Sally Hansen- Sea

Here I'm wearing Sally Hansen- Sea. It is a very pale green with a subtle shimmer. It is part of the Smooth and Perfect Line. I previously have worn Sky and Dune from this collection and had no issues. Sea was a little bit more streaky. I'm wearing three coats, and if you look closely you can see some bare spots. I love the color though! Due to the formula, being advertised as "full of oxygen" it had numerous air bubbles, but one would have to look very closely to see them. They can't really be seen in any of the pictures.

Both of these picture are without the flash but this one is under a different light. Every time I tried to get a flash picture of this one, it was way too light and washed out. I still really like the Smooth and Perfect line, and I'm debating on whether this would have looked better with a fourth coat. The finish definitely felt smooth, it was just the bare spots that bothered me.

First Time Stamping

I figured that I would try out my Salon Express and jump on the stamping bandwagon. Here I'm wearing three coats of Icing- Tiger's Blood (which I love). It's prismatic glitter suspended in a red jelly. It needed three coats to achieve opacity. This picture is without the flash. I then used CQ- Night, a basic black creme for the stamping.

Here it is with the flash- you can see the stamps better. I definitely wasn't perfect! The designs kept smudging when I transferred them from the plate to the stamper. Some of them applied partially. Some got double stamped (more so on my right hand, which isn't photographed). Needless to say, I need a ton of practice!! I'm open to all tips/suggestions. I also need to experiment to see which shades work best with stamping. With this many, I kind of just automatically went for these two colors without trying any other options. I'm excited to try out different stamps and color combos!

I got some nail mail today. I purchased more polishes from No Holos blog sale. Heres Pretty & Polished- Bayou Blitz mini, NYX Frizzy Spots, and All That Glitters- Hole-Hearted. I love indies!!! I would like a full size of Bayou Blitz, but it's more difficult to get, so I'm happy with the mini. Plus with how much polish I have, it's probably more realistic to have a mini.

Essence- The Dawn is Broken

Over the weekend I was a bridesmaid for one of my best friends wedding. The dresses were navy, and the shoes were silver, so I decided on a gray. I recently purchased Essence- The Dawn is Broken from a blog sale. It is a medium gray and it has tiny black and gold particles in it- they're VERY hard to see, even with the naked eye, so I wasn't able to capture it in a photograph. The texture was a little gritty, but nothing like a glitter; it just wasn't exactly a creme. I actually don't even know what finish to categorize this polish as because there aren't enough shimmer particles for it to be considered a shimmer.  This picture is without the flash. I am wearing two coats here and the formula applied very nicely.

Here it is with the flash. You can see the black particles if you look very closely. They are more visible in the bottle. I'm a fan of the Twilight saga, so I was so glad when I found this polish! I'd like to get the other ones in the Vampire's Love collection too. I'm also a sucker for Essence's packaging. Although I really liked the color, the wear was terrible!  I applied it on Thursday night, and then on Friday night I stayed in a hotel with the rest of the bridal party. We went swimming in the pool and sat in the hot tub. By the time we got out, it was peeling off in chunks! Luckily I packed it, and I did some touch-ups the next day for the wedding. I'm glad I took these pictures before it chipped! I'm wondering if the hot tub is what ultimately affected the wear, because I've had polish peel off after taking long baths before.

Blue Jelly Franken!!!

I'm wearing a one-of-a-kind polish today. Literally- it's the only of it's kind! I bought this franken in a blog sale from Nat from No Holos!  It is a blue jelly with white hex glitter and very sparse white bar glitter. In the bottle it looked like there was going to be much more glitter on the nail. Instead it's just kind of randomly scattered. Some nails only have one speck of glitter on them. My OCD doesn't like that. I love the blue jelly! It's absolutely gorgeous!! It was on the sheer side and this is three coats. After the first 1-2 coats I was questioning if it would actually look good and I'm glad I kept painting. This picture is with the flash. Theres a lot of visible nail line, but that doesn't really bother me too much as long as my nails don't look dirty. My nails are getting long again! This is the perfect length before they start to feel too long.

