Cult Nails Layering

Well, this has just been a weird but kinda cool week with a holiday being on a Wednesday. So, we worked 2 days then a day off, then working another 2 days then having a weekend. I could get used to that. Anyways, we have been out in the sun with Kade and I need a nap...ha.

Well, I have been wanting some Cult Nails polish for a while, so I finally found some I really wanted. I don't think I'll ever get my hands on some Unicorn Puke, but I am a new super fan of Cult Nails now...I bought the Divas and Drama Collection that is on sale on their website. That included Scandalous, Enticing, Manipulative, and Seduction. I also bought Charming from the Fairy Tale Collection just cause it looked so pretty. So, I had just checked out and then found the nail art- studs and rhinestones that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. I immediately emailed them and asked if I could change my order. They let me add to it and didn't charge me the extra shipping! John from Cult Nails even emailed on the 4th to help me out! How awesome are they?!

So, today I'm only reviewing 2 of the polishes and not the whole collection. I wasn't sure what mani I wanted to do, but all these polishes are quite sheer, so I thought I would try some layering. This was my result:

This is what I used:

I used 1 coat of Color Club Hot Like Lava from the Foiled Collection, then I used 1 coat of Charming and 2 coats of Seduction then I used Essie Matte About You for a matte finish. I was torn when it came to using this because I didn't want it to runi the shimmer, but I like the outcome. It's not really noticable in these pictures, but Charming is a beautiful almost duochrome light purple and pink shimmer, like it looks on their website here.

So, I've been thinking of a way to spice up my reviews and add a little something extra that says something about ME. So, I will leave you with a lil bit of diva....if no one has ever heard of Rob Hoffman then you def need to check him out! This is the "Yes Dance". No matter how many times I watch it, it never gets old! Plus, he's just so freaking hot! (he played Chase in "Step Up 2").

Anyways, hope everyone has a super weekend, divas!! I'm out!

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:

Well, Shift Happens...

FINALLY my Girly Bits order came in!! I waited about 2 months, but it was worth it! These are the Frankens that make polishing worth waiting for lol. No, seriously people, this polish is craved for, along with many other namesless indie brands that are being sold on ebay for 3 times what Chanel and MAC are priced at (like Lynnderella). These are polishes that aren't avaliable in stores and I think it is sooo cool that I have to wait 2 months to get 1 polish! That means that Pam, the creator/maker of Girly Bits, sits there and mixes these bottles herself. Then she writes a little "thank you"note to every buyer! How sweet is that?!! I got my package all wrapped in purple tissue paper with a purple ribbon tied around it with a sticker and a hand written note thanking me!

Well, I wanted to buy like ALL of them, but then I had to pay bills too....so I bought Shift Happens, which was her new popular polish and I got an older but awesome Sailor's Delight, which is not shown here today, but I have worn it and can't wait to swatch it and post about it!! You can see it here on her blog.

You might be wondering, well this is not what it looks like on other blogs...EXACTLY. I wanted to catch this sheer shimmer in all of its beauty- au naturale. Plus, this week I've been on this sheer shimmery thing, so I wanted to try out Shift Happens naked. Other blogs have it over black, which I think looks awesome and really shows the "shift" in colors, so I thought I'd do something different. 

Ever since I saw the post by Jen from thepolishaholic.com I knew I had to have a bottle! One day I noticed while on facebook, Pam's Girly Bits page showed up on my news feed. I saw that she was having a facebook pre-order sale for her polish. I got my email ready and saved to be sent off at 8 a.m. sharp! I wanted to make sure I got this polish!!!!

So, I did the most simple mani with this polish I could think of for this look.  I used Seche Ridgefiller because it had a pearly tint to it instead of just clear and I thought would give a slight tint to help the sheerness Shift Happens.  Then I applied 3 coats of Shift Happens and used 1 coat of NYC clear polish as a top coat.  I probably could have used 2 more coats of Shift Happens, but I like the sheerness that I got, so I stopped at 3. It ended being this pink, peachy color with a hint of orange and purple *hint the shift*.  Pam is very talented and I can't wait to buy more from her collections!

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!!!

