electric layering

what do i do with a polish that's too blue-toned? layer a bright green jelly on top!

2 coats opi gargantuan green grape + 1 coat nina ultra pro electric slide

i liked my nina ultra pro polish from last week so much that i decided to bust out my other one! electric slide is a bright neon green jelly with lots of iridescent glitter. the pretty glitter is what convinced me i needed it :). it's so sheer that you pretty much have to layer it over something (unless actually you want your nails to look stained and infected :P). but over a similar green, the neon was just too much for my poor eyes to take. so gargantuan green grape was the perfect base color.

i'm not sure what else i could use electric slide for. . . . but i liked the unusual effect over a mint creme!

sand storm

i know what you're thinking- geez, woman, how many posts can you squeeze out of one manicure?? this is the last one, i promise :).

 base color: 2 coats china glaze kalahari kiss

glitter: 1 coat nina ultra pro holographic topcoat

gold stamping: maybelline color show metallics bold gold

image plate: nailz craze nc02

i almost didn't do any stamping over this manicure because i thought it would be way too crazy. but in real life, it was really subtle and classy-looking! not to mention just plain cool :). this turned out to be one of my favorite manis ever!

i've said it before, but i'm still so glad that i bought my nailz craze plate! want to know a ridiculous-but-true story about my pregnancy brain? after i bought my plate and it finally arrived in the mail, i couldn't find it anywhere! i had just finished straightening up my living room and thought that i'd just put it somewhere random. . . . guess where i finally found it? in the trash can. no kidding. i had to dig through old coffee grounds and chicken fat to get that thing lol. how's that for dedication to nail art?? i'm pretty sure it was worth it though :P.

kalahari gold

i totally stole this layering combo from a friend of mine, actually my only friend who's obsessed with nails and follows polish blogs :). thanks, mary ann!

2 coats china glaze kalahari kiss + 1 coat nina ultra pro holographic topcoat

so um, i posted about this glitter in my august purchases post, and haven't worn it until just now! and it's july! :S yikes. . . . that's not a very quick turn-around time lol. but oh well, it's still beautiful. isn't it perfect over kalahari kiss? i'm not exactly sure that holographic topcoat is the perfect name for this one, since the holo particles are so tiny. what you mostly see is the iridescent glitter that flashes green, blue, and peach. sooo pretty!

the revamped nina ultra pro polishes are available at sally's for $4.69 each. i say it's definitely worth it for holographic topcoat!

polish purchases: august edition

lilacquer puca, lilacquer bakeneko, julie g peep toe pumps, milani hot pink, milani hd

nicole by opi a million sparkles, la colors treasure island, sinful gorgeous, nina ultra pro electric slide, nina ultra pro holographic topcoat

lilacquer puca (FREE~!)- i bought lilacquer bakeneko (the full-sized one) and cathleen, who owns the lilacquer etsy store, sent me a free one! so cool!

la colors treasure island ($1)- a polish i used to own, but gave away to one of my little piano students because she liked it so much. wasn't that nice of me? i thought i didn't really like it that much anyway. but sure enough, after i gave it away, i decided it was gorgeous and i needed it. so i kept stalking dollar tree until i found another one. good story.

sinful gorgeous ($1.99)- it seems like i buy at least one sinful polish every month doesn't it? well here's a spoiler alert: today's september 1st and i already bought another one for this month. heehee~! anyways, back to gorgeous. it's a fitting name because it really is gorgeous. it's a chrome duochrome (is that redundant?) that flashes blue, teal, and green. very mermaid-esque, which is always good in my book.

milani hd ($2.49)- i had a $3 off coupon at cvs, so i decided to pick up another bottle of the awesome hd. my other bottle was getting dangerously low from making too many holo frankens. i just love these milani holos. click here to see the rainbows that hd produces.

nicole by opi a million sparkles ($3)- you might be wondering how i got this polish for $3. well i'll tell you. i randomly got a $5 off coupon when i bought a drink at cvs the other day, and of course i decided to use it on an awesome polish! i've never tried bar glitter before (truth be told, i've never found it particularly appealing), but this one looked so sparkly that i couldn't resist! and plus, you know, the coupon.

julie g peep toe pumps ($3.99)- this is the first julie g i've ever tried. i saw swatches of it online, and it looked like the perfect raspberry shade, which i've been hunting for for a long time.

nina ultra pro electric slide ($4.69)- this combines two of my favorite things- green and iridescent glitter. it's a super bright green that looks like jelly sandwich in a bottle. awesome.

nina ultra pro holographic topcoat ($4.69)- it's not really a holographic topcoat, like i've said before. it's mostly just gold iridescent glitter, which i love~!

milani hot pink ($5.49)- i loved milani lavender so much that i had to try another jewel fx (even though hot pink doesn't say "jewel fx" on the bottle like lavender does. . . . hmmm).

lilacquer bakeneko ($9 + $2 s/h)- the tiny sample size of bakeneko that i bought was making me feel panicked that i would run out of such a glorious polish, so i pretty much had to buy a full-sized bottle. it's seriously amazing, if you haven't heard me blabbering about it already. see swatches here.

GRAND (POLISH) TOTAL FOR AUGUST: $38.34

ok, so at this point, i'd already spent waaaaay too much on actual polishes, but then i just had to buy-

mash plates 26-50 ($13.99)- these came with free shipping! and they're just so darn cute! click here to see all of the plates i got from the awesome oooh, shinies! blog.

THE REAL GRAND TOTAL FOR AUGUST: $52.33

eek :S. i went just a little (a lot) overboard. i will do better this month, i swear!

weakness wednesday: iridescent gold glitter. . . .

. . . . in a clear-ish base. apparently i didn't know how many i had. i have got to stop buying the same polishes over and over again.

sunlight

with flash (to show the glitter~!)

sinful pinky glitter is the first of this particular genre (iridescent gold glitter) that i got my hands on. i bought this a couple of years ago, and really love it. it looks like it would go on pink, but the base is really really sheer. perfect for layering. however, the newer version of pinky glitter is a much darker hot pink. not my thing. but if you're desperate for something of similar ilk, confetti confetti pink ($2 at cvs stores) looks almost identical to this older version, at least in the bottle.

orly shining star contains the smallest glitter particles of the group. i believe all of the glitter is the same. click here to see what it looks like layered.

i just picked up this new nina ultra pro in holographic topcoat last week at sally's. the whole line has been updated, and this one immediately caught my eye. it was in my cart and paid for before i could do anything to stop it lol. now the name is quite misleading because it's not really holographic. i do see tiny, tiny gold holographic specks, but mostly it contains the round iridescent glitter that i love so much.

next up is a beautiful unnamed polish from the japanese 100 yen store. sigh. i love japanese polishes so much. actually i love japanese everything so much. . . . anyway, the cap on this bottle says ac-ned-37. i think the brand is ac, the line is called nail enamel d (ned), and this is shade number 37. let's just call it ned 37, shall we? as much as i love ned 37, it looks nearly identical on the nail as pinky glitter and holographic topcoat. the green base just should be ignored.

mattese elite je t'aime is definitely my favorite. it has the chunkiest iridescent glitter, with some added larger holographic silver hexes. click here to see it in action. now i have some bad news about this polish: apparently, mattese elite is revamping their entire line of polishes, so je t'aime is being discontinued. however, they are still available here on the ricky's website for at the clearance price of $2.99. if you want it, you need to jump on that quick! i'm considering buying a back-up bottle, since i've never seen else anything quite like it. . . .