Dandy Nails: Chilled Down

It's December! Wait, how did that happen? If you're like me, you've been enjoying the opportunity to wear sweaters and scarves and boots and layers, and that's only going to continue into the winter months. Fall is my favorite season, but I love winter, too, and it's time to get chilled down - so today, I'm showing off Chilled Down, a Dandy Nails polish. (See what I did there? Eh? Punny.) I used three coats here.

I actually wore this way back in August, but I can definitely see myself pulling it out again now that colder weather is here. I love how unique this polish is, and the blue and gold color scheme is definitely a plus. In some ways, it's similar to Lac Attack Beauxbatons Academy, which was the very first indie polish I showcased here on Never Unpolished. Beauxbatons Academy is still one of my favorite polishes, and I think Chilled Down may be making its way up the ranks as well.

On a slightly different note, now that it's officially December and thus (in my mind) the appropriate time to start doing Christmasy stuff, I can't wait to get started on some holiday manicures. Any suggestions?

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

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 6: Violet - Layering with Orly Love Each Other

I have a feeling this is going to be the month of long post titles...ah well. Today, like yesterday, I had a really hard time choosing what manicure I wanted to do. I had originally planned on Wet 'n' Wild Back Alley Deals, but after yesterday, I didn't really want to take off another glitter after only wearing it for a day. I vacillated for a while before finally settled on a layering manicure with Orly Love Each Other, which I picked up at Ulta on clearance a little while back. I decided to layer it over black, but to add Nubar 2010 in there for some extra oomph. So, I used one coat of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme, one coat of Nubar 2010, and four (I think) coats of Orly Love Each Other. The result:

natural light

natural light

 natural light

sunlight

sunlight

Sorry for being a bit picspammy, but I really wanted to show this off - it deserves it. Love Each Other is a purple/pink duochrome glass flecked shimmer in a ever-so-slightly milky base, though as you can see, the pink doesn't show up in this manicure. I'm curious to see if it would over other colors, so perhaps you'll be seeing quite a bit more of this lovely polish before the month is up. I still can't figure out why I'd never heard of it before, as it's a truly lovely polish. Perhaps a few more people will learn about it from this post - at least, I can only hope!

And here are the lovely ladies doing this challenge with me (I forgot to do this yesterday and didn't realize I forgot until this morning...fail):

Aly Loves Lacquer

Manicure Addict 

Dees Polish Endeavours

Bright Lights, Big Color

Life and Polish

31 Day Challenge: Day 1

Like many others in the nail blogosphere, I've decided to do the 31 day challenge. I'm not sure where it originated, but this is the challenge:

Why did I decide to do this in November, my busiest month yet? I honestly have no idea - perhaps I'm actually going 'round the bend. In any case, I will be joined this month by the wonderful Elizabeth of Life and Polish, so at least I'll have someone to keep me company as I journey down the path to insanity and aggravated chronic sleep loss.

Today, Day 1, is red day. Easy enough, right? I used OPI Red My Fortune Cookie (one of my favorite red cremes), then used two alternating layers of Nubar 2010 and BB Couture Sex on the Beach and topped it all off with good old Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. I took these pictures last night because I knew I wouldn't have time this morning, so they're not the best quality (dorm room lighting = far from excellent), but I hope you get the general idea.

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I'm quite fond of this combination. While red with flakies has been done many times before by myself and by others (speaking of which, why didn't I use Elle's Spell today? I just got it and haven't tried it yet...clearly my brain was not turned on last night), I still think it's pretty, especially because the layering of the jelly with the flakies gives it a certain depth, as well as a touch of glitter. All in all, I think it's a good start to my 31 days, and I'm not sure I'll want to immediately take it off later tonight. Now go peep Elizabeth's Day 1 post, and have a great day!

Edit: Unbeknownst to me until a few minutes ago, Manicure Addict, Polish Pauper, Bright Lights, Big Color, and CC Manicured are also doing the challenge in November, so go check them out as well!

Edit 2: And Dees Polish Endeavours! Who knew!

