China Glaze Bahamian Escape and Liquid Crystal

It's the middle of the week and I'm back with a post! Life has been busy lately, but the weather was gorgeous today so I had to snap a few pics of my mani.

Below I'm wearing 2 coats of Bahamian Escape and 2 coats of Liquid Crystal on my ring finger.

China Glaze Bahamian Escape
China Glaze Liquid Crystal

China Glaze Bahamian Escape
China Glaze Liquid Crystal

Bahamian Escape is a bright sky-blue creme; it had a wonderful application which barely required 2 coats for full opacity. Liquid Crystal is a dense blue glitter that shifts purple in the light. It contains multi-colored larger glitters throughout and also required 2 coats for full opacity. Love the duo!

What do you think of this combo?

-Shelby

China Glaze Man Hunt!

Hey again! I hope you all have been having a good week so far! I finished my last class today and am starting finals this weekend, wish me luck! :P Today I revisited a color I featured on my blog before: China Glaze Man Hunt from their On Safari collection. That post was one of my first and is a poor excuse for swatches, so I am going to attempt to re-do some of my very first posts. What do you guys think about that? Anyway, onto the polish!

China Glaze Man Hunt

China Glaze Man Hunt

China Glaze Man Hunt

Man Hunt is a high-gloss dark blue, almost navy, creme. The application of this polish is wonderful and two coats made it perfectly opaque. Sometimes dark colors can be a pain, but this one gave me no problems at all! Man Hunt has almost a jelly quality to it; extremely shiny and rather jelly-like on the first coat in terms of opacity. I love this color year-round! 

What do you think of Man Hunt?

-Shelby

China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-le and Sinful Colors Rainstorm

Hello, friends! I've had a long, yet relaxing weekend. I'm back at school for the week and settling into my normal routine. I wanted to share with you a manicure I wore a couple weeks ago. I've been very much into doing different dotticures lately and I especially like this one!

What I used:
2 coats China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-le
Sinful Colors Rainstorm (dotting)
medium & large sized dotting tools

Secret Peri-Wink-le is very true to its name; it's a periwinkle cream! I love all shades of periwinkle and this is no exception. I feel like this specific polish started the periwinkle trend since this came out far before others did. The formula on this polish is not my favorite. As you can tell, there are some patchy areas (index finger). I used two coats here, but three coats or two super careful coats would've been better. I then took two sized dotting tools and decorated with Rainstorm, a dark blue creme. I love the pairing of the two colors from the same color family!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

China Glaze Tart-y for the Party and OPI Polka.com

Hello again! I am back with a post as promised. I actually have a few lined up; hopefully this weekend I can do some swatching and get some good photographs, now that the weather is getting gorgeous again. My boyfriend will be out of town so I will have plenty of time to play catch up! Today I have for you two polishes from recent collections: China Glaze Tart-y for the Party (from the Avant Garden collection) and OPI Polka.com (from the Euro Centrale collection)!

Below I used 2 coats of Tart-y for the Party and 1 coat of Polka.com

China Glaze Tart-y for the Party
OPI Polka.com

China Glaze Tart-y for the Party
OPI Polka.com

China Glaze Tart-y for the Party
OPI Polka.com

Tart-y for the Party is a gorgeous lilac shade. I love all light purples and this is no exception! The formula was a little thick, but nothing unmanageable! It didn't streak much and I love how smooth and creamy it is! I added Polka.com (cute name huh?) on top to spice it up; Polka.com has a great formulation and I had NO issues distributing glitter onto each nail evenly! Very impressed indeed :) Polka.com contains teal, magenta, and purple large hexes as well as pink and dark blue/purple micro-glitter. I love the end result of this mani!

Do you have polishes from either of these new collections? What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

Few of my most recent Manis!

Hello again, ladies! Yes, I am back with a post after who knows how long! Like I said before, life gets in the way. I am a first-year college student and timing is never perfect for photos, but now that spring and summer are approaching, I plan on doing a lot more nail posts, especially once I move home for the summer :) I still have a lot of untried polishes in my stash and I want to purchase a couple of polishes from the spring 2013 collections as well! Side note with that...I am in love with EVERY color from the new Butter London collection...my wallet is already crying.

So I thought to make up for my ultimate lameness, I could show you guys a few of the manicures I've done lately. I don't remember all of the polish names and the photo settings are not ideal, but I'm going to give it a whirl anyway!

China Glaze It's a Trap-eze

 This first mani is a combo of 3 different colors: a lavender (possibly Essie St. Lucia Lilac or China Glaze Light as Air), a Sally Hansen nail art pen in white and China Glaze It's a Trap-eze to top off the white. I loved the effect of this design, but I wish I had made the white area in the center thinner. That way the lavender would've shined through more!

