Two purples, one naughty, one nice.

Hi everyone! I've had a hard time giving-up my dark-side (vampies, glitters, black NP!) for Spring. It is so hard to resist throwing on a glitter top coat. They're just sitting there in there mini bottles looking coquetish. Here's something I did for Saturday night. This would be fun for going out dancing, but since I only do that about once a year, I'll just have to flaunt it at dinner.

Orly Velvet Rope, Sally Girl purple/aqua glitter top coat.

Frankly, this Orly Velvet Rope would look great by itself. It's a rich plummy purple with a little bit of silver microglitter. I love getting these mini bottles.

As usual, pic doesn't capture the sparkles completely.

You can  see the tiny line at the tips from Seche Vite shrinkage-

that kindof sucks.



And now for my nice purple. I had heard that China Glaze White Cap did amazing things when painted over a base coat of something else. I bought this a week ago and tried it out tonight. I'm in love!!!!

Zoya Caitlin, China Glaze White Cap, Seche Vite dry fast TC

Zoya Caitlin, ChG White Cap

This is the third Zoya I've tried. This brand is amazing. Opaque in two coats, phenomenal colors. This looks like a dusty-gray lavender but has a periwinkle cast to it on the nail. Love it. Then I added one coat of White Cap on top.

China Glaze White Cap.

It's going to be fun trying this over other colors. I hear it looks better over lighter colors rather than dark. It would probably look awesome over a medium pink.

Thanks for reading!

Zoya Gemma and friends - never thought I'd like green nail polish!

Hi everyone! I am so excited to show you this mani. I think this is my new favorite. I saw it on someone else's blog and had to have. I never thought I would like green so much. This is Zoya Gemma which is Army green creme. I didn't go on as thick as Marley - this was easier to work with.

Zoya Gemma and two Sally Girl glitter top coats.

You can kindof see the subtle purple shimmer in this pick.

Now with the glitter top coat. As usual, camera doesn't capture

the glitter to show it's awesomeness. The glitter TC amplifies

the slight purple sheen in Gemma.

This is the second Zoya I've tried, and I think I'll be a big fan. Thanks for reading!

Venturing into the holo world.

I was very excited to see these mini bottles of holos a Sally Beauty Supply. They are the "Sally Girl" brand and are only 99 cents each.

Granted, they aren't super holo, but they were only 99 cents!

They go on very sheer so, will work best as a top coat.



I wish my camera would capture the million-rainbows effect of a holo. I did three coats of OPI Sweet Heart and two layers of the holo top coat. It was fun to play around with and decide if I want to invest in holos in the future. Thanks for reading!

First Scotch tape french

I'm a little behind in the nail blogosphere . . . I just tried my first scotch tape french, and it was fun. I started with a base coat of Zoya Marley. This was my very first time using Zoya. The formula was quite thick and opaque in 2 coats. I will have to get used to their formula. It's so different from $OPI, for example which requires a million coats on me.

Zoya Marley

So, now for the tips. I thought OPI Ink would complement the pale lilac of Marley.

Zoya Marley with OPI Ink tips

Zoya Marley, OPI Ink, Orly Love Each Other

This came out better than I expected. Here are some things I learned:

1. Since the scotch tape leaves such a straight line, I think the nails should be filed as square as possible.

2. Wait longer than you want before doing the scotch tape because it will smudge the base coat a little. However, the topcoat will smooth that out a bit.

3. Stick the tape to your arm or hand a few times to cut-down on the stickiness to avoid marring the base coat.

4. Take that tape off as soon as you paint the tips.

I must credit Chloe's Nails for inspiration!

Throw some glitter in the air . . .

I confess, I'm a glitter whore AKA Glitta Ho. At any nail polish display, my eyes immediately find the glitters. Originally I thought glitters looked too little girlish. Now, I'm mesmerized by them. -and they hide a multitude of sins. Here is my collection of glitter topcoats. I have several polishes with lots of glitter in them but I decided to exclude those.

From the top left: Icing, Bon Bon (from Walmart), Sally girl x 2, Finger Paints Hue Left a Message?

