Neon Revvvolution

You've seen both these colors before, but I was in the mood for something attention-grabbing and this is what happened. I know this photo is pretty atrocious, but the actual mani was pretty sweet so I wanted to share it with all of you :)

The accent nail is China Glaze Pool Party (which, as a neon, didn't photograph right) and the rest of my nails are Color Club Revvvolution (<3 <3 <3).

OPI Man of La Mancha?

This was one of the polishes that I got from my manicurist friend... unfortunately, the label had fallen off of it before it came into my possession. Karine from Nailderella suggested to me that it looked like OPI Man of La Mancha and after swatching it, it appears to be just that. The polish is a red/orange duochrome that took three coats to be as opaque as it is in my photos.

I really don't like this following camera angle, but it shows the orange duochrome very well, so it may stay. And please, please excuse the state of my nails. I didn't realize they looked this unkempt until I got the photos on my computer and by then, it was too late to do anything about it.

Overall, I'm not crazy about this. It's a pain to apply on it's own, as the formula isn't the best and it is pretty sheer. I'll have to try to layer it over something before I completely give up on it, but I wouldn't wear it on it's own again. 

China Glaze First Mate

I love this color. I really feel like I should just break down and order the rest of the polishes from the Anchors Away collection that I don't own. Nautical nail polish... hitting two of my obsessions with one stone... At any rate, First Mate is an awesome navy blue polish that I used one coat of for my mani. It's just perfect! I wanted to try a full nail stamp from the new BM plates, so I picked one that kind of reminded me of waves and went at it. This unorganized mess of stamping is what I ended up with:

China Glaze Coral Star

China Glaze Coral Star is one of the polishes that my best friend gave to me as a birthday present (Tree Hugger was as well). Coral Star is a frosty, pink-y coral that was opaque in two coats. The brushstrokes just kill me with this one. It's such a gorgeous color but the brushstrokes in the photos don't do it any favors. A note on the bottle color: I hadn't used this for a while because it looked very orange-toned in the bottle and I wasn't crazy about it. However, once I got it on my nails and got outside, I noticed that it is very obviously pink-toned and not orange. The lighting in my room (and in Sally's when I looked for it there) didn't do much for it. Also, please excuse my uneven middle nail. The edge broke a few days ago and I'm patiently waiting for it to grow back in so I can shape it again.

And guess what came in the mail yesterday?? BigRuby nail tattoos! These are sooooo awesome and so simple and easy to apply. They go on just like a temporary tattoo, but on your nail instead of your skin. I only bought the Sea pack because I NEEDED the shells and the sharks, but they have a ton of other cool categories too! I know they are kind of expensive for nail art, but they are totally and completely worth it. Check them out here.

OPI Black Tie Optional

Alright, so bad news... this isn't the super duochrome version of Black Tie Optional. Good news? It's still gorgeous. The version I have is a darkened blackish purple with purple shimmer that seems to glow from within the polish. I'm not upset at all that I got the "dud" version because 1) I can see myself wearing this a LOT in the fall/winter and 2) I have almost a full bottle that I got for free! Who could complain?

OPI DS Vintage

Would you just look at thissssss? Just look at it! This is OPI DS Vintage and it is easily the best and most holographic polish I own (not saying much since I only own three...). The formula was perfect, it didn't drag and pick up chunks of polish like the China Glaze holo I have. ANNNND I only used two coats, how's that for conserving? DS Vintage looks like a regular warm peachy-pink color under diffused lighting, but it really comes to life out in the sun or under a strong lamp light. Take a look:

This last photo was taken with my small digital camera and I felt like it captured the crazy rainbow effect better than my DSLR did. This polish is seriously SO holographic. I now understand why they charged $13 for these.

On a side note, here is a better photo of the unnamed red-dish duochrome from last post. Does anyone have any ideas at all on what this might be? I think that I will be testing it out tonight if we get some more sun and less rain here.

As always, thanks for reading! :)

Lucky freebies!

