SMD-Revlon's Popular

Hello, hello! 4 days in a row of posting, it's almost unprecedented for me!  I'm sure I'll lapse back to irregularity soon, so enjoy it while you can.  

The polish I have for you today is a special one.  If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I lost a very good friend in November.  Over the last few weeks, we "Chicago Girls" have been helping Shannon's parents clean out her condo and go through her things.  Shannon had a love of fingernail polish, not as crazy as mine, but above average for sure.  While organizing her place, we came across her stash, which I have now inherited.  I've decided to do a weekly swatch or nail art with her polishes as a sort of tribute.  Her taste in polish differed a lot from my own, so there are quite a few colors that I would not have purchased for myself...it'll be good to try something different and I think she'd like that they're being used. 

So, my first SMD Stash manicure is with Revlon's Popular.  Take a look:

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

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:

 ....more after the jump....

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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Two for One

Howdy, everyone!  I know it's been awhile since I've posted, so I hope some of you are still reading.  My life has been a bit of a whirlwind of late, so I haven't had the time to keep up with my blog.  I had a few spare moments today, so I thought I'd show you a couple of manicures I've done in the last few weeks.  Both of these manis are great for holiday wear.  

The first manicure I have for you is really just a swatch of a new color I picked up at Walgreen's awhile ago.  Here's a peek:

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

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:

...more after the jump...

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....

9 of 31: Rainbow Nails

Howdy!  Today brings us Rainbow Nails.  I've done a few different variations of rainbows since I got into nail art, so I wanted to do something a little different than your standard "unicorn" rainbow of colors.  I also wanted something sparkly, so I come up with...wait for it...The Glitter Skittles Rainbow Manicure!  Ha!  I just love the way that sounds :)  I also thought I might called it The Dark Side of the Rainbow...but Glitter Skittles is more fun to say.  Here's a photo!

 Polishes used:

Red: Spoiled-Ants in My Pants

Orange/Copper: Spoiled-Cougar Attack

Yellow/Gold: e.l.f.-20417

Blue/Green:Milani Jewel FX-Teal

Purple: Sinful Colors-Frenzy

I thought this turned out very dramatic for a glitter mani.  I used a coat of Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in Black Creme as a base color for all the glitters and then I just piled on the glitter until I thought I had good coverage.  Some of the polishes are 3 coats, some are 4 and some of them might even have 5 coats!  I tried the new peel-off base coat trick that I've seen floating around the blogs lately (for example Kayla Shevonne's tutorial here & Wacki Laki's here).  Basically, it's Elmer's glue.  It seemed to work pretty well, although I accidentally bought the Glue-All instead of the School Glue.  I think the School Glue might adhere a little less so I'll grab some at Target next time I'm there to compare the two.  One more shot:

Thanks so much for reading and tune in tomorrow for Day 10's Gradient Manicure!

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.

Debbie and Cindy Glitter Gradient Manicure

Howdy, everyone!  Ready for Monday?  Me either.  Oh well, at least my nails look fabulous, which is always a great way to start the week :)  Here's what I'm wearing:

 I have to give a shout out to my new best friend, Bernadette, who was nice enough to give me my very first bottle of Deborah Lippmann polish!  I have long coveted Lippmann polishes but can never bring myself to fork over the dough for them, so it was great to get a bottle to try.  Incidentally, Deborah is the "Debbie" to which this post title refers.  We'll talk about Cindy in a minute.  

So I started here with 2 coats of Deborah Lippman's Pop Life, a beautiful petal pink creme.  Fantastic formula, I'm so in love with this polish right now!  The color is so lovely, but I couldn't wear it just by itself, cuz that's just silly :)  Enter "Cindy".  I decided to do a glitter gradient with another Cynthia Rowley polish.  I hit Marshall's the other day and scored another set of CR polishes, this time a little box of 3 glitter polishes.  Does anyone know where I can find the names of these?  The one pictured here is a multi-colored hex glitter.  Tons of colors in a few different sizes, total wow factor on the nail.  Here's a closer look of the color and shape of the glitter:

As always, thanks so much for reading!

China Glaze Luxe and Lush

Howdy, all!  Just a quick post tonight.  I have a bunch of work to do before I can go to bed...including a new manicure after I take this one off!  So, without further ado, here's what I've got on now.

