Sunshine!

Talk about BRIGHT  yellow, lol.  Sometimes you just have to make your own sunshine.  I needed it to be sunny on a dreary day.  This sure did the trick!!

Wow, lol.  This is 4 coats of Orly Lemonade topped with China Glaze Golden Enchantment.  I had to do 4 coats because it's yellow and yellow is just a mess.  It's too streaky unless you do gloppy coats and I don't like doing that either.

Yay, pretty!  I love yellow polish.  It just makes me so happy!

This is a weird angle, haha.

I love the '80s!

So awesome!!!!!  Haha, neon and crackle... totally '80s

and glitter, right?  LMAO.  This is 3 coats of Color Club You Got Soul-ar a neon orange with glitter in it.  I topped it with China Glaze Crushed Candy which is a crackle polish.  Then, because you can never have enough... I topped it all with Color Club Starry Tempress Top Coat which is bling-tastic!!!

So pretty!  Haha.  I hated it at first because of the colors.  But then once I decided it looked like the 80's, I was into it.

Check that glitter!!!  Oh yeah... lol.  What do you guys think??

Barbie Party!

Pretty sure I already posted this... but we'll try again!
Sometimes you just need to take a break and slap on some barbie pink and sparkles!!  Yay!  Nothing beats a perk-me-up like pink sparkles!

Pretty!!!  This is 3 coats OPI Strawberry Margarita topped with Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter on top.  I love this combo and left it on for a whole week!  It's just a real feel-good combo.

Don't mind that oddly shaped index finger nail... it broke down too far to cut evenly.  Ouch!  Anyway...

Sparkle-icious!  I love it!  What do you think?

Glitter Cracked

I have to say I jumped on the crack bandwagon.  Crackle is like the crack of nail polish!  You wouldn't think so, but it's addicting!  It's so much fun to play with the different colors and there are seemingly endless combinations!

This is OPI Sparkle-iscious topped with China Glaze Broken Hearted.  I loved it but most people just thought I had glitter on top of pink.  That was disappointing, but oh well.  The OPI went on with fairly good coverage.  The glitter is really packed in there!  Taking it off is another story, lol.  It's hell, like most glitters.  The crackle goes on great.  You put it on and it dries fairly quickly and as it dries, it shrinks, so it pulls apart in these neat patterns.

I love it!  It caught the light and sparkled and it was just awesome.  I loved it the whole time I had it on.  I got tons of compliments, but like I said, they just thought it was glitter on pink.  Boo, lol.  Oh well.  What do you think?

Candy Land

I did this mani a while back with V-day in mind... but it didn't quite turn out that way, lol.  It actually reminds me more of easter.  But then it also reminds me of candy.  Like cotton candy or peeps or something.  Which brings me back to feeling like it's easter.

Wow, I look tan!  LMAO!  Anyway, this is 3 coats of American Apparel Coney Island topped with Nubar Hyacinth Sparkle.  I did the sparkle in a gradient so it would be thicker towards the tip.  I think it looks like I dipped my nails in sugar!

SOOOOOO pretty!!  I got a lot of compliments on this too.  I think because it's so shiny, lol.  The American Apparel went on fairly well.  I needed the 3 coats for full coverage.  The Nubar is PACKED with glitter so I had to essentially use a dry brush to get the sparse glitter near the base.

It happened to be crazy sunny the day I did this one, so I took a full sun photo.  It actually kinda makes the glitter NOT as good.  Is that possible?  Oh well.  Anyway, it worked better indoors, lol.

St. Patty's Day

I didn't really get into St. Patty's Day this year.  I didn't feel like going all out with nail art and drawing things.  I figured a simple green mani would do.  But then it was boring, so I added a glitter gradient, hehe.  I like it!

This is 3 coats of Avon Jade with OPI Glow Up Already on the tips.  The Avon went on ok, good coverage but it was a little streaky.  I like the color because it's green, but it's on the blue side, which is my favorite.  I love teal, so the bluer greens are more my speed.  To do the glitter tips, I practically wiped it dry before putting it on so it would be more sparse.