Without the flash, it looks like a dark teal. I love how due to the layering of the glitter in the multiple coats of the blue jelly, some glitter specks are blue and others are white. There are a couple buried under three coats that you can't really see. It's a shame this bottle is so small. It's about half gone just from using three coats to do this mani. I purchased it after it was used a couple times though. I would love a full size of this! I've gotten a few compliments on it also :) Luckily, nobody has asked where to buy it from.

Now some nail mail hauls! I'm *trying* to be good, but that's not really working at the moment.

My Cult Nails order arrived from the sale! They have the names on the cute little burritos. I almost hate to unwrap them! 

Here's Living Water, Hypnotize Me, Cruisin' Nude, and Seduction (yayyy! flakies!)

And for the grande finale!!!

Nail Venturous FLOAM!!!! I finally got this gem. Just look at it in all of it's glory!!! It has matte neon green and turquoise glitter reminiscent of the Nickelodeon goo. I miss that! I think somebody should make a green jelly called Gak- that would be sweet!!

Here's the Nickelodeon Floam if any of you kids from the 90s remember

Navy Creme and White Glitter and Some Haulage!

I really wanted to try out OPI- Pirouette My Whistle over a darker shade. Here I'm wearing two coats of OPI Roadhouse Blues followed by two coats of Pirouette My Whistle. Roadhouse Blues is from the fall 2011 Touring America collection. It is a dark navy creme. The formula was really nice and it was practically a one-coater, but still had some bare spots with one coat. With the flash in this picture, you can see how blue it is.

Without the flash and in low-lighting it looks almost black. I LOVE Pirouette My Whistle. It has tiny pieces of silver glitter and large white holo glitter. The large holo glitter isn't exactly white, it's like a pearly light gray with a slight sheen to it. It's hard to describe. I love the look of it layered over a dark color. There are so many layering combinations with this one!

Now on to the hauls!!! (I haven't been very good the past week or so!)

Traci from the TracefacePhiles had a huge blog sale, and I was lucky enough to discover it when she just announced it. I got some goodies! Here's Icing- After Party, OPI- Sonic Bloom, OPI- Midnight Blue Glitter, and Sally Hansen- Night Lights

Also from that sale, I got Lacquistry- A Friggin Circus, Wet n Wild- Tangled in My Web, and Max Factor- Dazzling Blue. Dazzling Blue actually looks a lot like OPI- Sonic Bloom in the bottle! I'll have to test that out to see if they're dupes.

I lucked out and got some KBShimmer polishes when the Etsy store opened. Here's Shipwreck, Vegas Bomb, and Clown Puke. These look AMAZING!!

I went to Walgreen's to get some home essentials, and I ended up coming back with this. I got Essie- She's Picture Perfect because it was in the clearance bin for $4! I also figured I'd give Sally Hansen Cuticle Eraser + Balm a try since my cuticles have been pretty haggard lately. I finally caved in and got a Salon Express/Konad imitation kit. It looks interesting and I plan on trying stamping out in the near future when I'm settled with moving. I didn't expect the image plates to be so small. Are they usually that small?

Essence- Glamorous Life

I have a quick post today. I've been traveling out of town, busy with work and packing to move  lately. This is Essence- Glamorous Life. It is a glass fleck polish and a pinkish red. Glass fleck polishes are usually difficult for me to photograph accurately- so I apologize for that.  I wore this for the past three days (since I wasn't home to change my polish), so it was pretty chipped up by the time I had to remove it. This is two coats. These Essence Color and Go polishes are only $1 so they're definitely a good value. The ULTAs in my area have them, but they usually never add any new ones. 

I received some awesome packages in the mail and I will include them in my next post! 

Green and Glitter!

