Nail Mail

So I swear I am not that addicted to shopping online, it just so happens that everything is arriving at once! I SWEAR! Or at least that's what I tell Alex :)

For today's nail mail I received December's Maven box. In it I received Harper, Vivien, and Ivy. Here's how they look:

From Left to Right - Ivy, Harper, Vivien

I have to say I am in LOVE with these three polishes I was sent! Harper reminds me of a mermaids tail and I think it will be gorgeous on. However, the one I am most looking forward to trying though is Ivy. It is simply gorgeous in the bottle, its small glitters of blue with hints of purple in it. When you tilt it certain ways it looks bright blue, then if you turn it some more it looks like a gorgeous purple/pink. Then of course we have Vivien, which is a gorgeous gold hexagonal glitter.

I was at CVS today picking up a prescription when of course I happened to end up in the nail polish section, don't ask me how that happened, but anyways I picked up four more nail polishes since they were having a buy one get on free sale.

Left to Right - Cha-Ching! and Glitz Gal

Left to Right - Blazed and Eggplant Frost

 

I have been wanting the GEM Crush line for some time now and just for some reason haven't bought them, so today I finally did and again cannot wait to try them out! As for the Wet n Wild's Blazed looked like a great coral to have in my arsenal so I couldn't pass it up. As for Eggplant Frost is just looked pretty in the bottle!

 

Unfortunately, I was not able to swatch any of them as we were getting Alex's grandpa's medicine and such for when he got home from the hospital. After being home for about 4 hours or so we had to bring him back to the emergency room. They are running test now and will be admitting him soon. Please keep him and Alex's family in your prayers as we try to get him better. On a whole other note my imPRESS nails are still in place and look great, which I am pleasantly suprised by. I think I'll be taking them off tomorrow if time allows as I really want to try out my new polishes!

 

I hope that everyone has a great weekend and I cannot wait for my first challenge on Monday, stay tuned!!!

 

Brittany



 

DIY Photo Light Box

Before I get started here's just a little update on how Alex's grandpa is doing. Unfortunately, we were not able to bring him home today as his sodium level was still pretty low. However, while we were there at the hospital he seemed to be in much better spirits and is definitely ready to come home! Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Now onto the photo box! I'm proud to announce I will no longer be posting crappy photos! My amazingly talented boyfriend built this beauty for me:

I used a tutorial I found on Pinterest, you can find it here:
DIY Light Box

Now she may not be beautiful on the outside, but it's the inside that counts. Please see Exhibit A:

This is the same manicure I posted last night, BUT was taken in my new light box! I mean seriously, what a difference! I couldn't be more happy, not to mention perfect timing because today I got a couple nail mail orders, one from Born Pretty and the other from Hautelook.

 

This was my first time ever ordering with Born Pretty and I must say I'm very pleased with them! I placed my order on the 21st and it arrived today! The only complaint I would have is that I didn't receive any tracking information, however it could have gone to my spam folder and could totally be my fault. Now back to the order, I got the Lovely Heart Stamp Template- M59, Stamping Stamper with Plastic Scraper (I got a plastic one as the one I ordered with MASH is metal), White and black stamping polish, and 12 stamping plates that came with a stamper and metal scraper. I can't wait to test them out!

 

For my Hautelook nail mail I ordered a Gel Nail Polish Starter Kit by Gel Haute Polish:

 

The set came complete with a UV lamp, remover, cleanser, top coat, base coat, and three nail colors, which are all very pretty fall neutrals. I think the first thing I'm going to do with this kit is a Rock Star pedicure!! Oh how I love glitter! In the same shipment from Hautelook came an order I placed a few months back that I have seriously been wanting forever! They are a black pair of amazing boots, and some really cute flats:

I wore the boots the other day and they are so comfortable!

