KOTD: Atomic kitsch

Just a quick post today. Busted out my stamping plates for the first time in a while so I figured I might as well document the extra effort. I love this kitschy 50s atomic pattern...

click to enlarge

I wish I had better photographing conditions today. Utterly depressing low-hanging clouds pretty much snuffing out any semblance of light. In real life, this mani is much more fun and bright. I used Essie Butler Please (2 coats) and stamped over it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Just in Lime which, despite my lying picture, isn't the slightest bit olive green but a zingy bright lime. The plate I used was CH 46--a fun outer space themed plate from Cheeky's summer 2012 collection (available here). Top coat was Seche Vite.

Working on more posts for the coming week, including swatching my new Pure Ice glitter polishes I talked about here, a "what I'm loving right now" post and a post all about my new favorite Youtube beauty vlogger. Stay tuned!

new stuff to stick on my nails: hot pink nail art studs from Born Pretty Store!

In posts past, I have professed and undying love for sticking junk to my nails. Glitter, poly clay slices, rhinestones, wee bits of metal--if it is small enough for nail art, you better believe I'll be featuring it in a mani. So, of course, when I was contacted by the folks at Born Pretty Store requesting a review for one of their products, I jumped at the chance to snatch up some brand new studs to experiment with. 

If you are not already familiar with Born Pretty Store, they are an amazing etailor of everything from jewelry to makeup to nail art supplies. They are an excellent source of all things sparkly and shiny and reasonably priced--nail art rhinestones and glitter, stamping plates, flocking powder, nail foils just to name a few items--and they are always adding new products to their inventory. Oh yea and they offer FREE worldwide shipping, too..sa-weeeeeeeeeet!

So, here's a pic of the studs I got. 

They're 2mm hot pink studs and HERE is the official link to the item's listing. The studs are completely smooth, domed and hollow on the underside. They come in the resealable plastic pouch they are pictured in above and you get TONS of them. The amount pictured in the bag  is actually AFTER I had done 2 different manis with the studs. I'll have these for a long time!

The above is a shot of a mani I created with the studs. I wanted something fun & obnoxiously girly, so I went with a dotticure using a base of China Glaze Creative Fantasy (a neon purple hot mess of a polish--don't even get me started on the abysmal formula). The white dots were made with a dotting tool and Finger Paints Papier Mache. I then used the same dotting tool dipped in a bit of clear polish to pick up the hot pink studs and place them where I wanted them while my polish was still wet. A quick coat of Seche Vite sealed the deal and I was done. Altogether, it took no more than 20 minutes start to finish for me to do both hands. 

These studs are SUPER neon bright. Because of how saturated the color was, I was a bit afraid that the studs  might bleed when I applied topcoat, but amazingly enough, they were totally colorfast! Win!!

shot to show height of the studs

One thing I need to note about these studs is they DO have a higher profile than any of the other rhinestones or studs I've used before. That being said, though, I was amazed at how well they stayed on my nail. I wore this manicure for 3 days without losing a single stud. Probably has something to do with the hollow dome shape filling up with the clear polish & getting everything all good and stuck down when I put the studs on my nail (yes this is me trying to sound scientific--scary isn't it?)...

So do I recommend these studs? Without a freakin doubt! In fact, I'm planning on getting the other neon colors Born Pretty Store offers. They are cute, bright, don't bleed, stay put and I can't wait to do more manis with them!

If you, too, feel moved to give some moneys over to crazy fun bright nail art, then be sure to use this coupon code the peeps at Born Pretty Store created especially for The Awesome People (aka, all you fine readers of my blog).

(disclosure statement: yes products in this post were provided to me for review. no that does not mean I lied about liking them)

Dupe comparison: Butter London The Black Knight vs Pure Ice Private Show

Omg youze guise, we have a $1.98 dupe of a $15.00 polish over here. Yep, Dupetastic and dupe-alicious, that's what Butter London The Black Knight and Pure Ice Private Show are! I LOVE when this happens, though granted I love it more when I haven't already bought the expensive version (but hey, at least I got the Butter London during a big holiday sale, so that helps it sting a little less!)

Check it!:

Bottle shots in shade

Bottle shots in less crappy lighting (indirect sun)

(indirect sun. 3 coats each, no topcoat)

Nail wheel swatches in indirect sun. The Black Knight is on the left and Private Show is on the right. The only real difference I see is TBK has slightly larger, slightly less dense glitters. Other than that, the shapes and colors are identical, as is the black base. And they're EVEN pretty much the same formula-wise. The above swatch is 3 coats of each polish with no topcoat. Same general consistency and opacity for both of these (i.e., they both start out frighteningly sheer, then about 75% opaque at coat 2 and then coat 3 gets full coverage. Now that I think of it, I should have taken pics of each coat--bad blogger!!)

