That 70's Mani.

Hello Lovelies!

Today I have my last manicure from 2012. It's another gradient mani using China Glaze Westside Warrior, a very 1970's drab avocado green creme, China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway, a deep navy creme, and Zoya Kelly, a stormy dark grey with bluish undertones. I then stamped it using Color Club Lumin-Icent and Cheeky XL Plate A.

It was a fun look, but under low light the gradient is almost impossible to see. I may try this again sometime in the future with lighter colors and see how it turns out.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year. Please feel free to leave feedback about what you'd like to see more of... I love suggestions!

Until next time,

HeatherS

Sunset Hounds-tooth Gradient

Hello Lovlies.

Today I have another bright nail design that would probably be more appropriate for summer. I decided on a color scheme that reminded me of the sky at sunset, and I think the results turned out really pretty. I'm still sort of getting used to gradient manicures, so until I'm really comfortable I think I prefer to stamp over them.

This is a combination of Wet & Wild Megalast in Club Havana, a bright sorbet orange, China Glaze Surreal Appeal a pretty coral leaning pink, and Wet & Wild Megalast On A Trip, a super saturated lilac purple stamped using Konad plate m63 and Wet & Wild Root of All Evil, an ultra-saturated royal blue with beautiful shimmer. The second photo is the most color accurate, the first makes Club Havana look too dark orange. 

Until next time,

HeatherS

Gothic Lolita + DV8

Hello Lovelies!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season, whatever you may celebrate.

Now that the obligatory Holiday nails are done with I wanted to bring you some out of season brightness. For some odd reason I always tend to gravitate towards nail colors that are the opposite of the season, i.e. vampy colors in summer, neons and brights in winter. It's an odd quirk, but it leads to some pretty combinations like today's.

This is China Glaze Gothic Lolita stamped using China Glaze DV8 on Cheeky XL plate C. In low light the design is really subtle, but I love the combo in the sun. Gothic Lolita is a pretty hyacinth purple with a lovely blue shimmer, and DV8 is a super linear holographic teal that works so wonderfully for stamping.

Until next time!

HeatherS

He's Going In Circle's Under Water

Hello Hello Hello.

I recently was stocking up on some cotton balls at Dollar Tree (because we all know how fast us polish lovers go through them) and I saw that my local had restocked all the 2 packs of nail polish that they sometimes have. This time it was tons of the old Maybelline express finishes, and I scooped up some beautiful shimmers, one of the matte finished ones, and a bunch of the water polishes (the super sheer jellies).

Now here is a confession... I kind of hate jellies. Now don't get me wrong, I adore the super shininess of them, and the OPI "sorbet" finishes are gorgeous, but in general I hate that they never seem to dry quickly and ALWAYS show nail line. So naturally it kind of surprised me that I got a bunch of super super sheer jellies, but immediately upon returning home I realized an awesome way to wear them... layered over pale holographic polishes.

This is my first attempt: China Glaze's He's Going In Circles (a super pale seafoam green holographic) topped with 2 layers of Maybelline Express Emerald Water (a very blue leaning green ridiculously sheer jelly).

Layering these two polishes just amped up the color of HGIC but didn't take away any of the holo effect.

What do you think? Are you a fan of jellies on their own or do you have to layer them?

Until next time :)

I'm Cracking Up!

Hello All!

How is everyone? I've been crazy busy, but ridiculously happy.

Today I have a quick photo of a super pretty crackle polish combo... it reminds me of a venetian glass necklace my mom had when I was growing up and I'm super smitten with the different finishes contrasting.

This is OPI's Rising Star (a super rich, almost copper leaning gold) topped with China Glaze's Crushed Candy (a bright turquoise crackle polish).

  
I'm not a huge fan of gold or turquoise, but somehow the combination is very appealing to me. As I said, the real beauty of this manicure is the differences in the finishes, with that rich gold metallic shimmer that glows underneath the creamy turquoise when light catches it.

Until next time!

Chaotic & Colorful

Hey All,

Sorry I've been gone for so long, work had our manager fired and another girl quit on the same day, so I've been covering both of their hours. All the chaos at work though inspired today's manicure, a super bright and crazy colorful water marble.

This is my 4th water marble, I'm finally getting the hang of it. This was OPI What's With The Cattitude, Who The Shrek Are You, Zoya Mira and Areej, and China Glaze Happy Go Lucky.

The thumbs are my favorite.

Are you a fan of nail art? If so, simple, crazy or both?

Oh Em Gee!!!!!

Hello!

Earlier this year I posted about my first successful lemming capture with China Glaze's No Way Jose. Today, I have the Holy Grail of lemmings for me... China Glaze's OMG. I lucked out on ebay and while it's the most I've ever spent on a singular polish, I didn't get scalped for it, and it's worth every penny. OMG is the most holographic holo that I own. It's a crisp, cool, super linear holo silver that pictures really don't do justice to... but I'm posting them anyway.

I love it so much I want go to bed with it and kiss it in many soft private places. The only downside to this saucy little minx is that it's fickle; the wear time is next to nothing before it starts chipping. That's okay though, I still love it.

What's your Holy Grail polish?

Until next time.

Tronica Completed

Hello all!


Today I had enough of a break in the torrential rain to get super fast swatches of the last two polishes from the China Glaze Tronica Collection. So here we have Gamer Glam (holographic dusty purple) and Hyper Haute (holographic raspberry pink).

