Summer Flakie Gradient Manicure

I've got a couple new polishes to show you all today. I wanted to get a couple of my untrieds out of the way, so I decided to do a gradient! I used NYC Golden Glam, one of their new summer colors, and Milani Pink Out Loud, a gorgeous dark pink jelly with golden flecks. I used a little eyeshadow applicator to sponge on the Milani Pink Out Loud over my previously applied NYC Golden Glam.

Golden Glam reminds me a lot of Wet n Wild's Waves of Enchantment, except slightly more peachy and less pinky. It's also super sheer, and still wasn't opaque and 3 coats. But the gold flecks in it make it so summery and pretty. Milani Pink Out Loud I haven't tried as a mani by itself, but the pink base was nicely pigmented, so it didn't take to much effort to build it up on the tips.

And for extra sparkles and some contrast I added a coat of Finger Paints Motley, and another of Asylum. Yay flakies!

Lynnderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue + OPI DS Temptation + SPAM

Okay, so...yeah. There's been a lot of craziness surrounding Lynnderella's polishes. I'm not going to get into it. What I will tell you is that the ones I have, I love. I enjoy the crap out of glitter crazy mess polishes, and BBBB is no exception. For this mani I did 2 coats of NYS Hot Purple jelly, then 2 coats of OPI DS Temptation (a very non holo DS), then 1 coat of Gelous, 1 coast of Seche Vite, and then 2 coats of Lynnderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue, and then a coat of NYC Grand Central Station topcoat. WHOO! That's a lot of coats, now onto the sparkles!

I just love all the different colors of blue and purple and green! I just wish there were more different shapes/sizes. Good luck getting your hands on this polish, not only is it discontinued, but now the only way you can get your hands on Lynn's polish is ebay :(.

Now onto some spam!

Model's Own - Purple Blue

Catherine Arley 600, juicy red scattered holo. 

OPI DS Signature with SH XW Strobelight glitter tip gradient.

OPI Bling Dynasty with Essie As Gold As It Gets

 

Hope you enjoyed your Spam dinner! If you made it this far into the post, for my 150th (next) post, you can look forward to an OPI DS Sapphire giveaway!!!!

Lynnderella Attitude Adjust-mint & Gradient nails

Hello all. I saw a little tennis dress at Macy's that had this gorgeous gradient/color blocking of pastel aquas and greens. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to put that on my nails! I couldn't quite get the colors exact, nor did the tape method work this time for me, so here is a freehand gradient.

I used China Glaze Aquadelic, Milani Dressmaker, and China Glaze For Audrey as the stripes, and then I did 2 coats of Lynnderella's Attitude Adjust-mint. I've been waiting to receive Attitude Adjust-mint since February from Llarowe's wishlist system, I got all the other's months ago. When I finally got it, it disappointed me a little bit. The glitter is really sparse, and the most numerous glitters are green metallic hexes that curled up on the edges. Taco glitter as we call it on the Nail Board. Otherwise though, AA has a gorgeous blue microshimmer and I love the scattered iridescent glitter shapes. Here ya go!

Iron Man-i

I love Iron Man. It's one of my favorite movies and I just love Tony Stark as a character, especially portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. And somehow, even with all this love, I had no idea that there was going to be an Avengers movie until last month! Which is a blessing because if I'd known early I would have agonized over the wait. I went to see The Avengers yesterday with my mom, and boy did we enjoy the man candy fest that is that movie! Dreaminess everywhere! However, I would have enjoyed it more if Chris Evans had played every role. And it still bugs me that there is a character paradox: how can Chris Evans be Captain America AND the Human Torch???

Anyways, here is the mani that I wore in honor of this movie!

 I started with two coats of Nabi Magnetic polish in Tawny. I didn't use the magnet because this color is goooorgeous on its own. I then put on a layer of China Glaze Electrify from the Hunger Games collection. I did a  layer of Gelous and then Seche Vite topcoat, and the weirdest thing happened! The red from Tawny leeched into the topcoat and turned the mani into pretty much a jelly sandwich, you could no longer see the gold in Electrify, it all was tinted red!

So I let it dry and then added a gradient tip in Electrify again, then Gelous and Seche Vite. 

This mani could also represent...House Lannister of Game of Thrones or Gryffindor from Harry Potter. But fandom of the moment is The Avengers... so go Iron Man! 

A. Dragon and its gold, and NOTD Spam

 Enter the Flakie + Franken giveaway!

