Starting last night it was Israel's Independence day and everyone was waving flags and there were some fireworks and some street shows and that foam spray that everyone is spraying on the streets and, well, the general Independence day commotion.

I didn't go to most of those things simply because I don't enjoy hanging around with thousands of people. I prefer just some peaceful and quiet evening with friends instead. Besides, during the day I had the annual family get together: the ENTIRE family meets up, starting with my grandmother and her generation (well, who's left of it anyway), and going down 4 generations of family members! We meet, have a lovely BBQ and some fun family related contests like identifying people by some random fact about them, finding what is the most common name or common occupation in the family and more... This is really fun time. I love it!
I contributed to the general decoration with my Independence day manicure depicting the Israeli flag:

Artificial Light

Natural light in the shade

Direct sun

First the ingredients: Essie -  Blanc, Andrea - 253, A-England - Morgan Le Fay, Andrea - 200 and a stasbilo permanent superfine blue pen.

The blue lines on both sides were easy to do using some tape. But I found that I was having serious problem drawing the star of david in the middle. I tried it all - toothpick, acrylic paint, dotter tool... everything I could think of! And I came up with some un-identified mess in the middle of my nails.

Then I remembered watching some home-made decals some time ago and I decided to give it a try.
So I used some plastic bag and applied a real thin layer of clear polish on it.
When it dried, I used my stabilo pen to draw those stars. (Sorry, I don't have any proper nail art pen in blue just yet ;-) and then I applied it onto my nails with a tweezer.
Now here's the catch - I placed them facing down on my nails!  This way I could use any top coat right away and nothing smeared up!

I ended it with the A-England Morgan Le Fay polish cause I really liked the foamy look.
So what do you think? Will you use this easy method of decal decoration? or do you think I was just cheating? ;-)

A couple of days ago I received from awesome Gosia of Life in Color  a couple of blog awards. I was very proud and flattered and I wanted to post about them right away! But as they demand me to come up with some random facts about me, they require quite some preparation work, so I decided to postpone those for the weekend.

However, one important random fact that I actually already shared with you is the fact that I don't like green. I mean, I love it in the nature, I love trees and grass, I love green vegetables and fruit. All these are cool. But I hate green in my cloths or shoes or make up or nail polish!

Or at least - so I thought.

So today I will share not just one and not two, but THREE different greens that I realized I really like.

indoor light with flash

Direct sun

The first green is called Peacock, by the Israeli company Chic. This color is also from the Metalix collection.
It's not completely green but it's not completely blue. It is a dark tourqoise with a great chrome finish. I really like it. It looks very toxic. It is very pigmented and has a lovely formula. It dries real fast and almost completely opaque from first coat. I love the dark color and the chrome texture.
Here it is two coats of color and one layer of top coat.

The second green is from the same collection, but it is a lot more olive in it's color. Surprisingly, it is also called Olive.

Indoor and flash

Outdoors, indirect sun

I really really liked this color, even better then the first one, but I was a bit disappointed with the formula. It was the thinnest of the entire Metalix collection, and at first coat it was completely sheer and un-even. You could see every line of the brush. The second coat did even it up, and in the pictures you see three coats and top coat. Drying time was still very fast, it has the same yummy chrome finish and I really love this color. I think this is the perfect color for red-heads! but I think the thin formula will always remain my most remembered quality of it...

So after a whole day with this baby on, I decided to help it grow a little and I layered it with two coats of...

Indoor with flash

Outdoor, lots of sun

Cult nails Toxic Seaweed!!!
Now this is what I call love at first site! This is a gorgeous green with lots of tasty glitter in it. Many different colors of glitter, mostly small ones but there are a few large pieces inside. Every layer is a new surprise. This is definitely my most favorite GREEN polish!
Just look how lovely it finishes:

So I learned one important thing from this green experience: Never say you don't like something, unless you have tried ALL options. You might surprise yourself!

So what is your favorite green?

Do you know the amazing blog by Sophie - My Awesome Beauty ? It's so inspiring and fun! If you haven't yet seen it - you should!

Anyway, yesterday she posted a new tutorial for this really cute colored checkers manicure she did a few days ago.  I looked at  it and thought - hmm... that doesn't look hard. I can do it! No problem! So I tried...

What can I say... easy - is NOT the word for it... It is SO hard to keep those lines straight. Well, maybe if you're already experienced with the tape mani, then it's a piece of cake for you. But I have to say it was a long and frustrating fight, and with each new cube I removed the tape (immediately after applying the polish, like Sophie said) and found new bays and lagoons of one color into the other... 

