New polish! I visited Ulta today, hoping they would have some more of the Tronica polishes. Sadly, they didn't, but they did have some O.P.I. DS and some new O.P.I. suedes. Oddly enough, the only DS they didn't have was Sapphire which is the one I already bought and I wasn't super impressed with the other colors. I thought about getting Original, but for 12.50 I figured I'd skip it. Instead I picked up this new suede and I am IN LOVE. This is seriously one of my new favorite colors of all time! Better still, I used my Essie Matte About You top coat on it and, unlike some of the other colors I've tried it over this one maintained all of it's silvery grey goodness. The thumb hasn't been topcoated in this picture and there is no color change at all. Score! I also found a couple more of the China Glaze Vintage Vixens on clearance (and picked up an extra bottle of Swing Baby for good measure!) so I'm sure those will play into some of my manicures this week.



Base is O.P.I. Suede in Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees. Tips are leopard printed with Nicole by O.P.I. Justin Bieber collection in Give me the 1st Dance, and the insides of the leopard spots and the stripe down the ring finger are China Glaze Vintage Vixen collection in Midnight Mission. Topped with two coats of Essie Matte About You.

Today's nails are inspired by the volcano I'm working on for my neice to erupt this summer! I intended for them to look like hot lava and I think I did a decent job. The hardest part was waiting for all the layers to dry!

Base coat is CoverGirl Candy Corn. Over that I marbled Revlon Scented Orange Pop and China Glaze Ruby Pumps. Covered that with a layer of China Glaze Cracked Concrete and then swiped the crackle randomly with O.P.I. Shatter polish.

Flowery nails with a bit of a 60's vibe! I didn't really like these nails as much as I thought I might because the blue turned green over the yellow (duh -- grammar school knowledge!) and the flowers seemed to be less random than I intended them to. But they're still cute! :)

Base on all nails but ring is NYC Taxi Cab. Base on ring is CoverGirl Candy Corn. Flowers are Revlon Fuschia Fever, and Sally Hansen Xtreme in Plum Burst, Blue Me Away, and Go Go Green.

I meant to keep my nail color on a little longer following the silk wrap I had to use on my thumb. I've heard horror stories about using silk wraps and I don't know if I just got lucky or if other people are just using them wrong but mine has been great. It was fairly easy to apply and I didn't have to file it too much to get it smooth. I was worried that removing polish from the nail would lift or crinkle the wrap but it didn't even phase it. So I guess I'll keep changing my polish as usual until I have a problem with it.

This is not a very summery nail! But it's been cold here recently, it's even supposed to snow this weekend (yuck!) and I wanted to use this new Zoya color I picked up. It's actually from the Winter 2009 collection but it's a beautiful color. I topped the matte base coat off with some Essie Matte About You top coat and skipped a top coat over the gold. We'll see how it stands up!

Base is Zoya Matte Velvet in Veruschka and it's topped with Orly Luxe paisleys and flowers. :)

The weather today couldn't make up it's mind. One minute it was grey and pouring and the next it was sunny and somewhat warm. At work today my thumb nail broke about halfway down the nail (hate it when that happens) so I decided to go after to look for some silk wraps. Found some at Sally's and also noticed that they FINALLY had some of the Tronica collection in stock. One bottle was left and it was on sale (score!) and since it was pretty sunny at that point I thought it would be a pretty manicure. Unfortunately, by the time I got home, fed the cats, and wrestled with the silk wrap, the sun had long since gone to bed. I'll try to get a better picture of this tomorrow if it's sunny at all because this stuff has MAJOR sparkle.

Base is China Glaze Tronica Collection in Mega Byte, pattern is Sinful Colors Black on Black, stripes are China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and there are some dots of O.P.I. DS Sapphire.

After much experimentation, I finally got my Crushed Candy to actually crackle. I'm not sure what it is about this particular color, my Lightning Bolt and Crushed Concrete crackled over numerous polishes with no issues. I found that shaking it vigorously about five minutes ahead of time, and dragging the polish (not the brush) over the nail in a medium coat worked the best. It was certainly a chore to do but it was totally worth it because I love LOVE, LOVE this color!

Base is Cover Girl Violet Vision. Crackle is China Glaze Crushed Candy.

These nails were a quickie and were inspired by the pattern on the sides of my DC sneakers. :)

Base is Essie Like Linen and the flowers are Essie Sew Psyched, Orly Prince Charming, and Revlon Fuschia Fever.

