Tag Archives: silver

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Light Year

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Glitter! My final American Apparel polish is a great one. Light Year is just loads and loads of holo hex glitter. It’s worn here sponged over black with three coats of Seche Vite topcoat. Look at it shine; this is what glitter is supposed to look like.

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The bottle shot there is not really representative of the typical result. The glitter itself is very silver; I think it picked up some red color from either the curtains behind it, or from my red t-shirt.

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I didn’t get a very good glitter payout with this one. I could get like five pieces of glitter on the brush at most, so I gave up and used a sponge to dab on the rest. Like with the Galaxy swatch I did a couple weeks ago, I got overzealous and put on too much. Sometimes I don’t know when to quit.

I like this one. I like how it looks over black, and I like staring at the glitter when it changes colors. I just wish it was easier to apply.

And there we go: we’re done swatching my American Apparel nail polishes. Next up: a bottle from Germany, and a plethora of indie polishes from Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer. This is starting to get good.

Manicure Monday: Blue and Silver Gradient

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This week I have two fantastic polishes and a beautiful shiny gradient.If it wasn’t so gross and cold and overcast outside, these nails would be absolutely blinding.

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I started with two coats of OPI’s Austin-tatious Turquoise. It’s a bottle I’ve had for a few years now, acquired in that legendary Ulta haul where I had a ton of reward points and left the store with like ten bottles of OPI. I don’t know, the bottle count changes each time I remember it. It’s like a fishing story. Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems with this color. The first coat was thin and uneven; the second did not cover or improve anything. I was only able to gain opacity when I started sponging it on to create the gradient. I was really disappointed by it, because it’s beautiful in the bottle. It takes a lot of work to get it to look good on my nails.

This is me trying to demonstrate the duochromatic properties of Austin-tatious Turquoise. It almost worked.

This is me trying to demonstrate the duochromatic properties of Austin-tatious Turquoise. It almost worked.

Shine is the total opposite. Opaque in two coats, it makes this gradient reflective and, well, shiny. There isn’t a better name for this polish. I liked the silver so much, I added a rhinestone to each nail to add more. Overkill? Probably. Pretty? Totally!

OPI's Austin-Tatious Turquoise, Orly's Shine

OPI’s Austin-Tatious Turquoise, Orly’s Shine

Manicure Monday: Blue and Silver Half-Moon Dream Nails

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I have really mundane dreams. They’re always about washing dishes, picking up dry cleaning, standing in line at the bank. Even in my dreams, I can’t escape the banalities of everyday life.  Some night a few weeks ago, I had a dream about painting my nails, and I gave myself the best manicure ever. Upon waking, I decided that I was going to do it for real. Here’s how it turned out.

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It’s not really my style, but I’m very happy with it. The silver is much shinier than I anticipated, but I like it anyway. There are tons of imperfections, but I’m not going to bore you with those details. I’m so pleased with it that I don’t even care.

Bonder, Haze, Hard to Get, Celeb City, Out the Door

Bonder, Haze, Hard to Get, Celeb City, Out the Door

One thing about this manicure: it took me ages to find the right blue. Eventually, I settled on a color called Haze by Sula. I’ve ever seen this polish anywhere but Ulta, and its formula is much like the stuff we used as children, the stuff that came in garish colors and peeled right off. I used it as a base color in another manicure and had good results, so I tried it again. This time, though, I used the French manicure guide strips to get my half-moon shapes, and it hadn’t occurred to me taping and peel-off polish wouldn’t work well together until after I’d nearly pulled a few of them off. Luckily, everything went according to plan.

Did I mention that I’m pleased with these? I’m very pleased with these.