It looks greener in this shot.  I wound up really loving this mani.  I like the glitter tips, it gives it a little pizazz without being obnoxious, lol.  And it's really easy to do, so that helps, lol.  Plus I always think glitter helps with wear.  So this mani lasted a good long time.

Just for fun, haha.  I had this duck on my desk, so I picked him up for a pic.  Isn't he cute?  Hehehe.  Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Party Hearty!

Somehow I forgot to post this earlier.  I know pretty much everyone and their mother did this combo if they got this China Glaze Party Hearty.  BUT I don't care because it's just that awesome.  And it's still awesome even though it's not Christmas anymore.

This is 3 coats Orly Winter Wonderland topped with 2 coats China Glaze Party Hearty!  How pretty!  The Orly Winter Wonderland is fairly sheer, I believe I may have started with a base of 1 coat Sallen Hansen White On.  But the Orly gives it that frosty wintery feel.  The application on it was good, just sheer.  The China Glaze is just amazing.  It's a clear base with colored glitter, so you have to use a little purpose if you want all the nails to come out even.  You can see my middle finger has a lot more glitter than my pointer.

So cool.  I love this glitter.  It has small silver, medium green and large red glitter in it.  It's an amazing combo!  =D


Also, I just realized that I missed my blogiversary!  LOL.  I started getting some stuff together for a giveaway.  It will be coming soon!  Hehe.

Snowflakes?

I wanted to do snowflakes, but I was in a bit of a rush, so I did dots with sparkles instead.  Haha.  It's sorta snow like.

This is 3 coats of Orly Snowcone.  I make dots with a dotting tool and Sally Hansen White On and topped them with OPI Simmer & Shimmer.  I think it came out cute and a little abstract, haha.

I love that blue, it's so clear and intense, yet light.  Does that make sense?  It's a great color.  You may recall I had a bit of trouble with it previously.  But I shook it up good for a couple days before I used it this time.  I shook it up, let it sit and then repeated, lol.  Seemed to take away that weird oily problem I had.  I try not to shake my polish and roll them instead, but I think this one needed a good shake and then time to settle the bubbles.  Whatever, it worked and I was much happier this time around!

Pink Party

This one was fun and of course, super simple.  I was going for a girlie-girl look without being too kid like and immature.  I didn't want to spend a lot of time on the design, so my eyes were drawn to glitters!

This is 2 coats of Orly Cotton Candy topped with 1 thick coat of Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink.  Very cool!  The pink is, of course, a great color.  Application was smooth and opaque, wear was pretty darn good as well.

This is a shitty picture, but whatever, you can see the colors on the glitter a bit better.  I liked this mani.  It was easy and fast and stayed on very well.  I felt like this would have been good for a party or something, but I didn't have an occasion to go to.

Frenchy Fun

Hehe, I love this one!  I don't know why, it's so simple, but it's just so pretty!

I used Dermelect Makeover as my basecoat.  The one coat of Sally Hansen Black Out on the tips and topped with one coat of Models Own Mixed Up.  I used LA Colors silver to add a stripe on the bottom and added a few holo silver hearts for bling.  The Dermelect is a treatment base coat.  I just started using it, but it's supposed to help fill ridges and grow nails.  The Models Own Mixed up is actually all glitter.  It's a ton of black glitter with some holo glitter thrown in.  It's really cool looking.

Pretty!  Hope you like it too!

Wet 'n Wild Night Prowl

I was really falling for the China Glaze Halloween previews (which weren't out at the time) when I saw this Wet 'n Wild Night Prowl and thought it looked a lot like China Glaze Mummy May I.  I was a little disappointed, but it's still a great color.

This is 3 coats Wet 'n Wild Night Prowl which is a black base with magenta glitter.  Hard to tell in this photo, I know.  Application was fairly good.  I didn't really have much trouble, but the wear on this wasn't great.

