The 80's!

Okay, the mani in this post today I looooooved. I kept in on an entire week with minimal wear which, as far as I'm concerned that's like a miracle. The idea behind this came from OPI Pirouette My Whistle. The Walmart in the town where I go to school didn't have the NYC Ballet collection in for the entire time I was there, so when I came hom for the summer I finally grabbed it. I wanted to think of the perfect mani to use it for, and I wanted to do something different than what I'd seen. So, I did an edgy 80's thing instead of soft and delicate like the collection is. Here it is!

I used one coat Wet n Wild Black Crème, then did the triangles with French White Crème with Sally Hansen Frutti Petutie and WnW I Need a Refresh-Mint over, and covered it all with one coat Pirouette My Whistle. I did kind of have to place the white hex glitters, but other than that application was fine.
Can I just say one more time how much I loved this? :3

Thanks for reading!

Glass Pink and Simmer and Shimmer gradient

This post will be pretty simple. I thought that the shimmer in Sinful Colors Glass Pink would really pop under a super sparkly glitter so I paired OPI Simmer and Shimmer (from the Burlesque collection) with it. I did three coats Glass Pink and then went over the nail from the cuticle about three times with thin coats, covering less of the nail each time.

artificial light

artificial light

natural light

There wasn't as much VNL in real life... of course it showed up in the photos. :P I really loved how super shiny this combination was. So pretty!

What do you think? What's your favorite glitter gradient combo?

Polka dots and stripes

The same day as I did my last PRIDE manicure, I didn't want to go through all of the gradient stuff again, so I did something different on my right hand. Here it is!

I used one coat Wet n Wild French White Creme and then used tape to create stripes with Revlon Gold Coin. Then, I used Cult Nails Let Me Fly, Sinful Colors Hazard, Innocent, and Fun Times and a dotting tool for the dots. Pretty and simple, and it was pretty simple to do! 


Thanks for reading! :]

Pride nail art

Following the last post, I did another gradient nail but decided to go with a theme. Since this is Pride week here in Indy, it is fitting that this post lands in this week!
I did the same plastic-mix-sponge method that I used in my last post, except with five colors. I'll put the complete list down at the bottom.
Clean up was particularly nasty on this, so pardon the left over mess!

On a base of Wet n Wild French White Creme, Sinful Colors Be My Valentine, Orange Alert, Morning Breath and Revlon Emerald and Royal with Wet n Wild Black Creme for the letters

Thanks for reading!

Three color gradient

I've done sponge gradients before, but when I saw this tutorial by the Nailasaurus, I knew I had to try it out for myself. I started with a base of an older NYC no name pale yellow and then followed the tutorial using Zoya Bevin and Kendal. Kendal was a little too thin to cover as well with this method, but I just went over it a few times and it wasn't too bad. I had a lot of fun doing this mani using this tutorial! Super easy to follow. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Make Up Store Greta and Layla FlashBlack

HOLOHOLOHOLO. I'm addicted to it. This is my most expensive mani to date (I'm a penny pincher, since I have to be. :P )
There's kind of a funny story behind how I picked up Greta. I had submitted to the probability that I would never own this polish, but on the first day of my trip to Southeast Asia back in January, I noticed that there was a Make Up Store in Hanoi, which I was visiting later in the trip. Even with the awesome exchange rate, it was still about $17. I didn't even care, it's a gorgeous polish and now a cool souvenir of my awesome trip. I don't have a story behind FlashBlack though, I'd seen it online and then saw it in Ulta and splurged (for me).

I don't have any special base for holo polishes, so I did experience some drag and bald patches, but it all evened out. All pictures are taken with two coats MUS Greta and three thin coats Layla FlashBlack, no top coat, OPI Nail Envy base, sunlight.

Enough of my rambling, on to the liquid rainbows!!

OPI Just Spotted the Lizard and Zoya Edyta

Lalalalala simple, picture heavy post today. We all know that Just Spotted the Lizard is a great Chanel Péridot dupe, and of course I had to get it since I don't have Péridot. I also need to thin out my untrieds, so I grabbed Edyta as I thought the greens would go together nicely, and I think I was right. I layered JSTL over Revlon Royal to try and coax out the bluer tones just a teensy bit more. It does of course go opaque, but I layered it anyway to try and conserve even a little bit.
This is one coat Royal and two coats JSTL on the thumb, middle, and ring and then two coats Edyta on the index and pinky.

under Ottlite

Artificial light

Artificial light

Sunlight

Sunlight

Thanks for reading!

