GO CATS!

Happy V-Day

I put together something really flashy and reminiscent of Valentines' Day for you today!

I started with a hot pink foil, then did a glitter gradient using a combination of different red and pink glitters. I think it came out fantastic if I do say so myself! It looks sooo much hotter and sparklier in real life. Glitter manis don't photograph too well in artificial light. You need sunlight to really show the sparkle but that wasn't available.

Here's what made it possible: Nicole by OPI - Mis-Magenta Me?, Revlon - Slipper, Color Club - Art of Seduction, Jade - Asteroid Caress, Nicole by OPI - Spark My Mistletoe.

What do you think?
Have any Valentine's Day mani plans?!
:c)

Merry Christmas!

This is Finger Paints - Spun Sugar topped with Christmas decals that I got from Sally's Beauty Supply. Cina? I believe. The best one is the reindeer:

Look how cute!
:c)

China Glaze 'Tis The Season to be naughty and nice

For the holiday collection this year China Glaze has released a beautiful set of 16 SHADES! I am stunned. This is not only amazing because it is 16 polishes, but it is amazing because they are gorgeous colors. I have swatched all of the shades and did a couple comparison swatches. Swatches and reviews first and comparison s second. Let's take a look!>>>

Ruby Deer - Bright, bright tomato red. Sort of jelly in finish and has a fantastic smooth formula. So, so smooth. Amazingly smooth.

Phat Santa - Another bold red creme but darker than Ruby Deer.

Mrs. Claus - This is very interesting! This is a sheer red with silver glitter. I am so intrigued by this because it seems soooo sheer but with three coats, the color and the glitter still hide any VNL. Very impressive. This reminds me of candy canes. It also reminds me of Zoya - Astra, although it is absolutely not a dupe.

Mommy Kissing Santa - Deep, burgundy red shimmer. This is velvety and smooth and delicious. I love this! I had a client comment that it was gorgeous and very Christmas-y. I said that it was funny she should say that because it was from a Holiday set!

Sugar Plums -Wine shimmer with sparse, tiny holo specks. Similar to a discontinued China Glaze fave, Crystal Ball, but not a dupe.

Naughty and Nice - Deep, deep, almost black, burgundy creme with a jelly finish. I loooooved wearing this. This is three coats, although when I did a mani I did two. When I did this swatch I guess I forgot how to paint my nails and needed to do a third coat to even things out.

Little Drummer Boy - Navy/denim shimmer. Very nice. I wanted to say that this isn't terribly unique/exciting, but I also don't have anything close to it. What did excite me about it, though, is that it has an out of this world formula. Super pigmented and smooth. You can get away with one coat with this one.

Jolly Holly - Wow! This blew me away. This is a rich green with golden shimmer. So beautiful. Just like Little Drummer Boy this is an amazing, smooth, super-pigmented one coat dream.

Mistletoe Kisses - What a cool polish! It makes me smile when I look at it! This is a mix of a really neat, soft green that is sort of between emerald and jade, completely packed with super small silver glitter. Very pretty. I couldn't decide if this is a two or three coater. I guess it's two but I did a third to be sure. I probably could have just stayed at two. This swatch is with top coat and one coat makes this polish smooth. It's not too grainy.

Peace On Earth - Wow! Striking, olive shimmer. This is one of my faves of this collection. I did a comparison with a few other olive shimmers below.

Jingle Bells - Classy gold. This isn't a very yellow gold. It's more or a neutral gold. Very pretty. The finish is hard to describe. It isn't quite a foil. It's sort of a chrome, but not as chrome as a chrome... if that makes sense! It's like a pearlish chrome.

Midnight Kiss - Partying yellow gold foil! There is no ambiguity here. This is definitely a gold foil. This is two coats.

Party Hearty (over white) - Fun! This is a clear base with large red hexagon glitter, smaller green hexagon glitter and even smaller gold and silver glitter. This is two coats over white.