(indirect sun. 3 coats each. Seche Vite topcoat)

And here is a shot on my nails.  The swatch order from left to right goes Private Show, The Black Knight and then Private Show again. In this light, you can't even see the difference in glitter sizes. 

(indirect sun. 3 coats. Seche Vite topcoat)

This is Private Show by itself. I must mention that, in addition to this polish being $13.00 cheaper, you also get more of it--Pure Ice bottles contain .5 oz of product while Butter London bottles only have .4. DOUBLE SCORE!!

So there you have it, kids. If  you love The Black Knight but aren't crazy enough to pay $15 for it, Pure Ice Private Show is sure to kill that lemming. And if you are amongst the crazies like me who have already dropped the big dough on TBK because you just hadtohaveitomgitissogorgeous, then hey at least you can get a nice cheap back up!!

You can find Pure Ice polishes at Walmart.

Pure Ice Haul + NOTD of Pure Ice Irreplaceable

Much to the delight of lacquerheads everywhere, Pure Ice, purveyors of gorgeous, cheap nail polishes, recently came out with, like 7 zillion new shades for 2013 (ok it's more like 29). Well, I stumbled upon a display for all their awesome new pretties the other day and this happened:

(click to huge-ify and please cut me some slack while I figure out how to finesse the best pics out of my new camera)

Oopsy. Yea and this is actually AFTER I made myself put several bottles back. SO MUCH GLITTER!! and they're only $1.97 each!!

Can we get some shade names up in here? Top row from L to R: Over You (holographic teal hex and bar glitter with lavender microglitter in a clear base); Irreplaceable (silver and black microglitter with larger gunmetal hexes in a black jelly base); Look My Way (bright blue hexes with smaller purple glitters in a clear base); Watch Me Go (super fine blue and green glitter in a clear base). 

Bottom row L to R: Never Satisfied (large silver, magenta and purple hexes with smaller teal glitters in a clear base); Tame Me Now (red and orange glitters with larger silver hexes in a clear base); Freedom (blue hexes, silver stars and large and small red hexes in a clear base); Private Show (magenta, red, blue, and silver microglitter in a black base...I smell a Butter London The Black Knight dupe here!!)

Ok, SOMEONE in the Pure Ice polish naming department obviously has one hell of a sleazy, jilted love life...but I digress...

Being the black glitter  polish nut that I am, the first shade I picked to wear was Irreplaceable:

I have yet to see anyone come out with a black polish that has such interesting glitters in it. I LOVE the larger gunmetal hexes. They're rather unshiny and they give the polish an industrial feel--they look like rivets or bits of antique metal or something, and since I am all about bad-ass deconstructed grime glam (yes these are my terms--who else would cook up such ludicrous phrases), I am falling all over the place for them. The smaller silver and black glitters in the base lend an almost mineralistic feel to this polish. If someone pulverized obsidian gemstones and made them into a nail lacquer, this would be what you'd get. 

The aforementioned awesomeness pretty much makes up for the fact that the formula is evil in a bottle. Thick, gloopy consistency that drags into bald spots all over the place, glitters that clump together, craptastic mop of a brush...all the shizz that polish addicts hate--it's all there. I basically had to glob one layer on, let it dry and then glob a second layer on & push it around. It was more like spackliing than painting. A good thick coat of Seche Vite helped even everything out for the most part...but on its own, the polish has an uneven, gritty texture. 

So my final word on Irreplaceable by Pure Ice is it is only for true die-hard black glitter polish fanatics.  Its merits are in LOOKS alone. The only way you will get complete fulfillment out of this stuff is if you secretly like to be tortured. 

Stay tuned for swatches of the other polishes in this latest Pure Ice haul!! 

are bad pics better than no pics?

So, I thought about it and decided--what the hell,  I'll post all my bad cell phone pics of the manis I've done over the past few months. VIEW AT YOUR OWN RISK. In addition to being shot by inferior equipment in inadequate lighting, these pics feature work that was never intended to see the light of day--that means there's all kinds of ragged, dry cuticles, sloppy application & little to no clean-up. Think you can stomach it?

Orly Pre-amp stamped with Konad special white. This was sometime in late December...

Zoya Fei Fei stamped with Wet N Wild Black Creme. Mid December, maybe??

Purple ruffle mani done with more purples than I can remember and a dotting tool. 

My New Year's nails. China Glaze Blonde Bombshell stamped with Wet n Wild black creme with some decals thrown in for good measure. 

