Friday 31 August 2012

31 Day Challenge Excitement!

Good Afternoon darlings!

So yes, I've been a bad blogger. I leave you all with fabulous guest posts and then when they finish I just don't post for 3 days. Let me tell you that was not intentional! I had thought I had scheduled posts for the next two days and then I just was having a great time with my family and friends that I haven't been able to get anything else up. I'm sorry. 

But on another awesome note, starting tomorrow I will be participating in the 31 Day Challenge with Emily of The Lacquerologist! Emily is pretty much my best blogging buddy and almost every challenge I've done yet has been with her! I completely admire her nail art skills and that she's followed her dream of becoming a nail tech! So essentially she's awesome and I am sooo stoked to be doing this with her! 

We will be posting daily at 6:30am EST for the next 31 days following the challenge, which I have included at the bottom of this post. I'm so excited to finally tell you guys, as we have been planning this for months now! I'm like beaming with excitement over finally being able to start this adventure!

I hope you all enjoy the next 31 days as much as I'm going to! :D 


Monday 27 August 2012

Guest Post from Crystal of Crystal's Crazy Combos


Morning folks! Today is the very last day of my mini vacation! I hope you all still want me to come back, because there have been some amazing guest posts that have just blown me away! ;) 

Today a very good friend of mine, Crystal of Crystal's Crazy Combos is taking over. Crystal and I actually started blogging around the same time and became fast friends on twitter. She is such a sweetheart and she always posts the most amazing indies that I instantly want to rush over and buy! She has created many a lemming for me! And today's mani she has to share with you is no exception :) 

As well as Crystal posting here today, we thought it would be fun if we just traded blogs for the day! So you can see a manicure that I did over on her blog

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Hello Everyone!! I'm Crystal from Crystal's Crazy Combos!!  I was asked by the lovely Stephanie to do a guest post for her!  I am so honored!  This is my first time doing this, and I love the idea!  I always love Stephanie's swatches and designs.  She is so talented and inspires me to do nail art!  I haven't really gotten up the courage to try anything fancy yet, but soon, as I have many I want to try of hers! ;-)  I usually end up with a tape mani though, because for me, that is fool proof!!   Oh, and I love pictures, so please don't be overwhelmed by them!!


There are a ton of awesome pictures on this one so they are all under the cut! 

Sunday 26 August 2012

Guest Post From Jodi of Captivating Claws

Morning! Today I've got a guest post to share with you from the lovely Jodi of Captivating Claws! Jodi is pretty much the queen of water marbles and every week I stare are her marbles wondering just how she manages to get them so perfect! Today's post from Jodi is noooo exception!

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Hi Everyone... I'm Jodi from Captivating Claws. I'm here today writing this guest post for Stephanie while she's on vacation. Stephanie did an awesome guest post for me while I was on vacation in June, and now I'm returning the favor for her. If you follow me, you know I kinda have a "thing" for water marbles, so that's what I'll be sharing with you all today. I created this marble using three colors from Zoya's new Designer Collection: Rehka, Natty, and Monica..

A Zoya Water Marble:



I really like these colors when looking at them side-by-side in the bottles, but Monica didn't appear as "purplish" as she really is. I know a lot of people love to marble with Zoyas, but I really like OPIs formula best when it comes to water marbling. Needless to say, I like this marble. The colors are perfect for autumn. I love zoya's formula when it comes to just regular manis, but it's a bit too thick for me when it comes to marbling.

There you have it... I hope you've enjoyed my marble and I hope Stephanie is having a great time on her vacation!! :)

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Stunning! Yet again Jodi has an absolutely perfect watermarble to share with us! I'm mad jealous of her amazing skills. You should all head over to Captivating Claws to see more of her amazing marbles :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Saturday 25 August 2012

Guest Post from Victoria of Manicurator

Morning! I've got another stellar guest post to share with you today, this one from Victoria of Manicurator! Victoria and I 'met' through the Abstract Nail Art Challenge that we completed together through June. I'd already been a follower of hers for awhile and am always impressed with Victoria's creativity! She creates some insanely cool nail art! Let's let Victoria take it away!

