Emily de Molly's Oceanic Forces

Hi there!  Is everyone as ready for the weekend as I am?  It's been a long week and I'm so glad it's finally Friday.  Plus, I got my Llarowe order yesterday.  What was in that order, you ask?  Only the 2 lemmings that complete my trifecta of lemmingness!  Emily de Molly's Oceanic Forces AND Dark Forces (I already own Cosmic Forces and you can see my swatches of it here)!  You really should have witnessed my victory jig when I got my confirmation email...it was awkward lol 

I'm showing you Oceanic Forces today and Dark Forces will come in a few days.  Ok guys, I'm really not gonna type a lot here, but let the photos speak for themselves...cuz they speak volumes of awesomeness!

If you're unfamiliar with Oceanic Forces, it's a deep teal jelly with large holographic teal dots and two sizes of holographic teal hexes.  The formula here is damn near flawless, opaque in 2 coats although I'm wearing 3 here because I always want MORE DOTS!  Said dots were easily fish-able after turning the bottle upside for a bit. 

Gah!  Seriously, I'm so thrilled to own this polish!  The depth and the sparkle and the color...Oh. Em. Gee. the color!  My advice to you is to never pass Oceanic Forces up if you see it anywhere.  It retails for $13 on Llarowe's site and, if you live in Australia (or know someone who's willing to ship internationally from Down Under), you can purchase from Emily de Molly's Etsy store where full size bottles will run you between $5.69 to $10.44.  EdM does not ship internationally at the moment, but maybe you've got a good Aussie hook up...if you do, I envy you! 

Thanks so much for reading!

Different Dimension's Money

Hiya, folks!  How's your day?  It's been pretty good for me.  It's amazing how a really good, hard work day can make you feel accomplished...especially when it means you get a 3-day weekend!  Yep, today turned out to be my Friday, yay!

Anyway, I have a fun polish to show you!  Different Dimension had a sale a couple of weeks ago to celebrate her impending (and, I'm positive, much deserved) vacation.  I couldn't resist grabbing a few polishes, so here's a swatch of one of the ones I picked up!

Meet Money.  Money is part of DD's Echoes collection, inspired by Pink Floyd songs.  I pretty much love everything in the collection and once I saw Money's dots, I knew she would be mine!  A white crelly chock full of holographic squares, gold and neon green hexes, small teal dots, and large teal, black AND holographic dots, this beauty made my heart go pitter-pat at first glance.

Look at all that dotty goodness!  I love the color combination and the formula was flawless.  Missi Barry, DD's maker, warns that the large dots might give some difficulty but I had no issues at all.  I turned the bottle upside down between coats and those larger dots just jumped right to the brush and from there to my nails.  I used 3-4 coats here, but you could definitely wear it over a white base for a faster payoff.  I love the depth in these types of polishes, so I'm usually happy to work up the opacity.
 

If you get a chance, you should definitely give Different Dimension polishes a try.  I've loved everything I've tried so far!

Thanks so much for reading!

Geometric Manicure

Howdy, everyone!  I have a quick manicure for you all today.  I had limited access to polish while I was back in Kansas this weekend, but my flight yesterday was cancelled and I had an extra night with nothing to do, so I decided to give it a go with what I had. (I did make it back to Chicago today, in case you were wondering)  As usual when I take a trip home, I had to run out to Walmart to grab a couple of things.  We don't really have Walmarts in Chicago, so I never get a chance to buy any Pure Ice or NYC polishes unless I'm home.  I admit, I did take an unnecessary turn around the cosmetic department while I was there and I picked up a few things.  Here's what I did with a couple of them!

I started here with 3 coats of NYC 153 Midtown Mimosa, a bright yellow jelly.  Then, I used blue painter's tape (thanks to my stepmom, Sherrie!) to tape off some elongated triangle shapes.  I used NYC 152 Tudor City Teal to fill in the triangles.  TCT is a pretty turquoise color, I'm sure it's supposed to be a creme, but it does seem more like a jelly to me.  In any case, you can tell it's sheer because the color looks more green here due to the yellow showing through.  It doesn't bother me, I enjoy happy surprises like that.

I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out, even though my boyfriend hates it lol  It's hard to  get those triangles centered with tape and I think I did a pretty good job, darnit!  What do you guys think?

Keep an eye out for my next ABC Challenge post which should be coming up shortly.  As always, thanks for reading!

Love & Beauty Gradient

Howdy everyone!  I mentioned in yesterday's post about my nail polish buying spree over the weekend...I was supposed to be on a "no-buy".  Yeah, that didn't work out so well lol However, since I bought new polish, I have a fun little manicure to show you today using a couple of the polishes I picked up at Forever 21.

