NailaDay: Barry M Coral and China Glaze Blonde Bombshell Skittlette

Another mani that's great for summertime. I know. It's almost Fourth of July and I'll have an appropriate manicure for you guys soon but this is one that I pulled out from the vault that I wore last year. It's with Barry M Coral again, what a great polish! I just love all the polishes I have from Barry M. 

The accent nail is China Glaze Blonde Bombshell and the stamped image is from a Pueen Encore plate. I use that set a lot, don't I? It's the only one handy enough for my lazy self to dig out because all of my other plates are currently stuck in boxes and I could use this set 50 more times and still not duplicate myself. It was a pretty good purchase. 

Here we are with Barry M Coral and CG Blonde Bombshell without the stamping. I tell you, I fell in love with Blonde Bombshell in this mani. I love the mix of small and medium gold glitters. It's a simple formulation but the density and sparkle is really nice! This here is about 2 1/2 to 3 coats.

Thanks again for looking!!

Barry M Coral with Yellow Topaz Glitter

Holiday weekend is over and we're back to the same old, same old. We're back to swatch posts from the vault again. This is a two in one, Barry M Coral topped with Barry M Yellow Topaz Glitter. I love the coral but I LOVE the glitter. It's so lovely in real life. Great mix of sizes, some are holographic, spreads evenly with good coverage but doesn't overpower the base. I love it. I don't know why I haven't used it more. Oh, wait, I know. I have enough polish to last me two lifetimes. Oh yeah. 

Here's Coral by itself. This is three coats for full coverage. It's really less orange than it appears here but I can never take pictures of coral without it looking too orange. 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Salon Perfect Brown Sugar Zoo Skittlette

We had a fun weekend here this past weekend! We took the munchkins to the zoo. The little one is two months old and slept through the whole trip but my almost two year old toddler loved it! I had done my nails for the occasion so I'll show you that in this post.

This is one of my favorite manis I've done in a while. You can see all the polishes I've used below. The brown is Salon Perfect Brown Sugar, which I think is a dupe for China Glaze Midtown Magic. I have both, and I love it so much that I don't mind that I have both! The gold sparkly nail is done with Polished by KPT Triomphe-nt Night from the Paris collection. The animal print accent nail is done by randomly sponging the two above mentioned polishes along with OPI Rollin' in Cashmere and Sally Hansen Copperhead onto Orly Powder Puff, my favorite off white base for nail art. I really wasn't sure about OPI Rollin' in Cashmere in the bottle when I first got it. I got it in a package with Comet in the Sky and Snow Globetrotter. When I sponged it over the other colors though, it gave it a lovely satiny gold look and I can see myself using it in nail art quite a bit in the future! The image for the stamped accent nail is from the MASH plate m78. 

I posted a picture me wearing this mani and my two little boys in the background on my Instagram account. If you also have an Instagram account, look me up!

Again, thanks for looking!

Accessorize Ultra Marine Green and Mineral Violet

Hi everyone! I'm going back to showing you guys swatches of my Accessorize polishes. This time I'm going to show you two polishes that are metallic duochromes Ultra Marine Green and Mineral Violet. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I need to let you guys know that I'm going to be going back and forth between older manis and swatches (not too old) and the most recent stuff. Because of that, you eagle eyed viewers are going to notice that my nails are going to look different in these pictures in terms of length and shape from post to post. So, sorry if that gets annoying. It'll be that way until I get caught up with my backlog of pictures.

This first polish, Mineral Violet, is a purple duochrome that shifts to a grey at the edges. This polish took three coats for coverage. It looks like this polish is a dupe or at least very similar to China Glaze No Plain Jane. The pictures make it look more brushstroke-y than it is in real life. I really liked this polish on me. It's a chameleon polish in that it changes the way it looks depending on the lighting it's under. You can see that it looks slightly different in each of the pictures below.

This next one, Ultra Marine Green, is another one of those gold green shifters (I must have been really into those two years ago), that is heavier on the green. Also three coats and more brushstrokes seen in the pictures than in real life.

Again, the above pictures are taken under different lighting conditions and you can see how it looks different each time. It's so shifty, I love it. I don't think it's the greatest color for my skin tone but there's something about that color I really like so I'll keep it around for a while. It's got an amazing shine in the sun!

So what do you guys think? Now that the fuss is all about the ultra ultra multi holo uber chromes (okay that's not really what they're called but they may as well be), is there still a place for these simple mild mannered duochromes? I think so. See you next time!

