NOTDs... past and present

Hello my friends! I am very sorry that I haven't been around in months. Nothing has really gotten my juices flowing enough to bother you all with it. Suffice to say I've had a lot going on: going back to school for nursing, dealing with housing crises of friends, broken NOTD camera and of course, Macy's. I've still been painting the nails, just not taking pics as often as before, and not spending much time on nail art. Well, I'm starting to get inspired again, so we'll see what happens. This post is gonna be a photo dump of some of the manis I have managed to capture on film in the last couple months. These pics are using my Iphone 4, so please bear with me (or bare with me ;p )

I'm gonna say this NOTD was maybe American Apparel Peacock... not positive. All that really matters is that that is Lilacquer Lycanthrope on top, and what a beauty she is. Green bronze shift to blue. So sexy. And for fun I topped it with a franken of mine that's just multi-iridescent squares in clear.

I'm pretty sure this is Hits Artsy, even though at this angle the flash almost makes it look like SH Turquoise Opal. Always gonna be a top 20 polish. Soooo sexy. 

And Zoya Aurora! How I love Zoyas holographic polishes. Just the right amount of fire to keep it gorgeous, but not too much to overwhelm the base color. Aurora makes me start singing the opening theme to Disney's Sleeping Beauty "Hail to the Princess Aurora!" Yum.

Aaaand a not-so-successful dotticure using Zoya Storm. Storm was okay, but not nearly as pretty as my favorite of the collection, Blaze. Not enough sparkle for me. So of course I went overboard and sparkled that shit up. I think I used Jade Mystic Gold and Urban Outfitters Green Holo for the dots. Got tipwear super-fast on this one, but wear time was pretty good for Aurora and Blaze.

If you like old, sorta gramma-y nail polishes, I suggest hitting up your local Dollar Tree! I found some ooold two packs of Almay nail polishes, mostly pinks and mauves and frosts but some had a really cool hidden shimmer. This light beige-y color is called Dusk and it has a pretty coppery pink shimmer. Of course I bedazzled it with Essie Shine of the Times and an accent of Layla Mermaid's Spell.

And that's the end of today's nail journey. I hope to be back soon with more pics of my nail exploits, but my new nursing classes must take priority! Thanks for reading :)

How bout some dots??

Mmmm. Dippin Dots. *cough* Anyways. I've got a couple spotted manis for you today. First up is a combination that reminded me of mint chocolate chip icecream. Man I love icecream. I used OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know? as the base. Beeeautiful formula. Smooth like buttah. This swatch is two coats, then a coat of Seche Vite on top. I used China Glaze Refresh-mint for the dots. Apparently I didn't give the dots enough time to dry, so you can see there was a little streaking. Still liked it though. Try to ignore all the bubbles and imperfections please :).

After all this dot poppin', I thought I'd do a bit of a palette cleanser. I've had Revlon Starry Pink as an untried forever and a day. I love that Revlon is stepping it up with their colors and glitters the last year. Yes... I suppose a lot of them are dupes of more expensive brands like Deborah Lippmann and Chane, but I'm fine with that so long as I have access to these fun shades! Starry Pink has been relabeled since it came out last year, it's now called "Popular". Weird rename, but whatever.

I wanted to give the polish a little more color, since Starry Pink is a little too washed out for me, so I did two coats of Starry Pink over two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac. And for funsies I added a layer of Orly Love Each Other, which was a total disappointment. I can't really see it, but maybe you can see it in the macro?

This layering bubbled like crazy, but it didn't really hurt the aesthetic too much. My favorite part of Starry Pink is the way it makes the silver glitter and hex glitter look almost more dull and white, which makes it such a pretty, soft, dainty look! Love :)

Dotticure: OPI I Have a Herring Problem w/ holo dots

For some reason it's taken me awhile to try some of these OPI Holland collection polishes. Today I finally put on I Have a Herring Problem, and I'm so glad I did! Formula was lovely, two coater, but I did three. Gorgeous gold, silver and darker flecks in a greyed out dusty blue green base. But since I can't leave anything alone, I added dots in Milani Hi Tech. The dots look 3D because of the holo-y ness. Yum.

Spectraflair Franken and Dotticure

Here's today's franken! I used a "Nail Art" striper that came in a 3 pack from Ross. It looks like a navy blue in the bottle, but I used it to make a teal jelly! I added a lot of clear and TKB's Suspension base, a little of Confetti Tiara, and the smaller version of Spectraflair. I like it, but it was kinda gummy to apply, and the holo is still pretty subtle. Think it needs to be diluted some more. Too much pigment and the holo dies.

And then here is the dotticure I did using Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up and Love My Nails Hot Tamale: