Metallic

June 1, 2013

Ink Cameo & Chrome Silver 0

by Andrea • Ink Soak Off Gel Swatches • Tags: , , , ,

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I have a simple mani today… a teal and silver combo. The gorgeous minty teal blue color is Ink Cameo, and the silver accent is Ink Chrome Silver.  I’m totally loving Cameo… it has a nice subtle shimmer.  I didn’t put a base color under Chrome Silver and you can see a bit of natural nail underneath, but I think the coverage is good enough that it’s not too noticeable.

I hope to be able to do more swatching soon, but this is likely going to be a very busy month for me since my daughter is graduating high school and getting ready to go to Ohio State!  We’re having a big party at the house and I have family flying in from a few different places.  I’m trying to get some work on my house done AND it’s now gardening season too.  So there’s just a lot going on!  I’m hoping to make it up to you by having a few guest posts from some other talented ladies.

Chickettes.com Ink Cameo & Chrome Silver Chickettes.com Ink Cameo & Chrome Silver

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January 25, 2013

Gelish Year of the Snake Collection 2013 5

by Andrea • Gelish Swatches, Nail Art • Tags: , , , , , , ,

Gelish Year of the Snake 2013 Collection Swatches

I’m excited to share with you the Year of the Snake Collection from Gelish.  Meet the King and Lady in Red, were designed specifically to celebrate the 2013 New Year.  The Chinese New Year officially begins on February 10th after the New moon in Aquarius.  This 2013 year of Snake is meant for steady progress and attention to detail.

Lady in Red is a vivacious creamy red.  The formula was great and only two coats were required to achieve full coverage.

Gelish Lady In Red Swatch - Year of the Snake CollectionGelish Lady In Red Swatch - Year of the Snake Collection

Meet the King is a luxurious, royal gold. This one also only require two coats and applied flawlessly.

Gelish Meet the King Swatch - Year of the Snake CollectionGelish Meet the King Swatch - Year of the Snake CollectionI decided to do a little nail art with these two awesome colors to celebrate the Year of the Snake.  I did a skittlette with a snakeskin accent and gold moons.  I love how this turned out!

Gelish Year of the Snake 2013 Nail ArtGelish Year of the Snake 2013 Nail ArtGelish Year of the Snake 2013 Nail Art

 

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December 27, 2012

Julep New Year’s Mystery Box Swatches 4

by Andrea • Nail Lacquer Swatches • Tags: , , , , , , ,

Well as you can see I just couldn’t wait to try out the new polishes that I got in my Julep mystery box.  I thought I would just try out one or two today, but I ended up swatching all five of them!  I’m really pleased with this box… all of the colors are gorgeous.

I’m going to start with the polish that I thought was my least favorite in the bottle, but turned out to be one of my favorites once applied.  This is Lauren, a HOT pink with a creme finish.  I’m normally not a fan of bright polishes, but I really like this.  It applied very smoothly and was pretty opaque with two coats, but I applied a third coat for good measure.

Julep Lauren SwatchJulep Lauren Swatch

This is Sienna, a gorgeous shimmery gold.  This one also had a great formula and only required two coats.

Julep Sienna Swatch

Julep Sienna Swatch

This is Cindy, an emerald green with gold micro-glitter.  I wish I had this one before Christmas, it would be great for some holiday nail art.  :)   The little micro-glitters sure did get all over the place during removal though!  It took a bit of work to get rid of it all.

Julep Cindy SwatchJulep Cindy Swatch

This is Georgia, a shimmery peach.

Julep Georgia SwatchJulep Georgia Swatch

And last, but not least, this is a mystery color with no name.  This one has a semi-clear base with a grey/black tint and is loaded with different sized glitters.  There are teeny tiny black glitters, and then larger orange and other metallic glitters.  This one reminds me a bit of Halloween.  I applied one coat of the mystery polish over two coats of OPI Black Onyx.

Julep Mystery SwatchJulep Mystery Swatch

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November 29, 2012

Gelish Shadows Collection – Part 2 4

by Andrea • Gelish Swatches • Tags: , , , ,

Gelish The Shadows Collection Swatches

As I mentioned in my last post, the colors in this collection are very dark and hard to capture in photos, but they are GORGEOUS!!  Today I’m sharing swatches of the remaining three colors.  If you missed the first three colors, you can check them out here.

First up is Inner Vixen – a stunning, deep red.

Gelish Inner Vixen from the Shadows CollectionGelish Inner Vixen from the Shadows Collection

Next we have Is It An Illusion, a lovely midnight blue.

