126. Essence - Grey-t to be Here

Grey-t to be Here (what a strange name) is a clean, blue-toned grey with pink shimmer.  The color is adorable, it kind of reminds me of a cozy cashmere sweater.  The pink shimmer adds a touch of softness to the color as well.  I love contrasting shimmer in polish!

The formula was kind of thick.  Next time I'll definitely be putting thinner in this.  The very tips of my nails felt chunky.

This is three coats, and you can kind of see the thickness at the tips.  At three coats, still shows a tiny bit of VNL, so I think next time I'll use Zoya Dove as a base color.

125. Sally Hansen - Lava

Hope everyone's having a good Friday!  Today I'm going to show you Lava, the only shade from the Lustre Shine collection that I felt compelled to buy.  Lava is an awesome duochrome, flashing from a coppery orange to magenta.

At most angles, Lava is predominantly pink.  However, the copper shift shows up at the edges without having to move your hand at strange angles. It looks pretty cool!

The formula was a little watery.  I had a little trouble getting the polish to cover the edges of my nails opaquely (especially troublesome over black), but if you're wearing it on its own, 2 coats should be sufficient.  What I've shown here is 3 coats.  I tried to get a picture over black, but it just wasn't cooperating.

Unintentionally Aggie

I just thought these colors looked pretty together...but then a coworker of mine pointed out that they look like UC Davis colors >.<  This mani was from a few weeks ago.  The lovely thing about chevrons is that you can (kinda sorta) freehand the design.  Obviously, if you are a total perfectionist, you're going to want to break out the tape for those crisp lines.  However, this was pretty enough for me :)

See?  Don't the colors match up pretty well?  The blue is AA's Mount Royal, the gold is China Glaze Passion, and the white is the ever-trusty WNW White Cream.

124. NYX - Soft Teal

Today I'll be showing you guys Soft Teal.  It is a blue-leaning teal cream.  Soft Teal is quite a lovely color, similar to many of the Tiffany's blue colors, but probably a good deal more blue and saturated.  I'll definitely be reaching for this again in the future :)

I believe this is two coats of Soft Teal with Poshe on top.  Formula was a little bit hard to work with, as it didn't self-level.  However, I did achieve full coverage with this polish.  Next time I use it, I'll just be a little more careful with application.

123. Urban Outfitters - Sea Dust

Hey guys!  Today I have Sea Dust for you, an aqua glitter with larger ocean blue hex glitters.  Word on the street is that this is a Dupe for Deborah Lipmann's Mermaid's Tale.  I don't have the DL to compare this with, but it comes close enough for me to satisfy this lemming! :D

I noticed some random large silver hex glitters, I wonder if that was just a fluke or if it was intentional.

More pretty pictures!

The formula on this was good, if not a bit patchy.  You can get away with 2 coats of this polish if you don't mind a little bit of VNL, but 3 coats really brings out the color and sparkle of this polish!

122. OPI - Goldeneye

So for the next couple weeks, there will probably be a few posts from manis I did during my blog break.  Hopefully I don't bore you guys with these old swatches!

This polish is such a gorgeous gorgeous GORGEOUS gold!  Goldeneye is a super shiny, very yellow gold.  The finish looks like it is a foil, but it is in fact really dense flakes suspended in polish.  I simply love this color, although I don't know if it really works on my skin...whatever!  This is the perfect Chinese New Year gold, warm and lustrous!

Application was lovely.  There was no dragging or patchiness, and as always, the OPI brush applies like a dream.  This is three thin coats of Goldeneye.

Sealed With a Kiss!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!   I hope everyone had a good day, regardless of relationship status.  This day should remind everyone to appreciate love around them, not only in a significant other, but also in friends and family.  Today I have a special mani to show you guys.  Normally I'm not huge on pink and overly girl, resulting in this mani:

Obviously it's still a Vday mani, what with the heart and kiss mark.  However, it's a more subtle approach.  My inspiration for this design comes from the idea of someone pouring their heart into writing a love letter, finally sealing it with a kiss.  The brown is supposed to be something like a coffee stain or something, to show how much the letter was toiled over.  I guess it kind of looks like blood too...someone really put their soul into this letter...

Okay, that tangent took a surprisingly creepy turn.  The white base was China Glaze Snow, and to get the text on my nails, I simply soaked a piece of newspaper in rubbing alcohol and pressed it against my nail for a minute or so.  I figured out that the harder I pressed, the more text transferred!  Haha, imagine that ^_^;;;  After transferring the text, I painted on the lips, heart, and stains using a small striper brush.  The red is Essie Ole' Caliente, and the brown is Essie Mink Muffs.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post!  Until next time :)

Update and Some Chinese New Years' Nails!

Hey guys!  Recently I've found some time to get this blog back in order, so hopefully I'll be able to post more regularly again!  This post is going to be short since I've been reorganizing all my photos for a new hosting site, and that's made me pretty tired.

Here are some nails that I did a couple weeks ago.  I didn't intend for this mani to be CNY-themed, but this is how it turned out :)

The gold is OPI's goldeneye, a perfect yellowy-gold for the new year.  I applied the red using the sponge gradient menthod.  The red is Zoya's Nidhi, a vibrant red with gold shimmer running thoughout.  The final touch was the black glitter sponging at the base of my nails.  The black glitter is Nubar's Black Polka Dot.

The effect I was going for was fire, especially with the black glitters representing flyaway ash.  However, my friend pointed out that it was a perfect manicure for the lunar new year.

Happy New Year everyone!  Gong xi fa cai~  Hopefully I will post again for you soon!