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!

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.

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.

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 :)

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....

Cotton Candy Dreams :)

My life is a circus and I am LOVING the cotton candy!! Here I used Essie in "forget me knots" and the french tip Konad plate (m19) with Sally Hansen insta-dry in "brisk Blue" as well as the fluer de lis on the m15 Konad plate. I followed with a crown (m40) on the ring finger using the white Konad Polish and the plate and finished with petites in "stardust" and a coat of SV... Yum!! Hey, Auntie..didn't you say something about a snack??

Sound the bell...Dorothy Who vs. Absolutely Alice

Today's "fight" is a comparison between China Glaze Dorothy Who and O.P.I. Absolutely Alice.

In the left corner, weighing in at .5 oz, we have China Glaze Dorothy Who, a dazzling blue glitter suspended in a blue jelly base from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection. Pictures show three coats of the Godess she is, no top coat. Both pictures taken in indirect natural light (we have no sun today..)





In the right corner, also weighing in at 0.5 oz, is O.P.I. Absolutely Alice, from the Alice in Wonderland collection, who is a clear base combining very dense glitter that is mostly blue with some silver and what looks like a tiny touch of gold for good measure. Again, three coats is what we have here, but this one was taken two days ago and it is in direct sunlight.



Lastly, here's both on one hand. Took this photo today, so this is in indirect natural light. Each finger has three coats and the layout goes like this:

Pinky and Middle Finger: Absolutely Alice
Index and Ring Finger: Dorothy Who





So who wins the battle? The difference between the two is relatively insignificant. I don't think that if you have one, that your collection really needs the other. Since China Glaze retails at a significantly lower price than O.P.I., I'd have to say that if you had neither, but want one, go for the ChG!

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day...

Here's a not-too-original Konad for you today. I used my girl (sorry, couldn't resist the pun) Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away (2 coats), white Konad special polish, and the cloud pattern from plate m79.

First picture is in indirect natural light, second picture full sun. I dunno why it looks like I have a giant gouge in my thumb, I don't...it's a cloud.






This was so easy, a Heidi can do it!