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Hello everyone!!

I'm super pleased to be writing this guest post for Stephanie! We officially "met" doing the Abstract Nail Art Challenge and it was both a pleasure and an inspiration to work together with her like that :) She's such a sweetheart and always has creative designs.



I wanted to try something new for this post for her, and I'm still VERY new to stamping, so it's not perfect...but I tried my hand at a gradient zebra stripe. I used China Glaze Pelican Gray as the base and China Glaze Something Sweet and Strawberry Fields for the stamp.



Hope you enjoy :) ~Victoria aka MANICURATOR

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I love it! This is something that I still haven't tried yet, the mixing of colours in the stamp is awesome. The colour combination is also beautiful!

If you aren't a follower of Manicurator, you should head over there now and check her out!

Hope you guys are having a brilliant day! :D

Friday 24 August 2012

Guest Post from Amber of Amber Did It!

Morning! I've got another stellar guest post to share with you today from the insanely talented Amber of Amber Did It! Amber creates some absolutely beautiful nail art and is able to get the most incredible detail that it blows my mind! What she has done for you all today is no exception. Let's let Amber take it away with some kick ass Lisa Frank nail art!

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I don't care how old I am, I'll always love Lisa Frank lol. For my base I did a gradient using Kleancolor Metallic Aqua, Metallic Sapphire, and Metallic Fuchsia. The rest was done using white acrylic paint, China Glaze Sunshine Pop, Kleancolor Neon Orange, NYX Between Mauve and Purple, Kleancolor Neon Purple, Sinful Colors Innocent, Sinful Colors Why Not, Spoiled Permission to Proceed, and NYC Greenwich Village.



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HOW INSANE IS THAT?! I adore Lisa Frank and completely had all the stationary accessories when I was young. I'm always blown away at the amount of detail that Amber is able to fit onto her nails. They are simply beautiful!

If you aren't yet you need to head over to Amber Did It! and follow right away! So go over there and check her out!

Are you a fan of Lisa Frank? How much do you love Amber's nails?!

Thank you for stopping by!!

Thursday 23 August 2012

Guest Post from Kelsie of Kelsie's Nail Files

Goooooood Morning dears! Today I have a guest post to share with you from another fellow Canadian, Kelsie of Kelsie's Nail Files! I first met Kelsie back in March on twitter when she nominated me for the Liebster award. Then I started creeping around her blog and I was blown away! She posts an awesome combination of both freehand (which is kick ass) and incredibly creative stamping! I have more than once turned to her blog for inspiration :) She has a gorgeous manicure for you today so I'll her take it away!

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Hello fellow nail polish enthusiasts! My name is Kelsie, I am the voice behind Kelsie's Nail Files and I am so thrilled to be here today doing a guest post for one of my favorite bloggers!! :) Seriously, I can't help but be impressed every time Stephanie posts a freehand nail design (have you seen her olympic nails?!?!)

For the guest post I wanted to do something pink to match Stephanie's blog layout. I also just got this new pink and studs in the mail a few days ago... So I give you my first ever studded nail art!



I used Sation Glowing Garnet as my base. Then I layered 1/3 of each nail with Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Sea Side Pearl... which gave it a lighter pink color. And then I placed the square 2mm studs in strips between the two colors on each nail. And there you have it!

I want to say a big THANK YOU to Stephanie for having me on the blog today.. I am so honored!! :D

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Gorgeous! I adore studded manicures and this one is no exception. I also loved how she incorporated the pink theme of my layout into it :)

What do you all think of studded manicures? Hope you are all having a great day :D <3 br="br">

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Guest Post from Goisa of Life in Color!

