Tag Archives: glitter

Nails of the Week: End of Summer Glitter

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Hello, reader! It’s that time again where we reflect on the hot beautiful summer we spent at work and nowhere else. I didn’t make it anywhere this summer, and I’m actually taking my first trip to the beach this summer. It’s August, but I’m trying. My nails aren’t too summery, but I like how they turned out. I’m wearing Model City Polish‘s Awaken to Spring over a gradient of Literary Lacquers‘s Little Sleep Song and Sweet Heart Polish‘s Summer Breeze.

When I first started planning this look, I was just going to do a base of Summer Breeze. It’s a very dainty shade of blue, and has a smattering of holo; it would have been the perfect undies on its own. At the last minute, I decided to go for the gradient. It’s very subtle; you can hardly tell it’s there, but that’s the look I wanted.

Awaken to Spring is a beautiful glitter topper with rose, aqua, and copper glitters. I love the sparkle in this; it’s colorful but still kind of subdued. It’s perfect over this gradient.

Model City Polish doesn’t make polish anymore (sad). Little Sleep Song and Summer Breeze were box exclusives; Literary Lacquers and Sweet Heart Polishes are available from their respective etsy shops.

I bought these polishes myself.

Nails of the Week: Pool Blue

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Hi! So it’s been a minute since I posted last. I hit a busy spell at work, on top of my other projects, blogging was the thing that fell to the wayside. I have no idea how you girls with full-time jobs and children keep your blogs going so regularly! As you can see, a lot has happened to my nails since my last post. I broke a nail at work (rip) and had to cut them all down. That was a couple weeks ago. They were once shorter than this. So, to celebrate my return, here’s some nails! I used Sinful Colors’s Love Nails and Wacie Nail Company’s Wintrella.

Love Nails is an old Sinful Classic. I didn’t capture it so well in these photos, but it has this icy blue glow to it that’s absolutely beautiful. One downside is that it’s kind of on the sheer side; I’m wearing three coats here and my visible nail lines were only just covered. Regardless, it’s a polish I’ve had for years, and I love digging oldies out of the vault.

Wintrella is a glitter topper I made myself! It was one of my early attempts at polish making, and is essentially every blue and silver glitter I had at my disposal. I love icy glitters on icy blue, and this is a look that could work in the fall just as well as the summer.

Love Nails might have been discontinued by Sinful Colors; other SC polishes are sold in stores. I have four bottles of Wintrella, let me know if you want one!

I bought Love Nails myself.
I made Wintrella.

Manicure Monday: Purple for Days

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Hi, reader! My look this week is a classic gradient with glitter over it. For the gradient, I used K*Sea Gale’s Nails‘s Wisdom and KBShimmer‘s Excuse Me, I’m VIPurple; the glitter is Sinful Colors’s I Miss You.

So this is a look I love to do when I know I’m using a glitter topper. The gradient adds a little bit of complexity to the base. There’s nothing wrong with a solid base and glitter, because that’s a great look, too. I like the gradient because it’s a really subtle effect.

Widsom and Excuse Me, I’m VIPurple were both holos, and in the photos, you can’t really even tell. The glitter completely obscures the holo effect. That was a little disappointing, but the glitter is able to stand out, and that’s what’s really important to me. It’s a simple look, but there’s still something going on.

K*Sea Gale’s Nails is now Northern Nail Polish; Wisdom is still available on their website. Excuse Me, I’m VIPurple was an Indie Shop Atlanta 2017 VIP exclusive; other KBShimmer polishes can be found on their website. I Miss You was discontinued by Sinful Colors; other Sinful Colors polishes are sold in stores.

I bought two of these polishes myself.
I won Wisdom in a giveaway.

