Good morning! Yeah, I'd thought I'd warn my readers in case they didn't want to look at any Crackle, because that's part of today's feature. I have so many Shatters/Crackles that I'm gonna try to use one every Friday. So considered yourselves warned! Lol!
Yes, I know, many people are over it, but I am definitely not. In my opinion, it's the easiest way to do nail art. All you have to do it apply over completely dry polish and top coat. That's it. You can even apply it in different directions, like diagonally or side to side, or even in dots. It's all about how you want to wear it.
For today's feature, I started with 3 coats of China Glaze's Blue Sparrow. Now, Blue Sparrow is labeled as a neon, it even dries matte like a neon, but it isn't what I would call a neon blue. It is a pretty blue, though, with fine glitter in it that really becomes noticeable when you add a topcoat. Neons dries very quick, and this one was no exception, but I still topped it to be sure it was completely dry.
For the Crackle, I used Crushed Candy, also from China Glaze. I picked this up weeks ago at Sally's because it was on clearance along with all of last year's Crackle Glazes. So, if you're like me and still enjoy that look, check out your local Sally's and even Ulta in the clearance for them. I applied one, not too thick over BS, then topped again with Seche Vite. That's it, done!
Hello and good evening! Welcome to the middle of week, which means it's Pink Wednesday again!
Tonight I bring to you a girly pink gradient, created using Zoya Shelby and Rory. I haven't shown Rory to you all yet by herself; I'll save that for another post. I started with 3, unfortunately, coats of Shelby. I really wish Shelby went on better in 2, because I can already tell I'm gonna need a back up of this pretty color. I topped with Poshe and let that all dry. For the gradient, I pulled out some make up sponges and just painted Rory right on and dabbed that onto the nail. There really isn't a right or wrong way to do a gradient; there's plenty of tuts on YouTube if you need some guidance. I pretty much just dabbed, let it dry, and dabbed some more until I was happy with the look, then added one final coat of Poshe.
Oh yeah, I had to take these indoors today x.x When I got up this morning, it was drizzling and didn't let up enough for me to get any nice outdoors pics.
Good morning! So, yeah, I've been feeling kinda blah, mostly because of the craptastic weather here, and just haven't gotten to posting my last two manis. Today I actually had the time and the want to do so. Thanks for your patience!
I'll start with the mani I rocked on Friday.
As you know, I ordered and received 8 of the 12 Beach & Surf collection from Zoya. Friday, I decided I wanted to use the "oddball" of the collection, Carly. I say oddball because, out the whole collection, Carly is the darkest and the only purple. It is a beautiful grape purple foil that is truly grape colored. Carly was mostly, if not, totally opaque in one coat, but I did a second in case I had some balding. I topped it with Out the Door's Northern Lights in silver and let that dry. The NL was very subtle against Carly and difficult to capture on camera. Once that was all dry, I layered on a thick coat of China Glaze's Latticed Lilac Crackle Glaze. Yes, yes, I know; most bloggers are over the Shatter/Crackle craze, but I'm not, and I intend to use what I have lol. I used one more coat of NL and that was it for this mani.
Alright, next I'm gonna show you the mani I did for Mother's Day. This one I kept pretty simple: two coats of Zoya's Zuzu with a rose stamped in OPI's DS Fantasy using Red Angel plate 118 on accent fingers. The image didn't transfer completely on my left, so I took a close up of the right hand to show it.
I love the color of Zuzu. In my opinion, its a true seafoam green that fits perfectly with the collection it belongs to. The only complaint I have about it is, the formula is a little weird. It's thicker than I'm used to, but not too difficult to apply. Opacity was acheived in two coats.
So, there you have it! I'll have a post up and ready for tomorrow's Pink Wednesday!
Good morning!!
Ok, so one of the big trends right now is fruity, citrusy colors, which you'll see in just about everything from polish to lip glosses to clothing. I adore colors like this for summer; they're just so fun and bright and happy. Nothing quite embodies this as much as the Birchbox trio of Zoyas. Over the weekend I showed you Coraline with Belle layered over top. Today, I bring you the third color, Kate.
In my opinion, Kate can be described as, when using 3 coats as I did for this mani, a beautiful, ruby red grapefruit. That is exactly what it reminds me off. Unlike Coraline, the color was very even in 2 coats, but I did a third to darken the color a bit more. And, omg, the shine. I almost decided not to layer Belle over it because it is so shiny, but I did, and used one coat of Belle. Belle is perfect complement to Kate; it's a pink grapefruit color also, packed with shimmery microglitter. Belle can be worn over many pinks and oranges to jazz them up. On to the pics! Oh, I topped it with Poshe.
