Iridescent duochrome glitter/flakies

Reminds me of a glittery soap bubble:

  1 coat Sally Hansen (Lustre Shine)- Moonstone

2 coats Revlon- Heavenly

1 coat Nicole by OPI (Selena Gomez Collection)- Heavenly Angel

2 coats Poshe topcoat 

I have been trying to get this effect for awhile. Finally found the right combination of polish. Still not exactly what I wanted, but pretty close! I'm glad there has been a bunch of iridescent glitters coming out lately from various brands.
It also kind of reminds me of Falcor from the NeverEnding Story.

(picture from here)

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Max Factor "Fantasy Fire" is one of those polish purchases which I wouldn't want to admit IRL. Only nail polish connoisseurs such as my lovely readers will understand. :)

"Fantasy Fire" is said to be a dupe of Clarins 230, a highly coveted polish which sadly has been discontinued and will run you about $100 on Ebay. Crazy right? So when I paid $30 for F.F. I thought I was being smart until I realized the tiny bottle (4.5 ml) is about the same as I would pay for a similar size 230 (if that was offered for sale). Most nail polish bottles are between 13-15 ml. So really had I just bought three F.F.s, it would be the same as one 230. Sigh.

Anyway on to the pictures. Sorry they are chipped but I was just taking these pics for myself and was recently organizing old photos and came across these and figure I should post them anyways. This was 1 or 2 coats F.F. (sorry I can't remember this was taken in May) over a neon true purple Color Club polish (I can't remember the name either!) This also looks fantastic over a plain black creme or a vivid royal blue like Revlon "Royal". Magenta might be nice too, but I have yet to try that. 

            

             

Look at that color change!!!  ::Drool::

               

Girly Bits, an indie seller, has a near dupe called "Shift Happens" which I bought from Llarowe for $12 for 15ml. I figure I needed a back up for F.F.! As for the real deal, if you live in England you might have been able to get your hands on F.F. since it was released there. And not as expensive as Ebay prices. Unfortunately Max Factor is no longer sold in the US. I really liked that brand and I remember they were the first to come out with the semi permanent lip colors. Although Covergirl has the same now with much better formulas since I guess cosmetic chemistry technology has improved over the years!

Sinful Colors is Stealing Blogger's Photos!!

I will be boycotting Sinful Colors until further notice..

(LOL @ my Photoshop skillz! I still treat Photoshop like it is MS Paint)

The newest nail drama (move over Lynnderella!) is that Sinful Colors released a "how to" nail art pamphlet at Walgreens stores and used at least 2 well known blogger's photos without permission!!! Not only that, but in one of the photos Sinful Colors polish wasn't even used and they claimed you could get the nail art effect by using a toothpick and swirling, when it was actually achieved by stamping! Oh and get this! In the other photo they actually took the time to photoshop out the blogger's watermark!!! Wow if this isn't sketchy, I don't know what is.

What gets me the most is that if Sinful Colors had reached out and asked these bloggers for permission to use their photos, even for free, provided they would credit them, I am almost certain they or any other blogger would gladly say yes. Most bloggers blog as a labor of love and would be happy for the exposure. I am also surprised that Sinful Colors (recently taken over by Revlon?) didn't have the resources to do the manicures themselves and take their own pictures.

So far Sinful Colors, Revlon, or Walgreens hasn't responded to this situation. I heard that Sinful Colors had been deleting outraged comments on their Facebook page. Shame shame shame!

Check out these links for more info directly from the effected bloggers:

the-swatchaholic & swatchandlearn

And while you're at it, go Sinful Colors Facebook Page and leave them a comment letting them know how you feel! :)


Also you can sign this petition!!! 

Bottom line to companies: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE NAIL BLOGGING COMMUNITY!