Stash Swatches - some Boots 17 polishes

Today I have more swatches from my stash! We are on to my Boots 17 polishes. A little over two years ago, I went to visit my cousin in London. I was thick in the middle of my obsession with nail polish at that time. Ok, alright, I'm still in the thick of it but I've moved past buying polishes indiscriminately now. I'm pickier. I don't buy a ton of polish all at one time. I only get the special ones. Back then, all I cared about was adding to my hoard. So....we ended up there during the winter holidays and we went shopping on Boxing Day. Lots of sales everywhere! I had warned my husband that I was going buy "some" nail polish and he obligingly indulged me and promised not to say anything. I don't think he was expecting me to walk out of those stores with multiple bags of nail polish! The store clerk at a Superdrug asked me if I was going to be starting my own nail salon. I was way too excited with all of my new loot to be embarrassed but I think my husband was a little. Oops. 

Anyway, as a result, I ended up with a few colors that I'm now realizing are either dupes or just not very flattering! This first polish is a fine blue metallic microflakes in blue jelly like base called Navy Glint. It looks metallic in the bottle but applies like a jelly, if that makes sense. I wasn't too happy with the formula. I have a lot of dark blue metallics so I ended up purging this one. As the bottle says, it's a "Fast Finish" so the application was a little tricky since it seemed to dry almost before I had finished applying it. 

This next one is a weird bright brassy gold metallic color that I didn't think looked very flattering on me. I kept it because I want to try stamping with it. It does have a mild duochrome effect with it getting darker and more antique gold looking at the edges. This one is called Fury.

Finally, this one is a close dupe to the Chanel Peridot type colors. This was three coats and has that gold to green duochrome shift. I know the Peridot rage is all over now but I do still like this type of color. I'll have to compare it to Jessica Iridescence to see how close of a dupe it is. I don't own the original Chanel. This one is called Potion.

Again thanks for looking. Are you guys enjoying my stash swatch spam so far?

Icing Blow Pop and Sand in Sunset skittlette

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago, I went to stay with my parents for a week. Ever since I got into polish, going to my parent's place has become the biggest tempation for nail polish buying, bar none. They live within minutes of...everything! All the pharmacies, Walmart, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Ulta, Sally's, Meijers, Target...and Icing. I realized a while ago that Icing sometimes comes up with some really unique polishes that I can't get from drugstore brands. My parents' place is the only place with an Icing store nearby. Of course, I had to shop. Here I have two of my picks from my trip there. This is Blow Pop, a neon pastel pink, and Sand in Sunset, a textured gold polish. Top picture is in the sun and bottom picture is in the shade.

Although I don't usually care too much about formula if there are slight flaws and the color is nice, I had an incredibly hard time with Blow Pop. It was awful. Although the pictures don't show it, it was streaky beyond belief. Even with three coats, I could tell there were some thin patches. I needed large amounts of patience to work with this polish. Which meant that with a baby around, it took me three days to finally finish this mani to the point where I was somewhat happy with it. I couldn't just slap the polish on and go. Oh well, the color is unique to my collection so I will keep it for now. I would hate to even give away this polish, that's how bad I think it is.  The textured polish, however, was fine. It was really thick so it only took one coat to cover the nail. Also, it took a while to dry...but it's pretty so I'm willing to live with that. All in all, it was a frustrating mani but I liked the way it finally ended up looking.

Savina Royalty gold skittlette

Hey everybody!
Look at that, it's another Monday. Who's excited? Yeah, not me either. Let me show you a mani I was pretty excited about though.

The base color I used in this mani is Savina Royalty. That's the green. The bottle I'm holding in the above picture is Salon Perfect Faux Glow. I believe this is a dupe for China Glaze Fast Track from the Hunger Games collection. I picked up and put that polish down so many times that I was super excited to see its dupe at Walmart!

The stamping for the gold flowers was done with China Glaze Passion and the image came from the Cheeky plate CH50. I only used part of the image and left a blank space on the nail. I also really love the use of dots here as tiny accents on the ring finger nail. I supposed you could put studs or stones here but since I don't think I can wear those at work, I went with just dots. I think it works.

A couple of sunlight pictures to give you an accurate idea of the color when viewed outside.

I am starting to really, really love greens like this. I think the mint green and gold combo is so pretty too. What do you think?

Seven Deadly Sins Challenge: Day 9 - Wrath (My first water spotted nails!!)

Hi guys! So, it's time for another challenge post. The details of this challenge are explained in this post.  Today's challenge prompt is Wrath. "Get mad trying, again, that technique you know it's going to be a fail."

So, for my wrath mani I decided to tackle a technique that has made me pretty angry in the past, the water spotted technique. To know what I'm talking about, here is the tutorial I first saw by cutepolish and then some brilliant examples of this by Spektor's Nails. My initial problem was that I kept trying to use hand sanitizer and could not find the right one. I would keep getting one giant spot in the middle which was not at all useful. Then, on instagram, where I vented about this, someone suggested I try using hairspray. Two dollar Suave hairspray and a few attempts later, I think I got the hang of it! So here are my water spotted nails.