Good morning!
Very quickly, I want to make a PSA. It was brought to my attention, along with many other bloggers and polish groups, last night that there is yet another Face Book page by the name of Indievolutions with many stolen bloggers' pics. In most of the pics, the bloggers' watermarks have cropped out and a new one added. The page owner claims it was accident but we weren't fooled. As of about 11:15 last night, the page has been inaccessible but we don't know if it's because Face Book took it down or if the page owner set it to private. From what I understand, the latter was discussed with the page being brought back later in the week. So, keep your eyes out, notify any bloggers whose work you recognize, and report! These people got pretty nasty even though they admitted the page owner was wrong =\
On to today's mani! This past Saturday I broke my no buy (lol) but it was worth in my opinion. This season's collections have left me seriously wanting blues, simply because what's been offered was rather disappointing. Imagine my joy when promo pics of summer collections have popped up with bright, happy blues! I saw a lovely mani last week done in Orly's Skinny Dipping, and promised to look at it when I was at Sally's........ While it is a lovely color, something wasn't doing it for me with that polish. A few shelves up, though, FingerPaints had one of their summer displays up and lo, I spied Blue Raspberry Taffy. That was it, I was done for.
While it's not truly a unique color, I don't have a similiar color in my stash, so offer to the register I went. BRT is a pretty, almost pool blue with a purple undertone. The formula isn't horrible, but I did need three coats to get even opacity. I layered one coat of Sally Hansen's Glass Slipper, then topped with SV. Once that was all dry, I added a coat of Essie's Matte About You. I have found it's quicker to do that than just adding the matte coat alone, because not all of it may be dry and you risk smudges.
When you're busy, busy, busy! Whew, where did the last four days go?! I swear I lost time somewhere x.x
Good evening! I hope everyone has had a great weekend. I spent most of yesterday running around doing errands in the wonderful, early summer heat we have going here in FL, then cleaning today. Fun fun!
I wanted to show the manis I was rocking Thursday, then Friday and Saturday. For Thursday, I did some nail art with my mani. I started out with two, very easy cots of Orly's Sweet Peacock. I can not say how much I love this color and how happy I am to finally have it. I topped it off with one coat of Out the Door's Northern Lights in silver, although with the crappy weather I had Thursday morning, you can't really see it >.>
I let that dry then pulled out a fine, round paintbrush and nail art lacquers, and went to town. I ended up doing something that I have just been dying to try since I first saw: monarch butterfliy wings! Anyone that knows me in real life knows how I absolutely love butterflies, my favorite being the Blue Morpho. So this was sort of my attempt at recreating that. Not too bad for my first try, I think.
I will say this for it: as pretty as it is, and can be, I don't think I'll be doing again anytime soon, as it's very time consuming. It took me a good hour or so, from start to finish, which I don't always have to devote to a mani.
On Thursday, I recieved my first Birchbox order, which was the Birchbox trio of Zoyas. I fell in love with these three colors when I saw swatches of them, and knew I had to had them. As soon as I opened the box, I knew that I would be wearing at least one of the colors the next day. Orange is a huge color right now, and one I can't get enough of, so I chose Coraline with Belle layered over. For this mani, I did 3 coats of Coraline with one of Belle. I know it looks like I didn't wrap my tips or have tip wear in my pics, but I did and I don't. It was the way the light was catching what I had for visible nail line, which really wasn't too horrible. I think I might have been better off with either 2 coats of each or just one more coat of Belle. Either way, it still came out very pretty.
Good morning!
Here we are again, middle of the week. You know what that means, right? Yep, it's time to show off pink polish!!
So, on Earth day, I broke down and succumbed to Zoya's awesome Earth day promo: all polish for $4 each! I bought 8 of the 12 Beach & Surf colors, and am now reconsidering 2 that I didn't get, lol. What I did get was:
Shelby
Rory
Zuza
Wednesday
Carly
Reagan
Myrta
Arizona
I literally just swatched them all yesterday to put up on my Other Brands swatches page. The very first one I swatched is today's feature, Shelby. I can not tell you how much I love this color. Shelby is so girly and feminine and perfect for this time of year. My only problem is that she is one of two that required 3 coats instead of the usual two because she's a bit streaky. I topped her off with SV so I could stamp using Shany plate 13 and Wet 'N Wild Black Cream. I added some "gems" to my ring fingers and added another coat of SV to seal it all. So simple and pretty.
Last pic is teeny bit blurry, but you get the idea :P
