Nail Art

   Oh, readers, this post is a fun one for me to share!  You may think that with all the pastel colors around here that I am simply a girly-girl.  Not true!  Beneath my frilly, lacy outer layer you will find a cold, hard nerdy comic book geek.  Hey, sometimes your knight in shining armor is actually a knight in really tight spandex.  Don't complain, fellow princesses, you know a spandex spidey-suit is easier to clean than a full suit of armor.  Yay for wash-and-wear!  ...Moving on!


   See what I did here, channeling the vintage comic book cover style?  I'm pretty proud of it... not nearly as proud as I am of these nails, though!!  I painted them on May 3rd, in preparation of my my 2nd wedding anniversary day-early dinner & movie celebration.  (What a mouthful.)  See, I really am a geek - I totally felt this was a sufficient romantic date for an important occasion.

   So yes, this was nail art for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie - wait 'til you see the other hand! - but  promise that I will reveal no spoilers.  I hate spoilers!

Nail Art / Swatch & Review

   Working through more of my untried indie glitters, I created this cute manicure to wear to the baby shower that my best friend held yesterday!  It was such a nice party.  These might not look like very baby-themed nails, but I'm not one for baby motifs.  So I went with nice bright colors, instead.  Also, Lush Lacquer is created by a mother-daughter team, so it totally fits!

   All my nails started out with a base coat of white, which was Zoya Purity.  For my glitter gradient nails I used Lush Lacquer Pebbles.  This is an awesome, colorful matte glitter in a clear base.  It looks way better on the nail than in the bottle, where the colors appear muddled because of the tiny glitter size.  On the nail the yellow, pink, purple and blue really pop!

   The glitter coverage was good, too.  My nails are showing 1 coat at the cuticle/top, 2 coats from the middle down, and 3 at the very tip.  Roughly.  I just dabbed the glitter on carefully to make the gradient effect.  My verdict is that this polish is great!

   For accent nails I tried doing fishtail style chevrons for the first time.  They didn't come out too badly, but 4 colors was way too many for a beginner's attempt!  Definitely going to stick with 2 the next time I practice.  I did a pretty good job matching up the polish colors to the glitter in Pebbles, though.  Here is what I used:

Lush Lacquer Pebbles, China Glaze Happy-Go-Lucky, Zoya Sweet, Pure Ice Fairy Godmother and Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!

   What do you think of these nails?  Do you have any Lush Lacquer colors to recommend?  They can be found in the Lush Lacquer etsy shop!  Thanks for looking.  =)

   After so little buying of STUFF this summer, this month's haul feels HUGE!  I've been quite happy with "shopping my untrieds", but I did pick up some really awesome new goodies as well!

   If the above picture seems a little bare in the upper right corner, that's it is.  I missed a polish!  Fortunately I managed to include it in the "close-up" photo...

Pure Ice Fairy Godmother and Salon Perfect Kaboom.

   These were both found at Walmart.  I've already swatched Fairy Godmother, which I love.  It's a perfect shade of purple and only $2 for a bottle!  Kaboom is a Floam-type glitter dupe, and the only one I found from Salon Perfect's summer neon glitter collection.  I'm really surprised that China Glaze didn't decide to put out these colors under their name, and make them more widely available.  Oh well.  I figure it should be handy for nail art!  Between one polish being a tricky purple and the other a neon these are very hard to photograph, but this quick picture is actually pretty accurate on my screen.

Color Club Beyond, Over The Moon, Kismet, Cosmic Fate, Miss Bliss and Eternal Beauty.

   The entire 2013 Halo Hues collection!  These were a gift from my husband, which makes them even more special!  I had the collection on my wishlist and he snagged them right away (without my knowing) when I found them at a decent price on Amazon.  The colors are awesome and very holographic.  I hope that Color Club keeps releasing more Halo Hues because they are so good for the price!

