Tag Archives: Nail Polish

Sweater Weather Mani

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This week the weather has cooled down a bit and it’s finally what you would call Sweater Weather. Let’s hope these nice cool temperatures stay around, because I’m so ready to bring on the leggings, sweaters and boots!

I couldn’t help but pop on some Fall inspired colors onto my digits this week to celebrate the Fall weather. Dark gray, green, burgundy and pretty much any jewel tone nail polish make a great Fall mani combination.

Here are the colors I used:

Color Club “Status Update”
Essie “Chinchilly”
Essie “Wicked”
Essie “Stylenomics”
Essie “Over the Top”

How To Make Neon Nail Polish Pop

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Happy Mani Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I’m so glad I’m finally feeling 100% again and was able to make it out and have some fun on Saturday with CK at the Santa Ana Art Walk. I totally recommend this art walk if you’re in the Orange County area. There are so many cute restaurants and galleries to peruse in Downtown Santa Ana, and the large crowds and pretty lights make for an amazing Saturday evening. It’s held the first Saturday of every month, so make sure you head over next month!

Okay, so now back to the Mani Monday post. So, I love me a good neon polish and I started to notice that some of my polishes didn’t look as bright on my nails as they do in the bottle…major bummer. I took to the internets to figure out why this was and realized what I was missing from my application…two coats of white polish! I couldn’t believe it, I mean how have I not already been applying this simple tip to my polish application. So, I knew that this was a tip I must share with all of you lovelies.

How to Make Your Neon Nail Polish Pop 

Step 1: Apply a basecoat (I use Essie’s Protein Base Coat)
Step 2: Apply two coats of white nail polish
Step 3: Apply two coats of your favorite neon polish (I used Essie’s Pink Parka, but Miami Nice is great as well)
Step 4: Apply a coat of a high gloss top coat, let dry and you’re set! (I use Essie To Dry For)

Hope this helps you all get some even brighter Neon Digits! If you’re looking for some more  digit inspiration, check out my board on Pinterest!

InstaWeek #15

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It’s time for the usual weekly Instagram round-up. If you’re not already following me you can @bettinakina. I love following new peeps with beautiful photos, so leave me your Instagram username in the comments! xoxo- Bettina

Everytime I come across this Elie Saab gown I can’t help but feel like I need it/want it in my closet ASAP. I mean it would make the most perfect wedding dress. | I used 200 of my Sephora Rewards points on the St. Tropez gradual tanner and thus far I couldn’t be happier with it. The lotion smells good and I’ve noticed a gradual change in color and it’s been two days | Made it to the gym a little more regularly this week, woohoo! | Finally used my Gossip Girl Birchbox Color Club nail polish to glam up my digits!

Broke out the bright orange wedges to wear with my cobalt blue denim. | Amped up my usual arm party with a bit of turquoise. | Warm weather this weekend meant bare legs, sandals and stripes. | Cobalt blue Old Navy denim, gray ankle booties and a burn-out sweater from Brandy Melville made for the perfect Starbucks outfit.

Shades of Blue

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A short and sweet post featuring my shades of blue mani that I’m currently rocking on my digits. I am loving that my The Digits Pinterest board constantly keeps me nailspired! Keep scrolling for the colors I used in this mani.

(seeing it up close, I see it’s a tad messy around the edges – I’ll clean up better next time)

Colors Used (From Pinkie to Thumb) Color Club “Age of Aquarius”, Forever 21 “Silver”, butter London “Slapper”, Essie “Go Overboard, Essie “Mesmerize”

The Digits – Black & Glitter

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One of my favorite boards on Pinterest is my “The Digits” board, because I’m constantly re-creating mani’s I’ve pinned. Anytime I try something out of the ordinary, I’ll make sure to post it up on the blog. I am currently rocking black nail polish with a gold and silver glitter explosion. I’m wearing a basic black, the gold glitter from OPI for Sephora and F21 silver glitter polish.

