Very Denniee Nails :): March 2013

Friday, March 22, 2013

142-144 - Triple Threat Halo Hues

Today's a triple threat post!  Since I missed the last 2 days of posting due to post-finals exhaustion, I figured I'd just give everyone a little more eye candy :)  For a full description and more pictures, read after the jump!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

141. Color Club - Over the Moon

Over the Moon is a wonderful ocean blue holo!  This was an unexpected favorite of mine!  It just looks so beautiful :)  This is two coats.  Not much more to say; I've got to get back to studying!




140. Color Club - Eternal Beauty

Hello hello!  I'm a little bit late in posting this today, but I guess I'll just put another one up later as well :)  This is the polish I was most eager to get my hands on in the 2013 Halo Hues.  This is Eternal Beauty, a great purple holo!  I think the holo's a little weak on this polish, but it's still lovely nonetheless.  The base is a beautiful blue based purple.  The color is actually quite silvery in indirect lighting, but it comes to life in the light!  Enjoy the pics!


More accurate for the base color.

Shown above is 1 thick coat, no topcoat.  The polish applied beautifully and required no cleanup; always a plus!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

139. Color Club - Beyond

Beyond is an awesome black holo!  A lot of black holos tend to look more silver due to the holographic particles in the polish.  However, I think Beyond strikes the right balance between holo goodness and darkness of the base color.  The holo isn't the strongest, but it's still a stunner and I love it!

Showing the darkness of the base

Look how holo it is!

Like the other holos I've shown so far, this was 2 lovely, smooth coats.  Stay tuned for more! :)

Saturday, March 16, 2013

138. Color Club - Kismet

Hey guys!  Since St. Patties' Day is tomorrow, I figured I'd at least show you a green holo :)  I've had green polishes on all week, but I haven't had a chance to look over the photos yet.  *sigh* Finals week we meet again...

Kismet is a lovely sage green holo.  Kismet is one of the new Halo Hues, and I'm so glad the second set has more variety in colors.  The first set just had too much pink, IMO.  I absolutely love the base color of this polish; it's perfect for spring!  I think the holo in this polish is a little bit weaker than the other ones from the 2013 set, but you can see in the following pictures that it's still pretty strong, especially in daylight :D

This is under indirect lighting.  The actual polish looks less silvery and more warm-toned.



This was 2 nice coats of Kismet.  No topcoat.  No clean up too!  I love holos and I'm glad the sun's out to play :)

Friday, March 15, 2013

137. Color Club - Angel Kiss

Hello my pretties!  Today I'll be showing you Angel Kiss, a soft seafoam green/blue polish.  I don't think I got a good picture of the base color, but that's mostly because of the very strong holo effect of this polish!  I'm really digging these halo hues :)

Angel Kiss is more green than these pics would suggest.

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This is 2 coats of this beauty, an absolute dream to apply!

And since I've just started a bloglovin' account: 

Thursday, March 14, 2013

136. Color Club - Blue Heaven

Hey lovelies!  Starting today, I'll be on a holo marathon!  I've gotten my hands on all 12 of the Color Club Halo Hues and finally finished swatching them!  I have a couple of pictures for each polish, and I didn't really want to have a very pic-heavy post, so I'm just going to post them one at a time :)

First I have Blue Heaven, from the 2012 Halo Hues collection.  This was the very first Halo Hue I tried, and I've got to admit that it blew me out of the water!  Blue Heaven is a sky blue holo polish.  The base color is actually a little bit brighter in real life, but the holo effect is really strong so it washed out the color a little bit.  Even in indoor lights, this polish  has a special bit of sparkle :)




Best shot showing the base color

The entire Halo Hues line is a dream to apply.  This is 3 coats, no topcoat.  With some holos, putting on top coat significantly dulls the holo effect, but I've used topcoat with very minimal dulling.  This is great!  We can have long wear AND pretty special nails.  There was no dragging or bald spots either, which can happen with some other holos.  Luckily you don't need a special base coat for these babies <3

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Social Networking

Hey everyone!  I've been working on a few projects for the blog lately, and I've finally reached a point where it is (somewhat) presentable.  I've started a facebook page and a tumblr for this blog, in order to give you guys a more accessible way to follow me/my posts.  Since I've been unable to get GFC on my blog, I looked for a long time for a good solution, and this is the best I can come up with for now.  So I hope you guys follow me!

Facebook
Pinterest if you guys haven't already seen it
Tumblr

Monday, March 11, 2013

135. Zoya - Nidhi

Nidhi is quite the firecracker of a polish!  Nidhi is a bright red, almost scarlet, polish with gold shimmer running thoughout it.  If you know me in real life or have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I absolutely LOVE gold shimmer in polishes.   So when I first saw this polish, I KNEW I had to get my hands on it.  


I have to admit though, after wearing it, I am slightly disappointed by the fact that many of the gold shimmers turned to an almost red color.  Oh well, can't have it all; it's still beautiful, regardless.


The formula of Nidhi was quite good, if I remember correctly.  It was just fluid enough to control easily, but not so watery as to flood my cuticles.  This is good, since usually Zoyas (especially their creams), are usually on the thick side.  But this is probably why the opacity of their polishes are second to none!  I believe this is two coats, no top coat.


Sunday, March 10, 2013

134. American Apparel - Mount Royal

Hello ladies (and any gents who happen to be reading).  Today I just have a simple swatch of Mount Royal for you.  Mount Royal is a lovely creamy blue, quite reminiscent of Dating a Royal.  However, Mount Royal has more white in it, and is a less saturated royal blue.  Still quite elegant looking, nonetheless.


