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

Jelly Sandwich

Mmm, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich sounds good. But that's not the kind of jelly sandwich I'm talking about today! I wanted a palate cleanser for my nails after wearing Mermaid's Dream for nearly a week (which survived really well, even through deep cleaning parts of the house!). I recently bought Essie - Marshmallow, which is a sheer, white jelly. I heard about it on Makeupalley (MUA) and everyone there seems to have a love/hate relationship with it. But I thought I would try it for myself. Plus, jellies are one of my favorite finishes...so squishy and shiny! And what better color to serve as a break from others...white?

I put on 1 thick-ish coat, and wasn't satisfied. I wanted something a smidge flashier, but still simple and cleansing. So I added one coat of OPI - Rainbow Connection from the Muppets collection, and finished off with another thin coat of Marshmallow (and that's how you create a jelly sandwich). I LOVE this manicure, so much! I might even do it again! Marshmallow turned Rainbow Connection into a muted, pastel glitter. Here, take a look:

I love it. Maybe I'll do it again sometime soon, but I'll probably change it tomorrow or Wednesday. We'll see. Have you tried any jelly sandwiches?

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

Wet n Wild - Blazed

Hooray February 29th! Happy birthday to those of you born on this glorious and rare day! Here's just a quick post. While perusing Walgreens for the millionth time in the past week (due to their Sinful Colors sale - 99 cent polish, baby!) I decided to get this color. I've been drawn to pink-y colors lately, and cremes on top of that. So when I saw this coral/peach/pink polish I figured why not? It was only a dollar.

I was worried that it would be too warm for my skin tone, but I actually liked it. This is 2 coats, the formula was sheer at first, but opaque after the second coat. I don't like these brushes though, they're really long and thin. But I can deal with it for a pretty color! This color is a creme, but it is very close to being a jelly. Look how shiny and squishy it is without a topcoat! Reminds me of candy. Yum.

CM

Sally Hansen - Platinum

Lately I've had a thing for whites that don't look like white out. Like whites with shimmer, whites with duochrome, etc. So, naturally when I saw a new Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Platinum I got ridiculously excited to see this white that looked like a pearl in the bottle. Sadly, I was really disappointed by the color on the nail.

For the following pictures -
Pointer/Pinky: 3 coats of Platinum
Middle: 2 coats of Platinum over 2 coats of Sinful Colors (white...can't remember the name, sorry!)
Ring: 2 coats of Platinum over 1 coat of SH Black Out.

Sunlight.

Shade.

Shade.

Shade.

Definitely not what I was expecting. It's too sheer on it's own, does nothing really over white and although it comes out beautifully over black, it's not anything that I don't already own or can recreate with other colors. I went through my collection last night and I've started to put aside colors that I'm getting rid of and this is definitely one of them. So disappointing. 

Have you ever been so excited by a polish in the bottle and disappointed with it on the nail? It's happened to me more often lately, and it's starting to suck. A lot.

CM

Glitter Gal- Lizard Belly

I have heard nothing but amazing thing about this dark green holographic polish from Glitter Gal called Lizard Belly. Seriously, it seemed like every person who was in to nail polish had this. So, of course, I had to jump on the band wagon. And I'm so glad that I did! Glitter Gal is a another wonderful Australian brand. Maybe I should just move there, ha!

Lizard Belly is a very dark green, almost black. In fact, it's really hard to tell it's dark green unless you're in direct sunlight (and let's face it...you're wearing a holographic polish, of course you'll be in the sun 24/7!!!). And this baby is packed with holographic amazing-ness. Seriously, it is so pretty. But so hard to capture on film! But, I did my best with my camera, so here we go! Click on these pictures to make them bigger so you can really see the rainbows on each nail!

Seriously, every nail looked like that last bottle shot. So pretty, it was blinding! But in a good way! All of these photos were 2 coats and taken in the sun. I bought LB from Llarowe for $14 and she does ship almost everywhere! Just so you know this is a mini bottle, so you are paying a lot for a little bit of polish. I get impatient when I see something I like and don't look at all of the fine details so I was shocked to see how small it was. But totally worth it! Next time I'll probably layer it over a dark green (maybe NARS Zulu) to conserve the polish.

CM

Butter London - Disco Buscuit

I don't have very many Butter London nail polishes. In fact I only have 3, and that was a set that my mom got me for Christmas. And I haven't even used those yet! But when I saw a swatch of this I immediately fell in love. It was so gorgeous! And the name...disco biscuit? How can you not love it? Well...you'll see what I mean.

Disco Biscuit is a bright pink jelly with purple micro-glitter. In some of the photos my camera does some crazy thing with the micro-glitter, and it looks blue in some shots too. That's just how it is when photographing anything purple.

Sunlight.

Sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Shade.

Shade.

Bottle shot.

See? Isn't it amazing? The formula was pretty sheer, this was 3 thick coats and at times I could still see my nail line. I think next time I'll layer it over something, just to cut down on the coats. And, it doesn't look like it, but this baby EATS top coat like none other. I was not expecting that. Seriously, about a half an hour after these pictures were taken the top coat had soaked in to the micro-glitter and it was chunky and rough again. Kind of crazy! So I would suggest a thicker top coat, and a few layers.

And just for fun, I layered OPI's I Lily Love You over this to freshen it up after a few days.

They go together so perfectly. Butter London can be bought at Nordstrom, Ulta and from their website for $14. I bought mine off of Amazon and got free shipping (yay!).

CM