Chinese Dragons

Happy May, everyone! This is a mani I did over spring break back in March. I really liked it and had a hard time convincing myself to take it off later even though I felt like it was time for a change.

I used Borghese Stellare Notte with Nfu Oh 38 layered on top. I really like the flaky look and I wanted to try and do something that would look like scales. Dragon scales! ♥

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Chinese Imperial dragons have five claws and carry a pearl, so I stuck on a little white "pearl" on my index fingers.

I really liked the way this looked different in different lights/angles. Stellare Notte is really quite beautiful! You can see in some of these pictures that it looks purple, while in others it looks green. I've heard it described as looking like a beetle, and that seems about right. It's a duochrome, but it's not as smooth a transition as the Nubars are. More grainy, but in a good way. It's very fun to play with and was a nice contrast to the warm-tone flakies.

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Color Club Wild at Heart

After I swatched Wild at Heart, I immediately wanted a backup. When I received the backup, though, I realized they were a bit different. I applied one to each hand, and was surprised to see that the holo in them was inconsistent. I apologize in advance for my camera's poor macro, but I thought you could get the idea from these pictures, so I thought I would share. All pictures were taken without topcoat, as I didn't want to alter the effect. Unfortunately I got a lot of tipwear because I didn't use topcoat. :(

This was my original bottle. The holo is present but not strong.

My backup bottle. Holo was much easier to detect here.

Scattered Holo Closeup:

Linear Holo Closeup:

Scattered Holo:

Linear Holo:

Scattered Holo (partial sun):

Linear Holo (partial sun):

Both are more holo than they appear. The newer Wild at Heart has much stronger linear holographic particles, the older one has weaker, scattered holo. I noticed the backs of the bottles were different, as well, so I assume they are simply from slightly different batches. Neither are holo like the China Glaze OMG holos, but they're still gorgeous. I much prefer darker colors, so Wild at Heart is a favorite for me regardless.

Until next time!

Sakura

This is a mani I did a few weeks ago in anticipation of the cherry blossoms that show up in spring all around my campus. :) I used Sinful Colors Dancing Nails and stamped plate s9 with Island Girl Pineapple Plantation. Pineapple Plantation is a really nice white for stamping with. I wouldn't want to paint my nails with it, since it looks really stark and chalky, but it's quite thick and is easily picked up by the stamper.

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You'll have to enlarge the pictures to see, but I also put a layer of Nfu.Oh 38 on top of Dancing Nails before stamping. The effect was pretty subtle. I didn't want to put too many layers and make the surface rough. I enjoyed wearing this, even if I wish the pink would have come out a little warmer and less metallic. I originally bought it to stamp with, but the formula wasn't thick enough... :( This plate is one of my favorites, though, so I liked having it on my nails anyway!

Essie Pop-Art Pink

I tried Essie for the first time. :)

I wanted to try a jelly, so I used Essie Pop-Art Pink, but it came off as more of a pastel cream. That might have been my fault, though, since I probably should have stopped at three coats instead of putting on a fourth. I applied it in kind of a rush, though, so it was streaky and I wanted to even it out. I think someone who was more careful than me could get this to a really pretty light pink semi-jelly.

I thought it needed a little something extra, so I put a coat of China Glaze Treasure Chest on top.

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Lacquermuse told me it looked like cupcakes at a five-year-old's birthday party! I think she's right! ♥

Celebrating Earth Day: Zoya Suvi

Happy Earth Day! Today I thought I would share a polish from Zoya, since they are known for being more eco-conscious. I chose Suvi, a lacquer I got from the Green Friday sale back in November. Suvi was thick and a bit goopy, but very pretty. The base is actually charcoal with an intense amount of green shimmer which turns it into a blackened emerald green color. I like how soft the Zoya brush is. With a little thinner I think it would be a dream to apply. This is three thick coats with no topcoat.

As you can see, I chopped my nails down to nothing. They feel very very short, I'm not sure I like them. They looked alright when I was filing (they were bare) but once I put some color on them they looked ultra-short! I hope they grow back soon!

