Models Own Beetlejuice Summer 2012 Collection

Well, I had created this awesome look for the 4th, but when I did it last night I was tired and I had already taken my Ambien...hehe, so it was a bit sloppy and wasn't worth sharing, although I did get some compliments on them at work today. I am so excited to have tomorrow off! Well, I will get to my non-patriotic post...

I have been drooling over this collection before it was even released but everytime I found the collection together it was never in stock...until last week! My first Models Own polishes! I was soooo excited to get them. Their store doesn't ship to the US, so thanks to Harlow & Co. I got mine in like 4 days...shipping from Canada! How awesome! I wanted the first Beetlejuice Collection, but then their summer Beetlejuice collection came out and it was love at first sight!

More than any of them I wanted Indian Ocean. So I'll show it first. This beautiful duochrome is blue, pink, lilac, but very sheer. So, as shown below, I used one coat of Pure Ice Kissy Kiss (a periwinkle color). It wasn't very opaque but that's what I was going for. I then used 2 coats of Models Own Indian Ocean, followed by a thick coat of Seche Vite- I also used basecoat Seche Clear (I will ALWAYS !use a basecoat although I may not name it in my posts- as I used the same base and top coat in all of these manis)) I LOVE this outcome! Indian Ocean also has small purple or pink glitter in it- just a subtle amount to really make it pop. One of my favorite polishes! Jen from Polishaholic also did an awesome swatch on this color here!

Next, is Tropical Sun, which I really liked but wasn't just crazy about until I put it on. This was also a sheer peachy shimmer with hints of orange pink and gold. I decided to go with the base color, coral. For this I used Sinful Colors Hazard- one coat of this opaque polish gave me a brighter Tropical Sun that I would have had otherwise. I still loved this look and as shown below shows its different "faces" in the sun.

Last, but surely not least is Copper Pot, which was, I suppose was my least favorite of these 3, which isn't saying much. Once I put it on I was impressed- although I have probably 4 polishes that are almost this same color (one being a Pure Ice for $1.99). This was strong enough not to use a base color underneath, so I just applied 2 coats of this shimmery copper, hence Copper Pot lol. Looking back, it wouldn't have hurt to use 3 coats, but it still turned out nice.

When I went outside to take these pics it looked as if it was about to rain, so there wasn't a lot of sun, which didn't really give me a lot to work with. Of course, the clouds eventually moved on and my other swatches for this came out great due to the sunlight. Yay for summer....ha. Living in Louisiana isn't much fun during this awful season...the humidity is smothering. Well, I will leave you with this fun picture:

Nerd Lacquer Swatches

Hello, all you polish ladies! It has been like 3 weeks since I last posted. I am polishing my nails at least every other day and take pictures, but just don't have time to upload and write.  Life has been crazy and busy and I find it very soothing to sit down and paint my nails, but by the time I've painted my nails and taken pictures the sun is gone and it's time to go to bed! Where does the day go?!
Well, I have been buying lots of polish online, especially indie brands such as Nerd Lacquer, which is what I'm bringing you all today.  I ordered four colors and bought one of Amanda's new polishes, Carbon Allotrope. I was sooo excited to get them in, but didn't get any pics of the box as I got them in. Here they are separate as I swatched them.  It took me a couple of days to get all of them on and take pictures. I am still trying to made a lightbox so I can take pictures inside, but alas, I don't have a dang box! I can't remember the last time I DIDN'T have a box!

Carbon Allotrope is made up all sizes of silver glitter, very fine and required 4 coats to get my nails fully covered, but I didn't mind. It was a very easy polish to apply and I could apply them fairly thick. This is a beautiful silver color with high quality micro glitter. I am hoping to order her other high end nail polish, Holy Grail, which sells on her etsy shop for $18. 
The next color I bought was Event Horizon, which is a turquoise color with multi-colored micro glitter and big silver glitter. It only took 2 coats of this beautiful deep green to get my nails fully covered.
My third color, Resolutionary is a bright pink with big gold glitter and small silver micro glitter.  Again, this polish only took 2 coats.
My last polish is Gorramit, which was my favorite because it is so unique.  It's one of the first colors I saw that really pulled me in on purchasing some Nerd Lacquer. This bright yellow has big red and yellow glitter with silver micro glitter. I also used 2 coats for this application.
I have been wanting to purchase some of her polishes for a while, but she hasn't been taking any orders and opened her shop for a few days, so I took full advantage! I would have ordered more, but it gets a bit costly. She has so many more colors I want to purchase and can't wait for her to open her shop back up. She also sells some on Harlow & Co., but as of today, all were sold out except for one!
Here are some more pics of each of the four polishes I bought. Like I've said, none of these are new to the polish world except Carbon Allotrope, but I thouroughly enjoyed swatching these and hope I can upload another post soon! I have plenty of pictures, it's just finding time to write! Happy Thursday to all!!!

Polishing with the Un-Named

Hey all you polish girlies! As I was looking at all my polishes I came across this polish that I got a while back called "Designers Choice" that I got for 99 cents. It's such a pretty copper/yellow duochrome foil that I had to was just sitting on my shelf calling my name.  I started out with Orly Bonder then applied 3 coats of this cheap polish.  I will say that the saying "you get what you pay for" definitely applies to this polish...

