Category Archives: Manicure Monday

Manicure Monday: Fun With Neons

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Welcome to another Manicure Monday! Today’s manicure accurately sums up my weekend; it was full of bright colors and summer fun! To celebrate the first day of summer, or the fact that a mani I planned ages ago is actually relevant, I’m wearing Julep’s Abbie over white polish with Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Watch the Walls, as well as Seche Vite top coat.

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Abbie is the perfect summer yellow; it’s bright and gorgeous. It’s so bright my hands got a bit of a tan. It’s a chameleon, though; in some lighting it’s flourescent highlighter yellow, but in others it’s closer to lemon. Either way, it’s cheerful and a ton of fun to wear. My only complaint is that it never seemed to reach full opacity, even at three coats, so I put on one coat over two coats of white polish. This way, I got boost in opacity and in color.

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When I picked Abbie out of the Helmer, I knew Watch the Walls would compliment her perfectly. Watch the Walls is the perfect mix of neon pink glitters, along with some other fun colors and shapes and the perfect amount of blue-to-purple shifting shimmers. It’s a glitter topper with color, depth, and fun. It absolutely breaks my heart that it’s been discontinued and is now out of stock.

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I don’t know if I’ve told you guys, but I probably have, because I’ve only been writing on this blog for two years, but summer is my favorite part of the year. I seem to handle it better than most people, too; I love to sit out on the porch — better yet, the pool — with a drink and a book and just spend the entire day out there. I’ll take sweat and sunburn over shivering and itchy sweaters any day.

Neither Abbie nor watch the Walls are currently in stock on their makers’ websites. Julep is available from Sephora and julep.com; Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer is sold from their BigCartel shop.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Revlon’s Spun Sugar

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Happy Monday! Today’s Manicure Monday post is simple and sweet, and not just because it smells that way. Revlon’s Spun Sugar is a scented polish, so I deliberately kept it plain to keep the scent from being covered up. I’m wearing three coats of Spun Sugar without top coat.

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Spun Sugar is a warm metallic gray polish. THe application process was quite nice. The product formula was on the thinner side, but still provided even and full coverage in one to two coats. Unforunately, there are still lots of visible brushstrokes, which I don’t mind, but I know a lot of people aren’t into that. Some may also dislike the ball-top brush cap, it can be weird to hold at times. It dries with a metallic finish, not unlike that of OPI’s Push and Shove or Essie’s No Place Like Chrome, but isn’t as reflective. The scent is quite strong, even after many hours, and smells like a warm spicy perfume.

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I always feel super-weird wearing things without top coat. I really do rely on it, not just for protecting my color, but also protecting my nails. I have these very soft and bendy nails, and I like a solid, rigid top coat to give them a coat of armor. When I say I’m not wearing top coat with this mani, that’s a little bit of a mistruth; I’m actually wearing it under the last coat of my color. I put down two coats of Spun Sugar, a coat of Seche Vite, and another coat of Spun Sugar to finish the look. This way I have the protection and durability top coat affords me, but I also preserve the finish and the scent offered by the polish. Win/win!

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Spun Sugar is sold wherever Revlon is sold; I got mine at Walgreens, and I see them on sale there a lot. The infinity loop charm and other charms are sold at Daily Charme.

I bought these products myself.

Manicure Monday: Nail Art Ripper-Offer

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For today’s Manicure Monday, I attempted some actual nail art! A couple of weeks ago, Reddit user chill_out_dont_pout did an adorable mani with geometric shapes and negative space, and I’m totally biting her style. For my copycat mani, I used OPI’s Metallic 4 Life and Essie’s Toggle to the Top for the stripes, Fantasy Makers’s Night Glow as the base, and Seche Vite as my top coat.