Acid grunge wash- inspired by tutorial

My ruffian mani, while I liked it, quickly bored me and I really wanted to try out the acid grunge wash look I'd seen on Just Tis Ems blog here, so I did, I used some pretty bright colors (China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, Sinful Colors Innocent, Sinful Colors Hazard over Revlon Royal and Sinful Colors Dream On). Innocent (the green) didn't really show up as much and that kind of bummed me out, but I still was super pleased with the results.

What do you think? Have you tried this look?

Neon Ruffian

I'm home from school! So I should have more time to post. Good news is, I'm only four manis away from being up to date with my blog.

I've seen the Ruffian mani around the internet and wanted to try it out. It's been bright and sunny, so I wanted to do something bright too. Who am I joking, I always want to use bright colors all the time. Hahaha.

Here's my Ruffian mani using Sinful Colors Dream On and Revlon Royal. Layering Royal over Dream On did darken it up a bit, but it ended up alright.

What on earth are all those little specks!? They only showed up on camera. Hmm....

There is a part two to this mani (I get bored easily, lol) that should be up later tonight.

Thanks for reading!

Framed Glitter (failicure salvaging)

Here I am... studying for my two finals tomorrow. My head is about to split open (and I just started lol) so I'm taking a break. :3

The post today is what I managed to salvage from probably my most embarrassing failicure yet. I layered Revlon Scandalous and OPI Metallic 4 Life (both of which were brand new to my collection) over China Glaze Aquadelic and Happy Go Lucky, respectively. I thought that the black jelly base would serve as a kind of shroud, making the blue and yellow dark and murky. I did NOT think they would go entirely opaque in two coats. My huge mistake! Because they did. I did not even take any pictures of what it looked like at that point... Instead, I framed my nails with Aquadelic and HGL because there was still some peeking out of the edges underneath Scandalous and M4L. I'd like to say I did a good job of rescuing it! I kind of liked the way it turned out.

Sooooooo there you have it. Loooool.

Tell me what you think! Thanks for reading :]

Wet n Wild Silvivor with dots!

I got some new dotting tools in the mail a while ago and decided to do a dot-only design. Here's what I came up with!

Two coats Wet n Wild Silvivor with Sinful Colors Dream On and China Glaze Aquadelic

I don't think it's half bad, for my first try. I'm sure I'll get better as I use them more. It was more difficult to get uniform dots than I thought!

Thanks for reading :]

Cult Nails Captivating with Spoiled Shrimp on the Barbie

Since I'm such a sucker for glitter, I got Captivating during the last $5 Cult Nails sale. They did another this weekend, and I really wanted to get Hypnotizing, but I'm forcing a summer budget plan on myself. :l Hahahah. Anyway, I paired it with Shrimp on the Barbie. Here that one is alone.

Two coats Spoiled Shrimp on the Barbie natural light

Two coats Spoiled Shrimp on the Barbie direct sunlight

It's a really nice bright coral-y pink with gold glass fleck shimmer. I later realized it was pretty close to Zoya Rica when I finally got around to swatching my pinks the other day. I might do a comparison post, if I get the time.
I used this one as "underwear" for Captivating to give it some extra shimmery oomph. Here they are together. This picture hardly gives it justice... It was so much more gorgeous in real life. Maria does a really nice job.

One coat Cult Nails Captivating over two coats Spoiled Shrimp on the Barbie

What's your favorite Cult Nails polish?
Thanks for reading!

Jelly sandwich with Wet n Wild 2% Milk

So in my last post I talked about one of the Wet n Wild Megalast polishes I have. This time, I have another one, 2% Milk. This is a sheer beige jelly. Love! I don't have any of the OPI New York Ballet collection yet, but from what I've seen it kind of reminds me of that from it being a neutral jelly.
For this jelly sandwich, I layered two coats 2% Milk, one coat LA Girls Glitter Addict Uninhibited, one coat OPI Rainbow Connection, and then another of 2% Milk. LOVELOVELOVE the way this turned out.  :]
I've only got one picture because it's pretty self-explanatory...

Tell me what you think! What's your favorite jelly sandwich combo been so far that you've tried?

