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!

Hunger Games Part III

I hope you have been enjoying my Hunger Games posts so far! Today I have the final 6 districts from China Glaze's collection.  Tomorrow's post will be an interesting one. I don't usually do nail art so it's been quite the learning experience. But that's for tomorrow! Let's finish these districts! 

District 7 (Lumber) - Mahogany Magic 

Mahogany Magic is a milk chocolate brown creme. I was so worried that this would look dreadful on my because it's a warm brown and I have cool skin. This was 2 coats and the formula was a little bit runny. It also dried a little bit darker than it looks in the bottle. Doesn't look too bad though, right? Finally, a brown nail polish that I can keep. Now I just need a gold...

Mahogany Magic was originally called Baker's Son and was inspired by Peeta (and hey, it's the same name as Fortune Cookie Soap's Peeta inspired soap). 

District 8 (Textiles) - Dress Me Up

Dress Me Up is a dusty rose pink creme. This one is a little bit too matchy-matchy with my skin tone so I'm not a total fan, but it's still a pretty polish. This was 2 coats and had a nice formula. It was almost a 1 coater! Sorry for the smudge on my middle finger! Dress Me Up also dries a little bit darker than the bottle.

Dress Me Up was originally called Primrose and was, obviously, inspired by Prim. I thought this was the perfect color for her. 

District 9 (Grain) - Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon is a metallic copper with shimmer in it. Another color that I was afraid would clash with my skin tone, but it's not too bad. And, of course, I love the name because Harvest Moon is probably my absolute favorite game. This was 2 coats and the formula was lovely. Very quick drying!

Harvest Moon was originally called Cinna-mon and was inspired by Cinna's gold eyeliner. A little too copper, but still pretty. 

Click the Read More button to see the rest!

Hunger Games Part I

It's Hunger Games Week! Leading up to the premiere on Thursday night at midnight (which, of course, I'm going to and hopefully you are too!) I will have a post on everything Hunger Games related for the next 4 days! Here's a breakdown on what to expect:
Today: China Glaze Hunger Games Nail Polish (Districts 1-6)
Tuesday: Fortune Cookie Soap Hunger Games Tribute Collection (soap and lotion)
Wednesday: China Glaze Hunger Games Nail Polish (Districts 7-12)
Thursday: Hunger Games manicure ideas (and my manicure for the premiere!)

As a bonus, I'm including the original names and inspirations for the polishes from China Glaze (which for most of these I liked the original names much better). These were leaked before the deal was made official with Lionsgate (I believe), and therefore they had to be scrapped. They were able to keep the colors though. So, let's get started!

District 1 (Luxury) - Luxe and Lush 

Luxe and Lush is a chunkier flakie than what we've been seeing lately from Essie and Finger Paints. The flakies are orange, blue, and green suspended in a clear jelly base. This thing was a goopy mess. I had to pat the flakies on rather than paint them on like normal nail polish, but I think if it was a thinner formula it wouldn't have worked. These pictures are: L&L on pointer (1 coat), 1 coat of L&L over Foie Gras on middle, 1 coat of L&L over Smoke and Ashes on ring and 1 coat of L&L over Riveting on pinky.

Luxe and Lush was originally called Flaming Gems and it was inspired by Katniss' interview dress.

 District 2 (Masonry) - Stone Cold

Stone Cold was quite a surprise! There was no mention of a matte polish in the information released from China Glaze. I'm not usually a matte fan, but I definitely love this one! And, of course, you have to see what a matte polish looks like with a shiny top coat (so I added some glossy photos). Stone cold is essentially a black base with silver micro-glitter. The formula was amazing, and I love that matte polishes dry so quickly! This was one coat for the photos above (1 coat!!!). 

Stone Cold was originally called Joined at the Seam, which was inspired by the Seam (obviously).

Hit the Read More button to see the rest! 

China Glaze - Atlantis

Atlantis has been on my wishlist for over a year. Whenever I would make an online order it was the first one to be sacrificed for something "better." So a few weeks ago when I was ordering some new polish to replace the bad batch that I had gotten I decided to add it in. I'm so glad that I did! Atlantis is amazing!

Atlantis is a teal/green jelly jam packed with multi-colored holographic glitter. I used two coats and for the most part it was opaque. But going out today in the sun I noticed a little bit of visible nail line. And, unfortunately, I already have a huge chip on my middle finger on Day 2. Boo! It sure is pretty though!