This is what I managed to come up with:

So I am not happy at all. I will however keep the little color map I made for this, and will give it another try sometimes! 

My color map

While at it however, I (kinda) swatched the polish I used: a couple of my Bootie-Babe nail polish. From right to left - Pinky and ring is Blue Baboo,middle finger is Mean Tangerine, index is Dreamy Greenie and thumb is Slinky Pinky. (by the way, for the mani I later replaced the ring base to Essie's Blanc).

Artificial light

Sun light, indirect

Now here's the real scoop: all colors in this swatch except the orange are ONE coat! Yes my friends. 1 coat only and no top coat!

Those milky colors are simply gorgeous! They are smooth, very opaque, not bubbly, not runny, not sticky... simply pure perfection.

The orange is a neon color, and as such - it is much sheerer. Basically it requires some white under it I think.  In this picture there are 4 coats of it, and even in 4 coats the nail line is not completely hidden. But then again - it's a neon.

Drying time for all of them was very very fast and having this creamy formula was a big plus on the removing department as well. this series has some real awesome colors. I haven't checked them all yet, but I believe the most of them would be one coaters. 

In fact, as hard as I tried I couldn't find anything wrong with them - except... and unfortunately it's a HUGE except - their brush is super tiny. Well, not exactly the brush itself but the holder for it. In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the picture of those bottles: 

The height of those boxes is 5 or 6cm (that would be about 2 inches maybe for you American beauties) and you can see how "large" this cap is... If you have rather long nails, it's almost impossible to use! It keep slipping and rolling and it was SO annoying...  

Now here's what's even more annoying: I wrote to those Bootie Babe's company and said how perfect I think their polish is. But that the brush is a serious problem. I then pointed out that I saw their future metallic collection and saw that they improved the caps drastically, so I suggested that they will let those who bought the first series, purchase a set of the newly designed caps, and that they will add those newly designed caps to future sales of this series.

I got this reply:

Hi Jin, thanks for contacting us -
It's funny you mentioned this issue.   Check our our facebook page to see the new bottles:
http://facebook.com/bootiebabe
enjoy!

I don't know, maybe I am just being silly, but personally I think that replying without even reading the entire mail is... to not be blunt i'll say "un kind".

What do you think?

And most important - what are your tips and tricks when working on tape mani's?  :-)

Yes, I admit: I have never done nail stamping before.
Until today.
I was looking for another Blue mani (Autism Awareness month!) and decided it's time to see how that stamping work. I chose my colors: Zoya - Phoebe and Chic - Smashing Blue

  I picked BM-212 plate and voila:

You will have to click the photo to enlarge it if you really want to see the details, but I kinda like it. It's not perfect and I had some serious issues with trying to stamp a second time on the tip of the same finger, but I think it's not too bad for a first time. Is it?

Any tips and tricks you can give me for my next try?

And don't forget to enter the 2012 Autism Awareness Contest at Luv My Lacquer's blog!

After keeping my little daisies for almost a week, I just HAD to change it last night.
But since it is still Autism Awareness month, I had to find another blue.
So I figured this would be a good time to give my new Ludurana polish a chance.

My application started with a huge disappointment. The first coat was so very sheer and totally patchy.  It was filled with little bubbles and the brush lines were so obvious and un-even that I totally didn't feel like putting another coat on. The formula felt runny and thin and the brush was hard to control because it's triangle shape and the rather small size made it slippery in my hand.
But since I had this first coat already, I figured I better finish up the job and see what comes of it.

So I'm having some serious problem changing my mani.
Everyone really loves it - even my mom!! And she hardly ever does!
So I am keeping it for a couple more days I think and see how it goes.
So since I don't have any new mani to show off, I will show you my nail mail from this week.
The sad thing is, I can't even swatch them because I don't yet have my plastic wheels...

From left to right: Tony Moly - Jupiter, Ludurana - Fascinante, Jessica - Iridescent eye, Ludurana - Emocionante and Tony Moly - Pinky Star, Shooting Star and Milky Way.

Next is a Jelly combo I just had to have:

New York Summer, from the left: Wild Tomato, Summer Fun, Hush, Hot Baby Blue, Super Violet and Hot Purple. I'm extra curious about those. I needed some Jelly polish, but I don't yet know how sheer or not these are. I already have some ideas for Jelly Sandwich, but... all depends on the way those behave.