Hey! You Look Kind of Cute in That Rainbow Polka Dot Mani, Guuurl!

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The Rainbow Polka Dot Mani. Let me just tell you, I was plain giddy while I painted these colorful polka dots all over my digits and in my daydreaming mind all I could hear was my mish mashed version of LMFAO’s lyrics, “Hey, You look kind of cute in that rainbow polka dot mani, guuurl!” Like LMFAO bright colors have the magical ability to brighten your spirits and put you in a good mood. I’ve been quite busy at the day job the past few weeks, so relaxing with a bright mani before date night was the perfect way to de-stress. Even the BF was quite impressed with my artwork!

This mani is super easy to do, and what I love about it the most is the endless number of color combinations. You could opt for a neutral black and gray combination, or a neon pink and yellow mani – the number of possibilities is truly infinite.

My Supplies…

Base Color: Sally Hansen – White Out

Essie Polka Dots: Really Red (Red), Mesmerize (Blue), Pretty Edgy (Green), Bright Tights (Orange), Castaway (Pink)

Here’s the run down of what I did…

Step 1 – Base Coat

Step 2 – Once coat of the white polish

Step 3 – Line up your polishes in order of polka dot application. I began dotting with my darkest colors first and ended with my lightest and brightest, the orange. Dollop a few drops of the nail polish on a slick surface (ie – magazine) and dip the bottom (not tip) of a toothpick into the polish puddle. Press the bottom of the tooth pick down on your nail to create a plump round polka dot, hold the tooth pick firmly for a few seconds and then move on to the next spot. One last tip – don’t forget to spread the polka dots out, I dotted each nail 3-4 times per color.

Step 4 – Wait a minute or two after your last set of polka dots and apply a top coat. Waiting a few minutes will ensure the colors do not run together.

InstaWeek

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My mantra for the week

Outfit of The Day Details (Loving the Frametastic App)

Fun Spins on the Classic Stripes and Black on Black

Bright Lights – Denim & Plaid

Glossy March Elle & Marie Claire & Nordstrom’s Catalogue

New H&M and Anthropologie Shoes In The Mix & Floral Print Pants

Pops of Color on a DIY Mani and Mini Champagne Bottle

Motivated and Inspired, these two words pretty much sum up how I have felt the last 7 days. We recently launched our new service to our sales team, and I could not be more pleased with the reception we’ve received thus far. I’ll make sure to share some more details as soon as we are completed with the service’s new website! I have been carrying over some of the same planning and structural methodologies I used to execute the launch of our new website to get this blog where I want it to be. Photo #1 in this round-up will be my ongoing mantra for the rest of 2012!

Make sure to follow us on Instagram @bettinakina and check out everybody’s week in photos on Story of My Life!

DIY Valentine’s Day Nails

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Happy Valentine’s Day Lovelies! This is a super easy DIY Valentine’s day mani I made up over the weekend, that literally takes less than 15 minutes to create. I was so inspired by Glitter and Grace’s Kate Spade polka dot mani, I had to create a polka dot version of my own! Hope you all have a lovely day filled with love, laughter, pink and hearts!

Step 1 – Gather the Goods

Make sure you have everything you need in one place since you’ll be working with more than one open polish bottle. Here is what I used:

Essie Protein Base Coat
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in White On
OPI Nail Lacquer in Bubble Bath
Essie Polish in Pink Parka
Sephora by OPI Topcoat in Gold for Me
Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat
Pointed Q-Tips
Toothpicks

Step 2 – The Art of Application

First, apply your base coat.

Second, apply your polishes. I recommend starting with your left hand and coating each nail with one coat of polish, and then moving on to your right hand. Next, come back and apply a second coat of polish from left to right. Make sure you don’t apply too many coats because you’ve still got your polka dots and glitter to add on.

