Cloud Mani with China Glaze I'm Not Lion

I started this week with a China Glaze I'm Not Lion manicure. I spent Monday's lunch break helping DH change the completely flat tire I found on my CRV and chipped the polish on 3 or 4 nails. Amazingly, I didn't want to redo them and saw that Let Them Have Polish! posted a cloud mani. The light bulb went off and I went to dig through my Helmer to find some colors.

I used two coats of the super sparkly, opaque, cool-toned CH I'm Not Lion from the Out on Safari collection as a base. The lower cloud is one coat of Hot Topic Black, and the gold is from Black Poppy. The gold was a little too sheer for one coat over black, but I did well with two careful coats.

I'm pretty happy with the results, and if you want to re-create it, see the original tutorial here on Nailside's blog.

Greens - OPI Jade is the New Black

I decided to do a few posts of my favorite greens, what with St. Patrick's Day coming soon.

This first in the series is Jade is the New Black. I found this by accidentally found it in a JC Penney salon at the mall. They found it in the back and threw it on the shelf in time for me to snatch it up!

And, to be a little fancy-pants, I threw on a layer of Hot Topic Teal Sparkle on my ring nails. So blingy.

Hot Topic Pearly Red

This polish was quite the bargain. Originally $2.99, marked down to $0.99, and half off of that. Can't beat it!

I've got several Hot Topic polishes, and I love them. The bottle is tall and narrow, with a very short, round cap and a soft brush at the end of a long stem.

This one had great coverage with 2 coats. It glows nicely and leaves no brush strokes even though the finish is pearly. Sadly, it did chip fairly easily, but I caught my pinkie in a drawer at work. I think I need to be more careful.

Hot Topic Ruby Red and Teal Glitter

To get caught up, 2 posts back-to-back. Tuesday night I got the urge to spend money like nobody's business, and I tried hard. Looked all over the mall and found nothing (shocker!). So, went into Hot Topic to chat it up with my friend and saw their nail polish display. Tons of bright, funky colors. I loved a teal glitter and a dark red creme, and the red was on clearance for $0.98. Then I got the brilliant idea to layer them. Cool effect. Ruby Red is very similar to Essie Wicked. But, as I said up there, $0.98. No big. Red is brighter than it shows in the picture.

I love the Hot Topic polish bottles. Tall and skinny with a skull and crossbones. :) I like the brush as well. Long with a stubby handle, I feel I can control it really well.