Mosaic French Tip

I saw My Simple Little Pleasures do this a few weeks ago, and of course had to try it. I haven't done anything rainbow in a while, so I did a rainbow version!

Pretty cool, huh?

I just used creme polishes, and as you can see, I have many more greens, blues, and purples than the warmer tones. So I just did the warm tones on one finger, and did the cool tones on the last three.

Here are the colors starting with the main base color, the bottom triangle and going from top to bottom, index to pinky. Hopefully that makes sense

China Glaze- Dance Baby (Electropop Collection Spring 2012)
Lime Crime- Crema de Limon
Zoya- Wendy (Tickled Collection Summer 2014)
OPI- Where Did Suzi's Mango? (Brazil Collection Summer 2014)

Zoya- Neely (Lovely Collection Spring 2013)
Orly- Green Apple
Illamasqua- Smash
OPI- Jade is the New Black

Color Club- Take Me to Your Chateau (Pardon My French Collection Spring 2010)
Zoya- Wednesday (Beach Collection Summer 2012)
Barry M- Guava (Gelly Hi-Shine Line)
Zoya- Ling (Tickled Collection Summer 2014)

Barry M- Prickly Pear (Gelly Hi-Shine Line)
Illamasqua- Jo'mina
China Glaze- What a Pansy (City Flourish Collection Spring 2014)
Anise- Violet Falls in Love

Trelly Polish + Bunny Nail Art

I knew when I wore this polish I wanted to do a bunny as an accent finger. OhMyGoshPolish on instagram conveniently did some bunny nail art the day I was doing my nails, so I used her bunny for referance! Here it is:

I can never decide what colors to wear under Trelly polishes, so I did a periwinkle-purple ombre

The glitter is Trelly's M.I.S.C Polish- I Happen To Love Rabbits (Alice In Wonderland Collection 2014). It mainly consists of periwinkle hex glitters in various sizes, along with matte yellow circles, matte white bars and stars, and white and yellow matte hexes. As always, a lot going on in this polish, but it doesn't look like glitter throw up! And the formula is amazing. A lot of glitter comes on the brush, which she actually changed a long with her bottles. The brush is a thick flat wide one, kind of like OPI's, so that helps a lot with glitter pay off.

Here are the colors I used for the ombre:
Inglot- 669 (Breathable Nail Enamel Line)
China Glaze- What A Pansy (City Flourish Collection Spring 2014)
China Glaze- Lotus Begin (City Flourish Collection Spring 2014)
China Glaze- Light As Air (Up And Away Collection Spring 2009)

I used OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls (Spiderman Collection Spring 2012) for the white bunny body. Orly- Cotton Candy for the ears and nose. Anise- Island Lover for the blues of the eyes, and Wet n Wild- Black Creme for the blacks of the eyes.

Zoya Dupe Alerts!

Sorry these are just pictures of bottles, but I thought this would help some people get their hands on some pretty sought after polishes, and they are cheaper than the originals!

I went into DSW with my mom so she could get some shoes, which meant she would probably get me a pair as well :). I pretty much hate shoe shopping since I am plain and would be content wearing converse and vans the rest of my life. But I love going to DSW since they have Anise nail polish! This is the only place I have seen these polishes available for purchase. I don't even think you can buy from their website...

Here is the first Zoya dupe I got a while ago now:

Zoya- Zuza (Surf Collection Summer 2012)
Anise- Sea Siren

Pretty much the same color in the bottles

Here are the other two I got yesterday, one I own the Zoya to compare next to, but the other I don't.

Zoya- Aurora (Ornate Collection Winter 2012)
Anise- Be Worldly

Again, pretty much spot on in the bottle, the Anise one might be just slightly darker

Lastly here is Anise- Cosmic Forces which  looks a lot like Zoya- Blaze (Ornate Collection Winter 2012). I guess this is the only one I "needed" since I don't own the Zoya one.

Go to DSW and get you these polishes if you missed out on them! They were buy one get one 50% off yesterday, so who knows how long that will be going on. They are $6 compared to a 9$ Zoya. The Zuza dupe was also there! Hopefully one day  I will wear these together to really see how they compare.

Nail Art for the first ever International Nail Art Day!

