Wet 'n Wild "Night Prowl"

First of all, I apologize for not blogging for awhile. I've been up to stuff. :) Also, this is going to be a short post, since it's only one color and pretty straightforward.

Wet 'n Wild "Night Prowl" is purple micro glitter in a translucent black jelly base. I'm wearing three coats in this photo, but I might have been OK with just two coats. I really like this polish, it's so perfect for Halloween. Wet 'n Wild is probably my favorite "budget" brand of nail polish. Of course, since it is a cheaper brand, the polish started chipping within a couple days. However, when I removed it, it came off pretty easily, especially for a glitter polish, and I'm sure we all know by now that glitter polish is the herpes of nail polish.

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell

It's been a few weeks since I've had a chance to blog about my nails! Between getting my kids ready to go back to school and settling into a new routine, I just couldn't find the time to squeeze it in, but now I'm back with something pretty awesome to show you!

I bought a bunch of Kleancolor holos and glitters from ebay last year, and I've really only used some of them a couple times. Boy, I should have broken this one out earlier. This is Kleancolor "Chunky Holo Bluebell" over Wet 'n Wild Megalast "Root of All Evil".

Just look at all those colors! With most multichromes you have to be in just the right light to see it, but not this one!

"Bluebell" is a laying effect polish, so you won't get this great holo if you use it by itself, it must be layered over a darker polish. I kind of wish I had used a darker blue for my base color, but I do love "Root of All Evil".

 

Also, it's my birthday! :)

An Oldie But A Goodie: OPI Not Like The Movies

This polish is Not Like The Movies, part of OPI's Katy Perry Collection from a few years ago. Not Like The Movies is a metallic purple, gray and green multichrome with a bit of silver glitter thrown in. It's a bit sheer--I could have made do with 3 coats, but I applied 4 coats because I REALLY wanted the depth of coverage and no visible nail line.

Since this collection is a few years old, I got it at the beginning of the year for half the retail price at TJ Maxx. Well, TJ Maxx sells them in two packs, so you pay the same amount, but get two polishes for the price of one. Most of my OPIs and NOPIs came from TJ Maxx or Marshall's!

I'm not sure what took me so long to use this polish, it is simply gorgeous!

Multichrome Madness with Ozotic 505!

 

I am in LOVE with this multichrome manicure! This is Ozotic 505 layered over OPI Russian Navy. Russian Navy is a classic OPI polish that's a dark navy blue shimmer with magenta tones, giving it a bit of a purple look. Ozotic 505 is a multichrome polish that shifts from dark green to dark purple to blue. It's always meant to be layered over a dark shade of polish to get the full effect. If I'm remembering correctly, Ozotic is no longer manufacturing this shade, so if you really want this polish your best bet is Ebay, of course. There may be some online retailers that still have some left in stock, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

This post is going to be text-light and picture-heavy! Isn't it GORGEOUS? Unfortunately, as you can see from most of the pictures, I smushed the tips a little bit on my index and ring fingers before I had a chance to photograph them in the daylight. I thought they were DRY! :(

An inside photo taken before I accidentally smushed the tips:

Milani Diamond Dazzle over Funky Fingers Pink Pixels

 I had time to paint my nails a second time this week! That's not unusual for most nail bloggers, but it is for me. I have on two coats of "Pink Pixels" by Funky Fingers, and one coat of "Diamond Dazzle" by Milani.

Funky Fingers is a brand sold at Five Below, a store where everything costs $5 or less. So far I've really liked this brand. I'm not 100% sure "Pink Pixels" is a good shade on me, though. I think it actually looks more peach than pink, or maybe a pink with an orange shimmer, which is why my brain says "peach". Also, the bottles are an odd shape to hold for a good photograph. ;-)

Milani is a widely-available brand I've seen at K-Mart, CVS and Walgreens. "Diamond Dazzle" is an iridescent glitter in a clear base that will complement almost any color you wear it over.

Sorry for the slightly blurry pictures... my camera just has a terrible time focusing on glitter. :(

NOPI Rich in Spirit

Today I'm wearing something I've had in my stash for awhile, but never used. It's called Rich in Spirit from Nicole by OPI. Rich in Spirit  is a light blue metallic foil polish. This is three coats, but I probably had full coverage after two coats. It went on very smooth and dried quickly, so the formula was great!

I don't think this polish is available for sale anymore, because it's from their 2011 Liquid Metals collection. If you think you have to have it, your best bed is probably Ebay. I got it last year from Marshall's. NOPIs usually retail for $7.99, but you can get 2-packs of older NOPIs at places like Marshall's and TJ Maxx for the same price as one at regular retail price.

