Nail Layering with Sally Hansen and NARS

I REALLY need to get better about the timing of my posts- I took these pictures last fall. I guess that would be fine, but the two Sally Hansen polishes I used were limited edition and no longer available. I suppose a few may be floating around on eBay if you get desperate enough.

I LOVE layering. It's rare these days for me to wear just one polish by itself. Some times the layering experiments are huge fails and some times they turn out awesome. This was one of the awesome times. I layered Sally Hansen All Aglow, a purple foil-y polish, over NARS Midnight Express, a dark blue jelly, and slapped Sally Hansen Crystal Beading, a sheer multichrome that flashes from teal to blue to purple to pink, over the top. My pictures didn't manage to capture the best duochrome actions, but it was fabulous. Trust me.

Pink Glitter Sammich

I was just checking in my blog post draft folder and I have probably close to 30 potential blog posts. Yikes! I'm so behind. I paint my nails, buy new things, play with makeup, take pictures... and never feel like editing them and writing up blog posts. I don't know why! I guess because I feel like I don't have anything interesting to say and I'll just bore everyone. I still don't know how I used to manage to post EVERY day.

It's been so long since I wore these polishes that my nails had time to grow out from being nubbins and be really long to go back to being nubbins (their current state). It's been so long I almost didn't remember what polishes i used. But luckily I took a picture to remind me.

First I did a base of a nude polish, Zoya Kennedy. Then a layer of Revlon Sparkling, a pink tinged base with pink hex glitter, and small pink and holo glitter. The second glitter layer was Sally Girl Later (I've also seen it called Chunky Gold Glitter) which I wore in this post. The last glitter layer was another Revlon polish- Starry Pink (also known as Popular) which is silver hex and smaller glitter in a milky pink base. I followed all this with a coat or two of Seche Vite.

I Love Me Some Flakies

I fell in love with flakie polishes the first instant I saw them. I was lucky enough to be able to snap up Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure when it came out like 2 years ago. I was torn between using it all the time because I loved it so much and never using it because I loved it so much and didn't want to run out, haha. So I was glad when polish manufacturers finally realized how awesome flakies were and they became more readily available. If you don't own one you need to rectify that situation immediately! I know Essie runs a little bit on the higher side for a drugstore polish (although it used to be salon only!) but Shine of The Times is a must own (it's basically a Hidden Treasure dupe).

This was back when my nails were long and pretty. Sigh. I need to start taking my biotin again...

This is 2 coats on Nicole by OPI Party in The Penthouse with a coat of Essie Shine of the Times on top.

NOTD- Lime Lights of Olympia

So here she (he? it?) is. The promised first "real" post! Nail polish is my first and main love so it's fitting that this is my first post back.  I bought Sally Hansen Lime Lights, a sheer shimmery green, in a two pack from Dollar Tree so it basically cost me 50 cents. It look horrendous by itself, but looks awesome layered. Don't worry, I haz proofs.

And here are my disclaimers (Maribeth I know you love these, haha)- please excuse my gross cuticles as I basically didn't give a crap about my nails for several months, the sloppy application job as I don't have my clean up brush, the bad quality pictures as I'm using an unfamiliar camera, and anything else your eyes may deem offensive. Okay, now that we are sufficiently disclaimed, we may proceed.

This is one coat of Sally Hansen Lime Lights over 2 coats of Sinful Olympia.

Sinful Olympia and Sally Hansen Lime Lights

Whew, that wasn't so hard. Hope to see you guys again soon!

Fish Scales and "Woe is me" Tales

I'm STILL upset about the stupid neighbor thing from yesterday. Especially since we had to spend $90 and 4 hours building a mini fence in front of the actual fence between our yards. I acknowledge that my dog is bad to chew on the wooden fence boards when her dogs are barking at him, but I try and prevent it and don't let him out when her dogs are out. But she doesn't do anything when her dogs are running and bouncing off the fence on the other side. I have to be the responsible one and throw money away to keep my dogs from misbehaving while hers are free to do whatever they want. UGH! You know what? I don't think she let her dogs out ONE TIME today. Talk about an extreme reaction. They still need to go to the bathroom. Does she seriously think I don't ever want them to go out? I wanted to thank everyone who commented yesterday on my rant-y post. You all made me feel so much better. I just want so bad to believe that everyone has at least some shred of rationality to them, and it bothers me that some people will never have that, no matter who talks to them or what they say. So sorry I've been a bit of a Debbie Downer lately. I'll return you to your regularly scheduled pretties shortly.
As a way of easing back into it, here is the fish scales part of the title.  According to my boyfriend this mani looked like fish scales.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise under 1 coat of Hard Candy Break Up.