Let me preface this post by saying that I have had, by far, more luck with nail polish-related endeavors than anything else in my life. Now on to the story...

A friend of mine owns/runs a nail salon and I hadn't seen her in a while, so I stopped by after work yesterday to catch up. As we were talking, I noticed a basket with some used polishes in it, which she informed me that she was going to throw out. I asked her if she'd mind if I took them instead and she, of course, let me have them. Here are the group shots:

The polishes in the background are Espresso Your Style and Cabana Banana. The foreground bottles are Black Tie Optional (not sure if this is the "good" version or not, I'll have to swatch it for you and see if you all can tell me), Burning Love, and a really pretty rust color with a strong duo-chrome effect that unfortunately does not have a label. Any ideas? I'll have to swatch that one too.

Here we have It's My Prague-ative! and Route Beer Float in the background. Infatuation, DS Vintage (!!!!!!) and Holiday Glow are in the foreground. Holiday Glow is a full bottle and I purchased that for $6.

I have DS Vintage on right now (I put it on as soon as I got home) and ohmygodddddddd it is amazing! That post will be coming up in the next day or two so keep an eye out! I'm glad to have some more OPIs to add to my collection. I love the brand, but they seem so expensive compared to the other brands I have.

China Glaze DV8

Yes, I own this! This was the first polish that I went crazy for and tracked all over eBay to find. I'm pretty sure most of you are already familiar with DV8, but for those of you who are not, it was released in the China Glaze OMG collection and has since been almost impossible to find (unless you want to pay $20 for one bottle). DV8 is a turquoise holographic polish. Here it is in full sunlight:

Isn't it beautiful? Unfortunately, the formula is wretched. The first coat drags terribly and pulls chunks of polish away from the cuticles. The second coat evens things up a bit, but can still be troublesome if you don't apply carefully. However, with any other polish this beautiful, the end result justifies the application troubles. Now, even though I generally despise flash photos, I leave you with one because I feel that it shows off the holo in DV8 the best:

China Glaze Tree Hugger

I just wanted to take a minute to thank you all for following and supporting my blog; I just hit 30 followers! It really means a lot that someone other than myself appreciates all this time I spend doing my nails ;) Now on to the post for today...

This was a (super!) quick mani I did before work one morning. It's China Glaze Tree Hugger on all my nails with Orly Here Comes Trouble on my index nail. Tree Hugger is a bright green with a hint of shimmer to it. It applied pretty well and dried quickly, but since I was in a rush, I only did two coats when three probably would have been best.

The real star of the show here is Here Comes Trouble. I picked this one up for $1.99 on the clearance table at Sally's. It's an awesome St. Patty's Day green packed with loads of different sized glitter. Check out the close-up:

I've never really been into celebrating St. Patrick's Day (mostly because I'm not even the slightest bit Irish), but this polish is giving me all sorts of inspiration for an Irish-themed mani.

Orly Kiss the Bride

This was kind of a disappointment. I know pastels are generally streaky and need three or more coats to be opaque and streak-free, but I was expecting more from Orly. The color is beautiful, but I did three coats here and I still think I could have used another on some nails.

Kiss the Bride is a very, very light pink creme. The formula was okay, although a little on the thick side. I really do think this color is gorgeous and as the name suggests, it would be perfect for a wedding, but I just wish it wasn't such a hassle to apply. Anyway, I stamped an antique-looking image from the new Bundle Monster plates and added black rhinestones to make some accent nails. I'm liking this a lot :)

Color Club Revvvolution

I had this polish on my wish list a few months ago, but eventually I decided that I didn't really need it. Then last week I came across a random swatch of it online and decided to check eBay to see if there were any holo versions still floating around for a decent price. Well, lucky for me, there are! I picked this bottle up for $8 including shipping from a seller on eBay, and it's legit!

Revvvolution is a dark charcoal gray holographic polish; I know a lot of people say it's a black holo, but it's really not dark enough for me to consider it black. The photo below is a better representation of the actual color. I can see myself wearing this a lot once autumn comes around.

