Very Denniee Nails :): March 2012

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Nail Art: Aqua Blue Gradient

Today I have my latest nail art creation to show you!  I have lots more posts saved, but there's just so many photos to go through.  I really wanted to show you guys this mani before I left for spring break.  My family just moved and is getting things set up still, so we don't have internet at home at the moment.  I just finished my finals for the quarter, so hopefully I'll be able to get more posts up after break.


More pics and tutorial after the jump!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Nail Art Break - Purple Leopard Mani

Hey guys!  So I got a little bored of just doing plain manis, so I decided to switch things up by trying my hand at some leopard print!  I don't think it turned out completely like real leopard print, but it's still cool anyways.  I actually think it reminds me of cows, how fitting...(I go to school in Davis, city of cows LOL).

(Excuse the green glitter...remnants of my St. Patty's day mani.)

This mani was inspired by this tutorial: The Beauty Department

Base coat: Essie Fill the Gap!
Base color: Zoya Petra
Leopard spots: Color Club Antiquated
Black outline: Wet N' Wild Black Creme

30. Zoya - Petra

Zoya Petra is a greyed-out, dusty purple with a hint of brown in it.  On my skin it seems to pull a bit purple, as you will see in the following picture.



Application was not the best on this polish; surprising because normally I have very good application with Zoya creams normally.  The first coat was very streaky, the second was mostly good with a few bald spots, and the third evened everything out.  I don't generally like putting on more than 2 coats for a cream.  This is a pretty color, so I'll just suck it up.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

29. OPI - Fresh Frog of Bel Air

Happy St. Patty's everyone!  Today, I'm wearing Fresh Frog of Bel Air from OPI's Muppet's collection.  Fresh Frog of Bel Air looks like Slytherin in a bottle.  So pretty!  I was really hoping that it would look just the same on the nail as in the bottle, but sadly, it didn't.  When I first saw swatches of this polish, most said they put on 2 coats to achieve a decent opacity, but I took 4 coats to reach this level of opacity, which is disappointing.  And the polish is still not as opaque on the nail as it looks in the bottle.  Don't get me wrong, this is still a beautiful polish, it's just that I wish it had a little more coverage.


This picture's a little more true to color, while the next one shows a little more of the glitters themselves.


This is probably best used as a layering polish.  Shown is 4 coats of Fresh Frog with 2 coats of Poshe on top.  Right now the polish feels smooth, but I bet this polish is a glitter eater and may need another coat of Poshe to make it completely smooth when dry.

28. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Purple Pizzazz

Purple Pizzazz is a bright purple jelly with magenta and purple shimmer.  This purple is even more purple than my purple American Apparel hoodie, which is saying a lot!  This polish reminds me of the shimmers that have come out recently, especially Zoya Tru.  The jelly base allows the shimmer to show through, and gives the polish depth and that squishy look.


Application was good, drying time was average.  Here shown is 3 coats.  You can stop at 2 coats, but personally I like my polishes nice and opaque.  I think you can still see a tiny bit of VNL, but that's okay, it's not as noticeable in real life.

27. Zoya - LA Pop

LA Pop is a glittery topcoat :)  The particles actually might be small flakies.  It's so pretty.  At first, I layered it over my last mani, Zoya Pippa, and the particles looked like raindrops, kind of iridescent.  After I layered it over black, WOW was there a transformation.  Black makes the flakies look more blue and green, rather than goldish as it was on Pippa.




LA Pop has decent coverage; all these pictures are at one coat :)

Friday, March 16, 2012

26. Zoya - Pippa

Pippa is a bright, sunshiney yellow.  I really actually like this color, it makes me really happy just looking at it!  It's not a bright pure yellow, it leans a little bit towards a mustard color.


Most yellows are kind of difficult to apply, but Pippa's alright.  I needed 4 coats, since my nails have some pretty deep ridges.  Make sure to let each coat completely dry, otherwise you'll get cuticle drag.  As you can see, there is still some lines, so I'd probably layer this over a white, just to make things easier.

25. China Glaze - Golden Enchantment

I topped VIII from last post with Golden Enchantment, thinking that the combination of purple and gold would look good together.  And look good it did!  I love Gold Enchantment because of the delicate looking gold glitters, which add a little whimsy to any color.  The holo particles give the polish a little special -POP- though, and I'm really digging this look! :)




Blurry pictures to show off the holo glitter :)  Beautiful!

