Fall Glitter Tips

This is two coats of Julep Stella topped with China Glaze CG in the City. I attempted a gradient effect with the glitter polish. I really liked this glitter. Removal was not as bad as it could have been (still glitter polish removal, though!). Looks like sparkly sand. I don't love this yellow color with this manicure. I do like it, but I feel that the glitter tips would have looked fabulous with a darker base polish. Maybe a dark, smoky purple shade. Or even black. To get a better look at the colors in the glitter, click to enlarge!


More pics for you!

Thanks for looking! 

It would be stranger if my nails didn't have mustaches on them.

The index finger is inspired by Scruffy from Futurama. Yellow: Two coats of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky. Orange: Two Coats of OPI Atomic Orange. Red: Two coats of China Glaze Hey Sailor. Black: Orly Instant Artist in Jet Black. I loved the colors so much I almost didn't want to put mustaches on them (!!!). My thumbs had combo mustache/beards, but they didn't turn out so well. My right thumb was a curly handlebar and a chinstrap (strange combination). My left was an evil-looking pointy goatee.

In the shade: 

Thanks for looking!

Bright Leopard Print

For my son's 8th birthday, we had a wild animal show. So why not leopard print nails? My first time trying leopard print, and well... I need some practice. The base is 2 coats of China Glaze Recycle. The dots are all China Glaze Neons: Flying Dragon, Flip Flop Fantasy, Japanese Koi, Four Leaf Clover. The black is Orly Instant Artist in Jet Black. You can see on my pinkie and my ring finger, it started off kind of promising. But it is dark in my house, so I can't see very well if I do my nails at night. Also, I got lazy and tired. It was a cute idea, anyway. :)

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Turquoise Tiger

My nails, they are very toite. Toite like a toiger. Haha. This is two coats of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise (which is SO awesome, but it chips quickly), and the stripes are Nail Art by Diamond Cosmetics in Dark Blue. I love the subtle effect. 

More pics: 

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Fourth of July

I didn't love this manicure (maybe because I gouged my index nail on something), but I guess I don't hate it. The red is one coat of China Glaze Hey Sailor, the blue is one coat of China Glaze First Mate, the crackle is China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Lightning Bolt and the glitter is Kleancolor Silver Star. It was easy and quick. Maybe next 4th, I'll give myself enough time to do something spectacular! 

Thanks for looking!

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossoms! I love this. I want to do it again, and I know I will do a better job next time. Background is one coat of China Glaze Hey Sailor, black is Orly art polish in Jet Black, white is Wet & Wild, couldn't find a name, pink is Nubar in Belize Coral. I used a dotting tool for the flowers and threw a couple yellow rhinestones onto my ring finger. I wish I would have just done white flowers, but whatever, I still love it!

More pictures: 

Thanks for looking!

Purple Tiger

I love this manicure. The base is 2 (3? I forgot) coats of China Glaze Purple Panic (neon) and the stripe are Nail Art by Diamond Cosmetics in Purple Shimmer. I topped it with Seche Vite. The China Glaze polish is matte, as all true neon polishes are. It has a really cool glowy shimmer that might be pink. No sun today, boo. Anyway, Purple Panic is retina-searingly bright. Awesome. This manicure reminds me of Barbie clothes from the '80s or something. 

A couple more pics: 

Thanks for looking!

Strawberry Fields

This is two coats of China Glaze Strawberry Fields. My intention was to do some sort of nail art with it, but I got lazy, so let's call this a swatch. This color is so pretty. 

Here it is close up:

And in the shade: 

Thanks for looking!

Teal and Glitter

China Glaze Four Leaf Clover (three coats) topped with LA Colors Color Craze Treasure Island glitter polish. The LA Colors polish is only 99 cents! This manicure looks much better in real life. The China Glaze is quite a bit greener. 

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Peach with Dots

This is three coats of China Glaze Peachy Keen with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On dots. I don't think I did the best job here. I used a dotting tool, which was actually pretty difficult. Any pointers on using a dotting tool? The polish seemed to dry up so quickly and I felt like I didn't have much control over the thickness of the dots. 

