Plaid hearts....

This is my poor attempt at a mani I saw last weekend by the lovely and talented Quiche Girl. You can see her amazingness here.  Seriously?  How gorgeous are those nails?  Now.  In my defense... I WAS running around with my children and kinda in a hurry to leave the house and head north to the boyfriend's.... and I will also say I WILL be attempting this manicure again.  Soon.  So we'll see.  Maybe if my tips were more rounded?  But I just cant bring myself to round them off.... I'm such a squoval lover.  :/

I hope you guys enjoy it either way. 

I used Mason by Zoya, Spontaneous and Millennium by China Glaze, and Liquid Leather by Orly.  How bad does it look?

 

  Happy Polishing!

Halloween Mani No. 4: Jack Skellington... my version.

 

This is MY version of The Nightmare Before Christmas nails.... I just had to recreate it.  There are so many nail artists out there with gorgeous work that you can use for inspiration.  This is a movie I can watch over and over again. 

 

I created the look using Orly Liquid Vinyl as the base and the rest is done with small to tiny brushes (from the Michaels artist paint brush section) and acrylic paints.  I buy the Americana multi colored set.  The one with like ten little pots connected with a plastic strip.  That way, you get an assortment of colors and then if you need something specific, make your own shade.  It's super economical that way too. 

 

 

Hope you guys enjoy it. 

 

Happy Polishing!

And for Halloween, I did....

I love Halloween and this is what I came up with for this year.  Subtle but cute and luckily I work in an office where my boss doesn't care WHAT'S on my nail.  :)  One coat of Liquid Leather, one coat of Mummy May I and Millennium for stamping.  All China Glaze.  Cute, huh?  I used plates Mash 38 and Bundle Monster 225 for the images.  Tell me what you think.

Happy Polishing!

I don't know what I was thinking...

Hey! 

As you read this, I'm probably on a flight back home to Miami from St. Louis. This was my last trip before I move in August. I wish I could visit just one more time! But it's crazy to know that I'll be a resident of a new place in exactly 4 months. =) Anways, on to the polish...

 Today we have Jo by Zoya. Zoya describes this as a delicate and serene looking medium periwinkle blue with subtle silver and blue toned shimmer. This is a cute color. Very relaxing. I thought it was going to be sheer but the joke was on me. 2 coats for full coverage. The application and formula were perfect.

Then I don't know what came over me... I got some tape and taped off most of the nail and painted the side black with Liquid Leather by China Glaze. I thought it was going to be cuter. At least it was in my head. Whatever. Next! LOL!

Happy Polishing!

...Seeing Spots...

Here's a mani I recently wore when my boyfriend and I went to Billetproof in Ocala, Florida.  Billetproof is a traditional and custom hot rod gathering.  It's a great day spent looking at great cars. 

Alas, I digress...back to the nails.  This is two coats of Girl Friday by Misa.  A beautiful red with even brighter red microshimmer.  Absolutely gorgeous and of course, like any Misa, wonderful application.  I stamped the leopard spots from image plate BM 221 using Konad's special polish in Black and then highlighted a few of them using their White.  Topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite and done.  What do you gals think?

BTW, dont know if any of you are into metal art work or have men in your lives into it themselves, but my boyfriend is uber-talented and totally worth me dropping his name.  You can check out some of his art here.  (shameless of me, I know.)

Happy Polishing!

Misa, It's Always Been You!

Hey Ladies! Sorry for the lack of posts this week. My boyfriend left Monday night and I immediately jumped into studying for the ethics portion of the bar exam that I'll be taking tomorrow morning. So with that said, this post is going to be quick and to the point because I have more studying to do. This is It's You! by Misa. This is a deep dark gray (almost black, but not quite) with green and pink/purple duochrome shimmer. It's a weird duochrome though. The color doesn't shift in the same way as other duochromes. I think different lighting brings out the two shimmer colors. It was difficult to capture on camera. If you enlarge the picture you can see the pink/purple on the left picture and the green on the 2 pictures to the right. Two coats for perfect coverage. Formula was excellent (as are all Misa polishes). I've even had this one on for 4 days now because I haven't had time to change my polish.

