Manis Galore

This is China Glaze- Gamer Glam from the Spring 2011 Tronica collection. It is a light purple subtle holo. I just loved this.

I only got one picture of it in the sun while driving (and unfortunately it chipped quickly on one nail). Like most holos, it applied in thin coats and required three coats to be opaque.

Next is a Spanish combo! Amy's Nail Boutique- Fiesta is layered over OPI- Dulce de Leche. These shades work really well together.

Fiesta is composed of medium sized matte multi-colored hex glitter in a clear base. I only used one coat of it because I really liked Dulce de Leche. It applied fairly evenly utilizing a dabbing motion. 

Here it is indoors with the flash

Indoors without the flash

Here is OPI- Dulce de Leche indoors with the flash. It was released as part of OPI's Fall 2002 European collection. I believe it is now a permanent shade. It's a nude creme with a pink tint. The formula was great and it had a smooth, opaque application in two coats. This was taken indoors with the flash.

Indoors with the flash

Now this is a legit gold mani. I layered OPI- Man with the Golden Gun over A-England- Holy Grail. I wore this for four days. It lasted a long time without chipping, plus it was so gorgeous, I didn't want to remove it.

OPI-Man with the Golden Gun is composed of real 18 karat gold flakes suspended in a clear base. It is slightly different from the Sephora by OPI Gold Flake topcoat. I prefer this one over the $OPI because the gold flakes are larger.

Man with the Golden Gun was released with OPI's Holiday 2012 Skyfall collection. I had difficulty tracking this one down at Ulta, and my mom ordered it for me on ebay.

Taken indoors with the flash, you can see the combination of the gold on gold. Wearing this combination on my nails made me feel very luxurious. 

Here is A-England- Holy Grail on it's on taken indoors with the flash. I adore gold nail polish, and I own quite a few; but this may be one of my favorites. It is truly like an old, antique gold with a yellow shimmer.

Indoors without the flash. Impressive formula! It only needed two thin coats for opacity.

Next is Wicked Polish- Gangrene. This was released as part of the Pestilence collection (which is one of my favorite themes!) It is composed of small and large bright yellow and medium green neon glitter suspended in a milky white base. Indoors, the glitter was somewhat difficult to see, but in outdoor lighting, you can see it fairly well.

This picture was taken indoors with the flash. This polish was somewhat sheer and needed three coats in order to be opaque. I had no issues with distributing the glitter evenly.

Indoors without the flash- It's very difficult to see the glitter here. You can only really see the green.

Next up is Claire's- I Luv the 80's. This is one of those layered polishes. It's composed of multiple colors and it is intended to create a marbled or color swirled effect on the nail. I was very intrigued with how the bottle looked. There is actually a sticker that says "Do not shake" on the bottle cap.

Although the effect of this is pretty cool, I was somewhat disappointed because I expected all of the colors in the bottle to show up on my nails. You can't even see the green or purple at all. The top color in the bottle appears to be orange, but it's actually a bright yellow and pink that got mixed together from using the polish. I tried my best to make sure that the bottle wasn't disturbed, but the colors mixed together somehow. I'm not a huge fan of orange (it's pretty, but I prefer other colors.) I used three coats of this, and the effect was hard to see unless you looked at it up close. It also chipped fairly quickly because without topcoat it had a matte-like finish due to being a neon.

I was absolutely in love with this combo. This is Dollish Polish- The Koopa King layered over Claire's- Earthy/Happy. The Koopa King is part of the Mario Brothers collection. I love anything that has to do with Mario, so I was all over this collection. Earthy/Happy is a mood polish from Claire's and it changes colors according to temperature. In this picture, the polish is green; so I'm guessing that's the Earthy color.

Earthy/Happy shifts from a kelly green to neon yellow. I captured a good picture of this changing. It looks like a sponged on mani almost! This worked really well a a base color for The Koopa King, since that shade was inspired by Bowser. The Koopa King was filled with various colors and shapes of glitter. My favorites were the black thin bar glitter and the prismatic silver diamond shaped glitters. It applied evenly and I only used one coat because I didn't want to hide the color-changing polish.

