Gold and Navy…my new favorite

First, a big shout out to my sister and brother-in-law, Chrystal and Delano, for buying the pizza and Dairy Queen to fuel our mini mani marathon. I’m not sure if they’ll like their blog pseudonyms…but I do…and it’s my blog. 🙂

I’ve wanted to try a half moon manicure for awhile now and finally got around to it. I’m loving gold and navy. And surprisingly, my favorite gold is a Sally Hansen Extreme Wear in Golden. It’s really vibrant, sparkly but not glittery and isn’t too yellow. It dries quickly with one coat. I started with a base of golden and placed hole enforcers at the cuticle and did one full-coverage coat of China Glaze First Mate. I really like it! I’ll have to take another picture in the sun because this indoor shot doesn’t do it justice.

My other niece, we’ll call her Brandy (Barbie’s sister) started off with a base of the Sally Hanson Golden. It looked so good, we decided to keep it that way. We added First Mate polka dots to each of her ring fingers. I love it!

• Polish: Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Golden, China Glaze First Mate
• Tools: office supply hole reinforcers, dotting tool

Matte Topcoat…my new obsession

Annika and I went to Sephora looking for a matte topcoat after searching several drug stores.  I’m surprised there’s not a cheapy brand out there yet.  Maybe I didn’t look hard enough.  I wanted to try something with both matte and shiny.  I got my inspiration on Pinterest.

This is the same pastel purple Zoya (Kendal) I used on my last manicure, but with the matte topcoat it turned out gray (which I liked).  I used a dotter tool to dot two lines of dots on the side of each nail.  It was so easy.  Anyone can do it.

Again, I got some funny looks at work in meetings.  They must think I’m going through a near-midlife crisis or something!  I’m not telling them about the blog. I’ve been at the company for many years and there a few folks that know of my nail technician past.  Perhaps they think I’m moonlighting at a nail salon??

Here’s another picture with the flash on.  Hopefully I get better at taking pictures.  I’m using my iPhone.  If anyone has any tips, I’m open!

• Polish: Zoya Kendal, Finger Paints Model Colour, Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint, Sephora by OPI Matte Top Coat
• Tools: dotter
• Inspiration Link: We Heart It via Pinterest