Gradient mani: Take 2!

I think gradients are a new obsession of mine. I don't think I'm going to be able to stop doing them until I figure out how to do it really really well. I got paint all over my cuticles. Bah.

Photos are clickable.







This one isn't clickable. It was my 365 photo for my personal blog yesterday, and I thought I'd include it.



Yellow: L.A. Colors Live
Orange: Confetti Papa-razzi
Red: All Heart

What kind of brush is the best for cleanup? I've never cleaned up my nails and the way I post them is the way I paint them, but I'd like to start making things look a little cleaner.

Adventures in Layering!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Dorothy Who? over Wet n Wild Black Creme. I put the Ruby Pumps on before Dorothy Who? and you can't see it very well. Next time I'll pick one or the other. I was just curious to see what it would look like with both! I think I need to pick up some Seche Vite to try over polishes that aren't totally smooth (like this).

What are your favorite combos for layering?

OPI - Black Cherry Chutney

Black Cherry Chutney is from OPI's Spring/Summer 2008 "India" collection. This is the most vampy polish in my collection. I was never a huge fan of super dark colors, but the deep cherry shimmer in this polish sucked me in. The formula is fantastic and I wish every polish had this brush! The application is a bit messy, but that was 100% me. These photos show two coats in natural light.

Hard Candy - Beetle

I haven't had a whole lot of time to do my nails lately, so this is the first polish post I've been able to do in a while. I still have a lot to do today so I had to rush the application a little. Apologies in advance for the polish all over my skin, and for the deplorable state of my cuticles.



Hard Candy Beetle is said to be a dupe of Orly Space Cadet. I don't own any Orly polishes, so I can't compare them myself, but based on other photos I have seen it's safe to say that they're basically the same. Beetle took three coats to achieve opacity and cover some bald spots that appeared after the second coat. It took a little while to dry, so I ended up with a few smudges and dents, but that was my fault, not the polish.







Beetle is absolutely gorgeous. Definitely a favorite!


***Don't forget to enter my giveaway!***

Can't win 'em all.

I was way over my head with this idea. Not only do I not own any real nail art supplies, but I have a limited amount of time to work since my husband can only entertain my daughter for so long. Everything is chunky, smudged, dented, and fugs. This was supposed to be a reindeer and some kind of candy cane-esque striping, but I think it looks like a melting mouse and a kindergarten art project.

Gold: Wet N Wild Goldmine
White: CG Snow
Brown: CG Goin' My Way?
Red: CG Ruby Pumps
Black: Wet N Wild 424A



The "stripey" nail's cuticle is nice and flooded. I need to learn cleanup.



Ho! Ho! Ho! Tacky Christmas!



Dent brought to you by my daughter's thumb.



Yes, that's a cat hair stuck to the polish on the right. Ugh.


Parts of the skin around my nails are pretty much callouses right now. I've dealt with some of the cuticle issues, but I don't know how to fix this. You can see it really well in the closeup of the stripes. It's really gross. The skin keeps peeling down to the edges of the nails and causing hang-nails on almost every finger. Does anyone know how to fix this?

CQ - All Heart vs. Crimson Pearl

For someone who doesn't really like reds or pinks, I sure do have a lot of them. I don't want to end up with a ridiculous collection of polishes I will never use. Even with my collection as small as it is currently, I thought I needed to downsize. I really don't care to have reds or pinks at all unless there is something particularly special about them.



CQ All Heart is a warm toned red with gold shimmer in the bottle that does not translate at all to the nail.



CQ Crimson Pearl is a deeper red in the bottle. It didn't photograph very true to life in any of the bottle shots I took.



Index and ring fingers show All Heart. You can see how the gold shimmer doesn't show up even a little on the nail. It's definitely a warmer red than Crimson Pearl, but not really anything you can't find in any other brand. The formula was quite runny but it dried reasonably quickly.



Middle and pinky fingers show Crimson Pearl. This one looks a lot darker in the bottle in real life, and almost identical to All Heart on the nail. It has a more pink shine to it in the sun, though. The formula was similar to that of All Heart.

Overall I'm not impressed with either of these shades. The formulas weren't horrible, but the colors don't wow me. I will probably keep them both for now in case I end up needing a red for something (frankens, perhaps?) but they will eventually be replaced.

CQ - Sunset Blaze

After the last time I tried a CQ polish I wasn't sure if I wanted to bother testing out the other colors I own. This formula was way better than the last one, so I will definitely be trying out all of my CQ colors.

