Omg omg omg omg

Why do I love this so much? Is it possible to have a nailgasm? Because I think I just did. This is Zoya - Faye. And I think my jaw just dropped. I LOVE THIS HOLY MOSES ASLKFJALSKFJ. It's pink...then it's mauve...then it's gold...and I think I'm in a trance. I don't even know how to describe this...it's purpley/pinkish - gold duochrome glass-flakie goodness. Does that work?? I hope so, because it's the best I can do. Now if you can excuse me...I have to go admire this. I just fell in love....with a nail polish.

PICSPAM COMING UP!

(If you couldn't tell, I received my polishes from Zoya's BOGO promo from this week. I'll have Sooki for you up soon :] )

What do you think??

Studio M Covered in Diamonds

Ok today I have another Studio M polish. This one caught my eye on the shelf and I nearly squealed with glee. A flakie! yay. I started with a base coat of OPI Ink. Ink applied like a dream as most OPI polishes do. It covered completely in 2 coats and flowed well. I wish all polishes had as good a formula as OPI!

Then I applied Studio M Covered in Diamonds over the top. It looks like a clear base with pastel colored flakes in the bottle. On the nail the flakes look green, gold and blue. This is 2 coats. I did have some slight problems with the flakes moving around on me. I think I should have waited longer in between coats.

I tried to matte it with China Glaze magic matte but after 2 coats it still wasn't REALLY as matte as I wanted it. meh. But here's a pic.

It's snowing at the end of March...

Yes, you heard right. March 30 and it's snowing here in good old Indiana. AWESOME

Anyway, sorry for being MIA this week. I have a nasty cold that just keeps hanging on and on top of that, copious amounts of school work that has to get done which makes for a real inconvenience in my blogging life. I really just haven't felt up to doing my nails until today, and I'm still a little under the weather so pardon the messiness of this one.

I started with 3 coats (yes, three...) of China Glaze's Peachy Keen. Then I put Sinful's Queen of Beauty over it for some bling and made leopard spots with Barielle's Get Me To the Party. Leopard seems to be my go-to art when I don't know what else to do. I initially tried to do a ruffian manicure with the peach and China Glaze's Cheers To You using the little reinforcements to make the line, but....that didn't work. Those reinforcements do NOT work for me. I've tried using them for half-moon manis too. Boo :(

Anyway, here it is. I know it's not very original or creative but I just wanted to get SOMETHING up to let you guys know I'm alive! Even though Mama's been doing a very good job keeping the blog up to date in my absence :)

-Amanda

Studio M Magic Attraction

I saw these polishes at my local Meijer. I'm not familiar with the brand so spent some time online trying to find information. The information I did find has not been validated, but apparently this is distributed by Forsythe Cosmetic group - the same company that makes Color Club. I can neither confirm or deny that allegation. The bottle says its exclusively distributed so I think that it exclusive to Meijer stores only (I are smart).

I started out with a base color of Finger Paints I Pink I Can. I like this color pink. I hate this polish. It's gloopy, streaky and dries with air bubbles in it. I don't know if its my bottle or all FP lacquers are like this. I only used it because I needed this particular shade of pink. This is the only semi-postable pic I got of this color because the others look so awful.

Now here's where the magic comes in. In the bottle this polish looks like a soft pink base with holo microglitter floating in it. Eye catching, but nothing that would make me say Wow. On the nail - all bets are off! It kinda reminds me of OPI Teenage Dream only the glitter is a little more dense and TD is in a pink base whereas MA is in a clear base. It applied and covered well, no problems with streaking but you have to be careful to spread the glitter out. Because it's so dense, it nearly obscures the base color. But wow - it looks like I literally dipped my fingers in crushed diamonds. I did not apply a top coat because I was swatching to smooth out the surface but - Loved this! LOVE! I'm so happy I bought it! I can just hear the Crocodile Hunter in my head saying "GORGEOUS! GORGEOUS!"

It was hard catching the sparkle-iciousness of this polish. Pictures just don't do it justice. It's one of those polishes you have to stop, hold your hand up and admire every few minutes. Oh, and sorry about that fiber clinging to my middle finger. Didn't even see that little sucker till I was reviewing the pics. Whoops.

Blurry pics to show the holo

Win. Win. And did I mention Win?

Irony at its best

So I'm at Meijer standing in front of the display for Studio M lacquers choosing what I want for our upcoming giveaway, when I happen to just glance over at the Sally Hansen display. Something catches my eye. Can it be?

Nah. I'm imagining things. So I walk over and - what do I feast my eyes on? One single solitary bottle of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. And the angels sang! Omg. Brand new. I can hardly believe my luck.

So naturally I threw it in my basket so fast it would make your head spin. Hidden Treasure indeed! How appropriately named!

Now my question is.. do I hoard it for myself... or do I make it the grand prize in our giveaway?

