Wednesday, August 31, 2016

6:00 AM

Cult Nails - Disciplined


    Today I have a quick post to share with you. The reason I'm keeping it short is because this polish is no longer available. In fact, you can no longer get any polish from this company and I know a lot of people are still really bummed about that. Cult Nails was huge and had a lot of people lusting after their pretty creations. Disciplined was no exception, and you'll see why when you look at my pictures. 

    Released in 2013 as part of the Behind Closed Doors collection this neutral grey polish packs a big punch with its intense micro shimmer


    What looks to most like a soft grey  creme polish is actually filled with blue, pink and purple micro shimmer.


   The application was smooth but very sheer on the first coat. Disciplined builds up nicely and 3 coats  will achieve full opacity. 


    Every single polish from cult nails that I've tried I've been happy with and I wish I had gotten more when I had the chance. I'd love to hear which one was your favorite, or which one did you miss out on that you're still kicking yourself about. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing! 



Friday, August 19, 2016

6:00 AM

Heather's Hues - The Jellybeans Collection


     Happy Friday everyone! Another week has come and gone and it seems like the summer has just flown by. Soon it will be time for hoodies, fuzzy socks, pumpkin everything and darker fall colors of polish. That being said there's still time to rock some fun bright colors on your nails. And today's post is all about some fun, bright neon colors from Heather's Hues. I'll warn you though the Jellybeans Collection is being discontinued on Aug, 31st so if you want them you'd better snatch them up quick! 

     Because I have so many polishes to share with you today and there are quite a few pictures I thought I'd go with a different format for this post and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it as well as the polish in the comments. 



     The Jellybeans Collection consists of 7 colors. 6 bright neon shades that remind me of a pack of highlighters and a black. Each polish can be built up to reach full opacity but are sheer enough to work with pond manicures or leadlighting which makes them extremely versatile. I've chosen to show you each polish as 2 coats without top coat so you can see the true jelly finish.  While being very bright on their own I would recommend wearing them over white to really get them to pop. Also like most neon nail polish they are unforgiving when it comes to imperfections on your nail so a good ridge-filling base coat is the way to go. This will also help prevent any staining, which I didn't have an issue with but I only wore each polish for around 10 minutes. Whew, now that the introduction is out of the way let's look at some polish!


Strawberry Jam-min'





     Color: A bright neon pink jelly polish with a slight orange undertone. No matter what lighting I tried to photograph this in it wanted to look orange. 

     Finish: Semi-matter jelly finish

     Application: Surprisingly smooth for a neon polish with no streaking on the first coat. Build up nicely after two. Very quick dry time. Shown 2 coats without top coat.
     
Orange Jubilee




     Color: Bright, highlighter orange

     Finish: Semi-matte jelly finish

     Application: More opaque on the first coat than I was expecting and had minimal streaking. Very quick dry time. Shown 2 coats without top coat.


Limonyello




     Color: Vibrant highlighter yellow. Normally I'm not a fan of yellow polish with my skin tone but this one seems to work.

     Finish: semi-matte jelly finish.

     Application: Smooth and even coverage but VERY sheer. Again there was no streaking during application. Shown 2 coats without top coat.

The Electric Lime




     Color: Vibrant green

     Finish: semi-matte jelly finish

     Application:  Sheer and a little streaky on the first coat. Evens out nicely after two. Very quick dry time.  Shown 2 coats without top coat. 


Show Me the Blue Raz-zle Dazzle




     Color: Beautiful ocean blue. 

     Finish: Semi-matte jelly finish

     Application: Sheer and a little finicky when using more than 3 strokes. I had some slight dragging when applying thin coats and found it was best to not play around with the polish. Everything evens up very nicely after two coats and was the most opaque out of the entire collection. Very quick dry time.  Shown 2 coats without top coat.

Isn't That Just Grape?



    
     Color: A pink toned purple

     Finish: semi-matte jelly finish

     Application: Smooth and easy application but a little sheer on the first coat but builds up nicely. Very quick dry time. Shown 2 coats without top coat.


Least Liked Licorice




     Color: Black

     Finish: semi-matte jelly finish

     Application: Very sheer on the first coat and slightly streaky. Evens out after 2 coats and builds up nicely. Very quick dry time.  Shown 2 coats without top coat. 


     Now  even though I know these polishes have a very quick dry time I thought I remembered someone successfully water marbling with them. So against my better judgementI tried it out. That really didn't work out at all. The first drop of polish was dry before I could get the second drop to fall. So as a warning, don't try that at home. They do however work great for gradients!



