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.

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. :(

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.

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".

"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.

Revlon "Whimsical" over Wet n Wild "I Need A Refresh-Mint"

New day, new manicure! Today I have on Revlon's "Whimsical" over two coats of Wet n Wild Megalast "I Need A Refresh-Mint".

 

I really like this combination, but this base color makes the "Whimsical" look opaque. I think next time I should try it by itself or over white.

Wet n Wild's Megalast line seems to be superior to their other lines. So far I haven't been disappointed with any of the colors or their application. WnW's fastdry line seems to leave something to be desired, but I like the Megalasts. I also like their wide brushes. "I Need A Refreshment" is a Tiffany Blue creme color (which I classify as turquoise), and it retails just about everywhere for $1.99

Revlon's "Whimsical" has pink and blue hex glitter and small iridescent glitter in a transparent turquoise base, and it's a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's "Glitter in the Air"! "Whimsical" retails for about $5, while "Glitter in the Air" retails for $18! That's quite a difference, so save your money and buy the Revlon.

Winter Wonderland and Blue Frost

Today's manicure is two coats of Kleancolor "Winter Wonderland" over two coats of Scherer Chameleon "Blue Frost".

Winter Wonderland is a shimmery silver foil with just about every color of (small) glitter. I think next time I use this polish, I'll layer it over a shimmery white. Kleancolor brand is not sold in my area, so I bought this from an eBay seller.

Blue Frost is a silvery/light blue duochrome. The color itself is very pretty, even though the duochrome is not strong. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the color by itself to show you, because the formula is not very good. It went on very streaky, and even kind of clumpy. :( I would never have been able to wear it by itself because of that. Since I knew I was putting a fairly bumpy glitter topcoat that would camouflage the bumps, I went ahead and left it on. I had read some bad reviews of Scherer Chameleon polishes, so I wasn't really surprised. It's a shame, because the color itself was nice. This is another brand of polish that's not sold in my area. I got this one from Copious.

Here's a shot with my camera phone in Macro mode. It shows a close-up of the glitter better, but it washes out a little.

Deviantly Daring Disco Dolls!

I swear I didn't notice the alliteration when I picked out these two nail polishes to wear together, but it sure works!

For this manicure I used "Deviantly Daring" from China Glaze as my base color. I used two coats, but this polish has such nice coverage that I probably could have made do with one. After the base color was dry I angled tape strips across my nails (using the striping tape I bought from eBay). If you want to recreate this look, be sure to leave "tails" on the tape, because you'll be removing it. On top of the whole nail and the tape I painted "Disco Dolls" from Nicole by OPI. Then I quickly removed the tape, revealing the stripe of the original color.

"Deviantly Daring" is part of China Glaze's new Bohemian Collection for Summer 2012. It's a turquoise luster chrome. They're all supposed to be duochromes. I have to say, the duochrome on this color pretty much disappeared once it was on the nail. I still think it's a gorgeous color though. I found my bottle of "Deviantly Daring" at Sally Beauty Supply, but you can probably also get it at Beauty Brands and Ulta.

"Disco Dolls" is a glitter polish consisting of mainly gold glitter, but it has flecks of turquoise and pink glitter as well. It's from Nicole by OPI's Kardashion Collection. I'm not a fan of the Kardashian's, so buying their polish made me feel a little dirty, but it was so pretty! And sparkly! "Disco Dolls" is available at most retail locations, like WalMart, Kmart, Target and CVS.

This is one of my personal favorites so far. I know I'm going to want to keep doing this same effect with different polishes, so I'll have to try to keep challenging myself to do something different. :)

Here's another shot of it, taken with my camera phone, where you can see more of my thumb. You can see the glitter a little better, but the camera phone is terrible for the color & saturation.

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.

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.

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.

On a Trip with a Rockstar Pink DVD

Good morning my lovelies! For your viewing pleasure today I have a lovely purple manicure with pink glitter french tips. I've had every one of these colors for a few months now, but I'm so happy I finally got around to using them. As you can probably see, there was some shrinkage from the time I painted them last night to the time I took the photos this morning.

Wet n Wild Megalast "On A Trip", Sally Hansen HD "DVD", and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Rockstar Pink".

The base color is "On A Trip" from Wet n Wild's Megalast collection. It's a purple creme. Their Megalast collection has what Wet n Wild calls a Manicurve Pro Brush. It's very wide and flat. From what I've read on other blogs I think I'm in the minority, but I really like the wide brushes, and at the very least I prefer my polish has a flat brush versus a round brush. The Wet n Wild Megalast collection is available at most retail stores for $1.99.

On top of the purple base I put "DVD" from Sally Hansen's HD collection. It's a metallic purple with blue shimmer. I loved the color the second I saw it in the bottle, but when I got home and swatched it, it turned out to be very, very sheer. As it turns out, pretty much the whole HD collection works best as layering polishes. I've seen some manicures on other blogs where they are layered over black, and they all look wonderful. What I like about layering it over the "On A Trip" is that they're the same shade of purple, so I get that wonderful bottle color in the opaque I'm looking for. I got this one at Walgreens. It's been awhile, but I think it was $6.

I couldn't resist the urge to add some glitter, so I did french tips with "Rockstar Pink" from Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear. It's a lot of pink glitter, with a little bit of purple, red, blue and gold glitter. You can buy this one just about anywhere for $1.99 as well.

Dizzy Mizz Lizzy

Good morning everyone! Today I only have one bottle of nail polish to show you, but oh what a good one it is! This is Dizzy Mizz Lizzy from Enchanted Polish. Enchanted Polish is an independent nail polish maker. http://www.facebook.com/EnchantedPolishPage I also need to give props to Llarowe and her birthday sale last month, where I purchased this beauty. :) http://www.shop.llarowe.com/ The above photo is two coats in natural light with no flash.

Dizzy Mizz Lizzy is my first "indie" polish. As you can see from the above macro shot, there's a lot going on in this polish. It has a holographic pink/red jelly base with large red hex glitter, medium gold and turquoise hex glitter, small red and gold square glitter, and silver bar glitter. It's one of those polishes that I find myself staring at when I'm supposed to be doing other things. <g>

Very bling-y!

Zoya Charla... with Bling!

Hello everyone! I'm back from my mini-vacation, and I finally have a new manicure to show you. After a very brief (and small) Facebook fan poll, I decided on Zoya's "Charla" as my base color. Charla is a gorgeous teal/turquoise metallic shimmer, with a hint of gold shimmer. I just love metallic teal polish-I'm starting to get quite the collection of it! :) Charla went on nice and smooth and dried quickly.

The nearest place to me to buy Zoya polish is from Ulta, and I can't remember what it retails for (I know it's not cheap!), but I got mine for one cent with my Copius.com credits! :)

 

Charla is pretty "bling-y" by itself, but on top I layered "Trust Fund Baby" from the Spoiled by Wet n Wild line. Trust Fund Baby has small turquoise and gold hex glitter and small black and purple square glitter in a clear base. This color would look great layered on top of so many colors. The Spoiled line is available exclusively from CVS and retails for $1.99, but sometimes goes on sale for 99 cents!