Wet n Wild Megalast On a Trip

As I'm sure most everyone knows, I'm a huge fan of good quality, cheaply priced products. The Wet n Wild Megalast collection is a great example of such a product. I only have two of the polishes so far, but seven of the lipsticks (which I might even do some posts on!). The first one I have for you today is On a Trip, a blue-toned light purple. I layered one of my favorite polishes, Sally Hansen Glass Slipper, on top to make it even more light-spirited and springy.

I know a lot of people are split on the new WnW brushes, but I really liked the coverage with the bigger width. The curved tip made it really easy to get close to the cuticle without flooding. I didn't have any problems with it at all. Really great quality for a $2 polish! I used two coats On a Trip and one coat Glass Slipper for this mani.

under Ottolite

under incandescent light

I need to get my nails this long again! Grrrrrr running out of Nail Envy :C

What do you think of the newer Wet n Wild Megalast polishes?

Mermaidesque nail art

I'm at work with all my tasks completed... what to do, what to do? Blog about nails of course :P

Today's post is mermaid themed, loosely. Picture first, then I'll ramble on about it for a while...

Index/pinky: Two coats Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost, two coats Sinful Colors Nail Junkie
Thumb/middle/ring: Two coats Zoya Cho base
Rings/sponging thumb/middle/ring: Revlon Plum Night, Zoya Faye, China Glaze Aquadelic
China Glaze Flyin' High, Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost, Revlon Gold Coin, Zoya Bevin

I USED SO MANY POLISHES! Geez, I didn't realize I had until I had to type them all up... :O

I really like the way Faye sponged onto the nail. It turned out just a really faded purple with that green-y gold sheen. Super pretty. The circle pattern is just something I usually end up doodling on the margins of all my notes in class, so I did it in colors on my nails. It was pretty time consuming. I thought it would end up looking kind of mermaid-y so I used Nail Junkie for glittery fun. Merp.

Tell me what you think! Thanks for reading :3

Layering experiment with Nubar 2010 and Pure Ice Oh! Baby

So alright. I have a bit of a problem with having things in chronological order, and as such, I have been posting in the order in which I wore these manis, with the exception of the Neverland Nail Blog nail art contest and just a couple others. This isn't necessarily something that is important, I just wanted to throw it out there I guess, since today it's rainy and grey and sad outside but the pictures I'm posting today are from the end of March when it was nice outside! Hahaha.

Today's post is a layering experiment! I always love doing these kinds of things because I never really know how they're going to turn out. For this, I used one coat Sinful Colors Black on Black, two coats Pure Ice Oh! Baby, one coat Nubar 2010, one coat Oh! Baby, one coat Nubar 2010. In that order. :P 


All pictures were taken outside in the shade. I recommend clicking on them to make them bigger. :3

Straight on

At a slight angle, Nubar 2010 shift more obvious

Extreme angled back, Oh! Baby shift blue, purple, pink more obvious

Side shot! This way, you kind of get the whole effect.

I took these pictures over a span of about two days, so there is some pretty terrible chip wear... This mani didn't last to incredibly long since it was so thick. :/ It was fun while I had it on though.

What do you think? What's been your favorite layering combo you've tried?

Nail art with Zoya Rica!

I still consider myself fairly new to the polish world. I've been doing nail artsy type things for about a year and a half now, but I've only been collecting (hoarding? lol) polish for a few months. As such, I didn't own any Zoya polishes until their last buy three get three free. I would definitely own more, as they are such excellent quality and big 3 free, but I just don't have the money most of the time. One of the ones I picked up was Rica, and I am SO GLAD I did. I'm not a fan of orange-y polishes, but this tangerine-toned coral is to die for. Here it is on it's own, three coats, under artificial lighting.

GORGEOUS.

 I wanted to do something kind of funky and geometric, so I looked at this photo of some Keith Haring work for loose inspiration.

Here's how it turned out! I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and Snow Me White. I personally really like the thumb, index, and middle finger best. What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

Franken/springtime skittle!

So as we all know, indie brands and frankens have been huuuuge in the polish world. I think it's so cool, and would love to be able to make some of my own. However, as a poor college student :P , I can't do as much as I'd like. This is one I made from mixing together probably about eight or nine different polishes. I wanted to see what it looked like over a few colors, so I did a springy skittle.

