Subtle Jelly Sandwich

I am finally using my second jelly I got recently from the OPI New York Ballet Collection. HERE is the first one I did.

I will start off with pictures of the base colors I used:

I am lovin these super girly nails. The pinkish purple base is Nubar- Isis Purple (Cleopatra 2009). I used two coats. Then I topped it off with one coat of Lush Lacquer- Mr. Bubble. Probably one of my favorites from Lush Lacquer.

And here it is with the jelly on top:

 

  Sunlight

 It looks super shiny in the shade!!

As you can see, it is very subtle.

I used one fairly thick coat of OPI- Care to Danse? (New York Ballet Collection 2012). It gives it just a little more oomph I suppose,, I love it. Go get it at your local ULTA! It is permanent.

Tri Polish Challenge: April Day 4

We can not always expect our nail art to come out perfect... This is by far my biggest nail art fail of all time. I really don't have much to say about it, other than I literally wore it for 15 minutes. If you want to see a successful version, check out Smashley Sparkles version.

Dry Water Marble

I will stick to regular water marbles for now.

Tri Polish Challenge: April Day 3

A reminder of the colors I am using this month: Zoya- Zuza, Zoya- Rory, and Zoya- Myrta, all from the Surf Collection from 2012

I am calling these my stained glass window nails!

I pretty much just started with Rory (pink) and made a random shape, and moved on to the next colors. I didn't worry about making the sections super neat since I was going to go in with the striper to make it more "clean" I used Orly Instant Artist striping polish in Jet Black.

Well, I am not good at lines, even with a striper brush, so it didn't make it all that clean! I also don't like how the Y shape of the black stick out a lot. Next time I do color blocking like this, I will do more colors, or more tinier sections of color.

More Half Moons using Liquid Sands!

Who doesn't love half moons? This and the last one I did are definitely my favorite to date, and you can see why:

 

I am sure some of you know I am loving coral, too, and this shade is the perfect mixture of coral and gold!

I really like the textured trend. I am not going to lie, I went crazy over crackle and magnetics, and same goes for textured! So far I have one liquid sand from the Mariah Carey collection, and when I saw they were having a six piece collection, they didn't really catch my eye. I mainly wanted Pussy Galore for the name, but when I saw this in person, I was like, MINE!

I also got the whole textured collection from China Glaze. I like those more (even though I haven't wore them yet) mainly because they are more textured I guess. The OPI's and Zoya's are more like the gritty glitters China Glaze has had in the past, which you can see HERE.

Either way I love it! I guess the names would be helpful. the base color I used is China Glaze- Peachy Keen, and the liquid sand is OPI- Jinx. I used only one coat of Jinx.

The only con I have with the textured polishes is they dry sooooo slow and it doesn't help that I can't use a top coat! I am just conditioned to apply one, and it sucks to have to sit motionless for 30 minutes+. The biggest pro I have is removal! They remove so easily, almost like a super shimmery polish. I can't wait to showcase more textured polishes soon!

Half Moons using Jessica Polishes

I am obsessing over half moons right now. And I am in love with Jessica as a brand! I don't have very many Jessica polishes, but two I have had for a while are easily one of my favorite greens and oranges of all time, and one of these quickly moved up onto my favorite blues of all time!

The base color is Jessica- Barely Blueberry (Gelato Mio Collection Spring 2012). The formula was okay. The first coat was super sheer and streaky, but the second coat made is perfect.

I of course added a fast dry top coat, and placed the binder paper reinforcement stickers to make the half moon shape. The darker shade I used is Jessica- Sophia (It's a Girl Thing collection Spring 2013). I went to my super nail supply store the other day, and when my eyes caught this shade, I am pretty sure my mouth dropped, and I went straight over to the Jessica display and snatched it up! I made sure to compare it to China Glaze- Secret Periwinkle, and it is definitely a different shade of periwinkle. The formula is amazing, almost a one coater, and I love the subtle shimmer in it! I think I also like this shade so much because it looks a lot like Essie- Boxer Shorts, which I could never get my hands on. I am very impressed and definitely recommend it!

Tri Polish Challenge: April Day 2

Another month of the Tri Polish Challenge! I missed day one again :(. The colors for this month are pink, turquoise, and orange. I had trouble finding a turquoise, so I hope the one I chose qualifies. Here is what I came up with:

This one is my favorite. Look at that shimmer! It almost looks duochrome.

