Tag Archives: nail polish

Wet n Wild Spring into the Wild Collection (Spring 2016)

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So, I did something I don’t think I’ve ever done before.  I bought an entire collection.  I just have never been able to justify it before.  An entire collection of China Glaze or OPI can easily cost north of $50, and often I don’t really need or want all of the polishes.  I love reading blogs or watching videos made by ladies who have purchased entire collections, but for me it just seems a little frivolous, especially since my little blog doesn’t actually generate any income.   So how did I come to purchase an entire collection, then?

IMG_7089Well, we (my hubby and some other extended family members) had been putting in lots of long exhausting hours cleaning out a house for another family member.  After several days of working, working, working, I ended up in a Christmas Tree Shops staring at the newest Wet n Wild collection called Spring into the Wild.  The display still had all four of the polishes in it, and they were pretty… And they were only $1.79 each.  That meant for under $8, I could get the entire collection.  So I did.   Seriously, aren’t they so pretty?

A day or so after I bought this collection at Christmas Tree Shops, I spotted it atIMG_7091 Kmart.   While I was there, I looked through Sinfull Colors, Sally Hansen, and Revlon for any duplicates (aka “dupes”) of these colors.

The four polishes are from left to right:  Love Fest, Lay out in Lavender, Breeze on By, and Kiss My Mints.

Let’s start with Love Fest.  This is just a lovely pastel pink.  Next to the other polishes in the collection, it looks like it’s pretty warm IMG_7093toned, but when it’s on its own, I feel it’s almost cool toned.  I’ll just say it’s a middle-of-the-road pastel pink.  The formula is pretty sheer, though.  What you’re looking at here is four coats.  Yeah, I know.  Ain’t nobody got time for that.   It dries really glossy and it just looks so pretty once it’s on the nail, so I’ll probably suck it up and wear it anyway.   I think I might attempt some jelly sandwiches with this one.IMG_7103

I have a ton of pink polishes (well, like 30) but I didn’t have any that were a really close match to this one.  The closest that I could pull out of my collection was Wet n Wild – Tickled Pink, but as you can see, these polishes really aren’t that close at all.

IMG_7133At Kmart, however, I did find two dead-on dupes for Love Fest.  Here’s Love Fest on the left, then in the Middle is Sally Hansen – Hard-Core Party in the middle, and Sally Hansen – Tickled Pink on the Right.  (Yeah, both the Sally Hansen polish and the Wet n Wild Polish are called Tickled Pick.  People need to come up with more clever names.) I picked up Hard-Core Party since it was only $.50, and I can definitely verify that these two are pretty much exactly the same.

 

 

IMG_7104Next we have Lay Out in Lavender.  This one’s a stunner, right?  It’s just so pretty!  This is sort of a muted lavender.  This polish was opaque in two coats.  None of that four coat nonsense here.

When I first saw this polish, I thought it might be similar to China Glaze – Release from IMG_7108The Giver collection from a few years ago, and when you look at them in the bottle, they actually don’t look that different.  Once I got the polish on the nail, it was clear that they were really different.  Release is a gray polish that leans purple, and Lay Out in Lavender is a purple polish that leans gray.

Just for kicks, I also pulled out Broadway Nails – Easter Annie for comparison, but this polish is obviously much more pink with no IMG_7136hint of gray.  I’m super happy to add Lay Out in Lavender to my collection since I really don’t have anything like it!

While I was at Kmart, I found a few polishes worth comparing to Lay Out in Lavender.  The polish on the left was the closest match, and that is Sally Hansen Miracle Gel – All Chalked Up.   All Chalked Up is just a tiny bit warmer than Lay out in Lavender, like it’s got a half a drop of yellow polish in the bottle.  It’s still super close, though.  The polish on the right is Sally Hansen – Lacey Lilac.  Lacey Lilac is definitely more pink and it doesn’t have that hint of gray that Lay Out in Lavender has.