I got an email from Nailgasm, the first ever nail art documentry, that today is officially International Nail Art Day. I assume pretty much every nail blogger will be contributing, so of course I am going to as well! I originally wanted to do a marble of course, but I thought I should try a new technique. Thenailasaurus has been posting all these different Waterfall looks, so I decided on that. Here is how it turned out:

I think I did alright for my first time...

I started out with one coat of Mod Lacquer- Dreamland, one of my favorite indie brands. I used two thickish coats. It is the prettiest mid tone purple with a scattered holographic finish!

The three colors I used for the waterfall affect were Essie- Butler Please, Anise- Violet Falls In Love, and Color Club- Revvvolution. I ended up doing some stripes with all three colors, then went in with one of each and filled in the spaces. I probably should have used like 5 colors so it wouldn't look as muted. But over all, I like it! And I will definitely try it again.

What did you do for International Nail Art Day?

Simple Swatch: Candeo Colors + Jelly Bean Nail Art

I have a little bit of nail art for you today. And a huge lemming of mine that has finally been squashed! Here it is:

Sunlight

Shade

Candeo Colors- Jellybean. I have seriously wanted this polish for well over a year. I have a thing for yellow indies mainly because there aren't that many yellows out there in the mainstream world, and they are always the same sunshine yellow, or lemonade shade. This is a "crelly" pale yellow base, jam packed with large blue, pink, and purple hexagnonal glitters, along with micro green and yellow glitters? I am not not sure, but it is such a nice balance, and sooo easy to work with! I used two coats.

Of course I had to do some type of nail art involving jelly beans. I thought a gradient would be nice and eye catching. The yellow base is Lime Crime- Crema De Limon. I have said this before; BEST YELLOW OF ALL TIME. I used two coats, but you could easily get away with one thick coat, especially if your nails are short. Then, using a dotting tool, I used China Glaze- Dance Baby (Electropop Collection Spring 2012) and Anise- Island Lover to make the jelly beans. I just made one dot, and another next to that dot to make a kidney/jelly bean shape!

What do you think? Can you suggest any other yellow indies? I want them all!

Another Simple Swatch + Water Marble Using My Last Unused Gloss 'n Sparkle

Hold on to your seats and prepare for rainbow over load. I probably should have saved these to wear for SF Pride!

Gloss 'n Sparkle- Unicorn Droppings

I mainly wanted this polish for the name... But it is seriously amazing. Anything rainbow is an A in my book.

Unicorn droppings is a white creme base with a lot of tiny sparkles, but of course the sparkles aren't noticeable in the pictures! It has large glitters in pretty much every color of the rainbow. It is jam packed of glitter too, no problem with getting it on the brush. But I did kind of have to move the glitters around evenly on my nail. The less brush strokes you use, the better!

On to the marble. This is probably the most proud I have been over a water marble I have done. I used 6 colors which is insane, and I managed to get pretty much all of the colors on my nail, aside from the very tiny bit of green on my tip! But hey, that is still six colors which is really hard!

The colors I used are: China Glaze- Adventure Red-y (On Safari Collection Fall 2012), OPI- On The Same Paige (Summer Brights Collection 2009), OPI- Need Sunglasses?, OPI- Green-wich Village (Mod About Brights Collection 2008), Color Club- Endless Summer (Fiesta Collection Summer 2013), and Anise- Violet Falls In Love. I had no problem with any of these polishes!

Simple Swatch + Water Marble

I am still trying to get back into mastering water marbling, and I decided the best way to do that is to just do an accent nail. I don't have the patience or skills to do all 10 fingers yet. I am trying to use as many untried indie polishes as possible, so I am choosing colors to marble with that are pretty much the same as the indie polish. I really like how they are turning out, especially this one!

Gloss 'n Sparkle- Fruit Tingle

This polish is pretty much flawless. It is opaque in two coats, packed full of micro silver glitters, medium pink glitters, large black and blue glitters, and even larger black glitters! It is so opaque it kind of covered the glitters from the first layer.

The colors I used for the marble are Anise- Island Lover (blue), Wet n Wild Megalast- On a Trip (purple), and Wet n Wild- Black Creme. I have used on a trip for marbling before, and it worked pretty well. All these colors did really. Much better than the china glaze one I did a few days ago. I think I should stalk the next time cvs or rite aid has a sale on Wet n Wild so I can buy alll the Megalasts!

