Blurple?! What's a Blurple?!

Last Fall we were asked to review a cosmetic subscription box from wantable.com.  You can see our post describing the box in full here.  

One of the polishes we received was from a company called Laqa & Co called Blurple.  I fell in love with this polish because the color is the perfect blurple (bluish purple), the name is adorable and the formula is fantastic!  I was excited to use this polish again and decided to try out this striping design.

After painting my nails with Blurple and giving it time to fully dry, I placed striping tape diagonally across each nail.  Then I free- handed the horizontal stripes with a striping brush.  I was disappointed when my topcoat smudged the stripes a bit, but I decided it wasn't too noticeable and I really didn't want to start all over again.  

 I was really happy with how this turned out.  It's simple but eye-catching.  I would definitely do this design again with different color combos.  

I love trying new polish brands and am planning to buy more from Laqa & Co.  I would have never tried this brand if it wasn't for the Wantable box.  If you're looking for a cosmetic subscription box that can introduce you to new and unique brands and products then check out Wantable.com.

Have a great weekend everyone!

XoXo ~Vicky

Nail Addicted Sisters

Sparkly Blue

This is another mani I have hoarded for occasions like these when my nails are not photographable just yet. They are definitely getting better, but they aren't growing as fast as I thought they would be with the gel on them. Also, the SensatioNail gel formula doesn't seem to be agreeing with my nails. I am getting bad chipping at the tips within days. 

I have taken to the cyber world to ask for help and I found a magnificent blogger who is an expert at home gel manis. Michelle from Manic Talons wrote this great post about gel nails lifting and chipping. I asked her about what I should do and she suggested I try Gelish instead. So, I ran right out to my local Sally's and bought some. That will be my next step- soaking these bad boys off and starting over with the Gelish only. I'll keep you guys posted on how that goes.

For this spectacular mani I started with a black base, OPI Black Onyx (I call the the best black because it's opaque in one coat).  On the accent finger I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Mermaid's Tail. This polish is gorgeous! It has a mix of green and blue hexes in a black jelly base. I haven't tried this on its own, but I'm sure it's wonderful.

The rest of my nails are done with Sinful Colors After Party. This polish has all blue, mixed shaped glitters in a clear base. If you don't have any of these sparkly glitters from SC you must try them. They have a great formula and look stunning!! For $1.99 they are a must have!!!

My nails look so long in these pics. I hope they get back to that soon and stay that way. I swear I would have acrylics on right now if they weren't so damn expensive!!! 

Please don't miss entering our current giveaway! The prizes are beautiful!! Click here to enter.

XOXO Nail Addicted Sisters

~Erika

Cobalt Blue Glitter Gradient

So I finally got my SensatioNail gel kit. It was super easy to use and because I only used it as a base, no color, it took very little time to apply and cure. I've had it on since Thursday, almost a week now and most of the tips are chipped and peeling. I'm glad I can repair them myself, but I was hoping to see no chipping for at least 10-14 days. Bummer. I'm going to soak it off and start again and add more coats and see how that goes. Anyway, I'm still waiting for some growth in a couple nails that broke super low before I post them. I really want to show Picture Polish LE Aurora!!! Till then I have this mani that I've been hoarding from a few weeks ago. :)

Cobalt blue is by far my FAVORITE polish color. I have far too many in my collection, but every time I see one I have to have it!

The beautiful bright base of this mani is SinfulShine Most Sinful . I love this polish because it is an almost exact dupe for Essie Butler Please AND, my personal favorite, Nails Inc. Baker Street. Of course I have all of these! LOL

I used Butter London Inky Six to add a glitter gradient. I love a subtle glitter gradient because you can use the brush to pull it off in most cases. I haven't ventured into the messiness of sponge gradients and water marbling. Ain't nobody got time for that! 

Sephora by OPI Social Climber is the perfect silver for stamping. I almost got this one straight!! It's amazing how quick and easy stamping is once you get the hang of it.

I hope you have all had a chance to enter our current giveaway! There are some amazing prizes to be won. Check it out here.

XOXO Nail Addicted Sisters

~Erika

You'll Be Green With Envy...

March is full of green-themed manis for Saint Patrick's Day.  I'm not all about the shamrocks and leprechauns, but I do love green!  I bought this hunter green polish several weeks ago and realized I had better use it before dark shades are out and bright, spring shades are in!  So I came up with this green mani that will fit in with this month's Irish motif without being too over the top.  

The hunter green polish is Covergirl Give'em The Green Light.  I really love this color and wish I had used it earlier in the season! Please don't mind my stubby pinky nail, I broke it the other day ☹. 

I used striping tape to create the design on the accent nail.  I painted it with Spoiled Daddy's Credit Card and then carefully placed striping tape to create the pattern.  The lighter green is Essie Sew Psyched.  

