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! :)

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?!

"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.

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.

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. :(

Kleancolor "Firework" over Nicole by OPI "Iceberg Lotus"

Happy Memorial Day!

This week's manicure features what I call "messy glitter french tips." Not messy in a bad way, but on purpose. The random nature of the glitter is perfect for free-handing the french tips without using french tip guide stickers.

The base coat is called "Iceberg Lotus" from Nicole by OPI. It's a gorgeous teal shimmer, but it took three coats for full opacity. Luckily it dried quickly. It also has a hint of duochrome in it. Some lights bring out a bluish/purple color, but I couldn't get that to photograph. If I recall correctly, I bought this one at CVS. I have a few other polishes in the metallic turquoise/teal family, and several polishes in shades of metallic blue. What can I say, they're my favorite colors. :)

For the glitter tips I used "Firework" by Kleancolor. It has a clear base with red, gold and turquoise hex glitter, as well as small gold square glitter. This glitter looks great over SO MANY nail polish colors. Kleancolor isn't sold in my area, so I purchased this in a set of other Kleancolor polishes from an eBay seller. I think "Firework" is one of the best ones from the set.

Nicole by OPI "Iceberg Lotus" and Kleancolor "Firework". You can kind of see the duochrome of the Iceberg Lotus in this picture.

Of course, to make it smooth over the glitter I have two coats of Seche Vite on top. Altogether that makes 8 coats of polish at the glitter tips! (Two coats of base, three of the turquoise, one thick coat of glitter, and two of topcoat.) Something I've read about in other blogs and have noticed myself is that the Seche Vite causes some shrinkage of the polish. Not every polish, but definitely glitter polishes. With this manicure it's really obvious on my pinky. I haven't had a problem putting it over cremes.

Out Of This World Nails

This week I have a gorgeous, gorgeous blue-based manicure with two kinds of glitter. The base coat is Wet n Wild Wild Shine's "Blue Moon". It's a dark blue with just a hint of duochrome. In the bottle it looks bluish-green, but on the nail it mostly looks blue. The first glitter layered on top is Jordana Cosmetics' "Cosmic". It has blue and green hex glitter, and a touch of silver hex glitter, in a clear base. It's really great for layering. My second layer of glitter is from Kleancolor, called "Silver Star". It's small silver glitter pieces and silver star glitter in a clear base.

I like how I ended up with three stars across on my ring finger, like Orion's Belt. :)

I am really loving this combination of polishes. Without the star layer, the "Blue Moon" and the "Cosmic" together make a great imitation of Deborah Lippmann's "Across the Universe". Since I don't own "Across the Universe" I can't show you a picture of it here, but you can Google it. It's not exact, but it definitely has the same feel. It's close enough for those of us who don't want to spend $18 for a bottle of Deborah Lippmann. I added the star glitter to give it an extra kick.

Wet n Wild Wild Shine "Blue Moon", Jordana Cosmetics "Cosmic", and Kleancolor "Silver Star."

The "Blue Moon" went on smooth and clean. For a cheap $1 polish, this stuff is pretty good. I was in a bit of a hurry (as usual), so I actually only used one coat. Since I layered it with glitter you can't tell too much, but if I was wearing it by itself I would have used two coats. You can buy it at just about any discount retail store. The print on the label of my bottle is starting to come off, sorry.

The "Cosmic" is a polish I've had for a couple months and not yet used on my nails. I've been sampling it over other colors in my "swatch notebook" (I think it's time for me to graduate to those little fake nail wheels), and it really looks great over a lot of different colors. I absolutely love it over any dark blue. You can find "Cosmic" at Kmart, along with a whole slew of other Jordana glitters that are great for layering.

I love the finishing effect the "Silver Star" glitter had, but like a lot of glitters of this type, you really had to fish around in the bottle to get the stars onto the brush. It was kind of a pain. Kleancolor is not available in my area, so I bought this polish (in a lot with a few other Kleancolor glitters) on eBay.

A fellow nail polish blogger is having an AWESOME indie polish giveaway! Head on over to Sometimes I Spill My Polish http://www.sometimesispillmypolish.com/2012/05/100-follower-give-way-indie-polish.html and enter. Contest ends at 12:01 AM on 5/23/2012.