Secret Periwinkle

Morning Lacqueristas! This is China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le blinged out with some silver foil nail art.  Secret Peri-wink-le is a creamy periwinkle color that has perched itself right on the line of light purple with a hint of light blue. It had really good consistency and self leveled quite nicely. Two coats and it was completely opaque.

I decided to try a few different designs since I've never really worked with foil before. It moved around on the nail A LOT but a layer of top coat kept it in check and didn't cause shrinkage or wrinkling.

I purchased a 12 pack of foil in gold, copper, silver, and rainbow from ebay for about $4 USD with free shipping from Hong Kong. Each little pot of foil has about 2 gum wrappers worth of foil (that's a technical measurement by the way ☺). The foil is wadded up inside the container, so it doesn't smooth out completely without any creases, but did smooth out on the nail pretty nicely. The foil will stick to your hands due to oils, so I worked with nail art brushes and tweezers.

I had high hopes for the rainbow foil but it was the least amount of pots in the pack and it's mostly just gold foil that looks tarnished giving it a bluish tint in places. It is definitely interesting though.

Do you have any tips or tricks for working with foils?

Thanks for stopping by!

~Linda

Metallic Bubbles

Hi beauties! Today I have a metallic gradient with my all time favorite silver polish. I started with a base coat of Nicole by OPI Heavy Metal and then used Orly Sweet Peacock and Peripera P027 for the gradient. This is with one coat of Seche Vite to smooth out the bumpiness that can happen due to sponging the gradient.

Heavy Metal is a 'granular' silver metallic, which is the only way I can think to describe it. It is not granular in the sense that it's gritty, but there are visible particles rather than a smooth chrome like finish. Sweet Peacock is a bright blue 'granular' metallic and P027 is a green to blue duochrome.

Although I loved this sucker as is....I felt it needed some stamping. I busted out the stamping plates and decided I was feeling bubbly. I used Konad black stamping polish and MASH Plate #43.

Heavy Metal is an NOPI Classic Color. I've had her for....god damn...like 14 years or something. I remember being in high school when my sister bought it for me. Holy crap, realizing that I've had a polish for 14 years is kind of mind blowing! Not to mention it says a lot about NOPI considering this polish is still a great consistency and applies perfectly.   

Feedback time... I hoped that the pictures helped to understand, but did I make any sense in describing the finish of Heavy Metal?

~Linda

Energy Vs Hera

I've recently showed you some swatches of Jade Energy and Hits Hera which are both teal holographic polishes. Before getting my hands on Energy I assumed that they were going to be very close but taking a look side by side you can see the differences. The main difference is the underlying base color.

Energy leans more towards blue while Hera is more green based.

Jade Energy and Hits Hera

I have Energy on my index and ring finger, and Hera on my middle finger and pinky.

These are the pictures that most clearly showed the differences but about half of the pictures I took you could hardly see the difference. Lighting has a lot to do with that because indoors the colors are plainly different while outside the holo effect makes it more difficult to distinguish which was which.

Indoors taken by a window

I ended up stamping over this with Color Club Wild at Heart and MASH Plate #44.

Once I stamped over these you couldn't even see the color differences between Energy and Hera.

So which do you prefer, Energy or Hera?

~Linda
 

Jade Holographic: Energy

Hi beauties! I received a package from the lovely Enamel Girl with the Jade Holographic nail polish I won from her recent giveaway and was pleasantly surprised to see that she also sent me a nail strengthening base coat from Poshe. I haven't used this brand before but thought it was very sweet of her to send. Her swatch of this polish looked amazing so I've been dying to give it a try.

This polish is called Energy and it's a bright teal color when in the sunlight but has a sea foam green tint when indoors (which you can kind of see in the picture above).

The color of this polish is really nice and it actually has a very strong holographic effect. It seems to be much stronger than Hits Hera that I showed you a few posts back. I'll pull together a comparison and have it up in a day or two.

Overall, this polish is a great holographic with no dragging. I've seen other holographics where the holo is strong but the color is weak. Not this one.

Have a great day!

~Linda

Tristam and Hi Res

Today I have on the lovely a-england Tristam from The Mythicals Collection which is described as 'night blue sky with starlight glimmer and glow'.  Adina described this polish perfectly! Tristam definitely has the deep purple and blue tones of the night sky and there are holographic particles that twinkle just like stars.

This is two coats of Tristam and one coat of Seche Vite.

