Happy Independance Day!

I hope all my American followers and fellow polish addicts have a safe, fun, and colorful holiday! Because it fell on a Monday this year, my family got together last night to celebrate, since we all work tomorrow. Here's what I did with my, and my mother's, nails. Bear with me, I didn't take pics of the base color, so I heisted them from my Swatches tab. Started with 2 coats of Ali's Big Break topcoated with SV.

Followed by one coat of White Shatter and another layer of topcoat.

And lastly, one coat of Navy Shatter finished with one layer of topcoat.

And that's it! Very simple, yet very cool. I've started calling Shatter my "nail art in a bottle" since it's so easy to create this look. I'm hoping by the end of the week that I can brag about the haul I have coming :P Stay tuned!

Arrrrgggh, matey.... another tape mani

Yep, that's right! Another tape mani, this featuring OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean collection. I'm starting to get good at tape manis, lol! Practise, practise, practise! Alright, I started with 2 coats of Sparrow Me the Drama, which I just love, and topcoated with SV. Such a pretty dusty rose pink.

Taped off the tips once it was dry enough and used Mermaid's Tears and topcoated again. This is one of my personal faves; it is truly unique in my collection and I have nothing even close to it.

Taped off the nails again, this time for area closer to the cuticles, and used Planks a Lot. This is the first time I've used it in a mani, and I like how it looks. Planks, too, is unique in my purples. Topcoated with SV again.

And finally, I added Silver Shatter to my ring fingers as an accent.

Yesterday's Pink (kinda) Mani

Yeah, I know. A day late for Pink Mani Wedenseday. Yesterday was NOT a good day, and I had absolutely no chance of getting these pics posted. Here they are for today, though.

For the last week or so, the weather here has been awful (for Florida): cloudy, rainy (sometimes xD), hot and humid. I wanted to do something bright, but not neccesarily all pink. This doll was my inspiration. She's part of a 4 doll set called Dream Seasons, she's I Dream of Summer. In place of white, I used pink.

My first color is China Glaze's Lemon Fizz, but before I applied that, I used a ridge filler as a base coat since Lemon Fizz is streaky. It helped reduce streakiness, but I did have a few still. This is two coats of Lemon Fizz. I topcoated with Seche and let that dry.

Once that was good and dry, I grabbed my Scotch tape, taped off the tips, and applied OPI's Shorts Story. Topcoated again and let it dry.

I taped off the part near the cuticles after drying, using OPI's Flit a Bit. Topcoated one last time; unfortunately it smeared a tiny bit on a couple nails.

What should have been a simple mani......

Became nothing but frustration >.> Yesterday, I decided to give a combo I had read alot about a try: OPI's Black Onyx and I Juggle...Men. So many people on OPI's Facebook raved about it. Started with 2 coats of Black Onyx, and instead of topcoating that, I let it air dry. I'll explain why in a minute.

Now, alot of people have had problems with IJM "wrinkling" after they applied their topcoat. The theory on that is it doesn't play well with topcoats that aren't 3 free. Incidentally, they've come up with ways around that. What I just ended up doing is using Out the Door over mine. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be any better. OTD caused polish shrinkage at the tips and "splits" appeared in the IJM layers. You can see some of shrinkage in the next three pics but the "splits" are hard to capture. At first, I had taken polish off four nails that were really bad (this was after I had taken pics). I did those four over and then really noticed how bad the shrinkage was and found a few more "splits". In the end, I took off the whole mani and started over, doing the same number of coats and allowing enough time to dry.  I thought IJM might be the problem, but saw that it wasn't after a few minutes. I topcoated with OTD again, and bingo. That's what was causing the problems. I could deal with the shrinkage, as I don't normally keep a mani for more than a day, but not the "splits". I'll be picking up a bottle of CND and ordering some Poshe and seeing which I like best. I'm also open to suggestions on others! Btw, this is two coats of IJM over BO.

Wednesday's Pink Mani

Yes, I know I'm a day late posting this :P Life got in the way yesterday, but here is what I came up with for Pink Wednesday. Except for my base and topcoats, all colors are from China Glaze.

Remember about two weeks ago, I went to Sally's and picked up some of China Glaze's neon colors? This is one of them, called Pink Voltage. As you can tell, it is hot pink, a real, teeny bit frosty, hot pink. The only thing I don't like about it is, like Turned Up Turqouise, it dried rather dull. I also had to use 3 coats, since it was bit streaky after two. I could have left it at two, since I was covering it, but meh, I did three anyways. I topcoated after the third layer of color so it would dry fast.

Once that was dry, I used CG's Crackle Glaze in Lightning bolt. I was truly impressed at well it crackled this time. I think maybe I'll have to reserve for using over CG colors only, since it doesn't seem to like my OPI.

For an added little effect, I did one coat of Rainbows, which is a really good dupe for OPI's Fireflies. It's a sheer, shimmery/pearly color that is perfect for layering. My camera had a hard time capturing it, but Rainbows added a pinkish shimmer to the mani.

Lastly, I just updated the Swatches this morning. I'm almost done with my OPI collection and will be moving to other brands/colors. Most of those I'm not as familiar with as far collections and such, but I'll provide at least the color name and number. I'll continue to add to my OPI swatches as I get new colors, though. Enjoy snooping throught it!

Got a little behind......

So, I've got three manis to post today ._. I'll start with today's. I really like how it turned out, too.  Started with two coats of OPI's Rinse Charming, which is prolly my favorite silver polish EVER. The color Your Royal Shine-ness from one of the Serena Williams sets I think is very like it. This silver is just awesome; I really don't wear it enough.

As a finishing touch, I added one coat of Turqouise Shatter. I'm coming to realize I should have gotten a second bottle of this. My husband even likes it. lol.

Next, is something I played around with on Sunday: Black and turqouise Shatter over Kyoto Pearl. I think it would looked better over Alpine Snow, to be honest, but I wanted to try KP first. Two coats of KP to start with.

Then Black Shatter......

Then Turqouise Shatter. I think maybe I should have applied this side to side instead of up and down.

And lastly, the mani I had for Friday. It hasn't been easy trying to find a color to go with the Blue Shatter, but I found something that worked. Started with two coats of Give Me the Moon! Now it was a little sheer after two coats but for Shattering, that's ok.

Then, one coat of Blue Shatter.