Sunset Blaze is a bright pink shimmer that can flash red or orange depending on the light. I had a hell of a time trying to photograph this one, so apologies in advance if the pictures are kind of repetitive.


Sunset Blaze in natural light with flash.

Turning on the flash seemed to be the only way I could get the pink to show up in photos, even though it looks pink in real life more often than not. I used two coats and no base/top coats for the photos.


Natural light. You can see the red here.

The formula was pretty good, though it was a bit streaky. It dried pretty quickly and didn't drag or goop up the way Mystique did.


Natural light.

The flashes of color are really nice. I wish it weren't so hard to get good shots of it. We have a lot of sunlight today (FINALLY!) but I had to shoot through my kitchen window and hope for the best. It's tough to get outside for photos when you have a 7 month old and live on the second floor!


Flash.


Natural light. Orangey-redy goodness.

CQ still is not my favorite brand. The streaks in this polish are pretty obvious in real life, and I'm 100% sure another coat wouldn't have changed that. I like that it changes colors a bit depending on the light, but I'm not a big fan of pinks and reds so colors like this have to do something magical in order for me to fall for them. I'm not sure if I would buy this one again, even though it's miles better than Mystique!

China Glaze - Ruby Pumps

I think I moved to the UK magically and nobody told me. Where is the sun? It's been cloudy and terrible for almost a week now! Sigh.


Ruby Pumps in natural light.

Ruby Pumps is a very popular color, and for good reason. This color is gorgeous. I've been in love with Oz since I was little, so of course I had to have this polish when I saw it at Sally's.


It's even pretty on crappy days! ;)

Application was a breeze. It's somewhat sheer and getting it totally even took 3 coats, but drying time was very quick. I'd recommend Ruby Pumps, but I don't think I need to since everyone seems to already have it and love it! I'm ending this with the photo I took of this polish in the bottle on the day that I purchased it, just so you can get an idea of the sparkle.

Sally Hansen - Rockstar Pink

I have not painted my fingernails in almost two years. The last time I did, I thought you were just supposed to slap it on. I'd get it all over my fingers and it would look like I let a four year old paint them until I jumped in the shower and the paint came off of my skin. This was my first attempt to paint my nails without making a gigantic mess. I think it turned out pretty well!


This is how it looks in natural light on a beautiful day!

I love this polish. It was really easy to put on and only needed two coats to be totally opaque. This was the fastest drying polish I've ever used. I don't know all the descriptions for polish types yet, but I know this one has a TON of glitter. There's blue, red, purple, and some teeny tiny gold flecks in here. It's pretty in the sun and inside.


See how pretty this glitter is?

I'm not sure how the wear is because I just put it on last night. A lot of the reviews I read online say that some girls' bottles of Rockstar Pink were goopy and thick. Mine was this way right when I opened it, but after rolling it between my hands for a little bit (read: maybe a minute) it was fine. I did have to roll it a few times during application, but I don't mind doing that when the end result it shiny glittery goodness. Another common complaint was removal, but I think all glitters are a pain to remove.

ETA (11/14): This is a first. I have used glitter polishes many times throughout my 23 years, and I HAVE NEVER HAD A POLISH JUST REFUSE TO COME OFF BEFORE. I spent over 30 minutes trying to get this stuff off after I got a big chip on my thumb, and it wouldn't remove. It took almost an hour of constant rubbing with a cotton ball and remover to get my nails clean, and I'm still covered in glitter 12 hours later.

Pretty color, not worth the removal time. :(

New Polishes!

Since I've gotten into nail blogs I've realized that my collection is AMAZINGLY SMALL. Every time I go out now I make a point to go to any store I can find that sells polish to see if they have anything interesting.



I've picked these two up over the past couple of days. The one on the left is CQ brand Mystical, and the right is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Rockstar Pink (I have this one on now). I only have access to WalMart and drugstores in the podunk town that I live in, so most of the polishes I have are less than fancy. I'm going to have to get out to Sally's more often to see what kind of stuff I can pick up there.

ANYWAY! I filed my nails the other night and noticed that they were kind of grossly uneven. They're now even, but a lot shorter. I don't mind, though, since now I can grow them and out just try to maintain the evenness I have going on.

The plan is to get some pictures of Rockstar Pink up tomorrow. I've got a few things to say about this polish, so stay tuned!