Pink Grapefruit Margarita and Pink Flower Mani

Hello Loves!  After last night's IG contest drama, this drink is welcome!  Also have a cute pink flower dot mani to go with it.  Girrrrlin' it up for ya ;)

To make a Pink Grapefruit Margarita, 

You’ll Need:

1 cup Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice

½ cup Lime Juice (about 4 limes if you want fresh)

1 cup Triple Sec or Orange Liqueur

1 cup Silver Tequila

3 cups Ice (if you’re making the frozen version)

Kosher Salt/Sugar (optional for rim)

Make It!

I’ve never been a fan of the frozen margarita.  I’m convinced they put less alcohol in there.  AND, if you’ve ever watched the bartender make them, they leave a quarter of the stuff in the blender!  Rip off!  So anyways, I make mine on the rocks.  This is clearly enough for two or three people.  I highly doubt anyone can drink a cup’s worth of tequila at once…and still keep it together.  Combine all ingredients in a pitcher of some sort.  Rim the glass with salt if desired.  I would make a mix of sugar and salt; personally I think grapefruit juice is really sour and it seeds some sweetness.  Mix and pour into glasses.  Add ice to cup as needed.  DON’T add it to the pitcher, the ice will melt and the drink will get watered down.  If you’re making the frozen version, combine all ingredients in a blender and blend.  Pour into glasses and enjoy!

photo & recipe found on Pinterest; however, the link
contained a virus, so I will not post here.

Pink Flower Mani

Essie French Affair dotted with Sinful Colors 24/7
Essie Watermelon; Accent nail Essie Watermelon topped
with Varnish Vixen Junior Prom

I’m slowly ramping up to attempt the vintage rose nail art.  I’ve been DYING to try it foreverrrrrr, but I’m afraid I’ll screw it up.  I tried the cute little dot-flower technique.  I’m just kinda ehh about it.  I used EssieFrench Affair as the base and Watermelon on the accent.  

Two coats Essie French Affair and Watermelon

Two coats Essie French Affair and Watermelon

I topped Watermelon with Varnish Vixen Junior Prom.  It's a clear base packed with different sized and color hex glitters.  Ya got matte pink, black, and sliver holo.  The flowers are Sinful Colors 24/7 and Essie Watermelon. I used my dotting tools to make four dots, then after they were dry, I dotted the center. 

Essie French Affair dotted with Sinful Colors 24/7 
Essie Watermelon; Accent nail Essie Watermelon topped
with Varnish Vixen Junior Prom

You can find Varnish Vixen’s polish in her Etsy Shop; $8.50 for full sized bottles.  I bought my Essies from Target.

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Swatch Tuesday! Julep * Ava & Bette - January Bombshell Box

Hello lovelies!  Today I have the Julep Maven January Box.  The theme this month was Nude & Neon.  My normal box style is American Beauty, but I didn't really like the orange neon they offered, so I switched to the Bombshell style because I really liked the purple.

Julep Bette and Ava

The nude selection was a pretty polish called Ava.  It's a very light frosty pink.  Went on perfect in two coats, no application issues.  Dry time was normal.

Two coats Julep Ava

Two coats Julep Ava

Two coats Julep Ava

The neon in January's box is a sheer purple jelly polish called Bette.  Julep describes this a "creme", but I am going to disagree.  It is definitely not a creme in my definition of the word.  It went on nicely.  As you see, I used it with various undies/no undies combos.

Two coats Julep Bette various undies

Like I've found with most neons, dry time was fast and it dried semi-matte.  The pictures shown have no topcoat.  There is some sheen, but not as much as a normal polish, but it's not as matte as a matte polish.

Two coats Julep Bette various undies

Two coats Julep Bette various undies

I thought the neon would be much more in-yo-face!-where's-my-sunglasses?-blam!! neon, but it really wasn't.  The color shown is pretty much how it looks in person.

If you would like to be a Julep Maven and receive polish boxes monthly for about $20, click here for my referral link, take the style quiz, and enter code "4993142" at sign up.  It's a real deal to be a Maven, you get two polishes - sometimes three depending on your box style - plus an extra beauty goodie!  All for $20!  AND if you want to order polish at other times, you get a discount on regular prices.  Just sayin'!

If for some reason you don't want to be a Maven, you can check out Julep's website and pick out some great polish for $14 each.

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Moscato Cocktail and a Jelly Sammich Manicure

Happy Friday Lovelies!  Today I have a super girly mani and a super girly drink :)  Have y’all done your Christmas shopping yet?  I feel like I’m really behind and its freaking me out!  I absolutely HATE the crowds at the malls – ugh!  People are so rude too!  Anyways, this drink would be great to have with your girlfriends after a long, hectic day of Christmas shopping. 

You’ll Need:

3 oz. Moscato (the recipe is from Sutter Home, but Barefoot is by far my favorite)

1 oz. Vanilla Vodka

1 oz. Strawberry Soda (when was the last time you had THAT?!)

Ice

Make It!