     Don't you just love how vibrant this is! The colors really pop over a white base and work well together. For this look, I did one coat of Sinful Colors Snow me White and sponged the entire Jellybeans Collection (minus the black) over the top. Once that was dry I stamped over it with Hit the Bottle As Black As Night and Uber Chic plate 10-3.

      Like I mentioned above this collection is being retired at the end of the month. (Aug. 31st) but you can still pick up the entire collection if you hurry. Individual bottles are $5 for a mini (7.5 ml) or $7.50 for full sized (15ml). The entire collection is $41 for a set of mini's or $57.75 for full size and can be purchased through Etsy. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

6:00 AM

Zoya - Tracie



    Today I've got a throwback polish to share with you from when my  obsession with nail polish really started to get serious.  Zoya released the Beach collection in the summer of 2012 at the height of my polish purchasing frenzy. I bought up nail polish faster than it could dry on my fingers and sadly I have almost 2 helmers full of untrieds because of it. Just take a look at my Collection page and you'll see a long list without too many links to blog posts. while I'm still making a few polish purchases here and there I've decided it's time to really make a dent in my collection and give a little love to all those pretty untrieds.  That where today's polish fits in, Zoya Tracie is one of those nail polishes that has been sitting unloved in my helmer and now it get's it's turn in the spotlight. 

green-shimmer-nail-polish

    Tracie is a yellow-toned pistachio green polish with very subtle silver shimmer. This color actually reminds me of a granny smith apple. Anyone else see it? Shown here is 2 coats plus top coat.

green-shimmer-nail-polish

    The application process for me was ok with the first coat applying sheer and streaky. Everything evened out nicely on the second coat for a smooth finish.


   My overall thoughts are that this is a nice polish and I can see it working out well in some nail art or mixed in for a skittles manicure. But it's not the best color on my and I probably will not wear it again on its own. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!



Wednesday, August 10, 2016

6:00 AM

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Violet


     Ok, so I've got a super quick blog post for you today because it's playoff season for me and I'm working on borrowed time as it is. For those of you who don't know I play on a softball team and we were on the field until after 11 pm Monday night for playoffs. Yay, we are winning but boy am I tired. Being the glutton for punishment that I am I agreed to help out 2 different friends on their Volleyball teams for playoffs which are Tuesday and Wednesday night. I'm either going to be in great shape after this on unable to move. I guess time will tell on that one.

    Anyway back to the reason you're here, the nail art! I have fallen so hopelessly behind on the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge that I know I will never catch up, but I'm determined to finish it! I'll have all my posts done, albeit months behind but the inlinks are no longer open so I won't be able to share the other looks with you. However, if you're reading this post and participating in the challenge please feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments.  So just what is the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge? Well, it's simple really, This challenge is set up a bit differently than most. For starters, there is the option to do weekly manicures with one week dedicated to themes, and one to colors. Or you can do every other week and stick with themes only or colors only. For the color portion of the challenge, each person is also assigned a pattern. The end result is 40 different looks all done in the same colors. As most of you know I opted to do the color challenge and you can see my previous looks using TealOrange, Purple and GreenBlack and WhiteGreyGlitter toppersPale Blue , 3 shades of PurpleTurquoise and 3 shades of Green

    For this prompt the color is Violet and I was given the pattern Aztec. Well, I sort of screwed up and thought it was tribal so feel free to use your imagination on this one. Or since my "tribal" manicure from a few months ago ended up looking more "Aztec" let's just say that I did this on purpose to give each pattern their 15 seconds of fame on my blog. Yeah, that sounds better than me just being scatterbrained and mixing them up!



    So this look was very easy to put together and I want to toot my own horn a bit about that image placement. Look at how centered they are on my nail!! That will probably never happen again so bask in its beauty while you can. 

    For my base colors, I used Sally Hansen Lively Lilac and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. For the image, I used NNail plate B97 and Hit the Bottle As Black as Night. The accent nail I stamped with Lively Lilac to tie it all together. After a layer of top coat, this manicure was complete. Just like this post is about to be. I hope you enjoyed this look. I will be back Friday to share more of my hectic life with you. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

Friday, August 5, 2016

6:00 AM

Metallic Gradient with a Stamped accent



     Have you even be perusing Pinterest and stumbled across a pin that made you want to whip out your nail art supplies right then are there? Well, that's exactly what happened to me when I can across this pin. I loved the vintage look and feel of this manicure and the muted color scheme. Sadly it was the late hours of the night and my nail art would have to wait.  But as I lay there in bed supposed to be sleeping my brain just kept coming back to the manicure I was thinking of completely inspired by that pin. 

