Bright Skittles

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! Most of the pictures you will see over the next week or so are old-ish. This particular manicure is from February. Poor thing is happy to see the light of day. Or at least the light of the blogosphere.

These bright skittles were fun and easy to do. From thumb to pinky: Cosmetic Arts Limelight, Zoya Pippa, Color Club Poptastic, Ulta Blue Streak, and Julep Anne. Each is two coats. The little design on my ring finger is an Essence French Glam Nail Stickers. Each sheet has several designs.

Zoya Marina & Stamping

I hope you are enjoying your Monday!

Zoya Marina is a strongly blue toned gray metallic. The application is good and opaque in two coats. Over Marina, I stamped on this lovely pattern with Color Club Gingerbread Man and stamping plate BM-209.

I literally forgot to add that I matted an accent finger to see how the two metallics would look matte. Every finger aside from my ring is topped with Seche Vite, while the ring is topped with Butter London Matte Finish.

Color Club Gingerbread Man & Holly

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I recently got a new camera. I have been playing around with it and trying to see if it is what I want. Obviously, macro shots (close up photography) is a large part of my camera use. I have not perfected taking manicure shots with this camera yet, but decided I needed to start posting them. If anything, seeing them on my blog will hopefully help me figure out tricks to make the pictures better. I purchased a Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR. The camera is amazing. I am just having trouble getting macro shots in my light box without casting a shadow with the long lens. Also, getting my skin to turn out the right color. If you have any advice, please let me know, whether by comment or email.

Enough of my camera rambling, onto the pictures!

Color Club Gingerbread Man is a light gold foil. The application is perfection and opaque in one coat. It may appear like your basic gold foil, but it does have something special about it. Its scented! It smells like a frosted gingerbread cookie. The scent is very light. Nothing overpowering.

I wanted to make this manicure into something even more Christmas like than gingerbread, so added hollies. Three berries and three leaves. I used stamping plate BM14 and Ulta The Jungle Look. I attempted to stamp red and green on my thumb, but the delicate design dried too much before I could stamp it. So I decided to do green and add the red afterward. I went back with a small dotting tool and Love My Nails New Love to make the holly berries red. I personally love this. Its simple and very easy.

Color Club Nouveau Vintage

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! Today I have a gorgeous Fall polish to show you.

Color Club Nouveau Vintage is a red-toned brown with gold/copper and green shimmer. The green is much more noticeable in the bottle than it is on the nail. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats. I honestly did not think I would like it when I bought the Back to Boho set. That's why its taken me over a year to wear it. Despite what I thought initially, I love this polish!

Sparkling Tips

I hope you are enjoying you're Friday! I seem to be solving all my polish related wear issues with glitter lately. I didn't have time to change my nails after wearing Zoya Skylar, so I did a glitter gradient to the tips. It freshened up the look and hid any tip wear. I wish I had decent pictures of right after it was done. I made the mistake of taking them in the kitchen. The lighting made my skin appear yellow and threw off polish color accuracy. I did not notice this until I had already taken my nails through a hard day. So the tip wear is very noticeable.

Despite the wear, I wanted to post them. It was such a sparkly combination. I literally got distracted by my own nails reflection in my laptop screen as I hit a key trying to wake it up from hibernation. 

Over Zoya Skylar, I did a quick glitter gradient with Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe. It is a clear base with light green and holo glitter. The light green complimented the steel blue Skylar rather well in person.

Skylar is part of the Zoya True Collection and retails for $8 on their website. Beyond the Mistletoe is part of the Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe Collection. It retails for $4-8. I purchased mine in a collection set of all six for $8 at Ross.  

Halloween in July

Its Stamping Sunday! This week's theme is "Something I Love." I debated for a little while over what to do. If I had a penguin plate, you would be seeing penguins this week. And my owl plates are in the mail. I looked through my plates and the moment I saw the Halloween themed one, I knew I wanted to do that. It is one of my favorite holidays.

I started with two coats of Love My Nails Raspberry Sorbet, a maroon creme. I created a Halloween accent on each of my ring fingers. A spiderweb with Color Club Worth the Risque and plate BM13; then a spider with Sinful Colors Black on Black and plate BM13. Using a holo for the web causes it to catch the light in a way similar to actual spiderweb.

I love this design and will absolutely be recreating this in October when Halloween is closer to occurring.

Worth the Risque is from the Color Club Femme Fatale Collection. It retails for $4-8. I purchased mine on ebay from this seller. I've also heard of it being seen at Bed Bath & Beyond. Love My Nails retail for $1 at Bari Cosmetics. BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. 

Happy Independence Day!

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! And your Fourth of July, if you're in the US. Today, I have a final design to share with you for the holiday.

I had a man compliment me on my patriotic nails today. That rarely happens. Almost never. On my pinky, index, and thumb, I did two coats of Wet n Wild Red Red then stripes with L.A. Colors Art Deco White. For my middle and ring fingers, I used one coat of Pure Ice Super Star! then stamped on stars with Color Club Cold Metal and plate BM20. To add a little extra something, I placed silver star glitter in the middle of each large stamped star.

Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website. Cold Metal is part of the Color Club Foiled Collection. It retails for $4-8. I purchased mine in a collection set of all six for $8 at Ross. BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. L.A. Colors Art Deco stripers retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores. 

Stars and Stripes

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! Today, I have a design for Monkey See Monkey Do and Fourth of July. I found inspiration in a design by Girlie Tomboy.

I absolutely love this! I got several compliments at work today. My index and pinky are two coats of Love My Nails New Love and my ring and thumb are two coats of Color Club Cold Metal. For my middle finger, I did one coat of Pure Ice Super Star!, stamped on stripes with New Love and plate BM20, and finally stamped on a star with Cold Metal and plate BM05.

Love My Nails retail for $1 at Bari Cosmetics. Cold Metal is part of the Color Club Foiled Collection. It retails for $4-8. I purchased mine in a collection set of all six for $8 at Ross. BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. 

Patriotic Stamping and Glitter

Its Stamping Sunday! And my first design for the Fourth of July. I'll admit, its a little bit of a fail, but not too bad. The theme for this week is dots and circles.

The stamping didn't transfer perfectly and smeared a little. Plus my glitter didn't disperse well. But unless you look up close (or with these macro shots), the design looks nice, so its not all bad. I started with a base coat of Pure Ice Super Star! as my white backdrop. Next I stamped on Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar and Color Club Cold Metal with plate BM19. For my accent nail, I used two coats of Love My Nails Glory. Its a slightly blue tinted base with red and blue string glitter plus silver stars. I love how unique it is, but wish it was less bumpy. Two coats of tc later and still bumpy. But its perfect for the upcoming holiday.

Love My Nails retail for $1 at Bari Cosmetics. Cold Metal is part of the Color Club Foiled Collection. It retails for $4-8. I purchased mine in a collection set of all six for $8 at Ross. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. 

Color Club Boho Mojo

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Today I have an interesting polish from the Color Club Back to Boho Collection to show you.

Boho Mojo is dusty silver pearl with a hint of beige. Little more silver in person. As with all pearls, it does have visible brush strokes, but nothing too bad. The application is good and opaque in three thin coats. Not exactly my favorite color, but a unique polish in my collection.

The Color Club Back to Boho Collection polishes retail for $4-8 individually. Sets of seven (topcoat included) retail for $8 in store at Ross and Burlington.

Comparison - Color Club Candy Cane vs Wet n Wild Sparked

Battle of the pink glitters! While looking at my nail wheel one day, I noticed that two of my pink glitters looked very close. Possible dupes. So I did a little comparison.

Each picture is index/ring with Color Club Candy Cane and middle/pinky with Wet n Wild Sparked.

One coat each

Two coats each

Two coats each with a coat of Wet n Wild Hallucinate over Sparked

As you can see Candy Cane covers much more opaque than Sparked, even after the first coat. With a second coat, Sparked is more opaque, but still not equal. In the bottle, the only difference appears to be the lack of holo glitter in Sparked. On the nail, you can see that are very close. To really see the potential, I layered one coat of Hallucinate over Sparked.

After taking a good look at each nail, I would have to say that they are very very close, but not dupes, even with holo glitter added. Candy Cane is slightly more hot pink than the Sparked/Hallucinate combo. Different enough to justice owning both, but close enough that it would make a good substitution.

Color Club Blossoming Collection Skittles

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! Today, I have the entire Color Club Blossoming Collection to show you today.

The Blossoming Collection consists of five cremes and a glitter. From thumb to pinky, I used Blushing Rose, Sweetpea, Lavendarling, Blue-ming, and Hydrangea Kiss. The first two pictures are two coats of each, no top coat. Then I did a layer of Diamond Drops on each. 

Blushing Rose is a light pink creme. It would make a nice soft neutral. Sweetpea is a dusty mauve creme with more purple than pink. It does remind me of its namesake (unlike some shades). Lavendarling is dusty purple creme. Blue-ming is a mint turquoise, more green than blue despite its name. It is the brightest of the collection. Hydrangea Kiss is a dusty blue creme, reminiscent of the flower its named for. Diamond Drops is a shredded/shattered holo glitter. It looks like shards of glass reflecting a rainbow of colors. All of the cremes have wonderful application, opaque in two coats. The glitter was a little hard to get evenly spread out on the nail, but nothing that careful application doesn't remedy.

The Color Club Blossom Collection polishes retail for $4-8 individually. Sets of seven (topcoat included) retail for $8 in store at Ross and Burlington.

Gold Over Blue

I hope you're enjoying your Tuesday! I have another manicure to show you for Monkey See, Monkey Do. Its a nail challenge where we take inspiration from or recreate a mani done by someone else. Anything you see on blogs, Facebook, Pinterest, or anywhere else online. 

