Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Glitzology - All Or Nothing

     
    Sorry for the lack of posts lately! I didn't feel that my plain polish was blog worthy. I haven't really done anything extravagant because I've been so busy. Work, "spring" cleaning, a mini vacation, more work, and planning an anniversary date.  It's been hectic. 


Glitzology All Or Nothing: One coat over two coats of Essie Where's My Chauffeur 
One coat of Out The Door

     Isn't this pretty? AON is a mix of baby blue and silver shredded glitter, medium fuchsia hexes, small purple hexes, and tiny fuchsia and purple sparkles in a clear base. As my experience with all Glitzology polishes, the application was smooth and had a nice coverage for one coat. This really catches the light beautifully. 


        If you haven't picked up any Glitzology polishes yet, what are you waiting for? I've yet to find a bad one! 

      You can purchase this polish along with many other pretties on Etsy. Oh, and through Friday, you can use code SNEAKYCONAN to receive 50% off your order! Let her know I sent you over. :)

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Share The Love - Multi-Blogger Giveaway

Don't miss out on the awesome multi-blogger giveaway I'm participating in! 



Click the picture above to head on over to Sassy Shelly's blog for prize details, pictures, and all the rules.

Valentine's Splatter Nails

     In the spirit of trying nail art more often, I decided to try splatter nails. I've seen them done before, but never tried it myself. It seemed simple enough. Polish, a straw, and cleanup. How hard could that be? 


Polish Used: Zoya Barbie, Nubar Hot Pink, and Wet N Wild I Red A Good Book


     I started with a regular white base to make the colors pop. I started with the lightest pink and ended with the red. At first, it took me a few tries to get the splatter how I wanted it. I found that holding the straw further away from my nails gave a better result. I wasn't sure about it until I added the top coat. It really made a difference! 


      What do you think of this look? Have you tried splatter nails? 


Thursday, January 17, 2013

Lynnderella Nosegay

     After a dark manicure and a day of deep cleaning my kitchen, I couldn't wait to redo my nails this evening. I wanted something fun, light, and bright. I spent a good 20-30 minutes looking through my Melmers. I would pick something out, put it back, and move on. Going through ~600 polishes is very time consuming. I finally made it the draw with all the glitters: my favorite drawer! I decided on Nosegay. I needed to knock out another untried polish.


Lynnderella Nosegay: Three thin coats over one coat OPI Rumple's Wiggin
One coat Seche Vite


     I really can't express how much I love this polish. I'd say it's easily my favorite Lynn I own. Nosegay is a milky lavender base with a very fine blue and pink shimmer. It's packed with various sizes of light, medium, and dark purple hexes and squares. 


     I used three thin coats. This first coat was a bit sparse for my liking. The second coat would have sufficed, but I really like the look of the buried glitter. The third coat worked like a charm! It added so much dimension to the finished product. I used one thick coat of Seche Vite to smooth it out. 


     I can't stop looking at my nails. I'm sure this will become a go to for me, and I'm pondering a backup bottle already. 

Lynnderella polishes can be purchased on eBay.


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

My First Fishtail Attempt

     I recently purchased a bunch of nail art brushes. Last night, I really wanted to use them but couldn't think of a darn thing to do. I ended up not using them and went with a fishtail manicure instead. I've never tried this look before. For my first attempt, I think I did pretty well. (My light box still isn't back up yet. Excuse the less than normal pictures.)


     Polishes (All OPI) used from tip to cuticle:
I Brake For Manicures
You Don't Know Jacques
Uh Oh Roll Down The Window
Honk If You Love OPI


      This look was much easier than I expected. At first, I just did three colors as an accent on each hand. When I realized I could do it on my right hand without any problems, I decided to go all out. The addition of I Brake For Manicures was a last minute idea. I think it pulls it together nicely. The best part of this? I used 4 untrieds!


     This looks a million times better in real life. It's not perfect, but it'll just get easier the more I do it. Now, I just need to figure out what to do with those new brushes. Any ideas?

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Liquid Lacquer - Find Your Own Merman

     Today's post is brought to you by a lovely indie polish from Liquid Lacquer. Melissa, the genius behind this indie, is great! All of her polishes are well thought out and limited edition. She does everything in small, custom blended batches. This creation is called Find Your Own Merman and she only made 6 bottles. I was lucky enough to snag one. Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of rearranging my polish room and my light box isn't set up right now. Hopefully, these pictures will suffice.