IMG_7109Next we have Breeze on By.  This is a pretty periwinkle cream that was opaque in two coats.  Another really beautiful color!IMG_7092

As soon as I saw this polish, I thought it looked exactly like Wear Skinny Jeans from last year’s Silver Lake Collection.  As you can see, they are pretty darn close.  The one difference is that Wear Skinny Jeans has a silver shimmer running through it, but since the shimmer doesn’t actually show up on your nail, that difference really doesn’t count for much.  I threw in Sinful Colors – Sail La Vie for comparison as well. I have Breeze on my on my first finger, Wear Skinny Jeans on my IMG_7113middle finger, and Sail La Vie on my ring finger.  As you can see, Breeze on By is a IMG_7114hint more purple than Wear Skinny Jeans, but if you already own Wear Skinny Jeans, I’d say you could skip picking up Breeze on By.  Sail La Vie is obviously more blue than either of the Wet n Wild polishes.  I’m sure that Essie – Bikini So Teeny is super similar as well, but I don’t own that one.  I know it’s a classic Essie polish, but I  seriously don’t need anymore periwinkle polish.

When I was at Kmart I found a few more polishes worth comparing to Breeze on By.  The polish on the left is Sail La Vie, which I just threw in the picture for comparison’s IMG_7130sake.  The next polish is Sally Hansen – Hard Bitten.  This is a little less purple than Breeze on By, and it has a fine silver shimmer.  I’m not sure if that shimmer actually shows up when you get it on your nails or not.  Next is Sally Hansen – Babe Blue.  Babe Blue also has a shimmer running through it.  From images I’ve seen online of this polish, the shimmer just barely shows up.  (Rant:  Why is it so difficult to make a periwinkle polish with a shimmer that actually shows up?  Am I missing something here?  Nothing is more annoying than purchasing a polish and then not being able to get what you see in the bottle to show up on your nails.) Babe Blue is really close to Breeze on By, maybe just a hair more blue.  I think it’s probably just about identical to Wet n Wild – Wear Skinny Jeans.

IMG_7116Now we come to our final – and maybe my favorite – polish of the of the collection: Kiss My Mints!  This is the most beautifully perfect mint color ever!  It’s not too green, not too blue.  I IMG_7121just love it so much! This is perfect in two coats and it’s just so pretty!!!

I compared this to three other polishes in my collection.  On my little finger is Wet n Wild – Tree Hugger from last year’s Silver Lake collection.  This polish is obviously much greener.  On my ring finger is Joe Fresh – Mint.  (Whoa, such a creative name.  My mind is blown!)  This polish is also more green than Kiss My Mints and it has a bit of a dusty gray quality to it, also.  On my first finger is China IMG_7144Glaze – For Audrey.  I knew this polish wouldn’t be a match, but it felt to me like Kiss My Mints is the exact same hue as For Audrey, only a lighter tint.  ( I had to check an art dictionary to make sure I was using “hue” and “tint” correctly.)  Petty much that means that if you added white polish to For Audrey, I think you’d get Kiss My Mints.

At Kmart, I found a few polishes worth comparing to Kiss My Mints.  The one on the left is Sally Hansen Miracle Gel – B Girl.  This one is really close to Kiss My Mints, maybe just a hair darker.  The polish on the right is Sally Hansen – Mint Sorbet, which is obviously much more green.  I just figured it was worth comparing since it had the word “mint” in the name and it’s readily available.

So, Here are my final thoughts…

  • Skip buying Love Fest and pick up one of the Sally Hansen polishes if you really love this color.  Nobody should be applying four coats of anything.
  • Lay Out in Lavender is really beautiful and different from most purple/lilac/lavender polishes that are out there.  I think this is a good one to grab.
  • Breeze on By is definitely pretty and it has a good formula, but it’s hardly unique.  Only pick this one up if you don’t have a periwinkle in your collection.
  • Kiss my Mints is awesome!  The formula is great, and although there are a lot of mint green/teal/aqua/turquoise polishes out there, this exact shade is still pretty unique.  If you’re only going to pick up one, I’d pick up this one.

