Swatch & Review Manicure

And says her prayers
In awe of what she sees
I could never see the things she sees

And she's always far away
In some other place
She likes to make believe
I can't stand to see her in such pain

Even when the world is pushing down
She stands so tall she can almost touch the clouds

Swatch & Review

   I paired two of the newest I Love Nail Polish holographic polishes together to test them out.  Here are my thoughts on Bottle Service and Pt 78.  I wore this manicure back in November, and by some miracle the clouds parted that Monday afternoon and I was able to get a few quick sunlight pictures...

   September.  Month of Multichrome Madness.  And Also a Baby!

   Of course you know that on the 15th my daughter Freya was born, so here's a quick rundown of the other little pretties I picked up this month...

   I couldn't resist preordering the new I Love Nail Polish brand multichromes.  (Website here.)  Left to right they are Cygnus Loop, My Little Glacier, Birefringence, and Mutagen.  These look pretty awesome, can't wait to try them myself.  =)

   I did a bit of blog sale shopping for the L'oréal jelly polishes Bananarama Love, Creme de Mint, and Bubble Trouble.  I also snagged the discontinued glitters Ozotic 528 and 530.  These five bottles all came from Jacki at Adventures in Acetone.

   Then I placed a very exciting Digital Nails (on Etsy!) order.  I bought Convergent, along with the Starship trio!  Serenity, Galactica, and Leviathan.  Sadly these multichrome glitters are suffering the same end as their Ozotic cousins above... once they're gone, they're gone.

   So, definitely on a bit of a multichrome kick.  But that's okay, the grey days of fall are a perfect time for appreciating these color-shifting gems.  Of course, I probably won't be paying too much attention to my nails until my little girl can go more than 3 hours without eating.  ;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?

   Hello, everyone!  I found some of the limited edition Pure Ice polishes locally and thought I should share the wealth!  I'm keeping this giveaway post short and sweet, so let me tell you about the prize and then you can get on with entering!

   These are from Pure Ice's "velvet" or "suede" finish line.   They made it sound like these had an actual fuzzy texture to them once they dried, but let me assure you that these dry smooth and are easy to work with.  What is special about them is that they dry to a shine-free matte finish, and because they are shimmery metallics it looks textured.  They dry fast and have good coverage at two coats, and you'll be about to give your nails a different look by adding topcoat!  I had to grab my own bottle of the silver and Blue Midnight, so count on seeing some nail inspiration posts before the giveaway is over!

The Prize:

The Rules:

   ♥ This giveaway is open to all my followers with a US mailing address, new and old!

   International followers, I'm sorry to exclude you.  However, if you have someone within the states who can receive your prize I'll be happy to mail to them for you!

   You should either be 18 years of age or older, or have the consent of your parents/guardians to enter.

   All entries are recorded using Rafflecopter, and falsified entries will be removed.

   The selected winner will be notified by E-mail and have 24 hours to respond before another winner will be chosen.
   Any questions or clarification needed, let me know!

Swatch & Review / Nail Art

   At first I was planning a regular swatch post for the few Layla Mirror Effect polishes that I picked up.  But the plain fact is that there are already awesome swatch posts out there with all the individual colors, my favorite example being at A Polish Addict.  (Here's part 2 from her, as well!)  All the polishes have an identical finish so rather than more plain-ole' swatches, I had fun with nail art!

   I bought my Layla polishes from FabulouStreet.  I managed to pick them up on sale, their regular price is $15.50 per bottle.  The special chrome formula is intended to be used without a base coat on freshly buffed nails.  (You can even buy a special Layla file for this purpose, which came out with their holographic collection.)  I ignored this.  Instead I used a peel-off base coat on my unbuffed (nonbuffed? buffless?) nails.

   As you can see these truly show every little imperfection in your nail.  They dry super-fast into a thin foil.  Personally I hate to go without a base coat, and these applied just fine over what I had on, so I think next time I will try tricking them with a super-thick glossy base!  I used a fast-drying drying topcoat on all my fingers and a thick topcoat on my thumb, no issues there either.  Wait for the polishes to dry before top coating them!

