polish purchases: september edition

well hi. i'm still here, i promise! i've been pretty busy these days- mostly baking for a couple of family birthdays and a friend's baby shower. wanna see what i made?

close to 100 baby shower macarons- cheesecake, white chocolate vanilla, and strawberry cheesecake!

a caramel cheesecake macaron cake for my mom- in her favorite color!

fun, right? aside from all the baking, i also managed to buy a few polishes-

l.a. colors enchanting, la splash embellished, sparkling torpedo, and tailscales

maybelline color show vintage leather lasting lilac and antique teal, hard candy emerald's eve

maybelline color show vintage leather lasting lilac and antique teal ($2.97 each)- i've been looking for this purple one ever since i saw swatches at nouveau cheap. it's a gorgeous red-toned purple with clear flakies! so unique. when i saw it at target, i caved and bought the teal one too. just because :P.

hard candy emerald's eve ($4)- so this is a new glitter from hand candy and i had to have it. i'm such a sucker for holographic gold glitter, and i can't wait to try this over mint green!

l.a. colors enchanting ($4.18)- this has been a long-time lemming of mine. it's supposed to be a dupe of orly fantasea, which is a beautiful purple/red/gold duochrome. when everything at cherry culture was 20% off, i knew it was finally time to snap it up.

la splash embellished, sparkling torpedo, and tailscales ($4.18 each)- la splash is a brand that i've really liked so far (i only have 1 polish- golden seahorse), and was curious about their other glitters. after a quick google images search, i settled on three amazing ones i needed. they all three contain holo glitter, and i can't wait to wear them! plus, i mean, the bottles. i love the shape and the gold cap! so cute.

GRAND TOTAL FOR SEPTEMBER: $26.66

i'm quite pleased with everything i bought this month. no regrets here. sorry i haven't been very regular with postings, but i now have a bunch of saved manicures to show you. to be posted soon!

white sand beaches

i *stole* another manicure today. except i don't think it's called stealing if you give credit where it's due, right? like in a paper when you cite a source. so my source for today's mani is from alexis leigh's blog. it was one of those moments where you love someone's mani so much that your eyes bug out of your head and you instantly want to copy it. and i had all of the exact polishes she used, so it was a no-brainer. what is the internet for if not for inspiration? (but not stealing.)

 1 coat sinful snow me white

sinful mint apple and nyc water street blue gradient

1 coat sally hansen hidden treasure

in typical polish cart fashion, the original looks much better than my version :S. ah well. i still loved it! yes, there's a lot going on in this mani, but i loved all of it. gradient! green! blue! flakies! ocean-inspired! what's not to love?

the best thing about this mani is that anyone can afford these polishes. this is just further proof that you do not need to spend a lot of money to come up with something amazing. too bad the something amazing wasn't my original idea :P.

the seaweed is always greener

well guys, this is by far my craziest manicure to date. i felt inspired to do some wacko mermaid nail art, and thought i might not get many more chances before baby gets here. i have this hunch that she's coming really soon, like any day now!

base color for all fingers: 1 coat sally hansen xtreme wear mint sorbet

pinky:

1 coat sinful green ocean

1 coat urban outfitters unicorn

love & beauty turquoise at base

ring finger:

2 coats cq gem green

donna michelle loose glitter (from dollar tree)

revlon gold coin for seashell

middle finger:

1 coat fing'rs heart 2 art in mint condition

nicole by opi a million sparkles at base

revlon gold coin for coral

index finger:

1 coat sea glass franken

blue stamping: maybelline color show metallics blue blowout

image plate: cheeky xl b plate (4th row, image on the R) 

 

this crazy look was brought about by 2 different elements- the first is the eclectic nail art from nail swag, particularly this manicure. she does so many mermaid-inspired looks, and this is another one of my favorites. i'm seriously dying over the gold seashell nail jewelry. apparently they're from hex nail jewelry, but all the seashells are gone :(. the seahorses and starfish are cute too, but i desperately neeeed a gold seashell lol.