SOPI Seriously, It's a Naan-Issue
Nails Inc. Warwick Way & The Thames

SOPI Seriously, It's a Naan-Issue
Nails Inc. Warwick Way & The Thames

I love dot manis! I wish I used lighter colors for the dots or a lighter base for the polish, but whatevs. I just used alternating dotting tool sizes to create a little pattern. Warwick Way is a little on the thin side. Seriously, It's a Naan-Issue is perfection! 

Revlon Coastal Surf

I love Revlon Coastal Surf! It is such a gorgeous shade of blue- this makeshift photo does not do the color justice! Also, the formulation was great! Barely needed two coats :)

Unfortunately, I can only remember 1 polish from this mani- Zoya Ziv. Ziv has been my recent go-to gold polish and it just looks great with every type of mani! I used a nude base and sponged on Ziv as well as an Indie glitter on the tips. I love the effect this created! I will definitely recreate this for an actual post!

Revlon Provence
Confetti Lonesome Dove

Yet another poor photo, but I love this design! It's the "puzzle piece" design. I painted half my nail Revlon Provence and the other half Confetti Lonesome Dove. Then I took large dotting tools and did purple on the gray half and gray on the purple half, spacing the dots out to create this look! I love Revlon Provence, its formulation is great. I also really like Lonesome Dove, it is a great neutral gray and wallet-friendly!

I hope you guys enjoyed this!

-Shelby

China Glaze Light as Air and Color Club Magic Attraction!

Hello ladies! I know, it's been quite a while since I last made a blog post. I'm not going to make any excuses, life just gets in the way and making blog posts was my last priority to be quite honest. I am a full-time student. I commute home every weekend (which a huge ordeal and process haha). But I thought I'd pop in and share a mani I did last weekend and actually had a chance to photograph!

Below is 2 coats of Light as Air and the glitter used is by Color Club (it was unmarked in a set), but I believe it to be Magic Attraction!

China Glaze Light as Air
Color Club Magic Attraction

China Glaze Light as Air
Color Club Magic Attraction

Light as Air is a gorgeous light lavender creme! It's from China Glaze's Up & Away collection, which I am obsessed with. The application was great; 2 careful coats was perfect for full opacity. I then took Magic Attraction and did a bit of a reverse glitter gradient at the cuticle. 

I hope you guys enjoyed! Glad to be back to post here and there! 

-Shelby

Brush Stroke Mani!

Hello ladies! I hope you all had a lovely weekend :) My family had a holiday party yesterday, so I've been quite the busy bee. It was well worth it though :)

A couple days ago, I did a mani that I saw on a couple tutorials- a brush stroke type mani. Hope you like it! :)

What I used:
OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls
Zoya Kristen
Essie Bikini So Teeny
Sinful Colors Lavender
OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui
OPI Ski Teal We Drop
China Glaze Fairy Dust

I loooove how this turned out! I used a medium-length striper brush to achieve this look. I was a little skeptical after the first couple colors, but I couldn't get enough of the final look :) I may have forgot to list a color, but I honestly can't remember.

Merry Christmas in case I don't post before then!

-Shelby

Revlon Bold Sangria, OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel and China Glaze Prism

Good evening! Tonight I have for you a kind of mish-mash mani. I couldn't really decide what to do, so I kept adding to it!

Revlon Bold Sangria
OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel
China Glaze Prism

Revlon Bold Sangria
OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel
China Glaze Prism

Revlon Bold Sangria
OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel
China Glaze Prism

Bold Sangria is the perfect bright plum shade. It's high-gloss and is very opaque. It's bright nature doesn't display well in my photos though! Suzi Takes the Wheel is a green-toned gray. I thought the two looked nice together for the Fall season. To add something extra, I made a reverse gradient with Prism, a lavender micro glitter with rainbow larger round glitters!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

Butter London Big Smoke and China Glaze Liquid Crystal

Hello ladies! Another late post for me- the night time just seems to be when I have the time for posts. I could schedule it for the following morning, but I like seeing it display right away :)

I wanted to try out a couple of untrieds of mine- Butter London Big Smoke and China Glaze Liquid Crystal. I wasn't sure how these would look together, but I like the outcome :)

Let me apologize for how orange I look in these photos! The polishes are pretty color-accurate, but for some reason I look like I just fake baked :/ Kinda funny since I am extremely white haha

Butter London Big Smoke
China Glaze Liquid Crystal
Sephora by OPI Indi-go with the Flow

Butter London Big Smoke
China Glaze Liquid Crystal
Sephora by OPI Indi-go with the Flow

Big Smoke is a dark navy shimmer leaning to the gray/green side. It isn't a true navy for sure, its tones make it look unique. I don't have any other shades like this! Unfortunately, the polish didn't wear amazingly. I had chips pretty quickly after it completely dried. Originally that is why I added Liquid Crystal- I didn't want to repaint a badly chipped nail! Liquid Crystal is a predominantly blue glitter with larger pink, green and silver glitters throughout. The blue is supposed to shift purple in certain lights, but I found that effect to only truly appear within the bottle. On top of that I added $OPI Indi-go with the Flow, a periwinkle blue glitter in a clear base. The last glitter was somewhat unnecessary, but whatevs!

