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?