China Glaze-Awakening

Now that summer is upon us, I think it's time to dip my nails into some flashier polishes :)  Today's nail of the day is China Glaze Awakening, a gorgeous plum/gold duochrome that appears plum indoors, but lights up in the sun!  I was trying to look up some swatches of this color online, but had a surprisingly hard time finding one.  Well, here you go!

here you can see the burgudy/plum really well

I couldn't stop staring at my nails while wearing this color!  (Sorry about my cuticles...ugh)

 

beautiful gold duochrome!

nail art of the day

Today's nail of the day is a fun one!  Essie's Smooth Sailing with OPI Black Shatter on top.  I think the result is pretty and daring :)

sun.

 The sun really brings Smooth Sailing to life.  In person, this color looks just a tad more purple than in photos, but it's close enough.  It also has the most gorgeous silver reflect to it.  Definitely a summer must-have!

shade.

Overall, I really like these two polishes paired together.  I feel that they compliment each other in some strange way.  Plus, who can resist trying out the black shatter over every color?!  I had to do it :)

OPI-Bubble Bath

Today's nail of the day is the famous OPI Bubble Bath.  This color has been a favorite of OPI lovers everywhere and now I know why!  It is a beautiful sheer pinky-nude.  The application is pretty amazing.  These photos are all with three coats to cover up very slight imperfections.

shade (shiny!)

 In the shade this polish looks...yummy.  Very shiny and jelly-like :)

sun

This color is perfect for making your nails polished looking, but understated at the same time.  Perfect for the workplace, in my opinion.  Love it!

Orly-Rage

 Orly Rage!  Is this not super duper beautiful?  This color is a metallic rose gold with reflects galore!  I decided to add a pretty little flower to my ring finger :)

Indoor, no flash

Indoor, flash

This color is ridiculously hard to capture on camera because of its very metallic quality, but trust me when I say it is beautiful!  The formula is gorgeous, perfect application in 2 coats.

I think I'm in love!

haul!

Today I finished my senior capstone!  For a reward, I thought I'd get myself a few new polishes and some other random goodies!

from left to right: orly rage, china glaze for audrey, china glaze white crackle, china glaze strong adhesion, california mango cuticle oil

I have wanted to pick up the Orly polish for a long time.  It's a beautiful rose gold with tons of pretty shimmer!  Will definitely be posting about it soon...
For Audrey is a classic China Glaze polish that I have wanted to add to my collection for a while
As for the crackle polish, I have wanted to try one out for a while, so I decided to pick it up.  I haven't tried it yet, but I'm excited to try it!

close up: orly rage, china glaze for audrey, china glaze white crackle

close up: china glaze strong adhesion, california mango cuticle oil

I picked all of these products up at Sally Beauty Supply :)

Revlon-Cotton Candy

Today's nail of the day is Revlon's scented nail polish in Cotton Candy.  I couldn't resist getting this little baby when I saw how beautiful it was in combination with the fact that it was scented!  I was skeptical about how long the scent would last, but even after applying top coat and waiting for a few days, the smell was still pretty strong!  This color is literally cotton candy pink with golden shimmers.  So beautiful!

Above:  you can really see the depth of the color here

Below: beautiful sheen, but you can see the "bald" spots

How pretty is that?  The formula was mediocre and suffered from light polish syndrome (streaks and unevenness), but after 3 coats it managed to become pretty even.  I added a konad stamp to try to distract from the streakiness.  Overall, I love the color, not impressed by the formula.  I'll probably wear this again, though, because it smells divine!!

my first attempt at water marbling!

So...I decided that I would bite the bullet and try my hand at some water marbling.  I practiced first on some color wheel nails and decided that I had gotten to the point where I figured I wouldn't mess up too badly on myself.  The colors I used were: Sinful Colors- Mint Candy Apple, China Glaze- Shower Together, Sally Hansen- Lacey Lilac.

The first picture is of my left hand, the second is of my right (not quite as cool), and the third is of the ring, middle and pointer finger of my left hand.

I really like the overall effect of water marbling, but I think I need more practice...I made a huge mess of my fingers in the process.  It took me forever to get all the polish off of my skin afterward.  I also need some practice in getting the nails to look more similar to each other.  As you can tell from the last picture, my pointer finger turned out a lot differently than the rest of my fingers.  Also, my right hand was a lot more muddy than my left.

I'm going to try my hand at more water marbling with different color combinations.  I figure I'll use some of my cheaper polishes that don't apply so well for marbling, and that way they won't go to waste :)

nail of the day-konad

Today's nail of the day is a twist on the classic french manicure.  I used OPI's In the Spot Light Pink as my base color, the added a white french tip using a guide sticker.  Without removing the sticker, I stamped m60 over the white tip using Sketch-y by Finger Paints.  After removing the sticker I finished it off with Seche Vite.

I really, really loved how this turned out.  It's so cute!  I love the idea of stamping a design over a french tip.  It gives a classic nail a bit of a twist.  It makes it unusual enough to not be too boring :)

On a side note, I experimented with water marbling today.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures up tomorrow :)