Hope you enjoyed!

-Shelby

China Glaze Champagne Kisses and Sephora by OPI Don't Be Eggnog-ious

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US! I did a very fall-esque mani yesterday and wanted to share it with you!

What I used:
2 coats China Glaze Champagne Kisses
1 coat Sephora by OPI Don't Be Eggnog-ious

China Glaze Champagne Kisses
Sephora by OPI Don't Be Eggnog-ious

China Glaze Champagne Kisses
Sephora by OPI Don't Be Eggnog-ious

China Glaze Champagne Kisses
Sephora by OPI Don't Be Eggnog-ious

Champagne Kisses is a stunning fine milled rose-gold-like and holo glitters in a clear base. In two coats, the nail is no longer visible. I love China Glaze fine glitters- they are gorgeous! I added Don't Be Eggnog-ious, a small and large copper glitter in a clear base, for that extra oomph! Love the combo!

What do you think of this?

-Shelby

China Glaze Make a Spectacle and Sation Rock-a-Guy-Blue

Good morning! It's been rainy and gloomy the last couple days here, so I haven't been able to take any good photos; luckily, I have some photos saved up from last month. Before Halloween, I tried a polish from the China Glaze Wicked collection: Make a Spectacle

Below I used 2 coats of Sation Rock-a-Guy-Blue and 1 coat of China Glaze Make a Spectacle

China Glaze Make a Spectacle

China Glaze Make a Spectacle

China Glaze Make a Spectacle

Make a Spectacle is a gorgeous opalescent hex glitter in a shimmery base. The application was a little thick, but I adore the outcome! I like it over the navy creme base of Rock-a-Guy-Blue, too! I think it'd look great over many colors besides blue. I had a hard time getting great lighting that day; I think that's why it was left unposted!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

China Glaze Purr-fect Plum and Elephant Walk

Good afternoon! A couple days ago I experimented with my dotting tools and liked what appeared on my nails; thought I'd share it with you!

I used 2 colors from the China Glaze On Safari collection; they looked great together :)

What I used:
China Glaze Purr-fect Plum
China Glaze Elephant Walk

China Glaze Purr-fect Plum
China Glaze Elephant Walk

China Glaze Purr-fect Plum
China Glaze Elephant Walk

I used a large dotting tool to make a row of dots and then used a smaller tool to put dots in alternating spaces compared to the larger dots. I like how it came out! I've never used Elephant Walk before; I love the subtle shimmer/sheen it has :)

What do you think of this dotticure?

-Shelby

OPI Fly and China Glaze Atlantis

Good morning! Sorry for my lack of posts the last few days; I've been busy, but also some of my nails broke and they are definitely not picture-appropriate. Anyway, I thought I'd share a mani I did last week that I liked quite a bit!

Below I used 2 coats of OPI Fly and 1 coat of China Glaze Atlantis on my ring finger

OPI Fly
 China Glaze Atlantis

Fly is a gorgeous "San Jose Sharks" teal creme! The application is awesome and dry time is good :) I thought Atlantis was a great accent; the glitter distributed evenly and smoothly. I like China Glaze glitters! I don't know what's going on with my pinkie, my topcoat sometimes messes up my hard work!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

31 Day Challenge, Day 24: Inspired by a Book

Good afternoon! Today's challenge stumped me a little. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy reading quite often, but the novels that I read wouldn't be easy to recreate on my nails. I like Nicholas Sparks' novels; I guess you could say I'm a sappy romantic. Instead of using one of his novels for inspiration, I used a very popular book (unread by me, though) for inspiration: 50 Shades of Grey

What I used:
Ulta Concrete Evidence (base)
Sephora by OPI Frankly, I Don't Give A-dam
China Glaze Recycle
Nails Inc The Thames
Essie Stylenomics
Orly Atomic Splash

Gray Gradient

Gray Gradient

I kinda took the easy way out with a gradient, but I like the outcome, especially with the dark gray glitter! All the polishes were fairly good for sponging, except Stylenomics was giving me a hard time on the tips. This is a very obvious mani: 50 Shades of Grey...different shades of gray on my nails, but hey, at least you get my inspiration :P!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

Check out the other lovely ladies:

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista 
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles 

Zoya Paloma & China Glaze I Herd That

Good afternoon! Today's mani is inspired by what my boyfriend had in mind! I asked him which colors he'd like to see on my nails next and he said berry and pumpkin orange. I decided to do a bit of both with a jelly sandwich!