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*UPDATES*


Oh wow it gets even better!!! I found an interesting picture on Nouveaucheap. THEY PHOTOSHOPPED THE NAILS ONTO THEIR MODELS FOR THE DISPLAY!!!! #FAILFAILFAIL 


This was posted on the Sinful Colors Facebook page where many outraged individuals have expressed their disgust for the company:  
"Sinful Colors is a polish line put out by Mirage Cosmetics. They are then owned by Revlon. But if you would like your voice to be heard, literally, contact them at: Mirage Cosmetics Inc., 10721 Tucker St, Beltsville, MD 20705
(301) 937-6061. Happy dialing."


I am still trying to track down the (possibly) unidentified blogger from the 3rd photo in the pamphlet. I am looking for a better quality photo of that half moon manicure. If someone has one or a link to one, either email it to me or go to Tineye.com and do a reverse image search. And to any bloggers out there, Tineye is a great tool to see if your pictures are being stolen (but only online).
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*2nd UPDATE*


Revlon issued this statement on their Facebook page:
"Dear SinfulColors fans --- We are aware of the issue regarding SinfulColors imagery and are taking steps to resolve this unacceptable error. We deeply respect the rights of our blogger friends and are taking the following measures:

1. We have reached out to the bloggers, Jeanette and Mary, to apologize and quickly resolve the issue.
2. We are correcting any materials featuring the bloggers’ images as soon as possible.
3. We are putting additional measures in place to prevent this from happening again.

Please accept our heartfelt apology and know that we are doing everything we can to make things right."

China Glaze "Aquadelic" and OPI "Pirouette My Whistle"

Ok I can not believe I'm saying this but... I am glitter bombed out! I have always liked glitter, but I think once the Burlesque Collection from OPI came out (late 2010) I went into a glitter frenzy. I needed my nails to be sparkely. I wanted my glitter bigger, badder, more holo, more duochome, more unique... I couldn't get enough. And then once the indie custom polish craze hit... Oh man! It was like crack. I went into a free for all. My nails were constantly blingtastic. And I loved it. But then one day, my cuticles and nail beds starting shouting back at me. The amount of pure acetone remover and picking required to remove these glitters started to take it's toll. Combined with the fact that I felt like I had seen *everything*, suddenly plain creme polishes seemed... exotic. It had been awhile!! I decided to take a hiatus from glitter. And from my own personal frankening.

Right now I am really into bright vivid pastels. Maybe it is the time of the year, bright pastels have "spring" written all over them. The China Glaze Electro Pop Collection is really fitting the bill. I picked up a few colors. "Aquadelic" is a near dupe for "For Audrey" (also from China Glaze, in case you didn't already know that!!) "Aquadelic" is slightly brighter.

Anyway, I hope I get around to photographing and posting some of my indie polishes I have picked up recently! Don't get me wrong.. I still love glitter and more specifically the indie polish trend. The level of creativity and beauty I have seen in these polishes made never ceases to amaze me.

This was my birthday manicure from a few weeks ago. I was wearing "Aquadelic" and decided to give it a little bit of a glam touch :)

2 coats of "Aquadelic" and "Pirouette My Whistle" as a 2 layer gradation (not gradient!!) on the tips :)

Lynnderella Connect The Dots

About a month ago I received my epic haul from Llarowe. Included in the package were my Lynnderellas! Most importantly, I finally got my hands on "Connect The Dots". That was the polish that made me fall in love with Lynnderella. Surely you have all seen swatches of "Connect The Dots" already, so this is nothing new and ground breaking, but I still love it.

The base is an Essie color, I can not remember the name nor can I locate the bottle at the moment. If anyone recognizes the color, tell me the name in the comments section! *EDIT*- It is called "School of Hard Rocks"
I am not quite sure how many coats of CTD was used. I had my nails done at the salon (I'm getting lazy with doing my own nails lately), and my nail lady did the standard polish application procedure which is to gently wipe the excess on the inside of the neck of the bottle and apply a thin coat. This doesn't work with Lynns due to the amount and different sizes of glitter. The result was that only the tiny dot glitter went in to the nail. It looked like salt and pepper! So when I got home I applied another coat of CTD, but this time I applied it without wiping off the excess, and pushing the glitter evenly around on the nail.

