Wet n Wild It's All In The Cut - Glitterbomb!

Hi all!

I don't have any nail art for you today, but I do have an awesomesauce glitterbomb to showcase! You may or may not know by now... that after I have nail art on for a while, I long for the days of simple (for me) manicures. It's like clockwork - after having a mani on with nail art, I do something simple for my next mani. This is simple....by my standards! I doubt most people would say an obnoxious holographic glitter is simple. But what kind of blogger would I be if I used things like NUDES and light pinks on a daily basis?! A boring one. That's what.

This is two coats of China Glaze Gothic Lolita. I totally could've worn this alone, it's so pretty! It's a medium purple with the slightest bit of shimmer. I topped with two coats of Wet n Wild It's All In The Cut, a light purpley pink holographic glitter - reminds me a lot of OPI Teenage Dream (one of my all time favorite glitters).

This is going to be quite the distraction in the coming days at work... I can't stop looking at my glittery nails! I wish I could showcase the holographic effect better, but when I took these pictures the sun was going down :( You'll just have to trust me when I say that it looks amazeballs.

Now I ask you this,

What's your favorite glitter polish? Let us know in the comments! Have a great day :)

Patchwork Tape Mani with China Glaze Make Some Noise

Hello ladies!

Boo Monday. I can finally join the millions of people all over the world that hate Mondays. Waking up at 6am this morning for work was BRUTAL. Especially when you've gotten to sleep in every day for the past 10 months during your job search. :)

So....sleepy....

I had been wanting to do a patchwork/tape mani for a while now. I don't do them all too often as I'm usually too impatient to wait for all the layers to dry. However, last week I had a lot of free time (I had the whole week off to relax before my big girl job started). I decided it was the day!

I picked up four of the Electropop colors a few weeks ago, and decided I wanted to use one of those. I started with a base of China Glaze Make Some Noise which is a red that leans a bit coral. I added a coat of Seche Vite, waited a few hours, then taped off on a diagonal and painted with Color Club Revvvolution. Waited overnight, then added another diagonal of OPI DS Coronation.  I don't know what it is with tape manis, but I always find myself failing miserably. Other people make them look so easy, I don't get it? I tried my best to get the tape sealed down, but it kept seeping under areas where it wasn't secure enough. Curse the tape mani! Also, on my right hand (luckily) it peeled up the entire base when I went to remove the tape from the third layer. BOOO!! I ended up having to go in with a small brush to fix the areas where the polish leaked under the tape.

Either way, I do like the colors in this, I just don't think tape manis are for me :( If I could actually execute them perfectly (Erika, I'm looking at you!) they'd probably be worth the time, but it's a long process for something that I can never get to come out looking as crisp as I'd like. Ah well, I guess we all have our weaknesses :)

Just another little note -- I might be MIA for a bit while I try to learn how to juggle this full time job and blogging at the same time. In the mean time, Mama will keep you guys entertained with posts, but I imagine I'll be wiped out the first couple of weeks :)

I hope you guys all have a wonderful Monday!

Pink Wednesday (Holo Goodness Edition!): Sally Hansen - Ruby Diamond

Happy Hump Day!

Today I am showing you Sally Hansen Ruby Diamond.

Ruby Diamond is a beautiful medium pink holo that was applied almost perfectly albeit a little runny. These pictures are two coats -- you could get away with one if you wanted a more subtle holo effect, but I like the way two looks.

Not much to say about this one, but, it's a pink holo!!!! And by the grace of God it happened to be sunny when I was taking pictures of this puppy. Bam.

Have a great week!

Color Club Holiday Splendor

I think Amanda and I swatched this holiday line way back when in late October or early November but I haven't had a chance to wear it as a full mani until now.  And I was really missing out because this is truly a spectacular color.

I used one coat of Color Club Perfect Molten as a base - it is a light green foil and you can find it under the Color Club tag on our blog.  Then.. over the top I applied Holiday Splendor.  It's pretty in the bottle but on the nail is where it really shines.  My bottle is a little thick so I had to be careful with application (I left my thinner behind in the move, gotta pick up a new bottle)- but look at the holo goodness in this poilsh - oh my gosh!  I have a feeling I'll be holding my hands up to the sunlight today to drink in the beauty of this one.

Some of the pictures are left intentionally blurry to show off the holographic glitter.

Wow.  I love this one.  I'm glad I wore it before the holidays were over.  It reminds me of a Christmas wreath!

Eyegasm: Holiday Glitterbomb

Hi guys! Today I have an AWESOME layering combo to show you guys!

I received Wet n Wild Rockin Rubies from Steph the other day as a Secret Santa present! Rockin Rubies is part of Wet n Wild's Ice Baby collection. She also sent me the pinkish purple one and the teal one as well as some other fun goodies which I will be showing you throughout this week!