Here's a picture of Earthy/Happy on it's own taken indoors with the flash. It dried to a matte finish since the color was neon. With the flash it's a bright green. The color-changing effect didn't really kick in until this polish had a couple hours to dry. After that, it started shifting like crazy!

Here's a picture of Earthy/Happy indoors without the flash. It looks completely different than the picture with the flash. This is not a color accurate picture at all. This shade only needed two coats.

This is Essence- Gleam in Blue. It is a light blue shimmer. I actually don't own another blue like this.

This only needed two coats, and it came out to a nice, smooth finish. I'm a fan of the Essence Colour & Go mini bottles. You can find them for $1-$2 at Ulta. Definitely worth it for the quality of polish that you get!

Last, I have an old gem. This is Covergirl- Ghost layered over China Glaze- Jungle Queen. Covergirl crackles are a treat for collectors of vintage nail polish. They were the first crackles produced by a major nail polish brand. The effect is different than the new shatters released a couple years ago. I believe that these were released in the early 2000s. This was around the time I was in middle school. I remember walking to the drugstore near my school after class for the day with friends and admiring the crackle polish and thinking "What science is this?!". Unfortunately I didn't have any money at the time, so I didn't buy it. I was able to snag this beauty on ebay in a lot! 

Application of this is similar to the newly-produced crackles. You have to wait for the base color to dry completely, and then apply the crackle in one even coat. I noticed that you have to put this type of crackle on a little bit thinner if you want it to crack more. This crackle takes much more time to dry. It also chips off quicker than the new crackle, but it's definitely worth time! I got many compliments on this. I believe Barry M has a crackle out called Croc Effects and the Kleancolor Crackles crack like this also.

China Glaze- Jungle Queen was my base color. This was taken indoors without the flash. It is a gorgeous plum color with a subtle shimmer. The shimmer is very hard to see. Wearing this under crackle, you could not see it at all. I'm glad I took these pictures beforehand. Jungle Queen was released as part of China Glaze's Fall 2012 On Safari collection. 

With the flash, you can see how the shimmer looks in different lighting. This had a flawless application in two coats.

Some Early Halloween Polishes

I have two halloween-themed polishes to show today. I'll start with Pretty & Polished- Candy Corn. It i from this years Hella Wicked collection. It is a color-changing polish. It changes even more than other mood polishes that I own. It is very sensitive to temperature. I am amazed by this! It's orange for cold temperatures and turns yellow when it's warmer.

 Here's a picture where it leans more yellow, but still has the color-changing gradient effect. Candy corn is a jelly, so I applied three coats.

 At this particular moment I was cold, so it was all orange. The orange in this is more red-orange.

When I was warm, they were all yellow. Although it's a pretty yellow jelly, my nails are so stained that they look dirty under this! I assure that's just staining. I like this shade the best when it has the gradient effect between the yellow and the orange. Color changing polishes can be purchased via the Pretty & Polished etsy shop. I know I will probably order more eventually. They were so neat!

The next polish I have to show wasn't as neat.

 This is a vintage Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers polish. It's called Shinin'. I'm not sure what year it's from. It appears to be a pretty blue, but it's really just blue shimmer particles in a sheer gray base. The base was super sheer! I am wearing FOUR coats here! It probably would have been more ideal to layer it over another polish, but since the base was tinted gray, I didn't really know what to layer it over. Probably another gray would be the most compatible. The formula was so thin and streaky too. 

 In a picture with the flash, you can see how it's just blue shimmer particles in a gray base.

I wanted to like this polish, and I do enjoy the color, but the formula was just soooo bad. Look at my tips! That's shrinkage from the Seche Vite. I had to remove this after a day of wear because it bothered me so much. It also took very long to dry. Maybe I'll try layering it over another shade in the future, but for now, I just wanted to be done with it.

And of course, there are some new additions and hauls!

 I participated in another secret swap in one of my local facebook groups. I got some sweet goodies from Jodi! Wet n Wild- Hollywood Walk of Fame, China Glaze- I'm Not Lion, China Glaze- Deviantly Daring, OPI- Gargantuan Green Grape, Venique minis- Havanah Glam, Side Walk Surfer, Pump up the Jam, and Ga-Lashes Glow. I also got a mini bottle of CND- Solar Oil (which smells like delicious almonds!), a nail polish ring, two pairs of earrings, and Cadberry Screme eggs!! I should use cuticle oil more often, but a lot of the time I don't like the smell of most brands, so I'll probably use the CND solar oil frequently because I love the smell.

