4th of July!

I know I'm late posting this, but I left it on for the whole week anyway, so I kind feel like I'm not late.  Does that make sense?  Maybe not.  Oh well.  On with it...

The red is one coat of China Glaze Hey Sailor.  I love that it's one coat, so wonderful!  Great red.  The blue is 2 coats Orly Royal Navy.  Both are topped with one coat of China Glaze Lightning Bolt.  I added the crackle on an angle (or tried to anyway) which I thought would be more interesting.

I know this is pretty much a cop-out as far as nail art goes.  I mean, I looked at my mani from last year and damn!  I really wimped out!  Hahahaha.  But I kinda liked the simplicity of it.  I thought it looked cool.

The other hand!  OMG!  Hahaha.  I did them opposite, obviously.  I think I'd liked there being more red on this hand.  But I didn't like the crackle as well on this hand.

Valentine's Day

I did do a Vday mani this year despite my feeling against it, lol.  I know I'm late in posting it, but better late than never, right?  I pretty much had to use the new red from China Glaze Anchor's Away collection.  It's such a bright and amazing red!  AND it's a one-coater.  What's not to love??

Check that out!!  Hehe.  This is 2 coats OPI Princesses Rule! as a base and 1 coat China Glaze Hey Sailor on the tips.  I lined the tip with Stripe Rite silver glitter and added a red rhinestone.  How awesome is this look??

Take that!  HA!  I don't know why, but I just love these red tips!

More prettiness!  Ahhhhhh.....

Lol, I was playing with an app on my phone.  I thought it came out cool tho.  Everything is muted and then BAM there's the red in the center.  So cute!  :)

Bloody Nails

I was going for a Halloween theme this month.  I wanted to do something bloody, but didn't want to freak out the people at work.  This didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.  It's pretty, but doesn't look all that bloody.

This is 3 coats China Glaze Lubu Heels as a base.  I did NOT realize how sheer that polish is.  I was quite disappointed actually.  You can see I had some cuticle drag issues.  Not the greatest, but oh well.  I used China Glaze Salsa on the tips and then painted over that with Nubar Fire Sparkle to keep with the glitter theme.

I was going to do a white base with the blood, but I thought it would be too stark.  Maybe next year...

OPI: Go Goth!

I talked about Halloween a little bit in an earlier post.  I really like the fall.  For some reason this time of year is just my favorite.  The air gets cooler, crisper... the colors of the leaves, the apples, the harvest.  I don't know, I just love it.  Anyway, Halloween is all a part of it too!  I love horror movies, blood and gore are awesome (just don't show someone up-chucking, I can't stand that).  OPI's new mini set is really cute.  They did a good array of colors and styles.  I will warn, my sun started going away and my outdoor shots started sucking, so only half the post is really any good, LOL!

This is 2 coats of OPI Unripened alone.  This went on nice and smooth, good coverage, no trouble getting it on.  In the bottle you can see a hint of purple in the blue shimmer, but I couldn't capture it on my camera and honestly I didn't really see it on my nails IRL either.

This is 2 coats of OPI Nevermore.  If you have OPI Ink, you do NOT need this color.  I actually have Ink on one of the four fingers shown here (honest!)  Can you tell which one?  Application was good, again, nice and smooth, good coverage, no real issues.  I love Ink, it's purple which blue and magenta and awesomeness!  If you don't have Ink, get it... at least you'll get a full size amount of this beauty.

This is 2 coats of OPI Obscurity.  A nice flat matte black.  Application was great.  It does dry fast, but not too fast to be able to apply it evenly.  It gave good coverage, I can't complain.

This is the most suck-tastic pic of the bunch.  I could not capture this color indoors or outdoors with the lack of sun.  Anyway, this is 3 coats OPI Sanguine.  It's a really nice deep merlot type wine-like red.  It gets really dark in shadow and has a good shimmer in the light.  Sorry my pic sucks so bad, lol.

So overall, not a bad group of colors.  I am disappointed that one is a dupe for a fave of mine.  Oh well.  I think it's cute that they included a little stretch lacey bracelet too, lol.  What they should have done is included black eyeliner!  Then I could get some too-light compact powder and brownish lipstick and relive my highschool days.  Hahahaha.  Just kidding... I won't subject you all to that, don't worry.  Happy Fall!!

China Glaze Vintage Vixen

I took a look at the fall China Glaze Vintage Vixen collection at my local Sally's.  I was tempted to buy them all, haha.  I tried to pick up something that I don't have much of.  I just so happened to pick Christmas colors, red and green, lol.  Oh well.  I actually picked these up a while ago, but they sat there for a bit.  And then I used them and took photos and the photos sat for bit.  Better late than never, right?

This is China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald.  2 coats!  Of course, Seche Vite on top.  I loved this application because it had great coverage.  The brushes from China Glaze are slim, but spread nicely on the nail.  No cuticle drag or other issues to note.

I love this color!  In these photos it's showing more teal.  In some light it was teal, in other light it was emerald green.  I have no idea why, but that really intrigued me.  I love that it's shimmery and not a true frost.  You can't really see the brush strokes, which is good for me since I suck at that, lol.

This is 2 coats Riveter Rouge with Seche.  Again, application was good, no real issues.  Good coverage and good opacity.

Since this was a deeper red with golden shimmer, I chose rhinestones to make the gold pop.  Check that giant orange one!  Love those over-sized rhinestones, lol.  This polish didn't change color in different light like the green did, but it's still nice and shimmery and pretty.

I loved both these colors and would recommend them!  And hey, if you're looking to do a christmas mani, this might be right up your alley in terms of shade, haha.

Patriotic

I wanted to do something fun for the July 4th weekend.  It's America's birthday!  I didn't want to get too involved and do like a flag or anything crazy.  But I definitely wanted all the colors, which are red, white and blue.  I started with one coat of Wet 'n Wild Cherry Pop on everything by my ring finger topped with 2 coats of China Glaze Ruby Pumps.  Then I used Stripe Rite White for the white stripes and Milani Bolting Blue for the blue stripe.  On the ring finger I did 3 coats of Essie Blanc on the whole nail.  Then did a slanted tip with the red combo.  Then I added 3 blue rhinestones.  Topped everything off with 2 coats Seche Vite.  There are some bubbles around the rhinestones, but oh well.  I think it came out cute.

Full sun, makes the Ruby Pumps look weird, lol.

Wet 'n Wild: Candy Apple Twist

Oooooo!  I picked this up for cheap at the drugstore and couldn't be happier with it!  This is 3 coats Wet 'n Wild Candy Apple Twist with 2 coats Seche Vite.  Application was very smooth and easy.  This is a bit sheer and I can still see a bit of VNL, but it's not horrible.  This is a gorgeous coral red.  Bright as heck too!  I love it.  To me, it looks like the Eyeko Coral Polish, but I don't own that to do a comparison.  What do you think?  I stuck a fimo apple on my thumbs.  I was going to put apples on all my fingers, but they looked too big on the pinky, lol.  I picked them up at Sally's on sale recently.  Too cute.  This is definitely an eye-catching color tho.