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 :)

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!

Revlon Moon Candy Orbit

ARRRGGHHHH! So beautiful!

Say whhaaaa??? More easy to find drugstore flakie polishes??? That's right, Revlon has released a line of dual ended polishes, Moon Candy polishes, featuring a thick, shard-like flakie side in a sheer base, and a super pigmented dark polish on the other side. I only picked up one of these because I don't really dig the shard-like flakies, they're way harder to work with than regular flakies. However, I've been searching for a purple/blue flakie for forever, and HAD to have this. I even like how it turned out with the dark purple base it comes with!

I loved the formula on the dark purple polish this duo comes with. It's a smooooth pigmented deep grapey purple that could have been a one coater, but I used two for maximum evenness. Then I did a quick dry top coat and then used about two coats of the flakie side on top.

Orbit features purple, blue, and aqua/green colored shards. These flakes are way thicker and pointier than the flakes in polishes like Essie Shine of the Times, and are also way more sparse. To apply them I just sorta swirled the brush in the bottle like I would in any shapey type glitter, and it worked fine. I brushed on the first coat and then dabbed on the second coat to get better coverage of flakes. After letting it dry for a minute I just pressed down some of the pointy shards that were sticking up.

And then toooons of topcoat! I did two coats of Gelous, then one coat of Seche Vite. Unfortunately, it was still bumpy the next morning, so I added another coat of Gelous and another coat of Seche. The result made it as smooth as glass! And the intensity of the blues and purples in the flakes was just sooo gorgeous. I totally love this polish even if it is a pain in the butt to apply.




D@mn you's a sexy bi+ch!

Midsummer Merry Midnight + Giveaway!

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Ohhh, I love Merry Midnight so much! It was one of the first polishes I swapped for, and my first flakie polish. I got inspired to wear it this week after talking to Rach from Stuff I Swatched, and her being not so thrilled with Orly Fowl Play. OPI Merry Midnight is definitely a little more purple and not quite as dark. I only needed two coats for this loveliness!

Outside light:

Inside under OTT light:

Purple jelly, red-green flakies, silver shimmer and blue glitter? Yes please!

Cover Band Sticks n Stones + Zoya Zuza & Orly Preamp art

Gonna keep this post short because it's midnight and I've gotta work early tomorrow. But I wanted to show you my last two manis because I loved both so much that I didn't want to take them off!

Zoya Zuza is a goooorgeous addition to the Zoya line. Zuza is hard to describe. It's kind of foily, kinda glass flecky. But it's crazy gorgeous and crazy pigmented. So pigmented that it stained my nails green! Poop. The formula was also super thick, but the color was so pretty that I got past it.

And overtop I had to choose between my Lynnderella Connect the Dots or Coverband's Sticks and Stones. I chose S&S because of the few specks of iridescent glitter in it that I love so much. And I don't want to dwell on the Lynn drama, I love some of her polishes and I will leave it at that.

Here is Zuza at two coats plus one coat of Sticks and Stones w/ Cult Nails Wicked Fast topcoat. Rach recommended I use their topcoat with Zoyas and it seemed to work well! Previously Zoyas neeever dried on me. Go Rach!

And here is an updated mani (current mani), using Orly Preamp (WHICH I LOVE SO MUCH) with a stamping in Color Club Wild at Heart and then flakies from the Finger Paints Collection - Twisted.

I loves it soooo much! Props to Orly for this gorgeous Fall color that is so un-Fall to me but perfect for Summer!

My First Cult Nails haul!

I've been wanting to try some polishes from Cult Nails for forever! Ever since I saw swatches of Captivated I was in lust. Then when Icing came out with Tiger's Blood, I do believe they discontinued Captivated and I was sooo sad. But they brought it back and so I finally ordered and got a few new pretties. I picked up Captivated, Iconic, Seductive, and the Wicked Fast topcoat (recommended to me by Rach). I don't have much self control, so I started with 3 coats of Iconic... but then kept adding.

Iconic is pretty neat. The base polish is a purple-y red with heavy golden shimmer, with gold/green flakes throughout. Sooo pretty, but I wish it just had a little bit less of the gold shimmer. It almost looks a bit frosty and covers up too much of the flakes. I might thin it with some clear, but either way, it's gawwwgeous! And something about the color reminds me of OPI La Boheme, maybe I'll franken some color morphing powder into it. I used the Wicked Fast topcoat and I was pretty impressed with how quickly this dried, but it's not as shiny as Seche Vite, which is my love.

And of course I did a layer of Cult Nails Seductive on top, a limited addition jelly flakie polish. Gorgeous translucent purple sheer base with red to green flakes and blue flakes. I like that the layering made the base polish a little more violet tinged. And then I busted out a holo konad on top using China Glaze GR8. Ya know. Cuz that's how I do.

L'oreal "Check Me Out!" + "Silver Sparkle"!

This polish is all kinds of sexy. L'oreal Check Me Out! is part of L'oreal's new extended line of nail polishes. They come in a cute little rectangular bottle, only .39 oz for 4.99 at Walmart, but the range of colors makes it totally worth it! Unfortunately the formula on this polish wasn't my favorite. It seemed to be pretty well pigmented, but kept getting bald spots on the second coat. I ended up having to do FOUR coats to get this sucker even. But check out the gorgeous blue hidden shimmer!  That makes up for the formula issues.

But of course, you know me, I had to spice it up! I found this gorgeous new collection by LA Girl called "Fruity" at Rite Aid, it was full of beauteous glass-flecked awesomeness in a range of different scents. To layer over Check Me Out! I used Fruity - Strawberry Delight: a sheer pinky coral jelly base with pink, orange, magenta and yellow glassflecks. Some of the flecks are almost big enough to be considered flakes. And the scent is nice and light and not too overpowering. These are $2.99 at Rite Aid. 

And here's a bonus, L'oreal Silver Sparkle. I really wanted to love this, I really dead. It's awesome in theory: sheer silver shimmer base with iridescent glitter with a hint of gold. Unfortunately it was so damned sheer that after two coats I had to scrap it on its own and layer it. But here is a pic of the two coats over two coats of OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam!:

And look at this craptastic brush! I had to trim it to make it less like an  oar. Poop! Luckily CVS had a $2.00 coupon sitting right by the display... meh!

And if you made it this far... here's the picture of the two coats alone with my stained nails, AHHH!

Some more catch-up spam!

First up we have my Hunger Games mani! While I was in Vegas, I tried to layer my manis so I wouldn't have to change them as often. So one day I had on CQ Rustic Dream, which I love to death! This is a Rite Aid only polish brand, usually right next to the Chameleons and Petites. Rustic Dream is a gorgeous multichrome that goes from pink to copper to gold. Love it! We planned to see the midnight showing of Hunger Games in Vegas, so I added some flames to my existing mani with Orly Glitz and Glamour. I love that Orly because it's pretty opaque so really great for nail art, I LOVE the formula. Here's the mani that was on fire!

And a flakie extravaganza! Forever 21 has some of the coolest polishes. I found this neat Love & Beauty polish there, uniquely named "Pink".... It's the sheerest reddest pink jelly with the most amaaazing micro-flakie-shimmer. Gorgeousness! It has specks of blue, pink, gold, orange, it's amazing! I wanted to layer it so I put it over Color Club Electronica, a blue tinged purple with subtle pink sparkle. And for extra crazy, I added two coats of Finger Paints Asylum, muahahahahaha!

Here's a shot where you can see all the different flakes!

And more swatches of yesterday's Wet n Wild Speak When Spoken To over black:

And yes that is a Rainbow Dash keychain. :)