Mattified Flakies

I hope you are having a great Thursday! I'm quite behind on getting posts up. Things have been hectic. I'm trying to prepare for a trip next week. I had planned to post about this particular manicure Tuesday, but time got away from me.

I love mattified flakies! I started with two coats of Milani Fresh Teal, a teal blue neon. Then I added one coat of Finger Paints Asylum, a clear base with glitter flakes that shift red, blue, orange, yellow, green and purple. A final coat of Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love gave the flakies a fun finish.

Milani retails for $3-5 at various stores (a list can be found on their website) and sites. 

Asylum is part of the Finger Paints Special Effects Collection. The collection has been discontinued and while bottles can be found online, the prices are generally marked up quite high sadly. Hard Candy retails for $4 at Walmart.

Matte Tinted Glitter Gradient

I hope you're enjoying your Monday! Today I have another manicure for Monkey See Monkey Do Monday. Basically you take inspiration from or recreate a mani done by someone else. 

I was inspired by this mani done by Ommorphia Beauty Bar. I used completely different polishes, but achieved a very similar effect. I used one coat of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark as my base. Next I sponged OPI Rainbow Connection on about two-thirds of my nails starting at the cuticle. To give the tint, I did one coat of OPI Houston We Have a Purple, a sheer jelly. Finally to give make my design a matte finish, I used Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love. 

I posted pictures of both matte and shiny. I love the way adding the matte top coat makes the glitter pop.

OPI retails for $8.50 at Ulta and Target, also various places online. 

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

Hard Candy Limited Edition Mini Blue

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I have a pretty shimmering polish to show you today.

During the holiday season last year, Hard Candy came out with limited edition mini polishes. These cute little bottles look just like the regular size only smaller, complete with a matching ring. None of them came with names, so I've just named them simply after their color. This was their Blue shade. A sheer shimmering blue. In person, I had no visible nail line. This is three coats. The application with these is very nice, especially for a mini.

Santa Christmas Nails

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Christmas! My day as been entertaining. But what day with family isn't entertaining? :) For the holiday, I did a Christmas themed design. I could not decide on just one, so I did three. Each hand looks the same.

Each nail has a different design or polish. On my pinky, I used one coat of Essence Once Upon a Time from their Fairytale Collection. For my index finger, I did part of Santa's suit. A base coat of Wet n Wild Red Red then white stripes with acrylic paint (it goes on more opaque in one stroke) and a black belt in Sinful Colors Black on Black. For the buckle, I used Funky Fingers Golden Coast. On my middle finger, I used two coats of Sinful Colors San Francisco then one coat of the green Hard Candy mini from their Limited Edition Holiday 2011 Collection. For my index finger, I did a Santa hat. I followed a tutorial from CutePolish. I used white acrylic paint and Wet n Wild Red Red. Finally for my thumb, I did a little Santa. I saw this cutie on KK Nails and followed the tutorial from Mini Nail Blog. For Santa, I used Wet n Wild Red Red, Sinful Colors Black on Black, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and white acrylic paint.

I have used all of these polishes before except for the Hard Candy mini and Wet n Wild Red Red. The HC mini was a little thick, but manageable. Red Red was a dream. Such a pretty red. I cannot wait to use this beauty for a full mani.

Pure Ice Spit Fire

I am far behind on keeping up on my nail posts. I painted my nails on Thursday night and meant to post this Friday after work. That did not happen. But better late than never.

I was crunched for time and did not want to go with naked nails, so I opted for partially naked glitter covered nails. A pretty glitter by Pure Ice called Spit Fire. It has rose gold glitter along with some iridescent as well.

This is one coat over my bare nails. It has a lot of glitter for one coat. You cannot tell from the pictures that the glitter on my nails is iridescent, but you get a glimpse of it in the picture below of the bottle.

Since I was going to work with this glitter on, I wanted to take some of sparkle away. So I added Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love. I love the effect that matte polish has on glitter. Its so interesting. And instantly changes the look of your polish.

I promise Spit Fire is just gorgeous in person. I swatched it yesterday on my new nail wheels. Two coats and you could see the rose tint. It is so pretty. And absolutely worth owning.

Dahlia Cantaloupe

Before seeing Dahlia Nail Lacquer on Ebay, I had never heard of the brand. Although after a little digging, I discovered it is a cosmetics company that was established in 1924. To be around that long, they must be doing something right, right? So I gave in and bought two Dahlia polishes. Cantaloupe is the first one of the two I've tried.

I used Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love on top. Cantaloupe by itself is shiny and the exact color of the inside of the fruit its named for. Its got a little more peach to it than the picture shows, but if you've seen a cantaloupe, you know the color.

I don't think you can tell from the picture, but it painted on streaky. Even after four coats. Perhaps thinning it would help. I will thin it before using it again. But don't let my streaky experience deter anyone from purchasing a Dahlia polish. I've had bad experiences with wonderful polish brands. I blame it on a bad batch or a chemical reaction to my body chemistry. Who knows why it happens...

I plan to try my other Dahlia polish soon. I'll let y'all know how it paints on. Hopefully better than this one.

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia & Matte-ly in Love

Boredom struck so I decided to spice up my nails with a matte top coat. I bought Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love a week or so ago and have yet to use it until tonight. It instantly made my polish matte and gave the glitter an interesting effect.

Previous post before the matte top coat can be found here :)