Rainbow Dot Nails

I've seen this style floating around the Internet lately, and seeing as how I can't let a rainbow pass me by, I decided to give it a shot.  I received a set of dotting tools for Christmas- yay!- so this was my first shot at using them!  Very cool!

Not too shabby!  There's a few things I would do differently next time, but overall I think it was fun and bright and cute for the end of 2012!

Products Used:

LA Girl Matte Black

Zoya America

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening

China Glaze Gaga for Green

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue

China Glaze Gothic Lolita

Green and Gold Winter Holiday Mani

Simple, subtle, lovely!  Like gold decorations on a Christmas tree.  I needed something quick that I could wear to work, and this was it!  I'm loving this deep green- I used a brand I've never used before- something cheap from Target because I was in a hurry.  And I was pleasantly surprised!  The perfect green for what I wanted.

Products Used:

Sonia Kashuk Emerald City

Essie As Gold As It Gets

Summer Pastel Arrow/Chevron Manicure

I got tired of doing dots, so I decided to go with the latest trend- chevron stripes!  Except that this one doesn't repeat the pattern, so does that just make it a pointy stripe?  Or an arrow?  Can a chevron stripe be singular?

Yea I freehanded this and it's pretty obvious, huh?

Products Used:

China Glaze Peachy Keen

China Glaze Sweet Hook

Revlon Minted

Rainbow Dots!

This one was super simple but still one of my favorite looks when finished!  UNFORTUNATELY.  The color I chose to use as my base- Stone Cold from China Glaze's Capitol Colors collection- purely exists to make me SO MAD.  It is a gorgeous, gorgeous color.  It's all metallic and glimmery and gorgeous when matte and even moreso with a top coat.  But the formula is so bad!  I mentioned it briefly before. but it seriously chips within literal minutes of drying!  It doesn't seem to matter what I do- basecoat, no basecoat, top coat, no topcoat, whatever.  I look down and then realize that my nails are all chipped up and I just painted then an hour ago.  Talk about frustrating!  In order to take these photos I had to completely redo my thumb and pointer finger, got back to my computer and realized that the pinky finger was all chipped to hell also!  So I just covered up the chips and went to redo the pictures.  Bah!  China Glaze is probably my favorite brand.  But this particular color is just a pain in my side.

Anyway, wow, what a long-winded rant.  Onto the photos!

                       

Products Used:
China Glaze Stone Cold
Zoya America
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Sun Kissed
China Glaze Sunshine Pop
China Glaze Gaga for Green
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Brisk Blue
China Glaze Gothic Lolita

Quickie Holiday Mani

This was one of those times where I needed to do something with my nails, but I didn't have a lot of time to spend on them.  So I grabbed a couple glitters and my go-to white base, and boom.  Quick and easy holiday mani!  I used a new green glitter that I picked up from the store the other day, and the red glitter I got from Priti NYC back in August (and was all excited to use for Christmas even back then!)

Products Used:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On

LA Girl Glitter Addict in Purge

Priti Polish in Union Jack

Winter Design- Red Flowers!

Inspired by the poinsettias I've been seeing around, I thought I'd try some pretty red flowers on top of the greenish-teal base of School of Hard Rocks.  I think it came out lovely!

Products Used:
Essie School of Hard Rocks
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in In The Red Creme
Sally Hansen Chrome in Tourmaline Chrome
Love & Beauty Clear/Silver

Swatch: Essie School of Hard Rocks

Essie's School of Hard Rocks is part of the Winter 2011 collection.  It's a really lovely greeny-teal and it's perfect for the season.  I'm a big fan of Essie's recent dusty-ish tones they've been coming out with recently, and this one is no exception.

Pretty, right?  I love it.  

Priti NYC- Lace Aloe

Lace Aloe is one of the five nail polishes I received in my Priti NYC haul.

Lace Aloe, first on the left

Lace Aloe is.... not what I was expecting.  It's green with silver flecks, and it sort of varies between a deep forest green and a lighter, more aloe colored green (fitting name!).  It has a hint of duochrome going on that I was unable to capture with my camera.  I really can't decide if I like it or not.  What do you think of it?

Inside, with flash

Inside, no flash

Priti NYC- Rabbit Tracks

Rabbit Tracks is one of the five nail polishes I received in my Priti NYC haul.

Rabbit Tracks, right in the middle

Rabbit Tracks is definitely a winner!  It is this gorgeous greyish blue-green.  I think it will be perfect for fall.  It's lovely in these photos, but it's definitely better in person.  It's one of my top two favorites from this haul.

Indoors, with flash

Indoors, no flash

Nicole by OPI- Half of the Gossip Girl Collection

So the other day I was wandering through Marshall's and spotted, down on a very very bottom shelf, hidden sort of in the back, a handful of these Nicole by OPI double color packs.

Try one on your fingers and one on your toes!

I grabbed three packs and then decided they were all too similar- lots of dark tealy blues- so I went ahead and did some minor surgery and swapped a couple of the colors to create some double packs of colors that I thought I'd like.  It wasn't until I got home and looked them up online that I realized I had given myself 3/4 of the Gossip Girl pack... and had replaced the last one with a matte teal.  Whoops!  I now have an incomplete collection but that's okay.

I'm sure everyone knows by now that the real winners of this collection are Too Rich For You (blackened teal, shimmery, duo-chromey) and Nicole...Spotted! (teal based hexagonal/micro glitter).  Luckily, those are two of my three!  I swatched all of the colors and fell in love with the pairing... So I went ahead and did an entire manicure instead of one finger.  Voila!

These pictures are terrible.  I don't know why, but lately all of my pictures are looking just awful, and I'm not realizing it until 3 manicures later.  Oh well, I think you kind of get the idea.  

And Too Rich For You by itself?  Glad you asked.

Ugh, just look at it.  Gorgeous.