These nails were the result of a lot of glitter sandwich experiments!!  The base color on this, P2 Dangerous, is quite sheer and jelly like on the first coat.  You can't really tell in the picture but after three coats it was still a tiny bit sheer.  I layered it with Color Club Sugar Plum Yum because I hate the scent on it and I was hoping a few layers of polish and some top coat would mask the scent.  Then the whole thing got messed up and when I started over I didn't have the patience to redo all the layers to make the sandwich. So I went with an open faced (lol) and just put a coat of glitter over the P2.  The Seche Vite topcoat DID actually mask the scent of the polish  pretty well. :)  Thanks for following! 

Many of you know that I started school to become a nail technician last week.  I'm not really entirely sure where I want to go with it yet, whether I want to work in a salon or a spa or just build some clientele and do my own thing.  But I have a bit of time to figure it out.  On the long term, I'd love to have my own business and my wonderful and always supportive husband has already offered to help get me started in any way he can. :)  I entered the world of nails with a lot of information already.  Information I had learned from blogs, magazines, web sites, trial and error, and even from some of you lovely ladies.  I was honestly surprised at how much of what I had learned on my own was actually correct.  But the first week of school also taught me a lot of new things and I wanted to share some of them with all of you!! So here we go:

Things I learned in my first week of nail school:

Retail Cost: $1.99 to $2.99

vs.

OPI: Teenage Dream from the now discontinued Katy Perry line

Retail Cost: $8.50

First I want to say, please excuse the 'noisy' pictures.  My camera setting got stuck and now the camera is dead so I can't retake them. :(  But the color is accurate and that's 90% of the point so I'm still going to post!  The new Jordana glitters are here (in some places) and when I saw this one I knew I had to swatch it.  I love my OPI Teenage Dream and as you can see in the pic, it's starting to get a little low. :P  I thought if they were similar then I'd have a cheap back-up since the Katy Perry colors are discontinued and are slowly dwindling from retailers.  So let's break it down, shall we?

A close up of the bottles pretty much says it all.  They're both micro pink glitter with larger, round holo glitter in a clear jelly base.  I was thinking the Jordana would likely be thicker and have a sub par brush (OPI famously has wide brushes).  But that was not the case.  The Jordana brush is quite thick and I actually found it a bit easier to work with than the OPI brush.  And both formula's were a bit thicker than normal polish but not so much so that they were hard to use. 

There was an ice storm here last night and try as I did to take pictures outside in the natural light, all I got was flash or shadowy pics.  So this is an indoor shot.  There is definitely more pink to these in person, the glitter looks less sparse and it's sort of a foil-y pink effect with larger hex chunks in it.  Either way the fact remains that there is zero difference between these on the nail.  The coverage is the same, the color is the same, the spacing of the glitter is the same.  If I had to guess I'd say the wear time on the OPI is longer, but otherwise...exactly the same.

A macro shot of the glitter confirms it.  For some reason, on this particular nail the holo glitter in the Jordana sort of all ended up in one place near the free edge.  But the application was the same for each.  These are not like Lippmann's which require a certain touch to get the glitter to apply evenly.  It's fairly simple to get an evenly sparkly nail!  

Verdict: Dupes.  These two are the same color and density.  In my personal opinion, there is no difference between the two other than the label and the brush.

Availability:OPI Teenage Dream was part of the now discontinued Katy Perry collection.  It still has limited availability at Ulta stores and all retailers where OPI is sold nationwide. Jordana polishes can be purchased at Kmart stores nationwide and online at Jordana.com.

Today's nails came from complete and total boredom and a love for a polish I recently bought.  A few weeks ago CVS ran a huge closeout sale on Revlon's.  I went and was underwhelmed.  But I did pick up a cherry scented red and a matte white called Powder Puff.  This is not that white.  I actually kind of hated the Powder Puff.  It was streaky, dried surprisingly slow for a matte polish and it had an odd sort of frosty finish.  Awhile later during the Sally winter closeout I picked up a bunch of Orly's and when I got home I realized that I was one shy of  having the whole Holiday Soiree collection.  What was I missing you ask?  THIS polish.  Au Champagne.  I really didn't want to buy it because I don't need anymore whites and I thought for sure it would be a frosty mess.  But it's actually one of my favorite polishes from this year.  It dries almost matte but it has a wonderful suede-y type of finish.  It looks EXACTLY how I wanted Powder Puff to look.  I kept it on a full day before adding this art to it.  I'm not sure what really inspired the art but I used my Models Own art pen and then after the lines were on I decided to add some dots and....voila! This.  Lol...the dots are done with the suede version of OPI Ink.  Then I Seche Vite'd the top for a shiny finish. :)

Enjoy and thanks for following! Are there any polishes you thought you'd hate that you ended up loving?

Enjoy and thanks for following!!