I started with two coats of China Glaze Brownstone which is one of my most favorite colors from this entire year. It's a brownish reddish burgundy creme and I LOVE it. Then I used one coat of Rockin Rubies on top and....omg. It's pretty much awesomesauce. I recommend big-ulating these pics to see the sparkly goodness!

Rockin Rubies is a red microglitter with holographic particles in a sheer-ish red base. I LOVE how RR over Brownstone looks. If you look at swatches of RR on it's own, it looks a little.....dull, but here it just looks so amazing!

In the shade!

I stared at this ALL day at work on Sunday. The only bad thing about this is that it's a top coat sucker upper... I used two coats of Seche Vite and while it's pretty much smooth, it still dried to a duller finish than I'd anticipated. It looked AWESOME when the SV was still shiny but, ah well, it's still so shiny and sparkly and glitter-tastic!!

I can't wait to use the other two polishes I received! Hopefully I can come up with some equally awesome glitterbombs :)

Have a great day ladies! Happy Tuesday!

Day 19: Galaxy Nails

Galaxy nails! I've wanted to do these for a LONG time and now I had my chance! Yay!!

I started with a base of two coats of China Glaze Liquid Leather. Then I sponged on Orly Sweet Peacock, Sally Hansen Barracuda, Sally Hansen Pink Blink and a yellowy green Wet 'n Wild (can't remember the name right now).

After that, I made dots using Zoya Purity then used one coat of Orly Shine On, Crazy Diamond (obviously named by a hippie). Seal with a topcoat and you're good to go!

I am loving these galaxy nails and I am loving even more how EASY they were to do! Just a little bit of sponging, some tiny microglitter and you're done! I'll definitely have to try this again with some different colors because I looooove the way this turned out. I don't want to take this one off! :(

Do you guys like galaxy nails? Or are they too "out of this world" for you? BAZINGA!! I slay me :)

Day 13: Animal Print

Hello ladies!

I struggled with what to do for animal print for a long time. I didn't really want to do one of your traditional animal prints (zebra, leopard, giraffe etc) but I couldn't find any inspiration for anything else. So today's post won't be as exciting as some ;)

I started with a base of Sinful Mint Apple which is a beautiful ... mint color. You guys should know by now that I suck at describing colors. Just trust me. ANYWAY, color is beautiful, but if you guys have seen my first post about it (I won't link it because it was one of my very first posts and it's horrible), my bottle of this has a HORRIBLY wonky brush on it. I took out the brush of a Sinful top coat I have and used that instead, but it made the consistency kind of weird on the first couple coats of color. Oh well, I got it evened out eventually :) My rant on this color chipping on me after 12 hours is a whole 'nother post.

Then I sponged on Essie French Affair lightly to give it some KAPOW! Stamped with Sinful White on White and plate m78. Then.....yes, I added some China Glaze Fairy Dust. (Hi, my name is Amanda and I'm addicted to Fairy Dust.)

Ta-da!

Day 10: Gradient Nails featuring Teenage Dream

I struggled for a while thinking about what to do for gradient nails. I wasn't feeling up to doing a full color gradient, so I decided to do a glitter gradient a la The Polished Perfectionist.

I started with three coats of Revlon Top Speed Candy. It's your regular old medium pink creme polish. One thing I find about these Top Speed polishes is that they seem to be pretty streaky -- I have another light colored Top Speed polish that is hard to get opaque because it is so streaky. Anyone else have that problem?

Anyway, then I sponged on OPI Teenage Dream at the base of my nails. I really like the way this looks as opposed to glitter fading down from the tips! Plus this mani is simple and that's what I need after a few busy manis in a row. ;)

Do you prefer glitter gradients from the tip down or the base up, like this one?

You say you want a revolution, well, you know.....

Hello my pretties!

Enlarge for sparkly goodness

Today I have a polish that is old - I'm well aware, but it is new to my collection! You see, as some of you may or may not know, Mama is moving to Boston. So, she went through her stash and picked out some of her pretties that she thought I'd like so she had to take less with her on her cross-country adventure. And she gave me none other than Color Club Revvvolution! YES, the holographic one! *SQUEE!!*

On top of being the awesomesauce that it in in terms of color, this puppy applies like a DREAM! Pictured is two coats, but I definitely could've gotten away with one. Two is just a habit, I guess.

Shade:

Revvvolution is a charcoal grey with teeny tiny holographic glitter in it. I'm aware that Color Club rereleased this but just as a shimmer? That's a bummer because this one is SO gorgeous!! Can you even get the holographic versions anymore? If not, I feel super duper lucky to have this one and think Mom is crazy for giving it to me...even if she does say she doesn't like it. :)

Revvvolution shot its way up into my top polish list just about instantly. I know I'm so so late to the party on this one but I thought I'd share it anyway just in case you haven't seen it... or wanted to again. :)

What's that, you ask? Why yes... I did take this picture in my car

Speaking of top polishes, Amanda from The Nail Polish Enthusiast and I were discussing doing a week of favorites -- favorite reds, favorite glitters, etc sometime in December. I also want to do a top polish list at the end of December. Would you guys be interested in seeing those or would you just pass them over? Be honest!!