I have an interesting layering combo today. This is two coats of Dare to Wear- Disc Jockey layered over two coats of Cosmetic Arts- mint green (the shade didn't have a name). This would have been a good mani to wear for St. Patrick's day! Disc Jockey has a murky-green tinted base and it is filled with various sizes of green prismatic glitter and tiny pieces of prismatic bar glitter. I decided to layer Disc Jockey because I figured the sheer green jelly base would make my nails look gross on their own.

Here is the unnamed Cosmetic Arts mint green. It is a creme. The formula was really good. I believe I purchased this at Ross on clearance for $1. I think Cosmetic Arts is owned by the same brand that produces Funky Fingers and Color Club. After Disc Jockey was layered over it, the green became less blue and more yellow. It was a gorgeous combo!

Lynnderella- Snow Angel and Nail Mail!

It took me months to finally get my hands on one of the rare and elusive Lynnderellas! Snow Angel was one of my top lemmings. I really wanted to try wearing it on its own, even though many others prefer to layer it over a sheer color. Here I'm wearing three coats of it. Some spots are bare and uneven, which I would normally dislike, but it literally looks like snow just fell on my fingertips and I love how natural that looks. There are definitely bare spots in snowfall. This mani looks so delicate, but the glitter was actually rather gritty. It was manageable with a coat of Seche Vite. You can tell that my nails are a little bit stained, but it's actually more noticeable in this picture than it is in person. If I ever wear Snow Angel by itself again, I'll paint my tips white first.  I still want more Lynnderellas! I hope I'll have the chance to purchase more! I'm still on the waiting list for two shades that were on backorder. 

Now for some Nail Mail!

I found some sweet polishes from Fashion Footing's blog sale. Here is Icing- Tiger's Blood, Maybelline- Gilt Trip and Revlon- Khaki Chrome. Gilt Trip and Khaki Chrome look like vintage gems! They also both appear to be duochromes! Icing- Tiger's Blood has been a lemming of mine for a long time. It looks very similar to Cult Nails- Captivated. I originally wanted Captivated, and when it was unavailable, I tried to find Tiger's Blood without success. Now months later, Captivated is available again (which I purchased ASAP),and now I have Tiger's Blood also! Patience pays off! 

HSN had the Deborah Lippmann Footloose collection on clearance. They were selling in duos for about $10 each, which is like $5 a polish. Deborah Lippmann polishes usually go for $16 a pop, so this was a great deal. I got the entire collection! Footloose, Almost Paradise, Dancing in the Sheets, and Let's Hear it for the Boy.

Color Club- Gingerbread Man and a Shopping Haul

I wanted to try out one of my scented polishes. This is Color Club- Gingerbread Man. It was released in the holiday 2011 Scent-suous collection that was a Sally Beauty exclusive. It is a gold foil and it smells like gingerbread! The application was fairly easy; just two coats. It took forever to dry!!! I painted my nails 2 hours before going out, and while I was out, they dented. You can see a little bit on my ring finger, but it was much more noticable in person. I decided to remove it the next day because the dents were bothering me. I also had a couple large chips out of the nails on my other hand. This polish didn't hold up well at all, but it was gorgeous while it lasted; plus it smelled delicious. 

I went on a shopping trip yesterday. I decided that I would make up for lost time for not buying polish 4 weeks in a row. I definitely made up for that. On to the goodies!

I got this gem from Marshall's on clearance for $7. The brand is The Balm. All of the names are on the package. It has a $50 price tag on it so this was a pretty good deal! Each bottle was less than $2.

Next I stopped at ULTA to see if they had the OPI Spider-Man collection. They did! I got Shatter the Scales (green shatter), Your Web or Mine?, Call Me Gwen-ever, Number One Nemesis, Into the Night, My Boyfriend Scales Walls and they threw in an OPI basecoat for free. Of course the shade from the collection that I was most excited about, Just Spotted the Lizard was sold out. I ordered one of off eBay to make my collection complete- so it should be arriving soon!

