Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Pure Ice Irreplaceable Swatch

Hey y'all!  T-minus 6 days until my first day of class, yay!  I'm getting pretty excited.  I have orientation tomorrow, it's only supposed to last a couple of hours though.  I'm supposed to watch some video and finish up all my paperwork for financial aid and all that jazz.  Just dotting my i's and crossing my t's.

I do get some butterflies in my tummy when I think about it.  Even though it's just a nail course, I haven't had a first day of school in about 14 years lol.  I just need a Lisa Frank trapper keeper and some new kicks and I'll be ready ;).  Just kidding about the trapper keeper, but I do need to get some new shoes.  We have a uniform of Burgundy scrubs so at least I can get some new tennis shoes since I won't actually be going school clothes shopping like you're supposed to do before the first day of school lol. Eee, I'm so ready!

Anyhoo, enough of my rambles, how about some nails?  I'm sure you've heard already that Pure Ice has 29 new shades out for 2013.  I've starting to see them at Wal-Mart and picked up this fabulous little beauty last week.  This is Pure Ice Irreplaceable.  It is a black jelly polish with black and silver micro glitter and silver hex glitters.  It is FAB-U-LOUS.


Ahh, my hands look freakishly white in these photos.  I swear I'm not a vampire or some weird pod person, I just over exposed a bit (it's more than just a bit haha).  It looks kind of weird but the polish looks true to life, I promise.  

This is Irreplaceable with a coat of ButterLondon Matte Finish.  I love it shiny but I super love it matte. 


Have I ever mentioned how much I love Pure Ice polishes?  They are really awesome.  The quality is almost unbeatable for the price tag, $1.97.  And with them coming out with so many new shades and textures, you really can't pass them up.   If you remember, I entered the Pure Ice My City nail art contest and lost but they were super nice and ended up sending me a consolation prize with 12 of the new polishes.  I was floored that they did that, especially considering the winners all won 100 polishes EACH.  Amazing company all around.  So be on the lookout for more Pure Ice nail art and swatch posts.  :)

Thanks for stopping by today, have a good one! XOXO

Monday, January 28, 2013

Guest Post by My Daughter

Hey y'all!  If you remember a few days ago, I did a review post for the Nail Candy Pens.   Well, my 9 year old daughter also used them and wanted to write a little post about the nail art she did with them too.  She painted and drew the designs herself using the Nail Candy Pens.  :)  Enjoy! :)


 Hey there and i hope you love my nail art. I call them the things about me and i used NAIL CANDY for the design. I love my idea and I hope you do too. Have a nice day.  : )  A

Girly Ruffle Nails

Hey y'all!  A week or so ago I was contacted by Ria of Brush me Blush.  She is doing a 30 Day French Twist Challenge and asked me check out some of her tutorials.  She has done a lot of really cute french tip designs with step by step tutorials.  One of my favorites was The Ribbon Twist. So I thought I'd give it a whirl.  I really like how it turned out.  I was really hoping for it to have a Valentines feel to it but I keep thinking of Christmas when I look at them lol. They're pretty cute though no matter the holiday. ;)



Polishes Used:
Sally Hansen Shell We Dance
Pure Ice Platinum Base
NYX Woman

 

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Beauty Blogazons Round-up 1-27-13


Friday, January 25, 2013

SoFlaJo Going Down Swatches and Review

Hey y'all!  Today I have a really cute polish to share with you guys from SoFlaJo's new spring collection, Matte Love.  This pretty yellow shimmer matte is "Going Down". 

 


Going Down is a very nice consistency and goes on opaque in two coats.  It's kind of a yellow orange, definitely more yellow than orange though.  This is a really pretty polish, the whole collection is really nice.  You can check out other swatches from the Matte Love collection on Pointless Cafe.  

Also be sure to check out the SoFlaJo Store to purchase and the SoFlaJo Facebook Page for updates on release dates and more collections to come. 

 

She put in some really cute glitter in the packaging as well, so I thought I'd add a little something to this mani.  :)


The products in this post were sent for my consideration and honest and unbiased review.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

China Glaze Avant Garden Press Release



Have you heard about the China Glaze Avant Garden collection that is coming out soon?  I can't wait for these, I am in desperate need for some pretty spring colors.  I love Snap My Dragon and Mimosas Before Manis, they are so pretty! 

