Illamasqua - Muse

i got this color for Christmas (well, i picked it out a few days before) after having a little freakout at Sephora because i forgot they carried Illamasqua now, and i love it! this probably isn't the best picture since the sun went into hiding, but i think it's pretty accurate. the color reminds me of a very clear, bright sky.





this is just one coat! there was slight VNL in certain lighting at certain angles, but i hardly noticed it. it went on very smoothly, although the brush holds a lot of polish so it took me a couple nails to figure out how much to use. i also liked that you could easily pull the cap off, so you can paint with a normal circular cap.

Christmas nails.

Happy Holidays to everyone! here are my Christmas themed nails. i'm thinking of adding snowflake decals on a couple of fingers.

direct sunlight:

indirect sunlight:

i messed up a little on a couple of nails, but i still like it :) i used 2 coats of China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, 1 coat of Ruby Pumps on the tips using Orly's french tip guides, and a line of Color Club Sex Symbol using a nail art brush. i really like that using Ruby Pumps over Emerald Sparkle made it darker (though not as dark as Lubu Heels), i think it coordinates better than what RP looks like in the bottle.

a few NOTDs

i forgot to take pictures most of the time (or i did but they didn't come out right), so there's not as many pictures as i wish there was. but i will definitely update more from now on! :)

Zoya - Akyra.

i think this was 2 coats. i love this color, it reminds me of peacocks! Zoya says it's best described as "Sparkling blue azure metallic with subtle sparkle finish." there's a lot of green in there though, so i'd say it's more of a teal. the sparkle looks like a mix of silver, green, and blue but i'm not positive.

Love Bites - Chartreuse (no official name)

this is 3 coats of the most confusing color i have EVER worn. i think it's chartreuse, i looked at colors on Wikipedia and that looked the closest. i still don't know what the finish really is. it looks a little frosty, but not enough to be completely a frost. you can get this brand online and in store at Rue21.


China Glaze - Sci-Fi

2 coats. i was a little disappointed when i first put this on, because there wasn't as much lavender as i was hoping for except in direct sunlight. but after a few minutes i started to like it more. i like the new Khrome collection because the colors don't give off brush strokes as bad (or at all, if you apply it right) as the Romantique collection. their metallics get better each collection, it seems (since Romantiques was also better than the one with Platinum Gold/Silver).

China Glaze - Sci-Fi with China Glaze Matte Magic

now there's the lavender i wanted! i'm still amazed at how mattifying Sci-Fi brought out so much of the lavender. matte top coats do weird things sometimes.


essie - Flirty Fuschia

this color is way brighter in person! although it doesn't quite reach retina-burning level, it's still neon. i did 2 coats with slight VNL, so you would probably need 3 for complete opaque-ness. i really like how bright it is :D

essie - Mint Candy Apple

i really can't even describe how much i love this color. well, i could, but it would just be one long keyboard mash.



the woman doing my nails loved this color too, she actually showed my nails to a couple of other people in the salon and told them to look at how pretty it was. It's the most minty mint green I've seen. this was two coats, by the way. You might need three if you aren't careful since it's a little streaky, but it's worth it!

MAC - Dry Martini

i have a few pictures to put up since i last posted, there was more but after looking at a few of them again...yikes. anyway, here's one of my favorite colors, MAC's Dry Martini from the Jin Soon collection. sorry about the tipwear, i had this on for a few days before I remembered to get a picture of it. this is 3 coats, indoors.



it's a little darker IRL. you could use 2 coats for this, but they'd have be thicker since at first this color looks really gross (which you can kind of see at the base of my nail where i didn't cover up the first coat). there is a little streakiness, but it's evened up by the 3rd coat. i love wearing shades like this, i'm so glad i got it!

A little gamblin' is fun when you're with me!

Ahhh, I haven't posted in way too long! I was busy this past week, and on top of that the computer wasn't working for a few days so I had no chance to post anything.

Although I do have a really cool french I did. It's two coats of Hot Topic Silver Glitter, (which is actually more of a shimmery foil-y silver. I usually associate glitters with bumpiness which this color didn't have) and then the tip is China Glaze GR8. I also added some dice (die?) from a nail sticker set I got at Sally's.

Indoors, flash.

Indoors, no flash.

The tips look less thick IRL, and the dent on my index finger is less obvious too! I've had this on for about two days I think, and I don't think it's going anywhere within the next few days either. Normally I change my nails every 2 or 3 days, but I really like this.

China Glaze: Atlantis and Muse

i LOVE these two! both were so distracting too. Muse is a Sally's exclusive i think, you can get Atlantis at Sally's as well, or 8ty8beauty/Head2ToeBeauty/Transdesign. both are two coats, Atlantis has two coats of top coat since it was pretty rough, but you could probably get away with one.

