Try It On Tuesday! WnW Heatwave & Kleancolor Chunky Holo Poppy

Yay! I finally got the time to participate in Jilltastic Nail Design's "Try It On Tuesday" event, where every Tuesday Jill challenges participants to wear a polish that we already have but have never worn.

For my base color I chose Wet n Wild Megalast "Heatwave", and topped it with Kleancolor Chunky Holo "Poppy". I've only had "Heatwave" for about a month, so I'm not sure if it qualifies as a "dusty" yet, but I've had the Kleancolor Chunky Holo Glitter collection since spring, and I haven't used any of them yet. Oops!

My nails almost (but not quite) match my old orange "Everlear" concert tee that I have on today.

I also just want to take a moment to complain about my camera. The top photo was taken with my cell phone, and the bottom two photos were taken with my Kodak Easy Share. I cannot get my Kodak to focus on a close-up of glitter to save my life. That's why the bottom two pictures aren't close up. My cell phone will go into macro mode and focus on the glitter, but it washes out the color. :(

Shuffle the Deck... a bit of a fail. :(

 
So what I have for you today is kind of a manicure fail. I say kind of because I still like the idea, and it looks good from a distance. As a matter of a fact, I had two strangers tell me they liked my fingernails while I was out shopping today. Unfortunately when you examine them closely, they have all sorts of problems.

On my index finger I have Revlon "Fire Fox", on my middle finger I have Jordana French Manicure White, on my ring finger I have Savvy "Chrome", and on my pinkie I have Wet n Wild fastdry "Ebony Hates Chris." Over each nail I have Spoiled by Wet n Wild "Shuffle the Deck".

My first problem was that I kept getting air bubbles in the "Chrome". Next, the "Ebony Hates Chris" seems to have gotten thicker and harder to apply since the last time I used it, plus the brush that I don't remember having trouble before seemed ratty, and I've only used it once! The French Manicure white was a little thick, too, but it evened out with a few coats. The biggest problem was that I had a hard time getting enough of the "Shuffle the Deck" glitter on the brush and the nail, resulting in me applying it too thick... which resulted in air bubbles on EVERY NAIL. I didn't even bother putting on a top coat because I'm hoping to have time to remove it Monday night.

Revlon "Fire Fox", Jordana French Manicure White, Spoiled by Wet n Wild "Shuffle the Deck", Savvy "Chrome", and Wet n Wild fastdry "Ebony Hates Chris".

I was very surprised that I had so much trouble with this glitter... I also have Spoiled by Wet n Wild "Trust Fund Baby", which is pretty similar to this glitter polish, just in different colors, and I don't remember having this many problems getting the glitter out. You can see my blog post about "Trust Fund Baby" here.

Merlot French Tips with Dotted Flower Accent

This week I did Merlot French Tips with Dotted Flower Accents on each nail. My flowers aren't perfect, but overall I'm very pleased.

I started with a base of Pure Ice "Oh Baby!", a sheer white shimmer with red flash. I think "Oh Baby!" is meant to be used as a top coat on top of blacks and other dark creme colors to create a duochrome flash, but I wanted a sheer color for my base coat. On the French Tips and the Dotted Flowers I used "Iced Merlot", also by Pure Ice. It's a shimmery metallic merlot color. :) Finally, for the dots in the center of the flowers I used Savvy "Chrome", a silver shimmer.

I had originally wanted to do pink tips and flowers, but I found that all my pink shimmers were much too transparent for it. There was one that probably would have made a good base coat for the sheer color, though.

Pure Ice "Oh Baby!", Pure Ice "Iced Merlot", and Savvy "Chrome".

As a side note, when I was doing my dotted flowers I found out not to put the polish on a foam disposable plate. The polish started to eat through the plate and I had bubbles in the dots!

China Glaze "Optical Illusion" & Pure Ice "Not Now"

Today I have on a manicure with two of my favorite things-turquoise nail polish and glitter.

Now... you might say this is green, not turquoise, but in real life it's got a very subtle hint of blue in it that I think qualifies it as a dark turquoise. It's a very, very pretty metallic polish from Pure Ice called "Not Now".

The glitter and stars are China Glaze "Optical Illusion", from their Prismatic Chroma Glitters collection. I have another one from this collection, called "Prism" that I used way back on April 23rd, and I just ordered "Full Spectrum" with my Copious credits, so it should be on it's way to my house. <g> They are all just the most gorgeous glitters I have ever seen.

