Milani: One Coat Glitter - Purple Gleam

Milani's One Coat Glitter (2 coats) in Purple Gleam with 2 layers of top coat (pre-cleanup).

This glitters are so great that I can't believe I bought them from CVS. Under the right light, this color comes alive. It is so thick though...

Love & Beauty (Forever 21): Indie Rock Glitter Polish

Here's Indie Rock Glitter Polish from Forever 21's line, Love & Beauty:

It's so dynamic! It's a dark, dark navy blue with so many glitter dimensions... sometimes it's blue, sometimes purple, and sometimes it's accented with a goldy-amber. It's so beautiful in the bottle that I just want to leave it out for all to see. The picture definitely does not do it justice. It was only $2.80, too. Perfect!

Milani: One Coat Glitter - Blue Flash

I finally made it to my local CVS only to find out that Milani's One Coat Glitter display had been wiped out by other nail enthusiasts. I was, however, able to snag two of the three that I wanted the most. So, here's Blue Flash:

Natural sunlight with flash, pre-cleanup, two coats with one layer of top coat.

Unfortunately, one coat is not enough like the name says (it's close though!), but two coats will suffice and that is a-okay with me. In sunlight this polish is purely dazzling. It will need about two layers of top coat to reach its full potential because without it it's gritty looking. The polish on its own dries surprisingly quickly, too.

Quick Swatches: Milani One Coat Glitters & Orly Cosmic FX

Here are some quick, one-finger swatches of Milani's new One Coat Glitters and two more of Orly's Cosmic FX Collection:

Left to right: (no topcoats)
Milani's Blue Flash (one coat)
Milani's Purple Gleam (one coat)
Orly's Space Cadet (two coats)
Orly's Lunar Eclipse (two coats)

Stay tuned for more in-depth reviews coming up!

Update: Miu Miu

This is an extension of this post. I love the Miu Miu print I had previously done, but I wanted to micro-size it and make it more of a print instead of having a few stand-alone swallows.

The inspiration:

Purple base: China Glaze's Light as Air (Up & Away, Spring 2010)

Freehanded black swallows: Flexbrush's water-based black

Zoya Spoons: Sparkle Collection

My six free Zoya spoons came today! I picked all of mine from the Sparkle Collection because they all seemed glitzy and girly and I'm a little neurotic about having complete sets.

They come in this nifty little envelope:

They're about 3 inches long each. Zoya says it's real polish on the spoons, and I believe them. Other brands' polish sample pieces don't look like real polish, but when you flip Zoya's over you can see the layer of polish on the spoon.

In order from left to right: Ivanka, Gilda, Nidhi, Charla, Alegra, Mimi

According to the spoon, Charla looks like a dupe of Orly's Halley's Comet (Cosmic FX).

I am in love with the pinks in this collection! I'll probably get Gilda, one of the other two pinks, and Mimi during their 3 free offer in January.

Anyone else get their spoons? Share them in the comments!

Candy Cane

Here's my obligatory Holiday contribution, candy cane nails (on a practice board)!

White: OPI's Alpine Snow
Red: CM Nail Art's red
Silver: stripping tape from Transdesign.com

Do you white base first, then freehand the red stripes (you could use tape to delineate the edges, but that'll cost some time), then add a strip of tape to each red edge. Seal it with a top coat or two. Easy as pie!

Miu Miu Inspired Mani

Everyone's doing it, Miu Miu inspired nails.

Base: China Glaze's Something Sweet

The swallows (I believe?) are freehanded using Dou'ble-Art black nail pen for the outline of the bird, and Flexbrush's black was used to fill them in (so I wouldn't waste my awesome pen polish!). I only wish I could do the swallows smaller so I could fit four or five on each nail. I might try that next...

This glitter pieces were stolen from my Christmas tree skirt. Work with what you've got, people! They're a mixture of sizes in gold and silver.

Orly: Out of This World

Here's Orly's Out of This World from the Cosmic FX Collection:

I wouldn't say this picture is color accurate, but it definitely captures the essence of this color and sparkle. It's a really nice blackish purple (on the wine side of purple), but more purple than black, and it flashes gold in the bottle. This one had a bit of wear and tear after only one day. Anyone else experience this? Despite the tip damage, it's a dream to apply!