So as much as I love Lynnderella polishes, I think I am satisfied with what I have in my collection (Connect The Dots, The Glittering Crowd, Snow Angel, One Nutty Fruit Cake, All Hallow's Eve, Shape Shifter, and Bride of Franken). There are a few new ones I would like, and I am kicking myself for not ordering "Very Pretty Vampire" or the "Glitter Tamer" topcoat, but it seems to be a lot of trouble to order now. You have to email a special email account, get a form, fill out the form, and then go on a wait list! This is testament to how wonderful and popular Lynnderellas are, but I think I am good now. I would rather let someone else who doesn't own any of these beauties get the chance to have some!

On that note, if anyone has "Very Pretty Vampire" and would like to swap it with me for "Snow Angel", please email me! "Snow Angel" is GORGEOUS, but I am just not loving it on me!!

Sh*t Nail Polish Addicts Say

Wow. Minus the "Navy" part, I'm guilty of saying ALL of these things! :D


Also I like how the uploader mentions in the description section: 
"i'm not wearing polish, cuz as much polish as i own, i'm often without. so that was the irony of it"


How many of you do the same thing? You have maybe literally hundreds of polishes, but you still often go bare? I know I do!

Claire's "Disco" glitter

Hello everyone! I have been having a great week. I am on vacation in Arizona. I absolutely love it! The landscape out here is beautiful and the weather is perfect!
I'm visiting friends and a few nights ago I kinda had a little too much wine, and then right before I was going to bed I thought "oh hey I should do my nails..." (I think we can all see where this is going, LOL)

I picked up some good polishes out here, one of them was Claire's "Disco". I LOVE holo glitter polishes. This is pure silver holo hexagons, all one size. Reminds me of American Apparel's "Light Year" which I wanted, but now I think "Disco" will satisfy me!

"Disco" is a little bit hard to apply, as are most medium/larger glitter polishes. I'm sure the wine didn't help my application skills!

I had a difficult time trying to get all the glitter evenly on my nail. You can see how it clumped in certain spots, particularly on my ring finger in the above photo.

It is a bit overkill, and it took some getting used to. It looks crazy rainbow shiny in direct sunlight of course, so much so that my camera couldn't capture it properly! I like that I can still see some of the flakies in between the glitter.

My dream polish would be a solid silver chrome that shines back a holo rainbow. Like the back of a CD. I think the closest I will get to that is a chunky holo glitter like this, or maybe one of those nail sticker things. I believe MinxLusion comes close, but I have not seen them IRL, so I can not be sure.

I'll probably leave this on until I get home. My gel mani is holding up pretty well, only the middle finger on my left and and my index on my right have chips. It has been almost 2 weeks.

Oh and I have 50 followers now!!! :) Yay!

I heart flakies....

As soon as I heard the FingerPaints was releasing a line of flakie topcoats I KNEW I needed them. I was at Sally's in early December and I found 2 of the colors- Twisted and Flashy. Score! I managed to find then early, before the official release date. They were stuck behind the main FingerPaints display. I love the thrill of a good nail polish hunt/find!
I had to wait until December 31st to find the other ones. I called my local Sallys to reserve them, and they said they were out on display already for the next day. I went and snatched them up!

My New Year's Eve manicure was going to be Essie's Sexy Divide (a dark shimmery purple) topped with Twisted and OPI's Lily I Love You (a gorgeous glitter flake in a sheer pink base). I decided to go get them professionally done. The night before I went, I found this from Nailderellanails. WOW. Aside from being beautiful, it was very similar to the manicure I had planned. The next day when I went to the salon I couldn't find Sexy Divide! So I remembered the "Unicorn Puke Remake" and chose a dark almost black red. I can't remember the name, sorry! The manicure came out beautiful. I didn't take pictures, but you can take a look at that link and see how good it looked!

The only problem was... it chipped so fast! :( So a week later I went back to the salon and got a black gel manicure and topped it with 2 coats FingerPaints Asylum and then 1 coat Motley. So far the black base hasn't chipped! I love it!