BLOSSOM INTO SPRING WITH CHINA GLAZE®


China Glaze® Nail Lacquer Invites You to Visit the Avant Garden

Los Angeles (January 2012) – Spring is here and China Glaze® is blossoming with vibrant color with its new collection, Avant Garden. The delectable palette flows between soft hues and vibrant pops of color, offering an unconventional bouquet of cheerful and vivid shades. Take a stroll down the China Glaze® path, passing a bubbling brook of light and bright blues. Take in the view of the mossy green meadow and stop to enjoy the fragrant flowers of soft pink and white.  Let Avant Garden take you away to a playful, romantic field of color and innovation this Spring. 



China Glaze® Avant Garden is also available in:
6 Piece Collection of “Blooming Brights”
6 Piece Collection of “Pastel Petals”
12 Piece 3D Counter Display
36 Piece Rack

China Glaze® Avant Garden will be available March 2013. Individual shades retail for $7; 6-piece collections retail for $42.

China Glaze® is free of DBP, toluene, and added formaldehyde.

China Glaze® nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide. For more information, please visit www.chinaglaze.com or follow China Glaze® on Facebook (@ChinaGlazeOfficlal), Twitter (@ChinaGlaze) and Pinterest (pinterest.com/chinaglaze).

China Glaze® is a division of American International Industries.

About American International Industries
For 42 years, AII has been the leading manufacturer and worldwide distributor of innovative, quality beauty and skin care products for men and women.  Our product lines include Andrea, Ardell, Body Drench, Bye Bye Blemish, Checi, China Glaze, Clean + Easy, Clubman/Pinaud, Duo, European Secrets, EzFlow, Fright Night, Gena, GiGi, Gypsy Lash, IBD, It’s So Easy, Jeris-Lustray, LASH BeLONG, Nail Tek, No Tweeze/Micro Tweeze, 'N Rage, Poshe, Prolinc, RAW, Seche, SuperNail, Surgi-Care, Waterworks, Winning Nails, Woltra, Woody’s, and Youthair. For more information, visit our website: www.aiibeauty.com.




Peacock Nails and a super big announcement

Hey y'all!  I have a pretty huge announcement to make, EEEEE, I'm so excited.  But first I'm going to tease you a little bit and show you some nail awesomeness.  I wanted to have some super cute and special nails today so I thought I would use my blog as inspiration.  I was inspired by my blog header for these pretties.  I have done peacock nails before but I love, love, love these.





My ring finger was done using Kleancolor Catch Me with a coat of Ulta Love Fern, the feather was done using Pure ice Platinum Magic Base, Kleancolor Neon Purple & SoFlaJo Going Down.  The Purple nails are Kleancolor Neon Purple and Nicole by OPI One Less Lonely Glitter.

I am so happy with how they came out, they were perfect for my big day.  Are you ready to hear my BIG news?  So, today, I got all registered to take the Nail Technician course.  Ahhh!  I'm so excited...and scared to death. haha  By summer, I should be a licensed Nail Tech and I will be ready to do this for a living.  Being that blogging is what really even started my passion for all things nails, I thought using my blog design as my nail inspiration for today was really fitting.

I am really excited about what the future holds for Amber Did It!.  I am really nervous though.  This May will make 10 years that I've been a stay at home mom so this is WAY out of my comfort zone.  But while I am super nervous, I feel really positive about this new journey I'm taking.  Over the years there have been many career paths I thought about going down but is the first time I have felt like this was what I really wanted to do.  It's not going to be just a job, it's something I love.  They say that if you are doing what you love then it'll never be work.

I hope that y'all will stick with me over the next several months.  I'm sure my blogging schedule will change up a bit but I promise I will do my best to post as much as I can.  I can't wait to share my school experience with y'all.  I plan to take my readers along for the ride and share some of the stuff I'm learning.  I'm sure it's not going to be all nail polish and fun stuff though lol I really can't wait to get started.

I have wanted to share this for a while but I didn't want to put it out there unless I knew it was really going to happen.  I actually didn't think I was going to start until March, it was kind of sudden.  I've been scrambling around the last few days getting everything together for registration but I'm all set now.  YAY!!!!!