All Hail The Queen!

Today I have a departure from my favorite teals, blues, and glitter. If you follow my blog, you know I have a thing for turquoise/teal, and that I have a thing for glitter. This week I had an occasion where I needed "normal" nails. Fortunately I already had the PERFECT polish in my stash. This is Butter London's "All Hail The Queen". It may be beige, but it's not any old beige, because "All Hail The Queen" is HOLOGRAPHIC!

The formula on this polish is AMAZING. I had to put on three coats for full coverage, but they went on smooth and dried very quickly between coats. Butter London is a little pricey if you pay full retail ($15 at Ulta), but I got a great deal on mine when Coterie.com had their pre-sale last year. (Three Butter London colors and a Butter London top coat for $11 shipped, after a $25 coupon code was applied!) I don't know if they still have great deals like that, but I'm glad I grabbed mine when I did.

If you have to go beige, "All Hail The Queen" is the way to go!

Happy Independence Day!

My 4th of July manicure is a giant glitter-bomb! Seriously, it's going to take a week to get all of this glitter off of my fingernails. I still have some in my cuticles that I just couldn't get out. It's gorgeous, though!

I have on two coats of Julep "America". "America" is jam-packed with red micro-glitter, mixed with medium-sized pieces of blue and silver hex glitter, and silver star glitter, although the silver stars are harder to find. To finish the look, I applied blue french tips with Wet 'n Wild Megalast "Root of All Evil", a metallic blue. Although I don't understand the name... you'd think "Root of All Evil" would be a green, not a blue. :)

Julep "America" Bottle

Wet 'n Wild Megalast "Root of All Evil" Bottle

Midnight Seduction over Black Tie

So, this is my first blog post in a LONG time. What can I say, life happens. I still love nail polish, and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with my blogging now.

Today I have on two coats of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Black Tie" as my base color. It's a gorgeous purply-charcoal duochrome that you can find at just about any drugstore. On top of that I have a coat of Kleancolor "Midnight Seduction", which has a clear base and is jam-packed with multi-colored micro glitter. Klean color isn't available where I live, so I bought mine from someone on eBay.

I've always had a hard time getting my camera to focus on glitter, but I went ahead and added the unfocused shot anyway, to show you how nice this combination of polishes is. Aren't they gorgeous?!

Maybelline Color Show Sequins "Cocktail Dress"

Surprise! I'm still here. I know I've been MIA lately, but this time of year is crazy, and I just haven't had much time to paint my nails. It has made me so sad. I finally have something to show you!

This is Maybelline Color Show Sequins "Cocktail Dress". It is a clear base jam-packed with black and metallic charcoal glitter, and small maroon-ish hex glitter. It's going to be such a PITA to take off, but it's just so freaking gorgeous!

This two coats of "Cocktail Dress" and two coats of Butter London PD Quick Topcoat. "Cocktail Dress" sells for $3.49 for a 7 ml bottle.

China Glaze "Luxe and Lush" over Funky Fingers "Mood Ring"

This week's manicure is China Glaze "Luxe and Lush" over Funky Fingers "Mood Ring".

Mood Ring is a lovely metallic seafoam green that I purchased from my new favorite store, Five Below. Application is pretty good. This is two coats.

Luxe and Lush is from China Glaze's Hunger Games collection that was released early this year. It flashes a bunch of different colors, but the one that is the most prominent is red. I used THREE coats of Luxe and Lush, because in my opinion just one coat went on kind of sparse. Believe it or not the flakies lie pretty flat, it just looks chunky in the pictures. I got Luxe and Lush on clearance at Sally Beauty Supply on clearance for $4.99 plus 50% off!

Overall, I like it! There are a couple of spots where I had trouble getting the glitter out of my cuticles, and in these photos it makes it looks like I have some hangnails, but I don't!

Walking in the Spider Webs

Happy Halloween!

For my Halloween manicure I used crackle polish for the first time. OPI's black crackle over Sinful Colors "Summer Peach". The crackle is supposed to represent spider webs. I also did an accent nail of a spider, and I used the crackle as a French Tip. I made the spider with my dotting tools. My spider needs a little work. Not only did my top coat make the white polish for the eyes bleed a little bit, but I realized after I did it that a spider spins his web from his back end, not the front. Oh well! I'm still pretty happy with it.

Funky Fingers Mermaid Lagoon

Yay, a new blog post! After a week of naked nails, I FINALLY had time to paint my nails last night, and I LOVE IT.