Blurred to show the holographic goodness! 

Sunlight.

Beautiful! I couldn't stop staring at my nails last night!

CM

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Don't get too crazy tonight! And be safe in this rainy weather. I celebrated last night with a shot of Nyquil and going to bed before midnight. So crazy. Anyways, just a quick post on my St. Patty's Day mani. I did 2 coats of Zoya Shawn with ring and thumb accents of Sinful Colors Green Ocean. I'm still sick so there was no motivation to do this mani, but I still like it. But while taking pictures I smudged my ring finger...which you'll see. Oh well, this'll probably come off tomorrow!

Really dark photo, but it showed Green Ocean the best.

Shawn is a grassy green creme polish, the formula was great. Green Ocean is a mixture of blue/green flakies in a slightly tinted green jelly base. It was a gloopy mess and is taking forever to dry, even with my quick dry top coat. That's why it's smudged in the photos. But I still love it...it's my love for anything flakie. Anyways, enjoy and be safe!

CM

China Glaze - Hyper Haute

Today I have Hyper Haute from China Glaze's Tronica collection last year. I was stupid and hated Tron at that time (but have since changed my ways) so I didn't want to get very many colors. In fact, I got 2 and that's it. And now I deeply regret it because they're so pretty! Ugh, sucks. Oh well.

Hyper Haute is bright pink holographic polish with a great formula! It only took 2 coats and there were no bald patches which you can sometimes get from holographic polishes. It was chip-tastic though. I got crazy tip wear within the first day, and within 2 days I had a few chips. Nothing that I couldn't live with, but my base coat and top coat combo have spoiled me with barely any chips and manicures that last a long time! Anyways, here it is...this baby was hard to photograph.

If you click on this picture, the holo is more evident on my thumb.

Shade.

This polish was much more holo in real life. Nothing like previous holographic nail polishes, but enough that I really loved it and was pleasantly surprised. Either way, it's a pretty pink! Have you tried any holographic polishes?

CM

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

Icing - Tiger's Blood

I'll admit it. When I was younger I loved Claire's and Icing. It was always one of my favorite stores. And Bath & Body Works when they had that young kid section with their little club. Anyways, I never really payed attention to their cosmetics, and once I got into nail polish I didn't even realize that they had any. But now I know that they do! And they make some pretty awesome polishes (and dupes of higher end brands) and I'll definitely be there again. This is my first Icing polish, Tiger's Blood. They released a small collection based on things that Charlie Sheen said during his crazy ordeal. But that's ok, it made for some great polish!

These photos are:

2 coats Tiger's Blood on Pointer/Middle finger.

2 coats of Tiger's Blood over 1 coat of WnW Blazed on Ring and Pinky finger.

Sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Shade.

What an awesome coral-y jelly packed with glitter! I didn't expect to love it this much. This is also supposed to be a dupe of Cult Nails Captivated, but I cannot say for sure because I don't have that one. Icing still has this in their stores, I saw it there the last time I went in. 

CM

Nail Polish Rack

I'm pretty sure my dad was tired of hearing me complain about not having enough room for nail polish. And I'm sure he was tired of seeing polish all over the house. And I'm sure he was tired of me complaining about how expensive nail polish racks are...which really it's just the shipping that gets you. It's almost double the cost of the rack. Crazy.

So, anyways, we decided that we'll build our own. And we started with one, just to see how it would turn out. And it turned out great! We got a couple of pieces of wood from the molding section at Home Depot, and a piece big enough for the backing, and measured it out. This is 30" tall, 24" across and has 6 shelves. It holds about 18 polishes per shelf. We also stained it this darker color, so it would match the rest of the furniture in my room. It was that pale bleach wood color. Blech, I HATE that color wood. I love darker colors like cherry wood. Anyways, here it is.

First two shelves are OPI.

Next two shelves are remaining OPI and China Glaze.

Finale 2 shelves are remaining China Glaze, Hits, Nubar, Ozotic, Rimmel London, a England, NFU Oh, Cult Nails and Deborah Lippmann.

Here it is, hanging on my wall.

And, of course, while wearing my gloves and staining the rack my nails cut through them and I didn't notice...until I was done. It was pretty funny, and luckily the stain mostly came out in my shower. 

I can't wait to make more! Because I certainly need more. My sad little foamboard rack is lame compared to this. Really sad. Oh well! On the bright side, I have 1/3 of my bin for polish empty because they're on racks. Yay!

CM