The colors I chose are all from the Zoya Surf Collection for Summer 2012. The pink is Zoya- Rory, blue: Zoya- Zuza, and orange: Zoya- Myrta. They all have flawless almost one coater formulas, and they are jam packed with the awesome gold and silver shimmer that Zoya does best!

I know, the orange looks red, but I took these at 7 this morning, so the sun was barely up in the sky, so I couldn't get direct sunlight.

For the french tips, I used french tip stickers to mark my tips off, and just applied a generous amount of Zuza. When that dried, I took a small dotting tool and did the dots. These are probably some of the hardest dots I have done!

Sorry for my pinky looking all lumpy. I have a patch on it because I have a huge tear that was almost down the middle of my nail. It is growing back slowly but surely!

Check out the other ladies creations!

Jelly Sandwich using OPI

I have always loved jelly sandwiches, but don't have enough in my collection. I had been eying the shades from the New York Ballet collection for over a year now, and finally bought two of them. I think I may get the mini Oz set now...Any suggestions for good jellys?

 

 Weird lighting, but I thought it looked nice!

Mrs. Kittie decided to join the fun!

This is probably one of my favorite combinations I have ever done. I used to do a lot of combinations using at least 3 colors, but nail art took over that. I might start getting into that more now! I think it looks a lot like an indie polish.

The purple base color is OPI- Planks A Lot (Pirates of the Caribbean 2011). It was two easy coats. Next, I applied the glitter which is OPI- Polka.com (Euro Centrale 2012), the only color from that collection I thought my collection would benefit from! Lastly, I applied one coat of the jelly which is OPI- My Pointe Exactly (New York Ballet 2012). I had no desire to get any polishes from that collection, but two of the jellies are part of the permanent collection at ULTA, and i couldn't resist in finally getting it! This one is a nice light grey, so you can layer it over a lot of different shades! I think I am going to do another one soon with the other one I got, which is a light pink. I may try to do two coats this time, too.

Hope you like these as much as I do! And feel free to let me know about some good jellies!

Nail Art using Floss Gloss!

I am so happy to be show casing these nails! I have been eying this brand for a while, and got these a few weeks ago. I knew I wanted to use them both together, and I hope I made my fellow baydestrain nail polish makers proud!

 

Sunlight

 Shade

NEON GOODNESS!

They even look amazing in the shade!

I don't normally wear neon colors. I have very few, and these are definitely my fav! I think I don't wear them because I have found the formulas to be kind of crappy, but these are pretty awesome!

The green is Floss Gloss- Con Limon, the perfect neon Jennifer Green shade. I have never seen a neon green like this! The orange/coraly shade is Floss Gloss- Bikini Coral. 

The glitter on my ring finger is OPI- Lights Of Emerald City (Oz the Great and Powerful Collection 2013). This glitter is so cool looking, but a beezy to work with. You can get a good amount of glitter on the brush 50% of the time, but it is so hard to get it on your nail evenly! Definitely not my favorite glitter...

Now for a  nice review of Floss Gloss as a whole. First off, I LOVE the bottle. They are fairly small, but the handle is nice and big so it is easy to hold and apply the polish. The gold looks fabulous, too. The formula on Con Limon was awesome. It went on evenly in 2 thin coats, and turned out just as bright as it is in the bottle, without using a white base first! Bikini Coral was nice too, but a tad bit on the thick side. It dried very matte, too, and Con Limon dried to more of a satin finish with more shine. I guess my only negative would be that they are $8.00 for only .18 fluid ounce... But the craftsmanship on the bottle makes up for that! Especially the cute nail label they have!

You can buy Floss Gloss HERE, but I think they have deals fairly often. You can also find the ladies behind the brand on the Nailgasm Documentary that pretty much everyone in the nail polish community knows about!

Simple Swatch: Hare Polish + China Glaze

Today should actually be my Polish Days manicure, but I wasn't inspired by the theme...So, instead I did some orange nails! I really don't have much orange, but it was surprisingly hard to pick a color! I finally settled on two untried polishes, which is always a good thing:

 

 

Shade

Shade

The quality of my pictures are a little different. My boyfriend has my good camera >:(

Hare Polish- Electric Flame over China Glaze- Breakin' (Kicks Collection 2009)

Electric Flame is a fairly sheer polish, so I took the chance to layer it. I started off with two coats of Breakin' and could not stand the color on me. Really bright oranges make my skin tone look really weird. 

