Matte Iridescent Glitter Nails

Hey everyone! So  lately I finally decided to buy a polish that i've been wanting for forever..the Butter London matte topcoat. I've seen swatches of it and tried it in stores that have the testers (which is really awesome), and I loved it. I put off getting it because it's expensive and normally way out of my budget. But I got some money and found a good deal on ebay, so..now I have it! Of course, I had to try it out right away. I tried a bunch of different combinations with it and decided to pair it with some iridescent glitter. Iridescent glitters, along with flakies, are my favorite finishes ever. I especially love the way they look over black. So after taking a bit to choose which glitter to use, I came up with this.

Sally Girl Dare U over Nuance Black Dahlia, mattified with the matte topcoat. By itself its a pretty mix of blue, green, and gold iridescent glitters in a light blue base. I love Sally Girl because they are so cheap and have some great colors. This is one of the old bottles, i'm not sure if this color is still available in the new ones. I was sad when they changed their bottles to be even smaller then they were. They only hold 4ml now. But hey, 99 cents is still a pretty good deal, and they're still bigger than the OPI minis.

So, what do think? Do you like iridescent glitters too?

Hard Candy Crush On Amethyst Swatch

Hi everyone! Today I have for you a really gorgeous polish. From the brand Hard Candy! I'd seen this brand lots of times in Walmart and I've been anxious to try it! I love the colors and the look of the brand in general. I was really excited when I got two of them in a swap. I've swatched one of them for you now.

It’s called Crush On Amethyst, from Hard Candy’s Crushed Chromes collection. It’s a beautiful purple foil packed with gold shimmer/glitter.

I love the complexity of it. The mix of gold in there makes the color really deep and unique. It’s funny, despite the gold, it looks more silvery in normal light. I love it. It’s a great fall color too. I think it fits with the season nicely, although i'm sure it would look great at other times of the year too.  The formula was also amazing. It went on opaque in two coats and dried nice and smooth. It also dries flat, as in there’s no thick layer on your nail. I put a pretty thick second coat by accident on one of my nails but it dried like I only used one coat.

Overall, I really like this polish, and for $3.99 each ill definitely be getting more at some point. My only complaint is that I wish the bottles were bigger. They’re only 7ml.

So what do you think? Do you like the Hard Candy brand? Let me know what you think! :)

Fall Flakie French Tips

Hi everyone! So..it really is fall now isn't it? The leaves are changing..the weathers getting colder, and all the fall polishes get brought to the front lines! I've been really getting into the colors of fall, and so I made my first fall mani of the season!

Ta dah! Flakie french tips! I love this! The black really makes the red/green/gold duochrominess of the flakies stand out! It reminds me a lot of piles of fall leaves at night.

I used Nuance Black Dahlia for the base and Color Club Snow Flakes for the tips.

So what do you think? Are you getting into the fall spirit?

Nail Art Experimenting.. Water Color Nail Art With Markers!

Hi everyone! So the other day I was sitting on the floor trying to see if I could think up a new nail art technique that no one had done before. Then, my eyes wandered to the other side of the room, where I had a bunch of markers sitting out from when I had been drawing, and I had an idea. No, I did not paint my nails just with marker, although I did have fun doing that as a kid. I was thinking of the times where I had drawn on a smooth surface and didn't wait long enough before running my finger over it, and it smudged. I started wondering, what if I could do something like that on my nails to make a cool water color effect?

The answer is yes ladies and gentleman, yes I can. Here's what to do if you want to try this,

1. Paint 1 coat of white polish on your nails (I used Sinful Colors White on White. You can use another coat if it looks really streaky, but be careful, because you're going to use a whole bunch of top coat and you don't want your mani to be really thick.)

2. Paint on a coat of your favorite shiny top coat. (I used Out The Door)

3. Let dry COMPLETELY. (This is important because the next step will dent the top coat if it's not totally dry)

4. Use a marker of your choice to draw on your nails. Leave plenty of white space. I chose to draw chevrons. Make sure you press to get as much marker ink as possibly on your nail.

5. Before the marker ink has any time to draw, quickly paint over it with top coat. Press down with the brush to really pull the marker color through. You might have to go over places twice to get even coverage. 