Morning Ladies! Today my lovely friend Goisa of Life in Color! has a Pink Wednesday post to share with you all! Goisa and I started blogging around the same time and have became friends when she joined me in my failed attempt of a Valentine's Day Challenge. Ever since then we've shared our nails and chatted on twitter lots. Not only does she have awesome nails, but she mountain climbs too!! This is one multi talented girl, and she has a lovely stamped mani to share with us today :)

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Hello ladies!!

First off, big THANKS to Stephanie for asking me to do a guest post for her!!! Stephanie and I started blogging about the same time and we've been virtual friends for a while now!! She's one of the most generous and sweetest people you will ever meet! Besides talented of course, but that goes without saying if you've been reading her blog for a while!

That's why when she asked me to guest post for her, my first reaction was "oh my god!!". For two reasons: one, I was so honored that she would have me host for you guys, and two, seeing how creative she is (and I'm not haha), how could I ever step into her shoes and make the post interesting enough???

Well... I took out my stamping plates and put a creative cap on and here's what I came up with:
For the base color I actually used 2 different polishes. First one was 2 coats of Essie “Raise Awareness” and followed by 1 coat of Cult Nails “Enticing”. I love Cult Nails and wanted to come up with a delicate, shimmery, “princess-y” pink. Unfortunately “Enticing” is pretty sheer so that’s why I layered it over Essie. The end result is what I was striving for.

Next, I took out 2 stamping plates, BM-313 and BM-318 and transferred the 2 flower images onto my nails using Revlon “Red Rocks”, a bright red with golden shimmer. I added some rhinestones to make the flowers even more interesting.


I hope you all like my creation!!! Thank you so much again, Stephanie, for having me guest post for you!!! =))

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I love how soft and feminine this look! The added touch of the rhinestone is just beautiful. :) You should all swing over to Life and Color! and show my girl some love!

Hope you are all having a great day! :D Thanks for stopping by!!

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Guest Post from Carmela of Polished Indulgence

Morning loves! Today I've got another awesome guest post to share with you from another Canadian, Carmela of Polished Indulgence! Carmela always posts such elegant manicures that I always admire. You may have seen our recent twin posts that we did together using the new MASH stamping plates. Carmela's hamster Hammie is her blogs mascot and he is taking the reigns today! Let's see what Hammie has in store for us!

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Hello there Sincerely Stephanie fans! Hammie the hamster checking in for today’s guest post. I can hear those mental gears creaking along. “What’s a hamster got to do with nails?” Well, FYI, I’ve been designated mascot and ambassador from Polished Indulgence, our little portion of the interwebs that I share with my cohort, Carmela. There, we share our love for all things blue and sparkly, with mostly nail polish reviews and swatches with a side of nail art. If you do drop by for a visit, please don’t forget to drop me off some treats! (A hamster can never have enough treats. Honest.) But enough about us, you’re here for the nails and so are we!

It was quite the challenge trying to come up with nail art worthy of Stephanie’s esteem. She comes up with the most fun textures in her art that we’ve fast come to admire. In an effort to keep up to standards, Carmela and I put on our thinking caps and thought long and hard. It wasn’t until I noticed Carmela’s new(er) scarf hanging in her closet that a lightbulb suddenly lit up somewhere. Here’s our camouflage-ish take on said scarf’s pattern:



We used quite a bit of polishes in an effort to find colors that matched the scarf perfectly. NYC In A Color Minute Spring Street for the bright orange, Essence Break Through for the purple, Orly Lucky Duck for the Green and Orly Au Champagne for the white.



We started with Au Champagne as the base, then went to town with a dotting tool, layering color after color. It doesn’t really matter which color you start with. The beauty of this sort of pattern is that you can go crazy and not think too much about color placement. Perfectly imperfect is what you’re aiming for, after all!



Sure, it doesn’t exactly match the pattern but then that’s why it’s called “inspired by..”. I must say, I do adore the colors! Perfect for both spring and fall!



