Glitter, Glitter, Glitter... and more Glitter!

I am a list writer. I write to-do lists all the time, for everything, and I generally like to write them in little notebooks. That means I am always on hunts for cute notebooks to write all my lists in. While shopping recently I found really cute glitter-bomb notebooks at Charlotte Russe and of course bought one. It was made of red, purple, green and blue hex glitter and of course all I could think is "how can I translate to this exact look to my nails?" Well I figured it out!

I did this with two coats of Nubar - Night Sparkle, a deep blue base with blue glitter. Then added Nubar - Grass Green Glitter, then Hard Candy - Zombie, then Wet n Wild - Prancer on top.

-What do you think?
:c)

Hard Candy - Halloween Polishes 2010

Hard Candy has released three, new, limited Halloween shades this year that you can find at Wal-Mart. They are a nice change of pace from the usual orange, black and white creme shades we usually see for Halloween which seems to be the theme this year. Polish companies have learned that we need new, unique shades for Halloween just like all other releases. The best part about the Hard Candy Halloween shades? They are all glitter!

Wicked - This is a black base with tiny silver glitter. The base is a bit sheer but that is a good thing because it lets the glitter shine through. This is three coats.

Mischief - This is a orange glitter in a murky, green-black base, much like China Glaze - Ick-A-Bod-Y. I really couldn't tell a difference when I put this on. I could have sworn I was wearing Ick-A-Bod-Y. If there is any difference, Mischief may be a smidge more condensed, but they're pretty much the same.

Zombie - This is the star of this collection, in my opinion. It's the most unique, the most fun, and it's a bit of an oddball for a Halloween collection because it's really bright and happy instead of dark and spooky, but that is what makes me like it. This is a mix of purple, pink and blue glitter in a clear base. I love the overall purple glitter look.

These can be found at Wal-Mart and retail for $5.

What do you think?
:c)
-Elaine

I Made It!

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for your patience while I am adjusting to my new home. Actually, it is my old home. My family is in New York, and I am back! It was a long drive from Chicago, but I made it with boyfriend and puppy safe and sound, and surprisingly, I didn't break even one bottle of nail polish! Whew. I have however destroyed my nails, but I am trying not to dwell. How about some of my recent manicures to get us back in the swing?

This one I had on last weekend. It is Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue with CND - Jade Sparkle on top from their Effects line. It 's a duochrome gold/green shimmer. I liked this so much but it chipped almost instantly. Too bad. I never find things so chippy. I wonder if it was the Sally Hansen or the CND...

This is the amazing China Glaze - Four Leaf Clover + Hard Candy - Sugar Daddy + Sinful Colors - Call You Later painted as a gradient. This was on for the whole packing and drive portion of my move and I couldn't wait to change it. It was pretty and all but after so long and after all the moving chipped it up real good, it had to get it the heck off!

And this is what I did when I got here. I needed to relax after all the madness so I put on Rescue Beauty Lounge - Dead Calm. So fitting. Then to spice it up I add NYX - Sapphire, a awesome holo, silver glitter top coat.

Hard Candy - Lava. Needs no introduction. And no need to layer anything over it either. Hott.

Nail Swatch Pic SPAM!

Hello all! Hope you are all well and had a lovely holiday! :c)
I have left you hanging for a few days so today I am bring you some random swatches to get some action up in here!! Enjoy!

Orly - Enchanted Forest layered with Hard Candy - Sugar Daddy

L.A. Girl - Metallic Green (LACQ286 - L.A. Girl website has two "Metallic Green")

Nails Inc - Victoria

Laine Original - Light n Sweet: franken made with about 75% Misa - Hot Couture and 25% white creme

OPI - Reflecting Pool

OPI DS - Reflection

I'll be back with more soon. I actually have a great, big post coming for New Years Eve!
-Elaine

Hard-to-Find Finds that Have Been Found!

In the last few weeks I have managed to acquire some polishes that I have been wanting that are semi-hard to very hard to find. It is very exciting, I think, to see pictures of hard to find polishes online and then plot to get them! It just adds yet another element of awesomeness to this already awesome hobby.

The following polishes are all only slightly hard to find to wildly hard to find. Maybe it will inspire you to hunt for some yourself!


Claire's - Goldmine ... Opaque gold with small silver holographic glitter and large hexagonal holographic glitter. This one is at the not-really-hard-to-find end of the spectrum. It was a bit difficult for me because the Claire's by me in Chicago never has anything good so I bought this when I was in NY, so I guess you could say I had to travel 800 miles for this polish!! But really it makes the list because it fulfilled a need for a gorgeous, discontinued, HTF CND polish: VIP Status. It's been on my wishlist, with no chance of finding it in sight, and when I asked the wonderful Scrangie about the new LA Girls Rockstar polish: Live On Stage and if it looks like VIP Status, she said to try Claire's - Goldmine. And of course, she did not let me down! It is perfect!!! You know what it reminds me of (besides having my fingers dipped in gold and diamonds) is my birthday! Last year I wanted really over-the-top gold nails for my birthday to go with some hot new gold pumps I had gotten and I didn't really find anything to fit the bill. Well this is it, and my next birthday is right around the corner! (September!) So, guess what I'll be wearing...