In the sun

My camera is dumb. It makes non-neons looke neon and actual neon look pastel. Turned Up Turquoise is a saturated neon green-based teal shimmer. Break is large opalescent hex glitter in a clear base. They glitter is hard to get even, but I like the way it looks so I keep using it.

In the shade

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Random NOTD: Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid Under Orly Winter Wonderland

So, I'm still sick, fever, stuffy nose, sneezing, coughing... all that fun crap. I took a 4 and a half hour nap today (well, once again, yesterday, by the time this posts) and I'm already ready for bed again at 8 pm. I don't want to ruin my perfect record of a post every day since I started blogging, so I dragged myself off the couch and away from my Iron Chef America marathon to write this post.

I wore this a few weeks ago and I really liked it. Orly Winter Wonderland is one of my favorite layering polishes ever. I reaaaaally want to go lay back down, so just pictures after this!

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Nail Layering With Flakies!

So, I'm sick AND sad today. Perhaps the best combination ever. Plus, my boyfriend is working today and I'm not the best at being alone when I don't feel so good. I make some pretty silly decisions. Such as, I didn't feel like making food so I'm eating pepperoni straight from the bag. It's kinda gross and they're REALLY greasy so I think I'm going to stop, haha.  Oh, and I still have a test to take today online and I have an essay to write. Yay!

So, I'm reaaaally behind in swatching so I had to dig to find something worth posting. I'm still determined not to miss a day of blogging even if my heart isn't completely in it.  Oooh, know what sounds good? Chinese food! Probably not the best meal for someone sick, but it comes with soup. That helps, right?

I actually took these pictures before I started blogging and they got lost in a random folder. I was trying to layer as many cool things as possible and this is what I came up with:

taken inside under artificial light

This is 4 different polishes layered. They were (in the order they were applied):

• A random dark blue shimmer. I can't remember exactly which one.
• OPI Catch Me In Your Net
• Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure
• CoverGirl City Lights (holographic glitter top coat)

taken in the sun

taken in the shade

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Holo Makes Everything Better!

Sorry guys, I don't have much of a post for you today AGAIN. I'm really good at being a bad blogger, haha. But I just wanted to show you how a fail mani can turn into something awesome.

Two night ago I had the awesome idea to paint my nails 15 minutes before going to bed. And I decided to use a polish I've never tried from a brand I've never used.  So of course something was going to go wrong. The polish turned out to be really sheer (it's a light pink with a darker pink shimmer flash), and while pretty, after 3 coats I had bubbling on some nails. I was frustrated by this point and it was too late to start over and there is no way I was going to go out in public without nail polish on (my naked nails are guh-ross).  I was going to put glitter on top but I decided to go for a sheer silver holo that I picked up at Dollar Tree a year ago or so and have never worn. And it turned out amazing!  The holo completely hid the bubbles but still allowed the pink flash from the polish underneath to show through.  I'm in love with combo and can't wait to try layering the holo over other polishes.

This is Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Diamond over Pixi #8.

It doesn't look so great in the shade but it still looks a million times better than it did without the holo on top!

Another picture for good measure!


Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Random NOTD: Sally Hansen Fractured Foil Over L'Oreal Pink Shells

Sorry, this is going to be a short post!  I atarted my second class for this summer yesterday.  I taking Biology, which is what I'm majoring in.  I like biology better than chemistry (which is what I took this past month) so I'm hoping it's a bit easier.  These summer course are so fast paces and tiring, but I just want to finish school as fast as possible so I can stop being a hobo and mooching off my boyfriend.  I know he doesn't see it that way, but that's the way it feels to me.  I can't wait to start my career and we can buy a house and I can start participating financially!  He's supported my ass for way too long.  But he's the sweetest thing and has never complained.  He would never think to complain either.

Anyway, here is a mani I did a week ago or so.  I really like how it turned out with the silver crackle over the hot pink.  I've showed you both of these polishes before. L'Oreal Pink Shells is here and Sally Hansen Fractured Foil is here.