Artificial Light

I decided to add a little abstract nail art using Milani Hi Res which is a light purple holographic polish.

This polish has a fantastic formula: completely opaque in 2 coats and the color is extremely rich. The holo is not extremely strong but it does add a nice little something. a-england can be purchased on their website for roughly $14 USD and shipping is free. Score one for the little guys. ☺

What's your favorite a-england polish?

~Linda

Funky Fingers Green Metallic

Hi Guys! I must be on a metallic kick because today I'm showing you Funky Fingers Sold Out Arena. This is a metallic minty green polish with a really great finish. I actually grabbed this from the clearance bin for only $1.

You can see exactly how metallic this polish will be just by looking at the bottle and on the nail, it didn't disappoint. This color meets my love for all things mint but does lean just a hint more light green than mint. Application was really good and I had zero dragging. This is two coats with top coat.

I ended up adding an accent nail using a few different colors and a fan brush. I used Julep Sienna, Color Club Wild at Heart, Julep Harley and China Glaze Deviantly Daring vertically across the nail (from left to right in picture below).

Thanks for stopping by!

~Linda

Julep Melanie

Today I'm wearing Julep Melanie, described as a pastel indigo metallic chrome. This is one of the polishes I received in my Julep Maven It Girl Box for August, and I was very excited because it seemed like it had a fabulous purple base in the swatches on the Julep Blog even though the bottle looked just plain blue.

To my upset, the purple I thought I was seeing must have been a trick by my monitor. What a shame! The color is still very nice and the chrome finish on this polish is one of the better ones I've seen. I was just a little let down due to my inaccurate expectations. Aww well.

This is two coats of Melanie and one coat of Seche Vite. Application was very smooth and I didn't have any issues with dragging or excessive brush streaks being visual.

 

This last picture was taken outdoors in a moment that the sun was behind the clouds. I love the way that you can see the fabulous metallic sheen in the bottle.

Overall this polish was very nice. It faded relatively quickly but I'm sure you could keep up the color with new top coat every other day.

Have you tried any of the Julep Metallics yet? Do you have a favorite chrome polish?

~Linda

Hits Hera

Happy Friday! Sorry I've been M.I.A, work has been ridiculous lately. UGH I've been soo stressed out that I've got big knots in my shoulders. I don't wanna look like a hunchback so I had to take some time to paint my nails and relax. A piña colada was calling my name...I couldn't be rude and not answer!☺

Today I have a HITS holographic polish from the no Olimpo Collection that I've been wanting to share. Hera is a bright teal color with a relatively good holographic effect. The application was pretty good but the brush was very odd shaped. It was extremely wide and it was not flat, therefore it looked like a Wet n Wild Megalast 'Manicure Pro' brush jacked up on steriods. Make sure to let the polish dry completely between coats so there will be no dragging.

This is 2 coats with no top coat, and pictures were taken outside in afternoon sunlight.

I was lucky enough to be the winner of a giveaway from Enamel Girl a few weeks back so I'm expecting to get a Jade Teal Holohgraphico polish soon. I cannot wait! I'm thinking it's going to be very close to this color so I'll have to pull together a comparison.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Linda

Snake Skin Stamping

Hello Hello! Today I have a quick post to show you some snake skin printed nails. I started with 2 coats of Orly Gumdrop which is a mint/jade green creme and then did a gradient halfway up the nail using Julep Piper. Piper was from the August Boho Glam box and is a mint-teal metallic. After the gradient dried I used Bundle Monster plate #224 with China Glaze Deviantly Daring from the new Bohemian Luster Chrome Collection. Here's the end result. This has one coat of Seche Vite.

I love that you can see Piper peaking out towards the tips of my nails. The shimmer from Piper almost looks as if it was layered on top, but it's not.

Whats your favorite animal print? Do you ever do animal print manis?

~Linda

July Hauls

Hi All!

I pulled together a list of my nail polish hauls from July. Sally's Beauty Supply had an awesome clearance event so I got a bunch of these for crazy cheap.

I didn't include the pictures of my China Glaze Bohemian Collection or Julep polishes because you already know what I've picked up from previous posts.

Here is the full list of the polishes shown above. I got them from Head 2 Toe Beauty, Ninja Polish, Trans Design, Ulta and Sally's Beauty Supply. The list describes the colors in the pictures starting at the top and moving left to right.

