Maybelline Express Finish: Ice Cold

Every once in a while, you just need to wear white polish. This color is called Ice Cold. It's a white base with a frost finish. It does show a bit of brush stroke, but not too badly ☺

This is yet another DT find. It's been sitting untried for....well, I hate to say like 2yrs or so. I still have a few others that I've never worn....so you'll probably see a few more Maybellines soon ♥





Thanks for looking!

L'oreal Star Magnet: Purple

Does everyone remember these? I love magnetic polish. After you paint an individual nail while the polish is wet, you hold it up to a magnet and a pattern will appear. This color is called Purple, but it's more of a maroon-y red color - definitely NOT what I could consider purple.



I only have three magnet polishes, two L'oreal Star Magnets, and one Lancome. I'd really love to get my hands on some of the Essence ones, they have magnets that give off different patterns, but I don't think you can get them if you live in the US.


Thanks for looking!

Maybelline Express Finish: Twinkle Twinkle

Twinkle Twinkle is such a cool color! I think it's pretty close to Starry Starry Night, but it's not a jelly base. At any rate, it's a nice dark blue base with silver glitter. I was lucky enough to find this sucker at the Dollar Tree.

This is right on the border of my "vampy-color-looks-black-except-in-direct-sunlight" pet peeve, but I think it's just colorful enough not to get on my nerves ☺ I really love this one. It also looks great with Shooting Stars overtop, but I forgot to grab of picture of that combo.





Thanks for looking!

Franken Friday!

Yikes, I honestly don't remember if this is one I did or if it's a Shmoopy franken. Either way, I adore it! It's an amazing pale blurple glitter holo (blue + purple = blurple) that just dazzles in the sunlight. I used one coat of Gelous overtop and it was smooth as can be. Make sure to enlarge the picks!


Shade:


Sun:


I think the Ikea lamp flatters holos, this is so pretty!


but I had to blur it a little so you could see all the kick @$$ colors!


Thanks for looking!

Orly Crawford's Wine + Radar

I was lucky enough to grab Crawford's Wine from a coworker. Her mother purged a bunch of reds and this sucker ended up with me.

I probably wouldn't have picked this one out on my own, but once on, I really liked it.


...but again, no sparkle. So I added Sally Hansen's Limited Edition color Radar overtop. Radar is a brown jelly (yes, I said brown jelly! Don't think I've ever seen that before) with holo glitter. It's basically the same as the color Magnet I showed earlier, just with a brown base. This give it a kind of brick red look. Very nice.


And under my Ikea lamp the brown shows up more.


Thanks for looking!

Epic Win! HD under 239 Teal Crackle

Warning, this combo is going to make you want to go out and buy Teal Crackle, like today. I started with Milani's HD as a base. HD is a silver, what I like to call a flek holo finish. It's kind of got that China Glaze Kaleidoscope look to it.


and now...love....#239 Teal Crackle. I adore the crackle pattern!


and under the Ikea lamp, you can see the bits of holo from under the Teal. Awesome, awesome, awesome!!


So, this color cracked best out of the 4 Kleancolors I tried. I believe the others kind of buckled instead of cracked because of the humidity. I still need to try Green, Purple and Red, but I'm going to have to wait for milder weather first.

Thanks for looking!

Muppets!

L O V E this glitter!

So, I mentioned earlier that teal/aqua is my favorite mani color lately, well wait til you see what I found at the Dollar Tree!!! Swoon worthy! This is LA Colors glitter in I believe the name of Tropical Island. Again, I hate that they don't list the color name on the bottle!

I added one coat of Tropical Island over yesterday's mani and OMG, I adore it!!!! Please make sure to enlarge the picks.


Look at the contrast of the glitter/base color.


and a closeup. There's a mixture of teal and green. The silver and hex glitter are from magnet.


Edit: The name is Treasure Island, I just bought a backup today ♥

Nicole by OPI In Your Hands + Sally Hansen Magnet

In Your Hands is a dark blue jelly polish by Nichole by OPI. I purchased it for frankening, but haven't done anything with it yet. It's pretty nice by itself -dark but not black, but you know me, I need sparkle!



So I decided to add a layer of Sally Hansen's Limited Edition color called Magnet. Magnet is a light blue jelly with holo glitter. In Your Hands is a perfect base color for Magnet. They compliment each other nicely. It's a bit too close to looking black, but the glitter brightens it up enough for me ☺


Since there was no sunlight, this is under my Ikea lamp.


Thanks for looking!

Sally Hansen Opulent Cloud + 240 Blue Crackle

This was the "it" color on MUA a couple of years ago. I remember trying to hunt this puppy down at the time, it was not easy to find ☺

Opulent Cloud is a nice purple-y silver base with a tan flash. I think the purple shows mostly in the bottle, on the nail, it's primarily silver.




Then I decided to try out another Kleancolor crackle, #240 Blue. This one kind of buckled again. I think maybe I didn't wait long enough for the base color to dry or it was the humidity. The Kleancolor crackles seem to be pretty finicky....it does show promise though. I like the contrast of the blue and silver.


Thanks for looking!

