Festive Half Moons

Today is officially my first day of my last winter break that I will ever have! I will be out of school for about three weeks, so I will try and do as much nail related stuff as possible! Here are some half moons using some new polishes released for fall:

It has been quite rainy here in Northern California (surprisingly), and this weekend was supposed to be dry and sunny, so I of course wore some holos!

These are holos are both from the Cirque Burlesque Collection released for fall this year. I snagged these during her Black Friday Sale, which I believe was 20% off.... I am trying to do as many festive themed nails as possible, and I think these work well.

The gold/olive green is Cirque- Harlow. I used two coats, although you could easily get one coat if your nails are really short. I top coated that, placed my half moon stickers, and applied a thickish coat of Cirque- Josephine, which is a beautiful deep forest green! I have a lot of holos now, so when I see one in a shade I don't have, I kind of freak out, which is what I kind of did with this whole collection. Although I only got three of the four released.You definitely need these, they are super high quality, come in beautiful packaging, and the formulas are like butter, just like all the other Cirque colors I have tried.

Lastly, the textured polish on my ring finger is Zoya- Chita (Pixiedust Collection Fall 2013). One of the best Pixiedusts out there in my opinion! It is pretty much one coat, even with my nails at this longer length, but I went ahead and did two coats.

Stay tuned for more festive nails

My First Attempt At Chevrons

Nail vinyls are all the rage right now, and I finally convinced myself to get some since I will have time to use them this summer! I got mine from NailVinyls who carry a nice variety, including simple stripe tape which I loved the idea of since regular rolls of striping tape are such a hassle to deal with! Anyways, here is what I did:

I of course chose your non traditional polish to paint over the tape...

First I applied 2 coats of the base colors, which are actually holos, but are not showing up super holo as they are :(. The dark periwinkle is Cirque- Sky Woman (Heritage Collection Summer 2014). Amazing, that is all I have to say! And the lighter periwinkle is Enchanted Polish- April 2014.

I started applying the nail vinyls in the middle of my nail so they would be pretty symmetrical, and I think that worked out well. Then I applied a fairly thick coat of KB Shimmer- She Twerks Out (Early Summer Collection 2014). An amazing textured polish, but isn't showing up really textured here.

Simple Swatch: Cirque + Ninja Polish

I am officially on my last summer break, but am still behind on some posts! I actually have some nail art planned, including a fun one for the fourth of July! Anyways, here is one of the new awesome holos Cirque released for the summer:

 

Cirque- Cerrillos (Heritage Collection Summer 2014) is the most gorgeous bright blue, turquoise holo out there right now. I have a lot of holos right now, and none of them are quite like this one! This shade applied in two flawless coats, like all Cirque polishes I have tried. I got 5 of the 7 polishes from this collection, so expect to see those in the near future- another one will be in my next post actually!

I used Ninja Polish- Floam on my ring finger. First I applied one coat of Cerrillos, then applied 2 coats of Floam just in case there were some bald spots. I love this polish! Of course it is sold out right now, but a lot of indies have their own version of this now, and in many color combos, such as Salon Perfect.

Simple Swatch: Cirque

I added a little nail art to this simple swatch, very subtle:

Cirque- Queen Majesty (Arcus Collection Summer Collection 2013)

I remember this being a build-able glitter, but it would have taken me about four coats, and I wasn't trying to deal with that. Instead, I layered it over Anise- Violet Falls in Love. Then applied two coats of Queen Majesty, followed by two coats of Seche since Queen Majesty is a top coat eater. Once that dried I applied some binder paper reinforcement stickers for the half moon shape, and applied Essie- Matte About You top coat.

I got the idea from Mrslochness who did it with a darker color and hers turned out much better. I will try it with a dark color next time!

Simple Swatch: Cirque Colors

I am posting this on Valentine's day, but I wore this a couple days ago. No time to edit photos.

I think I would be perfectly happy if I owned just holographic polishes!

These two shades are from the Cirque Alchemy collection for Fall 2013. Both were two easy coats, and have an amazing holo effect just like the other Cirque holos I have

The greyish purple one is Magnum Opus. Such a unique color. And the brown is Mink. This is closest I will get to Enchanted Polish Hot Chocolate.

Here is one last photo of the awesome holgrachicness:

San Francisco 49er Nail Art

I have never have been a fan of football, but my boyfriend loves it. So, of course I will support the team he likes, especially since they kicked butt again this year and nearly made it to the Superbowl for the 2nd year in a row... Here is what I did, nothing too fancy:

 

For those of you who don't know, the 49er's colors are red and gold.

I couldn't decide if I wanted silver or black as the base, so I did both without realizing that they are Raider's colors. Oh well.

The silver is Urban Outfitters- Silver Holo and the black is Color Club-  Beyond (Halo Hues Collection 2013). Both were two coats.

Then, using the brush from the bottle, I started with the gold shade which is Cirque- Chrysopoeia (Alchemy Collection 2013). Then did the red which is Emily de Molly- Seeing Red

I really like this nail art, very easy, yet eye catching.

