peach nectar

how about another franken? good, i'm glad you like that idea.

3 coats peach nectar franken

i'm not sure what spurred the idea for a peach jelly polish with purple and gold glitter. but who cares, cause it's awesome! the polishes i used are sally hansen xtreme wear coral reef, milani jewel fx lavender, and sinful pinky glitter, which is one of my favorite iridescent glitter top coats!

i really love frankening glitter jelly polishes. they seriously couldn't be easier. the only problem with them is that i tend to get shrinkage around my cuticles when i apply top coat (see my index finger in the above pics). isn't that weird? it only happens with jelly frankens, not jellies made by an actual company. hmmm. . . . but that's ok, because i still love how delicate and twinkly it is. i call this a frankening success :).

franken cents

it's franken time again (not to be confused with hammer time)! i'm rather proud of the name i gave this polish. it's explain why it's called franken cents in just a sec. but first, pictures-

2 coats franken cents franken

this polish is actually photographing lighter than it looks in reality. in real life, it's a darker, antique gold color which i love. the bottle shot does a slightly better job of capturing that-

you might be thinking, "hey, you already made a gold holo franken." yes, i did (champagne supernova, to jog your memory). but it's a lot light, brighter, and more yellow-toned. i like this one a lot more :).

ok, so the reason i called it franken cents. . . . i used revlon copper penny (along with milani hd) so it was a franken that used cents. aaand it's a pun on the word frankincense. get it?? ok, never mind. i'm tired.

lemon gradient

at first i thought my nails looked like fire. then peaches. then a tequila sunrise. but my brother, sisters, and husband unanimously agreed they look like candy corn. . . . which is not what i was intending, especially in july :P. but whatever.

2 coats milani lemongello over 2 coats revlon buttercup with wet 'n wild fastdry waves of enchantment gradient

very bright and summery, huh? not at all reminiscent of halloween :P (at least in my opinion). i really loved how the shimmer in lemongello and the glass fleck goodness of waves of enchantment worked together. so bright, shiny, and happy! and i can use some extra cheer right now.

again, i used this method to achieve my gradient. pretty darn easy. check out my other gradients- holo gradient, purple glitter gradient, sunset gradient, and my favorite, my whimsical periwinkle gradient. enjoy! :)

lemongello

well apparently i'm on a neon kick right now. i kind of thought this yellow would be a bit more delicate and demure, but it turned out bright on me. oh well, summer is the time for brights, right?

2 coats milani lemongello over 2 coats revlon buttercup

like i said when i first attained this polish, i pretty much bought it for the name. i've been eating this gelato like crazy since i've been pregnant, and boy is it good. i couldn't resist a polish named after a delicious sugary food :P. but even if this milani didn't make me hungry, i probably would've bought lemongello for the gorgeous shimmer anyway. i mean, just look at this beautiful golden glow-

unfortunately, like most yellow shimmers, this is incredibly sheer. so i had to layer it over a pale yellow creme. i think that's what made it so bright on me. that's ok, though, because it's good to break out of your own box sometimes, right? i mean, i can't wear pastels all the time!

holombre

have you ever bought a polish solely with one particular manicure in mind? i have to confess that i bought milani cyberspace just for this. . . . glad i liked the outcome, huh?

2 coats milani hi-tech + milani cyberspace on tips (NO topcoat!)



i've been dying to try a holo gradient since i saw this manicure from the holographic hussy. i tried to do my usual gradient method (found here), but cyberspace was so sheer that it barely showed up at all! so i just resorted to painting it on one thin layer at a time. i think i did about 3 layers on each nail, concentrating the most on the tips. want to know the funny thing about this manicure?? cyberspace is actually blue! no really. i guess it was so sheer that over the green, it turned teal. not what i was expecting, but cool nonetheless.



i wore this last week on a quick trip with my husband for our anniversary. like i've said before, my rule is always to wear something holographic on a road trip- it gives you something pretty to look at! and this definitely kept me entertained during the two-and-a-half hour car ride :P.



hi-tech

it's my birthday and i'll wear more holo if i want to :P. actually, my birthday was a few days ago, but this is what i was wearing for the big day.