So, a couple of weeks ago I discovered an awesome new store with some fun nail polish! The polish I'm showing you today is "Mermaid Lagoon" by Funky Fingers, and line of polish I found at a store called 5 Below, where everything is $5 or less. Bottles of Funky Fingers are $2 each, or 3 for $5.

"Mermaid Lagoon" is medium silver hex glitter, small purple glitter, and micro blue glitter in a clear base. I layered it over an unnamed purple shimmer by Color Club. Well, it probably has a name, but for some reason the multi-pack of Color Club polish I bought doesn't have any names on them. I am so loving this manicure! Not only do I love the colors, but the glitter goes on great. No fishing for glitter pieces at all! This is definitely one of those times where I find myself staring at my nails without even realizing it.

 

If you have a 5 Below near you, I highly recommend you buy this polish. They also had bins of Nicole by OPI polish for $4 per bottle! Of course, I picked up a few of those, too. ;-)

Matte Glitter!

Today I have a matte glitter manicure to show you.

For my base color I used China Glaze "Liquid Leather" (black), and then I did messy glitter French Tips in Jordana "Celestial". Celestial is a turquoise glitter with small glitter and medium hex glitter. To make it matte I used Butter London Matte Finish Shine Free Topcoat.

I know, this one is short and sweet. Sorry, it's Monday!

Lynnderella "Connect the Dots"

Today I have on "Connect the Dots" by Lynnderella. THAT Lynnderella. Any fellow nail polish bloggers who are reading this probably understand my internal conflict of buying a Lynn. For anyone who isn't big into the indie nail polish scene, the story would probably bore you, lol. Let me start off by saying I did NOT pay full price. A few weeks ago Copious.com released some credits--one for $5, and one for $15 off a $30 purchase. So I had $20 in credits to put towards a $30 purchase, and I snagged this for $10.

Now that I've finally had a chance to use a Lynn, I have to say, I can see what the fuss is about. There are so many chunky glitter polishes where you have to fish around for the glitter, and even then the coverage isn't that great. Not so with this polish. It's PACKED with it! It's got small black and white round glitter, medium black and white hex glitter, black and white bar glitter, and a sprinkling of regular iridescent glitter (that you probably can't see in the photos). I don't have a picture of it, but on my right thumb I have a piece of large black hex glitter, so there probably is some large white hex glitter, too, I just haven't gotten to it.

I chose to layer it over NYC Color's "Sidewalkers", from their In A New York Minute Quick Dry Collection. "Sidewalkers" is a gray creme. NYC color only has a small collection of Quick Dry colors, but I've always been very pleased with them, especially for the just under $2 price tag!

Butter London "Knackered"!

I had been wanting "Knackered" from Butter London for a few months now, but I could never bring myself to pay the $14 price tag, so you can imagine how excited I was when Coterie.com had their big promotion! For those of you who don't know, they had a pre-sale prior to the opening of their online store where you could purchase 3 Butter London colors and a matte top coat for $36, and then add a code for $25, bringing the total to $11 shipped! (I think this promo is over, so sorry to anyone who missed it.)

Knackered is a purple duochrome with a scattering of holographic glitter. The secondary color in the duochrome is a light blue. Knackered is a bit sheer, so I had to pair it with some undies. I chose "Zeus" from Sinful Colors. Zeus is a purple shimmer with a hint of pink.

I am so happy with this color combination! I'm in love. Unfortunately it was overcast this morning when I was taking photos. I still think the photos turned out good. Now for some swatch spam!

This one was indoors by the window. It's blurry, but it shows the holo glitter better.

Butter London "Knackered" and Sinful Colors "Zeus".

Dupe Alert! Sephora + Pantone Universe "Reflecting Pond" and Essie "Dive Bar"

I had a crazy weekend (my youngest son turned 5), so I didn't have time to do my nails this weekend. Shocking! However, I do have a post to share with everyone.

A few weeks ago I went to Sephora for the first time, and I picked a bottle of Sephora + Pantone Universe "Reflecting Pond", a dark blue shimmer with a hint of purple duochrome. As it turns out, I've had a dupe for this color for months! I noticed how similar they were this weekend, so I swatched them on nail wheels to be sure. Yep! Essie "Dive Bar" is the same color.

The dupe factor is not as obvious from the bottle shots, because of how thick the glass bottle is on the Pantone Universe Reflecting Pond.

The prices are comparable, but Dive Bar is cheaper. Dive Bar is $8 for .44 oz., and is sold at most retail locations (but it is a Fall 2011 Collection color, so availability could be affected). Reflecting Pond is $9 for .37 oz., and it is a Sephora exclusive. It's from the Pantone Universe Fall 2012 Collection. The Reflecting Pond has a flat brush, which is a plus to me.