I added a silver square stud to my pointer finger to finish off the look.  I was really happy with how this came out and was showing it off all week.  

What kind of green-themed manis have you been sporting this month?

Spring Sparkle Giveaway

Spring is in the air...well almost! It's still cold as hell in the North East, but we're bringing you a little bit of sunshine and sparkle with this fabulous giveaway! 3 WINNERS!!

We have teamed up with my great friend Andrea from Frils.com, who has sponsored the jewelry portion of this giveaway. ALL the pieces pictured in the photo above will go home with ONE lucky winner!!  (US and Canada ONLY). Aren't they gorgeous???

The fabulous Daily Charme has also sponsored a stunning prize, 3 pairs of nail charms (International). I just love this company. The quality of their products is amazing! They just came out with new decals that look different from any other decals you have seen. 

Finally, Nail Addicted Sisters has provided you with 4 of the 6 polishes from the China Glaze Sea Goddess collection. These colors are so perfect for Spring!! (US ONLY)

This giveaway is open till 3/31. Winners will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen. Please enter through the rafflecopter below.

Good Luck!!

XOXO Nail Addicted Sisters

Textured Nail Art

Ok, so some of you may have read the conversation on Facebook this morning about me considering getting acrylics. The pics in this post (and the pics that I have for my next two posts) were taken over this past weekend and last week. You can see my pointer finger in REALLY short. Well, last night that ok looking ring finger  nail split so far down the middle, it's really gross looking!! 

Based on all of the comments and suggestions from our wonderful readers, I decided to go with SensatioNail gel nails. The thing that I love about this product is that I can use it as a base and still use all of my fabulous nail polish! I ordered it from Amazon because I had a GC, so I'll update you all on my progress once I get started!

On to business:

I was looking forward to doing this mani because I have been seeing a lot of bloggers doing chevron and I just love it! I had gotten a set of stickers from The Born Pretty Store a while ago that included chevron, fishtail and french tip stencils. They seemed perfect for me because I have a lot of trouble making clean lines.

You can see in the following close-up that the lines aren't so clean. The stickers weren't that easy to work with in my opinion. They lost their stickiness really quickly. As I manipulated them to position them just so, I guess I touched them too much and the weren't sticky on the ends anymore. I tried pushing them down as best I could with a orange wood stick, but you can see the polish bled through a bit.

From far away it looks pretty good. I will give them a try again for sure. It could also be that my base is a textured polish. I used Avon Brushed Metals Textured Topaz. While it looks somewhat gold, I would say it is a mix of gold and silver.  LOVE! 

I also decided to use a top coat because I'm not crazy about a textured finish. This is two coats of HK Girl top coat. It still has a textured effect without the feel of it. 

What are your thoughts about my decision to start using a gel base for my nails? I'd love to hear your experiences with SensatioNail Gel products. 

Oh...and did you see my sister Vicky's mani featured in an online article this week!!!! Please check it out here.

XOXO Nail Addicted Sisters

~Erika

And the Oscar Goes To.... GRAVITY!

Last night was one of my favorite nights of the year, the Oscars!  Watching the Oscars has always been a family tradition.  We're big movie people and it's a great night to appreciate the best movies of the year.  Plus, I love watching the fashion, seeing who wore the best dress, and who made HUGE mistakes.  I think my favorite was Kate Hudson, she looks damn good! And Pharrell had to be kidding wearing those damn shorts!  When I thought things couldn't get better, a few years ago they added the Mani Cam and we get to see some of the stars walk their hands down the mani runway!  

One movie that won a lot of technical awards was Gravity.  While I haven't seen the movie yet, I can see how it would rake in the technical awards with all of the special effects and green-screening that took to make the movie look so real.  As fate would have it, I received my limited edition Picture Polish purchases in the mail just a few days before the Oscars.  My sister and I were so excited we were able to nab Gravity, Illusionist and Aurora.  Knowing that Gravity was likely to win big at the awards I thought I would try that one first...

I layered two coats of Gravity on top of one coat of Sally Hansen Nightwatch, a deep almost-black blue.  Gravity is described as multicolored (mostly blue and purple) scattered holo with holographic flecks that sparkle no matter what kind of lighting you are in.  Holy cosmic amazingness!

Isn't it gorgeous?! I just can't even deal with how amazing these polishes are.  My sister nearly passed out when I gave her the Aurora to try out this week.  

If you have an opportunity to buy or try these polishes, DO IT!!  I hate spending more than $10 on a bottle of nail polish but these ones are worth every single penny.

I am excited to try out Illusionist next.  All of the swatches show the polishes layered over black so I am going to try them out on other colors.  I wonder what they would look like on a light pastel?!  

Have you tried any shades from the new Picture Polish collection? We'd love to hear what you think!

XoXo Vicky