Black and White Jelly Sandwich

This is my first time trying out a jelly sandwich, and I really liked it!

Essie Marshmallow and Claire's Black/Silver Holo glitter

This was made in five layers alternating between Marshmallow and the Claire's glitter. The multiple layers of glitter create varying shades of grey which is a pretty cool pattern. The overall effect reminds me of stones in concrete or the little color-blindness tests (except in black and white... which doesn't really make sense, haha).

What I realized with various experiments is that your base color doesn't need to be a jelly at all.  I found that using a medium pink creme then a layer of glitter, then a layer of white, it created a neat light pink with white and grey speckles.  Very pretty!  So now I want to try some with various glitters and base colors.  I really like the effect that white puts over the glitter!

Any ideas for jelly sandwiches that you'd like to see me try?

Mia Secret Tints over Lady Luck

Awhile ago I got some AWESOME polishes from Another Bottle of Polish called Mia Secret Tints. These are seriously awesome. In addition to the five colors (Red, Yellow, Blue, Ocean, and Purple) that it comes in, I was able to franken a couple more: Green, Teal, and Maroon. I've tried them over silver glitter before, and they were pretty cool, but this time I figured I'd try them over Lady Luck to see the effect they'd give over a color.

Mia Secret Tints (over Sally Hansen Lady Luck)

 I think my favorites are the Red, Teal, and Purple, although Green has kinda of a cool effect too!  They look kind of like jellies over the glitter, but I don't think you'd be able to get most of them opaque on their own.  Plus the consistency of them is pretty thin.

Aren't these fun?? I really like them a lot! I've only tried them over glitter so far, but I've been trying to think of other manicures to try them on. Any suggestions?

Edit: I forgot to add that I got these directly from Another Bottle of Polish's blog sale.  I'm not sure how many she has access to, but it's possible you can get some from her.

Sally Hansen Gems Crush - Lady Luck

Here is another polish from the Sally Hansen Gems Crush line: Lady Luck. It is a rich magenta micro glitter with some larger holo hex glitter and is opaque in two coats (though I put it over a matching base color for the photos because I like the depth and slightly easier removal with a base color).

Sally Hansen - Lady Luck

I put this on the other night after having done my nails twice during the day (after swatching in the morning), and it was one of those days where everything just goes wrong. My first polish that day got tipwear and dents from my crazy dog and the second had bubbles galore, so finally I resorted to my "go to" favorite: glitter! So it saved my night as far as nails go.


Now is probably a good time to address my stance on the "photo editing" subject as well. I DO edit my photos:

First of all, I adjust saturation and white balance because let's face it, I'm not the best photographer and I don't have expensive/extensive equipment. I use a regular Canon SD1000 that I got for my birthday years ago and it works pretty well, but not perfectly. I also use natural light, so it's always changing and my camera's white balance can't always keep up.

Secondly, I retouch photos to get rid of lint, hang nails, random polish or glitter bits and other unsightly little things. But this is usually pretty minor and for the most part, my nails look just about exactly like the photos show. I won't take out important things like bubbles if the polish has a bad formula, but I'll take out dents and such if it was my own doing and not due to a problem with the polish.

Thirdly, I recently tried using Photoshop and have been able to better "color correct" pictures to how the polish appears in person. The reasoning is this: I'm interested in portraying what the ACTUAL polish looks like, NOT how it photographs. I will only color correct to make it as close as humanly possible to what it really looks like in real life. I will NOT enhance a photograph to make the polish look lighter/darker/more vibrant (or in any other way "better" or "worse") than it does on my fingers. For instance, my camera will not pick up purples well at all. However, I will edit the photo to bring the purple to a more authentic shade and hue that better represents the polish itself.

Overall, my position is this: I am never trying to make a polish look "better" in any way.  I only edit as much as necessary to show it as accurately and truly as I possibly can.

How do you feel about photo editing?  It is inappropriate or necessary?