Thank you all so much for the support and love you've given me over the last couple of years.  Your support and encouragement and sweet comments has definitely been a part in my decision to go for it.  I am planning to show my appreciation real soon ;)  XOXO 

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Revlon Girly With Stamping

Hey y'all!  I am so sorry I've been slacking on posts lately.  Just been busy and lazy at time lol.   Last weekend I finally found Revlon Girly.  I've been loving all of the swatches of it so I knew I needed it. ;) 

Honestly, while I do like it, it's not as fabulous as I wanted it to be.  For one thing, it took FOREVER to fully dry.  It still never fully dried.  I don't know, it just isn't really my style maybe?  My daughter loves it though. :)

This isn't really a swatch per se because I'm not showing it in it's true form.  I like it so much better with a matte top coat on it than in its shiny form.  I used China glaze Sweet hook as underwear, with two coats of Girly and then I added Butter London Matte Finish.  Which, by the way, is the most awesomest matte top coat in the whole entire world.  I won it in a giveaway from Polish Fixation and Nails Adored, it's amazing really!


I wore that for a day or so and then I decided to do some stamping and I screwed it all up.  It was much nicer by itself. :/   I used Kleancolor Metallic fuchsia for the stamping and Konad m64.   The Kleancolor metallics are amazing for stamping but I'm just not digging what I did here. 


Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope you're having a great day! XOXO

Monday, January 21, 2013

Nail Candy Pen Review and Swatches

Hello!  Today I have a review for  the Nail Candy Pen.  I was sent the "Love Letter" set, which is a Valentine's collection.



The Nail Candy pen is a nail polish pen with two different polishes in each pen.  Each polish has two applicators, a normal polish brush AND a micro-tip pen for nail art. 



The brush application was really nice with all 4 polishes. The Love Letters Set comes in 4 very girly and Valentines colors.  A red cream, that was opaque in 2 coats and a light pink cream that was opaque in about 3 coats.

A bright hot pink shimmer that was opaque in 2 coats and a white shimmer that was also opaque in 2 coats. 

I did a cute Valentines skittles mani with the micro-tip applicator. 


The micro tip is pretty easy to use.  You just lightly squeeze the polish container to get a good flow going to to your pen and do your nail art.  You don't have to squeeze hard at all to get a nice even flow and you just draw like you would a regular pen.  I did a kind of dotting motion when I was filling in the heart and leopard print.  The red was my favorite to work with.  The red was actually my favorite over all, I love the color. 


I really enjoyed trying these out, I've never used anything like them before.  The micro tip is pretty fantastic and unique. 

You can check out more from Nail Candy on their website, Nail Candy Pens.  Each pen retails for $10 and they have a variety of colors. 

The products in this post were sent for review and my honest, unbiased opinion. 

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Beauty Blogazon Round-Up 1-20-13

Hey y'all!  Check out the awesome posts from the past week from some of my fellow Blogazons.


Thursday, January 17, 2013

Pure Ice My City Entry

Hey y'all!  I am super excited about this post today.  Pure Ice is having a nail art contest with the theme "My City".  We were supposed to create a mani inspired about something you love about your city.  I went back and forth about what I wanted to do and decided on something that I really do love.  Mardi Gras!!!

I live in Shreveport, LA.  While New Orleans is usually the town people think of when they think "Mardi Gras", I assure you, Shreveport does it just as big.  The Shreveport and Bossier City area has several awesome Mardi Gras Krewes that put on awesome parades and other very extravagant events.  A "krewe" is a group of people who get together and put on these events.  We have several big krewes here but the two biggest are the Krewe of Gemini and the Krewe of Centaur

Both Gemini and Centaur put on parades the weekends leading up to Mardi Gras, AKA Fat Tuesday.  They have huge elaborate floats and wear amazing costumes and throw tons of beads, cups, doubloons and other little toys and things. I even caught a thong one time lol.  I love going to the parades every year.  One thing I love about Mardi Gras here as opposed to in NOLA is that it is family friendly.  There are designated family and alcohol free areas along the parades route and then there's the more fun areas lol.  I like going to the fun areas myself but usually we're in the family area.  Daiquiris and Mardi Gras just go hand in hand, just sayin'. ;)  It is nice that the kids get a chance to have fun and enjoy it though. 

