Monday, April 30, 2012

Milani 3D Holographic Polish


This week's manicure is just one color of polish, but I think it's a pretty nice one. It's Milani 3D Holographic "Hi-Tech", purchased from CVS.  I would say it's a stretch to call it 3D, but the holographic effect is gorgeous. I just couldn't capture the effect with my camera. I used three coats to get full coverage. I also had to clip my nails down again due to peeling nails.

Sorry for the short post this week, but I had a pretty bad vertigo spell Saturday overnight, and I fell in my bathroom. So Sunday, the day I did this manicure, I was just exhausted and not up to much. Even doing this made me tired.

Also, Frazzle and Aniploish are having a great giveaway! They're giving away different sets of polishes to TEN different winners! Read all about it and enter here: http://thekarend.blogspot.com/2012/04/2nd-blogiversary-giveaway.html?spref=fb

Monday, April 23, 2012

China Glaze and Rimmel London, a great combination!


I think I really put the "bling" into "My Nail Bling" this week. I did another angled tape manicure, using a bright, bright metallic pink called "Electric Pink" from Rimmel London, and one of China Glaze's new Prismatic Chroma Glitters, "Prism". I finished it off with light blue rhinestones.

I did have a little trouble with not waiting long enough for the polish to dry before I put the tape on, at least on my left pinky. I also had a couple spots where the tape left residue on my left hand, so I had to touch those up. Don't look at the photo too close!

 Rimmel London "Electric Pink" and China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitter "Prism"

First off, the China Glaze. China Glaze has 6 shades in their new Prismatic Chroma collection, Full Spectrum, Liquid Crystal, Optical Illusion, Polarized, Prism, and Ray-diant. Besides the Prism I used here, I also have Optical Illusion, which I'll show you another time. These are really gorgeous glitters. Of course, they feel pretty rough, but a good top coat will take care of that.

I picked up the Rimmel London a couple of months ago on clearance at K-Mart. I was really, really impressed with how nice the application of this color was. It has the wide, flat brush that I like (I know some people don't) and also a somewhat thin formula that prevents drag lines.


Also, one of the other blogs I follow is having a giveaway! The blog is called The Do It Yourself Lady, and she's giving away some Zoyas and some Deborah Lippmans. You can read more about it and enter at this link: http://doityourselflady.blogspot.com/2012/04/giveaway-time.html

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Dotted Flowers


This weekend I made my first attempt at a manicure using dotting tools. I got a set of 5 dotting tools from ebay for super cheap. Overall I'm very happy with the result, but I don't mind telling you that my left hand looks a lot better than my right hand. Some of the flowers on my right hand look like odd-colored fried eggs instead of flowers. :)

I'll definitely be using my dotting tools more often!

New York Color "Prospect Park Pink", Sinful Colors "Grecian Sun", Spoiled by Wet n Wild "Designated Driver", and Sinful Colors "Snow Me White".

Friday night I started to use the blue "Grecian Sun" as the base color and planned to have pink and yellow flowers, but the blue came out too think for my taste, and I kept dragging the colors. Finally I gave up in a fit of pique and went to bed. I was really disappointed, because I've been on the hunt for a blue in this shade, and I was so excited to find this one. This isn't the first time Sinful Colors has let me down. I have a lot more success with the metallics, frosts, and glitter Sinful Colors than their cremes. I also find that they tend to take a long time to dry.

The yellow "Designated Driver" is a color I picked up at CVS last week. It's a "taxi-cab yellow", hence the name. CVS is the only place I've seen the Spoiled by Wet n Wild line of polish. They had a lot of great colors, but I could tell some of them were dupes for other colors made by Wet n Wild. They have a lot of chunky foil glitters in the line that are very interesting.

"Prospect Park Pink" looks kind of orange in the above bottle photo, but that's just the lighting in my kitchen. The actual color reminds me very much of the color of Pepto-Bismol, and of the color of my dorm room walls my freshman year of college. They were that way when I moved in, I swear!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Glitter overload, anyone?


So, maybe I should just rename my blog. Something to do with glitter obviously. What can I say, sparkly catches my eye. In my defense, I came across some GORGEOUS glitters that reminded me of fancy, glittery Easter Eggs. Plus, this way I can swatch several glitters at the same time.

Milani "Pink Flare", Wet n Wild "Back Alley Deals", Wet n Wild "Believe Me, It's Real", Deborah Lippmann "Mermaid's Dream", and Sinful Colors "All About You".

On my thumb is "Pink Flare" from the Milani One Coat Glitter Collection. What you see is actually two coats, not one, but I still think it's great coverage. Some of the glitter pieces are pretty prismatic, too. Very nice.

On my index finger is "Back Alley Deals" from the Wet n Wild coloricon Ice Baby Collection. Small purple glitter base and larger fuchsia pieces. Two coats.

My middle finger has "Believe Me, It's Real", also from the Wet n Wild coloricon Ice Baby Collection. It has a small blue glitter base with larger purple glitter pieces. Also two coats. I think this is my favorite color out of the five from this week, but I'm disappointed in how it photographed. The purple glitter in it is very hard to see, and the color doesn't look good in general in the picture. It looks awesome in person, though!

The color on my ring finger is something that's really exciting, at least for me. It's Deborah Lippmann "Mermaid's Dream". It's pricy stuff, and the only bottle of Deborah Lippmann I'm likely to own for awhile. It has a seafoam green base. I'm not sure, but I think the seafoam green is a really small micro-glitter. It also has a touch of gold micro-glitter, and larger turquoise glitter pieces. Two coats.

My pinky is sporting the only color I've already used in my blog before: Sinful Colors "All About You", gold glitter with a smattering of orange glitter. This one took three coats for coverage, and it probably could have benefited with a fourth coat.

I have two coats of Seche Vite fast dry top coat on each, but the two Wet n Wild colors would need more layers of top coat if you want perfectly smooth nails.

Which one of these colors is your favorite?

Monday, April 2, 2012

Wet n Wild Hallucinate over Savvy Hazelnut


You may have already guessed it before today, but I love glitter. I guess there is still a twelve-year-old girl inside me somewhere. So don't be surprised when most of my manicures are glitterized. (I made that word up, I think.)


Today's base color is pretty tame compared to the teals & turquoises I tend to wear a lot of. It's Savvy "Hazelnut" from Sally Beauty Supply. It's a gorgeous metallic frost. I don't think the photos do it justice. Unfortunately, while I love the color, it dried with lots of air bubbles. That might be my own fault--I have a tendency to apply think coats of polish. Fortunately the glitter top coat camouflages most the air bubbles. It's called "Hallucinate" by Wet n Wild, available nearly everywhere.

Wet n Wild Hallucinate over Savvy Hazelnut

You may have noticed that my fingernails are much shorter this week. The nails on my right hand were splitting and peeling badly, even though I always apply a base coat that's supposed to help that problem. They were getting pretty long and needed trimmed anyway, but I wish I could get them to stop peeling! I'm going to try taking more vitamins.


So, am I going to have a glitter manicure next week? I'm not sure yet, but probably. :)