And in true Polished Indulgence fashion, here’s Carmela posing with a fabric daisy. We sort of have a thing for fabric flowers…



There you have it, our scarf inspired nails! Sometimes inspiration strikes you at the oddest moments. This is probably one of them. Now, before we forget, we’d like to say a huge thank you to the ever-so-sweet Stephanie for having us over. We’re beyond thrilled to cover for her while she’s off on vacation. Carmela and I wish you happy travels and lots of fun adventures, Stephanie! :D Now back to you, dear reader, as inquiring minds would like to know: have you ever been inspired by an article of clothing when it comes to nail art designs? Where do you usually take inspiration from?

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How awesome is that manicure! I'm such a fan of dotticures and love this camo dotticure! I also love that she took her inspiration from a scarf. So fabulous!

A huge thanks to Hammie and Carmela for holding down the fort for me while I'm away. If you haven't already swing over to Polished Indulgence and show Hammie some love!

Hope you are all having a fabulous day!! <3 br="br">

Monday 20 August 2012

Guest Post from Carolina of Colores de Carol

Morning loves! Today I have a guest post for you from the fabulous Carolina of Colores de Carol. Carolina was actually my very first follower back when I started this blog at the beginning of the year! I still remember when I opened my computer and saw that I had 1 GFC follower, I literally jumped out of my chair and did a happy dance. I couldn't believe that someone actually clicked on the follow button! Carolina has been a great source of inspiration for me, and posts some absolutely amazing stamping nail art. Today she has a breathtaking watermarble to share with you all!

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Hello gentle readers from Sincerely Stephanie!

I'm very happy to be here today sharing with you my manicure.
I love Stephanie's blog so much, especially her skills, she is very talented and I'm very impressed with her nail art.

I did a water marble manicure using three shades from China Glaze, Happy Go Lucky, High Hopes and Hey Sailor. I applied one coat of Hefesto holographic top coat.

I hope you like it.

Thank you very much Stephanie for letting me be here today, I hope you are enjoying your vacation.

Love,
Carolina.

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Carolina's watermarble is so perfect! I also absolutely love the added holographic top coat :) I'm so honoured to have Carolina posting today! You really should all hop on over to her blog and check out some of the amazing nail art that she comes up with!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!!! :D

Sunday 19 August 2012

Guest Post from Emily of The Lacquerologist

Gooood Morning lovelies! Today I have a guest post to share with you from my absolute best blogging buddy Emily of The Lacquerologist! Emily and I met through the Black and White Challenge that we participated in throughout April and have been tight ever since. We got to do the Abstract Nail Art Challenge together through June and we also *might* have something coming in September! Keep an eye out ;) We're totally challenge buddies and I'm super excited that Emily is taking over my blog for the day. She posts some amazing nail art and she recently graduated from Nail Tech School!! So she's also a pro. So let's let Emily take it away!!

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Hello everyone!  I am so excited to be here at Sincerely Stephanie today!  Stephanie is such a sweetheart, and sometimes I feel like we must have been separated at birth because we seem to have a lot in common =)  Anyway, it is an honor to be here!

For my guest post, I wanted to do something super fun and on trend, so I did an ombre stripes manicure!  This look was inspired by [this mani] on dailysomething.com!  I used two coats of Julep Kate for my base and accelerated the drying process with a coat of NYC top coat.  Then I applied striping tape and carefully painted on the ombre!  From light to dark, I used the following polishes:  Julep Hayden, Julep Parker, China Glaze Papaya Punch, Sinful Colors Citrine, and Wet N Wild Wild Shine Red Red.  After allowing it to dry for quite some time to prevent smearing, I applied NYC again to smooth it all out! =) 



I love using ombre colors in different ways than just one on each finger!  Do you like the ombre trend? =)  Thanks for reading today!  Love you all and hope to see you over at The Lacquerologist too!

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I loooooove it! You all know how much I adore stripes and to add another element too boot? Em you knocked it out of the park! I completely love it! Make sure you all head over to The Lacquerologist and follow Emily!

