Current Mani & Latest Haul

It's 11:59pm, so I won't get this up before Weds, but hey, I tried. When I started to get pictures off my camera, I noticed that I had a few tutorial sets that I haven't posted here yet. So I'll set those up to post for the next couple of weeks. For tonight - this week's manicure and my super-awesome haul from Nubar, plus a smaller one from Head 2 Toe Beauty. Because I am *constantly* running out of top coat...

Actually, I guess the haul pics first, because I used the new polishes for this week's manicure. So here it is:

Those two tall bottles in the back are Seche Vite base and top coat - 4oz each. You can order the professional kits that include the big bottle, a regular .5oz bottle and a handy pouring lid from Head 2 Toe Beauty, and if you go through top coat like I do, it's a much better deal than buying a normal bottle every few weeks.

I also got the two Misa polishes from there (the two square bottles), unfortunately you can't see the color well here. One is a dark bronze and the other a deep teal green - "Like it Like That" and "When U Say My Name", respectively. I forgot to set them out, but I got two of the China Glaze crack polishes as well - "Crushed Candy" (teal) and "Cracked Concrete" (gray). Finally I also got a couple bottles of China Glaze Matte Magic top coat - my go-to solution for making matte polish last (and matting other polish as well).

The two tiny bottles are a blue and blue glitter I picked up at Sally Beauty Supply the other day. And then there's my Nubar haul...

I went a little nuts with the duochromes, but I don't regret it one bit. The odd polishes out were Midnight Matte Finish, a dark charcoal matte you'll see below; and Nubar 2010, which I've been dying to get for ages. Duochromes above are: Purple Beach, Iris Dust, Reclaim, and Wildlife.  

Whew! I have an order with Zoya that should be here any day now...

So for this week's manicure, I did one coat of base coat (Seche), then two coats of Nubar Midnight Matte to start. I brushed on one coat of Nubar 2010, which is clear with foil flecks (should have taken a pic before I matted it down again).

Then I used the China Glaze Matte Magic to seal and matte down the whole thing again. My pictures don't do it justice at all - it looks like granite with little flecks of green/pink/gold running through it. I really love the way it turned out...a very distinctive look.

Obviously I need to brush up on my photography skills...and you'll note that I have a broken-off nail on each hand. *sigh*

So now that I have new polish, I was thinking maybe I should clean out my polish drawer...or at least organize it a little:

What, you don't keep your polish in the fridge? Weird. ;-)

Regardless, it's a mess. And a daunting one at that. Maybe another day...

Crackle & Dupe

This week it's all about the crackle polish, and I stumbled over a fun dupe as well! Many thanks to Born Pretty for providing me with the black "Crack Polish" used this week. They sent me some other goodies for review that I'll be using over the next few weeks too.

Apologies for the yellow tone on this photo - it gets better. ;-) When I decided to play with the crackle polish, I decided something really bright underneath would work best. I went digging in the fridge for a nice bright pink, and came up with these two - Urban Decay's "Big Bang", and Avon's new "Pink Radiance".

They looked so close in the bottle, I just had to see them side-by-side on my nails. So I used Big Bang on my index finger below, and Pink Radiance on my middle finger. Can you see the difference? Me either - they really are an exact match, in my opinion. Fun, yes?

After my little dupe discovery, it was time to get down to business. I used the Avon polish for the rest, because the bottle is easier to deal with than the tiny (and cute) Urban Decay bottle. Undersides first...

And then two coats each to lay down a nice base for the crackle polish.

Then it was time to crackle! I used one very thin coat, then watched it crack as it dried. Super fun to watch the cracks form like magic.

On my right index finger, I did just the tip, but I got the polish on very thick, so it didn't crack as nicely as I'd have liked. As you can see though, it cracked nicely on the other nails.

On my left hand, I did a thinner coat on the tip of my ring finger, which worked a bit better.

I coated the whole thing with two coats of Seche Vite top coat - be careful with this, it will smear if you slide the brush on the crackle polish. Use a lot of top coat, and just float it on top the polish for the first coat to avoid smearing. Then cleaned up my cuticles, and voila - a very cool, leathery look.

I *need* some green crackle polish now, so I can do a reptile look over yellow polish. :-) Next time I will make sure the crackle polish is closer to the edges of my nails - it looks a bit messy even after cleanup just because it tends to break/chip a the crack lines if you aren't careful. It's really fun though - I love it...very hip, in my opinion.

