tears... anyways.

So I finally take a moment to eat and catch up on my online stuff when I was reading a comment on my blog that nearly brought me to tears: Mandie from The Tasteful Texan nominated me for a Leibster award.

In doing some research, I found that the Leibster Award is a long-standing tradition amongst bloggers, sort of a way to spread the love to new-er bloggers, and encourage them. There are a few rules, such as you can only nominate blogs with less than 200 followers, you must tag 10 other blogs, and you must answer 11 questions to accept the award.

These are the questions I was asked:

How long have you been a blogger?

If you could choose 1 post from your blog to brag about, which would it be? (Feel free to link it)

What is your favorite season, and why?

What influenced your decision to start blogging?

What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning?

Is the glass half-empty or half-full?

Have you ever won a trophy?

Do you have a favorite food?

If you could have any job/career, what would you choose?

Name something you're proud of. Why?

What is your favorite thing about your blog?

So here's my answers:

How long have you been a blogger?

I started in September 2011, so... 2.5 years?

If you could choose 1 post from your blog to brag about, which would it be? (Feel free to link it)

Probably my Traveling T.A.R.D.I.S. Nails. I really loved doing and wearing those!

What is your favorite season, and why?

Spring. I looove all the green, seeing all the new things sprouting, the baby animals, and the lovely mild weather.

What influenced your decision to start blogging?

That is actually kind of a bit of a long story, but I decided to start blogging at the same time I decided to do my nails. I basically spent a month reading Christina's blog, Let Them Have Polish. It inspired me to start my own journey.

What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning?

Usually it's "Oh great, how long has he been up?" Kiddo wakes up before I do, and when she's not home, my mom looks after him to let me sleep. I'm grateful, but I feel guilty too.

Is the glass half-empty or half-full?

Depends on the day. Sometimes, I'm just grateful it exists...

Have you ever won a trophy?

My Little League softball team won 3rd place when I was in 5th grade... I got a trophy for that.

Do you have a favorite food?

Papusas. They're a staple from El Salvador, and they're AMAZING. Seriously, try and find a papusas shop and eat one (or three...). It's so worth it.

If you could have any job/career, what would you choose?

Nail tech. I'm going to be going to school for it, soon.

Name something you're proud of. Why?

Is it too cocky to say that I'm proud of myself? No one thought I could raise my son by myself, hold a job, and be able to just support myself and my son BY MYSELF. I proved them wrong for two years, then got laid off and decided to go to school.

What is your favorite thing about your blog?

The motivation it gives me. I'm trying new things, updating on a weekly basis, and I work hard to do it. I've found my dream and passion through my blog, and I love it for that.

So there ya have it, my 11 answers. Now, I'm going to nominate 10 of my favorite blogs!

Sarah, from Upping The Ante

Manna, from Manna's Manis

Amber, from Budget Splurge Beauty

Shawna, from Mom, Mrs., and Me

Jessica, from My This And That 83

Michelle, from Lacquer or Leave Her

Traci, from Newsie Nails Novice

An, from The Polished Hippy

Tamara, from Dancer's Polished Life
Amy, from The Fancy Side

My 11 questions for you guys are:

How long have you been blogging?
What is your favorite post?
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
What are your biggest challenges as a blogger, and how do you beat them?
What is your favorite place to eat?
If you could trade one talent for another, what would you gain and what would you lose?
You found a genie. What are your three wishes?
You are bitten by an animal that was radiated in a lab. What superpowers do you hope to gain?
What is one invention you're still waiting on?
If you could add/upgrade one item in your blogging equipment, what would it be?
Would you ever go to school to become a professional in your blog's field?

I hope you have a lovely rest of your week, and I will see you sometime on Thursday to finish out this month of stamping!

Stamping Skittle in Black and White

2015-01-22T15:00:00.001-08:00

Hello gorgeous! Sorry this post is so late, it's been a crazy week. Everyone has been sick in my house, myself included. But that doesn't mean my nails need to suffer, right? As a pick-me-up, I decided to use my new Mega (L) by ILNP, and to follow through with this month's theme of stamping, I did a stamping skittle.

I unfortunately didn't stop and think to get a macro of Mega (L), and I'm really kicking myself for it. Now that I have a very present sun, I really should get pics of the holo...

Speaking of pics, I only got one after final cleanup. Please forgive me, as I've been horribly ill... But I did get a few of the pics from before final cleanup (aka the pics I take before I realize I'm not quite done with cleanup yet...), and I'll share one of those as well.

Pic (of my right hand) before final cleanup. Surprisingly not my favorite hand. Usually my left hand does a better job than my right (because I'm much more careful and tend to take my time), but I guess it was a bad day.

Pic (of my left hand) after final cleanup. Ah, much better!

To get this look, I laid down a base of Sinful Colors' Snow Me White, then did two layers of Mega (L) by ILNP. I then stamped using Black on Black and a few different stamping plates:

Gals' GA14 for the dots,
GA21 for the thick lines on my thumb and right index finger.
Mash 46 for the thin stripes
Mash 38 for the checks
Bundle Monster's BM-201 for the chevron

I also used my new VAGA stamper. I'm unsure if the quality (or rather, the lack thereof) of the stamping is due to Black on Black or the stamper. Black on Black is not a stamping polish, and it leaves much to be desired. I REALLY need to get my hands on some stamping polishes! But just in case, I went and purchased another VAGA stamper as a part of a set, because I like the stamper itself, but it has a defect. I'll also be contacting the seller with my issue, which is that the stamper isn't smooth. It has a couple of indents and I'm pretty sure it's causing the stamper to be unable to grab everything from the plate. I'm going to keep playing with it though, and see if more conditioning and priming can help. But if all else fails, I have my backups.

