Some Swatches....

Y'all. I'm terrible at taking photos of my own hands and hubs thinks its ridiculous to take pictures of "nail polish for a blog".

OPI Just a Little Sin-fandel (Orly Bonder, 2 coats of color, Seche Vite top coat) from the Beauty Brands exclusive mini kit Celebration Temptations.

Here's OPI Kiss on the Chic (Orly Bonder, 2 coats of color, Seche Vite top coat). It's a sheer, pretty pink. I think I like it better than my old faithful, Sweetheart.

Look at how much my nails have grown in just a few weeks since I started doing Katee's routine. Well, except for my dang thumb and index finger that broke off over Christmas.

OPI Color of the Week: Significant Other Color

I did some after Christmas shopping at the ULTA and picked up the B2G2 special. I also purchased some Christmas colors that I'll be giving away soon, so be watching for them! :)

One of the colors I picked up that I'll be keeping is Significant Other Color:

I absolutely LOVE this color! It's an iridescent purple that is extremely light in shade. It looked like it would be too dark for me in the bottle, but once I put it on I loved it. Here's how it looks on my nails (base coat, 2 coats color, top coat):


Need I even mention that it looks sparkly and shimmery? We all know how I love the sparkles and shimmers. :)

Y'all have a great New Year's!

We Are Official!

Lookie girls!

We are an official website!

We now reside at www.manicuremommas.com, although our blogspot address will still re-direct.

How cool are we?

Holidays

Finally! My first post on this blog! I am April and I blog over at dot ... dot ... dot ... I am a stay at home mommy and since having my 2 boys, my natural nails just do not hold up. They have never been very strong to begin with, and with my crazy lifestyle always on the go, there is no time to try to take care of my nails. So, my generous mom-in-law treats me to trips to the salon every few weeks to get my acrylic nails done (lucky girl, I know!). We have been going to the same salon, Foxy Nails, for 9 years now, and my nail girl is Tawny. She is so sweet and always has fun new designs on her own nails. We share a favorite color and I love my time outs at the salon!!

Right before Thanksgiving, I was ready to decorate for the holidays ... that included my nails! I was finally able to get to the salon this week to get a fill (it was looong overdue thanks to a freak snowstorm), and loved my tips enough for one more round. I don't think the acrylics have fancy names (I will be sure to ask Tawny when she does my nails next), but I put this little combo together myself! A pretty, sparkly glitter tip with a red sparkly glitter stripe. Very fun for the holidays ... can't wait to see what we'll do next!

OPI A Ruby for Rudolph

OPI A Ruby for Rudolph

The sun came out today so I dashed outside to snap a pic of my newly painted nails. I really like this color!

Excuse the messiness on my pointer and ring fingers. I really need to work on clean-up. I got an OPI Correct and Clean-Up Pen, but it's a little too hard for my taste. I think I will try Katee's tip on the previous post about using a brush dipped in acetone and see if that works better for me.

Home Manicure Tips

Our resident expert, Katee at e-polishblog, was recently featured on Sephora's Beauty and the Blog.

Her tips for a perfect manicure are fabulous! You must check it out! I'm so excited she was featured at Sephora's blog- amazing!

OPI Your Royal Shyness

OPI Your Royal Shyness (2 coats). I did a quicky mani while Miss Priss was taking her nap this afternoon. Excuse my ring finger... I had solar nails on for about 3 days and am still trying to grow all the damage out! Next time I'm out, I need to pick up some ridge filler.

Oh ULTA, How I Love Thee

*Waving Hi to anyone I don't know already!*

I'm Smoochiefrog and I'm an OPI polish fanatic. It's the only stuff I buy, so obviously it's the only stuff I wear too. :) You can normally find me here, but I'm thrilled to be here. Sasha and I have been FIHH (friends in her head :P) for a little over a year now, so I was stoked when she came up with this idea. With 4 tadpoles I only get time to do my nails once a week, and I tend to favor lighter shades of polish as I don't think the brighter or darker colors look that good on me. I wish I could get away with the darker ones though. A nice sparkly red would be great for Christmas!

Anyway, enough about me lets get on with the important stuff here: my new OPI purchases!

Last night, I just couldn't wait. I know Friday will be a B2G2 sale on OPI at ULTA, but I was jonesing for some new polish now. M (my oldest daughter) and I hit the store after I picked her up from her Nutcracker cast party and we stumbled upon a great mistake opportunity!

Last week ULTA was offering the B2G1 offer they do quite regularly. Until Christmas Eve I think, they're offering a B2G1 of the holiday colors. Well this particular ULTA still had the sign for the B2G1 offer from last week up, as well as the B2G1 holiday color sign. You know what that means right? B2G2!!!! And they honored it! I walked out of there with:

Coney Island Cotton Candy
Princesses Rule!
Your Royal Shyness and

You're A Doll!

So, paid for 2, got 2 free! Woot!

I decided to press my luck and today I went to a different ULTA to see if the same mistake opportunity would be available.

Um, not so much.

I just got the holiday B2G1 deal, but I'm okay with it. I came home with:

Glamour Game (my freebie)

Happy Anniversary and

Up Front and Personal

Happy Anniversary, Up Front and Personal, and Princesses Rule! all have glitter. I like glitter. :)

Last night I painted my nails using Your Royal Shyness and this:

The Sally Hansen French Manicure Pen. Here's the end result:

Is it salon worthy? Nope.

Will it work since I don't go to the salon anymore? Yup!

Do I need to stop biting my nails and let them grow out more? DEFINITELY!!!!

Y'all have a great week!

OPI Season's Sparklings!

OPI Pretty Plum-tuous (2 coats)

OPI Season's Sparklings! (1 coat)

both from the Ulta OPI Season's Sparklings! Christmas Mini

Mr. Sasha just came in and saw my nails and said, "Whoa, whatcha got going on there? That's....... different!"

What do men know? I actually like it. Not sure I'd wear it all the time, but it's the holidays, and time to be "sparkly".

GDA (Good Deal Alert)

Great deals at Ulta through Christmas Eve.

Promos include:
buy 2 get 1 free... and you can piggy back
spend $17 on OPI products (that's 2 polishes in TX), get a free Ulta holiday polish.
Don't forget to use your $3.50 off a $10 purchase! coupon here

Here's 20% off your entire purchase coupon here
**Make sure you print the coupons immediately or clear your cookies**

I came home with 4 polishes and only spent $10.83 (although I think I got an extra $8.50 off! Yay for generous sales people)

These photos are just stock photos with stock descriptions... they are so much prettier IRL. I'll swatch them soon! And yes, I know I need to get out of my neutral rut, although today I am sporting OPI Don't Toy with Me.

A Kiss On the Chic: A kiss of classic pale pink.

Your Royal Shyness: A shy beige-pink with royal presence.

Koala Berry : Berry irresistible, berry beautiful!


Ulta Plum Street


Their after Christmas flier has a coupon for $5 off a $10 purchase and buy 2 OPI polishes get 2 free (base and top coat).