the other (super random) inspiration for these nails is a free game i started playing on my ipod. it's called mermaid resort, and i'm more or less addicted.

it's like the sims, but for mermaids. kind of. the little mermaids and under-the-sea resort buildings are so adorable. i just had to do under-the-sea nails for myself. my index finger is abstract bubbles, my middle finger is coral growing out of the bottom of the ocean, my ring finger is supposed to be a little golden seashell (since i don't have any jewelry to stick on there), and i'm not sure what my pinky is. just ocean-colored glitter, i guess. here are all the millions of polishes i used for this look-

sally hansen xtreme wear mint sorbet, cq gem green, donna michelle glitter, sinful green ocean, love & beauty turquoise

urban outfitters unicorn, sea glass franken, fing'rs heart 2 art in mint condition, nicole by opi a million sparkles, maybelline color show metallics blue blowout, revlon gold coin

phew, that was exhausting. so many polishes! i probably won't do be able to spend this ridiculous amount of time on a mani for a while, but it was definitely fun. i have a million other mermaid-inspired manicures swimming around in my head (see what i did there? swimming? :P). maybe i should plan a mermaid manicure week or something. would anyone be interested in joining me? :)

fuchsia glamour

the first thing you might notice about this polish is that it definitely isn't fuchsia. . . . but it is glamourous.

2 coats nyc fuchsia glamour over 1 coat sinful easy going

i'm calling this one fuchsia glamour because that's how it's labeled on my bottle, but i've seen this in stores recently with the label pink champagne, which makes a lot more sense. if i'm right, fuchsia glamour is a misprinting. but either way, i really love this sheer pink! which is weird because i usually hate pink, especially hot pink. but i love this soft, ballerina peachy-pink. plus, it's packed with beautiful gold shimmer that almost looks like gold flakies. lo~ve.

trust me, the gold shimmer is very obvious and eye-catching in real life. i had a hard time capturing it on camera though :S. clearly, this polish is very sheer (and i don't do sheer), so i layered 2 coats over 1 coat of sinful easy going, which ended up being the perfect base color. come back tomorrow to see how i jazzed this manicure up for my baby showers!

polish purchases: july edition

this month, i got a lot of polish steals, and one big splurge (but i stayed within my $25 budget!).

lush lacquer clowning around, salon perfect kaboom, finger paints owlin' at the moon, wet 'n wild fastdry the gold and the beautiful, nyc fashion safari

lucky electronics nail art brushes, set of 5 dotting tools

nyc fashion safari ($1.00)- first of all, how cute is that name? it's like the only nyc polish that doesn't have a misleading title (skin tight denim creme, anyone?). nyc had a bogo free sale two weeks ago at rite aid, so i stocked up on my favorite mascara, top coat, and decided to try something new. i have lots of off-white cremes, but not really a fleshy, mannequin hands shade. this one looks really creamy and pretty.

lucky electronics nail art brushes ($1.05)- can you believe that until today (when they arrived in the mail), i had no nail art brushes at all in my collection? me neither. i didn't really want to invest in an expensive set, since i have no idea how good i'll be at freehanding stuff (my guess is pretty sucky), so this dirt-cheap set seemed like a good idea. i have the perfect manicure in mind for them coming up this week!

finger paints owlin' at the moon ($1.15)- this is also my first finger paints. i saw it on sale at sally's this month for $2.29, and decided i needed green metallic flakies in my life (who doesn't, really?). but when i got to the register, the cashier informed me that since it was sally's red tag beauty event, everything on sale was half off of the marked price. what?? thus the incredible steal at $1.15.

wet 'n wild fastdry the bold and the beautiful ($1.39)- last week, rite aid was running a 30% off sale on wet 'n wild, and this warm gold flaky caught my eye. i remembered seeing swatches of it on strong nails (see them here), and couldn't wait to try different layering combos myself.