Speaking of Zoya, they have brought back their famous Nail Polish Exchange for a limited time! From today until the 30th of June, you can trade in your old/unwanted colors for brand new Zoyas of your choice, and Zoya will properly dispose of the polishes sent to them. Unfortunately I think this is available only for those in the continental US. Find out more here.

Not only is it Earth Day, but it is also the birthday of my sweet "wild" abyssinian Gil. He turns 6 years old today! I thought I would show you a candid we took of him a few months ago. He has a special towel for when he eats catnip because he can be very messy with it!

Are you going to exchange some old polishes for some new Zoyas? What's on your list?

Until next time~!

Wet 'N' Wild Shield

Sorry if anyone clicked on the dead links that just appeared; we were editing tags and scheduling future posts and there was a error. :(

This post is real and clickable, though! ♥

I bought Wet 'N' Wild Shield at Rite Aid a few weeks ago and finally got around to trying it out. It's not quite as silver as it looks in these pictures. It's a little bit more bronze, but it has a nice metallic finish and shine to it.

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Application was very smooth with this and I really liked the orange flecks that were in the base. They didn't really shine or act like glitter or flakies... It was almost like I had drawn them on the polish after I was done painting it on. Very interesting!

Color Club Wild and Willing

I cut my nails short. Actually, I cut them even shorter a few manis after this. It will be even easier to tell my and Lacquermuse's posts apart! Now that I've warned everyone, let's move on to the pictures...

This is Color Club's Wild and Willing, stamped with Jordana Black with Konad plate m77.

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The polish really does get both of those colors! Ignore how gross my skin looks in the second one, but that's the sort of greenish orange the polish is most of the time. When the glitter this polish is just packed with is at the right angle to catch the light, it turns that brighter orange of the flash picture. It will even go a bright pink that you can just see hints of in the top picture. It's really quite a stunner.

The glitter that I mentioned makes up the bulk of the color in this polish. You can see it coating the side of the bottle in these pictures. I was really uncertain about this color at first because at one coat the glitter just made my nails look gritty and dirty. It really starts to come to life after the second coat! I think this is four coats, but three would have been sufficient.

Hard Candy Giveaway!

painted Lady fingers is hosting another giveaway, this time for 16 Hard Candy nail polishes!

Back in the '90s, my sister and I used to love playing with our Hard Candy nail polishes. They had some awesome iridescent and duochrome polishes and every time I look at pearl/shell colored duochromes I remember our beloved Hard Candy lacquers. You can check out more nail polish colors and makeup at their website.

This ends on May 3rd. Find out more here.

Claire's Mood Nail Polish: Calm/Wild

I apologize for the abruptness of this post. The charger for my computer is on its last legs, so I'm trying to use it sparingly. This is a slightly older mani, before I cropped my nails down. I wanted to post while this polish was still available. Claire's Mood nail polish! This is calm/wild, a purple-to-pink polish and the only one with glitter (silver) in the collection. I believe there are five? total, but this is the only one that really caught my eye.

When I was a little girl I had a pair of pants that had one purple leg and one pink leg. Those were my favorite colors, so you can imagine how much I loved those pants. Even though I wasn't sure the colors would be flattering on my skintone (it looked cooler toned and I am neutral/warm), I just had to get this one in honor of my favorite pants. The first trip to Claire's they had already sold out of this color, but when they restocked a couple weeks later I pounced on it. The colors on my pants were a bit deeper, but this is very reminiscent of them:

The pink does get brighter than this when exposed to heat (such as hot water, etc), but I am usually on the colder side, so it did not get really bright when I wore it.

I'm waiting for when they invent polish that changes to a myriad of colors. This will hold me over 'til then, though. ;)

How do you feel about color-changing polish like this? At least it's an easy way to get a colorful french if your nails are long enough!

Until next time!

Claire's Earthy/Happy

I'm here to share some pictures of Claire's Earthy/Happy! I didn't think the color changing effect would be so much fun to play with, but it really is. This polish was super distracting for me in class, as I would play around and see if I could get the green to change to that bright highlighter yellow...

Check it out!

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Sorry about the wear and the huge chip on my pointer. I put Zoya Armor on top of this and later wished I hadn't. It ate some of the brightness of this polish. It was still very bright and fun and went on without problems (I think this is three coats), but you can see by my cuticles where the top coat started to chip off and the yellow is just a little bit more blinding...