Thanks for looking!

Sunny Stripes

This is Zoya Alegra (two or three coats, I can't remember!) with China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and China Glaze Life Preserver on the tips, topped with two coats of China Glaze Lighthouse. I don't hate it, but for future reference, Alegra is really too pretty to cover up. Lighthouse is really beautiful.

Here it is in the shade: 

As always, you can click to enlarge. I won't be held responsible for Sparklpocalypse though.

Thanks for looking!

Rainbow in a Bottle

This is one coat of China Glaze First Mate topped with two coats of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Burgundy Orchid. I couldn't stop staring at my nails. I LOVE this polish. This polish has been discontinued for years, but is still not too hard to find on the good ol' internet. I'll just give you another picture.

Thanks for looking!

Matte Black, Pink Tips

My friends, today I learned something. Crackle polish doesn't work over matte polish. This is Avon Black As Night which I received from a lovely friend in a land far away (three coats) with China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Broken Hearted on the tips (two coats, since the first coat barely showed up and didn't crackle anyway [but seriously, this crackle is usually awesome]). I'm getting WAY better at doing the tips. Hooray! I tried to put OPI Silver Shatter (which is amazing under other circumstances) on top of this, and it was not pretty, so I didn't bother taking a picture.

Here it is in the sun: 

Thanks for looking!

That's So Wizard

This manicure made me think of wizards. The base is three coats China Glaze Flying Dragon (Neon). On my pinkie, I added two coats of Kleancolor Holo Chrome. My ring finger and thumb feature OPI Silver Shatter. On my middle finger, I used Kleancolor Silver Star, which looks awesome, but takes a bit of work to get the stars how you want them. 

Flying Dragon with no topcoat (looks shiny here, but actually dries to a matte/satin finish): 

Flying Dragon with topcoat (close up and in the sun to show off the blue and pink (or purple?) glitter: 

Finished manicure in the sun: 

Thanks for looking!

Orange-tacular Floral Ruffian!

China Glaze Japanese Koi (two coats) topped with Zoya Tanzy (two coats), all topped off with Essie Matte About You topcoat (you guessed it, two coats). Dried flowers are from Born Pretty Store, and I attached them with Orly Top 2 Bottom topcoat.

Here come the pictures!

Japanese Koi by itself (no topcoat to show off the neon satin finish):

Japanese Koi topped with Zoya Tanzy (no topcoat):

Completed manicure in the shade: 

 Closeups of thumb: 

Thanks for looking!

Purple Crackle!

This is Claire's Mood Polish in Calm/Wild topped with China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Faultline, no topcoat. A lot of people didn't care for the Faultline formula, but once I got the hang of it, I liked it. You have to do a quick, somewhat thick coat over completely dry polish. Most crackle topcoats fare better with a thin coat, but not this one. Here are a couple closeups of the nails on which I used a thicker coat: 

Thanks for reading!

Pink and Sparkly!

This is China Glaze It's Poppin' topped with Nubar Nail Jewels, which is a loose glitter. I can't find the color on Nubar's website, but it is a silver holographic glitter. I attempted to do an ombre or dip-dyed effect. I applied two coats of It's Poppin', and then I applied Orly Top 2 Bottom. I used a fan brush to tap the glitter onto my nails, and followed that up with a thick coat of Seche Vite. Please excuse the chipped area on my ring finger! The pink didn't chip, but the glitter did.

At night, indoors with flash: 

Close-up:

Slightly blurred to show off the holo effect: 

SUPER-blurred! This was a mistake, but I'm posting it because you can see Zoya Areej on my toes: 

This was a fun manicure, and pretty easy to do. Thanks for looking!

Happy Go Lucky with Lighthouse

This is two coats of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky topped with one coat of China Glaze Lighthouse. I really love it, but unfortunately, I ruined my manicure (hence the photo being of only two nails). Sorry this one is blurry. All my pics of this turned out a little weird. 

Here you can see it indoors: 

I think I'm going to have to try Happy Go Lucky with orange tips (China Glaze Life Preserver?) and top the whole thing with Lighthouse. That sounds amazing. Thanks for looking!