Christmas Nail Art

Hello, everyone! I'm still in a Christmas lull, so this will be a short post. This is the mani I did yesterday for Christmas - I couldn't decide which Christmas nail art to do, so I did a little of everything. I'm not going to list everything I used, because that would be a long and boring list, but I did use my Nubar nail art pens a lot. Merry belated Christmas, and happy Boxing Day if you celebrate it!

Candy Cane Nails

Hello there! I've had this mani on since Tuesday night, but I didn't get around to posting it until now because of doctor appointments and social stuff and such. I also had a really good haul Wednesday...maybe I'll post about that later (flakies!). Anyway, I'm posting this on my phone again, so there won't be any text after the photo. I decided to do a candy cane mani, and I used Wet 'n' Wild White Creme as a base and my red Nubar nail art pen (I used the striper end) for the stripes. For some reason, it chipped more quickly and severely than most of my manicures do...I tried a new base coat, so I'm hoping that wasn't what caused it. :/ Merry Christmas!

SinfulColors Holiday 2011 - Swatches & Review

Good morning! I took my last final this morning for my political science class, and now I'm done! My mom's not going to be here until this afternoon because of work, though, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to post the SinfulColors holiday collection that I swatched Saturday. The collection is made up of five repromoted colors and two stripers. Although none of the polishes are new, they're all new to me, so I was pretty excited to try them out, especially with all the good things I've heard about Daddy's Girl. I do have to apologize, though - my nails were really short to begin with, and then my pinky nail broke halfway through swatching, so the last half only have three fingers. Sorry!

 sunlight

shade

Sugar Sugar, described by the SinfulColors press release as "a candy cane, red-hot tint," is just that - I love the color, and the glowy quality reminds me of my favorite red shimmer, Dr.'s Remedy Revive Ruby Red. The only thing I didn't like was the formula, which in combination with the brush was very hard to control, and as you can see, I ended up getting some bubbles. With a little more care, though I don't think this would happen. I used two coats.

 sunlight

shade

I decided to show Flower Girl next because I used it on top of Sugar Sugar. It's a bronze-gold color that I haven't seen in a striper before, which is really nice - I always like to find something unique. It was also really opaque, which is essential in a striper because it's more of a pain (for me, at least) to go over stripes twice. It's worth noting that the brushes on these stripers are thicker than Kiss or Nubar, but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing; after all, it can be good to have some variety.

 sunlight

shade

Next, we have Midnight Blue, "a bold, bright twist on navy," or what I'd call a vivid, medium-blue shimmer. This polish kind of reminds me of Sally Hansen Blue It, but brighter and less metallic. I used two coats with this as well, but was more careful and only got a couple bubbles, though it was still a bit of a pain to apply. I like Midnight Blue, but I don't think it's a must-have.

 sunlight

shade

This is the second striper, Fashionista. It's a silver glitter, and to be honest, I was a bit disappointed with this one. The base was thicker than I like in stripers, and the glitter wasn't as dense as I had hoped it would be. However, if this is your thing, I would definitely recommend it - after all, it's cheap and easy to work with.

 sunlight

Sorry I don't have a shaded photo for this one - I didn't realize until I uploaded them that all the ones I took were a little blurry, so I decided not to include one. Anyway, Last Chance is a dark evergreen creme that seems to me like a non-jelly version of Nars Zulu. As I've never been a huge fan of Zulu (I don't tend to love vampy polishes), I'm perfectly happy with Last Chance. I used two coats.

 sunlight

shade

As you can see, Out of this World is a whitish silver, and I have to say, I'm not a fan of this one. It wasn't quite opaque with the three coats I used, and it's not really a color I would wear on its own. I think it might be good for layering, though...I'll have to try that sometime.

 sunlight

shade

Daddy's Girl, "a deep purple with a drizzle of shimmer and glitter," is by far my favorite of these. It's a gorgeous purple jelly with gold glitter, and I love it. It's not quite opaque with three coats, but it's more opaque than it looks in my first picture. I'm not sure why I didn't buy this one before...it's a vivid purple; what was I thinking?!

