Happy 4th of July!

Sally Hansen Color Frenzy in Red White & Hue
1 coat over red
 

Happy 4th of July! Here's a shot of a favorite 4th of July mani. This glitter topper is a clear base with red, white and blue glitters in both bigger and small sizes. Just one coat gave great coverage. Hope my fellow Americans have a fun day celebrating!

OPI Bearest of Them All

 OPI Bearest of Them All (1 coat)

over OPI Romantically Involved (2 coats)

 

Before the Christmas holidays, I purchased this set Coca-Cola themed set from OPI that included a glitter topcoat called Bearest of Them All along with a plush polar bear ornament. At first I didn't notice the heart-shaped glitter, but when I did I decided it would make for a fabulous Valentine's Day mani so I saved it. I love it and have gotten many compliments on it.

 

 

Bearest of Them All has small white glitter in two sizes, pinkish-red glitter that is a big bigger, and white heart-shaped glitter in a clear base. I used just one coat and got good coverage. It was pretty easy to get a heart on each nail- I didn't have to fish much at all to get them on my brush.

SinfulColors Galaxy-Sea

SinfulColors Galaxy-Sea (1 coat)

over Seche Mischievous (2 coats)

 

Today I had on a dark, vampy mani and thought this SinfulColors glitter topper might just make it pop and give it a bit of holiday flair. Galaxy-Sea is a clear base filled with green and gold glitter, and I love the way it looks over this dark color! I got great coverage just dabbing it on- my brush was easily filled with glitter, no need to fish around or specifically place. A coat of Seche Vite smoothed it out nicely.

 

Galaxy-Sea is part of the SinfulColors Holiday 2014 collection and is available for $1.99 each exclusively at Walgreens.

 

 

 



Find SinfulColors online:

www.sinfulcolors.com

Twitter:  @SinfulColors_NP

Facebook:   Sinfulcolors Professional

 

 

SinfulColors Splatter Spell

SinfulColors Splatter Spell

2 coats

over Sally Hansen Pumpkin Queen

 



shade pic

 

How about one more Fall mani? Although I do think this would have made a good Halloween mani, the black and gold in this topcoat makes for a great Fall mani too!

 

Splatter Spell is a top coat that part of the SinfulColors 2014 Halloween Collection called Wicked Color. This collection contains some "Tricked Out Top Coats" as well as "Halloween Favorites".

Splatter Spell has metallic gold black flakes and black and gold glitter suspended in a clear base. I first tried it over black, and since you couldn't see the black flakes and glitter, that didn't work at all so I thought orange would be better. The orange base allows both the gold and black to show up, and I love how it turned out.

.

There are 14 "boo-tiful colors" in this collection, including four topcoats and 10 Halloween favorites. They are available exclusively at Walgreens and Target stores for $1.99. 

Find SinfulColors on social media:

Twitter: @SinfulColors NP

Facebook:       Sinfulcolors Professional

 

 

Pop Culture Cosmetics Wonderland over CoverGirl XL Gel in Ample Apple

Pop Culture Cosmetics Wonderland (1 coat)

 over CoverGirl XL Gel in Ample Apple (2 coats)

shade picture

 

Today I'm wearing another of the three glitter toppers I won in March I in giveaway from Pop Culture Cosmetics.

 

I did just one coat of Wonderland (using a dabbing method) and got what I consider to be great coverage for a glitter topper. I waited a bit, applied a thick coat of Gelous to help smooth it out, and did my normal topcoat of NYC Grand Central Station and had a really smooth result. I do see some glitter shapes and colors that I didn't get in this application on these four fingers- there are also some black spades and clubs in the bottle in addition to the hearts and diamonds I did get in this pic- so this polish contains all four of the card suits.

 

Thanks to Pop Culture Cosmetics for an awesome giveaway- I'll be featuring the last shade soon!

