China Glaze Trendsetter

This color... Is fugly. Very, very fugly. But I like it a lot! I've seen pics of it, and it looks so different on folks with different skin tones! It plays more yellow on me. I've seen it look rather dark khaki-ish, bright yellow, green, and straight-up baby poop.

Trendsetter is part of one of my most favorite collections ever, the Metro collection (fall 2011). I wasn't that thrilled with the glitters, but the others are so great! I got Brownstone, and was gifted Loft-y Ambitions by Bestie. I decided I really did want Trendsetter, and wouldn't you know, they were gone! But, I was in Sally's last week and found it for $1.99 on the clearance table. 

Application was great. China Glazes almost always go on really sheer for the first coat, but the second really evens out and makes it all come together nicely. The brush is my second favorite behind Nails Inc. Long and flexible, but spreads over my nail nicely. Trendsetter also has that nice, irregular glass-fleck finish that China Glaze does so well.

China Glaze Champagne Bubbles

I found this on the clearance table at Sally's and couldn't not buy it. This is a pretty bad picture, but I don't know that I could make it look any other way on my hands. Ugh. It's not even one of those so ugly it's pretty colors, it's just ugly. Champagne Bubbles was part of China Glaze's Holiday 2011 collection. It's a rather warm, shimmery yellow with sparse, square, silver glitter. You can probably see the glitter better if you enlarge the photo. And wouldn't you know I got great wear out or it. :)

I feel really odd right now, because I haven't had any polish on for a day or so. I've been working on projects and wrecked my polish. I slept in today and didn't have time to do my nails. Yikes! It's the first time I haven't had polish on at work in almost 2 years. I'm proud I didn't pick at them. :)

Zoya Holly and Rina

I posted a pic of my holiday manicure over on Twitter and tagged it for a giveaway Glamour Magazine was doing, and I won a full set of the Zoya Gems & Jewels Collection and a Remove+ Big Flipper (which I totally love! I bought the giant refill bottle of the stuff). I'm so excited because I think this was the first giveaway I ever won. I say was because I recently won another. Details later...

The greens in this collection have always caught my eye, so that duo went on first. Holly is a beautiful shimmery green and Rina is green and blue/green duochrome bar glitter in a clear base. I have discovered that I have to be very careful that none of the bars are sticking off the end of my nail even a little, or it drives me crazy. :) I got a ton of compliments on this mani, and had a 2 year old literally pet my nails the entire time I was examining her. Win!

2 coats Zoya Holly under 2 coats Zoya Rina

I love this shot! It looks like shiny astroturf. Perhaps it could be a non-traditional Super Bowl mani...

Fingerpaints Special Effects Flakies and I am a Lucky Aunt!

I was absolutely thrilled when I wandered into Sally's and found the display for the Fingerpaints flakie polishes. I had completely forgotten that they were out and was surprised to find they hadn't completely sold out! I couldn't remember which ones I wanted, so I pulled up Jen's post on my phone in the store and decided to go for Twisted. I also decided not to do plain old black under it, so I threw on China Glaze First Mate, and was so happy with the result! This reminds me of a party way more than Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday and the many dupes of that polish.

This was 2 coats of Twisted over 2 coats of First Mate. I don't know that there are any colors that aren't part of Twisted. You will find red, blue, green, yellow, and purple depending on how the light hits your fingers.

2 coats Twisted over 2 coats First Mate

Last week I got a random (so I thought) text from Abbie because my niece (see Sarah's pretty nails here) wanted to know who my favorite Disney princess was. I decided Ariel had the best songs and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty, for those if you who aren't in the know) had the best dress. Later on, Abbie texted me from Sally's to ask my opinion on the new flakie top coats.

A few days later, a package from Sarah with the following, picked by her and Abbie. Not such a random princesses question, after all! :)

Aurora and Ariel with Asylum, Brushstroke Blush, Motley, and  Artist's Inspiration

Sarah was sick a couple of weeks ago, and like any good Aunt who happens to be a Nurse Practitioner would, gave her mom some advice. So, they sent me polishes and a super cute card!

