The Fancy Side

After the horrible nail fail, I threw on Hits Apolo. I was really excited to show you all some of the Holographic Goodness that is this polish. But then it was overcast and it snowed today. Hello...it's late March people. Snow?!?


You can get a little flash of the rainbow in the bottle. This is with my daylight bulb, it just doesn't do this gorgeous polish justice. I wish I had been able to take some outdoor photos.


Here are a few photos of this pretty on my fingers. In real life, this polish is a beautiful blue polish filled with rainbow flashes. This polish is originally from Brazil, and can be found on Llarowe if you are interested.


I'll be back soon with a new look soon. Have you seen this polish in real life?

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

I'm sure this will be the first of many nail fail's I'll share with you. I had every intention of trying some Spring Time Monarch Nails to share with you, but things went poorly. Enough that I removed it before I even photographed it. First I started off with a base of China Glaze Lemon Fizz.


This polish is from China Glaze's Up & Away Collection from Spring 2010. In theory I love this polish. Just look at it's lemony goodness. In reality, I hate it. Boo.


This polish was a nightmare. The first coat was streaky, the second coat left big bald spots. I had to do a really thick third coat and even then I wasn't happy with how it looked.


It's all streaky and nasty. I want it to be awesome, but I just can't get it to work. After letting the third coat dry, I sponged on a gradient of Lemon Fizz and Essie Orange, It's Obvious. I think I needed a lighter orange, but I was prepared to move on. After the gradient, I tried outlining the butterfly wings in black and things just kept getting worst. I removed it immediately. How awful.

Maybe I'll try again someday, but until then I'm going to pretend like it never happened.

Have you had a better experience with Lemon Fizz than I have? I'd love to hear about it.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

Hello all,

I'm back today with a stamping design that I did with two of the Butter Londons featured yesterday. I used Snog and Trout Pout for this design.


For the designs I used the Winstonia Plates, W112. I used the polka dots and the greek key type designs. Above is my left hand and below is my right hand. As you can tell I switched the color schemes on each hand.


Both of these polishes stamped very well. I was pretty excited about how well this turned out. I hope you enjoy this design.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

Hello All,

Recently Ulta had a sale on Butter Londons making them each $9 versus the normal $15 a polish. I love me some Butter Londons but they are usually priced out of my range.

I picked up three beautiful colors at the sale. I was really feeling the red/pink scheme so I ended getting Butter London's Pillar Box Red, Trout Pout, and Snog.


 If I had known about my fingerprints on the caps, I would have wiped them off before taking the picture. But oh well, it is what it is. Up first is a swatch of Pillar Box Red.


I'm in love with this color! It maybe my new favorite red. If you apply it correctly you might be able to get away with one coat, but I wore two coats just to be on the safe side. There was some slight staining around the cuticles when I removed it. Next up is Snog.


 This is a bright pink that is great. It applies great. This was another polish that if applied correctly could be a one coater, but I'm paranoid and applied two. And last but not least is Trout Pout.

 Trout Pout is one of those colors that I've been hearing about for years and I'm glad I finally took the plunge. Butter London describes this polish as a "opaque cantaloupe nail lacquer looks great on anyone." I'm inclined to believe them. This polish was a bit more finicky for me. The first layer went on a bit streaky, the second had a few bald spots, but the third layer evened everything out nicely. Also this color was hard to photograph true to its color.

Check back tomorrow for some fun stamping that I did with 2 of the 3 colors I bought.

Enjoy & until tomorrow, Amy Lee

Saint Paddy's day is coming up. In an effort to not get pinched this year, I've done my nails for the holiday. Because lets face it, I hate getting pinched. Doesn't everyone? Getting pinched SUCKS! Therefore it was necessary to make this happen.

I decided to go with some color blocking for this manicure. I busted out the ol' striping tape and got to painstaking work. This mani took some time to finish, but I absolutely love it.


These nails took 5 different polishes. I had a few more greens to choose from, but I went with 2 cremes and 2 glitters. Plus the gold base.


The first picture was of my left hand and the second of my right. I like doing manicures where both hands are the same. How I wish I was ambidextrous. Think of how cool I could make things if I was.


From left to right, polishes used are China Glaze Gaga for Green, AEngland Dragon, OPI Glitzerland, Maybelline Color Show Tenacious Teal, and China Glaze Running in Circles. I also used Orly Rubberized Base Coat and Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coat.


The photo above, really captures some of AEngland Dragon's holographic goodness. I wish I could have got a better shot of that pretty for you.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

P.S. Will you be doing an Anti-Pinch St. Paddy's Mani? I'd love to see it.

Peeps, I took the Shellac off tonight. I tried to document it for you, but my pictures turned out all janky.  (Janky is totally a word, even though Spellcheck says it isn't, trust me) It's an easy Google search for removing Shellac, people out there have done it better than I ever could. My one tip, is DO NOT have an unknown paper cut and dip your finger to soak in pure acetone. YEOOOUCH! Trust me you don't want to do that.

Anyways....lets get down to business. (& now I have Mulan stuck in my head) I finally decided to tackle the Ombre mani. I've tried this before, never with success. Usually, I take it off and try something else. But this time, I DID IT!! WOOO HOOO! Enough talk, more pictures.


Look at the pretty! I can't believe I pulled it off. It took me forever, but I figured it out. Colors used are OPI Did you Ear about Van Gogh? and China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy.  I used Orly Rubberized Base Coat and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.


Also, these colors are hard to capture, especially Flip Flop Fantasy. Flip Flop Fantasy is so much brighter and more playful in person. I've gotten them pretty close after like an hour of playing with my camera settings.  Forgive me if the background in some of the photos seems a bit blue/gray/darkish, it brought the polish colors out the best.


Above you'll see my right hand and below my left.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the Nude to Neon Ombre. Maybe you'll even give it a go.

Enjoy & until next time,  Amy Lee

On the 1st I set out on a 8 day adventure to the Dominican Republic. I knew I wouldn't be able to change my polish while there, so I wanted something that would last. There is no way that normal polish would last that long, so I thought it would be the perfect time to try out the Shellac Manicure.

This polish was applied on Feb. 28th and so far has seen 11 days of wear. I'm curious to see how long it will actually last.

This photo was taken immediately after getting home from the salon. Initially, there was some visible nail line, which drove me crazy. But, hey, I'll give it a go. The color is Gel by OPI Strawberry Margarita. It seemed fitting, since that was what I was planning on drinking on the beach.


These 2 pictures were taken on the second day of the trip. I was getting some tip wear & still wondering how they'd hold up over the course of the trip.

These photos were taken on the last day of the trip, after 8 days of wear. This manicure held up. It lasted through horseback riding, deep sea fishing, snorkeling, Scuba Doos, and everything else that I threw at them. Seriously, these suckers are hard as a ROCK! I'm thinking about leaving them on until Thursday (if I can last that long) just to see. I've had some serious growth with this manicure. The line between my cuticle and polish, is getting wider and wider.

Overall, I give these an A-. The only thing I didn't like was the VNL. If I get them again, I'll just ask the lady for an extra coat of polish to take care of that.

I'll post an update if my nails last to next Thursday.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy

P.S. I wish all my photos could be so exotic. How awesome would that be?