Sinful Mint Apple, Nail Stickers & ManGlaze!

This is three coats of Sinful Mint Apple, a lovely dark mint with silver microshimmer. Another winner from Sinful!

I decided to try some nail art stickers for the first time and I really like the end result.

The next day I decided to try my new ManGlaze polishes that I won from Sara of Daily Polish. So fun! I used Matte-Astrophe on my ring and pinkie and Hot Mess on the other two fingers.

Thanks for reading!
April

Essence Everybody's Talking About & Nail Art

I unexpectedly loved Essence Everybody's Talking About! I've already worn it twice because it just seems like a great summer color. I paired it with Essie Mint Candy Apple and one of my beloved smARTnails sticker stencils for this manicure. One of my favorite manicures for some reason!

Thanks for reading!
April

A Few Zoya Reds From Wicked & Wonderful Fall Collections & Nail Art

Zoya Kym is a lovely rusty red with glass-flecked, gold shimmer. This is 2 easily applied coats. Not my favorite with my skintone but a great color for fall nonetheless.


Next up we have Zoya Stacy. I think this one is gorgeous! This is 2 coats. I tried a french manicure with Zoya Cheryl.



Zoya Kristi is my new favorite red! Flawless, 2 coat application. Perfect red creme, neither to cool or too warm, just perfect! I used Zoya Kelly and my smARTnails stickers too for this manicure.


Here are my overall thoughts on both of Zoya's fall collections, Wicked & Wonderful.

Thanks for reading!
April

All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Zoya! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

World Cup 2010 Japan

Another heartbreaking World Cup game today as Japan gets knocked out of the tournament after a scoreless game with overtime that had to be settled with penalty kicks. The Japan team has recently been called the Samurai Blue so I used OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui for most of my nails. I then proceeded to use up lots of time, 2 different white polishes and a few reds to try and make the darn flag! I am not good at making a perfect (or even a decent) circle with a brush! I repainted that nail three times and this is after I had tried out various methods on a nail wheel. Blech. It still turned out ok eventually though.

Thanks for reading!
April

World Cup 2010 South Africa

Ashley did this manicure for the opening day of this year's World Cup. I don't have the patience to do something as intricate as the South African Flag! The Daily Nail made the flag on most of her fingers! I know Ashley used Ruby Kisses Caribbean Blue, but I'm not sure what else went into this one.

Well, the host nation, South Africa has been eliminated and so has France. This is the first time that a host nation has ever been eliminated by the round of 16. Poor France just had a giant meltdown this World Cup! What a mess! Since we won't get to see them any more this time around, I'm picking a couple of their players for today's World Cup hotties.
First we have Yoann Gourcuff. Yoann was sent off today with a somewhat questionable red card.
I have to include Thierry Henry! Henry is without a doubt one of the most attractive footballers ever. We have links to plenty of pictures to prove it. Sweet jesus, he's hot! I went straight to Ashley for help with this one because I know she already has a large collection of Thierry Henry photos for her wonderful screen saver which features a slide show of beautiful men from all over the world.

Thanks for reading!
April & Ashley

World Cup 2010 Ghana

Ghana was one of my favorite teams last World Cup and they are this time as well. I used China Glaze Solar Power, a Tic Tac red, & BB Couture Poison Ivy for the Ghana Flag. I painted my nail yellow and then the next morning, I used a strip of blue painter's tape to make the green and red stripes. I used my smARTnails sticker stencils for the star. One coat of one of my favorites, Sinful Secret Admirer for the rest of my nails.

World Cup fever is real and I have it! It's safe to say that the World Cup has taken over my life. I've watched all but one game! I'm way behind on the blog! I was supposed to start my blog anniversary giveaway on the 17th but I STILL haven't had a chance to get to it. I promise I will soon.

I wanted to post this yesterday, but no time! So yesterday's World Cup hottie of the day is the entire team of Ghana! Especially Ayew & Gyan!

Thanks for reading!
April

Mad Max Interceptor & Special Pursuit Nails!

I watched Mad Max for the first time last weekend and as soon as I saw the Yellow Interceptor Car, I knew I'd be doing a version of that sweet paint job on my nails!

