A few Random NOTD

Hello all! I have just a couple quick photos to share. Though I’ve not been blogging, I have been painting my nails. I discovered that I was spending too much time on this blog and not enough time doing other things (ie, school) and I felt it was time to take a break. I have been taking pics of all my manis so I will have quite a few to share in the future. I also have been buying polish like crazy so hopefully I will get around to sharing photos of those. Besides my Lush Lacquers, I took advantage of Zoya’s America sale and Butter London’s recent sale as well.

Nicole by OPI’s Kourt is Red-y For a Pedi and OPI’s Nicki Minaj Metal 4 Life (I think?)

The pink is Zoya Renee (an awesome bright pink jelly), the gray is Julep Dove I think? And holo glitter from Claire’s.

This pic is the most recent as you can tell I was sporting some serious nubs for a while. The blue is from Color Club’s recent summer collection, the red is Zoya Sooki, and I used Julep America and some Color Club holo flakies for the tips.

The quality of my pictures are about as good as they are gonna get for a while. I got tired of futzing around with getting good pics on my camera so you will probably see some cell phone pics here and there as well. I’ve also decided to stop water marking the photos.

Thanks for sticking around! Til next time,

Erin

31 Day Challenge: Day 18: Half Moons!

Catching up with yesterday’s challenge. Half moons. I thought this was going to be easy peasy pie. NOPE. The reinforcements did not work on me. Not sure what I did wrong but they looked awful. The lines are smudgy, smeary, not clean and crisp. Oh well. I love the color combo I chose. Zoya Tosca is the reddish/coralish/pinkish color and I used Zoya Shay as the nude. Not my favorite nude, but it’s still a nice color. I really like the half moon trend so I may have to try again sometime. Especially since I have 2000 reinforcements to use.

Tosca is a wonderful pedi color. My toes look awesome. I think I’m going to remove these half moons and do all Tosca. Maybe I’ll do that new cocktail mani the China Glaze is promoting. You do your thumb, pointer, and middle finger with and eye catching color on your ‘cocktail’ hand, and paint all the rest a different color.

Later today is galaxies! Now that is mani I LOVE! Check out what the other girls have been up to.

Kelsie at Kelsie's Nail Files

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Amanda at Nox Nails

Jess at Nearly Natural Nails

Thanks for reading!

-Erin-

31 Day Challenge: Day 14: Flowers!

I am really happy with the way this mani turned out! I’m not a flowery person but this, I will definitely do again. I’m thinking it would be a super cute pedi.

This challenge is fun because it gives me an opportunity to play with a bunch of untried polishes. The base for this mani is Zoya Parker (one of three nudes I bought during the Earth Day promotion), the flowers are CG Riveting, Nicole by OPI Kourt is Red-y for a Pedi (a new fave!) and dots are CG Turned up Turquoise.

My new favorite top coat: Color Club. Not sure exactly what it is, but it came with my Take Wing Collection. It is SUPER SHINY and dries really fast.

I’ve been playing around with hand poses etc, I think I prefer the pictures without the nail polish bottles. I always felt like I would squeeze onto it for dear life. I think I’ll be bottle-less for the time being.

The other girls did flower last Monday, but go see what they have for today!

Kelsie at Kelsie's Nail Files

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Amanda at Nox Nails

Jess at Nearly Natural Nails

Thanks for coming by!

-Erin-

31 Day Challenge: Day 11: Polka Dots!

Hello! Thank God its Friday, right?No only am I excited about my guest post at The Manicured Monkey today, but I am also excited because I am going to a Cardinals game tonight. My first game in like 2 years! So excited! Then tomorrow I am heading to my brother’s school for his college graduation! So I have a fun filled jam packed weekend. On top of it, Sunday is Mother’s Day and next week is my last week of classes so I am frantically trying to get projects done. Hopefully I will be on top of the challenge until Wednesday, then things will die down and I will really have time to dedicate to some nail art! Which is good, because in case you hadn’t noticed that last week is a bear….water marble, anyone? a mani based on a song?? eek!


Well, here’s the polka dots. I don’t have a very steady hand or an eye for balance so this was my second attempt. I had to paint my pinky black because the dots looked awful but I like the pinky accent nail.

Ignore those dark cuticles would you? One day I will discover the secret. Until then, just look at that beautiful Zoya! Zoya Barbie, another I bought in part because of he name. Would you believe that before I started this blog I owned ONE pink polish?? I don’t have anything against pink, but I usually pick up more corals/oranges instead of pinks.

