Love & Beauty Brick

I watched the John Waters film "Cry-Baby" last night, and was inspired by all the '50s campy goodness to do some red vixen nails. I had recently purchased a new red by Love & Beauty called Brick, and here it is!

 

Brick is a red jelly base, with red and gold flakies scattered throughout. Very pretty! As you can see, it looks quite different in the bottle than it does on the nail. I had a hard time photographing this nail varnish - the gold does show up better on the nail than it seems in the photos. It's not as noticeable as it is in the bottle, but the gold does give the polish nice dimension. The application was smooth. I used two coats, and one coat of Seche Vite.

Now, back to "Cry-Baby" and some fun inspiration photos. I love the character Wanda Woodward, played by Traci Lords. Here's a shitton of pictures of her!

 

 

Love her! Love John Waters! What's your favorite John Waters film?

Zoya Gemma

Sorry for the delay in posts! I have had a busy, busy week. Things have calmed down now, thankfully.

I was able to participate in the Zoya Intimate collection promo that went on a few weeks ago. When I got my package, I decided to try out Gemma first.

This was my first time trying out Zoya, and I was not disappointed. Gemma, as I'm sure we all know by now, is a olive/army green with a subtle duochrome shimmer. The application of this was great. I used two coats, and they flowed like butter, as they say. I do wish the shimmer showed better on the nail, but I did get a ton of compliments on this color. I can't wait to try out the rest of the collection. I'm also waiting on the St. Patty's Day promo, which has been on backorder since the day I ordered it.

Sorry for the terrible photos. I'll have to rephotograph this color the next time I wear it. I'm also sorry for subjecting you to the terrible condition my cuticles are in, and all that tip shrinkage! My hands and nails have not been happy with me lately!

What have you guys picked up with all these Zoya promos lately?

Nicole by OPI Party in the Penthouse

Party in the Penthouse is part of Nicole by OPI's Gossip Girl collection. I've not seen Gossip Girl. Do they party in penthouses?

 

Party in the Penthouse is a metallic blue. The application was great, and it dried fast. I used three coats, but it would probably have been good to go in two if I were actually paying attention when I applied it. In my collection, this is a pretty unique color. It's so pretty! One of those colors that makes me look at my nails all the time.

Hope your weekend is going well!

Springtime Nail Art

In honor of the weather finally getting nicer in Minnesota, I decided to do some cute nail art.

Artificial lighting.

Artificial lighting.

Flash.

Flash.

Yellow: Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow (2 coats)
Blue: OPI What's With the Catitude? (2 coats)
Purple: OPI Rumple's Wiggin' (2 coats)
White: Man Glaze Mayo (3 coats)

The stripes could be better, but otherwise I think it turned out nicely.

Is the weather getting better where you are?

What I Sent

Because looking at bottles of pretty nail polish is always fun, here are some photos of what I sent to the lovely Nicole at Top to Toe in our swap.

A shot of the whole lineup.

Wet N Wilds: Part of Five Glitters, Buffy the Violet Slayer, and SaGreena the Teenage Witch.

Claire's Mood Polish: Confident/Peaceful and Earthy/Happy. Bonita: Luscious and Bolting Blue.

Essence Colour & Go: Break Through and What Do U Think? LA Splash: Pretty Jellyfish and Love Crush.

Milani Neon Fresh Teal, Orly Luxe, Sinful Colors Nail Junkie, Confetti Pink Confetti, and Ulta Jaded.

She just made a great post with really nice pictures of all of these. Check it out here. Also, if you're not following her, what are you waiting for?! Follow her blog! It's great!

My package from her has arrived, however it is at my parents' house, and I will have to wait until Saturday to pick it up. I am so excited to see what nail polish treats I get! I will definitely be posting photos of what she sent.

Also, how is it that I'm just now figuring out the wonders of adjusting the image sizes in Blogger? Who knew changing my photos from medium to large would make such a difference? I'm going to try and go back through my posts and edit them all!

I am off to get some bubble tea with a friend, and hopefully later I will have a post with a spring-y manicure.

American Apparel Manila

Today I've got on the last color I hadn't tried by American Apparel, Manila.

This is definitely one of those colors that's so ugly, it's awesome. I think it looks terrible on me, but I love it. The application was a little streaky, and I needed three coats to even things out. But it's a nice opaque polish, and it dried pretty quickly. I want to hate these American Apparel polishes, because the owner is such a creepwad, but they really are great.

Aside from fake cheese, this polish reminds me of 60s patterns. Behold:

LA Splash Golden Seahorse

So, today is the big iPad 2 launch. I haven't even started getting dressed for work, and I'm already annoyed. I decided to wear some glittery nail polish, to make myself feel a little happier. I chose Golden Seahorse by LA Splash, something I found at Ulta the other week.

