Sinful Colors Nirvana & Nailtini Millionaire

Hi there!
Besides looking for a steady job, I've been trying to stop procrastinating when it comes to crop & watermark pictures.  I love to blog but the picture part gets a bit annoying when you take 10,000 pics but you barely like one or two :(

In Puerto Rico, Spring & Summer is basically the same thing.  The seasons call for bright colors, but I can't help reach for something darker and rich like Nirvana!  I love how with colors like Nirvana you can go from elegant to sexy in a minute.

While looking for ideas on how to pair Millionaire with another polish, I came across this Chalkboard Nails look and decided to replicate it.

In real life Nirvana is darker than how it looks on this pictures

I'm thinking next time I'll pair Millionaire with China Glaze Trendsetter...What do you think?

AIS Challenge: Stamp Over Orange

The theme for April 7th challenge on AIS was to stamp over orange.
When it comes to stamping I rarely end totally satisfied with the final results but this time, I couldn't love this manicure more!  It looks like a sari :)

What I used:

China Glaze Roguish Red (base)

Sally Hansen ColorQuick Fast-Dry pen in gold (stamp)

Sinful Colors Endless Blue

Bundle Monster plate BM-203

blue rhinestones

gold sequins

striping tape

 and a shot of  Roguish Red - cause I loooove it! :)

Fan brush stripes nail art

I have a small nail art brush kit and have used all of them except for the fan brush.  When used acrylic nails one of the techs would always make gorgeous flower designs over my french but never saw her (or any other tech) use the fan brush.  I was so intrigued by this cute brush that so far I've only used to apply my mud face mask!
Well, mystery solved thanks to THIS tutorial from SimpleNailArtDesigns

My result doesn't look as cool as hers, but I like it.  The colors reminds me to the Baskin Robin's ice cream called Rainbow Sherbet :)
On my ring finger I attempted the saran wrap technique for the first time.  I messed it up.Waited for it to dry, added a gold flakie topcoat an attempted again...no bueno! but well, this mishaps are part of experimenting!

What I Used:

Sinful Colors Unicorn (base color)

Sinful Colors Energetic Red (ring finger)

Essie As Gold as it Gets (ring finger)

for the striping design:

white, pink and orange acrylic paints

Wet n Wild Kaleidoscope

Happy Birthday to me + St. Patrick's Day inspired mani

Greetings to all the Irish community on the web & everyone else who celebrates St Patrick's!

Today is my birthday. Strangely (and sadly) I might not do anything special, no celebration, no cake, no going out; not sure about gifts either.  I'm going to stay home, probably catching up on my favorite tv shows and scheduling posts.

Anyway, here is the mani inspired by this festive occasion!  I used quite a few nail polishes and some acrylic paints too.

outdoors, no flash

indoors, no flash

my favorite part was the design on my thumb

What I used:

pinky

Avon Jade, white acrylic paint, Sinful Colors Innocent & Exotic Green.

ring finger

Sinful Colors Cinderella, Kleancolor Chunky Holo Teal, rhinestones to simulate a rainbow.

middle finger

Sinful Colors Cinderella, Kleancolor Chunky Holo Teal, black acrylic paint topped with China Glaze Agro and gold round glitters to simulate a pot of gold.

index

Avon Jade, green and green glitter acrylic paints.

thumb

Bettina Ortencia, Kleancolor Holo Yellow, green acrylic paint glitter, Orly Monster Mash and heart shaped glitters to simulate a clover.

Revlon: Carbonite

I found Carbonite at Walgreens on a clearance bin.  This was one of those polish purchases when I'm going with the intention of restock makeup essentials (foundation, London-Soho Beauty Sponge, falsies glue, etc) but this lonely polish was looking at me with sad eyes and it was less than $2.....

This metallic dark grey with silver and gold shimmer is a keeper.  Application was opaque-in-one-coat great, good formula, dries fast and an excellent for stamping.