Find Your Own Merman: Two-ish coats over two coats of Essie Mojito Madness.
One coat of Seche Vite.


     Find Your Own Merman is a great mix of medium, small, and tiny hexes in light, medium, and dark blue, green, and pale gold. The base is clear with a faint blue shimmer. Oh, and the big green circle glitters! BIG. GREEN. CIRCLES. How awesome are they? 



     The application was great. I said this was two-ish coats because the big circles were a bit hard to get out of the bottle. I think it could be from the weight of them. They were worth looking for! I was surprised by how flat they were on the nail. One coat of Seche Vite did the trick to give this a glossy and super smooth finish. 

     Liquid Lacquer is currently setting up a Big Cartel shop. It'll be open on February 1st with some great new polishes! Be sure to check it out.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Amy's Nail Boutique - Ecopolo

     Today, I have a beautiful indie to show you. Amy's Nail Boutique created this lovely glitter polish called Ecopolo that was inspired by the lovely ladies of a Facebook group I'm in. It's limited edition and only available to group members, but I wanted to share it anyway. It's too pretty to keep all to myself!



Ecopolo: One coat over two coats China Glaze Sky High Tops.
One coat of Seche Vite.


     Ecopolo is a mix of purple, pink, and blue glitters in a clear base with fine silver sparkles and small holo bits. This polish is truly better in person. I tried my best to capture the beauty of it. It went on like butter! It was nearly smooth without topcoat, but the SV took it over the top. It's glassy and sparkly and perfect. Really. It's perfect. I'll definitely be taking a look at Amy's other polishes soon. 

    
      Do the nails on that label look familiar? They should! I made it onto the label by winning a nail art contest the group was hosting. I was so honored to win! There were some great entries. 



    You can check out Amy's Nail Boutique on Etsy at this link

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

OPI Stay The Night Liquid Sand

     OPI and Mariah Carey teamed up for a pretty fabulous collection that released this month. Four of the polishes are a completely new finish: Liquid Sand. Interesting, huh? When I first saw this finish, I was leery. I thought they were going to be gritty and chunky glitters. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. I picked up three of the four. Today's swatches are of Stay The Night.


Stay The Night: Three coats over one coat of Orly Bonder.
No Top Coat.

     Stay The Night is a black textured jelly-ish polish packed with red glimmering glitters. I had to use three coats to achieve full opacity, but it built up nicely. Dry time was good. I did the complete manicure in less than 20 minutes.  I was surprised by the texture. It's not rough at all. It's actually on the squishy side. I couldn't stop touching my nails when I was wearing this.

Stay The Night: In Light Box

Stay The Night: Over Head Lighting
      The jelly look and feel of the base gives this a great depth; the glitter catches the light at every possible chance. I couldn't help but stare at my nails. My boyfriend actually complimented me on them. He liked the look of the sand.


Stay The Night: Blurred to Show Sparkles

     I wore this for two days and had no tip wear or chips! Pretty phenomenal for me; I have oily nail beds and most polish peels off my within a day of wear. It's usually not a problem since I change it up so often.

    Have you tried the Liquid Sands yet? Are you a fan of texture on your nails? If you're on the fence, give them a try!

Lynnderella Spumoni


     Lynnderella Spumoni was a must have as soon as I saw pictures of the Season's Glitterings collection. I just had to get my grabby little hands on it.


   Spumoni: Two coats over one coat of Illamasqua Nomad.
One coat of Gelous and one coat of Seche Vite.




 Spumoni is a mix of frosty mint and white satin glitters in varying sizes with a sprinkling of red, pink, and black squares and hexes in a translucent mint base. I used two coats. The first coat I used the regular application method. The second coat was dabbed on. I couldn't get the red, pink, and black glitters to come out as much as I wanted. It was a bit of a pain, but worth it. I think this would look lovely over a light blue or pink. The next time I use it, I'll probably use another coat of SV. It was a little on the chunky side for me.


     Are you loving Spumoni? 


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Crows Toes Last Call at the Crow Bar

     Just a little over a month ago, I had 5 or 6 indie polishes. Now, I can't keep track of what I've purchased. Today's post is my first experience with Crow Toes. I purchased this on a whim during a Llarowe flash sale. I wish I had done some research before my purchase. Lesson learned, I guess.