For this manicure I did a focal nail with the China Glaze glitter, and made stars on top of the other nails with the glitter using a star-shaped hole punch and blue painter's tape.

The picture is a little fuzzy, but you get the idea. This was the first nail I did, and I didn't remove the tape quite quick enough, so it smudged the shape of the stars a little.

Deborah Lippmann "Dancing in the Sheets" & Sally Hansen "Aisle Be There"

This week I have a beautiful combination of polishes to show you. I started with Deborah Lippmann's "Dancing in the Sheets" (from her "Footloose" collection) and topped it off with Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Aisle Be There", from a line of polishes with wedding-themed names. It's hard to tell from the photos, but the combination really was stunning. I loved it!

Here's a picture of it with the flash on. I really couldn't capture how sparkly "Aisle Be There" is. Maybe it's just my camera. It never wants to focus when my polish is too sparkly. :-/ Not only did it add tons of sparkle, but it added purple flash. "Aisle Be There" retails for about $5, available at most retail stores.

Here's "Dancing in the Sheets" by itself. It's a dark bluish-purple metallic polish. One coat looks dark purple, but the second coat makes it more blue, in my opinion. As you would expect from a high-end polish like Deborah Lippmann, the formula was great and the application was easy. I got this polish on Clearance from HSN, along with "Let's Hear It For The Boy", a light blue creme. 

Outdoors.

Also, Glitter Obsession is having an awesome giveaway! You can win one of China Glaze's OMG polishes. Enter here.

Colorblocking!

Today I have a colorblocking manicure. The base color is Orly "Rock-It". On top of that I layered Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's "Gunsmoke" at an angle. Lastly, I layered Nicole by OPI's "Fabulous is My Middle Name" at the opposite angle. I entered these into a nail art contest from Shelly's Sassy Nails, but I didn't win. I didn't really think I would, but it's fun to enter the contests and connect with other nail polish junkies. :)

Orly "Rock-It", Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Gunsmoke", and Nicole by OPI "Fabulous is My Middle Name."

Orly "Rock-It" is a shimmery magenta that was part of Orly's Mineral FX collection from 2011. It retails for $8.00, but I purchased it at Ulta during a Buy 2 Get One Free Sale. This is the first time I've used an Orly polish, but they are very high quality. Plus, you get a little more polish--Orly bottles hold .6 oz., and most polish brands hold .5 oz. I have a few more Orlys that I need to try some time.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Gunmental" is a dark metallic grey. It retails for $1.99 and is available just about everywhere. As you can see from the photo above, my dog got his teeth on my bottle of Gunsmoke. But isn't he cute?:

Chewbacca

Lastly is Nicole by OPI's "Fabulous is My Middle Name". It's a glitter bomb polish containing small silver glitter, and silver, red, magenta and black small bar glitter. I believe it is a Wal-Mart exclusive color. It retails for $7, and I bought this with a $1 off coupon given to me by my sister Deana. (Here's the shout-out I promised you, Deana!) :)

Here's a shot of Orly "Rock-It" without the other colors layered on top:

Independence Day Nails!

The 4th of July is only 3 days away, so for this manicure I went for patriotic nails, using 4 different types of polish.

On my thumb is Sinful Colors "Hot Spot", a metallic blue, with white confetti stars on top. I kept bumping my thumb when it was only half-dry, so I had to touch it up a couple times, which you can probably see. You can also see the air bubbles that are my fault. I put the top coat on too thickly, too fast to try to cover the confetti stars, causing the bubbles.

My index finger and ring finger have Wet n Wild fastdry "Everybody Loves Redmond", with white stripes painted with Kiss brand white nail art paint. This was the first time I've tried to freehand straight stripes, so they're a little crooked, but I'm happy with them overall. Hopefully I'll get better with practice, and maybe with a better brand of precision polish. I think the Kiss brand is kind of thin and drippy.

My middle and pinky finger have "American Spirit", an indie polish from 365 Days of Color. American Spirit has a red jelly base with silver star glitter; silver and blue square glitter; silver, blue and red hex glitter; small silver, red, white and blue round glitter; and silver, and red, white and blue bar glitter. I did have to fish around for the best glitter pieces, but in my experience that's pretty typical of most chunky glitter polishes, both big brand and indie brand. It was a limited edition that I don't believe is currently for sale on her site, so I'm glad I got my hands on it when I did!

Sinful colors "Hot Spot", Wet n Wild fastdry "Everybody Loves Redmond", Kiss white Nail Art Paint, 365 Days of Color "American Spirit", and my little pot of white confetti stars.