Sorry!

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posting today, everything was crazy with packing and last minute things, I will be painting my nails over the long weekend so I will have photo posts and nail posts when I get back!

xx Laura

Old Pictures From My Camera

Hi Guys~

Today I've got some old pictures that I found on my camera's memory card.  I was cleaning it out for my upcoming trip and I found a couple of pictures from a trip to Portland I took with a friend of mine a long time ago, we went to breakfast at a restaurant called Slappy Cakes which is a place where you sit at a table with a griddle in the middle and you make your own pancakes, it's very cute!

Enjoy!

Click below to see the rest!

Note: Going away for the weekend!

Hi everyone!

So I just wanted to let everybody know that on Friday I will be going away for the weekend, so I won't be posting on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.  I will hopefully be posting on Monday, but I know we are coming back on Monday, just not sure what time etc. So I will have a nail post on Thursday, and then you'll be in the dark for a bit, but don't fear!  I'll be back, aaaaaandddd I'll be back with tons of pictures!

I'm taking my actual camera with me, which is much better quality for photography.  I am going to the Oregon coast so I think I will get some really nice pictures!  I will be doing my nails while I'm there so I'll have another post for when I get back, because I won't be bringing my computer.

So look forward to a nice long photography post!  And some nail posts!  I'll have a photo post for tomorrow and then Thursday I will have a nail post!

See you guys then :3

xx Laura

Essie Go Overboard!

Hi Guys!

Happy Tuesday!  Tonight is the night I watch some tv programs with my mom and sister that we watch every week, it's very exciting~  Such a loser!

I think this is my first set of swatches of an Essie polish by itself!  Today I have Go Overboard for you, which is a gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous teal creme.  It looks a little dark in the bottle and in pictures but in person it's lighter and much more teal.  This guy has been around for a while but personally I think it's a really nice Fall color!

Go Overboard in the shade, there were no direct sun spots today :(

Click below to see the swatches!!

Simple Shapes!

Hi guys!

I have another photography category from my AP Art class to share today, this one was more focused on the idea of simple shapes and lines, potentially translated to repetition.  Enjoy! And as always feel free to click on a picture to see it larger :3

Click below to see the rest~

China Glaze Harvest Moon Swatches!

Hi guys~

How is everybody's weekend going?  Anything fun?  I'm baking Twix brownies tonight with my best friend, they're basically brownies with chopped up Twix in the middle and carmel sauce on top...I am thinking they are going to be amazing!  Also, on a blog side note, I've noticed most bloggers pretty much blog everyday except for Sunday.  So I'm going to give myself Sunday as a break day as well :)  But I usually try to have something lined up for every day, even if it's not at 11 am like it normally is.

Today I have an absolutely gorgeous polish to share with you guys!  It's from the Hunger Games collection, and it's called Harvest Moon.  It's a gorgeous color, very hard to describe.  It's sort of a bronze meets red brown meets gold!  It's got amazing sparkle power without being chunky glitter, which is something that I appreciate in a polish.

Direct sunlight bottle shot...is it not amazingly gorgeous?!

If you'd like to see swatches and a review then click below :3

Decay Photos

Hi everybody~

Today I've got some photos from a set of photos I had to do for my AP Art class, all based on Decay.  Enjoy!  And feel free to click an individual picture to see it enlarged~

Click below to see the rest!

Hunger Games Swatches Coming Up!

Hi everyone!

So I got these lovelies in the mail today~

I ordered Harvest Moon, Agro, and Stone Cold from the Hunger Games Collection!  Looking at the collection I may end up ordering maybe two more but definitely not more than that, I've read and looked at reviews of the whole collection but out of the other colors there's only a couple left that I'd consider picking up.  Soon I'm trying to get a bottle of Zombie Zest and It's Alive to do some future Halloween swatches :)

So be prepared to see some swatches of these beauties coming up!

xx Laura

Chameleon Blue Sky

Hi guys!

Today I've got more swatches and a review for you, of a drugstore polish that I don't see a lot of attention being shown for, but I think it's really nice!

The polish is called Blue Sky by a brand called Chameleon.  It's a bit of a duochrome with a change between deep blue and purple!

Click below if you'd like to see swatches and a review!

