Sinful Colors Diamond Lust Collection

Howdy, everyone!  How was everyone's Monday?  Mine was decent, got some very exciting nail mail to show you all later in the week.  Today's post, however, came about because I was strolling through my not-so-local Walgreen's the other evening and came upon this display:

I couldn't resist, I bought 6!  Shown above from left to right are: Queen of Deco, Crystal Clear, Gemtastic, Scene Stealer, Shine on Me, I Dream in Jewels, Rags to Riches, and Watch It Shine.  The whole collection consists of colorful glitters in clear bases, though the glitters do vary from polish to polish.

I have one whole manicure to show you, featuring my favorite from the collection and then a single nail swatch of the other shades I purchased.  Let's get started, shall we?

For my full manicure, I've topped 2 coats of China Glaze's Mahogany Magic with 2 coats of SC's I Dream in Jewels.  IDIJ is a gorgeous gold and red micro glitter with larger diamond-shaped holographic glitter in a clear base.  I have to say, on the whole, I'm really pleased with the amount of glitter in this collection.  Most of the polishes had good coverage in 2 coats.  IDIJ is totally packed with glitter and I love the color combo!  My boyfriend said, "Wow!  It looks like the Solid Gold Dancers!" and then proceeded to ask me if I knew who they were lol (note to my younger audience: do not ask me who they are, you'll make me feel old.  That's what they invented Google for!)

I tried my best to get a good macro shot of each polish, I hope you can at least get the idea of what they look like!

 Now on to the rest of the collection!  (All SC Diamond Lust polishes shown in 2 coats)

 

 Crystal Clear (shown over 2 coats of Deborah Lippmann's Edge of Glory) is chock full of holographic glitters in hexes, diamonds and bars.  I didn't even see the bars until I got it on my nails.  Application was good, although I did have to fish a bit for the diamond glitters.  CC is a real show stopper; super sparkly and very interesting to look at.

 Shine On Me (shown over 2 coats of Wet 'n' Wild's Tickled Pink) contains pink holographic diamond-shaped glitter, pink holographic and fuchsia micro glitter, and larger pink hexes.  The color and glitter are great, but the formula on this one was a little gloppy for me.  Maybe it's just my bottle, but I was less impressed with this one than some of the others in the collection.  The smaller glitter is sparser than IDIJ, for instance, and the diamonds and larger hexes didn't want to spread nicely over my nail.  It's still a lovely polish, but  not my favorite.

Rags To Riches (shown over 3 coats of NYC's Tudor City Teal) is my second favorite of the collection.  It's basically a green version of Shine On Me, with green holographic diamonds and hexes and green and gold micro glitter.   The holographic finish on these glitters really pops!  Application was good on this one and it spread out nicely over my nail.

Scene Stealer (shown over 2 coats of Wet 'n' Wild's Tickled Pink) seems to be the front runner as favorite of the collection judging from the blog posts I've seen so far.  SS has pink holographic diamond-shaped glitters, small pink holographic hexes, and fuchsia micro glitter.  It really is a pretty polish with plenty of sparkle.  Coverage was good in 2 coats and application was great.

  

Watch It Shine (shown over 2 coats of Deborah Lippmann's Edge of Glory) is the second silver holographic topper of the bunch.  Silver holographic diamonds and silver holographic micro glitter packed into a clear base, WIS is another stunner.  The tiny glitters really look like diamond dust and I can see this one working over a lot of different base colors.  Again, easy application and good coverage in 2 coats.

Sinful Colors Diamond Lust polishes retail for $2.99, which is $1 more than the regular collection.  If you love glitter, these are totally worth it.  I'm excited to have them all in my stash and am hoping to try out a few jelly sandwiches with them soon!

What do you guys think?  Have you purchased any of these yet?  I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks so much for reading!

ABC Challenge: D is for Dream On & Debris

Hi there, everyone!  It's time for another ABC Challenge manicure!  We're on to the letter "D". I think I missed the obvious "doticure" here when I was coming up with something to do.  I decided to combine 2 polishes that start with "D" instead.  Here's what I got:

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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!

Pretty Glitter Manicure + Giveaway News

Howdy, everyone!  Once again, I've fallen behind in posting.  It's mostly laziness on my part; I'm having a hard time getting into the swing of things in the new year.  However, my fabulous boyfriend is cleaning my kitchen for me so I can get some stuff done online.  Isn't he great?

I have a really simple, but really pretty, manicure for you guys today.  Here's ya go:

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Two Manicures and a Missing Dog

Howdy, everyone!  I hope you all had a great holiday, I certainly did!  I got to spend a week back home in Kansas with my family.  It's always so great to see everyone, but at the end of a week I'm ready to get back to Chicago and my own bed! 

I have a couple of manicures to show you today.  I'm way behind on posting and am trying to get back into the swing here, so I hope some of you are still out there reading.  The first manicure is one I wore for a few days in Kansas.  My stepmom loved it and couldn't get over how pretty it was...I felt the same way.  Here's a look:

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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!

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Hello, everyone.  It's been a rough few weeks for myself and my friends and so I haven't been posting regularly.  I haven't even been doing my nails.  One of my favorite people in the world passed away two weeks ago and I miss her terribly.  It was a sudden and unexpected thing and it seems very unfair.   Shannon was one of my biggest blog fans and I'll miss her support immeasurably, here as well as in every other aspect of my life.  I'm not going to go on and on about it here, because it's just not the place for it, but it felt wrong to continue on here as if nothing had happened.  It's been hard to be creative, but I know she wouldn't want me to stop doing something I love so much.  

