Greens, Greens, Greens!

This next bulk post consists of all of the green manis I wore during the week of St. Patrick's Day. Green is my absolute favorite color, so I'm always psyched for St. Patrick's Day week, and it gives me a good excuse to wear greens! I probably have enough green polishes to wear one every day for a year, but I kept this to a week.

First up is Zoya- Vespa. This is by far my favorite from the Pixie Dust collection recently released in February. The finish on these is amazing!! I previously wore Chyna, which is the red from that collection, and Vespa has more of a gritty, sandy texture. I would describe this shade as a dark mint green.

The application was simple, and I could have gotten away with just two coats of this, but I added a third one just to make it more textured. The dry time wasn't too bad either. It was tacky for a little bit, and I hate not being about to use fast-dry topcoat. It took about a half hour to dry completely.

Indoors with the flash, the shade looks really different! The name is so fitting too. When I think of a Vespa, I think of those scooters that have the exact shade of green.

Indoors without the flash. You can see how much darker this looks in lower lighting. Removal of this was challenging in the sense that it was more difficult than a creme or shimmer finish, but not as difficult as a glitter. It was worth it though!

Pretty & Polished- Bubble Tea is stunning. I've been lemming this one for a while and finally caved in and bought it right before it was discontinued. It's a yellow green base filled with medium black hexes and small bits of yellow matte glitter giving it a slightly textured finish. 

The base was more opaque than I thought it would be and this only required two coats for full coverage. I love how the black hexes look suspended in the base. I am a huge fan of bubble tea, so I just had to have this one.

Indoors with the flash. You can see in the bottle how the tiny pieces of glitter have a slight shimmer effect to them.

Indoors without the flash

Hare Polish- Asteroid Turf consists of medium pink hex glitter suspended in a kelly green jelly base. I just love this combination of colors. It's a jelly sandwich in a bottle. 

Car picture! (I apologize this was before I cleaned up fully, I had to run to work before I could clean up) I thought that this showed the suspension of the glitter well.

Indoors without the flash. I believe I used three coats of this, but it can also be pulled off with two.

For St. Patrick's Day, I wore the combination of Candy Lacquer- Kiss Me I'm Irish layered over China Glaze- Running in Circles. The shades of glitter in Kiss Me I'm Irish match the Irish flag perfectly. There are various sizes of green, red, and white glitter in hexes and squares. There are also red and white hearts! 

The glitter in this was so concentrated that it only needed one coat! I'm always impressed with Candy Lacquer's glitters.

Here's China Glaze- Running in Circles by itself indoors with the flash.  I am wearing two coats of it. It is a beautiful emerald green shimmer. This was from the Cirque de Soleil collection released in December 2012.

Here it is indoors without the flash. It has that glassfleck type shimmer.

Here is ORLY- Monster Mash. This one blows me away! It has various sizes of prismatic green glitter suspended in a yellow-green jelly base! When I first started applying this, I was questioning if it could be worn alone because the first coat was so sheer. It built up nicely with three coats.

Monster Mash was released last summer in ORLY's Flash Glam FX collection, but repromoted around Halloween. I was so amazed with how many different colors flashed in the glitter and I couldn't stop staring at my nails.

Indoors with the flash, you can see what the yellow green jelly base looks like.

Indoors without the flash. I used the white glue base coat with this one and it peeled off easily in sheets. I imagine that this one would be a nightmare to remove the old-fashioned way.

This next combination was an unexpected success. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did! This is Nina Ultra Pro- Electric Slide layered over Venique- Ga-lashes Glow.

Nina Ultra Pro recently revamped their line and branding, and this shade stood out to me. A green neon jelly? It immediately caught my eye and I just had to have it. It was quite sheer and I recommend layering it over another shade. I used two coats of this. This mani was very long-lasting too! 

Here's Venique- Ga-Lashes Glow taken indoors without the flash. I don't know much about Venique. I received this from a partner in a secret swap in one of my facebook groups. I think Venique is only sold at Cosmoprof, which I don't have a membership to. This came in a set with four minis. It's a lime green creme. It reminds me a lot of OPI- Who the Shrek Are You? It applied like butter in two thin coats and the finish was so smooth! 

