Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to me!  For my birthday manicure, I copied this manicure from Paulina's Passion.

I started with a three-coat base of Bourjois Bleu Model.  Across the lower third of my nail I painted two coats of Zoya Sweet, a bubble-gum pink.  The pink accent stripes were added using Orly Flirty and a dotting tool.  For the white frosting I used Wet n Wild Wild Shine French White Crème and the cherry was made with China Glaze Salsa.  To create the sprinkles I used OPI What's With the Cattitude?, China Glaze Sweet Hook, Ruby Wing Gypsy, and Essie Tart Deco.

Color Pop

Two colors from the Summer Wet n Wild Color Pop Collection.

On my nails I have three coats of Wet n Wild Wild Shine Who is Ultra Violet? and on my accent nail I have three coats of Wet n Wild Wild Shine Listening to Blue Reed.  I found the formula of both to be steaky, but it evened out after two coats and looked perfect by three.  Who is Ultra Violet was a little watery so it tended to pool in my cuticles whereas Listening to Blue Reed had great consistency.  

Wet n Wild Fergie Take the Stage

As I mentioned on Wednesday, I found two polishes while I was wandering through Walgreens last week.  The second polish I found was called Take the Stage, and this one I assumed was a dupe for OPI Divine Swine.  Take the Stage consists of magenta microglitter with large silver hexes suspended in a clear base.

Pictured here is three coats of Wet 'n Wild Fergie Take the Stage with two coats of Zoya Kieko as the base.  The magenta microglitter is amazingly sparkly and gorgeous.

It turns out I was right in thinking that Take the Stage was a dupe for OPI Divine Swine.  Divine Swine has a greater quantity of large silver hexes and maybe the magenta glitter in Divine Swine is a smidgen darker than Take the Stage but for all intents and purposes they're alike.

Shown on my ring and pointer is three coats of OPI Divine Swine over two coats of Zoya Kieko; the other fingers are Take the Stage.  Can you tell a difference?  I really can't.

If you missed out on Divine Swine from OPI's Holiday 2011 Muppets Collection now is your chance to pick up a duplicate.

Wet n Wild Fergie XoXo

As I was aimlessly wandering through my local Walgreens last week I came across the Wet 'n Wild Fergie 2013 Centerstage collection and there were two polishes that caught my eye.  The first was XoXo, a conglomeration of purple, magenta, and blue microglitter suspended in a clear base.  I didn't buy this polish the first day I saw it because I swore, swore! that it was a dupe for Butter London Lovely Jubbly.  I walked home and tried to find swatches of XoXo but that was a disaster.  Determined to fix this, I marched back to Walgreens and picked up the polish with the sole intent of providing the world with a good swatch and comparison of XoXo.

Shown here is three coats of Wet 'n Wild Fergie XoXo, with two coats of Zoya Caitlin as my base.  There is a lot of clear base in this polish and the glitter doesn't cover very well.  At three coats there are still a lot of little spaces where you can see Caitlin.

When I picked up this polish I thought it could be a dupe for Butter London Lovely Jubbly.  While at a glace it looks similar, it's not.  Lovely Jubbly is a mix of magenta microglitter with some blue, red, and gold microglitter sprinkled in.

Shown on my ring and pointer is three coats of Butter London Lovely Jubbly over two two coats of Zoya Caitlin; the other fingers are XoXo.  This is a very densely packed glitter that covers very well.  Opaque at two coats, it's a whole lot of micro glitter in every stroke of the brush.

In case there was any lingering doubt in your mind as to a dupe, here's a close up:

Not really close at all.  

Dotted Outlining

I've had the idea for a while now to do a single stamp on a nail and add dots all around it.  I know I've seen at least one other manicure using this type of design but I cannot find it (if you know who's design I'm talking about please let me know!).  This was meant to be just a simple stamping manicure with a little bit of a flair.

For my base I used one coat of Wet n Wild French White Crème then added a full coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow.  I do this for my more sheer polishes because then I can get away with just one coat of underwear and one coat of polish instead of many many layers of polish to get it opaque enough.  On top of Mellow Yellow I stamped a hibiscus flower from Bundle Monster plate BM-313 using one of the colors from my favorite collection of the year (China Glaze Summer Neons!): China Glaze Love's a Beach.  To outline the flower I used China Glaze Beach Cruise-r and a tiny dotting tool.

The only downside to this manicure was that I used two polishes for my base that don't hold up with time: within less than a day of wear I had several chips on the free edge of my nail.  Other than that it was a lovely bright manicure to wear!

Blue and White Wares

After doing my black and white nails I thought blue and white nails would also be pretty.  I used two coats of Wet n Wild Wild Shine French White Creme as my base then stamped Bundle Monster plate BM-306 on top using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue.