Forever 21's nail polish line is called Love & Beauty, and, as luck would have it, I love them and I think they're beautiful! (See what I did there, huh, did ya?)  This gradient was created using L&B's Blue/Green and Purple polishes.  I'm not being descriptive there, Blue/Green and Purple are actually the names on the back of the polish bottles.  Blue/Green is a really lovely duochrome that shifts from emerald green to teal to bright blue.  You can see a bit of purple and gold shift in the bottle in the photo above.  I didn't find that those shifts translated to the nail, but it's a beautiful polish regardless.  Using a sponge, I dabbed some Purple on the tips of my nails.  Purple is a really deep magenta-y purple almost metallic polish.  To pull everything together and add a bit of depth, I applied a coat of Nicole by O.P.I in Top of My World, an opalescent micro glitter in a clear base. I think ToMW added just the right touch of sparkle, even if I do dislike their bottle and brush.

....more after the jump....

Magnetic Gradient Manicure

Howdy, everyone!  The weekend is just about here (well it IS here for me, as I have today off).  Any big Labor Day plans?  I'll be headed out of the city with my girlfriends to go pick some apples on Monday.  I love apple-picking and I really can't tell you why.  It's probably more my love of road trips and hanging out with my friends more than anything, but it's definitely something fun to do.  

On to my latest manicure!

This is a gradient manicure done with magnetic polishes.  I had no idea such a thing could be done, but it's actually surprisingly simple and I thought the results were pretty good for my first effort.  I only had 2 nails that were problematic and fortunately neither was on my photographed hand :)

I started with one thick coat of Ulta's Polar Opposites*, a teal sparkle magnetic polish. Then I applied my gradient of Ulta's Opposites Attract* (a deep purple magnetic polish with a silver sparkle), sponging it on just as I would for a normal gradient.  Then, one nail at a time, I applied one coat of non-fast drying top coat.  This will reactivate the polish already on the nail, thus allowing you to use your magnet!  While the top coat was still wet, I used the striped magnet that came with Ulta's kit to do alternating diagonal lines on top of the gradient.  I did this one nail at a time so the top coat wouldn't dry before I used the magnet.  I let everything set for a bit and then applied a coat of my beloved Seche Vite.  To my surprise, having the non-fast drying top coat on underneath the Seche seems to have given this manicure a bit more shine than usual.  I'm going to have to try this technique on another mani and see if it holds true.  It's one more step, but, hey I'm already putting 5 coats of polish on, what's one more?

I love learning new techniques and I'm thrilled to learn that magnetic polishes are much more versatile than I thought at first.  I mean, once you've used a magnetic polish, it's cool at first but if it only does the one thing it gets a bit boring.  It's good to know that I can use them more like regular polishes...I have a few ideas churning in my brain for some new manis now!

I hope everyone has a great Friday and, as always, thanks for reading!

*These two polishes came in a set with 2 others, I got the whole set at Ulta for $4.99.

Kleancolor Chunky Holographic Teal

I have been a very bad blogger.  I think it's been over 3 days since my last post!  I can't believe anyone is still hanging around to read this.  Have you ever just needed a technology break?  Sometimes, I feel like I spend all my free time on the computer and I just needed a little time to get out of the house.  In any case, I'm back on track and I have a new manicure for you today.

Sorry for the wear along the edge of my nails, I've been wearing this one for a couple of days.  And I haven't been taking care of my cuticles again, so they look a little rough.  I'll get 'em back in shape in no time!  I started with one coat of Sinful Colors Why Not, a beautiful ocean blue creme.  On top of that, I applied 3 coats of Kleancolor Chunky Holographic Teal; tons of small holographic glitter in a clear teal base.  This was such a simple manicure, but I've gotten a lot of compliments on it.  Just goes to show that sometimes, simplicity is best.

I hope that there are some folks out there still reading my posts and that you enjoyed this one.  Have a great evening!

Blue French Manicure

Hello, everyone!  I have a quick post for you today.  After the other day's super sweet manicure, I thought it was time for something a little less ooey-gooey.

I started with 3 coats of Wet 'n' Wild's Fast Dry in Teal or No Teal.  It's a bit more green than you can see in the photos here, a very pretty teal shimmer.  After that dried, I got out my trusty paper reinforcements to use as guides for french tips.  For the tips, I used Julep's Marisa, a beautiful deep blue polish.  Even with guides, my tips weren't perfect so I straightened them up as best I could with Marisa and outlined them with Color Club's Art Club striper in Glitter Hologram.   This is a handy trick if, like me, your french manicure never seems to turn out with a sharp, even edge.  Just cover the uneven edge with a thin stripe of glitter; it adds sparkle and camouflages any imperfections on the edge.  

This turned out much better than I thought it would since I didn't really have an idea of what I wanted to do.  I'm already thinking about other color combinations to try!

Before I sign off for the night, I wanted to tell everyone about a giveaway over at Enamel Girl's blog.  She's giving away one Jade Holographic polish to each of 3 winners.  There are several ways to enter and you have until tomorrow, June 26th, to get your entries in.  Just go here to enter and good luck!