Hope you all like it! Wish me luck on my exam!

Glitter Puke...

Hey Ladies!

So I bought OPI DS Temptation a few weeks ago (before my self-imposed ban). I didn't realize what it was until I got home and opened the bottle. I regretted this purchase as soon as I saw the swatch I made on paper. Stupid me for not searching the polish before purchasing it (or so I thought). I was disappointed with the sheerness of the base color. I didn't want to apply a million coats to get full coverage. But I decided to give it a chance before shunning it to the back of a drawer. I started by applying 2 coats of China Glaze's Liquid Leather as a base. Liquid Leather is a simple leathery black. 2 generous coats should usually be enough for full coverage. Then I applied 2 coats of Temptation. Temptation is a sheer purple base with a megaton of purple and blue glitter in different sizes. I think it also has small silver and pinkish glitter. Application was good. You can imagine that this dries very textured because of the amount of glitter in it. So I applied a generous amount of Seche Vite topcoat to try and smooth it out. For the most part, it worked. So now you know: One generous coat of Seche or two regular coats so you can get back to a smooth looking nail.

The only issue I have with this polish is that its one of those colors that is such a pain in the butt to capture accurately on camera. It ends up looking more blue no matter what I do. I played with camera settings and lighting. Its actually insanely purple. Whatever. I googled the color and see a lot of other people had the same issue while photographing this.

So my final thought on this polish: Gorgeous! I'm glad I tried it and I learned my lesson.

Ripe Bananas!

Hey Ladies!

So I went back into my untried drawer and pulled out this long overdue beauty. This is Banana Bandana by OPI. So pretty. I wanted it for sooooooo long but I never saw it in stores... And then one day, there it was! It was mine!

Banana Bandana is a summery pale yellow creme with what appears to be super subtle shimmer under certain lights. There is one downfall to this color: It's sheer. I needed 3 coats for full coverage. One nail even needed 4. It was hard to get good even coverage. Not impossible though. At least it wasn't chalky.

Then I decided to stamp with BM-225 from Bundle Monster. I asked my boyfriend to pick between this design and a cute little skull. Shockingly, he picked the skulls. But just as I was about to praise him on accepting and embracing my weirdness he changed his mind. LOL! So I stamped this vine-like design using Konad Special Polish in Black. The design is big enough to cover the entire nail but I purposely stamped it off to one side. I didn't want to lose so much of the yellow.

I feel like the stamping was an epic fail. The image came out perfect... but the black smeared when I applied topcoat. That has only happened to me back in my pre-seche vite days. Personally, seche vite is the only topcoat that doesn't do that to my stamped images... But this time it did! And I was pretty generous in my application of topcoat (as I usually am when I stamp). I apply a lot so that the actual brush doesn't end up touching the design. You don't notice the smearing unless you look at my nails up close. But I know its there so that is enough to bother the hell out of me...

Conclusion: I'll be taking this manicure off sooner rather than later. LOL!

Happy Polishing!

(Anti) Valentine's Day

Hey Ladies! So I decided to do a Valentine's Day manicure... but I wanted to do something that wasn't so lovey-dovey. (I will also be doing a lovey-dovey mani.) I had a few years where I was anti-valentine's day... So I wanted to represent those days with some polish and stamping. If anything, this can also be a punk rock type valentine's day mani. LOL! I know, random!

I started off with 2 coats of  ManGlaze's most popular color ever: Matte is Murder. It dries matte very quickly and turns into a very dark grayish black color. Almost like asphalt. Then I applied a coat of Seche Vite. That makes Matte is Murder turn into a pure black color with some shimmer. The shimmer is almost holographic in the sunlight. Sadly, I wore this during 2 days of rain and had no sunlight for pictures of the shimmer. So how did I know about the shimmer if I had no sunlight? I've worn this before (here). So check out the link if you want to see picture of this color in the sun. Don't mind the old style photos. That was before we found our picture-taking-groove. LOL!

