Fantabulous Fuchsia

Here I've painted my nails pink with Sally Hansen's Xtreme wear polish in "Fuchsia Power". I have recently fell in love with SH "Hidden Treasure", but prefer it over a blue or darker color. So, when my aunt sent me Sinful's "Green Ocean", which is a slightly green base that is more clear than anything else, with a blueish flake and glitter, I was eager to try it over a pink. That is exactly what I did! It was hard for me to photograph but this is pretty close to how it looks. The glitter shifts from a green blue to a purple blue. It's gorgeous!!

Belated 4th!!

Happy belated 4th!! It's way too late, but here it is! I did, however wear it for the 4th, I just didn't post it til now!! I used a blue from Sally Girl (from Sally's Beauty Supply) and Magenta Mood from Finger Paints and Konaded the stars with special white polish, and finished with SV.. Voila!!

Smurf Toes

So far this summer, blue has been my preferred toe color of choice. I'm not sure why exactly, I'm usually more of a french toe kind of girl! Maybe it's because blue is my favorite color and there is a gorgeous array of blues to choose from this summer!!
I quickly fell in love with Orly's "Blue Collar". But, as much as I love a creme polish, I am a girl who loves some sparkle! So I figured I'd try on top of that, Finger Paint's "Sapphire Shimmer"... And I LOVE it!!!! Finished off with a layer of SV, and I am in no rush to change them!!

sally hansen perfect pair :)

Sooo... my aunt had sent me Sally Hansen's HD "DVD", and at a first glance, I LOVED IT!! But, when I tried it on, it was a little disappointing due to it being very sheer. So, I was picking through my polishes, looking for one to layer it over, and I came across SH Intsta dri in "Grape Going".. They are the same color, from the purple base to the teal/blue flash!! The difference being that DVD is more sheer, and has larger glitter, whereas the insta dri has a smaller glitter for that beautiful flash! i didn't take any pics of them apart, but I do have 2 of them layered on my hands... here they are!

My first gradient attempt & Konad cover!

Yesterday I decided to head on over to Sally's and purchase the one polish I have picked up and put back down at least 20 times over the past few months, China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle. I don't know what took me so long...guess I thought it might give me corpse hands or something, but I have to say that I love this color. I also got China Glaze Grape Pop on clearance for $2.99, so I decided to use them both for a gradient mani.

I had been wanting to try a gradient for the longest time, and I've watched/read Colette's (My Simple Pleasures blog...check her out on the sidebar) gradient tutorials many times over. I did forget one important rule of gradient sponging, and that's to let it dry a bit before you sponge over it again. Because of my impatience, a bit of polish actually pulled up on the sponge and lifted, but I continued on anyway.

Without further ado, here's my gradient! I used Secret Peri-Winkle as the base color, sponged on Grape Pop, used the floral pattern from Konad plate M73, and Konad Special Polish in Sky Pearl for the stamp. If you care to, you can enlarge the image by clicking on the picture.

bling entry

Here is our bling entry to the "bling" challenge at polishhoarderdisorder.blogspot.com
I love the themed challenges...and so does my little eight year old step-daughter!!



Here is my step-daughters design:



we are both wearing pure ice in black, i forget the color name now, its the same one i used for my water marble epic fail i think. and then i used my gold and silver color club glitter striper polishes, and some chunky glitter and some rhinestones i've had for years... it was fun though, all topped off with a billion coats of seche vite!! Hehehe.. ok ok, just 3 :)

Happy Rednesday! Sinful Colors Under 18

I've officially named Wednesday the day of red, hence Rednesday! Very corny, I know, but that's how I roll.

Up today I have Sinful Colors polish in "Under 18". This brand's formula can be very much hit or miss, but this applied beautifully. Drying time (without fast-dry topcoat) is a tad long, but nothing too painful.

First pic taken in direct sunlight, second pic in indirect natural light:





What's on your tips today?

SH Spark with Sinful Green Ocean

I picked up a bottle of Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine polish in "Spark" for cheap at Walgreen's. I don't know if SH is discontinuing the line, or if it's just Walgreen's that is discontinuing the line, but all the Walgreen's here have the entire Lacquer Shine line for 1/2 off. The formula is better than decent, drying time was excellent (without a fast-dry topcoat), but I hate the tiny little brush that comes in the Lacquer Shine line.

As you can see below, Spark is your basic navy blue with a tiny bit of pinkish-purple shimmer. The shimmer only comes out in direct sunlight; in indirect light, the polish looks straight-up navy blue. (You can click on the picture to enlarge it; it shows the shimmer better that way.)



I topped it off with two coats (because I can never seem to stop at one...) of Sinful Colors Green Ocean. It's a delightful blue/green flakie polish that was available in March. I love it, and I especially love it over navy blue.