Sally Hansen Blue-Away + Nubar 2010

Hey there! I hope your weekends are all off to a good start. I wore Zoya Ali this week, but didn't get a chance to take a picture of it until it was far too chipped to post here. Sorry about that! Instead, I have a lovely layering combination for you to drool over today (at least, I've been drooling over it). I couldn't decide what polish I wanted to wear after I took Ali off, so I chose my usual method of grabbing a bunch of polish bottles and swatching them on paper until I picked one. This time, I ended up with Sally Hansen Blue-Away and Nubar 2010. I used two or three coats of Blue-Away (sorry...it was only last night, and I still can't remember) and two coats of 2010. I couldn't get my sunlight pictures to capture the fiery orange of 2010 in the sunlight, but the pictures I took in indirect natural turned out much better, so I included more of those.

natural, indirect light

 natural, indirect light

 natural, indirect light

sunlight

Gorgeous, don't you think? I do wish the sunlight pictures I took had turned out better, though - I'm not sure why I couldn't get the strong orange flash to show up in the pictures, because it was certainly there in person. I guess 2010 was just camera-shy. However, I'm glad the pictures taken in indirect light turned out so well. They show the orange-gold-green shift perfectly; in fact, I think they might be my best pictures of 2010 in general. Also, I have absolutely no clue what those tiny, dark specks on my nails are. I didn't notice them until well after I was done painting my nails, but they're definitely attached to my nails at this point. Finally, I feel like I should say that my nails are actually a bit longer than they look in these pictures, though they are still quite nubby. So. Yeah. Have a great rest of the weekend!

Royal Layering

You know those days when you can't think of a good title for your blog post? Yeah, it one of those days. It's a shame, too, because today's layering is (in my entirely unbiased opinion... *cough*) absolutely gorgeous. I grabbed Revlon Royal, Nubar 2010, and Savina Diamond Ice - and then this happened:

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

Holy crapola...is that not the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen? Okay, maybe not, but it's still pretty effing awesome (aside from my dry fingers and chipped index fingernail, which I apologize for - college happens). As I've learned, Royal is an excellent base for any sort of layering, Nubar 2010 is awesome over anything, and glittery nails are nirvana. So, yeah. No big deal. In all seriousness, though, I think this is probably one of my best layering combinations. Writing this post, I kind of wish I'd put this back on instead of Orly Fowl Play - and I've been lusting over Fowl Play for a while, so that's saying something. What do you think?

Franken: Firework

This is one polish that I've meant to use for a long time, and haven't . . . and now that I have, I don't think I did a very good job capturing it on camera. :/ I made Firework (which I did not name after the Katy Perry song, just to be clear) out of Zoya Roxy, Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink, OPI Sparkle-icious, OPI Absolutely Alice, Finger Paints Holly Good Time, and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. I used two coats, and left it there partly because it was all but opaque in my eyes (though not that camera's, as you'll see), and partly because I honestly did not feel like taking three coats of glitter off. The picture to the left is a bottle shot taken outside in cloudy light.

outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

The shaded photo shows the opacity much more accurately than the one taken in sunlight; however, neither of the pictures show how spectacular Firework is in real life. I'll definitely have to re-do this one, perhaps when I eventually wear it for a full manicure . . . which, if I have any sense at all, will be soon! I may also add some more flakies to this one, though I'm reluctant to use up any of my small supply. Perhaps I'll add some OPI I Lily Love You . . . ? Anyway, while I'd happily do some tweaking, I'm also happy with Firework as it is.

Summer Layering

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Adamo 117 is one of the awesome polishes I got in Greece. Whoops!

For today's mani, I really wanted to use Adamo 117, a orange jelly packed with glass flecks that flash orange and gold. I plan on trying it on its own at some point, but I wanted to go to bed before midnight last night, so layering was necessary. I slapped on OPI A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find, which is my favorite orange creme, then added one coat of Adamo 117, one coat of Nubar 2010, one coat of 117, two more of 2010, and one final coat of 117. The results? HOT.

outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

outdoors, shade

As I told my mom, this mani accurately reflects August weather here in Missouri, but I much prefer this gorgeous layering to the heat and humidity. Even as I'm typing this post, I keep stopping to stare at my nails. Pitiful, I know - but they're so pretty! I bet something similar would look great with pink, as well . . . I may have to try that, too. In the meantime, I'll just admire the juicy deliciousness I have on at the moment.

Don't forget to enter my Zoya Smoke & Mirrors giveaway - it ends Thursday!

My First Nfu-Oh

This was scheduled to post on July 31, but for some reason it didn't, so here it is now!

