Extreme Matte Flakey Goodness

Guys...I might have gone overboard on pictures with this one. It's just so....pretty...and sparkly...!!

You know how I feel about doing nail art after nail art after nail art. I just don't like it -- I like to have something plain(ish) between manis. So this was my solution to "plain mani" -- three coats of a flakey polish over a dark green! Most people would just pick a light pink if they were going for "plain"....

Anyway, I started with two coats of Finger Paints Scenery Greenery. It's a pretty dark forest green, but man my bottle has gotten thick :( I hate it when you open a bottle of polish after not using it for a while only to find that it's practically chunkified. I topped that with two coats of Finger Paints Twisted which...OMG. I guess I never got the full effect of this polish because I've only ever used it over light colors. But over this dark green?! Wow!

 

Then I just had to see what it looked like mattified because I LOVE the look of matte flakies. And yes....I may have put on a matte top coat and taken pictures of it in my car on my lunch break....

What do you guys think of my mattified flakey mani? Love it or hate it? I happen to LOVE the way this came out!

Who's ready for the weekend? I AM I AM! Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday...

Berry Flakey Goodness

I received all five of the Finger Paints special effects flakies last week from my mom, and have just now gotten around to using them! I know, I know. Blasphemy at its finest.

For this mani I used a base color of Zoya Jacy. If you've been following Mad Manis for quite some time, you've probably heard me say time and time again how much I love this color. Well, for those of you who haven't: I. LOVE. THIS. COLOR!! I love berry shades, but this ones a bit different.  If you look closely in the bottle picture, you can see little teeny tiny particles of a purpley shimmer! The application on this was a little runny for a Zoya polish, but I can handle it because I love this polish so much. Zoya had one of the best berry shades of all time. OF ALL TIME!! (Kanye reference, anyone?)

 

The flakey polish I used over this is Finger Paints Asylum. Asylum is the prettiest of the bunch -- it has little flakey particles that flash blue and green and orange and yellow and it's just like a shredded flakey rainbow of goodness on my nails! I used two coats of Asylum for these pictures.

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

It just wouldn't be the holidays..

without Elle's Spell.

We swatched this lovely earlier in the year but I had to share it again now that the holidays have rolled around.

I started with a base coat of Revlon Devil's Lure, which is one of my favorite dark vampy red (almost black) polishes.   You can find it swatched on our blog.

Then I applied one coat of Barielle Elle's Spell, which is a gorgeous flakey in a sheer red base.  You can use it on it's own without layering, but you'll need multiple coats to build the opacity.  Behold - instant holiday cheer!

In sunlight..

And in shade..



Another BCA Mani

Hi all! Today I'm deviating from my Halloween nail art mode and showing you a Breast Cancer Awareness mani I did last night.

I know this is late in the month, but I at least wanted to get one in before October is over. I especially wanted to do this mani to pay tribute to my boyfriend's mother -- she beat breast cancer about 5 years ago. :)

I used Sinful Beautiful Girl and Wet 'n Wild How I Met Your Magenta for the base colors. I topped my ring finger with OPI I Lilly Love You and my pointer finger with OPI Teenage Dream (which I will never get tired of, EVER). On my other fingers I drew little ribbons. My dumb self wasn't thinking before I did my nails and I forgot that the BCA ribbon is pink... so I was forced to do it in a darker pink and it's kind of hard to see, but I still like it.

That's all for today ladies. Happy Friday!

Color Club Backstage Pass collection swatches

Here it is folks!  The long awaited and highly sought after Backstage Pass collection!  I picked up 4 polishes from the collection (we passed on the silver and gold) and they were purchased from Victoria Nail Supply and 8ty8 beauty.

Enlarge for sparkly goodness!

First up we have Fame and Fortune.  FaF is a dark pink base with silver holographic flakies of various sizes.  I swatched it over the top of Sally Hansen CSM in Feelin' Saucy. The polish is very thick, so flakie placement can be an issue - but they are awesome so I don't care!  This polish is similar to OPI I Lily Love you but FaF doesn't have the holographic glitter in it and the base is a little darker.  Here is 2 coats of Fame and Fortune.

Next is Backstage Pass.  This one boasts a clear base with small silver glitter and humongous silver and magenta hex glitters.  The glitter particles are so large they almost give the appearance of curling up on the edges, but I believe that is just an optical illusion.  Again, the polish is somewhat thick and you will have to be careful with placement of the glitter.  Let the first coat dry thoroughly before applying the second.  I have used a base coat of Zoya Anja and applied 2 coats of Backstage Pass over the top.  BP is not really dense enough to wear on its own without multiple coats.

On deck we have It's a Hit!  It's a Hit! is a clear base with ginormous lavender/pink hex glitters.  Very similar to Backstage Pass, but a single color glitter. Again, its not really opaque enough to wear on its own without multiple coats.  I have layered 2 coats over the top of Sinful Verbena.  Just look at that glittery goodness!

And last but not least we have Wish Upon A Rockstar.  As with the previous 2, it is a clear base with small green, gold, blue, silver and red glitter and large pink hex glitter.  It looks to be similar to DL Happy Birthday, Milani Gems and Ulta Pinata Yada Yada.  Upon close examination, I see that the density of Gems and WUAR is similar, but while Gems has large multicolored hex glitter, WUAR has a higher density of small multicolored glitter.  PYY is much more loosely packed than both WUAR and Gems.  No dupes here.  WUAR is layered over Orly Halley's Comet for an amazing glitter bomb mani.

One thing worth noting about these polishes (especially It's A Hit! and Backstage Pass) is that they're VERY thick and bumpy. If you have a problem with really bumpy glitters, I'm not sure how you'll feel about these because it feels like I just stacked tons of rhinestones on top of my nails. You'd need several coats of Seche Vite to get these smooth as glass... so take that with a grain of salt. You might be able to get away with some Gelous and Seche Vite together. Also, these leave MASSIVE GLITTER HERPES upon removal!!! Ahhh.

Overall we both really like this collection! I definitely recommend layering them though, because they're definitely not opaque enough to wear alone. Plus I don't think they'd look very good alone. I can't pick a favorite!

What do you all think? Will you be picking any of these up?

Zoya Anja and Orly Fowl Play

oh Zoya, how I do love thee!

I intended to order Anja in Zoya's recent buy 1 get 2 free promo.  A mixup in my order left me without this gem.  (No pun intended)..

Imagine my delight when I found out Ulta was carrying the Smoke and Mirrors line.  I did not have to be without my beloved Anja anymore. 

Anja is a darkened plum creme that goes on like a dream and covers well in one coat.  She dries nicely and is so smooth and glossy and vampy.  I loved this.  The last sunlight pic is the most color accurate.

But this was not enough for me - oh no!  I had to give myself an eye candy meltdown by applying Orly Fowl Play over the top.  Fowl Play is part of Orly's fall line and is a dark red base with tiny blue and purple glitter with red flakies. I used 2 coats of Fowl Play for full saturation of color  Fowl Play really is lovely - it's a little sheer so you'll want to layer it over something else.  Application is smooth and dry time is good.  Unfortunately the pictures don't showcase how pretty this polish is unless you enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Both are beautiful colors and I truly love them both!