I♥NP Once Upon A Starry Night, Angel Burp, A Nice Chianti, All Gold Everything, Purple Stuff, 11:59, and (still boxed) Silver Spoons

   I snatched up polishes on my wishlist that were being discontinued when I Love Nail Polish announced them going on sale.  So far I've tried Once Upon A Starry Night and Angel Burp and shared them here.  I really love these polishes, from the super-cute but practical packaging they come in to the pretty bottles with their thin grippy handles.  The shipping was fast, too!  So glad to finally have these pretties in my collection~  These came right from http://www.ilnp.com/.

Cirque Dark Horse, Galinda, XX, Lullaby, Iris, and Kaleidoscope

   Finally, I splurged and bought all the Cirque Colors polishes on my wishlist.  They were actually all in stock at the same time (they never are during a sale... =( sigh!) so I gave in.  Didn't want to miss them if they get phased out or something!  I can honestly say that these babies are STUNNING.  They've been swatched on a lot of great blogs already, but I'll be sharing my own creations with them, too!  I have a sneaking suspicion that photos aren't going to do them justice, though...  These came from http://www.cirquecolors.com/home/.

   So, that's the damage for this month.  So many very nice polishes, it's hard to know what to try next!  If you have any requests for what you would like to see layered, compared, or reviewed in particular leave a comment below!

Swatch & Review / NotD

   Good evening, princesses!  Here is a manicure that is sure to give you sweet dreams about polish.  ;P  I was fortunate enough to snag Once Upon A Starry Night during I♥NP's clearance sale, and found the limited edition Pure Ice color Fairy Godmother, which pairs wonderfully as a base color.  Also, I think I may have found my "pose" for pictures.  Holding my hand at an angle seems most comfortable.

   I used one coat of I♥NP (I Love Nail Polish - what a great brand name!) of Once Upon A Starry Night, which is a clear-based glitter with a really nice density for using as a topcoat.  The glitters in it are prismatic, silver, blue, and matte white.  It contains holographic silver stars but not very many of them.  Getting one of the stars is a treat, and the nails without stars don't look like they are lacking.  I've had this polish on my wishlist since I first saw it announced last year!  Sadly this shade is now discontinued - sorry!

   ILNP definitely earns their tagline of "boutique nail lacquer": the super cute packaging, the wonderful brush and good formula...  I'm not sure if this bottle is made with the original or reformulated glitter base.  (The suspension base was changed after complaints that the polishes were great but smelled horrible.)  I can say that this does have a polish smell but it is not at all offensive!

   Pure Ice Fairy Godmother is a perfect amethyst shade that will. not. photograph. accurately.  I tried color-correcting the photos and gave up, because by the time the polish was looking right my hands looked fiery.  Yes, this is a cool-toned purple, but it is more red than this.  It's a medium type of purple that isn't too bright, too dark, too pastel or dusty.  It also seems to have a faint hidden shimmer.  I used two coats, and coverage was very good.  The formula is on the slightly thick side.

   These are two really pretty polishes that work great together!  Pure Ice is sold at Walmart, and you can find I♥NP shades at their website:

   Hello, dear readers!  I'm so excited to share this post with you!  Not only am I sharing some cute original nail art I did, I'm teaching you how to do it with a tutorial!  This is my first time creating a how-to collage (it took some trial and error), so please give me your feedback!  First off, some information about the polishes I used.

For the gumballs: 

China Glaze Happy-Go-Lucky, Grape Pop, Four Leaf Clover, Suger High; Sally Hansen Sun Kissed and Zoya Breezi

   Obviously gumballs and their dispensers have a lot of room for creativity with colors, and you could pick pretty much anything you want.  I wanted something easily recognizable so I reached for the classic candy and dispenser colors.  This design works really well on squared nails, and takes advantage of your natural nail shape to create the glass dome of the gumball machine.  All you need are your nail polishes, some dotting tools, and french tip guides.  On to the tutorial!



   Yay, it's easy!  And fun - I had a blast wearing this manicure.  All kinds of people wanted to check these colorful nails out, and they could tell what they were!  To me, that's nail art success.  What do you think?  If you try this please leave a link in the comments below so I can check it out!  =)

Nail Art / NotD

   I'm sharing the manicure I just did today.  This is the result of getting an idea in my head and not being willing to let it go even when I got my first clue that it might not be the best idea with color I chose.  Ever have one of those stubborn moments?  I just did; at least it didn't turn out too badly.