Orly's Halley's Comet & Beyond the Zone's Temporary Hair Color Bombz

I went to my local Sally Beauty Supply today to pick up something (later in the post) and while perusing the nail polish section I saw that they had Orly's Cosmic FX Collection on sale for $3.99 each (Transdesign is selling them for $10 each if you need a reference point)! They only had four of the six colors, so I only picked up Halley's Comet, Lunar Eclipse, and Out of This World. They also had China Glaze's most recent Halloween collection on sale, but I didn't buy any of those.

Here's what Halley's Comet looks like (pre-clean up, no top coat):

It's SO glittery and has much more of an emerald influence than I've seen in pictures online. Halley's Comet is very much a mermaid color. All of the Cosmic FX colors that I saw are gorgeous in the bottle and they're fabulous in sunlight.

My trip to Sally's was to check out Beyond the Zone's Temporary Hair Color Bombz. I have this fascination with dyed hair in non-traditional colors, and ever since Kelly Osbourne rocked this look a while back,

I've been obsessed with this color. The website and color sample in-store showed that Party on Purple was a dead on ringer for Kelly's color, so I bought it since I wanted something temporary and I'm too chicken to really dye my hair. All you have to do is shake the can for a bit, and then spray your hair where you want color (it rinses out with a regular shower shampooing). It's very easy.

Here's my hair pre-spraying after a day out and no styling (hence the hot-mess):

Here's my hair post-spraying:

I cannot express how little effort or care I put into this test. I just wanted to see if it would show up--that's why it's streaky and uneven and pretty much ridiculously stupid looking. So, this test is just a test of color quality, not application, because no effort went into application.

As you can see, it's much more pink on my hair than it is lavender. That's probably because my hair is naturally dark brown. I bet if I had blonde hair it'd turn out more color-accurate, but I don't mind so much because I only want to do some streaks underneath or if I'm feeling crazy, some Nicki Minaj dip-dye styles:

Megapost: Gradient Leopard, F21 Glitter, Home Movies

Here's a sponged on gradient using the blues from OPI's Shrek Forever After collection:

I know, I do the leopard a LOT, but it's really great for covering up little mishaps. Tip: Use a new sponge for the best application, not a sponge that's been used for nail polish sponging before.

I decided to try out Forever 21's nail polish line, Love & Beauty. It's only $2.80 a bottle online and they have a huge collection that's worth checking out. Here's their Confetti Sparkle Polish in Dark Purple:

It's pretty good! I would recommend using a solid color as a base coat like white or black, because after three or so coats you can still see through to the bare nail in places.

Here's part of my pet project from the past month or so. I purchased one of those giant plates with 42 practice nails on it and I've been using it to try things on. Here's my tribute to one of the best non-kiddie cartoons of all time, Home Movies:

Ha, imperfections really show up in an up-close picture... Anyways, their names are written on the side of the nail (Brendon, Melissa, Jason).

Free Zoya Spoons!

Zoya's is giving away 6 free spoons (color samples) per consumer account today and tomorrow! And for a limited time starting in January, Facebook fans get 3 free bottles of polish!

Click for details:

The process is slow right now due to site traffic, but here are the colors I picked (all from the Sparkle Collection):

Yes, they do ask for your credit card info, but according to their Facebook, they won't charge you and it's pretty much a formality in order to complete the process.

Announcement

Hey all,

I'll be back next week because this is finals week for me and I'm ultra swamped.

In the mean time, check out this great offer from Zoya Nail Polish:

http://www.facebook.com/ZoyaNailPolish

If they get 20,000 fans before January 3, everyone will get 3 free bottles of polish (you pay shipping so I hear, and I assume there are some restrictions)!

Holiday Time!

I was in our local holiday parade tonight so I decided to roll out a holiday-hinting mani!

Essie's Bordeaux with silver stripping tape. The glitter is Rocket City's Inferno Face and Body Glitter. It's a great mix of small and large glitter pieces.

Ignore the mess on my middle finger. However, it is a good example of how blood-like this color is!

I had to use SO much Seche on top that the section with glitter looks almost like how gel nails look, and I kind of love it.