• A-England - Tristam
• Color Club - Wild at Heart
• Color Club - Holiday Splendor
• Sation - Miss Emo Shun All
• Ulta -Jaded
• China Glaze - Secret Peri-Wink-le
• HITS - Hera
• HITS - Hefesto
• HITS Mari Moon - Artsy
• Sinful Colors - Timbleberry
• Sinful Colors - Dream On
• Orly - Gumdrop
• Orly - Sweet Peacock
• Fingerpaints - Late Night Rendezvous **
• China Glaze Magnetix -  Instant Chemistry **
• China Glaze - Prism **
• China Glaze - Riveting **
• Orly - Mysterious Curse **
• Orly - Decades of Dysfunction **

** These polishes were purchased from Sally's during the Clearance event and I only spent $10 in total for all 6 of these polishes. Considering these are from some newer collections (Prismatic Collection, Hunger Games, Dark Shadows, Magnetix), I was pretty darn happy with that.

As I was pulling together this list I realized that I definitely missed a few but that's okay. Maybe I'll remember to sneak them into next months haul photos.

Any particular polish that you'd like to see me use in the upcoming week? Comment and let me know what you'd like to see! 

~Linda

China Glaze Bohemian Collection

Hi All! Ugh I've been so busy that I've had no time to play with polish. The first suckers I reached for were of course my lovelies from the China Glaze Bohemian Luster Chrome Collection. After seeing a few swatches on other blogs I decided to get only the polishes that I knew I was going to love. There are a few that are just totally not me (i.e. Swanky Silk, No Plain Jane).

All pictures are three thin coats but these are very well pigmented and two coats would be sufficient if applied properly. Brush strokes can be seen in the polish due to the chrome finish but that's to be expected. 

First up is Unpredictable which is described as a multidimensional green and I would have to completely agree with that. There are soo many different shades of green, and even blue, in this polish that no two pictures look the same. Here are a bunch to show you just how flashy this polish is!

 

 

Next is Want My Bawdy which was definitely the most sheer of these polishes. This goes on as a grayed out purple but as the coats add up the purple definitely becomes stronger. On the nail the duo chrome is barely existent but it changes from a purple to slight blue tint.

Deviantly Daring is my absolute favorite! This polish is soo rich in color and fabulousness I want to paint my walls with it! After buying my first bottle, I immediately bought two more. Yes I know I know, I'm obsessive. I can't help it. This has to be the best polish I've ever seen! It's described as a bold peacock teal and I think that suites it quite well. Of course my name for it would have been "Awesome Sauce"!

The last polish that I bought was Rare & Radiant. There was soo much fuss over this being yet another dupe for Chanel Peridot that I decided just to get it to see the big deal. I never wanted Peridot or OPI Just Spotted The Lizard because the color just didn't appeal to me. Now that I bought this and tried it out, I know I was right. The color is just not me. Coverage was good and the formula was just as nice as the others.

Overall I really like this Collection. There are some dupes or colors that we've seen before but I think that this was probably one of China Glaze's most anticipated collection in a while.

Side Note: I ordered these online from Head 2 Toe Beauty and this was my first time ordering from them. Since these have the 'special' silver caps I was kinda peeved when I received Unpredictable and the cap was all chewed up (you can see it in my bottle picture). Just because I ordered the product online doesn't mean I should get something that I wouldn't have picked up myself and bought at the store. After two completely unapologetic emails from customer service and pictures sent by me, I received a replacement cap. No brush...Just a cap that must have been on a red polish because there is traces of red inside the cap. I have no clue how to remove the brush from the damaged cap and put it into the new one. The larger problem is the completely ridiculous customer service. I cannot believe that no form of apology was ever made. Needless to say, I don't think that I will be ordering from them again.

Sorry for such a long post, but I hope that one more round of photos might help you make your decision if you have not yet gotten your hands on this collection.

Thanks for stopping by! 

~Linda

1,000 Thanks!

The other day I got a comment from Jen over at Hooked on Varnish telling me she nominated me for an award. How cool is that? She totally made my day so I was a little bummed that I've had company visiting and ZERO free time to acknowledge it. 

So here we go!

Here are the rules for this award: 

• Post 11 facts about yourself
• Answer the questions the tagger has asked you and then create 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate
• Choose 11 people with less than 200 followers to give this award to and link to them
• Go to their pages and tell them (Remember no tag backs!)

I'll start off by giving you the 11 facts I'm sure you're dying to know! 