   The idea for this manicure happened when I picked up Zoya Simone from my Mom's sales.  The pinkish hue held nuances of vintage, lady-like, and sophisticated.  Wouldn't it be neat to do a patchwork/quilt square manicure with this color and white?  Well, that was a nice idea until I started using Simone and realized that it really isn't a good color for nail art.  While two coats were good on a plastic swatch nail, it took three to get rid of VNL on my own nails.  The formula is a bit runny, as well.  Simone really doesn't get along with taping methods.  My poor middle finger looks sad because I had to use two coats of Simone on my white base, and I tried to be quick about pulling the striping tape up but it was gloopy anyway... blah.

   Oh well!  My other two colors were Zoya Purity and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes.  I tried two new techniques - a ruffle nail (thumb) and bubbles (index) - both dotting-tool designs.  The butterfly nail is done with stickers and my pinky is a cloud nail - super easy!  What about the other hand?  Well... I'm not sure what I'm doing with that yet.  Maybe just a solid color, to give myself a break.  ;P  What do you think?

Swatch & Review / NotD

   Yesterday I wore this manicure as a way to use some of my untrieds.  These are two really nice polishes and I was happy with them, but I wasn't really feeling drawn to the color combo right now, so my nails are bare again today.

   Pure Ice Scream is a really nice blue-green creme polish, sort of a turquoise, teal, or dark aqua color.  It dries just a little bit darker than it looks in the bottle.  It is easy to work with and has really good coverage.  I used 1 coat on all my nails except my ring finger, which took 2.  I also let this dry without topcoat, so you can see it levels nicely and has decent shine.  The only issue I had with Scream was when applying the glitter on some of my nails.  I had to use a light touch or it would start to smear and create bald spots.

   Pure Ice Over You is one of their newer glitter releases, and I really love the colors.  I think I will like this better layered over a pale base color.  It is made up of micro and tiny lavender glitter, and had holographic aqua glitter in small hexes and short, stubby bars.  I really like the bar glitter, it reminds me of splashing water.  I only used 1 generous coat on my nails and was very happy with the coverage.  The glitters spread well and I imagine this could easily be layered up for full glitter-bomb effect nails.  I used topcoat to smooth my glitter nails, and didn't notice any texture after that.  Check out the macro shot below to see it better!

   These polishes impressed me for $2 finds, with good formulas to match their pretty colors.  After realizing how nice Scream was to work with I might have to give a few of their other new creme colors a chance.  So, this is my short and sweet post for today.  As always, thanks for looking!

   Or, why it's going to be easy not to buy any polish during February.  (So long as China Glaze doesn't release their new holographic polishes in the US.)

   I ended up with over 35 new (or new-to-me) polishes this month, the above photo is missing a few because they are either on loan or scattered through my house.  January was a good month for polish because all my end-of-the-year sale purchases arrived along with a few sakes that took place right at the beginning of January.

   I snagged some Black Cat Lacquer polishes from my wishlist, they are: I Want Candy, Let Them Eat Cake, Put a Bird On It, and Women & Women First.  These came from etsy.  These are all so, so pretty!

   I had a most wonderful package of Different Dimension nail polish arrive.  Mostly colors that I've helped name, but a few other pretties to swatch and review, too!  I've gotten to try most of these already, and their posts are up on the blog.  The polishes shown above are: Honesty Feels A Lot Like Mean, Orbital, Vervain, Aorta Miss You But I Don't, All Red-y In Love, A Love Hue, and Love Her? I Don't Even Lacquer!  Not pictured because it is on loan to my Mom: Yours, Mine, and Flowers.  You can find these polishes on etsy.

      I picked up a couple discontinued polishes from Laquerlicious, Invitation Only and Mint N Chip Frappe.  Along with those I was sent three minis to review, Melted Ice Cream, Rainbow Sugar, and Tart Taffy.  Go check out those swatches!  These also came from etsy!

