105. Essence - Walk on the Wild Side

I may not have a Halloween mani (my Halloween's been pretty lackluster and depressing this year), but the least I can give everyone is a little swatch :)

Walk on the Wild Side is dusty dark olive green with gold and green shimmer.  This is one of the new Essence colors, and let me say that I absolutely love this color!  It comes to life in the sun, and the colors are just so warm and earthy (I've grown very fond of earth tones in the last half year).  I would say that this is a perfect fall color, muted but at the same time, vibrant...if that makes any sense.

This post is kinda pic-heavy, so read more after the jump!

52WC: Week 4 - Gradient

Okay, so I cheated.  I skipped week 3 because it was Reddit-inspired nails, but I had no inspiration.  I've only been a member of Reddit for maybe a month, so I had no idea what defines Reddit, and what I should do for my nails.

So for week 4, I decided to do a little different of a gradient.  For those of you guys who have been reading my old posts, you know that I'm quite fond of gradient manis.  Not only do they look cool, but they're easy and fast to do!  For this gradient, I was inspired by some rainbow gradient mani I saw a picture of on tumblr once (however, I could not find the picture I saw, so I can't show you).

I'm not quite pleased with how the gradient turned out.  It's not blended enough for my liking, and the colors are a bit too bold for the look I was trying to achieve.  Maybe I'll try it again when I have more time.

Colors Used: 

Wet N Wild White Cream (a white base for the gradient's colors to really pop)

Essie Ole Caliente

Zoya Arizona

Zoya Pippa

OPI Don't Mess with OPI

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway

China Glaze Grape Pop

104. China Glaze - Bermuda Breakaway

Oh goodness, I believe that I am out of old swatches to show you guys.  Hopefully I can do some more manis soon...it's midterms week, and I'm so behind on studying!  Oh well, only a couple more days.

Anyways, Bermuda Breakaway is a lovely, rich cobalt cream.  It looks quite elegant on the fingernails, and it's a perfect color for fall.

Formula was quite nice; easy to control with little to no dragging.  It dries quite glossy as well.  This is two coats, no topcoat.

103. Spoiled - Pet My Peacock

Pet My Peacock is a mix of gold, silver, light blue, green, and purple glitters in a clear base.  I loved how the glitters looked in the bottle, but when it came to applying it, it was not so nice.  The glitter is pretty sparse compared to what I was expecting it to be, and I had to use a dabbing motion to get most of the glitters on.  This was not helped by the fact that the polish was quite runny, unexpected for a glitter.  So I ended up with a thick gloopy layer of polish on my nails, along with air bubbles! :(

I have it here on top of Bermuda Breakaway.  It quite reminds me of bubbles at the bottom of the deep sea. This is helped by the fact that there are actually bubbles in here...

I think I'm going to try to let this polish thicken by leaving the bottle open for some amount of time.  Hopefully that makes it a little easier to actually get glitter on the nails, because I really don't want to purge this (it's so pretty!)

102. Spoiled - Jewelry Heist

Jewelry Heist is a predominantly mostly pink glitterbomb.  Usually I don't like wearing pink, but something about this glitter just called out to me to take it home (kind of like a cute lost puppy).  This polish is mostly pink and silver hex glitters, with tiny blue and green square glitters.

Here, I've layered Jewelry Heist over Color Club's Naughtycal Navy.  I love how the pink perfectly compliments the dark navy base, lightening the color.

The formula on Jewelry Heist was not bad.  I didn't have to use as much of a dabbing motion as I had to for Pet My Peacock.  The base polish was a little thicker, probably helping to suspend the glitter a little better.

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

52WC: Week 1 - Taping (Autumnal Triangles)

Hey guys!  I've decided that I'm probably not going to finish the 31 day challenge, just because as a student, my schedule is sometimes unpredictable and I don't have time to do intricate nail art everyday.  However, I felt like doing something special today (it's my birthday!), and I've had the 52 week challenge (from RedditLaqueristas) on my mind.  One special mani a week seems way more achievable, and I know I'm a little late on week 1, but here it is (better late than never): taping!

This mani recreates my Tropical Triangles, which was inspired by Sophie at MyAwesomeBeauty.  I really liked the look of that manicure, but it's a little late in the season for all those bright colors.  So I decided to switch it up, using the dusty shades from Zoya's Designer collection (which I absolutely love, by the way).  I've got to say, these colors look gorgeous together!

As a base, I used Fergie's Grammy Gold.  I taped over that with striping tape and then painted Monica, Natty, and then Evvie in the appropriate region of my nail.  When I took the tape off, a funny thing happened: the red from the striping tape bled off onto the gold base.  I guess it was from the rubbing alcohol that drowned all my tape when I was moving (I had all my nail art supplies in one box).  Most of my tape was ruined from the rubbing alcohol, but I thought this one looked okay.  I guess the color wasn't completely set. Luckily, I think the red compliments this manicure and adds even more of a Fall look to this mani.

This manicure was much easier this time around, mostly due to the opacity of the polishes I used.  The ones from the tropical version were much more sheer.  I love how this mani looks, so I'm gonna be sad when I remove it later this week (I'm hoping to catch up on the 52 week challenge) to do the next challenge.  Keep your eyes peeled!

