101. Color Club - Naughtycal Navy

Naughtycal Navy is a very black-leaning navy blue.  In most lights, it actually looks black.  It was only after I layered a glitter over it that it didn't look quite so dark anymore.

Formula was wonderful on this.  2 easy coats, very easy to control and not patchy at all.

100. China Glaze - Bahamian Escape

100th Swatch!! Woohoo!  (only two-hundred odd polishes to go...) Bahamian Escape (featured as the base of yesterday's post) is a perfectly sky-blue cream, similar to OPI's What's With the Cattitude but brighter and with less white.

This color covers perfectly in two coats.  Formula was good, not too runny or thick.

99. Fergie - Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hollywood Walk of Fame is large, multicolored star glitters in a clear base.  The stars are silver, gold, blue, purple, and red.  The polish also has a bit of tiny silver holographic bar glitter. This is such a fun polish on the nail, but not so fun to apply.  Like Pet My Peacock, it has a very runny formula in which the glitters tend to settle.  You have to fish a lot to even get a few stars, and the runny formula means that you'll just get a drop of clear on your nail instead of a star.

These nails kind of remind me of Rainbow Dash...I've been around too many MLP watchers...

For this polish, I used a dabbing motion to place the stars.  This is shown over Bahamian Escape.

I don't think I will be keeping this polish.  I bet I could probably make a better franken (maybe). :P

52WC: Week 2 - Clouds of Blue

Hey guys!  Here's my mani for week 2 of Reddit's 52 week challenge!  This week the theme is blue (fun fact:  blue is the color that I have the most polish of).  I decided to do a cloud mani (courtesy of Nailside), since the sky is blue, and...yeah I'm not exactly sure why I chose this design, but I like it regardless!  The awesome thing about this technique is that it doesn't require any special nail art tools, just your plain ole' nail polish brush.

Four different colors of polish may have been overboard...you can see that the polish on my thumb is wrinkling.  Even with fast-drying topcoat, this took forever to dry completely.  The final effect of this polish kind of reminds me of My Little Ponies.  No idea why. :P  Come back later for next week's challenge!

Colors used (from lightest to darkest):
Zoya Kristin
Zoya Breezi
Zoya Natty
Color Club Naughtycal Navy

Summer '12 Haul

Happy Friday!  Today, I have a long overdue post for you: my summer haul! (although it has mostly fall and holiday polishes..but w/e :P)

Every time I go to my nail supply, I always say it's the last time I'm buying this much.  ...I should stop saying that because every time I go back, there is always a bunch of new Nubars, a different selection of China Glazes, and all the new seasonal collections!  It's ridiculous how much I spend, even when the polishes are half off retail!  It doesn't help that fall is my favorite season, in terms of colors.  Well my wallet cries, but my nails and my eyes rejoice!

Zoya was the collection I was most looking forward to this season, and it did not disappoint (in the bottle, at least).  So let's start with those!  Full pics and info after the jump!

98. Essie - Navigate Her

I've wanted Navigate Her since spring, but haven't had a chance to get my hands on it until now.  I actually almost lost this one.  I ordered it off Amazon, but I put in the wrong address because I had just moved and wasn't used to my new address yet.  :P  Luckily, I talked to the people who lived at the address I gave and managed to get it back!  Navigate Her is a perfectly pastel pistachio green cream (I love alliteration, don't you?).  It actually looks kind of dirty, but I prefer that because pastels with too much white in it make me look like I've used fake tanner or something.

Formula was iffy.  Make sure to use nice thin coats, and let each coat dry completely, otherwise you'll get dragging.  I usually apply thick coats and am a little impatient with applying polish, so I got some bald spots near the cuticle.  This is 2 coats of Navigate Her.

97. Fergie - Grammy Gold

I realized that I never did an actual swatch of Grammy Gold before/after I did the comparison post on it, so here it is!  Grammy Gold has relatively large foil particles, which gives it that grainy look that I love in foils.  It covers pretty well, so I believe that it'd make a good stamping polish (haven't tried it yet though).  But like I said in my comparison, this is pretty much the same as Golden-I, so you don't need both.

This is one coat of Grammy Gold, no topcoat :)

96. Zoya - Katherine

Katherine is one of those polishes that I was extremely excited to buy.  Before this, I owned no jellies, but I loved how they looked on other bloggers' nails.  Glad to say that this color didn't disappoint!  I can't stop looking at my nails!  It's like...I can see my natural nail, but at the same time, not really.  I understand why people love jellies!  To me, Katherine is the exact color of red grapes, yum!

This was my first time applying a jelly polish by itself, and I gotta say, it's a bit tricky.  Since I have very ridged nails, it is extremely hard to get an even coat of color.  I can even see now that it's not completely even.  Like always, I applied too thick of a coat, and the subsequent coats were patchy.  Luckily it turned out decent enough! ^^;;

This is 3 thick coats of Katherine, but next time I'll probably aim for 4 thinner coats.  The formula was a bit watery, but that might just be the nature of jelly polishes (Zoya's creams are usually on the thicker side).  It was quite easy to control; this pic is without clean-up!

95. China Glaze - I'm Not Lion

Hey guys!  If anyone's noticed, it's been a while since my last post, and I'm really sorry about that.  I've completed moving, but unpacking is another story.  Everything in the house is just a mess...

Today I'm wearing I'm Not Lion from China Glaze's fall collection.  I'm Not Lion is a lovely white-gold glitter with holographic glitter scatter throughout the polish.  This polish is definitely a little bit less in-your-face, due to the subtle color, but I really like it.  It's like jewelry on your nails (white gold is actually my favorite metal for jewelry)!

This swatch is shown with 2 coats, just enough for opacity.  The color of this polish is quite similar to my skintone, you can't really see VNL so I'm not really bothered enough to add another coat.  The formula was quite nice, not too thick or thin, and it dries really fast!  On top of the glitter, I applied 3 coats of Poshe topcoat.  This glitter dries quite gritty, but the topcoat really helps bring out the shine.

Pastel Spun Sugar

I've been seeing this mani around a lot lately, and decided to try it out for myself!  I really like how this turned out appearance-wise, but I'm not digging the bumpy feeling on my nails.  The flashes of color keep the black nail polish from looking too goth.

To do this, first paint a base layer of black.  Hassid is my go-to black since it's a one-coater and it's so easy to work with.  After that, I put a few drops of polish down onto a clean piece of plastic.  Stir the polish (using a toothpick or dotting tool) to make it dry faster.  After it has dried a bit, start dabbing at the polish with your dotting tool, pulling up.  When the polish starts getting stringy, drag the string of polish across your nail in horizontal lines.  Do this with each nail until you're done!

I wouldn't recommend topcoat with this mani.  I tried using topcoat with the first nail I did, and the whole nails smeared miserably.  So sad.  So leave the mani un-top-coated.  Wear time suffers a bit because of this, but it's unavoidable.

I do like how this mani looks, but it's extremely messy and time-consuming.  I took 2-3 hours to finish all my nails!  Not to mention that the stringy polish chips off when you do regular things (like wash dishes, etc).  I guess I'll save this one for a special occasion.

Colors Used:
AA Hassid
Zoya Shelby
China Glaze Bahamian Escape
Essie Navigate Her
China Glaze Lemon Fizz
AA L'Espirit