Then I stamped the heart pattern that you apparently can't see... LOL! Let me explain! I used the heart pattern from Bundle Monster's BM212 plate. Such a cute design. I thought it was appropriate for the look. I wanted it to be red so I used Konad's Special Polish in Red. I thought it would work since the bottle is super bright red and Konad polishes are meant to be opaque for stamping. Yeah how about no! I stamped and you couldn't really see it. It was there but it was so dark on the black that it made the design subtle. I've noticed that sometimes topcoat brings out the stamped color more so I applied a coat of Seche Vite. Yeah it helped... only a little. I decided to keep it on for the day and see if it looked better while I was out and about (and not confined to artificial light). But then I had rain and no sunlight all day.

So I got annoyed trying to photograph it in a way where you could see the red and decided to change it. I took the same exact pattern from BM212 and stamped over the red using Konad's Special Polish in White. NOW you can see it! Topped it with a coat of Seche Vite and I was good to go. It's unfortunate that the red didn't work out. I thought it really looked badass when you could notice it.

Either way, I hope you gals like it. I'll be doing another Valentine's Day mani and hopefully that one won't be an epic fail like this one. LOL!

Happy Polishing!

China Glaze Magnetix - Pull Me Close

Hey Ladies! Ok so seriously... when did this collection come out? I didn't know anything about it until I saw swatches start appearing everywhere! So I contacted my go-to nail supply store (ever since I discovered them I don't order polish online anymore because their prices are amazing) and they got them in today. I went straight there after my morning class. There they were... pretty in their little display on the counter! LOL! I have been dying to try magnetic nail polish but never managed to get my hands on some. And then the one time I found some at Walgreens it was too expensive for a brand I didn't know or trust. Needless to say, I was super excited when I saw that China Glaze had a collection of magnetic polishes! I definitely trust them to do it right. And they sure did!

This is Pull Me Close from the Magnetix Collection. It is a grayish blue with a metallic finish (before you use the magnet). I found that one generous coat was all you needed for even coverage. It was a bit streaky but it honestly doesn't matter because the magnetic design hides that. The instructions said to hold the magnet for something like 10 seconds. I held my finger up to eye level and put the magnet over it. The design appeared instantly for me. You are supposed to do this while the nail was still wet so I did one nail at a time (applied polish, held the magnet, and moved to the next). Be very careful not to touch your finger with the magnet. I found it easier (and faster) to hold the nail and magnet up to eye level.

This was my first attempt at using these and I don't think it came out too bad. My right hand (not the one photographed) came out better because I had already a feel for it by then. (I would have photographed the right hand but it's impossible for some reason). I love this polish! I got one more (the dark purple) and now I kinda wish I had bought the entire collection. One thing I didn't like about the polish was that it kinda had a funky smell to it... but that isn't a deal breaker for me! I hope these last long on the nail and don't chip instantly.

Which ones are you getting (or already got)?

Happy Polishing!

NOTD: Kotori

Am I the only one that thinks of Atari when I hear the name of this polish? I'm hoping you all know what Atari is... I went back to my un-tried drawer and pulled out Zoya's Kotori. Why hadn't I used this sooner? It's awesome! I know Mari is probably thinking: "Told ya so!" I took this polish from her months ago! The last time she realized I still had it I got a very sharp: "You haven't worn that yet!?!?!" *hides* LOL! Zoya describes this as a dense bright blue shimmer superimposed over a sheer black base. You notice how sheer the base is as soon as you put on the first coat. I applied 3 coats for even coverage. There is something different about this polish. Its bright even though its dark. Does that make sense? The blue shimmer almost looks like it has different tones of blue. Some of the black base covers shimmer from the coat underneath it. So that covered shimmer is darkened a bit while the shimmer from the top-most coat is still very bright. I think that causes a really cool effect on the nail. Point of the story: Get Kotori! (Ha Ha, I made a rhyme!)

Zoya's Fleck Effect Collection - Swatches & Review

Hey Ladies!