Indoors with the flash

Hockey fans, just for fun I wore this mani to an autograph signing and met James Neal. He signed this puck, and I held it wearing this combination. It looks so bright in the photo! Just thought I would share :)

Last is Funky Fingers- Pixy Dust. I picked this one up at 5Below. It's a green apple colored glassfleck shimmer. The first coat applied very sheer, and I was unsure if I would like it. It was another one of those shades that I had doubts about, but once the coats built up, I was surprised! It's absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me of Tinkerbell. This needed three coats.

Indoors with the flash

Indoors without the flash

Blue Glitter Jelly Sandwich

This is a successful attempt at a jelly sandwich. I used ORLY- Spazmatic and Essie- Ballet Slippers. I love the look of glitter between polish and also with glitter on the top. It is very multidimensional. ORLY- Spazmatic is part of the recently released Flash Glam FX collection. It is filled with medium-sized blue hex glitters and some fine iridescent blue/purple shimmer particles. Spazmatic is pretty packed with glitter and I only needed two coats of it.

With the flash you can see how the layer of glitter looks under Ballet Slippers. For some reason, my index finger has a lot of topcoat bubbles in it.

I experimented with adding a layer of Apple Bottoms- Paris in Pink on top. I just used one coat so that it was a sheer wash of it just to change the color. It is a sheer pink jelly with glassfleck shimmer particles. I don't know much about Apple Bottoms nail polish. I purchased this in a set at Ross a while ago.

I preferred this without the pink on top, and I also experienced shrinkage at the tips of my nails because I added another coat of Seche Vite. In this picture you can see more of the shimmer in Paris in Pink.

I took this picture at the mid jelly sandwich process of this mani. This is two coats of Ballet Slippers, followed by one coat of Spazmatic with one more coat of Ballet Slippers on top.

Here's two coats of Ballet Slippers on its own before adding Spazmatic. It is a nude jelly

Here's my Sally's haul from today:

 I got some acetone because I was running low, Color Club Winter Affair collection mini set, 2 bottles of Gelous, and ORLY- Miss Conduct and Angel Eyes

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! 

China Glaze- Riveting and Mini Haul

I wore China Glaze- Riveting for the past couple days. It is from the recent Hunger Games collection. I'm actually not really a fan of oranges, but I love this one! It is one of the stars of the collection. It is more of a red-toned orange. The formula was amazing- it was practically a one-coater but I added two out of habit. It has glass flecks in it. The only downside (and it's not even polish related) is that people kept asking me if I was a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers because yesterday was game 4 between the Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins. I hate the Flyers! (No offense to Philly fans). I'm a devout Penguins fan, but the timing I wore this mani was a little off. The Penguins won though :)

Here it is with the flash. You can see the orange of the glass flecks. I love this! It definitely reminds me of the girl on fire.

I got some nail mail yesterday. I placed an order with A-England when they had their 20% off sale. I wanted to try this brand for a while, but the polishes are so expensive when they're regular price. I purchased Princess Sabra, Ascalon, and Bridal Veil. All of these are holos and they look beautiful! I'm eager to try out Ascalon, because it looks like a duochrome and holo combined. It flashes from purple to green, but it's hard to capture. 

I'm really going to try to limit the polish I'm purchasing. I'm waiting on a few packages to arrive in the mail still. I have so many untrieds! 

Mani update

The past few days have been hectic. I just started my job as a substitute teacher, so I've been a bit busy. I have a couple manis to show you.

This is OPI Steady as She Rose (2 coats) under OPI Blue Shatter. The shatter looks so much brighter with the flash. Steady as She Rose is from OPI's Spring 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean collection. It is a beautiful pale pink creme.

Without the flash, the blue is more accurate.

Next I have ORLY- Oui (2 coats) from their 2011 Holiday Soiree collection. This finish is very similar to Zoya's Charla, Ivanka etc. I guess it would be considered a glass-fleck. For some reason, I hate the way these finishes show up with the flash. You can really see the purple in the base, but it looks sloppy and uneven. It applied nicely in two thick coats though. 

Without the flash, it looks so much better! This color is very similar to Zoya Faye, OPI Rally Pretty Pink, and OPI Congeniality is My Middle Name. In my collection, it isn't a very original color but I purchased it on clearance at Sally's for $2, so you can't beat that! I'm not sure if I would classify this as a purple or a pink because judging by both of the pictures with and without the flash, it can be both depending on the lighting.