Luckily, Electric Flame is a little lighter, and after I applied two coats, it made a nice bright, softer shade of orange. And the light blue iridescent glitters in it make it even more special! The formula was a little thick, but polish thinner can fix that! I also really love their new labels, but I am happy I have some of her old hand written labels :)

Hope you enjoyed these! I am going to try to do some nail art next, I promise.

Nails for Autism: Part 2

I changed my mind, and decided to try and do blue nails all month, or at least most of the month. I also read on Let Them Have Polish that this month is also Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month, and the color is orange. So, maybe I will alternate the two colors. Here is another "blue" manicure:

 

I said "blue" because I guess this isn't really blue. It is more of a teal/turquoise, I never know how to differentiate the two. Also, not the best lighting, it is rainy here.

I used two coats of Zoya- Zuza (Surf Collection 2012). Seriously one of the best nail polishes of all time! I wanted it so bad, but my nail shop never got them in. I took advantage of Zoya's sale in the beginning of the year, and at last, it is mine! The formula is of course UHMAZING.

I wanted to use a blue glitter on top, but I love this shade too much to cover it up. I ended up settling for a simple rainbow glitter. I used Nicole By OPI- Confetti Fun (Selena Gomez Collection). I love this rainbow glitter because it has your standard chunky glitters, but also has medium and micro glitters, too! It is a perfect balance, and very easy to work with.

I hope you like these! I wanted something bright, and something I knew I wouldn't get tired of since me and my honey boo boo are going camping this weekend. Unfortunately that means I won't be posting until Monday or Tuesday :(. But until then, expect to see some orange nails next!

Austism Awareness Month

I decided to jump on the band wagon with all the other lovely nail blogging ladies, and did some blue nails for Autism Awareness Month. I guess yesterday was the official day, but I know a lot of bloggers are going to stick with blue nails the entire month! Like my girl Christine at Nails at 2am. I might try to do more blue nails, like one a week, because I really don't do blue nails that often. Here is what I came up with:

Sunlight

Shade

A simple ombre

The colors I used going from thumb to pinky: Color Club- Take Me To Your Chateau (Pardon My French collection 2010), China Glaze- Electric Beat (Electropop Collection 2012), China Glaze- Flyin' High (Up & Away Collection 2010), Anise- Island Lover, and Color Club- Endless Summer (Fiesta Collection 2013). 

I used two coats for each nail, all are cream finishes, except Endless Summer is a weird satin matte type finish. Definitely not my favorite type of finish, but the color is just stunning, and a top coat can make it look normal anyways! The color isn't showing up accurate, either. It looks a lot like Sally Hansen- Pacific Blue, but it is actually a lot deeper.

Lastly, I topped it off with Elevation Polish- Haba Xueshan which is from their new View From the Top Collection. I am not sure if it is limited edition, but I snatched it up quick. Mainly because the only black and white glitter I have has shiny micro glitters in it, which you can see HERE. Chalkboard nails also did it it so much justice with her swatches, I couldn't resist. What makes this polish really special is the pale blue circle glitters in it. The formula was awesome, no trouble getting glitter on my brush, although the circle glitters were kind of hard to get :(.

You can find Haba Xueshan HERE, but it is currently sold out.

Hope you enjoyed these!

My Easter Nails

Yes, I am a little late. I pretty much had no time to post these the last few days. But better late than never!

Sunlight

Shade

I have been really into color blocking lately!

As you can see, I attempted to do some nail art with half moons, but I chose base colors way too similar to the glitters, so it is barely noticeable! You can kind of see the yellow, but the greens are pretty much dead on!

The yellow base I used is Lime Crime- Creme De Limon, the best yellow ever. The green base is Zoya- Neely (Lovely Collection). Both were awesome in 2 coats. Neely was a tad on the thick side, but still easy to work with.

The glitters I used were 2 of the 3 glitters I got from KB Shimmer's Spring 2013 collection. The first one I wore, I only posted on instagram, mainly because pretty much everyone in the nail blogging community has reviewed them. I specifically saved these for Easter! The green is KB Shimmer- Spring Training, and the yellow is KB Shimmer- Where My Peeps At. Spring Training was very easy to work with. Where My Peeps At had a very thin watery base, and the glitters were kind of tricky to get on the brush. I would just shake the bottle every time before each application to get a good amount of the awesome circle glitters on there.

Hope you enjoyed these! Pretty much everyone said they looked like Easter eggs, which is what I was going for. I only did 11 posts, out of 31 days of March :(. I want to do at least 20 this month, lets see how that goes!