White Cap

So back in 2011 I bought China Glaze's White Cap from the Anchor's Away Collection. I remember it being quite a big deal then. Funny thing is I never wore it. I have no clue why. I went through my stash to find it the other night because I wanted something clean and pretty to wear that I wouldn't have to worry so much about.
I used one coat of White Cap over one coat of OPI's Don't Touch My Tutu! and that was it. White cap is a white jelly like polish with a gold flash, and flake like shimmer. Clean, simple, and pretty.

Thanks for reading!

Happy New Year! - A Glitter Gradient

I rocked out to Kool & The Gang, watched fireworks, and rang in the new year with my Husband and best friends. What did I do with my nails you ask? Well since I wasn't wearing any major bling I decided I should at least have some sparkly nails!

I started with a base of OPI's Mimosas for Mr. & Mrs. I then tried my hand at a glitter gradient with Orly's Halo. I think it turned out nicely and there was plenty of sparkle.

Here's wishing you all a happy and healthy 2014!

Miami Beet

I've been gravitating towards pretty raspberry colors for fall. They are my favorite. Thus Miami Beet and I were a perfect fit. Why had I never noticed this wonderful polish?

I've worn it with regular top coat, and then decided I needed to try it mattified. Matte polish seems to be making a bit of a comeback this fall. I whipped out my NYC Matte Me Crazy, and loved the results.

Indoor lighting.

Natural Light.

And here's a bonus shot of it in it's regular state.

Between this and Zoya's Paloma I think I have my perfect for me raspberries. Funny my collection of raspberry polish is quite small. Considering my love affair with the color I'm surprised by this haha.

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A First for Me - Glitter Gradients.

Long time no post. I'm sorry. Life gets in the way of my urge and time to blog sometimes. So I finally bought a cheap pack of wedge make up sponges so I could try out gradient manicures. I've been a lot more adventurous in the nail department for the last few months so obviously I wanted to try something new.

I used OPI's Mimosas for Mr. & Mrs. as my base. I've been loving that color lately. I tried out a few combinations to see what I liked and fell back on my tried and true Orly's Sparkling Garbage. I swear that polish has to be one of my absolute favorites. It's one glitter/jelly that I've used multiple times and I can always turn to it for a fun eye-catching mani. How can you not love minty green holographic jelly goodness?! Anyway enough gushing over Sparkling Garbage and on to the manicure.

It took me a few tries to get the gradient the way I liked it consistently. I put some polish on tinfoil and dipped my wedge sponge in and got to work. I dabbed the polish in layers beginning about halfway down the nail and gradually raised it for each layer until I go to the tips. It's really just a matter of dabbing the polish on to your liking really. Now on to the photos!

I'm absolutely loving this! Thanks for reading!

4th of July Nails!

I ordered KBShimmer's Pimp my Pride because I thought that would be the perfect 4th of July manicure. I decided that I would try my hand at nail art with this manicure too. Just an accent nail though.

Pimp my Pride is fantastic. 2 coats with wonderful coverage. My accent nail is a smattering of different polishes. My base was 2 layers of Orly's High on Hope with a coat of Revlon's Heavenly in between. This would resemble the sky. I then used a dotting tool to make a firework exploding from the base of my nail with OPI's Solitaire. I added some colorful glitter with NOPI's Confetti Fun.

I'm so pleased with how this turned out! I love watching fireworks so this was perfect for me and so festive for Independence Day!

Now here are a million pictures for your viewing pleasure.

 Thanks for reading!

New Year's Manicure

So I saw a post on Short 'N Chic using OPI's Barre My Soul and Pirouette My Whistle, and it inspired me to do the same look. I hadn't pulled those polishes out in a while so they needed a little love. I did a very similar look last New Year's Eve so I figured why not. Plus it's a great pallet cleanser after all the Christmas colors.
My family came to visit on New Year's Eve and my brother told me that this was the coolest polish he'd seen me wear in a while. He said it looked like snow. I must agree it does look like snow. Wish we got a tad of that here.
On to the picture spam.

Thanks for reading!

You Callin' Me A Lyre?

This will be short and sweet. This polish is from the New York City Ballet Collection from OPI, and it has been on my tips for the better part of the last month. Nail length has varied of course. I'm in love with this sheer jelly. So much so that my bottle is about 1/3 empty. A back up is a must.

Thanks for reading!

OPI Tickle My France-y etc...

Well hello there. Long time no post. I noticed recently I hit 50 followers, and I want to thank you all so much for following! I do appreciate you sticking with me even though my posts are not on the regular.

I have been keeping my nails really short as of late. It's easier that way for many reasons. It doesn't chip nearly as fast so I don't have to worry about it. Plus since I'm a photographer I don't have to worry about breaking off nails while I'm doing things. (Speaking of photography I just want to say I feel so blessed to be able to shoot the #2 College Baseball team in the country. It's awesome. And if you want to see some shots go here.)

Now on to the mani that has been on my tips since last week. Two coats of OPI's Tickle My France-y with one coat of Teenage Dream on top. I really like TMF because it's a nice brown tone neutral. It leans a bit more pink/lavender on my skin tone. It was also a pain the the butt to photograph because of that, but I'll forgive it. Haha.

Now check it out. (Click pictures for a better view.)

Thanks for stopping by!

OPI's Katy Perry Collection- Bottle Shots and Swatches!

Most people don't know but I'm a big Katy Perry fan. She's beautiful and I like her style. Plus she always has her nails on point. Haha.

As soon as I realized the her new OPI collaboration collection was out online, everything was sold out but the Shatter polish. So I made a trip to Ulta. They had nothing out. On Sunday my friend Kendal let me know the Ulta had finally put out the collection. When I went in on Monday they had everything but Shatter. I was told they would get more in soon, but everyone was clamoring for it. They even told me the employees were scooping it up. (Mini Rant: I understand that employees have the right to buy things, but in my opinion they shouldn't be allowed to grab up everything from the first shipment. That's total BS.)

Some of the displays via my camera phone:

One of several empty displays.

So what did I pick up? I got the mini bottles set, and I got regular size bottles of Teenage Dream and Not Like the Movies. Hopefully I'll find the highly coveted Shatter eventually.

Ooh, I love the sparkle in Teenage Dream.

Hopefully I'll get to swatch these soon. I'm not much of a swatcher. I'm more of a full mani kind of gal. Haha. But if I get around to swatches I'll add them to this post!

EDIT: I finally swatched the collection. So here they are. (Minus Shatter)

2 coats.

Teenage Dream- 3 coats. Pink base with various size glitter. Hexagon glitter is holographic.

Not Like the Movies- 3 coats. This is one of those oil slick kind of colors.  Pinks, greens and gray flashes along with some silver glitter sparkle.

The One That Got Away- 3 coats. I could have gotten away with 2. It's a berry with lovely glass-flecking.

Last Friday Night-  3 coats. Blue based sheer with various sizes of glitter and possible flakies. Good layering polish.

 

I must say I really like them all. Last Friday Night is obviously very sheer. I think a possible dupe for this may be a Sinful Colors Hottie. Otherwise I'm loving the other colors and will probably go back for a full size bottle of The One that Got Away.


Did you pick anything up from this collection?

Thanks for reading!