For the base I used Forever 21 Love and Beauty Lavender and the gold is L'Oreal Because You're Worth It. To tell you the truth, I'm a little meh about the mani right now. Maybe it's because of my color choices or maybe I need to add a third color. I'm not writing the technique off at all. I just need to try it with other colors, I think.

Here is Love and Beauty Lavender all by itself. Isn't it pretty?

Jessica Iridescent Eye with Nicole by OPI Wink of Tink

Hi everyone! Alright, I told you I would show you the base of my last mani in this post and here it is. This is two coats of Jessica Iridescent Eye with a final coat being a mixture of NOPI Wink of Tink and Iridescent Eye.

This is Iridescent Eye by itself. This is the first time I'm wearing this or any of the colors like this. This is a known dupe of the wildly popular Chanel Peridot. It looks amazing in the photos. In real life, it looks good but I liked it even better with the stamping. I definitely had some asking me why it looked gold and then looked green, lol.

Deadly Sins Challenge: Day 8 - Jessica Iridescent Eye Frankened with stamping

Hi all! I published this post then I had to come back and edit it to say, it's my 100th post! I can't believe it! I started this blog not knowing how I was going to maintain it over time. I started it at a time when my schedule was relatively light but just the act of blogging has been so much fun that it hasn't been all that hard to keep up! I try not to let myself feel any pressure about how often to blog and I think it really helps! I also want to thank all the followers I have so far. It's far more fun when the whole process becomes interactive and it's great knowing that there are people out there that are just as into this hobby as I am and actually want to see what I'm up to!

Today's post is kind of a segue from my last post because the base of this manicure is actually a mix of Jessica Iridescent Eye and Nicole by OPI Wink of Tink. Because it would have involved a lot of pictures, I'll show the base color by itself in my next post.

 The prompt for this challenge is "(Only if you want) Create a manicure inspired on your laziness... or whatever... I'm so tired..." For me, stamping is one of the lazy forms of nail art these days. Everything else like gradient, marble, freehand etc all seem to take so much more time than stamping. These days, it almost feels like cheating!! The image comes from the Cheeky plate CH 44.

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 5: Greed (Dior Golden Light)

Hi all! It's that time again. Another Deadly Sins Challenge mani! This week's theme is Greed. The first of the two challenges says "Go wild and use your most expensive and precious polish." I decided to use a polish that my lovely husband got for me as a spur of the moment gift. I normally don't buy any truly expensive polishes so this was truly a treat. The color itself seemed so amazingly pretty in the store (oh those department store lights). This is Dior Golden Light.

I have stamped it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Wined Up. The image comes from the Cheeky XL plate D. I just want to take a minute to express my love for the soft XL stamper as well. This was a perfect combination of plate, polish and stamper.

This is Golden Light before any stamping. It's a pretty sheer polish on it's own. The index only has one coat, the middle finger two, the ring finger three and pinky sort of a fourth. I went with three coats on all fingers for the mani.

Not my most exciting polish and I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to actually wear it if it wasn't for this challenge. It is really pretty though and now that I know how sheer it is, I think it would work well over other polishes. 

Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint with Gold splash

Hi everyone!! I hope you are all doing well. Now that we're into December, I can definitely see the crush of the holidays approaching! My schedule is filling up with work and non work related functions. Not to mention, it's the month of my birthday!! So, that should be fun.

Today's post is featuring Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint, which I last used in this post and NOPI Not a Gold Bigger, which I last used in this post. I'm not really sure where I came up with the design. I was just feeling random and decided to drop some gold on some green with a toothpick.

Mrs. Mint is actually a pain to use. This is two, maybe three coats to get things even. It's streaky, not self leveling at all. That being said, it's a nice color. However, it's got dupes so I wouldn't be running out the door to purchase this or anything. There is a nice gold shimmer in the bottle which is what attracted me to it in the first place but it's not visible on the nail at all.

What do you guys think of the randomness of the design? I do wish I could have made the lines thinner. More sugar spun like but I lack the patience or the skill. Or both.

Nanacoco Irresistible Charm with Gold tips

It's December and it's that season...when all you can see are holiday manicures on the internet. I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and show a couple throughout this month. I actually do love the holiday manis because it's a great way to use those deep jewel toned colors, the golds and silvers and glitters. I love those colors. 

For this mani, I used Nanacoco Irresistible Charm. I find this brand in a lot of the local beauty supply stores. Believe it or not, this is one coat!! Yeah. I sponged a gold gradient with NOPI Not a Gold Bigger and the gold glitter is from the Sally Beauty Supply brand.

Festive, huh?