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Monday, May 27, 2013

Pink Lightning

Today's manicure is simple, but I think it turned out quite striking.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze You Drive Me Coconuts. It's an almost neon jelly-finish pink polish from China Glaze's Sunsational summer collection. The "jelly-ness" of this polish isn't super obvious in the photos or in real life. The formula is a bit streaky and you can see a bit on my ring finger how you can get bald spots if you don't let each layer dry enough. The color is darker in real life than in the first photo; it's a deeper pink, if that makes sense.

Indoors, fluorescent light

I then added 3 diagonal stripes of Sally Hansen Chrome in white gold to each finger. I used a long striping brush which I dipped in the polish, wiped off the excess and then dragged across my nail starting at the outside edge. Because my nail beds are quite curved, I could never finish the stripes in one pass, so I would touch up the inside end of the stripes by dragging the very tip of the brush back over the stripe in the opposite direction.

Indoors, fluorescent light

In the above photo, you can see how You Drive Me Coconuts has a satin finish, probably because it is almost a neon color. If I had used a third coat to even out the bald spots this would have been a nice in between creme and matte finish to leave without top coat. 

Indoors, with flash. No top coat.
The above photo with flash is probably the most color accurate for the pink.

Indoors, fluorescent light. With top coat. 

White Gold is exactly what the name suggests, a silver chrome finish polish with hints of gold. It's a gorgeous color that I really need to try stamping with sometime. Below you can see a bit of the gold part of the finish.

Indoors, with flash. With top coat. 

I can't stop looking at my fingers with this manicure. What's your favourite simple, but stunning mani style?

See you again soon!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Purple Craze

I do love me some purple, so this week I went a little crazy with it!

I started with 2 coats of Essie Waltz on all my nails. On my index, middle and pinky fingers I water-marbled with Waltz, Revlon Fresh Cut Lilac, Essence break through, and OPI Lincoln Park After Dark.

Waltz is a beautiful milky almost white jelly polish; you can see a swatch of it by itself here. Fresh cut lilac is a sheer pink toned mauve with shimmer. Break through is pure purple, only slightly more red than blue leaning and you can see 2 coats of it own its own here. LPAD is a gorgeous vampy almost-black purple.

Fluorescent light indoors

On my ring finger and thumb, I sponged a purple gradient starting with Lilac, then break though and finally LPAD on the tips.

I didn't like the look of the gradient on its own; it wasn't blended enough for my liking. So to cover it up a little, I added one coat of OPI Divine Swine, small purple glitter and medium silver hex glitter in a clear base. There's lots of silver in the bottle and it's easy to get them onto the brush, but you really have to drag it to get it on the nail and then dab it around where you want it.

Indoors fluorescent lighting

Indoor with flash

I finished the whole mani with a coat of OPI Rapid Dry (a new bottle - I forgot how much I love this stuff when it's new).

Below on my middle finger you can see what happens if you don't clean all the polish out of the water before pulling out your finger; you can get some of the polish from the water folding back onto your nail, which is why there is that vertical ripple down the middle of my middle finger.

Right hand. Sunlight. 

Something you can see in the sunlight is how when you marble with a shimmer polish, the shimmer tends to spread into neighbouring colors. You can really see that in the above photo on the pinky and below on the middle finger. 

Left hand. Sunlight. 

See you again soon!

Saturday, May 04, 2013

Garden Party

After a week of bright colour blocks on my nails, I thought it was time for something a bit more subtle.

This week, I have 2 coats of Essence modern romance. It's a peach-leaning pastel pink with very subtle pink shimmer. You can see the shimmer in the bottle, but it most light you don't notice it on the nail. On my ring finger I did 2 coats of OPI my vampire is buff. I think MVIB might be my favourite nude, creamy, opaque, flattering ... love it!

Fluorescent light

Over modern romance I stamped with plate BM-224  in Konad special white. If you have trouble stamping, I definitely recommend starting with Konad special polishes; they are made for stamping and pick up the images much more easily on the first try.

Pre-cleanup and top coat: I wish images would stay this crisp after top coat. 

On my ring finger I did a 'dot gradient' (decreasing sized dots) in Nfu-oh 62, a gorgeous peachy-nude holographic. (To see how I make dots check out my Easter Skittles manicure.)

Indoors, fluorescent light

I covered my ring finger in OPI rapid dry. If you buy this top coat, be warned the end of the bottle gets super gloopy, hard to apply, bubbles on the nail and yellows ever so slightly. I've put about 15 drops of thinner in it so far with no improvement.

Indoors, sunlight

Since the shimmer of modern romance was basically lost anyway, I decided to use Essie Matte About You on the rest of my fingers. It gave the manicure a really subtle, sophisticated feel that reminded me of a wedding or afternoon tea/garden party. Hence the name of this manicure!

See you again soon!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Sun Blocks

 This week the sun came out and stayed for several days. It finally feels like summer is coming, so I had to do something summery on my nails. Plus I had to try the 2 new China Glaze Sunsational Summer polishes I picked up.

I started with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme wear Mellow Yellow. It was quite streaky and I would have used at least 3 coats if I were to wear this on its own.


Then I used scotch tape to block off half of each of my nails. I tried to cover up the streakiest or worst looking portion of the yellow on each nail while keeping the 'random' look. Then I used one thicker coat of China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle, removing the tape immediately to keep the lines as crisp as possible. 

With flash

Then I blocked off some halves and some quarters of my nails with tape and did one thick coat of China Glaze You Drive me Coconuts. You drive me coconuts is a jelly finish, so you can see how the color is altered over the yellow and blue, particularly where I've covered both on one nail. I prefer it over the yellow because it's brighter and retains more of the pink, but it gives a cool patchwork effect either way. 

Fluorescent light

I touched up a few spots with a nail art brush where polish had leaked under my tape. Then I finished the whole thing with a coat of OPI rapid dry. My bottle is getting low, so there are quite a few bubbles on some of my fingers and my left hand got a little smudge and just wasn't looking as great as I'd like, so I have a rare shot of my right hand for you today.

Natural light.

Overall it's bright and summery, super shiny and has attracted a lot of attention already. My 4 year old niece couldn't stop touching my fingers when she saw them!

See you again soon!

Friday, April 19, 2013

Honey Ryder

I LOVE James Bond! I have all the movies. So when I finally saw the new OPI liquid sand Bond Girls collection for sale, I had to contain myself and only buy half of them. I've already put Tiffany Case on my toes and this week I have a simple mani on my hands with Honey Ryder.

I used essie protein base coat and 2 coats of Honey Ryder. On my ring finger a did 3 simple stripes of Ink Nail art in gold. Obviously, no top coat. The dry time for the liquid sand was pretty good actually, although I didn't leave it quite long enough before I started cooking dinner and you can see the result on my middle finger in a couple of the photos.


Under fluorescent lamp

Sunshine. Most colour accurate.

Indirect sunlight.

The pictures don't do justice to the shimmer that this polish has; the texture really catches the light. I think this polish lives up to the Bond name. It's like gold meets champagne and I love it!

See you again soon!