Ulta Boogie Nights and XOXO

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Ulta just recently discontinued a few of their nail polishes and released some new ones. I picked up two. I am very happy with my choices.

Ulta Boogie Nights is a clear base filled with multi-size gold glitter, along with multi-size multicolor glitter. The colors include purple, orange, blue, pink, green, and a few silver. The application is perfection for a glitter this dense. It is opaque in three coats. It took two coats of Seche Vite to smooth it out, but the finished look is worth it. The layering is not thick.

XOXO is an orange toned pink jelly containing orange, purple, and pink flakes. The application is smooth and opaque in two coats. These two polishes are so much fun, especially together.

Have you seen the new Ulta colors? If so, are you planning to snatch up any?

Ulta My Two Cents

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! 

Ulta My Two Cents is a brown jelly base full of small copper glitter. The application is good, little uneven at the tips. However, until you take macro nail photos, its nearly impossible to notice. It takes two coats to be opaque. This polish simply screams Autumn. I've had my eye on it for months and finally caved during the last sale.

Ulta nail polish retails for $6 at Ulta, in store and online. They always have a sale, so you never have to pay full price. I got this shade (along with several others) during their recent $2 sale.

Kleancolor Holo Pink

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I'm a little behind on posting my voted on swatch. The new poll is up; please check it out.

Kleancolor Holo Pink is a pink jelly filled with holo micro glitter. The application requires some patience. The first time I tried this (a couple of weeks ago), I gave up because it was thick and would not layer evenly. I was more patient this time around and let the coats dry properly. The result was great. There is a bit of visible nail line after three coats, but nothing so noticeable that you would want more coats.

Kleancolor retails for $2-4 on various online sites.

Polish by Franken Femme

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

This beauty was made by Becca of Franken Femme. She makes amazing frankens, all featured on her blog. This particular lovely is a blue jelly base with matte lime green, matte turquoise, and matte lavender hex glitter. I was in love from the moment I unwrapped it. The application is perfection and opaque in three coats. The glitter spreads out evenly and the jelly base lets the layers of glitter show through adding depth.

Check out her blog Franken Femme for more awesome frankens.

Naild'It SSSNot What You Think

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! Today I have a lovely indie polish to share with you.

Naild'It SSSNot What You Think is a green tinted base filled with three different sizes of hex glitter in pastel green, yellow, orange, red, blue, and silver. I initially wore it alone; however, I just was not wowed by it. So a few days later, I searched through my green swatches for the closest to SSSNot What You Think's base. I found one that was nearly perfect.

The first three pictures feature two coats of SSSNot What You Think over one coat of Sinful Colors Mint Apple (after one day of hard wear). The next two pictures are three coats of the indie polish on its own. The last is a close up to showcase all of the lovely glitter.

Cookies and Creme

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Today I am revisiting a polish layering combination I did a little over a year ago. I was inspired by my favorite candy bar to do a Cookies & Creme mani. I simply layered black glitter over a milky white base, as seen in the post I did for it. This time I got a tad more creative.

I did alternating layers of Essie Marshmallow and Love & Beauty Black Knight for five layers total. Jelly, glitter, jelly, glitter, and jelly. I think it gives more depth and reminds me more of candy. 

Zoya Frida

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! I've started a new weekly post, with this being the second one. Every Wednesday I add new polishes to vote for, and on Friday I post the polish you all voted for.

Zoya Frida is a glossy teal jelly. It starts off very sheer and builds. This is five coats, with ICING After Party sandwiched between the fourth and fifth coats on my ring finger.

Zoya Aurora

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I took advantage of Zoya's promo and received my order on Thursday. The sale ends on 1/13 at midnight est. You get three free and just pay $10 for shipping and handling, using promo code ZOYA2013. 

Zoya Aurora is a medium purple jelly with dense holographic glitter flakes. I cannot express how gorgeous this polish is! The application is perfection in two coats. The glitter flakes are small and flat. They do not apply like glitter or remove like glitter equaling easy application and removal. Aurora is a must have!

Ulta Glitter Gradient

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I have a colorful gradient to share with you using Ulta polishes. 

Ulta Eye Popping Poppy is a red poppy jelly like creme. This is three coats to reach opacity. Pinata-Yada-Yada is a clear base filled with multicolored and multi-size hex glitter. Can you tell I love my multicolored glitters?