Do you have a favorite and trusty stamper? What are your favorite plates? Within my Month of Stamping, did you learn anything that will help you in the future? Please remember to subscribe, and you can find me on IG as @pinkiesforapenny. I hope you have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next Thursday! Ta-ta!

In Which The Nail Art Industry Brings Liquid Latex Out Of The Bedroom

2015-01-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

Heya gorgeous! Hope your weekend is crammed with all the stuff you wanna do :)

So I've decided that I'm going to spend January doing stamping. I have a lot of plates and I feel like I just don't use them enough :/ I plan on rectifying that this month, and using a lot of plates that I haven't used before, especially the plates that I specifically bought the sets for and then never used (I'm looking at you, paisley from Bundle Monster...)

So I'm looking to do new stamping techniques. Last week was double-stamping. This week, it's a part of the cleanup process, which I totally forgot to take pictures of...

Recently, a new cleanup method has come about called Liquid Palisade. It's basically purple liquid latex in a purple liquid eyeliner tube, according to some who tried it. It also retails for $22/bottle.

Think about how long a tube of liquid eyeliner lasts. Now, imagine having to smear that all over your fingers instead of a thin line on your eyelid. It's not going to last for very long, and at $22 that feels like theft to this stingy mom. So, I went looking for a solution, and I found one, very easily. Liquid Latex. I went to a couple of smut shops in search of a small jar or tube, but found that it wasn't very popular and were pulled off of the shelves, and was encouraged to go online. I went to my favorite place, smile.amazon.com (where 5% of every purchase I make goes to St. Judes AND I get free shipping), and I found a sizeable tub of latex for more than half the price of the name brand. I chose white as my color, and two days later it was at my door.

So when I was deciding what to do for my mani, I decided it was time to bust out the latex. So I would need a messy and hard-to-clean mani... Gradient. Sponged gradient. Perfect. And then I closed my eyes, opened up a page in my new Pueen plates, and picked a design. It was fate. And as fate would have it, my nails are pretty awesome.

So I get the gradient done using Sinful Colors' Enchanted and Zoya's Charisma and then decide to take a lesson from last week and add some glitter. I'm not sure if you remember, it was a very long time ago, but I was having issues with the purple bleeding and nearly annihilating my stamp. In an attempt to prevent this, I decided to put a clear coat of something in between the stamp and my gradient. I still want to get to know Starrily's Eclipse a bit better, so I added a layer as a barrier between the purple gradient and the white Sinful Colors polish I was going to stamp with (Snow Me White), and it worked! I topcoated this with Parrot Polish's Glow Purple (still can't capture that elusive glow-in-the-dark effect on camera...) and there was no bleeding, yaaaay!!!

So that is the roller coaster of events that lead up to this mani. I do want to give some tips in the event that you decide to grab some liquid latex to try out for yourself, just real quick.

Put the latex into a smaller container with a brush for easier use. I poured some into a clean and empty nail polish bottle. Don't forget to lay down newspaper when you pour, and the little tiny funnels you sometimes get with glitter at walmart are completely ineffective.
Only do one hand at a time. So, I wanted to play with it and got carried away and did both hands to start and MAN that was a messy mistake. One thing I did not know about liquid latex is that when it's dried, it has the consistency of really old waterballoons that sat in your garage or attic for a couple of summers too long. You know what I'm talking about... sticky and mushy and just really weird. When your fingers that are covered in latex touch each other, the latex kinda tries to meld together, making it hard for them to come apart. It causes lifting, and you'll have to redo the latex. When you have all 10 digits stuck together, this makes it really hard to try to do anything, especially nails. So keep it to one hand at a time, K?
Buy ammonia-free. I did, and it still has a slight hint of cat pee smell to it when it's wet. It's odorless when it's dry, but if this is what the ammonia-free one smells like, I shudder to think what the kinds with ammonia smell like.
Pull it away from the nail. In some videos, I've seen people just grab a corner and pull off and all of the polish came away. This was not the case for me. When I pulled it away, the polish kinda slid right off, like when you were a kid, you put polish on a balloon and... oh. Duh... Anyways. I'm wondering if the Liquid Palisade has anything special in it to prevent this, or if I shouldn't have waited until everything was dry. More experimentation is in my future, I predict! Anyways, I used a pair of tweezers and kinda cut it away from my cuticle and then pulled outwards, loosening the latex and making sure it took the polish with it, and THEN I was able to pull it away. It came in one piece, too, which was oddly, yet really satisfying.
Waste not, want not! Just kidding, apply this sh*t liberally. Get it all over your finger, and then some. Make it thick. It'll come off easier. Avoid any hair that might be on your knuckles, though. Hair and liquid latex do NOT mix. Get it as close to the cuticle as you dare, and as far down and away as you think you might get any polish. If you're watermarbling, probably go like half an inch further, just in case.
If you are allergic to latex, DO NOT USE THIS. I'm just being facetious here. If you're allergic to latex, you probably already know to avoid this stuff. I mean, it has the word "latex" right in the title... if you don't know if you're allergic or not, grab the nearest epipen or some benedryl, and do a test patch on a hairless part of your hand. Always better to be safe than sorry!

I personally found this to be a better experience than taping my finger, and will definitely be continuing with this method. Keep an eye out in the tags for it in future posts! I'm really sorry about how wordy and long this post got. I generally do try to keep posts short-ish and sweet-er, but I got carried away. It happens to the best of us, right?

Will you be giving this cleanup method a go, trying Liquid Palisade, or do you have your own tried-and-true method? Lemme know down in the comments, and please remember to subscribe for more fun with me!

Layered Double-Stamping

2015-01-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

Hello gorgeous! I'm baaaaaack!!!

So today, I decided to do a layered mani! I've been seeing a LOT of double- and triple-stamped manis and I've been wanting to try one. So then I got this Pueen stamping set and thought today's the day! So I started planning a mani and gathering my stuff, to find that I didn't own the plate that I had based the entire plan on... It was one that I ordered in a group buy on Facebook that hasn't been shipped just yet... /Headdesk...