Note: I also started using bottled water. My refrigirator claims to have "filtered" water, but the polish would never spread through out the entire cup. I don't have a brita or anything, but so far bottled water is pretty sweet!

Rainbow Dots

I finally had enough down time to do some more intricate nail art! I love these. I got inspiration from some ladies on instagram, one being the lovely mulanpoopy. Here it is:

Sunlight

Shade

It was so hard choosing colors that went together that I haven't used before! But I found a good cohesion of colors.

The red/pink is a really old Sephora color that has no name. Orange: Zoya- Thandie (Stunning Collection Summer 2013) I like saying that name out loud because it sounds like you're saying Sandy with a lisp. The Yellow: Jessica- Banana Peel (Gelato Mio Collection Spring 2012). Green: Illimasqua- Smash. Blue: Anise- Island Lover. Lastly, the purple: China Glaze- That's Shore Bright (Sunsational Collection Summer 2013). I cheated with the white base and used OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls which I have used a lot, but I only have two whites, and this is the best one!

The way I did this was started with the big dots, and just filled in the spaces with smaller dots. Very simple really. I just wish my freakin top coat didn't drag some of the dots -__-. Here is what I did with my thumb, I might do this as a full manicure someday:

Hope you enjoyed!

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!

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!

The Crumpet Amateur Nail Art Contest: January

Two posts in a day! I am really taking advantage of winter break before Microbiology takes over my life :(. So, I decided to submit to The Crumpet's nail art contest. It is for bloggers who are just getting started, and you just have to do one of the nail art challenges that she created for the new year!

I decided to go with Day 13: Your cheer yourself up mani. Here it is:

Balloons! I define this as cheer me up because when I got my very first yellow polish wayyy back when, I would always do a rainbow skittles manicure. I haven't done one in a while, so I decided to do a little twist to it.

I recently got my favorites from the Color Club Halo Hues collection, and decided to use the classic silver, Harp On It to represent an abstract version of a rainbow in the sky. Then I used a medium sized dotting tool to make the balloon shapes. The colors on my index finger are China Glaze- Surreal Appeal and Papaya Punch. Middle finger: China Glaze- Happy Go Lucky and Orly- Green Apple. Ring finger: China Glaze- Four Leaf Clover and Aquadelic. Pinky: Finger Paints- Winter Sky and Anise- Violet Falls In Love. Lastly I used the white Orly striper polish for the balloon strings.

I actually really like how these turned out! I only wish I made the balloons bigger because the holo kind of outshines the cute little balloons.

You can see other entries for the contest HERE. Voting starts in a few days so it'd be awesome if you could vote for me :)

New Years Nails!

I didn't have time to make a post for my nails yesterday because I was taking care of my sick honey boo boo. So instead of calling these my New Years Eve nails, even though I wore them yesterday, I am calling them my New Years nails. I went with the whole glitter theme of course, and here is what I came up with:

 

My pinky doesn't like to cooperate

 

Awesome Ombre!!!

Lets just get right into what polishes I used. Going from the thumb to pinky, the base colors are: Revlon Colorstay- Provence, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails- No Hard Feelings, OPI- Planks A Lot, Anise- Violet Falls In Love, and OPI- Sapphire In The Snow. I believe Provence and No Hard Feelings are part of Revlon and Sally Hansen's permanent lines. Planks A Lot is from the Pirates of the Caribbean Spring 2011 collection. Sapphire in the Snow is from OPI's Holiday Wishes collection way back in 2009. I haven't heard much about Anise in the Nail Blogging Community besides like one time from Scrangie. I have only seen them at DSW usually by the cash registers. And every time I go there, there are different polishes. But definitely try to check this Anise color out, it is probably one of the best and my personal favorite purples! I used two coats for each nail. 

After those dried, I applied one thin coat of China Glaze- Glitter All The Way. I applied it pretty thick at the tips and with using the brush I did a gradual gradient. Then I used China Glaze- Pizzazz which is your standard multicolored chunky glitter. Both polishes are from their Holiday Joy 2012 collection.

I really love doing ombre manicures. That is the advantage of having so many polishes! I plan on hopefully doing a blue one next because I have done green multiple times. Any suggestions?