Valentine's Nails!

This was my mani before Valentine's day. It was Candy Lacquer- Pinkie Pie layered over OPI- Orange Curacao

Pinkie Pie is a gorgeous red and pink mix of glitters suspended in a clear base. The hexes are medium sized- and there is a mix of colors.

This mani almost looks like a jelly sandwich, but it's actually just the red glitter layered on top of Orange Curacao.

Pinkie Pie was packed with glitter and it only required one coat.

OPI- Orange Curacao is an old gem. It's a black label and I couldn't even find any information about which collection it was from. It is in one of the older OPI bottles. I was very impressed with this! The formula was very thin, but it was practically a one-coater! I added a second coat out of habit. It's very shiny, but too opaque for a jelly. I believe it would be categorized as a crelly. I took this picture without the flash.

Indoors with the flash. It looks much more red than orange to me, but I can kind of see it being a red orange.

I got one new polish this week! A friend of mine traveled to the Philippines, and he brought me back a red crackle. I never heard of this brand!

On Valentine's day, I had an opportunity to go to a Pittsburgh Penguins practice, so I wore Pittsburgh colors! This is Candy Lacquer- Honey Bee layered over NYC- Enchanted. 

Honey Bee is loaded with glitter! It has various sizes of black hexes, black bar glitter, medium yellow hexes, and giant flower-shaped yellow glitter!

I wore this mani for three days because it didn't chip that much, and I didn't want to take it off!

NYC Enchanted is a unique polish! This picture was taken without the flash. This was released sometime around Halloween of last year. It is a champagne frost- leaning white filled with gold glitter! Application was a little bit streaky and it required 3 coats, but that's the nature of frosts. I didn't mind as much since it was being layered.

With the flash, you can see the distribution of gold glitter. The gold glitter looked amazing combined with Honey Bee! This wore very well also.

Recent Manis and a Glorious Haul

I have a few more recent manis as well as some new polishes that I've purchased.

First up is Amy's Nail Boutique- Cherry Blossom layered over OPI- Pooltime Lime. 

Cherry Blossom is packed with various sizes of matte hexes in hot pink, light pink, and white. The glitter was so densely packed, that I only needed one coat. I dabbed it around a little bit.

The sun was out when I took these pictures! I really like how the glitter in Cherry Blossom ends up arranging and laying on top of other particles. With the green, this reminds me of cherry blossoms and bamboo.

I took a picture indoors without the flash so that the sun wouldn't be as blinding. 

Amy's Nail Boutique polishes can be purchased through Amy's Etsy Shop.

Here is OPI- Pooltime Lime by itself taken indoors without the flash. This one is a black label oldie from 2004's Summer Splash Collection. Although I really liked the color, it was a streaky brushstrokey mess. I needed three coats and you can see that there are some bare spots. It dried to a shimmery, frosty finish. It's a yellow-leaning green.

Here it is without the flash. The dry time on this took very long. It was denting/smudging hours after I painted my nails. I still love OPI black labels and greens though!

Next is F4 Polish- Granite is just gorgeous. Just a disclaimer that these pictures do not do it justice. When I did my nails with Galaxy, I was in a bit of a hurry. 

Granite is a gorgeous dark blue/gray shimmer filled with various colors and sizes of glitter.

I used three coats of this just because the base was a little bit thin, but it built up to opaque coverage. I used the Elmer's glue base coat with this, so it was a breeze to remove. F4 Polish can be purchased in the Etsy Shop.

Here's a combination that I absolutely love! This is Utopia Polish- Paint Splatter layered over Etude House- Dear Darling Nails 43.

I just love the way these transparent neon glitters look. Unlike it's sister, which is Utopia Polish- Gumdrops, Paint Splatter has various sizes of the transparent glitters minus the blue and green. 

This combination reminds me of funfetti! Paint Splatter was so packed with glitter that it only needed one coat dabbed around.

This is Etude House- Dear Darling Nails 43 taken indoors without the flash. I purchased this one in a blog sale a while ago and I don't know much about the brand Etude House, just that it's foreign. Dear Darling Nails 43 is a white shimmer filled with pink shimmer particles.

Here it is with the flash. Dear Darling Nails 43 was a little bit on the sheer side and needed three coats to be opaque. It was still slightly streaky, but Paint Splatter hid that well.

Now on to new polish!

My order from my Zoya New Year's promo finally came in. It took a while because I wanted to wait until the Pixie Dusts were available to ship. The three free shades I chose were Jo, Suvi, and Indigo. The Pixie Dust collection includes: Dahlia, Chyna, Godiva, Vespa, Nyx, and London.

Nubar- Indigo Illusion, OPI- DS Shimmer, Cult Nails- Coveted and Flushed

Sally's Haul! I purchased the new China Glaze Glitz Bitz n Pieces collection. I got Bling it On, Mosaic Madness, Graffiti Glitter, Glitz N Pieces, Razzle Me Dazzle Me, and Scattered & Tattered. I also got a free ORLY- Wild Wisteria because my Sally's was trying to clear out of their old ORLY bottles.

My very first Nfuohs! I got 51, 52, and 59

A Week of Holo Goodness

I have a super picture-heavy post that consists of the manis I had throughout this week. I wore all holographic shades! On to the holo spam! I took pictures in a variety of different types of lighting in order to capture the maximum holo effect. Sadly, it was cloudy outside for the majority of the week, so the best holo shots I got were indoors with the flash.

First up is OPI- DS Original. This is one of my most coveted holos, because it is very hard to find and OPI no longer makes holos this vibrant. This was the old "black label" formula. I was lucky to get this one in a swap. It is a medium purple holo with spectrums of color! This picture was taken indoors without the flash.

I took this while in my car. It was cloudy outside, but you can see a little of the holo.

Here you can see the color of the base. The formula was a bit thin, and this needed three coats to be completely solid.

Indoors with the flash.

This is Milani- Hi-Tech. The Milani holos are very good for the price. I recently found them on clearance at CVS. This is a light yellow-green holo. It is slightly more scattered but still gorgeous. This picture was taken indoors without the flash. This needed three coats to be completely opaque.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Indoors without the flash.

This is simply amazing! Color Club- Cloud Nine was released in the first Halo Hues collection in the fall. I needed to buy all of them! It is a light pink linear holo! Now this is how all holos should be! This was taken indoors with the flash.

This isn't a color-accurate picture of the base color, since I took it in my car while driving at night, but it shows off the linear holo effect very nicely.

Another one in my car in daylight. You can see the pale pink of the base, but since it was cloudy outside, the holo effect isn't as apparent. While a majority of holos I have worn require three coats to be opaque, this one needed two. The formula was perfect!!! The Color Club Halo Hues are kind of hard to come across in beauty supply stores, just because the demand is very high and they're sold out, but they are readily available on ebay or transdesign.com for reasonable prices.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Next is China Glaze- FYI. This is from the OMG collection released in 2009. These are rather hard to find. I believe I bought this one for around $15. The holo effect is just stunning. This is a taupe holo. This picture was taken indoors with the flash. This was another two-coater. It had some bare spots, but they were nearly impossible to see.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Indoors without the flash.

Lastly is Twee & Honey- The Nirvana of Inebriation. I just love the name of this! It is a silver holo, and a very close dupe to China Glaze- OMG (which I don't own). It is a similar holo to FYI only silver instead of taupe. This required three coats. I took this picture indoors with the flash.

Twee & Honey Polishes can be purchased through tweeandhoney.com

Indoors without the flash.

Here's a picture of it in the shade. You can't really see much of the holo effect here.

I took this one in my car, and you can see the effect slightly.