 It actually is a tad more purple colored in real life. I'm not sure why "blurple" is so hard to photograph?!

You can see the slight green duochrome shift in the second picture.

The only problem with applying the flakes over the gel is that the flakes kind of melt onto the gel base when using polish remover to take off the flakes. They are hard to remove without physically picking off the flakes.  

China Glaze Magnetix

Happy New Year everyone!

I have come to the conclusion that Brazil (and Australia too, due to Picture Polish and Ozotic) have some great nail polishes. If you are a muti/duochrome-flakie-holo-glitter fiend like me, you might have noticed that there are some gorgeous polishes from these countries. I decided to torture myself and do some research to look around for some polishes that I probably won't be able to get, on blogs I can't even read. (Although how many people READ blogs, I know that I usually go for the pictures and then maybe read what has to be said. Actually, I do read certain bloggers. But usually the pictures. If you are reading this right now without skipping to the picture, well, I admire that!!)

Anyway I came across this on CuteNailsBlog:

From what I gather it will be released March 2012. It looks like there are 6 colors. What makes this special is that there appear to be 3 different magnet patterns, which are sold separately from the polish. I will definitely be on the look out for this when they are released!

Right now I am trying my hardest to not purchase any new nail polish that is even remotely dupe-y. I think I have reached the point in my collection where I have a lot of variations on the same color, and if I see something I don't have, I can franken it. Of course reading all of my favorite nail blogs doesn't help!! But I can be strong!!! LOL

That being said, I did just order a bunch of *special* colors from Llarowe. Lynnderellas, Hits Mari Moons, Picture Polish Flakies, Glitter Gals and Elytras. I also picked up the entire line of Finger Paints Special Effects topcoats from Sallys.

I think 2012 will be a good year for nail polish!!! :)

Liebster Blog Award

Rules 

- Copy and paste the award on your blog.

- Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

- Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

Thank you to Tyne at Lovebeangirl for nominating me for this award! This award is for up and coming nail bloggers, people who have less than 200 followers. Such a lovely award!
I love Tyne's blog. She is super sweet and thoughtful, she responds to every single one of the comments that her readers leave! If I had received this award from someone else, she would have been one of the first nominated!


Interestingly enough, my current favorite blogs are smaller blogs with less than 200 followers. I chose 6 blogs to share instead of 5 :)


Polish and Pigments- Not your typical swatch/review blog. MK is so detailed and organized with lists of products for frankening and how they performed. A gem for the franken community. 


Karla's Nail Design- Karla shows us that you can find a silver lining in the darkest cloud. Going through some tough times she found solace in nail polish and nail art. It became her passion and now she is studying to be a nail technician. She was so talented before her formal training, so I can only imagine how promising her future career will be! 

Lil Smug Pug- 2 of my favorite things EVER are nail polish (DUH!) and pugs. Well one day I randomly typed "pugs nail polish" in Google and I found this blog. Anyone who swatches nail polish with a PUG in the background is just simply amazing. Every time I go to her blog I smile. Too cute. I want to make friends with her and her pug.

Je T'aime Lacquer- I recently found her blog and I am digging her nail art. How cool is her Halloween "buried alive/clawed out of the grave" manicure? Super cool!!

Men and Nail Polish- Jim is a regular guy who happens to like nail polish. He believes nail polish should be for everyone, and I agree. 

EyeGraffiti- Ok so this isn't a nail blog like the rest, but Phlox and Azure do some wild makeup looks!! In addition to creative colorful eye looks, there are some funky cool lip looks as well. Red-yellow-green gradient lips? Whoa!


3 other blogs that I currently like but wouldn't qualify for this award:


More Nail Polish- An Aussie mom with a passion for frankening. But not just any normal frankening. Spectraflair and color shifting pigments! LOVE. Also, some really good swatches of drool worthy Ozotics. Which I will have to settle for just the pics as they are very expensive to ship to the USA. Oh well! 