For my Pure Ice My City entry, I chose to represent the Krewe of Centaur.  They are one of the 
largest Krewes in Louisiana and that includes New Orleans.   This year their theme is "Festivals Around the World" and I am sure they are going to put on an amazing parade as usual.  I can't wait to see all the floats.


My thumb and index are inspired by the Krewe of Centaur logo.





My ring finger represents another Mardi Gras favorite, KING CAKE!!!!  The "sprinkles" are actually a few Pure Ice glitters, Twinkle, The Family Jewels, & Turn It Up. It ain't Mardi Gras without a piece of King Cake from Julie Anne's Bakery.  They have all kinds of different flavors too. My favorite is cinnamon with cream cheese filling, GAH, it's SO good.  I could eat a whole cake by myself lol.  

I was really excited to do this for the Pure Ice contest.  It was a lot of fun to do and it's been cool seeing all of the different manis about where everyone is from. 

I really hope y'all liked hearing a little something about my area as well.  Thanks for stopping by today.  XOXO 

ETA:  Contest winners were announced on Friday and I wasn't one of them :(.  It's okay though, the winners were all amazing and totally deserved their winnings.  You can check out the winners on the Pure Ice Facebook Page.  

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Black and Silver Sparkle Tape Mani

Hey y'all!  Today I have a tape mani to share using Pure Ice Ruffled Sheets, Pure Ice Seduce Me and Wet N Wild Black Creme.  I actually did these a while back when I was working on this post.   I just thought I'd play around with some different looks while I was swatching and I hadn't done a tape mani in a while.



I like this look a lot, what do you think? 

Thanks for stopping by today, have a good day!  XOXO

Monday, January 14, 2013

Revlon Celestial FX & Pure Ice Not Now

Just a quick post to share some nails I wore last week.  I got Revlon Celestial FX as a gift from my hubby for Christmas and I finally got around to trying it out.  It has silver holo Stars, diamonds and moon shaped glitter as well micro holo glitter in a clear base. It's pretty cute I think.  My base color is Pure Ice Not Now.




I'm not a huge fan of the big shaped glitters because they are a pain in the butt to apply but the end result is always fun and cute. 

Some products in this post were sent to me for review.  

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Rainbow Saran Wrap Nails

Hey y'all!  Hope you're having a lovely Sunday morning.  Today I have some super cute rainbow nails to share.  I used the saran wrap/cling wrap technique for these and I love, love, love how they turned out. 

 


 

Sorry for the slight blur in my photos today, I don't know what happened.  o.O  I will eventually get the hang of my new camera I promise.

I used Wet and Wild Black Creme for my base.  And then I used 5 colors from the Kleancolor Metallics line, Metallica Pink, Metallic Mango, Metallic Green, Metallic Aqua, and Metallic Fuchsia.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE THE KLEANCOLOR METALLICS!!!!!!  They make my heart happy. 

I tried to do a bit of a rainbow gradient across the nails but it didn't quite come out like I envisioned it but it's still a cool affect.  What do you think?   I think I want to try it again with a white base and creams.  I also meant to see how it looked matted but I forgot.  I love metallic polishes matted, so fabulous. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day!  XOXO 

Friday, January 11, 2013

Revlon Brilliant Bordeaux

Hey y'all!  TGIF!!!  So glad this week is O-V-E-R Over!!!  I'm starting my weekend off by wearing one of the polishes my sweet hubby got me for Christmas.  Revlon Brilliant Bordeaux. 

This actually a really interesting polish.  It wasn't quite what I thought it was from just looking at it in the bottle.  It's got a black tinted jelly base with black and fuchsia micro glitter and fuchsia and silver holo bar glitter.   The black glitter is what surprised me.  It surprised me in a good way, I like it a lot. 



On the Index and ring is Essie No Place Like Chrome, middle is Pure Ice Touch Me Softly and pinky is Wet and Wild Black Creme. 


I'm kind of loving the super macro option on my new camera. :)  


I'm still getting used to the new camera.  I am having a hard time getting my lighting and colors right.  I'm in serious need of a new lamp.  As soon as I can I think I'm going to upgrade to an Ott Lite.  I've heard amazing things about them. 