     I lay there for over an hour working out my color scheme, which plate I might want to use, and I knew that sleep would be impossible. Until I wrote my idea down that is. Which is exactly what I did. I ran to my desk, grabbed a pen and paper and jotted down the rough ideas I had, went back to bed and instantly fell asleep knowing my idea was safe from being lost to the hidden corners of my mom brain.  So what was this important manicure idea that caused my a restless night? Let's take a look

metallic-gradient-essie

    While I knew I didn't want to recreate that inspiration manicure completely I still wanted that muted earthy feel of the color scheme. I tossed around the idea of using 3 colors in the gradient, with blue adding a little pop of color but quickly discarded that thought. And I think I made the right decision. I like the way that Penny Talk and Good as Gold from the Essie Mirror Metallic's collection makes a subtle gradient allowing the blue in my accent nail to really pop.

essie-mirror-metallics-collection

      I should also mention that these metallic polish work best in a gradient if they are layered over a white base. I used Finger Paints Paper Mache as my base color. One thin layer was all I needed under the gradient but I used 2 on my accent nail for a completely solid base. And speaking of accent nails... here's a close up of mine!

Metallic-nail-art-gradient-essie

    I just love how this whole manicure turned out, but I'm mostly proud of the accent nail. I tried my hand at making my own decal again and it was so much easier using my Simply Neat Miracle Mat  (affiliate link) instead of just my stamper. Seriously this mat has made a huge improvement to my nail art process.  I feel like I have space to create looks and not worry about making a mess.  I'm getting a bit off track so I'll get back to how I created this look but seriously if you're looking at getting a mat for nail art I would highly recommend this one. 

   Ok so now that that shameless plug has been put in, back to the manicure. For my accent nail, I used MoYou London plate 03 from the Paradise Collection and Finger Paint Black Expressionism to create the outline. I then filled in the image with Penny Talk and Good As Gold trying to mimic the gradient effect in the petals. To get a small pop of color Blue Rhapsody also from the Mirror Metallics collection added the perfect touch. I topped it all off with Sally Hansen Double Duty which is the only top coat I've found that dries in a reasonable amount of time but is still pliable so that I can apply the decal to my nail without cracking. If you've been having the same issue with your decals give Double Duty a shot and I promise your frustrations will be over. Tuck that little tidbit away as my own little tip from me to you. You can thank me in the comments ;)

    I loved this manicure, I love the colors, the way the accent nail turned out but mostly I loved how proud of myself I was while wearing it. Because it was finally a manicure that turned out exactly how I pictured it in my head. And we all know that doesn't happen often for me. Now the only question I have for you is.... was my accent nail technique considered reverse stamping or just making a decal? I'm a little fuzzy on what the difference is and would love some clarification. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing! 








Wednesday, August 3, 2016

6:00 AM

Drip Drop - Prototype #518


     Hello and welcome back to my blog. I feel bad about not having post's ready for last week when I was on vacation but I had so much to do that I ran out of time.  But on the positive side, we had a blast and the kids have already asked when we can do it again. I love that they had so much fun but I'm ready to be home for a bit. Right now I'm procrastinating on the clean up part of my vacation and bringing you a prototype polish from Drip Drop #518. But that also means this will be a quick post because I've got lots of housework sitting here staring me in the face. Sometimes I feel I need a vacation from my vacation!

     I don't know about you but I really like getting prototype polishes and mystery bags. They open my eyes to nail polishes I might not normally pick out for myself, and I've gotten a few that I ended up loving. I don't know about you but before I  started on my journey with nail polish I pretty much only owned shades of pink and red. Now I have the entire rainbow and then some in my helmers!

     Prototype #518 is a clear based polish with multi-sized circular glitters in Silver and Blue. While this polish works best as a topper, I've chosen to show it alone.

blue-silver-glitter-nail-polish

     Shown here is 2 coats plus top coat.  As you can see the glitter coverage is pretty good, but it would take several coats to reach full opacity.


     They application process was typical of a glitter polish. The first coat had a sparse smattering of glitter, with significantly better coverage with the second. I'm not sure yet what color I would like to layer this over in the future. My first instinct is to go with silver but I somehow feel that that's too common or obvious. I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments. And don't forget to check out my previous review of another Prototype from Drip Drop #516. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!


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