Blue Dusted Marshmallow

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! Today I have a little experimentation with pigment to show you. I finally bought Essie Marshmallow about a month ago and wanted to do something fun with it. Initially I thought about a glitter sandwich, but wanted something different. By now most of you have probably seen this tutorial floating around Pinterest where you place pigment at the cuticle, blow, and have gradient nails. Epic fail for my attempt. Perhaps a different pigment. But I loved the color combination, so I sprinkled the pigment on top then blew off the excess. To me, it's delicate and wintery. 

I started off with one coat of Essie Marshmallow. I added the second coat one nail at a time then sprinkled the blue pigment (after the gradient failed). The pigment is an ancient long discontinued shimmer powder from ICING by Claire's. It was part of their Attitudes line. I've literally had the powder for a decade. I have seen many pigments that look very close, a light slightly turquoise blue.

China Glaze It's a Trap-eze

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! I'm finally beginning to feel better. So, I decided to push through and post. If you're unsure what I'm talking about, see this post. 

Its a new year. I want to post more often and interact more often on Facebook and Twitter. I also decided that it would fun to have you all vote on what polish you would like to see me post about. So each week, I will choose a few from my stash and make a poll. The first one is already up on the top right of my blog.

China Glaze It's a Trap-eze is a milky white jelly filled with multicolored and multi-size hex glitter. I see white, fuchsia  green, blue, yellow, and orange glitter. The application is great and semi opaque in two coats. You could start over white for a more opaque finish. However, I prefer the jelly finish. It gives depth and has a lighter feel to it.

Essence Jacob's Protection

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! I meant to post this polish weeks ago. It has been sitting in my folder waiting to be seen.

Essence Jacob's Protection is a blackened blue jelly filled with blue and green glitter flakes, along with a sparse sprinkling of holo micro glitter. The application was not as good as I've come to expect from Essence, but not bad considering all the flakes. Definitely worth the beautiful outcome, and opaque in two coats.

Zoya Katherine and Wet n Wild The Gold and the Beautiful

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! I have what I discovered to be a popular manicure to share with you today. I wore this for two days and had an usually large amount of people compliment me on it. Some actually reaching to grab my hand to get a better look.

Zoya Katherine is a sheer eggplant jelly. It starts off very sheer and light colored. As you build it, it grows darker and more opaque with each coat. Four coats to reach opacity for me. In person, there is no visible nail line, completely opaque. This polish is a dream to work with. It does not look or feel thick, even after four coats. Given it is a sheer build-able jelly, the layering possibles are endless.

Wet n Wild The Gold and the Beautiful is a clear base filled with small (almost micro) gold glitter flakes. I absolutely love this polish as a glitter gradient! I am so happy I grabbed it to use. It is perfection. It easily gives solid tips, while also making it easy to fade the glitter out.

I originally planned to wear Katherine alone. I painted it on with a fast dry top coat as my last step. However, I did not give it ample time to dry. I ended up with a few exposed tips from push back, a couple of dents, and smudges. All toward the tip of my nails. I did not want to wear a mangled mani to work, but did not want to take Katherine off either. A glitter gradient was my solution. Before work, I quickly sponged The Gold and the Beautiful on. It saved my manicure and turned out so lovely that I am glad I messed up my polish.

Ulta Hide & Go Sequins

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday!

Ulta Hide & Go Sequins is a dark blue blue filled with light blue (almost silver) and vibrant green medium hex glitter along with small blue hex glitter. This polish is a close dupe for the very popular Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe. I do not own AU, but the only difference looks to be that it contains more medium hex glitter than the Ulta version.

The price also differs greatly. Deborah Lippmann retails for $18, while the Ulta is on sale right now for $1 with their 5 for $5 deal. Sadly, Hide & Go Sequins is not available year round. So grab it while you can.

Essence Edward's Love

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! I have a pretty polish to show you that I picked up last week.

Essence Edward's Love is a black jelly filled with small silver glitter flakes and a sparse shattering of holo glitter. I'm still debating whether its holo or iridescent. Its hard to tell. The application was not up to par with the rest of my polishes. I blame the insane amount of flakes. Though it was not bad. It took two coats to be opaque and cleaned up very well for a black polish with glitter.

The Essence Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2 Collection is limited edition. They finally hit the US recently. I purchased mine last Friday at Ulta. There is a variety of makeup, including four polishes. I purchased all four at $1.99 each.