I thought this sort of looked like blue and white china.  I really like using the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes for stamping.  They consistently deliver a nice opaque amount of polish when placed on the stamper.  I need to get more of them!

I have a lot of . . .

I have a lot of pale green nail polish colors!  I was looking for a to color match my nail polish the back of a Dominion card but off the top of my head couldn't picture what nail polish colors went with the card.  I went through my stash and pulled out all the bottles that I thought would match...China Glaze For Audrey, Essie Turquoise & Caicos, Wet n Wild Megalast I Need a Refresh-Mint, Zoya Belvin, and Zoya Wednesday.  In the bottles they all looked quite similar.  Not having narrowed down my selection by all that much, I swatched each of the five colors onto a nail wheel.

1) China Glaze For Audrey  

2) Essie Turquoise & Caicos  

3) Wet n Wild Megalast I Need a Refresh-Mint  

4) Zoya Belvin  

5) Zoya Wednesday

Things were looking a bit better.  Turquoise & Caicos was more seafoam green, Belvin and Wednesday were darker, with Belvin being more of an olive color.  It was still a toss up between For Audrey and I Need a Refresh-Mint however.  So I swatched them next to each other!  

Pointer and Ring: Wet n Wild Megalast I Need a Refresh-Mint; Middle and Pinkie: China Glaze For Audrey

Boyfriend's verdict:  "They all look the same. Why did you get two of the same colors?" Oh boyfriend...  


My verdict: I think For Audrey is a little darker and more green, while I Need a Refresh-Mint is lighter and more blue.  The colors are definitely very close to each other.  Because the differences are so subtle I'm going to call the dupes of each other.  Feel free to debate!  

High Contrast Brights

I've been absolutely craving bright colors this season.  I've been craving bright colors so much so than on a recent trip to Walgreens for just cough drops I picked up Wet n Wild Lavender Crème.  I couldn't just leave this polish alone however, so I added two coats of Sticks 'n Stones from Cover Bands Lacquers.

I love the high contrast between the pink, white, and black.  I had trouble with the black square glitter staying attached to my nail (even with top coat) and ended up picking a couple off throughout the course of a day.  Using a cheaper polish (Wet n Wild) made me really appreciate the formula on more expensive polishes (example: Zoya) because by the end of one day of wearing this polish I had a lot of tip wear several large chunks of polish missing.

Taking a Walk on the Wild Side

Today I have a neat gradient plus stamping manicure to show you.  I've combined three of my favorite Zoya summer colors together and topped everything with sparkles and combination animal print stamp.  I've been admiring Zoya Wednesday since their promotional photos for the 2012 Beach and Surf Collection appeared on the internet.  Because I'm a sucker for punishment I held off on purchasing it; but finally it is mine!

For this manicure I painted my whole nail using Zoya Wednesday, a gorgeous green turquoise cream.  Then I sponged Zoya Mira over 2/3s of my nail.  Mira is what I think of when I think of the colors purple, not too dark but not too light.  On my tips I ended up using a stripe of Zoya Kieko, then sponged a little bit of it around to blend it (I couldn't get Kieko dark enough simply by sponging).  Because I'm in love with a little bit of sparkle, and I really think glitter ties everything together, I added a coat of Wet n Wild Wild Shine Kaleidoscope. Finally, I stamped M.A.S.H. plate m78 on top using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out.  The final effect?  A pretty wild manicure for me to wear.  What do you think?

Spring Flowers

My mom was in town visiting recently she volunteered her nails for me to play with.  She wanted bright colors and I thought of bright flowers would be perfect.

I used a base of OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?, then dots to create flowers of Essie Jamaica Me Crazy, OPI Are We There Yet?, and China Glaze Strawberry Fields.  I added a dot of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow to the center of each flower and little dots of China Glaze Cha Cha Cha to create petals.  My mom wanted more sparkles so I topped everything with two coats of Wet n Wild Wild Shine Kaleidoscope.

Week 8: Corset Manicure

Welcome to Week 8 of the 52 Week Challenge!  This week is corset manicure and I used the tutorial created by Nihrida to create my manicure.

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out as my base, a line of Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine Caribbean Frost, and then So Easy Stripe Rite in Black to make the laces.  I really like Caribbean Frost.  It's an absolutely gorgeous green and I really like wearing it.

Be sure to check out what others have done for this challenge by visiting their blogs:

LizMarie at I'm Simply Complex • Jenna at I'm Still Thinking... • Caitlin at Addicted 2 Nails • Sarah at PrncessSarah02 • Charlotte at Charlotte's Nails :) • Shally at Polished & Not Quite Put Together • Rachel-Karina at Polished Criminails • Liz at Nothing But Nail Polish • Fun With My Nail Polish • Operation: Nail It! • Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails • Square Polish • Only Always Soccermom  • Hurr Did, Nails Did • Olivia Writes • The Dragon Lady • Kaki at Glitter Obsession • Isa at IsaBella's World • Gypsy at Gypsy's Glitter • Jackie at MeMa's Mani's  • Lissa at Lissa's Nail Blog

Week 1: "Make It Sparkle" Manicure

New Years weekend I was in Minnesota vising my family.  Away from my large assortment of polish materials, I packed only the essentials: remover, base coat, top coat, and one polish.  That polish that I packed was Wet and Wild's ColorIcon Cost is No Issue from their Ice Baby Collection.  I wanted something loaded with glitter for New Years Eve and this color sat in my untrieds begging to come along.