My nails have been so flashy lately with the holographic polishes that I decided to do this nice, subtle one! It looks much prettier in the sunlight but I totally forgot to photograph it earlier. Maybe I'll get a better picture tomorrow. :) The colors were inspired by my Himalayan kitty Aoife (pictured below!). It's a simple shimmer swirled over creme. Enjoy! :)

Base is Essie Sand Tropez. Swirled more Sand Tropez and China Glaze Swing Baby over the top. Flower is Orly Prince Charming. Flower center is Orly Luxe.

So I picked up some holographic polishes for summer over the past two weeks. These are GREAT for sunny days because your nails literally light up! They're SUPER sparkly and have a wonderful rainbow effect. Since there impossible to find in stores now, I had to go online to get some. The kind I really wanted, GOSH Holographic, was nowhere to be found, so I looked at the next best thing: O.P.I's designer series, and China Glaze's Kaleidoscope collection. I ended up with DS Sapphire and He's Going in Circles. When the O.P.I. DS Sapphire arrived I was so impressed with it. It had a smooth, very rainbow effect and it looked awesome on my nails! When the China Glaze got here I was a bit worried. As you can see in the picture (O.P.I on the left, China Glaze on the right) it looks more like a standard SUPER glitter polish than a holographic. But on your nails it's a whole different story!

So my other holographic polish came today. I was a little concerned from the online swatches that it would look just like the O.P.I. DS Sapphire but when I opened the bottle I noticed it was completely different. The O.P.I. is sort of a smooth, rainbow holo effect. This looked green and there were visable chunks of glitter in the bottle. I was a bit worried that I'd like the O.P.I better and that this one would dry with a sandy texture, but it surprised me. I actually like this one much better! Even though it's clearly a glitter polish, while the other seems to have more fine, smooth shimmer, this one has a beautiful rainbow effect both indoors and out. And while the O.P.I color looks a dull grey in artificial low light, this one has a pleasant glittery green look to it. Very pleased overall! I might look into the other China Glaze Kaleidoscope colors!

Base is China Glaze Kaleidoscope Collection in He's Going in Circles. Tips are Essie Lapis of Luxury with Milani One Coat Glitter in Purple Gleam swirled over it. The flower and dots on the middle finger are O.P.I. Suede in Ink.

Okay, so it's not really St. Patricks Day until tomorrow but I'm not getting up at 5AM to do my nails before work!! I thought it would be fun to do a pot-o-gold at the end of the rainbow!!

Base color is Sally Hansen Green with Envy. Shamrocks are Sally Hansen Go-Go Green, Orly Luxe, Orly Prince Charming, and O.P.I. for Sephora in Leaf Him at the Altar. Rainbow is Revlon All Fired Up and Orange Pop, NYC Taxi Cab, Sally Hansen Go-Go Green, CoverGirl Blue You, and Sally Hansen Plum Burst. The pot-o-gold is Maybelline Express Finish in Onyx Rush, Orly Luxe, and O.P.I. DS Sapphire.

My holo polish is here! This stuff is seriously AMAZING. It's difficult to see in the picture but it has a rainbow shimmer that's just awesome. It's hard to stop looking at it. Hopefully tomorrow will be a sunny day because the artificial light in this picture is doing it no justice at all.

There's a great picture of it here: PolishInsomniac

Base is O.P.I. DS Sapphire and then I stamped O.P.I Suede Ink over it. :)

haven't bought any new polish in a few weeks and I've been itching to get my hands on some new ones. I've had my eye on Orly's Space Cadet for awhile now. It's a duo-chrome and it's sort of shimmery purple-green. It's PACKED with sparkle. It changes from gold to green to purple to pink...it's just a really amazing color. It's part of the Orly FX collection and it's totally worth the extra $1.50 you'll pay for it. This photo does it NO justice at all. I looked for better ones online but it's apparently just really hard to photograph.

So I got the new Pokemon White game and ever since I've been itching to do Pokemon nails. I love the idea of doing pokeballs but I wanted to try to do something a bit more ambitious. It turned out to be A LOT more ambitious than I originally planned. From base coat to top coat this mani took me at least an hour. Most of it was dry time because details had to be added on top of details. It also required a lot of mixing of colors which I hadn't originally anticipated. Nonetheless I think it came out pretty good. I skipped the Premier Ball, Heal Ball and the Timer Ball but I think I hit all the rest!! Enjoy :)

On the right hand from thumb to pinky:
Master Ball: Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, Maybelline Express Finish in Onyx Rush, Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection in Give Me the 1st Dance, Revlon Rock, and Sally Hansen Xtreme in Plum Burst

Ultra Ball: Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, Maybelline Express Finish in Onyx Rush, Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection in Give Me the 1st Dance, and NYC in Taxi Cab

Great Ball: Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, Maybelline Express Finish in Onyx Rush, Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection in Give Me the 1st Dance, CoverGirl in Blue You and Revlon All Fired Up

Dusk Ball: Maybelline Express Finish Onyx Rush, OPI for Sephora Leaf Him at the Altar, Maybelline Express Finish GoGo Green, CoverGirl Candy Corn and Perfect Penny.