Last night while Alex and I were at Michael's getting supplies to make my light box I was trying to find some craft scissors with the Chevron design that I am soooo in love with right now and found a pair for only $2, I also found some little paint bowls made for mixing paints, but I thought they would be perfect for my acetone and when I'm stamping, it was 2 bowls for $0.99. Can't beat that!

 

 

I found these by the entrance for like $3 on clearance and I just couldn't pass them up!

 

 

 



Now if only I could figure out how to get a watermark on my photos.... any suggestions out there?!?

I have to hurry and end this post as we are having a huge storm and are about to lose power!! Wish us luck1


Brit

 

 



imPRESS Review and Chevron Pedicure

Hey everyone, I apologize for being absent yesterday. Grandpa is still in the hospital, we are hoping to get him home tomorrow, fingers crossed!!

For today's nails I decided to try imPRESS fast & easy nails in 56673, which is black. I decided to do this since I've been so busy lately and haven't been able to give my nails the attention they deserve, and also since I have been neglecting them a few have broken :( I have to say that it was such an easy process. First, you remove any nail polish you currently have on, then in the kit they provide you a little prep pad and just rub each nail with the pad (I'm pretty sure it was just an alcohol wipe). Next, you fit the nails to yours so the sizes match for all ten fingers. Once you have those laid out you are ready to start sticking them on. There is a little tab at the bottom of each nail that lets you know that it is the base of the nail and also is where you pull the cover over the adhesive off. What I found easy while I was applying the nails that I would put the base of the nails just slightly over my real nail, kind of hovering, and make sure that it is straight then you press firmly in the middle and then on the sides. Here is how mine turned out:

The bottle says that they can last up to a week, so we shall see about that!

Now onto my toes! :)

I wanted to test out my Julep Michelle polish that I received in last months Maven box so a week or so ago I painted my toes with it. They turned out gorgeous and I loved how nicely the polish went on. Michelle is a very pretty deep blue, which I absolutely love. When I did them I knew they needed a little something extra, but just couldn't decide what. So tonight while my boyfriend and I were at the hospital we decided to take a little break and went to Michaels. I was able to talk him into making me a photo light box from a tutorial I found on Pinterest! YAY!! So while we were there getting some supplies i found some craft scissors that are perfect for the chevron design that I am so totally in love with right now.

Here's how my toes turned out:

For the grey chevron stripes I used Sally Hansen's Wet Cement.

I am so excited for many things right now, a couple are : A) My light box to be completed tomorrow by my amazing boyfriend. B) That I joined my first nail challenge!!! It's being put on by Sam over at Polished Art . and finally C) That grandpa could be coming home tomorrow!!

I hope that everyone had a great Hump day and now I'm off for some much needed Zzzzzzzzzzzz's



Brit

From the Vault

Tonight's post is from the vault as right now I am currently sitting in the hospital next to grandpa.

This is a pedicure I did a couple months ago. In it I used Sally Hansen's Wet Cement, Sinful Colors Summer Peach, and Sinful Colors Neon Melon. First, I painted all my toes with Wet Cement, once those were completely dry I taped different angles off and painted with either Summer Peach or Neon Melon. Here's how it turned out:

I absolutely loved how this pedicure turned out and am thinking of doing a more winter/fall version of it.

I also meant to share this picture with you guys last night, but totally forgot. It's a picture of Alex, Kali, and I on Thanksgiving:

Happy Holidays!!

Hope everyone had a great Monday!!


PS - I recently change my blog page and wanted some feedback from readers. Is it to hard to read the right and left columns due to the black bow? Should I consider changing it? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated :)


Brittany

Happy (LATE) Thanksgiving!

I apologize that I am soooo late on this post, I feel awful and really have been meaning to post something, but unfortunately on Thanksgiving Alex's grandfather got really sick and is in the hospital. Luckily we were able to enjoy some of Thanksgiving with my family down in Turlock, but had to leave around 3ish to head back up to Chico and see his grandpa in the hospital. Since Thursday we have pretty much been there with him. His grandfather is 94 years old and is in amazing health and is an incredible man. About 8 or 9 years ago he had to have heart surgery and they put a pig valve in and its pretty much on its last leg as they (the pig valve) only last about 8 years. They also told us that he is in CHF (chronic heart failure). On a much happier note, he seems to be doing fine and is in high spirits and ready to get home, hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday.