Oh, and just one more thing.  Breeze on By and Love Fest are super close to the Pantone colors of the year for 2016, Rose Quartz and Serenity.  I’m sure that’s no accident.

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far!  Find me on instagram and Facebook!

 

 

 

 

Dry Brush Nails

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Here are my current nails:

IMG_6388Pretty cute, right?  I’ve only done dry brush nails a few times, but every time I do, I’m reminded of how easy they are!  And they look really cool!  I’ve acquired a good pile of compliments on these nails so far, and nobody really believes me when I say these are super easy, so I figured I’d provide a little quicky tutorial on these.  Disclaimer: I totally didn’t invent this technique.  It’s been around for a few years now, and I really don’t have any idea who the originator is.  But I’m definitely sure that it wasn’t me.

First you start with your base coat and then a light, neutral polish.  This time I went with Wet n Wild – Yo Soy.   IMG_6386Seriously, this is such a pretty nude color and it’s only $.99!  I’m not sure how it works with other skin tones, but with my pale pinkish skin, it works really well.  This picture was taken without a top coat, so you can really see how shiny it is!  This is two coats, and it’s totally opaque.  For dry brushing, you can never go wrong with a white base either.

IMG_6393Now, pick a few contrasting colors.  I opted for Jordana – Hypnotizing, China Glaze – Budding Romance, and Fresh Paint – Let the Games Begin.  Budding Romance is the most sheer out of these three polishes, so I decided to use it last.  I decided to start with Let the Games Begin, the blue.

Shake (or better yet, roll) your polish like normal, but here’s the important part: after you open your bottle, wipe as much polish as possible off on the neck of the IMG_6399bottle.  Like, six times.  Just keep wiping.  You just want the littlest bit of residual polish on the brush.  After you’ve wiped all of the excess polish off of the brush, pick a direction, IMG_6387and drag the brush over your nail.   I decided to mix it up, so I dragged the brush down my thumb, middle finger and pinky vertically, and across my other two fingers horizontally.

I then did the exact same thing with the purple polish, and then with the green polish, kind of filling in the empty spaces.  Although I intended to take pictures of each step of this manicure, I didn’t.  Fail.  See, I’m usually watching something important on TV (like Sister Wives or Dance Moms) while I’m doing my nails, so I tend to forget to take pictures of each step.  I just crank along and then I’m like, “Oh dang, I’m done… And I only have 2 pictures.”

So anyway, after adding the purple and green polish, I finished off with a matte top coat.  I don’t know why, but I feel like dry IMG_6401brush nails look the best with a matte top coat.

Oh, cautionary tale time; there’s really only one way you can screw up dry brush nails, and that is by not wiping the brush off well enough.  Exhibit A is here on the right.  This is my ring finger on my right hand.  See that big blob of blue?  That’s where I didn’t wipe the brush off well enough.   Moral of the story: wipe the brush off.  A lot.

Thanks for reading!  I hope this inspires you to try this technique.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Until next time, happy polishing!

 

 

 

February Favorites

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I figure that if I get my monthly favorites posted within the first two weeks of the following month, they are not completely irrelevant yet.  That’s my logic and I’m sticking to it.

The last few months have been extra super busy for me because of my work schedule, and I am itching for life to settle down so that I can get back to posting regularly.  I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel, as I’ve been told my work schedule will go back to normal in a few week. Yay!IMG_4566

I did manage to come up with some favorites for the month of February.  And I thought the would look nice in a star formation.  Lets start at 12:00 and go clockwise….

At noon we have Wet n Wild Fergie – Going Platinum.  This polish, is amazing!  It’s a foil finish, so it has a little more sparkle that just a straight metallic polish.  Also, metallic polishes tend to show brush strokes, but this doesn’t at all.  It’s opaque in two easy coats.

IMG_4517Really, this is just a great polish.  All of the stuff I just said also goes for Wet n Wild Fergie – Gold Album.  Gold album has the exact same formula and finish.  It’s just gold instead of platinum.  (That last sentence was probably unnecessary.)   Plus, they are only $3 per bottle!  I don’t love all of the Wet n Wild Fergie polishes, but Going Platinum and Gold album are definite winners.