Here's a pick when I think it's at it's best, in indirect natural light:





And here's another in direct sun:



After red, navy blue is one of my favorite polish colors to wear, and I really like how the flakies really pop out and glow.

Finger Paints!

I grabbed some new, and discontinued "finger paints" nail polishes, and among them is this beautiful red. I am NOT a red lover by any means but this one has me smitten! It is reminiscent of CG "ruby pumps" but a little more berry hued.. with smaller flecks of glitter in a not-so-jelly base. The name of this particular color is "Magenta Mood". This pic is of the mani a day or two old, and with a horrible topcoat. I put the topcoat on at 8:30 am and by afternoon, it still hadn't completely cured! So sorry I strayed from "seche vite"... only once...

Water Marble Epic Fail :)

This was my first time water marbling...and I failed miserably. I love how other people's water marbling comes out, and maybe with some practice I will be able to perfect my own technique, but for now, I'm giving that a break!! Anyways..it was fun to give it a try!
I used china glaze "LOL", china glaze "2030", pure ice black (i forget the name of that one) and Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in "white on" as my base coat.

China Glaze Wagon Trail (with a little something...)

The good news is that I was able to fulfil another one of my Scrangie's archive-inspired, long-time lemmings when I purchased this bottle of China Glaze Wagon Trail (from the Rodeo Diva collection).

The bad news is that unless your hands are in full direct sunlight, this is just another one of those black-in-most-lights polishes...and truth be told, I really don't like them much. I was so off-put by the color that I really couldn't wait to take a picture of it before painting over it with something else.

Here's my pic of the above-mentioned offending polish, disguised a bit with a layer of Sinful Colors All About You. At least with the glitter I managed to wear it for a day...

China Glaze Thunderbird

I'm such a sucker for red polishes, and late last year, when I was going through Scrangie's archives and saw her picture of this polish, I knew I had to have one for my very own. Here she is, China Glaze Thunderbird, from last year's Retro Diva collection:



What I love most about this color is how it changes under different light scenarios. The above photo is in indirect natural light, below is direct sunlight.



I tried, but I couldn't capture a photo of when I think this polish is absolutely at it's best, and that's at night under artificial light. It definitely looks like it's on fire; it is so stunning! If you're a red polish lover like me (I know, we're in the minority!), you absolutely must get your hands on a bottle of this!

Oh, and for my favorite pryncss, look at what I have for YOU!

Poolside Safari

For Mother's Day, my boyfriend purchased for me, five of the six of the CG Poolside collection!! Here, my friend and I, (using Sally Hansen "white on" as a base coat) are wearing "Pool Party" (pink), "Sun Worshipper" (orange), "Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" (yellow), "Kiwi Cool-ada" (green), and "Towel Boy Toy" (blue). Over which we have applied the leopard and the zebra patterns from the konad M57 plate in black, and SV topcoat x2.

I love the neon colors!! Very 80's like!! :) Although, the blue is a bit off... it shows lighter in the picture than it is in person, but close.

Random Swatching II

So, here is some more, random swatching! Again, My friend had bought some china glaze polishes at Sally's on clearance and I LOVED them!! Here we have (from left to right) Watermelon rind, Strawberry Fields, Emerald Sparkled, and Frostbite. (2 coats of each, no top coat on either of them) I'm so lucky to have friends who share :)

Hidden Treasure

I was soooooo excited when I was cruising the nail polish isle at the store and saw the GIANT display of the new Sally Hansen Complete Manicure polishes!! I had been waiting for Hidden Treasure to be available, and BOOM, there it was!! Honestly though, if I had not seen pictures of "Flakies" on blogs, I would have been completely uninterested by just the bottle. Now that I've seen and used it, I love it! I especially love how the flash changes from a blue, greenish blue to a yellow orangie, almost pink. I couldn't wait to bring it home and put it over a bright blue!!

This is CG sky high tops with Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, one coat of Pure Ice Oh Baby, and one coat of SV: Sorry the pic is slighty dark, I took it using the light of a natural lamp and a piece of white paper to diffuse the light a little bit.


Also along with my Hidden Treasure adventure, my good friend decided to try the fabulous flake over black and mattify it!! I am not at all a fan of matte nail polish, usually with me, the shinier the better!! But, for some reason, Flakies look so cool mattified!! Here is her NOTD :)



And one more pic of our hands together to show the difference using a matte nail polish makes versus a regular clear. Oh and by the way we used CG Matte Magic :)

Random Swatching

So, here is some swatching randomness... A friend of mine come over the other day and brought me some Sally's Beauty Supply, China Glaze, clearance scores!!! On my pinkie was actually a favorite of my friend's and part of her collection.. Ruby Pumps!! Ring finger is Good Witch, and middle finger is Cowardly Lyin', all of which are from the Wizard of Ooh Aah collection. Index is grape juice, not sure if that is from a collection or not. No topcoat either by the way... So, here you have it..some random swatching!!

