Hot Pink and Black French Tips

Hey everyone :) I wanted to show you the manicure I've been wearing for the past few days. I usually don't do French tips with my natural nail color showing but I have the perfect topcoat for it!

I used those French manicure nail strip guide things and painted two coats of Zoya's Gilda since it's a little bit sheer. Then, I did one coat of CND's Sapphire Sparkle which is a really nice blue/pink shimmer topcoat. The striping part seems difficult to some but it's actually very easy. I used Kiss Nail Art in black and dragged it across the edge of the pink. If I didn't reach the other side of my nail, I just started from the other side and connected the two lines.

I hope you like this look! It was very easy and didn't take much time at all. I also got a lot of nice compliments on it =P

Direct Sunlight

Indoors

Indoors w/ Flash

Cheap eBay Find: Pro 88 Warm Eyeshadow Palette

Hello everyone! I recently had the urge to try something cheap from eBay and after browsing the web for some ideas, I decided to try the Pro 88 Warm Eyeshadow Palette. This appeared to be very similar to the Coastal Scents Warm 88 Palette but it was only $13 so I decided to give it a go.

The palette has a ton of neutral colors, as well as some pops of color which include some blue and pink tones. There are many different shades of brown, beige, taupe, and yellow/orange-based nudes. The entire palette measures around  9in. x 6.5 in. and the eyeshadow pots are a little bit larger than a dime. There seem to be a few duplicate colors though so this should last me a while.

As for pigmentation, some colors are definitely more pigmented than others. The texture of these eyeshadows are definitely on the more powdery side. I would best compare them to Wet & Wild eyeshadows which are not my favorite but I think I'll be able to make it work. They would definitely look better over a primer.

And as far as finish goes, there are many shimmer and matte finish eyeshadows for whatever look you are going for. You can create all kinds of daytime and nighttime looks with all the colors available. There are also plenty of highlight shades and darker shades for a more intense look.

Here are a few swatches of the eyeshadows. I used the sponge applicators they provided and swatched them on my forearm with no primer.

I haven't yet used this on my eyes yet but I'll definitely be posting about it and include one of the looks I come up with. So far, I think this may be worth the $13 I paid for it but I'll know better once I put it to use. Have you tried anything on eBay like this?

Color Club Halo Hues- Angel Kiss Swatch & Review!

Hello everyone! We finally got some decent sunshine in my part of California so I thought it was time to finally whip out one of the Color Club Halo Hues holo's that I bought! I have to say... this color is amazing! It's a light seafoamy green with a bluish tint to it. Indoors, it can look anywhere from a pearly finish to a faint holographic finish, but when you take it out in some bright light, you won't believe your eyes!

This polish has such an amazing holographic finish! It's very smooth and vibrant and you won't be able to take your eyes off of it. Applying this wasn't bad at all. The first layer was slightly streaky but if you apply a thin/medium coat and then apply a second thicker coat, you should be fine. My swatches have one coat of Seche Vite base coat, 2 coats plus of Angel Kiss, plus one coat of Seche Vite QD topcoat. The best thing about this polish is that the holo effect doesn't dull after applying topcoat.

It's funny... after I bought this nail polish, I decided to browse through other people's blogs and see what they had to say about it. I came across one user (don't remember who and won't say the name anyways) and she wrote that one of the major cons to this collection is that the holo effect wasn't very strong... Lol what? I'm sorry, I don't know how much more of a holo effect you want lol. This is probably the strongest holographic finish I own! Sorry for the rant, I'm still shaking my head at what I read lol.

Anyways, onto the swatches! Brace yourselves!

Indoors w/ Flash

Indoors w/ Flash

Indoors w/ Flash and Underwater white balance

Bottle shot! Indoors w Flash

Indoors w/o Flash

Indoors w/o Flash in darker lighting

Outdoors w/ direct sunlight

Now tell me, is this the most amazing nail polish or what? I'm so crazy about it and I can't stop staring at my nails! They are very distracting haha! I can't to get some from the Spring 2013 collection. What do you think of this? Do you own any of the polishes from the Halo Hues collection?

First Attempt on Galaxy Nail Art

Hello everyone! I finally decided to give it a go and tried a nail art design that looked like a galaxy in outer space. I used a tutorial by MissJenFABULOUS from PolishAndPearls and used this tutorial she posted on youtube.

