Butter London All Hail the Queen

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! I have yet another Butter London to show you today. Its the third and final one I got from my Coterie order (except for the matte topcoat).

Butter London All Hail the Queen is a beige creme filled with holographic micro glitter. The glitter appears silver, holo, and occasionally red. Incredibly gorgeous. Neutral with flair. The application is great and opaque in two coats.

Butter London retails for $14 and is available at several locations, all of which are listed on their website.

Butter London Bluey

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Mine has been a bit hectic. I work retail and it was pouring down rain. I think you can see why it was hectic. Saturday, retail, and rain. Yesterday I showed you my first Butter  London polish. Today, you will see my second. I was so in love with the polishes when I got them in the mail. Once I wore one, I had to wear the rest. I actually have the third one on as I type, and will show it to you tomorrow.

Butter London Bluey is a peacock blue metallic with blue and green flecks. Mostly blue with a hint of green. The application is great and opaque in two coats. In person, it is completely opaque. For pictures, I would recommend three coats.

Butter London retails for $14 and is available at several locations, all of which are listed on their website.

Butter London Wallis

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! Today I finally have a swatch of my first Butter London polish to show you. The first time I wore it, the pictures came out blurry.

Butter London Wallis is a metallic olive green with green and gold flecks. Whoever describes the polishes for their website hit the nail right on the head. "A tarnished, metallic olive gold nail lacquer, as mysterious and regal as its namesake." The application is great and goes on very smooth even with the depth of flecks you see. It is opaque with two coats.

I honestly never thought I would go anywhere near this polish. It was incredibly popular last year around this time and I could not figure out the appeal. I recently ordered three plus the matte top coat with the deal Coterie ran a couple of weeks ago. I figured Wallis was worth a try. I have been trying to branch out polish wise. You never know if you will love a polish or not until you try it on. :)

Butter London retails for $14 and is available at several locations, all of which are listed on their website.

L'Oreal Owl's Night

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! I know I am behind on discovering the beauty of this polish. I honestly did not see what all the fuss was about until I received this in the mail. It came as a birthday gift and I was rather excited to have it once I saw it in person.

L'Oreal Owl's Night is a dark brown base with gold micro glitter. The glitter flashes olive green and occasionally red, making the base seem more bronze than brown at times. The application is good and opaque in two coats. This is such a gorgeous polish for Autumn.

Owl's Night is part of last year's L'Oreal Project Runway Collection. It can be found online.

Sinful Colors Mint Apple with Hearts

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I planned to post my first Butter London polish today, but when I looked at the pictures, each was slightly blurry. So I will do a quick swatch of it soon. As Plan B, today you will see a shimmer glitter combination.

Sinful Colors Mint Apple is a mint green leaning more toward green than blue with small silver shimmer that flashes gold. The application is good and opaque in two coats. Its relatively shiny even without topcoat (you can see that in the first picture). I wanted to add something fun, so I got out Love & Beauty Pink Hearts Glitter. It is a clear base filled with pink heart glitter and a bit of micro iridescent glitter. The hearts are a little hard to fish out, but not impossible.

Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Love & Beauty retails for $2.80 at Forever21, online and in store.

OPI Give Me a Coral Sometime

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Does anyone else buy polish only to have it sit in storage until you finally pick it up for a manicure. In the beginning, I was buying polish quicker than I could use it. So I have a rather large amount of untried polishes. I have been making a conscious effort to use my unused bottles, including the polish I have to show you today.

OPI Give Me a Coral Sometime is a sheer coral jelly filled with pink shimmer that flashes blue at certain angles. This shade of coral leans slightly more toward pink than orange. Its rather sheer. Three coats later you can still see a bit of visible nail line. But I am okay with that. It has that awesome squishy jelly finish, which I love. The application is great.

Give Me a Coral Sometime is part of the OPI Retro Fun in the Sun Collection and retails for $5-8 various places online.

First Nail Art of Autumn

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Yesterday was the first day of Fall, at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere. The temperatures here are putting a damper on thoughts of cool crisp Autumn days, given the highs are in the 80/90s (sadly nice cool weather for us in September). But I can help myself pass the time until cool weather, with pretty fall colors.

It honestly did not turn out as I imagined it, but not completely a nail fail. Reminds me of vintage curtains or furniture. I started with two coats of Julep Demi, a deep burgundy creme. Then I did stripes and dots with China Glaze Harvest Moon. Finally, more dots using Love My Nails Hot Tamale. I was inspired to do this after seeing this post from Polish Art Addiction. Next time I will try this design with all cremes.

