Purple Pinstripes

It wasn't until I did my collection database that I noticed my love for purples.  I have more purple polish than any other color in my collection.  Lilacs, dark purple, mauve, violet, amethyst, magenta etc... all in my collection.  So it is no surprise that this past week when I went to pick a color from my untried list, I had many purples that are sitting there waiting to be used.  Sooo I combined four three of them to create the look below, nothing profound just a base coat of Butter London's Molly Coddled, striped with Zoya's Mira and highlighted a certain points with Orly's Be Brave.  

Review Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat

I recently went on the hunt for a long lasting top and base coat.  I was just really tired of my nail polish chipping in one day and knew there had to be better alternatives than what I was using.  I do realize that a lot of it has to do with body chemistry and what job you work, if you use your hands a lot, etc., etc.  However I wanted to branch out and try something different.  I frequently hear people say, try (insert name here) brand they last the longest, but for me, nothing worked.

While browsing Sally's website I came across a product that I had seen in the store many times, but never bothered to pick up.  I read the reviews and decided to give it a shot.  It is Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat. This is marketed as a top coat, however I use it as both a base and top coat.  It is very thick, almost a gel and can be difficult to dry if you use it alone as a top coat, so I suggest using a quick drying top coat on top. I tried it on many looks but decided to take a picture of my recent manicure which I actually still have on today, 9 days later.  The picture consist of:  

1. base coat of Gelous - 

2. Orly's Life's A Peach (2 coats) - 

3. Hare Polish Own Your Opulence (1 coat) - 

4. one coat of Gelous - 

5. one coat of Seche Vite top coat.   

This product actually works at maintaining your manicure, the picture below is after 7 days with barely any shrinkage or chipping.  

little or no tip wear after 7 days

This product is relatively cheap at under $4.00 and in my opinion well worth a try. 

Green With Envy

 I apologize up front for the clean up on this manicure, the formula for this polish was runny and really hard to work with.  I used Orly's Jealous Much? and used Finger Paint's Go Van Gogh! on the accent nail.  The Orly polish is a really pretty mint green, yet the formula is really streaky and runny.  It takes multiple coats and show every little flaw on each stroke.  No inspiration for this look, just off the top of my head wanted to wear green since I haven't in a while.  Hope you are having a great week and Happy May so far.

Inspired By: You Tube

The inspiration for this manicure came from YouTube.  I was browsing one day and came across a video of  a manicure similar to this one.  I wish I could remember the name of the you tuber, but for the life of me I can't or I would credit.  It is just a simple two tones nail with squiggly lines and random glitter.  It was very easy to do but I received lots of compliments on it.  I used: China Glaze's Peachy Keen and Dress Me Up, Orly's Too Fab for the glitter, and a LA Colors striper for the lines.  

Operation use my old products - Mylar Dragonflies

Honestly the inspiration behind this manicure is just not being wasteful.  I have tons of nail art supplies along with tons of nail polish.  Lately I haven't been using any of the nail art items.  I have made a promise to use the items that I have, before buying new nail art items.  I purchased these Mylar dragonflies probably two years ago and have never used them.  I thought I would create a look with them for Easter Sunday.  One mistake I made is using the nude polish as a background.  I feel a light pastel would have done much better and been more forgiving.  I used for this background Orly's  Pink Whisper (another polish I have had a year and not used).  Overall I like it, however I know it will not last long.  Please forgive the little boo boos I made, this polish was a pain to deal with and shows every little streak.  

Dots Galore

On my nails this week is a quick manicure done with just dotting tools, and various nail art colors.  I used Orly's Purple Pleather for the base and used dotting tools in various sizes to create overlapping dots.  Those colors were Zoya Ali, Zoya Raven and Zoya Arizona.  I topped it all off with Zoya's Sparkle Gloss topcoat. Very cute and easy manicure.  Have a great week.

Re-Fresh Mints

Hello All
Today's nail look is just like the polish name refreshing.  It looks so clean and cute on the nails but still is the pop on the wild side.  I used China Glaze's Re-Fresh Mint and Orly's Be Brave along with a small Art Deco Striper in Magenta.  I got a lot of compliments on this look and think it is very cute for a fun twist.  I cut my nails all down and think I'm going to keep them short for a while, for practical purposes mostly, but also I think they look cute.  Please excuse my cuticles, they are not up to par right now.