The Week in Pictures (kind of)

Hi everyone!

So for some photos to share today I just have a little sampling of the last few pictures I've taken over the past few days.  Enjoy!

My prescription glasses, I have to wear them to drive and I just got my license this summer so I've been wearing them a lot, I didn't always used to.  Now, when I take them off I can barely see!  I've gotten so used to them!

Click below to see the rest!

The Painted Pony Giveaway!

Hey guys, since I'm a brand new blogger I'm all about the good karma and the love of internet sharing so I thought I'd link you guys to a giveaway I'm participating in!

It's from a blog called The Painted Pony, adorable blog by the way you should totally follow, and she's giving away 3 bottles of Lush Lacquer polishes, super cute polishes!  I'm hoping to win Chubby Bubby :)

Give it a look, what do you have to lose? Nothing c:

http://www.thepaintedponynails.com/2012/08/my-first-giveaway.html?showComment=1345596647671#c309825357219777370

How To Spruce Up an Old Manicure!

We have all had those days where you can tell your manicure is on its last leg, but let's face it... we're too lazy to re-do the whole thing.  I sure have, and you're lying if you say you haven't!  So today I have a "manicure" to show you guys, a way to spruce up your old manicure.

So I've been wearing Lime Crime's Peaches <3 Cream since I did my review post, and I actually am impressed with how long it has worn with no top coat!  But I thought it needed some sprucing, so here's what I did...

Click below if you want to see what I did!

Lanterns and Kitties!

Hi guys!

Today I've got a few more photos to share with you, I was out in my backyard yesterday and took a few shots of a hanging lantern and one of my kitty I thought I'd share with you all :)

Click below to see the lantern photos~

Lime Crime's Peaches Love Cream!

Hi guys!

As promised I have another of the Lime Crime, Les Desserts polishes for you today, it's called Peaches <3 Cream.  And let me say, I love this polish.

Peaches <3 Cream is a wonderful, well, peachy color.  It has no shimmer to it, it's very much creme with a more glossy finish than Pastelcio.  It doesn't look very satin-matte to me, unlike Pastelcio.  I did not use a top coat for either of the photos below.  It's very summery and very bright.

Peaches <3 Cream in direct sunlight

This polish, like Pastelcio is incredibly pigmented, Lime Crime is known for their super pigmented lipsticks and eyeshadows and they did not disappoint in the pigmentation area.  I used 3 coats to even everything out, but if you were quite carefully covering the nail you could probably do it in about 2, I just had a bit of bald spots here and there but after the 3rd coat it really was gorgeous.

Peaches <3 Cream in the shade

It's definitely a peachy color, but I'm still on the fence if this is really a pastel or not.  Everyone who has complimented me on it remarks at its "neon" qualities.  The same goes for Pastelcio, which was DEFINITELY not pastel at all.

Overall, I love this polish!  It's a color I didn't yet own and I definitely needed it.  I think out of the two, Pastelcio and Peaches <3 Cream I probably prefer Peaches <3 Cream but I also love Pastelcio!  Both of them are colors I didn't have in my collection, and they're both very quality nail polish for the price.

You can purchase any of the Les Desserts nail polishes from Lime Crime's website for $5.99!

xx Laura  

Lime Crime's Pastelcio!

Hi guys!

So today I have a review of a much newer polish!  And it is good and bad, good on the fact that I LOVE the color and everything about it.  The bad is that for some reason I was just having a BAD nail painting day today.  So please, excuse my horrible, horrible job.  I even tried to clean it up and it was just not working for me, I tried to get the best pictures possible despite the fact.

So, onto the things you guys care about... Pastelcio.  Part of the Les Desserts collection from Lime Crime.  I also have another one of these lovely polishes to review for you guys soon!

Pastelcio is a hard color to describe for me.  For one thing, it's definitely not pastel.  It's much more neon than pastel, but not quite as neon as some other neon greens I've tried out.  My friend mentioned that it reminded her of Shrek, and I thought that's it!  That's what I've been thinking but couldn't put my finger on it.

It is beautifully opaque.  I have a lot of staining on my nails and I was worried that it would show through since this is a "pastel" color.  But no problem at all, I'm glad I didn't use a white base, it would've been a waste of polish and time!  

