Still Love Mattes

I had a crazy idea for some fun with my matte top coat and made an over the top layering mani. I started with super bright red creme. Then I added Wet n Wild - Ice Blue Pearl that I used for this matte mani. Then I threw on a coat of Sally Hansen - Hidden Treasure because matte flakies are one of my most favorite things ever. I don't like the end result that much because the blue is over powering. There is less blue on the right hand nails, but the cuticles on that hand were not camera ready soo.....

This close up is actually from my right hand. I like the more subtle blue flash and more emphasis on the flakies.

What do you think?

:c)
Elaine

New Xtreme Wears, Fall 2010

Man I love Xtreme Wears. I get very excited for new displays. I love the colors, I love the brush, I love the colors.... just all good.

Purple Gala - Man I love this. I wore it for 5 days which for me is a loooong time. It is a purple base that is foily in finish with metallic gold flakes adding to the depth, and foil look. I love it. It looks very similar to Hard Candy - Mr. Wrong, but they are not dupes. I did a comparison:

Index and Ring: Mr. Wrong and Middle and Pinky: Purple Gala
It looks to me like Mr. Wrong is more grayed of a purple. In the swatch it also looks like it has more gold in it. But I like Purple Gala for a few reasons:
- I like the base color better
- I like the formula better. Purple Gala is 2 coats and Mr. Wrong is 3.
- Purple Gala is cheaper and has a bigger bottle
- Purple Gala is more accessible: Hard Candy is only at Wal-Mart.

Purple Fiesta - At first glance I thought there was more of a fiesta happening here. In the bottle it sure looks more exciting. All the holo glitter and holo bar glitter. But on the nail it got lost. Until I came up with an idea. I did three thin, thin coats instead of two coats. Then the glitter comes through more, and more layers gives you more glitter! I love the base color of this. This swatch is top coat-less so it would look a lot cooler with a smooth finish.

Concrete - This doesn't look much like concrete, unless concrete is purple? This is a grayed out purple creme. A "gravender", if you will. I love this. This is two coats.

Plum Burst - Oooh! How pretty. This is a bold, magenta-purple creme. It is very pretty and exciting! It may not be terribly unique, but I like it. This is 2 coats.

Mystic Lilac - This is a recent nail junkie favorite. I like it myself! It is a very gray lavender that has lots of super shiny, emerald green shimmer. The formula is thin on this, but it's a good thing because it lets the shimmer shine through. This is 3 coats.

These new Xtremes are on a new display in drugstores now and they retail for $2.99

What do you think?
:c)
-Elaine

Poison Ivy

Hello all! I have been working a ton lately but I have something for you. Here is the mani I was rocking over the past weekend:

I finally got my hands on some Bundle Monster stamp plates! This is Sinful Colors - Innocent stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM20 and OPI - Jade is the New Black. This mani got lots of attention everywhere I went!

What do you think?
:c)
-Elaine

China Glaze Fight Like a Woman - Fall 2010

In support of womens' battle against breast cancer, China Glaze has released a set of empowering pink shades. Check them out>>>

Encouragement - Soft soft, almost white, shimmery pink. I loved wearing this one. I had it on for a looong time. It love the softness of it and how shimmery it is. There are little glints of green in the shimmer that I just love. This is three coats.

Endurance - Bright, glass-flecked, super fun raspberry! I want to call this Cosmo. Raspberry Cosmo. So fun! This is three coats.

Empowerment - Cotton candy, pink creme. I like the soft look of this and it's rare that I like pink polish so much, but this one really grew on me. I actually wore it twice. :cO weird. It's soft and squishy which gives for a great end result, but the application was not what I would have liked for a creme. It was a bit streaky and took three coats.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

Fight Like a Woman will be available in September in beauty supply stores and beauty salons.

OPI Swiss Collection, Fall 2010

For Fall this year, OPI went for another one of their signature "location" collections. This time the theme is Switzerland. I would love to go to Switzerland. Do some skiing! It's on the list of places to visit. Hope I get there one day. For now I will wear these and pretend.

Glitzerland - This is a super shimmer, foil-ish finish shade that we have been seeing a lot of lately. This is a very flattering slightly yellow, warm gold. This swatch is three coats. I thought at first it might be a dupe to China Glaze - Swing Baby, but it's not:

They have the same finish, but Swing Baby is a neutral, champagne color, and Glitzerland is a yellow gold. Different enough to own both.

Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous! - Oooh! This is a foxy charcoal shimmery, foilish shade. It is so seductive! I love the deep charcoal color but it is also so sparkly! Awesome shade. This swatch is three coats.

Yodel Me On My Cell - This is a mesmerizing aqua shimmer It is definitely blue, but has the slightest smidge of green to it too. I really love this. I believe I did three coats for this swatch because a couple nails had bald spots after two.

Ski Teal We Drop - This is a dreamy smooth, medium to dark teal creme. Not much more to say but AWESOME.

I'm Suzi & I'm a Chocoholic - I thought this was going to be the shade I liked the least, and it is actually the one I like the most! Weird. I love this shade but hate the name! Chocolate is brown, not red! The first coat is more red and by the second coat it is much more brown, which I liked. It is so smooth and dreamy. I love it! The pic makes it look more red in the bright sunlight, but it was pretty brown otherwise. The pic also doesn't make it look as creamy and dreamy as it should because I smudged my topcoat.

The Color to Watch - This color I didn't have high expectations for. It was thin and needed three coats, which I expected. I did end up liking this on my nails and actually wore it, which I did not expect. It is delicate, interesting, pretty but not flashy.

Overall I am impressed with these shades. I would wear them all. Great shades for fall, which is right around the corner. I wish there were more two coaters than three coaters, but for a great color it's worth it. Plus the Pro-Wide brush helps speed up application so doing a third coat isn't so bad.

