Greetings fellow Princesses!  How has your month of May been?  My husband and I are back from our travels and it has been back to "the real world" for us.  At the beginning of this week my Mom helped me arrange (or pulled me into) a really fun get-together where I was expected attempted to be a good teacher and show some friends how to water marble your nails!  I knew it was going to be fun no matter what, but I was really pleased with how everything turned out!  =)

   First off I spent time before the party practicing my marbling skills.  This was helpful because I needed to feel comfortable, and I was able to test polishes to bring with me to the party.  I tried to make many different styles of marble designs to show what a variety you can get.  Everybody got to look at these beforehand for some inspiration.


   There were six of us altogether, so I set each of us up with a dish of filtered water and the necessary tools.  I talked about the process, then had everyone stand close by as I did my first nail.  That was all it took!  Everyone rushed back to their nail stations and started doing their thing!  These were the results.  (Please keep in mind that these are candid, before-clean-up shots that I snapped in fairly poor indoor lighting!)

Miss Heather's Nails
Colors Used:  China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, and her own coral from Spoiled
   These colors really pop together!  Heather says she is inspired to let her nails grow longer to do more marbling, but in my opinion this shows how great marbling can look on short nails, too.  Lots of great swirls here!  (One of the highlights of the party was when she forgot to mask off her thumbnail and her whole thumb came out with a beautiful swirly design.  I assured her it happens to everyone eventually!  Water marbling is messy business, and when you get a lot of polish on your hand it's easiest to let the polish dry on your skin, then wash it off with soap and water.)

Grammee's Nails
Colors Used:  China Glaze Aquadelic and Sinful Colors Hazard, with China Glaze Riveting accent nails
   My grandmother is awesome.  Not one of those ladies to go get a boring manicure from a salon, she does her own nails and comes up with great layering combinations.  Now, she water marbles!  (Yes, I have had quite the influence on her.)  Her nails look great and she's definitely getting the hang of it!  I can't wait to see what she tries next.

Michelle's Nails
Colors Used: China Glaze Blue Iguana, 108 Degrees, and Senorita Bonita, also as a solid color
   My friend and fellow polisher Michelle snapped up these sparkly glass-fleck hues that look fantastic together, and especially good on her!  She did the more conservative "marbled nails as accent nails" approach, which left her with more time for clean up afterwards.  I'm inspired to try a manicure like this some time!

Mom's Nails
Colors Used:  Essie French Affair, Bachelorette Bash and Little Brown Dress
   She started off with her own Zoya colors that refused to marble on the water, so I switched her to some of my Essie polishes that would give a similar look.  (The sad truth is that not every polish works for water marbling.)  Fortunately these shades are super easy to marble with and she ended up happy!  I think we could vote her nails as Most Swirly; she went for an every-nail-unique look.

Ruth's Nails
Colors Used:  Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Zoya Caitlin and her own Wet 'n Wild dark purple
   Ruth got away before I could take a pre-clean up photo.  Don't let her professional after shot fool you - she had the most polish on her hands!  ;D  But wow, this sure doesn't look like a first time water marble, either - these nails are great!  And rather than fight with marbling her thumbs she painted them solid.

   Everyone did a fantastic job, had a great time, and all agreed that they wanted to keep going after they had ran out of nails to marble.  Success!  It made me really happy to be able to do this with my friends and family.  Oh, I that's right, I did my nails, too.  By the end of the party I only had about 3 nails done on my first hand because I tried to be there to get people more supplies and advice as needed.  This was the result on my right hand:


   I was going for a marbled rainbow gradient, and I'm pleased with the effect, though I think I could have picked some better colors.  The colors, from top to bottom are China Glaze Light As Air, Something Sweet, Peachy Keen, Lemon Fizz, Re-fresh Mint and Bahamian Escape.

   I also want to take a moment to thank my Mom for hosting the party, those who supplied the tasty snacks we had, and everyone who enjoys these awesome nails!  If you haven't tried water marbling yet, do!  If you already know how, host your own party!  =)

Swatch & Review

   Today I'm sharing a pretty polish from Laquerlicious.  I bought a couple colors that were being discontinued and Michelle (creative genius behind the brand, and yes she leaves the C out of the name intentionally) was kind enough to include 3 minis for me to sample and share on the blog!

   Melted Ice Cream is a blend of shredded glitters in a clear base.  They all have a satin or matte finish, and the colors are black, white, lavender, baby pink, and cherry pink.  Shredded glitter can be finicky but I'm happy to report that I had no issues with rogue glitters trying to stick straight off my nail!  How much I had on each brushload was hit or miss, but that could be in part from working with a mini bottle.  It covered well and I simply dabbed a little extra on the few bare-looking spots that I had.

   This polish really ended up winning me over.  (Even with its abstract 80's confetti vibe.)  It looked cute in the bottle but I wasn't sure if I'd like it on my nails.  Well, I love it on my nails!  The mix of colors is great, especially over my chosen base color...

