Essence Grey to be here with neon chevron

Sorry about the blurry photos - my lighting was way off.

Here I'm using Essence Grey to be here (what a name, eh?) and China Glaze Flip Flip Fantasy for the chevron.I used tape to isolate the area, then painted the neon on top of base color. After that, topcoat and you're good to go!

The grey polish applies awesome - Essence polishes seem to have a wide, flat brush and applying color with it is fantastically easy, it dries fast and doesn't chip on me.

Essence Grey to be here is actually a really pretty color - it's a light warm grey with faint pink shimmer! It's a bit hard to see, but you can notice it at some angles. This gives the polish a very soft finish, which makes me love it more. It's a perfectly unassuming worksafe polish, hiding a little secret... I like that.

China Glaze - Dare to Bare

**My apologies for the last two weeks - blog's been dead but not for long! At this point, I have a backlog of photos that I'm going to be posting until it's over and then.... Look forward to a major upgrade in photo quality!**

Here's something from my beauty store haul that I've been looking forward to - a peachy base with fine gold shimmer. China Glaze Dare to Bare is an interesting color - it dries darker than the bottle, formula didn't give me any trouble. Three coats, dried normally, wore pretty well. I am sad to admit that I didn't love this as much as I wanted to, somehow the bottle was lighter, creamier and it came out less airy and gentle looking. However it's a great peach color and I appreciate the shimmer - this would look great with a tan.

Do you like peach tones? If so, what's your favorite peach polish?

Peachy Graffitti

Today, there's more simple graffiti-style nail art, with the base being China Glaze - Peachy Keen. My hands look red for some reason, but at least the polish looks right. I used those nail art polishes with really skinny brushes in White first, then Black on top and pieces filled in with red. This is one of the easier nail art types to try, so give it a go if you're not sure or haven't tried it yet! 

China Glaze Elephant Walk and glitter

I recently got Elephant walk and in the bottle, it looked like a muted cool gray with a very subtle shimmer. I thought I could spice it up with some glitter, but that seemed to have turned out badly for me. Other than the poor layering combination, I liked this polish. It applied thickly, but not chunky and flowed very well. It didn't level as nicely as I would have liked, but it dried quick and has great coverage. I'm wearing 2 coats, usually I have to apply 3. The formula is not prone to bald spots on longer nails, so that's a pleasant surprise. Only complaint against the polish itself is that it's a little too green for my skin tone. I expected it to be a little more blue, but the greenness makes it less desirable to me. Other than that, it's really fun to apply and wear.

Beauty supply haul

nail art polishes in pink and navy, Drizzle.

Dare to Bare, Flying Dragon, I Herd That, Awake, Elephant Walk, 

Just came back from a vacation, so glad to be home!

I have found a beauty supply store in Vancouver and they DO sell with a membership! Since all the Sally's are so far away, this will suffice.

I really love their selection, Sparituals, China Glazes, OPIs, Color Clubs and a whole lot of strange, unknown and interesting brands and they are cheap! I think I'll know where I'll go for new China Glaze and OPI polishes next time.

Spring Chevron nail art

I'm a bit behind in updates, but I wanted to share a tape manicure success I've had with masking tape!

I used China Glaze - Peachy Keen as a base and SH Instadry Whirlwind White and Blue Away for the taping experiment. Before when I did tape manis, I was using Scotch brand tape and had issues with tape getting left behind on the nail after I peel it off (even when I did it immediately ). This has caused me to shy away from tape manicures because they were a pain...until I got a helpful tip from someone on MUA telling me to use masking tape! Genius, I thought. It won't rip as easily and isn't as sticky. Needless to say, it worked perfectly. The tips aren't 100% even, but it came out better than I could've imagined.

What are your experiences with tape manicures? Have you tried em? Love or hate them?

China Glaze - Peachy Keen

China Glaze Peachy Keen is a polish I've waffled about with for about 5 months before finally buying it, I am glad I got it! It's a very opaque peach creme, leaning a little bit towards orange, as well as very bright. Peachy Keen impressed me on the formula, the first coat is a little streaky, but on the second coat it was solid and glowing! Its dries fast, glossy. I have been looking for a dupe for Chanel June and while I do not own it, Peachy Keen satisfies me in the same way. I think June is more of a jelly, but from seeing swatches in the store, they seem to compare nicely in terms of color. If I mix some clear polish with Peachy Keen, it would be more similar to June. Being a solid creme in 2 coats, Peachy Keen begs to be used for nail art both as a great base and working color. I'm going to experiment with this one eventually, it's too cute not to!

China Glaze - Some Like It Haute

China Glaze - Some Like it Haute is one of new 3D Glitters from the winter 2012 collection - Eye Candy.

It's a charcoal glitter base with holographic specks and flecks, multisized glitter and all sorts of shiny things! SLIH has a rough texture, takes about 3 coats to look solid, and shines like a diamond. This is one of those "topcoat eaters", where if you apply topcoat, it will become absorbed by the glitter and you might have to apply another coat. I don't mind too much though, it's such an amazing polish! My nails feel like a disco ball when I wear this color... Mesmerizing.

I didn't like the application too much, as it was a little runny, but goopy. However, it did become solid in a few coats, which is a big plus. Glitter doesn't catch on the previous layer, which makes it easier to apply than   other glitters. I'm personally impressed with the drying time and the combination of dark grey glitter with holographic particles, it's so beautiful!