Lippmann Collection - Superstar ... You really feel like a superstar wearing this! It always gets noticed. It is so yummy and unique! We need more glitters like this! This is a polish I really wanted once I discovered it, and I discovered it after the holidays when it could no longer be found. But thank the polish gods above because they brought it back!! It's so wonderful when that happens. The only problem that makes this a hard-to-find is that it is only available in the Anniversary Collection that I posted here. So if you want it, you have to want them all! But at least it is available. Whew!



Massini - Purple Medallion ... This is one of the most gorgeous polishes (if not the most) I have ever put on my nails. The color is incredible and the sparkle is insane. This gets the award for most distracting polish ever. The color is this gorgeous magenta-purple-berry and I just love it. And the glitter appears to be purple glitter AND holo glitter. This is readily available at Meijer's stores. The only problem with that is that Meijer is only in 6 midwest states, making this a hard-to-get-your-hands-on.


China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle ... This is another fabulous limited edition holiday polish that is being re-released for this holiday season! So if you haven't been able to find it, don't worry! It is coming back! And if you don't have it, you should really jump after this one! It is very beautiful. I think that the picture above shows the glitter decently, but doesn't really exemplify how gorgeous the green is. It is even greener than this pic shows. It is just more emerald and glowy. I saw China Glaze tweet on Twitter yesterday "What is your favorite China Glaze polish?" and I said this one.


Essie - Raspberry Goji ... This makes the HTF cut because you can't buy it at all. I had to win this one in a JELL-O/Essie nail polish giveaway! I had entered it months ago online and you had to answer a question like "If you were JELL-O what would be your name?" And then about a week and half ago I received this in my mailbox! Pretty cool!


L'Oreal Star Magnets - Prune ... This one I had to go to Ebay for. I had to try one of these crazy magnetic polishes. you paint your nail, and while it is still wet, you hold it up to the magnet that is attached to the bottle, and it makes a star pattern! And then it dries like that! What?
That is amazing! I bought it from a seller in England. This polish had to cross the pond to get to me! That is not cool, L'Oreal! Why, OH WHY?!! would you not release these in the US? I can't take it. I am going to go write a letter to L'Oreal right now to demand the release of these in the States, and I suggest if you want to see these you do too. I just lent mine to a friend and we were discussing it yesterday that if they showed up in stores, we would buy every single color. I wouldn't even look and ponder "oh that one is okay, I like that one..." no. I would BUY THEM ALL! Even our boyfriends like them! They immediately noticed them on our nails and said "That is REALLY cool." Fun for all!


China Glaze - Groovy Green ... I saw this one posted recently on All Lacquered Up in the ALU archives segment. In her post, Michelle mentions that although it is an older color it can still be found online. Well, after her post if they were available, they aren't anymore! It made me want it even more. In almost no time at all though, I was lucky enough to find a lovely lady trying to unload some polishes and was able to purchase it. It is a beautiful pastel, mint green that is thin (I had to use 3 coats) but also has this jelly-ish finish to it too. Very cool.


Essie - Ruby Slippers ... My pride and joy. I wanted and wanted and wished and wished. No polish has ever made me so crazy. I tried to avoid buying this one on Ebay for a while. I tried desperately to swap for it to no avail though, and finally had to give in to the ways of Ebay. I did get if for a reasonable price (I think) considering how hard to find it is and how badly I wanted it. I used three coats to get good glitter coverage. The reason I wanted it so badly is because this is not a typical red-with-red-glitter polish. It is red with a gold, orange, yellow, red glitter. It is not like any other I have seen, and it made me go absolutley crazy! But it's okay because I have her now.


OPI- What's Dune ... This one I bought from another lovely lady trying to unload some polishes. I had originally only purchased it for the purpose of swapping if for Ruby Slipppers. But, I didn't know what I was getting, and before it got to me I saw Steph's swatches of this color, along with the rest of this collection, and realized I was going to have to keep it for myself! It is a delicate silvery color with a slight hint of pink. I really like it just like that, but what put's it over the top is that it is a very fine holo. B-E-A-UTIFUL! This was released in OPI's 2003 summer collection, so it is pretty hard to find.


Hard Candy - Tantrum ... Hard Candy no longer makes nail polish. I think they may have gone out of business. And that just made me want a Hard Candy polish! I really would have probably taken any, but I did have my eye on this one on Ebay, and before I caved and bought it, I was able to get it from the same person who sold me What's Dune. It's is a lovely, shimmery, iridescent green, that reminds me of dragonflies. Check out the manicure I did with it layered over black:

(close -up)


China Glaze - Cat's Eye ... Or the cat's me-ow! This one was on my wishlist for a while, and definitely not in my sights. Until the nicest gift ever came in my mailbox: this baby, from the best fellow blogger on earth, Brooke. Brooke posted this one on her site and I commented that I loved it and was looking for it, and she decided that it would have a better home here in Chicago. I couldn't believe it. This was the best of the hard-to-finds to receive, hands down. I love it. It is this amazing metallic, olive-gold (you know I love gold!) and it just looks so classy and antique. It really is an antique! Check out this bottle:
It amazes me. I don't have any China Glaze polishes that have this old style writing on the bottle. And the top has "CG" instead of the more modern China Glaze oval thing logo. Incredible. I love to look back at Brooke's pictures of this one now and think that the very same bottle that was on her nails, is now on my nails! Jeez polish is great. I can't believe I have this! Thank you again, Brooke. :c)

Now if I could just find Starry Starry Night....