China Glaze Stone Cold

Today is another Capitol Color from the China Glaze Hunger Games Collection: Stone Cold.

I was completely unprepared for how awesome this polish would be. A matte? Intriguing. With a little shimmer? Better. Still...the formula is fantastic. I picked up Zoya's Lolly, and the I can never get it to look good. There are always streaks and ridges. No good. Stone Cold goes on smooth, and the finish is nice and even. No pooling, no dragging, brushstroke free. Fab.

AND IT GETS BETTER! I added a top coat, just to see what it would look like. Wow. That's all I can say. I kind of want to buy a backup bottle, because this one is gorgeous. I see this one getting worn a lot, especially in the fall and winter.

Dear China Glaze,

Please make Stone Cold part of the permanent collection. Please???

Sincerely,

Polish Lovers Everywhere

China Glaze Dress Me Up

 Today's nails are courtesy of the China Glaze Hunger Games collection. Dress me up is a dusty mauve/pink creme. I just finished reading the books, though I've been eying some of the polish colors for weeks. Before reading the book, I though this color was a little out of place, almost too mature for the rest of the collection. I mean, really? When was the last time you wore something mauve? Then I realized I recently purchased a top this color, and it actually works quite well with a lot of the muted and smoky colors we've been seeing through fall and winter. In fact, I put it next to some of the colors in Zoya's Smoke collection, and it fit right in. I stand corrected.

I digress.

I think the reason the color choice makes more sense after reading the books comes from the whole premise. The Capital chooses children from each district and essentially pits them against each other in a death match. It's a horrifying thought to do that to a child, so dressing the characters up to look older would make it more palatable for the citizens forced to watch. This probably makes little sense unless you know a little about the books. I recommend them. Not necessarily the greatest literary works to grace the shelves of Barnes & Noble, but they're well-written and send a better message than Twilight.

 Without the back story, I did feel Dress Me Up was a little dull compared to my usual polish. The formula was smooth, and it only took two coats for opacity. Brushes allowed for easy application. Nice glossy finish. It just felt like something was missing...and, yes, I had more colors to play with. So I decided to give it a little edge.

 I used Stone Cold, also from the Hunger Games set, for my very first half moon mani. Obviously, the manicure was not without flaw, but it was a fun look, and I was DYING to try out Stone Cold (separate post coming soon!).

To finish the whole thing off, I added a coat of Essie Matte About You to kill the gloss on Dress Me Up. I really liked the final result.

Valentine's Day! (A Week Later...)

 I finally got around to shooting my Valentine's Day Nails. These babies lasted me almost the whole week. Honestly, I'd still be wearing them if I hadn't gotten bored and wanted to try new goodies.

For the nails, I used two coats of Nubar Fire Sparkle for glitz and opacity, then I added a layer of China Glaze Love, Marilyn for some whimsy. The result was very sparkly and lots of fun.

Also, as you may recall from past posts, my camera hates all things red and pink, so photographing these was a nightmare. I added the last two shots to show how sparkly the nails were, even though they're horribly out of focus.

For anyone who wants to know how I celebrated, the boy sent me these pretty flowers while I was home all day:

I put on a little black dress and he took me to a nice, swanky restaurant for dinner. Chocolate was had, and it was delicious.

(Re)Viva La Manicure!

 Ever get bored with wearing the same manicure before the polish starts chipping? If you're anything like me, you have a whole lot of polish that needs to be worn, and waiting more than two to three days to wear new polish is a special form of torture. Luckily for those of us who like to switch it up, an array of fantastic new topcoats have hit the streets and are a great way to change up your mani.

 Among the oodles of new polish I've gotten recently was Sparitual Deep. It's a gorgeous purple-toned gray with an amazing pink shimmer. The shimmer hides on the nail, but the right lighting brings it out. It's a really pretty, glossy finish.

 The bottle shot shows the shimmer better. So pretty.

 Then this happens. A chip. Tipwear, too, but the chip bugs me most.

 Not to fear. Nail polish remover + cotton swab = smooth edges.

 Two coats of polish an its barely noticeable. If you're stopping here, add a top coat and you're done.

 I've had something of a busy week and the idea of removing and repainting was a little daunting. I used a coat of Deborah Lippman Lady Sings the Blues over Deep to change the color up. Lady has a sheer jelly base, so she would normally require 2-3 coats, but by applying over Deep, I got a nice solid blue base in one coat and disguised some of the tip wear. Top coat and you're done.