I had just chopped my nails down and did a mani with China Glaze Loft-y Ambitions (I love the Metro Collection! Found Trendsetter in a clearance bin yesterday!) so I decided to see how Asylum would look under it. Here's the standard view...

2 coats China Glaze Loft-y Ambitions and 2 coats Fingerpaints Asylum

 And here's what it looks like with my fun new Photojojo macro lens!

The red/orange flakies are the most dominant, and flash yellow/green at extreme angles, but I think the blue flakies look really awesome over the red/purple of Loft-y Ambitions.

Many thanks to Abbie and Sarah for being such awesome ladies! 

Zoya Malia

Being that purple is my favorite color I'm not too surprised at how much I love this color. This was one if my freebies from the latest Zoya promotion (they're the greatest). Nothing to say about the formula that hasn't been said here before. The color is so pretty. It's a dark lavender with no sparkles. I was surprised at the awesome coverage. I could have gotten away with one coat, which is amazing for such a light-ish color, but out of habit more than anything else I did two. It would look really good with some of the new flakies. Maybe next promo.

3 Year Old Mani!

So, Sarah wanted to join in the blogging fun! Here she is wearing NYC In a NY Color Minute in Uptown with a top coat of Sinful Colors All About You. I highly recommend the NYC for little people. One coat, dries very fast, last about a day (as long as it takes for her to get bored and want a different color) and is only about $1 at Walmart. :) the Sinful Colors was just for extra fun, but alas, did not dry fast. I think it's mostly on my carpet about now. Oh well!

Zoya Savita and Posh - Christmas Haul Continues

These are more the last of my haul from Bestie. Zoya announced awhile ago that they were going to implement a wish list feature on their site. This would make me oh-so-excited because when they have a promo, I get very preoccupied with which polishes I want to order. I went through one of the booklets they have and marked the ones I want so that I don't have to agonize over which ones I want for free. What two were on the list? Savita and Posh. Bestie rocks so hard.

2 coats of Savita

2 coats of Posh

Bestie shared with me months ago that it is not advisable to use a base coat or top coat (obviously) with matte polishes. I was kind of saddened by this as I can see both of these colors staining like a mother... But!! She told me that she read that you could use base coats if you allowed them to dry completely before using the color. The photo of Posh was taken very shortly after being swatched, and you can see that the tips of the nail are shinier than the base. I think this is caused by a not-dry-enough base coat.

I think both of these colors would look excellent with a shiny top coat. I'll add that next time I wear them and post pics.

Christmas Top Coats - Essie, Nails Inc, Fingerpaints

As I've said before, I have some serious polish fairies for friends/family. These three polishes came from fabulous ladies whom I consider both. :) 

I came into the polish world after the wonder that was Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (I'm not a fan of the new one that just came out). I'm talking about the fabulous flakie HT. Word quickly spread that Essie Shine of the Times was a dupe, and I had to have it. Sadly, the stores here that carry Essie didn't have this one, but Bestie lives in Chicago and she loves me enough to have gotten me a bottle. 

The pic below is just one coat of SotT over Hot Topic black creme. It covers really well. It has an odd consistency... Thick but runny, maybe a little jelly-ish. You get used to how it works quickly. I imagine you need a thicker base to properly suspend the small red/yellow flakies that reflect green at certain angles. Is it a HT dupe? I have no idea, but do I love it? yes!

Essie Shine of the Times over black creme

I have a serious weakness for flakies and a Bestie who feeds that weakness. I'm okay with this. In fact, I'm trying my hardest to turn Abbie! This pic is 2 coats of Nails Inc Donmar Overglaze Top Coat over Chelsea, which is a very blackened plum. The flakies in Donmar are much larger than in Shine of the Times, but they are much sparser. It is very easy to see both the green and yellow flashes at the same time in this polish.

Nails Inc Donmar Overglaze over Nails Inc Chelsea

 Abbie gifted me my very first Fingerpaints polish this Christmas. Fingerpaints has the most comfortable handle I've ever polished with. It's long and tapered with a fairly long stem and flexible brush. There was no squinting or holding my head/hands at an awkward angle to see what was going on. Sparkle Top Coat is very pearlescent. I applied it over Hot Topic black creme and it flashed purple. Abbie says it flashes green at times, so I'll definitely need to do some experimenting with this one!