Klassicolor Red Sparkle

I frequently stalk my local Walgreens looking for new colors and limited editions and have gotten to know the staff there. Recently, I went in and was told by my go-to nail polish associate of a new brand of lacquer that a local salesman was trying to get them to market. She showed me the card with color swatches and a few samples - pretty colors, lots of variety. I snapped a couple quick photos of the bottles and came home to search online to see if I could find these polishes anywhere. I found a similar brand with a similar name - Kleancolor. The bottles are even similar. I don't know if these brands are associated or not. Actually I know very little about this lacquer other than it was a complimentary sample given to me for my review - so I cannot comment as to its ingredients (whether it's 3-free or cruelty-free).

So on to the review. This polish is a deep cherry red in the bottle with red and gold microglitter. It applied well and the consistency was smooth, not too thick. It was opaque in 2 coats. On the nail it appears to be a blood red jelly base with mostly red microglitter - can't really tell there is gold glitter in it. The surface dried slightly bumpy from the glitter. I think this would be easily fixed with a top coat (which I didn't apply because I only wanted to swatch it). The poilsh had an unusual smell - not significantly more offensive than most other polishes but slightly stronger. Overall I really liked this polish.

Essie Mesmerize

Today I have for you an Essie polish that I got a while back, Mesmerize. It's pretty much the epitome of a true primary blue. Only used two coats on this! But I still hate Essie's formula. It's watery and runny and...bleh.

Inside with flash:

Outside, natural sunlight:

And because I can never leave anything alone, I decided to throw some daisies on these suckers. I just used little paintbrushes and acrylic paint, but I don't know how I feel about these. Maybe sometimes I just need to leave things alone :P

Inside, with flash:

Outside

That's all for today. I'm swamped with homework for my capstone class for school, so that's what I'll be spending this beautiful day doing :(

Have a great weekend!

-Amanda

Starry Starry Flight

Whew. Getting that Jesse's Girl Blue Moon off my nails was a chore. It stained my nails purple like nobody's business. I feel like I practically rubbed my fingertips off trying to get my nails clean. But, on to tonight's mani...

This polish is one of my faves. Definately in my top 5 all time polishes. It's a beautiful silver micro glitter in a clear base that is opaque in 3 coats. The formula is smooth, not runny, gritty or too sheer. I couldn't get any pics in the sunlight but hopefully these will suffice.

Purple Bling-y Goodness!

Hi all! Today I have one of my most favoritest colors ever, Zoya - Jacy. I got this from Zoya's 3 free polish promotion during Christmas time and I love this SO MUCH!! It's a purpley-reddish-mauveish color with the tiniest bit of hidden shimmer to it. Have I mentioned how much I love Zoya polishes?! Well I do. I love them. So much. The formula is perfect as well as the brush and I hardly ever have to do any cleanup when I use Zoyas. I don't have many but I'm thinking I may need to expand my collection. I did order two yesterday since Zoya's having their BOGO promotion going on right now. I got Faye and Sooki...can't wait! Love the True Blood reference with that one ;)

Ok, I'm rambling, but here's the mani!

This is inside with a flash on. It's definitely not that pink in real life.

Ok, sorry for the pic spam, but GAH!! I just love it so much. I used OPI's Show It and Glow It for the accent finger, and I'm really liking this one bling-y, sparkly nail thing.

Enjoy! :)

-Amanda

So Much Sparkly Goodness

Firstly, let me mention that I'm on vacation having a marvelous time and don't have access to the majority of my manicure tools. So I apologize in advance for the sloppy cuticles - I forgot to bring my brush and its difficult touching up my manicure with cotton swabs. I'm also posting from a borrowed laptop and my layout is all wonky and I can't figure out what the problem is. So anyway..

While on vacation I was lucky enough to drop in on a Rite-Aid drug store (which we don't have at home) and pick up 6 Jesse's Girl polishes and couldn't wait to try them out. Amanda already swatched this one way back over black, but I had to try it to believe it.

So I started out with Jesse's Girl Blue Moon which is a blue violet foil with a satin finish. Went on well - I used 2 coats for opacity.




































Then I added 2 coats of Jesse's Girl Confetti over the top. Oh my gosh - GORG. In the bottle this is a clear base with blue and violet microglitter. It has the most fabulous blue/violet duochrome flash - really spectacular :) I can't stop looking at it.

Edit 3/23/11 - I added a China Glaze Lightning Crackle french tip on the end of my manicure today to give it new life.

Cherries!

The weather has been nice lately (it's 69 degrees right now!) so I felt like doing a nice, warm springy manicure! I started with China Glaze First Mate from the Anchors Away collection which I LOVE. It's a navy blue color, but it doesn't look black like a lot of navy blues do. It's kind of a muted blue, I guess. I used two coats of that, then drew the cherries on with red acrylic paint and a dotting tool. I mixed colors to make a brownish-gray color for the cherry stems. Color for the stems didn't turn out quite right, but I still think they're pretty cute. :)

That's all for today!

