A few manis.

Here are a few different polishes that I have worn since my last post.

This is OPI's Y'all Come Back Ya Hear? layered with a coat of China Glaze's White Cap. After I came back from the Lake District (which was amazing, by the way), I was off to Scotland and wanted something that would last the week. I showed you the OPI way back in March of 2011. I've also shown White Cap over black here. Forgive the weird pointer finger-less posing. My nail ripped halfway down (ugh!) so now it is sad and short and gross looking. 

Here is Miss Sporty's 010 (Beetle Wings? I hate that they don't label the bottles with their names!). My pictures are kind of awful, but hopefully you can see that this is a gold-green duochrome. I layered it over a brown polish (MUA Mud Pie), but I am curious to see how this looks over other colors. I'm pretty into this, but unfortunately I painted this on a Thursday night after my internship, and woke up Friday with a horrendous migraine that lasted all weekend, so I didn't get to enjoy the manicure. Nonetheless, this applied well. I can't remember how many coats I did over the base color, but no more than two.

Lastly I have Miss Sporty's 343 (Coral Gum?), which is what's on my nails right now. I think I used two coats. It applied well, it's nice and shiny, and it's a Spring-y coral. What's not to like? The lady ringing my up at Asda liked the color, too!

Now I am back into the full swing off term three, and to be honest I just want it to be summer! Shortly after the term ends, my parents are visiting for a couple weeks, and then my sister comes for a large chunk of August. I can't wait to see my family; I miss them so much! I've really been missing home lately, and hopefully their visits will help my make it through another year.

I hope those of you in the UK are having a good bank holiday. I really should get going on some school work, since I have the extra day! Boo.

China Glaze For Audrey half moons with stars

I showed you guys China Glaze's For Audrey nearly two years ago now, but here it is as a half moon mani with some star gems on an accent nail. The gems were sent to me by Nicole in a swap a while back.

I'm pretty "meh" about this manicure. It was much cuter in my head! I think the stars would work better if they were a bit smaller. And I'm pretty sure they'll be falling off very soon. Even after two coats of top coat they stick out. Also For Audrey seems to apply... sloppily? Does anyone else have this issue? Despite clean up efforts there is still excess polish, and I was being careful as I applied it. Who knows? Maybe I'm just out of practice. I raved about the application process my first post about For Audrey, but it looks sloppy in that post, too. Urgh.

Happy Wednesday!

Inspired by a Tutorial: Plaid

I'm on the second to last post of The Challenge! Today is day 30, a manicure inspired by a tutorial. I spent some time peeking around YouTube, and finally found a plaid tutorial I thought was cute. I'll show the tutorial at the end of the post.

I started off with two coats of And a Cherry On Top by Sephora by OPI. I bought this polish about three years ago, and it's been one of my favorites since. It's red, and a jelly. My favorite combination! The consistency is more on the thin side than thick, but it applies really well. Every time I apply this, I'm reminded of why I love it so much. It's perfect!

And here's the final product! The black is Liquid Leather by China Glaze. The white is Mayo by Man Glaze. And the gold is Model's Own Gold Rush. I think it turned out pretty cute, and rather festive. I've had a fair amount of compliments on it, which is always nice.

Halloween Half Moons

I wanted to use some of my newly acquired polishes for a Halloween manicure, so I busted out China Glaze's Liquid Leather (which I won in The Phalanges Files' giveaway), and Missguided's Misstaken, given to my by Nicole in our recent swap.

Here's two coats of Misstaken. This applied so well!  It went on smoothly, and dried quickly. The color is great, and the bottle is so cute. I love the lacy peace sign. I really don't have much else to say about it because it is perfect.

Then I added one coat of Liquid Leather. This also went on incredibly smoothly, and dried to a nice shiny finish. The half moon lines aren't totally smooth (especially on my pointer finger), but for the most part I think it went well.  I think this is such a cute manicure for Halloween!

To get into the Halloween spirit, I've been watching The Search for the Next Elvira. The show is so bad, it's good. And who doesn't love Elvira?!

Galaxy Nails!

I'm up to day 19 of The Challenge, and that means galaxies!