Fingerpaints Sparkle Top Coat over black creme

Fixing breaks with a teabag (And damn you, Pinterest and A Game of Thrones!)

*Let me start by saying my inner 14 year old boy wanted to use "teabag" a little differently in the title, but didn't want to get those kind of hits on the blog... :)*

So I haven't been around nail blogs for a bit because I have been splitting every ounce of free time between Pinterest and reading the Game of Thrones series, with a day of bridesmaids dress shopping. My last few posts were ones I scheduled shortly after Christmas, so I decided to tear myself away from Pinterest to see what was up and post something. :)

I broke one of my nails while Bestie was visiting, which was heartbreaking for two reasons. 1) My nails were growing out nicely rather than wonky like they usually do, and 2) it broke off into the nail bed and was super painful! I've heard of people using a teabag to mend breaks, so I decided to play with it and see what happened. As you can see, I also decided to play with Diptic and see what happened...

Top: the break, Bottom Left: the break with a teabag patch, Bottom Right: finished effect.

This was actually my second patch. The first lasted as long as The Black Knight, which was 3-4 days. the first step is to empty a teabag and cut a piece slightly bigger than your break. Apply a coat of base coat and carefully lay the bag over the break. I used an orange stick to push it down a bit. Cover with another layer of base coat, and continue with your mani as usual. I used my Sally Hansen strips over this patch and got another 3 days or so before it completely broke off taking the top off of my Tim Hortons travel mug. :( I was able to grow it out past the nail bed my a fraction, so it didn't hurt when it came off completely.

This is a great idea for those unfortunate breaks. I hope you found this post helpful! I think I'll go check in on Robb, Arya, and that little ass Joffrey...

Rescue Beauty Lounge Anne

Another one I found buried in swatch/mani photos! I have posted Anne before, but the pictures have been really horrible. This pic is slightly better.

Anne is recently available again on the Rescue Beauty Lounge site. It is a beautiful and unique color. Olive green with a very fine gold and pink shimmer. The was my first polish splurge. I remember getting for myself for my birthday last year! I think it is still the most expensive polish I own. It has gotten a little thick, but I plan on trying to add lacquer thinner to it (once I'm not such a chicken!) to see if it improves the consistency. Run and grab it before it's gone again if you're interested!

OPI Jade is the New Black

Here we have another unposted pic I found when sifting through my uploaded pictures. I found this on sale for 50% off at a JC Penney Salon (which has since closed... BOO!) right after the Texas Collection came out. I contemplated getting Don't Mess With OPI until I saw the price. JITNB was separated and rather icky looking on the shelf, but I can shake the snot out of a polish for half off! It worked out very nicely as it is a beautiful, opaque color.

Nails Inc Houses of Parliament Magnetic Polish

This is part of the fabulous package Bestie got me for Christmas. It was actually the first one I wore, but forgot to write the post. The Nails Inc magnetic polishes were super easy to do. After applying your base coat, you do 1 coat of the color to all of your nails. Then, you do a second coat, but have to hold the magnet to your nail after polishing each finger. It doesn't take long at all - maybe 10 seconds. Much instant gratification. One thing to note... It's best to wait a bit before applying topcoat. I was a little hasty and got some streaking on my middle and ring fingers.

Houses of Parliament under the florescent lights at work

In the sun... Super pretty! Looks like tiger eye jewelry

Revlon Alluring Amber

I found this picture when I was sorting through my photo albums, and I don't think I've posted it yet. I know this one was found on a dusty shelf at Meijer for $0.99. I thought I'd give Revlon's formula another go for less than a dollar. 

I can't remember if this was 2 coats or three, but I think it was only 2 coats and lasted 3 days before getting a chip, which is unheard of with Revlon and I. 

This shade of orange was really nice as well. I'm not big on orange, but this one was nice and dusty. I was afraid it would look like I had traffic cones on my fingers!