Spring Stripes and Flowers

Hi! I'm here!

I've been so busy lately, but have no fear, I've got some spring time nail art for you today! Unfortunately, I broke a few nails at work yesterday, so I'll probably be M.I.A. again for a bit. So, I hope you all have a wonderful Easter if you celebrate, and if you don't celebrate, have a lovely Sunday!    :)

I looooove the way this turned out! I used Rimmel 60 Seconds Mintilicious (turquoise), JulieG Sushi for Two (orange), Rimmel 60 Seconds Sunny Days (yellow), Sally Hansen Hard as Nails No Hard Feelings (purple), and Wet 'N' Wild French White Creme.

To create the stripe designs, I used tape to block off the upper part of my nail, and striped on each color using a short striping brush. All of the colors I used required me to run over them again to reach full opacity.

This manicure was a bit time consuming, but it was totally worth it. I love it. The top coat I used was Orly Won't Chip, and it is chip resistant. I didn't wear this look for longer than a day, but usually my polish lifts within that time, and this didn't lift.

Above is the design I wore on my right hand. I'll admit, I got lazy (and tired... I finished at 1AM), but I like this design too.

For the flowers, I made X's using the white polish to create petals on one single flower. On my left hand, I dotted the centers with Sunny Days, and on my right hand I dotted with each color I striped with.

I love these springtime looks, and I hope you do too!

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Choco-Latte Swatch and Review

Hi again!

Just another Sally Hansen swatch today! I've been so busy getting ready for college in the fall that I haven't had much time for nail art. I'll be starting a second job in a couple weeks, so hopefully I'll be able to get some nail art done between now and then. Anyway, here's Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Choco-Latte!

Choco-Latte is a really nice nude shade that applied easily, although somewhat streaky (the streaks are less noticeable in person), and my swatch is three coats.

I really like this color and feel like it goes well with my skin-tone. This'll probably be one of my go-to nudes.

The formula was of adequate thickness, and as I said before, it was easy to apply. Again, I didn't have to do any cleanup because the brush allowed me to paint so neatly and easily.

That's all for now! Thanks for looking!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Angel Wings Swatch and Review

Hey everyone!

I have a little swatch for you all today. It's Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Angel Wings.

Angel Wings is a really nice, sheer white with pink shimmer and little bit of small glitter thrown in there. This is three coats.

The photo above shows the glitter bits a little better, because they are pretty subtle.

The formula was easy to work with and the thick, curved brush made the application really easy. I didn't need to do any cleanup at all!

Above I have a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy over Angel Wings. I like the mattefied version of this polish much more than it's natural sparkly version.

When matte, this polish is a little less sheer and the pink tones pop out more without being in direct light. The glitters are a little more visible, too.

Also, just a note about Matte Me Crazy: I've found that this matte topcoat helps keep my polish from chipping or lifting. Definitely recommend this as a cheap, but reliable matte topcoat!

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by! :)

JulieG Shark's Cove & Snow Leopard Manicure

Hi again!

I have a little swatch for you today, and some cheetah... or what I call snow leopard print nail art. Here we go!

First I'll show you my base color, JulieG Shark's Cove.

Shark's Cove is a lighter shade of turquoise, or what my boyfriend described as "sea foam green," with tiny sparkly glitters scattered throughout. I'm wearing three coats, and still there's a bit of minimal streaking. I feel like streaking is a trend for this brand.

The color itself is kind of thin, so it could probably be used as a topper as well to spice up any other turquoise color. The formula of this wasn't too great. It started out fine, but thickened by the time I got to the last nail on one hand. After I finished that hand, I'd shake the polish up, and begin again on the next hand. The formula acted the same with the next hand.

Now I'll get to the nail art!

The grey is Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Wet Cement and the white is Wet 'N' Wild French White Creme.

Because of the icy feel put out by the combination of the white, grey and light, sparkly turquoise, I call this a "snow leopard" print.

As usual, I used a medium sized dotting tool to create the leopard spots, and these photos are pre-topcoat.

I really liked wearing this design! It even matched my light turquoise and grey thickly striped v-neck shirt and the white lace tank I wore underneath! Yay for accidental coordination!

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Gradient Dot Nails!

Hello!

Today I've got my first dotticure to show you! I really like this manicure, and I hope you do too!