Hope you are all having a fabulous day! Thanks for stopping by! :D

Saturday 18 August 2012

Guest Post from Ashesela of Art Evolve

Morning! Today I have a guest post to share with you from the lovely Ashesela from Art Evolve! Ashesela is a fellow Canadian *woot woot* and does some seriously kick ass nail art! She is able to get some unbelievably intricate designs and the one she has to share with you today is no exception! Let's let Ashesela take it away!

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Hello everyone! This is Ashesela from over at Art Evolve, here to share a manicure with you. :D
Stephanie asked me if I would like to do a guest post for her while she was away, and I jumped at the chance!
She is such a lovely lady with such a lovely blog, and I am honoured to be a guest on here!! :D



For this manicure I used a base of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Virtual Violet. I then put some Nubar Diamonte top coat over it, so I would have a good base to do nail art on. I used trimmed brushes and some white acrylic craft paint to do the design. I worked on this while watching Dr. Who with my sister, and I had a great time making this mani. :D (Please excuse the dry skin >.<;)
I basically doodled whatever I wanted on my nails. The larger dots were mostly made with a small dotting tool, and the smaller dots were made using a brush. After that, I topped it with top coat again, and voila! All done. :D
I hope that you enjoy this manicure, as I sure enjoyed making it! :D

Wishing you a safe return, Stephanie!

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Holy! Just doodled whatever she pleased? So amazing! The intricacies that she manages to get always astounds me! You should all head over to her blog and check out some of the amazing work she does.

I hope you are all having a fabulous day! Talk to you all in a few weeks! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday 17 August 2012

Guest Post from Marta of Chit Chat Nails


Goood Morning dears! There is no post from me today, this is the start of a series of wonderful guest posts from some fabulous bloggers! This was originally supposed to be my vacation, but a few things have come up and even though I'm not going away anywhere these ladies have agreed to still take over my blog for the next little while! So I'll still be around on twitter and Facebook, but you get to see some manicures from some of my best blogging friends! I am beyond excited and thrilled though to have a lineup of incredibly talented ladies posting for me over the next few weeks. I consider all of these ladies to be friends and they are some of the most kindhearted people I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know. Oh and on top of that they are all insanely inspirational nail artists! I welcome all of you to check out their blogs and show your support to all of them :) 

First up in the line of guest posts is the extremely talented and sweet Marta of ChitChat Nails! Marta is a fellow Canadian blogger and we literally live a short drive away! She is one of the first blogs that I started following and am honoured to be able to call her one of my close friends now. She has some of the coolest stamping manicures and is always so creative in coming up with new looks. I am ecstatic to have her gorgeous nails here on my blog today! Without further adieu here is Marta's post!!  

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Hello Lovely Ladies,
I am so stoked to be here!!!! 

I'm Marta from a little London Ontario based blog called ChitChat Nails.  I felt a real kinship to Stephanie when she posted her "Blue Jays" manicure in the early spring.  I loved her creativity, and that was the first time that I realized that we both were Canadian based bloggers (literally a car drive away from one another).  Since then, I consider Stephanie one of my close blogger friends and I am happy to have gotten to know her!

I am sooo excited to be here!!!! I know that Stephanie has recently been doing a few stamped manicures (and rocking them!) and that is also what I have for your today :D



I used two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  This is an off-white blue-grey polish; I adore it sooo much that I actually own two bottles of it (lest I run out ;) ).  I stamped using MASH-42 and MASH Nail Art Polish in Black.  Below is the image on the plate:



I was drawn to the geometric pattern on this plate, but did not like the little void spot created by the unfinished triangle (see if you can spot the void in the image). I had this vision ;) and the little 'void' drove me crazy enough that I restarted this manicure.  I am not that good at freehanding the rest of the image so I double stamped the bottom part of the image (one above the other) onto my nails.  *Aaaah, much better*



For my accent nails, I used one coat of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White and two coats of the lovely coral neon that is China Glaze Flip-Flop Fantasy.  One coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast topcoat completes this look.



