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.

Sorry for the Waiting!

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last posted anything.  I hope someone's still reading this blog...heh =___=  If you've stuck with me this long, I'm really flattered!  Well anywhoo, life's caught up to me, and the move has taken much longer than anticipated due to some unforseen circumstances, but the move is almost complete now, and I've started doing my nails and swatching again.  I'll have lots for you guys soon!

30DC: Day 11 - Polka Dots

Hey guys!  Just to let you know, I'm still in the process of moving, so I haven't really been able to post anything.  I've still been doing my nails though, so hopefully I can get more posts to you soon!  Today I just have a quick mani I did over the weekend.

To create this look, first I painted a white base.  Then I dotted the light grey in varying sizes, with bitter dots at the tip, and smaller dots toward the base of my nail.  After that, I repeated the same process with the medium grey and finally with the black.


I've had this idea in my mind for a while, so I was glad to get it out of my system.  I really like how it looks; it kind of reminds me of bokeh in photography.  If you don't know what that is, here's an example!

Colors Used:
White: China Glaze - Snow
Light grey: Zoya - Kristen
Medium grey: Zoya - Kelly
Black: China Glaze - Liquid Leather
Topped with Poshe topcoat

30DC: Day 10 - Gradient

Since I've done so many regular gradient designs during this challenge, I decided to do something different.  However, my first attempt did not turn out quite like I wanted.  The gradient wasn't very smooth and looks messy.  What I tried to do is similar to a border mani, but instead of clean-cut lines, a gradient goes around the edges.  I'll probably be trying this in the future again.

Colors Used:
China Glaze - Bermuda Breakaway
American Apparel - Gold Flash

91. Zoya - Anja

Anja is a vampy red-leaning purple that kind of reminds me of red wine.  Or dark purple plums.  Whatever, it's a lovely color regardless!

This was 2 easy coats, no topcoat required.  Like always, love the Zoya formula!

90. Diamond - Drift Away

Drift Away is a gorgeous dusty red-toned purple.  This was a gorgeous color, and it was very easy to photograph as well.  This might even be a jelly, based on my application.  The pictures pull the color a tiny bit redder than it is in real life, but nothing too dramatic.  This polish dries really glossy, and it looks so pretty!

Despite the lovely color, the application was kinda horrible.  There was a decent amount of dragging, and I needed 3 coats to even everything out.  Despite this, I will be keeping this polish.  I will just have to be more careful with application in the future :)

Sally Hansen Nail Polish Strips - Purrfect Harmony

Hey guys!  I won't be able to polish myself for the next week due to moving, so all the posts this week are older ones I didn't get a chance to post earlier.  I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try out the nail polish strips I bought a couple weeks ago.

The box came with a small file, about 14 nail strips in varying sizes, a cuticle stick, and some instructions.  Me, being the impatient person I am, didn't read the instructions carefully enough and messed up the first strip.  D'oh!  Purr-fect Harmony is a rainbow of leopard spots on a silver background, with the spots progressing through the rainbow in a gradient.

Left hand

I thought these were a bit difficult to apply at first, but after a while, I (kind of) got the hang of it.  However, I did have to do some cutting with scissors to get some of them to fit properly.  I had a lot of leftover strips after doing my fingertips, so I did my toes too!  I'll spare you guys the sight of my toes...

Gasp!  The rarely seen right hand.  I actually like the colors on this hand better than on the other hand :)

In the end, I had 1 whole strip left, even after wasting a couple.  It's just too bad that you can't save these; once you open the plastic container, these things are exposed to air and start drying.  I put on topcoat over the strips, due to habit, but I don't think that was the best decision.  some of the edges are lifting up now.  Oh well, hoping it still stays on for the entire week.

Final verdict: I actually find that doing my own mani is much more relaxing than using these strips, but I really like this design.  I know that leopard spots are really easy to do, but I could never do them, so these strips are a great way for me to wear this design!  They're so colorful too!  it combines gradients and animal print, love!  It's also a good quick manicure for vacation and such, where you don't want to bring along all your manicure supplies.  Next time I use these, I might try to get an entire manicure out of half the strips, to try to preserve the strips.  It's definitely do-able, if you have nails that are a bit shorter.