Swatching the Fleck Effect Collection by Zoya was fun! I love flakes so much! I wanted you guys to see this collection over a color polish and over a black polish (to focus on the flecks). Just in case anyone is wondering, the black I used is China Glaze's Liquid Leather. (Liquid Leather is literally just that, black leather in liquid form. Pure black.) I figured most of you (if not all of you) would apply this over something else and not alone on the nail. Therefore, I didn't swatch them alone. The base for all 3 of these have a slight tint of color. They are obviously sheer so you will always see your nail underneath no matter how many coats you apply. I didn't apply a base coat or a topcoat. Lets get started!

Chloe - Zoya describes this as a sheer coral pink base with two types of duochrome Mylar flakes: red-orange to gold and gold-green to blue. Spot on description. There are more of the red-orange to gold flakes than there are of the gold-green to blue flakes. The purple polish used was 2 coats of Zoya's Tru from the True Collection. Over this purple, the flakes look more orange and pink than when applied over the black. Over the black, the flakes look more orange and red. Application was great. 1 coat.

Maisie - Zoya describes this as a sheer turquoise blue base with reflective Mylar flakes that shift from green to blue.  This one is tricky. Sometimes it looks more green and sometimes it looks more blue depending on the light. But the blue is more on the greenish side. Did that even make sense? LOL! Application was great. 1 coat. I just wish the flakes were bluer. (More of my thoughts on this below.) The blue polish used was 2 coats of Zoya's Skylar from the True Collection.

Opal - Zoya describes this as a sheer green base with reflective Mylar flakes that shift from bright green to blue. Again, another spot on description. Once on the nail, its easy to get confused between Opal and Maisie. After all, they both shift from green to blue and blue to green. However, as the description says, the green in this one is brighter. I also think Opal shifts less to blue. Application was great. 1 coat. The green polish used was 2 coats of Zoya's Bevin from the True Collection.

___________________________

Just for fun I decided to make these matte just so you can really see the flakes! I used Essie's Matte About You topcoat. I love how making these matte makes the flakes pop out even more!

Chloe 

Maisie 

Opal

__________________________

Overall: This collection is loaded with flakes. I love it! One dip of the brush into the bottle is all you need for an application overloaded with flakes. You can easily move the flakes around with the brush if you don't like where they ended up on the nail. The polish you use as a base can really help the flakes look more like one color than another. Purple polish brings out the pinkish red of Chloe. Blue brings out the blueish side of Maisie. Green polish brings out more of the bright green of Opal. I love these polishes! I only have one slight complain... But note, this is the blue-lover in me speaking: I wish the blue in Maisie was more dominant than the green. How awesome would an all blue flake polish be? Amazing! Don't get me wrong though, I still love Maisie.

What do you gals think about this collection? Which will you be getting? Thoughts? Comments?

Happy Polishing!

Happy Late Birthday!

Hey Ladies!

As always: Better late than never! This is a mani that I did for my birthday back in March. I was inspired by a shirt I had bought that week for myself. So I kinda mimicked the shirt on my nails for the night we went out dancing!

So I started off with two coats of China Glaze's best color EVER made: For Audrey! In my opinion, this is the most beautiful color on earth. Don't get me wrong. I love unique colors that have 43 thousand shades in one (I exaggerate a bit). Love douchromes. Love holos. But you don't always have to be crazy to be a beautiful color. I remember when I first saw this color. Mari wore it out for a previous birthday outing of mine. I loved it so much that I went on the hunt for it. Sally's Beauty was sold out back then. Thankfully I was able to get it online from Transdesign. *insert heavenly music here* I was sooo happy. Mari and I usually share our colors but this is one of the few colors we each own a bottle of. I guess you can say its in my permanent line! Moving on....

I applied 2 coats of For Audrey. I then stamped with Konad plate m57 using their Black Special Polish. Then I dotted with China Glaze's Spontaneous. This color was great for it because it's seriously opaque! You ask: How did I dot? (Or you might not care!) Either way, listen up (those of you that don't have a dotting tool). I don't own a dotting tool. I got a toothpick and cut a little bit of the tip off so it wouldn't be so pointed. You want that flat end for dotting. Don't cut too far unless you want a fatter dot. Then I just placed a drop of the polish on my nail board (yes, I have a board -school binder flap- that I use to paint my nails on in case I ever spill polish - don't want that landing on my desk). I dipped the end of the cut toothpick in the polish and then applied it on my nail. I waited a while for the dots to dry and then applied a coat of Seche Vite (didn't want the dots to smear).