I have been sporting some neons here and there throughout the summer, they are so vivid and always improve my mood.  I am also digging the alternating accent nail look (ring and thumb on one hand AND pinky and pointer finger on the other hand).  I thought it would be great to incorporate both of these into this Guest Post manicure.  




I would like to say a special thank you to Stephanie for trusting me to fill in for her while she is away and allowing me to share this look with you on her lovely blog. 
I hope you liked it, eh? ;)

Do you sport neons year round, or only in the warm summer months?
Do you like the accent nail look?

THANK YOU FOR READING 

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WOW! I love this! As soon as I got the email I literally wanted to recreate the manicure. The neon and the accent nails are fabulous together and I really want that ring! LOL! 

This is a beautiful manicure and if you are not already you should head over to ChitChat Nails and start following! :) 

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!! :) 

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Swirly Stamping

Morning dolls!

This will be a quick post today, I'm in the middle of reading an amazing book and seriously all I want to do is finish it! LOL! Awhile ago Anutka of Wacky Laki posted a stunning mani based off an opal. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to recreate it!

bundle monster stamping


I started with 2 easy coats of my favourite OPI My Boyfriend Scales the Walls and then added a coat of Finger Paints Motley a blue green flakie. Then I stamped using BM-201 and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Streak. I was hoping to capture the flakies more in my pictures, but I did this right when I got home from school and I didn't have my normal photo set up yet. So I tried taking pictures in the sun, which didn't come out until the next day.

bundle monster stamping
bundle monster stamping


My favourite thing about this manicure was that as soon as I finished it my mom looked at it and wanted the exact same thing on her nails!

I loved this swirly subtle stamping look! I wish I had been able to capture the flakies colour shift better here. Just imagine it was awesome ok? ;)

I'm back to my book! Hope you're all having a great day!

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Slime Time!

When I first opened Pretty and Polished Bayou Blitz I immediately thought it looked like some sort of awesome toxic sludge. Like the kind of sludge that you might see on the Simpsons. I mean this in the best possible way. So I paired this polish with some neon slime nails!

pretty and polished bayou blitz


These kind of nails are super easy and have such an eyecatching effect! All I did was put two coats of China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard on my index nail and two coats of China Glaze Hang Ten Toes on my middle and pinky. Then using the alternating colours and a dotting tool added some dripping slime! I used 2 and a half coats of Pretty and Polished Bayou Blitz on my thumb and ring fingers!

pretty and polished bayou blitz
pretty and polished bayou blitz
pretty and polished bayou blitz


Bayou Blitz is such an interesting and unique polish. It is filled with matte neon yellow micro glitter in a turquoise jelly base. Then it is packed with huge hex glitters in a rainbow of colours. There is purple, pink, orange, blue and lime green. Just such a cool polish! Oh it also glows in blacklight. How. Awesome. Is. That. The large hexes are slightly transparent so you can get some really cool depth to the polish. I did place some of the large hexes onto my nail, not because they weren't coming out, but just because I wanted a larger variety of colours and I was getting mostly blue and green on my brush.

pretty and polished bayou blitz
pretty and polished bayou blitz


These are so fun and bright! I couldn't stop staring at my nails!

Pretty and Polished Bayou Blitz can be purchased from Chel's etsy shop for $8.50 for a full size 15mL bottle or $4.75 for a mini 7mL bottle. None are currently in stock so I would keep up with her on Facebook and Twitter to see when she will be restocking! Pretty and Polished can also be purchased on Llarowe, but this particular shade is not available there.

Would you wear something so bright and in your face? What do you think of the toxic slime look? Have you tried Bayou Blitz?

Hope you are all having a great Tuesday and that it's not raining where you are! Thanks for stopping by! <3

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