There we go!  I put a kiss print off a bundle monster plate on with Art Deco Intense Pink.  It turned out more sheer than I'd hoped.  But still cool!  This is very dark and vampy, haha.  I liked this mani, but I didn't love it.  Oh well.  Thank goodness China Glaze came out!  ;)

Nubar: Gem

There are holo polishes that look like your whole nail is a hologram.  And then there are holo glitter polishes where there are holo flecks mixed in with a color.  This is a holo glitter polish.  I was actually surprised tho at the size of the holo bits.  I expected this to go on smooth, but it's definitely like a glitter.  Not that I'm complaining... who could complain about such an awesome color?

This is 3 coats Nubar Gem.  I topped it with China Glaze Fast Forward.  This went on pretty well, but it is fairly sheer.  It's a nice golden taupy mauve color.  It's not straight beige like I expected.  It's definitely got a hint of pink to it.  And check out that holo glitter!

Ooooo... pretty, haha.  This is another polish that just catches your eye and holds you.  I found myself holding my hands at all different angles to catch the light and reflect the holo.

Here's a nice blurry pic to really show the holo glitter.  It's flashy, but not crazy.  I loved it!

Bump in the night...

Ok, maybe I went a bit overboard with this one, haha.  But I was having fun!  I wanted to do something that was in your face... but had a hidden in your face aspect.  I lurve it.  hehe!

Check it!  Regular and glow in the dark!  Oooooooo!!!!

This is 3 coats China Glaze Peachy Keen for the base of the jack-o-lanterns.  I topped it with 2 coats of a glow-in-the-dark glitter polish I found, no name on it.  I used Sally Hansen Black Out for the faces.  On the moon fingers I used 2 coats China Glaze Mummy May I for the bottom, 2 coats Sally Hansen White On for the "moon."  I topped the moon section only with a coat of black light polish (again, no name) and then drew on bats and cat heads with Sally Hansen Black Out.  I outlined the moon with LA Colors Silver striper.  The cat heads kind of came out weird looking.  I should have pulled up a pic of a cat silhouette on the computer before I started, lol.

Other hand.  Love it!  Don't mind that spot on my ring finger.  I got myself with the black light polish, lol.

I love this mani!  Hehe.  I think it came out really cute.  And very Halloween-y!

Happy Halloween all!!!

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...

China Glaze Awakening

I have to say, I'm extremely pleased with the China Glaze Awakening set.  I love the colors and the glitter!  I like that it's not the classic orange creme.  It's fun and exciting and eye-catching for sure!

First up is Mummy May I.  This looks like a really dark purple, but maybe it's black.  It's loaded with magenta-purple square glitter!  This is 3 coats of pure heaven.  So much better than my previous Wet 'n Wild purchase that wants to be a dupe.  I LOVE this color.  And it would work all year round.

Next is Zombie Zest.  This is also 3 coats, and you can see I still have VNL.  It's a really cool yellowish green color with gold-yellow fine glitter.  It reminds me of snot or something, haha.  It kinda grosses me out.  To me, this is Halloween only.

Last up is Ick-A-Bod-Y.  This is really cool looking.  3 coats.  It's appears to be a dark greenish base with orange chunky glitter.  I really love this.  I was actually unsure about this color before trying it, but it looks really good on!  It reminds me of the fall and leaves changing color and harvest, which is my fave!  This was a surprising like for me, I didn't think I would enjoy this one.  But it's really bumpy without top coat, haha.

Overall, application was easy.  With glitter, it's sometimes hard to get it on evenly and looking well distributed.  This wasn't as hard as I've dealt with in the past, but it wasn't perfect either.  Zombie Zest had fine glitter and the other two are chunky and lumpy.  You'd definitely need a top coat.  And if you don't like VNL, you'll need a base with Zombie Zest.

Don't forget to check out my giveaway where you have a chance to win these beauties!!  (Don't worry, I bought 2 of these, so the ones in the giveaway are still unused!)

Viva la Nails Review

So pretty and funky and cool!  How did I do it?  With the help of some goodies from Viva la Nails!!

I heard about a sample package you can get if you blog, so I ordered one!  It's coming from overseas (I'm in the USA), so it took a while to get here, but it was worth the wait!  So much stuff and everything looked awesome.  Here's the haul...

