thanksgiving cornucopia

here's what i chose to wear for thanksgiving this week- a frankened glitter top coat:

1 coat cornucopia franken over 2 coats petites universe + 1 coat 10 moonlight

this looked very harvest-y to me, so i named it cornucopia. i was trying to replicate the look of this polish (rainbow honey a little kindness), actually. i might have drooled a little when i stumbled across swatches of it (kidding). you know me, i hate to pay more money than i have to on anything, so i tried to come up with something in the same vein using polishes i already have. how did i do?

i wish i had the bottle to show you, but it's gone missing :S. i'm pretty sure the cat is responsible, because it's pretty much her favorite thing in the world to knock bottles of polish off of surfaces and under the couch. so i'll post a picture when i find the bottle. but for now, here are the polishes i used:

sally girl later (gold hex glitter) + sally girl in love (pink hex glitter) + l.a. girl fruity sparkling peach (pink & gold flakies) + love & beauty rust (copper hex glitter)

what do you think- did i get close? i'm not really too concerned if i didn't because i really like this crazy mish-mash glitter! it at least quelled my urge to drop $10 on a single polish.

31DC2012 DAY 29: inspired by the supernatural

you know what i think is supernatural? the universe. it's seriously amazing and complex. there's just no way such a beautiful expanse popped up on its own. so in honor of my admiration for this awesome universe, here's a polish named universe-

2 coats petites universe over 1 coat 10 moonlight

petites universe is a sheer yellow-gold shimmer with small gold flakies. sooo glinty and pretty. because it's so sheer, i chose to layer it over my favorite polish undie- 10 moonlight. i'm not sure this shade is the best for my skin tone (it made it look extra pink), but i'm a sucker for pale golds nonetheless.

gorgeous flakies~!

i got this for (i think) $1.99 at rite aid. i don't know of another gold flaky polish that you can buy for under $2, so this makes universe a total must-have, in my opinion. i haven't investigated yet, but i'm fairly certain that you can use this as a totally sweet layering polish over other colors, since it's so sheer. has anyone tried this? let me know!

31DC2012 DAY 22: inspired by a song

i'm a huge fan of oldies music, namely anything from the 70s. and the song that inspired today's manicure might be my favorite ever. every time i hear "dancing in the moonlight" on the radio, i suddenly feel perkier and hate my job less lol. the toy piano just makes me smile :).

instead of trying to depict someone actually dancing in the moonlight on my nails (which would've looked terrible, trust me), i picked polishes whose names correspond with the name of the song. i did a base color of moonlight, following by dots of dancing nails on top. so together we have "dancing" and "moonlight" :P.

 base color: 1 coat 10 moonlight

red dots: sinful dancing nails

white dots: sinful snow me white

i love how this turned out. i usually only dot with cremes, but the metallic red looks pretty sweet! very glinty and ornate (at least in person). i pretty much stole this design from the lovely raggio di luna, whose blog is incredible. but it's not stealing if you give credit where credit is due. . . . right??

whew, only 8 more manicures to go on this incredibly arduous challenge. . . .

more than just silver sparkle

i have a gorgeous and complex polish for your viewing pleasure today- l'oreal silver sparkle.

2 coats l'oreal silver sparkle over 1 coat 10 moonlight

as best i can tell, silver sparkle contains peach, mint green, and lavender iridescent glitter and smaller pewter-colored glitter in a sheer, silvery base. phew, that's a lot going on. in direct light, the pewter glitter becomes really prominent, which gives the polish a salt and pepper effect-

but in the shade, the iridescent glitter shows up better. hopefully you'll be able to see some of the peach, green, and purple glitter in these next pics (i tried!)-

 cool effect, right? here's a blurry close-up, just so you know i'm not imagining the multi-colored glitter-

silver sparkle is really sheer on its own and makes your nails look like a frosty mess without anything underneath it, so i had to use a base color. it took me forever to find the right base polish, but i finally landed on moonlight, which is a super shiny putty-colored creme (seen here). it was the perfect choice, because my nails were opaque, but it allowed silver sparkle to look just like it does in the bottle. that's what a good underwear polish should do, my friends.

 isn't the l'oreal bottle just so lovely? i'm loving the gold cap and the square bottle (sigh). now fair warning: silver sparkle is a limited edition shade for the summer. i bought it back in may and have been waiting for when the mood strikes to wear it. but don't be sad, i've seen it just this week in several walgreens, so you may be able to find it still! i think i paid full price ($5.99) for this guy at walgreens, because i was so hypnotized by the shifting colors. normally i wouldn't pay that much for a drugstore polish (especially without a coupon or sale or something!), but this one was so unique that i had to snatch it up. so glad i did!

like sand through the hourglass

this manicure totally looked like sand to me. you know how sunlight hits the sand and makes it look sparkly? yup, just like that.

for my base color, i used an untried polish, 10 moonlight (which i think is a cvs-exclusive brand). it was a super smooth and thin formula. loved it.

and then i used a new glitter from the sally hansen diamond line called white veil. i'd been dying to use this, and it's amazing. i love anything with gold glitter in it, and i'd been drooling over white glitter for a while.

i think these new glitters are limited edition.... which is sad because they're great. i even like the creative name- "jewel overcoat." sounds fancy, right?