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.

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