I'm gonna start out with a swatch of my base color, OPI Berlin There Done That.

I love this color. It's a nice grey, but it also has some sort of pink undertones. This is three easy coats.

I decided to try to gradient dots using Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle Gentle Blossom (the light turquoise) and JulieG Shark's Cove.

I've seen this type of design floating around in the blog world and wanted to try it myself. I'm really happy with how this turned out!

I think the next time I try this, I'll use a third color to dot with. It was hard trying not to overlap dots of the same color.

I had a hard time color correcting these photos, so my hands are a little redder than usual, but the polish colors are pretty close to their true shades.

That's all for now! Thanks for looking! :)

Red Carpet Manicure Gel Nail Polish Review

Hey again!

As promised, here is my review on Red Carpet Manicure (and that Sensational color from yesterday) gel nail polish! I wore the gel manicure I featured yesterday for only two days, but one of those days included an 8 hour shift washing dishes. But don't let that discourage you! Here are my results.

Seen above is the manicure the day of application on my left hand. Pictured below is my left hand the next day after an 8 hour shift at work.

There's not much difference here. No tip wear at all and no chipping. The color hasn't faded or lost any of it's shine.

The tips are still nicely capped and there is no lifting.

Above I've pictured my right hand, which hasn't fared as well at work. My pinky has minimal tip wear while my ring finger has visible tip wear. My middle and index fingers have a chip in them, which allowed for some lifting of the gel.

The color doesn't appear to be changed at all, and most importantly, my nails were protected at work. I'm right-handed so this hand does most of the work.

My job requires a lot of scrubbing (which wasn't a problem before I started seriously painting and trying to grow my nails) using a metal sponge in very hot water, so my nails and hands take a pretty rough beating. Only coming out with two chips and some tip wear on one hand was pretty awesome, in my opinion.

Basically, if you're not as hard on your nails as I have to be, I really recommend this gel manicure set. I got mine on Ulta.com for around $80. It includes the UV light and a bunch of other supplies. Worth it!

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Sensational Gel Nail Polish Swatch

Hey there!

I decided to break out the old gel manicure set a few days ago. I used Red Carpet Manicure's gel nail polish kit. It comes with a UV lamp, a bottle of acetone, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a bottle of prep adhesive, a gel base coat, one gel color, a gel topcoat, and cuticle oil. I bought mine on Ulta a couple of years ago, and I haven't had to replace anything except acetone and rubbing alcohol. Come back around tomorrow for a review of the kit and longevity of both the color and RCM gels.

Although this kit comes with a gel nail color, I used Sensational Gel Nail Polish Ocean Sparkle. You can find this gel polish at any Rite Aid, WalMart, or any other drug store.

Above is one coat of Ocean Sparkle cured for 90 seconds under the UV light. Below is two coats after being cured for another 90 seconds.

I love this color, but it really pops when a coat of Red Carpet Manicure Brilliance (gel top coat) is added and cured for another 90 seconds.

Look at that holo sparkle! I love this. As you can see, my bottle hasn't fared well as far as appearance goes, but man, the color inside is flawless. All of these photos were taken with flash to bring out the holo sparkle. So, under normal indoor light, this color is more of a grey-blue.

This was extremely easy to work with, as I find most gel polishes are. If you click to enlarge the photos, you'll see it has both a teal and purple sparkle. Have I mentioned I love this?!

Pure ocean-y sparkly perfection in one tiny package. This bottle is the equivalent to the size of a "mini" nail polish. I don't remember how much this costs, but I don't believe it was more than $10. Worth it.

That's all for now. Tomorrow I'll have a little review on Red Carpet Manicure's longevity! See ya then!

Don't forget you can follow me using the buttons at the top of my page now! Thanks :)

JulieG Sushi for Two Swatch and Review

Hey again!

I've got another JulieG polish for you today! This one's called Sushi for Two. Let's get to it!

JulieG Sushi for Two is a really pretty salmon-y orange-peach cream that's perfect for spring and summer!

The formula was nice and smooth, but I did have some trouble with visible streaking. It wasn't as bad as yesterday's manicure, but this swatch required three coats to even everything out.

I loveeeee this color! It's perfect to welcome in some warmer weather!

That's all for today! :) Thanks for reading!

