Icing Blackout

So when I posted the Dia de Los Muertos mani, my favorite nail was actually my ring finger. So simple, yet it made such a statement. I got this little beauty in a swap earlier this year and I hadn't tried it yet. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!?!? It's sooo pretty!!

Icing Blackout is a black jelly with tiny holo glitter. I wanted it completetely opaque, but read that you needed at least 3 coats to achieve that, so I just applied WnW Black Creme underneath instead. As you can see, it's really tricky to apply...cleanup was a bia!! (And it's still under my nails, ugh!!)

Black nails are just so chic to me, and this is a great way to spice it up...and perfect for Halloween!!

Purple Rain

Happy Hump Day everyone! I'm home sick and just woke up from a 12 hour nap...I'm trying to sleep this cold off...so far so good :) I've been meaning to post this since Monday, but with this cold I haven't had the energy to do much. Remember a while back when I posted my franken, Black Rainbow? Well, if you remember the recipe, I used up 3/4 of a bottle of DS Sapphire. I had an unused fourth of Sapphire and it just sat there for a while.  I was looking for my A-England Lady of the Lake one day and for the life of me, couldn't find it. I have literally looked EVERYWHERE for it...still NOTHING :( While I find it, I decided to make my own, so I used the 1/4 of Sapphire and mixed it with maybe about 1/3 of Zoya Pinta and I came up with Purple Rain (ha! Cheesy, I know)

The holo on this is alot more noticeable than the one in Black Rainbow, I wonder why? Maybe because there was no black added to this (as the WnW Black that I added to BR). I love everything about this color. The base is nice and rich and the application was great, just two coats and it was opaque.

I really need to pick up a few more bottles of Sapphire to see what else I can cook up. What colors do you think would look great with a little holo added??

From the Vault: Nubar Treasure

Happy Friday everyone! So a while back I bought the Nubar Prisms Collection. I think this was the first time I bought an entire set, who could pass up a set of holos? I told myself these would be as amazing as Reclaim. But, unfortunately...they're not. I've tried 3 so far and I like them....I'm just not wowed by them. Here is Treasure. It's a light purple holo.

It's similar to China Glaze Gamer Glam, except a lighter purple shade and holo-ier (is that a word??). Actually, it looks similar to GG indoors, when you go outdoor you can really tell the difference between the two. The purple is a lot more pigmented. So as I'm writing this, I keep telling myself that this color is alot prettier than I'm giving it credit for. Soooo...I take it back. I REALLY like Treasure. I will definitely have to reswatch this to give it a proper description.

What are your favorite holos?

All Hail the Queen!

Good morning everyone! How was yall's weekend?

Well, we're STILL with the remodel at home! RR1 is almost done. I'm hoping the sinks will be installed today and my bath fixtures so I can finally bathe at home (I've been going to my mom's house to shower). RR2 is completely demo'ed out, so the only thing working there is the toilet. I'm giving them until the 27th (Bella's birthday) to be done! Speaking of...I will have to find a new place to take NOTDs. These (and 99% of my pics) were taken on top of my sink up against a mirror, both of which are gone :(

Digging in the vault again I found Butter London All Hail the Queen. Ahh...this one was hard to find! I had been eyeing it for a while now, but with all the Royal Wedding madness, it was always sold out. Ulta FINALLY started carrying this, so I snatched it up as quickly as I saw it. It reminds me of China Glaze Cyberspace, only the holo is a bit warmer. (I'll have to do a side/side comp). I actually wore this on my toes and LOVED it, it went with everything!

I wanted to try Henley Regatta, but I'm afraid with my nails as short as they are now that the glitter is going to get everywhere. I will wait. Impatiently.

Happy Monday everyone!!!

This Should Have Been My Royal Mani...

Happy Monday everyone!! I decided to take a break this weekend and I did not open my computer at all. I spent time with my BFFs on Saturday, so Sunday I was nursing a really bad hangover; I spent all day yesterday on my couch. It was AWESOME!! Ok so I did not do a Royal Wedding mani, partly because Friday I was nursing Thursday's hangover. (UGH...this sounds sooo bad, lol) I saw A-England on MUA and well, who isn't a sucker for holos? Everyone, meet Tristam:

If I had done a royal mani, it would have been this with a stamped silver crown. Ahhh how beautiful did Kate look??

Tristam is a scattered blue holo. The holo in this isn't like any of the other holos I have, this one is much finer and it looks almost linear. This is 2 coats and it's completely opaque. 

Thanks for looking :)

Black Rainbow (My First Franken)

So I'm sure you've heard about the whole OPI My Private Jet drama and it's 4892665 versions. If you haven't, here is the Cliffnotes of it:
OPI originally released MPJ in 2007. From what I hear (because I don't have the original version), it was seriously awesome. (A black holo, what's not to love?) It looked like this:

Well, something happened and it was quickly discontinued and a bunch of other versions were released including this one (which is the one I have)

Obviously it's not the same color. This is NOT black and it's NOT holo. So, I was on MUA the other day and I saw someone (click here to see Moxie's Franken)  Franken (when you mix polishes to make an even awesome one) OPI DS Original and Black Onyx to make their own MPJ version. Now, I don't have Original...but I do have Sapphire, so I read this works just as well. Off I went....I even had the perfect name for it! Introducing....Black Rainbow (how unoriginal, I know)

With Flash

Super direct eye blinding flash



No flash...look at that bottle holo!