Have a fabulous day!

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe Swatches

Hello ladies! Today we are showing you swatches of Color Club's Holiday 2011 collection -- Beyond the Mistletoe. These are all THICK glitters and are all fully capable of being worn opaque. These are layered over Color Club's Foiled collection, but most of the glitters are so thick you can't even tell they're worn over a base anyway. To see swatches of Color Club's Foiled collection, go here or here.

Enlarge pictures to see holographic, sparkly goodness.

Sugarplum Fairy. Holographic lilac glitter. Swatched over Foil Me Once. This is IDENTICAL to Funky Fingers Sand & Stilettos. They're made by the same company -- just different names. But it's the exact same polish with the same formula. Very thick.

 Beyond the Mistletoe. Holographic aqua glitter. Swatched over Lumin-icecent. The same as Funky Fingers Baby Baby Baby.

Holiday Splendor. Holographic green glitter. Swatched over Perfectly Molten. This one looks very similar to Untamed Luxury, but it's not a dupe. Here's a comparison between the two; the left is Untamed Luxury and the right is Holiday Splendor.

Jingle Jangle. Holographic blue glitter. Swatched over Cold Metal. This one was SO thick I had to add about 9 drops of thinner to it to even make it manageable. I'm not sure if this was a bad bottle or if they're all like this, but even after thinning it was STILL ridiculously difficult to work with. It was also missing a lot of product from the top of the bottle, like it'd evaporated up or something.

Candy Cane. Holographic pink glitter. Swatched over Hot Like Lava.

Gingerbread. Holographic gold glitter. Swatched over Antiquated. I thought this was similar to China Glaze Cleopatra, but upon further inspection I see that this has tons more holographic glitter than Cleopatra.

Overall, this collection contains a lot of good holographic glitters, but they are a PAIN to remove and it's a little disappointing that two of the six colors are existing Funky Fingers colors. And the Funky Fingers ones have been out for a while, so they're not even shades that are new to both lines.

Jingle Jangle's application was SO difficult that it will probably never get used again, and we already have Sand & Stilettos and Baby Baby Baby, the dupes for two of the colors in the collection. The polishes are all VERY thick with a consistency like glue, but since they ARE so thick you probably wouldn't need many layers to get an opaque color.

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

Pink Wednesday - Sinful Colors Soul Mate with Funky Fingers Sand and Stilettos

I wanted to do a Pink Wednesday post since we haven't done one in a while and I've been busy with company from out of town visiting.  So today I started with 2 coats of Sinful Colors Soul Mate, which is a medium dusky pink creme.  I thought the pigmentation was good and it covered well in one coat.  I used two to smooth everything out and because I'm anal like that.  This is a nice enough pink color, I just don't really like how medium pink colors look on me.  I just can't get over thinking they all look like Pepto Bismol.

Once the SC was dry I topped them with Funky Fingers Sand and Stilettos.  This is a THICK holographic glitter in a very light pink base.  And by thick I mean THICK.  It's very similar in consistency to Milani's Rock Star Heavy Glitters.  It kinda reminds me of spreading Elmer's school paste on your fingers.

As I mentioned, its a holographic medium sized glitter in a very light pink base and it's an absolute glitter bomb.  Some people are referring to this as a silver glitter, but to me it's a light pink, so that's what I'm going with.  It looks like Rainbow Brite puked on my nails.

 I like glitter, but wow - this might even be too much for me.   This polish is OPI Teenage Dream on steroids.  It's also very similar to Studio M/Color Club Magic Attraction, but the glitter in MA is smaller and the consistency less dense.

Since the glitter dries very gritty, I used a coat of Gelous to smooth out the surface before applying SV as a top coat and its very smooth and glassy.  I'm dreading removing this one though.  Anyone have a sand blaster I can borrow?

Funky Fingers - Baby Baby Baby

Quick post for today because I am very much under the weather (first bug of the season's hit me already...boo)...but I wanted to show you this mani I did last week.

I used a base of China Glaze Electric Pineapple then topped with two coats of Funky Fingers Baby Baby Baby. I wouldn't recommend using this polish without a base color. Its REALLY thick (as you can see by the tips awkwardly not having as much glitter on them). This polish is so thick that the foil method was futile. I still had to scrub to get the glitter herpes off and still today there's little remnants left everywhere (about a week later).

It's gorgeous though. I just couldn't capture the holographic as well as I would've liked to.