This design was inspired by a mani done by The Nailasaurus. For my base, I used two coats of Sinful Colors Savage. It is a matte creme with wonderful application. Mattes are usually harder to work with. Next, I stamped on a floral vine design with Color Club Gingerbread Man and plate BM20. In person, the design is very crisp, which did not exactly translate to pictures.

Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Gingerbread Man is part of the Color Club Scent-suous Collection and retails for $4. BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store.

Please check out the other lovely bloggers participating in this challenge. :)

Amber Did It

Angelina's Nails & More

Beauty Bumbles

Dressed Up Digits

Fancy Phalanges

Fanning the Fumes

Geeky Owl

Gnarly Gnails

Jen's Painted Tips

Kawaiinize Your World

LeSamowen

Macabre Manicures

Maquiclub Girl

Nail Polish is my Crack

PishPosh and Polish

Polish Crazed

Polish Lover

Tales of Knit and Nails

The Clockwise Nail Polish

The Crumpet

The Manicured Monkey

The (mis)Adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

Toxic Vanity

Neon Rainbow Zebra Print

Its Stamping Sunday! This week's theme is Unnatural Animals. So I broke out the neon and bright polishes for rainbow zebra print.

In order from index to pinky, I used Color Club Poptastic, Zoya Pippa, Sinful Colors Dream On, and Cosmetic Arts Limelight. All two coats each. Then I stamped a zebra print pattern on each nail using Sally Hansen Night Flight and plate BM16.

Poptastic is part of the Color Club Poptastic Collection. It retails for $4-8 various places online. Zoya retails for $8 on their website. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store.

Sugar Plum Fairies

I hope you're enjoying your Monday! I have another manicure to show you for Monkey See, Monkey Do. The challenge just started last week. Its a nail challenge for Monday (though mine will be on Tuesday since I already do one for Mondays) where we take inspiration from or recreate a mani done by someone else. Anything you see on blogs, Facebook, Pinterest, or anywhere else online. 

I was inspired by a lovely design I saw on Pinterest by Milily. For my base, I did two coats of Cosmetic Arts In Bloom. Its a very light lilac creme with great application. For the tips, I sponged on Color Club Sugarplum Fairy. I love this glitter so much. It is a clear base packed with light lilac and holo glitter. I've found that for glitter, it is best to paint the polish on the sponge.

Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). Sugarplum Fairy is part of the Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe Collection. It retails for $4-8. I purchased mine in a collection set of all six for $8 at Ross.  

Please check out the other lovely bloggers participating in this challenge. :)

Amber Did It

Angelina's Nails & More

Beauty Bumbles

Dressed Up Digits

Fancy Phalanges

Fanning the Fumes

Geeky Owl

Gnarly Gnails

Jen's Painted Tips

Kawaiinize Your World

LeSamowen

Macabre Manicures

Maquiclub Girl

Nail Polish is my Crack

PishPosh and Polish

Polish Crazed

Polish Lover

Tales of Knit and Nails

The Clockwise Nail Polish

The Crumpet

The Manicured Monkey

The (mis)Adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

Toxic Vanity

Funky French Glitter Bomb

I hope you're enjoying your Monday! The Monday Nail Art Challenge is here again. The theme this week is Glitter Bomb. I have done many glitter filled manicures so I wanted something a little bit different. A funky french glitter bomb.

I absolutely love this glitter combination. It reminds me of my high school colors. Though I think it will remind most people of LSU. I used L.A. Colors Nuclear Energy and Pure Ice Cheatin as my purple base. I did one coat of the former and two coats of the latter. Cheatin has blue glitter, along with the purple. I free-handed the gold tips using Color Club Gingerbread Man and Funky Fingers Golden Coast. Along with the gold glitter, there is also holo glitter. The applications on all of these polishes is great.

L.A. Colors retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. Funky Fingers retail for $2 or 3/$5 at Five Below. Gingerbread Man is part of the Color Club Scent-suous Collection and retails for $4.

Color Club Poptastic and My Franken Shatter Shock

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I have a cute manicure to show you that's been sitting on my computer since earlier this month. On PAA, there was a Monday Nail Art Challenge with the theme "Pets". Any manicure was fine as long as you featured your pet (or stuffed animal) in the picture.

I painted all of my nails with two coats of Color Club Poptastic, a bright pink creme. The application is perfect. Then I layered my franken crackle on every other nail. Bridget Benike (a lovely lady I know from PAA) named my franken Shatter Shock. Its a black holo crackle. In the pictures, it appears to be a scattered holo. But in person, its linear; similar to Revvvolution. The last picture was taken with a flash to really show the holo.

As I mentioned before, I did this combination for the Pets theme. So I took a picture with my chihuahua Butterscotch. Not a very good nail shot, but I was more focused on having her stay still. Most of the pictures were blurry because she was moving.

Poptastic is part of the Color Club Poptastic Collection. It retails for $4-8 various places online.