A while back, I won a giveaway from Jessica v. Polish, and included as an extra was Nfu-Oh 55 (an extra, can you believe it?!), a polish with a clear base containing green shimmer and green/orange flakies à la Nubar 2010 or Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. It's absolutely gorgeous, and I haven't used it much only because I'm afraid I'll use it up! I'm wearing it here over a franken I made, Comet, but I definitely want to try it over other colors.

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

These pictures really don't capture how gorgeous Nfu-Oh 55 is . . . I'm tempted to blow my checking account on more Nfu-Oh flakies, but I've restrained myself so far. We'll see how long that lasts. :)

Repost: China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise

China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise is not only my first China Glaze polish, but one of the earlier polishes I showed on my blog, as well as my first neon. Though it well deserves all of those "firsts," it definitely deserves a better blog post than I gave it the last time around. I'm not linking to the first one, but you can find it at your own peril - I really had no clue what I was doing back then. I used three coats.

outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

Probably because it's a neon, I couldn't get my camera to accurately capture the color of Turned Up Turquoise - it's more of a greenish teal in real life. However, it truly is a gorgeous color, and I love the finish. I only have two neon shimmers for some reason, but I definitely need to get more. After wearing Turned Up Turquoise for a little while, I added a coat of Nubar 2010 and Essie Matte About You. Funnily enough, this actually made the color of Turned Up Turquoise show up a tiny bit more accurately in the photos.

 outdoors, cloudy

outdoors, cloudy

I would definitely do this combination again . . . I love cool colors with warm-colored glitter or flakie top coats. What do you think?

Pink Wednesday: Jelly Sandwich

Today's Pink Wednesday post is my first (I think) jelly sandwich. I used Revlon Desire, one of the new Revlon jellies, Nubar 2010, and a base of Wet n Wild White Creme to satisfy my hate of VNL. I used quite a few coats, as my manicure went something like this: Wet n Wild White Creme, Revlon Desire, Nubar 2010, Revlon Desire, Nubar 2010, Revlon Desire, Nubar 2010, Revlon Desire. Yeah. And then I put Insta-Dri on top to make it all shiny.

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I really like this combination, though I don't think I'm quite as fond of the jelly-flakie sandwich as I am of matteified flakies...we shall see. I need to buy a new bottle of Revlon Royal (I used the last for frankens) so I can try one with that.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

EDIT: The sun was out by the time I got done at school, so I took some pictures in the sunlight, and they show Green Ocean much better. I also deleted two of the Green Ocean pics I took indoors because they weren't necessary with the sunlight pictures.

Like it says in the title - happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope you're all wearing green...I wouldn't want anyone to get pinched! Today, as promised, I have a green franken that I made. I liked the color of Sinful Colors Irish Green, but I knew that it was so sheer that I would never be able to build it to opacity. So, I added some Wet n Wild White Creme, and here we are! Unfortunately, the sun had gone down when I got home last night, and it refuses to come out this morning, so I only have indoor picures that aren't as color-accurate as I would like. The color of the polish is very close, but my fingers are NOT that color in real life. Also, Seche Vite gave me shrinkage. :/

indoors, artificial light

To give you an idea of how sheer this was before I frankened it, I still needed four coats after adding a very opaque white to Irish Green. I decided to name my franken Irish Spring, because it's St. Patrick's Day and it's almost spring and I wasn't feeling very original. And yes, I know there's a soap called Irish Spring. Anyway, I wore Irish Spring on its own yesterday, but today I added four coats Sinful Colors Green Ocean - I didn't really *need* that much, but I wanted lots of flakies.

indoors, artificial light (bottle shot)

indoors, artificial light

 outdoors, sunlight

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, sunlight

As you can see, I had a really hard time getting even semi-accurate pictures of Green Ocean (EDIT: The sunlight pictures are accurate). It's a gorgeous flakie that flashes from blue to green to pink, but it's not easy to work with - the flakies are much thicker and sparser than those in Hidden Treasure, and after two coats of Seche Vite, I still have some bumpy spots where flakies would not lay down. It is very pretty, though, and I think it's worth a bit of hassle. I definitely want to re-swatch it, though, and see if it photographs any better with sunlight (DONE). So, expect to see this one again (this is probably still true...)! 

Another new nail blog for you today...I'm coming across new nail blogs all over the place the last few days!