It sucks to have this awesome camera in my hands and really not know what I'm doing with it. One of my friends just gave me a "Photography for Dummies" book though so I should be good lol.  I've also been doing a lot of googling and this weekend I'm going to my Mom and Dad's and I'm going to let him give me some photography lessons.  He teaches a high school photography class so hopefully he can teach me a thing or two.

I'm just so used to my Kodak point and shoot.  It does everything for me.  With this new Fujifilm, I have all these settings with big words I don't know lol.  Everything has to be JUST right and the stars have to align.  But let me tell you, when they align, boy do they. Check out this picture of the moon I took a couple of weekends ago. I'm still in shock over it. I had taken about 100 others that look basically like a big white glowing ball.  But as I played with the settings, the zoom, the shutter speed and aperture (see, big words)  the stars aligned and it happened. 


I'm obsessed with taking pictures of the moon now.  I was out at about 2 am a couple of nights ago and got this shot as the moon started rising.  It was so orange, I thought it was awesome. 


Yeah, I'm showing off a little lol.  What's frustrating is that I can take these bad ass pictures of the MOON but I can't seem to figure out how to get good consistent photos of my hand 5 inches in front of me.  Not that I think my pictures are bad, I just want them to be perfect.  Is that too much to ask?  ;) 

Okay, I'm getting all rambly and have probably already lost most of my readers by now.  Have a great weekend everybody.  XOXO 

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Pretty Pure Ice Stripes

Hey y'all! Today I have some really cute stripe nails that I did using Pure Ice polishes.  I wore these a few days ago and got a lot of compliments.  I actually had one person ask me if they were decals.  Nice little ego boost there lol. 




I did these using Pure Ice White, Pure Ice Ruffled Sheets, Pure Ice Party Hard, and Pure Ice Jack Pot.  I started with a white base and then added the stripes randomly using one of my striper nail art brushes.

As you can see, I'm also sporting nubs at the moment.  I starting using Duri Rejuvacote so I'm hoping that will help get my nails in better shape.  I've been struggling lately with breaks and chips and peels. :(  My index finger nail is especially short and thin right now. 

Thanks for stopping by today, have a great day!  XOXO

Some products featured in this post were sent to me for review.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Pure Ice Swatches ~ Ruffled Sheets, Seduce Me, Party of 5

Hey y'all!  Sorry I've been so slow lately, it's taking me some time to get back in the groove I guess.  Today I have swatches and a little bit of nail art using a few Pure Ice polishes. 

This is Pure Ice Ruffled Sheets from the Velour Collection.  It's a really nice silver matte.  This is two coats of Ruffled Sheets. 


This is Ruffled Sheets with Party of Five over it.  Party of Five is from the Diamond Couture collection.  Pure Ice describes it as "Green glitter with green shards".  It's more teal than green to me and the shards are actually diamond shaped glitter.  Very pretty!!! 

Next up I have Seduce Me over Ruffled Sheets. Seduce Me is from the Party Girl Collection is described as "Clear with silver glitter".  It's much more than just silver glitter though, there are small silver glitters AND bigger silver Holo glitters.  I love the holo bits, they really make this polish pop. 

I have to say, Pure Ice has definitely stepped up their game lately.  I am absolutely loving the new collections that have been coming out.  There are also more coming out this year and I can't wait to see them.  Pure Ice is definitely one of my favorite "drug store brands".  It's only $1.97 and the quality is really outstanding. 

You can check out more about Pure Ice on Facebook and the Pure Ice web site

These products were sent by the company for my considerationAll opinions are honest and unbiased.





Friday, January 4, 2013

I Love Nail Polish, Her Highness~Swatches

Hey y'all!  Up today is Her Highness from I Love Nail Polish.  This is a really pretty polish with fuchsia, gold, and copper multi-sized glitters in a clear base. 

This is Her Highness in a reverse glitter gradient over China Glaze Recycle.

 
This is Her Highness over China Glaze In Awe of Amber. 


I really like this one, it goes on nicely.  I had a hard time deciding what to use as underwear, I liked Recycle better than In Awe of Amber though. I've seen it look awesome over light pink and yellow too. 

You can check out I Love Nail Polish on the Etsy Store and on Facebook. They have a lot of great polishes so be sure to check them out.


Some products in this  post were sent for review for my consideration.