Other shades in OPI Swiss:

• Color So Hot it Berns
• Cuckoo For This Color
• Diva of Geneva
• From A to Zurich
• Just A Little Rösti At This
• William Tell Me About OPI

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

New Brand Alert: Confetti

I am always on the lookout for new polishes or interesting nail products when I am out and about. I always looking out for you guys! I was very pleased to stumble upon and display in CVS of a new brand: Confetti. Overall the whole line looked a bit boring (I mean "safe") but they did throw in some interesting shades for us junkies, including a green! And they retail for just $1.99 a bottle! So I grabbed a couple.

Moonstruck - I showed you this one last week for my Chanel - Paradoxal dupe. It's that cool, edgy, gray-taupe-purple color we love so much! Great shade and great formula.

Centerstage - This is a bright, glowing purple. It's on the red/magenta side and shimmers flecks of blue. Great formula. Two coats.

Bombshell Blue - Awesome, shimmery, glowy, cornflower blue. Very eye-catching. This is my favorite type of blue polish color. My only complaint is that the formula is thin and needed 3 coats.

My Favorite Martian - The star of the show! This is a very shimmery, olive green. This also needs 3 coats like Blue Bombshell and the brush was a little wonky. It reminded me of Sinful Colors - Show Me The Way so I did a comparison:

They are actually pretty different. The similarities are shimmery olive, needs three coats, and $1.99 price tag. But on the nail they are obviously different. My Favorite Martian builds to a more saturated color and is more green while Show Me The Way is more yellow. Show me the way has a great glass-fleck that is lost in this picture in the bright sun.

What do you think?
:c)
Have a great Friday!!

Lohan Nails

So Lindsay Lohan is going to jail. I am not here to talk about that in any way, shape or form. What I am here to talk about, however, is her nails in court the other day. They were brought to our attention because apparently they had profanity written on them. Observe:

Photo courtesy of Perez Hilton

I am not here to talk about the profanity though, either. What I am here to talk about is the colorful, airbrushed design she had on! I decided I wanted to take a stab at a recreation and this is what I came up with:

Interested in how I did it? It was mostly a matter of sponging, which I have never done, and it turns out, it's not that hard! Here is what I did:

1) I painted all my nails with a white cream to start.

2) Next, I took one of the three colors I was going to sponge with and started sponging! Which color you start with isn't really important. I just started with pink by chance.

3) Continue sponging with the other two colors. I intentionally did all nails different. Some have more orange, more pink or more blue, and all have the colored spots arranged differently.

4) Next, I stamped white flowers with Konad plate M65 on all nails.

5) Lastly, I applied topcoat and cleaned up my messy fingers with remover and an orange stick wrapped in cotton.

There are several different sponges that you could use but I used a cosmetic wedge to accomplish my sponging.

The shades I used: Diamond Cosmetics - Tranquility, China Glaze - Sugar High, KleanColor - Mango

Side by side, how do you think I did?

Have a fantastic Friday!
-Elaine
:c)

HOOT!

First of all, can I just say: I got myself the newest NP release from MAC, In The Buff, and it is so weird! It is one of the weirdest colors I have. It is one of those "ugly pretty" shades I can't get enough of.

When I read the very first description of MAC's summer collection, I was very excited to see this because in the description it said "avocado" and so I expected a green. This is not green! It is a sand colored nude with lots of olive tone. It may match some peoples' skin to be a true nude, but it is definitely not my skin tone so I can appreciate it as a color. It looks like a brown paper bag sometimes, and sometimes more nude, and sometimes very murky olive. Strange but cool.

Anyhoot, back to the point of my post! I have recently become a huge fan of anything to do with owls. Without telling too long a story, a friend and I got these necklaces with owl pendants and call them "friendship owls" and it has made me really like anything with owls. So I figured that meant it was going to have to be on my nails somehow. I think I pulled it off>>>

If you like the owl and would like to try my hand-painted art, you are in luck! I decided to take pics as I went along so that you could have a tutorial!

Here is what I used. LA Colors Art Deco stripers in white and black, L'Oreal - Sizzling Tangerine, Barielle - A Bouquet for Ava, Seche Vite and a dotting tool. The colors you choose are not important, but you should choose well pigmented shades so that you don't have to go over the same spot several times. You will also need at least one striper polish.

1) Using one of the regular polishes you choose, make a ovalish shape in the middle of your nail, a bit below center so you leave space for the head. This will be the owl's body. Let it dry.

2) Using another color make two circles at the top of the blob you made in Step 1 and then pull them up to make an upside-down heart. I just used the nail polish brush to make these circles, but you could also use a dotting tool and a larger drop of polish if you prefer. Let it dry.

3) Using your nail art striper, make the owl's puffy feather "hairdo" on top of his head pulling the striper brush from outer to an inner point just below the tip of the "heart" we made in Step 2. Make several passes until you feel that it's puffy enough! Next, take the brush and just under the "heart" inbetween the two circles, make a little diamond shape to create his beak.

4) Using white polish and a dotting tool, make two dots for the whites of the owl's eyes. Let that dry.

5) Using black polish and the dotting tool, make a smaller dot in the center of both white dots.

6) Getting out the striper again, make two slightly curved lines on either side of the body to make wings. I made a couple passes on each side so they were a bit thicker than just a line. Then make two bunches of three little lines on the bottom of the body for his talons.

7) To finish him off, add some dots to the body with the dotting tool and whatever shades you'd like.

8) Finish off with a coat of Seche Vite, or whatever thick self-leveling top-coat you choose so that your finished owl is level and not lumpy/blobby looking.

What do you think?!
:c)