set of 5 dotting tools ($1.67)- i'm starting to sound like a broken record, but until i bought these dotting tools, i only had one tiny-sized dotter in my stash. i've been using the ends of bobby pins (among other things) for all my other dotticures. this seemed like an appropriate time to actually get some different sizes so my dots look neater and more uniform. 

salon perfect kaboom ($3.98)- after stalking the two nearest walmarts, i finally found this polish- but only this shade. i really wanted the orange one too, but my searching was to no avail :(. maybe it'll pop up someday (my walmart is slow and weird), but i'm not keeping my hopes up. i know i already own flipping out hard, but i feel justified in buying kaboom because the shades are quite different. plus, it's such an in-demand polish for so cheap! win.

lush lacquer clowning around ($9 + $3.25 s/h)- ah yes, this month's splurge. i've been wanting this neon matte glitter for months, and decided that in my huge, pregnant and uncomfortable state, i deserved it :P. pretty good reasoning, huh? i can't wait to try this over a bright green. . . . or lavender. . . . or yellow!

GRAND TOTAL FOR JULY: $22.49

i'm quite happy with everything i purchased this month. i got some interesting cheap shades, some new nail art supplies, and one gorgeous neon glitter indie polish!

grey-t glitter

i wish i could say that i invented today's beautiful layering combination. but alas, i copied this manicure in its entirety from kimmaye. it was one of those manicures that made my eyes bug out, and i amazingly had all of the polishes she used! so of course, i had to steal her genius idea.

2 coats essence grey-t to be here + 1 coat sally hansen hidden treasure + 1 coat urban outfitters unicorn

i tried my hardest to get a picture of grey-t to be here on its own, but i couldn't get any of the darned pink shimmer to show up. blaarghh. i don't know how other bloggers get the pink shimmer to come out, but on me, it's barely visible to the naked eye. what a shame, too, because it looks so beautiful in the bottle-



so what do you guys think about this one? have you ever stolen a whole mani from someone (while giving them proper credit, of course)?



polish purchases: may edition

well. . . . i went a little glitter crazy this month :S. BUT, i managed to not buy any stamping supplies, so i consider that a mild success.

sinful scene stealer, shine on me, crystal clear, elf unnamed flaky

wet 'n wild fastdry caught on sapphire, opi gargantuan green grape, summer brights unnamed green, milani lemongello

 

milani lemongello ($1.00)- i found a whole rack of milani polishes lurking at dollar tree the other day, and practically pounced on it. i almost hauled, but then restrained myself to my favorite one- lemongello. it's a very pretty yellow glass fleck with lots of gold shimmer. plus the name makes me think of all the lemon gelato I've been eating lately :P. mmmm. . . . haagen-dazs, i love you.

 

wet 'n wild fastdry caught on sapphire ($1.99)- this lovely aqua glitter is part of wet 'n wild's new limited edition "hot rocks" collection. there are lots of pretty glitters in this collection (click here to see), but the electric pool blue of this one really caught my eye. i think this would look stunning over navy!

 

elf unnamed flaky ($1.99)- this is also part of a limited-edition collection i saw at cvs (click here to view all the shades). the collection is nameless, as are all of the polishes. boo. i hate unnamed polishes. . . . but i got this one because it's supposed to be another hidden treasure/shine of the times dupe. yes, i already have hidden treasure, but i really really love it, and thought a $1.99 back-up sounded like a wise idea.

 

summer brights unnamed green ($2.99)- baah, another unnamed shade! i found this at rite-aid this month, and bought it in response to how disappointed i was with gargantuan green grape (see below), and to how crappy of a day i was having. i like this one because it's a sort of neon pastel. how can something be both neon and pastel?? i don't know, but i'm really liking it :P.