 


















Following her recipe, it took about 3/4 Sapphire to 1/4 Black Onyx and about 4 drops of WnW Black Creme (to make it more black). This is 3 thin coats layered over Black Creme (I will post pics of it alone when I wear it). I don't have the original MPJ, but now that I have this..I don't I even want to bother and look for it anymore. My wallet is grateful!

Thanks for looking :D



Goodbye March Greens....

March was definitely the month for greens. I went through quite a few of my green untrieds, but I HAD to end the month with one of the my most anticipated untrieds. Nubar Reclaim is my very first linear holo.

SV, why must you shrink so much?

I have a few other holos, but this one is unlike any of the others that I have. With scattered holos, the base pigmentation is not so strong. So it's really a lighter washed out base with scattered holo properties. This one is different because its green-green (ha!) and yet, just as holo-y. I took quite a few pics to show it's amazingness :)



Ahhh....the rainbow





Even without flash you can still see it





What a great way to say goodbye to March. I still can't get over how fast this month has gone by. After trying reclaim, I definitely need more linear holos. What are some of your favorites??

Nail Art Challenge (Days 19, 20, and 21)

Hey everyone! How are ya'll doing? It seems like forever since I posted anything so I have a few posts to put up. Bare with me :) I'm still two days behind....I will dedicate a full day to nail art one day to catch up. Ok so let me get started. Day 19 was a total bust. I started off with Essie Splash of Grenadine. I love the Kardashian sisters' nails, they always have the nicest nails. Khloe posted it here. Although on me it looks way lighter for some reason:

I used BM20 and SH Coral Rush. This is an excellent np to stamp with. Actually all of the Insta-Dris seem to be really good for stamping. Perfect one-coaters too. Here is my end result:

19 of 31



I will file this mani under the FAIL category. I really dislike this one. I think the coral color was too much for the base and it just looks off. Maybe if I had picked a lighter color they wouldn't have clashed so much. Oh well, you can't win them all (-_-)



Day 20:

With all the holo craze going on lately I decided to pull out an untried. This is Milani HD. I tried OPI DS Coronation and I loved it. This one is even better in my opinion. The holo is way more apparent and scattered. It's a bit sheer. I only did 2 coats, but I'm sure had I done another one, it would have been completely opaque. Here it is alone:

Most of my manis are done at night since I wait until Bella is asleep so I rarely have sun pics. This pic does not do it justice AT ALL! I did some Konad Zebra Stripes with their "special" polish.

20 of 31

I liked this one the best out of the three I'm posting. I think this would look majorly FIERCE with a LBD! :::insert sexy growl here::: The holo is also a little more apparent in this pic. I am so glad I invested in the black Konad polish. I have the worst luck trying to stamp with black and this makes it a whole lot easier to get crisp, clean lines.

Day 21:

You know how sometimes you have this idea in your head and you THINK it's gonna look super cute..then you actually do it and you HATE it?? This is totally one of those days. So I really like french manis. I think it's a cute way to do something subtle. I've been wanting to try the BM french tips. It seemed like a good idea :|



21 of 31

I have a bad habit of not putting my polishes up after I use them. I have this box I keep what I'm gonna use for the day in. This was there, so I thought....why not? I used CHG Hologram and stamped it with SH Coral Rush. (Can you tell I'm on a holo trip? LOL) It looks kinda Christmasy to me.

Ok...that was a looong post. Thanks for making it to the end.

China Glaze Virtual Violet

So after my less than great experience applying Gamer Glam, I made up my mind that I HAD to make the Tronica line work for me. I seriously doubt I will ever actually see the OMG in person, so this has to be the alternative and I am determined to like these. Virtual Violet is another purple, a bit darker and it looks more pigmented in the bottle.....annnddddd I actually like this one! :D



I found the formula to be a bit thick in GG, so I put a bit of thinner in this hoping it would fix this problem. I wasn't really sure if thinner would mess up the holo-ness, so I started off with about 5 drops...then increased the amount until I was happy with its consistency. To my surprise, the formula was not affected at all which made it way easier to work with. I think you can see the holo-ness alot more in VV than in Gamer Glam (another plus). I tried to be artsy by taking the pic against a mirror. I was feeling creative ;) There's still a bunch of Tronicas I need to try, so I will keep you updated. Thanks for reading :)

China Glaze Gamer Glam

Happy Monday everyone! I got a few nps from the Tronica collection. This was the first color that I've tried on from this line.

I was really excited about this line because I heard it was supposed to be similiar to the OMG collection (which I have yet to see anywhere), and thought this would be a nice alternative to it because I've yet to jump fully in to holos. But, after trying this first one on....I REALLY hope the rest of the line is a bit more holo-y and easier to work with. The application was a bit difficult because the formula was pretty thick and gloopy (is that even a word?). It did not go on even and I was afraid to put thinner in it so I managed as best as I could and hoped it wouldn't look too streaky. This was 2 coats of GG and one of SV. The end result is really nice and subtle and I really like the color of the purple base. Here you can see the suble holo.



How ugly do my cuticles look here!?!

I will try Virtual Violet next. I'm pretty excited about that one because the purple base looks really pretty. I will let you know how it turns out. Thanks for looking :)