A Ton of Manis

Catching up again, some of these may not be in chronological order, so the length of my nails varies.

This is Glitzology- Lemon Crush layered over Deborah Lippmann- Footloose. Lemon Crush is filled with different shapes and sizes of white glitter and bars and is scattered with tiny pieces of matte yellow glitter.

 I only used one coat of Lemon Crush. Glitzology polishes are so condensed with glitter! I really like how this combination looked.

Here's a picture of it taken indoors without the flash.

Deborah Lippmann- Footloose was released as part of the Footloose collection in winter of 2011. This had a great formula. It's just a simple, staple red creme. Footloose was practically a one-coater, but I put on two out of habit.

Here it is with the flash.

Next up is Happy Hands- Banana Stand. I don't own many yellow polishes and I gravitated towards this one. It has green, yellow, and brown hex glitter of various sizes suspended in a yellow jelly base. This built up very well and needed three coats.

This had a wonderful formula and the glitter dispersed very well throughout my nails. It's the perfect shade of yellow!

Here's Banana Stand taken indoors with the flash. The color looks a lot different here.

Indoors without the flash

This is Polished Perfection- Fire Flower. I purchased this in a blog sale, and there were only a few of these made. I don't think this indie brand is selling polish any longer. Once I saw the label, I just had to have this one!

Fire Flower consists of orange, silver, and yellow huge flower glitters, small bars, and small orange glitter suspended in a shimmery orange jelly base. I was blown away with the formula on this! This was a bit sheer, which is characteristic of a jelly, but it built up nicely in three coats. I love how the flowers turned out. I wore this for FIVE DAYS. I used Seche Vite and Gelous to prolong it. I didn't want to remove it because it was so long-lasting, but I had tickets to a Penguins vs. Flyers game, and there was no way that I was wearing orange nail polish there. 

Next is China Glaze- Electrify. This was released as part of their Spring 2012 Hunger Games collection. This was gorgeous, a glitterbomb for sure. It's filled with yellow and red glitter. I put on three coats of this and topped off with Gelous and Seche Vite for a smooth finish.

Indoors without the flash.

Crackle is one of my guilty pleasures. Many in the nail community are over it just because it was overdone in collection releases by many companies, but I just love how it turns out in a different pattern on every nail. When I saw Sally Hansen- Starburst I had to have it. The silver glitter in the crackle made it look so unique!

The black base in Starburst is jelly-like. I thought it was really neat out the glitter migrated with the crackle as it separated on my nails.

I layered it over China Glaze- Under the Boardwalk. This was taken indoors without the flash. Under the Boardwalk was released in China Glaze's 2012 Summer Neons collection. It's neon, and it has that jelly quality to it. It's a bright magenta. I only needed two coats of it.

Indoors with the flash

Here's ORLY- Purple Velvet. This one was released in the Fall 2009 Matte Couture collection. This had a nice formula and matte finish, but it wasn't purely matte. It had a satin-like quality. If you remember the finish of the ORLY Plastix collection, this would be right between those and a true matte.

Indoors without the flash. This applied in two smooth coats and the purple is reminiscent of an eggplant.

Indoors with the flash, you can see the subtle hint of shimmer this has. To the naked eye it looks like a flat color.

Last is Essie- Absolutely Shore. I didn't expect to love this as much as I did! It is a pale seafoam green. Coming out of the bottle it was a little sheer, but with three coats, it's a smooth-looking creme.

This was released as part of Essie's Summer 2011 Braziliant collection. The formula was so great also!!!

Indoors with the flash, you can see the blue in it.

Indoors without the flash

Some Indie Brands

I have some various indie brands that I wore throughout this week.

This combination is made up of Liquid Lacquer- White Walkers layered over Pretty & Polished- Slime Time. I just love the way that my camera captured all of the different colors shifts that occurred in White Walkers.

White Walkers is an iridescent glitter. It works best as a top coat or to layer with because it is very sheer. I used two coats of it over Slime Time.

White Walkers was part of a limited edition Game of Thrones collection (which I love!!!) I refer to this mani as the "zombie swamp".

Here's Pretty & Polished- Slime Time taken indoors without the flash. I really wanted to like this shade. The formula was great. Slime Time is exactly what it was advertised to be. A murky, yellow-green jelly. I liked the concept and execution of it, and the formula was great for a jelly. I just didn't like the way that it looked on my nails.

Taken with the flash: Slime Time is super sheer! I am wearing three coats of it here and you can see visible nail line. This would be a good shade for jelly sandwiches. With only one or two coats of this, my nails look very stained. As much as I love greens and jellies, this one just didn't work for me. This shade has been discontinued, but Pretty & Polished polishes can be purchased through their Etsy store.

