Kirby Crackle! (Contest Entry)

This is my entry for the contest over at Chalkboard Nails. I don't know if I'm completely satisfied with the pictures (ok, not at all), but I am REALLY satisfied with how it actually looked on my nails. This design was inspired by this:

Comic readers might recognize this as Kirby crackle! On to the nails...

That purple is the gorgeous Seniorita Bonita by China Glaze. I have a couple other random photos of it that I wanted to share, but I'll save them for a non-contest entry post! 

Thanks for reading!

Finally had enough colors to do an ombre...

..But I did it with my tips. I really liked the idea of doing nude nails with colorful tips, so I went with an ombre design. The nude is Revlon - Sheer Nude.

The blues are:

Thumb - Revlon's Minted

Pointer - China Glaze's For Audrey

Middle - Sinful Colors's Why Not?

Ring - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Pacific Blue (love this polish)

Pinky - Dark blue Cosmetic Arts that I actually only bought because both me and my father thought it was purple. Bleh. Still a good color.

The other nubbin nail that I spoke of in the last post...

That wooden thing that I took pictures on is what I am hoping to make my nail polish desk. It would look awesome all painted up. 

Bonus weird dots:

Does anyone else play Animal Crossing? They have a salon in town, and there should totally be an option to get your nails done. I'm writing Nintendo! ^.^

Thanks for reading!

Jordana FTW

Serious win all up in this post. As mentioned I have a serious thing for creams and also purples and greens (that almost rhymed), and Hypnotizing and Rich Green by Jordana did not at all disappoint me. They both went on in two easy coats and came off quite easily. What really impressed me though, was the formula. Of course it's not O.P.I quality, but it's better than some of the Sinful Colors of I've come across, and they're the same price. I didn't clean up these swatches of Hypnotizing, because I wanted to get the immediate shine from the Quick Shine Top Coat. Almost made it too shiny for pictures though haha

Yes, I have a nubbin nail :( I actually have one on each hand right now. Very frustrating that not even one hand is good for swatching! I'm being as careful as possible, so hopefully they'll be all normal soon. Anyway! I probably should have waited until the top coat dried more, as you'll see in the pictures of Rich Green, the shine is normal and not so glaring like in the above pictures. The color and formula of this polish were just awesome - well worth $1.99. The brush was actually really nice too. Kinda reminds of me of a China Glaze brush. Now for Rich Green:

I freaking love greens.

So... I didn't clean up these swatches either. This polish was just so easy to work with, and the brush covered so well, I didn't make any mistakes big enough to warrant busting out ye olde acetone and make up brush. After gushing over the awesomeness of this amazing green for awhile, I added some stamping so I could test the Quick Shine Top Coat for nail art effectiveness.

Not the best stamping job...

The verdict: Holy crap it works. I waited until I was done stamping my entire hand, applied the top coat, and there was no dragging! The dragging you see on the middle finger was completely my fault, I left some hangy bits of the Konad polish. I know Seche Vite acts the same way, but this is only $1.99. I cannot attest to how long it wears or keeps your mani looking fresh, but I can say it's great for nail art, dries as quickly as all of the top brands, and leaves a shine that lasts for days (well as far as my impatience would allow me to test, 3).

I had also purchased a black crackle from Jordana, it worked like any other crackle would. Nothing special to note. It did the job! :)

All in all, I recommend giving Jordana nail polish a shot. If for nothing else, their amazing top coat!

Thanks for reading :)

Purple glittery goodness

In my time in Pennsylvania I made sure to hit up a few Dollar Generals because they have discounted Xtreme Wear polishes and there isn't a single one here in my area of California. Because of this I ended up with a ton of Xtreme Wear colors, but that's ok because they water marble really well, and I need all the help I can get in that department. This is Purple Potion. A shimmery purple with hints of blue all throughout. It didn't look that special in the bottle, but once I had it on I couldn't stop staring. Two coats is what you see here. 

Then, of course, there had to be GLITTER. Rockstar Pink is another of the Xtreme Wears I picked up. This is the only thing I have done with it so far, but it's so damned pretty in the bottle I imagine it could really spice up a few manicures!

I was really just going for a light gradient and a little shine. I think this manicure accomplished both :) 

Thanks for reading!

A Manicure for the Weekend

While home with my dad, we listened to a lot of music together. Good times, food, and brews were had. We were listening to one of his favorite bands, X-Japan, and he suggested I do my nails in tribute to X-Japan! I thought it was a pretty great idea so we came up with a few ideas and this was born!

The thumbs are the name of the song that inspired this design - Weekend. Check out the video here:

The blood splatter design was taken from the video - I really do love splattering..err splatter painting? I don't know how to phrase that right now, but I love it!

