Grammy-Gaga Inspired Nails

Hello all! How are all my lovely readers?! :c)

Photo Credit: Us Magazine.com

Today's mani is one I thought up after seeing Lady Gaga's red carpet dress for the Grammy's last Sunday. I wanted to emulate the un-parallel lines and the soft purple hues (as well as the crazy pointed accessory).

What the mani consists of:
China Glaze - Light As Air (like the dress. Doesn't look like if a gust of wind got caught under there she would just blow away?)
Milani - Cloud 9
China Glaze - Devotion
LA Colors Art Deco - Silver Glitter
China Glaze - Harmony
Not Pictured: Rhinestones, Seche Vite and striper brush

I started with a base of Milani - Cloud 9.
Next, I took the striper brush and used it with China Glaze - Light As Air to make several horizontal lines on each nail covering the entire nail, but making them un-parallel to each other, so some are straight and some are not and some intersect.
Then, I took China Glaze - Harmony and did the same thing over the first stripes.
After that, I did the same with China Glaze - Devotion.
Lastly, I did the same striping with LA Colors Art Deco - Silver Glitter.

I decided to throw in the starbust accessory on the thumbs. I took a drop of Devotion and added a bit of Harmony to it on a paper plate. I mixed them with a toothpick and using the striper brush I painted the starburst on my thumbs with the mixture. I added a lavender rhinestone to the center.
Finally I topped all the nails with a coat of Seche Vite top coat and viola! Nails to go "gaga" for!!


Aren't you glad I didn't use this for inspiration?! :cD >>>

Photo Credit: The Washington Post

Have a great day!
-Elaine

I Am Not Crazy. There are Two Sunsets

What? You don't believe me?

Last week I posted a gorgeous nail polish that I had found: Maybelline - Sunset Prisms. I told you guys that I believed there was something screwy going on as I was sure that "Sunset Prisms" was an entirely different color. I was right. Behold; my two sunsets:

Straight on they don't look too different, but from the angled shot you can see the different shimmer colors and the bases are two different colors as well.

I have dubbed these Version 1 and Version 2. Version 1 is the one I showed you last week. It is a bright pink base with a strong gold shimmer. Version 2 is an orange base with a green shimmer.

But they are labeled the same. The front labels of these bottles are different which is why I have given them the numbering I have. I believe the front label of Version 2 is newer, therefore that is the most recent version; Version 1 being the original. This is just a guess. I don't actually know for sure.

What I do know is that they are both hott! Glad I have them both!

PS - Happy Groundhog day!

Blue Blue Blue

Happy Monday all! Hope yours is good! I can't say mine isn't but it wasn't the greatest start to the day. It's all good though. I'm staying positive!

I finally saw Avatar over the weekend and all that blue got me thinking of a Avatar-inspired, blue manicure. So I did one!

I used BB Couture - Kyona Beach as a base, stamped with China Glaze - Adore from the Romantiques Collection (my favorite Konad polish) and Konad plate M57.

I took it a step further with a little blue glitter accenting some of the stripes with LA Colors Art Deco - Blue Glitter. I don't know if I like it as much with the glitter, but it's still nice.


Did you like Avatar? Have you seen it? Did you see it in 3D? I did! It was awesome! I haven't been to a 3D movie in years. Like, maybe 10 years? I plan to go to more now though.

Color Club - Rebel Debutante Collection Giveaway

Do you read Painted Lady Fingers? You should! She has teamed up with Color Club to bring us a giveaway of the new Color Club - Rebel Debutante Collection!

(Photo courtesy of Painted Lady Fingers)

Head HERE to enter! Contest open until February 13th.

BB Couture - Hands of Hope Collection Swatches

As promised, here are the swatches of the Hands of Hope Collection from BB Couture for nails. The collection consists of 6 shades all with names of places in Haiti. As I mentioned before, 25% of the sales from this collection is donated to the Salvation Army to aide the women and children affected by the earthquakes in Haiti.

Tortuga Island, Kyona Beach, Bassins Bleu

Paradise, Labadie Beach, Cap-Haïtien

Tortuga Island - Tortuga is an island off the northern coast of Haiti. Its name in Spanish (Isla Tortuga) and French means "Turtle Island" or "Tortoise Island". Tortuga Island the polish, is a pale, yellow-green with a lot of silver shimmer that gives it a bit of a frosty look. It reminds me of key lime pie. This swatch is three coats, as I thought the finish was a bit too thin with 2 coats. This is not a bad color, but it's not one of my favorites.

