Mani Monday, Wednesday style.

hello,lovelies!! I'm back; did you miss me?

This week has been hit and miss for my manicures. I had so many big ideas for them and they just did not turn out how I had planned :(

First, there was the ill-fated matte/shiny french mani, inspired by Erika @ Chloe's Nails

I had such high hopes for this one. Idk what happened...maybe my topcoat is not shiny enough.

Then, I thought maybe a couple coats of Revlon Scandalous (Facets of Fuchsia), a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance, would fix it. Boy, was I wrong.

Yikes. Idk how I lasted the day with that monstrosity on my fingertips.

Tonight, was my last-ditch effort at something unique (to me) before I said, "Screw it," and just slapped a color on there.

So, I decided to try my hand at a sponging, gradient manicure that I've been seeing everywhere on my dashboard. The ladies that are doing it are awesome, offering tutorials (Sarah @ Chalkboard Nails has amazing tutorials).

My maiden sponging voyage started with two coats of Sinful Colors Beautiful Girl, which is a peachy, pink creme. When I was ready to sponge, I found that we were out  of makeup sponges and I'm not allowed to buy any b/c I gave shopping for Lent. So, I improvised and used the sponge applicators from eyeshadow. 

For my first sponged layer, I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Shrimply Divine.  SD is a true bubblegum pink creme. And I got it for $.94! It was on clearance and I had a dollar off coupon.

The next layer was a polish I stumbled upon in my stash, looking for something else. It's Ulta Capri Coral, a coral-pink creme.

After sponging those two beauties on, I added some sparkle with Wet n Wild Hallucinate, an iridescent glitter that flashes green, aqua, and purple.

under a lamp

with flash

I'll definitely being doing this more often. Plus, I have big scotch tape mani plans, thanks to Jane @ Nailside.

And yeah, you read that right a little further up. I gave up shopping for Lent. I'm 8 days in and it's tough. It's all I want to do. PLEASE LET ME GO SHOPPING.

My "lacquer list" of colors I want grows everyday...only 32 more days.

Hopefully, I'll have some extra padding in my checking account after the 40 days are up.

My federal tax return came in, too. I'm waiting for NYS to send theirs so I can get my MacBook.

Your days are numbered, Dell!

Thanks for stopping by!

xo, ali