At 2:30 we have China Glaze – Thistle Do Nicely.  This is from the 2014 spring collection, so it’ll be tough to find in stores.  This is not a shockingly unique polish or anything.  It’s just a really pretty neon coral.  IMG_4516And while it’s not an eye-searing neon, it does do that cool thing where it looks like it’s glowing when the light is a little dim, like at dusk.  With the brutal February we had in PA (and pretty much every other state east of the Rockies) I was itching for something that felt like springtime.  This is a polish that just makes you feel happy inside when you wear it.

In this picture, I topped it with an shredded iridescent glitter which looks flaky-like.  I added a matte top coat for extra fun.

At 5:00, is Fresh Paint – Honeydew.  IMG_4341 This polish is a lovely light minty, springtime-y cream polish.   The formula is a tad on the thick side, but it’s almost a one-coater.  One of the reasons that I’m really loving this polish right now is because it works well for water marbling.  Someone on instagram (I can’t remember who, so I’m a little sad that I can’t give that instagramer proper credit) said that she had good success water marbling with Fresh Paint cream polishes, including Honeydew.  Well, that gave me the inspiration I needed to take another stab at water marbling… She was right!  I tested several fresh paint polishes and they all spread beautifully in the water and were easy to manipulate.  I’m so happy about that!  I hate using expensive polishes for water marbling, because I feel like so much is wasted.  Fresh Paint polishes are always 3 for $5 at Five Below, so… that’s awesome. IMG_4355

At 7:30 we have LA Colors – Candy Sprinkles.  This is such a fun polish!  It’s a rarity for a cheapo line of polish to have a crelly polish with awesome glitter like this.  I had been eyeballing this one for a little while before I finally picked it up.  This polish is sort of versatile, too.  You can do 2 or 3 coats of the polish on its own if you want a really dense glitter look, or you can just do one coat over pink or purple polish if you like your polish a little more sparse.  Very fun, and totally worth the $1.5Pictured is two coats of Candy Sprinkles over one coat of a pinky-lavender polish.

IMG_4468At 10:00, we have this beauty.  Such a classic.  Sally Hansen – Pacific Blue original formula.  And this picture is one coat.  I know, it’s amazing.  The nail polish world mourned when Sally Hansen reformulated this polish last summer, but I still see the occasional bottle of the original formulaon the shelf in drugstores.  Really, I just saw one at the Rite Aid in Middletown, PA like, four hours ago.  The new formula is a darker blue with a shimmer running through it.  The original is just this perfect cream color.  They both say “420 Pacific Blue” on the cap.  Stupid, sneaky Sally Hansen, thinking we wouldn’t notice.

So, those are my February favorites.  Do you have any of these polishes?  What have you been loving lately?  Thanks for reading, following, and liking both here and on instagram.  You people are the greatest!

An Actual Reason to Shop at Dollar General

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Dollar general stores scare me a little bit.  It seems like you can always find at least one weirdo customer in there shopping at any given time, and I think the stores are always run by chain smoking 20-year-olds.  Seriously, the last time I was in a Dollar General, there were 2 young female employees talking about how much they loved to smoke.  The one was saying that she knew she should quite because she was having trouble breathing every morning.  Geez.  Yeah, maybe you should quit.

Anyway, there is one reason, and one reason only that I go into Dollar general stores: they’ve got nail polish.  Specifically today, I want to talk about Boadway Nails High Shine Nail Polish.  The only place I’ve ever seen this polish sold is at Dollar General Stores.  (If you’ve seen them any where else, please comment below!)  That means that if you want to try these polishes, you’re going to have to suck it up and actually go into a Dollar General store.  I promise you though, it’ll be worth it.

