Gunmetal Flowers

Gotta love this.  I must say, I really like the dark gray and gunmetal type colors.  This one is right up my alley.  There's just something about the gunmetal that makes it better than black and more interesting than gray.  It's just so cool!

This is 3 coats of Color Club Alter Ego.  I used LA Colors Hot Pink striper for the flowers.  This is fundamentally gunmetal.  But sometimes you catch little colors in it.  You guys know how I like the hidden color shimmer that's just for the polish wearer... this is one of them!

This shot looks more purple.  There is a bit of a blue or purple hidden shimmer in there.

even more purple...

there's the multi colors!!!  Click to make it giant and you can really see them.  Fun!

Grey skies

I had to check out the new OPI collection, of course.  And everything is based on Texas.  The land of the bigger and better.  Well, I think a lot of the colors look too similar, lol.  There's an orange, 2 coral shades and like 4 pink/red/purple shades... which are all in the same family.  From looking at other blogger's swatches, they all pretty much look the same to me!  But this one is different.  This is like a mega grey!

This is 3 coats of OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It.  I added flowers with OPI A Grape Fit!  I cannot sing enough praises about this polish.  It's a lavender grey with PINK shimmer.  Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to capture on camera... but my first finger there shows some.

Here's a close up on my index finger.  See that pink shimmer in there?  It's SO pretty!  It's easier to see in person, but it's not something others are going to see.  I tend to like polish like this because it's pretty for everyone looking at it, but it's SUPER cool to me.  Haha.

This photo shows pretty much none of that pink shimmer.  But it's still a pretty silver grey color.

Another shot, somewhat shaded.  This shows how sheer it is.  Apparently sheer is the new thing for OPI, lol.  I like the jelly quality of the "sorbet" polish they have in the collection, which is pretty much all the colors I mentioned above, but for this?  I'd rather have opaque.  If I wore it again, I'd use a grey base coat first.

American Apparel California Trooper

I want something pretty, so I was looking through my stickers and stuff.  I found some water decals from Viva la Nails that looked so pretty, so I decided to try them out.

This is 2 coats of American Apparel California Trooper.  I love this color.  It's a khaki, but light and greyed out some.  It's subtle enough to be "work appropriate" I'd say.  But it's still interesting.  Application was smooth and even, good coverage and opacity.  I love this brand.  Wear is good on this too.

I topped it with Viva la Nails water decals.  These are so easy to apply.  And they're so thin that they don't pull up or stick up through the top coat.  I even had someone ask how long it took me to paint them!  Hah.  Obviously that guy doesn't know me at all... I don't spend that much time on my nails, lol.

I really liked this mani.  It was super easy to do, but really pretty!  What do you think?

Victorian Flowers

I was in a summery mood and wanted to do something pretty and girlie. I looked through my stash and pulled out some decals that I got from Viva la Nails.  They are very elegant roses and I picked a nice peachy orange base to go with it.

This is 2 coats China Glaze Peachy Keen as a base.  I topped that with 2 coats Savvy Magic Pumpkin.  Then I used the rose water decals from Viva la Nails along with some of their small gold rhinestones on the thumb and ring finger.  Topped everything off with Seche Vite.

How pretty is that?  This mani felt very elegant.  And it reminded me of the victorian era, which I love.  I felt very pretty wearing this, hehe.  Application of both polishes was good.  The China Glaze went on nice and smooth and gave good coverage.  The Savvy is really cool looking, but not very pigmented, which is why I used the ChG base.  I just love the shimmer and yellow and green flash it gave the mani.  Made it much more interesting.

Ocean Flowers

I thought this looked nice and summery.  This is 4 coats Essie Turquoise & Caicos on all but the ring finger.  On the ring finger is 3 coats Essie Blanc.  I stamped the white onto the teal fingers and attempted to stamp the teal onto the white finger... but failed, lol.  I added the flower shaped goodies on top on the white finger only.  I love the color of Turquoise & Caicos, but it's so sheer!  I hate putting on 4 coats of anything, it feels wasteful.  I was disappointed in the pigmentation of that one.  The Blanc isn't all that opaque either, but at least it's a regular 3-coater.  And I can see where I stamped it!  Lol.  It kinda gave a tonal effect to the stamping that I didn't anticipate.

I liked this mani, but I didn't love it.  I think it could have been done with similar colors in my collection that are a lot more opaque and less annoying.  Sorry, Essie, this one didn't win me over.  Add more pigment and you'd have a winner!

American Apparel: Summer Peach

Such a sweet color!  This is 3 coats of American Apparel Summer Peach topped with some nail stickers I found at the bottom of my drawer... I don't know where they are from, haha.  And of course, 2 coats Seche Vite.  This polish had pretty good coverage and probably could have been fine with 2 coats, but I messed up a couple and just did a third coat on all of them to even it out.  This wore fairly well, I think I took it off after 3-4 days.  I had some tip wear but nothing crazy.  I love this shade.  It's like sherbet.  This would have been a great mani for some kind of outdoor party or something.  Maybe a graduation or a wedding.  I didn't have anything like that to do while I wore this, haha.  But I definitely love this polish.  I got a couple others from this brand as well, so I hope the formulation is the same for all of them.