Valentine's Day Nails- Day 2

Happy Sunday to all! Yesterday I was so busy and tired I didn't get a chance to do another look, so I'm going to change what I said yesterday...SO, today, February 12 is Day 2 of my Valentine's Day Nails, and yesterday being the first (not Friday like I had originally said).  Kade woke up with a bad cough at 2 a.m. and needless to say I'm very tired and still getting ready to begin again on Monday...yay! That' quite a note- I spend my weekend getting ready for the following week- guess that's life, huh?
So, without further ado, my second look:

To create this look I started out with Color Club Stuck On You basecoat. I think I like it better than Orly Bonder. It does that same job, but Orly seems to  be more rubbery and CC looks shinier and not as sticky if that makes sense. Then I used one coat of Color Club French Tip, which is just an opaque white. I then applied 2 coats of Revlon Popular (formerly known as Starry Pink- was released with Whimsical and a few others), which I bought a while back, but haven't used yet.  I saw this and knew it was out of season, but I just couldn't get my mind off of it, and there were only 2 left in the ULTA where I saw it, and knew if I didn't get it, I would regret it.  It's a light sheer pink with silver hexagon glitter and some silver mini glitter.  I wanted to use white so it would bring out the light pink in Popular. The first time I tried this I failed and it was so sticky and clumpy that I had to start over. I had to be more patient this time and let this sit for like an hour- so I thought it would be a opportune time to take a short nap lol.

So, I knew I wanted to try using my dotting tools and paint something simple.Well, what's easier to draw than a heart! So, I picked out my colors- first I outlined the heart with Sephora by OPI Queen of Everything, then using the same size dotting tool, I then used Color Club Hot Like Lava to paint the inside of the heart. I love this color, as you can see in the above pic, it's a foil color (part of the CC Foiled Collection), and has a bit of pink shimmer in it. Finally, I let that dry and took some light pink rhinestones and put on the edge of each heart. I topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat, of course. Voile!

Valentine's Day Nails- Day 1

Well, after this week of horrible weather, it's finally sunny outside...and we have Kade lol. So, it's kind of hard for me to swatch seeing as I'm constantly chasing a 15 month-old around the house, cleaning and cooking! I did manage to create this Valentine's look last night, though. I really wanted to start out with some non-traditional colors (well anything that wasn't red, pink or white). I will start from yesterday and create Valentine's Day look each day until Tuesday.  I want to see what I can come up with. I'm sure other bloggers are doing something very similar.

Pure Ice Kissy Kiss, butter LONDON Knackered,
 Konad Special Polish in Black with RA120

I used Orly Bonder- I like using a bonding basecoat even if I know I'm not going to keep the mani very long- it does what it says and the polish adheres easier to my nails. I used one coat of Pure Ice Kissy Kiss, which is a sheer jelly periwinkle color (shown in the first picture below) that I thought would bring out the lavender in butter LONDON's Knackered, which I swatched a few weeks ago with butter's Spring 2012 Collection. I love this color because it's so versatile! It's a beautiful duochrome with multi-colored micro glitter and looks different everytime I use it. I love how it shimmers and changes colors in the sun. I can take a million pictures this polish on!

I only used one coat since I knew I was going to stamp. Using Konad Special Polish in black I used Red Angel stamp RA120, as shown left.  I'm not a hearts kinda gal, but since this look is for the holiday dedicated to love, I thought I'd branch out.  Again, on the Konad special polish, I love it even though some say it's not necessary and to use regular polish, which I've been doing, but find that I like Konad better and don't mind spending the few extra bucks. I love the easy pick up and application. I never doubt it's ability to do what it was created to do and all I have to worry about is my ability to apply it well lol. I still need quite a bit of practice on my stamping, but I'm getting there.  Finally, I topped that off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat. I absolutely LOVE this stuff and will never use anything different! I will have to get a bottle to include in my giveaway (it's $10 at most retailers).

I wasn't quite thinking it through when I was stamping and should've put the hearts facing the other way so I wouldn't have to turn my hands upside down, but oh well. And my middle finger (of course) has a heart that looks a bit smudged, so please just keep in mind that this is the holiday for love:) I stopped with this simple look, because I didn't want to start a project that I literally couldn't finish. I need more practice before I start doing more complicated looks.  If left to play, I will work on my nails for 2 hours!

I will try to post another look for today (this is actually Friday's look) sometime tonight if I can get a chance to swatch.  Right now I'm cooking peanut butter brownies, washing dishes and clothes, so I'm a busy body today, but I'm sure I will make the time to do another look:)