The in store display looks like this:

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Admittedly, this is not the greatest picture, but I sort of hate taking pictures of stuff in stores.  It makes me feel like a creep or something.  Anyway, do you see the little yellow price stickers?  That’s right, these little polishes are only $1 each!  As you can see, there are 4 tiers with 8 colors each.  (The middle tier has lip gloss.)  I don’t think there are any repeats, so that makes a grand total of 32 colors available.

So far I’ve purchase these seven:

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Here’s a little review of each along with a swatch.  Each swatch is 2 coats of the polish.

Starting with the upper left corner, we have Dark Night.

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This is a REALLY dark purple.  In person it’s not quite as dark as it appears in the photo.  I thought at first that this was going to be a jelly formula, but it’s actually really opaque in just two coats.  It applies really nicely.

Next is Sour Apple.

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This is a super pretty almost neon green.  I guess you could say it’s neon, but there are brighter greens out there.  This is mostly opaque in two good coats or 3 thin coats.  I really, really like this polish!  The formula is really good!  Like, surprisingly good for a $1 polish!  Here it is in action:

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Next is Space Flight.

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This is the prettiest blue jelly!  I used this for my glitter and my half moon manis during the 31 day challenge.  Like all jelly polishes, the color really deepens with each coat.

The first polish in the second row is Hot & Sexy.

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I bought this because I had been itching to get China Glaze – Ruby Pumps, but I hate spending $7 on one polish.  This is a fine red glitter in a red jelly base.  It’s just so pretty and sparkly!  Two coats gives good coverage and sparkle, but I think a third coat would make it even prettier!

Next is Snow White.  I originally got this to do a  white polish comparison.  Eh, its just okay.  Check out the link if you’d like more info.  I probably will actually use this one for some frankenpolishing down the road.  I don’t actually have swatches of my white polishes on a swatch wheel because… it’s just white.

Next is Base Coat.

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The dumb thing is it’s not an actual base coat.  It’s just a really sheer nude color.  Obviously it’s really sheer, because you can read “Base Coat” backwards through the polish.  (I write the names of the polish on the back of each of my swatches.)  I got this color to use as a base for french manis.  It’s not an exciting color, but it gets the job done.

Last we have Paradise Water.

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I was really hoping that this would be opaque on its own.  Obviously, it’s super glitter packed, but not quite enough to be opaque.  Oh well, for a dollar, I think it’s still worth it.  I haven’t really played with this one much, but I think I’ll have fun layering it over different colors.

If you decide to brave your local Dollar General for any of these polishes, please let me know what colors you get and what you think!  Thanks for reading!

Patchwork Nails

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Hi, everyone!  I’m back!  Last week was a busy one for the hubby and me.  For the first part of the week, we babysat my brother and his wife’s 3 kids at their place while they were on vacation.  An 8, 6, and 3-year-old kept us good and busy!  Then we went up to Niagara Falls for a 3-day mini-vacation.  The falls only about a 5 1/2 hour drive from our place, so we try to get up there every few years.   Anyway, I’m back with a tutorial for you all today!

I wanted to do something that was Halloween-ish, but not super overt.   I also was in the mood to do some mixed-up patterns with a little bit of negative space.  Here’s what I came up with:

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The first steps to every manicure is pretty much the same: deal with your cuticles and then apply a base coat.  After that I just applied a few green patches of polish:

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I knew I wanted it make green, orange, and purple patches with two patches on each nail, so I knew I would need 3-4 patches of each color.  I also knew that I wanted shapes and sizes that appeared to be sort of random, so I made each of the patches different.  I then added orange polish:

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I filled in the remaining spots with purple polish:

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Then, using my dotting tools and little brushes, I added some patterns using the same orange, green, and purple polish:

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Next, I outlined my patches in black with a thin brush dipped in acrylic paint:

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Then I added “stitches” with the same brush in black acrylic paint:

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And here’s my right hand:

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I finished off with a top coat and then I did a little bit of clean-up with a brush dipped in acetone.   I really like how these turned out!  Cute and not too crazy.

I’ll leave you now with a few pictures from our little trip up to Niagara Falls:

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Thanks for reading, following, and commenting!