And last, the diamond of the crown, my long time lemmings, although one is still missing - A- England:

From the left: Bridal Veil, Morgan Le Fay, Princess Sabra, Perceval, Princess Tears and Avalon.
The one still missing is of course Dragon, but now I will have to wait until the next month before I can get it.
I am just holding my fingers crossed that it will not get - again - out of stock :-S

And now all of a sudden I feel like the Scottish kid who was taken to see how other people eat ice cream...

I really like flower mani's but I have never made one myself. I usually had those made by my amazing manicurist - Irina.
Tonight I decided I needed to give it a try!
So i looked for some opaque light blue and I found my Chic - Fashion Yachts which is a one coater, but I thought it was slightly darker then I wanted. So I layered it with BootyBabe - Blue Baboo.
I must say that the BootyBabe polishes are super cute, but very uncomfortable to use!
The brush is so tiny! Very short as well as very thin, and it is real hard to get a nice cover with it.
As a second layer on opaque polish it was ok though, and I really liked the color. That's exactly the color of a summer sky!

And while I'm at it - Jess of Luv My Lacquer is having an Autism Awareness Contest. Go show your blue mani's and help raise the awareness! 

From left to right: Chic - Fashion Yachts, Chic - Quick dry &Top Coat,
Bootybabe - Blue Baboo,  Essie - Blanc,  China Glaze - Sunshine Pop

I then used Essie's Blanc to make the petals and China Glaze - Sunshine Pop to dot the middle of my flowers.
The strange thing was, that on my right hand the flowers turned out nicer - I think.
They are larger and with more... presence, IMO.

I hope you enjoyed my summer daisies :-)
Don't forget to enter the Autism Awareness Contest!

I am so excited to tell you that I have received the Blogger Appreciation Award! from the wonderful Miranda at SPLAT. 

The Rules
1. Thank the person who gave you the award with their blog link in your post.
2. Answer the following 4 questions.
3. Give the Blogger Appreciation Award to other bloggers.
4. Let the blogger know you awarded them (through comments, tweets, emails, etc.).

The Questions

1. How long have you been blogging?

2. What are the 1-2 reasons why you started blogging?

3. What types of blogs do you like to follow/read?

4. What is 1 thing you would like to improve on as a blogger/on your blog?

So THANK YOU Miranda SO MUCH!!!

My answers

1. When: I am very new to the blogging world. My first post ever was on March 20 this year. So this means I'm just a little less then one month old...

2. Why: After reading other blogs for a while, I really felt like making my own sort of "diary" about my current nail obsession. I didn't dare to at first, but then I met (Virtually) the sweet Jessica from Nail Polish Anonymous, and she gave me the courage to actually start. And so I did.

3. What: Mostly those with awesome nail swatches and designs, but also a lot others who are funny and clever in a personal way. 

4. Improve: Be able to post more nail designs. But I barely have the time to do them with work and all, so it'll have to come in tiny little bits I suppose....

The bloggers

Jessica at Nail Polish Anonymous

Amanda at Berry Polished

Bethany at A Plethora of Nails

Yun at The Polish Hideout

Jessica at The Beauty Gnome

I am sure most of you if not all, will agree with me that one of the most annoying things that can happen is to buy a new and exciting polish and come home with it, to find it's a dup of something we already have...
And you all know how it is to want to order a certain polish, but have to go through your entire stash to make sure it's not there yet...


For a long time i've been trying to find a way to deal with those annoying problems.
And eventually - I did find a way. It's a cute iPhone app called MyStuff2.
As the app is described - "It's now easier than ever to keep track of all your stuff". This is exactly true.

It lets you create as many categories as you want, with as many attributes as you want and as many different lists from each category as you want! 
you can add unlimited amounts of photos and organize your listing in any way you like. it lets you keep track of items you gave to friends and many many more cool features!


Oh and most important - it lets you import and export all the data using iTunes, iCloud, Dropbox or Google docs, in CSV or PDF reports. So you can edit your list on your computer and transfer it to and from your iPhone or iPad.
It even creates this really cool looking HTML report that you can add as a page to your blog.


I admit - the annoying part is to have to enter all your polishes one by one.
But you anyway do it, don't you?  I am sure most of you keep your own excel chart or other database of your polishes. So why not keep it with pictures of the bottle and a swatch or two, and having it with you all the time? 