If you'd like to buy any of these for yourself, you can find them for $1.99 at mass retailers like Walgreens.

And with that, I need to go pack...I hope you're all having a great week, and don't forget to read my NO H8 post!

These products were provided to me by the manufacturer for honest review.

NO H8

Hello there! I'm almost done with finals, so I finally have time to update my blog. I'm actually writing this on my phone, as I'm currently watching Frost-Nixon with my wonderful friend Jesse Doggendorf. As it happens, it's Jesse's nails that I'll be showing you today - he's been wanting me to do his thumbnails in some sort of rainbow design for some time now, and I finally did. I used OPI Red My Fortune Cookie, Sally Hansen Sun Kissed, Ulta Sun-Sunsational, Sally Hansen Green with Envy, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, and China Glaze Grape Pop for the "rainbow," Wet 'n' Wild White Creme as the base, and my black Nubar nail art pen for the letters.

 

Aren't his nails adorable? I think they turned out really well! In fact, I may even have to do the same thing on my own nails some time. I'm even getting better at painting on really short nails, as opposed to painting all over the fingers like I did last time I did Jesse's nails (that time, it was Harry Potter). Anyway, that's all I have for today - have a great weekend!

China Glaze Colours From the Capitol

The official swatches for the Hunger Games-inspired collection from China Glaze - I can't wait for these!

Sinful Colors Holiday 2011: Wish (PR)

Bells are jingling, snow is glistening and merry tunes abound: It's the season of shimmer (aka: the holidays) and glamour, of course. And your nails deserve a little gift and loving too. Welcome the SinfulColors holiday 2011 collection, Wish, which delights and excites. The collection takes classic colors - like red, green, silver and blue - and kicks them up a notch to be fashion-forward and festive to ring in 2012.

The complete SinfulColors Wish collection for holiday 2011 includes:

Five gem-inspired shades of polish:

SUGAR SUGAR: a candy cane, red-hot tint

MIDNIGHT BLUE: a bold, bright twist on navy

LAST CHANCE: an emerald with depth and allure

DADDY'S GIRL: a deep purple with a drizzle of shimmer and glitter

OUT OF THIS WORLD: a perfect silver with swirls of glimmer

Two metallic shades of nail art:

FLOWER GIRL: a bronzy gold with tons of sparkle

FASHIONISTA: a glitter-laden pewter

SinfulColors surpasses the masses with more than 150 amazing shades of nail polish, including the above-mentioned shades. All hues are available for $1.99 at major drug and mass-market stores nationwide, by calling 1-800-448-0763 or online at www.walgreens.com.  

China Glaze Eye Candy Swatches & Review

Hello there! Sorry it took me so long to get these swatches up, and even now, they're not especially good because the sun hasn't come out for long enough for me to swatch a whole collection a while. Also, I've been working on end-of-semester papers and presentations and studying for finals, so that's been taking up a huge chunk of my time - actually, who am I kidding? Pretty much all I do these days is study. Anyway, here's Eye Candy, the China Glaze winter collection inspired by Marilyn Monroe. For consistency, I used three coats without top coat for all the polishes, and took all the pictures with flash.

Lorelei's Tiara is the first polish I swatched. It's got silver microglitter and round blue glitter in a clear base. I like this one more than I expected to, honestly - I swatched all the polishes matte, shiny, and over black on an index card, and I really liked this one matte as well. I'll have to do a full manicure with it soon, especially as it's so appropriate for winter! (It flurried today, and I got very excited!)

Love Marilyn is similar in composition to Lorelei's Tiara, though different in color - it has red microglitter and round silver glitter. I don't like this one quite as much as Lorelei's Tiara, perhaps because my high school's colors were red and silver, but it's still glamorous, and I can definitely see Marilyn Monroe being a fan.