 

It’s a Rainbow of Organization!

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Look what I finally did:

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And I don’t just mean that I arranged my nail wheels into as cute little circle.   What I do mean is that I finally got all of my polishes swatched onto nail wheels!  This will just make it so easy to figure out which polishes I want to use going forward, and it makes it a lot easier to remember what I have, too.

by nail blogger standards, I think I have a pretty modest collection at just north of 200 polishes.   (I know there are those of you out there in the quadruple digits.)   Even so, I would find myself forgetting what the opacity or finish of a particular polish was like.  Now I can have that info right at my fingertips!

I started by kind of grouping all of my polishes by color.  I sort of made up my own color groups as needed, like “dark neutrals, light neutrals, etc.  Then I wrote the name of the color on the back side of each “nail”.  Next I painted two coats of each polish on designated “nail”.  This was sort of a long and slow but fun process.

It made me remember how pretty some of my older polishes are, and how great of a formula some of my frequently ignored polishes have.   Because I was consistent with putting two coats on each nail, it’s easy to pick out which of my polishes are jellies or crellies, which is always a good thing to know.  And now when I have a friend come over to get her nails painted, I don’t have to drag out all of my polishes; I can just present her with my cute little wheels!

That’s all I have to say about nail polish today.  I do want to let you all know that I’ve got a LOT of stuff on my plate next week, so I think I’m going to take a little break from posting.  I’ve got some really great stuff happening in my life next week, and I’ll fill you in after the fact.  I’ll be posting again for sure the week of October 19, and I might get a chance to post a little something next week.  Not sure yet.

Thanks for reading, liking and commenting!  You all are swell people!

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What Black Undies Can Do For You

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Did you ever buy a polish that you couldn’t really tell in the bottle what it would look like on the nail, but you were sure it would be cool?  Then you tried it and it didn’t rock your world like you thought it would.  I’ve definitely done this a lot of times.   One thing I have discovered is that a lot of these types of polishes take on a whole new life when you put them over black polish.

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Let’s look at each of these starting with…

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These polishes are from Valley Girl Lacquer, and indie polish company.  Here’s the link to their etsy shop.  The polishes from left to right are Profundity, Enigma, and Conundrum. These were actually a gift from my little sis.  When I got them, I thought they pretty much looked the same in the bottle.  My sis assured me that according to the pictures online, they would look awesome over black. And do they ever!  They are all duo-chrome-ish to some degree.  Enigma has the strongest 2-color appearance, as it reflects a really strong purple from some angles.

The middle chunk of polishes I have for you is a little less exciting.

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From left to right: Sally Hansen – Disco Ball, Sephora by OPI – Hollywood if I Could, Nicole by OPI – Heavenly Angel, Zoya – Monet, Loreal –  The True Daimond.

None of these are really earth-shattering.  I guess the thing I want to point out is that all of these colors give a nice mellow sparkle to any lighter color, but when you put them over black, it’s like POW!

Here are the next two:

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They are Orly – Sky Blue-Pink and Sally Hansen Lustre Shine – Moonstone.  Yeah, I don’t know why it’s called Sky Blue-Pink either, because it definitely gives off a copper color.  When either of these are worn on their own, they really just look like a pearly nude polish.  Nice, but super subtle.  One coat over black gives a totally different look!  As I said, the Orly polish gives a really strong copper color, and Moonstone turns into a really cool pink-purple-blue-green multi-chrome.

My last one is the most amazing:

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This is Fresh Paint – Sugar Crush.  This is what’s generally called a flaky topper.  (I hate that name, but if that’s what everyone else wants to call these polishes, I guess it’s not in my power to change it. )  Flaky polishes can sort of look like glitter toppers at first glance, but they are just different, and you can tell when you apply them.  Flaky Polishes are packed with tiny duo-chrome little bits that apply really nicely and evenly to the nail.  They can seem a little like a holographic shredded glitter polish like Nicole by OPI – Heavenly Angel, but the application is really different.  A shredded glitter topper behaves like any other chunky glitter topper: it’s a little hard to apply and can take some dabbing and finagling to get even application.  Flaky polishes apply much more easily.

