November 18, 2012
This is the first polish I have tried from SmittenPolish called Candy Kisses. It’s a white base with purple and pink glitters of various sizes. It applied smoothly and evenly and built up nicely. This is three coats of Candy Kisses, with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.
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November 6, 2012
I purchased a few KB Shimmer polishes from my wishlist this week and I’m so in LOVE with them! I had to try them all on this morning, so I have swatches of all three. They all applied very smoothly and evenly, and I didn’t have to go fishing for glitter. (Unfortunately my nails are now super short… ugh. I had two bad breaks and had to cut them all down.)
Anyway… on to the swatches. Each manicure is 3 coats of polish with 1 thick coat of Seche Vite top coat, which is the best for taming glitters in my opinion.
This is Don’t Teal Anyone… my favorite of the lot. The color combo is so awesome and the blue gel base has great coverage. I have this on both hands right now and plan to leave on for a few days.
This is Oh Splat! I’ve had an obsession lately with polishes that have a white base and different colored glitters. Of all the ones I’ve tried lately, this is my new favorite. I feel like I say that every time I try one, but I swear this is the one! LOL Again, the base had very even coverage. It was pretty opaque with just two coats, but I applied 3 coats in all of these swatches just for consistency.
And this is Toucan Touch This. The green base in this polish was much more sheer than the others, but it also applied great. It has another great color combo. Next time I might try adding this on top of another color to see what it would look like.
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October 30, 2012
I’ve been wanting to try this since I saw it on Pinterest. The inspiration comes from Nail Stories. For this mani I used different colored nail stripers to paint stripes, applied three strips of tape to each nail in different patterns, and then painted a coat of black over top. I think I’ll try this again soon since I like how it turned out.
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October 25, 2012
I wanted to try something colorful and fun tonight, so I went for a Rubik’s cube inspired look. I started with a white base, painted on black stripes with a striping brush, and then filled in the colored spaces with a dotting tool. I topped it off with two thick coats of Seche Vite to smooth it out. I think it turned out pretty cute. Now if only I could figure out how to actually solve a Rubik’s cube!
I cut my nails down today. I think I actually like this length, it’s very manageable. The nail on my middle finger has a really terrible rip in it and it ripped even worse while I was gardening today. It’s ripped more than half way across now and it’s really low and painful. So I patched it up again with a teabag, nail glue and gave it a nice strong gel base. Hopefully it holds for a while so I can grow it out.
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October 12, 2012
I’ve seen lots of snakeskin manicures on Pinterest over time and always thought it would be extremely complicated to do. Today I ran across the video at the bottom of this post over on YouTube, and it looked really easy. I thought I would give it a try, but didn’t have very high expectations. My attempt doesn’t look as the video, but for a first try I think this mani turned out really cute. Thank you very much Raquel @ LOVE4NAILS for this tutorial!
This manicure requires some mesh or tulle fabric. I’ve heard of some people using bath loofahs. I actually cut up a bridesmaids dress that’s been hanging in my closet forever… I’ll never wear it again, why not! I used OPI Did You ‘Ear About Van Gogh as the base, and then sponged on Sally Hansen Golden, OPI Chocolate Moose, China Glaze Ingrid, and OPI Black Onyx. (Most of the same colors from my recent fall manicure).
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September 23, 2012
Uh oh… I think I have a new favorite polish. This is Essie Shine of the Times – it’s actually a top coat with shimmery flakes in it. I feel like this would look good on top of just about any color, so I can’t wait to try more combinations. This actually started as a Gelish manicure with the color My Favorite Accessory, and then I layered Shine of the Times on top. And then I also applied Essie Matte About You to give it a cool matte effect. I can’t stop looking at my nails!
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September 20, 2012
Fall has officially arrived in Cleveland, Ohio. Brrr… these last few days have been chilly. I broke out the sweaters and jeans, but I still refuse to turn the heat on in hopes that we might get a little more warm weather yet. So here’s my first fall manicure… I’m sure there will be a few more to come.
I started with just a few colors that I thought were complimentary: OPI Chocolate Moose
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