China Glaze: Christmas Color preview

Ok, so I know in my last post I said I wasn't ready for Christmas mani's yet....but I just got some of the new CG colors from Sally's and I HAD to try them out. So I figured I'd do a little swatching preview....

I added 2 layers of Mistletoe Kisses over my Zombie Zest mani (hee hee, there's just something wrong about that combo!!). MK, the bottle color is a green with silver glitter, reminds me of a green version of Dorothy Who or Ruby Pumps, but the glitter is definitely silver:



And I just had to add 2 coats of Party Hearty over it. PH is the absolutely coolest holiday color ever! The bottle color has a mixture of silver and green micro glitter with larger red hex glitter...it's so mistletoe-y. This color is so hot, I just had to show you two pictures.



Sorry, I promise not to jump holidays like that again, I just couldn't resist. I'm gonna have to think of some ideas for Thanksgiving manis.....

Thanks for looking!!

Halloween Nails - Zombie Zest

Ah, the last Halloween color of the year, can you believe it's over? Today I'm wearing the third and final color in China Glazes Awakening Halloween collection, this is Zombie Zest. Z2 is a yellow toned mossy green color with glass flecks. Very cool!

Here's a shot in shade:


and sunlight:


I wish they made Thanksgiving colors! Or stickers or something. I'd love a cute little turkey nail sticker :-) I'm not ready to break out the Christmas mani's yet...

Thanks for looking!

Diamond Cosmetics Decadence

Decadence is a light chocolate brown color with a foil finish from Diamond Cosmetics....perfect for fall, my favorite time of year. It applied so easily, I hardly had any cleanup...which is a rarity for me ☺


Here's a closeup, you can really see the silver foil here.


Thanks for looking!

Quick Comparison: Night Prowl vs Mummy May I

So, I when I put on Mummy May I the other day, I instantly thought of Wet n Wild's Night Prowl....blackish base, purple glitter, they seemed similar....that is until I saw the bottles next to each other. WNW is a black base with purple micro glitter. MMI is a dark purple base (looks black though) with sparser and larger fuchsia-purple glitter.

Here they are next to each other......



Thanks for looking!

Halloween Nails - Mummy May I

Today's NOTD is China Glaze's Mummy May I. The bottle color is a black base with small square fuchsia-purple glitter. Very pretty, and a great Halloween color.

The picture was taken with an OTT light.



Happy Halloween and thanks for looking!

Sheba Orange Glitter - Re-Vamped

So, I guess you really can't call this a franken.... I started with Sheba's orange glitter polish. The Sheba color has a mixture of dark and lighter orange glitter in a clear base. Very pretty on it's own, but it kind of reminded me of Ick-A-Body. So I added some of the Fantasy Makers silver holo glitter to the mix (you can click on any pick for a closeup).

I LOVE the result!





This is super flashy in the sunlight, the photo looks more toned down than it does IRL.


And here's an uber closeup of the glitter.


This was two coats with one layer of Posh topcoat. Sheba is a local nail supply store, they sell online too , here's a link to their store. I've never bought from their online store before, so I can't vouch for it, but I have visited their physical store and they've been great in person.

Thanks for looking!

Half Moon manicure

Can you believe I wore my last manicure for 5 days?? I really did adore the brown, orange and silver combo and just couldn't stop looking at my fingers ♥

But it was time for a change. I decided to do a half moon mani this time. I used La Color's I think the name of it was Live? It's that silver foil from the Dollar Tree. And the red is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Wined Up.




For the guides, I used those little circles that you use to reinforce the holes you punch in paper. I just cut them in half....the only problem is they're a little hard to get all the moon's even. But overall, I really do like this mani ☺

Thanks for looking!!

Halloween Nails - Spellbound

Today I attempted a gradient for the 1st time using Orly's Smudge Fixer. The base color is Confetti's Masquerade Ball. MB is a dark vampy brown-ish burgundy color. Then, I used China Glazes Spellbound topcoat. Spellbound is a mixture of round silver glitter, silver hex glitter, round orange glitter and orange hex glitter.




What you're supposed to do is wait until the base color is completely dry, then add a drop of the glitter color at the base. Wait approx 15-20 seconds and use the Smudge Fixer to push the glitter out where you want it to cover. Now, me being as impatient as I am, didn't wait quite long enough for the base color to dry. Even bearing that in mind, I really am pleased with the way it turned out. I think I would have had better results if I waited, but I really really love this mani!!

Here are some closeups:



So, as you can tell by the picks, my ring finger finally broke off to where I deemed it not worth the effort to try and fix again. At least there is a bit of free edge to it now. I just gotta make sure to keep popping the Biotin so it grows out faster!!


Here is Masquerade Ball by itself:



Thanks for looking!

Halloween Nails - Bewitching Set

Today's Halloween mani is a funky french. The base color is Cover Girl Candy Corn (which by the way, is the perfect pumpkin orange), the tips are Hocus Pocus from the Bewitching set. It was a littler boring on its own, so I decided to try the decals that came with the Color Club Bewitching set.



I fauxnaded the pumpkin on the thumb nail using BM plate P57:


Here is the right hand:


The decals really make the mani. They're so cute!

Thanks for looking!

My (not as great) version of Paradoxal

I really like Chanel's Paradoxal, but I saw this dupe on Lacquer Laine's blog and I wanted to give it a try before I shell out the $$ for the real thing. I didn't have the Orly color she used, so I substituted with Pure Ice's Busted.



The base is Confetti's Moonstruck, which is a smokey purple based taupe color. I used one coat of Orly's Nail Armor (love the stuff!), two coats of Moonstruck and one coat of Posh (I just replaced my Seche Vite with Posh, so hopefully it'll help with the shrinkage!).


and this is with one coat of Pure Ice Busted on top:



Unfortunately, not as close as I'd hoped, Lacquer Laine's is much nicer. I think if I found a better color to get the purple shimmer, than I'd be on to something. But for now, it's a nice way to dull the lemming ☺

Here's an updated pick of the break on the ring finger. I've been silk wrapping it and adding a layer of no-light gel overtop to keep it from breaking. So far seems to be working, but my nail beds are very curved (like a C shape) and this particular nail is much flatter than the others because the brake is right at the smile line.