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It’s been a really long time since I’ve done anything this intricate and time-consuming. For the past several Manicure Mondays, I’ve just been laying glitter down on accent nails and calling it a day. Inspired by that Reddit post, I decided I would buckle down and do some real nail art. I had the time, and I wanted to use this glow-in-the-dark polish but had no ideas for it, so it was a perfect coincidence. It was so easy to make this pattern my own; I used two glitter jelly polishes I really loved, made one edge longer than the other (by accident) and added rhinestones to the vertices. In all, I probably spent three hours or more on this look.

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Of course, I could have done a better job. My lines aren’t clean or even, and Night Glow was actually a big mess to work with; it was goopy and kind of dried out, so I put some thinner in. It wasn’t enough. I put in more. Even though it felt dry to the touch, I guess the under-layers never fully dried, because even though I waited an hour before I started taping, I still pulled up polish. Thankfully, thanks to a stealthy fourth coat of Night Glow and the power of Seche Vite, you can barely tell!

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Night Glow, as you might have guessed, glows in the dark. However, I am terrible at glow-in-the-dark nail photography, so here are some glow fails.

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Thanks again to /u/chill_out_dont_pout for the nail inspiration!

Manicure Monday: Studded Luxury

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Welcome back, reader! It’s Monday again, and I have another mani. I’m pretty fond of this one; it looks like I put some actual effort into it. I mean, I did; it took me a long time to glue these studs on. I’m wearing two coats of Color Club’s Pucci-licious, two coats of Deborah Lippmann’s Boom Boom Pow, and one coat of Rica‘s Glossy Glam top coat.

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I always end up putting purple and yellow together. I am quite the fan of complementary color combinations, but purple and yellow might be my favorite one. Purple is such a bold and stately color, and adding gold to it just makes it even more luxurious and even more beautiful. I can’t tell you how I pleased I am with myself and my manicure right now.

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Pucci-licious is fantastically creamy, so I knew it could stand up on its own. Boom Boom Pow, however, wasn’t the glitter beast I anticipated, so I put on a second coat and added the studs. I think the studs really make this look; it ties in the gold on the accent nails, which was kind of incongruous to the rest of the mani. The studs add much-needed balance and squares off the look. Get it, because the studs are square.

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I got my Pucci-licious from an outlet store. The Deborah Lippmann is from Sephora. The studs are by The New Black, which I purchased from Ulta.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Summer in Springtime

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Good evening, reader! After all the festivities of the day, I’m just getting around to posting today’s Manicure Monday offering. I’m wearing three coats of Color Club’s Warhol and one coat of Nails Inc.’s Chelsea Embankment Gardens with one coat of Rica‘s Glossy Glam top coat.

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It’s been a long time since I’ve worn a good neon. Warhol is an incredible polish. I’m a little weirded out by how different it looks in the bottle and on my nail; it’s a little more reddish after putting it on. I mean, not that I care, I think it’s gorgeous. It’s just not what I expected. I can’t stop looking at it, though. It’s so bright and big. I think I want to be this polish.

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Chelsea Embankment Gardens is a mouthful. It’s also a unique little polish. Part of Nails Inc.’s Floral glitter topper collection, it pairs pretty pastels with large and dense glitter. This particular shade — sadly, the only one from the collection I own — is packed with fine baby pink hexes and mini bar glitters, as well as the five-petal daisies in pink, blue, and yellow. The collection was the first time I’d ever seen this glitter shape, so I bought one just to try them out. I really wish I’d bought more. My favorite Nails Inc. polishes are the glitter toppers, because they make the best color combos.

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It was maybe a little unorthodox to mix neon and pastel, but I like the way it turned out. They both stand out away from the other. Each polish gets its due attention. It’s also seasonally appropriate; the flowers say springtime, but the neon says unofficial first day of summer. It’s two extremes put together. It’s also the best of both worlds.

Color Club is sold at colorclub.com; I got mine at an outlet store. Nails Inc. is sold at Sephora and Ulta.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Bedspiration

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It’s Monday again, and you know what that means! My nails this Manicure Monday were inspired by the bedding set in one of my guest rooms. I’m wearing Julep’s Korin and China Glaze’s Recycle with OPI’s White Shatter, all with one coat of Rica‘s Glossy Glam top coat.

