Go USA!

I meant to do something a bit more elaborate for the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics but I was in a car yesterday for 14 hours so I didn't get the chance to do anything. I was gone last week with my roommate visiting her family in Florida. I got home around 9pm last night so thank goodness for DVR or I would have missed the beginning of the Opening Ceremonies (I loved watching the children singing their national anthem!)

Here's the mani I'm wearing today. The colors are Barry M Cobalt Blue and Nails Inc Jubilee (anyone else find it funny that these are both British brands?).

Go Team USA! I love gymnastics, cycling, and water sports the best but I try to watch as many events as possible!

What are your favorite events to watch? 

Essie Mesmerized + Stamping

You know I have a thing for blue polishes. So of course when I was in Target the other day I had to take Essie Mesmerized home with me. It was the only one left and it looked so sad and lonely. How could I say no? 

These two first pictures aren't very color accurate (the last picture is fairly accurate). It's been so humid outside lately that I can't even take my camera outside without the lens fogging up. No bueno. 

Then I noticed my new Bundle Monster plates on the table next to me so I decided to do a quick stamping. The image is from BM-315 and I used Sephora Moody Woman to stamp.

This stamping is subtle in real life. Moody Woman is a duochrome and in certain angles, the image almost disappears.
You can see a bit of the color shift in these pictures.

A Bit of Randomness

I was looking through my photos and I noticed three different manicures that I haven't posted because I didn't think they would be interesting enough for a full post.

First up, Orly Rage

I wore this back when I was on vacation in June. It's not a bad polish but I'm not a huge fan of foil polishes in general. I mainly wanted this polish for stamping (which I still haven't tried). This is pictured in the shade because my camera didn't capture it right in the sunlight.

Secondly, Candeo Colors Sour Grapes

This polish was a bit of a disappointment. There's nothing wrong with it but I just didn't love it. Pictured is one coat over Amour Opening Ceremonies. 

Lastly, a slight twist on the traditional ombré mani.

The colors used are Finger Paints Black Expressionism and Wet N Wild White Creme. The in between colors are frankens of black and white. I used regular tape to make the lines on my nails.

A-England Dragon

Today I've got on A-England Dragon from The Legends collection. I've been wanting this polish since I first saw pictures of it but I kept putting it off to buy other polishes until I finally decided to pull the trigger last week. I made an order from Llarowe and picked up a few polishes I had been eyeing for some time.

This polish is even prettier in real life. The holographic particles give the polish so much depth and it also looks like there is fine golden shimmer as well. 

Application was fantastic. The formula was wonderful. Dragon is nice and dense but not goopy. It was a dream to apply. It could easily be a one coater but I did two coats for good measure.

HARE Magic Mist

A few weeks ago, Nikole started pre-orders for her new Spring and Summer collections. I picked up three of the polishes: Magic Mist, Rad Cloud, and Why So Igneous?. They arrived in the mail last week and I decided to wear Magic Mist first since it was the one I was most excited for.

I'm so impressed with this polish! Hare is one of my favorite Indie polish lines and Nikole never fails to impress me with her creations. 

This is the first time in about 3 months that I've worn a glitter polish and didn't want to take it off right away. 
I really love the color combo of the glitters. There's small orange hexes, small blue squares, small purple hexes, medium magenta squares, and then micro purple glitters. I love orange mixed with purple and blue! 

I didn't have any problems with application. The glitters are dense enough that you only need one coat. It's also very easy to apply and you don't have to "push" the glitters into place to get an even look. The glitters lie very smoothly on the nails as well. I've got one super thin coat of gelous (literally, my bottle has about 50% thinner and 50% gelous because it takes forever to dry on my nails otherwise) and then one coat of SH Insta-Dri and it's perfectly smooth!

I layered it over Essence A Lovely Secret .

For more information on Hare polishes:

Facebook Page

Hare Etsy Page

Hare polishes will be available through LLarowe Friday, July 27th.

Amour Opening Ceremonies

 The other day I made a Transdesign order to buy a new basecoat and so I ended up buying a few polishes as well to even out the shipping costs. I picked up a bottle of Amour Opening Ceremonies, from the Olympic 2012 collection, on a bit of a whim. 

I had never purchased any Amour polishes before and I hadn't heard much about the company either so I wasn't really expecting much from the polish. I really like it! I'm going to have to pick up a few more colors next time I make an order from TD. Application was very easy. This is two coats. 

Essie Sand Tropez + Stamping

Not much chatter today. I just wanted to show you what I wore on my nails the other day.

Essie Sand Tropez stamped with Finger Paints Black Expressionism. The image is from Cheeky Jumbo plate B.

Here's Sand Tropez by itself. 

Pure Ice Home Run

While I was on vacation last week, my family stopped by Walmart to pick up a few essentials that we needed and I spotted this polish (it's an essential too!). Pure Ice Home Run is a nice mint green with a hint of blue to it. 

Application was okay. The first layer was a bit hard to work with but a slightly thicker second coat smoothed everything out. 

4th of July Nails!

I've been thinking about this mani for a few weeks now. I saw a video a few weeks back that showed how to  make tiny strings on your nails. The first time I tried it out, I didn't do so well. The strings were too large and it just didn't look good. I was determined to make it work though, so I tried it again. 

I'm very happy with my results this time!

The colors are:

Blue- China Glaze First Mate

Red- Illamasqua Ruthless

White- Wet N Wild White Creme

The video I used for inspiration is posted below. I was much more patient this time in waiting for my polish to get tacky and that helped me to get the look I was going for. The longer you wait, the thinner the strings will be when you lift your dotting tool out of the polish (you could try using a bobby pin or a toothpick if you don't have a dotting tool). 

I put a few drops of blue and red on a plastic bag and waited a few minutes for them to thicken up. If you don't want to wait, let the drops of color start to thicken up while you paint your nails. By the time you finish painting the drops should be thick enough for you to be able to start making strings!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5CTNGcFbzg&feature=player_embedded