Happy Fourth of July!

I just realized I've had my blog for a year now! I guess it would be more of an accomplishment if I posted more often! Anyways, here's a quick post on my 4th of July mani.

I attempted my very first gradient with red, white and blue. Then I added Red, Blue, Silver and Pink glitter on top.

For my first gradient I'm really happy about how it turned out. My right hand didn't get so lucky, but that's ok! For those of you wondering, I used a makeup sponge with the three colors to dab it onto my nails. If you really want an in depth tutorial I can create one, or lead you to the one that taught me! 

The colors used:
China Glaze First Mate

China Glaze Phat Santa

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

LA Girl Glitter Celebrate

Happy Fourth of July! Stay safe.

Illamasqua - Raindrops

I think it's about time I got into my blog again. I'm sorry that I disappeared for a while. After all of those Hunger Games posts I was so drained. Those took a lot more work than I thought they would, but I don't regret any of it. And I hope everyone enjoyed them. After that I got into a weird depressed funk. I wasn't sleeping, almost everything made me want to cry, I stopped talking to people as much as possible. It was weird, and nothing made me feel better. I don't know what it was but something turned around and things got better. Every once in a while I get back into those funks. I'm falling into one now, I can feel it, but I'm fighting it as much as I can. Except this time the reason is unemployment and my lack of money. I've been applying to several teaching jobs as well as several retail jobs with no luck. I am currently offering private woodwind lessons, but that's a hard thing to have take off and get a lot of students. But I'm still trying (and probably annoying plenty of you with my flyer posts on facebook, haha)! Anyways, on to the polish.

I figured my return to my blog should be grand, and what better way than to show you my number one nail polish lemming that was on my wishlist for a very long time? I finally got this after talking with a lovely lady on MUA for several weeks about lining up a swap. And we finally did! So here she is, Illamasqua Raindrops:

Raindrops is a very greyed out blue. In fact it was much more grey than I expected, but I still love it. It has tiny silver flakies in it (and you all know flakies are my absolute favorite). This was 2 coats. The formula was great, but it dried really fast, so if I needed to go over any spots it started to drag. Next time I'll just paint more carefully. I absolutely adore this polish, and it feels so good to cross it off of my wishlist. 

I plan to start posting twice a week to start off, sometimes more. So stay tuned!

Hits - Twist

First off, a very Happy Birthday to my mom! I hope you have a great day, I love you! (:

So a while back I showed you guys some Hits nail polish from Brazil (remember, the awesome duochromes?). Today I have one of their flakies for you. I bought 3 flakies, and for some reason only have 1 swatched, so that's what I have for you today.

Twist is a blue jelly base with blue/green flakies. This was two coats.

Formula was a bit thick, but easy to work with. It seemed really sheer at first but built up nicely. Hits can be bought from Llarowe and are $8 each.

CM

Zoya - Charla

Today I have Zoya Charla which is a "tropical blue sparkling metallic" as described by Zoya. I got this in one of their many promos where Charla and Ivanka were free with any order (I believe that's what it was). But seriously, if you haven't already Liked Zoya on Facebook you really should! They're so good to their fans and offer so many promotions it's ridiculous (in a good way)!

Seriously, this color is so beautiful. It's a blue-turquoise-green that reminds me of the water or a mermaid's tail or something along those lines. (Which I'm loving all of the mermaid related nail polishes coming out lately, by the way). The pictures below are all 3 coats.

Sunlight.

Sunlight.

Sunlight.

Shade.

Shade.

See? Gorgeous! But be warned...this polish has major staining issues. You'll get really bad smurf fingers if you aren't careful taking it off. And I would suggest doubling up on your base coat for this one. She may be a pain, but she's worth it! Zoya can be bought from their website here for $8, or you can order a color spoon if you're not sure if you'll like this color on you for 50 cents. 

CM

Klean Color - Bluebell

While browsing around eBay one day I came across a brand called Klean Color. And, of course, the most popular colors that were being sold were these chunky holographic colors. You say holographic and I'm on board! On eBay, they were going for $5-$10, which seemed a little high for a brand I had never even heard of. So, after some research, I found this site here that sold them for $1.75 each. DONE! So I bought six (I think...) and today I have the one that called out to me first: Chunky Holo Bluebell.

All of these photos are -
Pointer: 2 coats Bluebell
Middle/Pinky: 2 coats Bluebell over CG First Mate
Middle: 2 coats Bluebell over SH Black Out

As you can see, Bluebell is a sheer polish and best used for layering. Is it holographic? In my eyes, no. I see it as more of a duo/multi chrome chunky glitter. Do I love it? Yes! I love all of the colors that it brings to the nails, especially when layered. 