I've been obsessed with these glitter accents at the base of the nail lately. It's a fun, blingy touch, without covering the entire base nail polish. I really wanted to wear a holo lately, so I went with an untried, A-England Dragon. It's an amazingly dense, one coater, mossy emerald green subtle holographic polish with an orange/gold flash. I almost wish this polish was less thick so the holo showed up better. Once I use a little bit of it up, I'm gonna thin it or add clear to see what happens. I wanted to bling Dragon up a bit, so I did a glitter half moon of Milani Gold Jems polish and a coat of Seche Vite topcoat. The gold reminded me of a dragon's gold horde. This is two coats of Dragon here:

And here's a similar manicure I did using an unnamed Icing miniature from a 4-pack and with Essie As Gold As It Gets accents.

And China Glaze Riveting! Another of my choices of the Hunger Games collection. A gooooorgeous orange polish that's not quite a jelly, but has a translucent finish and beautiful yellow/gold sparkle. I did three coats, but it was kind of lumpy, and still felt a little less than opaque. Could have used a little thinner, or waiting between coats. How awesome would this look under a coat of black crackle?

Happy Mardi Gras! (and day off for me!)

After a ridiculously stressful couple of weeks, I finally have a couple days off! I wanted to do something fun, so I kind of just grabbed a couple polishes at random. The first I applied was Claire's Cotton Candy scented nail polish. In the bottle it looks like a neon turquoise with a blue flash, with holographic glitter. Unfortunately, the pigmented base of the polish compleeetely covers the holo glitter. So what did I do? I ADDED a holo glitter gradient using, Nicole by  OPI Make a Comet ment. And then for Mardi Gras bling I added Wet n Wild Correction Tape from last year's On the Prowl collection. And a thick coat of Seche Vite.

I really like this, the turquoise doesn't go too green on me (which I hate) and the blue flash really brightens it up. Kinda love it!

Glitterrrr on mah naaaiiiils makes me happyyyyy.

Glitter Gradient

This is just a quick post while I'm working on some other things, namely magnetic swatches and the CVS exclusive Kardashian NOPI's. I wanted to do something blue and sparkly, and for some reason, there seemed to be something poetic about a Meteor Shower over a Skyscraper. Both China Glaze polishes. It could be because I've been watching Smallville for the last couple weeks, and there's tons of "meteor rock" and shower references and Skyscraper reminds me of Metropolis. So anyways, here are 3 coats of Skyscraper with Meteor Shower as a gradient. Only one pic because the others came out blurry, and the gradient effect wasn't the best. Skyscraper was from the China Glaze Metro Fall 2011 collection and Meteor Shower was part of the 50 "special glitters" they came out with awhile back.

Another post to follow shortly.

The girliest mani there ever was..

What would happen if Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry got in a fight on your nails? This is it. OPI Pink Friday from the Nicki Minaj collection and OPI Teenage Dream from Katy Perry's collection. Pink Friday had a lovely formula, two coats to opaque, smooth, didn't bubble, perfection! It's a warmer and lighter pink than I'm used to, definitely out of my comfort zone. Teenage Dream is a gorgeous glitter polish in a subtly pink tinted base. There's light pink micro glitter and silver holographic hexes. To aid with the gradient I layered some Milani Digital holographic polish in between PF and TD.

I like this mani but it's almost so girly it made me uncomfortable. So I started a game on MakeupAlley called Keep, Kill, or Crackle? So I could get somebody else to make me decide to where it for a full day or change it up.

The overwhelming response to "Keep it!" on MUA made me keep it on. In the end I like it okay. ... So girly!

A Dark Valentine gradient

Well, today was day 2 of wear red stuff at Macy's for heart disease awareness, so I wanted to do something different than the traditional red mani.

I started with a coat of Sinful Black on Black, my new FAVORITE. The formula was butter. Smooth, easy to spread, minimal cleanup, LOVE. Then about 3/4 down I did a layer of Confetti Masquerade Ball, very sheer almost black with red shimmer. And theeen I added about halfway down a layer of China Glaze Ruby Pumps, red jelly with red sparkle. Topped it off with some Wet N Wild Prancer. And a little Nutra Nail instant Smudge Repair to use as a gradation liquid to blur it all together.

And then with Love My Nails Crazy for You hearts.

Mmmm. Kinda reminds me of red blood cells and Alice in Wonderland and Dexter. Mmmm.

Some first manis of 2012

 China Glaze Kinetic Candy. This is from the new Electro Pop collection for spring. I got a six pack of the pastels, and here's my first swatch. Great formula, two coats here. This color is tricky to capture because it's a dusty pale blue with a smidge of aqua. Love.

And here is is with China Glaze White Cap on top.

Then I painted on top of it with China Glaze Rainstorm (pretttyyyy, but sheer).

Then I took all that off and put on China Glaze Calypso blue with China Glaze Techno and a Sally Hansen holo glitter on tips.

And of course, I wasn't satisfied until I covered it with New York Summer Hot Purple and a coat of Finger Paints Twisted flakie.

This started as Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe and then I added Nfu Oh 54 on top. 

 

I nice glittery start to the new year!