Subdued Elegance

I managed a couple really great swaps recently and decided on a "palate cleanser" mani using three of them. I like alot of color, holo and glitter, but occasionally I need a break and head to beautiful creams. Illamasqua Purity is a not-pink pale peach (ever so slightly yellowish) that is like nothing I own (yeah, imagine! lol) I read the reviews talking about streaking  but was pleasantly surprised- two coats covered pretty well, and even a bit of dabbing to repair a pull didn't leave any marks- I love the color on my skin and the quality just dripped off the brush. Well done, Illamasqua! I dabbed a few Shimmer glitters around to encrust a couple nails and done! HKGirl topcoat.

the artsy shot

Girl's Night In!

My daughter's are having friends over and decided to make chocolate popcorn and "let" me do their nails- here are three fun manicures-

OPI Skull and Glossbones with a couple mixed matte polishes

Orly Decades of Dysfunction accented with Essence Julia

China Glaze First Mate and Kleancolor Pastel Blue accented with Utopia Stars and Stripes

Cheap Polish That's Not Cheap

I have weeded out all but a few of the "drugstore" polishes in my stash. I read recently however, some sterling reviews of the Sinful Shine polishes, so my last trip to Walgreens included picking up one color, Blue Suede Shoes, a dense blue-gray cream. I am very impressed with the quality- a bit thick, but I will usually go two coats, one thin then one thick for my manicures and this polish performed beautifully. I did one accent nail with LynBDesigns Angels Have the Phonebox, a Dr. Who polish of gray crelly with small black hexes, white matte squares and tiny blue micro glitters. Very office friendly yet contemporary. May need more Sinful Shines.... Shown with Poshe topcoat, although the Sinful was quite glossy alone.

My Very First Magazine Article!!

http://abeautifullittlebride.com/?slide=mani-monday-lifes-a-beach

Paula's Tri-Color!

I was recently accepted as a contributor to an online beauty magazine, and today's mani will be my first for that publication- I will link it here after it is shown online there first, OK? Instead, Paula graciously allowed me to pick both colors and design for her today- Bettina Resort collection polishes make a bright and cheerful manicure, with stripes of two polishes accented by a fan-brush design down the middle. It's mu first time trying this technique, and I picked up a few tips- first, don't overload the brush with paint, and also, use fast-dry topcoat before doing the accent to keep the third color from bleeding into the other two.

On a Rainy Day.....You HOLO!

Color Club Kismet, a pale peridot true linear holographic- two thin coats with Poshe over- so darn shiny and rainbow-y. Even my patch job on my ring finger shows, so good base preparation is important. Regular base coat is fine though- no need for aquabase.

Twinsie Tuesday! Newspaper Nails

First real attempt at this technique- I did NOT watch youtube videos first, hence the massive fail on a few nails- including newspaper stuck to the pinkie. Go. Watch the videos- do what they say. It works! I have three coats each Orly Gumdrops and CND Guava (which, btw is a dead on dupe- for Essie Tart Deco) Paula has the same colors reversed.

Time for a glitterbomb!

It's been weeks and weeks that I've been somewhat office friendly and I was itching for a glitterbomb, so when I opened Hits You're Such a Square I KNEW I had my new "hit"! YSAS is dozens of different color and size glitters, some matte and some shiny but every single one is SQUARE! It needs a bit of daubing and placing but not a big deal, the base is very workable. I layered it over BYS Matte Orange and covered with a thick coat of Gelous and then HK Girl topcoat. I always go a bit too fast with the Gelous, please forgive the bubbling.

Summery Holo Goodness!

Someone in a Facebook group was asking about strong red linear holos and I pulled out my Jade Vermelho and decided to pair it in a gradient with Uau and Mystic Gold. I used two coats of Mystic Gold then sponged on the others- the Uau really doesn't show- I think it's too close in color and too sheer to really make an impression over the gold. I'm still groovin' on a summer day with this one. First pics under Ott light, last one is full sun inside my car. HK Girl topcoat.

Inspired by a Fabric

I know it's not summery, but the shirt I had picked out to wear has a neat leopard/ikatish pattern in earthy colors, and I wanted office-friendly as well, so I matched the taupe to China Glaze Ingrid, a not-quite-mushroom because it is a little warmer than most, leaning brown with a tiny gold shimmer. It was introduced by ChG in the Vintage Vixen collection Fall 2010. Two coats covered pretty well, I could have used a third, then I added a couple decorated nails with ChG Midtown Magic (a top-10 for me) and ChG Brownstone, both from the 2011 Metro collection. Dazzle Dry topcoat.

This picture is a tad light, the colors are closer to the other pics.

Nerdlacquer Quantum Bluniverse

I did NOT expect to like this Nerd, regardless of it's impeccable credentials and the super-human effort it took to procure it. Two hours refreshing on ninjapolish.com landed me two Nerds. HOWEVER I am trying to broaden my horizons from the earth tones I dearly love and decided a blue Nerd would fit the bill. Now the surprise- I adore this polish. It applied smoothly and two thin coats made it opaque, but oh my what an opaque! A deep teal blue jelly with a golden-green shifting shimmer accented by assorted blue and gold glitters. No need for gelous, this was smooth with one coat of Poshe.

What do you do when you can't pick one color? Skittles!

After painting about 15 girls nails in my daughter's 4th grade class yesterday I was painted out, but my manicure had suffered greatly in the classroom. I wanted summery but not neon or pastels, so I chose Bettina's Resort collection. Bettina is a Puertorican brand available in Miami and a few other cities. I bought mine through a rather complicated series of emails and paypal transactions two years ago. The Resort collection is 6 bright tropical colors that have an ever so slight jelly feel to them.  These are 5 of the 6. The yellow and green needed three coats, the others were fine with two. They apply smoothly and needed no topcoat although I used HKGirl.