Snow - White Cream. Nothing noteworthy. I am always interested to try a new staple like white creme to see if it may be like, the best white cream ever. But this one isn't . It a standard three coat, sort of difficult to apply, white creme. This is three coats with top coat.

Frosty - Pretty, delicate, snowy, pearly shimmer. It's not like a typical shimmer. The particles are sort of like small pearly pieces. I really, really like this on. It is sort of sheer so it needs at least 3 coats unless you want to layer it over something. This is actually 5 coats but that is because I kept getting my middle finger uneven and had to add more to fix it, but then it was way off then the rest. I do like the look of 5 coats though.

Cheers to You - Silver fun foil. Very pretty and flashy and awesome, but not unique.

And as promised here are a couple comparison swatches:

Sugar Plums on index and ring and China Glaze - Crystal Ball on middle and pinky. Crystal Ball is thinner and has more holo glitter. Sugar Plums only needed two coats, but Crystal Ball needed three.

Peace On Earth comparison. From left to right:

• Peace On Earth
• China Glaze - Cat's Eye
• OPI - At Your Quebec & Call
• Peace On Earth

I was hoping that Peace On Earth would be close to an amazing discontinued olive from China Glaze: Cat's Eye. Cat's Eye is more metallic and not as green.

Midnight Kiss on index and ring. Orly - Luxe on middle and pinky. Close, but not dupes. Luxe has more silver particles giving it a less yellow gold look then Midnight Kiss.

'Tis The Season is available now online and at retailers. What do you think?! :c)


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.

China Glaze Fall Promotions

Find Strength in the Power of Pink

China Glaze Nail Lacquer Gets the Gloves Ready to Join in the

Fight Against Breast Cancer

Los Angeles, Calif. (July 2010) – Join China Glaze Nail Lacquer this October in the battle against breast cancer, one nail at a time! The professional line of nail lacquers brings on the fight with three powerful pinks. Inspired by the women who fight everyday and those that support them in their battle, these fabulous shades are sure to help you defeat the toughest opponents with style and class. China Glaze representative Rachel Schafer voiced that “in an industry dominated by women, for women, it is important that we strive to work together towards finding a cure.”

The three colors in “Fight Like A Woman” include:

• Encouragement – A baby pink shimmer that brings on the cheer
• Endurance – Power through the punches with this raspberry shimmer
• Empowerment – Stand up tall with this cotton-candy crème on your nails

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health Organization dedicated to the science of cancer and promoting international collaboration in cancer research.

The “Fight Like A Woman” Collection will be available at professional beauty supply stores and select salons this September. Availability will be very limited internationally.

AWAKEN YOUR HALLOWEEN SPIRITS WITH GLAMOURISHLY GOULISH NAILS

China Glaze Introduces Three Limited Edition Halloween Polishes

Los Angeles, CA – (July 2010): Sink your claws into these three ghoulish glitters from China Glaze, perfect for a night of fright! Uniquely alluring and unlike any other Halloween colors before them, this collection is sure to entice. Colors in the promotion include:

• Zombie Zest: A mossy green shade with gold flecks of micro glitter.
• Ick-A-Body: A dark green base chock full of orange glitter
• Mummy May I: Vampy, wine colored purple with flecks of hot pink glitter.

The 18 piece display will be available at Sally’s Beauty Supply Stores only and the 4 piece with free Fast Forward Top Coat will be available at all other beauty and nail supply outlets, stores and e-tailers.

USA! USA! USA!

USA is going on to the Top 16!!! I am of course talking about World Cup! I had a friend over to watch the game yesterday and we were screaming and flipping out and rolling around on the ground in fits of joy when Landon Donovan scored the winning goal in the 91st minute of the final game in group play for the U.S. which was the deciding factor of whether or not US would be moving on. If they didn't score to win they would have been eliminated, but they did, advancing them to the next stage of play and it made them winners of their group no less!! Amazing. So in the spirit of this extrodinary game, I am posting a U.S. inspired mani I did >>>


(Shade/Sun)

For this mani I used three of the glitter colors from Color Club's Glitter Vixen Collection: Art of Seduction, Sex Symbol and Sexy Siren.