Blonde Bombshell was probably the polish out of the collection that surprised me most. Not only does it have gold microglitter and round gold glitter, it also has tiny orange-gold bar glitter! I thought this was clever of China Glaze considering the name of the polish (bar glitter = hair), and I also think it adds an extra bit of warmth to the polish, even if it's hard to detect - I don't think you can see the bar glitter at all in the photo, and it was hard to see when I applied it. I don't think I would have noticed it all if I hadn't swatched each color over black on a notecard, as I mentioned earlier. At any rate, I've definitely fallen for Blonde Bombshell.

Material Girl is another polish that I didn't completely capture in this photo. It has rose microglitter, round rose glitter, and slightly larger and darker rose holo hex glitter. All of this makes for a dazzling effect that I enjoyed more than I thought I would - I'm not a huge fan of pink in its own right, but I do like this one quite a lot.

I apologize - the photo of Marry a Millionaire is a little more not-good than the rest for some reason. Marry a Millionaire is comprised of purple microglitter and green bar glitter - again, there goes China Glaze being clever! I must say, I appreciate that much more than OPI trying to be funny with names...those usually just strike me as odd. Anyway, Marry a Millionaire is not only a clever polish, but a very pretty one. I actually wore this as a full manicure (I used four coats for security when I did that, but the swatch is still just three coats without top coat) and got several compliments, as I'm sure I will when I wear the other Eye Candy polishes.

Finally, we have Some Like It Haute, which is made up of charcoal microglitter and round, silver holo glitter. I really like this one as well, and I can definitely see myself wearing it, especially around New Year's. It also was one of the more well-covering of the Eye Candy polishes, which is always nice.

Overall, I really don't have anything bad to say about Eye Candy or any of the polishes in it. One thing I particularly appreciate is that the polishes are fairly easy to apply for glitters - after all, I'm going to slave to take glitter off; I don't want to slave to put it on as well! You can see that a few pieces of glitter did escape and run off onto my fingers, but I felt that these were much easier to apply than the OPI glitters. All in all, I would definitely recommend any one of these!

All polishes except Lorelei's Tiara, which I purchase myself, were provided by China Glaze for me to review.

Day 31: Re-create Your Favorite Challenge

Hello, and happy December! Today is not only the first day of a brand new month, but the last day of the 31 day challenge for me and the other bloggers that did it this month. While I enjoyed the challenge, I have to say that I'm glad to have the stress of having to change my nails every day relieved, especially with my first college finals coming up sooner than seems quite possible. Anyway, I had several ideas as to what I might do for today...and all of them flew out the window when I got a swap package today that I'd been expecting. It contained NYX Gilded Glitter, which I've been lemming for ages, so of course I had to use it! I decided to recreate day 17, because that was glitter day. I used one coat of Gilded Glitter over three luscious coats of Revlon Royal.

 artificial light

artificial light

*sigh* I'm so thrilled with this. I can't wait to use it in a plethora of new layering combinations that have now been opened up to me - and with the challenge over, I can do whatever strikes me whenever it strikes me! I'm excited to try China Glaze Eye Candy, too - I just don't know when I'll have the time! Hopefully sometime this weekend...

Don't forget to check out the last challenge day on the other blogs!

Aly Loves Lacquer
Manicure Addict
Dees Polish Endeavours
Bright Lights, Big Color
Life and Polish

Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

Gaaahhh! My 31 days are almost over! It's gone by so quickly - I can't believe it'll be time to start doing Christmas nails after tomorrow. I think Elle's Spell might be in order...