And that's basically it...

Hope you gals like it. Happy Polishing!

BornPrettyStore Stamping Plate Review

Hey Ladies!

Happy Mothers Day! Happy Sunday to those of you that aren't mothers (like me)! Also, thank you for the sweet and understanding comments regarding my super busy final exam period and lack of posts.

Just wanted to make a quick post for my promised continuous review of the BornPretty stamping plates. I have tried and tried to remember what polish I was wearing when I stamped these over and I can't remember. I usually do these reviews right before taking off my polish for a new manicure. I'm sure I could figure it out if I looked a little harder but I don't have the brain function for that right now. I think this color might have been a swatch and not an actual worn mani. Whatever. LOL! I stamped using Konad's Special Polish in Black.

My initial review can be found here. My opinion on the overall quality of these plates is detailed there and I don't feel like typing it again. So these are my 4 favorite images from the BornPretty plate labeled m11. We've got a butterfly, a crown, a flower, and a rose. The only thing I really want to add is that I wasn't able to get the entire crown image to lift off the plate. See what I mean? It isn't completely solid. I retried applying black polish and lifting with the stamper but I could see it wasn't full before stamping on the nail. I gave up after a few attempts. Other than that, I'm happy!

The m11 plate is a part of this set. This set can be purchased from BornPrettyStore. You can't beat the price ($12).

These stamps were sent to us for review. Please read our disclosure policy (here).

Baby, I wish it was "coal" outside!

Hey Ladies!

This is my attempt to finish clearing out my manicures from the Fall/Winter. Just in case your wondering why I was busting out with a dark color in the middle of Spring. This is OPI's Baby It's "Coal" Outside! Personally, I love OPI's creativity when it comes to polish names. Super cute. This reminds me of my wish for cold weather in Miami. It's in the 90s here and sooooooo humid. I practically have a mini heat stroke every time I walk to my car. And my butt cooks on the seat every time I get in the car. LOL! I hate it! You never get used to it! And summer hasn't even started yet! *faints* I'm jealous of the fact that it was 60 degrees up by my boyfriends neck-of-the-woods. I wish I were there right now! Anyways... I'd describe this as a charcoal/gunmetalish black with a mega ton of shimmer. I believe this took 2 coats for full coverage. The formula and application were great. Really love this color!

Anyone else hate the heat?

Happy Polishing!

Swatch - OPI's My Private Jet

Yes ladies... My Private Jet... HOLO! *angels singing*

I never thought I would have this polish in my collection. Most of us already know the controversy regarding this color. If not, here is a brief recap: The original My Private Jet was a holographic. OPI discontinued the color but then brought it back... but they never made it like the original and that is why there are 3 or 4 versions of My Private Jet rolling around the earth.

The Lacquerista had a giveaway a while back for the original/holo version of My Private Jet. Of course I entered the giveaway right away! I seriously never thought I would win. So many other people had entered too. What were the odds... but then I got an email telling me I won. I was like a kid on Christmas morning! Imagine me when it actually arrived in the mail. My poor mailman... I stalked him for days waiting for it to arrive. Thank you Lacquerista!

My Private Jet is a jelly-like smokey black full of holographic glitter. It's like a rainbow over a black sky. (How awesome would that be in real like? Yeah, I'm a little twisted.) The only downside to this amazing polish is how sheer it is. It took 4 coats for full coverage. Other bloggers have suggested putting a black base coat first and then My Private Jet over it so you don't waste so much of it. I haven't tried that yet. This swatch was done without a base coat and without a top coat. I think this is one of those colors that you have to see in person to truly appreciate how awesome it is. You can see the holo in my pictures but I still think that it doesn't fully capture how amazing it is.