1. I'm a redhead (well actually Strawberry Blonde) with freckles and green eyes, but I'm not Irish.

2. I've never broken any bones.

3. I have a serious serious weakness for Pina Coladas!

4. I can fall sleep in less then 10 seconds when I climb into bed. 

5. Blue and Purple are tied for my favorite color.

6. I sing and talk to myself when I'm alone.

7. I think Amazon might be my favorite website ever. 

8. I've watched all of the Harry Potter movies at least 30 times each.

9. I have three tattoos and I'm planning on getting #4 soon.

10. My absolute favorite thing I've EVER bough can be seen here.

11. Over 35% of my nail polish collection is purple!

Here are the 11 questions I was asked:

1. Favorite part of blogging? 

 That wanting my readers to enjoy my blog as much as I do, pushes me to be more artistic. 

2. Favorite nail polish/make up brand, both big name and indie?

 My favorite makeup brand is Smashbox, nail polish brand is China Glaze and indie brand is Rainbow Honey.

3. Dream car?

 I just paid off my car so I won't get a new one for a while, but if I could walk into a dealership and buy a car right now it 

 would be a 2012 Volkswagen Bug, sky blue with all the bells and whistles. (I grew up with my dad owning about 8 bugs 

 and the 2012 line has that classic body shape that I LOVE. Ahh the memories)  

4. Worst beauty related purchase?

 Stilla One Step Bronzer - Cool bottle but just really didn't work with my skin type/tone.

5. Favorite tv show?

 If I have to choose one....Grey's Anatomy. 

6. Do you prefer shopping online or in store?

 Clothing and beauty shopping, definitely in the store. Home goods or jewelry can be fun online since there's sooo much at   

 your fingertips.

7. Favorite book?

  I've been wanting to re-read the Ann Charles Deadwood Mystery Series recently so I'll say that. They are fun/flirty 'what 

  did she get herself into this time' kind of books, always with a twist of paranormal.

8. Best summer memory?

  Growing up down my beach house in Rhode Island. Just the smell of the ocean in the early morning can relax me!

9. Favorite holiday?

 Christmas! I love the decorations, the music and even the family get-togethers. 

10. Summer or Winter Olympics?

 *Eeek...Shoves my head under a pillow* Neither. I don't think I've ever watched the Olympics.

11. If you had to start blogging about a different subject, what would it be?

  It would have to be around my shopping adventures. Jewelry, home goods, electronics. I love gadgets and almost always have something that I've ordered coming to the house.

Here are the 11 questions for the who I've tagged:

1. Can you remember your first nail polish experience?

2. Favorite color lip stick? 

3. Whats your dream job?

4. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?  

5. Could you ever cut off all your hair?

6. Seche Vite or Sally Hansen Insta Dri Top coat?

7. What's your biggest pet peeve?

8. If you were a cartoon character, who would it be?

9. Most disappointing nail polish?

10. Favorite movie?

11. If they made a nail polish to represent you, what color would it be, and what would it be named?

Here are the 11 bloggers that I've passed along this award to. 

1. Tough As Nails Lacquer

2. Polish My Mind

3. A Polished Addiction

4. The Cute-icle Chronicles

5. Surfer Girl aka Beaching Nails

6. Susy In Color

7. Nailphotos By Lani

8. Devilish Polish

9. Legally Nailed

10. Holy Manicures

11. Crazy Nail Lady

Stop by and check out these other great bloggers!

~Linda

Flower Power

Today I have a gradient manicure with some stamping that was inspired by a recent trip to the Botanical Gardens in Chicago. I saw these amazing flowers that were a beautiful shade of orange with a electric crimson center. These were my favorite flowers in the Garden, so I decided to translate their beauty to my nails.

I started with two coats of Julep Eva which is a rich raspberry colored creme polish. The gradient started with SinfulColors Timbleberry, a coral meets bubble-yum pink and on the tips is China Glaze Riveting. Riveting is a stunning orange polish that's loaded with gold and bright orange shimmer and is from the Hunger Games Capital Colours Collection.

I stamped a floral design using Julep Harley, a silver metallic chrome and MASH Plate #45.

Unfortunately, my nails are rather wide and I have crap aim, so I do sometimes have a bit of trouble getting the images to fit properly on my nails. I'm my own worst critic so all I see are the f*ck ups, but I still think that these turned out pretty darn good.

Thanks for dropping by!

~Linda