I'm completely envious of those who can paint their nails with glitter and either do it neatly or do fabulous clean up.  I was moderately neat and clean up was terrible.

Cost is No Issue is a pretty teal glitter with a few dark blue (larger) glitters tossed in.  It's very bright and sparkly but absolutely ravenous for top coat.  I used four coats of Cost is No Issue to get adequate coverage and two coats of Seche Vite but the top glitter.

I'm completely behind one getting the ball rolling this year with posting my manicures.  I usually schedule my posts in advance because, well, life keeps me busy and I don't have time to paint my nails and write a post about it all in one.  I've been gone the last three weekends in a row but this weekend I'm home - perfect for getting caught up!

Be sure to check out what others have done for this challenge by visiting their blogs: 

LizMarie at I'm Simply Complex • Jenna at I'm Still Thinking... • Caitlin at Addicted 2 Nails • Sarah at PrncessSarah02 • Charlotte at Charlotte's Nails :) • Shally at Polished & Not Quite Put Together • Rachel-Karina at Polished Criminails • Liz at Nothing But Nail Polish • Fun With My Nail Polish • Operation: Nail It! • Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails • Square Polish • Only Always Soccermom  • Hurr Did, Nails Did • Olivia Writes • The Dragon Lady • Kaki at Glitter Obsession • Isa at IsaBella's World • Gypsy at Gypsy's Glitter

Day 20: WATER MARBLED

I scheduled this post because I'm off in Minnesota visiting my family for Christmas.  I didn't do much in the way of Christmas, or any other holiday, manicures this year but I thought it would be cute to do a red white a green water marble combination for Day 20 of the 31 Day Challenge.

I used two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Whirlwind White as a base for the marbling, then alternating drops of Zoya Sooki, Zoya Snow White, and Orly Lucky Duck for the swirls.  I used a white base because when I tried dipping naked nails Lucky Duck was very sheer and I had major VNL.  I topped everything with two coats of Wet'n'Wild Wild Shine Kaleidoscope, a color I received earlier this year as part of my Polish-aholics Anonymous Secret Santa (thank you Amanda!).  A final coat of Seche Vite holds everything in place and gives a nice shiny finish.

(If you'd like, you can now follow my blog with Bloglovin since Google has announced the end to Google Friend Connect.)

Day 5: BLUE nails

I wish I could wear this color for more than just a day.  It took me four tries to get to a point where I was satisfied with how this was looking.  I wanted to try Wet and Wild ColorIcon Believe Me It's Real but every time I applied it to my nails I didn't like how it turned out.  This nail polish is really think and it was difficult for me to control the application amount.  Thick as it is I could still see visible nail line and my stained nail bed peaking through - it didn't look pretty.

I finally took everything off and used two coats of Zoya Dove for the base.  With two coats of Believe Me It's Real on top I'd finally achieved a look I was happy with.

My left hand had a thinner coat of Believe Me It's Real:

And my right hand had a thicker coat:

Believe Me It's Real is such a nice glitter polish.  It has small diameter blue glitter suspended in a clear base with larger hexagonal purple glitter thrown in.

Macro shot:

I don't want blue day to end!

Day 2: ORANGE nails

It's Day Two of the challenge which calls for orange nails.  I was going to do a pumpkin on my accent nail but decided just to go for lots of orange glitter instead.

My apologies for the funky looking polish job on my middle fingernail.  The nail is ripped at the side but I don't have long enough nails where I could just file it down.  I was trying to save the nail by using tissue paper glued onto the nail bed in order to keep the nail from looking obviously ripped but it didn't work :(

Anyway, on to the colors!

For this design I used Zoya Jancyn on all my nails, then on my accent nail I layered Fantasy Makers Creepy Pumpkin.  Simple and sweet (unlike the weather which is absolutely horrible today in Milwaukee).

Dotting

Tonight I attempted my first ever non-simply nail polish job: dotting. I copied this design from The Daily Nail, called What's the Mod-der?, and while it doesn't look as perfect as I'd have liked I didn't have that large of a pallet to work with. 

I used Avon French White Tip as the base, Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme for the "flowers," Zoya Robyn, Zoya Mira, Avon Abstract Emerald, and Sinful Colors Cream Pink for the centers of the flowers, and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat for the top.