   Sinful Colors Mint Apple was a polish that I kept seeing, picking up, and putting down.  I really liked it but I already have so many minty green colors, right?  Well, I've finally come to accept the fact that I've turned into a minty/murky/pale green collector and finally snagged it for a whopping $2.  The color is beautiful and the shimmer is wonderful.  Mint Apple is one of those special polishes that looks the same on your nails as it does in the bottle.  It stands out from my other minty colors.  It is a bit sheer, and I did 2-3 coats depending on the nail.

 

   If you're following me on Instagram you probably already spotted this combo, as I posted it with a new tag: #NailsandNintendo  I'm holding my DS in that shot.  I'm not much of a gamer but I love my DS, partly for the fact that I covered it in roses and jewels, yes.  If you paint your nails and you own anything Nintendo related be sure to join in the fun!  =)

   You can buy Laquerlicious polishes on etsy, they are $8.50 for a full-size bottle.  If you would like to own Melted Ice Cream, be quick!  It is on sale for $6.50 and once it's gone, it's gone.  Michelle's customer service is great and the shipping is fairly priced, so I definitely recommend her shop.  You'll be seeing a few more of her polishes on my blog soon!  Thanks for reading!

   Here is my last haul post for 2012!  I'm looking forward to the content I have planned for next month, some of which has to do with what I found this month.  Not very much to show in this Haul post, so here we go...

   I managed to snag some more of the Pure Ice limited edition colors, which sold out at our local Walmart very quickly.  Last month I picked up Treasure Hunt, and I should have grabbed a few more of the pretties that were on the shelf then...  Oh well!

   Top Row: Vintage Glam, Internationally Known, Monte Carlo

   Bottom Row: Blue Midnight, Ruffled Sheets, Get Low, After Hours

   Of course I also snagged a few of these polishes for my giveaway, which will be running until January 11th; did you see that post?

   I picked up Sinful Colors Hazard and Mint Apple, and Salon Perfect Silver Sparkler.

   My Sephora haul was made possible by a coupon given to VIBs.  I picked up Dior Crème Abricot and two of Sephora's glitter liner-and-mascara combos.  I started using the Crème Abricot right away, and will be officially trialling it next year!

   And of course there was my special CosmoVoxBox from Influenster, which I've been having fun with testing and reviewing.  So far I've gotten to post about the Gillette razor and Forever Red perfume.

   Finally, I wrapped up my expenditures at Sally Beauty, where I grabbed a container of Bubble White and Orly polishes Green With Envy and Miss Conduct.  Green Wtih Envy seems to be one of those polishes that doesn't want to photograph accurately.

   With all the awesome end-of-year sales that are happening now I'll probably have a more exciting haul post next month, though for budget's sake I'm trying to resist!  As always thanks for reading and I'll blog to you all next year!  ;P

   Here's a fun post!  It could also be titled "When ShopRunner Shipping Goes Crazy", or "How I Ended Up With Enough Hair Stuff For Five Women", but those are too long and I'm trying something new.  Instead of posting little hauls here and there (which can end up being often and make it look like I manage a "lookie what I bought todaayyy!!" blog - ugh), I'm going to group them together at the end of each month.  I'm hoping that this will also make me realize just how much stuff I'm buying per month, and notice where my money is going.  Instead of it being a nail polish here, a new hair clip there... I want to fully realize how much stuff I'm acquiring so I know when to reign it in.

   This month it's a lot of stuff!  =D

   Oh, but there are other good reasons, too.  I plan on linking from my haul posts to any reviews or swatch posts I may have done for the items.  (Sadly that didn't happen this month... I was very sick with a cold.)  Or, if the item hasn't been featured on the blog already, readers can tell me what they want to see most and I can try to accommodate by posting about those things first.  =)

   So let's get started!  Follow the cut for more pictures and tales of wild Online shopping adventure!

   This week has been kind of crazy for me...  I'm still getting over a cold, I've been working *all the tiiime*, half the town has lost electricity a couple times this week, and my laptop is not liking the new battery I bought for it as much as I hoped it would.  =/

   My selection of a giveaway winner ended up being very delayed and I feel bad about that.  Without further ado, I'm happy to say that the winner of my Great Engagement Giveaway is...

Nail Loopy!

   I was very happy to hear back from her and she will be pitching in on shipping the prize since she lives in the UK.  She has shown that she fulfilled the forth rule of the giveaway which was "Be happy and excited!!"  ;D  I'm trying to get some other polishes from her wishlist so there will be more in the package making that long journey overseas, haha.

   Thank you to everyone who entered and for all the kind comments and tweets I've been getting!  I wish I had enough nail polish to go around to all you wonderful fans.  =)  ...Well, then again, my collection does keep growing...