The X is obviously for the name of the band, but I did it in pink in dedication to their late guitarist, Hide, who was famous for his pink hair (and ridiculous guitar skills). 

I decided to post this today because I found out my dad randomly checks my blog, so this post is dedicated to him! :) He has been insanely supportive of my nail art stuff and always has something nice to say about even the worst manicure that I do. Hi dad! Love you!

Thanks for reading!

And today was a good day...

... For there was nail mail! Not only did I receive packages from Jordana and a lovely Reddit Lacquerista, but I have two packages waiting for me at the post office that can be picked up Monday! One of those packages contains all of the nail polish I acquired while in Pennsylvania over the holidays. SO. MUCH. POLISH. I am giddy!

If you don't know about Jordana Cosmetics, you really should check them out. They are a drugstore brand, I've only seen them at K Mart, but they're DBP, Toluene, and Formaldehyde free! And.. only $1.99! I have truly fallen in love with their polishes. It started with Purple Glam. Then, I read this top coat review and saw that they made the perrrrfect quick dry top coat for nail art! It lasts AND it doesn't drag the design! Haven't tried it for stamping yet, but hopefully it works out! The top coat is the quick SHINE version, not quick dry, but it does in fact dry rather quickly.

I also ordered a crackle because, well, I have only one crackle and I wanted to have crackles in basic colors. Talk about being late to the game! And apparently I really have a thing for greens and purples because I somehow ordered yet another set in the form of Hypnotizing and Rich Green. I've been on a real cream kick lately and have a strong desire to own alllll the colors in cream! Best part about the whole Jordana order: I ordered on the 16th, it got here on the 18th.. WHAT?! That was super quick! And shipping was only 5 dollars! Woo! <3 Jordana! They are totally not paying me to say that.

I also mentioned receiving a package from the wonderful ridiculouslikethat of Reddit Lacqueristas. I had been having a hard time finding Revlon's Whimsical and am super grateful this awesome lady was able to help me out! I'll be sending out some China Glazes for her in return :) Check out this packaging! Nothing was getting through that! Definitely needed scissors! Hmmm I might just be cheap and tape it back up it was so sturdy and nice...

Reviews of the Jordana stuff soon just because I think everyone should give this polish a shot!

Thanks for reading :)

Pastel Clouds

The ever-amazing Jane at Nailside came up with this cute design awhile back. After seeing so many awesome recreations, I had to try it out myself. I used Sinful Colors Innocent and Confetti Belle of the Ball. I can't remember the white's name. -_-  I use Innocent a lot, if anyone has noticed, but I just picked up Belle of the Ball last week at CVS. I went there because I had heard there were a ton of good sales going on, but I must have heard way too late because they were cleaned out. Either way, I walked away with basically the cheapest polishes I could find in any colors I didn't have 2 of. This lovely purple is one of them. 

While it's fun and cute, I kind of regret the color combination. It didn't look very nice on my skin. Maybe light purples just don't do well for me. My light was creating some crazy glare in these pictures too. I kind of liked the effect, though. 

Thanks for reading!

Not Quite Connect the Dots...

So Lynderella makes everyone squeal with her amazing polishes, but I am too slow and too broke to ever get in on her sales. Connect the Dots is my personal favorite polish of hers - it's perfect for putting over just about any color and creating instant nail art. Nails and Noms has some pretty great swatches of CTD here. I am currently trying to get the supplies to create my own version, but until then I have been using Nubar Black Polka Dot and White Polka Dot to try to create a similar effect. I also recently received China Glaze For Audrey, and thought what better way to show it off for the first time? :)

These pictures were frustrating. For Audrey did not want to photograph for some reason, and I am always awkward using my right hand to take photos. My right hand, which I usually photograph, has a severely broken pointer fingernail. I have some sort of Wolverine healing factor though so I expect it to be full length again in about a week :)

Thanks for reading!

Orly? YA RLY

This is my first and still only Orly polish. Out of all the things that make this polish amazing, I really really love the grip! I am always a little worried I'll drop my nail polish brush while painting and destroy the carpet or splatter it on my work area, this made me feel safe. Hah. The first time I tried to apply Androgynie, it didn't go so well, and I was quite discouraged. Luckily I stumbled across this helpful entry by Polish Insomniac! I still probably didn't leave the bottle upside down long enough, but I got a lot more large glitter this time around. The heavy pigmentation covers up some of the glitter, though, and I gotta say I should have stuck with one coat on some of my nails. On to the pictures...

Good? Bad? Needs more upside down time? Yeah... Anyone have an Androgynie story to share?