Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving mani!

We have a Fakesgiving earlier this week while my roommate's mom was here. My husband has to work today, so we'll probably have a Friendsgiving on Saturday. But my nails are rocking and ready to celebrate!


I'm normally not a skittle-y person, but lately I've been feeling it. One color can be so boring, but a color scheme is so much more interesting!


Index and ring fingers are both China Glaze Riveting with a dotty gradient (OPI San-Tantonio, OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys, and China Glaze Harvest Moon). Middle finger is China Glaze Harvest Moon. Ring finger is OPI San-Tantonio plus a layer of China Glaze Electrify.


Since Catching Fire just came out this weekend, it felt appropriate that I used so many polishes from last year's Capitol Colours collection. And by the way, I saw the movie last weekend and it was phenomenal. See it!


You can't see it in any of these photos, but my thumb matches my ring finger. My right hand matches my left hand, and I think I wish I had mixed them up. Using the same patterns, but in a different order. Next time I'll know!


I'm excited that it's finally the holiday season. I love having excuses to be with my favorite people, even though this year it'll be more friends than family. I'm looking forward to many more holiday manis in the next month. Do you match your nails to the season?

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Indelible + Layering

Giving Formula X another chance! I decided to try a nice, easy cream. Creams are hard to mess up, and I wanted Formula X to get a chance to impress me after its previous failure. To that end, I picked out Indelible.


Of course, as purples tend to do, it photographed much more blue than it really is. I tried to correct it in the above photo, but it's still not quite right.


Here's how it photographs. It's a great polish! Easy to apply and control; even and opaque at two coats. Definitely one I'll be reaching for again.

But I was bored, so over it I layered Nars Disco Inferno. It was on sale + VIB discount, so I think I paid $4. What a steal!


It's really pretty! Pinky purple flecks, with a green shift from extreme angles that I could not pick up on camera.


But it's definitely a layering polish, and to be honest there's no way I will ever think a layering polish will be worth $19. So I'm glad I have this, but I'm also glad I got it on mega sale.



Saturday, November 23, 2013

Hard Out Here

This is inspired by Lily Allen's manicure in her newest video, "Hard Out Here." Watch it here!





In the VIB sale I bought the Twenty-Two so I could try out the new Formula X polishes, so I figured I'd use a couple of them to recreate it!
Unfortunately, as soon as I finished this mani I hated it so much I had to take it off. Let's see why!


I started with Radioactive. It's a great color; it's neon, though it doesn't indicate that anywhere. It took three coats to get rid of VNL and it did not dry well. Since it's neon, it dried sort of matte; not completely matte, but sort of waxy. Next time I use it, I'll try to layer it over a white and hope that helps with some of its issues. I will also double up on my base coat, because even taking it off after just a few minutes it was starting to stain.


Over Radioactive I used Need For Speed. This is where it all went from questionable to horrible. As you can see from the bottle I'm holding, it's SILVER... but on the nail, over a green, it's ...bad. Not silver. Sort of gold-y but not really. Really brush stroke-y. Mostly just horribly ugly. Bad. Ew.

I'll try Need For Speed again sometime on its own, but right now I must say that I am not impressed.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Glitterati

I hit VIB last month, so I got to indulge in the Sephora VIB sale for the first time ever! And of course I had to pick up a lot of nail polish... including my first high end brands! I picked up Illamasqua's Glitterati/Viridian duo. My mom said in the bottle she preferred Viridian, but after I put them both on she preferred Glitterati. So here it is for you!

These aren't my best photos ever; my family was staying at my house when I put this on, so I took poorly-lit phone pictures on day 3 of wearing this. But dang is this a pretty bottle. I need a better topcoat; I've been using Essie Good to Go, and it's been shrinking at the cuticles and it didn't quite smooth the glitter out. But that issue aside, this is definitely going to be a favorite fall polish for me.






Monday, November 18, 2013

Embellished Naughty Nautical

Essie's Naughty Nautical has quickly become one of my favorite polishes ever. It's a perfect color with an amazing subtle shimmer that keeps it interesting without being over the top. I've worn it several times in the last few months, so I thought I'd spice it up this time!


I used China Glaze Galactic Gray and Cosmic Dust as well as Zoya's Zuza. Zuza and Naughty Nautical are pretty much exactly the same color but with different finishes.


My husband said he definitely preferred the dots to the strips, and I think I agree with him. More dotty gradients are in my future, I think!