Purple Polka-Dot Perfection

I'm Back! Forgive my brief absence from the blogosphere, my summer has been quite busy filled with road trips, music festival adventures, & well work... but I all that aside I still had my blog on my mind. I'm still debating doing a post about my adventures at Electric Forest, but I'm thinking I should just leave it a mystery & force you curious cats to venture out there next summer to join me! (If you really wanna know what went down, gimme a call and we can chat!) All you need to know is that it was worth it. 

 Ok back to business...

What you need:

 Essie play date w Funky Fingers Sand & Stilettos w Sally Hansen Diamond Flash w Funky Fingers Paparazzi w Essie no more film w Bobby pins

So I started with a mixed accent on each hand. On my left hand I have play date as the accent color & on my right I have no more film as the accent color.

Then using the bobby pin dotting tool technique, found here, I dotted my accent nails. I paired play date with  Sand & Stilettos  & no more film with Paparazzi. 

 For the pairings, I found that Paparazzi & no more film both had indigo & blue undertones while play date & Sand & Stilettos both carried a pink shade. 

You are going to to want to use one side of the bobby pin for each nail. The lacquer will eat away at the plastic part of the bobby pin after awhile, so in order to keep your dots nice & round & avoid asymmetrical shapes I would alternate bobby pin ends for each nail.

Then the glitter got the best of me (which it always does) & I put a coat on each nail using the same pairings. 

Then I topped it off with Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat. For the dotted nails you will probably want to do a double layer of top coat to avoid any weird textures... eek.

On Pinterest? Repin here!

Save Bottle, Rock an Ombre

Ok up-cycle lovers I'm giving the 'ok' to embrace your inner hoarder (well not really, but...)

If you hate throwing old nail polish bottles away I have a solution that may ease your inner turmoil. 

Save them, clean them out & then fill them back up with new custom colors! Hooray!

So one of my old roommates from college got married recently & for her wedding I decided to wear a slate grey tiered pleated dress, & I wanted my nails to compliment the look. I decided on the ever so popular ombré look.  

I used two different colors to achieve this look & then added some glitter polish for my lack of wedding ring bling ;)

What you need:

Essie Power Clutch w MILANI one coat glitter Silver Dazzle w Sally Hansen xtreme wear Wet Cement w Old Top Coat Bottle (empty & clean) 

First thing I did was the mixing of my colors.

I used an empty bottle of top coat to mix my first color (which for blogging purposes we will call 'Power Cement'). For this color I mixed equal parts Power Clutch & Wet Cement. I probably used 4 -6 drops of each. The reason I did this is because I wanted a lot of polish leftover to mix for the next color. 

Power Clutch w 'Power Cement' w Wet Cement 

Then I used this random piece of left over plastic packaging to mix the next color in the ombré. I mixed equal parts 'Power Cement' & Wet Cement to make the fourth & final color: 'Wet Clutch'.

Now because this color wasn't mixed in a bottle it requires that you apply it right away. (which I did,  straight on to my ring fingers) I covered it up with some cling wrap in-between coats to prevent it from drying up.

The Break Down:

Nail 1: Power Clutch

Nail 2: Wet Cement

Nail 3: 'Power Cement' (1+2)

Nail 4: 'Wet Clutch' (3+2)

Nail 5: Power Clutch & Silver Dazzle 

:)

(Disclaimer: If you are someone with a texture issue when it comes to glitter polish, be prepared to use about 2-3 coats of top coat over any MILANI one coat glitter polish. Looks great but feels like sandpaper.)

On Pinterest? Repin Here!

Perfect Summer Seafood Sauce

Summer is here! For many this means hitting the grill for some burgers & dogs, but for me this means super fresh seafood season! Now I'm not huge on seafood, (I prefer the 'Turf' side of a 'Surf & Turf' any day) but I have really grown to love a nice light white fish with a citrus kick. 

I had gotten some beautiful fresh Tilapia at the market & I knew I wanted to jazz it up a bit for my own little kick off to summer meal, so naturally I headed to the internet for some inspiration. I found myself stumbling around FoodGawker, (if you haven't tried this yet, it's basically like what would happen if Julia Childs had a love child with Pinterest.) when I found this recipe on there and it came with a bonus Lemon Garlic Mayonnaise Sauce (umm yum.) & I decided to give it a go. I did tweak the recipe just a bit (less & 'light' mayo) to make it a bit more healthy, it is pool party season afterall. 

What you need:

Light Mayonnaise w Garlic w Lemon w Salt & Black Pepper

Peal back some of that garlic (1 clove to be exact) & mince it up.

Then you want to measure out 1/2 a cup of Light Mayo

Then you are going to want to squeeze one large lemon which produces about 2 tablespoons full of juice.

Using a spoon, combine the minced garlic, lemon juice & light mayo in a bowl. Sprinkle in some sea salt and black pepper for taste. 

Place the sauce back in the fridge until your ready to serve.

 I up-cyled an old mayo 'squeeze style' bottle & tripled the recipe so I can keep it in my fridge & have it ready to go for next time. *Just make sure you remove the old wrapper & write on the bottle with a sharpie to make sure there is no condiment confusion. :)

& there you have it. This sauce tastes amazing & was a great compliment to the Tilapia (it tastes great with Swordfish & Mahi Mahi too.)

On Pinterest? Repin Here!