All of the polishes I used: Street Wear Mmoody, 17 Glitter Top Coat, Love & Beauty Charcoal, China Glaze Cheers to You, ManGlaze Mayo, Orly Galaxy Girl, China Glaze White Cap, Love & Beauty Light Green, and Essense Choose Me! Phew!

I started out with two coats of Charcoal by Love & Beauty. If I was wearing this alone, I would have done three because there are some bald spots. Charcoal is, as you can see, a black base with silver micro-glitter. Application was smooth, and it dried decently fast. It does dry to a gritty texture, so top coat is a must. My biggest issue with these Love & Beauty polishes are their names. Charcoal? Really? Charcoal is just plain black! Graphite would have been slightly more appropriate, as that actually has somewhat of a sheen to it. Come on Love & Beauty, put more than two seconds of thought into your nail polish names!

And there's the final product! They are not totally perfect, but I think they look pretty nice. The shooting star on my index finger is a bit too prominent, but I adore the one on my ring finger. Doing these galaxy nails was so fun, and far less time consuming than you'd think (especially considering the amount of polishes that go into creating this look). My coworkers liked 'em, and they could tell what I was going for. And if the general public can tell these are space-based, then I'd call it a success. And I do have to say, a camera can not really pick up the beauty of these bad boys. Do some for yourself and see what I mean!

I was too lazy to take process photos, but I'll break it down into steps:
1. Paint base color. Ideally something dark and shimmery.
2. Sponge on white in cloud-like manner.
3. Add an iridescent color on top of the white to tone it down. I used Mmoody, Choose Me!, and Light Green for this, alternating on each nail.
4. Add a darker iridescent color to parts of the "clouds" that are too bright. This is where Galaxy Girl came in handy.
5. Add shooting stars with a silver or a glitter or a silvery glitter.
6. Use more white to add stars. It's pretty cute if you add some twinkling stars to the mix.
7. Cover said stars with a glitter to tone them down. Cue White Cap.
8. Add as many glitter polishes as you can find. This is where I used two coats of 17's Glitter Top Coat. I wish I had Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure (or similar polish) because the flakies add some great dimension.
9. Add some top coat and tada! The universe has exploded on your nails.

If, like me, you are a visual person, here are the tutorials I followed when doing my galaxy nails: Here Comes The Sun's video tutorial, and Rebecca's photo tutorial.

With that, I am off to "space out" (heh!) to It's Always Sunny and fall asleep!

Deborah Lippmann & China Glaze White Cap

So, the next post up for The 31 Day Challenge is black and white. I couldn't think of anything I really liked for this, so I did things a little differently. Initially I was thinking of doing black with white accent nails. But that reminded me too much of my mall goth/totes punk rock days of doing all black with red on accent nails, so I wanted to stay far far away from that. I decided to use black, and use China Glaze's White Cap over it. Hey, it has white in the name, and it's in a white base! Close enough, right?

Fade to Black is, you know, your usual black creme. I would have never spent $18 on a basic black nail polish, but I found it on clearance for $3 at Trade Secret. And I'm all about things on clearance for $3. It applies like a dream. It glides on so smoothly, and dries fairly quickly. I used two coats, and it looked so chic, that I had trouble putting anything over it! I do wish the brush wasn't so freaking tiny though.

White Cap is bottled perfection! It is such a pretty polish, and I can't imagine a color it wouldn't look good layered over. I love that it can look gold or green, depending on the light. It also applied smoothly, and dried quick. I just wish it hadn't taken me this long to use it!

Happy weekend!

China Glaze For Audrey

So, I know I'm like, a few years late to this trend. I've been wanting For Audrey for quite some time now, but just got around to getting it. Better late than never, I suppose.

Natural lighting.

Flash.

Flash.

I really have nothing but good things to say about this polish. The application process went smoothly, and I was expecting it to be streaky. I only needed two coats for things to look even. And the color! How gorgeous! What a perfect light blue shade. I've gotten a fair amount of compliments on it, and I myself can't stop looking at my nails. I'm so glad I've finally managed to pick this up, as I can see myself wearing this a lot in the future.

Now, what would this post be without some photos of Audrey?!

SO JEALOUS OF HER EYEBROWS!

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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