Jess' Champagne Toast

Hi all! Today I have for you a polish that I received from my mama (aka co-owner of this blog!) for Christmas. It's Barielle's Jess' Champagne Toast. I really like this color, but I do think it has some downsides. It's extremely thick, for one. The first time I tried this polish over Christmas break I actually gave up and took it right off because it was SO difficult to get even. It worked better this time, when I used very thick coats, but still...annoying. Also, it has these teeny tiny pink glitters in it, which make it sparkle and reflect and look pretty, but it also does this funky thing where it feels AND looks gritty. It's like the glitter got stuck in the actual color so you can't visually see it, but you can feel it and see the grittiness of it. I don't know how to explain it. Oh well, it's still a pretty color, just needs a top coat over it.

I realize that this is very similar to my tiger stripe mani... I didn't realize that until I finished this. Also, apparently a black striper is easier to use than a white one, because these kind of look like I did them with my eyes closed. Oh well :)

Here's a close up of the color/texture of this polish...

What do you think? Any fun plans for St. Patty's Day???! :)

What's with the Catitude?

First of all, a bit of background before I talk about today's manicure. I'm watching my good friend's cat this week while he's out of town on business and THOUGHT she'd get along just fine with my cat. BIG mistake. They growled, hissed and moaned at each throughout the night the first night and I was forced to take friend's cat back to his house to care for her. So, Lucy - this one's for you.

As I was removing the Elle's Spell manicure in preparation for the St. Patrick's Day one I noticed my nail had split and a little bit of black polish had seeped in the crack. I got out the gentlest file I could find and tried to file away just the black spot because I know filing your nail plate weakens it. Well, about 2 hours into the St. Patrick's Day manicure a huge portion of the free end of my nailplate broke away. So I was browsing the drug store looking for a good ridge filler (don't they make ridge filler anymore? I couldn't find a product specifically called ridge filler!) and came across this Sally Hansen Complete Care 4-In-1 Treatment. OMG let me tell you this stuff is golden. I dabbed a bit in the split portion of my nail then went over the entire thing and you can't even tell my nail was ever split/chipped. The entire surface is repaired and smooth as glass. I can't believe I never tried this before! It will definately become part of my regular nail care routine now!

So anyway, on to what I did yesterday/today. I started with OPI What's with the Catitude? I don't know if I got an especially good bottle of this or its just an outstanding product but this stuff flowed on perfectly. It covered in 2 coats but I did a third just to make it a little more opaque. Then I sealed with SV.

Then I made a wide french tip with OPI Russian Navy matte.

And to finish it all off I added a 2nd french on the tippy tip of Color Club Untamed Luxury. This is a green/teal jelly with green and blue microglitter - very sparkly! It's actually more greenish than it looks in the pictures. It reminds me of a mermaid's tail!

I'm really liking this although the pictures just do not do it justice. I think it's going to be one of my favorite manicures ever. Hope you like it!

Sinful Boogie Nights

Hi! Today I have for you a Sinful color that I picked up a while ago, Boogie Nights. I LOVE this color, and these pictures really don't do it justice. It's definitely not this bright orange in real life. It's more of a pinkish orangish coral than a bright bright neon orange like it looks here. Definitely one of my favorite colors, and perfect for spring time.

I wanted to do something fun with this, but could NOT for the life of me come up with some cute nail art design to do on it. So I did what I always do when there are no creative juices flowing -- add glitter! I put two light coats of Revlon's Belle on top, which is just a silver glitter in a clear base with tiny glitters and bigger hex glitter as well. I also found these little stencils that came with a pack of nail gems I got at the dollar store. The gems aren't really the shapes/colors I use, and the stencils are really ambiguous as to what they are... but I thought I'd try them out. The original stencil design I was going to use actually ripped as I was pulling it off of its plastic sheet (guess that's what you get for $1 nail art supplies) so I resorted to this little butterfly instead. I used China Glaze For Audrey to fill in the butterfly.

 

That's all for today! Have a lovely day! It's raining here :(

--Amanda

St. Patrick's Day manicure

Today was one of those manicure from hell days. I think I was trying to rush so I could snap pictures before I lost daylight. I wanted to do an accent nail this time, but I still wanted it to be somewhat subtle. I started out with Orly Primetime and SV Base Coat then applied China Glaze Midnight Kiss on my ring fingers. I did the ring fingers first so I don't absent-mindedly polish over my accent nail with the manicure color. So what do you think I did when I went to apply my base color (Zoya Ivanka)? Yep - I polished right over my accent nail. So I had to take the whole thing off and redo it. I managed to finally finish all 10 fingers then stamped my ring finger with a shamrock from Bundle Monster plate 03 and Konad Special Polish Green. I'm still a noob at Konad. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten frustrated trying to center a design and said 'forget it, this is just not for me'. This one came out relatively decent, although it still is a little off center. I am slowly improving though :)

After this step I applied a layer of SV top coat and taped off my nails for a funky french using the China Glaze Midnight Kiss. I think I tried to rush this step because when I took the tape up it pulled some of my polish up with it. I was able to salvage it and get it to look decent and set it all with another coat of SV.

So that's my St. Patrick's Day mani, although it probably won't stay on my fingers till St. Patrick's Day. I do love the depth and sparkle of this Zoya Ivanka. The China Glaze was a bit tricky to work with and I had some trouble with brush strokes but I think that's a problem with most foil polishes.

Till next time!
Melissa