1) I cut small pieces of painter's tape and covered about 2/3 of my nail at an angle and painted on Sexy Siren on the lower portion of the nail. I removed the tape while still wet to prevent any nicks.

2) On the remaining, unpainted portion of the nail I taped on a new piece of tape and carefully painted with Sex Symbol avoiding the blue I already did. I removed the tape.

3) I painted the remaining portion with Art of Seduction freehand.

The strategically placed star is there because I of course broke my nail before I got to take pictures of this mani soooo, that is the reason for that.

You can't see the break if I turn 'em though!

For the right hand I did the same method, I just switched around the colors.

USA!!
:cD

GO BLACKHAWKS!

So the Chicago Blackhawks are now up 3-2 in the Stanley Cup Finals! WOO HOO!

Base: OPI - Alpine Snow
Stripes: LA Colors Art Deco in Red Glitter and Black

Sorry I didn't include the pointer. He had a huge chip by the time I got around to taking a pic of this.

Logo:

• China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky
• LA Colors Art Deco - Red Glitter
• BB Couture - Poison Ivy
• LA Colors Art Deco - Black
• Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen - Black (for the outline)

Have a great day!
-Elaine
:c)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ah, my favorite day of the year. This is seriously my favorite holiday. I'm not even Irish. I just love it!

Check out the mani I did for you guys today:

I started with a coat of Ilalmasqua - Whack, my favorite orange creme. Then I used re-enforcer stickers to hide the lower portion of my nail and painted the rest with Rescue Beauty Lounge - Underwear to get the half-moon mani.

Next, I used Konad plate M22 and Konad special polish in green to stamp the clovers. I did this before my tips because I figured it would be easier for me to make a mistake on the clovers than on the french tip and would hate to do more work than I had to if I made a mistake and had to start over.

Lastly I painted the tips with Illamasqua - Elope and topped it all off with Seche Vite.


Erin Go Bragh!

New Konad Plate M78 Swatches

Happy Monday all! Hope you're doing well! I just went to the dentist and am not doing too great. My teeth are killing me! But I have some things to show you so hopefully by the time I am done with this post I will feel better!

I have some swatches using all of the designs of one of the newest Konad plates: M78. I like M78 because it is a plate of full-nail designs. I find those to be much easier to work with. When I try to do small stuff I always mis-align them.

plate M78 - Clockwise starting with butterflies, leopard/tiger, weird abstract circles and stuff with a fan/marble thing, marble print and hearts with semi-circle and dots.

Butterflies. Pretty Standard. Great example of my lack of centering skills.

This is a combo animal print stamp. Very interesting. It is a full nail design with leopard spots and tiger stripes. I was unsure about this one but I liked it with this color combo. The base is Nubar - Reclaim and the stamps are China Glaze - Awaken and Millennium used at the same time.

This is the fan looking thing stamped with China Glaze - Passion and Harmony over BB Couture - Green Goblin. (We've seen this before)

This is the marble stamp used over my gray ombre manicure with the Nubar Fortress Collection. I love this! Are the stamps light on dark, or dark on light?! It's like an optical illusion! The base colors from left to right are Nubar - Stronghold, Palisade, Barricade, Citadel and the stamp colors from left to right are a white creme, Nubar - Marble Tower, Citadel and Stronghold.

The last full nail design I actually broke up into two:

This is the semi-circle and dots stamped with China Glaze - 2030 over China Glaze - Sexy In The City.

And this is the hearts stamped with China Glaze - Millennium over Sinful Colors - Let's Talk. (Please note that this isn't really color accurate. It's not bad but it is pulling too blue. Let's Talk is a royal purple)

What do you think?!
:c)
-Elaine