   The opacity on these metallics is wonderful despite their thin, almost watery consistency - you're looking at just one coat of each polish, both in the base and each layer of the cloud design that I free-handed with the polish brush.  The least opaque seemed to be Titanium Sky, which if seen at the right angle in certain lighting had a thin spot.  Can you tell?

  Layla did a very nice job with this line of polishes.  Finally, metal-finish polish without frosty brushstrokes!  They are the most chrome-like metallics I've ever seen, but nothing as shiny as their bottle caps.  Because of how they show every tiny ding and dent in your nail bed I will probably stick with using these for nail art.  I'll probably hold off on buying any more of them until they release more unique colors, though.

   Layla is an Italian brand, specializing in various "effect" polishes, and all Big 3 Free.  They are on the pricey side for my budget, but I've enjoyed every polish I've bought from them.  Have you tried anything from this brand?  Do you these metallic nail polishes?  Let me know!  =)

   I did a super-quick mani to compare a couple of magnetic polish colors.  The Black Sparkle from Icing has been on the blog before, but I wanted to see how it compared to the Claire's Silver that I found not too long ago.

   More pictures and observations after the jump!

   My nails today are done in one of the colors I'm giving away!  Don't worry, I used my personal bottle, not the one up for grabs!  ;D  This is the Blue Shimmer Icing MagnetiX polish with my star-design LCN magnet.  My goal was to make nails that looked like little gleaming star sapphires.

   Yes, I totally screwed up my pinky nail, I know.  The camera flash made it look worse than it does in person.  That is what happens when you put top coat over magnetic polish too soon.  This stuff dries fast but you should still have a little patience!  Yesterday I did not.  >.<'

   This is a really nice polish, though, and I have more pictures and thoughts under the jump!  =)

   Here are my nails with one coat of China Glaze Drawn To You.  I used the magnet from my blue Icing MagnetiX polish - which I'm giving away a set of - don't forget!

   My alignment on some fingers was a little wonky and my ring finger didn't turn out so well, sorry about that!

   Title based on polishes used!  I chose China Glaze Pull Me Close which is of course from their new Magnetix line.  I did a coat of Pure Ice Don't You Wish on each ring finger.  Sadly my pictures didn't turn out so great today.  My nails look better in person despite the topcoat issues I had - it kept creating bubbles!

   Hello all!  I don't generally put up two posts in one day but this is related to my previous post about the Icing magnetics - it's the polishes on my nails!  If I had added my manicure the post would have been too huge, I think.  So, here are some additional pictures and thoughts about my nails... and some exciting news - I have a new camera!

   The colors are Rose Sparkle, Antique Brass Sparkle, Black Sparkle, and then Rose Sparkle again.  I skipped out on using Blue Shimmer because it doesn't have a glittery finish like these do.  I'll do that one another time.  There is top coat in these pictures,  but not a very shiny one.

   I think the magnetic designs came out better on my right hand.  I used the wavy-design magnet on all my nails save for the black ones.  I used my LCN star-pattern magnet for those.  I love the wavy magnets.  It looks like ribbons running down my nails!  And each ring finger got a holographic silver star paillette applied to one side.  The magnetic pattern looks like shine rays coming from the stars.  =)

   I just have to say it's so much easier using magnetics on my own nails, rather than swatching a nail wheel.  Having to hold both the wheel and the magnet - carefully! is just about as much as my shaky hands can muster.

   I just got my camera a couple days ago, it's a Canon which I never thought I would buy.  My boyfriend has a Canon and while it takes great pictures I never liked using it myself.  This one has the kind of controls I like, though.  In fact, it mostly done by touchscreen.  Anyway, I'm still getting used to it and what settings I should use.  I'll probably make a separate post about my camera when I have less awesome nail polish to blog about.  ;P  But I have to ask: can you notice a difference for the better?