I used about 3 coats for this guy, but really you probably could've gotten by with 2 if you really wanted to.  

The finish on this one is not glossy, it's kind of satin-matte.  It's not bad, it actually looks a little glossy in my photos but it's not in person.  I just prefer a glossy top coat.  I added one later, but in these picture it is shown without a top coat.  

Speaking of which, what are you guys' favorite top coats?   Any good drugstore ones out there? Meaning not Seche Vite, my Ulta NEVER restocks Seche Vite, it is so annoying.  I seriously have yet to get my hands on it.  It's horrible.

You can purchase Pastelcio for $5.99 on Lime Crime's website!

Ugh these pictures just make me sad, I promise future pictures will not be this horrid.  Don't judge me by these :c

xx Laura

A Few Picks From This Summer

Hi lovelies~

So, as summer draws to a close I've been looking back at some of the photos I've taken over the summer.  I'm proud to say I think I got some really good shots this summer.  Oregon flowers are just gorgeous around this time of year so I've gotten lots of gorgeous flower shots and lots of good stuff so here's a few I've picked to share with you guys!

Does this guy look familiar?  (^.^)

Click below if you'd like to see the rest!

My 5 Favorite Photographs From This Year

Hey guys~

So as the name of this blog suggests I do love photography, even though I don't consider myself a photographer by any stretch of the imagination.  And I took a lot of pictures this past year so I thought for my first "photography" post I'd share with you guys my 5 favorite photographs from this year!

Let's get started, and in no particular order!

I absolutely LOVE this picture, I love the deepness of the green moss in contrast with the reds of the leaves and the flag.  I love it.  I think it's also kind of an interesting play on the idea of never letting the flag touch the ground, which it's technically not by the way, this is in a potted planter kind of thing.  But I see it as sort of a commentary on the army, which is something I love to comment on.

Click below if you'd like to see the other 4 picks!

Review/Swatch: China Glaze Sky High-Top

Hi lovelies,

Happy Wednesday c: Hope everybody is doing well!  Today I have my first review/swatch post~ While this polish isn't very new I still think it's fun to see swatches and reviews of older polishes so that's what we're doing, buckle up :)

I have China Glaze's Sky High-Top, I think this is from some kind of shoe themed collection they did once but I bought it at Ulta when the collection wasn't new and I know you can buy it from Victoria's Nail Supply online.

Sky High-Top is a gorgeous blue, it's a little too dark for "sky blue" in my opinion, but it's an absolute gorgeous blue, sort of a clear lake blue.  Very, very beautiful.  It has a subtle shimmer, it's visible in sunlight but not really in the shade, which is nice.  I like the versatility of that.  It was a three-coater for me, and it went on beautifully, very creamy and very nicely even.

Sky High-Top in direct sunlight (excuse my need for clean up!)

Sky High-Top in the shade

China Glaze is one of my favorite polishes, and I actually really want to buy more of them, I feel like I have so many Essie polishes and I don't even love Essie polishes that much, well mainly the brush!  I definitely recommend this polish, it's a wonderful blue to have in your collection!

xx Laura

Flakkies Mani!

Hey Everybody~

Today I've got a nice mani to show you guys, it's something I'd never done before.  Usually when I use flakies, which the only kind I've got at the moment is Essie's Shine of the Times, I do it with black.  I've never actually done any other dark color combo.  Once I tried it with a baby blue color, actually Something Borrowed by Essie which I just recently posted about!  But the combo wasn't my favorite.

This time I tried it with a color that's a bit hard to describe for me, it's almost brown like in appearance but it's kind of taupe-y grey at the same time.  It's called Park Ave. by NYC.  It's a nice color, and a really nice formula actually for what you pay for!

 
I had a hard time getting this to photograph very beautifully, the flakies look a little mauled to me.  But in person it was very lovely!  It was something that was neutral but sort of jazzed up at the same time.  I don't think this would be very inappropriate for work or school at all if you factor that sort of thing into your nails.

xx Laura

Butter London with OPI Crackle!

Hey guys~

Today I have another manicure to share with you guys!  This time I was looking for something with a little more, I don't know... sophistication I suppose.  Something a little more "grown up."  I've been going to a couple of different interviews lately and I wanted something a little more fancy looking.  And when I think fancy nail polish, and maybe this is just me, but I usually think about Butter London.

