Mia Secret - Storm of Glitter - Purple feat. Pure Ice - Rio

APPLICATION: Smooth mostly, I had to tame the odd hex glitter every so often.
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Mia Secret came from the store downtown where I got my Kleancolor - it was $2. Pure Ice - Rio was purchased from Walmart a long time ago. The line has a lot of great layering colors like this.
COMMENTS: I will start by apologizing - these photos don't even come close to how awesome this mani is. It's my first time trying hex glitter, and the polish - silver hex glitter in a purple micro-glitter base - is opaque in two coats . On my index and ring fingers, I layered a coat of Pure Ice - Rio, to give all the glitter on those nails a uniform purple look. This also added a bit of blue sparkle.

Artificial light:

Sunlight:

Golden Rose comparisons and Nail Wheel

Gilded Nails asked after my last post if I could mention dupes for Golden Rose with Protein - 268 and 269. I searched my stash and came up with a few, but I don't know that they're any easier to find, sorry!

For 268, from top to bottom on the left:
Color Club - Oh Naturale
Claires - Dreamsicle

These both have a little too much yellow to be convincing dupes, though...

For 269, from top to bottom on the right:
Golden Rose With Protein - 326
Sation - Racy Melon
Loreal - Mango-Get-Em
These three are very close, with the Sation being almost an exact dupe.

I swatched the mini Golden Rose Holos from this post on a nail wheel. I also added to that my more recently purchased Golden Rose polishes. The corresponding numbers are in the center of the wheel. The two that start with 'P' are from the Paris line. The ones that start with 'H' are the holographic minis. The rest are from the Golden Rose with  Protein line. Click photos for a better view.

Note that these are all  photos of one wheel - I simply rotated it in each picture.
Artificial light:

Sunlight

Golden Rose with Protein 268 dotted with 269

APPLICATION: Smooth- I really like the gel-ish formula on these
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Not until after nail art.
SOURCE: www.goldenroseusa.com
COMMENTS: I wanted something tamer after my last mani, and this fit the bill. These are both from my more recent purchase of this brand. 268 is a pretty pale peach that for once doesn't look orange on me! I made the dots with 269 and then hours later added white dots in between with my favorite white, Fingerpaints - Paper Mache.

Before topcoat - notice the dots are a little bumpy.

Tarteofraises has an awesome tutorial!

COMMENTS: Remember my last marbled mani? Well, Tarteofraises just put a really helpful video tutorial for many similar looks on her blog.  So, for those of you who wanted to know how mine was made, please check out her awesome post (don't forget to scroll down after the video to see some more looks). If you STILL have questions about mine after viewing her video, don't hesitate to ask!

Ulta - Sun-Sational, The Jungle Look, and Limelight

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2 each of Sun-Sational and The Jungle Look. The Jungle Look could have been applied in one thick coat though.
TOPCOAT?: Yes, in most photos
SOURCE: I bought Limelight in an Ulta Store. The other two were purchased on the Ulta web site. I only buy these when they're on sale (buy one get one free - they are regularly $5)
COMMENTS: I wanted to do some nail  art from the Japanese Nail art magazine my coworker got me. Two patterns on a page caught my eye, so I tried them on nail wheels first. I like what I picked but am still getting used to my shorter nails.

** My photos are LARGER in this post - do you prefer this size (xl) or the smaller ones (l)?

I tried out the first and fourth designs below

Before topcoat:

After topoat:

ABOP Franken - purple shimmer jelly

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Franken = Orly - Charged Up + Revlon Sweet Nothings - Satin Sheets. Accent nails have one coat of Golden Rose Scale Effects No. 2 (love!)
COMMENTS: Yes,  I chopped my nails down as far as I could without hurting myself. I can't tell you how strange it looks to me, but after a break on my right index finger, I decided it was an opportunity to explore options for shorter nails. I got a few of these discontinued Golden Rose flakies from GoldenRose Malta (the furthest I've ever ordered polish from!). They don't seem to have any in stock anymore though. So gorgeous, I wish I had them all!

The next two photos depict the polish color most accurately:

Nyx Girls - Dark Grey and more dots!

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2, but could have gotten away with 1 thick coat.
TOPCOAT?: Yes, after nail art dried.
SOURCE: Local beauty supply store
COMMENTS: When I first got my dotting tool, I searched google images for inspiration and came upon this site: http://www.patternsshop.com. This particular mani is inspired by this image, which they actually have in three different color ways. I'm including a screen shot of the image below as well for those who don't want to click the link..
Another favorite mani is born! I'll need to work on my size differences a bit, but it definitely helps to have 10 different sizes to work with in my dotting tool set.

My inspiration - yah, I basically copied the pattern!

Used Nyx Girls - Perfect Gray and FingerPaints - Paper Mache for the dots:

Ruby Kisses - Teal Envy and some marble fun

APPLICATION: Smooth, this polish is nice and thick, just the way I like it.
COATS: 1 thick coat
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Local beauty supply for 99c each.
COMMENTS: I love it! All the polishes are from the same brand.Teal Envy for the base. Swirled over it - the glitter is Baby Blue, the green is Tropical Green, and the blue is called Caribbean. I wore it shiny one day, and put a matte topcoat on it the next.

COMMENTS: When I saw this post from The Daily Nail blog, I showed it to my coworker (same one who brought me the goodies from Japan) because she loves the Ugly Dolls. However, once she saw that mani, she wanted me to do one too!
Here's my attempt - I did it right over my last mani with acrylic paints because I didn't want to inhale the smell of nail polish for the huge amount of time it took me. Using the paints also gave me the option to wash it off and start again if necessary, which I actually did on one nail. They're not the very best, but she was delighted anyway! I definitely won't be doing anything this time-consuming anytime soon.