Polishes Used:
Fergie - Grammy Gold
Zoya - Natty
Zoya - Monica
Zoya - Evvie

Acetone Problems

Hey guys!   So last week, I accidentally dropped my cleanup brush (an eyeliner brush) in my bottle of acetone.  D'oh!  Since I just finished doing my nails, I didn't want to fish it out right away, so I told myself that I'd get it out later.  Me, being my typical forgetful self, forgot that the brush was in there and didn't remember until 3 days later.  I looked at the acetone bottle and saw this:

Look at that, pure black!  I shook the bottle, and I didn't hear anything solid inside.  This is what was supposed to be inside (I bought the same exact brush again, because I really like the control this one gives me over my clean-up):

(ew...pchem hw)

The acetone melted my brush!  Completely gone....  Ladies and gentlemen: presenting to you the destructive potency of acetone.  Yay chemicals!

94. Sinful - What's Your Name?

What's Your Name is a black creme with small duochrome glitter/shimmer.  The glitter shifts from a teal to a deep blue to a magenta-purple, such an amazing color shift...in the bottle.  On the nail, it's not so apparent and kind of falls a bit flat.  It pretty much looks like a black cream in most lights.  I believe that I might be able to get the same kind of effect (that was in the bottle) by layering OPI's I Juggle...Men over black, but we shall see.

Formula was decent on this polish; it was a two-coater.  However, I had application problems due to a wonky brush.  The brush just wouldn't glide over my nail, and as a result, it tended to drag the polish.  If I put on an extremely thick layer, it wouldn't drag, but then I would get cuticle flooding.

Mermaid Sparkles

This is a mani that my friend asked me to do for her one night when she came over.  I can't remember which polishes I used exactly, but this might be a base of OPI's What's With the Cattitude, and a gradient of China Glaze Atlantis.  MAYBE.  Not sure lol.

Inspired by a Sunset

As I was driving home from Ranch 99 a couple weeks ago, the sun was setting, and the sky was the most beautiful I've seen it in a while (either that, or I don't get out enough, which is completely true).  It was orange near the horizon, fading to a blue and then to an inky dark navy/purple, and there were wispy clouds scattered throughout the sky.  And that's how this manicure was born.

To achieve this look, I first painted on a coat of Arizona.  Then on top of that, I sponged Natty and Monica. I topcoated each nail immediately in order to smudge the gradient (making it smoother).  After all nails were dry, I took a small section of sponge and dabbed Marshmallow on top.  Poshe on top and ta-da!  Pretty nails.  (I do wish the transition between orange and blue was a little smoother, but hey, what can I do?)

Colors Used:
Zoya Arizona
Zoya Natty
Zoya Monica
Essie Marshmallow

93. China Glaze - Flirty Tankini

Whew!  I've waited a long time for this polish.  I can honestly say that this is my first neon polish.  Flirty Tankini looked like it was just a plain pink-coral cream, but in reality it has this nice, fine shimmer running throughout it.  Like most neons, this polish dries matte, which I don't really like in a shimmer, but it can be appealing in some circumstances.  Honestly, I can say that I'm a little disappointed by this polish.  I was expecting more of a coral color, but on my skin it looks more like a barbie pink.  Maybe Pink Plumeria would be a better fit...Also, the smell of this polish is really bad, rivaling that of KleanColor's.

This swatch is 2 coats, although it could probably have used a third.  Formula was a bit watery, and I could see that the polish's shimmer tends to settle; so I guess it could still be a cream if you wanted it to be.

PS:  I wonder if you guys noticed I changed my lightbox set up.  The background is now black, which I find makes my pictures a little more color-accurate.  That, and this looks pretty class, don't you think?

Regal Marble

Hey guys!  So today's post is my first attempt at the recently-popular saran wrap marble mani.  I think that this method is really awesome; it's such a creative, interesting mani, and yet it's so easy to do!  I used this method to spruce up a color I wasn't ready to take off.  I painted one coat of Sally Hansen's Infinity Band over my old mani, Zoya Monica.  Immediately after painting on the gold, I took some crumpled up saran wrap and blotted it over the wet nail polish.  If you wait a bit before blotting, the marbling effect will not look as nice...it'll just turn out to be a thin patchy layer of your second color (you can kind of see this on my thumb).

Hope you guys enjoyed this post!

Jawbreakers!

This monster of a beauty is the result of having too much time and being alone at home (no boyfriend to tell me to stop polish my nails, teehee!).  This was my first time trying a jelly sandwich, and I can honestly say that I'm very pleased with the results!  I really like how this looks; my nails look like something like those giant white jawbreakers that are speckled with color or like ice cream covered with sprinkles (thanks to all my friends for the creative descriptions).

To see how I accomplished this look, read after the jump!

92. Zoya - Charla

Hey guys!  For my first post back, I have Charla, a gorgeous, shimmery, eye-catching teal foil with golden shimmer.  It quite reminds me of mermaids.  I love this color on my nails; I can't stop staring at them!  I'm pretty sure I have a few dupes of this polish, but who cares??  This color is too pretty to purge! :D  I know we're entering fall, but it still feels quite like summer here in Davis, so I'm gonna keep wearing these brights until summer's completely gone (even though I love fall polish collections...but that's another story for another day).

Check out the gold tones in this polish!

This is 3 coats.  2 coats is acceptable if you don't mind VNL, but if you don't like VNL and you have a decent amount of free nail, you're going to need a third coat.  Also, a third coat does intensify the color quite a bit, so I would recommend it.  The formula was excellent: just the right consistency and very easy to control.