Below is the Special Pursuit. I used Sinful Secret Admirer with China Glaze Matte Magic to mimic the awesome Special Pursuit. Matte black nails look evil. I love it!

I used China Glaze Solar Power, OPI Red & OPI Blue My Mind for the Interceptor. My beloved Migi Nail Art Pen for the white stripe.

I have a thing for 70's muscle cars. It's bad. My heart goes all a flutter every time I see one.

Please enter my giveaways if you haven't already. Queen's Metal Jewelry Giveaway ends tonight! You can enter here. Clean Rest giveaway ends 3/23. Enter here.

Thanks for reading!
April

Treat St. Patrick's Day Like a Real Holiday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody!!!


This is one of my favorite commercials. It's from 2004. The soccer channel I used to watch soccer on played it constantly and it still makes me happy every time I see it.
Holidays always seem to creep up on me. I wanted to watch some movies and check out some books from the library about Ireland but I never got around to it. There's just always so much going on.
I have the movie Quiet Man that I want to try and watch this weekend. I've never seen it before. It's one of my dads favorites. And of course there's always Darby O'Gill and the Little People. It has a young Sean Connery singing this! It always get stuck in my head (like right now).
I did change my computer background, and strung up these shamrock lights I got from Target a couple of years ago.

What are you guys doing to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

And now on to the nails.

I did this manicure with OPI Hey Get In Lime! as a base and Tic Tac Green for the art.

On the thumb I did a french manicure with OPI Greenwich Village, but decided I didn't like it enough to do it on all my nails.

This next one took too long to do so I only did it on my thumb. I think it's really cute. It would have taken me 2 or 3 hours to finish though! I got the idea from here.

I used OPI Alpine Snow as a base. For the outline of the Shamrock I used a dotting tool and Orly Enchanted forest. To finish off the flag I used OPI Atomic Orange and OPI Jade is the New Black (one of my new favorite colors!).

The one i'm actually wearing today is much simpler than both of these. Which is more my style.
I'm wearing OPI Jade is the New Black, and on a couple of my fingers I did the Irish flag with the same colors as above.

On my other hand I put the Irish flag on my thumb.

Don't forget to have a Guinness (or several) and wear green!
Thanks for reading.
-Ashley

Queens Metal Jewelry Giveaway! (Closed)

I won this necklace from the Queens Metal blog. I gave it to Ashley as a late Christmas present and she did her nails to match. She used Maybelline Gold Aluminum & China Glaze Millennium for this awesome french manicure.

This is a great simple piece that works well alone or layered with other necklaces, something Ashley is good at doing. Queens Metal has an amazing collection of unique pieces available on her Etsy shop. This Chrysler Ring is my favorite!

I asked the lovely Krista of Queens Metal if she would like to sponsor a giveaway for my readers and she said yes! Woohoo! it's open to EVERYONE WORLDWIDE and you can pick ANY item in her shop $40 and under!!!!
RULES:
PLEASE READ ALL OF THE RULES BEFORE ENTERING.

• This giveaway is open to everyone worldwide! Yay!
  
• This giveaway starts today, March 14th, and will end Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 11:59PM Central Time.
• We'll select the winner with random.org's random number generator and notify the winner by email on Monday, March 22nd.
• The winner will have 24 hours to respond. If the winner doesn't reply within 24 hours, that winner will forfeit the prize and an alternate winner will be selected via random.org.

HOW TO ENTER:
I'm going to keep this one super simple. One entry per person.

• Go to the Queens Metal Etsy shop and tell us which item you want to win. Think carefully and explore all options because this will be your prize if you are the winner! Use the form below to enter. This works MUCH better than comments, so I've turned them off for this post to avoid confusion.
  

I did not receive any compensation for this giveaway in the form of product or payment of any kind. I won my necklace fair and square .

Thanks for reading!
April & Ashley

Nails To Match My New Bag

Yet another reason why I enter giveaways! I won this LRG bag from Highsobiety. I've always loved military inspired fashions and this gorgeous bag is no exception.