Today's nail art was based off of a pattern I saw on a rug in a store a few weeks back. The colors are a little bit different (the rug was white, black, and red) but I wanted something sort of muted but still with contrast.  I actually liked how it came out but it kind of reminds me of Tetris pieces! I used a dotting tool for the whole thing and it took less than 5 minutes from start to finish (after initial base coat dry time!) so all in all it was an easy design!! Might try this one again with different colors!

Enjoy and thanks for following!

All colors by Models Own: Concrete Mixer, Moody Grey and Purple Ash

A super sparkly mani for today because my week is starting out not so super sparkly!  Sparkles make everything better, right?  There are a few things that led to today's color combo.  I wanted to try out my new Barry M Lilac Foil for starters.  It's odd because I have a few 'foil' finish polishes already.  My favorites are the Orly Foil FX line.  Not only are they metallic and shiny but they also have a micro shimmer throughout which makes them just gorgeous on the nail.  The Barry M foils...well...not so much.  They can be streaky, they dry to an odd flat-ish finish, and they're not incredibly shiny OR sparkly on the nail.  They're kind of like the flat, gross side of the roll of aluminum foil!  After three coats and still streaks I decided to cover it up with something more flashy.  Enter Tart with A Heart.  I LOVE this butterLONDON color.  It was part of their holiday collection this year and it's just mesmerizing.  There are all different colors of glitter throughout it, even black, and it looks completely different depending on what color it's used over. I actually quite liked this combination, even if it is lacking in the creativity department!!

Enjoy and thanks for following! :) 

So I joined a new challenge group recently.  I know what you're thinking...you're already doing A LOT of challenges. And it's true, I am.  But I don't know how often I'll do these challenges it's just something I'm playing with right now.  I have a TON of stamps and yet I hardly use them.  When I first got started with nail art I got them because, when used properly, they create instant and stunning art.  But since I've gotten more into free handing, I almost feel lazy using them.  I want to find a way to, ultimately, combine both free handing and stamping to make crazy amazing mani's!  So the Adventures in Stamping group I hope will inspire me to use my stamps in new ways.  This week's stamping challenge was green.  Myself being the environmentalist I am, I immediately wanted to do something to do with recycling and 'green' living.  But...that idea was scrapped when I found that I have zero stamps with anything to do with anything 'green'.  So instead I used GREEN polish.  It's vegan, three free, and thanks to a special offer...actually was FREE for me.  I'm talking about Zoya of course.  I have a love/hate relationship with Zoya and you'll see why in my picture...

The base for this was Zoya Jewel and the stamp is BM-225 using Zoya Veruschka.  If you look at my ring finger, you'll notice why I hate Zoya polish.  This picture was taken about half an hour after I did this mani and along the top edge of that nail and also along the top side of the middle finger, you can see it cracking as it peels off my nail.  I don't have this problem with any other brand (so far) and before you ask, I've tried a ZILLION top/base coats and nothing seems to help the issue.  It doesn't ALWAYS happen.  But when it does, it sucks.  So as you can imagine these didn't last long.  Shame because I wanted to take a picture in the sun.  Zoya Jewel is SO sparkly! Anyway I hope you enjoy the nails and thanks so much for following!!

Today's Purple Crumpet Fairy challenge was to do animal print nails.  I was a little non-plussed for this one because animal print is not really my thing and also because I've done A LOT of animal print nails.  My favorite ones so far were the striped leopard nails I did awhile back. Mostly because they were animal print, yes, but not your standard leopard or zebra print nail. They were outside of the box.  So for today's challenge, I wanted to go outside the box again with the print!  The cute little guy you see above is a Brazilian Tapir.  They are pig-like (though not related genetically to the pig) animals which live in South America and are considered endangered.  I actually do a lot of work with endangered species organizations (mostly for the African Elephant and the Clouded Leopard) so it was sort of a fun challenge for me because of that!  Anyway...on to the nails!

It's time for another edition of Dupes Up! This weeks contenders:

 Essie: Pure Pearlfection from the LuxeEffects collection

Retail Cost: $8

vs.

Orly: Twilight  from the Holiday Top Coats Collection

I know what you're thinking. She's crazy, right? These look nothing alike.  I would agree with you at first glance...but there's more to these two than meet the eye. 

I apologize first for the awkward angle of my index finger in this picture.  It was the only way I could get the shimmer to show.  These are both swatched over Hard Candy The End and Ulta Snow White as per ususal.  I'm sure you've already noticed why I'm 'dupe testing' these.  They are both multi-tonal shimmers packed into jelly bases.  Yes, the Orly is packed into a lilac base while the Essie is in a clear one.  But tell me, do YOU see a difference?

Naturally I assumed that on a white base it would be blatently obvious which was the Essie and which was the Orly.  Not so.  The lilac base in the Orly didn't even show on white after THREE coats.  After which point I stopped trying.   To my eyes they look exactly alike.   In this picture, the Orly looks a bit murkier but I can assure you that this is mostly due to the lighting and the shadow in the picture.  It also seems that over white, they lose a lot of their multi-tonal effect and show mostly as a white-ish, silvery shimmer rather than a colorful one.