Here's what it looks like in regular light- kind of a coppery foil with a hint of reddish yellow

It's thin and I had to put the top back on and shake it up a few times during application to keep it from I found that it was thin then it would be really clumpy- especially at the end of my nail where it would gather and just clump up and I would have to wipe it off. I just kept in mind that I paid less than one dollar for it, so...

In direct sunlight- has a yellow foil duochrome

Lastly, I applied Seche Vite top coat, as always, as this stuff works miracles to seal off the color! I just got this bottle a few weeks ago and it's already almost half gone! But it's only $6 at Wal-Mart and Sally's. All in all, it was worth my $1 and I will probably use this to make Frankens and such. I am happy with the results I got and wish it had a name, but alas, I suppose I will give it a name...

Here is the straight cooper foil color in the sunlight

Here it has a green tint to it

Here's a clear view of the duochrome colors- red, orange, gold,
green, and yellow

We'll call this one DC (Designers Choice) Golden Girlies...

Happy Fat Tuesday!

Good evening polish people! So, since I'm new to Louisiana I don't know much about Mardi Gras, but I thought in the spirit of things I would join the festivities in my own little way- by dedicating my daily look what they call "Fat Tuesday".  Alls I know is we got to wear jeans to work today- hey, whatever Fat Tuesday is- I'M IN lol. So, I know the colors for Mardi Gras are typically purple, green, and gold, so that's what I went with.

I started out with Orly Bonder, then used 2 coats of Nfu-Oh 51. I LOVE this color! It's about the best color out there! Then I used Red Angel Plate RA-120. I'm not sure what it is, but it looked like it went with the theme and it looked nice when I used Orly Glitz as my stamping polish. Then using my dotting tools I used Revlon Posh to fill in some of the stamp. I finished that with a green rhinestone on each finger- I didn't want to go overboard. And of course ended with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat. I really like my end result and these polishes work great together. Orly Glitz worked perfect as a stamping polish and I defintely recommend.

Stamping With ULTA For Bitten and RA-104

Wow, this has been a long week! I have been dying to swatch and photograph, but the weather has been horrible all week! Storms Thursday through Saturday afternoon. I don't mind swatching inside, but my camera seems to work best on macro when I'm outside without the flash, so I don't argue with it.  Doesn't matter how awesome my nails look, if I can't get a good pic, then I can't share :(

So, last this past week I ordered a lot of goodies from Amazon that I've been picking out for a while now- Red Angel Plates, MASH dotting tools (as shown below), MASH plate holder, some Konad special polishes, nail art rhinestones and tweezers for them, Konad plate, and a MASH crystal/glass file, and finally some empty polish bottles so I can make Frankens! So excited!! I got half of my stuff, but still waiting for the rest. I love getting packages! Oh, and I ordered some Bootie Babe polishes! (will post when I get those!)

I was really inspired and wanted to use just about everything I got all at the same time, but it's not as easy for me as it looks.  I was so excited and started out with a look I thought would look great, but it turned out crappy, so waited until this morning to try something else.

I started off with Color Club Stuck On You basecoat, then two coats of ULTA For Bitten, which is a beautiful deep red/purple/gold duochrome, shimmer that I have bought a few weeks ago, but haven't used yet. I think I will try this again soon without stamping, which kind of hides its beauty.

ULTA For Bitten

I then used my new Red Angel stamps, which I found I like a lot more than the Bundle Monster plates I have, as they are larger- BM has 6 on one plate while RA has 4 and RA was a bit cheaper. The Nailasaurus made put all the plates side by side with their size in this review. I think they only have that one set, though, so I'll be watching to see when they make more! As shown to the right, I used the stamp highlighted on plate RA-104. I used Konad Special Polish in White, which  I understand aren't necessary to use, but I wanted to see for myself. Since I've only used it this once and I haven't been stamping for long, I don't know how much my opinon counts, but I like the special polishes...this is why:

1. As shown on the left, the brush is shorter than regular brushes (compared to Sinful Colors brush), which makes painting the stamp faster and easier so polish doesn't drip.

2. All the colors are very opaque, since they are made for stamping, you don't have to spend time testing polishes, which I will still do...

3. The stamp picks up the polish very easily, without hardly any pressure picking up and applying to the nail.

4. The price of the polish runs anywhere from $3 to $6 a bottle...yes, they are simply for stamping, but in my opinon it's worth it, especially when using white and black, since I will probably use them the most.

5. They dry very quickly and I can still use a regular top coat after a short time.

I finished it up with 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat.  I tried to get different angles to show the polish in different light, although I didn't have much light to work with as it was overcast for like the 20th day in a row...I just couldn't wait to swatch. I do still need some work as far as my stamping, but I suppose everyone has to start somewhere.  I don't really know how crazy I am about the white over this color, but I went with it, but might try again with a darker color for stamping.
I am excited to get the rest of my loot in, so I will try to get another post or two in this week.

And, to end today, here's my little helper that loves to grab my polish and drop it in the trash thinking he's helping me pick up:)