After a couple of days, I got the urge for more glitter. I get that urge sometimes. And the only cure is more cowbell...er...glitter. Enter China Glaze Techno. Holographic glitter. Big pieces and tiny pieces. Very sparkly. More top coat and two more days without having to remove clean and polish. This little trick is a great time saver for us busy girls, and layering is a fun way to create new looks with your nails. This carried me all the way to Valentine's Day. Stay tuned for that one...

What tricks do you ladies have for extending the life of your manicures?

Multiplication of thePolishes: How the Stash Has Grown...

So, here's the funny thing about being a beauty blogger: You accumulate a lot of stuff. I've always had a fairly well-stocked vanity, and I'm not quite at the level of having closets dedicated to my goodies, but I'm getting there fast. Case in point. My first post, the polish stash looked like this:

This was everything I had for nail supplies. Everything. All in two neat little boxes. The collection of polish alone now fills two boxes completely, and the third doesn't even come close to holding the removers, creams, decals, cotton swabs, etc. I use.

This is just the polish and a few nail-specific odds and ends. I didn't even go up to the bathroom to get the removers and magic potions. And this is after my sister raided my stash and took little pieces of the collections I wouldn't wear on a regular basis, and I gave some of the unused bottles out for stocking stuffers at Christmas. My goal is to keep everything at a manageable level so my boyfriend doesn't start refusing to come to the girl den that is my apartment. Neatly organized in three little scrapbook boxes...for now...

Catching Up - NYE 2012

Since you all got a glimpse of my pretty Christmas nails last night, I figured this would be a good night to show off the continuation of the glitz for New Year's Eve. As you can see looking at my ring finger, I kept the Zoya Ibiza with China Glaze Skyscraper layered over it. The other nails were chipping terribly after wrapping all those presents and tearing new ones open, so I had to rework them.

 

I kept the non-chipped nail the same, but the rest got 2 coats of Julep's Trina, which, since it's covered in glitter, is a fantastic deep plum shimmer, that has a similar glow to Ibiza. If you're not familiar with Julep polishes, you should get to know them better. More on that later. To match the sparkle on the accent nail, I layered a coat of China Glaze CG in the City over Trina. I had a heck of a time getting lighting that would photograph well, but my nails were twinkling. Very pretty.

This shot is a little blurry, but you can get a better look at the glitter. Very pretty. China Glaze makes a great glitter. Very smooth application. Just needs a lot of top coat for a glossy finish.

Catching Up - Holiday Mani

In my quest to play catch up, I've been digging through my pictures from the last few months, and I thought I'd start sharing with my Christmas mani this year. I used Zoya's Ibiza for the base. This one is almost a one-coater, but I'm sloppy, so I used two.

After the base, I painted the edges of each nail (and my whole ring finger) with China Glaze Skyscraper, which reminded me of frost in a window pane. It's a beautiful color alone, too.

To finish the winter theme, I used Cold Metal and Lumin-Icent from Color Club's Foiled collection to stamp the snowflakes. Please excuse the tip wear and the poor photo quality. These were taken with my cell phone camera at work. Lack of sunlight and time. The pinky nail shows Cold Metal the most over Ibiza. The colors are similar enough that it's kind of hard to see. Lumin-Icent was much easier to see.

Back from Hiatus!

I really must apologize for my absence. I have been fighting a cold the last couple of weeks, and haven't been motivated to much of anything...except sleeping. That I can ALWAYS get motivated for.

I did make a feeble attempt to post last week, and while the nails were great, the Blogger app for Android leaves a little to be desired where layout and photo quality are concerned. Also, it kept force closing and deleting half the text of the post. I gave up and accepted the magic only happens from the desktop. *sigh*

Here are the high quality pictures from the phone camera. I got the look with I Love You Cherry Much from Nicole by OPI's fall collection with China Glaze Liquid Leather stamped on top using plate M69 from the Born Pretty Store.

Indoor lighting.

Blurred for extra sparkle.

I've gotten several little goodies in the mail recently, so there will be plenty of posts to come. I would save so much money if I couldn't shop online from my phone...

Gameday Nails - Week 4

I know. I'm late. Busy weekend with lots of company and little time for posting. On top of it all, I've been sick for the last week, so every spare moment has been spent napping.
I DID have time, however, to do my nails. As usual, my Nikon dislikes red and thinks any polish containing red, berry or pink should be mauve and fuzzy. Pictures are courtesy of my HTC Thunderbolt.
This week, I was doing good to get my nails painted and stamped, so there's no real theme besides the obvious red and black. I used I Love You Cherry Much from Income by OPI's fall 2011 collection for the base, Liquid Leather by China Glaze for the stripes, an plate m69 from Born Pretty for the stripes.