Don't forget you can follow me via GFC and Bloglovin using the buttons at the top right hand side of my blog!

Swooping French Manicure Featuring JulieG Nail Polish

Hey there! Just a quick note that I've added a couple buttons at the top of my blog so you can follow me! So far, I've got zero followers, so I hope to get myself out there!

Today I've decided to replicate a manicure I saw on Kelsie's Nail Files not too long ago. While she chose to use the traditional French manicure colors, nude and white, I chose to switch it up a bit.

First, I began with four coats of JulieG Love Potion. Love Potion is a very pale sheer pink. Unfortunately, this color was really streaky, and even at four coats it still didn't look too hot.

Then I swooped on some JulieG Platform Wedges using a small striping brush. This required two coats. The formula of Platform Wedges is a bit thin.

After my swoops were satisfactory, I used Wet 'N' Wild Fergie Kaleidoscope Eyes for the hexes seen below.

The photo above is pre-top coat. The next photo below is with two coats of Out the Door.

I'll admit this was very time consuming, especially because I had to fish out all of the silver and gold glitter hexes due to my lack of glequins, and then place them on my nails.

Despite the fact that it took forever, I really liked wearing this manicure!

I hope you've enjoyed! Thanks for stopping by! And don't forget you can follow me via GFC and Bloglovin with the buttons on the upper right hand corner of my blog! :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hi everyone! Happy St. Patty's Day!

I don't exactly have a proper St. Patrick's Day manicure for you today, but I have a nice Kelly green swatch for you!

I'm not normally a wearer of green polishes, which is mainly why I didn't do a themed manicure for St. Patty's Day. Nor am I Irish. So with that said, here's my simple little green contribution for the occasion!

This is Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Emerald City. It's a really pretty metallic-y Kelly green color, and I've shown two coats.

Although greens are not my style, this is pretty, although I don't think it goes well with my skin tone.

That's all I've got for today! Enjoy your corned beef and cabbage if you so desire a plate! ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Testing

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Dupes! Essie Fifth Avenue and China Glaze Igniting Love

Hey there!

Today I have a little dupe alert for you! When I fist swatched China Glaze Igniting Love (here) from the Cirque du Soleil collection, it reminded me a lot of Essie Fifth Avenue. So let's just take a look-see!

My pointer and ring fingers have Igniting Love and my thumb, middle finger, and pinky have Fifth Avenue. As far as I can see, these polishes are exactly the same color.

The formulas are different for these polishes, though. Essie is a little thicker and more of a one-coater. But keep in mind I've had that polish for a really long time, so it may have been thinner new.

Igniting Love was thinner and took a little more to build it up to full color opacity, although both polishes are shown with two coats. Igniting Love just required a little thicker coats.

As far as price goes for these polishes, Essie was $8 and China Glaze was around $6.50. In my opinion, China Glaze is the way to go. Cheaper is better when you're a poor college student! Hah. But ultimately the choice is yours!

That's all for today! Thanks for stopping by!

Jelly Sandwich!

Hiiiii!

Today I have my very first jelly sandwich to show you! A jelly sandwich, to my knowledge, is simply a layering of sheer polishes with glitter polishes. Let's get to it!

I began with one coat of OPI Step Right Up!, and layered on one coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Rock Candy (the subtle, tiny glitters), and then dabbed/placed on the big glitter shards using Revlon Nail Art Duo Milky Way. I topped all that off with one more coat of OPI Step Right Up!, then a coat of Sally Hansen Rock Candy, and one coat of INM Out the Door fast-dry topcoat.

Milky Way is extremely goopy and horrible, but I wanted to incorporate large silver glitters. These glitters don't lie flat... one actually poked a hole through the other layers of polish on my right hand! Without Step Right Up! to dull them down, the Revlon glitter shards are very sparkly and kind of holographic. (The glitter in Rock Candy is also a bit holographic). I actually almost hate the glitter end of Milky Way, but I think that holo effect is a nice addition to this manicure.

I like the outcome of this experiment when it comes to color, but this is an insanely thick manicure, so it'll probably peel right off later in the day. My nails are thick, lumpy, and bumpy, so I'll have to acquire a better silver glitter that actually makes it onto the nail when it's brushed on, to fix that!

That's all for today! Thanks for looking! :)