Ulta-Smoke Screen

I was in the mood for something dreary on my nails yesterday, and this was the winner.  Smoke Screen is a gorgeous dark gray creme that leans a bit purple.  I love the formula on this one, you guys.  Thin, even, and covers great in two coats.  Even before topcoat, it's superbly shiny.  These are second-day nails, so they're a bit more dull than I would like, but you guys get the gist :)

This color does dry darker than the color in the bottle, but I still love it every bit as much.  This one is tied with Femme Fatale for being my favorite polish from Ulta :)

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<3

Gel Manicure! Red Carpet Manicure-The Night is Young

So a few months ago, I discovered a brand called Red Carpet Manicure at my local Ulta.  I thought it was such a great idea!  Who wouldn't love to have a gel manicure that you can do yourself at home?  Well, I ended up getting the starter kit for Christmas, which came with a nice red.  I went and picked up a couple of other colors, including this one! The Night is Young is a gorgeous gunmetal grey with tons of beautiful shimmer.

I think it's just beautiful.

The thing that I love about gel manicures is that they last for weeks without having to touch them up.  Because of their flexible nature, they don't chip, flake or scratch like regular nail polish.  Gel nails are extremely resilient.  I can also swatch over these if I wanted.  They don't come off with non-acetone nail polish remover, so if you swatch over them, just use non-acetone remover and they'll be good as new underneath!  The only downside to gel nails is that they take time to apply.  This mani took me about an hour and a half in total.  I guess it's worth it if you think about how long they'll last me :)

If you guys would like a tutorial on how to do these gel nails, let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!
<3

Comparison: Orly Rock Solid vs. W'n'W Diamond in the Rough

So...when I first saw these polishes in the bottle, I thought they would be dupes.  They are close, but not exact.  The W'n'W has much grittier glitter and a stronger rainbow sparkle effect.  The Orly is much smoother on the nail and has a tinted base while the W'n'W base is clear (you can't tell the base is clear after three coats).  Pictures!

Orly, WnW, Orly, WnW

WnW, Orly, WnW, Orly

WnW, Orly, WnW, Orly

As you can see, the rainbow/holo glitter is much stronger in the W'n'W and the base color is darker in the Orly.  Definitely not dupes, but similar that if you have one, I don't think you necessarily need the other.  I used three coats of the W'n'W and two coats of the Orly.

Nina Ultra Pro-Glamrock

Ladies, if you love glitter, than I have the polish for you.  It's Glamrock by Nina Ultra Pro.  When I first saw this polish in the bottle, I was skeptical because glitters typically are not very opaque.  This polish is the opposite!  Two coats was all I needed for complete opacity.  The rich black base helps with this without eating up all the pretty chunky silver glitter.  I can see this polish being a go-to for me when I'm in the mood for glitter :)

This polish dried with quite a gritty texture, so I topped it with a coat of Gelous before adding SV.  This made for a super shiny finish that I loved :)  Removal was a pain in my butt, but I was expecting that.  I used the foil method, and still had quite a bit of work to do...oh well!  I'll put up with the annoying removal if it means wearing pure bling on my nails.  Speaking of wear, it wore amazingly!!  These pics were taken after three days of wear.  During those three days I worked three full shifts using my hands a lot, and I only had one tiny chip on my right hand.  I was really impressed!

Thanks for stopping by!
<3

Sally Hansen-Tyin' the Knot!

When I saw this color at my local Target, I couldn't take my eyes off of it!  It's super hard to describe, though...in the bottle it looks like it might be a dark metallic taupe/charcoal/silver/brown/?/beautiful.  On the nail it dries a bit more on the charcoal side, less brown than it looks in the bottle.  All I can say about it is that I never want to take this color off!  It's very chic and polished.  These photos are 2 coats with a topcoat of SV.

If I look really hard, I can even see a slight green tint.  Especially in that first picture.  Maybe I'm seeing things? Who knows...

Application on this one, as with all the Sally Hansen Diamond Strength polishes, is flawless.  I didn't have to do any cleanup on this one.  The polish basically applied itself.  Since it is a pearl/frost, care is needed with brushstrokes to avoid crazy streaky patterns on the nail.

What do you think of this color?

EDIT:  I have been staring at this polish all day, and I noticed some purple tones coming out in it...almost reminds me of Chanel Paradoxal...maybe?  I don't have Paradoxal, so I'm not completely sure.  Anyway, just thought I'd put my two cents in about the purple :)