 Over black they look exactly the same as well.  The colorful shimmer is easier to see here than it is on the white but again, the murky lilac base of the Orly Twilight makes no appearance here.  From what I can tell, these polishes are essentially the same.

Verdict: Close enough for spades.

I know the price difference on these two isn't much BUT if you weren't lucky enough to snag the Essie LuxeEffects polishes you may have been able to score the Orly at Sally during their winter clearance sale for just $1.67.  Yes, you read that correctly. One dollar and sixty-seven cents.  Orly's do also contain a SMIDGE more product than their polish counterparts.  The Essie is a 15mL while the Orly is 18mL.

Where to buy: Both of these are from 'limited edition' collections this winter.  The Essie was available at Ulta and select drugstores nationwide.  Orly can be purchased at Ulta and Sally Beauty Supply stores.

Rematch!!

Essie Pure Pearlfection 

vs.

Retail Cost: 4.99

Awhile back I picked up a few of the Muppets collection by OPI.  When I first got them the only two colors I was interested in were Warm and Fozzie and Rainbow Connection.  Then I kept seeing swatches for Designer di Better and decided that it was also a MUST HAVE.  And now I have almost all of them. Go figure.  Long story short when I got the Designer di Better I noticed that it's essentially the same as Warm and Fozzie, but it's sort of the opposite.  The Warm and Fozzie is a warm bronze with tiny gold, silver, and various colored flecks while the Designer di Better is a silvery based polish with tiny bronze flecks.  So I thought it might be cool to do a gradient with the Warm and Fozzie at the bottom.  The Designer di Better has the little coppery flecks that sort of draw the whole thing together.  This is what it ended up looking like.  I actually liked it a lot although the bronze on the base didn't stick out as much as I thought it would.  The only issue I had was removal. That Designer di Better is a nightmare to get back off!! But so worth it for this understated yet blingy mani!!

Enjoy and thanks for following!

Warm & Fozzie sponged over Designer di Better

These nails are actually kind of old! I'm trying to work through a backlog of un-posted nails. That might not be such a bad thing since, after a month of changing polish nearly daily and not much time to moisturize, my nails were looking kind of awful and I ended up cutting them all down. New year, new nails, right?  I'm using Orly Nail-trician to try to get them back into shape.  I've never had brittle, weak, or slow growing nails and I still don't but they could use a boost at any rate.  I also switched to Orly Nail Armor base coat from the Seche Clear I was using before. We'll see if any of it makes a difference!  Anyway I did these nails to practice my water marbling skills.  I know the trick to getting them pretty I just don't' always have the patience to do them.  I thought these turned out rather nice and since I didn't have the pressure of doing my whole hand I went more slowly with the marbling.  I'm also trying to incorporate more art 'supplies' into my nail art.  I have SO many beads, stones, stickers, tapes, etc. to use and yet I never do.  So these used some nail studs I got from Dollar Nail Art. :)  Hope you all enjoy! Thanks for following along!

Base is Ulta Snow White

Green: Models Own Jade Stone

Blue: Models Own Feelin' Blue

Silver Studs from Dollar Nail Art

It's time for another edition of Dupes Up! This weeks contenders:

Nails Inc: The Wyndham Top Coat from the Special Effects Sets

Retail Cost: $10 (set of two with Kensington Teal for $20 at Sephora.com)

vs.

Finger Paints: Flecked  from the Special Effects Collection

I'll start by saying these were incredibly hard to photograph in the bottle.  I tried in artificial light, natural light, sunlight...it just wasn't working.  This didn't make it any easier:

Everytime I bring polish out Aoife just HAS to come investigate.  She's made off with more than one polish while my back was turned.   At any rate they are both green flakies which flash blue in certain lights.  The basic appearance of them in the bottle is the same but the Nails Inc. is a bit clearer where the Finger Paints is in an almost yellowish base. (It reminds me of the glow in the dark polishes.)

This is the result of them on the nails. Can you tell the difference?  

Much like the Essie and Deborah Lippmann gold glitters, the only real difference here is that the Nails Inc. flakie has a little more coverage on the first go than the Finger Paint version.

A closer look at them in the sun.  You can see better in this picture that the Nails Inc Wyndham top coat has much better coverage.  I thought it also had a better formula.  The flakies spread easier on the nail and the brush is MUCH superior to the flimsy, thin Finger Paints version.  However, Finger Paints doesn't require you to purchase their flakies in a two pack and they're more widely available and HALF the cost.  So like the Lippmann before it, you could easily use two coats of the Finger Paint to get the same coverage and thus have an actual dupe. There is also a blue/purple leaning flakie in the Finger Paints special effects collection which I'll be swatching next to another Nails Inc top coat. So stay tuned for that!  

Verdict: Close enough for spades. :)  

Where to buy:  Nails Inc. Special Effects two packs can be purchased at Sephora.com for $20 and at Sephora.co.uk for £20 each.  Finger Paints Special Effect polishes are available at Sally's locations nationwide on January 1, 2012.