My picks from Zoya Feel and True Collections

I wasn't all too excited about the Feel or the True & Flecked collections (so many flakies everywhere!), but when Zoya had their "Get two bottles, just pay shipping" deal, I figured I'd try a few of them that looked interesting.

Zoya - Avery

Avery is ALMOST the perfect nude for me, but it's slightly lighter and pinker than my skin (doesn't really show in the picture).  I guess I have kind of funny hands, because my fingertips are more pink than the rest of my fingers and hand which is much more of an olive tone.  Oh well.  Avery is pretty, but for some reason I have trouble with Zoya cremes.  They tend to be very opaque, but kind of dry out as I'm applying it, so it ends up looking a little "lumpy" in the end.  Top coat usually fixes it, though.

Zoya - Kendal

Kendal is a really soft dusty purple that leans warmer than other pastel purples I own (like Essie Lilacism), so I actually really love this one.  The cooler blues make my hands look "dirty," so I usually avoid them.  I'm certainly going to wear this for Easter (even though I don't really celebrate Easter much... I just like coloring eggs with my family!).

Zoya - Bevin

I know I love dusty olive greens, so I figured I'd try a dusty teal (most of the teals in my collection are super bright).  It's quite nice and actually goes well with Avery and Kendal, even though they are in different collections.  I hear it's similar to OPI Mermaid Tears, but it's a bit more dusty, so I chose the Zoya.  This one was easier to apply but maybe not quite as opaque on the first coat.  Two coats and it was perfect!

Zoya - Tru

Tru was my instant favorite from the True collection when I first saw swatches.  I love red grape purples, and the gold shimmer looked so beautiful!  I always thought it looked more vibrant in pictures, but I think it's shown close to Lotus, which is a very greyed-out dusty lavender.  You can see a little bit of a bald spot on my pinky at two coats, so maybe waiting in between coats is a good idea to avoid cuticle drag.

Overall I'm really happy with my picks from these two collections.  I can actually see myself wearing all of these.  Also, I love Zoya as a company.  They have super helpful customer service and offer many promos and deals for their customers and facebook fans!  I think I have pretty much every Zoya color I want (I have a LOT), but they keep coming out with new awesome colors so I keep ordering more!  All of these are available on Zoya's website for $8 each.

As a side note... For some reason lately I'm not satisfied with anything on my nails unless it's really attention-grabbing.  Since I don't do much nail art, that usually means glitter.  Every time I put on a shimmer or creme I'm bored with it within a few hours and have to either add glitter or take it off and put something more "interesting" on.  It's kinda frustrating...

You Mix Cosmetics Magnetic Polishes

These are amazing.  Every single one, I kept thinking "I'll just put this on for now and swatch the rest later."

Sham Rocks (with chevron magnet)

I wanted to try this one with the chevron magnet to try and make it look like leaves. It does a bit, and I love it. Such a beautiful fern green with amazing depth with the magnet. I think this is my favorite on my nails and probably the one I'll actually wear first.

Now, when Sasha (Nihrida) first posted a magnetic polish without a magnet design I thought it was crazy! Why would you do this?! Well, I can totally understand it now. When the color is gorgeous enough to be worn on its own, then sometimes there's no need for the magnetic "frills." So I decided to show these at one coat (before I put on the second coat and used the magnet on them).

Sham Rocks (no magnet)

Sham Rocks is a pretty subdued green shimmer. Very beautiful on its own.

Blurple (with diagonal magnet lined up straight)

This one is really neat because it shows two colors with the magnet effect. The magnetic shimmer is lavender and the magnet brings out navy blue. It doesn't really seem to have the "depth" of the one-color magnetic polishes, but it still so awesome.

Blurple (no magnet)

This one is not quite a one-coater (you can see bald the bald spots), and it only shows the lavender without the magnet.

Teal Abyss (with diagonal magnet)

This one frustrated me in photographs. It's more green than the picture shows. It's a true vibrant, rich turquoise/teal with amazing dept when it's magnetized. Very stunning!