Two coats each, thumb to pinky:

China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, OPI Planks a Lot, Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet,

China Glaze Fuschia Fanatic, China Glaze Aquadelic

Then I added one coat of my franken. I clearly had to shake it up a lot, and as a result got a bunch of air bubbles that are really visible on my ring finger. :/ Oh well. Anyway, I just used about a trillion different glitters and some white and added them to what I had left of an old Revlon Extra Life No Chip Top Coat. The bottle for this top coat is matte, so it's fairly difficult to see what the franken actually looks like.
Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

"Do You Believe In Magic?" Neverland Nail Blog nail art contest!

When I saw this nail art contest, I knew I had to enter and do a unicorn inspired mani! I have a unicorn pillow pet and might even get a unicorn tattoo someday... We'll see though. :P Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. This is the first nail art contest I've entered, so I hope I did okay! Here are the pictures:

I used a load of colors, so I'll just list them all by finger.
Base on all: Cult Nails Let Me Fly
Ring and pinky: Cult Nails Clairvoyant (what unicorn mani would be complete without a good dose of Unicorn Puke?!)
Middle and thumb: Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, Essie Pansy, OPI Planks a Lot, Makeup Store Greta (for some silver lining, hahaha)
Ring: Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, Essie Pansy, OPI Planks a Lot, Sinful Colors Pull Over, Wet n Wild Teal of Fortune, Sally Hansen Black Out, Makeup Store Greta


I had a lot of fun doing this contest, and I hoped you all enjoyed it too! :3

Cloud Mani à la Nailside

So I'm procrastinating writing this paper and in such a lame mood that I decided to post about this sunshine-y bright mani I sported a while back. I had just gotten the China Glaze mini-haul I did in the mail so I decided to use a few all at once and try out the cloud style that Nailside does so well. After a base of OPi Nail Envy, I used two coats China Glaze Aquadelic. The cloud/scalloped part is OPI Skull and Glossbones and China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, and then one coat of China Glaze Techno (which was so hard to photograph the right way in order to get the holo... of course.)

Thanks for reading!

Nail art with Spoiled Jewelry Heist

Hello everyone! Here's a mani with another Spoiled by Wet n Wild polish I picked up when it was two for $3, Jewelry Heist. I'm a sucker for glitter, and this one was DIVINE. I paired it with two colors that I thought went with the rosy pink hex glitters and the iridescent minty green square glitters, Sinful Colors Easy Going (two coats) and Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet (applied with a striping brush). I thought bringing a geometric pattern, pastel colors, and glitter all together was kind of funky. :3

Jewelry Heist applied like a dream. This is two coats over two coats of Sally Hansen Grey Area. See how glossy and shiny!? Not at alllll a hungry glitter. 

The only thing about it is I somehow managed to get a smush on my ring finger in between finishing top coating everything and taking pictures... Geeeeeez, Kalen. :P

Hope you enjoyed this mani as much as I did!

Spoiled Paying with Platinum

A while back, there was a two for $3 Spoiled by Wet n Wild sale at CVS. One of the one's I got was Paying With Platinum, which I'm sure is just Wet n Wild's Gray's Anatomy but just for the Spoiled line. I don't have it so I can't be sure, but I really don't find the point in buying GA since it's all really just Wet n Wild anyway. I love me some WNW, but not that much. :P

This is one coat Sinful Colors Black on Black with two coats Paying with Platinum to make the duochrome really pop. I was pleasantly surprised to find some pink shimmer peeking out from the purple at certain angles, but overall I wasn't really too excited about this polish. The color shift is striking, but for me, the colors were just not saturated enough and my hands almost reminded me of  zombie hands because the colors were so dull. :X I got bored with it quickly and added a coat of China Glaze Black Mesh on my index and pinky but even that didn't satiate my need for a new mani. I think I wore this about two days, when I had it on.

That yellow in the bottle is just a reflection of a light in my room. It's not a part of the polish, as much as I wish it was!

taken with flash

Thanks for reading!

Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire

There are a lot of holo polishes out there, and I want to get my hands on all of them. Needless to say, this is quite impossible on a college student's budget. :P However, Wet n Wild never breaks the bank so I picked up Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire. It was a little sheer, so I layered it over Sinful Colors Savage to brighten it up. I wanted to see what some added holo would look like too, so I added some to my ring finger and thumb.

Sinful Colors Savage, Wet n Wild Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire, Warpaint Beauty White Noise

OPI Nail Envy, two coats Savage, two coats WWTBAM, one coat White noise ring/thumb

And of course, blurry holo is excellent. :3

Thanks for reading!