LoodieLoodieLoodie- She has the most gorgeous nails! Super curved and a nice shape and length. She is very informative on nail care and has a great sense of humor!


My Nail Graffiti- Amber and her artist husband team up to make some awesome nail art and frankens! If you like what you see you can buy them too. They also are selling XL and XXL nail plates. I definitely have to get some!!

Uh oh. I'm on a rant.

Uh oh. I think someone just pissed off a lot of bloggers. Hannah Lee from Nailsmag. Check out the article here. And the "apology" here.

I have yet to meet a nail technician who is as passionate about nails as I am.

Yes, they do it for a living and have expertise on things that I am not licensed or trained to do. No, they are not always up on the latest nail trends. I once asked for a leopard print design and I got a crazy look. Really?? Leopard print? Any nail art blogger worth their salt could do that with their eyes closed!

The very few times a year I get my nails professionally done, I pretty much always bring my own polish. Why? Because I'm bored with the usual selection of Essie sheers and pinks and a few outdated OPIs. And guess what? Nearly every time I get complimented on the "unique" color I bring. Also I introduced OPI Black Shatter to my local nail salon last winter/spring. I had it on my nails when I came in for a wax and the OWNER loved it. She took down the name and bought it for her salon. But anyone who reads nail blogs knew about OPI Shatter for months before it was available to the public.

Once I discovered nail blogs my interest in nails grew exponentially. I always had a fascination with nail polish but reading blogs really opened my eyes to a whole new world of color, design, products, and style. I now know how to take better care of my nails, not because of a nail tech but because of the blogs I read. I am not a professional blogger, nor am I a consistent blogger, but my friends ask me for color advice and tips and tricks. When someone asks me about something I don't know, I don't pretend to know. I am not a professional... yet? LOL. I am considering getting into the field. And you know what? If I did, I would still read blogs and take inspiration from them. Because if you care enough to spend your free time seeking out products, swatching, taking photographs, reviewing, and writing... you must really love it. When you are passionate about something you want to know as much as you can about the subject.

I understand that the article was written with the intended audience to be nail professionals. But why the harsh words toward nail bloggers? Calling us polish junkies looking for free handouts? Most bloggers buy their own products and review/promote. Nail techs have the license and training, but bloggers do more for companies because we advertise for free for them.  Maybe the nail industry needs to step up their game a little bit. If there was a TRENDY, clean, local salon with a better selection of polish, I would probably get my nails done professionally more often. Perhaps the problem lies within the consumer. Do people accept these tired trends of harsh square shaped french tipped acrylics/polish with a frosty 90's finish because that is all they are offered? Or is it because this is what most people like? I feel like if certain salons promoted new trends, it would bring some excitement and possibly more business.

I want to thank all the nail bloggers out there. Keep doing what you are doing! I am so glad I have discovered a community of people from around the world who share my hobby. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and pictures. You all are awesome! <3

Lynnderella

If you are a fan of frankening and/or beautiful unique glitters check out Lynnderella. If you haven't already heard of this franken master, do yourself a favor and Google image search her and her glorious masterpieces.
You can now buy her creations at the above link. $12 per bottle and minimum of 5 bottles.
My personal favorite is "Connect the Dots"! 

Jelly Gradient

My nails are still stained but I bought Develop 10 Nail Whitening Scrub today. Hopefully that will help. Since my nails now NEED to be covered, I decided to play around and try something I have never tried before. I used Deborah Lippmann "Yellow Brick Road" and OPI "Guy meets Gal-Veston".
It reminds me of those rainbow ice pops. Very summer. :)

HELP! Nail Drama :(

Last Thursday I put on Milani Fresh Teal with OPI Silver Shatter over it. I used Seche Vite, and for some reason it yellowed the polish, but it actually worked out better. It looked like a nice jade with a gold-ish silver-sh crackle pattern. I was in a hurry and carelessly did not use a base coat.