I also stopped in Five Below and picked up two Funky Fingers polishes. This is Mrs. Mint- a mint green with subtle shimmer and Star-Studded, a prismatic gold glitter. I have a few shades in the mint green family, but the shimmer in Mrs. Mint really sold me. Plus they were 3 for $5 so you can't beat that. I purchased a third one, but that will be a surprise because I might use it for a giveaway soon *hint hint* On a non-nail related note, I will be moving to a new apartment shortly, so my life is going to be rather hectic for the next couple weeks, but I promise to put a giveaway in motion as soon as everything gets less-crazy.

ORLY- Mysterious Curse and Nail Mail

I recently purchased ORLY Mysterious Curse from the Dark Shadows collection. The movie was released in theaters today, but I'm not going to see it this week. I also would like to get Buried Alive from the collection- it's a gorgeous brown shimmer! Mysterious curse is what I would categorize as a "blurple" shimmer. It's not exactly a duochrome although it looks blue in some lightings and purple in others. This picture is with the flash, so it causes the blue shimmer to be more prominent. It has blue shimmer particles in a purple base.

Without the flash, it looks much more purple. Although this polish is gorgeous, application was a nightmare. I am wearing three thick coats of this. It was just really runny and streaky so I needed thick coats for it to be opaque. Due to the thick coats, it took a while to dry even with a coat of Seche Vite. The end result is pretty though. 

I received some nail mail today! I purchased from No Holo's!  blog sale. I got two unique mini frankens. They're purple and blue jellies filled with white matte glitter and Essence Vampire's Love Collection- The Dawn is Broken. This is my FIRST Essence that isn't a colour and go mini bottle! I just love their packaging. 

In terms of my efforts in the Nail Polish Buying Challenge, yesterday was 4 weeks into it! (I caved and bought the ORLY Mysterious Curse yesterday) So I believe I made it!  4 weeks counts as a month. I just purchased some Cult Nails polishes- they have a 50% off sale on select polishes today only! I also ordered some clearance Deborah Lippmann polishes from HSN (about $5 each- so awesome discount!)  I am actually about to embark on an ULTA trip to check to see if they have the Spiderman collection. I have been eagerly awaiting it!

Zoya Yara

Today I'm wearing Zoya- Yara from the Fall 2011 Smoke and Mirrors collection. I really love greens and this shade is a muted olive green with some subtle golden shimmer. This picture is with the flash.  Neeka- the dark purple from the collection has a similar quality of shimmer. Yara is Neeka's green sister. The formula was great! This applied in two flawless coats. 

With the flash, you can see more of the gold shimmer. I had some tipwear with this polish after two days of wear. I don't own another green in my collection quite like this one.

The Liebster Award

I was tagged for this award almost two months ago by The Collegiate Nail and I missed the comment. I'm so glad I found it before I reached 200 followers (which is coming up soon!)

The Rules:

1. Put the link to who gave you the award.

2. Put the award on your post.

3. Choose 5 blogs with under 200 followers to receive the award.

4.  Let them know you awarded them.

The award goes to...

Crystal from Nail Noise

Jessica  from Jessica's Nail Tales

Jackie from MeMa's Manis

Kristal from Bull City Beauty (I'm not exactly sure of the number of followers you have)

Katy from Cookie Luvers Blog

Color Club- Fame and Fortune

This is Color Club- Fame and Fortune. It was released in the fall 2011 Backstage Pass collection. This polish is very unique and gorgeous. It has a hot pink jelly base filled with silver prismatic shards (not exactly glitter and not quite flakies). I'm wearing two coats here and this picture is with the flash. Color Club recently just released a shade called Diamond Drops in their spring 2012 Blossoming collection and that is pretty much the silver "shards" with a clear base instead of a colored one.

Here's a picture without the flash. I love how the shards reflect so many colors. Also some shards are pink and others are silver due to the layering of the jelly base. This polish does have one downside though. Because the shards are rather pointy, some edges tend to stick up causing it to catch on things and making the polish chip. While painting my nails I used a toothpick to embed the shards into the polish while it was still tacky. I topped it off with one coat of Seche Vite.