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I know lots of you look at something and can automatically translate it to nail art. It’s impressive and I’m totally envious. I’m not as big into intricate nail art as I used to be (even when I was, I was awful at it), so it’s rare that I look at something and think “Yes, I want my nails to look like this”. It’s even rarer that I act on it. When I saw this comforter, even before I realized it, I knew I could do a quick-and-dirty nail art version. Green polish, gray polish, and white crackle. It could be done. When I grabbed Korin out of the storage container, I knew I had to try it out.

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Unfortunately, I think it looked better in my head. Crackle polish is unpredictable sometimes, and though that’s the one thing I love about crackle polish, I really didn’t think it would cover up most of my nail. It defeats the purpose of the whole thing. I was hoping for a jagged but even grid of crackle, leaving the colors beneath somewhat visible. Oh, well. I still like it, even if it’s not what I was going for at all.

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I got Korin from julep.com, Recycle from Sally Beauty Supply, and White Shatter from Publix. If you’re curious, the bedding is from Target.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Wanna Be Your Boyfriend

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Happy Monday night! After a long day and a busy weekend, I’m finally getting around to sharing some new manicures. For this installment of Manicure Monday, I’m wearing Wanna Be Your Boyfriend from Model City Polish. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Rica‘s Glossy Glam top coat.

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Wanna Be Your Boyfriend is a black jelly polish with blue metallic dot and fine teal holographic hex glitters. Application was pretty standard for a glitter jelly polish: it was thin on the first coat, but the other two coats evened out the opacity and created a beautiful dimensional layered effect with the glitter. Drying times were good, and the jelly dries with a glossy finish, though also with a texture from all the glitter. I used a top coat to smooth it out as well as make it extra shiny.

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So uh, I love The Ramones. In the summer of 2013, I was first discovering indie polish, and when I saw Model City had a little Ramones collection, I was all over it. At the time, these three polishes were unique little gems in my collection, and the fact that they were named after some of my favorite songs were a total bonus. It’s been almost two years since I bought this polish, and even though it’s simple, it’s still special to me and I still don’t have anything quite like it.

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I wanted a little extra punk, so I got the studs out. I actually ordered some real metal spike charms to put on; they were set to arrive today but didn’t. I had to get the lame-o Claire’s studs out instead. They’re plastic with silver paint, and you can see that the paint is coming off the points. One of the studs on my right hand is entirely black by now. Oh well, I still think it’s cool.

Wanna Be Your Boyfriend has been discontinued by Model City, but you can find their other polishes in their etsy shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Brown and Color

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Another week, another Manicure Monday! Today’s mani is interesting — to me — because both of the polishes I used are ones I’ve used before. Since I have well over 1,100 bottles of nail polish, it’s rare for me to go a Monday without using something new. LA Colors’s Twisted Affair and Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Prototype PFCS 1.0 have been featured on the blog, but not together. I love how well they pair! I’m wearing two coats of Twisted Affair and one generous coat of PCFS 1.0 on my accent nails, all with one coat of Rica‘s Glossy Glam top coat. Also, to explain the exposed tip on my middle nail, an emergency occurred that required me to don a pair of gloves right after finishing the manicure. Thankfully all the other nails escaped unscathed.

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So yes, the manicure. Twisted Affair is a color I like a lot, even though it’s a bit odd. In the bottle it looks like a cool milk chocolate, but in certain lighting conditions t looks bruised and sickly. I don’t mind that it’s occasionally ugly, but when it does, it needs a little help. This is why I chose PCFS 1.0 as the accent; it’s just so complex and colorful. I love looks that are colorful and neutral simultaneously.

