NJ Pet Expo and 101 Dalmatians Nail Art

Two weekends ago was the New Jersey Pet Expo and I attended for the second time. Last year, I had just adopted Pebbles (read all about her story here) the week before, so I stocked up on some goodies for her.

This go around, we now have Dakota, Pebbles, and Brynn (who we permanently adopted last March), so I stocked up on some toys, treats, and a couple of new collars. Those collars are so pretty... I'm sure I'll be using them as inspiration for some manicures

So in honor of Pet Expo, I did a little 101 Dalmatians nail art!

I used Revlon Gold Coin, Milani Spotlight White, Zoya Breezi, Zoya Rehka, and Zoya Raven to make this nail art, along with gray striping paint.

This was extremely labor-intensive, but I'm happy with how it came out. What do you think?

Announcing: Valentine's Day Giveaway

Hello, everyone! I hope you all did well in your Superbowl pools last night! (Mine was completely messed up by the safety.)

I know we all despite Mondays, so I thought I'd help brighten your day with a giveaway! I've teamed up with the lovely ladies behind nine other blogs for a really fun giveaway filled with great prizes!

The Rafflecopter entry widget is at the end of the post!

Check out what's up for grabs:

Prize 1 - Princess Polish

Falling Forward Nail Art Challenge: Day 4 - Back to School

Happy Football Sunday, everyone! It has been a crazy week in sports for this Jersey girl. My alma mater, Rutgers, smashed Arkansas yesterday to bring their record to 4-0! Mets starting knuckleball and CY Young candidate R.A. Dickey notched his 19th win of the season over the Miami Marlins in dramatic fashion. (Read: I was tearing my hair out as it got to 4-3 in the top of the 9th). And the Jets will be playing the Dolphins in a little over 30 minutes from the time I start this post. 

Today, I'm bringing you Day 4 of the Nail Art challenge with a Back to School theme!

For those of you who have been following the blog from the early days of a crappy point and shoot camera, you may remember this mani. I've updated it slightly with a few new colors, but it's comparable. The biggest improvement in general is the picture quality!

For the locker (pinky), I used Revlon Silver Dollar, the Chalkboard (ring) features Sally Hansen Emerald Express, the ruler (middle) is Piggy Polish It's All About Blue, the books and apple feature NOPI Yellow... It's Me, and lastly is Sally Hansen White On with Funky Fingers black crackle. The detailing was all done with nail art paints (Stripe Rite and Art Club) and a striper brush.

So what do you all think? I'm dying to know!
Princess Polish

101 Dalmatians Theme Nails

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful start to your weekend!

Today is Rutgers Day at my university, a huge open house on all four campuses in which school organizations run various tables and events. There's music, food, and a lot of fun to be had.

I live on Cook Campus, the agricultural campus complete with a farm and greenhouse. It is also where we live with our puppies that are being trained as Seeing Eye dogs. Some of you may remember Pebbles, who came to live with my family and I this past Valentine's Day. For those of you who are new, here is what the seven week old, 7.2 pound Pebbles, a female black Labrador retriever, looked like on the day she arrived:

 

And here is Pebbles today:

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's SUPER PEBBLES! Pebbles turned four months old yesterday and weighed in at 22.5 lbs. She's still petite and small, but she has a really big personality!

So where does the 101 Dalmatians nail art come into play? Well, as the treasurer of the Rutgers Seeing Eye Puppy Club, Rutgers Day has been my event to run for the last two years. Because I'm graduating in two weeks, this will be my last event as a Rutgers undergraduate student. So instead of using our club colors (green and white) and simple paw prints, I wanted to do something really different.

And after checking out a Disney nail art contest (woo Amber!) for some inspiration that's how the 101 Dalmatians Manicure was born!

I used nail art polishes in red, gray, black, and white, as well as Revlon Gold Coin for the details and Sally Hansen Cherry Red, Sally Hansen White On, and NYC Water Street Blues for the base colors.

Here's a shot in which you can see the thumb in better focus. I used Dazzle Dry top coat, which I am currently obsessed with at the moment, and it tried very quickly. (Review of DD coming soon!)

This mani was a HIT at work today, so I'm very excited to see how all of the kids react tomorrow at Rutgers Day.

Hope you all have a great Saturday!

Princess Polish (and Pebbles... and Dakota too!)

How to make a Glitter Sandwich!

With the popularity of polishes like Jawbreaker, I thought it would be fun to see if I could recreate the look with polishes I already had.

So I started with the manicure I had on yesterday, which consisted of Lynnderella Boy Girl Party over L'Oreal Sweet Nothings. I figured I wanted to keep in the pink range, but needed a relatively sheer polish to coat it. Enter: Revlon Cotton Candy, a scented pale pink that takes at least five coats to be opaque.

I like how it turned out. It's inadvertently Easter-y, like a speckled egg, but it definitely accomplishes what I wanted to do. I can't wait to try out my next glitter sandwich!

Revlon Cotton Candy is available at most drug stores, including CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens, as well as select Target and Ulta locations. To learn more, you can visit Revlon.com.

So what do you all think? Are you going to try out the glitter sandwich? Post a picture to Facebook if you do!

Be sure to keep an eye on the Cosmetics for a Cure Raffle, to which the new Orly Dark Shadows collection was added, and vote in March Madness!

Princess Polish

Easter Mani Day 2: Polka Dots + A Contest

Here is Part 2 of my Easter nails for the week. I'm trying to do a different color as a base each day. Yesterday was blue and today is green!

I apologize in advance for the photo not being of the same quality you're used to in recent months. My parents took my sister on Spring Break to DC (lucky her, mine was last month) and that means my dad's fancy DSLR camera went with him. Unfortunately, my purple and pink manis are still on the camera. Oops!

