Christmas Mani

Here is the mani that I actually wore on Christmas. I wanted to change things up after wearing Party Hearty for almost two weeks. I've neverrrrrr worn a polish that long. Fuck - I've never even wore a polish for a week. I guess that just goes to show how cool and awesome Party Hearty is. 

This mani was China Glaze Cheers for You, with a little nail art on top. 

First off - I just want to say that Cheers for You deserves an award. An award for being the polish with the worst wear! I did this on Christmas Eve - around 9pm. I took this pictures around 10am Christmas day. I had major major major chippage issues on my right hand.  3/5 nails were halfway chipped off. And I don't know if you can see it but on my left hand (which is shown) both my index and middle finger had pretty noticeable chips on them as well. I don't know what happened.

Another thing to note - I got the ideas for my nails from Nails by Asami. Her designs are amazing!! It makes me want to run out and buy acrylic paint and practice my nail art. 

For these I didn't use acrylic paint. I used China Glaze Ruby Deer for the red and China Glaze Emerald Sparkled for the green.

I should have stopped with the holly bunch. I think it is really cute! And it came out looking pretty decent. But nooooo - I had to keep going. Asami's christmas lights mani looked so cute and easy I figured I could handle it. I was wrong. I think it ruined the whole mani. 

See - nice fingers...

and.. crappy thumb!

 And back to the nice fingers... 

Well - I liked my fingers at least.

White on White w/ Party Hearty

Christmas mani! I meant to post like 10 christmas manis, but last week I tried this one and I seriously don't want to take it off. I did re-do it a few days ago, after it started chipping like crazy. But I just re-did the same thing. I'm glad I finally like Party Hearty - it looks so clean and classy over white. Yet still totally awesome and crazy and festive. 

This was over China Glaze White on White. I really want to find a white that is opaque in one coat. This was three coats of White on White and one coat of Party Hearty. 

Hard Candy: Lava

Here is a great orange polish, Hard Candy Lava. The base is deep orange and there is a lot of gold glitter in it that gets coated in the orange polish. It is pretty neat. The first time I wore it, it was a bitch and a half to remove. But since then I've switched to using felt to remove my polish and I didn't have any issues whatsoever this go around. 

And a not so good macro shot...

Revlon: Gold Get 'Em w/ Galaxy

Here is the other set of Revlon polishes that I bought. This is a very sheer gold, Gold Get 'Em, and it came with a dark blue glitter with some holo hex glitter thrown in. This gold is not only very sheer, but very light. And shimmery. I actually kind of like it now that I am looking back on it. I think it would be great to wear in a conservative work environment.

On to the pictures...

And with one coat of Galaxy:

And two coats: 

I'm not a fan of this combination. I think the glitter would look much much better with a dark blue or black polish. 

Rimmel: Hard Edged

Since I just posted Night Before, I figured I would post the other Rimmel polish that I love, Hard Edged. I didn't think that I would like this one cause it seemed brownish in the bottle. But I think it is looks great with my skin. For me, this is the ultimate fall color. Nice deeb burgundy color with gold and red shimmer. Beautiful. 

This polish has the same murkey quality that my Gosh polishes have. I wonder what that it. 

Rimmel: Night Before with Nubar 2010

Oh my god! Nubar 2010! Where have you been all my life?!? You are AMAZING! I don't know why everyone is obsessed with getting Hidden Treasure. You can order this from the Nubar website at any time and it is only 7 bucks. Here it is layered over Rimmel London's Night Before. I love this! It actually looks much cooler in low light and indoors. Outside you loose the awesome flakiness, as you will see. 

And here are some shady pictures, which really accentuates the duochrome flakiness. 

Soooo gorgous! I love how sometimes it is yellow/green and sometimes it orange/red. 

Rimmel: Night Before

I love the two Rimmel polishes I have! Although I think their one coat claim is COMPLETE bullshit. This was 3 or 4 coats - I don't remember. But certainly not one. This polish is really sheer. But it is worth the work in my opinion.  

This is Night Before - a gorgeous blue based polish with purple and pink shimmer. Phenomenal.

Essie: Turquoise and Caicos

Here is a polish from the Essie Resort 2010 collection which came out this past spring. It really is a crappy formula. Super sheer, balding spots that are hard to get rid of, and a long dry time all come together to create a trifecta of crappiness. But there is one redeeming quality - the color. I love the color. But a very very similar color is China Glaze For Audrey. And I never have any formula or application issues with For Audrey. So for me, it is a no brainer to go with the China Glaze. The only color difference really is that Turquoise and Caicos has a tiny bit more of a greenish tint. It reminds me a little bit of mint chocolate chip ice cream in these pictures. And another difference is that this polish is pretty jelly-like whereas For Audrey is a straight up creme. 

I am in the For Audrey court. Has anyone else compared the two? If you have, what do you think??

Teal Patchwork

My second attempt at a patchwork mani didn't look much better. It is just so hard to get the tape lined up properly. And I had major problems with creating a good seal - polish kept leaking through and I would have to re-do it. Such a hassle. 

I used China Glaze For Audrey for the base, China Glaze 2nite for the blue holo, and China Glaze Liquid Leather for the black.

Also - sorry that these pictures were taken indoors but I wanted to take this mani off as soon as I finished it (at 11pm), but I wanted a picture of it - for progress's sake. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be so good at doing patchwork manis that this will be laughable.

Green Patchwork Mani

This is a horrible horrible first attempt at a patchwork mani. They look soooooo beautiful on Chloe's blog. But damn - they are kind of hard to get perfect. Hopefully practice will help. But this is definitely not pretty. 

I used OPI Jade is the New Black as the base, and then layered China Glaze Emerald Sparkled and China Glaze Liquid Leather over it using tape.