Ashley & I still haven't acquired a perfect army green polish which makes us sad in our hearts. I used Ashley's OPI You Don't Know Jacques for the base color. Santee Midtown Haze, Color Club Feel the Beat and Maybelline Khaki Fringe for the stripes. Then I used China Glaze Matte Magic over everything. I LOVE the end result.
I love winning gorgeous things! Enter all three of my current giveaways for your chance to get that little rush of adrenaline and endorphins when you're the winner! There are links to each giveaway on the right side of the blog. Good luck!

Just for the record, no one paid me to do this post. I won the prize fair and square and was so happy with it that I decided to share it with you.

Thanks for reading!
April

Nails to Match My New Boots

This is why I enter blog giveaways! I won this amazing pair of Sorel boots from the lovely Karen Vitt & her blog The Neat Sheet. These things have already made my life easier. I can wear them when I'm mixing my concrete and then just hose them off when I'm done instead of ruining endless pairs shoes. Thanks Karen!

Tulsa gets a lot of thunderstorms. Wally & I were outside playing the other day when the wind started up.

I decided to paint my nails to match my new boots. I used China Glaze Chocodisiac for the base, American Apparel Cotton & a Migi Nail Art Pen for the stripes.

And for all of you LOST fans out there, Sorel's logo is a polar bear!

Please remember to enter my giveaways! They are listed on the right side of my blog.

Just for the record, no one paid me to do this post. I won the prize fair and square and was so happy with it that I decided to share it with you.

Thanks for reading!
April

American Apparel Cotton & An American Apparel Water Marble

American Apparel sent me four of their polishes to try out.The colors from left to right are Poppy, Cotton, Manila & Hassid.

I LOVE the bottle shape! I wish flat & rectangular was the standard shape for nail polish bottles. They just stack up so nicely!

While these are not the colors I would have chosen for myself, I immediately thought that the colors looked gorgeous together.

I decided to try Cotton first. It's a soft white creme finish; the color of a nice cold glass of whole milk. This never has that stark, 'I painted my nails with white-out' look.
Cotton looks fantabulous with my skin tone! I ended up wearing it for 5 days!! I usually change my polish every day or two, but this was so nice and went with every outfit. I thought I would just leave it so I could tell you how well it lasted. I took all of these photos on day 5 and there is some minor tipwear, but NO chipping.
This took three coats and I was a little worried when I applied the first very streaky coat. The formula was a little thick so I added a couple of drops of thinner. That fixed the formula right up. I think I can do just two coats next time.

Like I said, I think the colors that American Apparel sent me look great together, so I thought I would try some nail art. I got the idea for the three stripes from this great Lacquer Laine post. I just did one nail and I didn't do nearly as nice of a job as she did, but I think her technique is very doable with a little practice. I love the result.

I also decided to try out my first water marble! I have read that the American Apparel Nail Polish line is very pigmented, so I thought they would work well for this technique. I used dixie cups and one drop each of Poppy, Manila, & Hassid for each nail. This was super easy and the result is so awesome that I can't believe I did this all by myself!

This nail is my personal favorite.

I had so much fun playing with these polishes. What do you ladies think of the American Apparel line so far? I'll be posting Poppy in a few days and tell you more of my thoughts on The American Apparel brand soon.

Thanks for reading!
April

Disclosure: I was provided a product sample by American Apparel. This in no way affects my opinions of the product. For more information read my Disclosure Policy.

Introduction and 4th of July manicures!

Hello, everybody.
This is Ashley. We wanted to let everybody know a little bit about us and why we started a nail polish blog before we continued with the posts. I'm 21 and work at the Tulsa City-County Library.
I've always enjoyed wearing nail polish and a few months ago I started making my older sister (April) wear it. April never thought she'd wear anything other than conservative colors. Now she wants the craziest nail polish available!
We also wanted to tell you about our new business. We recently started 4BrooksDesign, making beautiful decorative concrete. Check out some of our stuff at www.facebook.com/4BrooksDesign.
Here's a picture of a concrete cakestand!


Here are our 4th of July Manicures.

This is April's. She used OPI Blue My Mind with stripes of China Glaze Raspberry Festival and L.A. Girl's Silver Nail Art Brush.

I used China Glaze For Audrey as a base, and on my striped nails Sally Hansen's Vanilla Bean, China Glaze For Audrey, Ruby Kisses' Caribbean Blue and OPI Red