Today I had some time at home and just decided to swatch some green polishes I had recently bought and haven't had a chance to play with. So without further ado onto the nail polish:

From pinky to ring finger - Wet n Wild SaGreena the Teenage Witch, Sally Hansen Olive Branch, Wet n Wild Poison Ivy, China Glaze Winter Holly.
(Picture Taken Outside)

Inside shot

I loved all of these greens especially China Glaze's Winter Holly, it was a complete glitter bomb and didn't need any sort of dark green polish underneath. At first when I was outside taken the pictures it looked like Olive Branch and Poison Ivy were very similar, but then when I got inside and took the picture you could totally see how much it varied. Also the pictures didn't pick up the metallic tones in poison ivy. Maybe if I had put a coat of SV on it would have brought the colors in the polishes out more.

My next mani I did today was something a little more Christmas-y. I did 2 coats of NYC Broadway Burgundy Frost. Once that was dry I took my Kiss striping kit in white and silver glitter and striped all my nails. Here's how it turned out:

The first picture I shot before I put the stripes on as I thought it was such a pretty red with nice little red glitters inside it. By the time I added the stripes I was really tired from a long day at the hospital today that they didn't turn out as well as I had originally planned. I will have to re-do this manicure when I'm not so out of it.

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, and laughter!

Brit

Champagne Kisses

Hey All! Sorry I've been MIA the past few days. My friend from back home came up this weekend to stay with me and I didn't have any time to post. We had a great time though catching up on everything and shopping! I found some amazing items at our downtown stores, I'll be posting those tomorrow!

For tonight's mani I did 2-3 coats of China Glaze's Champagne Kisses and then did the tips with Wet N Wild's Ebony Hates Chris, then of course a coat of Seche Vite. Here's how it turned out:

I have to say I loved Champagne Kisses, it went on amazingly and totally covered my nail within 2 coats.  Also the glitter in it is just crazy, a total glitter bomb!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!! Thanksgiving is this week, anyone have any big plans?


XoXo
Brittany

Gogo Girl!

For tonight's post I decided to mix it up a little. Typically when I choose nail polishes I tend to gravitate towards more neutral colors or darker tones that almost look black. Tonight I have ventured out of my bubble!! I've been seeing a lot of gorgeous red nail polishes on the blogosphere and have LOVED every single one, so I figured why not! Red is always a hot and sexy color and works for every season. I used two coats of Sinful Colors GoGo Girl with a coat of Seche Vite.

Here's how they turned out:

 

I wouldn't say that these pictures are 100% authentic to the color of the polish. It's a much deeper red in person, rather than the red-orange it turned out in the photos. I did love how the polish went on nice and smooth and wasn't too thin or watery. Overall it was a good formula and a really pretty red. I'm thinking I might do sort of an ombre/gradient finish to them or glitter the tips with black glitter.

 

On a whole other note, I was organizing my scarves the other day and found this amongst them:

 

Isn't she cute??


I hope every one had a great Hump Day and an even better Thursday!!

 

 

XoXo

Brittany

Smokey Eye with Video Tutorial

Sooooo HAPPY to report that YouTube pulled through and I was able to upload my smokey eye tutorial!

Thank heavens!!!!!! I could not be more ecstatic!!!

Without further ado, here is it:

Part 1

Part 2

Finally I can go to bed!


XoXo
Brittany

As Promised - Smokey Eye Tutorial

Happy Sunday Funday everyone!