Such a great variety!  Something for everyone really.  I like it all.  I will say, I got a lot of yellow, but that's ok, it's a pretty good color to work with as far as accenting goes.  Gold and silver go with everything, lol.

I immediately picked out the star shaped dazzlings.  For this mani I started with 3 coats of OPI Rumple's Wiggin on all but the ring fingers.  On the ring fingers I used 3 coats of Avon Jade.  I used the Hollow Stars in Mauve on the ring fingers putting one outline and 2 centers on each ring finger.  I put a random number of Punched Stars in Azure on the remaining fingers.  Then I figured it needed some extra bling to make it nice and fancy so I threw on some of the Glitter in Green.

OMG!  It's righty!  Haha.  I don't often show my right hand... usually because it looks ugly... but this time it came out cute!

Right hand closer

Left hand closer

I think these nail art items were super easy to work with.  The dazzlings are thicker, so I put on a good thick coat of regular clear and then 2 coats of Seche Vite on top.  I did still have some corners that were pointy, but I kept the mani on for 4 days and nothing ripped off!

All the nail art items featured in this post can be purchased at Viva la Nails website for under £2!!!

[All nail polish in this post is my own and was purchased by me.]
[All Viva la Nails products were provided to me for review.]

Wet 'n Wild: Bubble Yum Gum

This is 3 coats Wet 'n Wild Bubble Yum Gum with Finger Paints Hue Left a Message? on the tips.  I added little diamond shaped goodies on the thumb and ring fingers.  Topped it all with 2 coats Seche Vite.  For some reason I thought this wouldn't be as bright.  I really like it tho!  Application was pretty good.  I didn't have a huge amount of trouble, but it wasn't smooth sailing either.  This definitely needed the 3 coats.  Wear was darn good, but I did have glitter on the tips, so that helped.  I did get some shrinkage with this, but it could be because I didn't wrap the tips with the Wet 'n Wild on the basis that I knew the glitter would be coming.  Oh well.  Overall I was pleased with this mani.  It wore well and got compliments!

Party Nails!!

I actually wore this mani for my birthday (July 13th).  It's easier to see in shadow than in bright sun because of all that glitter, haha.  This is 2 thick coats of OPI Mad As a Hatter.  Then I used BM05 with Color Club Wild at Heart to add the star on top.  I knew I was going to lose all the holo from the CC polish, but it's the most opaque purple I have and I wanted it to show up.  This mani got a lot of compliments, hehe.  It's like a disco ball on your nails!

Close up of the nails.  Talk about messy application!  Haha.  It was hard to get the glitter to go where I wanted without getting everywhere else too.  I wound up with a huge gap near the cuticle... oh well.  But for the most part, this polish is so wonderfully dense that coverage was pretty easy.  And how cute are the stars?  I like them.  I wore this mani out on the town with my girls.  Woohoo!!

Essie: Haute as Hello

I love this color!  This is one of the summer colors from Essie called Haute as Hello.  It's an awesome bright coral/peach. It's definitely got a pink tint to it, but it's too orange to be pink... and delightfully bright!  I added stripes with Stripe Rite Pink Glitter.  Application on this wasn't bad, but wasn't awesome.  It started out a bit streaky, but evened out after more coats.  This is 3 coats Essie Haute as Hello with 2 coats Seche Vite over the whole thing.  It lasted a good few days too, which is great.  I love this and all bright colors for summer, yay!  There's just something about bright nails that makes me feel good.  Which is good!  :)

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot...

I was feeling hot from some recent near 90 degree weather, so I busted out this hot magenta... oooo!  It's a score from a recent win.

Hotness.  This is 2 coats China Glaze Make an Entrance.  Then I added little swoops with Stripe Rite Black and Silver Glitter.  Topped with 2 coats of Seche Vite of course.  Application on the CG was awesome.  This has great coverage, but I can still see a tiny bit of VNL.  Not enough to irk me tho.  Very smooth and no cuticle drag or bald spots.  Love this color too!  Such an awesome hot magenta color.

This was a definite perk up from my recent Debbie Downer attitude.  I am trying my best to get through this.  I'm very grateful to have this nail polish distraction on myself and this wonderful little community!