My nails look pretty terrible cuz I just haven't been taking care of them.  I broke almost every single one in the last 2 weeks and then got a "manicure" at a salon over the weekend.  I use the quotes because she really kind of messed up my nails and the color smudged within 5 minutes of leaving the shop.  Bleh, that's what I get for letting some one else touch 'em!

A few weeks ago, I scraped some pennies together and bid on eBay for a particular polish I HAD to have for my stash.  I won the auction but hadn't gotten around to swatching it yet. Here's what I came up with:

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Baby Pink Manicure

Howdy, everyone!  How's everyone's week so far?  Mine started great, had a dip in the middle, and is now back on track lol  And no, the dip had nothing to do with the election...although I think most politicians are dips!  Ha!  Ok, ok, enough of that...on to the nails!

Today I have a super girlie manicure for you to check out.  I've made a couple of trips to Walgreen's and Sally's over the last couple of days so I have tons of new polish to try out.  Yay!  Most everything I bought contains glitter, since everyone has their holiday collections out right now.  I had a hard time deciding which sparkly goodness I was going to try out today and this is what I chose:

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Faceted Glitter Gradient

Howdy everyone!  Tomorrow is Election Day here in the U.S. and you'd think I might do a themed manicure to celebrate that fact.  I didn't.  I hit Walgreen's the other day and grabbed 5 new polishes and not one of them was red, white or presidential blue, so I did something completely unrelated.  That being said, if you're registered, please go vote!  You've got no right to complain about who wins if you don't!

All of the polishes I picked up were glitters and most were somehow holiday related.  So let's get the party started!

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

Glitz-y Manicure

Howdy again, everyone!  Two posts in one day...that's what happens when I get behind and then finally have some free time.  This was the manicure I wore for Halloween.  I went as a snow leopard and I know these nails really don't have anything to do with that, but they're so sparkly!  Take a look:

How I wish there was a good way to take a photo of these lovelies.  You can see a bit of the rainbow holographic effect here, but imagine that times 50.  I dipped my still wet base coated nails into a pot of Wet 'n' Wild's Fantasy Makers Confetti in Glitz.  I've done this as an accent nail before and knew I wanted to try it as a whole manicure because I was sure it would be stunning.  I was not disappointed!  It's gorgeous!  It does look best in lower light, however, which makes it really difficult to photography.  The sunlight takes out all the rainbow colors and it just looks silver.  Still pretty but so off of how it really looks.

My next manicure will be another Game Day manicure, as my KSU Wildcats take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys to defend their undefeated status.  I'm such a ball of nerves every Saturday now because every game counts!  

Thanks for reading!

17 of 31: Glitter Nails

Howdy, everyone!  Today's challenge brings us glitter!  Oh, that lovely, sparkly stuff :)  Here's my take on them:

I started with 2 coats of Revlon's Limited Edition Diamonds Are Forever.  After that dried, I added a couple of coats of Cirque's Debris from their Dark Horse collection.  Debris is a beautiful multi-sized and shaped black and silver glitter in a clear base with micro prismatic glitter as a sparkly finish.  On my accent nail, I used Wet 'n' Wild's Fantasty Makers Confetti in Glitz.  This is a loose glitter that Wet 'n' Wild is selling as part of their Halloween collection.  I still used Diamonds are Forever as a base color, but then dipped my nail in the pot of glitter while it was wet and shook off the excess.  Serious Wow! factor with this.  I may have to do a whole mani sometime with Glitz and I'm going to buy some glitter base polish to make a bottle of my very own.  I did have a really hard time photographing this.  Those prismatic glitters never want to show off their gorgeousness for the lens, do they?  Here's a blurry one that shows it best, although it still doesn't come close to the color flash of Glitz.

So, a pretty successful manicure even if the photos don't show it properly.  I also want to throw out a couple of 'Thank you"s before I sign off this evening.  Upon checking my mailbox today, I discovered two surprises.  First of all, my new Cirque polishes from Chalkboard Nail's giveaway arrived!  I cannot wait to try these out and I want to give one more big "thank you" to Sarah for her generous giveaway and great blog!  After ripping open the packaging from Cirque and oohing and ahhing over the contents, I dug through the rest of my mail and found a postcard from my friend, Joe, from his trip to Spain.  Not only did he send this card, he also got me a fantastic Dali book which will be my inspiration for the artwork challenge coming up.  Here's a shot of all the fun stuff I got in the mail today!
 

Thanks so much for reading and tune in tomorrow for a cute half-moon manicure!

Rock 'n' Roll B-Girl

Howdy, everyone!  Two posts in one day, very exciting!  I wanted to talk about the "Sinful" issue on its own, but I do have a manicure to show you! 

When I went to Walgreen's the other day, I found a new brand that I wasn't familiar with.  It's called "Black Radiance" and I believe it's owned by Wet 'n' Wild.  In any case, they had a display up and I thought some of the colors were really pretty.  They retail for about $2.99 so it might be a good replacement for Sinful Colors, if they don't shape up soon.

So this is 2 coats of Black Radiance Girls Rock in B-Girl, which is a pretty dark teal with a bit of a shimmer to it.  On top of that, I applied 2 coats of Wet 'n' Wild Fergie in Rock 'n' Roll; holographic and silver glitter in a gunmetal base.  It was cloudy today so I couldn't get any good outdoor photos, but trust me, this is FULL of sparkle!  So far, I'm really impressed with Wet 'n' Wild's Fergie line.  They apply easily and the glitters rock!  BR's Girls Rock collection is looking promising as well.  B-Girl has a satin finish on its own and it would look really nice with a topcoat as well.  

Thanks so much for reading!