On a side note, Blogger has been driving us crazy! Has anyone else had problems scheduling posts? That option hasn't been very reliable for us lately. Posts have been appearing out of schedule or not appearing at all. I had a post prepared and scheduled for yesterday morning and it never appeared!

Anyways... Happy Polishing!

KOTD: Alice Plays Checkers

Hey Ladies! Today I have an addition to my last mani (here). I loved the checkered mani (even though I did it on just my ring fingers) but I wanted to add a little something-something. Nothing too crazy. I didn't want to overdo it. So I decided to go with a simple little heart on m17 (BornPretty plate). The image has 4 hearts but I just used 1 heart (the biggest one on the bottom of the image). I used China Glaze's Millennium for the stamping color and put the heart on the bottom black square.

After I was done I looked at my nails and it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. I love Disney's Alice in Wonderland and loved Tim Burton's version. I'm weird like that. My nails remind me of Alice and the dress she wore while inside the Red Queen's castle. This dress:

I LOVE this dress. If I could buy it right now I would in a heartbeat. I think it's gorgeous and funky (all at the same time)!

Happy Polishing!

NOTD: Let's Play Checkers!

Hey Ladies! 

I am taking a break from stalking my mailman for my Zoya promotion order. =) I can't wait for it to arrive. I ordered Crystal, Kelly, and Mikka. So I painted my nails with some of my untried Zoya's in honor of the great Facebook promotion they just had. Posh is a matte red velvet shimmer. (I just noticed that Zoya no longer has this polish on their website... Has it been discontinued?) Dovima is a matte black shimmer. Both of these dried super quickly. Gotta love matte polishes. Application was amazing. I only needed 1 coat of Posh for full coverage!

The inspiration for this mani came from Chloe's Nails. She does an awesome checkered mani. So I attempted it. I love a cute mani just like any other blogger but man is this complicated. The steps themselves are fairly easy but its very time-consuming. Her blog has a great tutorial but this is basically what you have to do: You have to apply your base color and then topcoat. Wait for it to dry. Take a piece of tape and stick it to your skin to remove some of its stickiness. Then place the tape (one piece going horizontal and one piece going vertical) to create the first square. Make sure the tape is properly adhered to the nail. (You don't want any color getting under the tape.) Apply your color and immediately pull the tape off. Apply top coat and let it dry. Then repeat the steps with tape again to make the second square, apply color, and then top coat.

Its time-consuming. I didn't have the patience to do all 10 fingers. Props to you Chloe's Nails for having the patience to do this. Maybe I just need to keep working with tape so I can get used to it. The tape kept sticking to other fingers... I had some black polish creep under the tape and mess up the square's edges... I was a disaster! LOL!

Until next time. Happy Polishing!

Black Plaid

This is quick and dirty. I was running out of the house but I couldn't technically run out with the way my nails looked so I did this in a rush (you can tell). I do however want to use this stamp again using another color combination (thinkin' Burberry), and soon. I love plaid. All types. So pretty. Makes me miss a pleated plaid skirt I had back as a teenager. *love*

Anyway, you're here for the polish. This is Misa's Dying Love with the plaid image from Konad plate M60 using China Glaze OMG. Dying Love is black with dark gray shimmer. Very subtle, but it's certainly there.

Happy Polishing!

KOTD: I Want Candy!

Hey! This will be a quick post.

So this is my manicure from June 3rd. This is Color Club's "Electro Candy."

"Electro Candy" is a neon pink with some blue shimmer. The shimmer is much more visible, as always, when in the sun. I can't remember if this is 3 or 4 coats. But I know it took a few to cover the VNL. It's hard to capture the brightness of this color. But trust me, it's pretty bright! My sister says it can stop traffic... LOL! Application was great and even. As a typical neon, it dried a little matte. But topcoat made it shiny right away.

Then I stamped the black butterfly using the fauxnad image plate (CG-04) sent to me by Maespiritu of Art of Nail. (Again, thank you so much!) I stamped using Konad's Special Black polish.

Hope you gals like it. I'll be back with more tomorrow!