Gelish Is It An Illusion from the Shadows CollectionGelish Is It An Illusion from the Shadows Collection

And the last color in the collection is The Perfect Silhouette, a deep royal purple.

Gelish The Perfect Silhouette from the Shadows CollectionGelish The Perfect Silhouette from the Shadows Collection

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November 28, 2012

Gelish Shadows Collection – Part 1 1

by Andrea • Gelish Swatches • Tags: , , ,

Gelish The Shadows Collection Swatches

The Gelish Shadows collection contains 6 dark colors with metallic, shimmery finishes.  Below are the first three colors, the other three will be posted very soon.  I actually did a couple of these swatches more than once because the first photos that I took using my lightbox didn’t show off the sparkle, so I ended up re-doing them and taking these pictures under a light at my desk.  The colors were a little hard to capture because they are so dark, but I tried to get them as accurate as possible.  Enjoy!

First up, is The Dark Side.  This is a very dark green.  I’m normally not a fan of green polish, but this one is very elegant.

Gelish The Dark Side from the Shadows CollectionGelish The Dark Side from the Shadows Collection

This next one is called Welcome to the Masquerade.  This is a very hard color to describe in words because it looks different depending on the light.  I would call it a copper color, though sometimes it has a green-ish hue.

Gelish Welcome to the Masquerade from the Shadows CollectionGelish Welcome to the Masquerade from the Shadows Collection

And the final one in this first set is Angel in Disguise.  This is a gorgeous steely grey.

Gelish Angel in Disguise from the Shadows CollectionGelish Angel in Disguise from the Shadows Collection

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September 13, 2012

Mix & Match Nails 3

by Andrea • Nail Art • Tags: , , , , , , ,

I can’t just leave my nails alone for 2 days…. nooooo.  I got restless today and added some designs on top of my IBD Meteorite manicure.  First I stamped a couple of nails with a zebra print pattern using Konad silver polish, and then I used the same polish and did the Saran Wrap trick to a couple other nails.  And on the thumbs I added some lip stamps… don’t ask why.  LOL

Mix & Match Nails - Zebra Print, Lips & Saran Wrap Design

Konad Lip Stamps

 

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September 9, 2012

Daisy Gel Soak Off Polish Review 2

by Andrea • Other Gel (SOG) Swatches • Tags: , , , , , ,

As you probably know by now, I’m a Gelish freak… love, love, love it.  But the gel polish habit does take a toll on the finances after a while, so I decided it’s time to try out some of the cheaper alternatives that are available.  I purchased two Daisy gel polishes, and two of the IBD brand.  Today I tried out Daisy for the first time.  These bottles cost $6 at Amazon.com, plus $3 in shipping each… so a total of $9 per bottle, compared to the average $13 that I normally pay for Gelish.

A friend told me that she tried a dark red Daisy gel polish and was very disappointed with it.  She said it had a strong nail polish smell and that it was very thin and took several coats to achieve the desired color.  I did not have either of those issues with my Daisy gel polish.  In fact I found it to be a little thicker than normal and was able to get full coverage with just two coats because they did go on so thick.  The brush seemed a little wider which made it harder to get into the curve of the nail by the cuticle.  I used my Gelish base and top coat which worked out well, and I cured each layer for 2 minutes as I normally do with Gelish.  I didn’t have any issues with the polish curing.

All in all my Daisy experience was very positive. The two colors that I chose were Magenta Shimmer and Chocolate Truffles, and I think they are both gorgeous.  Chocolate Truffles is not at all what I expected it would be, but I love it.  It’s not silver, but not gold either… somewhere in the middle.  What do you think?

Update 9/11:  Just two days into this manicure and I already have a lot of wear showing on the tips of my nails that have the Magenta Shimmer color.  It’s the type of wear that you would experience with a regular lacquer, not typically of gel polish.  I’m very disappointed about this.  The Chocolate Truffles seems to be holding up ok, but it’s on my ring fingers which aren’t used as much.  I polished my mom’s nails with this color yesterday, so we’ll see how her manicure holds up.

Chickettes: Daisy Gel Polish - Magenta Shimmer & Chocolate TrufflesChickettes: Daisy Gel Polish - Magenta Shimmer & Chocolate Truffles

And here is a shot in direct sunlight:

Chickettes: Daisy Gel Polish - Magenta Shimmer & Chocolate Truffles

And of course as the day went on I couldn’t leave my nails alone, so I added some argyle patterns inspired by Kelsie’s Nail Files.

Chickettes.com: Argyle Nail Design

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