Loose Powder

Some Like It Haute is part of China Glaze‘s Eye Candy 3D Glitters Winter collection.

This polish is a clear base with a dense mix of gun metal, black, blue, and holographic glitter! Two coats was enough to cover the nail completely.

Though there was a bit of texture on the surface, it wasn’t lumpy and a coat of top coat got it almost completely smooth. One thing I wish was that the polish was a little less blue and more gunmetal grey. Otherwise, this was a great color. Glitters always wear a bit longer, so I was able to wear this for over a week.

As an accent, I wanted a lighter glitter polish and picked Fairy Dust, which is a fine holographic glitter. It was actually more sheer than I wanted and even four coats wasn’t enough to cover the nail line. I also used a water slide decal on it.

It’s a fun look and next time I’d probably put a silver polish under the Fairy Dust.

I’ve been back into glitter polishes lately and started off my latest round of glitter manis with this green/gold combo.

I used China Glaze’s It’s Alive! on my pinky, middle, and index finger and Butter London’s West End Wonderland on the ring finger and thumb.

I love, love, love this combination! The gold glitter adds a great highlight to the dark green. Both of these glitter polishes looked great after two coats, but It’s Alive! is amazing with it’s green jelly base and different sized glitter.

You can see in the close up of Butter London’s West End Wonderland that it’s not just gold glitter, but there are also silver and copper colored glitters. It’s a really pretty combination.

I used two coats of top coat to smooth out the surface, but if your top coat is thicker, one might be fine for you. This  manicure lasted 10 days before I had to take it off. I’ll be using both of these colors again for sure!

Early in September I was heading to DragonCon, a yearly science fiction convention held in Atlanta, and I wanted to do a fun look for the weekend. I came across Asami’s Space Nails tutorial and I had to try it out!

The looks requires three or four different polish colors and a textured paper towel to sponge on some of the design. I didn’t have the exact polishes that Asami used, so I picked ones I had that were closest.

From my stash, I found China Glaze’s Techno (large holo glitter), Pitch-Black Glimmer from Nicoole by OPI (black with silver glitter), What’s Your Name by Sinful Colors (black with purple/blue micro glitter), and Sally Hansen HD polish in DVD.

Next, I followed Asami’s video tutorial:

The results are pretty great! I love the bits of glitter that catch the light and the subtle clouds of blue.

There are parts I’m not completely happy with, of course, but overall this was fun and easy to apply. It didn’t take much longer than a regular manicure to apply since the layers were thin and dried quickly.

Can’t wait to apply this design again!

A quick but fancy manicure that I put together to wear out for Liz‘s bachelorette party!

I started with a metallic silver base – two coats of Zoya Trixie. Once dry, I applied one quick coat of China Glaze Black Mesh Crackle polish. The ringg fingers I left silver so I could apply a floral water slide decal. Finished it off with two coats of top coat to smooth out the crackle.

This manicure was quick to put together, but looks much more complicated. Very fun to wear!

This manicure actually evolved over a week. I started with China Glaze Heaven:

The glitter is from a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust:

Love the bit of hologlitter the Fairy Dust adds to the nail surface:

After about a week, the base of the manicure was still okay, but I wanted a different look, so I tried one of thew new OPI Shatter polishes:

The OPI Turquoise Shatter is great! I actually like the formula better than the China Glaze crackle polishes I’ve tried. The formula is thinner, which makes it much easier to  spread quickly. I also like the way the cracks form. Here’s a closer look:

I’m not sure I really like the look of such a sheer polish under the turquoise shatter, but I did like the OPI Shatter polish! It would look great over silver or black.

Here’s a lavender and gray manicure using crackle polish and Konad stamping!

I used FingerPaints Aren’t You Glad-iolous for the base. Next, I applied China Glaze Crackle polish in Cracked Concrete, then used China Glaze Recycle to stamp on the Konad design.

I’ve experimented with konad stamping in the past and I haven’t found it as problematic as some people. If you’ve been having some issues with that, this might be a product for you!

bigRuby makes nail tattoos that works just like temporary tattoos. You cut them out, apply a wet towel or sponge to the back and the image transfer on to your nail.

For $12.00, you get two sheets of decals for a total of 48 decals. [Edit: There are actually 86 tattoos per pack. Sorry about that error!] There are varying sizes for thumb & toe nails and pinkie nails. There are currently 6 design sets available: Cosmic, Garden, Mod, Sea, Star, and Tweet. For my first set, I ordered Cosmic, of course!

I cut out two of the little magenta stars  to go on my gold China Glaze Mega Bite mani.

They were very easy to apply – really just like a temporary tattoo. Please the design where you want it and then use a wet cloth (I  used a wad of paper towel) to moisten the back for about 20 seconds. Let it completely dry and then apply top coat.

I do like these nail tattoos, but I think they’re kind of expensive. I also wish there were some more design choices. Still, if you are looking for an easy way to add a fun accent to your manicure.

bigRuby nail tattoos are available online at their website.

Here’s another manicure using China Glaze Crackle polish!

I applied two coats of Zoya’s Trixie, a silver foil polish. (I think Sonia Kashuk has a similar silver polish for sale now.)

This is a great polish, but it feels kind of Christmas-y. On top of that I applied a thin coat of China Glaze’s Crackle polish in Crushed Candy – a light turquoise color that is similar to For Audrey.

Like all crackle polishes, apply thickly for larger cracks and thinly for smaller cracks. Brush the polish on quickly and with a minimum of strokes.

I really like this look and got a few compliments during the week I wore it. I think next time I will try this crackle polish with a copper base.

I was headed to a Renaissance Faire and needed a fancy manicure to go with my outfit. Thankfully, I have plenty of colors to choose from!

As a base color, I chose China Glaze‘s Bermuda Breakaway, which is a nice dark blue with a hint of purple. Like all the China Glaze polishes I’ve used, this one applied easily with no streaking. There was a little bit of staining, so I’m glad I doubled up on the base coat.

I used Sephora OPI‘s Queen of Everything for the Konad design and followed up with NutraNail’s Hi-gloss Top coat.

This look got a lot of compliments over the weekend so I’ll probably wear it again!

This is less a review and more a post on a look I put together for my trip out to Seattle this month. I wanted something fun and funky, but easy to remove with ELF’s polish remover pads. I also wanted something that wouldn’t look awful when it chipped — meaning no bold, solid colors.

I started off with two coats of Love Letters by China Glaze:

Next, I used BundleMonster fauxnad plate BM20 with Rimmel‘s Lasting Finish Pro in Violet Metal:

And then I used BundleMonster fauxnad plate BM17 with e.l.f. polish in black for a fancy french tip and Bundlemonster BM08 for with the same black polish for an accent:

In the last picture, I’ve applied a coat of Nutra Nail High Gloss Top Coat.

My konad is a little messy in some places, but I like the look overall.  I actually can’t wait to try a full nail application of Rimmel’s Violet Metal – check out that purple flash you get when the light hits it just right!

I’m hoping this mani will last me most of the week before I have to take it off.