So here is the last one I did, using Revlon Minted:

 

It was actually much easier to do than the Gradient Dots. I did a first layer of different-sized dots in white. Then I used Revlon Sunshine Sparkle, Borghese Incantato Purple, Borghese Romanzo Pink, and a mixture of half Sally Hansen White On and half NYC Water Street Blue in slightly smaller dots over each white one for the outlined effect. It really didn't even take that long at all!

Hope you liked this one! And remember to email me your pictures of your Easter manicure before Friday at 8pm EST! Top 5 will be posted on Saturday and win prizes!

Princess Polish

Weekend Holo: Spring Stripes

You all may remember my post earlier in the week with my Spring Stripes nails. Well, for hump day holo (at least, this belated one), I wanted to see how I can kick it up a notch!

Behold - Holofied Spring Stripes!

 

I LOVED it! Still girly, but delicate and yet it has the KAPOW I wanted!

So tell me, everyone... which look do you prefer? The original Spring Stripes or the holofied Spring Stripes?

Spring Stripes

While I am reluctantly giving up my jewel tones now that it is spring, one thing that I could never give up is my nail art! So I tried to come up with something light and delicate that would also make an impact. I decided on a pastel rainbow.

First, I had to pick out some colors. I don't own nearly as many pastels as I do brights and darks, so this was a bit of a challenge for me. I wanted to select shades that would go well together and almost blend, rather than contrast.

 

Dupe or No Dupe?

On Monday, I swatched Revlon Gold Coin, which you can check HERE in case you missed the post.


On Monday, I swatched Revlon Gold Coin, which you can check HERE in case you missed the post.

Coincidentally, I also happened upon a polish that looked eerily similar in the bottle while checking out the grand opening of a new Five Below in my area, called Down to Earth.

So I picked it up, along with the rest of the Funky Fingers Heavy Metal collection, and headed home to compare.



Here are the polishes after the first coat. The pinky and the ring finger are Down to Earth, while the index and middle fingers are Gold Coin. There is definitely a clear difference here, but let's give it another coat.



And here they are again, DTE, GC, DTE, GC, with two coats. They're kind of similar, but the Funky Fingers has much more of a champagne tone to it, where as gold Coin has a blacker, aluminum-like base to it. In fact, I'd venture to say that Down to Earth isn't a foil like Gold Coin, but rather a shimmer. I would say DTE is more in the vein of OPI Glitzerland.

So are they a dupe?

Leila, open the case…

DUPE BUSTED!

Check back tomorrow for a new post and stay tuned for the rest of the Funky Fingers Heavy Metal Collection.

- Princess Polish

Revlon Gold Coin

Last fall, while striving to wear every color of the OPI Swiss collection, I fell in love with a little polish called Glitzerland. I've never been the type of girl to wear gold polish, thinking it would yellow my skin tone. But Glitzerland, which had champagne overtones, proved me wrong.

So during a Walgreens haul in July, in which I made $1 in Register Rewards every time I purchased a Revlon polish because my coupon made it free in the first place, I zeroed in on Gold Coin almost immediately.



A stunning gold foil, with a little bit of an aluminum undertone to it, Gold Coin is my go-to-gold. It's not over the top with bright, chunky glitter, instead, it's classy and sophisticated. So much so, that I would confidently wear it to any party or formal event. That is… if I had one to go to.

The application was one of the smoothest of any foil I have ever used and I would highly recommend this to any polish lover, whether they are a gold-lover or not! I also adore its sister from the Metals collection, Silver Dollar, though I am in search of the last of the triplets, Copper Penny. I have yet to get my hands on her, though I hope to soon.

See you tomorrow for the first ever "Dupe or No Dupe?" post, featuring Gold Coin!

Princess Polish

Nail Art: Back to School

Sorry for the delay in a new post, but with Hurricane Irene coinciding with my move in at Rutgers and a return to LSAT prep, free time has been at an all-time low. But now that I'm settled, posts will be coming more often as of next week.

Also, since I've been reunited with my roommate Cynthia, as well as my other girlfriends at Rutgers, I'll have plenty of extra hands to use for swatching. I might actually have to build myself a lightbox!

Anyhoo… this manicure is one that I did in honor of my return to classes this week. I didn't want to do Rutgers-themed nails yet (I'm saving that for the football game), so instead, I opted for the traditional images associated with a return to school.

Below, you'll see the full set:



(From left to right) Pinky (locker) - Revlon Silver Dollar, Ring finger (chalkboard) - Zoya Suvi, Middle finger (ruler) - Revlon Blue Lagoon, Index finger (books and apple) - Zoya Suvi, Thumb (Marble Notebook) - Zoya Snow White

In the above photo, it's kind of hard to see the thumb nail, so I did a close up on the thumb below. It's actually really easy to do the marble notebook and anyone with a crackle polish can do it. I added in a pencil so it was more easily recognizeable, but it's not required.



For the notebook, I painted black crackle from left to right instead of from bottom to top to get the sideways marble effect. I left a rectangle in the middle in order to act as the label for the notebook. If you find you left too little room, like I originally did, you can use white polish to extend your rectangle.

I'm a big fan of the Art Club nail art polishes (an extension of Color Club), so I used a lot of those paints in this look. I also use Art Deco by LA Looks, Kiss Nail Paints, and a host of others I find in different dollar stores.

But the great thing about nail art like this is that you can use different colors from what I used, based on what is available to you, and still have an awesome outcome. Cause really… who didn't have a pink or purple marble notebook because they got sick of black?

I hope you're all enjoying your first week back at school, work, or just your day in general. I know these nails have been the hit of my campus and I hope they will be for you too!