It took some trial and error to get this right. I drew some nail shapes on paper and covered it with tape to try it on that first. Then I could see which colors and which markers worked best. I found that dark colors and permanent markers worked the best, because they are more pigmented and have a stronger, more visible water color effect, although crayola markers worked too if you want a more subtle effect anyway. You also want to work fast with the top layer of top coat, because if you don't two things could happen. One is that the marker ink will dry and you won't be able to get good streaks of color, or even coverage, and the other is that the top coat you already put on will start to dry and will smear, which doesn't look good.

So, what do you think? If you like it, try it for yourself. Let's see if we can start a trend! If this does catch on, I vote to call the art made with this technique "Marker Manis". :)

Despicable Me Minions Nail Art

Hi everyone! So..first i'd like to give you an update about whats been going on in my life. For the next few months i'm going to be working with my aunt. She's a kindergarten teacher, and everyday I've been helping in her classroom. It's a lot of hard work, but I love the kids and the job. Plus it will give me great experience for when I go to college and start studying early childhood education.
So..for the first day of school I was thinking about what I could put on my nails. I wanted to do some cute nail art, with something that would appeal to kids. So..I thought of doing this.

Minion nails! I've seen some people do them before, so I decided to put a little bit of my own twist on it. Instead of making a minion on all of my nails, I made one on my accent nails and spelled out "Bah Nah Nah" across the others others. This was inspired by the minions love of bananas, and of the song that they sing in the Despicable Me 2 trailer.

I even made a little banana on my thumb. Also, I apologize for the slightly less than appealing background in my pictures. I haven't quite located a good place to take pictures up here in Maryland yet. 

So..what do you think? I'm pretty proud of myself because this is my first nail art involving letters(Not counting the XOXO in my textured valentine nail art). Yay for milestones! :)

LA Girl Birthday Cake Review and Swatch

Hi everyone! Okay, something about me is that I absolutely love crelly and creme glitter polishes. Ever since I saw swatches of Kbshimmer Oh Splat online..I've been hooked. So when I was in Rite Aid..I saw this beauty sitting on the shelf and I just had to have it.

LA Girl birthday cake, a pink creme base with rainbow colored glitter. Let's get on to the review shall we?

Application

I had no trouble with the formula. It went on nice and evenly in 2-3 coats. I like that the glitter spread out evenly too, instead of clumping together or gathering at the tips.

Look

LOVE. Crelly and creme glitters are just beautiful. This one is no exception.

Price

$2.99 at Rite aid. I'm definitely not complaining at all here!

Overall

I've seen a lot of this type of polish ever since Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop came out. A lot of brands have been trying the whole pink base rainbow glitter thing. But I think this one is different because instead of it having a sheer-ish jelly base, it's a creme. That makes it a lot more opaque with a lot less coats, which means no glitter clumps! Plus it's a LOT cheaper than the Deborah Lippmann. So, of all the "Candy Shop" type polishes I've seen, this one has my vote.

So, what do you think? Will you be buying this polish? Do you love crelly glitters too? Let me know! I'dlove to hear from you!

Nail Art Experimenting..Textured Sugar Spun Nails

Hi everyone! So a while back I was bored..and decided to try to come up with something that not many people have tried before. So, after a while, I came up with something. We've all heard of sugar spun nails..but what about textured sugar spun? I've never seen anyone try that before. Well, I decided to try it, and here's how it turned out.

At first I wasn't really sure about it. At first I thought that this must be why nobody had done textured sugar spun nails, and I almost called it a fail. But after a while..it kind of grew on me. It's different..but I like it.

Here's how I did it for those of you who want to try this for yourself. I didn't take pictures at the time, but if any of you want a picture tutorial just let me know.

1. Paint your nails a base color. I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White.
2. Choose your textures. I chose to use the Rimmel London Sweetie, because they're sparkly and not too chunky. Plus..the technique is called "sugar spun".
3. Put drops of the first color onto a piece of plastic. I put scotch tape on a piece of paper and put it on there.
4. Wait a little bit, and every so often dip a tooth pick into the drops. Wait until it thickens enough that when you dip the tooth pick into the drops and lift up, strings of the polish come with it.
5. When it reaches the right thickness, touch the tooth pick gently to where you want a string to start, then lift up and move the toothpick across the nail so its just above it without touching it. This should cause the string to stretch across your nail.
6. Continue placing all the strings you want.

It took some practice getting the strings to go all the way across my nail, but I think over all I succeeded in what I was trying to do.
What do you think, will textured sugar spun nails be the next trend? :)