Step 3 – Polka Dotting & Glitter

Go ahead and apply the coat of glitter to your ring finger. After you’re done, you’ll want to grab a magazine, or any type of disposable surface that is slick and glossy like a magazine cover. Then you’ll need to dollop a few drops of each color being used for polka dots onto the glossy surface. Next, grab your toothpick and dip the tip into the polish pile. Make sure you cover the entire tip of the toothpick to ensure a nice full polka dot. Hold the toothpick over your nail and press down softly and voila, you have your first polka dot.

I went for a variation of polka dots on four of my fingers and I recommend you do the same thing. Go with whatever your heart fancies, it’s Valentine’s Day after all!

Step 4 – The Finale

Make sure you use a good fast drying top coat. You don’t want your topcoat to mix any of the colors, but you don’t want to wait too long to apply it either, as you want to make sure the colors are sealed in well.

This was my first stab at nail art, and I must say I am so excited for this polish to chip, so I can try my next made up design. I’d like to try mastering the art of stripes, hearts and flowers soon! Next time I’ll make sure to take some pictures as I’m painting so you all get a more detailed peek at the entire process.

Happy Valentines Day!

Love, Peace & Style

Bettina

Blogging & My New Love Affair with butter LONDON

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Hello Lovelies, I’m sorry I’ve been MIA the last few days. I’m trying to get myself back to blogging consistently, so until I get the chaotic parts of my life under control, I’ll be posting regularly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Lately, things have been feeling rather out of control, but as fate should have it I read a post by one of my fave bloggers Jeanne from Shop Sweet Things on Friday that really put things in perspective. Last week was her blog’s one year anniversary (Yay!) and she wrote a great post on the top 10 tips for first year bloggers. The post made me think about me, my blog and the direction I’m hoping to take, and then it hit me – I told myself, Bettina, you need to revisit your game plan. So, this weekend I’m writing it all out and setting my goals, because I’m ready to take it to the next level! Thanks Jeanne!

What I love about blogs. The clothing, foods, places and accessories people are absolutely in love with and can’t live without has always been one of my favorite things to read about on blogs. I get so excited when I find something new or something I’ve been eyeing being raved about, because it encourages me to go out and buy it. Peer to peer social commerce, I’m a total sucker for it, but I can honestly say I’ve never had buyers remorse from it. I want to start incorporating more of my faves on my blog as well, writing about new loves and loves that have been in my life forever!

On the topic of new loves, I finally bought my first Butter London polish over the weekend. I  had seen so many people posting pics of these polishes on Instagram (follow me) I had to get my hands on one. I’d been hesitant in the past because they’re a bit more expensive than my usual bottle of Essie, but when I arrived at Nordstrom and saw all the pretty colors, there was no turning back.

Product Details…

Brand – butter London

Color – Slapper
Ingredients - butter LONDON is a 3 Free company: no formaldehyde, no toluene, no DBP (dibutyl phthalate). This luxury nail lacquer is high-fashion, heavily pigmented and safe.

How I used it…

Step 1 – I filed my nails down and buffed them with a nail buffer
Step 2 – I used an Essie base coat
Step 3 – I applied 2 coats of Slapper on each nail
Step 4 – I used the Seche Vite top coat while my nails were still wet

What I loved…

Color – The vibrant aqua green/blue of Slapper looked exactly like it did in the bottle when I painted it on. I was not mislead by the color in the bottle, it was just as bright and glossy even before I added the top coat.

Ease of use – The polish was really easy to apply.

Brush -The width of the brush was perfect for my narrower nails.

Consistency – The polish was easy to apply. It was not runny or sticky, it was thick enough to apply an even 2 layers.

Verdict…

LOVE would totally use the brand again. Because of the price point my entire nail polish collection will not consist of butter London, but I do recommend purchasing colors you use frequently since it will make it worth your while. And, I will be purchasing some more of their hard to resist bright pigments and glitters that I don’t normally see in other brands.