What I used:
2 coats Zoya Paloma
1 coat China Glaze I Herd That
1 coat Zoya Paloma

Zoya Paloma
China Glaze I Herd That

Zoya Paloma
China Glaze I Herd That

Paloma is a raspberry jelly; I love it! The formula was great and worked perfectly for the jelly sandwich. I Herd That (such a cute name!) contains copper, gold and red micro glitter. I think this combination is gorgeous and I may use this combo again for the holidays!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

31 Day Challenge, Day 12: Stripes

Good evening! I had a tricky time with today's challenge; not only were my new Cheeky plates giving me trouble, but I've been scrambling to pack (I'm moving into my dorm tomorrow!). So sorry if the stripes aren't the best :P

I got my inspiration from Candy Stripers! I like the vertical pink and white stripes on their outfits. I took a spin on it and did pink and red stripes!

Below I used 3 coats of China Glaze Gelato and Sally Hansen Cinna-snap for stamping with Cheeky plate Ch6!

China Glaze Gelato
Sally Hansen Cinna-Snap

Several of the new Cheeky plates just didn't want to work for me :(. I hope I didn't just get a bad batch! I got these just in time for this challenge :). Hope you guys still like them! Sorry for my short post, I'll be back again soon!

My inspiration:

-Shelby

check out the other participants:

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista 
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles 

31 Day Challenge, Day 10: Gradient Nails

Good morning ladies! I was very excited to do my nails for today's challenge. Lately I've been obsessed with gradients of all sorts! I figured I could link it up with my boyfriend's request: he wanted me to do extra special nails for our 9 months, which is today. This is a scheduled post because we are going to a local reservoir and spending the day together. Today I could not be more proud and thankful for him and for us :) <3

Enough with my sappiness, straight to polish!

What I used:
China Glaze Something Sweet
OPI Sparrow Me the Drama
China Glaze Sugar High
China Glaze Heli-Yum
OPI Kangarooby

 I know what you're thinking: this screams Valentine's Day, but what the heck, I don't mind adding to the romantic mood today and I happen to like pink! Sparrow Me the Drama kinda got overtaken by Sugar High, so that would be my only complaint! Other than that, I really like this mani! I used BM 317 to do the heart; it was a full-nail stamp, but I only used one heart from it.

I originally only had the gradient; it looks so bare without the heart!

What do you think of this mani?

-Shelby

Check out the other lovely ladies participating!

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista 
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

Orly Solid Gold!

Hello! Today I am excited to show you an untried Orly of mine: Solid Gold! I am so glad I was able to find this polish. It wasn't listed on Transdesign, but I snatched it on Head2Toe's website instead :)



Below I used 3 coats of Solid Gold plus a topcoat!

Orly Solid Gold

Orly Solid Gold

Solid Gold is a bright, gold suede! This color is so gorgeous with a topcoat! I didn't exactly like the matte, original version against my skin, but the topcoat did this polish wonders! The formula wasn't too bad; it was a little patchy, but it was good considering it was a matte formula! 

I couldn't leave Solid Gold alone, so I added a coat of China Glaze Twinkle Lights to spice it up!

China Glaze Twinkle Lights

China Glaze Twinkle Lights

Twinkle Lights contains silver, gold, red and green fine glitters in a clear base! I thought Twinkle Lights was a great addition, but I also like Solid Gold on its own! This is a very festive look and I think it'd be pretty for a holiday party. I also think it's a bit fall-esque since I think Solid Gold is both a fall and winter color! Twinkle Lights I also got off of Head2Toe's website, since I couldn't find it on Transdesign. C'mon Transdesign, step up your game! :P

What do you think of Solid Gold? Do you like it with Twinkle Lights? Do you own either of these?

-Shelby

Comparison: China Glaze Grape Pop and Revlon Impulsive

Good afternoon ladies! I've been on a purple polish kick lately, especially somewhat dark and blue toned ones! I've managed to buy some that are quite similar so I thought I'd compare 2 that are the most similar!

Below I used 2 coats of China Glaze Grape Pop and Revlon Impulsive; Impulsive is on my pointer and ring fingers, while Grape Pop is on my middle and pinkie fingers!

China Glaze Grape Pop
Revlon Impulsive

China Glaze Grape Pop
Revlon Impulsive

China Glaze Grape Pop
Revlon Impulsive

How gorgeous are both of these!? I've been obsessed with purples like this lately. Both polishes dried super quickly without a topcoat and didn't give me a single problem with application. As you can see, Grape Pop is a tinge more vibrant than Impulsive, which is on the darker side! I really like both and glad I have them, but if you want a cheaper and more readily available color, I'd go with the Revlon!

Do you have either of these? What do you think of them?

-Shelby