 

sinful scene stealer, shine on me, and crystal clear ($2.99 x3)- since when does sinful colors do fancy silver handles and up their prices by a dollar?? i'd rather have a plain black cap and save my dollar, thank you very much. apparently i wasn't too upset by this price increase, though, because i bought 3 of them :S. what can i say, i'm on a big diamond-shaped glitter kick right now. in retrospect, i probably didn't need to buy the pink one, since it looks a lot like the loose pink glitter i bought from the born pretty store last month (oops). but i'm stoked about the other two!

 

opi gargantuan green grape ($7.49)- in this case, the last and the least of this month's polishes. not least in cost, but least in excitement. gargantuan green grape has been on my mental wish-list since high school (8 years ago!), when i saw it in a copy of seventeen magazine. it looked like the perfect yellow-toned pale green, which is my favorite color (see my blog background color). other swatches i've seen online since then have only confirmed the fact that this seems to be the perfect shade. so i finally bit the bullet and bought it on ebay, only to find that it looked suspiciously blue-toned and minty. . . . did i get a defective bottle, or are all online swatches untrustworthy?? i guess it's pretty in and of itself, but it was definitely not what i was expecting. sigh.

 

GRAND TOTAL FOR MAY: $24.43

 

overall, i'm happy with my mostly glittery haul. and stay tuned, because i have a lovely set of the new pueen stamps on their way to me right now as a birthday gift from my husband :P. yay for free stuff!

 



blueglass

have you ever heard of a clear flaky before? no? well then you've come to the right place today :).

1 coat nyc blue basin + 1 coat sally hansen diamond strength glass slipper

 

 

 

 why, oh why, did i wait so long to test this layering polish out?? i've had glass slipper in my possession for over a year, and haven't had the itch to wear until just now. do i have some sort of weird disorder where i'm super excited to buy new polishes, and then squirrel them away and ignore them for years? tell me i'm not alone in this.

 



it's beautiful, though, isn't it? glass slipper adds a silvery, glass-like finish to whatever's layered underneath. i chose to paint this over a darker color, because i thought it would show up better. i'm not sure what this would look like over a pastel shade, but now i'm curious to find out!



purple pizzazz sandwich

this manicure started out as just playing with polish, which ended up turning into something amazing. don't you love it when that happens?

1 coat sally hansen xtreme wear purple pizzazz + 1 coat milani hot pink + 1 coat sally hansen xtreme wear purple pizzazz

it was hard to get good pictures of these nails, because they were so shiny and murky-looking. it's not as dark in real life, though (silly purples). is this not an awesome combo?? the hot pink glitter ends up turning into the perfect red-toned purple color when purple pizzazz is layered over it. and you can still see the holo glitter, which turned into an amazing blue-ish color! swoon~.

as you can see, purple pizzazz is a dark blue-toned purple jelly with tons of tiny red-toned purple flakies. add this to the list of my favorite sally hansen xtreme wear polishes! seriously, you can't pass on this one. i believe sinful has a dupe for this (daddy's girl), which i should definitely tack on to my "the most beautiful polishes you can get for $2 or less" tab. try it for yourself! i'd bet good money that it would look gorgeous over a royal blue too, although i haven't tried that yet. does anyone have any other good layering combos for this purple stunner?

POLISH DAYS: vintage

 

could this nail polish challenge be more up my alley? vintage is so my jam :P. for this edition of polish days, i wanted to emulate the look of heirloom opals passed down from a grandmother. oh, and vintage golden skeleton keys :).

 base color: sinful easy going

flakies: sally hansen complete manicure hidden treasure

gold stamping: maybelline color show metallic bold gold

image plate: mash 32

did it work? i like the effect, and i loove the key stamp! tell you what, these mash plates just keep getting better and better. sooo glad i purchased them. here's what my nails looked like pre-stamping-

sigh, i just love flakies over white. so elegant and shimmery. like i said yesterday, i accidentally ruined my bottle of easy going (silly me), so i don't have a bottle shot of that one :(. you can see a pic of it here, and the other polishes i used below-