Stay Behind, Catch A Wave from Elevation Polish

Howdy, everyone!  I hope all of you in the Midwest are doing alright with the crazy weather we've been having lately.  Seems like it's going to be a bumpy weekend, kind of a bummer given that I'm supposed to help my employer out with an outdoor show.  Keep your well manicured fingers crossed that we don't get blown away tomorrow! 

Anyway, on to the polish!  As I mentioned in my last post, I went a little overboard on the polish shopping last weekend.  Add to that the fact that I not only grabbed four Different Dimension polishes today (sale notice! Use coupon code DISNEYBOUND at checkout to save 20% on your whole order thru 5/31!), but I also managed to snag a little bottle of polish by Emily de Molly called Cosmic Forces (oh, yeah! I got one...cue happy dance!) and I shan't be buying anything new for awhile.  Fortunately, I have a ton of new stuff to show you until my "no buy" wears off.

One of these new lovelies is a lemming of mine.  I tried to get in on the 40% off Cirque sale last week, but I didn't have extra cash until Friday and by then, all the colors I wanted were long gone.  To console myself, I decided to check out Elevation Polish's site to see if I could finally grab a bottle of Stay Behind, Catch A Wave.  The Polish Gods must have felt bad about the lack of Cirque and so graced me with an available bottle of SBCAW and I have it to show you today!

I first saw this polish on The PolishAholic a few of months ago.  The second I saw it, I knew it must be mine.  In fact, SBCAW is solely responsible for my "dot" glitter obsession.  I just have to have all the dots...ALL the dots!  Ok, ok, back to this manicure.

What I've done here is pretty simple; I started with 3 coats of O.P.I.'s My Vampire is Buff (a fantastic polish in its own right) and topped it with 2 coats of SBCAW.  SBCAW has tons of dots to satisfy my cravings!  Large and small, five kinds to be exact, in teal, white, and blue.  It also has iridescent hexes and holographic micro glitter in teal and green.  Elevation's website says that all of this glittery goodness comes in a slightly blue tinted base, but my bottle's base polish looks pretty clear and I didn't notice any color change in my base polish on my mani, so I'm not sure about that bit.  What I do know without a doubt is that this polish was worth every penny I paid for it!  The formula is great, no dragging or digging for the larger glitters.  I used 2 coats of Seche Vite to smooth things out, which worked well. 
 

How do you feel about the dots?  Any recommendations on circular glitter polishes?  Thanks so much for reading!

Liquid Sand Manicure

Hi there!  Hope everyone is well this evening.  Did anyone catch the Golden Globes?  All I ever think after award shows is how many movies I have yet to watch lol.  There were some gorgeous dresses on the red carpet and did anyone catch Zooey Deschanel's manicure?  So cute!  I love that nails are becoming such an accessory in the celebrity world, makes me feel a little less crazy in my obsession!

I managed a quick stop at Ulta this weekend and picked up a few things.  I was delighted to find Layla's Ceramic Effect in the clearance aisle but they were already out of the purple flakie I wanted.  I did pick up EL24 and am looking forward to swatching it in the near future.  Here's a quick pic of my small haul:

Left to right: China Glaze Cirque du Soleil in Get Carried Away, the O.P.I. Mariah Liquid Sand mini collection and the previously mentioned Layla EL24.  These are by no means the only polishes I've purchased this week...I made a quick stop at Walgreen's to pick up Girly and Heavenly by Revlon.  So be on the lookout for some swatches of those as well.

For today's manicure, I simply could not wait to try out the Liquid Sand collection.  I first saw these swatched over at  I Feel Polished! blog and knew I had to give them a try!  These polishes are packed with glitter and dry to a gritty finish, sort of like sandpaper or an emery board.  Here's my swatch with an accent nail thrown in for good measure:

This is Get Your Number from the collection; a royal blue polish with holographic glitter.  Once again, my camera really isn't able to capture all the sparkle here, but I think you can get the idea.  I used 3 coats for full coverage and I will say that I was disappointed in the color itself.  It just didn't get to the truly royal blue color that it appears to be in the bottle.  That said, it is a lovely color regardless.  Application was easy but do yourself a favor and wait a good few minutes between coats.  I waited about 5 minutes between and I wish I would have waited more like 10 or 15.  I've become spoiled with my Seche Vite and I get impatient waiting for things to dry now!  Do take your time with it though, as it will smudge a bit if you go too fast.  

The finish is definitely different and it's taking me awhile to decide if I like it or not.  I think the effect is nifty, but I miss the smooth shine of my topcoat.  It's a nice change for awhile though and I'm looking forward to trying out the other minis in the set.  For my accent nail, I started with 3 coats of Angel Wings by China Glaze and then taped off scallops to create the wavy look. 

Here's another look at the texture of Liquid Sand:

I am going to try this with a topcoat as well.  I may have to break down and buy some Gelous for this one.  Seems like Seche Vite might not cut it.

