Nail Art / Swatch & Review

   I'm wearing an extremely princess-y manicure today!  I did these nails Saturday after deciding I wanted something holographic and was inspired by some pretty glitter gradients on other blogs.  Then I realized that all the polishes I used were essentially untrieds - swatched but never used in a manicure.  So I'll be talking a bit about them, too.

   So pink, so girly, so great!  For as much as I love pink I don't do pink nails that often.  I have a hard time finding the right pinks for my skintone.  These are the polishes I used:

Color Club Halo-graphic, Milani Pink Flare, Nyx Girls Dynamic Glitter and Salon Perfect Silver Sparkler.

   First let's talk about Color Club Halo-graphic.  How did I let this go for so long without doing a proper manicure with it?  From the 2012 Halo Hues collection, this pink is gorgeous in the bottle and cool-toned enough that I find it wearable.  I used two coats on my thumbs, index and pinky fingers, then my regular Poshe topcoat.  Once the manicure is totally dry the holographic effect comes back 100%.  Application is good for a holographic polish, but isn't very self-leveling.

   Milani Pink Flare is part of the One Coat Glitter line, but it is most certainly not opaque in one coat.  My right hand, pictured above, shows this polish at one coat on my ring finger and at two on my middle finger.  Both have one coat of Halo-graphic as a base/underwear color.  I must say I love this glitter, it is the perfect combination of soft and sparkly.  Different from my expectations but I don't like it any less.

   The photos below show my left hand.  I had the good sense to wrap my tips with Halo-graphic before putting on a coat of Pink Flare, so the sheerness isn't noticeable unless you're really looking.  My middle finger (three flower-shape paillettes) is wearing 4 coats of Milani Pink Flare, and if you look closely you can still see some VNL.  As soon as I saw how sheer it was I put a base coat of Color Club Halo-Graphic down on my ring finger, and only used two coats of Pink Flare.

   For the gradients I used a combination of Nyx Dynamic Glitter and Salon Perfect Silver Sparkler.  I started off by dabbing Dynamic glitter at the cuticles and then placed individual glitters from Silver Sparkler to fill in spaces that needed it.  I also used loose flower paillettes to enhance the gradient nails.  These nails would have had a lot of texture so I used extra topcoat until they were smooth and super glossy!


   The only negative thing about this manicure is that it is SO sparkly that it is hard to photograph!  There is so much glitz that my camera seems to be at a loss about which nail to focus on.  Of course, that quality is also what makes it so fantastic.  I'm really enjoying this glittery, rainbow-filled manicure!  =)

Swatch & Review

   This is the lovely Yours, Mine, and Flowers by Different Dimension.  I can take credit for the name but I had nothing to do with the blend of glitters.  I loved this polish so much I wore it twice in a row!  Partly because I wanted my swatches to really show off the pastel glitters, and black was better for that.  So here is one coat of Yours, Mine, and Flowers over Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.

   Yes, this really is one coat, and yes, you really do get that many flowers in one coat.  Missi knows what she is doing with her polishes!  No skimpy glitters here.  Also, do you see the bright blue sparks on my nails here?  Those are color-shifting glitters.  They look more purple in the bottle but they show up blue on my black base.

   This is how I first wore Yours, Mine, and Flowers - one coat over China Glaze Sea Spray.  This winter-sky colored polish gave my nails a much softer and more subtle look.  The color shifting glitters only faintly flashed purple.  The colors in this clear-based polish are satin finish baby pink, lavender, pale green, powder blue and white, as well as matte white in the tiny glitters.  It's a really pretty blend.

   The formula on this was very good, though it is a little more slippery than some of the other Different Dimension glitters.  I had to use a light hand so I wouldn't drag the glitter around, and give it a moment to set.  It is packed with glitter, but here is my tip for super-easy flower catching: leave the bottle upside down for a half hour before you use it.  Yours, Mine, and Flowers was just added to the Different Dimension etsy shop over the weekend, so you can go pick up your bottle there!

   Today I have a very easy nail art design to share.  I did these nails several months ago, for a spring nail art contest which I then never submitted the pictures to...  At any rate, I figure they have relevance now as I attempt to breathe new life into my blog.  Consider them a plea not to forget about me!  =P

   I just LOVE these~!!  Ahem.  I had to get that out.  You see, forget-me-nots are one of my most favorite flowers.  =)  And they were easy to mimic since they are a basic 5 petal shape.  The steps I used to make these are after the jump.

   Ever come up with something that you know is really pretty but you're just not sure if you love it on yourself?  That's how it is for me with this mani.  It looks beautiful, but I just wasn't feeling it the way I thought I would.  At any rate, here are what I call my "deep sea mermaid" nails:

   Gorgeous, right?  That is two coats of LA Girl Deep Sea Mica topped with one coat of Zoya Charla.  There are a few more pictures after the jump, including Deep Sea Mica by itself.