12 Oct

Waterfall Nail Art Featuring Girlstuff Diana

Hey gals!

Yes, it is Monday! But my Monday is almost over, and it honestly hasn’t been too bad. I decided to turn the air conditioner on today and enjoyed a blissfully cool day at home with the kids making up goofy stories, working on cleaning their room, and doing school. We also enjoyed learning about iguanas and sea turtles!

Today I’m sharing a quick and easy nail art look that can take an already fine-looking manicure to the next level. If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably already seen the first picture below. (Keep scrolling for something new though!) I started with Girlstuff Diana which is a lovely dusty blue creme with a hint of purple to it. (Blurple! Yay!) For my accent nail, I chose L.A. Girl 3D Silver for some sparkle.

Girlstuff Diana with silver Accent nail

To add more pizzazz, I  used a thin striper brush and added some stripes at the base of my nails tapering off toward the tips. As you can see, I used gray, white, black, and silver polish for the stripes. Easy peasy! They call this “Waterfall” nail art.

Girlstuff Diana with nail art

I always love trying new, super-quick nail art looks. Don’t you? Please comment and share your favorite go-to nail art look for when you need something quick and easy.

I hope you are having a great day. Keep smiling!

Hugs,
Rach

25 Sep

Swatches of CND Vinylux Rouge Red and Rock Royalty 

Hello lovely ladies!

I’ve got a couple of swatches to show you today from the CND Summer Brights Collection. Even though these are part of a summer collection, Rouge Red would totally work for the Christmas season and Rock Royalty would be a bit hit in the fall. Here we go!

Rouge Red

CND Vinylux Rouge Red swatch

Let’s start with my favorite of the two. Rouge Red is a crelly and, in my opinion, is The. Perfect. Vintage. Red! When I put it on my nails I thought the color looked like something straight out of a vintage nail polish ad. Do you agree? I used two coats. In the image above you can see a little VNL (visible nail line), but I didn’t notice it at all in real life.

 Rock Royalty

CND Vinylux Rock Royalty Swatch

Next up is Rock Royalty which is a gorgeous dark purple creme that has teeny tiny blue and pink flecks mixed in so it has a lovely glow to it. I LOVE wearing purple on my nails. Rock Royalty made me very, very happy. This is another two-coater.


CND Vinylux Weekly Polishes feature  CND’s “ProLight technology” which is designed to increase the durability of the top coat with exposure to natural light. These polishes are awesome. They are very durable and dry quickly. Read my original review and check out my 7-day wear photos to learn more.

If you are interested in investing in your own CND Vinylux Weekly Polish or trying them out on your next mani/pedi  spa day, you can get in touch with CND Philippines @cnd_ph on Instagram and Twitter or at CDNPhilippines on Facebook to order or to find a salon near you.

Which is your favorite of the two? Purple and red are my two favorite shades to wear on my nails so both of these are winners to me.

Thanks for reading and for sticking around even though my posts have been kinda sporadic the past few months. I have still been doing my nails but blogging is on the back burner most days as I have my hands quite full with my precocious  6-year-old and my imaginative 4-year-old that I home-school. Family first! But I thank you for your patience.

I hope you are having a fabulous week and that you get to make someone smile today.

Hugs,
Rach

26 Aug

Zentangled Nail Art (Ft. Girlstuff Sophia) 

Hello!

Two posts from me within a week? It’s like old times again! I’m sharing a look I wore a while back. I have recently been on a Zentangle kick and, after making cards and borders for projects, of course the next step was to bring the tangling to my nails!

Girlstuff Sophia with Zentangle Nail art

I started with two easy coats of Girlstuff Sophia. Sophia is a very pretty beige shade with pink undertones. Looking at the bottle, I honestly wasn’t 100% sure it would be very flattering on my skin tone but I was pleasantly surprised. I LOVE it! I was also happy to find that I only needed 2 coats for full opacity and it dried quickly. The Zentangled designs are done with black acrylic paint and a teeny tiny brush. Aren’t they awesome!?!?  Here is a shot of Sophia on its own.

Girlstuff Sophia Swatch

I love that I’ve been finding some neutral colors that I like on my skin tone. By looking at my polish collection I can see that I really favor dark colors. I find it very refreshing to have a clean neutral tone on my nails from time to time. Neutrals also make  great base for nail art.

What is your favorite neutral shade to sport on your nails? And have you ever done any Zentangling? Please take a moment to share in the comments. I hope you have a zentastic day!

Hugs,
Rach

 

25 May

Bloggers’ Elite Summer Collection ft. Pueen Love Elements

Hello again!

How was your weekend? Mine was quite busy and stressful, but it was a good one overall! I was looking for the song “Swinging on a star” by Bing Crosby and scored an album on iTunes for $3.99 for 100 Bing Crosby songs! I’m listening to it as I type this. I LOVE oldies! Especially Doris Day, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, and the like.