SO I decided to keep the colors I had originally grabbed, and change the plan. I grabbed some saran wrap, and my new Pueen plates and decided to go to town. I picked one plate, Pueen 77, and used two of the patterns on it.

I also used my new stamper for this, and OH MY GODS there is a GIANT difference between my original stamper (an old, old, OLD one that came with the original Salon Express) and the marshmallow stamper. Just SUCH a drastic difference, and I may not use the Salon Express one again... (I'll keep it around, though... Just in case...)

I also took pics for you guys to show how I made this mani:

Step one (after laying down a white base): Saran Wrap mani. I used Sally Hansen's Kiss Me Here.
I topcoated after this with my Diamond Claws to prepare for stamping.

Step two: First layer of stamping, using Finger Paints Pop Art Purple

Step Three: Stamping with Sinful Colors Black on Black.

Step four: Cleanup and topcoat!

You can kinda see what patterns I used to stamp.

I actually like how my right hand turned out more than my left ROFLMAO

As you can probably see, I'm rocking nubbies right now :'( My nails were completely destroyed by the move. Both pinkies broke past the smile line and have been very painful, as has a couple of hangnails that got a wee bit infected. Holding the steering wheel for 1.7k miles was definitely a challenge :( They're feeling better now though!!

So in other news: I'M OFFICIALLY ENROLLED FOR SCHOOL!!!!!!!!! I start on February 3rd, and HOOOOOLY MOLY am I excited!!! Also, funny story, the admissions agent that enrolled me was a former coworker! We had a pleasant time catching up :) It was suuuper embarrassing though, because I hadn't done my nails just yet... So I showed up to the school with broken, chipped, messy nails, after telling Kelly that I'd been blogging for a while and all of that. SO EMBARRASSING.
I had also gone on a date with nasty broken nails and spent the evening very super self-conscious of my hands >.< But now they're all pretty again!!! Yaaay!

I still kinda feel like these are incomplete.. Got any suggestions on what I should add? Maybe some rhinestones or glitter? Comment down below! Please also don't forget to subscribe, there are now TWO options to do so, through bloglovin' and Google Friend Connect! Have a wonderful rest of the week!

I'm Joining Bloglovin'!

2014-12-23T13:02:00.001-08:00

So no new pics for this post, sorry, but I just wanted to let you know that I am making changes to the site. I'm adding a bloglovin' widget and claiming my blog, so that you can follow me there now too! I've also toyed with the layout a bit, so you don't have to scroll so far to certain widgets. Hope these changes enhance your experience! Please click the link below to follow me, and gimme a comment or some feedback on the changes :) Thank you!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Winter Waterfalls

2014-12-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

Filler post today guys, sorry! I just got off a 5-hour plane ride with a 3-year old (who may or may not had been cranky most of the flight) and the next 72 hours are going to be SUPER BUSY, so... yeah.

I did another waterfall. I'm not sorry, I effin' love this style! And with the blue, it's just.. augh, so GORGEOUS!! I stamped some snowflakes on to my ring finger, and freehanded the ones on my thumbs. I added the little rhinestones to hide some mistakes. These were so fun to wear!!

Had some fun with my watermark. Still figuring out Gimp.

I may have been playing with filters on instagram. Maybe.

I should be back up to posting next week, but seeing as it's Christmas and I won't have my nail polish stash with me, I can't make any guarantees.

If I don't see you then, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!! (I'll be driving across the country, so I dunno if I'll be able to post for New Years' either... sorry). Please stay safe, and stay warm!

Crazy Diamonds

2014-12-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

Hello Gorgeous! Hope your December is going well! Mine is full of craziness. Saturday is my last day of work, then next Thursday, we're hopping on a plane to Vegas to tour schools, celebrate my birthday and Christmas, and start to get things settled for our stay there. Kiddo is very excited!

As you're aware, I'm a part of the Hobby Polish Bloggers, and from that group I made a great friend, Narmai from PiggieLuv. She's always got AMAZING art on her nails, and she's an absolute muse. I took some inspiration from her GORGEOUS Don't Let Anyone Dull Your Sparkle nails, and decided to work with it. I bought some OPI Sheer Tint minis on Amazon, grabbed my chunky glitters and went nuts.

First step in this process is using a sp- you know what, she's got a great tutorial over on Youtube. Check it out!

I went out and about like this, before they were finished... Even unfinished, they got comments and compliments!

Macro Shot. Because these will never get old lol

For my nails, I went with a different message than my muse:

Shine on, you crazy diamond!

My diamond in Macro

To create the lettering and the diamond, I created my own decals using Seche Vite, a piece of paper, and a ziplock baggie. I wrote out what I wanted to say on the paper, put the paper in the baggie, and then painted the baggie with Seche Vite. After that was dry, I painted out the words using Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes and Sinful Colors' Black on Black using my medium-length line brush. The diamond is Silver Mercedes, with LAC's Glitter Bomb and China Glaze's Fairy Dust behind.

I sooo love these! They were so cute and fun to make! I hope you enjoyed them as much as I do!

In the comments, please lemme know what you're doing for Christmas!

Traveling TARDIS nails!

2014-12-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

Hello, Whovian! Hope you're having a wonderful day! Today, I'm showing you some of my favorite nails I've ever done! If you've been with me for a while, you know I'm a pretty big nerd/geek, part of the Doctor Who fandom, and I love doing nails that show it!

So on Black Friday weekend, Storenvy was having a 30% off select shops sale, and while sifting through a bunch of beauty stores, I discovered one called Gryffinstor that does mostly water decals and temporary tattoos. They have a LOT of fun and nerdy stuff, please go check them out! As I was sifting through their items, I saw that they had the TARDIS, and I had to have a sheet! With zero hesitation, I tossed them in my cart and purchased them, with the intent to do this mani.