Harvest Moon is part of the China Glaze Capitol Colours Collection and retails for $3-6 at various stores (it will be in the clearance area) and websites. Julep retails for $14 on their website. Love My Nails retail for $1 at Bari Cosmetics.

Butterfly Tattoo

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! I have attempted to use regular temporary tattoos as part of a manicure twice. The first time was a bit of mess. I tried cutting down a large tattoo to fit across all of my fingers. I had trouble lining it up well. It just did not work. I'm happy to say that the second attempt went much better. I used a smaller design and only did an accent finger.

I cut a blue butterfly temporary tattoo in half, one piece for each ring fingernail. I applied it exactly as you would to skin. Press the paper on, tattoo side down. Wet with water and hold for several seconds. It transferred very well. Top coat did not smudge or drag it at all. Removal was also very easy.

I love the look of it. Little bits of sparkle show through the blue. A temporary tattoo makes for a very easy design. Quick and simple.

Sally Hansen Diamond

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! Today I have a very pretty holographic polish to show you. I have a few silver holos, but this one is different than the rest I own.

Sally Hansen Diamond is part of the Nail Prisms line. It is a gorgeous light silver scattered holo. The application was great. No pulling or bald spots like some experience with holos. It took three thin coats to be completely opaque. The sparkle from this is unbelievable. What appears as slight blurriness on my nails is really just the all the colors and sparkle trying to be captured on camera.

Bumble Bee

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! One of my most popular posts (the most popular one until recently actually) is the one about bumble bee nails. I did the design before I started blogging. When I did the  post, I was not really cropping my photos or doing well with up close macro shots of my nails. I decided to redo the design. You can find the original post here.

In all honesty, I think my nail art skills are about the same. But I still love my little bumble bee! I started off with two coats of Zoya Pippa as my yellow base. The bumble bee and his trail were created with a dotting tool, small nail art brush, Pure Ice Super Star!, and Sinful Colors Black on Black. The original design was achieved following one of CutePolish's tutorials. She creates the cutest designs and shows how each is done.

OPI Shatter the Scales

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! I know most are over the crackle fad. I still like them. Shatter the Scales has been sitting in my wishlist since swatches of the OPI Spiderman Collection first started popping up. I received it in a birthday gift recently and immediately wanted to wear it.

OPI Shatter the Scales is a dark blue toned green with silver flecks. Even if crackle is not your cup of tea, you have to attempt the polish itself is gorgeous. It shattered very well on all of my fingers with minimal effort. It really pops over white. While debating what polish to wear underneath, I tried gold which is gorgeous as well.

Shatter the Scales is part of the OPI Spiderman Collection and retails for $8.50 at Dillard’s, JCPenney, Trade Secret, and Ulta along with various websites.

Fimo Canes!

Fimo polymer clay canes to be exact. I have been debating about buying some for a long time. I usual see thick slices as nail art. I cannot get 3D nail art to stay on very long at all. Rhinestones usually pop off within a day.

Someone on PAA mentioned purchasing cute fimo canes and again I wanted to purchase some. After a little trip to eBay, I found a bulk set of them. One week later, they arrived from China. I was so excited to see which ones I received. And to actually see a fimo cane in person. They are so cute!

Some of these are just down right adorable. Others I will forever stare at trying to figure out what they are supposed to be. But I cannot wait to practice slicing then do a manicure with some of these.

If anyone is interested, I got them from this store on eBay.

Crashing Waves

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I gave my blog layout a bit of a revamping yesterday. Among the changes are a new banner (not sure if I like it yet or not), wider layout for bigger pictures, and a drop down menu for my tags. Please let me know what you think. :)

Do you ever attempt a nail design only to end up with a mess? Its a very sad and frustrating occurrence. But sometimes that mess has redeeming qualities. My manicure started off well last night. But it quickly went downhill. My thumb was a disaster and my index finger was just as bad. I was beginning to grow fond of the light blue I already had on, so I decided to keep it and add something extra.

Kind of abstract, but it reminds me of waves crashing against rocks. How the water remains deep blue while the upward spray is very light almost white. Maybe its just me.

I sponged on two different blues for this effect. Cosmetic Arts Sky High and Sinful Colors Midnight Blue. So, what do you think. Crashing waves, something else, or just completely abstract?

Cosmetic Arts retails for $2 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.