I kept it on all weekend and today I decided I needed a change. As I began to remove the polish I noticed it was leaving a blue-green stain behind. I then switched to 100% acetone polish remover, but still no luck.
It has been about 4 months since I had my UV gel fiasco (see this post) and the damage is almost fully grown out. But now my nails are stained blue. :( :( :(

Any suggestions? Do I treat then like yellowed nails? I never had my nails this stained before!

Deborah Lippmann "Yellow Brick Road"

I saw Lady Gaga wearing this color at the Grammys this year. I wasn't sure how I was gonna feel about it in real life. A yellow jelly? Hmmm.

Once I tried it on, I realized it is extremely sheer. It took 4 to 5 coats to the opacity that I wanted.

Overall I GUESS I like this color. I think it would look better on a darker skin tone. It is very unique and trendy. Not something I would yearn for in a few years or even next season. It reminds me of egg yolk. How appropriate for Gaga when she came out of the egg!

My yellow collection! (I think there are more, but these are my favs)

And speaking of yellow, my boyfriend brought these to me today because he knows how much I love yellow lately and to cheer me up because I'm sick (just a slight cold).  Earlier today he hinted by saying that I should paint my nails yellow lol :D

**Note- "Yellow Brick Road" is available in my Blog Sale/Trade section!!!**

**Note- This product was bought by me and not sent to me for review.**

China Glaze Crackle Metals

UPDATE: I haven't been painting my nails very often during the last few months. In January I got UV Gel nails applied, and silly me, I thought it was the nice easy on your nails soak off color gel. Boy was I wrong. I had them on for bout 2 weeks and loved them, but I picked up playing the violin again and had to cut my nails short. When I went to the salon to have them removed I was shocked when the nail tech took out one of those drill files to remove the gel... and most of the surface of my nail bed. Needless to say I was traumatized for a few weeks, until I got used to my new ultra short paper thin scuffed up visible pink nail surface peeling nails. I have still painted my nails from time to time, but they are nowhere near how they used to be. The good news is that the damage is ALMOST done growing out but it will be sometime in the summer until they are back 100%. 

Today I ordered China Glaze Crackle "Broken Hearted" from Sally Beauty Supply. I have "Lightening Bolt" and "Crushed Candy", but I am dreaming of a nice yellow (IMO, the "It" color of summer 2011) with some pink crackle layered over it.

While on my search I came across this information. China Glaze is releasing a metallic crackle line!! I know OPI is releasing a few more shatter colors, but only one metallic (silver, which comes out in May). I wonder how the formula is going t be on these. I heard some complaints about China Glaze "Fault Line", which was a purple with a metallic sheen. A few people said that it might have been due to the metallic finish. I guess only time will tell for these ones! 

I am super excited for the gold and aqua ones!

Tarnished Gold - Gold Metal Crackle

Cracked Medallion - Bronze Metal Crackle 

Platinum Pieces - Silver Metal Crackle 

Latticed Lilac - Lavender Metal Crackle 

Haute Metal - Pale Pink Metal Crackle 

Oxidized Aqua - Aquamarine Metal Crackle 

Pictures and info courtesy of:

http://poshnail.blogspot.com/2011/04/china-glaze-crackle-metals-preview.html

Five Year Old Makeup Guru!

I love this girl! So cute! I want her to review some sparkly pink nail polishes! :)

Cosmic Confetti Cake

A franken made with 1/2 Essie "Nude Beach" and 1/2 Ulta "Starstruck". I added a top coat of Starstruck because I wanted more of a holo glitter finish.

OPI "Pirates Of The Caribbean"

I'm very excited for the "Silver Shatter" and "Stranger Tides"!

**The above picture courtesy of Claire from www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk**

Check out some swatches here:

http://thebeautybite.blogspot.com/2011/02/opi-pirates-of-caribean-on-stranger.html

OPI "Femme De Cirque"

For the sheer polish lovers:

"So Many Clowns...So Little Time" - a pale cream with a hint of pink

"In The Spot Light Pink" - a soft candy pink

"I Juggle Men" - a very sheer translucent white with blue duochrome-y micro glitter

"Step Right Up" - a sheer pink