Anyway, that's completely off-subject. I had to search around a bit for today's manicure. While I've seen a lot of tutorials I liked, I've either used the ones I really liked, or they're too time-consuming to do when finals are coming up and I've got a bajillion papers and things to do. I eventually rediscovered Polish Art Addiction's Monokuro Boo nail art tutorial and decided that's what I wanted to do. I honestly have no idea what Monokuro Boo is - that is, other than adorable - but I thought it would be fun and not too hard. I used Color Club Yachty Yachty Yadda for the background, and Wet 'n' Wild White Creme and Black Creme for the nail art. As you can see, my white pigs turned into Westies (see?) and I left of the dots, but I'm still very happy with it.

natural light

While it's not as cute as Polish Art Addiction's, I still think it's freaking adorable. Now I just have to figure out what the heck I'm going to do tomorrow...do I recreate my favorite manicure I did, that someone else did, or does it even matter? Anyone know? *looks around*

Check out my fellow challenged (ha, ha) bloggers:

Aly Loves Lacquer
Manicure Addict
Dees Polish Endeavours
Bright Lights, Big Color
Life and Polish

Dr.'s Remedy Jolly & Joy Swatches and Review

Hello again! I'm back, as I said I would be, with the holiday 2011 collection from Dr.'s Remedy. I know for sure that one of these, Revive Ruby Red, is a re-promote because I reviewed it before, and I think Passion Purple is as well; however, I'm fairly sure the other three are new - but by all means, correct me if I'm wrong! Now, let's get to the polish.

outdoors, sunlight

First, we have Revive Ruby Red, which as I said before, is not a new color - it was in last winter's collection as well. However, that doesn't make it any less gorgeous! If you read my original review, you will remember that I absolutely loved it then, and that definitely hasn't changed. It's got the same lit-from-within, glowing quality that made it love me so much the first time around, and is opaque in the same two easy coats. I encourage you to read my previous review of Revive Ruby Red for more details if you're interested.

outdoors, sunlight

The second color in Jolly & Joy, Passion Purple, is described by Dr.'s Remedy as "a bombshell-boysenberry with subtle silver meshed throughout," and I think that's an accurate description. I tend not to like shimmers with a colored base and silver shimmer quite as much as other shimmers, but I think this one is nice. I'm not wowed by it, and I'm not sure that I'd wear it all that often. However, if this sort of finish is your thing, go for it! The application was fantastic, and it got opaque coverage in two coats.

outdoors, natural light

Essential Emerald, the third polish, is described by Dr.'s Remedy as "a take on the classic tree-and-plant-inspired gem of a shade, with delicate glimmer and unparalleled amounts of glamour." Now, this is an area where I really have to disagree with the description - to me, this is a jade green, not an emerald. However, it is a very lovely color, and I like the silver shimmer in this better than that in Passion Purple. This one also took two coats, and the application was great.

outdoors, sunlight

Serene Silver Glitter is described by Dr.'s Remedy as "a seasonal sizzler like no other: shine, chic, totally unique in the metallic scene," and on this one, I totally agree. As far as I know, there really is no other polish like this one. For one thing, it's definitely a glitter, but the particles are so fine that it applies almost as smoothly and evenly as a foil, and looks a somewhat like a foil on the nail as well. Additionally, it has not only silver glitter, but red and blue as well, which is a combination I haven't seen anywhere else. Best of all, the glitter is very highly packed into the polish - I barely needed two coats!

outdoors, natural light

Finally, we have Resolution Red Glitter, "a red-meets-copper spin that's sequin-look-alike laden with high-shine and sparkle." I sort of see where they get the copper, but to me, the polish is mainly a red, pink, and silver glitter. It also barely needed two coats, and the application was good. 

Check Dr.'s Remedy out on Twitter and Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/Remedynails

http://twitter.com/#!/remedynails

These products were provided to me by Dr.'s Remedy for honest review.

Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

Hello there! Today's prompt was a bit challenging for me to turn into a manicure, as I didn't want it to look explicitly like a Halloween manicure. I ended up pulling out some random polishes and doing a layering manicure. I used a base of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme with China Glaze Zombie Zest, China Glaze Snow Globe, and a gold Orly glitter that I recently got and can't remember the name of (and I'm not in my room now, so I can't check - I'll update the post later). I topped it all off with Essie Matte About You.

natural light

natural light

I like it! I wasn't sure if I would at first, but after I decided to put matte top coat on it, it all sort of came together. Sorry about my terribly dry fingers ... I took these photos after I showered this morning, and though I tried to put cuticle moisturizer on without ruining the matte effect, it clearly didn't work too well. Maybe next time I'll remember to plan my picture-taking better.