As I promised last night I re-did my smokey eye tutorial. So here it is with a twist! I cannot for the life of me get the video uploader on Blogger to work so thank goodness as I was doing the video tutorial I took pictures. So what I have for you in the mean time is a picture tutorial. Please comment or email me with any questions you have @ bkoch134@gmail.com

I'm not the most impressed with how this picture tutorial came out so please do not judge, I'm totally working on getting this video uploaded as fast as I possibly can! So just cross your fingers with me and hopefully I can get it uploaded tonight.

I've also updated my mani as promised! See I keep my promises... sometimes! ;)

For this mani I kept everything the same except my two ring fingers. I took the white dots off and did another layer of black. Before it dried I added bow rhinestones. Here's how they turned out:

Please excuse the lack of clean-up, it's been a busy day :)



Today I ran to TJ Maxx really quick as I wanted to see if they had any Essie nail polishes, unfortunately they didn't.... but I did find this amazingly cute tops.



Peplum top with lace, only $14.99!

I'm only posting this angle because it really lets you see the lace

This little polka dot was only $9.99, I can't wait to pair it with a blazer!

I hope that everyone had a great weekend and has a great week! Hopefully I'll have an updated post tonight with the video :)

XoXo

Brittany

Polka Dot, Polka Dot, Polka Dot

Hey everyone, I've been down with the flu hence my absence the past couple days.

For today's post my inspiration was mainly just the fact that I wanted to play around with my MASH dotting tools. I did a black and white mani and added polka dots on top of it. I really wanted to add a pink bow to my ring finger, but pooped out. Hopefully I can do it tomorrow and add some pictures.

 

 




For this mani I used two coats of Essie's marshmallow for the white and two coats of Wet N Wild's Ebony Hates Chris. I then added a coat of Seche Vite and let my nails dry, after they were dry I did black dots on the white nails and white dots on the black nots. As I said I used my MASH dotting tools for the dots. It was my first time using them on a full mani and I loved them, it made it so much easier.

The finished product

 

I still have yet to figure out how to upload my make up tutorial from my iPad so I think I'm going to have to redo it. If I'm filling up to it tomorrow I promise to post a make up and hair tutorial.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing weekend! :)


XoXo
Brittany



Very Frustrated Right Now!

I'm so upset right now! I did this awesome makeup video for you guys today on my iPad and for some reason it won't upload!!! I've tried everything and it won't work. Any tips, anyone!?!

Thank goodness I did a manicure today and have a back up post or else I would be even more upset. This manicure is OPI's My Private Jet and it is absolutely GORGEOUS! It is an espresso brown with small glitter flecks in it. I don't even know how else to describe it, I am just in love with it so much. I wonder how it would look with in matte? Might have to try it next time.... Anyways here are the pics:

I did manage to snap a few photos when I was finished with my smokey eye tutorial so here are some pictures as well. Hopefully tomorrow when I have more time I can try to get the video uploaded, if not I will just have to re-create it :)

Hope everyone had a great day and tomorrow's Thursday!! YAY!


XoXo
Brittany

Bracelets are the Perfect Accessory!

Happy Election Day America! Hope everyone went out and voted!

Today's post is going to be about my favorite accessory, BRACELETS! I am loving all the pins on Pinterest where people are layering their bracelets and playing with different colors. I've always been one against gold accessories, now I find myself constantly going for my gold watch and gold bracelets. I don't know what it is, but there is something simply classy about a nice gold watch and some bracelets.

Here's a few pictures of how I like to accessorize with bracelets:

 

 



Here's a couple of my favorite staple pieces:

I picked up this beauty on Hautelook.com

 

I got this at a local shop, the company is called Good Works

Make a Difference, www.GoodWorksMakeaDifference.com,

they are an awesome company!

 

 



This gorgeous bracelt was given to me by my mom and dad for

for my birthday this past year. These bracelets are also made locally

and the lady hand makes all of them. They are simply gorgeous.

 



 

Sorry to keep it short again, but its been another long day, between working on our business and working in the orchard today I am beat!

 

Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!

 

 

XoXo

Brittany