China Glaze Avant Garden Nail Art

I am writing this now to make myself feel better about my first microbiology exam that I totally failed. I am officially in stress the eff out mode, and these nails are helping a little:

 

I also got a new light to start doing more indoor photos. They aren't the best since I don't have a light box made to diffuse the light. I have the supplies to make it, I just need to actually make it! But this method will do for now. It doesn't help that I used total opposite colors, too. My camera could not handle these colors together.

I started out with my favorite shade from the collection, China Glaze- Mimosa's Before Mani's, a beautiful coral shade. I am on a huge coral kick and want MORE! This is a more orange coral, which is unique to my collection. It also has some shimmer in it that the camera didn't pick up. It applied in 2 easy coats. Then I added China Glaze- Sunday Funday on the tips and half moons. I used a dotting tool for the tips, inspired by Chalkboard Nails. I free handed the half moons with a make up brush I got from IMATS specifically for nail art. It is a Crown Brush in C250-2, and worked perfect for the half moons. I just need to practice more on getting precise edges.

Just for fun, here is Mimosa's Before Mani's on its own:

 

 

SOOOO pretty! I could seriously wear this color for a week straight.

I ordered some more polishes from this collection, so I will try to do more nail art with them. But for now, I am burnt out of ideas and need help! I got suggestions for galaxy and water marble, which I am so down for. Anymore suggestions?

Sat-ART-day: 60's Theme

Brace yourselves, these nails are awesome! I haven't done a water marble in a while because my last one gave me a lot of trouble, but this one was so successful!

 

 

If this isn't 60's, I don't know what is! Look at that pinky o__o

I knew when I read that today's Sat-ART-day theme was 60's, I wanted to do a cool 60's mod pattern. I found this picture and knew immediately what I was going to do!

source

I really wanted to incorporate red, but I still don't have a red creme! You can see this pattern has dots, so I decided to add some, too:

 

I don't like how the dots turned out, but I LOOOVE the pinky!

Onto what I used! I started off with a base coat of OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls. The colors on my index finger are China Glaze- Dance Baby (Electropop 2012) and China Glaze- Def Defying (Cirque De Soleil 2012). Middle finger: Def Defying again and OPI- Fly (Nicki Minaj 2012). Ring Finger: Fly again and OPI- Planks A Lot (Pirates of the Caribbean 2011). And the pinky is the same purple and pink again, so are the dots.

These colors were very easy to work with for water marbling. I know it is hard to find colors that work and spread evenly on the surface of the water. These were perfect, except you can tell the pink didn't spread as well, but that isn't a problem.

Hope you enjoyed these! I don't want to take it off!

Simple Swatch + Review: Lush Lacquer

I have mentioned before back in December that Lush Lacquer is hands down my favorite Indie Polish brand. They never fail to impress me, and they really outdid themselves this time! I swatched and reviewed my two picks from their Christmas collection HERE and HERE. I reached a milestone in my blogging career and the ladies behind the brand used my photos on their etsy page :) They are discontinued now though, oh well! On to the swatch:

 

 Sunlight

Shade

Lush Lacquer- Clowning Around layered on top of Illimasqua- Nomad

Lush Lacquer is sticking with the nail polish trends in the indie world, and made some neon polishes! They released these shortly after their Valentines and Spring Collection (which I plan on doing swatches of). They made 4 standard creme/jelly polishes with neon glitter mixed together, and this beauty, which I don't think I have seen before. It is JUST the neon glitter in a semi clear base, I feel like it is tinted slightly pink. I don't feel like I need to stalk down all the restocks of Jindie and Wicked Polish because with this polish in my stash, I can make never ending combos! My wallet is happy.

Not only are they releasing more amazing polishes, but they got a new bottle, and brush:

Like my ghetto rigged light box? It is simply printer paper against the window! But I really wanted to do a full review and compare the bottles. I really liked the old bottle. I love their logo and the stickers, it makes it feel hand made. But I am not complaining about their new bottles! I really like the new longer, textured bottle cap. It makes it much easier to grab and open. And their logo is still adorable. 

Onto the brush comparison:

 

As you can see, it is much wider! Words from Lush Lacquer themselves on these brushes, "These brushes are the same size but they are flat instead of round and they grab the glitter VERY well." They pretty much nailed that description. When I swatched all the new ones I got on my nail wheels, I already saw a huge difference. I never really had a problem grabbing glitter with the old brushes, but this new brush makes it 1000 times easier to actually apply it since it is so wide. What will these ladies do next?!

