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

Movin Mani- Metallic Purple Vintage Plate

Maybe I mentioned this before... I can't quite remember... but fiance and I are moving!  We are heading across the country from lovely Oregon where I've been going to school for the past 3.5 years to my hometown in Maryland.  We head off on Saturday morning to drive across with our dog. It's going to be an adventure for sure, and while I packed the majority of my nail polish a few weeks ago, I kept my favorites until the very end... and just packed them today.  But have no fear, I kept out a select few bottles... and my stamping plates... for the drive!  

We packed the computers today, so please bear with me and my iPhone pics that will simply have to do for the next ~1.5 weeks.  Also I packed these bottles... doh.... so once again we have me making my very best Claw hand.  And I also don't remember the name of one of the polishes or which plate number I used.  Useless, I know, but I thought this design was cute so I just had to share anyway.

This design reminds me of vintage china plates that my grandmother has.  I think my mom might have them in blue... but I used metallic purple and I think it looks lovely!  

icky dry cuticles, yuck yuck yuck!!

Products Used:

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

China Glaze (ack I forgot!!!)

Peachy Chevron for a Beachy Feel- 2 Weeks of China Glaze

Like I mentioned before, we are having some much needed sunny weather here in Oregon these past few days, and that has put me in the mood for some BEACH.  One of my favorite summer colors is Peachy Keen.  It just feels so happy to me.  So I knew I wanted to use it, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it... when I went through my stamping plates and discovered the chevron-ish stripes on Bundle Monster plate 201.  Sold!  I grabbed one of my metallics (GREAT for stamping) and hopped to it.  I was hoping the stripes would come out more blue, but I think it looks just fine as this silvery color.

Products used:

China Glaze Peachy Keen

China Glaze Devotion

Bundle Monster plate 201

So now a few questions for you guys- what's your favorite summer shade?  And what are your thoughts on chevron stripes- just a fad, or here to stay, and do you love em or think they are overdone?  

Red and a Copper Penny

I needed something bright.  My internship is wrapping up and the weather is just... bleh.  So I needed something fun!  Here's China Glaze's Make Some Noise with a metallic copper stamping on top.  It came out kind of subtle but pretty awesome I think.

They cheered me up for a while!

Products Used:

China Glaze in Make Some Noise

Sally Hansen Complete Salon in Shiny Penny

Bundle Monster Plate BM205

Goldfish Scales

Man I went a little buck wild this past week.  I used an amazon giftcard to buy the entire China Glaze Electropop collection, and if that weren't enough, I went to Ulta and bought like 10 more polishes (most on clearance).  It was great!

One of my Ulta purchases was Sally Hansen's Shiny Penny.  I figured I might be able to use it for stamping.  But then I had a better idea... Layer Shine of the Times on top and see what happened.  Can I just say.... it was GLORIOUS.  Subtle, but dazzling under the right conditions.  It reminded me of a goldfish, and I couldn't stop staring at them.  One of my students told me I looked like I had flecks of gold on my fingernails.  I take that as a mark of approval!

What do you think?  Goldfish scales?  Does this look meet your stamp of approval?

Products Used:

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Shiny Penny

Essie Shine of the Times

Sally Hansen Chrome Stamping

I love this SO MUCH.  This chrome polish is super old but I am not on a mission to locate some and buy ALL of it.

I tried to photoshop out my truly terrible cuticles (they were like basically bleeding on camera- I KNOW) but I don't actually HAVE photoshop, so... I did my best.  And I did it for you!

Seriously though I love this and I hope it lasts forever.

Products used:

Wet n Wild Black Creme

Sally Hansen Chrome in Royal Purple Chrome

Sally Hansen Double Duty

BM 19

My Camera Failed Me

I have tried SO HARD over the course of two days and so many different settings and locations to catch the True Color of this manicure, and it just won't happen.  Indoor, outdoor, flash, no flash, macro, far away, I just can't get it recorded.

When I bought Love & Beauty Light Grey, I assumed it would look as it does in the bottle- grey with pink shimmer- but as a sheer.  So when I went over to a friend's house on Sunday to watch True Blood, I grabbed it and Zoya Kelly, figuring I'd layer the sheer on top of the darker grey-purple.

And it caught me totally off guard!  Light Grey (what a dull, boring name) is not very sheer at all!  I can't wait to swatch it on bare nails and see what it looks like alone.  On top of Kelly it creates this amazing gunmental metallic pink/grey duochrome feel and it is AMAZING!  I just haven't been able to capture the pink shimmer at all on my camera, so you'll have to take my word for it how awesome these colors are together.

This was as close as I could get to capturing the pink.

If you look reeeeally closely you can see some pink shimmers.

I do love the gunmetal metallic going on here.

Products Used:

Zoya Kelly

Forever 21 Love & Beauty in Light Grey

Base/Top coat: Sally Hansen Double Duty

Bonus photo of my awesome new bracelet:

It's made by a local artisan (website) out of old antique silverware.  My particular design is from a set from 1938!  If you're local to Portland or Eugene, Oregon, and you can make it down to the Eugene Saturday Market, definitely go check out Ben's booth.