#whitesp

It's the next level of snacking with this tomato basil white bean dip. It's cool and tasty. A dip that's great for any event is made with smooth white beans, juicy cherry tomatoes, fragrant basil, and tangy lemon.

Ingredients: 1 can white beans, drained and rinsed. 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved. 2 cloves garlic, minced. 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves. 2 tablespoons olive oil. 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions: In a food processor, combine white beans, cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil leaves, olive oil, and lemon juice. Blend until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides as needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and blend again until well combined. Transfer the dip to a serving bowl and garnish with extra basil leaves and cherry tomatoes, if desired. Serve with your favorite crackers, breadsticks, or vegetable sticks.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes

I kind of failed at taking pictures without the nail art, so sorry for that! This polish is yum though! I recently won ColoresdeCarol's giveaway and Revlon's Ocean was in it.  It's honestly been so long since I've tried any Revlon nail polish so this was a super great surprise.

♥ Happy Easter ♥ (\ /) ( . .) C('')('') Happy Easter Everyone! Hope the bunny was good to you  :) This is Revlon's Guava and she's beautiful! This is another polish I won from Colores De Carol's giveaway. Guava has such a great formula- it's creamy and opaque, you can't see any brush strokes when it dries. It's a cross between an orange, pink, peach and coral.  Horrible description huh! I seriously do not own anything like this color so it's great to have it! I like the Revlon brush and handle too by the way.  It doesn't dry super glossy or anything but it does dry quick, which is a huge bonus! With a quick dry top coat like SV, you can easily be out the door sooner than other polishes.

Sometimes a simple nail stamping is good... like when you're making a tutorial on how to stamp! Recently my little cousin and I filmed me doing this mani for the new Manicured Monkey You Tube Channel.  Check it out, it's pretty awesome :D This is two coats of China Glaze's Awakening.  It's a mauvey pink frost with flashes of gold and copper, it's quite pretty!

 This is Sapphire Silk from Orly's Precious Collection from Spring 2011.  Look at it.... just look.... admire it.... it's a deep teal creme that is opaque in one coat if you have a steady hand.  I used two coats and a top coat of SV.  The formula is not a real thick creme, it's rather a thin one but yet it still stays on the nail and is easy to apply.

One of the things I really like about Orly's Precious collection is they aren't your typical pastel light colors for spring.  They're a diverse bunch of highly pigmented cremes and shimmer. I also really like the Orly Gripper Cap because it contours to your fingers. This dusty teal is an absolute winner for me. 

UPDATE GIVEAWAY: few more followers to 130 and I add yet more swag to the giveaway! spread the word! Preface: pardon my cuticles, I spent a week in Colorado helping friends move and in the process my cuticles hated me :)

 This is the first half of the Color Club Alter Ego Under Cover collection.  Up first is Ulterior Motive- a really pretty raspberry frosty color.  It has a little shimmer to it as well and the color is so pretty! This was 3 coats and it built up nicely. You can see at some angles there is a bit of VNL but you have to look really hard and my tips are really white.  I think I will keep this in my summer rotation for a pedi! I didn't want to stamp over this color and take away from it's prettiness so I put I Juggle...Men over the top. IJM is from the new OPI Cirque De Femme collection and is an overcoat that has flashes of green/pink/blue/purple glitters.  I think I will have to try this over a darker creme color to see more of the effect.  It did however spice up Ulterior Motive a bit but only if you looked really hard. Ok, moving right along...

Total Mystery- yum!  This is a true blue glitter full of fun.  This was 2 generous coats.  It has this shimmer/glitter/foil factor to it.  It really depends which way you look at it and in what light.  May be that's the mystery :)

You can see a little VNL but I think that's just the finish.. it's more prevalent in the picture than it was in person.  It could have been my light box lighting my nail from underneath :) Come to think of it, this would be a cool color to do a french manicure with, using it for the tips. (hhmm.. things to try later)

I've been contemplating the China Glaze Tronica collection for a while because I have alot of purples and I love holos but it was getting mixed reviews. So I went in and looked at the colors again and grabbed Virtual Violet.. yes another purple.  :)  Hey! It looked like it needed a home! The holo is much better in person but check it out in the pictures, it's still awesome.  The finish is smooth and it was opaque in two coats with no problem. 

At one angle it looks like a suede finish but shiny.. then you see the holos... click on the pictures, take a closer look.. It's ok, it won't bite :) 

 Part 2 of The Intimate Collection is Dannii and Gemma (I posted a quickie of Jules in a different post.. I had put WNW Party of five glitters over it).  So I was away the week of St. Patrick's day and had to wait until I came home to swatch this collection. I was a little greened out from St. Patty's Day manis but still enjoyed Gemma.  It's an olive green with more of a yellow under tone and it shimmers with pink hues.  Gotta say, I like this green alot! It was easy to apply two coats and top off with Color Club 0-60 (have you tried this top coat, it's really awesome).

 I have a hard time not playing with my Konad plates :) This one was stamped in white special polish from M15 and didn't top coat it because it was coming right off to do the next swatch lol FYI- there's an OC Nail Art coupon code you can get on my side bar, check it out :)