I received them really quickly, the shipping speed was excellent! In fact, they arrived so soon, and I couldn't wait (of course), so I took some polishes, sponges, and tools to work and did these at my desk. After some trial and error, I ended up deciding to paint the backs of the decals with white polish because they were too transparent without, and you couldn't see the TARDIS. After doing so, the TARDIS really pops!

Ooweeeoooooh! OOooheweeeeoooh! Do do do do da doooo de dooo!

*weird grinding noise*

Yeah, I'm excited about these. After wearing them for a few days, I still don't want to take them off.

Now, I wanna let you in on a little secret: not all of this is nail polish! I accidentally forgot to bring black (how?!), and I don't have black handy at my desk, so I grabbed what I had: black sharpie >_<

So after laying down the black, I put a top coat down so it didn't smudge, then sponged on several colors using a ripped up makeup sponge held by some tweezers.

The colors I used for this are: Black Sharpie, Sally Hansen's Co-Bolt Blue, Zoya's Robyn and Pippa, and LAC's Purple Passion. I also used three glow-in-the-dark colors, an unnamed Rue Beaute' that's hot pink (it has a light-up lid), Pulsating Purple by Bright 'n Sassy (I found it at my local grocery store), and Pure Ice's Glow In The Dark. I was disappointed to find that the pink and the purple don't glow in this mani, but Glow In The Dark sure does! I haven't been disappointed in that one yet :) I still feel like they do make a bit of a difference in this mani, though, by changing some colors.

I used a dotting tool and a striping brush to create the stars, and Sinful Colors' Snow Me White. Topped everything with China Glaze Fairy Dust, and then placed the TARDIS-es. After those were snug, I topped everything with Diamond Claw after cleanup.

I love these so much, and I keep nerding out over them. I have a feeling we'll be seeing them again soon!

What fandoms do you belong to? If you like these, please leave a comment!

Cold Swirls

2014-11-28T03:25:00.001-08:00

Hello, Gorgeous! I hope you're doing well! Or, at least, better than I am... Nails first, then news!

It may be the season for turkeys and orange and brown and other fall-inspired colors, but I'm simply uninspired by it. So I looked for inspiration elsewhere, and found the snow, and the wind, and the ice that I had to battle for windshield territory this morning. Inspired by this tutorial, I decided to try a somewhat-skittle with different colors and a different "charm".

On my left hand, I used three colors (not including the nude or the glitter)

On my right, I used five colors. What a difference, eh?

Also, my camera hates the nude color I used. Grrr.

I used a nude, unnamed Color Workshop from a few years ago as my nude. Over it, I sponged Kleancolor's Metallic White. Using tip guides, I created french manis using the unnamed Rue Beaute, Sinful Colors' Snow Me White, Zoya's Robyn, Finger Paint's Inkblot Blue, and Kleancolors' Metallic Blue. Then, using my medium striping brush, I created the swirls, using a small dotting tool, I created the dots, and then using Winstonia W120 stamping plate and Snow Me White, I created the snowflakes. Lovely!

So on to the news! I'm moving back to Vegas to go to school to do nails professionally! I. am. terrified! December and January are going to be suuuuper hectic, and I may or may not be able to make regular posts during that time. So just a heads-up, you may not hear from me for awhile. I'll be okay, though. I'm thinking I'm going to do what Nailed It, NZ did, and blog about school. We'll just have to see. Please bear with me during this transitional time!

HPB Presents: Fall Favorites!

2014-11-21T12:43:00.004-08:00

Hello gorgeous! How's the weather? We're under a "winter weather advisory" for freezing rain right now, and it's 29°F. Miserable. But that's when I get to put on my favorite sweater and cuddle up with a special someone and some hot chocolate (or hot apple cider) in front of the TV and binge watch TV shows on Netflix (last night's discovery was Once Upon A Time... OMG!).

Today, I'm doing another linkup with Hobby Polish Bloggers, and this month's theme is Fall Favorites! For a while I couldn't decide what was my favorite thing about autumn, or how to depict it on my nails. Is it the turning of the weather, going from miserable to lovely? Is it the gorgeous change in the leaves? Is it the fat squirrels running around, preparing for winter? Yes. And so much more.

And then it hit me: my favorite sweater. Seriously, the first day it was below 40°F, I was rocking that sweater. And I have worn it at least once a week since. I friggin' love that thing! And yet, I don't have a pic of it. Sorry :(

But I do have pics of this mani!

At first I didn't like that the red was so uneven, and then I realized it's a sweater.
Everything's uneven about it lol

The grey and burgandy, the fat stripes... everything about this mani turned out exactly how I wanted. And it was easy to do, I just freehanded the stripes with a small-ish brush. Two layers of LAC's Lost Soul, then a layer of Diamond Claws by Dragon Claw Polish, and then laying down the stripes using Sinful Colors' GoGo Girl. I used acetone and more Lost Soul to clean up the lines, and then topped with Diamond Claws. Pretty easy, pretty fast, and I'm thrilled. It perfectly sums up autumn to me.

Hobby Polish Bloggers is a wonderful group of women that I am proud to be a part of. So many lovely women who are experiencing the same struggles that I do: trying to get more views; trying to balance a full-time job, children, nail care, and the blog; nail care; the lust after new polishes by amazing creators; breaking a nail and being unable to salvage it... All of the trials and tribulations. They're there for me. I also get great tips and tricks from them, and new goals to aspire to (like someday being able to paint half as well as Narmai over at PiggieLuv).

Every month, HPB does a linkup. Here's this month's participants:

An InLinkz Link-up

I hope you have a lovely rest of your autumn, and please enjoy a hot cocoa for me!