Caution...these polishes SMELL. And I mean really, really bad! So if you have a weak nose I would suggest doing your nails in a very open and aired out space. I'll have more posts later with the other colors that I bought, and perhaps even a comparison coming up! 

CM

Sally Hansen - Sturdy Sapphire

Today I have a new (ish) polish from Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails line, a blue called Sturdy Sapphire. Judging by the color in the bottle I was not expecting it to be as sheer as it was. It just looks so saturated in the bottle But I'll let the pictures do the speaking.

The shimmer that runs through it is really pretty. But so sheer! That's 3 thick coats for the pictures above and you can still see right through to the whole nail! And it's not the color blue that I was thinking for a sapphire, but maybe I'm mistaken.

So, anyways, I figured I would try layering it over 2 colors: Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Black Out and China Glaze's First Mate from the Anchors Away collection. 

Pointer and Ring finger: 2 coats of SS over Black Out
Middle and pinky finger: 2 coats of SS over First Mate.

Pointer and Ring finger: 2 coats of SS over Black Out
Middle and pinky finger: 2 coats of SS over First Mate.

Pointer and Ring finger: 2 coats of SS over Black Out
Middle and pinky finger: 2 coats of SS over First Mate.

Pointer and Ring finger: 2 coats of SS over Black Out
Middle and pinky finger: 2 coats of SS over First Mate.

That's close to a sapphire blue, but I still think it's more of a cobalt blue. Layering it definitely helps the color become more opaque though, so I can't complain too much. As is with most sheer polishes, the formula was thin and runny. This can be bought at any drug stores such as CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, etc.

CM

Zoya - Caitlin (and layering fun)

Zoya Caitlin. What is there to say about her? She's pure perfection. She's a beautiful shade of blue (with some hints of grey), with the perfect amount of dustiness thrown in. So in other words, a dusty blue-grey (that was easy). The formula was perfect...she applied like butter. Zoya is really dependable with their formulas...I've only gotten 1 or 2 polishes out of several from them that I did not like. Let's see her! (And sorry for the bad application, it was a speedy manicure and I have yet to find my clean-up brush).

Caitlin - artificial light.

Caitlin - artificial light.

As is the case with most blues and purples, they switch up. Caitlin is much more blue in real life, and less purple. 

There's a better shot of the blue. This is under direct artificial light and with flash.

Now, there are a few big polishes on my lemming list. One of those is Raindrops by Illamasqua. I had recently gotten one of the new Sally Hansen Diamond Strength polishes. Glass Slipper is a silver flakie suspended in a clear base, and I figured that this would help create a dupe. Unfortunately, Caitlin isn't the right base, and Glass Slipper's flakes are a little bit too big (maybe Diamond will work better). But, nonetheless it was still a pretty combination and I really liked it.

Natural light.

Natural light.

Direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

The flakies in Glass Slipper are bigger, and pretty dense. This is one coat in these photos. The formula was thick, but that's ok seeing how it was really meant for layering. Still a really pretty combination. Hope you enjoyed it!

CM

Franken #1

Hello all! So as a lot of you may have seen on Facebook, I decided to make some franken polishes! All this means is I mix together different polishes to come up with something unique (at least to me). I have a total of 4, so I figured each one deserved a post.

My first one is my favorite. The name? Raspberry Ritz. It's so pretty! It's a berry colored purple with a lot of fine glitter/shimmer in it. There's a little bit of holographic, red, silver and blue. The blue is also a duochrome flash. Really, it's a beautiful polish. But I'm horrible at explaining things, so let's just look: WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY!

Bottle shot in sunlight.

Blurred on purpose to show the holographic glitter.

Shows a bit of the blue duochrome flash.

Good shot of the blue flash.

Direct sunlight.

Shade.

Never did I imagine that the very first franken that I ever made would be in love with it. I thought I would horribly fail. But Raspberry Ritz is my favorite of the 4. All of these photos were 2 coats. Hope you enjoyed it! Have you tried to franken your own polish?

CM

Barielle - Falling Star

Hello! I hope everyone is having a great start to your February. Today I have a polish from the brand Barielle. Now, I don't have very many polishes from them...in fact I only have 3. Thankfully, the formula was a breeze!

Falling Star is definitely a unique color in my massive stash of polish. It's a cornflower blue with orange/copper glitter. It really is a pretty color, but it dries very bumpy. In other words, you can feel the glitter like none other, it's pretty chunky. But it doesn't look like it would be. So I would suggest a few coats of top coat, or a really thick top coat (something like Seche Vite would probably do the trick).

In all of these photos you can really see the bumpy texture of the polish. 

All of these photos are with 1 coat of Revlon's Quick Dry Top Coat.

Overall a unique polish, and it's really pretty! These photos were 2 coats and they dried very quickly. You can buy Barielle at certain Ultas and also on their website for $8 each here. 

CM