I created one category with the following attributes: 
Brand - I created a look-up list for that, to make sure I don't mis-type it at times.
Name
Collection
Number (just in case...) 
Size of Bottle
Color - again - a look up list but one that has a multi-select option.
Finish  - yup, a look-up list.
Opacity in coats  - YAY! This is my favorite! I created a lookup list of icons. Can you see it in the above pic on the right??
Price - I use this field mostly on my wishlist. Since I buy mostly at e-Bay, this helps me keep away from over-pricing sellers.
link - again - helps me a lot to keep track of all those nice little e-bay sales ;-)
Images is anyway a default for any sort of item you want to keep, so you don't have to add it specifically.


And I created two lists from the same category: one list is my stash and the other is my wish list.  And the next time I'll be in my favorite beauty shop looking at the new arrivals, I will have my own listings with me, with as simple access as possible to any item I am looking for! 
How cool is that???


Oh, an important thing I forgot to mention was the price: it costs 4.99$ BUT - there is a lite version that is free, and it lets you add a very limited amount of items (10 I think?). So it's not really enough for anyone's decent stash but it does let you play with the app and see what you need and how you want to create your groups.
And of course, once you chose to go for the full version, it automaticly lets you import all your lists from the lite version!


now please excuse me... I gotta go fill my lists up...


*Disclaimer: I paid for this app with my own money and I am in no way affiliated with the creator of this app. The entire review came from my own experience, after a long time of testing all sort of similar applications.

I love those! But then - who doesn't?
So this is what I had in my box today

From left to right - 

Cult nails - Toxic Seaweed. It looks yummy! I'll know for sure after trying it on.


Julep - Marisa - I bought this one from Brittany at The Nail Polish Guru . Check out her blog sale ;-)


Booty Babe - their 12 pack special which is the cutest nail polish I have seen!
and here's a closer look at the booties:

Isn't it just the cutest butt you've seen in the polish world?

The colors look amazing! But I will have to test them on my nails to decide if its anything more then a gimmick. 

And right now I am wearing Marisa, which is probably the most beautiful blue polish I have ever had!!! I tried to take a picture of it but it's simply impossible to see its real beauty. I will have to give it a try when there's light outside.

But anyway, today I am a happy girl! :-D

So here's another FIRST TIME EVER thing - 
I just received my first blogger nomination for the Versatile Blogger Award from Christina at Right Hand Nails. CHRISTINA - THANK YOU SO MUCH!! 

The rules for this are as follows:
1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers that are relatively new to blogging.
2. Let them know you have nominated them.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4. Thank the blogger[s] who nominated you.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post.


So here are my nominees:
1. Jessica at Nail Polish Anonymous
2. Bethany at A Plethora of Nails
3. Yun at The Polish Hideout
4. ahhhdri at Liquor, Lipstick and Lube
5. Nat at No Holos! 
6. Anamaria at Madness and Polish Collide
7. Paulina at Paulina L♥ves
8. Brooke at I'm All Polished Off
9. Chrissy at Nail Utopia
10. Cherese at Nail Envy 
11. Megan and Giselle at Two Lacquered Girls
12.  Kat at Lacquer Pamper
13. Gosia at Life In Color!
14. Stephanie at Pink By Stephanie
15. Courtney at  The Charm Of Nail Polish


and... 7 Random Facts About Me:

1. most of my family are *REAL* red heads. Somehow, I got only a honey-brown hair. However, I do have a red-head skin and I was referred to as "the red-head" ever since I can remember.  So I'm dyeing my hair red since I was 15 
2. I have a LEGO room in my apartment. Well, I need an entire room for all my LEGO.
3. When I was young I used to have dogs and I hated cats. When I moved to my own apartment, a crazy baby tricolor cat adopted me and wouldn't let me go. I had to keep her and so I TOTALLY fell in love. 
4. I have serious problem waking up in the morning, regardless of when I go to sleep. It's so bad that I received a special permission to be at work at 10:00 while everyone else has to be there until 09:00
5. When you are near me, please try not to whistle. I can't stand the whistling tone. i feel like it's cutting through my brain...
6. I hate sports. The ONLY sports activity I do for over 4 years now is Belly-Dancing, and I love it!
7. I HATE cooking! If something needs more then a few minutes in the microwave - I don't eat it.

So thanks to Christina, now you know a little more about me :-)

Since I am so new to this blogging thing, I am asking around for tips and tricks.
So sweet Amanda from  BerryPolished  suggested that I try participating in some nail art contest.
So I looked around and I tried to find a contest where I won't feel too embarrassed to post my nails in.
And guess what? I found one! 