Last Call at the Crow Bar: One coat over a basic black creme.
One coat Gelous topped with one coat of Seche Vite.



     LCATCB is a multi size gunmetal hex glitter mixed with blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, pink, and maybe another color or two hexes in a clear base. There's a random orange bar glitter thrown in here and there, but I didn't get any on this hand. The formula was okay. It seemed a little thick, but the payoff was nice. It applied evenly and smoothly. I hated one thing about this polish: the smell. It smelled worse than Kleancolors. If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky.


     This polish is pretty, but I wouldn't consider it unique. It's like OPI Metallic 4 Life and Rainbow Connection had a baby. If you have Rainbow Connection or one of the many, many dupes, you probably don't need this polish, too. This one will most likely get passed on to my little sisters if they can handle the smell. 

     Have you regretted a purchase you made on a whim? What lesson did you learn? haha 



Sunday, January 6, 2013

Zoya Color Your World 2013: Favorite Cremes

     It's that time again. Zoya is running their free polish promo Color Your World. This promo entitles you to choose any three in stock Zoya polishes from past collections for free! Well, almost free. You do have to pay a shipping fee of $10. (They've got to make some money somehow, right?) Three Zoyas for $10 is a super great deal. Check out the end of my post for more information on this sale along with a link!

     I decided to do a quick post on my three favorite Zoya cremes for those of you who might not be familiar with Zoya. These are three go to polishes for me. The formula is perfect and the dry time is average. I have over 50 Zoyas in my stash, but I reach for these three the most.


Zoya Dove: Soft, delicate light neutral gray with an opaque, glossy creme finish.
Two coats over base. No top coat.


Zoya Cynthia: A smoky, blackened peacock teal with soft warm undertones.
Two coats over base. No top coat.


Zoya Shawn:  A warm, mossy yellow-toned medium green cream with olive undertones.
Two coats over base. No top coat.

     What do you think? Do you need any of these? If anyone is interested, I can swatch more Zoyas this week. Just let me know if you have any requests!

Check out the promo under the cut!

Friday, January 4, 2013

Illamasqua Glitterati

     Let's keep this train a chuggin' along. Today's polish is Illamasqua Glitterati, a raspberry jelly with tons of glitters ranging from a pink shimmer to medium holo bits. This bottle of perfection is heaven sent.


     These swatches are two coats with base and top. I was surprised by the opacity of this polish. I expected  the jelly consistency to be sheer, but two coats evened it out beautifully. 



     As you can see, this polish is perfectly smooth with top coat; I used Seche Vite. I love how the glitter is floating and doesn't sink at all. I keep looking at my nails in different lighting just to watch the glitter catch my eye. 

     Illamasqua is definitely near the top of my favorite brands list. I can't help but want them all! 




Wednesday, January 2, 2013

OPI Man of La Mancha

     Whew. I'm glad the holidays are over! I was so busy that I didn't even get a chance to finish up the nail art challenge with a Santa manicure. To get through the busiest time of the year at work, I wore a England St. George since it lasts at least 5 days for me.

     Anyway, I recently found OPI Man of La Mancha on Amazon for a good price. I knew it was somewhat hard to find, so I had to snatch it up. It's from the 2003 Holiday on Broadway collection. I can't believe this polish is over 12 years old! As with a polish of this age, it's a black label and is not 3 free.


     This polish is incredibly hard to photograph. I think I took over 60 pictures, and I still don't think I did it any justice. MOLM is a sheer shimmery red orange multichrome with flashes of green, berry, orange, and gold. For this look, I layered it over China Glaze Merry Berry. I opted for a more red base to show off the true color shown in the bottle.


    The two photos above were taken in my light box. As you can see, the flashes of green aren't showing up here. I almost lost hope until I walked into my kitchen. The lighting in there completely changed this polish! 


     Look at that! I'm so in love with this polish. The color is amazing. The formula is perfect. The smell reminds me of my mom. This is one of my favorites now.


     Gorgeous, right? I'm sure this will be a polish I'll keep going back to even though I'll be afraid of using it all up. 

     Do you have any black label OPIs? What's the oldest polish you own?







Share Button

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...