This reminded me of those shirts that were popular in the 90s that would change from a black and white design to something with color~! when exposed to sunlight. It's not really the same thing, but equally fun. All in all I was really pleased with the way this worked.

Painting the Roses...Red?

Here's another Borghese. This is Borghese Red, a bright tomato-red creme. Formula was great on this one, I did two coats here but one was completely opaque and sufficient. The pictures without flash made me look incredibly jaundiced, so I chose not to scare you with them. :P

I used Konad plate m65 for the roses. They remind me of ladybugs from farther away, though. Either way, it was a lot of fun!

Until next time!

Borghese Rubino Red + Nfu.Oh #59

I hope everyone's weekends went swimmingly. In advance, please excuse the large chips on my index finger. I used two coats of Borghese Rubino Red, a lovely pinky blue-toned red. Ruby red is a pretty good description of this creme, and it applied very well, perfect application with two coats, but if you were neater than I, you probably could have gotten away with one. The Borghese cremes I've tried are all extremely opaque and glossy. The colors are not particularly unique, but the formulas are superb. I change my polish every few days, though, so I can't comment much on wear.

I added two coats of Nfu.Oh #59 to Rubino Red, which made it a bit redder and very squishy/jelly-like in appearance. The flakies were really eye-catching, changing the tone of the polish from cool to warm.

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Natural lighting (more color accurate, but I look extremely pale)

Until next time!

Zoya Midori + Dutch Nail Blog Giveaway

Firstly, I love this color. Wow. A perfect spring green with yellow shimmer. A bright green that doesn't look terrifying on my skin! The yellowish flash in it matched the daffodils wonderfully, so I used that as a backdrop.

My one complaint with Midori, however, is the formula. I can't remember using a gooier, gloppier formula. The brush didn't spread well, and didn't dry quickly (I believe this is because of the thickness), so I ended up banging my nails before they had fully dried. I tried to even it out with another coat, but it didn't self-level, so it just looks a bit blobby, my apologies for that. I am convinced that with thinning this polish would be perfect, but this one really drove me crazy.

In other news, Kirsten at The Dutch Nail Blog is having a surprise giveaway! In honor of her new puppies, she's put together a neat giveaway. Ever wish you could pick your own prize? The winner of this giveaway gets to select the Catrice polishes she's got her eye on, I believe for a total of 9. Open internationally. This ends on the 3oth of April, find out more here.

Until next time!

Revisiting China Glaze Atlantis (Picture Heavy)

I finally got to try DV8, the first polish that really caught my eye in China Glaze's OMG collection. Amusingly enough, I acquired 5 other OMGs before this one, because blues and greens are not the easiest for me to wear with my skintone. DV8 is a beautiful aqua/teal color, and on me it tends to lean on the bluer side. As always, pictures are clickable.

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Finally, a little sunlight!

Sorry for the weird angle, but you can see more of the holo goodness here. Also taken in sunlight.

It wasn't bad, but was a tad too blue, so I added two coats of China Glaze Atlantis to it, and I LOVE it now. Because Atlantis is a jelly, you can still see a little of DV8's dimension through it. If I had layered it over a creme, I think it would have lost more of its depth.

Using my light box:

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Isn't it pretty?

I really love how these layered together. DV8's holo makes a fantastic base for Atlantis.

Until next time!

Quick R&J Post + Giveaway

I apologize for the lack of posts, this week has been a really busy one. I'm hoping to get the Orly Sweet collection by the end of the week, so that's something to look forward to, anyway.

This is an old one from the vault, if you will. As a lover of Shakespeare, I just had to try out OPI Romeo & Joliet (I believe this was from the Route 66 collection?). It's a rich burgundy brown frost. I think this was three coats. To maximize the tragicness of R&J, I added a black rose with Konad plate m 54. I don't think it's quite this red in person, but it's pretty close. R&J is a pretty color. It's not one I usually wear, but great for fall.

It's really late, but if any of you are interested, Crystaliciousss is having a fun giveaway for spring. It ends tomorrow, the 7th of April, so hurry and enter! Check out the prize:

Find more details here.

Until next time!