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

Sally Hansen- Pumpkin Spice

This is Sally Hansen- Pumpkin Spice. I thought it would be appropriate for the Thanksgiving season since it reminds me of pumpkin pie. This can also be a Halloween season shade. Pumpkin Spice is a sheer gray jelly filled with tiny pieces of orange glitter. This shade started popping up in stores around fall 2011 and I didn't see many of them floating around.

In the bottle this color looks like it would have opaque coverage, but it's actually super sheer! I am wearing three coats of it and you can still see some streaky spots. The formula was rather thin. If I would have known bare spots would be this noticeable in photos, I would have added a fourth coat.

With the flash, you can see how the gray base builds up.  I really liked the concept and name of this shade, but if I wear it again, I'm layering it over another shade.

Heeere's Johnny!

Even though October is over, I still wanted to do just one more mani for Halloween. Due to the weather, many Halloween events have been postponed to this weekend. I layered Lacquistry-Heeere's Johnny over Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers- Black. Heere's Johnny is composed of large orang and silver hex glitters, and small and medium sized prismatic glitter. This picture was taken in artificial light without the flash.

Indoors with the flash, I took this picture to show the prismatic glitter better. I just love the label on this bottle! The Shining is one of my favorite movies of all time. I used two coats of Heere's Johnny and application was very smooth.

This is Wet n Wild- Black before adding Heere's Johnny. This is just a standard black creme; nothing special. The name "Black" is just as common as this shade. It did come from an older Fantasy Makers Halloween collection. It applied flawlessly in two coats.

Frankensandy Halloween Nails

In honor of Halloween, and to reflect the Hurricane Sandy/Frankenstorm/Frankensandy that has been terrorizing the East Coast, I chose colors that reminded me of Frankenstein. This is Lacquistry- I Love Halloween! layered over Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers- Nightscape. This picture was taken indoors in natural lighting without the flash. There has not been much sunlight for the past few days.

This picture is indoors with the flash. I Love Halloween! is composed of various sizes of black and orange hex glitter, orange bars, black and orange hearts, tiny pieces of silver glitter in a slightly orange-tinted base. I am only wearing one coat of it because I really liked the green base color. The glitter distributed evenly for the most part, but I had to do a little bit of fishing to get hearts out. 

Here's Wet n Wild- Nightscape. It is a sage green shimmer with a frosty quality to it. This is from an older Halloween collection, but I'm not sure which year it's from. I was surprised that this only needed two coats because I've noticed that the formula on many older Fantasy Makers is really thin and runny. This built up pretty well. 

Halloween Manis from the Week

I have a week's worth of manis to share. This week has been busy in the sense that I was either always out of my house or my fiance has been using the computer for grad school homework. (I prefer his computer over my slow PC) Enjoy!

This is Lacquistry- Witches Warts layered over Cetuem- 76. Witches Warts is part of the Halloween collection Lacquistry recently released. It consists of various sizes of glitter. There's black matte hex glitter and various sizes and shades of green glitter- some of it is prismatic. There are some tiny and large hexes in the mix also. Layered over Cetuem- 76, it was very Halloween! The glitter was so concentrated that I'm only wearing one coat of it. 

I've had Cetuem- 76 for a long time. I purchased it from a blog sale over a year ago and just never used it because it's kind of an odd color. It's like a muted dirty orange creme. The formula was amazing and I really liked the brush! I'm wearing two perfect coats. The only issue I had was that it got tipwear pretty quickly, but that's no issue if you change your polish as often as I do. I do not know a lot about the Cetuem brand, just that it's British.

 I received many compliments on this one. I am wearing Candy Lacquer- Autumn Leaves layered over Sinful Colors- Mesmerize. Autumn Leaves has various sizes of shredded red and yellow shards. Very fall! This was recently released in a Halloween collection. 

 These went together so well! I used two coats of Autumn Leaves and dabbed it around a little bit in order to evenly distribute the glitter. 

