American Apparel Passport Blue + Street Wear Hologram

So, this was supposed to be my birthday manicure (I turned 24 yesterday!), but I was lazy and didn't paint my nails until this morning. Oops.

I showed you American Apparel Passport already - it was my second post ever, if I remember correctly. I took another photo of it for the sake of having a slightly better image of it up.

I wish I didn't, but I love American Apparel's nail polishes. I used just one coat for this manicure. My only gripe with this is the messiness. The brush is hard for me to control for whatever reason, so I end up getting it everywhere. And it's so pigmented, that my nails just end up looking sloppy because I can't clean it up. So, please forgive the messy application. I tried.

For some Birthday Bling, I added Hologram by Street Wear over Passport Blue. I was sort of expecting the application of this to be a disaster. You know the glittery polishes that never catch on the brush, so you have to practically dump it on your nails for it to show? Well, Hologram is nothing like that. I only needed ONE coat to get that many glitter pieces on my nail. Just one dip into the bottle, brush it on, and BOOM you've got a glitter party. The only downside is that if you wanted a sparser arrangement of glitter pieces, you'd have to work to get less on the brush. It's that dense!

The holographic-ness of it really shows! Even under dimmer lights. I've had a ton of compliments on it so far today. Hologram does dry with a rough texture though, and top coat didn't really help even it out.

This is one of those can't-stop-looking-at-my-nails manicures.

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:

American Apparel Passport Blue

Here's the second of three American Apparel colors I own, Passport Blue. Basically all of the nail polish bloggers out there have raved about American Apparel polish, so this is a bit redundant, but I really do like these polishes. Like Office, the application of this was great. Color-wise, this is totally me. I love "almost black" colors, and this definitely fits that bill. I've got a little bit of tip wear after the second day, but that's par for the course for me. I used two coats.

Indoor lighting, no flash.

Indoor lighting, with flash.

Natural lighting, no flash.

Unfortunately, the sun is still MIA, so I haven't been able to get a photo in the sunlight. Summer, where are you?! But, I think these photos still show that in a lot of lighting situations, the color appears black, and if it's bright enough, you can tell it's actually a navy blue.

Also, I'm playing around with the style of my photos. I actually used my DSLR for these guys, even though I really need to get a better lens for it. I tried to up the contrast a bit more, since Blogger likes to wash out my photos. I think I like the square format of these images better than my previous ones.

On the bright side, I think my nails and cuticles look loads better in these photos than in my previous ones.

The last AA color I have to use is Manila. I also purchased a couple Nicole by OPI colors last night that I am excited to try!

American Apparel Office & Love & Beauty Light Green

Last night, I got together with a friend I hadn't seen in a while. We went to a raw and vegan restaurant, where I got a super good taco salad. When I got home, I relaxed and painted my nails while watching "That 70s Show".

Here's Forever 21's brand of nail polish, Love & Beauty (which looks like it's by the L.A. Girl people) over American Apparel's Office. The F21 polish only has the name "Light Green" on it.

 As you can see, Light Green is a green base, with small green glitter, and larger flakes of glitter. The flakes shine red, orange, yellow, and green. The application was smooth, and I used two coats. For $2.80, I can't complain. It looks cool, and it went on nicely. I haven't tried it by itself yet, and I haven't done much of anything but sleep while it's on, so we'll see what it wears like.

I just wish the stupid sun would come out, so I can get better pictures of it. I took tons of photos, and none of them came out too well. Oh, the joys of winter in Minnesota.

My goal for the future is to get my cuticles in better shape, and to also stop picking at the sides of my nails. Which is going to be incredibly difficult, as I've done it as long as I can remember. It's a nervous habit, a bored habit, an I-have-nothing-better-to-do habit... It doesn't really bother me when I look at my hands, but looking at these photos, I realize just how disgusting my hands do look. Ugh.

Intro & American Apparel Office

So, mostly out of boredom I have decided to create a nail polish blog. I have always been into nail polish, but over the past six months or so, I have become obsessed. My collection is not nearly as large as a lot of the other polish bloggers out there, but it is rapidly growing.

For my first post, I'll show a polish I just purchased yesterday: Office, by American Apparel.

Sunlight.

Shade.

Lighting in my bathroom.

The color is somewhere in between the sunlight picture, and the bathroom lighting picture. It is my first American Apparel polish, and I like it quite a bit. The application was nice. I used two coats.

Also, please note that my cuticles do NOT look as terrible as they do in these pictures. Mostly that is just pieces of Seche Vite that have not come off yet. However, my cuticles are not in the best of shape. That is one thing I plan to work on.

I can't wait for this dreadful winter to be over. This lack of good sunlight is killing me.