OPI Malaga Wine (and craptastic pic)

My friend (and co-worker) gave me some polishes that were "too dark" for her, one of them being today's O.P.I. Malaga Wine. It is a very deep, dark red creme that won't photograph to save my soul.

I did this mani Saturday using three coats of color and a topcoat. And I've been trying to at least get a photo that would give a color-accurate representation of the polish since then... In real life, the polish is actually a bit deeper and darker than my photo is going to show. Of course, this would have to be the worst photo of the bunch, too.



I'm really liking this color, and I realized that I just don't have enough cremes in my collection! I'm hoping that this mani will get me to Wednesday, but we'll see...

NOTD: Ulta Beach Bunny

I bought this polish about three months ago on clearance at Ulta and am just getting around to actually wearing it. I'm guessing it was a summer '09 shade, and I picked it up for a buck (well, $1.06 after sales tax to the fine state of Florida). If you like blue-based deep pinks, this is a good polish to own. While it's nothing special in the color department, it is an excellent polish for the price.

The pictures won't show it, but the application was easy. It dried fairly quickly as well. I really hate how these close-ups show every tiny bit of polish on my cuticles, though. I don't see it with the naked eye, but when I see the photos...wow.

Anyway, this is it, both in natural light outside.

Yesterday's mani with China Glaze The Ten Man

I'm still making an effort (albeit not a good one) to try to keep my polish on for more than one day before I change it. Sometimes it seems like my attention span is a little too short and I tire easily of the polish and just want something different; other times it's because my job causes my polish to chip so badly that I have to change it. Either way, I'd like to steer clear of changing it daily because I don't think daily acetone is a good thing for my nails and cuticles. I had a tiny chip from yesterday's ChG DV8 mani, so I thought I'd try to cover it up with a little something.

I chose my newly acquired China Glaze The Ten Man (got it at Sally's on clearance for $2.99). I used one coat, and I really like what it does with DV8. It turned it into this beautiful icy blue.



I'm looking forward to trying The Ten Man over some of my other polishes to see what they turn into!

China Glaze DV8 (and a Red Sox mani fail)

This collection was introduced by China Glaze quite some time ago, but I just got my first ChG holographic polishes about a month ago. I was somewhat disappoited by the first two I tried (FYI and TMI), so I wasn't in any special hurry to give this one a go.

Last night I was a little undecided about today's mani, and I pulled DV8 from the bin. I've got to say I'm sorry I waited so long to check it out; I LOVE this one.

In regular lighting, it's what I was hoping O.P.I.'s Suzi Says Feng Shui was going to be; a lightly dusty blue. Here it is, in natural lighting, but not direct light.



In direct lighting, especially sunlight, this polish becomes absolutely stunning. My pics really don't do it justice, but they're the best I got, so here goes. All taken in various degrees of sunlight.







What can I say, other than I absolutely adore this polish.

And for a good laugh, here's a mani I *actually* wore to a Red Sox game yesterday. I'll give myself an "A" for "Intent to display team spirit", but I think it's a giant fail for execution of said effort.



A bit much, huh?

Orly Snowcone (and why you shouldn't hurry)...

I had to get this done fast today, and I chose to use Orly Snowcone. As I've said before, I love Orly, and this color was no exception. Easy to apply, could have done with one coat but went for two.

Unfortunately, I'm also experimenting with a new nail treatment, Nail Magic. It said to put a coat on as the base, and then another coat as topcoat. All was well with the base, and the color, but the topcoat caused a bit of a problem. I'm used to using Seche Vite, and didn't let the color dry before I put on Nail Magic. I swear the color and coverage looked great BEFORE topcoat and stupid nail art.

Anyway, I have no time to redo it, so here's Orly Snowcone, two coats, in sun and in shade, with my toddler-like nail art.





And yes, that's supposed to be the sun peeking through the clouds....

Dirty Red Bandana

Now that St. Patty's day has come and gone, I am a bit relieved that I don't feel obligated to wear green. I like being able to choose whatever color moves me at the moment, and that color would be red.

For today, I thought I'd use one of my Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine unnamed mini bottles for my red (actually, it was sitting on my desk as opposed to having to get up, go in another room, and search through the reds to pick out one, so I guess laziness won out and this mini bottle it is...) I got it in a cute little five pack for $2.00 at Big Lots, and I find them perfect for travelling (or in this case, perfect when I'm just too darned lazy to get up and get anything else).

Anytime I combine black and white nail art on top of red polish, I call it my dirty red bandana. The design, as you can see below, doesn't look anything like the design on a bandana.

My nails are peeling badly, and this Barielle Growth Activator stuff seems to make alot of my polishes misbehave. I'd like to start the mani over again, but alas, I have no time, so I'm stuck with it at least for all day today.