I am so sad that there was no sun for outdoor photos today!  I have a feeling this mani would have just lit up in sunlight.  I had to content myself with taking indoor pics.  I've decided in addition to the new camera I need, so better indoor lighting is also going on the "want" list.  Anyway, back to my nails!  I started here with one coat of CoverGirl NailSlicks in Midnight.  This is an OLD bottle I've had for just about ever.  I'm surprised the formula is still in decent condition!  Midnight is gunmetal metallic-y glitter in a black base.  The bottle describes it as sheer, but one coat is usually enough to cover for me.  On top of that, I used one coat of Wet 'n' Wild's Fergie in Rock 'n' Roll.  My final polish is China Glaze's Luxe and Lush from their Hunger Games collection.  This was another score from my Ulta trip the other day.  I've been looking for a bottle of this and was lucky enough to find it in their clearance section for $4.99 marked down from $8.  Yay!  Luxe and Lush is a flakie topcoat...the flakes are irregularly shaped and flash every color of the rainbow.  I am so happy to have this in my stash!

After wearing this with a coat of Seche Vite, I decided to matte it out with Essie's Matte About You to see how it looked.  Normally I love matte flakies, but I'm not wild about how this turned out.  Maybe it's the metallic glitter underneath that's not working for me.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.  I'm quite positive it will also take me about an hour to get all those different layers of glitter off my nails tonight lol  

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Ulta-mate Love

Howdy, everyone!  I know it's been awhile since my last post and I'm sorry!  Time keeps getting away from me and I haven't found a spare moment to put anything up.  Add to that the fact that I went almost a WHOLE WEEK(!!!!) without changing my manicure (no, I wasn't sick), and the lack of post-age is to be expected.  

Anyway, I am still here and I hope to keep a better schedule this week...especially since I took my very first trip to Ulta on Sunday!  *gasp* "Your very first trip?!", you say? "How could you not know the glory that is Ulta?!  How dare you call yourself a nail blogger?!", you say?  All I can do is hang my head in shame and remorse at missing this wonder of wonders for so long.  For some reason, in my head, Sephora and Ulta were the same thing.  Not to knock Sephora, cuz I know they have lovely beauty products, but they're a bit on the expensive side for me.  So, since I know Sephora's price point was a bit high, and since I thought Ulta was similarly priced, I figured it was no good for me.

Never have I been so happy to be wrong!  Ulta is lovely, their clearance section is even lovelier!  I picked up several new things, and managed somehow to come out of there with my budget (mostly) intact.  But there will be future trips...oh yes, there will be!

One of my new purchases was Ulta's Lust in Lace mini collection.  This collection has 4 mini polishes and a mini bottle of topcoat.  I know I'm a little late on this one, but I loved it the moment I saw it and since it was clearance priced at $4.99 down from $9.95, I felt I had to have it!  All the polishes have a black base with glass flecks.  Dark and mysterious, yeah?  Have a look at this one!

This is Underneath It All, a gorgeous almost black base with bronze-y bits of glass fleck.  After taking about a million photos of this one, I've determined that my camera is woefully inadequate.  I must start saving for a new one.  Underneath It All is much less green in person.  It really has a lovely coffee color with bronze to golden highlights.  There is a bit of green in it; in the first photo, you can see the green sparkle on my pinkie, but not nearly as much as it seems in the second.  I am so excited to try the rest of the polishes in this set!  The formula on this was great, I'm wearing two coats with a coat of Seche Vite as a topper.  Without a top coat, it is a bit gritty, which is kind of a neat finish but I couldn't resist seeing it all shiny :) 

I'll be posting later with some of my other finds and I definitely intend on spending a decent chunk of my hard-earned check this week at Ulta!  Thanks for reading!

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!
 

Sparkley Red, White, & Blue

Howdy and Happy 4th of July to all the U.S. readers!  Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays...I mean, who doesn't love a government sanctioned day of blowing stuff up?  I got to celebrate the day by going to see Magic Mike this afternoon.  I liked the movie, I know it's getting some mixed reviews, but I found it entertaining.  Could have used a bit more Dancing Channing, but certainly a fair amount of eye candy involved.

 I also went to a White Sox game with my uncle and cousin who are in town...it was a fun time, but man! is it hot out there!  I moved from Kansas to Chicago partly so I wouldn't have to endure 100 degree summers any more.  How silly of me!

