Kicks Evening at Chateau Marmont

Kicks - Evening at Chateau Marmont, 2 coats over 1 coat of dark green shimmer

Summer fruits nail art

Summer fruits nail art

Yellow & green gradation

...No, it isn't really a gradation at all

The polishes used are:
- Rimmel Sunshine (yellow creme)
- Revlon Pineapple Fizz (yellow glass fleck)
- Etude House YL803 (yellow jelly w/ opalescent glitter)
- Misa Mega Margarita (green glass fleck)

Wet 'n' Wild Toss Me A LIFESAVERS & glitter gradation

Wet 'n' Wild - Toss Me A LIFESAVERS & glitter gradation

Missha Crystal Nail Polish HGR01 & Zoya Charla

Missha Crystal Nail Polish - HGR01, 2 coats

Oh HGR01, you so pretty! Just look how many different faces she has! Formula-wise HGR01 is nice for a metallic polish, but the wand is way too big in relation to the bottle's neck and you'll end up getting polish all over it. So remember to wipe the neck clean with some acetone after use if you don't want this beauty to evaporate before its time. The strong rose scent makes me almost queasy, but the polish is so lovely that I guess I just must grin and bear it... By now HGR01 has become a cult polish and you can easily find it on eBay if you don't yet own it.

Missha Crystal Nail Polish - HGR01 & Zoya - Charla, 2 + 2 coats

Everyone says that Charla stains like a mother, thus I've never worn it by itself. But just look how these two polishes compliment each other so well! To avoid streaks I used two coats of Charla over HGR01 and it dampened the duochrome maybe a bit too much, next time I'll stick with just one coat of Charla and make sure to apply it with extra care.

CQ Gem Green & abstract nail art

CQ - Gem Green, 2 coats

Gem Green is a mint/sea foam green shimmer with a weak holographic effect. The formula was nice and the polish dried fairly quickly. In the bottle Gem Green appeared pretty sheer thus I initially thought that this one must require a ton of coats, but no, this is just two coats. o.O

CQ - Gem Green, 2 coats & abstract nail art

I'd seen people use those French manicure guide stickers in this fashion before and decided to try it myself. The gold polish is by Beauty UK and the pink one is Petites Fairy Pink (full mani done with it is here). I put a coat of Nubar Pink Crème under Pink Fairy, and I also used it for the dots. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm not a fan of '80s colour schemes, so this mani came off the same day. :p

Depend 245 & cupcake nail art

Depend - 245, 2 coats

This light pastel mint with a hint of blue was a difficult colour to photograph, and I had to tweak the hue and saturation levels a lot afterwards. These two pictures offer a far more accurate representation of the polish than the ones below with the cupcakes. Once again, I have nothing negative to say about Depend's formula, brush or drying time.

 Depend - 245, 2 coats & cupcake nail art

My first shot at painting cupcakes! For the bases on my left hand I used OPI You Don't Know Jacques (index and ring) and my own nude franken (thumb, middle and pinky), then using the alternating colour to paint the stripes. For the different frostings I used a turquoise and a pink from H&M, a lilac from Depend and a pastel yellow from Rimmel. The bottom picture shows the results before I added some shading to the cupcakes. I also threw in a photo of my right hand even though I'm not especially proud of the wonky stripes and bleeding colours. :p

Petites Daze & LaRosa Maroon Red

Petites - Daze, 3 coats

Dazed, yes, but definitely not confused - unless this out-of-this-world green foil causes you to drool all over the keyboard and its stunning beauty gives you heart palpitations. :P~ This is perfection, my quest for the ultimate blend of kelly/lime green has come to an end. Since the Petites are only .25 fl.oz. each I bought two bottles of Daze so I won't have to regulate its use.

Petites - Daze & LaRosa - Maroon Red, 3 + 1 coats

...And of course I had to try crackle over Daze. Maroon Red has two purple pigments in it which you can clearly see in the photo above. This is what the Joker would wear as his mani, lol.

Vintage purple to green duochrome comparison

Sally Hansen Maximum Growth - Chameleon, Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Emerald Amethyst, Revlon - Kiwizing & Hard Candy - Groove, all 2 coats

So what's the difference between these four I hear you ask... there isn't one. They're the same frigging polish! Now, several days after doing this comparison, I couldn't tell them apart if I hadn't written down the order I applied them in. ...Well okay, Chameleon is a *tad* more blue than the rest, but basically if you own one there's no need to hunt down any of the others.