As you can see, Gamer Glam is much more holographic then Hyper Haute, but it's still not a super heavy holo. I think both are gorgeous color wise, and they both applied wonderfully just like the rest of the collection... the above swatches are each 1 coat, no topcoat, no streaking or bald spots and dried completely in less then two minutes. Overall I can say that this entire collection, while not quite as holo as I would have liked, was definitely a welcome addition to my stash.

Until next time!

I Need A Hero

Hey there!

Ok so a quick one pic post of my 2nd attempt at nail art (my first was some horribly deformed Stormtroopers). I was actually pretty happy with this one, but alas, it is gone now after a rough night of work.

So without much ado... JUSTICE LEAGUE NAILS!!!!

I was really shocked at how well Superman came out... Batman disappointed me though.

My other hand just had little random dots in corresponding colors to each of the above nails. Am now thinking I should do an Avengers manicure (for Thor or Captain America movie... whichever comes first).

Until next time... Be good humans.

Holy Holographic Batman!

Hey there!

Today I got a "Get anything of your choosing free" coupon from Sally Beauty in the mail, so I decided to stop in when I was out and about. Well, as I was opening the door my eyes zoomed over to the display for the Tronica collection from China Glaze (which officially launches tomorrow in Sally's but mine put them out early). Well, I damn near ran to it and promptly picked up every color in the display (sadly Hyper Haute and Gamer Glam were nowhere to be found). Here I have sunlit skittles of the other 10 in the collection.

Note: Please pardon the lack of clean up... My hand is still broken (I took off my splint for the pics), and I didn't have time before I lost the sun to clean up the cuticles.

Electric Magenta... pinker in real life, and more holographic then this picture indicates

3D Fantasy... GORGEOUS... rosy, bright, slightly less holo then the rest of the collection, but the color makes up for that.

Digital Dawn... holographic roan... brown with a strong red lean, really different

Cyberspace... Pretty holo neutral. one of the strongest holo effects in the collection.

Hologram... great holo silver... reminds me of Color Club Worth the Risque and China Glaze's OMG's lovechild. 

Virtual Violet... My favorite new holographic purple... rich, not too red, fairly strong holo-y goodness.

High Def... pretty, kind of acid-washed looking blue. One of the least holo in the collection.

Techno Teal... Teal, pretty, but underwhelming. Not a very strong holo, but applied beautifully.

Laser Lime... The most holographic polish in the collection... Not this pale in real life, very summery feeling.

Mega Bite... Much yellower in person, with a stronger holo... I prefer this to the gold from the OMG collection.

A note about these holos... They are a softer holo then the OMG polishes, but they apply so much better then the OMG's, with no bald spots and seven out of ten of these swatches are 1 coat, the 3 with 2 coats are Laser Lime, Hologram, and Cyberspace. The pigmentation of these are lovely, all of them are bright and attention grabbing (with the exception of the very neutral Cyberspace, which gives me holographic mannequin hands in person, though these pics don't show the awesomeness). Anyways, that's my haulage... I feel that I will pick up the last two from the collection as soon as I find them.

Until Next Time.

Good News & Bad News

Hey there!

So the good news first... I'm finally getting a break from my crazy crazy work schedule, meaning I'm having the time to polish and post (cue the emoticon cheerleaders)

*\o/*   *|o|*   *\o/*

The bad news is I broke my hand. Specifically the hand I photograph for my swatches. Granted, I'll still photograph it even with it in it's ugly ace-bandage-y brace (because I refuse to cast it), but it means I can't change my polish anywhere near as much as I was planning to, so bear with me.

In the meantime, here's a pretty pretty I had sitting in my unposted folder.

This was one coat of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky under two coats of China Glaze Lighthouse. I wish these showed how multicolored the shimmer in Lighthouse was... there are tiny flecks of green or blue in it and they are STUNNING. I couldn't stop looking at my nails with this combo.

I love yellow polish. Especially bright happy uber-shimmery yellow polish.

Anywho, I'll be back soon with some of my more awesome formula'd polishes.

Giving Me A Technicolor Whirl

Ok so the title of today's blog is random, but this polish always reminds me of that old Disney Channel movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, which I must have watched a hundred times or so growing up... and to be fair it totally fits with this polish.

This is China Glaze's Nova, one of the 50 glitters they put out a few years ago, and it's pretty amazing. It's lots of silver and holo hex glitter shoved in a clear base. Super shiny, super sparkle-y , super pain to get off, but totally worth it if you want crazy crazy glitter nails. So here we go...

^Direct Sunlight^

 ^Direct Sunlight, Blurred to show the ubersparkle^

^Indirect Sunlight^

^Indoors with flash^

This is 3 coats with two coats of Seche Vite for a smooth finish (but with a little shrinkage, alas). 

Thanks for following, I'll see ya soon.

My First Lemming.

Hope everyone had a very happy non-denominational capitalist winter-time gift giving season!

Today I am happy to say I have fulfilled my first ever major lemming, that is to say, the first HTF polish that I saw and just HAD to have. The story of this lemming started with Lextard and her Flickr of amazing swatches. There it was tucked into her superbly organised lists. For a year now I had scoured ebay, amazon, 8ty8beauty, transdesign, VNS... no where ever had it. Then came the awesome blog sale of Michelle at A Stroke of Color that I stumbled upon a little after midnight on my birthday. My biggest lemming was ordered, coming to me like like a sweet sweet present on Christmas Eve...

The original version of China Glaze's No Way Jose.

I love the gorgeous glass fleck and the bright-yet-pale purple of this baby. This was 3 coats for complete opacity, and drying time was kind of on the long side (due to the fact that this is old-school non-B3F), but I sooooo don't care (that's what they invented Seche Vite and drying drops).