Check out that bottle:

What do you think of 3d glitters? I find them a pain in the butt to remove but definitely worth the pain!

Do you like glitter in general?

China Glaze - Raspberry Festival

Raspberry Festival was a surprise find at Winners, looks like this was a part of the Summer Days 2009 collection and this is my second polish from it! First one was China Glaze - Strawberry Fields.

It's a wonderful raspberry-coral with a glass fleck and a jelly finish. It applied like a dream in 2 coats, was solid but still retained the jelly look. The colour is seriously juicy, I felt like summer arrived early! 

I'm really loving the China Glaze polishes, some can be hit and miss in terms of formula, but this one is definitely a giant hit with me. Yum!

What was your favourite polish from China Glaze? I think mine is Sexagon...hehe

100TH POST!! My first Deborah Lippmann! and a little haul...

 It's my 100th post!

(as if you couldn't tell from that title...) I can NOT believe I wrote a 100 posts already...oh my gosh! I had no idea I had it in me...this blogging thing's got me writing more than ever these days. I'm still learning how to write a bit better, take better photos and paint my nails better and this is just helping me get there, as well as finding lots of friends along the way and discovering a lot of cool things. Thank you for reading and I look forward to writing a 100 more!

I got my hands on my very first DL polish, Stairway to Heaven...it's so pretty! Translucent opalescent hex and round glitter, secret blue sparkle...it's just... "heavenly" :D

I also hauled Essie - Smooth Sailin, China Glaze Blue Iguana and Peachy Keen and Maybelline Cool Couture.

Oooh it has very subtle secret blue shimmer...

Also! I came across Revlon Whimsical (DL Glitter in the Air dupe) and Popular (renamed Starry Pink)

Phew! Oh goodness, now I have so many more polishes to try and so many more posts to write!
~ONWARDS TO VICTORY~

China Glaze - L8R G8R linear holo

This is another polish I picked up at my last dusty, from the China Glaze OMG collection... L8R G8R!

It's a lime green linear holo...so beautiful. The holographic particles are so fine and small, it's basically a seamless rainbow effect. And the best part is that I found basically a FULL bottle! I went a little nuts with the pictures but they still don't capture its beauty perfectly, which is really too bad. I've never seen anything like it before, especially on the thumbs. Wow! Enjoy the multitude of pics~

China Glaze Sexagon (tons of pics)

China Glaze Sexagon was a part of the holographic Kaleidoscope collection back in 2006 and I got my hands on it during my second dusty hunt! It's only about half full but I'm happy I even got to hold it...Oh my god. It's a very interesting holographic polish, the particles are quite large and the texture in the bottle very much resembled the Shiseido Maquillage 93 and in the "type" of holographic (dare I call it...scattered holo?) this is very similar, but somehow...Sexagon is SO much more colorful! 

This is possibly the most holographic polish I own, it's an intense rainbow with bright flecks and sparkles...just all-around amazing. I put Seche Vite over top and it did not dull the holographic effect at all!

Applies a bit light, took about 3 coats to show its full opacity, but the effect is very evident even if I use 2 coats. It dries very fast and did not require a special base (looks the same with Nfu-oh Aqua base or without). The rainbow shows indoors, outdoors, any sort of light pretty much. I usually never see grey, it's always rainbows everywhere! This makes me happy, because ever since I moved to Vancouver, sun has been one of its rarest pleasures. 

But enough about me...enjoy the spam!

vvv

Red hot crackle gradient! and a failed mani

I was feeling very sassy and NOT feeling the fall color trends! So to break the bleakness, I did a yellow to neon orange gradient and black crackle. I used China Glaze Lemon fizz for the base and Flip Flop Fantasy for the orange. OPI Black Shatter. The alternating nails are ChG FFF to NYC Times square with no-name purple tips.

What say you? Beating the fall with a fiery mani or tacky?

Also, bonus feature:

A completely failed mani... can you tell what it's supposed to be?

It was supposed to be Guppy nails (like the little fish).
I think I overdid it, guys.

Gradient Leopard nails!

I got inspired when browsing tumblr and wanted to try my own breed of a colourful leopard manicure. It's just so psychedelic 80's neon and I needed some color in my life.

The gradient is China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy along with OPI - Feelin Hot Hot Hot. I used ORLY - Frisky for the rest of the nails along with OPI silver shatter.  I had the Konad leopard stamp and for once, it came in handy. I usually shy away from animal print but this was such a sassy idea, I simply could not resist. My only mistake is that I chose a pink that was too cold in its tone, so against ChG FFF's  neon orangeness' it looked almost...mauve? eww. Other than that little setback, this turned out great! I gotta try another leopard mani sometime.

China Glaze - strawberry fields

I'm going to start with China Glaze - Strawberry fields.

This is a cool pink with lots of gold shimmer, which really comes through in sunlight, but still shows when I'm indoors as well.

I would describe is a "juicy", as in, it looks good enough to eat! I find that the base pink is a little too cool for me, it's almost magenta, but the warm-toned shimmer really balances it out.

The application was smooth, two coats was sufficient to make it opaque, it wasn't goopy, which is great! However, I'm not sure about the staying power, since I change my mani every few days (it did last for 3 days)

In conclusion: not bad! I didn't expect this colour to apply so smoothly and look so good in the sun, that was a nice surprise.