Kyona Beach - Kyona Beach is a gorgeous little beach on the western coast a little north of Port-au-Prince. Kyona Beach the polish is a very pretty robin's egg blue creme. I am calling it a creme but it does have a little hidden shimmer in it, but it is very hidden. This gave me a really bad application the first time I tried to swatch it. It was very uneven, even with Seche Vite. I don't know if it was the lack of a base coat or that it was too thick, but the next time I swatched it I did use a base coat, and I thinned it a bit and that make everything okay. The swatch is 2 coats.

Bassins Bleu - The Bassin Bleu in Haiti consists of a series of natural rock bassins arranged in cascade, successively pouring water into one another. That sounds amazing! Apparently Bassin Bleu is restricted to a minimal amount of tourists per day to preserve its environmental integrity. Bassins Bleu the polish is a blue sided, shamrock green creme. It looks to me like it has itty bitty black particles in it, but they are very sparse so I don’t know if it is contamination or intentional. Regardless, I like the color and application was great. This swatch is 2 coats.

Paradise – This is so awesome! When I first saw the pics for this collection, Paradise looked like a peach creme. It’s definitely not a peach creme. This is the color of putty. It is beautiful. I wore this for a few days and got many, many compliments on it. In some lights it looks like a pale mauve-purple from just a hint, to very mauve-purple. It’s awesome. In the swatch you can see that there is a lot of golden shimmer, which I am sure we can attribute with making this shade look peach, but it really doesn’t translate to the nail. This is my favorite of the bunch and this swatch is 2 coats.

Labadie Beach - Labadie is a strip of land on the secluded Pointe Honore near Cape Haïtien, Haiti. This beach is one of the world's best sandy beaches and it is protected by coral reefs. Labadie Beach the polish is a cool, medium pink with purple shimmer. Very pretty and has great application. This swatch is 2 coats.

Cap-Haïtien – Cap-Haïtien, Haiti is a city on the northern coast of the country. Cap-Haïtien the polish is a really awesome medium purple. I think it is much better in real life than in the swatch. In real life it is a bit darker/more saturated and just prettier, but in a way that I can’t seem to find words for. This is very stunning and not like any other purple I have. This is my 2nd favorite from the collection. It has a small amount of very fine red shimmer, but sadly it is pretty invisible on the nail. This was a dream to apply. I probably could have gotten away with one coat. This swatch is two coats.

The entire collection retails for $54, or $9 per bottle. If you can’t spring for all of them right now, it is okay. You can purchase them individually and still 25% of the sales will go to help the earthquake victims in Haiti. They can be purchased at Overall Beauty.com

Models Own Sale Now On

Just a little PSA for you:

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Get 50% off all orders over £20 for 72 hours only – while stocks last.

Enter promo code: FIFTYFIFTY at the checkout for 50% off.

Visit http://www.modelsownit.com

I don't have any Models Own to share with you guys, but I thought I would pass this along. They do ship internationally!

Be back later with a "real" post.

-Elaine

Maybelline - Sunset Prisms

Happy Thursday Everyone! I am back in the city! I had to go a couple hours away to farm county, Illinois for work. But I am back today and it is !@#$% freezing! It was -10 this morning with the windchill! That is wildly unnecessary. Freezing temperatures I can take. Sub-zero arctic blast... that is a bit excessive.

Today's NOTD is a shade I picked up at a drugstore downstate yesterday. Yes I am that much of an addict I had to hunt for polish on a work trip! It is Maybelline - Sunset Prisms. At least that is what the bottle says. I don't believe it.

See, I have seen Sunset Prisms dozens of times. It is part of the core Maybelline display in drugstores and Ulta. Have you seen it? I look at it a lot and contemplate buying it but always decide against it because it looks just like one of my favorite colors: Color Club - Tangerine Scream. It's a bright orange with a green flashy, shimmer. Why intentionally buy a dupe? Well, this time I bought it. Because it is not an orange with a green flash. It is a bright pink with a very strong gold flash. Not the same. But the label still says "Sunset Prisms". I was baffled. I had to buy this oddity. There were even other bottles behind this odd bottle that were the "real" Sunset Prisms, and had the same label. So I thought this guy I bought must be from an off batch, or is really old before a color change, or it's a new color change, or it has the wrong label. I didn't know, but I liked it! But when I searched for swatches, all the swatches are of the pink with gold shimmer. So maybe all the bottles of orange with green shimmer are the weirdos! Now I have to go buy it too, don't I? Crap. Fine Maybelline, you win. I will buy the other Sunset Prisms and do a comparison for everyone. Happy?

In any rate, this version of Sunset Prisms is very pretty. I did three coats, it is very flashy and shimmery; even in low lights. I am very happy with it! It looks like a cousin to the Zoya - Reverie Collection.