There will be another post up later today on the Dr.'s Remedy holiday collection, so look out for that! I've been meaning to get it up since I took the pictures last week, but the world has seemed to conspire against Never Unpolished lately ... oh well. I should also have swatches of China Glaze Let it Snow posted within a week. I got the samples when I was home for Thanksgiving break, and they're sitting on my desk anxiously waiting for me to try them - and I for them!

Don't forget to check out the other challenge posts for today:

Aly Loves Lacquer
Manicure Addict
Dees Polish Endeavours
Bright Lights, Big Color
Life and Polish

Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

Sooo . . . I must confess, I was feeling lazy today. I didn't really want to do nail art, I just wanted to slap on some polish and be done with it. Therefore, I chose as my inspiration the Libyan flag, which is the only national flag that's just a solid color. Hint: it's green.

indoors, artificial light

This is two luscious coats of Nina Ultra Pro Salsa, one of my favorite "basic" greens. That's all for today! Now I just have to figure out what to do for tomorrow . . .

Aly Loves Lacquer
Manicure Addict
Dees Polish Endeavours
Bright Lights, Big Color
Life and Polish

Three in One: Days 25, 26, and 27

Sorry for my egregious lack of posting! I'm falling down on the job, I know - but only because I've been doing my best at keeping up with homework over break. I'm actually writing this post on my phone whilst riding back to school, and I took the picture on my phone as well. I got a new iPhone 4S, though, so the quality isn't too bad, though definitely not as good as the macro on my PowerShot. Anyway, today's manicure combines the last three themes: fashion, pattern, and artwork. My inspiration was a Spring 2012 print from DKNY - it's fashion, it's a pattern, and, in my opinion, fashion is art. I used a base of Wet 'n' Wild White Creme with OPI Red My Fortune Cookie, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, and my Nubar nail art pen in black.

As you can see, I printed off the picture that inspired me and took the photo of my nails against it. After doing so, I think my nails were even more accurate than I thought they were at first!

Day 24: Inspired by a Book - The Graveyard Book

Hello there, and happy Thanksgiving if you're American! If not, I hope you're having a good Thursday nonetheless. Today's challenged was to do a manicure inspired by a book, and my first thought was, of course, Harry Potter. However, I partly wanted to do something new, and I also realized that I didn't have all of the proper colors with me. Instead, I started searching my bookshelves for some other inspiration. I had lots of ideas, but none of them were both feasible and really appealing...until I saw my copy of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I looooove this book (read it - I don't care what age you are!), and I've always been a big fan of the cover as well, so I decided to do a sponging manicure based on the colors in the cover. I used Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme with two coats of Revlon Royal as a base, then sponged OPI No Room for the Blues, Sephora by OPI Ocean Love Potion, Sally Hansen Celeb City, and Revlon Royal on top.

natural light

sunlight

artificial light

I am really, really pleased with this! The first and last pictures most accurately show how it looks in real life - and as you can probably tell, the last picture includes the cover of The Graveyard Book to show my inspiration. I have to say, I think I got pretty close! If there's one thing this challenge has taught me, it's that I need to do more sponging. This and my galaxies manicure have been my favorites so far...it's going to be hard to pick what to do for Day 31.

I forgot to include the links to my fellow bloggers doing the challenge yesterday... *sigh* And I was doing so well. Anyway, here they are:

Aly Loves Lacquer
Manicure Addict
Dees Polish Endeavours
Bright Lights, Big Color
Life and Polish

Again, happy Thanksgiving! I'll be back tomorrow with some fashion-inspired nails.