Swatch: Formula X for Sephora’s Demolition

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Welcome back, reader! I’ve been slacking on my swatches, but I’m still working on them. Today I have a glitter topper someone once told me was “terrifying” because it looked difficult to remove. This is Demolition from Formula X for Sephora; I’m wearing one thick coat (basically two) over Marc Jacobs Beauty’s Shocking (pink), Butter London’s Tea and Toast (taupe), Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Lighthouse by the Lake (blue), a nameless vintage Maybelline (brown), and Sally Hansen’s Sun Kissed (orange).

Demolition is a clear-based glitter topper; the glitters are hexes of various sizes and pastel shades, which focuses largely on pastel pink. Application was good; the polish consistency is a little on the thick side, which is necessary to carry these chunky glitters. It dries quickly, though, and with a somewhat textured finish; top coat is definitely required for a smooth-to-the-touch finish.

I know these chunky glitters have fallen out of style, but I am still about them. I was super excited to find a polish like this from a mainstream brand as well; they had several color variations on this formula and I bought several of them. It wears pretty well despite being on the thicker side; a lot of heavy glitter toppers like these are quick to chip, but not this one. My only real complaint is that it takes quite a bit of top coat to smooth it down.

The Formula X brand was discontinued by Sephora.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Summer Preview

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Hello, reader! Welcome back to the blog! I’ve got a pretty basic glitter look this week, and it’s one I’m really into. Neons and glitter are pretty much my whole summer, and I’m ready to get it started. For this look, I used Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Look at These Assholes and Lynnderella‘s Are You Bouquet?.

Let me preface this by saying that my camera did not want to cooperate with the neonness of Look at These Assholes. At all. I did some color correction and got it pretty accurate, which in turn makes my skin look a little weird, but I’ll take it. This is a deliciously bright neon.

NEON

Are You Bouquet? actually watered it down a little. Even though it’s a glitter topper, it’s in a slightly milky white base. I’m a huge fan of white glitter toppers, and I love this one in particular for the random pops of color. Also, you can’t really tell, but I used a matte top coat over this to highlight the iridescent glitters in there too.

Look at These Assholes has been discontinued by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer; other BEGLs are available in their online shop. Are You Bouquet? was a limited edition from Lynnderella; other Lynns are sold on their website, eBay, and Amazon.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch: Finger Paints’s Psychedelic Hue

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Welcome back, reader! Even though I’m swatching a lot of new stuff from The Indie Shop Atlanta, I still have some swatches in the slush pile waiting to be published, and this is one of them. This is Finger Paints’s Psychedelic Hue; I’m wearing one coat over Sally Hansen’s Grey Area (gray), Deborah Lippmann’s She Bop (pink), and Zoya’s Chantal (nude), as well as a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Psychedelic Hue is a clear-based flakie topper with green-to-blue shifting flakies. Application was good; the flakies distribute very easily over the nail when brushing it on. The product consistency is on the thin side, but the flakies suspend very well. Drying times were good, and the polish dries smooth to the touch. I used top coat for extra shine.

I adore flakie top coats. This one’s pretty basic as far as flakie toppers go; of course, this one’s been around a while and they’ve come a good way since then. I wanted to show this one over a few different colors, and unfortunately, the bright natural sunshine kind of washed it out over the lighter colors. With the lighter shades, the individual flakies aren’t as defined, but the shine and iridescence are still visible. Over the darker color, it looks fantastic; everything is nicely defined and exciting. The following photos were taken in the shade, attempting to show off the color better over the lighter colors.

I believe Psychedelic Hue was discontinued by Finger Paints; other Finger Paints polishes are available at Sally Beauty Supply.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Tuesday: Fine-Apple

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Happy Tuesday, reader! Yesterday was a busy day, so I’m only getting to posting Manicure Monday today. It turned out to be a good thing, since yesterday was rainy. For this look, I used Revlon’s Parfumerie scented polish in Beachy over Chaotic Glitz‘s Gold Rush. The scaled design was done with Ribbits Stickits‘s Mermaid’s Tale vinyls.