 

Yummy macro shot. Here you can see that the base isn't totally clear, but it isn't really an issue!

On to the application of this particular shade. I started off with two coats of Nomad, which is probably my favorite turquoise polish. The formula is amazing, and almost a one coater, but there were some bald spots. My boyfriend even recognized that I have worn it a lot! After those dried, I applied the first coat of Clowning Around. I grabbed a lot of glitter for all nails, but I didn't like how I couldn't get the same colors. Like my index finger, it has no big purple glitters! I ended up applying two coats just because it looked way more awesome! I am going to get a lot of wear out of this polish, I can already tell.

You can purchase Lush Lacquer on Etsy for $9 USD. And for my international friends, you can find them on Llarowe, but the neons aren't on there yet. I thought they were on Harlow & Co, but it looks like they aren't anymore? You can also find them on Mei Mei's Signatures HERE, but they don't have the neons yet, either.

What do you think? I plan on swatching and reviewing all my 20+ Lush Lacquer babies soon, but still haven't committed to that yet. I plan on doing it in different categories, like Halloween, Mattes, Valentines, etc. Hope you enjoyed this!

Inspire Me Monday: Floam-bre!

All credits to the clever name goes to Samarium's Swatches. She did a Floam-bre a couple days ago, and I knew I just had to do something similar! Here it is:

She used blues, so I decided to switch it up a bit and use green, of course. And instead of applying Floam all over my nails, I did a nice gradient :) The last Ombre Gradient I did was for New Year's if you want to go check that out.

Here is a shot with all 5 of my fingers:

 

Ahh it is green heaven for me :)

All the base colors I used were China Glaze. Going from the thumb to pinky: Electric Pineapple, Def Defying, Gaga For Green, Starboard, and Holly-Day. All are limited edition, but you can find them on ebay, amazon, and various e-tailors. Each were 2 coats, too, except Electric Pineapple is a little streaky, so it required 3 coats.

And I used Ninja Polish- Floam for the the gradient. It is the same as the Nail Venturous one, but Ninja Polish just took the recipe and makes them now. I believe Nail Venturous is done Frankening polishes? Floam was all the rage a few years ago though. It was one of the first matte glitters, and sold out incredibly fast every time it was in stock. It is a finely milled green and blue matte glitters, and Ninja Polish doesn't just make Floam. She makes all sorts of floam versions, such as purple, blue, and she just released a Cupid Floam for Valentine's day, and is in stock! You can find Ninja Polish HERE.

What do you think? If you want to join Inspire Me Monday, join HERE, there is just 3 of us now.

Sat-art-day: Dotting Tools

I decided to participate in this weeks Sat-art-day challenge, organized by The Crumpet. She has so many challenges going on, it's hard to keep up! But this morning I looked at the few submissions and just knew I had to submit a cute dotticure. My boyfriend helped pick out the colors :)

 

A nice simple dotticure gradient!

I started off with two coats of China Glaze- Gaga For Green, from their Electropop collection for Spring 2012, and two coats of China Glaze- Happy Go Lucky. I love this yellow actually. I have only used it for nail art, but it applies smoothly after the second coat!

Then of course I started off with larger dots at the end of the nail, then small dots, slowly making a grandient. The white I used is OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I love the look of layered dots for some reason. Like towards the end of my ring finger and pinky, I don't know why. I guess it just gives a better effect.

What'd you think? Check out some of the other dotticures this from this week!

Halo Hues Swatches Part 2 and Comparisons

As I promised yesterday, I have the second part of the Halo Hues collection. Prepare yourselves, this part is like 1000x better!

 

Halo Hues Swatches Part 1 and Comparisons

If you haven't heard of the Halo Hues collection by Color Club, then you must be hiding under a rock. I made a huge accomplishment in my blogging career today and sat down and swatched all my picks from both parts of the collection. The first part was released late in 2012, and I chose 4 of the 6. The second part should be releasing soon, but is already available on various E-Tailors, ebay, and amazon. I also only chose 4 of the 6 from the second part.

 

Here are my picks from the first part. There are more pictures and even comparisons after the jump!

Valentine's Day Nails

Since everyone is doing it, I figured what not? Although I probably won't be wearing these on Valentine's Day, oh well.

 

I have been kind of burnt out on nail art, so I thought a nice doticure would be fun, easy, and clean. I really like these! They are so girly, but not over powering.

