China Glaze Shell-O

Hi, there!  Super quick post today...I'm headed out for work in a few minutes.  I'm a little nervous about this because I'm headed to Grant Park to help set up our booth for a show this weekend.  Grant Park is where the Blackhawks held their rally today.  They still don't know how many people showed up for it, but it looked like more than the amount that showed up for Obama's rally in 2008!  In any case, go 'Hawks!  Great job on bringing Stanley home :)

On to the nails!  I picked up a bottle of China Glaze in Shell-O a few days ago.  China Glaze's 2013 Sunsational collection is split into cremes and jellies.  Shell-O is from the jelly half.

First off, I LOVE the color.  This photos show it as a touch more orange than it actually is.  Neon brights like this always make my camera go haywire, but these really aren't too bad.  Shell-O is super, super sheer.  I'm showing 5 (!) coats here and I've still got a bit of visible nail line.

From what I've read, most of the jellies in this collection are like this.  So if you aren't patient, don't buy them lol

Now, as my boyfriend will tell you, I just can't leave well enough alone.  A single color all by itself on my nails?  No way!  So I jazzed it up a bit :)

I decided to sandwich 2 coats of Kleancolor's Chunky Holo in Candy between layers of Shell-O.  As you can see, Candy gave this manicure a lovely golden flash in the sunlight and a nice depth in other light.  A perfect summer combo!

Thanks so much for reading!

ABC Challenge: N

Howdy, everyone!  I am so excited about today's ABC Challenge post, I can hardly stand it!  I've been waiting on some nail mail, I'd hoped it would show up yesterday because I like to my Challenge posts the night before if I can.  USPS disappointed me (yet again) and it didn't show up until today, but lemme tell ya, I am so glad I waited!  This week's letter is "N" and, as my name starts with that letter, I knew I had to do it up right. I also like to get a few letter-related themes going so let's try this one on for size:

This is my "N"ew "N"ail Pattern Boldness "N"ude jelly sandwich...how'd I do??  I am pleased as punch to have this beauty in my stash!  I've been eying NPB polishes for awhile now and finally decided I had to have some for my "N" post.  So, not only is it a new polish for me, it's a whole new brand for me and I'm in love!

Meet Sir Cumference And The Quadrilaterals.  He's a lovely glitter bomb chock full of turquoise, pink and fuchsia dots in two sizes and white squares in two sizes as well.  Sir sits in a lovely clear base which was a delight to apply, nothing gloppy or thick and the glitters went on super easy.  

I decided to use Sir in a jelly sandwich with 2% Milk by Wet 'n' Wild.  I started with 2 coats of 2%, followed by 2 coats of Sir and topped with another coat of 2%.  I cannot stop looking at my nails, and you know you've got a great mani when ALL the photos you take of it just sing!

I mean, look at it!  LOOK! AT! IT!  The downside is that this is my first dot glitter and, much as I feared, I'm in love with those little circles and must now own all the circles.  Any polish made with dot glitter must be mine, it's just a fact of life *sigh*
 

So, aside from the major hit to my wallet that is in my near future, Nail Pattern Boldness is fabulous and I will definitely be ordering more from Allison as soon as I've got the wiggle room in my budget to do so.

In other news, my Sinful Colors giveaway has ended and I'll throw a quick post announcing the winners up tonight, so be on the lookout to see if you've won!

Please take a minute to check out all the other lovely ladies participating in the ABC Challenge.  They're all so talented and sweet!  You can find them via the thumbnails below.  Thanks so much for reading!

Snowflake Manicure

Howdy, everyone!  I'm on a roll this week, three days in a row of posts...woot, woot!  I love today's manicure so much, I'm just gonna jump right in:

Isn't this fun?  This is a perfect holiday manicure without being too in-your-face-Christmas lol  I stared with a jelly sandwich.  One coat of Revlon's Royal, one coat of Julep's Jordan, and another coat of Royal make up this pretty sandwich.  Jordan is a gun-metal silver hex and micro glitter in a clear base and Royal is the most perfect royal blue jelly there ever was.  Seriously, I broke my ban on Revlon polishes to buy this one cuz it's just too good to pass up!  After the sandwich dried, I added some hand painted snowflakes for accents.  I used a white striping polish and topped my dots with a holographic glitter striping polish.  I got the idea for the design from Laatikollinen Lakkaa (again).  If you've got a minute, you should really check out her Advent Calendar posts.  She's got some great holiday manicure ideas!  I changed things up a bit from her original design by using a dotting tool to add some extra dots around the edges.  Here's another look:

I hope to keep up with my holiday manicures, since I'm having so much fun with them.  Thanks so much for reading and please check back to see what's next!

Scalloped Jelly Sandwich Manicure

Howdy, everyone!  I know it's been a few days since my last post and I'm sorry for that.  I've been working some extra hours this week so I've been too pooped when I get home to post!  But I do have something new for you today.  Here's where I started with this one:

 

So I finally broke down and bought a bottle of Revlon's Royal at Ulta last week.  I've been coveting it simply forever and, even with their copyright issues, I just had to have it.  So here, I applied one coat of Royal, followed by a coat of China Glaze's Ray-diant and then another coat of Royal to make a lovely jelly sandwich.  Royal really is a beautiful polish...but, boy! does it stink!  Is it just my bottle that smells kind of like feet?  lol

Anyway, after wearing this for a day, I decided to jazz it up a bit, and here's the result:

 

I loved my Scalloped Manicure from the other day so much, I decided to try it again.  This time, I used Orly's Luxe over top and doesn't it look fabulous!?  I love, love, love this color combo!  And I think the glitter peeking through the blue just adds a little something extra.  Whaddya think?