   My kitty was in my lap during my Nail-of-the-Day pictures.  So, here are my nails, on her pretty fur!  This actually came out really well-focused (click to see larger).  I don't know about you but I think she looks great with these polish colors, too.  Good thing cats don't have fingernails.  =P

   One more picture of my nails for the road!  Thank you so much for reading and if you have any thoughts please share them.  =)

   Over the weekend I saw on Icing's website that they were carrying a new line of nail polish - 4 magnetic shades.  I love magnetics!  I went to Icing, went around the whole store and was afraid that they didn't have them yet.  When a girl working there asked if I needed help I told her what I was looking for - she knew what I was asking for because they had just gotten these nail polishes in and were up on the check-out counter!  I did some serious nail polish haulage!  Thus I bring you swatches and a review of the new Icing magnetiX line!

   I am seriously impressed with these nail polishes, and I have to give a nod to Icing for putting out magnetic nail polishes before most major brands have even announced a release date for their own.  Find out more of my thoughts and see more pictures after the jump!

   I tried Zoya for the first time last year.  I picked two of their colors when they were doing a promo and I said to myself "sure, I'd try Zoya out for that price".  My choices?  The sparkling duo of Kissy and Izzy.  Picked partly because of the colors (pink!), partly because of the finishes (glitter, foil!), and partly because of the cute names.

   Kissy is the glitter, Izzy is the metallic.  The box they were sent in even matched nicely with their pinkness.  I have actually worn these colors together twice and not gotten pictures... shame on me.  I will say that I rather liked, even preferred, Izzy all by herself.  The next time I wear Kissy I'm going to try her over a dark creme.  =)

   Kissy is a wonder in the bottle.  She is made of tiny red glitters, small hot pink bar or "string" glitters, and larger holographic bar glitter.  My suggestion to you is to grab a bib and view this larger:

   Soon after these two cuties came into my life I was buying all sorts of Zoya nail polishes and now I have a nice little collection of the brand.  Love that it's Big 3 Free and no animal testing!  And don't forget that this Thursday is my second Picturesday.  The theme is Zoya Nail Polish.  Click the Picturesday tab at the top for the details - if you submit a picture of your Zoya polish worn you'll be featured on the blog!  =)

   I've got more magnetic nail polish swatches to share with you today!  Last week I tried two more colors by the Layla brand.  One I loved, one I was slightly let-down about.  First I tried Brown Sugar:

   There were very few swatches of this one Online and it was really hard to judge if it would fit my skintone or not, so I chanced it.  I'm very glad I did!  I ended up loving this even though it is an unusual polish color for me.  It tends to look just a bit darker, like this:

    It is a very neutral brown and doesn't lean too red, too orange, or too anything else.  The silver magnetic particles really pop, and the diagonal line design made me think of turkey feathers.  I tried straight lines on my thumbs... not bad.

   The other thing that was just great about this polish was the application.  This is just one coat and it was completely opaque.  I didn't have any "dead" spots where the magnet didn't effect the polish, and it dried on it's own fairly quickly.

   I'm going to venture to say that Layla Magneffect Brown Sugar has a lot of movement, meaning that the magnetic particles show a strong illusion of moving within the polish.  The silvery lines in this were constantly shifting and changing width, disappearing and reappearing.  It's a fun color to wear.

   The next polish I wore was Layla Magneffect Velvet Groove.  I was hoping for a rich cool-toned burgundy red, but to me it looks mostly purple.  After enjoying Nails Inc. Houses of Parliament I was hoping for something different in my collection.  I did use the Nails Inc. magnet on this color, though!

   The pictures show it as being more red-tinted than it looked in most lighting.  A pretty color anyway, though... oh well!  Hopefully another brand will come up with the perfect rich red magnetic polish.  (Or Layla could just come out with more colors - that's cool with me!)

   The good news about both of these colors is that they both wore well with just minor tip wear.  What do you think of them?

   More swatches that I needed to upload!  Having a post of still pictures will be handy for the times you need a quick reference to each color in the collection.  I've already shared the HD video that I made, which also gives my color descriptions and shows the magnets.  Without further ado, here is the entire collection of LCN Magnetic Nail Polish!

   Each swatch is done with one coat of polish, and two nails each to show the star and line designs.  The bottles are smaller than average, containing 8ml of polish.  8 more pictures after the jump!  Click images to view them larger~