My First Gradient!

Right now, gradient manicures are THE thing.  I have a ton of them pinned on Pinterest, including this great tutorial from The Nailasaurus.  I have seen people using her technique on multiple blogs I read, and they come out with these gorgeous gradients that I just drool over.

I decided to try one and bought some makeup sponges.  I used a base of China Glaze for Audrey and then mixed it with Wet N Wild Bite the Bullet, a kind of smoky purple, for the gradient effect.  It turned out okay.  I'm not sure if I was not using enough polish, not mixing the colors enough, or not moving the sponge up and down enough, but it did not turn out NEARLY as smooth looking as the other gradients I've seen pictures of.  I may just need to practice more.  It looked pretty cool from a distance, but in the photos you can see the sponginess of it.  I'm going to have to try again soon, and see if I can get it to turn out better.

Have you tried gradient nails yet?  I really want to try a rainbow gradient, so maybe I'll try that next time.  It seems like maybe using more colors could help make it smoother?  We'll see!

Essence Stamp Review

About a month ago, I discovered that Essence now has a huge display at the Fred Meyer near my house, and they have a bunch of nail art stuff for super cheap.  I picked up a bunch of stuff to try out, and one of the things I've been dying to try is stamping.  I haven't really wanted to spend the money to get stuff from Ebay, so I thought this would be a good way to try it out.  I definitely paid under $5 for both of these items together.  

I bought the Essence stamping polish in black, and honestly, it sucked.  I only tried it once and it dried before I could get the stamp onto my nail.  I didn't try it again.  For this mani, I used a base of Revlon Perfectly Plum then used Sally Hansen Black Pearl Chrome for the stamps.  From what I've seen, chrome and metallic polishes usually work really well for stamping.

I like how it turned out!  I used a flower design with some dots and a swirl, then I filled just the flower and stamped that on for a little extra pretty.  It was easy to fill only a part of the pattern to make that little accent.  One bad thing about this stamping kit is the scraper.  It sucks.  It's metal and not completely flat, it doesn't wipe the polish off clean and drags on the metal plate, plus it was leaving some scratch marks.  Not good.  I got out an old credit card and used that and it worked like a dream.

The only other downside to these stamping plates is that the designs on the rectangular plate are not very big.  I think I could get most of my nails covered with maybe little gaps on the sides that wouldn't be that noticeable, but they're definitely not big enough to cover my entire thumb.  It seems like everything Essence makes is kind of miniature.

All in all, I'm super glad I bought these.  I love stamping just as much as I thought I would, and I can't wait to get some more plates when my budget allows it!

Enchanted Polish Fun Dip and Dragon Spit

Indie nail polishes are the biggest thing in nail polish right now.  A lot of the independent sellers who are on Etsy make a glitter polishes.  To be honest, I'm not such a huge fan of a lot of the glitter polishes.  They're okay, and sometimes I do like them, like Oh Yes I Did by Laquistry and Floam from Nail-venturous.  But for the most part I don't drool over them.  

But I HAVE been drooling over a lot of linear holographic polishes.  I had one in my collection - Sally Hansen Magical in Copper Cauldron, which I love.  I came across Enchanted Polish on one of the blogs I read and I knew I had to have it!  I was lucky enough to be using my computer last time she put her store back online, and I got Fun Dip and Dragon Spit.  These are the most expensive polishes I own, I think they were around $12?  Totally worth it.

Here they are in the bottle - so pretty!

Fun dip on it's own, in indirect sunlight.

The first set of photos are in indirect sunlight.  You can see the color of Fun Dip is actually a light kind of lilac purple.   Indoors, the purple really comes out.  I just couldn't wait to see both polishes, so I did an accent nail with Dragon Spit.  The holo is not quite as noticeable in it, but it's still pretty.

And now for some photos that really show how much these polishes shine - outside in direct sunlight.  Look at that gorgeous linear holo!

I LOVE these polishes, they are amazing!  I am totally contemplating getting my hands on some Spectraflair and trying to make my own holo polishes at some point... I've never even done a Franken, but it seems inevitable sometimes.  I will definitely buy from Enchanted Polish again - Ocean Potion is gorgeous and I think I need to have it!

Guilty Pleasures - 37 Color Water Marble

Yeah, I wore 37 colors at once.  Let me explain...