Max Factor Fantasy Fire over 1/2 of Revlon Cosmic Effects Galactic

I've got a bit of a Love It/Hate It for you today.

First up, the Love It! A couple of months ago I won a Max Factor "Fantasy Fire" from a giveaway from Set in Lacquer. Fantasy Fire is a "top coat effect" polish that has a purple base, but also flashes blue, green & bronze in the right light. It's meant to be worn over another polish, and it is absolutely gorgeous! Due partly to my lighting, and partly to how dark my base color is, these pictures only show the bronze shimmer.

Unfortunately, there's a catch: Max Factor no longer sells nail polish in the United States, so Fantasy Fire is pretty hard to get your hands on here. As I said, I was lucky enough to win mine in a giveaway. If you really want some, you might be able to get it from eBay, but it's $14+ for a tiny little 5ml mini bottle.

Now, for the Hate It. I mentioned that Fantasy Fire is a top coat effect polish, so I decided to layer it over a dark blue. The dark blue I used is half of the Revlon Moon Candy collection called "Galactic". It comes in a unique bottle that is dark Navy Blue on one side and a turquoise blue flakie top coat on the other side. I had so many problems with this polish. :( It wouldn't go on smooth, and it flooded my cuticles something awful. Some of this might have been because I found the brush awkward to hold, since it had the other bottle of polish attached to it (and there's nothing you can do to avoid that, due to the duo bottle design.) But the worst part was when I got out my acetone to try to clean my cuticles. This stuff stained my cuticles horribly. Also, instead of cleaning up neatly, the blue "bled" all over my fingers and deeper into the cuticles. I'm not sure if I'm describing it right, but it was awful. With how badly this polish bleeds and stains, I'm really not looking forward to removing this polish AT ALL. I'm going to have to scrub my nails with baking soda and peroxide or something.

If you're curious, I swatched the flakie turquoise top coat onto a nail wheel, and although it looks cool, it was kind of thick and goopy. I don't think it would be fun to manicure with. :-/

I still love my Fantasy Fire, but next time I'll layer it over something else!

"Midnight Seduction" over "Plenty Of Fish In The Sea"

Today's manicure features two of my favorite things: Teal polish and Glitter!

Photo taken inside, but in the sunlight.

My base color is two coats of "Plenty Of Fish In The Sea", a teal/turquoise blue polish from Spoiled by Wet n Wild, a line of polish that is exclusive to CVS. It retails for $1.99. It's just a little sheer, so if I was wearing it by itself I would have used three coats to get rid of any visible nail line, but since I was planning on the glitter top coat, I only used two.

The glitter is two coats of "Midnight Seduction" by Kleancolor. "Midnight Seduction" is a multi-color holographic micro-glitter in a clear base. The main colors I see are turquoise, pink, and gold. I've mentioned before that Kleancolor isn't sold in my area, so I bought this one from a Copious.com seller.

Something you'll probably notice from these photos is shrinkage! You can see the tips of my nails, and this is NOT tip wear, but shrinkage from the top coat. I used Jordana 60-second Quick Dry. I had lots of problems with shrinkage when I used Seche Vite, too. I only have a shrinkage problem when I use glitter.

I've tried to take a variety of photos, both inside and outside, and in the sunlight and shade, to show you how it looks in different lighting.

Photo taken inside, but in the sunlight.

Photo taken outside, but in the shade.

Photo taken outside, in the direct sunlight.

Mac Cosmetics "Formidable"

First off, let me apologize for how long it's been since I wrote a new blog post. I had a busy birthday then holiday weekend. :)

Second, let me apologize for how crappy these photos are. I say this way too much--these pictures don't do this polish justice!

MAC Cosmetics "Formidable" is a metallic purple shimmer with a slight blue duochrome effect. It's not strong, but it's there, especially in the right light. My photos show three thin coats. Just using one coat it was the color of grape jelly. Two to three coats produces the gorgeous dark purple you see in the photos. This color is such a different shade of purple than I'm used to seeing, and I fell in love with it when I tested it. Formidable is from MAC's "Venomous Villains" Collection, which was released 2 years ago in 2010. The other two polishes in this collection are called "Bad Fairy", which I'd like to get, and "Mean & Green", which is a dupe for Orly "Space Cadet" & Hard Candy "Beetle" (I have Beetle).

I got this polish at Nordstrom's, and it's pretty expensive... but it was  my birthday, lol!

This unfocused photo with flash shows the pretty shimmer.

You can see both the reddish-purple and the bluish-purple in this shot.