Next week, I'll start the Christmas manicures...better dig out my red, white and greens! Until then, happy polishing...

Watermelon Nails featuring Migi Nail Art Pens

Thanks to the folks at Migi Nail Art, who were kind enough to send me a couple of their pens to try and review. As soon as I saw the colors they sent, one thing popped into my head immediately - Watermelons!
The pens look like markers, and when hooked together (two colors connected in the middle), they're about the same size as a marker too. This really is an ingenious design, because it's far more comfortable to hold than most nail art pens that are too short. This design didn't make the palm of my hand cramp up like a lot of them do.
They come apart easily - just twist in and out of the coupler. You can buy refills, so once you buy the pen, you don't have to buy the whole thing again, which I like. They have a regular nail polish brush inside of the screw-cap, which is okay, but honestly, I don't normally use art polish to actually paint my base layers with. The consistency is just too thick for a base color (which is what makes it great for art - thicker is easier to work with when drawing designs). These bottles are also pretty small, so I wouldn't normally want to waste good art polish just as a base color. I'd prefer to see a skinny striper brush in here for more flexibility in art styles.
The slender metal pen tip is perfect - and it's what will get the most use, I think. You pull the top of the cap off (instead of unscrewing the whole thing), and the pen tip is right there. Very easy to use and control, not too long as some other brands are.
So now that we've explored the pens - on with the design! For purposes of trying the Migi pens out, I used the hot pink and green as base colors over Avon base coat for this manicure. They're fairly opaque in one coat, but I used two just to smooth out any rough spots. It really is much thicker polish than I'd normally want to use as a base. You can, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Then I switched to the pen tip, and added green tips to my pink nails to start forming the rind. Honestly, the pen tip isn't very useful for filling in the tip - next time, I'd use it to draw in the smile line, then switch to the brush to fill color over the tips.
I had the idea to make two of my nails look like the outside of a watermelon, so I used the white pen tip to draw in lines like you might see on a watermelon. They're never straight, so I "wiggled" them on purpose. It worked great - these pens are pretty easy to use right away, with less pressure than you might think.
This is what happens when you use too much pressure - the lines are too thick on my ring finger! I wasn't sure I'd be able to fix this problem.
But I used the green pen to go over some of the glaring white and took it back down to a manageable look. Then I used the white to accent the smile lines on my pink nails, and create the white part of the rind.
Next, I used the black pen to create "seeds". Many watermelon depictions only have a few seeds near the rind, but I've never eaten a watermelon that didn't have plenty of them, so I embellished.
Finally time for top coat. I used a glossy Avon topcoat for the pink fingers, and then, since watermelons are not glossy on the outside, I used Essie Matte About You on the green fingers, with great results! I did the green fingers first, and realized that the Migi polish does run under topcoat. I liked that on my green nails, since it toned down the white and made it look more like real watermelons.
For the pink nails, I got a good glob of top coat on the brush, and swiped it quickly over each nail, careful to not let the brush actually touch the nail. After that dries, the polish underneath is set and no more running problems. It takes practice - and as you can see, I'm not perfect at it yet.
Then a little clean up, and voila! Watermelon nails. Photo above is with flash, photos below without a flash. You can really see the difference between the glossy and matte top coats - I love the contrast.
I did this manicure on Sunday night, and I do have a little shrinkage at the tips. The Migi polish is great for artwork, not so great for base coats, and if they'd switch out that regular brush for a striper brush, these pens would be perfect. Even so, I'm still ordering more...the shape and pen tip are just excellent, and much easier to use than most art pens out there. This manicure went very quickly - about 1 1/2 hours start to finish (start being taking the old polish off, filing, buffing, etc). The polish dries very quickly.

No toes this week - I wasn't sure I'd have time. As soon as the prizes for the contest come in, I'll post them up!

Happy polishing!

Shiny Pennies

So you must know, once I saw the new Zoya colors for fall, I just *had* to order several of them. This week's manicure features the new Zoya "Penny", which is one of the coolest copper colors I've ever laid eyes on. I took this photo outside, and it's really pretty accurate to the true color of the polish.

Of course, not being one to just leave well enough alone, I had to add some iridescent glittery bits for extra bling. I tried to make them look like they were floating off the tips of my nails, but something didn't work quite right in that process. They do give a nice sparkle in the right light though.

