Purple Rain

Now for what I did to my own nails today.  I got the Justin Beiber Mini-Hitmaker Set from Nicole by OPI the other day and was slightly embarrassed that I was buying a Justin Beiber product.  I was also confused as to why he was selling nail polishes, almost entirely in shades of purple.  Well embarrassment aside, Nicole by OPI has yet to fail me.
   I used Prized Possession Purple as my base, which did have a couple bald spots up at the top but that was easily fixed with another coat after letting it dry for a couple seconds.  That color is more of a royal and was the darkest of the two in the four pack.  Next I applied a single coat of Not Another Lonely Glitter, which is a purple micro glitter with some slightly bigger round pieces in it.  Once that part dried I added more glitter to the tips so there was a high concentration of sparkle at the tips.  It looks like I've dipped my fingers in purple glitter!  I really like how it has the fading effect and my other dear friend Twin said it looked like purple rain.  So that's what I call this look.  Stolen from the Symbol formerly known as Prince and now again known as Prince.
  In between the glitter application I put on my quick dry top coat so it would set and not move around before I started adding tons of glitter.  And like all glitters I have used extra top coat was needed to smooth things out.

I like getting the mini sets of colors so I can test it out without buying the full sized bottles and finding out if it looks good or not.  I've said it before, it's a good investment.  The only problem I have with minis is the applicators are also tiny.  It's almost to the point of being awkward.  I almost can't get the standard three-stroke coverage with them, but I managed with this set.  Just had to say that.

Prized Possession Purple looks very similar to the NYC Purple Pizzazz Frost that I did a few posts ago, but with less blinding shine and maybe a little less rich of a color.  So if you can't get your hands on this particular shade by Nicole, NYC Purple Pizzazz Frost is a great dupe.

Nicole by OPI full sized bottle retail at $8 US, I got the mini set that came with four different polishes for $7.99 US (I think I got it on sale)

Multi Post Monday!

The first posting for today will actually be modeled by my dear friend/sister, Herself.  I got very excited by some of the glitters I bought recently and decided to attack her nails while we had lunch and movie day.  On her nails is Rimmel's Black Satin, two coats, and OPI's I Lily Love You glitter on top.  I have no idea why, but the cheaper blacks just work best for me.  I've used OPI's black and it's wonderful.  OPI has amazing formulas for their colors, no one will argue that.  But Rimmel London's Black Satin is my go-to black.  It goes on more like a gel than a creme and is shiny on its own with no pull or bald spots.  And if for some reason it stained my nails it came off with a quick buff.  But here's a picture of what I did to Herself's nails.

First we did one swipe of I Lily Love You and then went back and concentrated on the tips so it was almost like a very faint glitter french mani.  I Lily Love You  is a sheer hot pink in the bottle with lots of different size glitters.  There's hex, triangle of different sizes, small circle, and micro glitter all in one bottle.  Put it over a color and you just get the glitter pieces.  Lots of shine with a topcoat, and it covers up how coarse glitters can be,

Then I got bored with it and did this:

Put Essie's Matte About You on top of it and viola.  The black looks like a chalk board and the glitter looks like a fairy kind of exploded on her hands.  In that light with the matte topcoat the glitter is more rainbow than pink, plus it looks like confetti.  This made me really happy,  I can't wait to do this to my own nails.

Rimmel London Black Satin retails for $3.99 US, OPI I Lily Love You is $8 US, and Essie Matte About You is $10 US, all plus sales tax. 

Glitter Glitter Everywhere

The longest week ever has finally ended!  Happy early Halloween!  Back to back parties now that I'm at the post-college age is getting really hard.  I require a lot more sleep than I used to.  Then on top of that I just got home from seeing Paranormal Activity 3, which freaked me the hell out.  I made my friend's arm go numb and gave myself a cramp in my own arm I was hanging on so tightly.  Needless to say, I won't be getting much sleep tonight.

So today's featured color is Essie's Fair Game.  It's a really smooth dark gray with a metallic shine.  In certain lights it looks like it has a blue tint to it, and then in others it looks like it might have a green tint to it.  It doesn't have any shimmer to it, but it's a very shiny creme.  Here's what it looked like on me.

This lasted for two days before I got bored of it and did this to it.

Each nail is a different glitter.  I don't remember what even half of these glitters were, except for the left index finger was an OPI color from the Miss America collection, Crown Me Already!  This was all very difficult to get off of my nails afterwards.  

Essie Fair Game retails for $8 US, OPI Crown Me Already! retails for $8.50 US

Gold Finger

Am I the only one who feels like today (Wednesday) feels like a Friday?  Why isn't it Friday?  This week will never end.

Anyway, my nails are GOLD today!  Like brushed 14k gold.  I love metallics.  It's Revlon's "Golden" from the quick dry line.  Indeed, it did dry quickly, and I added a quick dry top coat (also from Revlon), so I figured it would dry extra quickly.  Turns out it dried a normal quick dry, but I ended up putting too much polish on my left thumb nail and I hit something with the not-dry-yet nail and ruined it.  Had to start all over.  One of those "Aw, seriously?" moments.