Shades of Magick

Again...Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Franken Week Day 6: Dragonette

I made this sometime last fall...I'm thinking it was around September, but I can't really remember. I can't believe I went without wearing it for this long, though! I think it didn't look like I wanted to in the bottle and I was afraid I wouldn't like it...fortunately, I do. However, it did take me forever to come up with a name for this polish. I wanted something that would "fit" the polish but not be too terribly cheesy (hi Nicole by OPI...I'm a Pool for Love? really? and it's not even blue? at least there's no punctuation...). After toying with the idea of naming it The Girl Who Played With Fire (which I decided against because I'd already done this manicure), among other things, I settled on Dragonette. Then I remembered that that's the name of a band. Whoops.

Unfortunately, I have officially decided that my camera sucks when it comes to photographing suspended flakies, at least in artificial light. It either makes them look like I don't know how to apply nail polish or they don't show up at all. Dragonette is a bright medium red shimmer flakie, and it's way better in real life than in my pictures.

indoors, artificial light

Look at the picture above. Now in your mind, insert flakies A) where it looks like there are bumps in the polish, and B) throughout the rest of the polish. Aside from the hiding flakies, the picture is accurate and shows the color and shimmer well. To make Dragonette, I used OPI Comet Loves Cupid, Zoya Salma, and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. Again, this is going on my re-blogging list...and with that, it's almost the end of franken week! I hope you've enjoyed it so far.

Franken Week Day 4: Fresh Squeezed

I believe I was inspired to make an orange jelly flakie after a brief exchange with L on twitter...I could be totally wrong though, my memory is horrible. At any rate, I did it using Sally Hansen Sun Kissed, Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, and clear polish - one of my simplest frankens. Unfortunately, it was a bit thick - I'll be adding some thinner - and it didn't photograph particularly well. The flakies are more prominent in real life...I think there's something about my camera that makes flakies not show up well when they're in a base as opposed to layered on top of a polish. Also, sorry for my janky cuticles.

indoors, artificial light

Again, this is another one I need to re-take pictures of when (if) the sun ever comes out again...it poured and then hailed yesterday. At least I guess that means it's almost spring? Wait, no, it's 28 degrees outside as I'm typing this. Never mind. :/ Hope your Wednesday is sunnier than mine!

I keep forgetting to add my "new polish blogs" thing to the end of my post...I've been reading all of these for at least a week now and I haven't posted them. Anyway, go read! :)

Polish Infatuated
Death By Polish
Glitta Gloves
Polishing and Make-Up
Solensdanserinde

Franken Week Day 2: Siren Song

Monday's franken is something I made after RBL chose their top eleven fan submissions and I wasn't one of them. While this wasn't my submission, the whole thing got me thinking and I came up with Siren Song, a teal/purple duochrome with orange, blue, purple, green microglitter/shimmer and flakies. To make it, I used Rimmel Night Before, Sally Hansen Laser, Sally Hansen DVD, Sally Hansen Blue It, Hard Candy Beetle, Sally Hansen Marine Scene, Pure Ice No Means No, Twinkle Toes green shimmer(it's hoof polish for horses...I got it as a joke), Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, and probably something else that I forgot. It's definitely my franken with the most ingredients so far.

Unfortunately, Siren Song photographed horribly. It was rainy when I took the pictures, and all the lighting in my house made it look really blah, which it doesn't in real life. It's much sparklier and duochrome-ier and generally much prettier than in the pictures, but I figured I'd show it anyway. WARNING: the pictures ahead are realllllly bad.

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

The color of the first picture is closer to accurate, but the second picture kind of shows the flakies and sparkles, which the first doesn't do at all. Sorry for the terrible pictures - this is definitely on my reblogging list.

Rad Purple + Hidden Treasure

After wearing Rad Purple on its own for a day or so, I added Hidden Treasure. And then my brain exploded. I've layered Hidden Treasure over a ton of polishes, and I've loved every single combination - but this? This is the best, by far. Let there be picspam!

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

outdoors, shade

outdoors, sunlight

I am in love. Despite the fact that it's barely halfway through January, I am sure that this will be one of my top manicures of 2011, if not THE top manicure. Not only do the flakies in Hidden Treasure and the jelly finish of Rad Purple complement each other perfectly, I've never seen the green in Hidden Treasure so prominent over any other polish. I really don't have anything else to say about this....let the pictures speak for themselves! I really hope this doesn't chip soon. Or ever. :)