I am part of a monthly Bunco group, and this month it was my turn to host.  My theme was "guilty pleasures," so we had scorecards with things like Jake Gyllenhaal, fried chicken, Britney Spears CDs and fruity cocktails on them.  We had Cheetos and some delicious cupcakes and mini corn dogs.  We had a REALLY delicious cocktail with marshmallow vodka, creme de cacoa and cream soda.  While I was thinking about MY guilty pleasures, of COURSE nail polish came to mind immediately.  So it got me thinking... how many different colors could I wear at once, and how would I put them on?

I thought about a patchwork mani, but I eventually settled on a water marble.  With experimenting with colors, it took me a couple of hours to finish this, but it was worth it - people loved it!

I had several turn out the way I've wanted my others to turn out.  I used distilled water this time and it seemed to help with getting the polishes to spread much more than I've ever gotten them to do before.  I was surprised how much I like the glitter nail and that China Glaze Riveting turned coral, and it was fun getting to know which of my polishes work best and ideas for new color combos.

 

 

The colors I used, from left to right:

 

Pinkie: Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Bronze Pink, Revlon Matte Ruby Ribbon, OPI I'm Suzi & I'm a Chocoholic, Sinful Colors Bare
Ring: CoverGirl Nailslicks Starry Blue, Revlon Color Illusion Purple Twilight, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Rock-a-bye, Revlon Perfectly Plum, CoverGirl Nailslicks Wild Plum
Middle: Ulta High Roller, Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, China Glaze Swing Baby, Pure Ice Iced Copper
Pointer: Pure Ice Splash, Sally Hansen HD DVD, Sinful Colors Cinderella, Pure Ice All Night Long, Ulta Bam-blue-zled
Thumb: LA Colors White, OPI Skull & Glossbones, Sinful Colors Black on Black

Thumb: Revlon Double Truffle, OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know, Wet N Wild Cocoa Shimma (This one turned out pretty crappy, so no close up shot)
Pointer: Sinful Colors Bare, Sally Hansen HD Byte, Pure Ice Super Star, Zoya Jacy
Middle: Pure Ice Oh Baby!, Sinful Colors Frenzy, Ulta After Party, Sally Hansen Gem Crush Glitz Gal
Ring: Sally Hansen HD Resolution, Ulta Limelight, OPI Jade is the New Black, Ulta Jaded, Piggy Polish Envy
Pinkie: China Glaze Riveting, Ulta High Roller

Bottle Spam!

Sorry for the sudden absence from this blog!  I got to the end of my scheduled posts and then I got sick and had bare nails for over a week because I had to blow my nose every 5 minutes and couldn't have wet nails!  It was crazy.  So, I have some fun stuff coming up that I've been wearing and hopefully that will get me back on my regular schedule! 

Today I have some fabulous bottle spam... stuff I've gotten recently!  I got my hair cut last week at Hairmasters, and the location I went to had a bunch of OPI polishes 60% off AND buy 1 get 2 free... what?!  How could I resist?  I got Skull & Glossbones, I'm Suzi & I'm a Chocoholic, and Jade is the New Black.  I didn't have any idea it would happen, but I am in LOVE with Skull & Glossbones!  I will have some swatches of that coming up.

 

The other day I was in Big Lots and decided to check out the beauty section for polishes, and they had a whole bunch of two packs of Revlon polishes including the glittery scented polishes.  I got Grapefruit Fizz, Colada Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, and Apple-tini Fizz.  Each pack of 2 was only $2!

 

Lastly, I picked up one of the polishes from my wishlist - Zoya Ki.  Look how pretty that duochrome is!  And a boring old white from L.A. Colors since I didn't have one.

I was also shopping at Fred Meyer the other day and started looking at the Essence display there.  I did not have any Essence polishes, but I have heard they're not bad.  Then I realized that they have a bunch of nail art stuff.  It's super cheap, and I haven't really had a chance to try it out, but I thought it might let me see what things are like even if it doesn't work as well as the really quality stuff.

I picked up a gem-placer/dotting tool, a magnetic polish and magnet, two stamping plates and a stamp, and some stencil stickers with stars.  I'll post more about these as I use them!

 

In closing, here is a random shot of my polishes where I keep them now... I may need a new system soon, it's not very organized and the bins are getting full!

 

Nubar 2010

I'm not sure where I first saw Nubar 2010, but as soon as I saw it I knew I HAD to have it.  I added it to my wish list, and the next time I ordered from Amazon I added it to my cart.