From the bottom left: Cover Girl Disco Dazzle, Cover Girl Ruby Dust, Nabi Jumbo Gold Glitter, $OPI Only Gold For Me

Claire's Glitter top coat

I think this Claire's glitter top coat may be fun for frankening if I get up the nerve to try that some day. I really like the holo glitter but there is too much of it - goes on too thickly. It might be fun for a funky french.

Unfortunately, none of my pics came out that great, so I'm not posting them. I tried all these glitters over black nail polish as well as white polish, and I can say the black base coat looks the best to me. I REALLY like the irridescent mini Sally Girl over black - looks like an opal. The only one that looked better over white was Finger Paints Hue Left A Message?

Now, I'm going to take this stuff off and do a proper mani, maybe with one of my new Zoya's. Hopefully I'll get that up tonight.

Learning from mistakes and pleasant surprises.

Well hello darlings! I'm up to eight followers, I feel like celebrating!!! I'm posting this today versus last night because I got caught-up in watching "The Golden Compass" on SciFy channel. BTW loved those books.

I decided to do some Konading last night and was really excited to try this swirly design. I wanted to try some different color combos for fun. Warning . . . a little sloppy.

These were mini $OPI bottles that don't have the names on them. The aqua color is from the Havana collection.
I don't care for this color - kindof pukey looking. I stamped the design with another teal $OPI mini.

This is wet n' wild Ebony hates Chris as a base coat, stamped with another $OPI mini,
from the Rocker Chic collection. Meh. Would be a nice shade by itself, though.

This is again wet n' wild Ebony hates Chris, stamped with Orly Luxe, using
Konad plate m63. Wow, those macro shots really make it look sloppy. :(

I'm loving these Orly metallics. I have another that is a rose gold, forget the name.

So, what did I learn?

1. $OPI (OPI for Sephora) doesn't work for stamping.

2. Orly metallic foils are awesome for stamping.

3. Wet n' Wild Ebony hates Chris is a great, opaque, quick-drying black that doesn't bubble at all. And I paid 99 cents for it! The brush is crappy, though.

4. My clean-up technique needs some work - more on that later!



Thanks for reading!

I loathe bubbles!

After many CRAPTASTIC manis with bubbles galore, I've become determined to find the cause. At first, I thought it was because I was shaking the bottle too much and introducing air bubbles. So, I gently rolled the bottle, like the nail techs do. Still bubbles. I waited five minutes between coats to let it dry completely. Still bubbles. I could not believe how bad this red jelly looked. Behold, the horror:

This is Ultra Professional nail lacquer in "What a Maroon". I'm sparing you a close-up

because I'm embarrassed by its hideousness.

So, then I decided to search the Makeup Alley nail board for information on how to prevent bubbles, and found this "scientific" explanation:

http://www.blogger.com/links/out.asp?link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Elacquerized%2Ecom%2F2010%2F10%2Fhow%2Dto%2Dprevent%2Dbubbling%2Ehtml%23IDComment103705950

"The nail polish is not absorbing air bubbles. The bubbles are not actually air, at all. They are formed when the volatile chemicals in the polish evaporate. That's how nail polish dries. If you apply very thick coats, the surface of the layer of polish will dry while it's still wet underneath. The volatile chemicals in the still-wet layer try to evaporate, but are now trapped under the already-dry top layer, and they form tiny bubbles. If your coats are thin, each coat will dry uniformly and none of the volatile gasses will be trapped between coats, so your mani will be bubble-free. "
legal disclaimer: Not Affiliated

Sooooo, I tried three very thin coats and this is my result:

This is Ulta Goddess. It is a shear peachy pink nude with a gold shimmer.

It was overcast today. And my camera didn't capture the gold very well.

I had a few bubbles on each nail, but they are difficult to see. In reality, I should have done the red again, but it just doesn't feel right for spring. I'm in a nudes and pastels state of mind.

I feel the need to make this blog more interesting. I'm going to focus on more nail art, especially free hand stuff. I've got a lot of ideas rolling around in my head: easter mani, spring colors. I guess I should find-out when Easter is!