It applied kind of streaky, but it looked much better after I added a top coat.  This color actually got me a very nice compliment when I went out to dinner earlier from the owner of the restaurant, who is a huge LSU Tigers fan.  It helped that I had on a dark purple top, but whatevs.  I did get a very nice "Ooh la la," and a "Geaux Tigers!" out of him though.

I have a feeling that this color will look great during the summer or even just with a tan.  When it first dried and I sat there admiring my nails I felt like I should be in a James Bond movie.

Revlon Top Speed Nail Enamel retails for $5.99 US plus sales tax.

Purple Frost

The color I'm wearing today by New York Color (aka N.Y.C.), I don't even know if they make anymore.  I found it at the bottom of my collection and I've probably had it from my first two years of college, 5 years ago.  Actually, I just looked it up; it is still available at almost every drugstore, Target, Wal-Mart, and even at my local Sears according to their website on the Where To Buy tab.
  These are long wearing nail enamels that come in 15 different shades and are SHINY!  I know I've said that some colors are shiny and pretty on their own or to add a top coat for shine, but this color did not need it.  I only used a quick dry top coat because I'm impatient.  The Purple Pizzazz Frost that I used was almost blinding in direct sunlight and has enough dimensions that it's almost iridescent.  The website advertises that the polishes are chip resistant and they actually are.  If the most damaging thing you do to your nails all day is peck at a keyboard, then this polish will probably last you over a week, if you don't get ADD bored with it and change it first.  I'm worried that driving down the road on a sunny day with this will be hazardous to my crow brain and love for shiny objects.

These pictures were taken from my crappy 3.5 MP camera phone in direct sunlight.  You can see for yourself what I mean when I say the color is shiny.  Aside from my horrible cuticles and that one bit being kind of messy still, it looks like I photo shopped that shine reflection in.  And the best part about this is the full sized bottle of polish is dirt cheap.  Great color and wear don't have to cost you more than you pay for a cup of coffee.  However, the only drawback with this company is that they only have 15 shades to chose from, so there isn't a lot of variety, but you get a pretty big bang for your buck.

New York Color polishes retail for $0.99 US plus sales tax.

Cha Cha Cha

2 Post Friday!
Because of the power outage mentioned in the previous post, I am making two posts today.

China Glaze has a color called Cha Cha Cha, and boy is it bright.  I didn't realize it until after I wore Midtown Magic that China Glaze has strengtheners built in.  My nails grew quickly and were strong as long as that polish was on them.  So depending on how long I can keep this color on, I will probably be very happy.

The best way to describe how this color look in the bottle and on is Peter Pan green.  Other than that, I'd describe it as a great industrial color.  One of those colors that would never appear in nature, kind of like spilt chemicals.  If you're planning on a Halloween costume of Peter Pan or Tinkerbell, or Poison Ivy, or even a slime/lagoon monster, this would be a great accent to your costume.

Definitely use two coats with this color.  It went on a little streaky, brush strokes were very obvious, but a top coat fixed that right up and added a little extra shine.

EDIT: This color lasted through two extra days of hitting my hands on the embroidery machine and still there were no chips.  That's magic.

China Glaze with Hardeners retails for $8 US

Lion Around

Happy Friday!  I was going to post on Wednesday, but the power went out in my entire neighborhood, so no interwebs for me until Thursday.  And then I forgot.  So here's a new color.
  This post features Essie's "Lion Around."  When I was telling people who asked me what my nail color was I described it as "Lion, like rawr, Around."  This color was part of the set I bought, so it's another mini, but also available in the full sized bottle.  It applied opaque with two thick coats, but it was still very nice with just one as a pretty sheer.  It dried a little darker than the in the bottle, and I'd describe it as more of a ballet pink.  I'm incredibly familiar with that color since I was a ballet teacher for about 5 years, and a dance student and performer for years before that.  But still, for a light color, which I normally don't wear, it's very pretty.

It could have been the two days I spent at the embroidery machine at my work, but this polish chipped all to hell very quickly. ( The picture was actually taken at the embroidery machine while I was waiting for something to finish, so this is the before picture.)  This was the awesome length that my nails get where they look fabulous and then break.  Light colors and french manicures look best on longer nails, and colors look best on shorter nails, IMHO.  Put a crazy or dark color on really long nails and it looks insane and frightening.  I'm just saying.

Full sized bottle of Essie's Lion Around retails for $7.50 US

Midtown Magic

Hello friends and happy Monday!

Today's post is featuring China Glaze "Midtown Magic" from the Metro collection.  At first I thought it could be a good dupe for L'Oreal "OWL's Night," but that color is more iridescent, where as Midtown Magic is more of a shimmer with micro glitter.  However, this color is still very nice, especially for fall, and it definitely fits in with the metropolitan theme.  The color itself is more of a dark chocolate with bronze and gold shimmer, which I found to be very distracting in direct sunlight.  I actually got quite a few compliments on this color.