I was so excited when it arrived!  The first time I wore it, I put it on over a deepish red - Sally Hansen No Chip 10  Day Color in Endless Claret.  I was slightly disappointed by my choice at first because the Nubar didn't stand out as much as I'd hoped.  But when I went out in the sunlight the next day, it popped!

Love!

The second time I wore it I did a little Google search to look for ideas, and saw it over some blues and purples.  I decided to go with a really dark shimmery purple - OPI Russian Navy.

It really stood out!  I even got a shot of the range of colors - the flakes really morph between red, yellow, and green.

I recently wore it on it's own, which can also be cool for a bit of quick sparkle if you don't feel like doing a whole manicure.

I love the look of flaky holos, and I am totally coveting the Finger Paints Special Effects Collection that came out in Winter of last year.  

Wish List

I have tons of polishes I am drooling over at Pinterest and on my Amazon wish list, and they just keep getting fuller.  Right now, these are the ones I would most love to get my hands on.

Image Source: Beautopia

Zoya Ki.  Just look at that gorgeous duochrome color!  It reminds me of those oil puddles on the ground that always look so pretty, or of peacock tones.

Image Source: Chloe's Nails

I've been wanting some magnetic polish for a while, but what I really like about the China Glaze Magnetix is the differently shaped magnets.  Specifically, I am totally in love with the star pattern!  This color is Cling On and I love it.

Deborah Lippman makes some pretty fabulous polishes, and this was one of the first ones I ever laid eyes on.  It's called Across the Universe and it is basically 'my' colors - my very favorite blues.  I don't have many glitter polishes, they're not totally my thing, but every once in a while I see one that I know I'd love.

These are just some dotting tools - it's one thing I don't have that would let me do more fun stuff.  I also want some stamping plates, but don't have any particular ones that I'm really coveting right now.

Image Source: Goose's Glitter

This is another glitter polish.  There are tons of stores on Etsy that seem to have homemade glitter polishes - these people are doing crazy sales because these polishes are so popular.  This one is Oh Yes I Did from Laquistry.  Like I said before, I am not a huge fan of a lot of these polishes that are completely saturated with glitter.  But I really love the color combo in this one, it is a little bit more unique.

Image Source: Let Them Have Polish

This gorgeous one is Fantasy Fire from Max Factor.  I LOVE this color combo because it's unusual, and look at the way the glitter just glows.  It really looks like burning embers.  These sell for around $30-35 on Ebay, so it's not likely I'll add it to my collection any time soon.

Image Source: Let Them Have Polish

This is Get It On 'Em, one of the polishes in OPI's Nicki Minaj collection.  I don't know what it is about this color.  Sometimes I look at it and think it's hideous, but I'm strangely drawn to it, and I think I need to have it.  I think it would look really great under a black crackle, I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to wear it on it's own.

Image Source:  Let Them Have Polish

Honestly, there are tons of Zoya polishes I'd love to own.  They make great, solid colors that are a nice addition to a collection.  We have an Ed Wyse in town and I went for the first time the other day, their selection of OPI and Zoya polishes is insane.  The beautiful teal cream above is Bevin, and the green below is Shawn.  It looks in the photo above like Bevin comes out a little matte, but it's also gorgeous with a shiny top coat.  I love Shawn for it's pure green-ness, one of my favorite colors in nature.

Image Source: Let Them Have Polish

Image Source: Polish Mayhem

I have been interested in matte polishes lately, and Orly Purple Velvet is just one of the ones on my list.

These last three are the ones I want the most, I just drool over them.

Image Source: Scrangie

I have one Holographic polish, it's from the Sally Hansen Magical collection from a few years ago that's been discontinued for a long time.  I REALLY want to add some true holos to my collection, and just look at how absolutely amazing this Gosh silver holo is!  It is amazing.

Image Source: Chloe's Nails

So, this is actually two polishes, but I love the combo so much!  This is a manicure the Chloe did over at Chloe's Nails.  The top coat is the one I want most, it's Teal Scales from Funky Fingers.  Just look at that!  I have never seen a crackle that looked so pretty.  It's layered over China Glaze Flying Dragon, and I just think the combo is to die for.

And this is one of my biggest lemmings right now - the China Glaze Capital Colours collection.  This is the official ad, but these colors are way more amazing when you see them actually on nails.  You can see them all actually swatched over at Vampy Varnish - but be prepared to fall in love with them!  She has a giveaway going for the ENTIRE COLLECTION that ends today, and if I won it... I would be beyond ecstatic!

What's on your wish list?