I leave you with a picture of my thumb because so you can see the slight shimmer in Barbie. I had to wear 3 coats. I think this color is so cute, very retro.

Can’t wait to see the polka dots! I sure wish I was better at it but I will just have to admire everyone else’s gorgeous dots instead!

Kelsie @ www.kelsiesnailfiles.blogspot.com

Stephanie @ www.alittlepolish.blogspot.com

Amanda @ www.noxnails.blogspot.com

Jess @ www.nearlynaturalnails.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading!

-Erin-

31 Day Challenge: Day 10: Gradient!

Does this mani remind you of something? Yesterday’s rainbow mani, perhaps? I didn’t realize how similar they were until I was editing photos! When I like something, I really like it and of course it didn’t help that I did this mani immediately after the rainbow mani. I used Zoya Zuza, Apple, and one of my new Color Club polishes. Blues/greens are my favorite so no surprise I was drawn to these colors. I topped it all with Spoiled Pet my Peacock, because these colors reminded me of peacock feathers. I wish I had a cool feather stamp or peacock design.

Enough talk, here’s the pics:

Do you see again the troubles I have with these type of polishes? My cuticle areas are a mess! Just ignore that part and look at the GLITTER!

I really liked this, I hated to remove it. Tomorrow is polka dots, so be sure to come back tomorrow and in the mean time, check out my partners in crime!

Kelsie @ www.kelsiesnailfiles.blogspot.com

Steph @ www.alittlepolish.blogspot.com

Amanda @ www.noxnails.blogspot.com

Jess @ http://nearlynaturalnails.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading!

Erin

31 Day Challenge: Day 6: Violet!

Hello and good afternoon! Did you all have fun celebrating Cinco de Mayo yesterday? I am a big dull dud and spend my afternoon filling out job applications and working on my International Business Operations final project, which is kinda cool because it requires me doing research on Zara, a wonderful clothing store that I wish we had here, and I just found out you can order online finally!!! Yay! Oh and of course I've been working on the Challenge!

Today is a double hit because it also satisfies the requirements of the Adventures in Stamping challenge this week: unnatural animals! So, I did violet nails, with blue zebra stripes.

Two more Zoyas today! They are probably my favorites of the moment. But I also own the most of them of any other brand so maybe that’s why. They have fantastic sales so I am always sure to take advantage! Speaking of sales, I found the entire Color Club Take Wing collection this weekend for $8! $8!!!!! Those colors are gorgeous and I'm so glad I bought them. Expect to see lots of them coming up. :)
This is Zoya Zara (purple) and Zuza (blue). I topped my ring finger with Pure Ice Cheatin’. I loved this mani! This is really my style as far as my nail art goes. I am not super inventive or adventurous. :)

I hope you like it! Check out the other girls’s violet nails today!

Kelsie @ www.kelsiesnailfiles.blogspot.com

Stephanie @ www.alittlepolish.blogspot.com

Amanda @ www.noxnails.blogspot.com

Jess @ www.nearlynaturalnails.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by!

Erin

31 Day Challenge: Day 5: Blue!

My favorite color! Well, one of them anyway. So, I’ve been waiting FOREVER to get my Zoya polish from their Earth Day promotion. I was getting rather impatient, and was out running errands, which COINCIDENTALLY took me past Ulta. So strange. Lucky me, they had buy two, get one free on their polishes. While I knew I had Zoya Zuza on her way, wellll…I spotted Zoya Charla and had to have her too!!! I couldn’t help myself! Please tell me you all would have done the same thing! :)

So here she is:

Geez, another gem! That is four days in a row now! I promise tomorrow there are no gems in sight! But you understand WHY I had to have a gem for this mani:

They  match my ring! I wish I could capture the sparkli-ness of the ring. So pretty!

I used a dotting tool with Zoya Apple, a yellow nail art polish, and Zoya Kimber. Then a red gem in the middle. You can see staining from Pool Party on my index finger!!! And also, if you have this color or are considering buying Charla, she stains…so make sure you put on a good base coat.

Check out the other girls’s challenge manis today!

Kelsie @ www.kelsiesnailfiles.blogspot.com

Steph @ www.alittlepolish.blogspot.com

Amanda @ www.noxnails.blogspot.com
Jess @ http://nearlynaturalnails.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading!

XOXO

Erin

31 Day Challenge: Day 1: Red!

Hey ya’ll!!! Goodness my Blogger did not post this post as scheduled, so I am late! So Sorry!
Today marks the first day of a 31 day challenge I am doing with Stephanie at A Little Polish, Amanda at Nox Nails, and Kelsie at Kelsie’s Nail Files! They are some truly wonderfully talented ladies and I am happy they let me join them in all of this craziness! :)

So, here’s the first day: Red. I used Zoya Sooki (which I’ve mentioned before I bought this because of the name), then did a tape diagonal stripe and matted half of it. For fun I added a red gem. I hope you like it!

Make sure you check out the other girls’ manis today! 

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Amanda at Nox Nails

Kelsie at Kelsie’s Nail Files

Thanks for reading!

XOXO

Erin

Zoya Apple: A Tragedy

Well, here it is. The most gorgeous color I own, RUINED. Yep. This is the 2nd attempt at doing some sort of stamping/nail art on Zoya Apple, and both times I hated it. I wanted to try again after the first FAIL (which I may show you sometime soon) and had just bought China Glaze Liquid Crystal. Guys this was so awful. Plus, you can see on my ring finger where the glitter TOOK OFF part of the base coat after I seriously messed up the stamping.
But the Zoya Apple is great. This color really stands out all on its own so the extras just ruin it. (…covers my eyes while you look at this disaster…)

Do you see what I mean? I did not want to do this mani again, because I do not want to waste all of my Zoya Apple on ugly manis! So I left it as it was, and removed it immediately (OH and didn’t clean up either or do anything to my cuticles. I was too depressed.) I used Pure Ice Silver Mercedes to stamp the lizards, and the glitter is China Glaze Liquid Crystal. I had just bought the CG and was dying to use it.

Meh. 
Oh, and I just realized that my lizards have no heads. WTH.

Thanks for reading!

XOXO

Erin

Inspired by Music: An Adventures in Stamping Post

Happy Sunday!! Well, I’m not gonna lie, I thought I was going to have a lot of trouble with this challenge. (I guess you can decide that for yourself!)  I am not a huge music buff. I only listen to a few favorite artists, and I don’t know singers, album titles, song lyrics, etc…I usually just listen to whatever my boyfriend puts on the stereo. Hence, this mani. Inspired by DEADMAU5!! In case you are not familiar with Deadmau5, it is the  name for electronic artist Joel Zimmerman. My brother and boyfriend are huge fans. I like his music too, but like I said, I am not a huge music buff. So anyway, Deadmau5 is pronounced Dead’mouse’, and he wears these huge mouse heads when he performs. So here’s my take on it:

side by side of the mau5 heads.

Here’s a pic of Deadmau5 on stage:

Several things I want to say about this mani:

1) When I stamped the dot background, the whole glitter topcoat SLID across my nail and I had to SLIDE it back…omg I almost died. Really. I did not want to remove all of that stinkin’ glitter and start all over!

2) Stamping dot background WHAT? you are probably thinking..Yes, I did stamp on these nails but it is very hard to see…:(

3) My middle nail looks awful in these pics…it looks like I chopped off a whole chunk of polish around my cuticle. Well, I am practicing my clean-up skills, (my makeup brush seriously SUCKS) and I thought I did a gosh darn good job – until I crop my macro shots. In real life, the flaw is barely noticeable. Instead of redoing it and taking new pics, I’m leaving it – hence why I call this blog Beauty Bumbles, because I feel like I’m just bumbling around with all of this nail stuff….

4) The base color is Zoya Sooki, I stamped with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes (so glad I took the recommendation of the ladies at Adventures in Stamping!) and Sally Hansen Black Out (must take other recommendations for black stamping polishes, because it looks horrible on Sooki), and I used a Claire’s glitter topcoat.

5) I bought Sooki mostly because I LOVE TRUE BLOOD! And Charlaine Harris’s books too, of course. :)

So that’s it! I did not match my right hand to this, the coordinating mani is actually for my challenge tomorrow, Monkey See, Monkey Do manis inspired by my Pinterest board. The two look really cute together.

I hope you like it!

Thanks for reading!

XOXO

Erin

Zoya Kimber for Breast Cancer

Hey guys! I did this mani for my dear friend who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She has been my hairstylist and friend forever! So, this is for Shelley and everyone else out there struggling with this disease and friends and family of cancer patients.

And I want to thank the lovely ladies on the Adventures in Stamping Facebook group for rockin’ some pink today!!

Thanks for reading! I hope you like it. I am still no whiz at freehand nail art but improving a bit, I think.

XOXO

Erin