Shake moscato and vodka with ice.  Strain into a glass and top with strawberry soda.  Find a comfy seat, pop in Magic Mike and enjoy a fun girls’ night in! :)  I can definitely see myself drinking a ton of these!  Maybe buy a couple bottles of wine ;)

*Drink recipe found on Pinterest.  Link to the pin found here
Photo from Sutter Home's blog post on 3/8/12, also linked to the pin :)

Girly Jelly Sammich Mani

I love the jelly sandwich mani look (I did one with China Glaze Ride the Waves and Different Dimension Social Suicide in this post), but I can never find jelly polishes ;(  Well, THIS is a great one!  I found Essie Sugar Daddy at Target.  It’s a very very sheer light pink.  I picked up China Glaze Make a Spectacle at Sally a couple weeks ago.  I thought they went perfect together.  As a bonus, it kinda matches the drink!  Love it when stuff accidentally matches! :P 

Jelly Sammich with Essie Sugar Daddy & China Glaze Make a Spectacle

I have been wanting to step up the nail art a little bit for my weekend posts, so I was going to do some stamping, but that turned out too light and you couldn't really see it.  I decided on dotting after that.  I’m not happy with how they turned out :(  I didn't really have a clear idea in my head, so I’m sure that’s why it’s absolutely horrible.  But here they are … another nail fail in my book! lol should have just kept the jelly sammich as it was!

Jelly Sammich (Essie Sugar Daddy & China Glaze Make a Spectacle)
dotted with Essie Mid Square, O.P.I. I Brake for Manicures & Nicole
by O.P.I. Make a Comet-ment

Jelly Sammich (Essie Sugar Daddy & China Glaze Make a Spectacle)
dotted with Essie Mid Square, O.P.I. I Brake for Manicures & Nicole
by O.P.I. Make a Comet-ment

Jelly Sammich (Essie Sugar Daddy & China Glaze Make a Spectacle)
dotted with Essie Mid Square, O.P.I. I Brake for Manicures & Nicole
by O.P.I. Make a Comet-ment

I started with my large dotting tool and made the top silver holo glitter dot (Nicole by O.P.I. Make a Comet-ment) then I dotted the three large pink dots (Essie Mod Square) then the smaller dark brown dots (O.P.I I Brake for Manicures).  I didn't like it, so, the only sensible option?  More glitter!!  I added small holo silver dots to the very tips.  Absolutely terrible!  I took it off immediately! 

Looking back, I think if I had added some more smaller overlapping dots, it would have turned out better.  Ehh well.  Live and learn. 

Have a great weekend loves!  See you back for Swatch Tuesday :)

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Summer Fun! Mojitos and Cotton Candy Nails

Wheeeee for the weekend!  And its OFFICIALLY summer (not technically here in Florida, cuz let’s be real – it’s ALWAYS summer here).  It was suggested that I post a mojito recipe.  What better time to give it to you than the first weekend of summer!?  Here is my friend’s recipe (thank you, Danny) and my own recipe. 

For Danny’s Cuban Mojito (he uses REAL measurements – WTF?)

You’ll Need:

•  2 oz. Light Rum (Matusalem Platino)
• 8-10 Mint Leaves
• 1 oz. Simple Syrup
• 1 oz. Fresh Lime Juice – keep the leftover lime for garnish
• 2 oz. Soda Water
• Crushed Ice

Make It!

Place mint in a glass along with simple syrup and lime juice, muddle gently.  Slice the remainder of the lime and add along with crushed ice.  Add rum and soda water.  Stir – don’t shake.  Garnish with sprig of mint.  Enjoy.

For My Extra Sweet “Gringa” Mojito

You’ll Need:

• Light Rum (I like to use Bacardi Limon or Bacardi Dragon Berry)
• 8-10 Mint Leaves
• Lime Juice
• Sprite
• Ice

Make It!

Pretty much the same as above – Muddle the mint and lime.  Add a few glugs of rum, Sprite and ice.  Stir it up, drink it up, and relax.  I don’t mess around with the garnish of mint and lime.  I usually strain the muddled leaves out anyways since I always seem to forget they’re in the glass and choke on them.  Haha =\

I’ve mentioned before, I LOVE sweet drinks.  So if you’re more traditional, you should most definitely go with Danny’s Mojito.  I was never a fan of soda water, so I always used Sprite instead.  SO GOOD GUYS!  And if you’ve never tried the Bacardi Dragon  Berry…get to a store now and buy some!  It’s strawberry flavored.  Delish.  Adds more flavor to a plain mojito.  It’s also great in Ginger Ale and Coke.  BUT you don’t have to get all fancy with the flavored rum.  Plain Bacardi works perfect too.  Or whatever you want, I don’t care.  Sorry, no picture this time because it only looks like a glass of Sprite - boring.

Fun Cotton Candy Nails

I really wanted to quit boring y’all with my blue polish obsession so I went with something more girly.  I went to the store looking for some nice bright summery colors and stumbled on this gorgeous bubblegum pink Essie that was on sale.  Duh, I had to get it!  Then I was all ohh hey look at this cutie blue too!  I couldn’t help myself and threw in a blue pedi.  So be warned: my gross toes are pictured below!! 

Two coats Essie Cascade Cool; Two coats Sinful Colors Snow Me White
Dotted with Essie Bikini So Teeny and Cool Cascade

I used two coats of Essie Cascade Cool on four nails and two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White for my accent nail.  This was a girly enough mani, but I wanted to make it even more fun.  I bought this dotting tool from Sally Beauty a month or so back and was finally brave enough to try it out.  I dotted on (took me like, four tries – SO annoying!  My hands kept shaking) Essie Bikini So Teeny and Cool Cascade in a little sort of half moon shape.  I did the same on my toes but switched the colors as seen below.  It reminded me of cotton candy, hence the post name. :)

I didn't even realize, but the Bikini So Teeny has cute little sparkles in it!

Close up

On the Toes: two coats Bikini So Teeny dotted with Cascade Cool and Snow Me White

Of course, Essie is my favorite brand, so I don’t have any complaints about how the polish went on, no chips, no bubbles, blah blah.  The Sinful Colors got some little cracks, but didn’t start to chip off until Thursday.  I didn’t even put a topcoat on. 

Have a blast this weekend y’all!