Simple Swatch and Ombre

Here is what I have been wearing on my nails the last 5 days:

And some pictures in sunlight with the bottle:

Pretty awesome, huh?

The glitter I used is Cirque- Electric Circus (Arcus Collection 2013) This glitter is mainly green, blue, and red large, medium, and small hexagonal glitters. It reminds me a lot of the glitters inside Emily de Molly- Soon, only Electric Circus is jam packed with glitter, I have just one coat shown here. No dabbing required at all!

On to the colors I used underneath, starting from thumb to pinky: Jessica- Lime Cooler (Gelato Mio Collection Spring 2012), Illimasqua- Radium, Illimasqua- Nomad, Jessica- True Blue (It's A Girl Thing Collection Spring 2013), and Inglot Breathable Nail Enamel - No 669. All five were just 2 coats.

Here are two more pictures in more cloudy lighting. I took these pictures at different times of the day...

Holographic Chevron Tips

The last time I did nail art like this, I called it fish tail french tips, but I guess it is more of a chevron french tip. I can't remember where I first saw this design, so I am by no means taking credit for the idea... Anyways, here it is:

Droooool

I have to start busting out all my holos out while the sun is still out before it gets all gloomy every day!

I started out with 2 coats of Cirque- Chyrsopoeia (Alchemy Collection Fall 2013). Seriously the most amazing goldish yellow holographic polish! I have been wanting a yellow holo, but there never seemed to be one...until this, and Jade also has one, but according to the review it is a little more green. I still want it!!!

After that dried, I started with the lighter color of the chevron, which is Jade- Uau!. A true orange, which you don't see very often! Too bad you can barely see it in the photos. Lastly, the green I used is Nubar- Reclaim (Going Green Collection 2009). Any green holo will have a special place in my heart. I was originally going to use the green holo from Cirque, but it wasn't very opaque with just one coat, and Reclaim is opaque like nobody's business!

I hope you enjoyed these!

IMATS LA!!!

So, I am sure all of you that are into makeup and all that fun stuff know that IMATS LA is this weekend. I am finally going! I am so excited you have no idea. Usually when I am out of town I try to paint my nails something I know I won't get bored of. But when I am gone 3+ days, I like to use Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail stickers. Here are the ones I decided to wear:

 

The name of this design is Checker Out. This is from their limited edition Spring 2012 collection. I have never bought these for the $10 price tag. Instead I wait till they are on clearance at ULTA for half the price! I have a lot hoarded in my stash right now, it is kind of sad. I have seen the ones for spring this year, they are super cute!

I think I should have wore them sooner though because the edges would not stay down! you can see it lifting on my ring finger. I even redid my index finger because it wasn't sticking at all! I have never had that problem with these. I was gonna do some nail art on these, but I decided it wouldn't look as good as I thought. So, I decided to just throw some glitter on top since I haven't had glitter on my fingers in way too long.

 

Sunlight

 

Shade

This is Cirque- XX, from their Object d'Art collection. I am quickly falling in love with this brand. They have the finest quality polishes, which is why i coughed up the $13 for this polish. This one is JAM PACKED with all sorts of glitter. They describe it as "A rainbow glitter polish made with over 20 different types of holographic particles", so I am not even going to try to describe all the different types of glitters in there. My favorite are the diamonds and squares! It also helped the edges stay down, hopefully they hold up all weekend.

You can find Cirque polishes HERE, and a special exclusive shade on Mei Mei's Signatures site HERE. You can also follow them on facebook so you can get more updates. I can't wait to see what Annie has planned next. But all I know is I WANT MORE CIRQUE COLORS!!!

Cirque Holographics

Today I finally got around to actually trying out my Cirque Holographic Polishes! Well I actually painted these yesterday, but I managed to finally get decent pictures this morning, so there is minor tip wear in these first photos. Here these beauties are:

Direct Sunlight

Holographics are so hard to photograph! You can really only admire their true beauty in person. These two are especially linear, opposed to the scattered holographic effect of Zoya- Aurora. 

These two polishes are from Cirque's newest collection called: Object d'Art. The green is Cirque- Lonesome George. Gosh I love this color so much! A green holo will be an A in my book any day. It looks a lot like Nubar- Reclaim, but I put the bottles together and Lonesome George is slightly darker. I might do a comparison of the two. But you can never have too many green holos!

The awesome copper color is Cirque- Cypress. I have never seen a holographic polish in this color, which is why I love it so much. Plus its holo effect is crazy! Much more stronger than Lonesome George.

Here are some more pictures with flash that I took yesterday:

Classic Blurry Shot

These last three have no top coat because I was afraid they would take away the holo effect. I added a top coat later and it didn't blur it out at all. The first three photos are with top coat.

The formula on these were pretty great. Lonesome George was a little streaky, but I got an email from the maker and apparently I got a bad batch, so they are sending me another complimentary one. Their customer service is awesome. Cypress was a little sheer, so when I applied a second coat I made sure it was a little thicker. Lonesome George was two coats as well.

You can get these two polishes plus many other gorgeous ones from this collection here. The holos retail at $15, and the other polishes are $13. You can also like them on Facebook for updates!