POLISH DAYS: gold medals galore

for today's olympic-themed manicure, i added a long-time legging (mattese elite je t'aime) over yesterday's perfect nude, and ended up with something amazing:

1 coat mattese elite je t'aime over 2 coats cq vintgage

this manicure looks like it's swimming in gold medals, because it's so packed with gold iridescent glitter. je t'aime also has random silver holographic hex-shaped glitters, which you can see in the pics. it's like michael phelps, who has a bajillion gold medallions, with a threw random silver ones thrown in sporadically lol.

i'm so glad i purchased this polish. i got it for $5.99 during a free shipping promo from ricky's website (right now ricky's is running a bogo free on mattese polishes! but you still  have to pay shipping). if you don't own this, you need to buy a bottle. it's like nothing else i've ever seen. kind of like a gold version of china glaze snow globe? anyway, you need it.

hint: it also looks amazing over mint green or lavender!

cq vintage

hello from the beach~! i swam and boogie boarded for a couple of hours yesterday, and now i have the nastiest sunburn. i feel like a hot, miserable tomato. i'm trying to console myself with the fact that my at least my nails look pretty, even if my body looks like a barber pole (you know, red and white striped).

cq vintage is one of my favorite polishes of all time, and i'm so glad i brought it with me to the beach. it's a creamy, opaque nude shade that sometimes looks off-white. . . .

2 coats cq vintage- sunlight

and sometimes looks putty-colored. . . .

and at other times has a purple-ish cast to it:

weird, right? i just love it. it's so classy and put-together looking (which i am most decidedly not right now) and i love how opaque and shiny it is. the formula is crazy smooth and easy to control. basically, i just love everything about it. including the negligible price tag- $2.99 at rite aid.

if you can't find it at your local rite aid (or you don't live near one), it's also available on their website for $4 with free shipping! i strongly suggest you pick one up ;).

vintage sparkle

let me start this post out by saying that i'm not sure i liked this mani. i didn't hate it either, just. . . .  meh.

i started out with this:

can you see the tiny gold shimmer?

i wanted a soft, off-white look, so i started with 1 coat of cq vintage (an off-white amazing creme that's in my top 10) to make it mostly opaque, then added a coat of wet 'n wild megalast hush hush (a white jelly), and a coat of revlon colorstay calla lily (a white sheer with beautiful tiny gold shimmer). i didn't want to see any VNL, but i also wanted it to look soft. 

but THEN i had to add yet another layer (orly shining star):

i guess it's pretty, but i don't know. . . . all of the layers ended up too thick for my liking. oh well. i wore it to a friend's wedding, so i guess this is appropriate for events like that. not too crazy.

here all all of the polishes i used:

cq vintage, wet 'n wild megalast hush hush, revlon colorstay calla lily, orly shining star

at least shining star is really pretty. am i the only one who has that earth, wind, & fire song in my head now?