Like many other AA polishes, the formula on this polish was excellent.  The consistency was just right; not too thick or too thin.  And if you're careful, you could reach opacity in just one coat :)  Aaaah, the formula of AA polishes...just awesome :D

Saturday, March 9, 2013

133. NYX - Prismatic Gold

Hello hello!  Today I have a pretty mani to show you...from a couple months ago.  I think I did these nails around finals time last quarter, so this is pretty old.  I would totally do this again though!


This is a a gradient of NYX Prismatic Gold on top of NYX Soft Teal.  Prismatic gold is a gold glitter with small gold glitter and large hex gold glitters.  They are also a touch holographic, even if the picture doesn't show it very well.

Prismatic Gold's formula was very nice.  The glitter is pretty dense and I didn't have to do any dabbing or placing to get even distribution, which is always a plus.


I should have mattified this mani, it would have looked amazing!  And pictures are with my lovely EOS sweet mint lip balm because I love the shape of their containers.

Friday, March 8, 2013

132. Essie - Stroke of Brilliance

This is a polish I've wanted to get my hands on for the longest time...Stroke of Brilliance.  I loved Set in Stones, and when I heard there was a blurple version of it, I just HAD TO  HAVE IT.  Haha, yes that's how excited I was!

Stroke of Brilliance is a very dense glitter topper.  There are smaller glitters and larger hex glitter.  All of the glitters are a cornflower blue color, almost purple.  You can see in the picture below how the glitter almost overtook my base color.  I tried to do a glitter gradient, but I think it just looks like I painted all glitter on those parts.


Wednesday, March 6, 2013

All Wrapped Up

Hello lovelies!  Today I have some more nail art from the vault.  This look was inspired by the Tiffany's boxes that you get with the jewelry.  I imagined a box with a ribbon to wrap it up nicely :)


This look was fairly simple.  I just painted a base of white and let it dry.  After the white completely dried, I placed striping tape where the white lines are.  Then I painted over the nail with the teal, removing the tape right after painting each nail.

I thought this look was quite simple, but classy, and I really enjoyed having it on my nails :)

Polishes Used:
WNW - White Creme
Essie - Where's My Chauffeur

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

128-131. Sally Hansen - Sorbet, Sky, Sea, Whisper

Hey lovelies!  Today I'll be showing you some polishes from the Sally Hansen Smooth & Perfect line.  I got these polishes on clearance at a Walgreens one day.  I suppose they were clearing out room for new stock.  

This line claims to fill ridges and hide imperfections, as well as promote healthier nails with ingredients such as ginseng. camelia oil, and lotus.  While I can't say much towards the claim about healthy nails, I can admit they do hide ridges and imperfections.  However, each of these polishes are at least 3 coats (in some cases, 4); with that many coats, any polish can hide ridges and imperfections.  Each of these polishes are a pastel color with a hidden (or not so hidden) shimmer.  I would call their finish pearly, rather than shimmer.


First up is Sky, a pale baby blue with shimmer.  The color of this polish is lovely and the shimmer in this polish is plentiful, giving an especially pearly appearance to this blue.  It's a little bit too pearly for me though.  I can also see some brushstrokes from my application, so not exactly a favorite of mine.


Next up is Whisper, a pale lilac polish.  It's a bit too pink for my liking, but a perfectly soft and girly color.  The shimmer in this one was less apparent, but the formula was a bit more sheer.  I believe this is 4 coats.


This lovely color here is Sea, a very very pale minty green.  I actually really like this color, despite the lobster hands it gives me.  As you can see, the shimmer in this one is also a little less noticeable.


Last is Sorbet, a peachy polish with a very (very!) subtle shimmer. The shimmer only comes out in direct lighting though, so it looks like a cream in normal indoors lighting.  The coverage leaves a little bit to be desired.  At 3 coats, there is still some VNL.  However, today I have nubbins, so the VNL is not visible.  You definitely need 3 coats for this color though.  At two, the color was still streaky.  I like how the color almost blends into my skin tone.  It looks very squishy and yummy!

I had doubts about all these polishes and how I would like them, but surprisingly I'm going to keep Sorbet and Sea.  I love the colors of those two (I swear, peach and mint are my colors this year).  The other two, I think I'm going to give away though.

Each of these polishes had a lovely consistency, not too watery, but not thick either.  I did not experience any dragging, and application was a breeze (aside from the fact that I had to apply 3+ coats).  With my short nails, opacity wasn't a problem, but I could imagine more VNL with longer nails.  All of these swatches are without topcoat, so they indeed dry nice and smooth and shiny.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Interlocking Dots

Hey guys!  Here's a quick post on my current nails :)  This is my first attempt at the interlocking dots, and I really love it!  The pattern just has so much visual interest.


To create this design, first I painted a base coat of teal.  Then, after the teal dried, I used tape to cover the bottom of my nail in a diagonal line and painted the top with the black.  Actually, you don't really need the tape, since you would be covering the line up with the dots.  Then, I dotted the teal onto the black and the black onto a teal.  Haha, this is kind of hard to explain without a graphic guide.

Here's the tutorial I followed to get this look (with a few alterations):

source: http://s-lacquer.tumblr.com

This mani was really simple to do!  It only took me 20 minutes to do all the dots!

Colors used:
Teal: China Glaze - Custom Kicks
Black: Color Club - Beyond

Friday, March 1, 2013

127. Zoya - Caitlin

Caitlin is one of the colors I scored from the first Zoya promo this year (3 polishes free!).  I love this blue-leaning purple!  It's slightly dusty, just like I like it.  And because of the slight dustiness, I think this is quite flattering on most skin tones.

With Spring coming around the corner, I see myself reaching for more and more of these colorful colors!  Sorry for the poor picture quality.  I think my camera had some dust or something on the lens at the time. :P


This was quite easy to apply.  Like most Zoya creams, the formula is a little bit thick, but easy to control.   I believe this is 2 coats with no topcoat.