In the comments below, please let me know what you're favorite thing about Fall is!

Snow Days

2014-11-14T01:05:00.002-08:00

Hello from the midwest, where it went from 60°F to snowing the next day.

I was not ready for this. I am cold.

But in celebration of the season, I've done an homage to my family's second-favorite snow activity: Snowmen!

To create this look, I used an unnamed pale blue Rue 21 nail polish, a single coat of China Glaze's The Outer Edge, from their The Giver line, and to create the snow, I dabbed on OPI's Liquid Sand Solitaire. Pretty easy, and actually very quick.

This was the first time I've used The Outer Edge. It's a dream to use on the nail, very easy to control the glitter, but a nightmare to get off the cuticle. I do like the way it looks, though. It's made of dense, tiny white matte glitters and then some less-dense, even-tinier silver glitter suspended in a clear base.

I top coated with Diamond Claw from Dragon Claw Polish before I dabbed Solitaire.

Are you excited about winter? If so, what's your favorite part?

Happy Belated Birthday, Blog!

2014-11-06T23:14:00.000-08:00

So my blog's birthday was a long, long time ago. Like, September... But I *just now* got my blog's present, so we're celebrating! YAAY! The blog is 2 years old! So I got me a present! A Macro Lens!

I bought it at ThinkGeek. It's a rubber band that holds the lens to my phone's camera and allows me to take shots from SUPER close and SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICALLY zoomed in. So I took some shots while doing tonight's mani.

The lens

China Glaze's Cosmic Dust with an LED lamp for lighting.

China Glaze's Cosmic Dust, again. Just trying to get the holo to appear

It's been a long, horrible week. There was a death in the family, and I don't get to say goodbye. I'm exhausted and getting motivation has been extremely hard. So I decided to do an easy mani that I enjoy wearing, which is a waterfall. In purple, which is a fun, easy color to wear.

I hope you guys had a better week than I do. Have a wonderful rest of your week as well!!

October Challenge: Week 5

2014-10-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

Hello darlings! It's almost time to say good bye to October and hello to November. I'm honestly sad, I love October and am sooo not ready for cold weather. We had such a mild-mannered October that I don't want to see it go.

It's also the final week in the challenge, which, I gotta say, is not something I am sad to see go. Though it is not the challenge's fault, but my own health. *shakes fist at immune system* These past couple weeks have been extremely hard to pull off, but I have done it!!!

This final week's theme is:

This mani very nearly did not happen due to bad planning, bad timing, and a bad immune system. I did not know tonight was Beggar's Night (what they call "trick-or-treating" 'round these parts), and also I spent the afternoon with my friend and her daughter and my kiddo in the Big City. I am currently expecting a food baby, due in a couple of hours (thank you, my darling Huhot!), and on top of everything, I'm not sleeping well. So yeah this was really difficult to pull off.

The original plan for this week was supposed to be recreating this mani. After two days of contemplating exactly how I'm going to pull it off, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm too tired.

So I decided to do my favorite one of that mani's monsters: The zombie!

Besides the fact that none of them have noses, I like these ugly guys. They each have a distinct personality and creepiness.

I used 7 shades of green blotched on with a fatter round brush, a couple of shades of brown, and red to make these guys. Pearls with black polish and red polish for the eyes.

Hopefully health-wise, November will be a better and easier month.

HPB October Halloween Mani Link-Up!

2014-10-24T21:56:00.001-07:00

Second post in a week? Am I sick?! Why, yes I am... But fear not, I seriously have a real post for you today!

So I recently joined a group on Facebook called Hobby Polish Bloggers. HBP is a fun and informative group of lovely ladies who are always there to give feedback, helpful tips, and answer questions. I'm so thankful to have found this group, and they've helped me so much! One of the fun things they do is a monthly mani linkup, and this month's theme is hardly surprising: Halloween!

My bestie, Whitney, is in looove with Nightmare Before Christmas. So I decided to a mani for her (I will also probably do this mani on her)! I found this pin, and decided to do something a little different.

This is what came of it:

What a happy Jack!

So happy!

Uh-oh. Someone pissed him off...

I'm pretty pleased with the way these turned out. I'm not in love with the ring finger, but everything else? Ooooooh yeeeeeah. LOOK AT THOSE JACKS, I AM SO FRIGGIN' PROUD OF THEM!!

To create this, I used two brushes, five polishes, and a some red striping tape. For the polishes, I used Sinful Colors' Tempest, Enchanted, and Black on Black, Sally Hansen's White On, and Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here. I topped with glow-in-the-dark and NYC's Turbo Dry Topcoat. I was planning on doing the stripes using striping tape, but after struggling with the tape on my ring finger, I decided to do it by hand. No regrets.

To explain what a linkup is, basically down below there's going to be some links and previews of other bloggers' manis, as well as mine. You can click the links to view the others' posts! Fun, right?

As always, please subscribe off to the right, share, and feel free to leave a comment!

An InLinkz Link-up

October Challenge: Week 4

2014-10-24T00:12:00.003-07:00

Phew, it's been a long week! Hope yours went by better (and faster!) than mine! Both kiddo and I have been sick, which means 10-hour shifts on little to no sleep, AND my favorite cuticle nippers broke :(

But never fear, nothing like a little stomach bug and some insomnia will keep me from painting my nails! I have a challenge to complete!!

...And a challenge this week's theme has been, too! This week, I created something inspired by:

After a week of searching and trying to come up with ideas, I finally decided on this one. Using the tutorial over at The Nailasaurus, I wanted to create a foggy, misty look. For the accent nail, I didn't want to create a bedsheet-ghost, I wanted to create something kinda realistic and creepy so I decided to do a humanoid-ish ghost.

The things that look like glitter are from the glow-in-the-dark paint I used to give her a glowing aura. Looks pretty cool in the dark, but my camera simply can't capture it, and I cannot find a blacklight for the life of me.