When I first got this, I swatched it over a neon coral, white, and black:

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(These are actually my sister’s fingers.)  As you can see, over the lighter colors, the effect is pleasant, but not amazing.  I still remember when we were doing the swatches and I painted this polish over the black, both my sister and I were like, “Whoa!”   Ever since I got this polish, I’ve been waiting for October to roll around so I could wear it over black.

Okay folks, that’s it for today.  Thanks for reading, commenting, and liking.  It means a lot!

September Favorites

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Doing the 31 day challenge in September led me to use a lot of polishes in my collection that I either had never used much before or had sort of forgotten about.  And because I did my nails every single stinking day of September, my list of favorites for the month was really long!  As I put all of my favorites in a pile, I had 4 or 5 polishes that were in limited edition collections that are pretty tough to find now.  I pulled them out of the pile, because I thought it would be pretty mean to be like, “Oh, this is the most awesome polish ever!  You can’t get it anywhere, though.  Sorry about your luck.”

So here’s the pile of my favorites:

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They are left to right, starting with the top row: Wet n Wild – I Need a Refresh-Mint, NYC – High Line Green, Sinful Colors – Cinderella, Orly – Tropical Pop, Broadway Nails – Space Flight, Wet n Wild – Bubblegum Pop, Jordana – Boy Oh Boy.

I’m going to start with Orly – Tropical Pop.  This one kind of breaks my own rule because it was part of the Baked summer 2014 collection.  I still think you will be able to find this with a little bit of searching, though.  I used this orange as my base color for my Day 2: Orange Nails.  This color is such a fun, light neon orange.  It seemed a little shockingly bright at first, but it really grew on my as I wore it.

NYC – High Line Green is one of the very few polishes that I bought for a specific day of the challenge.  I used this color as the base for my Day 4: Green Nails.  It is just the prettiest “ugly” green!  I loved this color so much on its own that I was a little sad to cover it up with the camo pattern.  It’s a fun green for springtime, but I’m definitely going to wear in here in the fall, too.

The name of this next polish was actually the inspiration for my Fairy Godmother nails for  Day 5: Blue Nails.  Sinful Colors – Cinderella has this beautiful pinkish-gold micro shimmer that just makes my heart skip a beat.  It is SO BEAUTIFUL in the sun!  Love it!

Nails – Space Flight is a dark blue jelly polish that bought back in the summer.  It seemed to dark to use then, but once September rolled around, it finally seemed appropriate.  I used it for both Day 17: Glitter and Day 18:Half Moons even though they were back to back days.  My creativity was waning a little at that point, and I was more interested in just using a particular polish that coming up with some ground-breaking design.  I can’t wait to use this for some more jelly sandwiches in the future!  I’ve only ever seen this line of polish at old exclusively at Dollar General and Family Dollar stores.  They are generally in these stand-alone displays that are like big, tiered clear plastic bowls.

Wet n Wild – Bubblegum Pop is a cool pink color.  Cool as in “it leans blue”, not cool as in “awesome”.  Actually, it is a little bit awesome.  I used this polish for my Day 20: Water Marble. This polish actually marbled beautifully with Sally Hansen – Pacific Blue (original formula).  It made the whole process much less painful than I had anticipated.  Although the Wet n Wild Megalast line is available at most grocery stores and drug stores, this color (along with another 15 colors or so) are also sold exclusively at Dollar General and Family Dollar stores.  I know, that’s such a weird place to go for exclusive polishes.

Jordana – Boy Oh Boy is SO AMAZING!  Sigh.  It just makes my knees weak.  It’s this perfect turquoise color, it’s pretty much a one-coat polish, and it’s SO shiny.  Trust me, you need this polish in your life.  I used this polish for Day: 12 Stripes and Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern.  I know Jordana cosmetics are available at K-Mart.  I’m not sure where else you can get them.  I can tell you for sure that they are not available at Wal-Mart, Target, CVS, and Rite Aid stores, at least in south-central PA.   Jordana also makes some really pretty glitter polishes, too.