Thanks so much for reading!

Sun Worshiper Glitter Sandwich

Howdy, everyone!  It's been a bit of a crazy day today.  I just found out the apartment upstairs got broken into and robbed, or burgled, or whatever they call it.  Always a little scary when crime hits so close to home.  Fortunately, no one got hurt physically, although I know the emotional trauma is just as bad.  It seems like it might have been more of a domestic thing, and maybe my neighbor knows who did it, but I'll be double-checking my door locks extra carefully now!

On to happier topics, my manicure!  I must warn you, this polish is a neon and it truly lives up to the name.  So you may want to don your sunglasses before you check out the pics!

Behold, China Glaze Sun Worshiper!  A very, very bright orange neon...this one will knock your socks right off!  As I was perusing my polish collection earlier today, I knew I wanted to try something sunny and Sun Worshiper definitely fit the bill.  After I put the first 2 coats on my nails, it occurred to me that the finish on a neon polish was pretty similar to a jelly, which got me thinking that I could probably do a glitter sandwich with a neon and it would look pretty much like a jelly sandwich.  And, you know what? I was right!  I actually used 3 coats of Sun Worshiper and then applied a thin coat of Julep's Oscar, a small gold glitter in a clear base, followed by a dab of Milani's Jewel FX 531 Gold, a larger hexagonal glitter in a clear base.  Then I swiped another coat of Sun Worshiper over the top and sealed with Seche Vite.

This manicure in the sunlight is so bright, it makes my eyes hurt.  My poor camera just can't capture the tear-inducing shade of polish, but it's done the best it can.  

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my post!

Colorful Jelly Sandwich Manicure

Howdy all!  I hope everyone is having a great week so far.  I am so excited about today's manicure that I just want to get right to it.  Remember this manicure I did the other day?  Today's mani is kind of like that one's more colorful cousin.  Alright, here we go!

 

 

Isn't it so pretty?  Sorry for all the photos, but I love this one so much!  The nude glitter sandwich from the other day reminded me that I needed to try different color combinations.  And, I must say, this manicure has made me finally fall in love with jellies.  There is just something about their translucency that is just so beautiful, you can't help but love 'em!

For this one, I started with 2-3 coats of China Glaze Ride the Waves alternating each nail with 2-3 coats of Sinful Colors Dream On.  After those dried, I brushed on Wet 'n' Wild's Beautiful but Dangerous glitter which has fuchsia and bright blue square glitter mixed with gold and black smallish hexagonal glitter.  I decided I needed some other sizes of glitter so I spot coated on some O.P.I. Servin' Up Sparkle; tiny holographic and larger hexagonal holographic glitters in a clear base.  After all the glitter dried, I added another coat of Ride the Waves on the blue nails.  On the pink nails, I initially did another coat of Dream On, but it dried a little too thick, so I swapped it out for Wet 'n' Wild's Fuchsiarama which is more of a true jelly.  I ended up using 2 coats of Seche Vite plus a coat of Jessica Brilliance (my SV ran out!), even with the jelly on top, the glitter was a bit of a piggy eating up my topcoat.

Whew!  Lots of photos, lots of words, but one hot manicure for sure!  I hope you enjoyed my post and thanks for stopping by!

Glitter Sandwich

Hello and happy Friday!  I managed to get the day off today so I went to brunch this morning at m. henry and ate a humongous plate of peach and blueberry blisscakes! So yummy!  I also decided to run to the theater and catch Brave, the new Pixar movie.  It was totally adorable, much as I thought it would be.  I recommend it if you need something light hearted and fun.

Enough about me, let's talk about my nails!  I saw this manicure on The Nailasaurus recently and thought I'd try it out.  A few days ago, I was browsing the shelves at my local Marshall's and discovered some boxes of Jessica polish, 5 bottles for around $6, kind of a steal!  So I grabbed one that had a couple of nudes in it because my stash is woefully low on those.  I'm partial to the brighter the better as far as colors go, so I tend to skip the nudes as too...demure, maybe?  But they are really trendy right now so I figured I ought to nab a few.  Anyway, here's where I started.

 This is what people call a "glitter sandwich" manicure.  I started with 4 alternating coats of Jessica's Custom Nail Color in Skin Deep and Hype.  Skin Deep is a pinkish beige nude with a subtle pink shimmer and Hype is light beige nude.  After those first coats, I added a layer of Wet 'n' Wild's Light with Caution glitter mixed with some Milani Jewel FX in Gold.  Light with Caution has large pinkish, coppery hexagonal glitter with smaller blue and green glitters mixed in.  Jewel FX Gold is a large hexagonal gold glitter.  In hindsight, I wish I'd have gone a bit lighter on Gold, because the pink bits in Caution are so pretty and the gold sort of overshadows them.  Oh, well, live and learn! 

After all of that, I topped the glitter layer off with a coat of Skin Deep again and there you have your "sandwich".  It's a pretty nifty effect as it gives the glitter a matte-ish appearance.  I wore it like this for today and when I got home, I decided to try Nailasaurus's next step; a matte top coat.

I think the addition of the matte coat takes this mani to the next level.  I am unclear why matte glitter is so magical, but it is.  I mean, how can something be shiny and matte at the same time?  And yet, it is!  I must try this with some other, brighter colors and see what happens.  I used Essie's Matte About You here.

Many thanks to The Nailasaurus for her fantastic blog which I enjoy reading!  I hope I'm not stepping on any toes by recreating this look, but it was so pretty I just had to try it!

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment if you feel like it :)