I don't own many Butter polishes, in fact I only own one.  And it was a gift... let's be honest, I'm too cheap to fork out $15 for a polish...that's like almost two China Glaze, or two OPI.  But I have been eyeing Disco Biscuit lately so I might have to, against my own will, pick that little puppy up...

But the one Butter polish I do own is Yummy Mummy.  It's gorgeous, it's a nice beige with a very pretty yet subtle shimmer to it.  It's very nice, but to be honest I don't see a noticeable difference between this formula and any other $8 polish formula.  So for me, a Butter color has to be really special for me to even THINK about forking over the extra cash.

So here's my final result!  Actually, this mani started out as purely Yummy Mummy, and it was nice.  But I felt like it needed a little oomph, so I jazzed it up with an OPI Black Crackle accent nail.  I think the end result was really nice, I'm a sucker for a beige and black color scheme anyway.  Apologies for the not so super fabulous picture quality, I'm trying to find the perfect lighting in my house to take nail pictures in because since I live in Oregon, it may be sunny for the moment but I never know how long that will last.  And it definitely won't be like this in say, a month.  Since I plan to ride this blog out for definitely longer than that I have to find some new alternatives to outside!  

xx Laura 

Manicure vs. Review/Swatches

Hi guys~

Just a quick little note here, the first few posts I've got coming up here are what I'm going to classify as "Manicure posts" meaning that the main goal of the post is to show you guys the manicure, whether it be design related or polish combination related.  But in the very, very, new future I have a few "Review/Swatch" posts coming up, in those posts I will talk about things like, how much I liked the formula of the polish, how well it went on, how many coats I used.  More logistics.  If you have any questions that are logistical like that about a manicure feel free to ask me!  But I just wanted to clear up why I'm not addressing those things in these first few posts that I've got coming up.

Thanks guys,
xx Laura

Cotton Candy Nails!

Hey guys~

So it's summer, but I was never one of those girls who painted their nails based on the season.  I love spring nail polish but I'll be just as inclined to rock it in the summer as I would be in the spring!

I was trying to decide how to paint my nails recently.  And I was looking at my little stash of polishes and I spotted Pink Friday from the Nicki Minaj OPI collection, this is one of my all time favorites.  And then I saw Something Borrowed by Essie and I thought, oh my god baby pink and baby blue, perfect.  I actually thought the manicure might turn out a little too Baby Shower looking, but it didn't at all.  A friend of mine said it looked like cotton candy!

I did what I'm going to call a reverse tip~  It turned out really nice I think!  I don't usually do a lot of tip designs because let's be honest your dominant hand always ends up looking worse than your non dominant hand, at least in my case.  But this one didn't turn out too bad.  It needs a little bit of clean up but I'm lazy about that -.-

Overall, I found this manicure very refreshing.  I've actually used a lot of neons lately, lots of neon greens and pinks, and it was nice to have something a little cooler in tone and I absolutely love these colors!  Pink Friday is seriously one of my all time faves and paired with Something Borrowed it really hit the spot.

xx Laura

Hiiii~

Hi everybody~

Welcome to Pictures && Polish!  I suppose I should introduce myself, I'm Laura.  I'm 18, and I routinely stalk several polish blogs at least once a day, and I'm obsessed with nail polish and painting my nails...so I thought I'd venture out into the nail polish blogging world c:
I was trying to think of some unique names for this thing, and I was drawing a blank.  But then I was thinking about my love for photography and, while I don't consider myself even an amateur photographer by any stretch, it would be nice to have somewhere to put a few shots other than the increasingly popular Instagram.  So I thought, Pictures && Polish, perfect.  Alliteration!  Everyone loves alliteration~  So the blog that you're looking at won't solely be nail polish oriented, but it will from time to time include some "photography."  I will have lots of swatches and reviews for you though, because like I said, I am nail polish obsessed and I can't seem to stop painting my nails.
I hope I can lure in a few other nail polish addicts, like myself, and maybe even a few newbies.  Everyone should know the love of a freshly painted manicure, *swoon*.

xx Laura