HOME TODAY, THANK YOU OLD MAN WINTER!!

Thanks to old man winter - we are being hit with a huge ice storm. We just got over one during Christmas, and now we are hit again. Luckily the newsmen were on it and most people are prepared for it this time.

So I am home today. I plan or working on my nail polish rose bouquet and tutorial for you all. Look for that contest to start Feb. 1st.

I also made an AWESOME mint green franken that I can't WAIT to share with you all!!

The Ombre Manicure

Ombre. n. A French term meaning "shaded." 

"...with colors graduating from light to dark"

This gradiation from one shade to another

is very in right now. 

How to do it :  Basically you use 2 or 3 colors.

Usually its your main color, black and white.

You mix up a darker version or lighter version

of your main color and paint each finger from light

to dark. Its fun, simple and cute : ) 


Or use 5 different shades of the same
color if you have lots of lets say blue 
polishes. Then you dont have to use
black & white. 

Great for any nail length !

NOTD - DARK, VAMPY, JELLY, HOLO & GLITTER

Did that get your attention? This mani is so much more pretty in real life. Sometimes my camera can make things look better than they are, other times, like now, not look as good. This is so shiny and glossy that I can't quit looking at it and buffing up the shine on my clothes.

I used three coats of Rimmel in Purple Rain and two coats of Sally Hansen in Electrode. LOVES IT!


BONUS: Some pics of Little, it's been awhile since you guys last saw him :)

CHINA GLAZE - LOVE LETTERS & MOONLIGHT

These colors were two that I picked up during my big Sally's haul. Both of these were on the regular rack, so you should be able to find these fairly easy.

Just from looking at the bottles I could tell that both of these were fairly sheer, maybe even jellies. So I knew before getting them that they weren't going to be opaque. I was really intrigued by the white one, Moonlight, and couldn't wait to try it.





LOVE LETTERS
This is three coats. I wish this were just a TAD bit more like the color in the bottle. I realize this will be used for doing french mani's so I am ok with the sheerness of it. But with just a bit more color, this would rock! I would call this a jelly. I almost painted my tips white, but decided against it so that you could really see an actual "swatch" of this color on it's own. I am still planning on doing a regular french with this soon though to show you all how this color looks for the way it was intended.






MOONLIGHT
Oh, how I love thee, let me count the ways baby! I just KNEW I was going to like this color when I saw it in Sally's, I just knew it. When I got home from that monster haul, THIS was the color I tried first. By looking at it in the bottle, I thought it looked like it could be a jelly, it kind of had that translucent thing going on. I wasn't prepared for how great it would make my nails look though! I think this color makes my nails just look so healthy and pretty! I am wearing three coats in the pictures, but this color is definitely buildable. I can't believe I have never heard anyone rave about this color before. I even went on the nail polish gallery and couldn't find a single pic of it or find anything about it on MUA either. And to top it all off, it is a JELLY!!!!!! Oh man, I'm in heaven with this one. Only one thing I would change, the name. The name of this needs to be MILK, it is a perfect name and it needs to be changed stat!
Also, this was the base coat I used for my Money in the Bank mani the other day. I did use four coats of this for that mani, so you can really see how buildable this color is.

COLOR CLUB - JAPANESE GLITTERS

I have had these polishes for a while, but only got around to swatching them for you this past weekend. I really don't know what took me so long, as they are glittah!! I got these from Victoria Nail Supply, which I believe is the only place these are available.


The formula on all of these were SUPER thick!! I tried thinning them down a little bit, but since they were brand new there wasn't much room for much thinner. I also think these need some balls to help mix all them up, which none of them seemed to contain. I have balls on hand (lolz!) so I just added a few. All swatches below are three coats each, with no top coat.





SAKURA GLOW
This would work much better over an existing color I think. Just a little too sheer for my liking. The glimmering glitter though is just to die for.
*Fun fact - Sakura is a an ornamental cherry blossom tree.






STRAWBERRY CANDLE
I think this one might be my favorite of these. I like that it is such a light color, but still opaque enough for my liking. The lightness in color really helps the glittah get all the shine it deserves!






STRAWBERRY SHARBET
Again, wishing the base color stood out a little bit more on this one. Also, wondering if the name was supposed to be sorbet?? This is one that definitely will need to be layered.






TOO VIOLET
This was the darkest of the four. This one was actually a little different than the rest too, in that it has some holo glitter to it. This was my second favorite of the bunch.

ESSIE - VAN D'GO

Well I was super excited about Essie's new polish, Van D'Go. I was hoping that it was going to eradicate my longings for Mac Seasonal Peach. I wanted it so bad that I even paid the full $8.00 for the bottle!! I went to Ulta on my lunch break yesterday and put it on as soon as I got home last night. The lighting in my house isn't the best and I wasn't just falling all over myself about this color, so I assumed it was the lighting screwing up my Seasonal Peach dupe high I had worked myself into.

However, today upon looking at the color in daylight I still wasn't pleased. Then I found out why - this polish dries looking NOTHING like the bottle color. The bottle color is much lighter and pinker than what it dries to on the nail. And while this is a nice peach color (as long as you don't matte it!! Yikes!) it loses it Seasonal Peach dupeness upon drying. BOO HOOOOOOO! I took a picture showing the polish dried on my nails and the polish wet on the brush to show how drastic the color change is.

So, Seasonal Peach is STILL on my damn radar!!!