As a reminder, my giveway is still up and running.  I may end up extending it a bit as there haven't been too many entries yet.  I hope a few more folks will enter yet.  Feel free to share the giveaway on facebook or twitter, even if you don't want to enter yourself.  I know not everyone wants to sign up for blogger or to my blog specifically, but if you know someone who might be interested, feel free to spread the word! 

As always, thanks so much for reading!

Silver and Gold Manicure

Howdy, everyone!  Ah, Friday...the beautiful beginning to the weekend.  That is, if you have a job wherein you aren't required to work weekends...I have such a job.  But, at least it's a fun job!

I've got another holiday manicure for you today.  This one is super sparkly and packed with holo goodness.  Take a peek:

Silver and gold and glitter and holo, oh my!  I started this manicure by just swatching 3 coats of China Glaze Angel Wings and Glistening Snow.  These two polishes are part of China Glaze's 2012 Holiday Joy Collection and both are micro-glitters with a holographic punch.  Angel Wings is the gold and Glistening Snow is the silver.  Both of these applied easily with decent coverage on the second coat.  Initially, I was going to leave this manicure as just the two polishes on alternating nails, but why stop there?  I ended up doing glitter gradients on each nail.  I paired O.P.I.'s Servin' Up Sparkle, a silver micro and hex holographic glitter in a clear base, with Angel Wings while Glistening Snow matched up with e.l.f.'s Gold Star, a large hex glitter in a clear base.  

Here's another view:

I may have a holiday party to go to Saturday night, so I'll be sporting this glitter-fest because I think it's just perfect!  What do you guys think?

Thanks so much for reading!

Nail-aween Challenge 6: Frankenstein Nails

Howdy, everyone!  Trying to get back into the groove of posting more regularly again, since I've been such a slacker lately lol  Halloween is fast approaching so I've got to get these challenge posts done!  Today's manicure is an answer to challenge 6 of the Nail-aween Challenge; Frankenstein nails.  I wanted to do something different than just green nails and black stitches, but, honestly, there's not a lot of new and different ways to do Frankenstein's monster.  He's so iconic that I just decided to showcase him.  Here's what I came up with:

I started with 2 coats of Julep's Alma-Trina Turk which is one of the polishes I received in my Trick or Treat box from them.  ATT is a very odd sort of color (perfect for Halloween) somewhere between mustard yellow and pistachio green creme.  Application was great, it was almost opaque in one coat.  I used O.P.I.'s Black Shatter on the rest of my nails.  The Monster's portrait was done in black acrylic paint.  I'm pretty happy with this although I wish I could have come up with something a bit more interesting for my other nails.  But, honestly, I was just kinda tired lol

Here's a close up of Frankenstein's Monster:

I'm hoping to get Challenge 7 done tomorrow, complete with a tutorial, if I have time and can figure it all out the way I want it.  So please check back in to see all of that!  Also, check out these other nail artists who are participating in the Nail-aween Challenge.  They are all awesome and deserve some love!

datyorkLOVES

Erica's Nails and More

DreamyMM Nails & Make Up

 Tes Did It Nails
Sassy Paints
Nicole gets Nailed
glitznglammer
Finger Food
Wicked Tips
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Delight In Nails
Polish Groupie
My Nail Journey
Get Polished Up!
Just A Girl and Her Polish
Spellbound Nails
Le nail's corner d'Alex
Hello.Lacquer
 Countess Nails
Color the world with polish
Nail Crime Nail Art
Coat of Mani Colors
Cutie Cuticles (nail art by Laraib)
Wacky Laki
Nail-Aween Nail Art Challenge October 1-31st, 2012
GLAMOROUS NAILS
Polish Gone Crazy
tragedystipsandtreats

 

 

Thanks so much for reading!

13 of 31: Animal Print Nails

Howdy, everyone!  I have to start by giving a big "Thank You!" to Sarah from Chalkboard Nails.  Even though I never win anything, I entered her Cirque All Hallow's Eve Giveaway and snagged the set!  I'm so excited, I can hardly wait to get them in the mail! 

On to today's challenge, animal print nails.  I went pretty traditional here because I actually don't do animal print that often.  (If you want to see some really out-of-the-box animal prints, try here and here.)  

Despite the fact that it's been done by everyone already, this is one of my favorite manicures so far in this challenge.  There are tons of tutorials out there on how to do both kinds of print here, so I won't go into it too much.  It really just takes a dotting tool (mine is homemade), a striping brush and a little patience.  As for the colors, the brown on the cheetah print nails is an O.P.I. mini bottle.  I got it from a customer at the pet store I work at and I'm guessing it was part of a collection and, as I don't have the packaging, I have no idea what it's called.  In any case, it's a pretty dark caramel creme.  The gold is Luxe by Orly and the blue on the zebra striped nails is Nina Ultra Pro in Blu La La.  The black is a striping polish from Color Club.

The next few days of the challenge are going to be extra challenging for me because I'm not particularly fond of the categories, but I'll give it my best!  Thanks so much for reading!