OPI Extra-va-vangza + 243 Black Crackle

I really love OPI's glitter polishes, in fact I can't wait for the Muppet collection! I'm gonna be all over that!! Here is Extra-va-vangza from the Burlesque collection. This is an orange toned multi-colored glitter.



And I added Kleancolor black crackle overtop. Shew, when I used brown the other day, I was a bit worried over these, but black seemed to work properly.


I ♥♥♥ wearing glitters/holos under crackles!!!
Thanks for looking!

China Glaze Cowardly Lyin + 242 Brown Crackle

Cowardly Lyin has been sitting in my untrieds for a while. I got it on Sally's clearance around Christmas time, so I thought it was high time I gave it a try.

What an odd color. It's a sheer frosty gold base with gold micro glitter. Not sure I love this one.




So I thought I'd try one of my new Kleancolor crackle polishes in brown. I was going for a kind of giraffe thing...

Well, it's didn't work out so well. It's been H O T in Michigan lately and very humid. I don't think crackles like to work in humidity, cuz like my Cover Girl one earlier, this one just sort of buckled instead of cracked. So far the Kleancolor crackles have not made a good 1st impression with me.



Eeeeww....sorry I made you look at that! ha ha.

China Glaze Atlantis!

I don't know what my deal is lately, but my new favorite nail color is teal / aqua blue. I L O V E Atlantis so much it's one of the few I keep a backup of ☺ Atlantis is an aqua jelly base filled with awesome sparkly holo glitter. This color in the sun is just blinding!

The base color is an LA Colors teal. It's pretty readily available at the Dollar Tree. What I dislike about these DT colors is that they list the name on a packaging but not on the bottle. So I don't know the proper name for this one. But it's 2 coats with one coat of Atlantis overtop.




Of course my camera doesn't properly show off this color with sunlight. Here's a shot I took under my Ikea lamp. This is more like it, see all those colors?


Here is the LA Colors by itself. I ♥ this! Be warned though, wear a basecoat or your nails will stain a teal color. Not pretty!


If you don't own this color yet, trust me, hunt it down and get a bottle.
Thanks for looking!

Chunky holos over Zoya Blair

Ok, so I had to try the Chunky Holos over a vampy red. I used Revlon Red before, but it's a bright red jelly, but I wanted to see it over a darker red base. I used Black on my ring finger and I think Bluebell on the others. Oops, I forgot which one! LOL. But it goes to show they all look the same over a dark base ☺ Andii commented that I should try layering them over a white or light color, that way the base color comes through. Good idea! I'll have it try it soon.

Look at all those colors!


Here is Blair by itself. It's a nice dark vampy color, but still looks red. I approve!


Thanks for looking!

Snowman purple glitter

So, I needed to revamp my Island Girl mani after a couple of days, so I decided in honor of my air condition breaking in the middle of 90 degree weather, I would use one of my Snowman colors (thankfully it's fixed now). This one is from I believe 2009, the year before they added those cute little hats on top. I love this guy! I got it from my BF Shmoopy when she did her last purge. Thanks Shmoop!!!

This is one coat over Island Girl 2008.




Thanks for looking!

Island Girl 2008

I was lucky enough to win this color from Just Peachy's blog giveaway back in January. This is the only Island Girl polish I own and I like it. I don't believe there is a place in Michigan to buy Island Girl polishes. It goes on a light rosey color and the heat turns it a nude peach color. This one is a nice dramatic changer, very pretty.





Thank you Peachy!!

Borghese: Stellare Notte - layerd mani fail

So I started with 2 coats of Stellare Notte. I'm sorry to say I was bored by it....these was no umph. I felt it needed to be dressed up a bit. I seem to need to add glitter to everything lately.




...so in an effort to change things up a bit without glitter, I added a layer of LA Color's Enchanting....and nope, didn't like this any better. It was just dull.


so I decided to add a layer of Cover Girl's crackle polish in Ghost overtop....and fail! I think it was the humid weather that day, but it just kind of buckled instead of cracked.


Blech, mani fail! I ended up removing it and starting over...I hate when that happens ☺

Thanks for looking!

Nubar Shock: Pink Flame

Today I have for you one of Nubar's Shock colors called Pink Flame. PF is a duochrome that flashes red, pink and gold. This one is not as strong of a duochrome as some of the other Shock's are.

This is three coats without topcoat.




shade:



Thanks for looking!

Maybelline Express Finish: Khaki Fringe

Green! I almost passed this one by until I saw a post on MUA swatching the color. I don't know why it didn't impress me in the store, maybe the florescent light made it look different? I'm just glad the Dollar Tree still had one when I went back for it. Like Purple Rage, this one has a kind of frost / shimmer finish.

Sunlight:


Shade:


Thanks for looking!

Lancome Midnight Gleam + chunky holos

Midnight Gleam is one of my pet peeve vampys. Looks black except in direct sunlight. In the sun you get an awesome blue shimmer. So I don't wear this one much....but it's good for layering.

Sunlight = blue shimmer


Shade = black


So, I decided to layer over it. I used Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell except I used Chunky Holo Black on the ring finger. Black is my favorite of the the Chunky Holos, look how awesome it is! I may need a backup!!

Sunlight:


Shade: look at the amazing duchrome!!


Thanks for looking!