It was actually very fun and easy to do! It consisted of sponging on colors over black and putting a couple types of glitter topcoat over it. Before I did the design on myself, I picked out some colors I liked from myself and tested it over the black to make sure it delivered the effect I was looking for. I noticed it's best to use opaque colors, either with a creme finish or with little to no shimmer.

Here's what I used:

Liquid Leather by China Glaze (black)
Splish Splash by China Glaze (shimmery blue)
Pelican Grey by China Glaze(light grey)
Pink Shock by Maybelline (pink with subtle blue shimmer)
Northern Lights (glitter topcoat)
Techno by China Glaze (chunky glitter)

Aaaaaaand this is what I ended up with!

I really loved how it turned out. It definitely looks best when the colors are applied in different parts of the nail. This would definitely look nice with some green and orange in it so I might be attempting that in the future. Also, after I get some practice, I think it would be awesome to throw some spiral galaxies on it as well. I tried that at first and it was an utter fail -___-

Have you tried doing galaxy nails before? I would love to see some of the designs you've tried or came up with :)

Happy 4th of July! Independence Day Manicure :)

Hello readers. Today I'm going to show you my nails for 4th of July and show you last year's 4th of July nails.

I used:

Blue = Eyes Like Sapphires by China Glaze
Red = Ruby Pumps by China Glaze
Silver = Kiss Nail Art striper
White = Kiss Nail Art striper
Glitter topcoat = Northern Lights
Seche Vite topcoat

Here's how I did it:

I started off with two coats of Ruby Pumps. Then I did the white stripes by laying the brush pretty flat against the nail and dragging it. I then carefully drawed on the silver stripes where I wanted the blue to start. Then I freehanded two coats of Eyes Like Sapphires to the edge of the silver. I touched up the silver once more to even out the lines and finished it all with Northern Lights and Seche Vite :)

Like it? Post the links to your July 4th nails as well! I would love to see them! Click here to see others' July 4th designs.

OPI DS Sapphire

Hello readers! Today I'm showing you the swatches to my lucky find from last week: OPI DS Sapphire. This shade is so pretty. It is a greyish light blue and shines beautiful linear holographic rainbows in the sun. Indoors, it just looks like a light grey polish. It applied very evenly. I could've gotten away with three coats but I had to do four since I made a smudge on one nail. Now for the photos!

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Indoors under a lamp

Indoors

Lucky find at CVS!

My friend and I were driving in his neighborhood and I saw a CVS I've never been to. I wanted to stop by for the Milani Spring 2012 collection and check for one of the colors I wanted. They did not have the collection in stock, but I ended up getting something else I've had my eye on. I browsed through the shelves and saw that they carried OPI.

I checked in the very back row of their OPI's and there was a single OPI DS Sapphire sitting right there... just for me! I've been after it for so long and it magically appeared in front of me! I can't wait to use it. I will definitely use it for my next mani and I'll post pics. I went a little picture-crazy with the bottle but the rainbow shine was sooo addicting!

Blue gradient with flowers :)

Hello readers :) Today I'm showing you this really bright blue and teal gradient manicure with flowers.

I used:

Grecian Sun by Sinful Colors (bright blue)
Nail Junkie by Sinful Colors (teal glitter sponged on tips)
White Sally Hansen Nail art pen (dots)
Flower decals (brand unknown)
White Lights Glitter 101A by N.Y.C. (glitter topcoat)

I was very impressed by Grecian Sun. The formula is perfect... no lumps or bumps and has a flawless finish with two coats. Then I sponged on Nail Junkie so it blends nicely with the blue. To make it look more like a gradient, I used White Lights Glitter 101A to blend it more. The look felt like it was missing something so I added the flower decals and put 1-2 dots on each side. Here's the look! What do you think?

