Royal Flakies

Yep, it's another cheesy layering title, stemming from my combination of Orly Royal Navy and an accent nail topped with FingerPaints Twisted. Not really much to say about this one except that it's awesome and my pictures are kind of crappy and I'm sorry about that, so I'll just let you look:

 natural light

sunlight

Isn't it preeeetty? My nail line wasn't quite as visible in real life as in the second picture, but I included it anyway because I couldn't manage to get a picture in just natural light that wasn't a little blurry. Oh, the mutability of my camera's moods...

Note: As this posts (I'm writing this on Thursday the 7th), I'm going to be starting my first of a month of 8:00, four-hour, daily geography classes. So, um, have sympathy. Or something.

Deep Sea Flakies

Happy Saturday! I'm writing this on Thursday, but by the time this is posted, hopefully we'll all be having a great weekend. I did this manicure about a month ago and am just now getting around to posting it. At the time, I was going through one of those phases where you wear the same sort of polish for about five manicures, and at the time, I was in a dark polish phase. One of the manicures I wore during that phase was Essence Just Rock It layered with one coat each of FingerPaints Flecked and FingerPaints Motley. This was one of the first manicures I did with Flecked and Motley, and I have to say, I think it turned out quite well.

 indoors, artificial light

Graduation Mani

It seems weird to think that I'm now an alumnus of the school district where I've gone for 13 (long) years...I still haven't quite wrapped my head around it. What you see on the left is the right thumbnail of my graduation manicure - my high school's colors are red and white (but silver's cooler, so I used that) and our mascot is a lightning bolt. So, I used Finger Paints Curator's Crimson for the red base, then did all but my thumbs with a coat of Sephora by OPI Flurry Up. On my left thumbnail, I wrote "2011," and on my right thumbnail I did a lightning bolt, both in Sally Hansen Celeb City. Here's my left hand:

indoors, artificial light

I like it! I'm glad my thumbnail grew out a bit, though; otherwise I'm not sure I could've gotten the whole year on there. I used a toothpick for the thumbs because I knew I would be able to do finer detail with it than with my dotting tool. I'll be in St. Louis tomorrow, so I may not have a post up, but I do plan to post Sunday. I'm really excited about my graduation party, which will be then, because I'm going to plan and cook the whole meal - I may have to show some pictures of that as well! :)

Finger Paints Romanticism Ruby

I had a LOT of trouble picking the color I would post today. It's Valentine's Day, after all, and though I didn't do any V-Day nail art, I wanted an appropriate color to post. I swatched several reds and pinks last week, and a lot of them had Valentine-appropriate names: Finger Paints Romanticism Ruby, Sinful Colors Secret Admirer (not a pink or red, but just look at the name!), Color Club Sexsea, Nina Ultra Pro Sweet Nothings, Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar...you get the point. Finally, I decided on Romanticism Ruby because it's gorgeous and glittery and very romantic (ha, ha).

indoors, artificial light

Mm, sparkles! In real life, this glows much more than in the picture. It's absolutely gorgeous, and applies like a dream as well. I used two coats. It's not too shiny without top coat, but it is MUCH smoother than most glitters...it's about a smooth without top coat as any of the OPI Burlesque glitters are with two coats of Seche Vite. Impressive. I've been searching for the perfect red glitter for a while now, and I think I've found it. This, my friends, is love. :) Happy Valentine's Day!

Finger Paints Curator's Crimson

I bought Curator's Crimson in a two-pack that was on clearance at Sally Beauty Supply, and I will confess that I only bought the set for the other polish, Romanticism Ruby. However, I ended up trying this one first and I really like it! It's not sheer enough to be a "real" jelly, but it has that shiny, squishy look that comes with a jelly polish - so I guess it's one of those jelly/creme hybrids. This was two coats.

indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I don't know why Curator's Crimson appears so bright and orange in the first picture and so much darker in the second, as I used the exact same lighting for both pictures. Whatever happened, know that Curator's Crimson is actually somewhere in between the two pictures, though the first is more color-accurate than the second. I kind of thought that there would be VNL in my pictures, even though there wasn't in real life, since that tends to happen with semi-jelly polishes. I guess this polish just baffles my camera.

I've discovered two new nail polish blogs lately that I'm following and would like to share with you:

On My Nail

!Kendal

Have a great Wednesday! I can't believe we're over halfway through January already...eek!

EDIT: I can't believe I forgot to say THANK YOU for following me! I've reached 200 followers, and I literally squealed and jumped up and down when I went to my Blogger homepage and saw "200 Followers" right next to Never Unpolished. Thanks for following and commenting and being awesome!

Finger Paints Holly Good Time

Holly Good Time is the first and, so far, only holiday nail polish I own. Despite lusting after several of the polishes from this year's holiday collections, I haven't been able to get any of them. However, if Holly Good Time remains the only festive nail polish in my collection, I'd say it's a good one to have...even if it does have a terribly cheesy name. At least it doesn't have a ridiculous dash in it! *cough* Burlesque *cough*

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

Yes, there is a black smear on my ring fingernail. That's nail polish...and I got it on there while painting a box for a friend...long story. Anyway, this was not only my first holiday polish, but my first Finger Paints polish, and I'm really happy with it. Despite being a glitter with a clear base, it was opaque in three easy coats, and I probably could've gotten away with two. It's chock-full of gold, bronze, and red glitter - perfect for the holidays, and I'm sure I'll be wearing it year-round as well. I was planning on adding some sort of holiday nail art to this, but it started peeling off shortly after I took this. Not too bad for me, since it was the third day I was wearing it. That's usually when my polish starts to go downhill. I hope everyone is enjoying themselves, whether you celebrate Christmas or something else or nothing at all!