I started out with 2 coats of Orly- Preamp which was from their Electronica collection for Fall 2012. This is my first time wearing this, and I love it! It is a really unique shade, almost a blue toned pink with gorgeous gold shimmer packed in there. The formula was really nice, too. Then I did a simple gradient using OPI- A Sparkle Yule Love. This was an ULTA exclusive shade during the holidays in 2011, but Excuse Moi from the Muppets collection is the exact same shade. It was hard to do the gradient since it isn't in a clear base.

Then I did some dots! I started with the big dots, then the small ones. The colors I used are Orly- Lollipop and Orly- Cotton Candy. Nice simple cremes that really compliment the base color, and they are both readily available at ULTA, Sallys, CVS, etc.

I decided to feature a lot of Orly because I feel like this brand is way underrated. I love Orly so much! I think they were actually the first salon brand I ever got. And when I was going through my Orly stash, I realized all the shades I have form them are incredibly unique to any other polish I have. I will try to use more Orly!

From The Vault: Nubar- Reclaim

I am really on a holographic kick right now and if you follow me on instagram, you would know I recently bought A LOT of the new releases from China Glaze and Color Club's holo collections. I knew I had this beauty waiting in my Nail folder on my computer, so I thought what better time to share it than now? Prepare yourself:

Nubar- Reclaim

sdfsdfbsdfjsd! If you have been following me a while, you would know I love green, but this one is super special. I mentioned in my Cirque Holographic post that this is a lot like Lonesome George, but I like this shade of green slightly more. Reclaim was supposed to be limited edition in their Going Green collection from 2009, but you can still get it HERE for just $8. I am sure it is going for much more on ebay and amazon. I lucked out when I got mine because I found it randomly at one of the Nail Supply stores that has ridiculously low prices. It was on a bottom shelf just begging me to pick it up, and only $4!

Onto the polish itself: It is amazing, hands down. 2 easy coats, and no need for a special base coat, and the top coat doesn't take away the holo effect! I wanted to spice it up a bit and put China Glaze- Glitter All The Way on my ring finger. I love this combo! The last time I went to my regular nail supply store they had this shade fully stocked! I think I might get a back up, and maybe one for you guys :)

OPI + Sation

I am sure no one is a stranger to the amazing polishes Sation has been releasing lately. Ever since I saw Let Them Have Polish post swatches of these ridiculous glitters, I had to get my hands on some. I am still using my new polishes I got in LA at the super nail supply store. Right as I was almost done picking the polishes I wanted there, to my surprise there were ALL of the glitters on this hidden nail rack in an aisle. I think I literally screamed. Here it is:

 

LOOK AT THAT GLITTER!

I can't wait for more mainstream brands to start releasing more awesome glitters like this! This is Sation- I'm Not A Cougar from the Glitter I series, on top of OPI- Sprung which is one of the 2 polishes I got from the Mariah Carey collection. It has so many types of glitters: green, orange, and silver hexagons, holographic micro shimmers, medium black hexagons, and silver bar glitters! I am sure I am missing some.

Just for fun I will show Sprung on its own:

 

This is two coats, and a beezy to photograph! I know this combination is a little Fall-esque, but I don't care. I will rock neon nails in the winter, and fall nails in the summer!

The application for both of these was great. Sprung flooded my cuticles if I had too much polish on the brush, so that was easily fixable. And I'm Not A Cougar had great glitter pay off. LOTS of glitter came out on the brush! I topped it off with CND Air Dry and it is surprisingly pretty smooth. On a side note, I really recommend CND Air Dry as a top coat. I am trying to steer away from Seche Vite because I am tired of wasting half the bottle because Seche Restore doesn't seem to work for me :(. Plus I can get both top coats for just $4!

Well, what do you think? I really want some more of these glitters! Or at least try some of their other polishes. I am going to try to wear the second one next, we will see. Enjoy!

Simple Swatch: My Second Barielle, and Probably My Last...

I promised to swatch my second Barielle I hauled in LA, and here it is!

 

This is Barielle- Myrza's Meadow. This shade looks so pretty in the bottle, but looks so gross on my nails! This is probably the first Jennifer Green that I am not really a fan of :(

This polish is like a hybrid of a jelly and a creme, with tiny holographic micro shimmers in it. And it applied in two easy coats. Sounds awesome, right? Not only did it look weird on me, but it was a beezy to photograph, I couldn't quite capture the color correctly. I was going to try to layer it over Jessica- Lime Cooler, (which is one of my all time favorite greens!) but I wanted to get a feel for the polish on its own. The next time I wear it, I will try layering it to see if the shade of green improves. If it doesn't it is going in my "polishes to get rid of" pile

Oh and wear time is not the best. If you use your hands a lot, this isn't the polish for you, same with the other BARIELLE I got. At work the next day, the polish pretty much came completely off my nail. But Falling star is such a beautiful polish! 