Originally, I’d planned to wear Beachy alone. Since it is a scented polish, I didn’t want to interrupt the scent with top coat or anything else. The more I thought about it, though, the more I knew I had to get at least one more polish in here. I have too many to just use one at a time. It’s just as well; the scent always leaves my nails as soon as I wash my hands, anyway.

Gold Rush is stunning. It’s such a bright, dazzling golden glitter, and I wish I hadn’t covered so much of it up. At first, I worried there might not be enough contrast between Beachy and Gold Rush, and that the design wouldn’t be immediately visible, but I kind of like it. Beachy is a frosty polish and reflects differently than Gold Rush, so in different lighting conditions it does show up differently. I didn’t occur to me until I was finished that it was halfway to pineapple. I’m still thinking about going in with some green glitter to finish it up.

Revlon polishes are sold in stores. Gold Rush and other Chaotic Glitz polishes are sold in their etsy shop. Ribbits Stickits vinyls are sold on their website.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Vintage Flakes

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Happy Monday! I adore today’s mani. I am so pleased with this combination that I almost can’t even put it into words. Almost. I’m wearing two coats of Digital Nails‘s Crush Leaves Not Dreams over OPI’s Don’t Talk Bach to Me.

So let me start with my base color. Don’t Talk Bach to Me is a chartreuse creme with a very fine silver shimmer throughout. Several years ago, I was on a quest to find a vintage green color, not unlike the avocado green kitchens of midcentury modern houses. After trying a few and being disappointed, I spotted this one on an endcap at the supermarket and never looked back. I cherish this shade.

Crush Leaves Not Dreams is the perfect topper for this base shade. The gold-to-orange shifting flakies complement the warm green, and the fine blue shimmer adds a bit of contrast and sparkle. It would look great over any creme, honestly, but I’m completely impressed with how it works over this one.

OPI polishes are sold in stores. Digital Nails is still on hiatus.

Manicure Monday: The Thing About Mermaids

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Happy Monday! Today’s look is all about Lynnderella‘s The Thing About Mermaids. It’s my first time using this limited edition polish, and I feel like I don’t give my Lynns enough love, so I’ve dedicated this week’s nails to this one. I’m wearing one coat of The Thing About Mermaids over two coats of Orly’s Teal Unreal.

The Thing About Mermaids is incredible. It’s a monochromatic teal glitter mix, save for the silver starfish-shaped glitters that are a stark holo silver. It has every great glitter shape: the starfish in both silver and teal, hearts, triangles, lighting bolts (which were new at the time, I remember), flowers, and then some good old squares in hexes in varying sizes. This polish is just so shiny, and looks incredible over Teal Unreal. I’m kind of in love with this mani.

Teal Unreal helps make this look a success. I wanted a creme that was exactly the same shade as the glitter, and I think I got pretty close. Because it’s so close, I got the cohesive and sparkly look I wanted.

All the other photos were taken in cloudy conditions outdoors. The sun came out so I could get this one!

The Thing About Mermaids was a limited edition polish; other Lynnderellas are sold on lynnderella.com, Amazon, and eBay. Orly polish are sold in stores.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Bless This Glitter Mess

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Happy Monday, reader! I’ve got another messy glitter mani to share, because I can never say no to glitter. This is Lynnderella‘s Unicornament over a Maybelline vintage mystery polish.

I’ll start with Unicornament, since it’s clearly front and center in this look. This is probably my favorite-ever Lynn, because there’s so much happening in it. All that color, glitter, shapes, and bling in an iridescent base, it’s irresistible.

I felt a little bad covering the base polish up, because it really is a nice polish. It’s a warm pink — or cool red, I can’t tell — with silver flecks. I’ve had this polish for at least ten years, and believe it or not, it still applies really well. It could have done with some thinner, but it wasn’t thick enough that I thought it was necessary. I’ll have to do another look with it soon so that it gets its due.

Maybelline polishes are sold in stores. Lynnderella polishes are available on their website, Amazon, and eBay.

I bought these polishes myself.