golden teal sandwich

this is about as sheer as i go, guys. i have lots of white spots on my nails, and my tips are very opaque. plus i have a lot of staining from all the manicures i do :S. so super sheer jellies are not for me. this look, though, ended up being the perfect amount of opaqueness, while still looking soft and marshmallow-y.

layering order:

2 coats wet 'n wild megalast hush hush

1 coat love & beauty turquoise

1 more coat wet 'n wild megalast hush hush

1 coat colormates nail art opal glitter

i've just decided that wet 'n wild hush hush is the perfect white jelly- both for glitter sandwiches, and for a base color if you use 2 coats. it has a great formula too- long-lasting, not streaky, not too thick or too runny. but (and this is a big but), it's discontinued!! it's part of the old megalast line before they rebottled everything and changed some of the shades :S. sad, sad, kate. does anyone know of another good white jelly with good coverage? it has to be pure white, none of this off-white and cream nonsense. oh yeah, and it must be cheap. anyone? i might just resort to buying a couple of bottles off of ebay. . . .

on a different note, aren't these glitters pretty?? you can buy an exact dupe for the love & beauty one (l.a. girl glitter addict nostalgic) here from cherry culture, and the colormates glitter here from amazon.

polish purchases: october edition

yes yes, i know october's not over yet. but i wanted to go ahead and post this, since i'll be away for several days for my grandfather's funeral. . . . so there's a pretty good chance i won't be stocking up on more polishes during this trip (although i wouldn't put it past myself. i'm pretty obsessed).

revlon nail art moon candy milky way, sinful sinfully magnetic polar opposites, essence grey-t to be here, sinful happy ending

revlon gold coast, revlon fig jam, zoya chloe, china glaze kalahari kiss, color mates nail art opal glitter

here's what i (compulsively) bought this month:

sinful happy ending ($0.99)- i saw a swatch of this lovely green shade here, and couldn't believe that there was a drugstore green with gold shimmer that i do not own! much less a sinful! so i bought it yesterday during a $0.99 sale at walgreens. sweet.

sinful snow me white (not pictured- $0.99)- it's always good to stock up on my favorite white stamping polish, especially when it's on sale.  

color mates nail art opal glitter ($1)- like last month, i saw this polish at dollar tree and couldn't resist its beauty or its price tag. the cardboard packaging it came in said "color mates" but if you look closely on the bottle, it says "nail art by diamond cosmetics." hmmm. . . . which is it? are they sister companies or something? intriguing. . . .

revlon gold coast ($1.50)- i bought this and the other revlon above at the same time at walgreens (both on sale for $3), but then it rang up as $1.50 at the register! there was a bogo 1/2 off sale for revlon going on, and i didn't even know about it! i took that as a sign that i needed this one, and it turns out i was right. it is the most gorgeous sheer gold layering polish ever. it adds beautiful gold shimmer (one of my favorite things in the world) to anything it's painted over. amazing. i wish i could buy like 5 more. 

essence grey-t to be here ($1.99)- my very first essence! stupid name, beautiful polish. i visited my sister at college earlier this month, which happens to be in a town with an ulta (nashville doesn't have one. . . . boo). so of course i had to take advantage of my location and see for myself what ulta was like. i loved it and limited myself to only 2 polishes. amazing, right?

sally hansen xtreme wear black out (not pictured- $2.50)- i bought this just to see if it's a better black stamping polish than my wet 'n wild black creme. i haven't tested it yet, but we shall see. . . .

revlon fig jam ($3)- i'd been drawn to this one every time i saw the display at walgreens, but didn't want to pay $4.99. apparently it's fig-scented, although that's not why i bought it. i bought it because it's a beautiful coppery rose gold metallic with flecks in it. pretty unique, if you ask me.

china glaze kalahari kiss ($3.29)- another one i wanted, but only for the right price. apparently $3.29 was the right price.

revlon nail art moon candy milky way ($3.74)- confession: i actually just bought this polish today lol. it was calling out to me from the clearance bin at target, and i was powerless to resist. can't wait to see what those holographic flakes look like on the nail!

sinful sinfully magnetic polar opposites ($4.99)- i thought that i was done with the whole magnetic thing. . . . until i saw this swatch, with the lovely blue shimmer and star design. this is definitely the most i've ever spent for a sinful polish, but it's worth it!

zoya chloe ($5.99)- i was soo glad to get my hands on this one at ulta! i'd wanted chloe for a while, but not enough to place an online order (too expensive). happy to add this to my flaky collection (which probably consists of less than 5).

GRAND TOTAL FOR OCTOBER: $29.98

so 10 polishes for about $3 each. not too bad, not too bad. although i did go a little over my $25 budget. and i somehow managed to spend $30 on polishes i hadn't even planned on buying in the first placce lol. but that's ok, because i love all of them.

polish purchases: september edition

julie g 9 to 5, color mates spring fling, sinful supernova

nail pattern boldness flipping out hard, opi sit under the apple tree, pure ice heartbreaker (good version!)

with flash to show the shimmer~!

color mates spring fling ($1)- i saw this brand (color mates) at dollar tree the other day, and had never heard of them before. they had a large variety of shades, and they were (duh) $1, so i decided to try one. haven't tried spring fling yet, but i'll keep you posted when i do!

pure ice heartbreaker ($1.99)- if you haven't read about this online, heartbreaker is a gorgeous green shimmer layering polish that you can get for super cheap at walmart. however, it's been reformulated into a dull, boring turquoise shimmer. boo. while "grocery" shopping the other day, i found several of the old (amazing) version still on the shelves, so i had to snatch them up! my 1st bottle was running dangerously low. . . .

sinful supernova ($1.99)- i found this in the new sinful colors hot flash metallics display at walgreens. it's a gorgeous champagne/rose gold foil that's opaque enough for stamping! if you see one, i suggest you grab it!

julie g 9 to 5 ($3.99)- i'd been picking up this one every time i was in rite aid, so i finally decided to bite the bullet. it's kind of a neon pastel peach, if that makes any sense. love it!

opi sit under the apple tree ($6.80)- i think this was originally $8.50 at target, but i had a little bit of money left on a gift card, so it brought it down to exactly $6.80. this is a sheer yellowish green shimmer polish which looks killer over blues and greens. to be honest, i bought it just for layering. 

nail pattern boldness flipping out hard ($8 + $3 s/h) is definitely the most expensive polish this month. but totally worth it! i'd been wanting nail-venturous floam for months now, and discovered this very similar one on etsy! i'm loving the blue and green matte glitters. this is only the 2nd indie polish i've ever purchased! very excited :)

GRAND TOTAL FOR SEPTEMBER: ($26.77)

waaay better than last month. i only added 6 polishes to my collection, and stayed close to my $25 a month budget. since my collection has gotten so large, i'd like to be more selective about ones i buy. these days, i'd rather buy something really special than just whatever's on sale.