Icicle nails! The baby blue base  is a new for 2013 New York Color polish (I can't remember the name for the life of me and I can't find the bottle--arrgh!). The icicles were done with a Kiss nail art striper and then I topped it with a subtle teal blue glitter polish by Confetti (which I also can't remember and can't find...doh!)

Wacky acid trip nails! I started by making a bullseye pattern with all the bright colors from the China Glaze Cirque de Soliel collection, then I stamped over all that crazyness with Konad Special white. Utterly headache-inducing!

More colors from China Glaze Cirque du Soliel (my husband got me the entire collection for Christmas--told ya he was awesome!!). This is a base of Hanging in the Balance, dotted with Def Defying. The smaller dots inside the bigger dots are Hanging in the Balance again, which ended up taking on a dark green hue over top of the chartreuse--unintended but I still liked it!

So that's just a little glimpse of what I've been up to nail-wise over the past few months & what I thought was unworthy of blogging about. Ugh I cry just looking at those poor dry cuticles!! ::::rubs Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle cream feverishly into fingertips:::: I promise, cuticles, as God as my witness, you shall never go thirsty again!!

My week in nails

Welp, another week has come and gone with nary a post from yours truly. Sad and triflin' I know. I want to be able to post more but, the only way I'm going to accomplish that is if I either get rich enough to afford hired help or miraculously stumble upon human cloning technology and make enough mes to go around. As always, though,  I have been taking pics of my manis (well, the ones that lasted long enough for me to get pics of, that is) and I have a few of those pics to share with you today.

The mani above is brought to you by Maybelline's Color Show Line. They have recently released a set of limited edition kryptonite glitter polishes called 'Sequins.' Of course, whilst out running errands, I happened upon a display of said polishes and 3 of them somehow found their way into my cart (go to the store for diapers, come home with diapers....and several bottles of nail polish. Story of my frickin life). This pretty is known by the name "Sapphire Masquerade." It consists of multiple sizes of blue-violet glitter (I wouldn't consider this a true blue) with some larger bright purple glitters thrown into an inky blue jelly base. Freakin LOVE. Easy to work with. GREAT coverage and it actually managed to not feel like sandpaper despite being a glitter bomb. Pictures are 2 coats of Sapphire Masquerade with 2 coats of Seche Vite on top. Moving right along......

This is the crazy ass mani I came up with to celebrate the fact that, after last week's election,  gays can get married in even more states now!! YAAAAAY!! Granted I intentionally keep politics off this blog because I want it to be simply about the awesome escapism that pretty shiny things bring into our lives BUT  I have no problem publicly stating that I am all for equality for ALL human beings, no matter what they look like, what they have between their legs,  how much money they make,  where they live, what they believe or who they take to bed with them. And where else is a nail polish fiend supposed to express her happiness over more victories for gay rights than on  the tips of her fingers??

 This mani was done with Wet N Wild black creme., then came a coat of an old and unfortunately pretty impossible to  find Fantasy Makers rainbow bar glitter polish from a few years back called Black Magic (yes the other OTHER version of that polish). After that,  I  free-handed some half moons with Essie No Place Like Chrome, glitterfied the half moons with a silver glitter Kiss nail art striper, stuck on a rainbow combo of rhinestones &  Badda-boom badda-bing, ya got some Yay for the Gays nails. 

After I used Essie No Place like Chrome for those half-moons, I decided I needed even more of that awesome shiny in my life. And, to shiny it up even more,  I reached for Color Club Platinum Record (from last year's insane Backstage Pass glitter collection). The above mani is 1 coat of No Place like Chrome with 2 coats of Platinum Record dabbed on & 1 coat of Gelous + Seche Vite to finish. Gotta love BLINDING disco ball nails. Trying to get pics of this was pretty much im-freakin-possible. Seriously, my camera was about to jump out of my hands & walk out the door it was so fed up (us nail bloggers always put our poor cams through such hell). 

So that's all I got for ya this time. Thanks to those of you who actually still bother to stop by!  I like to think I will be able to post with some semblance of consistency one fine day--like maybe 20 years from now when all my boys are all grown up... Until next time,  Peace and pretty things to all!

NOTD: Nicole by OPI All is Glam, All is Bright

Nicole by OPI has been on a roll lately as far as I am concerned. Their Target exclusive fall collection was stunning for the most part and their new Target Exclusive Kardashian holiday collection (I know I cringe at the idea of giving that family a cent of my money but cannot.resist.gravitational.pull.of. awesome.polish!!!) has a few gems too. When   I saw this beauty in the store, I absolutely had to have it. People meet All is Glam, All is Bright:

outdoors afternoon sun

outdoors shade

Itty bitty adorable little nano glitters make this polish up--I see red and silver and baby blue. Absolutely stunning--like a christmas ball in a bottle. When on the nail, the polish almost gives off a sort of lavender hue but all the individual glitter colors are still discernable and the red just pops out so beautifully. This polish is definitely unique and gorgeous and the absolute must-have of the Holiday collection if you ask me. 