Okay, the last polish in my favorites is Wet n Wild – I Need a Refresh-Mint.  I used this polish as the base color for Day 15: Delicate Print and Day 23: Inspired by a Movie.  I also used it as the light blue on my ring finger for Day 27: Inspired by Artwork, but you can barely see it on those nails.  I’ve gotta say, I’m a sucker for this color.  Exhibit A:

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From left to right: Wet n Wild – I need a Refresh-Mint, Sinful Colors – Nice Stems, China Glaze – For Audrey.

I can usually justify owning similarly colored polishes, but even I can admit that nobody really needs all three of these.  For Audrey is a tiny hair darker than the other two, and Nice Stems has a barely discernible shimmer, but really… They’re pretty much the same.  All three polishes have a good formula that is opaque in 2 coats.  The Wet n Wild Megalast polishes come with a wider brush, which I like, but I know some people don’t.  You can pretty much get four Sinful Colors or Wet n Wild polishes for the cost of one China Glaze, so that sort of makes For Audrey totally not worth the price tag for me.

I have one last polish that I used pretty much every single day of the challenge: NYC – Grand Central Station.

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This polish is under $2 and it dries so quickly and leave such a great shine!   It’s just such a great quick-dry top coat for the price.  It doesn’t do that shrinkage thing that Seche Vite does, although I do think Seche Vite is just a hair more shiny.  I really can’t tell a difference in quality between NYC and Out the Door.  I still have not tried the HK Girl top coat, but until I get around to trying that, I think I’m going to stick with this stuff.  It’s just just a great value.  I think I’m on my 3rd or 4th bottle.  Can’t really remember.

That’s it for my September favorites!  Have you used any of these polishes?  What are your current favorites!  I love getting your feed back here, on facebook, and on instagram.  Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial (31dc2014)

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Day 30!  Only one more day to go!  I’m gonna make it!

For today’s nails, the idea is to do nails based on a tutorial done by another nails artist.  I opted to try the dry brush technique.  I’ve seen this technique in a lot of tutorials by a lot of different bloggers, so I’m not really sure who to credit with coming up with it first.   Anyway, here are my nails:

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The second picture is in direct sunlight.

These nails were super easy to do and required absolutely no artistic ability and no tools!  I just started by painting my nails with a nude color, then I chose 5 or 6 polishes that I thought were nice fall colors. After the nude polish was mostly dry, I took one of my polishes and wiped pretty much all of the polish off on the neck of the bottle.  then, using the little bit of polish that was still on the brush, I made little streaky patches on each of my nails.  Then I went through the same process with each color.  If you’d like to see a real actual tutorial on this technique, please let me know!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you tomorrow for the 31st and final day of this challenge!

Day 8: Metallic Nails (31dc2014)

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It took me a little while to find some inspiration for these nails.  I was a little tempted just to slather gold polish on my nails and call it a day.  This 31 Day Challenge is definitely fun, but sometimes I feel like all my free time and mental energy is being used to paint my nails.  I’m glad it’s only 31 days and I’m glad that I’m 1/4 of the way there!

Sunday evening the hubby and I were at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, which is where we are most weekends from August to October.   On the ride home, I finally got hit with some inspiration to paint some royal nails.  Here they are:

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Yep, my cuticles are stained a lovely purple color. 

The gold polish is from Wet n Wild’s Fergie line and it’s called Gold Album.  Every time I use it I’m amazed and how pretty it is. 

The purple is Orly – Velvet Rope.  I got the mini size of this for $.49 in the clearance section at Ulta this weekend!  I think I’ll be wearing this quite a bit in the colder months.

The “jewels” are just glitters that I fished out of Funky Fingers – Unicorn Farts.  I used a dotting tool to pick them up and place them where I wanted them. 

That’s all for today.  See you again tomorrow!