Atlantis, indoors, flash:

Atlantis, outdoors, no flash:

Muse, outdoors, no flash:

Muse is a bit more teal IRL, it wasn't very to get a good picture of. It does have some brush strokes, but it's not as bad as the Romantique collection. it's definitely worth it though, it's gorgeous and reminds me of an ocean!

OPI Mattes!

I've been too busy lately, I haven't had time to post anything! I do have a good amount of pictures to upload, and lots more to be taken since I have at least 10 untrieds. And I'm expecting my Butter London polishes tomorrow! :D

I got three of the OPI matte colors. Gargantuan Green Grape, Alpine Snow, and You Don't Know Jacques. I don't have a picture of YDKJ though, just because I didn't do the best job painting my nails so I didn't get any pictures. I will try and get another one this week or next week. The formula on these were okay, I liked Zoya's matte colors better because OPI's seemed to be more streaky, and didn't dry as quick. Half the reason I buy matte colors are because since they dry SO quick, I can do my nails right before I leave for somewhere and they're totally fine (I tend to procrastinate). These are all three coats.

Gargantuan Green Grape (indoors, no flash)

Alpine Snow (indoors, flash). I could have done two coats and that would have been fine, I just wasn't careful enough and it got too streaky. Although for a white, it applied really good.

That's it for now, next is China Glaze Atlantis and it's chrome counterpart, Muse (!!!).

My first actual nail art, and a manicure!

I say "actual nail art" because even though I've done non-traditional french tips, I feel even non-traditional ones are pretty standard that I can't really count them as nail art anymore. Anyway, about a week and a half ago, I really wanted to do words/letters on my nails since I'd never done it before. In Lady GaGa's song LoveGame, there's the lyric "do you want love, or you want fame?" so I decided to do "Love" on one hand and "Fame" on the other (I love her so I definitely wanted something related to her). Like I said, that was my first time doing it so it's not as good as I'd hoped it would be. But I thought it came out alright for what it was :). These are indoor/artificial light/no flash. I used Zoya's Dovima Matte, and "Love" is in Essie's Flirty Fuschia while "Fame" is in China Glaze's GR8.

I know this goes without saying, but this color is about 5x more neon in person. Like, "ow oh my god my eyes they BURN" neon.

Yeah...something went wrong somewhere with my middle finger :/


On Thursday me and my mom went to go get manicures...I love our nail salon because they have discontinued OPI colors like Rinse Charming, and the color I picked out this week. Greenwich Green!

This is indoors/flash so you can see the shimmer in it. Sadly my camera can't do the super super close macro shots, but you get an idea.

outdoors/no flash/indirect sunlight.

I don't know if I can fully call this a green though...It's either gold or olive based, I really can't tell. It seems like it changes depending on how you look at it.


And here's my mom's manicure, she picked out OPI's Romeo and Joliet. These pictures are a little bigger than the previous ones I've had up, so you can see the gorgeous shimmer it has!

outdoors/indirect sunlight/flash

outdoors/indirect sunlight/no flash. You can REALLY see the shimmer here, it doesn't...well...shimmer, but you can see it anyway.

That's all for now! In a few days I'll be doing the new China Glaze glitter I got (Atlantis) that I'm pretty much drooling over...I can't wait to try it out!

Enchanted Forest/Charge It

I've actually been wearing this for a couple of days, but am just now getting around to posting it. It's two coats of Orly Enchanted Forest, and two coats of Sephora by OPI Charge It for the tips. I tried to get no flash pictures, but after about 30 or so, I gave up before I threw my camera out the window.

Indoors, flash:

Outdoors, sunlight:

Enchanted Forest is one of my favorite greens that I own, it's pretty and serene!

Charge It looks pretty bad because the second coat was too thick, but it's not as bad looking in person.

Overall, I love the way this looks. I'll definitely have to try it again in December since it reminds me of Christmas.

Celtic Sun/B-Girlz

This is two coats of OPI Alpine Snow, then two coats of China Glaze Celtic Sun and the tips are China Glaze B-Girlz. Celtic Sun needs a white underneath. When I first wore it, I did four coats without white, and it was still sheer. This was my first time trying to free hand the tips, so that's why it's kind of sucky. And also why i didn't get a close picture!

Indoors, no flash:



Outdoors, sunlight. This is closest to what it looks like in person:


Overall, it's a pretty awesome neon if you use a white base. It also dries really satin-y without a top coat, but not totally matte.

WTF?!

I was seeing how much Transdesign charged for shipping when I was suddenly glad I didn't live in a different country.