The formula takes a little coaxing. I applied 3 thin coats to reach opacity and there was a bit of balding and dragging involved. I applied a coat of Gelous before finishing with Seche Vite because the polish had a slight grittyness to it by itself. Also, alone, the polish dries fairly matte so if you want smooth shinyness you're gonna have to work a little for it but in the end it is sooooo worth it.

Have you picked up any of Nicole by OPI's recent offerings? They really have been impressing me lately!! It's hard to find unique polishes to add to your collection when your stash is 1000+ bottles strong, but Nicole keeps hooking me up!

some "Hooray I survived Sandy" swatch spam

WOOOHOOOO! Unless you live under a rock, I'm sure you heard about Superstorm Sandy and how shizz for us east coasters was all like:

well, I am happy to say my family and I made it through the storm. We lost power for a while and saw some trees out back come down (NONE of which came down ON us, thankmyeverlovingod), but we're good now. So, in celebration of our new lease on life, and also because I desperately need to clean out my "to post" folder, howzabout a ton of pics of lots of awesome recently released polishes? You down? Ok sweet. Let 'er rip!

First up, lets all admire the gorgeousness that is Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Twist of Lime, from the Fall 2012 Limited Edition Collection that started popping up about a month ago. This is 2 coats of Twist of Lime layered over 2 coats of Zoya Midori. On its own, this polish is really sheer so I definitely  recommend layering it and BELIEVE me, it is worth the layering. Freakin beau-dee-ful!! Gorgeous glass fleck yellow green that flashes either kelly green and gold depending on your angle of view. 

Next, we have another shade from the limited edition Diamond Strength collection. This one is called Blue Frosting and it is another multichromatic stunner. This one shifts from sky blue to lavender to a deeper purple and blue. I have2 coats of Blue Frosting layered over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac. Like Twist of Lime, Blue Frosting is painfully sheer on its own and definitely needs underwear to bring out its true awesomeness.

Moving on we have YET ANOTHER limited edition Diamond Strength shade (yea, I admit, I bought the whole damn collection when I saw it). This one is Moonlit Dance--gorgeous gold-flashing orange glass fleck amazingness. This is 2 coats layered over Sinful Colors Courtney Orange.

Here's the 4th Diamond Strength shade I have to show you today (I haven't gotten a chance to try the others yet). This one is called All Aglow. This one lacks the color shift that the others have but it is still a beautiful glass fleck finish polish. This one requires no layering--this is 2 coats of All Aglow on its own. Oh Sally Hansen, why you do spoil us so?!

(nail decals courtesy of Kiss)

Here we have Nicole by OPI If the Blue Fits, which is from ANOTHER amazing fall collection--this one Target Exclusive. Beautiful sapphire blue and purple flecks in a navy blue base. I am seriously loving the ubiquitousness (not sure if that's a word or not--meh...) of this polish finish this season as it is one of my absolute favorites. I love the depth & multi-dimensional shimmer  it lends. This is 2 coats of If the Blue Fits on its own--seriously glossy even without topcoat!

 Lastly, we have Python from New York Color. This polish is from their limited edition fall 2012 Fashion Predator collection. This is the only polish in this post I am "meh" about. It's pretty enough--nice olive green glass fleck polish but I've seen it done better. Also, the formula on this one was thin and runny. I'm wearing 4 coats in the pic. C'mon, NYC, I know you are capable of better!

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed my spam. And hoping all east coast peeps are safe and haven't experienced too much Sandy-induced drama!!

Still kickin

Sup, homies? I know its been a while. Life keeps eating up all my time--damn you obligations and responsibilities!! Despite the fact that I haven't blogged about my nails, I HAVE been doing them and I've still created manis for the CNT Halloween Challenge. I just seem to be having issues with being able to get said manis posted on the days they're supposed to appear....sigh...oh well--better late than never, right??

So anyway, here's the mani I did for the "Bump in the Night (monsters, etc) " prompt of the challenge:

Yep, unoriginal mummy nails that 5 million bloggers have done 5 million times before.  But, hey, how many bloggers take pics of their mummy nails while holding adorable little tuxedo skeleton wind-up toys? Yep, that's me, always gotta shake things up.