Teal Abyss (no magnet)

This is one that I would definitely wear alone if I was looking for a plain teal shimmer. I don't have anything else like it. It applies nicely in just one coat, too!

Toasted (star magnet)

This is the one I was most thrilled about when I tried them on swatch sticks. The glitter is so amazing in this one, but you have to see it in person to understand. Also, I'm not sure why it appears slightly green in my photo. It's really more of a tan shimmer with brown jelly highlights from the magnet and gold micro glitter throughout. It's incredibly sparkly. On my nails I had trouble applying the star design. It's hard to center it AND get it close enough without touching the nail. So it took a couple of tries on some of them, but it came out nicely in the end.

Toasted (no magnet)

On it's own, Toasted looks a bit dull (although the gold sparkle livens it up a little). The problem is the brushstrokes. This one for some reason just didn't look nice and smooth like the others.


These are available on You Mix Cosmetics and are $8 each. The magnets they offer are sold separately and are $3 (awesome price in my opinion!). I didn't bother to buy the horizontal one because you can actually see the lines on the diagonal one and it's pretty easy to just rotate it and line it up yourself to get vertical or horizontal lines. The magnets are nice and large enough to cover a whole nail very easily.

Overall, I'm extremely impressed and am already planning my next order! I love the glitter in Toasted because it's not gritty and hangs so perfectly in the magnetic designs, so I want to try more of those!

Surprise Love - Wet n Wild Blitzen

Honestly, I just bought this one for the name (of course, because I have a white shepherd named Blitzen). This sat in a drawer since last Christmas, untried because I wasn't actually interested in the color.

Wet n Wild Blitzen (over HITS - Hermes)

I was wearing HITS Hermes earlier and just wasn't feeling it (actually, I was ready to take it off right after swatching it yesterday, but chose to give it a chance), so I decided to try and save it by putting Blitzen over it. It definitely helped. I'm putting off more swatching now just so I can wear this a while longer because it's just too pretty! Blitzen has a sheer cream shimmery base, with gold micro glitter and a dash of magenta hex glitter. It was a bit of a pain getting the magenta glitter onto the nail, but I discovered a trick. After wiping the brush on the bottle edge, the magenta glitters tend to stick to the bottle, so if you wait for the nail polish to run down, you can scoop up some extra glitters pretty easily. It took a little pushing around to get it even, but it didn't take long and the result looked flawless.

This was from Wet n Wild's Megalast collection for Christmas 2010, but I think looks more like a Valentine's Day polish. In fact, I'll probably wear this again for Valentine's Day but maybe I'll try it over a pink or a red!

HITS No Olimpo - Hermes

This is the only HITS No Olimpo polish I've tried so far. I've been looking for the perfect gold holo, but still don't feel like I've found one.

HITS - Hermes

These pictures show three coats, but in my opinion, it was prettier at two. When I added the third coat it became more grey/green-ish instead of the warm light gold it was at two coats. It still looks neat, and I like the finish it has. It hovers between a metallic and a pearl finish, with a subtle, linear holo effect. Here is what it looks like in indirect sunlight. You can see that the holo is very subdued. This is very much a work appropriate color, and it does look quite elegant.

For some reason I haven't been feeling the need to get the HITS No Olimpo collection. Maybe it's because I have a bunch of Spectraflair that I should probably use to create my own new colors (including my perfect gold)?

EDIT: I forgot to add that I got my HITS No Olimpo from Llarowe. They're a little pricey at $10 for 6mL (normal bottle of polish is 15mL), and they're in and out of stock a lot, so you just have to get them whenever you find them available.

Essie - Armed and Ready (with comparison)

Ever since I first saw swatches of Essie Armed and Ready, I knew I wanted it. I love army greens and I love gold and copper shimmer.