It took me several tries to be happy with the colors for the Nimbus nails. I kept trying to throw black in there and it just wasn't working. Finally, I decided to dump the black and hoo-boy am I glad I did.

The colors I ended up using were Sally Hansen's White-On, LAC's Lost Soul (appropriate, right?), Sinful Colors' Tokyo Pearl, and Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here. I watered them down with acetone and then used regular cotton swabs. To blot, I took my cleanup brush and mixed White-On with acetone and brushed it on in 1-2 strokes per nail, keeping it as thin as I could.

For the ghost girl, I just used White-On, Lost Soul, and Kiss Me Here, layering them on top of one another with my striping brush until I had her. I'm pretty thrilled with how she turned out!!

Next week: Monsters! There's a good chance I'm planning something big with that one... dunno ;)

Next time we see each other, it'll be time to Trick-Or-Treat! Have you gotten everything ready? What are you going to dress up as? As always, please subscribe off to the right in the Google Friend Connect widget, and leave your feedback in the comments :) Happy Halloween!

October Challenge: Week 3

2014-10-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

Hello lovelies! This week you're getting TWO blog posts!! How awesome is that? Today's post is Week Three of the October Challenge! This week's theme is:

I realized after I did Week 1 that I'd already used spider webs, and felt like a dolt. But I've been wanting to do a mani like this for forever, so I just went with it.

Turns out I had some bad karma or something going when I was doing this, because NOTHING was working with me. It was a very frustrating mani :( I had intended on having newspaper print going, the webs were supposed to be black glitter, and the spider on my thumbs were supposed to be stamped. But I couldn't find my spider stamping plate, my bundle monster binder for my plates broke (still usable), my rubbing alcohol is missing, and neither vodka nor water worked for the newspaper transfers, and the black glitter I have bleeds into the topcoat. Oh, and I tried to freehand a spider with no reference. My first attempt looked like a tick. ...You very nearly didn't get a Week 3.

But I persevered and I survived, and I've already gotten a few comments on them!

They glow in the dark! But my camera can't capture it and it is impossible to find a black light smaller than 2' in this teeny tiny town.

Ooooh spoooooky misty green!

Holy crap I didn't see how many stringies I have :(

For this mani I laid down a layer or two of Rue Beaute's Mint, and then dabbed on China Glaze's I'm With The Lifeguard, Finger Paints' Silkscreen Green, Sally Hansen's Limestone, and LAC's Limelife using a makeup sponge and some foam I cut up from some kind of packaging. I then did a thick layer of Seche Vite, because I just KNEW I was gonna mess up. Holy moly am I soooo very glad for that forethought! This is when things went... downhill. I'll spare you the gory details. I freehanded the spiders and the webs using a thinned Sinful Colors' Black on Black and a medium-length striping brush. Previously my arch-nemesis, it has become my favorite brush. Topped with a final coat of seche and I went to bed.

I really wish the newspaper transfer had worked out, but I'm still pretty satisfied with this mani. And I know it's messy, but I am damn proud of my spiders (not pictured, but the one on my left hand is actually much smaller).

And just a reminder of what's coming up next:

Dragon Claw Polish- Swatches and Reviews

2014-10-16T00:34:00.001-07:00

*Press Sample*

These samples were provided to me by the creator of these polishes.

I have not been compensated for this review.

Today, I have a couple of samples from a new indie called Dragon Claw Polish!! I was thrilled to receive such beauties, and excited to get to swatch and review them! The store is debuting on November 7th, so mark your calenders, loves! Pricing is going to be awesome too, with minis at $3.95 and full sized bottles at $7.95!

The polishes I received are Bea and Dragon Fly Wings. I also received a sample of her topcoat, Diamond Claw, which is what I used the pictures below.

First up is Bea. Janet (the creator) says: "Bea comes from the Girls of Famous Asian collection. She is a friendly, always happy person, and whenever I work with her she gives off a calming, friendly vibe. This polish is a bright celadon blue shimmer polish with chunks of friendly glitter!"

Right you are, Janet!

I used four coats

I found Bea to be a very jelly formula, needing about 3-4 coats as it is very sheer. I had a bit of an issue with the glitter settling to the bottom, so I was having a hard time picking the larger hexes. The color is a gorgeous, easy-to-wear blue, and it's very shimmery, to the point that it was distracting (which I love!). There's tiny holo glitters in there, and then all shapes and sizes of blue, purple, green, and red glitters. It dried VERY quickly, even for layers 3 and 4. I was honestly surprised how fast this dried, because as soon as I was done with one hand, the other was ready to go! I love it!

The next polish I received is Dragon Fly Wings. This one was the office favorite (I opened them up at work) and it reminds me of my mother, whose favorite animal is the dragonfly.

Janet's description of this polish is "Dragon Fly Wings is from the Icky Made Pretty collection. Dragonflies are beautiful and their wings glistening in the sun is gorgeous. This polish is a wonderful teal with a color changing shimmer. It shifts from gold to green."

Dragon Fly Wings also has a jelly-like base, but it wasn't quite as sheer; I only needed 2 coats to get it opaque, but I should've gone for one more (I could still see my smile line). I found it to be more of a glass fleck glitter instead of a shimmer as the description says, but it definitely has a lovely spectrum of colors in the glass flecks. I caught myself staring at the shift several times throughout the day, and found some really pretty colors if I tilted my hand just-so. But alas, I was at work and I'm not allowed to be taking pictures there lol. It also had a massively small amount of drying time, which was very pleasing and impressive!