Sally Hansen HD: LCD

I really tried to capture the blue flash in this one, but I couldn't get it.  This is 4 coats Sally Hansen LCD, from the HD line, with 2 coats Seche Vite.  Application was pretty good, but this is very sheer.  I still had VNL after 4 coats.  But it went on smooth and is very very pretty.  I liked the blue flash it had, made it seem like it wanted to be purple.  Not sure why I couldn't get it to show.  The one shot has a hint of it, but it was hiding.  I also drew on some flowers with Essence Nail Art striper in Silver Surfer.  Overall, I liked this mani.

Also, I feel like my life is falling apart.  So many things have gone wrong lately.  I am afraid to do anything just because it might go wrong too.  I hate feeling depressed.  I've been there before and it sucks big time.  I am really hoping that things will start looking up.  I need happiness in my life.  Someday... I hope... it will come.

Lilac and flowers

I am going through some stuff.  Some pretty major stuff.  I really don't know what to do or how to feel or when it's going to end.  Some days are better than others.  And I guess I know it will eventually get better because it always does.  But at the moment, I don't see a light at the end of this tunnel and frankly I don't know if I want to.  I'm depressed and numb at the same time.  But I have to distract myself and keep going.  So I'm trying to keep going.  Sorry in advance...

Anyway, I went to Ulta this past weekend because I had to get out of the house and I had a coupon for two free "salon" polishes... basically the Essie, OPI, China Glaze, etc... So I picked up two of those and a few other things.  I got the new Essie minis for their new collection.  They look super cute, so look out for them.  I also picked up the Essence stampy set because I am wanting Konad, but haven't gotten it yet.

This is 3 coats of Essence No More Drama from the Colour & Go collection.  Then I stamped with OPI Dim Sum Plum on just the ring and thumb.  You can tell I started with this ring finger.  Fail-ish... but not too terrible.  I really like this one actually.  I think it's nice and spring-like.  Something to look at to brighten my mood a little.

Summer already?

This past weekend was just gorgeous here.  The sun was out, the breeze was easy and I didn't want it to end!  I was feeling like I wanted to go to the beach, so I thought something bright and fun was in order.  I took out the neon pink, but then I saw this little gem hiding in my stash...

This is 3 coats of LA Splash Golden Seahorse.  I love it!  I purchased it a bit ago (find it in my haul) but never used it.  It's looking a bit green in both this shot and the bottle shot in my haul post, but it's definitely an aqua color with gold glitter.  It really could have stayed at 2 coats if I'd done a better job with coverage, haha.  I love that it has the texture with the glitter.  I don't know if it's just the name on the bottle, but this totally reminds me of sandy beachy goodness!  Haha.  Anyway, then I couldn't leave it alone so I added a flower with Cover Girl Pink Taffy and then some yellow-orange jewels on the thumbs!  For some reason it reminds me of Hawaii, but I've never been there.

All I can say is... bring on the sun, it's making me feel great!  However, it's supposed to be in the 90's (F) tomorrow, which is not so fun.  I'd rather have the spring sun than the summer heat.  BUT I can't complain too much, it'll still be gorgeous and it will still feel good to be hugged by the sunshine.

Wishing I was on the beach

My area got hit hard with some snow a couple weeks ago and we had a tiny bit last week and we're due for more this coming week.  But yesterday was BEAUTIFUL!!  The sun was out and the snow was melting.  It still wasn't all that warm, but at least it felt better.  That got me to thinking about the spring and summer... and I LOVE the beach.  When I took a look at my little stash, I came across the OPI DS Classic and thought it looked kind of sand-like.  It was so pretty I didn't want to put much on top.  It's almost a mannequin hand look on me.  I like it tho, it came out cute.  :)

I started with 2 coats of OPI DS Classic.  I painted a little flower/leaf design on the side with China Glaze For Audrey and shaded it with Sephora by OPI Ocean Love Potion.  I put a little bit of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top of the flower just because the base is sparkly and I wanted it to be uniform.  Topped the whole thing with 2 coats of Seche Vite.

Purple Dots

This was actually my first venture into nail art.  I only took this one photo.  I took it with my cell phone in my bathroom, so the lighting sucks, haha.

Start with a base of Sally Hansen Pat on the Black.  I used Stripe Rite White and Silver Glitter to make the flower in the bottom corner.  I made a few dots coming out of the flower with OPI A grape fit!  Then I used some clear top coat to stick a purple rhinestone in the center of the flower.

Blue Flower

I actually expected the base coat to be a little lighter and more opaque.  It looks more like I have nothing on the nail, but there is a slight rainbow hue.

I started with a base of Essie Gladioli.  Then I used a dotting tool to make a large flower in OPI Yoga-ta get this blue!  I did a few flicks and some tiny center dots on the flower with Stripe Rite White.

Hot Pink

I LOVE the new brush Sally Hansen has in the "Complete Salon Manicure" line.  The brush is shorter and rounded, completely flat and tapered so it's thicker towards the handle.  It makes it so easy to apply without streaking.

I did a base of Sally Hansen Shrimply Devine.  I did some stripes in black and gold glitter using Stripe Rite.  Then I made a dot flower in the corner using Avon Golden Twilight.