Mint Mani for Talia Joy!

Talia Joy was a beautiful young girl who touched the lives of many through her love of all things beauty related.  I only found out about her recently, but I am so incredibly in awe of such a young person.  I watched some videos and read a lot about her and for someone going through all that she was she really held it together and kept it positive even though she was probably going through really dark moments.  She definitely shined a bright light on the issue of childhood cancer and truly made the most of her young life.

Her last picture on Instagram was a picture of family picture with matching mint green manicures.  In honor of her Nail Polish Wars began a movement among the nail community #mintmanisfortaliajoy.  Here is my contribution.  I used Sinful Colors Mint Apple.

Twin Nails! Sinful Colors Rise & Shine

So as an official polish addict I'm always on the look out for nail polish.  Every time I go to Target or Walmart I have to stop by the nail section.  Last week I saw some Sinful Colors at Wal-Mart that caught my attention.  I almost put one back, but when I looked at the name I knew I had to get it!!  Rise & Shine.  I had to get it because it is the name of my friend Aneela's blog!  She is the operator of Rise and Shine Beauty.  I immediately tweeted her a picture of the polish and she insisted she get one too!  How fun!  So we decided to wear it and post on our blogs on the same day!

Rise & Shine is a really pretty teal polish with a slight blue shimmer.  The reason why I almost didn't get it was because it was so similar to a polish that I just bought, Essie's Naughty Nautical.  Totally not a dupe, but with my bad camera skills they almost look the same.  Naughty Nautical is a bit more mintier (if that is an counts as a description) or slightly lighter and bluer in color.  Both have a slight shimmer.  

L:  Essie's Naughy Nautical  R: Sinful Colors Rise & Shine

Here is my swatch of Rise & Shine!    

Sorry I have so much glare from my lamp.  I don't know how people take such beautiful indoor shots of their manis!  Please please check out Aneela's swatch here!  She is also in the middle of running her blog sale and there are some great deals!  So check her out!!

Nail Art: Galaxy Nails!

So lately I have been having a lot of fun attempting to do nail art.  I always wanted to do nail art, but it is rather time consuming and I have ADHD and can't ever find the time.  But because I met some amazing ladies on Instagram who love polish just like me that do this with me they motivate me to follow through!  Every two weeks we attempt a new (to us) nail art technique.  And so far every time we collaborate it comes out brilliantly!  We call ourselves the #nailquintcrew.   You know...because there are five of us. :)

The last time we collaborated we tried galaxy nails.  I was nervous about it, but I've seen many many many ladies attempt galaxy nails and they always come out looking amazing!  It's pretty easy, a little time consuming, but the results are pretty fabulous!!!  

For my galaxy nails I used a black base and sponged blue and purple polish.  I also used a star glitter polish for the stars.  I pretty much just picked them out with a toothpick and placed them on the nails.  I finally topped it off with China Glaze Fairy Dust.  I apologize but that is the only polish name that I remember.  :/

My galaxy nails!

This mani looks pretty cool in pictures, but looks so freaking awesome in real life!  I love simple nail art that looks great.