Golden Enchantment was a little on the thick side, and glitters were a little sparse if you didn't pump the brush up and down inside the bottle a couple times.  However, doing those things weren't too difficult, and the end result was definitely worth it.  I can't stop looking at my nails!

24. China Glaze - VIII

Today, I'm wearing VIII by China Glaze, a dark eggplant-colored polish.  VIII is a lot darker on the nail than in the bottle. I really like this polish!


Application wasn't horrible, but definitely could have been better.  The formula was streaky on the first coat, but evened out beautifully on the second (except on that ring finger there...dunno what happened with that).  I don't know if it's because I haven't used any of my China Glazes in a while, but the brush seemed kind of awkward to me.  It was too round and fluffy.  Well, I always preferred OPI's pro wide brush anyways.

23. Zoya - Elke

Zoya Elke is one of those coral-toned polishes that were really big last year.  With the nice spring weather coming back, I felt like wearing something bright and warm, and Elke definitely fulfills those qualities.  Usually this isn't the type of color I reach for (I normally go for the slightly dusty, greyed-out tones), but when Zoya had their BOGO promotion, I decided to try something a little different.  I'm really glad I did :D  Elke is a coral-toned polish with gorgeous gold shimmer.  In indoors light, this polish seems to lean red on me.  However, the pink tones come out to play in the sunshine, and the shimmer like...explodes! XD  It makes my nails look like they're on fire!



Application was good on these polishes.  Shown is two coats, but you could get away with one slightly thicker coat for full opacity.  Elke is a little brushstroke-prone, but doesn't require too much effort to get it to look awesome :]  The wear time is pretty good too!  I think it's been a good 3 or 4 days, and so far, only tipwear (and one chip on my thumb, but I'm gonna say that's a fluke).

22. Essie - Merino Cool

Hi guys!  It's finals week, so everything is really hectic and I haven't had much time to do my nails lately (most of these recent posts are manis from at least two weeks ago).  This is Essie's Merino cool, a dusty greyed-out purple/taupe (more purple than taupe).  I wore this for an interview I had a couple weeks ago.  I seem to be gravitating toward these colors lately; must be the dreary winter weather talking.  Application was good, not too watery and not too much clean up involved.  Shown is two coats after a day of wear.



I think it pulls a bit purple on me, but that may be due to the fact that I wear so much purple anyways xD  I feel like this is a pretty flattering color on a lot of skin tones.

21. Hard Candy - Beetle

Beetle is an amazing duochrome with a foil finish.  It flashes from purple/magenta to a gold/green color.  It isn't subtle either, no.  This is a full-on, in-your-face duochrome flash, and it is absolutely mesmerizing!



The gold green color reminds me of Chanel's Peridot...obviously this isn't it, but still pretty :)


Application was decent.  There were a few bald spots on coat 2, but it evened out by 3.  Also, at 2 coats, the color was slightly sheer, but those who don't mind VNL could probably leave it at that many coats.  However, I like my polishes to be completely opaque, so I put on another coat, and it was good to go!

20. Essence - Fabuless

Okay, so I have a bajillion posts queued up, so I'm just gonna post them all today :O  Hopefully I actually have time to do new manis. :)  Fabuless is a black with small shimmer in it.  It's quite similar to Sally Hansen Black Diamond, except the shimmer is less noticable and smaller in Fabuless.



This picture was taken after a day of tough wear.  I did the nails before practice, so the polish is definitely not in the best shape, having been almost constantly submerged in water for a good 2 hours.

If I remember correctly, application was good.  These pictures are two coats.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

19. Essence - Can't Cheat On Me!

Can't Cheat On Me is a very subtle silver scattered holo.  These pictures don't show the holo at all, which is disappointing, but once in the sun, the holo particles come out and play.  It looks very delicate, and not so in-your-face.





Lots of pictures because it's so pretty!  These pictures really don't compare to how it looks in the sunlight!  If you look closely, you can see hints of the rainbow that threaten to break loose :)

This is three coats of Can't Cheat On Me with no topcoat.  I have a feeling that Seche Vite would kill the little bit of holo that is in this polish.  But OMG, this polish took a long time to dry without fast-dry topcoat.   I managed to smudge every single one of my fingers.  I wore this as a mani, and it still felt rubbery and indent-able even after 2 days.  I was disappointed, considering that the Color & Go polishes are usually pretty fast drying.