These images were taken from my 3.5 Megapixel camera phone, so quality is considerably lacking in my opinion, especially when it comes to close ups.

 In direct sunlight, so you can see the shimmer.

 Under artificial lighting in the house.  You can still see the shimmer, and a decent comparison with the bottle.

For these images I applied 2 thick coats and a top coat.  Midtown Magic retails for $8 US

Just for comparison, here's L'Oreal "OWL's Night."  This one is definitely on my wishlist.

4 on 1

I spent way too much money at my local Ulta last week, but now I have oodles of new colors for fall!  (12 new shades, plus a nail art pen.  I realize I might have a problem.  At least I'm not into drugs or trash television.)

So this posting has four different polishes in it.  Surprise surprise, I got bored with my claws.  And my mother's.  Did Mom's nails in a lovely green shade that I will be posting later in the season.  My mother is one of the elderly mad (she owns it, fabulously), and gets strange looks now when she wears flip flops because her nails are always crazy colors thanks to my extensive collection of lacquers.  We live in the South, so it's normal to be wearing sandals well into November.  The old saying for how warm our fall and winter usually is "If you haven't broken into a sweat in your new holiday sweater, it was a cold winter."

Anyway!  Here is today's featured nail art.  This picture was taken with my phone outside on a sunny day while walking through the parking lot on my way into work.

The color for most of my hand was "Date With the Night" by essence. It's a really inexpensive brand (read, $1 kind of cheap) that is really really good.  It applies opaque with one thick coat, but I feel strange with only one coat so I used two to make sure it was completely opaque, and dries in under 2 minutes.  On top of that color is Essie's "Matte About You," one coat.  I've been hearing about matte colors and top coats for over a year and had never gotten around to purchasing one, but I think the top coat has become a great investment.  I've instantly doubled my color inventory.  At first I was weirded out by it, but it's actually a good "day polish" or you could use it to tone down a really bright color if it's seasonally inappropriate.  Love it.
  The accent nail is Essie's "Your Hut or Mine," again with the two coats.  That polish is an opaque shimmer that is almost a coral pink, but just barely.  I was so impressed with that one that I put it on my toe nails (don't worry, I will spare you the sight of my hooves.  Dancer's feet aren't always the nicest things to look at, although my feet are actually kind of pretty IMHO).  Let me preface that I am actually very pale for the beginning of fall as I am a sun worshiper.  This color made my feet look TAN!  Highly recommended.   On top of that is Orly's "VIP" pink glitter.  Glitters always come out grainy, so I loaded up on the top coat.  Having the matte on all of my nails except for the accent nail really made the glitter pop, and I got nice reactions from my female coworkers.

Essie "Your Hut or Mine" actually came in a sample size 4pc set, but that set was $17 US.  Orly "VIP" was $3.50 US, and essence "Date With the Night" was $0.99 US.  Essie "Matte About You" top coat $10 US.

Halloween Set

More Halloween colors!  Unfortunately I can't remember the name of this polish (gasp!) and I can't find the pack it came in, but it's from the same Ulta Halloween 4pc set the last post was from.  This one is a dark purple and actually stood up to 2 days of hitting my hands at work all day before this picture was taken.  I'm very surprised!  Ulta had recently relaunched their nail polishes and I didn't think anything of it to begin with; I just thought they had redone the bottles.  But the professional line of polishes are very high quality, applying opaque in one thick coat and don't chip easily.  This color will probably stay in my collection for many seasons I like it so much.  Forgive my cuticles.

Ulta Halloween set $7.99 US (plus sales tax), OPI top coat $8.50 US

Here's a pic of the entire set.

Witchly Thinking

Ok, so the picture is of a terrible quality since it was taken from my phone and it only has a 3.2 mega pixel camera.  But whatever. 

  So I have terrible ADD with my nail polish and habitually change the polish every 2 or 3 days.  It is almost my only form of expression in my everyday wardrobe since my job's dress code is pretty strict as far as what I wear goes, so I change it every chance I get.  I'm pretty rough on my hands anyway.  I work in retail so I'm constantly hitting my hands on counters and hangers and other things; understandably my nails take a beating.  The polish will change the same day it chips, without fail.  So here we go!

Ulta's Witchly Thinking from a mini Halloween set and Orly's Tiara.  Originally I had thought Witchly had been black, but it turned out to be a dark navy blue.  It applied opaque with one coat with minimal drag or bald spots.  The accent nail took about four coats of Tiara glitter polish, like glitters usually do, and it came out kind of grainy, so if you use it be sure to load up on a top coat for optimal smoothness.  I used Revlon's quick dry top coat to seal it and add some extra shine.  

  The Halloween set came with 4 colors for $7.99 US (plus sales tax), and Tiara was also a mini for $3.50 US (plus sales tax).