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.

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:

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

Tape manicures are easy!

So this week I decided to do an angled contrast manicure using Scotch Tape. This was my first time using Scotch tape as part of my manicure, and it was easy! After my clear base coat, I put on a layer of Wet n Wild "Haze of Love", and after it was good and dry I angled pieces of Scotch Tape across the back half of my fingernails. Then I topped the remaining section with "Shine of the Times", from the Essie Luxeffects collection. Then I removed the tape and finished with my Sally Hansen top coat. I'm very happy with the finished manicure!

Wet n Wild "Haze of Love" & Essie "Shine of the Times".

Let me tell you how impressed I am with the "Haze of Love" from Wet n Wild! It's from their Megalast line. What you see in the first picture is only ONE COAT of nail polish. It's kind of a thick coat, but still! The day I bought this color I also bought another Wet n Wild Megalast called "On a Trip", a purple creme color. I hope it's just as good. The polishes in the Megalast line also have a new "Manicurve Pro" brushes, which I think I liked. If all the colors in the line are as good as the "Haze of Love" they are a great value. They retail for about $2 or less.

I bought the Essie "Shine of the Times" last month, and the effect is just wonderful! It's got these gorgeous color-shifting holographic flakies in it. I should have used it sooner. Essie is a bit pricier and retails for about $8.