 

 

 



Pop Culture Cosmetics Fairyland over China Glaze You Drive Me Coconuts

Pop Culture Cosmetics Fairyland (1 coats)

 over China Glaze You Drive Me Coconuts (4 thin coats)

shade picture

 

In March I won a giveaway from Pop Culture Cosmetics (yay!) and received three awesome glitter polishes. After I wore China Glaze You Drive Me Coconuts, I thought it would be a perfect base for Pop Culture Cosmetics Fairyland- and I was right! I love how this turned out.

 

I did just one coat of Fairyland (using a dabbing method) and got what I consider to be great coverage for a glitter topper. I waited a bit, applied a thick coat of Gelous to help smooth it out, and did my normal topcoat of NYC Grand Central Station and had a really smooth result.

 

Thanks to Pop Culture Cosmetics for an awesome giveaway- I'll be featuring the other two shades soon!

 

 

 



NOTD: Revlon Top Speed Hearts of Gold FX

 

Essie Sunday Funday (3 coats)

topped with

Revlon Top Speed Hearts of Gold FX (2 coats)

 

 



shade pic

 

Hearts of Gold FX is a clear base with small gold glitter and larger holo pieces of heart glitter.

 

Just like my opinion of Celestial FX, I do not like Heart of Gold FX.

 

It's also so pretty in the bottle. But it also is very watery and again I had to absolutely go on a fishing expedition to get that lone large glitter on each finger. A second coat did not help at all. Such a disappointment.

 

NOTD: JENsations Flower Power

 

JENsations Flower Power

2 coats over Sally Hansen Linen

 

Jen, who custom blends her polish and sells it on Etsy, contacted me about swatching a few of her shades and I was excited to give them a try. I thought that Sally Hansen Linen would be a great base for Flower Power  and it was.

Flower Power was a bit thick. I ended up doing two coats of it to try to get better glitter coverage. I did fish a few of the flower glitter out of the neck of the bottle and placed them where I wanted them- I wanted to have at least one on each finger. I topped it with a coat of Gelous before I added NYC Grand Central Station, and it smoothed it out nicely.

JENsations polish sells for $8 and is available on Etsy. Shipping starts at $3, and is $0.85 when purchased with another item.

 

Disclosure: Both polishes featured in this post were provided for review purposes.



NOTD: JENsations Holo At Your Girl

JENsations Holo At Your Girl

1 coat over Sally Hansen Pacific Blue

Holo At Your Girl is a mix of multi-sized holographic glitters in various fun, unique shapes & sizes in every color under the rainbow in a clear base.

This was a fun glitter topper! Jen, who custom blends her polish and sells it on Etsy, contacted me about swatching a few of her shades and I was excited to give them a try. I thought that Pacific Blue would be a great base for Holo At Your Girl and it was.

Holo At Your Girl was super-easy to apply and I got great glitter coverage in just one coat. I topped it with a coat of Gelous before I added NYC Grand Central Station, and it smoothed it out nicely.

JENsations polish sells for $8 and is available on Etsy. Shipping starts at $3, and is $0.85 when purchased with another item.

NOTD: OPI Seche Collage Overlay

Seche, the company that makes the well-know quick-day topcoat called Seche Vite, recently released a limited edition Collage Overlay topcoat. I picked it up at Sally's recently and thought my purple mani might be a great base to try it over.

OPI Gift Cards for Everyone! (2 coats)

topped with

Seche Collage Overlay (1 coat)

I really wanted to like this. I really did. But it was problematic for me for a few reasons.

1. It was hard to apply. I really had to push the glitter around, and even though I tried really hard to get a even coverage, it did not happen.

2. There are some pieces of random white glitter in the bottle. But so few that I only got *one* out when I applied this on all 10 nails. Wish those weren't even in there.

3. The polish was quite thick and it applied very unevenly.

I did find that a coat of Gelous smoothed it out quite well. But I'm still not loving it.

Have you tried Seche Collage Overlay?