Lolly Lolly

Quick Look:  This is Zoya's Lolly, which is a matte color all over the nail, then sideswiped with Orly's Cupcakes and Unicorns at the top.  I then went in with a silver striper to accent the border where the matte and glossy meets.  Something relatively easy and cute that you can wear on the go.  Also, my nails are growing back nicely, but I'm kinda over long nails for now, I'm thinking of cutting them down.  I cycle like this sometimes.  Hope all is well with everyone and your new year is going as planned.  Stay blessed... Pam

HAPPY NEW YEARS 2013 - New Years Sparkly Nails

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I am not very big on words, I just love to do my nails and post pics of nails.  Not much to explain for these they are black and sparkly and lots of fun.  I got a load of compliments on them, nothing technical at all just black nails painted with Ulta's Little Black Dress.  I have not purchased many of the Ulta line of polishes but I must say I am very, very impressed with the quality of it along with the price.  It went on smooth and was opaque in one coat even though I used two.  I also used Orly's Atomic Splash and Icing's Heart of Gold.  This was the first of my Icing polishes as well and loved it too.

My First Jelly Sandwich

It's not pretty but here it is, my very first Jelly Sandwich.  I know, I'm super late but I have so many untried polishes that I have to get a system in order to use them all.  I must say that it was quite different than what I anticipated.  I used Zoya's Katherine, Orly's Too Fab and Orly's Be Brave.  The jelly polish applied fine on the first coat, I attempted to do thin coats but it's hard with this consistency.  I then used the Orly's like a gradient and applied two  more coats of Katherine on top.  Now I have always heard that Jellies took forever to dry, but this actually dried very very fast.  I had some clumping on my tips and could have waited a little longer before applying the glitters, but otherwise it was fairly simple, even my husband asked, what kind of polish it was it was different.  I will keep practicing and working at it.  I am getting addicted to jellies now, almost as bad as glitters.  Speaking of glitters, I purchased six Icing glitters today for the first time.  I actually bought a couple of dupes so will save those for an upcoming give-a-way soon.

Nail of The Day? Zoya Zuza /Orly Sashay My Way

So I was thinking, I do a lot of manicures but only post my ones that include nail art.  Why don't I just post other manicures and include information that most nail bloggers want to hear like if application was good, thoughts, would I repurchase.  So I thought of doing a new series to add to my blog called: nail of the day.  Now I will not be posting this everyday because I do not change my nail polish everyday.  Kudos to those that can do that, I just can not.  But when I do have just plain manicures or layering manicures I could post and give my opinion or just post a simple picture.

No flash

Flash

 My very first nail of the day is Zoya Zuza layered under Orly's Sashay My Way.  These are both very beautiful colors which I acquired recently.  Sashay My Way is part of the Orly Flash Glam FX collection and Zuza is part of the Beach and Surf collection from Zoya.  I love both of these, Zuza was amazing, opaque in two coats and very long lasting.  The Orly was a good glitter for layering and came out well on the brush. 

31 Day Challenge Day 6 - Violet

This manicure is not an EXACT representation of violet, but it's pretty close in my opinion. I am a little biased because it is one of my favorite nail polishes from my favorite nail polish company Zoya. I just kept it simple for this one and paired Zoya Malia with Orly Halo which created a beautiful combo I think.

Be sure to drop by and show some love to the other challengers:

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner

-Kat at Hooked On Polish

-Diana at Nails By Diana

-Aly at Wonderland Beauty

-Meredith at Perfectly Polished

-Nicole at The Color Republic

-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails

-Cee at Absolutely Cee

-Sam at Polished Art

-Nail Narcotics

-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed

-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches

-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful

-Mixed Mama

-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine

-Patty Greenberg

-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa

-Mari at Nailista

-Greta at How Was Your Day?

-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L

-Gini at Sassy Paints

-Chameleon Stampede

-Pam at Nail-E-Glance

-Me, Myself, and Polish

- Robin Sparkles