I literally could rave for days about the awesomeness of this polish. The formula is absolutely amazing (by the way, I used two coats here, but I easily could have used only one if I had been more attentive) and it is one of the most unique and interesting colors I own. This was my first Color Club purchase and it certainly won't be my last if all of their polishes are as great as this one. 

OPI Silver Shatter over White

I know this isn't the most exciting color combo ever... but I still think it looks awesome. I debated for a while which color I should put under my new OPI Silver Shatter and finally decided to just start with white. I realllllly like this combination; it's perfect for when you want some shatter in your life but don't want your nails to be too crazy and attention-grabbing. 

China Glaze White on White is a pretty decent white polish. It was opaque and non-streaky enough at two coats for me to shatter over, but if I was wearing it alone, I definitely would have done a third coat. It's the kind of polish you have to be patient with. On the other hand, Silver Shatter worked perfectly, which I expect from OPI, of course. My right hand is kind of beaten up right now, but I like the shatter better on those nails so here is a bright sunshine photo of that:

Gryffindor Inspired mani :)

If you haven't been living under a rock for the past month, you know that the last installment of the Harry Potter movies is out in theaters today. Being a gigantic nerd, I am naturally super excited to see it tonight! And obviously I had to do some kind of Harry Potter nails. ;) Unfortunately, this week has been super busy and I didn't have much time to plan this, let alone execute it, so it's not as clean and nice as I wanted. However, it's still pretty and I'm happy enough with it to post it for you all.

I used two coats of OPI Chick Flick Cherry with one coat of Orly Star Spangled over it for the red nails. Both are awesome reds and I love them, however, Chick Flick Cherry was a huge pain to clean up. The OPI pro-wide brush is just a tad too wide for my narrow nail beds and I end up getting polish all over the skin on the sides of my nails. And since it was like 11PM when I was trying to finish these, I stopped caring about making them meticulously clean. I am slightly embarrassed of how messy the polish is near my cuticles though :(

I used Milani One Coat Glitter in Gold Glitz for my index nail, the snitch on my ring finger, and the sad excuse for a lightning bolt on my thumb. I also used a silver nail art pen to draw the wings of the snitch. I wish that I had more time last night to make this nicer, but what can you do?

Essie Nice is Nice

Here's my mani from my aunt's wedding on Saturday (which was absolutely amazing)! The wedding colors were light yellow and eggplant purple, but our jewelry had different shades of purple in it, so that's why I decided on a light purple shade. I had some merchandise credit at Target, so I decided to pick up a couple Essie polishes, and Nice is Nice was one of them. 

I'm not sure what it is about the Essie formula, but I'm not sure I dig it. It's thick-ish, but it eventually does even out and dry flat. I used three coats before I was satisfied with the coverage. However, Nice is Nice is an awesome color. I applied this is my room and wasn't really crazy about it, but when I went outside to photograph it, I fell in love. It is the perfect lilac creme.

I did the flower stamps (there were wildflowers in our bouquets) with Sephora by OPI Just a Little Dangerous. You can tell from up close that I messed the stamps up slightly, but it didn't really matter overall. I absolutely LOVE this mani and I got a lot of compliments on it at the wedding, so apparently I'm not the only one who does!

Crazy purple mani!

Hello everyone! I did this mani to support my bro's All-Star baseball team last night. Our school district's colors are purple and white, so that's where my color choices come from. The boys' uniforms also have black and gray on them, so I used those colors too. I've never done my nails like this before and it was really fun to do!

Here are all the colors I used for each nail (left hand):
Thumb: China Glaze Sci Fi, Milani Purple Gleam, Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme (stamp)
Index: Sephora by OPI Just a Little Dangerous, OPI Black Shatter
Middle: China Glaze White on White, SOPI Just a Little Dangerous (stamp)
Ring: Milani Purple Gleam
Pinky: Orly Charged Up, China Glaze Sci Fi (stamp)

I should also mention that Charged Up is not as blue in real life as it looks in my photos. It is a blue-leaning purple, but it definitely is much more purple in real life than it shows here.

