Valentine's Day Nail Art Series - Glitter Kisses

Hey guys!

Today I have the second design in my Valentine's Day series and this is one that I'm actually going to leave on for longer than half an hour! I removed my Lovebug design about half an hour after I posted it and put on my Neon Rainbow Cheetah Print for the second time. However, I actually really like this Valentine's Day mani so this one will be a keeper. :)



Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
OPI - Alpine Snow (base)
Orly - Winter Wonderland (white glitter)
China Glaze - Pom Pom (pink glitter)
Color Club - Art of Seduction (red glitter)
Revlon - Belle (silver glitter top coat over everything)
OPI - Black Onyx (lips)
Seche Vite Top Coat Read Full...

Blue Glitter

As part of my birthday pressy to me I got the rest of the glitters from the Burlesque collection so now I have the complete shimmer and glitter collection! AAAAwesome!
Oh how I love me a bit of blingy bling! Check this awesomeness out. This is OPI Simmer and Shimmer over Orly Viridian Vinyl and truth be told my opinion is that the VV if much improved with all the glitterfullness (I love making up words)
Simmer and Shimmer is a silver and blue glitter in a clear base, it's a little heavier on the silver I think but there is also trace amounts of pinkish/purpley glitter and an even tinier amount of yellow glitter in there as well. I've tried to capture the effect but it's been gray as all get out here so I'm taking pics at night by Ott light.

Here you can see the pinkish/purpleish glitter

I got this coverage in two coats and it dried amazingly quickly. Like really dry, not the I can touch the surface but it will dent like mad if I bump it dry.
It's also fairly smooth. There's not a lot of texture to it and a top coat like Seche would take care of that really easily.

In other blue glitter news, I also got China Glaze Dorothy Who? I used that to bling my toes. I lost count of how many coats it took to get this glitter saturation after the fourth coat. Yeah... Still a bit of VNL too, love-ah love it though.


I'm amazed at how smooth this is, really no need for a top coat at all.

Yeah I know my toes are a bit rough...but ask me if I care at the moment...Mmmm, not so much.


So there's my blue glitter run down, I hope you enjoyed. In other news... Joy! 95 followers. This means that I should start thinking about my 100 follower give away huh? Thank you so much for following and commenting. I think I have the hang of this reply thing so please keep the comments coming ! Read Full...

Viridian Vinyl

So this is what Wikipedia has to say about Viridian.

Viridian is a blue-green pigment, a hydrated chromium(III) oxide, of medium saturation and relatively dark in value. It is composed more of green than blue. Specifically, it is a dark shade of spring green, the color between green and cyan on the color wheel. Viridian takes its name from the Latin viridis, meaning "green".

Consider yourself edumicated . :D
I picked this up on clearance at Sally's. I hadn't been terribly interested in the vinyls when they came out but for $1.99 I thought what the hey.

This is two coats and those two coats went on really nicely but it seemed to take a lot longer than my regular polish to dry even for a surface dry. I didn't want to use a quick dry top coat and ruin the vinyl finish so I got a few instant dings.

I'm not quite sure about this vinyl finish although it wears well, this is day four I believe (lost track of time) and I've done a ton of cooking/cleaning. The "vinyl is pretty satin-y to begin with but gradually "shines up" with wear so you're not getting the full effect in these pics...sorry.
It's a pretty green...uh blue...mmm, viridian creme though and worth what I spent on it. I think I'll use a top coat on it though. Read Full...

Orly Lunar Eclipse

This is 2 coats of the beautiful Orly Lunar Eclipse. It's a gorgeous true blue shimmer with purple duochrome. I got lots of compliments while wearing this one!

Thanks for reading!
April Read Full...

Orly Space Cadet

This is 3 coats of Orly Space Cadet; it definitely needs a 4th coat. Very sheer, but gorgeous duochrome, purple & green foil. I was wearing a red shirt which is reflected in some of the photos.


Thanks for reading!
April Read Full...

Nails of the Day - Simple Holographic Zebra Print

Hey guys!

I hope everything had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was excellent and you'll be seeing some swatches of some of the goodies I got.

Today's nail design is super simply because I didn't have much time but I wanted to take my poinsettia design off so I came up with this holographic zebra print. Because it's so sparkly this could definitely be used as a New Year's design but I have something a little more extravagant in mind for my New Year's manicure!



Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
OPI Designer Series - Coronation (base colour for all nails except ring fingers)
Orly - Goth (base colour on ring fingers)
L.A. Colors Art Deco - Black (black zebra stripes)
L.A. Colors Art Deco - Silver (silver zebra stripes)
L.A. Colors Art Deco - Silver Glitter (on top of silver zebra stripes)
China Glaze - Fairy Dust (on top of everything)
Seche Vite Top Coat Read Full...

Christmas Nail Art Series - Poinsettias

Hey again!

Today I have yet another Christmas manicure for you all. I actually think this is my favourite so far and even though I was planning on doing something else for Christmas Day, I think I'll be leaving this one on!


I even got a shot of my right hand with this design so I thought I would share that as well. Obviously it's not as good/neat as my left hand but I'm coming along and it's getting easier to use my non-dominant hand!



Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
OPI - Alpine Snow (base)
Orly - Winter Wonderland (on top of base)
China Glaze - Phat Santa (poinsettias)
OPI - Black Onyx (outline of poinsettias)
MAC - Jade Dragon (leaves)
Gold bouillon beads from eBay (center of poinsettias)
Seche Vite Top Coat Read Full...

Christmas Nail Art Series - Christmas Lights

Hey everyone!

Today I have another Christmas manicure for you. I'm trying to get as many more Christmas designs in as possible so I'm doing as many as I can! This design has been done a hundred times before but I have always liked it so I wanted to give it a try myself.




Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
China Glaze - Midnight Kiss (base)
L.A. Colors Art Deco - Forest Green (cord)
China Glaze - Grape Juice (purple bulbs)
China Glaze - Dorothy Who? (blue bulbs)
Orly - Star Spangled (red bulbs)
Nicole by OPI - Fresh Squeezed (orange bulbs)
Zoya - Ivanka (green bulbs)
Color Club - Sex Symbol (glitter highlight on bulbs)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Click here to see the next design in my Christmas Nail Art Series! Read Full...

China Glaze Tempest & Orly Lunar Eclipse

China Glaze - Tempest, 3 coats

Ah Tempest, you're one of my very favourite lacquers. ♥ The formula was watery but not especially runny and I had to do three thick coats to get full opacity. Tempest has a very shy duochrome side to her but it's there alright!

China Glaze - Tempest & Orly - Lunar Eclipse, 3 + 2 coats

I tried to stamp some snowflakes over Tempest but that was a big fat fail, so I grabbed Lunar Eclipse and hid the offending designs with two coats of this liquid loveliness.

Read Full...

Mostly Pictures Monday

Orly Winter Wonderland 2 coats.

I think it's prettier than the snow. What do you think?

Snowball fight anyone?

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Orly Galaxy Girl

This is 3 coats of Orly Galaxy Girl, my favorite from the Cosmic FX collection. It's a drop dead gorgeous, dark reddish purple with turquoise glass-fleck. The formula isn't the best. It's sheer yet thick, but worth the extra effort for this beauty. Galaxy Girl is darker than I normally love, but it never looks black because it's always flashing turquoise.


Thanks for reading!
April

Current Giveaways

• American Apparel Polish Giveaway! Ends 12/3.

Read Full...

Orly Rio Nights & Some Nail Art

This is 3 coats of Orly Rio nights but I think it could have used a fourth coat. The formula is thin and sheer but still easy to work with. Nice, slightly reddish, purple creme color.


I used my beloved smART Nails stickers for this manicure and I really like the results. I used these before in one of my World Cup manicures. They functioned as gears for that one but here they are a fun twist on the half moon mani. I really want to use these on a sky blue background with a bright yellow for the moon so I can make a sunshine manicure. The accent color for this manicure was L.A. Girl Flare Dark Purple.


Thanks for reading!
April Read Full...

Nails of the Day - Remembrance Day Poppies

In honour of Remembrance Day, here is a poppy nail art design.



Products:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
• China Glaze - Liquid Leather (base)
• L.A. Colors Art Deco - White (base colour for poppies)
• China Glaze - Salsa (over the white base of poppies)
• Orly - Star Spangled (glitter highlight on poppies)
• Flower shaped rhinestones from eBay (center of poppies)
• Seche Vite Top Coat Read Full...

Haul Saturdays - Volume 19

Welcome to Volume 19 of Haul Saturdays - a weekly post chronicling whatever beauty related purchases I made throughout that week.



MAC:
• Sir Teddy (with clip)
• Style Clan nail polish

Sally Beauty Supply:
• Orly - Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, Rockin' Rocket, Glitz & Glamour and Winter Wondlerland polishes
• China Glaze - Grape Juice polish

Chatter's Salon:
• The entire China Glaze 'Tis the Season to be Naughty and Nice collection

eBay:
• 10 more nail wheels (my project of swatching every single nail polish I own is now almost complete!) Read Full...

Stuf. 56 Beam & Orly Space Cadet

 

 stuf. - 56 Beam, 3 coats

This stunning purple to orange to green duochrome was yet another of my eBay bargain finds along with another lacquer by stuf., a blue to violet iridescent glitter which is a dupe for Sinful Colors' Pearl Harbour. Incidentally, 56 Beam is a dead-on dupe for another HTF lacquer, Rimmel's Zeitgeist, which I also own. The only difference between the two is that Zeitgeist is more opaque, requiring two coats whereas the stuf. lacquer had thinned down probably due to its age and needed three coats to eliminate VNL. Stuf. were an Australian brand who closed down years ago so eBay is your best bet if you wish to hunt this pretty little gem down.

 stuf. - 56 Beam & Orly  Space Cadet, 3 + 1 coats 

Since the Orly is also sheer I layered it over the stuf. lacquer. They're identical in their duochrominess with the execption of Space Cadet being a glass fleck foil and 56 Beam a shimmer. Me likes! Pics taken with mum's Canon PowerShot S95 (I still prefer my G6 over it, the S95 messes up the colours and I had to do a lot of colour correcting).

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