I used another new Zoya color on my toes this week...watch for that post on Thursday. I'm really not sure how I'm going to manage getting ahold of all the new fall colors I want this season...bottle by bottle, I guess.

What's on your "must have" list for new colors this fall? Anything I should add to mine?

Bright & Jester-y

I'm just fickle this summer for some reason. I was going to do green this week, but ended up doing "bright". No worries though - I think these turned out just fine.

I used Avon's "Fuchsia" for the base pink color - two coats, though one would have sufficed as far as coverage goes. Then I used my Nubar gold nail art pen to create a lattice on each nail, and fill in random diamonds just for some variety. I like it, though I think the fill color of the diamonds should have been different than the lattice lines. This would be a great manicure for Mardi Gras in green, purple & gold.

This week, I'm placing another Zoya order. They have a new color out in their fall collection called "Copper Penny" that I am just dying to get!

What's on your fall nail "must haves" list?

A Few New Things

My plan for today was to post my pedicure for the week. But alas – the photos I took of my toenails ended up being more focused on my hairy toes. Yes, I have hairy toes, that I do shave in summer – but haven’t even thought about it with my feet in socks/shoes and or slippers all winter long. So you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for “toe nail shots” – sans toe hairs that could be all sasquatch-y and “eww!”

Instead, I thought I’d share my latest polish purchases. So without further ado:

Two Sephora by OPI polishes that I just fell in love with – Skinny Jeans (blue) and “Let’s Do Lunch” (beige/coral).Two NARS polishes that I ordered from Sephora as well – I really, really shouldn’t have, because they were $16 each, and I am regretting the decision, though I love the polishes. But what’s done is done – I doubt I’ll do that again. They are “Bohemia” (shimmery pink/green) and “Orgasm” (peach shimmer). I could not get the photos to catch the color for anything, unfortunately - they're a lot more shimmery than they look! Hopefully I’ll regret them less once I see them on my nails…
Finally, two Avon polishes, “Lagoon”, which was one of my favorite colors when I was selling Avon, and “Fuschia”, which is not what I ordered (I ordered “Spring Fling”). Avon polishes aren’t as durable (same basic league as Sinful Colors), but it is a nice formula, and I’m thinking that with a good base/top coat, they’ll still wear well enough for a week. They do have some fabulous colors, like the ever popular “Rave” that I need to get another bottle of. I do wish they’d come out with more new colors…but perhaps they will, since they seem to be redesigning the line (these square bottles are new).

I also got some long birchwood sticks for clean-up, and the Sephora by OPI topcoat that I’m looking forward to trying soon.

Not too bad, all in all…I see a blue and beige trend here for spring – weird!

New Moodies & Suncoat

These polishes came in last week, and I was just too lazy to post them until now. But I’m looking forward to trying them out soon!
First, the new Nubar Moodies (click to enlarge). I got three: Turquoise to Blue (#M105), Hunter Green to Gold (#M106), and Seafoam Green to Honeycomb (#M112). I went with lighter colors here, but I plan to get brighter, bolder versions for summer later. They all should be fun, I think. They used to sell these in the drug store when I was in high school, I might have to see if I can find them locally. They were cheaper from Lotion Source than straight from Nubar though.
And secondly, my order from Suncoat, another water-based nail company. These polishes are numbered rather than named, and I got the bright pink, a white (thinking of a French manicure, though the pink is much brighter than I thought it would be, so maybe a reverse instead), as well as a clear top coat made to go with these polishes. I also bought a small bottle of their soy-based remover to try, we’ll see how that does as opposed to the sugar-beet Eco-Easy remover.

So a few more new things to add to the “to try” list. Now I’m trying to decide whether to do a Moodies mani next week, or try out that chrome polish Brook sent me…

New Polishes!

Many thanks to Brooke of Getcha Nails Did for the Mirror Finish Maybelline I received in the mail today! Your handwriting is incredible, by the way. Thank you so much for this polish...I can't wait to try it out! Check out Brooke's blog for her Valentine's Day Giveaway (at least go look at the nail polish roses...seriously).

I ordered a couple different brands of water-based nail polish to try last week, along with eco-friendly polish removers. Today I got my order from PeaceKeeper Cause-metics in the mail, and I love the look of "Paint Me Stunning". I'm really curious as to how this will wear, and how it will come off. I'm always interested in healthier products, so here's hoping this will be a good one!

Stop back on Tuesday for my Valentine's Day Manicure...