The Night Circus Nail Art

Hey there!  This month's The Polished Bookworms book was one of the greatest things I've read in ages...The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  It's a story of duelling magicians which sounds odd but it works.  The setting of this duel is a mysterious circus that is only open at night called Le Cirque des Reves or The Circus of Dreams and wow does that circus ever sound dreamy.  The best thing about this book, to me, was how fully immersed I became in this circus.  The imagery is so well written that I felt like I was there...and now I wish the circus was real!  The circus is set up so everything is black and white, except for a group of diehard fans who follow the circus called Reveurs who always wear a splash of red, hence the red striped accent in my nail art.

#ITRUSTINDIES - Indie Nail Polish Swatches

Hey there!  As I'm sure most of you know, the nail polish world has been all abuzz with drama due to some unsavoury behaviours by a certain indie nail polish brand.  I've stayed quiet about the issue because I knew I couldn't do it the justice that other blogs like Ashley Is Polish Addicted and The Mercurial Magpie have.  Unfortunately, when larger sites like Cosmo, Jezebel and Seventeen got wind of the story, the indie nail polish started coming into question.  People are now questioning the practice of all brands but I'm here with a group of other bloggers this week who still and always will love and trust our indies.  The Crumpet has put together a link up for us to share our love indies so I spent all my spare time this weekend swatching just a few of the brands that I know and love.  I wish I could do this for all the indies I trust but alas, there wasn't time so today I just have a small sampling of some amazing indie brands.

It Girl Nail Art Stamping

Press  Sample

Hey there! Last week I posted a review of the first round of It Girl Nail Art stamping plates.  It Girl is the new indie stamping plate brand on the block and her first three plates are great - great images, great quality.  So great that I decided to keep playing with them and do another post of manis I've done using IG101-103.  I was feeling some simple metallic stamping when I was playing so 3 of the 4 designs are using shiny stamping polishes.  If you'd like to know exactly what polishes I used, keep reading below.

TV Off Air Nail Art

Hey there!  This week's 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge prompt is TV.  I admit that I'm a full blown TV junkie but I couldn't think of any individual TV shows to use as inspiration for today's post.  So, because it's summer and TV programming isn't so great at this time of year, I thought I'd do a TV mani that will definitely date me....an off air screen and a static-y TV.  I grew up on an acreage where we couldn't get cable so I only had 3 channels (yikes!) so if you flipped to any channel that we didn't have, you were accosted by static.  And back then, late at night, you'd frequently get the off air screen.  Good thing I was little and wasn't trying to watch TV in the middle of the night like I do now.

HPB Presents Birds Over Neon Sunset

Hey there!  So it appears I've inadvertently started on my Halloween nails really early.  But I promise that wasn't the intent for today's post.  This month's Hobby Polish Blogger's link up theme is Neon and I couldn't miss that (I do love the neons) and I was inspired by the brilliant sunsets I see at our cabin.  This year a huge flock of gulls has taken up residence on our beach so I wanted to stamp some bird silhouettes over my sunset nails but it ended up looking like bats on Halloween...oops!  I guess that's why it's good to practice ahead of time sometimes...

It Girl Nail Art Stamping Plates Review

Press  Sample

Hey there!  Today I have a review of the inaugural plates from a new stamping plate brand, It Girl Nail Art.  It Girl Nail Art is an indie company located in Tacoma, Washington that is the brain child of a member of our stamping community.  As a member the community, she knows what us stampers are looking for in our plates and she did definitely succeeded in coming up with a great product with the launch of her brand.  She has started with 3 individual plates, IG101-103, and was kind enough to send them to me to review.  I started testing them out by doing one mani with each plate that I'm posting today.  Keep reading for my thoughts and all the details.  ..

Uneven Striped Summer Nails

Hey there!  We're in the last half of August but I'm certainly not letting go of summer yet, as evidenced by this striping mani I wore recently that definitely has a summer feel to it.  Stripes are my favourite pattern (I'm a simple girl) and my bedroom is decorated in mostly beige and turquoise stripes.  Because of that, when I received my latest Vinyl Boutique order of nail vinyls including these uneven line stencils, I knew exactly what my first color choices would be.  I'm sure it won't be the last time you'll see these uneven lines on my blog though since I ordered 3 sheets of them!