 Anyway, on to the manicure for the day!  Of course the 4th of July calls for something red, white, and blue with a good amount of sparkle thrown in.  I found this mani from Nailside and decided to do a version of it myself.  I think it turned out pretty well.

I started with 2 coats of Wet 'n' Wild's Fast Dry in Saved by the Blue; a bright royal blue shimmer.  For the striped nails, I used my 1/4 inch art tape and taped off lines then painted Revlon's Diamonds Are Forever which is a super shiny silver metallic polish.  

For the "fireworks" on my thumb and ring fingers, I tapped off sections and painted on a coat of Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in Red Red, which definitely lives up to its name by being a true cherry red creme.  While that was still wet and before taking the tape off, I added a quick layer of Julep's America-the Beautiful, a red, blue and silver glitter with silver stars.  After that dried, I taped off another section and painted on Diamonds Are Forever.  I topped those nails off with some stars from a Cina Nail Art kit and from Wet 'n' Wild's Fast Dry Stars & Stripes.

My pinky finger got some of the stars from the Cina kit as well and then I finished all the nails off with a coat of Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in Kaleidoscope, a small holographic glitter in a clear base.  Kaleidoscope is one of my favorites for a topcoat, it looks like a disco ball on your nails!  In fact, if I didn't know or didn't care how difficult glitter is to remove, I might try to do enough coats of it to cover my whole nail.  But I'm not sure I have the patience for clean up.

Sorry for the long-winded detail here.  I keep this blog mostly for a record of the manicures I've done, so I know how I did them, in case I feel the need to recreate some of them in the future.  I definitely appreciate everyone who comes to take a look and I hope you all enjoy reading my posts.  However, I totally understand if all you do is look at the pictures lol  In any case, thanks as always for stopping by!

KleanColor Chunky Holo Black

Howdy everyone!  So, I know I was supposed to do a 4th of July manicure next, but when I got home from work, I found my order of 9 KleanColor polishes had arrived!  It was mandatory that I try at least one of them out.  Busy week for me, first Julep and now KleanColor...I really need to stop spending money on polish lol  

The set I got today is KleanColor's Chunky Holographic line.  Anything with a holographic finish is OK by me.  I decided to try out one of the darker colors first.

This is 236 Chunky Holo Black. I used 3 coats layered over 1 coat of Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine Black Creme.  236 really covers most of the rainbow with several different sizes of holographic, hexagonal glitter, primarily greens and oranges, but there are yellows and reds and even some flecks of blue when the light hits it just right.  You can see why I just HAD to swatch it first!  I'm hoping to get some photos in the sunlight tomorrow, I'll add them if I do!

Oh, and don't worry, Independence Day mani will be forthcoming!  Thanks for stopping by!

 **Edit:  Here's the sun photo I promised.  I'm so excited to swatch the rest of the polishes in this collection!

Orange You Glad?

Howdy everyone!  I got my Maven Box from Julep the other day, so I have a couple of new polishes to show you.  If you've never heard of Julep, they're a monthly nail polish subscription service.  If you sign up for their Maven program, you can receive 3 polishes plus a free gift every month for $19.99.  It's a pretty good deal and you can choose to cancel your subscription or skip a month at any time.  Currently, they have a deal where you can get your first Maven Box for $0.01 (free shipping also) by using discount code COLOR2012 at checkout.  I promise it works, cuz I've done it. 

In any case, my MB this month included Mischa, a red-orange micro-shimmer; Georgia, a peachy-gold micro-shimmer; and, their surprise polish, a very fun red, silver and blue glitter called America-The Beautiful for the 4th of July.  I'm saving that one for tomorrow when I do my 4th manicure :)  Today, I used both Mischa and Georgia, just to see what they'd look like together and here's what I came up with.

I started with 2-3 coats of Mischa as a base.  She has a good amount of sparkle, does Mischa, though I'm not in love with red-orange on with my skin tone.  Georgia is a little more subtle in the sparkle department, so I decided to tape off some diagonals on my nails and top them off with some dots.  Overall, I like the color of Georgia better, but I'm not loving them together or with this design.  This manicure was kind of a fail for me.  And, you can see, I managed to break my middle finger nail back to the quick.  I had hoped to be able to save it, but it was un-salvageable after all.  It didn't hurt, but it made me sad because I'd finally gotten all my nails to the same length on my photo hand lol

Thanks for stopping by today and check back tomorrow for my 4th of July mani!