When I get my hands on the other version I'll show them to you side by side.

Have a great day!
-Elaine

I'm-Not-Really-Here Green SPAM

Hi everybody! I am on the road for work today so I have a fun, easy post: GREEN SPAM! Enjoy!

Amour - Ellis Green

Maybelline - Lime Aluminum

BB Couture - Laguna Lagoon

Sally Hansen - Make-a-Mint Frost

Barry M - Spring Green

Essence - All Access

Comparison: China Glaze - Four Leaf Clover vs. Color Club - Wild Child

Hello everyone! I have a quickie comparison for you all today. When looking at the new Up & Away colors from China Glaze, I was wondering how Four Leaf Clover compared to Color Club's Wild Child. I assume others would like to know too, so I made a comparison swatch. They are both mega-bright, borderline neon, shamrock greens, but very different.

Index and ring: Four Leaf Clover
Middle and Pinky: Wild Child

Note: The colors are probably just as bright as the swatch depicts, but they are a bit more saturated in color.

Wild Child is much lighter than Four Leaf Clover. Wild Child is also more of a jelly consistency and is thin and needed 3 coats. Four Leaf Clover is very opaque and creamy and needed two coats.

So, my personal opinion is that the shades are different enough to own both, but if I had to pick one, it would be Four Leaf Clover.

What do you think?

A Very Merry Un-Birthday

Here is a little something I rocked over the weekend. I started with a base of NYX - Dancing Queen, then I did a glitter gradient of OPI - Mad As A Hatter and a gradient of Lippmann Collection - Happy Birthday. I call it "A Very Merry Un-Birthday"!

The gradient wasn't very difficult to do. I started at the base, and with less polish on the brush than I would need for the whole nail, I made a couple of swipes only on the bottom third of the nail. Then I pushed a little bit toward the tip to get those few loose looking pieces. I did this with both glitters. Once the glitter was where I wanted it, I added a top coat and viola!

NYX - Dancing Queen, OPI - Mad As A Hatter, Lippmann Collection - Happy Birthday

Have a great Monday!
-Elaine

The Best Nail Tip Ever: Glitter Removal Made Easy. VERY EASY

In light of all the super dense glitter we have gotten recently, i.e. Nubar - Sparkles, Zoya - Ultra Glitter, OPI - Alice in Wonderland, I thought it was about time to post this tip for removing glitter. Some of you may be reluctant to wear glitter polish because you know what a headache it is to remove them. Well forget all that! You can rock the bling, and get it off in a snap. Sound too goo to be true? IT ISN'T!

This is the *BEST* tip I have ever gotten related to nails. It feels like you are a magician.

Necessary equipment:

• aluminum foil
• cotton balls
• nail polish remover: acetone or non-acetone*
• a clock/stopwatch
• 10 nails full of glitter!

Step 1: Start out with a rock hard glitter mani. I chose to use my Mad As A Hatter mani for this tutorial when it came time to take it off. Get yourself 10 cotton balls, and 10 pieces of tin foil cut into little rectangles. They should be about 3 inches on each side, roughly.

Step 2: Take a cotton ball and soak it in remover. it doesn't have to be sopping wet. Just get as much as you would for usual removal. Place it on your nail.

Step 3: Take a piece of foil and wrap it around your finger tip in order to keep the cotton ball in place.

Repeat Step 2 and Step 3 for the remaining nails on that hand. I say this because I think it is easier to do one hand first and take them all off before doing the next. It you try to do the second hand with foil fingers, it's a bit tricky.



Step 4: Wait for 5 minutes. 5 is the magic number. I tried this with all different times. 1-3 minutes was not enough, 4 almost made it, but 5 for sure, was when things came right off.
*This is where the asterisk come in. I tried the foil method with non-acetone remover and it worked just fine, however I didn't test it for 5 minutes. It was probably on for 7ish minutes. It may have been just fine at 5, but I don't know for sure.

Step 5: Using a little pressure on the nail, pull the whole foil/cotton ball combo off in one swoop.

Step 6: Marvel at out clean your nail is! There is still some blue on the tip as you can see, but all the glitter is gone! Check it out:

It is all in the cotton ball!

Step 7: Repeat to the other hand.

So just to really drive the message home: this manicure was on for several days and it consisted of a base coat, 2 coats of Sally Hansen - Thinking Of Blue, 1 coat of Seche Vite, 2 coats of Mad As A Hatter, and yet another coat of Seche Vite. Seven coats including 2 of a super dense glitter, and this got it all off in. one. swoop. This is not a joke, ladies!! Try the foil method. It will change your life.

I hope this was helpful and will inspire you to wear more glitter polishes!
-Elaine