NOTD: OPI Merry Holly-Days! topped with Revlon Stunning

OPI Merry Holly-Days!

topped with 2 coats of Revlon Stunning

(sun)

(shade)

I needed another glitter topper like I needed a hole in the head, but that did not stop me from picking up Stunning! It's quite pretty, and amazingly did not even need a coat of Gelous to be smooth. I just topped it with NYC Grand Central Station and it was nice and even. Bonus!

NOTD: L'Oreal Eiffel For You topped with Silver Sparkle

L'Oreal Eiffel For You 

topped with Silver Sparkle

bottle shot 

L'Oreal Eiffel For You

bottle shot

L'Oreal Silver Sparkle

 I based this mani on an Emmy mani that L’Oréal Paris Consulting Nail Expert Tom Bachik created for Ashley Judd. 

First, Tom applied a deep taupe violet color, Colour Riche Nail in Eiffel For You, as the base color. Then, he gilded the tips with a chunky silver sparkle, Colour Riche Nail Diamond Collection in Sparklicious (he only gilded the tip vs. a full on French manicure for a long slender look).

I had received Eiffel For You to review, and I already have a similar sparkle shade, Silver Sparkle, in my collection, so I decided to add that on top.

It's quite rainy and gloomy here, so I wasn't able to get my typical sunlight shot, but I think the overcast lighting really lets you see the different colors of glitter in Silver Sparkle. It's really gorgeous and eye-catching. The finish is also super-smooth after just one coat of topcoat.

Details

Brand/Name: L'Oreal Eiffel For You topped with L'Oreal Silver Sparkle

Number of coats in pic/topcoat?: 2 coats color topped with 1 coat of glitter topped with 1 coat NYC Grand Central Station

Source: Eiffel For You was provided for review purposes, and Silver Sparkle was purchased by me for my collection from CVS in the spring

Retail price: L'Oreal polish retails for approximately $4.99 at drugstores

NOTD: OPI Pink of Hearts 2012

Recently I was placing an online polish order and noticed that OPI had a 2012 release for their Pink of Hearts line so I of course had to get it! And this time there were two shades packaged together- a light pink called I Think in Pink and a glitter called You Glitter Be Good to Me.

I was super excited about this set because I suspected that You Glitter Be Good to Me was the pink version of Pirouette My Whistle from the Ballet collection... and I was not disappointed!

I Think In Pink

topped with

You Glitter Be Good to Me

It's so pretty and delicate and I am loving this combo. Sadly there is no sun today, but I still love it! The glitter was super easy to apply.

The sun did come out on Saturday just long enough for me to snap this pic above. Love it!

Details

Brand/Name: OPI Pink of Hearts 2012- I Think In Pink together with You Glitter Be Good to Me

Number of coats in pic/topcoat?: 2 coats pink topped with 1 coat of glitter. 2 coats of Gelous followed by 1 coat of NYC Grand Central Station

USA! USA! Top Coat from Sephora by OPI

L'oreal Target Red (2 coats)

topped with USA! USA! Top Coat from Sephora by OPI

macro shot

I ordered the USA! USA! Top Coat and was so excited that it arrived in time for me to do an Olympics mani. I chose a red polish for my base shade, but if I was doing it over, I think I'd do a white base so the red glitter would be more visible.

I did have some application trouble with this glitter topper..... the other glitter toppers I've tried from Sephora by OPI were great and applied easily. USA! USA! was very thick and would not stay put as I did multiple strokes to cover my nails- each stroke would remove more glitter. I ended up dabbing it on but still had trouble getting it back by my cuticles.

Since it was so bumpy, I topped it with two coats of Gelous before I did my topcoat of NYC Grand Central Station, and surprisingly, that leveled it out well.

Details

Brand/Name: Sephora by OPI/ USA! USA! Top Coat

Number of coats in pic/topcoat?: 2 coats L'Oreal Target Red (PR sample)

                                                    1 coat Sephora by OPI USA! USA! Top Coat

                                                    2 coats of Gelous

                                                    topped with NYC Grand Central Station

Price: $9.50

Purchased from: www.sephora.com

Collection: The USA! USA! Top Coat was released in July 2012 to coincide with the 2012 Summer Olympics