Sunday, July 31, 2011

Rimmel - Wild Orchid and Sally Hansen - No Hard Feelings

APPLICATION: Smooth on Rimmel (I love the brush!), a little watery on the first coat of Sally Hansen.
COATS: 2 each
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Walgreens
COMMENTS: I have both these bottles next to me as  I write this, and noticed that they coincidentally also have the same "color number" - 370. How random! My camera doesn't capture purples well, but these are both lovely lavender polishes. The Sally Hansen was used on my ring finger as an accent.




In the sun:

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Water Marble - with Kleancolors

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 1 of Kleancolor - White over base coat.
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Downtown Los Angeles beauty supply store.
COMMENTS:  I'm not sure why I tend to stay within a brand when I water marble lately, but I saw these colors together and just had to see them all at once on my nail.
Either way, I loved this so much I kept it on from Sunday night till last night (Friday). Not perfect, but so pretty to me!


Colors Used, from Left to right:
Kleancolor - Green Grass
Kleancolor - Pastel Yellow
Kleancolor - Love Affair
Kleancolor - Mango
Alternating left and right hands:
 

 

 

Tuesday night - added two coats of matte topcoat:


Friday morning - still going strong!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Simple Pleasures - Unnamed Dark Berry

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS:1 of each
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Simple Pleasures - Ross, Sally Hansen - my old stash, Ruby Kisses - local beauty supply, Love My Nails - Walmart
COMMENTS: This is a pretty color from one of the MANY Simple Pleasures polishes I've acquired (why do they have so many sets? I love sets and just can't resist!). I didn't want to  commit to full color, so did just tips over my base coat.

Then I decided to add some matching glitter at the edge courtesy of Sally Hansen - Planetary.

Just as an aside - I've had this glitter (and quite a few like it) since it came out. On the back it's dated 1999, which makes sense because by then I was out of college and working at my first job.
Anyway, back on topic - I then added a layer of Ruby Kisses Madmoiselle:

And  finally a layer of  Love My Nails - Dazzling


The final look is okay.  My husband liked it a lot because he likes being able to see my bare nail for a change. I of course keep noticing my stained nails...

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Diamond Cosmetics - Plum Pie in the Sky and Drift Away

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 1 of Plum Pie in the Sky (darker purple), 2 of Drift Away (lighter purple), 1 of flakie franken
TOPCOAT?: Yes, in most photos
SOURCE: www.diamondcosmetics.com, ABOP flakie franken (Only 3 left in my blog sale!)
COMMENTS: I'd forgotten how nice the Diamond Cosmetics formula is. It was a pleasure to apply these two gorgeous purples. Loved them even more with my flakie franken over them!


One-coater! No topcoat
 
 Still no topcoat. The flakie franken dries matte.

With topcoat:

Outdoors the next day:



Indoors in regular lighting - it seems to sparkle the most in this light.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Golden Rose Super Shine & Lasting - #107

APPLICATION:  Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: www.goldenroseusa.com
COMMENTS: Given that I hauled so many neutral polishes, it seemed only fair that I wear one right away. I decided to start with one of the cheaper ones (this one is 99c right now) and it's quite lovely on me. It has the tiniest bit of micro-shimmer which makes the polish look even smoother on the nail. Nice!



Silly me, I felt like it needed something.  Silly, silly me!


The next night, Iproceeded to destroy it with  rub-on decals that were cute, but looked scary on the base color.


RAAWRR!

That lasted all of 2 minutes and I had to take it off.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

You know you have a problem when...

COMMENTS:  I don't usually show photos of what I buy, but the sheer silliness of my polishaholic tendencies on my last Golden Rose order required that I share this.

I recently made a "last hurrah" order from Golden Rose (goldenroseusa) and I really must have been wanting a lot of  neutrals because I couldn't believe how many I actually ordered! The three in the top left of the photo are ones  I had already, but all the rest arrived this past week. I think I need to check myself into nail polish rehab...



And in the same order, despite the fact that I already have similar colors from the same brand as well - posted here: Golden Rose with Protein - 268 and 269
  and here: Golden Rose with Protein - 326

- I still picked up some more coral/orange colors (new ones seen below).

Yikes!
Admitting you have a problem is the  first step, right?  Now I just need to figure out how to regain my sanity (and my storage space) by drastically cutting down my stash!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Making crackle polish work for me


COATS: 2 of the base white, Kleancolor White
TOPCOAT?: Oh yes!
SOURCE:
COMMENTS:  A few of you know I really haven't been feeling the crackle trend as I simply don't find it attractive - even after buying a few crackle polishes to see if it looked better in person. Well, the other day I wondered what it would look like as background texture for stamping, just like one would use sponged on colors as background. I made sure to use a stamping color that would take my attention away from the crackles, and it worked - and I like it! Now my two Mia Secret crackle polishes have been removed from the blog sale, lol!

What do you think? Do you see crackle or just a textured background?


Colors used: Kleancolor - White, Mia Secret - Pastel blue (it's really not blue though), American Apparel - Peacock
Stamping pattern from Magnonails XL plate B


Friday, July 15, 2011

Stamping with Diamond Cosmetics - Tranquility

COMMENTS:  This post is for Paillete, who wondered in this post on her blog (Paillette: a little nail polish journal) what this color would look like stamped over certain colors. Well here you go my dear!

I used no base coat in these photos, and one coat of topcoat. Ignore the messy cleanup and dryness - I swatched outside so didn't bother washing and lotioning between swatches like I usually do.
All photos are clickable to enlarge.

Diamond Cosmetics - Tranquility over:
Revlon - Powder Puff, 3 coats



Nina Ultra Pro - Never Glum Plum



Nyx Girls -  Fierce Purple




Thumb to pinky -
1. Diamond Cosmetics - Cool & Creamy
2. Essie - Marshmallow
3. NYC - Park Ave
4. Diamond Cosmetics - Under the Willow Tree
5. Simple Pleasures - unnamed dusty periwinkle blue





I ended up leaving this on and wearing it to church the next day, lol! 

And a sneak peek at some right hand "play" that I ended up duplicating for my next mani: