China Glaze's Below Deck with Leopard

Here's the latest victim of my chronic leopardization. Two coats of China Glaze's Below Deck (Anchors Away, Spring 2011) with Dou'ble-Art black leopard spots.

Formal swatches of Below Deck are coming soon! (with Sea Spray and First Mate)

OPI's Teenage Dream with Black Shatter

OPI's (Katy Perry Collection) Teenage Dream with Black Shatter

Underneath two layers of Teenage Dream is one layer of OPI's Alpine Snow. Black Shatter was applied thickly to give it this effect.

Green Nails with Stripping Tape

Some nails from a few weeks ago before I had to chop them off due to winter sucking the life force out of my nails. China Glaze's Four Leaf Clover (two coats) with diagonal silver stripping tape.

Swatch: Butter London's British Racing Green

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a new favorite polish. It's Butter London's British Racing Green:

This polish is SO gorgeous! The picture makes it look too green. In reality it's a dark, dark green, but not so dark that it looks like a black with green undertones. It only needs two coats, but I think if you were crafty you could get away with only one. This color reminds me of paint on a sports car that has one main color but also has micro glitter in it that makes it shimmer in the sun. Think of BMW hunter green. That's this color. 

It's noir. It's sexy. It's classy. It's my new favorite and I'm in love.

Swatches: OPI's Katy Perry Collection

I'll be honest, I waffled a lot on OPI's Katy Perry collection. Some days I loved it, others I was lukewarm. Luckily, OPI released a mini polish set for the price of about one bottle, so I figured I'd dip my toes in this collection with that set and buy the accompanying Black Shatter polish on its own in the full size.

Here they are all adorably tiny and stuff:

Here are the swatches with two amazing phantom fingers (click for bigger). Each finger has two coats of polish and one coat of shatter.

The standout star of this collection (besides the Shatter) is Teenage Dream. It's so bubblegum-y! Black Shatter is on a completely different level of awesome. It's basically easy nail art. Every shatter attempt looks unique and it takes no time at all to do. Go buy a bottle before it's all sold out!

Coming Soon: Swatch Edition

I have a TON of polish coming my way in the next few weeks. Here's what you'll be seeing from me soon:

Zoya's Mimi
Zoya's Alegra
Zoya's Gilda
Butter London's British Racing Green
OPI's Katy Perry Collection (4)
OPI's Black Shatter
China Glaze's Below Deck
China Glaze's Sea Spray
China Glaze's First Mate


They'll probably appear in that order, too, because of shipment arrivals so check back soon!

Mix & Match Mani + Incoco French Tips Review

This post is serving a two for one purpose: Showin' off this crazy mani and doing a quick review of Incoco's French Manicure strips.

All pink: China Glaze's Something Sweet (Up & Away, Spring 2010)

White bases: OPI's Alpine Snow

White zebra stripes: Konad's special white polish

Indexes: Sponged on gradient (fades into Alpine Snow)

Middles: Incoco's french mani (see below for review)

Rings: Pink rhinestone heart, clear rhinestone bow

Pinkies: Konad's m57 zebra stripes

Thumbs: Silver stripping tape

Review! Incoco's french mani strips are great! I've tried free-handing a french mani as well as using a Konad plate and neither of them are as easy as using these strips. The white strip is pre-curved so you just place it where you want it to go and file the rest away like you would any other Incoco strip. Next you place a sheer beige strip over the entire nail and file away again. Boom, you're done. The best part? It's a classy french tip, not one of the trashy, unrealistic, Snooki-style french tips that have unfortunately become popular lately.

Coming Soon: MAC & Wonder Woman

This February my childhood dreams will collide with my adult interests. MAC Cosmetics is putting out a Wonder Woman line and my inner 9 year old is freaking out! I was (and still am) a huge Wonder Woman fan. My cousin used to own a comic book shop and would always hook me up with the latest WW issue or giant poster that came out. I still have them all tucked away in their little plastic sleeves, safe and sound from the world!

Here's a small preview of the line coming out:

Some people think the line is tacky, but they clearly aren't familiar with the essence of Wonder Woman, DC Comics, and yes, Linda Carter. The packaging is '70s kitsch and I am in LOVE!

Traditional Zebra (Konad m57)

It's been a while since I've done a Konad mani, and my lack of practice shows! The lines are inconsistent because I was too slow, some neighboring nails are identical because I didn't rotate the plate, and my top coat created some drag lines because I didn't start with it thick enough or move fast enough. Overall, it's not too bad.


The black (specifically, a blue-based black) base is 2 coats of OPI's Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees (España Collection, 2009). The white zebra stripes were done with Konad's special white polish and touch ups/line extensions were done with CM Nail Art's white.

If you want to do this Konad (plate m57) and you don't have teeny tiny nails, it'll be smart to get a nail art polish with a skinny brush in the same color you're doing the stripes in order to extend the lines all the way across your nail. If you don't, you'll have an odd, vacant, rectangular border around your zebra stripes. I only really have to do this on my thumbs every time, but it's nice to have if you mess up slightly on one nail and don't want to have to do the whole thing over again.

Lady Gaga's CES Mani

Last night I realized I was due for a new mani, so I decided to reflect my winter girly-gothic style in my nails with a half moon manicure. A while back Butter London posted this video from fashion week with their updated half moon mani (which I chose to emulate), and Lady Gaga must have seen this because here she is yesterday at CES rocking the longer version of this mani:

It was a nice surprise looking at gossip blogs this morning and realizing that Gaga and I have roughly the same nails coincidentally. Unlike Gaga, I'm sticking with shorter nails this winter, so here's my version using OPI's Tickle My France-y (2 coats) and Flexbrush's black.

I freehanded the black moons with a nail art pen first thinking that would be easier but boy was I wrong. It was hard to keep the edges of the moon consistently smooth. The brush was easier to use because it has a natural flow.

OPI's Extra-Va-Vaganza [Burlesque Collection]

I'll admit, I was excited about OPI's Burlesque Collection until I saw the actual swatches. At best, the glitters seemed kind of arts and crafts-y. However, I completely changed my mind when I saw the bottle in person as I unwrapped a gift on Christmas. It's just so festive that it's hard not to love! So, here's Extra-Va-Vaganza (2 coats, pre-cleanup, no top coat):

It's a mainly orange glitter, with some gold and green thrown in. It reminds me of rose gold.

Of course, I had to throw some leopard (Dou'ble Art's black) over it for New Years!

Orly's Space Cadet, OPI's Extra-va-vaganza

Two coats of Orly's Space Cadet, ring finger has OPI's Extra-va-vaganza (one coat) layered over the Space Cadet:

I don't know how I feel about Space Cadet. My mom loved it, but I didn't fall in love (I don't hate it either). Extra-va-vaganza is fun though! It's an easy to apply party-friendly glitter. I'll do a swatch later of it alone and not layered over something. I just wanted to test is because I got it for Christmas =)