Sally Hansen Fracture Foil over L'Oreal Pink Shells

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Shimmery Drugstore Layering Polishes for less than $2

Nowadays there are tons of glitter layering polishes at the drugstore.  I can think of 3 from Wet n Wild's 99 cent polish line alone.  Finding a nice shimmery layering polish is a bit trickier because most of the time they just look like boring sheers in the bottle.  But man, oh man, when you layer them over a dark polish they really will pop.  It takes some experimenting to find a sheer polish that is sheer enough to layer well without being streaky and ugly.  Here are a few from the drugstore that I've found.  To further challenge myself, I only used polishes that were $2 and under!

All of these are layered over 1 coat of Wet n Wild's Black Creme.  Seriously, this is the only black polish you will ever need- it's cheap, and it's opaque in one coat.

Sorry these are a bit messy.  I decided I wasn't in the mood for swatching AFTER I had already started.  And of course I was too stubborn to stop and too lazy to do clean up on my nails.  Also I'm too stubborn to do the swatches over again, haha.

Pure Ice- Busted

Taken in the sun

 This is one coat of Busted.  It has a subtle duochrome look to it but I wasn't able to capture it. :-/

Taken in the shade

Wet n Wild- Teal of Fortune

Taken in the sun

This is one coat.

Taken in the shade

Sinful Colors- Glass Pink

Taken in the sun

This is one coat.  It's almost too opaque to use for layering, but it still looks pretty cool.

Taken in the shade

   Pure Ice- Heart Breaker

Taken inside with the flash

 This is 3 coats, but it still looks pretty awesome with two and even one.  This one is a must own- it's a duochrome ranging in color from bright emerald green to a medium blue.  I have 5 pictures of this just to show you its range.

Taken in the sun

Taken in the shade

 You can see both the blue and the green on the nail here.

Taken in the sun

Taken in the sun

NYC- Love Letters

Taken in the sun

Here is one coat.

This one is my favorite.  It looks like a boring pink sheer in the bottle but it is actually a glass-fleck duochrome changing from pink to teal.  I can't remember where I first heard about the awesome powers of this polish, but whoever discovered it- thank you!

Taken in the shade

Available:

• Pure Ice retails for $2.00 and is sold at Walmart
• NYC is $0.99 and is sold at drugstores
• Sinful Colors retail for $1.99 and is sold at drustores (I've seen it at Walgreens and Target)
• Wet n Wild FastDrys retail for $1.99 and are sold at drugstores

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Random NOTD: Hidden Treasure over OPI's I'm His Coral Friend Matte

Hey guys!  Hope your Tuesday went well.  Mine wasn't bad- got some errands done, that kind of booooring stuff.  I was cleaning out my picture folder on my computer and found this pic of a mani from several months ago.  I wish I had though to take pics in the sun before I removed it!  Still, I love this and will probably recreate it some time in the future.

This is 3 coats of OPI I'm His Coral Friend as a base, which is a bright red-orange coral jelly.  I then topped it with 1 coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure flaky polish and a coat of China Glaze Matte Magic top coat to make it matte.  I wish I was able to capture that the flakies still change color with a matte top coat, but you'll just have to take my word for it!

This is taken under a light bulb which makes my skin look sickly and yellow, yay!

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

NARS Purple Rain (and something fun)

NARS Purple Rain was my first high end nail polish.  I kept seeing pictures of it over and over on blogs loved it, but there was NO WAY I was going to pay $16 for one nail polish (Hm, it looks like they raised the price to $17 recently).  But maybe you can guess by the fact that this post is called Purple Rain that I caved.  I still don't own that many high end nail polishes; I don't really see the need to when there are so many cheaper brands that are just as good, if not better like China Glaze and Orly.  But still, Purple Rain is one of the prettiest polishes I own.

Stick around to the end and I'll show you something THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!  Well, maybe not, but it is pretty.

Purple Rain is a blackened  red-toned purple with pink and purple shimmer.  This was 2 coats and no top coat.

Purple Rain in full sun

NOW FOR THE EXTRA PRETTINESS!

1 coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure over NARS Purple Rain!

Full sun

Outside in the shade

See? Aren't you glad you stuck around?  I told you it was pretty.  I wish Hidden Treasure was still available and east to find.  Oh well, at least I have a back up!


Available:

• $17.00 at Sephora.com
• Brick-and-mortar Sephora stores
• $17.00 at NARS' website

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!