Jennifer from Jen's Nail Files is having a cool contest!
You can post any design you want, as long as it's within the two basic rules:
1. ONLY polish. That is no stamping, no fimo, no rhinestones, no flocking, no acrylic paint, no stickers and so on.
2. The picture has to be of your OFF hand. That is - if you're right handed - show your right hand. If you're left handed - show your left hand. 


Check out her post! The contest ends on April 15, so you still have time to enter!
Enter Here !!




Sooooooooooo... Here is my entry :-)

It was made with my dotting tool and some of my dots got smeared a little, but I like it still.
Kinda - my version of an Easter egg design :-)

These are the polishes used in this one - from left to right:

Orly - Purple Pleather 

Essie - Lilacism (I mixed the two purples together to get the medium shade of purple) 

China Glaze - Heli Yum

Perfect Chic (local brand) - Fashion Yachts (#39)

Sally Hensen Extreme Wear - Mellow Yellow

and now all I have to do is try not to chop all my nails while waiting for the contest's results!

I had the loveliest day today!
It started with some amazingly wonderful news at work: I am soon to become a bank employee!! (I've been working as an out-source for almost 11 years now. About time the bank will realize they want me :-)


Then I had a tech man who fixed my vacuum cleaner. That cleaner died just before the holidays and I was so stressed about it... Mr. Tech guy brought it back to life!


And then I got the mail! 
And in my mail was this small package of pure SIN! Cinderella by Sinful Colors.

It was sent to me by the coolest lady - Jessica from Nail Polish Anonymous.
THANK YOU Jessica!!!  


Of course I just had to try it right away! I am sorry for the horrible application... I was in such a hurry to see how it looked that I let the brush go wild... LOL

 I layered two coats of Cinderella over one coat of Mint Candy Apple by Essie, and I am totally in love!
This is such an amazing color! I haven't encountered this shade before!!  It's a gorgeous light blue with delicate shimmer. Very summery and fun IMO.


So guess which color I will be wearing on Friday's Passover Dinner???
But I promise to re-apply it :-)

So the holiday (the passover) is this weekend and everyone is on a shopping spree. Naturally, this means store have all sort of deals. And this includes beauty shops...
So I did a little booboo today and got all this:

Chic (a local brand) -  left to right: Pinkish, Red, Hot Fuchsia, Peacock and Smashing Blue. They are all from the Metalix collection which I mentioned them here and promised I would check some more of them.
Hopefully (if family let me take some rest from eating) I will swatch them during the weekend.

Revlon - Black Lingerie, Midnight Affair and Beach

Sally Hensen - Frutti Petutie, Orly - Androgynie and Purple Pleather

Sally Hensen - White On, Mellow Yellow and Blue Me Away!

Andrea (another local brand) - Neon Red, Chic - 39 and Fashion Yachts

Essie - Waltz and Mint Candy Apple

Most of them are long wanted of mine, that I didn't think worth the full price, so I waited for these holiday deals. And I think it was worth it: the entire thing cost me about 50$.

Hey, if holidays here didn't mean having to eat so much, I might have been able to say I like 'em ;-))

So I had to try those cracked polishes. In the pictures they all look so good!
Besides, for the spring holidays the local drugstore had the Pupa Nail Art Kit 70% discounted.
Those numbers just yell my name as I set foot in the store. So I got this pair: 

The white was yummy. Almost no smear lines in a first coat!
The instructions say to give it 4 minutes to dry before applying the pink. I hate waiting so I only gave it 3 minutes and figured that should do it. The pink coat also applied real nicely and easily. Everything should have been perfect except...

...the cracks were just too big.
I wanted those really nice cute delicate cracks I see all over the web, but what I got was real big tears in the pink and way too much white seen through.
Also, I tried different ways to apply the pink, hoping it will change the direction of the tears or their look on each finger. But nothing worked as you can see. All fingers look more or less the same. Well, my pinky looks weird, but that's cause I managed to ruin it and I used a second layer of pink to "fix" my careless doings.

So since I wasn't crazy about it anyway, I decided to make another experiment and I french-tipped my nails with China Glaze Heli-Yum. And you know what? Even though the tip is not the same sort of pink , I like it much better now! In the pics it looks almost red. Well, it's not. It's some sort of purplish fuchsia. Much lighter then the cracking pink, but closer somehow to it's base color. 

 I think I need to try the cracked polish from a few other companies before I make my mind up about it!  What do you think?