Of the two, Dragon Fly Wings was definitely my favorite, but I just tend to go towards this type of polish vs large glitters. Both of them were awesome to work with and easy to get on the nail. I didn't have any issues with streaking and they were both very good at leveling. Other than the issue with Bea's larger glitters (which, let's face it, is gonna happen with any and all large glitters), I am very happy with both of these polishes and I'm excited to see what I end up using them for :)

Now I know you're worried about the challenge post and wondering why I'm posting Thursday morning instead of Friday morning, but don't worry, you're getting two posts this week! Yaaaay! So you don't miss it, be sure to follow me using your preferred method :)

If you want to check out more of the new Dragon Claw Polishes, check out her site here. I know I'm excited for more and I'm sure you will be, too!

October Challenge: Week 2

2014-10-09T22:40:00.002-07:00

Hello lovelies! I hope you're enjoying your October, I know I am! Halloween is my favorite time of year. Lovely weather, pumpkins, lovely trees, and piles of leaves! I love how the air smells and the birds sound. October is my favorite month! And I'm keeping on with the challenge, so here's week two!

Inspired by this pin, which takes you to a slideshow of nails (all of which have no sourcing). I tried finding the original source, but after 10 minutes I can't find anything outside of more pins or unsourced lists. :(

I tried and I tried, but I can't catch the orange lines on my middle fingers.

No one's sent me anything to post for week one. I'm hoping I'll get some submissions for week two!

Happy October!

October Challenge: Week 1

2014-10-03T01:02:00.000-07:00

Good morning! Sorry this is a wee bit late, I have some company. In this week's challenge, I'm doing "nude." And I decided to keep it simple and go for a purple gradient French tip. Which felt too simple, so I added some webs, just 'cause I need the practice and also because they're totes adorbs (sorry. I don't know what happened there).

I am very proud of what my left hand achieved on those spiderwebs.

Please ignore my pinkie nubbins. I lost them both on the same day after weeks of superglue and coffee filters.
It was very sad.

For the gradient, I used NYC's Strawberry Cream, Sally Hansen's Pronto Purple. Strawberry Cream is a lovely translucent soft pink, with barely a hint of shimmer. It's absolutely perfect for this type of nude gradient.

For the spiderwebs, I used Revlon's Spirit and Kleancolor's Metallic Fuchsia and a medium-length line brush. All fairly simple, really :)

I topped this with a mix of Seche Vite (which has already caused some shrinking, booo) and Pure Ice's Glow In The Dark.

I can't wait to see what you guys come up with for the challenges! You can email me your submissions at pinkies4apenny@gmail.com if you don't have your own blog, and you can always post to instagram, twitter, tumblr, or any other social media using the hashtag #OctoberChallengeP4AP. Hope to wake up to some gorgeous nails :)

Happy October!: Nail Art Challenge

2014-10-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

I've decided to do my first challenge! And since I couldn't find any that I like, or that work with my schedule, I decided to make my own!

Please join me this week in a challenge! Don't have a blog of your own? Email it to me and I'll make a post involving everyone! Also post on twitter, tumblr and/or pinterest! My first post is tonight, and I can't wait to see yours!

Sally Hansen's Miracle Gel- Swatch and Reveiw, Ipsy Beauty Bag Review!

2014-09-25T22:35:00.002-07:00

Hello everyone! Sorry about last week, lots of stuff happening in my life and things get lost in the whirlwind (like my internet bill... oops!). Everything's good now though, so yaaay!

Earlier this week, I got my Ipsy bag! And in it, I got full size bottles of Sally Hansen's Miracle Gel, Red Eye and the topcoat. So I decided to swatch them and tell ya what I think! I'm also gonna show you my Ipsy bag and experience. Because I seriously want you to know about it!

So to start, Red Eye:

Look at this gorgeous color! I am not generally a fan of red nail polish, but after a few hours, this one grew on me. The pics are pretty true to the color, a bright red with a bluish hint. I really like the color.

The instructions read: "Apply 2 coats of Miracle Gel color. Activate curing with Miracle Gel Top Coat. No base coat needed."

For the color, the formula is great, not streaky, and it self-levels really well. The bottle says 2 coats, but honestly if you've got a smile line you might want 3-4 coats. You can still see my smile line after 2 coats.

For the top coat, it's not my favorite. It's also good at self-leveling, but you weirdly see some brush streaks. Also, after only one day, you can see some shrinking, which is very frustrating, particularly since this is supposed to last up to 14 days. I'm not thrilled with the performance of this duo.

The duo retails at around $15 and the individual colors are around $8.

Not pictured: Beauty Without Cruelty Sweet Lavender Hand & Body Lotion.
I don't like lavender scented things, so I gave it to my bestie.

So, in my bag: Sally Hansen's Miracle Gel set, Pacifica's Natural Water-Proof Eye Pencil in gunmetal, Be a Bombshell Smooth Criminal Powder, and Hikari lipstick in Cabernet.

I. am. SO. THRILLED with this whole bag. The bag is adorable, the nail polish is great, the lipstick is my new favorite, and the eye pencil is just amazing. I have not had the opportunity to try the Be a Bombshell Smooth Criminal Powder yet, but it's a finishng powder. You use it to minimize fine lines and pores (I had to look this up lol).

I spent $10 on this bag, and the value is so much more than that. I tried Birchbox before this one and there's really no comparison. THREE of my items are full-sized items. The nail polish duo itself retails at about $15, the lipstick is $13 and the Smooth Criminal Powder is $12. I never got full-size with Birchbox.

I also have to say I've had some pretty awesome customer-service experiences with Ipsy. My original bag got lost in the mail, so I contacted Ipsy and they sent me a second one, which is the one that I'm showing you. They were pretty understanding about it too, just asking that I review that I had the correct address.

If you're interested in trying Ipsy out, heads-up, there's a wait list. But it is sooooo worth it. Want a referral? Here's my link: http://www.ipsy.com/r/dadk?sid=ipsypoints&cid=general Give it a try, and let me know what YOU think!