Next up is Enchanted Polish- Gummy Worm. This is the only Enchanted Polish that I own (but I'm definitely open to purchasing more if the opportunity presents itself)

Gummy Worm is a green-apple shade and there is a subtle holo effect. The holo was actually more apparent in the bottle than on the nail, but I don't own any holos in this shade of green.

For being a holo (which usually have difficult-to-work-with, runny, streaky formulas), this one applied like butter in two smooth coats. In fact, it was almost a one-coater! I was amazed with how opaque it was with minimal effort and the finish was amazingly smooth.

I took a picture indoors with the flash to show the holo effect. It's not quite linear, but it's not scattered either. It falls in-between. I just love this shade of green! Enchanted Polish can be purchased through their website.

The next combo is Amy's Nail Boutique- For Jonathan layered over Essie- Where's My Chauffeur? I was a little iffy about how this combination would work, but I ended up loving it!

For Jonathan is a very special polish. It was custom made for charity, and the proceeds went to Colon cancer. My fiance's father is a survivor, and this cause is very close to my heart. It is a cause that I am eager to donate to. For Jonathan is composed of blue microglitter, and larger blue and brown hex glitters.

I only put on one coat of For Jonathan because I really liked how Where's My Chauffeur? showed through. It reminds me of a robin's egg! With multiple coats, I believe that For Jonathan would be able to build up to opacity. Amy's Nail Boutique polishes can be purchased via her Etsy Shop.

Here's Essie- Where's My Chauffeur? This picture was taken indoors without the flash. It is a light turquoise creme and it's very reminiscent to the classic China Glaze- For Audrey. Where's My Chauffeur? was released in Essie's past holiday collection titled Leading Lady.

Here it is with the flash. I cannot stress how great the formula was with this. Application was a breeze and it dried rather quickly.

Last is Glitzology- Neapolitan. Being a fan of ice cream and all things sweet, I just had to have this one.  It's composed of pink/copper glitter, brown and white hex glitter of various sizes, and some tiny long pieces of white bar glitter. 

I love the way that this turned out! It definitely reminds me of Neapolitan ice cream.

I have to confess that I did struggle with the application of this. The formula was rather thick (that's to be expected of densely packed glitters). Because the application was so thick, I only needed two coats. As I was painting my nails, the polish kept progressively getting goopy. I had some polish thinner on hand, and I dropped in a few drops every couple nails. Due to how thick it was, it might be difficult to wear this one layered over another shade. 

I was able to smooth it out using two coats of Gelous followed by one coat of Seche Vite. I used the Elmer's glue base coat with this, so the polish just peeled right off when I wanted it to. I imagine that this would be very difficult to remove and would probably require the acetone and foil method if the glue base coat isn't used. Glitzology polishes can be purchased through the Etsy shop. There are sometimes really good promos posted on the facebook page, so make sure you "like" Glitzology.

Manis over the Holiday

I apologize for my lack of posts. I've acquired a terrible viral flu so I've been out of commission for the past few days. I have a few mani posts that I'm behind on so I'm going to feature two here. This first one is Sephora by OPI- Hollywood if I Could layered over Essie- Mint Candy Apple.

Sephora by OPI- Hollywood if I Could is part of the recently-released Jewelry Topcoats collection. It is filled with iridescent bar glitter!

You can see the different colors of the bar glitter in this picture taken with the flash. I applied two coats of this. There are also tiny pieces of glitter in this polish.

Here is Essie- Mint Candy Apple without the flash. It is a mint green creme leaning light blue. It is from Essie's Winter 2009 collection.

Here it is with the flash. This just needed two coats to be flawless. I'm a huge fan of mint greens.

My next combo is Glitzology- Island of Misfit Toys layered over OPI- Loyalty Islands Lilac.

Island of Misfit Toys is a unique one. It is filled with squares and hexes of matte multicolored glitter. It definitely reminds me of toys- especially Legos.

The formula on Island of Misfit toys was rather thick and I am only wearing one coat of it. I took this with me to do my nails on a trip out of town to visit family, so I didn't have any polish thinner with me. When I got back home, I put some thinner in it, and the consistency was perfect for me. 

OPI- Loyalty Islands Lilac is a really old one! It is from the South Seas collection of 1997.  I found this one in a salon. It has the old black label. The formula on this one was pretty thin, and it was rather streaky. I only used two coats since I was using it as a base for glitter, but I probably would have used three coats if I were to wear it alone. This picture was taken without the flash.

With the flash, you can see the lilac in this. This is such a pale lilac that it almost looks silver. It has a frosty quality to it, but I wouldn't categorize it as a frost; just a shimmer.