What do you think? I have two Barielle's so far, and wear time is just awful! Is that how it is with all of them?

Simple Swatch: My First Barielle

As I mentioned in my IMATS LA post, I not only got a lot of polish from the show, but I stopped by a place that Jen The PolishAholic calls "nail polish heaven" while I was down there. It was only 5 minutes from our hotel so it worked out great! I got like 10 polishes there, and to my surprise they had Barielle! I have no idea where to buy them besides online, so I took advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free deal they had. And I died a little when I found this beauty:

 

 

 

This is Barielle- Falling Star, made back in 2009! It was in a collaboration collection between blogger, All Lacquered Up and Barielle's celebrity manicurist, Elle! I love how so many bloggers have collaborated with nail polish companies, their hard work really pays off. I hope to either do a collaboration or make my own polish line one day! Those are HIGH HOPES. I have been looking into how to go about making polishes though, and I already have a great idea of what my first collection would be!

Okay, enough rambling, and more about this amazing polish. It is a nice thick creme with tiny copper micro glitters evenly dispersed throughout the creme base. I was worried it wouldn't apply evenly through out my nail since the glitters were cluttered in certain spots of the bottle. But I didn't have that problem at all! I applied 2 coats, and they were the perfect consistency, not too thin or too thick. I love that it almost as an indie polish feel to it too!

Hope you love this as much as I do! I hope to wear the other shade I got next. I gave away the third shade to my mom's coworkers daughter. She is being bullied at school so my mom asked if I could get her some fun polishes, and I hooked her up! She even wrote me a cute little thank you card. That was a good deed of the day for me :)

Polish Days: Back To Nature

My second Polish Days. These are a lot of fun! This months theme is Back To Nature since everyone is having a super cold harsh winter. Luckily it isn't too bad over here. There hasn't even been ice on my car in the morning lately! Anyways, here are my nature nails:

As Bob Ross would probably say, "Happy little mushrooms and clouds" But of course my happy little mushroom on my middle finger had to get ruined by my top coat!

I decided to go with mushrooms because they are always fun when they are in bright colors. I wasn't up for doing a crazy tree design or anything. I also tried getting inspiration by looking at some photos from my boyfriend and I's camping trips. We have found some crazy mushrooms! That is the advantages of living so close to the Redwood Forest.

I started off with 2 coats of China Glaze- Sea Spray, which accurately depicts how the sky looks over here right now, therefore not giving me good lighting for my photos!

The colors for the mushrooms are all from the Zoya Surf collection from Summer 2012. One of my favorite collections from last year, and I took advantage of getting 2 more from the Zoya promotion earlier this year! My index finger is one I have been wanting sooo bad, and that is Zoya- Zuza. Such a perfect shimmery blue shade. The other free shade I got in the promotion was the color on my pinky, Zoya- Myrta, a nice coral orange color. My middle finger is Zoya- Rory, and my ring finger is Zoya, Meg. I chose these colors because I used a dotting tool to make the shape, so I knew they wouldn't be runny and go all over the place.

Then I used my Orly Instant Artist striping polishes in Crisp White for the stems, and Hot Green for the grass. I added the grass last minute, I don't like it too much.

And for the white part of the dots on the mushrooms, I used OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I also used the same shade for the clouds using the watercolor technique.

What do you think? I am already impressed with everyone's designs this month!

Inspire Me Monday

I have had this planned for a while, so lets get right to it!

 

I was obviously inspired by the adorable boxes Lime Crime's polishes come in!

This was the first time I sponged a gradient with more than 2 colors. Man it gave me some trouble! But at least my picture taking hand turned out nice, my other hand is just awful!

I started out with a base color of China Glaze- Light As Air. I love this color. I want to wear it on its own soon! It is the perfect pastel lavender color. Then I used the same color as the lightest sponging color, along with Illimasqua- Jo 'Mina for the medium purple shade, and Anise- Violet Falls in Love for the darkest shade. I was afraid these colors would be to inaccurate, but they turned out to be pretty much dead on!

You can find Lime Crime polishes HERE for $5.99. The only place I have ever found Anise polishes are at DSW stores at the registers. They are really nice polishes!

What do you think? If you want to join Inspire Me Monday, Kelly made it easy to join by commenting HERE. There are only three of us now, so it would be fun if there were more!