   Lush Lacquer had a sale, so I picked up my first polishes from them.  The colors I picked are Glitter Girls, Mr. Bubble, Oopsie Daisy, Pebbles, Pink Panther and Slumber Party.  These are all so cute!  Visit the Lush Lacquer shop on etsy.

   I snagged a couple OPI polishes from my wishlist, My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Don't Touch My Tutu!

   When Zoya had their promo for three polishes my husband got me a few cremes from my wishlist: Breezi, Jolene and Wednesday.

   These polishes were partly from a trade and given to me.  Pure Ice Material Girl, Milani Hot Pink, China Glaze Peachy Keen and Luna, KBShimmer Oh Splat!

   And nail polish in another form - jewelry!  Sweet Tips Nails had an amazing sale, so I picked up some necklaces and other accessories.  These are really cute!  The shipping prices are really good, too.  And yes, these came from etsy, too!

   So, a pretty good haul, I'd say!  A lot of polish to keep me busy this month and a lot of it from indie sellers.  The plan this month is to be good and not buy much.  ;P

Swatch / NotD

   This is a simple manicure but I really like it.  When I did my Blue Midnight jewelry nail art I ended up painting my left hand in Pure Ice Ruffled Sheets.  I love silver polish but it was feeling washed out with my other hand being so colorful and fancy.  Here is Ruffled Sheets on it's own at two coats, with no top coat.  As you can see it dries shimmery-matte.  (You can enter to win a bottle, along with two more shades!)

   A very nice type of brushed-steel metallic and it stands out as unique in my collection of silvers.  My eyes kept wandering to my new bottle of Orly Miss Conduct, though.  I considered taking Ruffled Sheets off and redoing my nails with the Orly, but instead I layered it.  This way I only needed one coat of Miss Conduct, which has a jelly-type base that let the metallic of Ruffled Sheets shine through.  It was hard to capture the effect...

   Miss Conduct dries shiny and with Poshe topcoat added my nails turned into little glass jewels.  The glitter is fantastic: holographic microshards such as found in the Milani 3D polishes and Zoya Aurora and Storm.  It helped bring out the Ruffled Sheets accent nail made shiny with topcoat.  Miss Conduct is now among my favorite pink polishes because of the awesome color and perfect formula.  Ruffled Sheets has proven itself to be good for nail art and good for layering.  So, I'd call this left-hand-mani a success!

Nail Art / Swatch

   Today's post is a look I did with Pure Ice Blue Midnight as a base and Ruffled Sheets for the nail art.  The only tools used were dotting tools!  This is my first try at a jewelry draped manicure, and these were perfect polishes for it.

   My base coat for this manicure was Orly Bonder.  Polishes that dry matte tend to be chip-prone, but I only experienced tip wear and tiny chips on my pinky nail, so I was impressed.  I used two coats of Blue Midnight for my base, which is a lovely sapphire blue.

   Generally matte polishes aren't my thing but the shimmer in this makes it look great!  It definitely reminded me of rich blue velvet or even denim.  It dried fast and smooth.  TIP:  Matte polishes will get goopy faster than others as you use them.  Recap and shake your bottle every 5 nails to keep it flowing smoothly.

   Then I dotted on Ruffled Sheets using three different sizes of dotting tools.  I tried to "connect" the art on my index and middle fingernails but I'm not sure that it ended up being as obvious as I wanted it to be.

   For the pendant on my ring finger I used Blue Midnight again and created a vaguely heart-shaped gem.  I went over the gem with shiny topcoat which made it stand out more.  Very "Heart of the Ocean", eh?

   After wearing this for a day I was impressed with how it held up with no topcoat, but decided that for going to work I wanted the extra protection from a coat of Poshe.  Plus I wanted to see how it would change the look!  So here is the manicure again, but in shiny form.  (Which you only have a 1 in 8,192 chance of finding!)

   What do you think?  Remember that Ruffled Sheets is one of the polishes in my giveaway!  Because it's a set of gold, silver, and copper I hope that I've inspired whoever will win to try something like this.  Wouldn't it be awesome with those three colors as the chains, overlapping each other on a glossy black or white background?