 I did some damage at Sephora today. They had the Sephora by OPI Betsey Johnson collection polishes on sale for $5 so I picked up Alley Cat, XOX Betsey, and Sparkling Personality. I've been lemming the Nails Inc Sprinkles for a long time, so I finally caved in and bought them. These are my first Nails Ince polishes! I purchased Sugar House Lane, Topping Lane, and Pudding Lane. I would have gotten Sweets Way also, but it was sold out.

My goodies from the ULTA BOGO Butter Londons were Lillibet's Jubilee and Trustafarian.

Weekend update plus a haul!

Here I have another one of those heat-activated mood polishes. I purchased this at Forever 21. On the back it says "Love and Beauty", which is  the name of Forever 21's nail polish line. It also has the same packaging as the Blue Cross mood polishes, so they may be the manufacturer of them. It also doesn't have a name, but it changes from magenta to a rose color. Here it is when I'm cold! It looks almost purple.

It turned this color when I ran my hand under hot water.

Just seconds after I took the picture with the hot water, it already began to shift back to magenta. My apartment is cold!

This is OPI- Take the Stage from the 2010 Holiday Burlesque collection. I just recently picked this up. I found it at Giant Eagle surprisingly. I thought it was a nice fall Thanksgiving-like color. It's between orange and bronze.

Here it is without the flash.

Here is my haul from the past week. I went to Five Below, Rite Aid, and ULTA. I found a dotting tool at Five Below for $1.50. From the top I have Funky Fingers: Teal Scales, Zeppelin, Monster Balla!, Sold Out Arena, Sound Check, Power Chord, and Stage Dive. In the bottom row I have China Glaze- It's Alive!, OPI- Russian Navy Suede, two unnamed glitter snowmen polishes, CQ- Golden Green, ORLY- Angrogynie, Jessie's Girl- JulieG, and Sally Hansen- Almond Crunch. 

Almond Crunch didn't look very unique, but I picked it up because it looked like an older one.

A lot of catching up!

OPI- Extra-va-vaganza is from the 2010 holiday Burlesque collection. I LOVE this! It has so many different colors of glitter in it.

Without the flash, this is kind of a blurry picture but you can see how shiny it is.

This is mood nail polish that changes color according to the temperature. Blue Cross makes this polish. The name of the shade is "light purple to light pink". This is the purple after I ran my hand under cold water.

Here is the purple without the flash.

Wow! This polish has a drastic color change. It's a light pink. This is after running my hand under hot water. I have a few other mood polishes from Blue Cross in my stash and I am eager to see if the color change is as evident.

OPI- Come to Poppy is from the 2011 Nice Stems summer collection. The application was actually very smooth, but then I took a really long hot bath and it chipped at the tips. I didn't have enough time to completely redo my mani, so I touched up the tips. It chipped a little bit after that also. I think that usually the wear time on this is pretty good, I just was in the bathtub too long.

This is really a gorgeous shade! It's hot pink with a hint of coral in it.

This is Essie- Damsel in a Dress. It's a dark shimmery plum color. It kind of reminds me of a redder version of OPI's Lincoln Park at Midnight (although I don't own it). Excuse the messy application. I used it as a base with OPI-Pink Shatter and this was before I added the shatter so I didn't clean up. It looks so much darker in person. The flash really brings out the shimmer in it. In darker light, it just looks like a creme.

Here it is with the OPI Pink Shatter. I like how this combo turned out. It's much more subtle, but the flash makes it look more contrasting. I am kind of disappointed with the pink shatter though. It seems to only really show up on a color much lighter than it. I was hoping it would be more opaque. And yes, it's still messy! I believe I was in a rush that day.

OPI- Figi Weejee Fawn. I love this!! This may be my go to job interview color. It's almost my skin tone, yet it has a frosty shimmer to it. I also cut down my nails a lot! I believe this is discontinued but I've seen a few on ebay recently.

Here it is without the flash. I really didn't want to remove this. Now I'm starting to wonder what it would look like with the pink shatter.