Guess I got carried away...

Hi Everyone!

This is just a quick post to express my disappointment, yes, disappointment, with China Glaze and their most recent release of the Cirque Du Soleil collection. Most notably, the glitter bomb that is "Get Carried Away". I went to Sally's a few days ago with a christmas gift card my folks had given me and picked up a few polishes, "Get Carried Away" was one of them. It was to be my first actual "glitter polish", so I was pretty excited. Plus the fact that it had red, silver and black hexes as well as black bar glitter...oh yeah, a true glitter bomb.

Then came the disappointment. I carefully polished my nails with two coats of Nina Ultra Pro "burst my bubble" (a very light pink), then brushed a coat of "get carried away" over the top. grey/black tinted base. That was my first sad face. Streaky. Second sad face. Totally covered up the fact that I had light pink undies. Third sad face. I WANTED to like "get carried away", I really did. But I did not. 

Then I thought to myself, you know, if you brush the "get carried away" onto a sponge, then dab it onto your nails, maybe the sponge will absorb that icky tinted base and just transfer the glitter smorgasbord, letting the base color show thru. Sounded good in theory.....

However, the black and silver micro glitters in this polish totally dominate the bars and larger hex glitters, so it's really just a hot mess on my nails.

So, I give this particular polish a 1 out of 5 Crimson Stars, because....while the concept was awesome, the tinted base was a total bomb, and the micro glitters vs. larger hex and bar glitters weren't balanced out enough for me to actually enjoy this polish.

Do you have "get carried away" ? If so, what do you think of it?

Peace.

Galaxy Revisited

Hi Everyone!

I know it's been a loooong time since I made a nail art post, and all I can say in my defense is that I  have been so busy with work that I haven't had the time to play with my polishes. That changed today, tho, since I finally have a day off! So, I decided to revisit some nail art I've done once before - Galaxy (or Nebula) Nails! While I was at Walmart yesterday trying to find a nail nourisher/strengthener, I wandered over to the Pure Ice display and say a funky looking polish I hadn't seen before called "Electric!" - It's a black polish with a super-fine silvery shimmer. I thought "Hey, that would make a nice base for a galaxy mani!", so I brought it home with me. Of course, with all the other stuff going on with this mani, plus the strategic application of CG's Fairy Dust, you can't really make out the base color. For the "galaxies", I used Finger Paints Paper Mache, CG's Lemon Fizz, WnW's Tickled Pink, and some unnamed dark blue. I don't think it looks too bad (aside from my super nubby nails, that is...). What do you think?

Peace.

My Sunday Dotticure

Hi everyone!

I hope you all have had a nice weekend....it's back to the grind tomorrow morning. boooooo. I cheered myself up by doing a quick and easy dotticure today using Sally Hansen's "No Hard Feelings" as a base color, and my dotting tools and China Glaze "For Audrey" to make various sized dots on just my ring fingers. I love a purple and teal/turquoise combo, don't you?

Enjoy what's left of your weekend, and I hope you all have a great week!

Peace.

That's a wrap!

Hi everyone!

Earlier today a friend posted on my FB page suggesting that I do a saran wrap mani. I've seen this mani around before and have always wanted to try it. Some people call it a plastic wrap mani, or a cling film mani.

I've also seen two different ways to do it. The first way is to lay down your base color and let it dry, then choose the color you want over the top of it and do one layer of that on your nails (do this technique one nail at a time so the polish doesn't dry before you get to it with the saran wrap!).  Before it's dry, wad up a small piece of saran wrap and dab-dab-dab around over the still wet coat of polish. The wet polish will stick to the plastic wrap and be lifted off your nails.

The other way I've seen it done is to put a little puddle of the top color of polish onto a plate, lid, CD, whatever, and wadding up the saran wrap and dabbing it into the puddle of polish, then dabbing it onto your nails here and there.

I decided to put the layer of polish onto my nails then dab the saran wrap to remove the polish in places. This is two coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz and one coat of China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le.

It looks pretty cool, and it's SO easy to do. (Hey look, it's my right hand! ~gasp~ )
Have you ever tried this technique? What colors did you use?
Peace.

G is for.......

Hi everyone!

G is for Gage...er... I mean Giraffe!

I did this manicure for the son of a dear friend of mine who likes giraffes!

First I did two coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz. Then I stamped using Sinful Colors Nirvana.

Overall, I am a bit disappointed with the end result of this, as the image on the plate (MASH 20) was too small to cover my entire nail, so on all but the pinkie (don't look at the pinkie!), I had to double stamp, then go back over a few areas with my brush and remover to try and separate some of the spots.

Then, I mattified it, because hey, giraffes aren't shiny. Not entirely sure what happened on the pinkie, but I think it's a result of overzealous clean up, and that's what happens when remover hits the matte top coat. Let's just pretend that a bird flew over the giraffe....

See T? Giraffe nails aren't that hard to do, and I KNOW you have the MASH20 plate ;)

Peace.

Birthday Nail Mail and Birthday Mani

Since it is my birthday today, I figured what better way to start off my new blog than with some birthday nail mail and my birthday mani!
I have a FaceBook friend who is also into polish and she sent me a wonderful present for my birthday! She packaged all the polishes up in an adorable Hello Kitty soft-sided tote, too. Yes, I love Hello Kitty!

Inside the tote were these awesome polishes, some of which were on my wishlist on my last blog:
China Glaze Shower Together, For Audrey, Four Leaf Clover, Secret Peri-Wink-Le, Gothic Lolita, Blonde Bombshell and Japanese Koi.
OPI Don't Mess With OPI
Sally Hansen Instadry Bronze Ablaze and Uptempo Plum
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Parchment
Orly Royal Velvet
And a cute mini HK bottle of berry scented polish that came with a charm and a sheet of little decals.
HEAVEN!

For my birthday mani I decided to take the inspiration from the HK bag and the HK polish packaging and do my nails using some of the new polishes. 

On my thumb is a base of For Audrey, with Lemon Fizz dots and a little mini HK polish another friend of mine sent me awhile back. On my pointer finger are two mini HK polishes from the same friend, with dots of For Audrey, Lemon Fizz and a mini HK polish. My middle finger has Secret Peri-Wink-Le as a base and stamped with Lemon Fizz. Ring finger is Lemon Fizz with one of the HK decals, and my pinkie is a base color of Orange You Hot and a mini HK polish color. What do you think?
Peace.