This was 3 coats of the mini red, Fantasy Makers black polish used with a dotting tool, and a little fauxnad with Konad special polish in white.

Thanks, as always, for taking a look.

St. Patty's Day Fauxnad, Part II

Even though I haven't done a lot of green manicures lately, I've got to admit that I'm a little tired of the color already. I've seen so many swatches of greens, so many reviews of different greens that I feel as though I've been wearing them.

St. Patty's Day is the day before my birthday, and for as long as I can remember I've associated all things St. Patrick's Day as sort of my pre-birthday celebration, so I can't let this holiday pass without a little painting O' the green. Today's mani is two coats of Pure Ice Wild Thing (I'd call it chartreuse creme), with a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Ivy League on the diagonal of the nail. I used a fauxnad plate with Konad special polish in dark green for the design.





I have to admit that I really like Ivy League over Wild Thing. Ivy League is pretty sheer, and it would take several coats to build it to any sort of opacity, but it has such a pretty gold shimmer that's hard to resist.

Just in case I don't get in another mani before the holiday, Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

Some St. Patty's Day Fauxnading....

Piff over at the Polish or Perish recently blogged about RBL comparisons, and in the course of that blog post, reminded me of my love for Orly nail polish. I'm a big fan of their polish -- the brushes, the brush handles, the formula, and the overall quality of their polish is extremely good.

So, with that being said, I decided to break out Orly's Enchanted Forest and use that as a base for today's fauxnad. The rich, deep green creme is great to work with, but it did seem to have a bit of a smoothing out issue over my Barielle Growth Activator base coat. That stuff has made several manicures difficult...maybe it creates too much drag on the brush? I don't know, but I don't like it and this bottle of Growth Activator will definitely be my LAST bottle of the stuff.

So here's two coats of Enchanted Forest, with a four-leaf clover fauxnad done with China Glaze Cherish. I topped off the ring finger with a small rhinestone.





I heart you, Orly...and so does Piff!

Polka Dots

Apparently, I have too much time on my hands. I wanted to do some nail art(?) that would match the blouse I wore today, (not in pattern, but with the same colors) so I broke out my dotting tool and played around. This is after work, and my job is b-r-u-t-a-l on my polish, so try to excuse the chipping.





My right hand has been more densely dotted than the left. I think I like the less-dotty left hand better. I used Maybelline Express Finish in Dreamy Taupe as the base, and Finger Paints Cobalt Cardigan/Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine unnamed blue mini bottle for the dots.

If you don't own one, go out and get yourself a dotting tool. You can purchase them at Sally's, or extremely inexpensively on e-bay. (I got a set of 4 for 8 different sized dots for $7.00 bucks with shipping off of e-bay). It's a lot of fun to do, and the possibilities are endless. I just put a bit of polish on a piece of aluminum foil and dipped the dotting tool into it. I would just caution that if you're using polish to dot with (you can also use acrylic paint), just pay attention because the polish will thicken up as it is exposed to the air (as evidenced by that goofy line on my middle finger...thanks thick polish).

Revlon Glimmer Gloss

So far, I'm keeping up with my strategy of not changing my nail polish daily. OK, so I'm only into it for 24 hours, but the first 24 hours seem to be going well...

Anyway, to liven things up a bit, I decided to apply two coats of Revlon Glimmer Gloss in Grapefruit Glimmer over yesterday's mani of Sally Hansen Salon Shrimply Devine. I did not paint my index finger with the gloss, so you wouldn't have to flip to yesterday's post to see the before and after. Here's the pic:




I like the subtle, very work-appropriate shimmer this gloss gives the polish. And for a buck at Big Lots, it was well worth it!

SALLY HANSEN SALON SHRIMPLY DEVINE

Today I am sporting a polish I picked up at Big Lots for a buck, Sally Hansen Salon Shrimply Devine. Again, I don't get this name...it's certainly not the color of shrimp swimming here in the Gulf of Mexico, nor is it the color of cooked shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps it's the color of some type of shrimp I'm not familiar with, from some far away place I've never been. Or perhaps, it's the color of a type of shrimp that is now extinct. But I digress....

I must say, while I like looking at other people's pink polish, I'm generally not a pink polish kind of a girl. I'm making a concerted effort to work my way through my stash, and try to get used to seeing my fingers in colors I don't normally wear.

This applied pretty easily. I used two coats, but kind wish I had gone for a third. It has a slightly long drying time, so I used a coat of Seche Vite to help speed things along. Without further ado, here she is:





I have issued myself a personal challenge to try to wait at least three days before changing a mani, instead of my usual change-it-daily routine. So tomorrow, unless I take a visit to chip city, I will probably just layer something sparkly over it, and the day after that I'll probably break out the ol' Konad. It's going to take me a little bit of time to get used to this color!