Pokeball: Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, Maybelline Express Finish in Onyx Rush, Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection in Give Me the 1st Dance, and Revlon All Fired Up

Left Hand from thumb to pinky:

Repeat Ball: Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, Maybelline Express Finish in Onyx Rush, Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection in Give Me the 1st Dance, Revlon All Fired Up and NYC Taxi Cab

Dive Ball: Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, Maybelline Express Finish in Onyx Rush, Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection in Give Me the 1st Dance, and Sally Hansen Xtreme White On mixed with CoverGirl Blue You

Net Ball: Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, Maybelline Express Finish in Onyx Rush, Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection in Give Me the 1st Dance, and Maybelline Express Finish Timely Turquoise mixed with Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection Me+Blue

Luxury Ball: Maybelline Express Finish Onyx Rush and Orly Luxe and CoverGirl Crushed Berries

Nest Ball: Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, Maybelline Express Finish in Onyx Rush, Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection in Give Me the 1st Dance, and OPI for Sephora Leaf Him at the Altar and CoverGirl Perfect Penny mixed with Crushed Berries.

I'm still feeling pretty sick today, so I did some easy nails. These literally took 5 minutes and I'm pretty happy with the way they look. I tried using the Milani One Coat glitter polish for the sponging but it sponges in one coat too! So I opted for some silver glitter instead. :)

No base color for this one. Sponged Revlon Belle on the top half of the nail and the tips are CoverGirl Blue You and Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber collection in Give Me the 1st Dance.

Topped it with Seche Vite which I'm still LOVING. It really does keep my nails from chipping. As an added bonus it dries wicked fast, adds MEGA shine and makes my nails stronger. You can't beat that. :)

I re-did my nails last night, which is a good thing because today I'm feeling pretty sick. Probably food poisoning :( Anyway I was planning to watch Marie Antoinette tonight so the nails were inspired by that. The movie has a lot of bright pinks and purples but I never do pastels so I thought I'd do something a little more subtle. They sort of remind me of a shirt I had way back in the early 90's!

The base is half Revlon Cotton Candy and half Revlon Cloud. Stripes are Orly Rage and Sally Hansen Xtreme in Purple Gala.

Side note: The Revlon scented polish still smells

even through two layers of top coat. :)

It's been raining here for about three days now. This morning, I went outside and the rain had stopped...well...sort of. Now it's snowing! Gotta love mid-western winters :) Anyway I thought I'd do a rainy day manicure. Also picked up a new base coat and some Seche Vite top coat. I work with my hands at my job and my nails are ALWAYS chipping. This is top coat test number 4 so let's hope it lives up to the hype. I will say one thing for it -- it dries SUPER fast and it's VERY shiny!! Onto the colors...

Base is Revlon in Silver. Clouds are Sally Hansen Xtreme in White On. Rain drops and puddle are Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection in Me+Blue and the green is a mixture of OPI for Sephora in Leaf him at the Altar and Maybelline Express in Onyx Rush. The flower is fimo clay. :) Enjoy!

Spring is on the way so I wanted to do a bright manicure for once!

Pinky is: Sally Hansen Xtreme Blue Me Away

Ring is: Revlon Fuschia Fever

Middle is: CoverGirl Candy Corn

Index is: China Glaze Turn it up Turquoise

Thumb is: NYC Taxi Cab, Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, and Maybelline Express in Onyx Rush.

Spots on all nails are Sally Hansen Xtreme White On and the black writing is Maybelline Express Onyx Rush

I love Betsey Johnson. L-o-v-e. So after I got some new Betsey earrings yesterday, I knew I HAD to do a Betsey Johnson inspired manicure! I wish I had some pink heart gems to put on the ring finger, but I didn't so I had to make do with bows! Next time...

All fingers but ring: Base is Orly Luxe. Spots are Maybelline Express Onyx Rush and Orly Prince Charming. Tips are Revlon Fuschia Fever.

On ring finger: Moons are Revlon Fuschia Fever, base is Orly Prince Charming, spots are Maybelline Express Onyx Rush and Orly Luxe. There is a leopard and lace stripe which is Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Collection in Give me the 1st Dance and a bow which was mixed from Konad white and red.