This polish is so beautiful. It's a sea foam colored base, with gold glitter in it. I used two coats, and one coat of Seche Vite. You can tell even with the topcoat, it's still a gritty polish. I actually sort of like the texture - I can't stop running my fingers over my nails. The application was surprisingly nice. I thought with all that gritty glitter, it was going to be thick and gloopy, but it wasn't at all. It also dried quickly.

For a really great closeup of the glitter, check out this post by Lacquer Laine.

This color reminds me of sunlight reflecting on the water, buried treasure, mermaids... basically, Golden Seahorse is a great name for this. I tried to find fun mermaid tattoo flash to show, but after the first page of awful mermaid drawings and even worse mermaid tattoos, I gave up. There's only so much one can take. Why do people with terrible tattoos post them on the Internet?!

I hope this stuff doesn't start chipping right away though. My OPI Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear? manicure chipped significantly on the second day, which is weird because OPIs usually last a long time on me. Anyone else experience lots of chipping with the sorbets?

It feels a bit weird to be complaining about iPad 2s, chipped nail polish, and bad tattoos given what's happening in Japan right now. Japan will be in my thoughts today.

OPI Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear?

I'm finally wearing Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear? from OPI's Texas collection. It's so lovely!

This is three coats, with one coat of Seche Vite, in natural lighting. So glossy and squishy and fun and Springy! It applied smoothly, and dried quickly. Now if only the weather would be a bright as this!

Also, please note that my nails are now long enough to actually see visible nail line!

I let the powers of iCarly choose this color for me. The bright colors of the set inspired me. Why, yes, I am a 23 year old who watches a children's television show. Whatever, that shit is funny!

Bonita Turquoise

Have you guys ever heard of Bonita Nail Enamel? I found it in Francesca's, that little boutique in malls. They were a buck a piece, and there was a pretty wide variety of colors. I couldn't find any information on the brand online, and I'm curious as to whether this is a Francesca's only brand, or if they're sold at other stores.

At the store, they were all stuck in this glass vase, so it was annoying to try and shove around glass bottles in a bigger glass bottle. I saw Turquoise and dug around until I had it in my hands. Another nail polish must have broke on it, because the bottle has dried polish on it, but it was the only one, so I didn't care.

 I don't know how appropriately named this is. It's definitely too green to be a turquoise. To me, it's like a forest green with a bit of blue in it. It's different from any of the other teal/turquoise colors I own. I really love this color, and am glad I dug through everything to find it. However, the application left something to be desired. It was really thick, messy, and hard to work with. Clean up was even hard - the acetone just seemed to push the green around, not actually clean any of it up. Maybe some thinner will solve the problem.

In the bottle it seemed like a creme, but it's actually more of a jelly. Very shiny and squishy. I used two coats, and there's no visible nail line! You can see by the tip shrinkage Seche Vite doesn't get along too well with this lacquer. These photos are taken in natural lighting.

Despite the application issues, this is something I'll continue to use because the color is so lovely.

I hope everyone's weekends are getting off to a good start!

Orly Galaxy Girl

The Orly Cosmic FX collection has been on my wishlist since it came out. Yesterday, I picked up one of them at Ulta: Galaxy Girl.

Natural lighting.

Natural lighting.

 

Flash.

Galaxy Girl is a burgundy base, with purple, green, and blue shimmer. Very pretty! Vampy with multicolored shimmer. I didn't have any issues with the application. It did take three coats to get rid of bald spots. For how expensive this stuff is, I do wish it was more pigmented.

This is one of the few collections that I want every polish from. But at $10 a pop, I'll have to spread out purchasing them.

Haul

Yesterday, I went on a nail polish hunt for a swap I'm doing with the lovely Nicole over at Top to Toe. Naturally, I picked up some things for myself. Here are some pictures, because who doesn't love looking at pretty nail polish bottles?

Ulta Underground, China Glaze White Cap, Nicole by OPI Party in the Penthouse, L.A. Splash Golden Seahorse.

Orly Galaxy Girl, Bonita Turquoise, Bonita Barefoot, Essence Choose Me!

I quickly swatched the glitters over my chipping I'm With Brad manicure. The index is Orly Galaxy Girl, which went on smoothly. My middle finger is L.A. Spash Golden Seahorse, which dries rough, but not too bumpy. Ring finger has Essence Choose Me! And my pinky has China Glaze White Cap, which is freaking GORGEOUS! I love how the gold really shines through on top of a darker polish.

I'll post pictures of what I purchased for her as soon as she receives the package. Don't want to give away the surprise!

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