1st post redux Yellow Stopper pop off Lynnderella When the Moon Was a Star glitter bomb jelly sandwich

I heard the call of the fabulous Jen at xoxojen to recreate our first ever blog post. My oh my how things have changed. I am almost exclusively into holographic finishes so to revisit glittah bombs was a hoot!

This is a pic heavy post with a step by step pictorial of how to build my favorite glitter bomb polish that POPS OFF in 2 days tops. This is great if you do not want to use the acetone, cotton square & foil method. I cannot stress to you the importance of not tugging at your nails. They will pop off on their own but you can cajole them if there is no resistance. Be careful.

So here we go:

1. Start with 2 coats of American Classics Yellow Stopper Top Coat (sallybeauty). Incidentally, this is my go to lazy day manicure. No one sees in macro mode so this looks like a French manicure without the fuss. If you want to do the quickie French mani, these are the steps so they don't pop off: base coat of your choosing, 2 coats of Yellow Stopper, one coat of favorite top coat (HKG for me). Done!

Yellow Stopper (2 coats)

 

Yellow Stopper (2 coats)



2. Base of jelly sandwich is one coat of Cirque Colors Tibetan Nights

Cirque Colors Tibetan Nights (1st coat)

 

3. The POW is Lynnderella When the Moon Was a Star

 

Lynnderella When the Moon Was a Star

 

4. Now add another coat of Tibetan Nights

 

Cirque Colors Tibetan Nights (2nd coat)

 

5. Top it all off with the glitter friendly, depth & gloss producing best-ever top coat made by Glisten & Glow named Hong Kong Girl (or other iterations of the same product under slightly different names)

 

2 coats HKG top coat

 

Some pics of the finished product:

 

outdoors

 

outdoors

 

indoors under an OttLite

 

And now for the fun part - this sandwich will literally POP OFF in a day or two. Amazing! No clean up whatsoever.

 

 

 

And the old pic - no laughter allowed - well, if you must ☼ 

 







I hope you enjoyed the redux of the very first post I made. Check out Jen's blog for the most comprehensive list of Indie Nail Polishes. You will be gob smacked at the selection: xoxojen

 

I'd love to hear from you. And please join my blog. It's always a pleasure to meet new people and follow them in return. Happy polishing ☼

Zoya Jelly Nail Art

The lovely and uber talented UK nail blogger, Sam, is sharing one of my posts with her community. Yay ♥ Take a look at her witty blog, Polished Art and join her site for fantastic nails and tutorials. You know you want to ☼

My contribution to *cough*cough* my rough interpretation of nail art involves Zoya Jelly Professional Lacquer in 3 shades of supremely buildable colors that would do wonders in the hands of just that - a professional. Funny thing - I don't do nail art!

Initially my intent was to just wear these colors alone so I did a skittle manicure to test the colors. After 3 coats, it still didn't feel right because they are so sheer and my nails were getting dangerously thick so I decided to try some random nail art "blobs" instead. Not a pretty word but the manicure turned out to be quite lovely at a distance. I am showing macro shots so you can see the different colors but the effect was much prettier IRL. I received many compliments because no one looks at another person's nails in macro mode!

Here were the steps:

Zoya Paloma, a sheer deep fuchsia-berry as an overall base color followed by Zoya Katherine, a sheer, dark, red-toned aubergine/oxblood with Zoya Frida, a sheer, dark, warm-toned teal blue randomly blobbed about. The always puurrrfect Hong Kong Girl top coat made them shine like glass. The manicure lasted a good 4 days without any tip wear.

The colors are actually gorgeous and would be perfect for jelly sandwiches. This was a fun experiment but as most of my readers know, I like my thin nails and tend to get frustrated by the amount of build up required for a novice at nail art. Don't let that dissuade you. 

A big thank you to Sam. I will be watching and learning from you, my dear ☼

Nerd Lacquer Cyance Friction

I have decided to add my guest post to my own blog because I haven't been keeping up with my entries and a few of my gracious followers have asked me why I haven't posted in a month or so. I am giving my nails a chance to recoup. I like to do this every few months while I pursue my other passions. Thanks so much for your kind words of encouragement and I promise to post new manis soon. I hope you are all having a great Spring/Summer ☼

Please read the previous post to see the full guest post & visit lisasnailobsession

Today's entry features Nerd Lacquer's Cyance Friction.

I am sure you have heard that the incomparable Nerd Lacquer is back in business. The shopping experience was stressful and exhilarating! All polishes in the first sale were out of stock within 3 minutes and apparently there were 900+ bottles listed and an oversell of 500+ for a total of 1400+ bottles. I think it's safe to say, Nerd Lacquer is one of the most popular indie brands on the market.