OPI- Grand Canyon Sunset with Gold Crackle

Here I have a crackle mani. It seems as if I haven't done one of those in a while. I have OPI- Grand Canyon Sunset topped off with La Rosa- 24k Gold crackle. This colors go pretty well together. I wanted something rather festive for Cinco de Mayo, and these colors reminded me of Mexico for some reason.

Here is OPI- Grand Canyon Sunset on its own before cleaning up. This is only one coat! Usually I do two coats, but I figured the the crackle would cover up most of the shade. Although Grand Canyon Sunset is part of OPI's permanent collection, the one I have has a black label and is the old formula. This is a gorgeous rose shimmer with an amazing formula. One coat looks flawless!

The La Rosa crackle dried REALLY fast. I'm talking faster than any other crackle polishes I've tried before! Usually crackles tend to dry seconds after you apply them to your nail. This was drying while I was painting it on! I took a picture of the finish before I added my Seche Vite topcoat. This had a super matte finish before adding the topcoat. This picture is a little bit yellowed due to the lighting and lack of flash. 24k Gold wasn't like a traditional gold shade, it was a yellow gold and it could arguably be a light orange with some shimmer. This polish cracked pretty well.

Fish Egg Friday Part Two!

I have another Fish Egg Friday mani. I got six containers of microbeads in a variety pack, so I just figured I'd coordinate them with the manis I'm wearing currently on Fridays. I am wearing three coats of Zoya Audrey topped off with two coats of Zoya Chloe, and then I added an accent of clear beads. I took the picture before I put topcoat over the beads. 

Heres's my mani before adding the beads. I really like Chloe! The Zoya Fleck Effect collection is really unique in that the base the flakies are in is slightly tinted. I tried to wear this one alone, but I wanted a little bit more coverage, so I used a base of Zoya- Audrey. 

Here's a pre clean-up of Audrey by itself. It is VERY sheer, and this is three coats of it. Audrey was part of the limited edition Peter Som box set that was released a couple months ago. 

I also got some small purchases. I've been really good about regulating my nail polish purchases lately, and I've decided to participate in the Nail Polish Buying Challenge. It is not exactly a no-buy, but it puts some serious limitations on purchasing nail polish. You are permitted to get nail polish if it's at least 50% off or free. Shipping costs do not count against you. You just have to last a month. I've been monitoring my buying since April 20th- so I put a pretty big dent in. So here are my exceptions...

I got Zoya- Zuza for free by redeeming my Share the Love points- I just had to pay for shipping. I also bought MAC- Pink Freeze, and Milani- HD from Oh So Lacquered's blog sale. These were about $2.50 each, so they were definitely at least 50% off. I'm really excited about the MAC. It's a vintage bottle. I actually like the older frosted glass MAC bottles and I'm not really a fan of the new ones (which also hold less polish and have an increased cost.) Although I've been being good, I'm not able to resist a good blog sale. I know many people swap, but I'm not to the point where I can part with any of my collection yet.

Lilacquer- Selkie over Boots 17 Black Jelly

I have a special polish today! This is Lilacquer- Selkie. It is a duochromatic topcoat with color-shifting pigments. It shifts from blue-green to a navy blue. This picture is with the flash and I'm wearing only one coat of Selkie over an unnamed Boots 17 polish that is a black jelly.

Without the flash, and at another angle, you can see a beautiful navy blue shimmer! This looks amazing in the sun too! I wasn't able to get any sun pictures though.

Without the flash and under a different light, you can see a different shade of blue. I love color-shifting polishes! If you're interested in purchasing Selkie, along with other color-shifting polishes, head to http://lilacquer.tumblr.com/. Bottles are $6 each plus $1.50 shipping. Shipping increases by 50 cents for each additional bottle. 

This is was what the Boots 17 unnamed black jelly looked like before I layered Selkie over it. I am wearing three coats of it here. This is pre clean-up. It was rather streaky and required thick coats to achieve opacity. The brush shape didn't really get along with my nails either. it was hard to paint the areas near my skin without getting polish on the skin.