I'll be back Sunday with whatever I decide to do with my nails for my aunt's wedding tomorrow! :)

Orly It's Up to Blue

I've been super busy this week with work, my brother's baseball games, and my aunt's wedding coming up on Saturday, so I haven't had time to do anything really interesting with my nails. Sooooo that means you guys get an old one! This mani was influenced by Let Them Have Polish's mermaid mani, but I lacked a lot of the resources that I have now so it is a very loose interpretation of her beautiful design. ;)

I used Orly It's Up to Blue, which is a turquoise polish with a metallic finish and was honestly rather irritating to apply, although the end result justifies the trouble. I stamped sea weed/fern-ish plants with Wet 'n' Wild Caribbean Frost onto my ring finger and thumb nails and then I added little clusters of rhinestones to finish it off. I didn't like it as much as I liked Cristina's from LTHP, but I think it was still a success. What do you think?

China Glaze 108 Degrees

This is the lovely China Glaze 108 Degrees from the Island Escape collection. This color is almost too beautiful to describe, but I'll give it my best shot ;). 108 Degrees is raspberry/hot pink-toned glass-fleck shimmer that is PERFECT for summertime! The shimmer seems to drift back and forth from light pink to hot pink to purple as the light hits it at different angles. I did two coats for the photo below, but I think that a third would have been perfect. By the way, the formula on this one is fantastic. Check it out: 

I added Sally Hansen's Crackle Overcoat in Fuschia Shock over 108 Degrees since I got it for my birthday and have yet to try it. It looks lovely, but I don't think it cracks as much as the other shatters I have from OPI and China Glaze. Regardless, I still love the color and can't wait to play around with some crazy combinations...

Fourth of July nails!

Happy (almost) Fourth of July to all my fellow Americans! I am sooooo in love with this mani! It's so sparkly and festive and I can't wait to show it off all weekend. Please do yourself a favor and click on all these photos to see the incredible glitter in all of them.

On my fingers I used two coats of Orly Star Spangled, which is incredible; it's a jelly-ish bright red packed with red glitter that looks like it's just floating in the polish. I stamped an image that reminded me of fireworks from my new Bundle Monster plates onto my ring fingers with China Glaze Sci Fi and dabbed some glitter from Wet 'n' Wild Kaleidoscope onto the "fireworks." Also, that's not a smudge on my index finger, it's just the lighting from out on my deck that is making it look funny. :(

For my thumbs, I started out with one coat of Wet 'n' Wild Blue Moon, which happens to be one of my favorite polishes ever. It's absolute perfection, a dark blue that stays dark blue and doesn't look black. I put one coat of China Glaze Dorothy Who? over Blue Moon and then a coat of Kaleidoscope. And there you have it, my awesome glitter packed July 4th mani! I hope everyone out there has a safe and exciting holiday weekend and I leave you with a group shot of all the polishes I used for this mani:

Sinful Colors Open Seas

I keep surprising myself with these on-a-whim purchases... This is Sinful Colors Open Seas, which is apparently a pretty close match to OPI Mermaid's Tears. I got the mini-set of the Pirates of the Caribbean collection and passed on Mermaid's Tears because I didn't think I would like it. Long story short, I was in Rite Aid the other day and I came across a Sinful Colors display with polishes that looked strangely reminiscent of the OPI Pirates shades... so I picked up Open Seas to test it out.

Surprise... I love it! It's a beautiful color and the formula is great, two easy coats. Sea foam green is not a color that I thought I would ever like, so I'm very glad that I took the chance on this one.

Since this is also going to be my birthday mani (today, ah!), I thought I would spice it up a little bit with some Jesse's Girl Firefly. I have to admit, I bought Firefly simply because my boyfriend and I were really into the show Firefly at the time, but it turned out being another excellent purchase. It's got all these little iridescent flakes in it that look amazing over Open Seas. The second photo is a super close-up crop so you can see all that shimmery greatness. Click to enlarge and appreciate further! Enjoy!