This is one of my favorite colors - Cyance Friction - which is part of her Nerd Crush series. She has many creative series and names that are all sci-fi influenced. This color is a brilliant cyan-teal with pink shimmer and turquoise and copper glitter. The color cyan may be used as a name for any color in the range between blue and green. This is a vibrant color full of POW that really comes alive in direct sunlight but is equally beautiful indoors. I photographed this manicure under different lighting conditions so you can see the glory that is Cyance Friction.

The formula glides easily, requires only two thin coats for full coverage and lasts for many days with no chipping. Although this polish is packed with glitter, it needs no top coat for smoothness. I did use Hong Kong Girl top coat for shine because the polish is a more muted finish than I prefer.

I hope you enjoy the photographs and good luck with your NL hunting ☼

NERDLACQUER

Glisten & Glow (Hong Kong Girl top coat)

 

 

 

Pressed flower manicure

I'm so pleased to have been included in my first nail polish challenge group - The Nail Challenge on facebook.

This week's challenge was to interpret Spring.

As always, I used a base coat of Nailtiques Formula 2, applied two coats of Essence Forget Me Knot, a few layers of OPI I Juggle Men over real pressed flowers from last Spring with a healthy dose of HKG top coat. These Plumbago Auriculata were a challenge to work with but a learning experience is always worth the effort.

I hope you enjoy my Spring inspiration and thank you for taking the time to look at my blog ☼

Shimmer Polish Cassandra with Fantasy Makers Confetti Glitz

Another stunner by Shimmer Polish: Cassandra

I had great difficulty picking up the color on my new camera as I have not yet deciphered how to white balance it. The pictures do not do this polish justice but the need to share outweighed the desire for reading the manual on CD, pfff. This is such a stunning combination. My nails look like icicles IRL!

Here is the process: Yellow Stopper as a base coat for that natural French manicure effect (it casts a lavender hue on your natural nail), one coat Shimmer Polish Cassandra (pearl white holographic glitter), "French tips" using  Fantasy Makers Confetti Glitz (a super shiny fine holo powder that can be used for many purposes) and my favorite top coat, HKG.

Enjoy ☼

Shimmer Polish

Candeo Colors Orchid

I promised you color and here it is. I have seen so many beautiful manicures with Candeo Colors Orchid, I just had to buy a bottle and give it a try. It has turned into one of my favorites.

This color is stunning. It is described as a shimmery fuchsia base that is loaded with small copper, light purple, magenta and large silver holographic hex glitter. I'd like to add that it is a fuchsia jelly based polish that can be layered for more depth and sparkle. It would be great for sandwiching (next time!).

For this manicure I applied a base of 2 coats Ulta in Deep Desire, one coat of Candeo Colors Orchid and 1 coat of Hong Kong Girl top coat.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Thanks for stopping by and Happy 2013 to you all ☼

Candeo Colors

Nouba purple 484 LA1521 nail polish

This gorgeous purple Nouba 484 was picked up in the same boutique beauty supply house in California as the post from October 20. It has a stunning purple gel base with many holos - bars and different sizes of round. What a stunner! I've captured it in different lighting situations and various focal points so you can get a better idea of it's beauty. Two coats is all it took. This polish is surprisingly soft to the touch despite all the fun going on but I did use one coat of HKG top coat to give it longevity. I hope you enjoy it!

 

 

Cirque Never Nude

I am taking a short 2 week break so my nails will be au naturale. I have cut them very short and intend to keep my hands and nails super moisturized for the duration.

In the meantime, here is a picture of a nail polish I used a few weeks ago. The simplicity of no "glitter bombs" was refreshing. The color is magnificent.

I hope you enjoy it!

Cirque

Enkelini Shifty Minx

Sunday's manicure is a gorgeous color I picked from a traveling swap box. What a fun experience.  I highly recommend swap boxes because of the variety of brands and colors that can open your eyes to new combinations, color families and most importantly, BRANDS!

I chose a green base to bring out the green of the topper. I am sure a blue base would have amplified the turquoise. Next time I will try it with a blue base.

Base - 2 coats Sinful Colors San Francisco (a metallic emerald green)
Topper - 2 coats Enkelini Shifty Minx (vibrant teal jelly base with holographic and iridescent glitter of turquoise and green) Enkelini
Gelous + HKG topcoats

I hope you enjoy it and thank you for looking!

Nail Polish Obsession Jelly Sandwich

Welcome!

My first blog post is about my latest obsession...nail polish.

Today I tried my first jelly sandwich.

Base - 1 coat Cirque Tibetan Nights
Cirque
Middle layer - 1 coat Lynnderella When The Moon Was A Star
Lynnderella
Topper - 1 coat Cirque Tibetan Nights
Finishing touch - 2 coats of Hong Kong Girl top coat
HKG top coat

I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for taking a look.