Polish Poptart

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! Today I have a cute layering experiment to show you. After looking at them for awhile, it occurred to me that this manicure reminds me of a poptart. Hence the title of this post. :)

I started off with two coats of Essence Sweet as Candy then one of Jordana Gemstones. Finally a coat of Sweet as Candy to make a jelly glitter sandwich. I love the look of sheer polishes over glitter! It gives depth. Its a very easy look to achieve.

Jordana Specialty Glitters retail for $3 at Jordana and Kmart. Essence Colour & Go retails for $1.99 at Ulta, H-E-B, and FredMeyer.

Essence Grey-t To Be Here

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! If you do not know already, I am obsessed with Essence polishes. I buy practically every single one that is sold in the US. And I stare longingly at the foreign ones, wishing they were easier to obtain. So its no surprise that I was thrilled when Essence launched a new Colour & Go line. Some are repromotes, some are new. The bottle shape and brush are different, plus the amount is larger. I have bought four so far. I posted about Sweet as Candy already. Now its this beauties turn.

Essence Grey-t To Be Here is a light gray creme with pink shimmer that shifts to rose gold at the right angle. Its gray with a little something extra. Sorry for the lack of very close shots. The application is great and opaque in two coats. It took a lot to push me into even trying gray polishes. So if you are not a fan, I urge you to at least give them a try. 

Essence Colour & Go retails for $1.99 at Ulta, H-E-B, and FredMeyer.

Jesse's Girl Confetti

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I have a sparkling polish to show you today.

Jesse's Girl Confetti is a purple and blue duochrome shimmer polish. Its rather sheer. This is four thin coats. And I mean thin. It does not feel thick at all even after four coats. The polish has a slight glitter like appearance, but is not glitter at all. How fun? The application is good. I definitely want to try this over darker colors. Dark blue, purple, or black. I think it would layer well.

Jesse's Girl retails for $4 at Rite-aid.

Brash Sergeant Khaki

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! I have a pretty green polish to show you today.

Brash Sergeant Khaki is a mossy green with silver flecks that almost appear gold at some angles. I do not own another polish like this one. Quite unique. The application was great and opaque in one coat. 

Brash retails for $3 at Payless.

Blue Milk Mushrooms

Its Stamping Sunday! I have not done this challenge in a long time. Which makes me sad. So I'm making an effort to start again. This week's theme is 'Poisonous and Toxic." It took me a long time to decide on a design. Spiders, snakes, and bats are all venomous not poisonous (if they are deadly at all). I finally found something poisonous that I had a stamp for. YAY!

Lactarius indigo, also known as the blue milk mushroom, ranges from light blue to dark blue. They can be poisonous. They are very pretty if you see pictures.

To create those lovely fungi on my accent nail, I started with two coats of Pure Ice Wild Thing. Then I sponged on Ulta The Jungle Look and Sinful Colors Black on Black. Finally I added my blue mushroom with BM-302 and Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. The rest of my nails are two coats of Pacific Blue.

BM stamping plates are part of a 25 piece set (the 2012 one) that retails for $22 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear retails for $2-3 at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Target, and Ulta.

ICING Pre-game

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Today I have a very fun glitter polish to show you. 

ICING Pre-game is multicolored shredded glitter in a clear base. Its absolutely gorgeous! And so much fun. The glitter shards spread out evenly and the majority of them laid perfectly flat against my nail. I only one little piece that needed to be pressed down and it was laying at the curve of my nail. Layering over black makes the colors really pop, as you can see.

If you love glitter, this polish is a must have. Once you see it, you will want it. I received it in a birthday gift from one of the lovely ladies in the Lacquered Me Birthday Club. I'll have a post about all of my gifts soon.

ICING polishes retail for $4.50 (they are almost always buy one get one half off) and are available in ICING stores.

Giraffe Print

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! Sorry again for my absence. Things have been crazy.

My little giraffe print nails. I wish they would have turned out better. They are part stamping and part freehand. I started off with two coats of Julep Alyson. Then I stamped on a giraffe print with China Glaze Mahogany Magic and BM-313. I had the ceiling fan and a stand fan going at the time, so the stamping did not transfer well. Thus the freehand. I got several compliments on them today though. One woman did not know about stamping. I have never seen someone that excited to learn about nail art.

Mahogany Magic is part of the China Glaze Capitol Colours Collection and retails for $3-6 at various stores and websites. Julep retails for $14 on their website. BM stamping plates are part of a 25 piece set (the 2012 one) that retails for $22 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store.