2 coats milani hi-tech (NO top coat!)



you guys, this is one of my favorite polishes ever. hi-tech is a lovely yellow-toned pale green with tons of scattered glittery holo particles. i love these milani holos because of the large, chunky holographic particles. you can see some linear rainbows going on, but i really love the glittery look of the large particles. another thing i love is the pastel colors of the holo rainbows- especially that icy, violet blue. do you see it?? so pretty :).



the only downside about this polish is that when you add a topcoat, it turns into an ugly, chartreuse puke green. it makes it so much darker that the pastel rainbows don't show up anymore. . . . is that not the weirdest thing?? i learned this the hard way once, so this time, i painted 1 coat, then added top coat, then painted my 2nd coat of hi-tech on top. that way, it gave my manicure a little extra staying power, but i still only saw the pretty pale green on top.

overall, this is just an amazing polish- pretty, easy to apply, great holographic effect, and affordable! right now the milani holos are on sale for $3.99 at cherry culture. if you don't own a milani holo, you need one! :)



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!

 



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?

blue jean holo

it's franken time today. how bout another holo franken?

2 coats blue jean holo franken

i decided to call it blue jean holo because it's slightly dusty and gray with that worn-in look. which is what all of my jeans look like these days. i prefer dark wash jeans, but all the maternity jeans, capris, and even denim skirts i can find are medium to light wash. hrrrmph. not cool with me. 

it looks like my pregnant brain forgot to snap a picture of the polishes i dumped into this franken. . . . whoops. i'll post that tomorrow! but for now, here's a list of what i used-

milani hd (the silver one, which i've used for multiple holo frankens)

china glaze secret peri-wink-le

a few drops of milani cyberspace (the blue one)

a few drops of milani hi-res (the purple one)

update: here's the photo!

 

polish purchases: march edition

i went a liiiittle over last month :S. but i got some stinkin' awesome polishes!

hard candy gummy green, hard candy peach pop, hard candy crush on raisin

china glaze hello, gorgeous, china glaze united, milani digital, milani cyberspace

hard candy gummy green ($4.00)- when the new hard candy polishes came out, i was most excited about this one. a pretty mint green that reminds me of ice cream? absolutely yes.

hard candy peach pop ($4.00)- orange isn't usually my thing, but this one spoke to me. it looked so much like velveeta and rotelle that i had to buy it. . . . lol.

hard candy crush on raisin ($4.00)- this is a really cool, complex color. sort of bronze-y, sort of pink, sort of pewter, but definitely glinty and sparkly. glad i picked this one up.

china glaze hello gorgeous! ($4.67)- cherry culture was running a 20% off sale not too long ago, and i jumped on the chance to snag a few polishes i'd been eyeing. this pink and holographic glitter was one of them. all china glazes were on sale for $3.99, plus 20% off, plus shipping. so each of my 4 polishes from cherry culture averaged about $4.67. not bad, not bad.

china glaze united ($4.67)- this is another pick from the same "united in purpose" collection for breast cancer. they look pretty similar in the bottle, but united is darker and more coppery. i couldn't decide which one i wanted more, so i just bought both!

milani digital ($4.67)- wow, this pink one looks a lot like my new china glazes. . . . and hard candy crush on raisin too. oops! i guess i have a mauve pink thing going right now.

milani cyberspace ($4.68)- as you probably know, you can't find the milani holos in cvs stores anymore :(. i'm very sad about this, because i love these holos. so the cherry culture sale seemed like a good time to get the remaining 2 from the collection that i didn't have yet. now i have all of the milani holos- silver, gold, purple, green, blue, and pink! i'm thinking i want to try a holo gradient mani sometime soon. . . . hmmmm.

GRAND TOTAL FOR MARCH: $30.71

yes, i went over my budget, but i really needed the new hard candy polishes lol. not really, but i like them a whole lot. there are a few more that look interesting, so i might pick up more this month!

necklace nails

what goes better with peep toe pumps than a cluster of glittery necklaces?

base color: 1 coat julie g peep toe pumps

white stamping: jordana white

image plate: cheeky plate xl b 

gold dots: milani one coat glitter gold glitz

as soon as i saw this image on my new cheeky xl plate (yay~!), i knew i wanted to add gold glittery dots to emulate the look of jewelry. i really like the result, except that it kind of reminds me of this album cover from my childhood lol. anyone else feel old?

i love gold glitter. i pretty much want to add it to everything. is that a problem?