This mani consists of:

Zoya Dove (the gray)

Wet N Wild Black Creme

Wet N Wild French White Creme

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear  Cherry Red for the pupils

Next up, I have the mani I did for the "pumpkins" prompt of the challenge:

outside shade

inside under swirly eco light bulb thingy

Yea I know, they kinda suck but, like I said, I'm still a newbie with all this free-hand nail art stuff. 

This mani consists of:

Maybelline Orange Blazes

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Moonlit Dance

Wet N Wild Black Creme

Only 3 more prompts left in this challenge. Think I'll manage to post about 'em before Thanksgiving? Stay tuned and find out!

Crumpet's Nail Tarts rock my socks

More late Halloween Challenge nails...

Yep, once again, here I am posting for Crumpet's Halloween Challenge a day late...but honestly--at this point--do you expect anything else from me?

The prompt for this mani was "Freestyle Halloween" so I took the opportunity to experiment with a nail art technique I haven't tried yet: needle marbling. In orange and black, of course...

outside sun

outside shade

even more outside shade

So basically, I took Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sunkissed, painted my nails with it and let it dry. Then, going one nail at a time, I painted half Sunkissed and half Wet N Wild Black Creme--put them both on a bit thick and then I dragged a pin-point through them randomly. I decided NOT to attempt any sort of specific design within the needle marble since it was my first time with it. My aim was simply "lets see if we can do this without it becoming a hot and hideous mess." Once again, kids. If you set your goals nice and low, you won't be dissappointed. After the pin-dragging, I applied 2 coats of Seche Vite.

I admit, I am actually really happy with how my nails came out--even if they are super simple (see readers, I'm taking your advice and trying to be less hard on myself)...I'll definitely be experimenting with needle marbling again!

Oooooh Things that Go Bump in the Night is the next prompt! Ghost nails, here I come!

Yay for Crumpet's Nail Tarts!

Depression Awareness

October is depression awareness month. Green is the ribbon color. Being that I have battled severe clinical depression pretty much my whole frickin life, I felt compelled to do a green manicure dedicated to raising awareness of this most insidious, relentless and ubiquitous disease.  

Mani consists of:

L'Oreal Project Runway The Muse's Attitude

Color Club Kiss me Under the Mistletoe

Bundle Monster image plate 

Seche Vite

For me, depression is very much a physical disease. Chemical imbalances (yes, friends, chemicals are physical things) cause it. For me, that is every bit as REAL and tangible as, say, a tumor is for a cancer patient. Depression has never been "all in my head." It's not simply a matter of "cheering up and getting over it." When those chemicals shift and I feel myself going down, there isn't a whole lot I can do. It's as if someone turns the volume up on gravity. My bones are suddenly made of lead. Getting up becomes pretty much impossible. As does concentrating. The space between my ears fills with static and even when I force myself out of bed & try to make myself engage in some kind of activity, I catch myself standing & staring into space. I hate it. It wastes me and there is nothing I wouldn't give to be rid of it. Depression has been with me since I was a small child. I can't remember ever being without it. And, no matter how many pills or hours of therapy I throw at it, it still remains with me and probably always will. I'll spare you the worst of the details; suffice it to say I am lucky to be alive right now because I know so many people do not win the battle that I stubbornly fight to keep going each day and there were too many times that I, too, came dangerously close to losing. 

If you suffer from depression, I'm sure lots of this rings true for you, too. If you don't, please take the time to educate yourself and please don't ever assume that someone who struggles with this disease does so willingly.

Lame late witch nails

So yesterday was witch day in the halloween challenge I'm doing but I didn't exactly post yesterday.
I DID do my nails yesterday, just didn't get around to actually uploading, editing and publishing anything. Damn you, life...MUST you keep getting in the way of blogging?? And you think I could at least have a decent mani to post given my lateness, but nooooooo. I come straggling in with THIS crap:

My original plan for the witches prompt was to create a fun halloween-colored background and stamp the only witch image I have in my plate collection over top of it. However, since I had never attempted to use that plate before (it's from Bundle Monster's first generation of stamping plates), I had no idea the plate was not etched properly and therefore would NOT stamp the witch properly...so I gave up and reached for some lame witchy decals instead. 

I like to think the cute dotticure background redeems this crap mani but really I just hate the whole dang thing.

For this mani, I used:

Barry M Bright Purple as base

Sinful Colors Exotic Green 

Maybelline Orange Blazes

large & small dotting tool

Nail decals by Kiss

Gelous and Seche Vite topcoats

Lets hope that, since the next prompt is "freestyle Halloween," I can actually pull of something that doesn't suck. Til then, go join the Crumpet's Nail Tarts group on Facebook and go see lots of other much more competent witch-themed manicures!