Essie - Armed and Ready

Armed and Ready is a greenish, bluish grey with a subtle gold/copper shimmer. Like Rescue Beauty Lounge's Piumosso, the shimmer doesn't show very much in low lighting, but shines more in direct sun. It's pretty opaque and takes only two thin coats to cover fully. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I like more prominent shimmers in polishes, and I was hoping it was more of a drab olive green. Oh well, it's still pretty, just not as much as I was hoping for.

Essie Armed and Ready & S-he 466

It didn't occur to me to compare these two until I grabbed up S-he 466 to give as an extra little something for the giveaway. But they are actually very close! The base in 466 is a tiny bit lighter and bluer, and it's not as opaque. You can see a couple of bald spots in the pic, so it could maybe use a third coat. The shimmer is a little more evident in 466 and a tad bit more yellow gold than the bronze-y gold of Armed and Ready. From a distance, I can't tell the difference at all, so in my opinion, there's no need to own both.

Essie's new collection (including Armed and Ready) is now available in stores such as Target, Walgreens, and Ulta.  The S-he is a little harder to get in the US.  I got it in a swap with a girl in Slovenia (Dolores from Colorful Bottle).

Gelish - Twinkle

This is my first ever Gelish manicure. Now I should start out by saying that I am NOT a professional nail tech (not licensed either). But since I bought a SensatioNail kit at Wal-Mart recently, I've been so excited to see which other products work with the mini LED lamp that it came with.

Now I've seen the Gelish Mini system at Sally's, so does this mean they are marketing it for DIY at home use? I have no idea, but their Mini selection is kinda limited so I went searching the internet for the more sparkly and unique Gelish polishes. This I bought from a seller on Amazon for about $12 (not bad considering the Mini's cost $12-13 each at Sally's).

Gelish - Twinkle

Let me tell you, I searched high and low for a good swatch that showed the true color of Twinkle (and Bronzed as well... I was deciding between the two) but hardly found one. I KNEW I wanted a gold glitter soak-off gel (we all know how I LOVE gold glitter!) and I figured it'd be reasonable to buy a full-size bottle.

OHMYGOOSES, I'm in love. This has that wonderful bronze-gold glitter that looks somewhat like Butter London West End Wonderland and Milani Gold Glitz (except this glitter is all one color, not a mix). As if that weren't awesome enough already it also has a tiny bit of IRIDESCENT GLITTER too! *GASP... SWOON* It's hard to portray just how captivated I am with this color, especially because I praise almost everything I put on my blog, but seriously, it's perfect. The only thing about it is that it takes four coats to look like this picture, and because of that it's a little bit thick.

So here's the deal.  I have no idea how this will wear or even how long I'll keep it on, but if it DOES chip or have problems, it's probably my own doing.  Again, I'm not a nail tech and as this is supposed to be used by a professional, I don't really think I can fault the Gelish itself if it doesn't last.  However, I will comment on the wear of it in the future just to give you an idea of how it lasts.

Here is what I used for this manicure:  SensatioNail clear base/top coat gel (1 coat), Gelish Twinkle (four coats), and Red Carpet Manicure Brilliance (top coat gel, 1 coat), each layer cured for 30 sec in the SensatioNail 3060 LED lamp.

I will be posting a review of the SensatioNail kit as a whole shortly, as well as giving away the starter kit and an extra shade for my next giveaway at 500 followers!

The Trial Giveaway WINNER!

So, the giveaway for Essence Bonnie and Clyde is over!!  And it went really freaking smoothly (Rafflecopter makes it REALLY easy to manage and verify entries and pick a winner)! Now I'm super excited, and am really looking forward to doing a giveaway at 500 followers.

Now on to the winner!

Rafflecopter chose entry number 13 as the winner, and this was SARAH from Chalkboard Nails! If you haven't checked out her blog yet, it is AWESOME! Plus, she's a fellow Arizona nail blogger, so she's really SUPER awesome :o)

Congratulations, Sarah!


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