Anyhooo… y’all came here for the nails! I won’t disappoint! I just published my review and swatches of the new Bloggers’ Elite Summer Collection from Girlstuff this past weekend. Please do check out the post if you haven’t already. I thought I would share the easy stamped nail art I wore with each one. I used my Pueen stamping plates from their Love Elements Collection which I bought a couple of years ago.

 

Topaz Horizon ft. Pueen 38

Girlstuff Topaz Horizon With Stamping Pueen 38

With Topaz Horizon, I decided to use plate 38 from the Love Elements collection and a dark purple polish which worked very well. I love the finished look!

 

Struttingonsunshine ft. Pueen 43

Girlstuff Strutting on Sunshine with stamping Pueen 43

I picked a dark pink polish to stamp an image from plate 43 onto Struttingonsunshine. The image stamped well, but I had issues with the polish streaking when I went to add topcoat. I even floated the brush across the design, so I guess the pink polish just didn’t want to stick to SOS. Still pretty and eye catching!

 

AskMeWhats ft. Pueen 29

Girlstuff AskMeWhats with stamping Pueen 29

With AskMeWhats, I stamped this cute bow design using Pueen 29 and a dark blue polish of mine. Then I added some yellow dots to make the design pop! I like how it turned out.

Go Jackie Go ft. Pueen 46

Girlstuff Go Jackie Go with accent nail Pueen 46

I wanted something whimsical for an accent nail with Go Jackie Go. This is what I came up with using Pueen 46. I dabbed a bit of iridescent glitter at the base of my nail. Then I stamped this image over it. Then with a dotting tool, I added some gold dots for a final touch. It turned out so pretty!

I had fun coming up with a complimentary stamped look for each of these colors. I haven’t had as much time for hand painted designs lately, but one can still be creative with stamping, and though simple, it definitely takes your nail polish to another level. Mr. Nailinator has been bugging me to try my hand at another insanely time-consuming design, and I’ve been toying with the idea. Maybe next week after the kids and I close out the school year.

Here is hoping the Monday blues don’t get you down. Always remember that coffee is your friend! Have a good one!
Hugs,
Rach

23 May

Girlstuff Bloggers’ Elite Summer Collection Swatches & Review

Hello loves!

I’m back with a fun summer collection to share with you. This summer heat has really been getting me down lately, but there is nothing like some bright and cheery colors on my nails for a great pick me up! Girlstuff Forever recently released their Bloggers’ Elite Summer Collection—a four-color collection each named after a popular Philippine beauty blog. Y’all know I love Girlstuff polishes, so when I got these in the mail I was super excited! Thanks again, Girlstuff!

Let’s get right to it shall we? All of these photos were taken in my light-box. Each of these has a great, quick-drying formula. If you’d like to check out the blogs each polish is named after, just follow the link in each section below.

Topaz Horizon

Girlstuff Topaz Horizon Swatch

Topaz Horizon is a perfect pastel yellow creme with just a touch of green. I was surprised at how much I loved this one since I don’t typically like yellow polish for my nails. But this one is very pretty! This is two coats on most nails. I had to put a third coat on a couple of nails.

AskMeWhats

Girlstuff AskMeWhats Swatch

AskMeWhats is a pinkish purple (or is it purplish pink) creme. This girly color is definitely the most work-safe color of the bunch. Two coats are all that is needed for full opacity.

Struttingonsunshine

Girlstuff Strutting on Sunshine Swatch

Struttingonsunshine is a very bright robin’s egg blue creme. This is a stand out color and very fun to wear! This one was opaque in two coats.

Go Jackie Go

Girlstuff Go Jackie Go Swatch

I’ve saved my personal favorite for last. Go Jackie Go is a green chartreuse creme which is very flattering on my skin tone. I usually go for dark greens because I can’t pull off lighter greens. But this one is lovely! GJG took 2 coats for opacity, and I was sad when it was time to take it off. Even my sister, The Bookworm, borrowed this one to wear when she saw it.

bloggerselite

Photo Credit: Girlstuff Forever Facebook Page

Overall, I love this collection! These 4 new shades have the great quick-dry and self-leveling formula I have come to expect from Girlstuff. I believe, between Topaz Horizon, AskMeWhats, Struttingonsunshine, and Go Jackie Go, there is something for everyone with this quartet of colors.

These sell for Php120 at Girlstuff kiosks. You can also check out their website and contact them about having polishes shipped to you. You can also check them out on Facebook and follow them on Instagram @girlstufforever.

What do you think of this collection? Which is your favorite? I’ll be sharing some nail art using them very soon. I hope you have had a great week and that your weekend is full of smiles, laughs and pretty colors!

Hugs,
Rach

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