I took a picture of Mesmerize on its own before the layering, but it looks navy here. Instead it is an eggplant creme. It had a nice formula and needed two coats. Sinful Colors are pretty good quality for the price. 

Here's a flash picture in which you can see how purple Mesmerize is. In darker areas, it looked almost black. It was very vampy! 

 Last is Pretty & Polished- Them Bones. This is the final one that I had yet to wear from this year's Halloween collection. It's pretty unique! It has large white hex glitters, matte shards, and tiny bar glitter particles suspended in a murky black jelly base. 

I am wearing three coats of this. The way the glitter looks suspended in the jelly is amazing! The effect is so three-dimensional. The glitter was not gritty at all and this mani did not chip. It definitely looks like bones! My one criticism is that the larger hexes were difficult to get out of the bottle, but they were fine after I turned the bottle upside down for five minutes.

Recent Manis

 I've had another busy few days, so I'm catching up on what polish I have worn. Here I have Loreal- The Temptress' Power. This one was also released this fall as part of the Project Runway limited edition collection. It's a shimmery orange- toned tan filled with blue/green shifting shimmer! It's a hard one to describe.

 Here's a good angle of the shimmer! Gorgeous!

 This was a little bit on the sheer side and needed three coats to achieve opacity.

My friends got married this weekend and had a carnival-themed wedding; so I did a mani that reminded me of cotton candy. I also chopped off my nails so they're nubs now. I layered one of the Blue Cross Halloween pumpkin glitters over OPI- Skull and Gloss Bones.

I just love how this looks on short nails! The glitter (which didn't have a name) is blue and magenta medium hexes suspended in a clear base. It was so concentrated, that this is only one coat of it. I applied it with a dabbing motion so that it was evenly distributed. I purchased this one recently, so check out your drugstore Halloween displays!

Here's OPI- Skull and Glossbones all by itself. It's a very light gray creme. It was a great formula and only needed two coats. It was from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection released in spring of 2011.

Some new additions!

 Some Halloween Candy Lacquers

Dusty haul is on the top row: OPI- Blushingham Palace, Maliblue, Boot-Hill a Vanilla, Chicago Champagne Toast, Greenwich Green, Wyatt Earple Purple, and Out of this World

I also purchased Crim-Sun from and friend and she threw in Dollish Polish- Toad-ally Awesome! It was awesome indeed :)

OPI- Into the Night and Orange Glitter

I tried out a fun Halloween combo! This is OPI- Into the Night topped off with an unnamed orange glitter in a pumpkin bottle. This combination worked well, and was very noticeable with the complementary colors. I believe the pumpkin polishes are made by Blue Cross. I purchased this one last halloween. 

The orange glitter is composed of medium sized hexes and they're suspended in a clear base. The glitter was so concentrated that I only needed one coat of it! I dabbed the glitter around a little bit in order to make sure it was evenly dispersed.

Here is a picture indoors without the flash. 

I took a couple pictures of OPI- Into the Night before I added the orange glitter. This picture is with the flash. Into the Night was part of OPI's Amazing Spiderman collection released this past May. This one was really sheer. It required three coats to be opaque and was somewhat streaky. It's a darker blue shimmer, but not quite navy blue. 

Here's a picture of it without the flash.

I had the perfect dusty-hunting scenario today. It was payday PLUS I had a break in between appointments for work! I went overboard but got some vintage goodies!

 Covergirl Nailslicks- Smoky Topaz and Let's Go Green, Wet n Wild- 415A and Metallic Green

 vintage Sally Hansens- Cyber, Funky Frost, Ace Frost, and Denim Creme

 MAC- Sacred White and Silverstruck, Sally Hansen- Gold Chrome, China Glaze- Twilight and Primavera

 Revlon- Plum Flip, Magical, and Crystal Ball

OPI- Greece Just Blue Me Away, Megawatt, and DS Exclusive!

I also got some nail mail today:

OPI- Yokohama Twilight and Butter London- Two Fingered Salute