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Twisted Affair applies easily and with good color: I expected it to be streaky and thin until the third coat, but I got full opacity in just two. The drying times were nice as well; I definitely bumped a nail on my desk a couple of minutes after I finished painting it and it didn’t dent or smudge. PFCS 1.0 took a little more work; I had to let the bottle sit upside-down for a while to get all the sunken glitters out, and really went at it to get good coverage. This manicure looks exactly as I imagined it would, but I am a little upset by the one that got messed up.

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Twisted Affair and other LA Colors polishes are available all over the place; I got mine from Dollar General. Prototype PCFS 1.0 was a one-off and is not available, but other Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers can be purchased from their shop.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Island Diamond Sunset

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Who likes glitter and thermals? I do! For this Manicure Monday, I’m wearing a fun double-thermal and an opal glitter. This is three coats of Digital Nails‘s Island Sunset with one brushed coat of China Glaze’s Luxe and Lush, as well as one coat of Rica‘s Glossy Glam top coat.

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Island Sunset is such a fun thermal polish. Thermals are always fun when they change colors with heat, but this one is double the fun because it changes at cool temperatures as well. It goes both ways! At its most neutral state, Island Sunset is a cool peach. Dipped in ice water, it turns a deep pink. Dipped in tea, it turns a warm yellow. I’ve been playing with my nails all day, submerging them into whatever liquids are near to see what color they turn. I have quite a few thermals in my collection, but this is the only three-way thermal. I love it.

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Luxe and Lush is the perfect glitter for this polish. It’s made up entirely of iridescent shredded glitters. Depending on the light, the glitter reflects the warm peach and cool rose tones in the polish itself, which I think is really cool. In other lighting conditions, the glitter turns greenish-blue. It has every color I could want, but it doesn’t interefere in any way with the thermal polish; as the color changes in the thermal, the glitter and its many colors offers just enough glint and sparkle.

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Seriously, how great is this look? I’m so excited about both of these polishes and I want to wear this combination forever. Also, I just got my pool cleaned and I can’t wait to see what it looks like underwater. It’s sparkly, summery, and just a ton of fun.

Island Sunset isn’t currently in stock, but you can buy other Digital Nails polishes in their etsy shop. I got my bottle of Luxe and Lush from Sally Beauty Supply.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Clambake Sandwich

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For Manicure Monday, I’ve done another jelly sandwich! I love this style; my nails always look so shiny and luxe, like special little jewels. This sandwich is made with three coats of OPI’s In True Stefani Fashion between Essie’s Clambake, topped with one coat of Rica‘s Glossy Glam top coat.

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I have to tell you: I really love Clambake. It’s not one of the more popular Essie shades, and I guess I can understand why; I know people expect a more pigmented, fuller coverage polish, and jellies are duds. I think I also remember it being towards the bottom of the Walgreens Essie display and that’s probably a factor as well. I just think that, if you like jellies, perhaps this is one you should consider. It’s so squishy that you can see the squish from outside the bottle, and the color is really potent, despite the sheer coverage. It’s definitely unique to the Essie lineup, and pretty unique in my collection, too.

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However, In True Stefani Fashion was a bit of a letdown. I mean, it’s a fantastic polish; it dried well, I got pretty good (but not complete) coverage in three coats, and it dried very quickly. In the bottle, it looks like there are more holographic silver glitters than there are. I thought it was all holographic glitter, which is why I picked it to go in this sandwich. Instead, I think it’s just the bigger square glitters that are holo, and the rest are just metallic silver. I mean, it ended up looking pretty good, but there’s just nothing like a jelly sandwich full of twinkling holographic glitters.

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I added a bow. When I did that purple jelly sandwich a few weeks, I thought that, even with all that glitter, it still looked a little bare, so this time around I added a bow, just for a little something extra. It’s not the same orange as the polish, but I still like it.

Clambake is available wherever Essie polishes are sold; I got mine from Walgreens. I think In True Stefani Fashion was a limited release as part of the first Gwen Stefani collection, but it can still be found around online. My bow charms are from Claire’s.