Day 23: Inspired by a Movie

I had no clue what to do with this day, and I ended up having even less time than ideas...hence, a slightly shoddy V for Vendetta manicure (and yes, I am aware that I left out the circles).

indoors, artificial light

And with that, I'm sorry, but I really must go to bed. I have a proper idea for tomorrow, though, so if I have all the polishes to carry it off (seeing as half of mine are at college, and I'm at home for break), that should be considerably better.

Day 22: Inspired by a Song

Um...let's just pretend it's still the 22nd, okay? After all, it's only 12:07 A.M. Today's manicure was pretty easy - after I applied OPI Meep Meep Meep, I was thinking about what I wanted to do for the song manicure, and I thought of the song Razzle Dazzle from Chicago (if you don't know what I'm talking about, go here). So, I added two coats of Nubar 2010 and called it good.

indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

Sorry for the blurry pictures...I simply couldn't get one that wasn't blurry that showed the polish even halfway accurately. I really need to figure out a new lighting situation for the winter, because, as I've said many times, the lighting in my dorm room absolutely sucks.

And that's all for today (err, yesterday...)! Check out the other bloggers doing this challenge:

Aly Loves Lacquer
Manicure Addict
Dees Polish Endeavours
Bright Lights, Big Color
Life and Polish

Day 21: Inspired by Color: OPI Meep Meep Meep

Today's challenge was "inspired by color," which in my opinion is pretty vague. I mean, aren't all my manicures inspired by color in one way or another? I ended up picking OPI Meep Meep Meep simply because I'd been wanting to wear it...so, yeah, I was inspired by pink. As it turns out, that was a very good thing - Meep Meep Meep is fabulous.

 indoors, with flash

 indoors, with flash

indoors, with flash

I really wish I'd had an opportunity to do this manicure before the sun set, but I had class until 4:30 today, so that wasn't an option. My pictures really don't show the gorgeousness of the polish - it's much juicier and glass-flecky and gorgeous in real life. The application was awesome as well, and I barely had to do any cleanup. Basically, you need to get this, okay? Okay. :)

Aly Loves Lacquer
Manicure Addict
Dees Polish Endeavours
Bright Lights, Big Color
Life and Polish

Day 20: Water Marbling

So, you know how yesterday's galaxy nails were pretty freaking awesome? Today...is the opposite. I love water marbling on other people, but I am truly terrible at it. I always get tons of bubbles, and the polish always seems to dry before I get it nicely swirled. I used Zoya Robyn and Zoya Kelly over Wet 'n' Wild White Creme, and...well...see for yourself:

I...um...I'll just go now. *hides* To help cure the eye-searing that I'm sure you just experienced, go check some proper water marbling out:

Aly Loves Lacquer
Manicure Addict
Dees Polish Endeavours
Bright Lights, Big Color
Life and Polish

Tomorrow starts the last section, "inspired by" - hopefully that will go better for me than today!

Day 19: Galaxies

I almost forgot I hadn't already posted this...whoops! It would've been too bad, too, because I'm really proud of my galaxy nail art (unlike Day 18's water marble). I'd never done "space nails" before, so I wasn't quite sure how it'd go, but with some sparkly polishes and a sponge, it wasn't hard at all, and I'm really pleased with the result. I used a base of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme, sponged with Ulta Sun-Sational, Sally Hansen Laser, OPI Meep-Meep-Meep, Sally Hansen Byte, Zoya Ali and Hard Candy Mischief, and filled in the blank parts with China Glaze Fairy Dust. I included a blurry picture to show the holographic sparkle of Fairy Dust.

indoors, with flash

indoors, with flash

Can I just say that I absolutely looove this? I am really, really, really not going to want to take it off. Oh, well...I can always do space nails again, right? 

And now, the bloggers doing the challenge with me...

Aly Loves Lacquer
Manicure Addict
Dees Polish Endeavours
Bright Lights, Big Color
Life and Polish

Until tomorrow!

EDIT: P.S. Two followers away from 700?! Cheese and rice! Thank you all SO much - I really do still smile every time I get a comment or a new follower...it doesn't get old. :)