Gameday Nails - Week 2

Well, the good news is Nebraska won last week against Chattanooga. The bad news is they didn't look 100% ready to play against a somewhat lesser opponent. This week's game is against another unranked team, but Fresno State has a reputation for taking down superior teams, then falling off once conference play starts. It's a good thing my nails are covered in polish, or I might be biting them.

...which brings me to this week's gameday nails. Being a lover of fashion, the fact that a slight change was made to this year's uniforms hasn't gone unnoticed. While I am nowhere near talented enough to actually re-create the uniform on my nails (or with actual writing utensils and paper, for that matter), I decided to play with elements from the uniforms, particularly the stripes.

Here is a history of Nebraska's uniforms, dating back to 1890:

The uniforms from the 2011 season haven't changed very much. The biggest difference is that the sleeve has been shortened a bit, and there is no longer a number on the sleeve.

Also, the model used in this photo has a head and limbs to fill said uniform. Unless you follow Oregon football, you probably don't pay much attention to the minor changes in uniforms, but this is Nebraska and we scrutinize EVERYTHING if it pertains to our beloved Cornhuskers.

I've always liked NU's uniforms. They're clean. They're crisp. They're classic. While red isn't universally flattering, it is easy to reproduce and really never goes out of style. Heckuva a lot better than burnt orange (*cough*Texas*cough*).

Without further adieu...

These were taken with my HTC Thunderbolt, partially because my Nikon seriously dislikes reds and pinks in macro mode, but mostly because it has a kickstand and I don't have a tripod for this camera yet. Yeah, my phone has a kickstand. It's pretty awesome.

For this week's nails, I used Essie's Fishnet Stockings, Color Club's Art Club in White and China Glaze Liquid Leather. Throw in a green towel from the bathroom, and we have a turf-like backdrop.

My First Franken

If you haven't checked out my Facebook page (shame on you), I have created my very first Franken.
It seems like every time I buy a red polish, I'm disappointed. It's either too dark or too pink or something. So, I made myself a red in honor of my beloved Cornhuskers.

This one is a mix of an old Sally Hanson top coat, Rimmel Rapid Ruby, Sally Hanson Honeymoon Red, China Glaze Long Kiss, and OPI An Affair in Red Square. I have some awesomeness planned for this weekend, just in time for kickoff. Can't wait. So much football. :)

 Please excuse if the pictures aren't up to par. My Nikon insists that all reds and hot pinks are the same color, so these were taken with my phone. Yay, Thunderbolt!

Stamping Fun!

Hey, all! Sorry to be so sporadic with my posting, but I've been a busy girl. I was convinced to join a Fantasy Football league with some of my co-workers, so I've been learning all about NFL players and how this point system works. I'm taking a few chances. Hoping it pays off. Hopefully, this won't consume my entire life for the next 6 months...

The remaining bits of time I have left has been spent playing with my new toys. As some of you Twitterers saw, someone got some stamping plates and has been making a royal mess trying to learn to use them. Here are my best creations so far:

Painfully obvious I didn't use a base coat while I was doing this...

Argyle!!!

SO doing a whole mani of snowflakes as soon as winter comes.

Bought an entire set of plates for this flower. Worth every cent.

Love the color combo. The stamping needs some work.

Look how messy that Argyle is! Must clean this up. Argyle manis will prevail.

The snowflakes are the only things I didn't screw up royally on the first try. Apparently, sheer glitter polish is good. Mental note. These were the good designs. You have no idea how much Remove+ I went through. REALLY glad I got a fresh bottle with my last order...

Polish used:
Thumb: OPI - An Affair in Red Square over Orly - Visible Violet
Index: Essie - Carry On over Essie - Lady Like
Middle: Color Club - Alter Ego, Zoya - Jules and Art Club \/Color Club - Get the Blues over China Glaze - Chinchilla Vanilla
Ring: Art Club/Color Club - Black, Art Club/Color Club - White Satin and Essie - Power Clutch over Zoya - Dove
Pinky: Zoya - Cynthia over Essie - Chinchilly
(Yes, I have multiple polishes that reference Chinchillas. Not entirely a coincidence. Long Story.)