Sunset Over the Skylines

2014-09-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hello luvvies! Hope you are excited for this weekend, I sure am!

At my Dollar Store, we've been getting some really awesome steals lately. Particularly in the makeup section, so I've been keeping an eye there, and very recently, I scored! I found some Maybelline New York COLORSHOW Nail Tattoos in style 30, called "Skylines" and I immediately knew what I was doing with them! Sunsets!

I absolutely love these, so I took WAY too many pics! Sorry-not-sorry lol

This one is my personal favorite

For the sunset, I started with a dot of Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow, then put a ring of Salon Perfect's Haute Pink (which is really an orange, if you ask me), followed by a ring of Zoya's Charisma, followed by a ring of Pure Ice's Last Chance, and then the rest of the sponge was Sinful Colors' Endless Blue (I thought it was going to be darker, but the sponging lightened it up considerably). Over the Last Chance and the Endless Blue, I dabbed some unnamed LAC glitter.

Doing a round gradient opposed to a linear gradient was actually much harder than I was anticipating. Anyone have any tips?

I have had an AMAZING amount of strangers and friends commenting on how much they love them. I love them too!

I hope you guys have an awesome Friday and an even better start to your weekend!

Purple Waterfall

2014-08-28T00:20:00.003-07:00

Good morning, luvvies! I have such pretties to show you!! No real inspiration for the look, other than my mom's favorite color is purple and I miss her. She loves these, I just wish I could show her how lovely they are in real life!

They make me feel so pretty and dainty. I haven't done a French manicure in years (can never get my nails even enough to feel comfortable doing one), and if I don't look right at these, it almost looks like a classic French.

Basically, I just grabbed a bunch of my favorite purples, and then used my smaller striping brush to create the stripes. I added silver just for a bit of flair.

The base is Sally Hansen's White On. For the purples I used Zoya's Charisma, Wet'N'Wild On A Trip, Kleancolor Metallic Purple and Metallic Fuschia, and an Unnamed BonBons. There may be more purples that were used, but Kiddo thought it would be adorable to play tea party with my nail polish bottles (He was right, silly boy!) and he maybe lost a couple. For the silver, I used Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes. Topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust and NYC's Turbo Dry Top Coat.

I am in such love with these :) And after wearing them for about 4 days, there's only one chip. These guys have some staying power! I base coated with Pure Ice's Buh Bye Breakups.

What colors would you choose for a waterfall?

#FightForLifeAndLive

2014-08-17T14:35:00.001-07:00

So today a lot of bloggers are doing green manis to support the #FightForLifeAndLive movement to raise awareness of mental illness, in honor of Robin Willaims' passing. Many are also sharing their struggles with their own monsters, and I felt it appropriate to do the same.

First though, my nails:

I used Pure Ice's Wild Thing and Kleancolor's Metallic Green, stamped with BM-321. Very basic, but I really love these polishes. The plate was a bit difficult to work with, but I don't know if that's Wild Thing's fault or the plate's.

And now, my story:

My mother has always had depression and anxiety. She believes she inherited it from her father, and she passed it on to me. Mental health is often genetic, passed through generations. Other times, it just... appears. My mom's depression is consistent, while mine is sporadic (though it used to be consistent, we'll get to that in a minute), usually rearing its nasty head during times of high stress.

My depression appeared when I was 10 years old. My fifth grade teacher was a bully, dad left, and I just couldn't shake this feeling of desolation. At 10 years old, I decided to kill myself. My mom found and stopped me just in time, and I was taken to a mental health hospital for a couple of weeks. They put me on medication and got me going to therapy. It worked, for a couple years, but at age 12, I attempted to commit suicide again, and again tossed into a mental health ward (for only a couple weeks at this time). A routine appeared after this attempt, with me trying to kill myself about twice a year. At age 14, I was admitted to a long-term facility for 6 months, but it wasn't effective. At 16, I was again admitted to a long-term facility, for a stay of 9 months. Throughout this rigamarole, I was placed on more medications that I could name, suffered many side effects (one of which was long-lasting. I can still lactate thanks to Risperdal), and was given waaay too many diagnoses, the list ranging from bipolar disorder, oppositional-defiant disorder, all the way up to borderline personality disorder.

One thing they don't really tell you about adolescent depression is that there is no medication effective for it. In fact, if your body isn't matured to a certain point (around age 18), they often come with some nasty side effects: stronger depression, suicidal thoughts, and suicidal attempts.

At age 17 I decided to say fuckitall and stopped going to therapy, and I took myself off of my meds. And a miracle happened: I was fine. For a long time, I was okay. Free from the thoughts, free from the weight on my chest, and free from feeling numb and empty. It was a relief.

April 11th, 2011, my son was born. June 2nd, 2011, I was diagnosed with postpartum depression. I refused medication and opted for therapy-only, and it worked fine for me. Using the tools I was given as a child, I was able to cope. However, the postpartum depression evolved into real depression, which, 3 years later, hasn't really ever left me. It follows me like a shadow that I can't hide from, and it came with its own little sister, Anxiety, for which I have accepted medication (panic attacks at work are no bueno) and FMLA. I check in with my doctor every couple of months, and I lean on my support network.

My real medication is nail polish, nail art, and blogging. The creative outlet is healthy for me. Having to take my time and work with the teeny-tiny details that come from working with a teeny-tiny canvas is therapeutic. Taking my time and focusing banishes the evil thoughts. It is my therapy. I truly believe nail polish has saved my life.

May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. I hope, in May, you will join me in raising awareness about mental health. We are not evil. We are not faking it. We are not taboos. We are humans, trying to overcome an illness no one would ever wish for, that affects everyone's lives whether they have it or not.

R.I.P., Robin Williams. You are dearly loved and dearly missed. May the afterlife bless you with rest from your woes.