Closeup of my thumb so you can see all the glitter

CG Flying Dragon Swatches + Glitter

Hello, all! Today I will be showing you China Glaze's Flying Dragon (Neon) with China Glaze's Techno! First I will start up with the mani I ended up with and then I will describe the wonders of Flying Dragon to you :)

Pretty sweet, yeah? Anyways, onto Flying Dragon! This color is absolutely amazing. It's a dark deep fuchsia with little blue and pinkish glitter. When you first apply it, it shows up as a bright neon fuchsia but it gets darker as it dries. The application of this polish is amazing! It dries very quickly so you can easily do 3 coats without having to wait. It's a very fun and interesting color and is a must-have in my opinion.

Enough talk... onto the swatches! It took me 3 painless coats for full opacity :) Also, it dries matte so I added SV as a topcoat to make it glossy! You can click on the images if you want to see them close up!

Sunlight

Shade

SF Gay Pride Parade + Rainbow Leopard Print Mani + Random Mani

Hey everyone! Again, I apologize for the lack of posts so here is an awesome post to make up for it! This past Sunday, I went to the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, CA. It was my first time going and my friends and I had a blast! There were so many interesting things to see! People's choice of clothing (or lack of) was entertaining as well :P Soooo anyways, of course I had to do some kind of colorful mani! I decided to rainbow leopard print nails on top of white. I got inspiration from this post on Natalie's blog. I don't have the energy to name off all the colors since I used like 10 polishes so if you want to know what a color is, just ask. The brands I used were OPI, Sally Hansen, Zoya, China Glaze, and Color Club.

And here is how I did my makeup :) I used my Beauty UK palette and L'oreal H.I.P. eyeshadows for this look. Again, if you want to know specific colors, just ask! Not really "in your face" but still colorful :)

And here is what I wore! I did a white wifebeater, rainbow suspenders, a blue denim skirt, hot pink zebra head band, and hot pink sunglasses!

Oh and here's a picture of me failing miserably at hula hooping lol. I was so frustrated >___<

Soooo that was my first Gay Pride experience! That was definitely an awesome day that I will never forget!

In the title of this post, I mentioned a random mani..... so I'm going to show you what I did for my sister! The blue I used is Sexy In The City by China Glaze and the silver is the Kiss Nail Artist Paint & Stencil Kit which came with black, silver, and white. This was my first attempt at free-handing at nail art designs. This was pretty simple but I love how it turned out on her!

Purple, Blue, and Silver Glitter Gradient!

Hey everyone :D So I finally took off that plain-jane look and put on something really funky! I finally attempted a glitter gradient! I've always wanted to try it and I finally got the right kinds of glitter nail polish. Here's the look I came up with :-)

It is soooo dang sparkly and eye-catching in the light! I seriously can't stop looking at it! Here are the materials I used:

Base coat- Orly Top 2 Bottom

Navy blue base- Midnight Blue by Rimmel

Fuchsia glitter- Bubbly Bombshell by Orly

Pink/purple/blue glitter- Rockstar Pink by Sally Hansen

Silver/purple/blue chunky glitter- Starry Silver Glitter by NYC

Seche Vite Topcoat

I first applied my base coat and then put one coat of Midnight Blue so I wouldn't have to do so many layers of glitter. Then, I put one coat of Bubbly Bombshell completely covering the blue. On the top half of my nail (tip), I used Rockstar Pink.

Then I used two coats of Starry Silver Glitter on the very tip and aimed more of the chunky glitter on it. To make the colors blend better, I wiped the majority of the glitter off the brush and lightly dabbed over the other colors so little silver glitters came off.

To finish it off, I used 2 coats of Seche Vite :-) Here is a closeup of the look to your right. You can click on it for a larger image.

Now for some more photos!

Blue with stars!

I've been wanting to do this look for a while now and I finally got to it! I love the idea of blue with stars and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

The star nail polish I used was a bit tricky. I had to "fish" for the stars and then place them where I wanted to. There were also bigger chunks of glitter that you can see on the image.

What did I use?

Blue- Eyes Like Sapphires by China Glaze

Glitter topcoat- Northern Lights Holographic Glitter Topcoat

Stars- Silver Star by KleanColor

Whoa is that a mermaid?

Wow this is probably one of the most gorgeous colors I own!
This is Charla by Zoya! It's like a mermaidy bluish greenish teal with slight gold flecks.

This picture does not do it justice at all. It shines like crazy in the light! I got a lot of compliments on this one!

I used 2 coats of Charla with my usual Top 2 Bottom Base/Top coat.