Simple Glitter French

In preparation for Valentine's Day, I was overwhelmed by the amount of ideas floating on the net on how to do my nails.  After too much thought, I just opted for the simple but glittery route doing a French manicure using Orly Halo. I did my toes in the same fashion and they look super cute! Didn't took pictures of my pedi because -pet peeve alert!!! - I hate people looking at my feet.

Halo (2012 Naughty or Nice Collection) is a very neat glitter because it perfectly mixes gold and silver

Sinful Colors: Last Chance

Looks like I'm getting ready for St Patty's with all this gorgeous green polishes!

Last Chance is a very dark green, but just perfectly dark because you wouldn't mistake it for black. The  formula is a cross between creme and jelly, opaque enough with two coats.  From all the formulas, this mix of creme and jelly is my favorite because it makes application easy and the super glossy finish.

Here I did a jazz-it-up test with Kleancolor VIP & My Rightful Throne

Do you already have your green picks for St Patrick's? 

Neutral? Shinny? Animal Print? A mani with all of the above

When doing my nails, I rarely have a clear, specific idea in my mind.  It all start debating the base color; then it develops into layering shimmery top coats, placing glitters, stamping and God knows what else.  An interest in just not having my nails naked ends up in a mild-bling-on manicure :)

I love this combination because it can be subtle but doing something slightly different in each hand, makes it fun at the same time!

Left Hand

Right Hand

Fast Track

Fast Track

What I Used:
- Color Club Soft Chiffon
- Serena Sparkling Rose
- China Glaze Fast Track (middle finger, right hand)
- Kleancolor Coffee Addict (for stamping)
- gold hexagon glitters
- Bunder Monster plate BM-221

Bling On! with Finger Paints & Kleancolor

This mani started simple, only with Finger Paints Art Appreciation Apricot because I wanted to swatch it.

I love this color! For some reason I think of salsa & chips every time I wear it.  This is the only Finger Paints polish that I own but so far I'm very pleased with all its aspects: formula, application, brush, bottle, wear, etc.

  

That week I had so much school work that I forgot to take swatch pics.  While studying for a exam I got so stressed that got on the verge to bite my nails.  To distract myself a little and relax I decided to layer randomly selected polishes over it.  

When it comes to Kleancolor, they are like Frank's Hot Sauce slogan -again, the sauce thing- I put that sh*t on everything! lol  Here I used Chunky Holo Poppy & Tiara Gold.  Pictures show a couple days of wear   but I liked the combo so much that didn't want to skip taking pictures

This one was taken without flash in an effort to show how cool Chunky Holo Poppy looked

A bonus ;)

Comparison: China Glaze Awakening & NYC Wing It Wine

I've had this couple for a while and every time I looked at them I thought: this two must be dupes.  In person in the bottles they look very similar, but not once applied.  They have something that distinguish from one another, making each of them unique within my stash; but I like them both.

China Glaze Awakening: from the 2010 Halloween collection, its a mauve/pink with super elegant flashes of gold.  It gets opaque enough with two coats.  I could not take pictures of it, but over black or burgundy base this one is a stunner!

NYC Wing It Wine: Kind of goes on the same color range as Awakening, but to me it has more of a copper & purple than pink hue to it.  It applies super smooth and you can almost get full opacity with one coat.  This one over black gets an unexpected olive flash that looks super cool. This one reminds a bit of Orly Oui, but without the shimmer and less purple hue.

both polishes are a dream to apply and I think they go with my skin tone. 

Verdict: a draw!

Kleancolor Gold Shimmer

I'm not into yellow, but I love gold and anything glitter gets deep into my glitter-hoarding heart ;)

Being golden and a glitter is what saved this one from the dusty polish corner.

Kleancolor Gold Shimmer is a tinny golden-quite yellow, still- glitter in a pale yellow base.  The tiny glitters sparse nicely over the nail, but it might require more than the three coats I did for swatching for a full coverage effect.  I think that this one would look very nice over dark shades like black, navy blue and hunter green. 

bottle shots

EOTD: Gleam Gold quad

Here is a looks using the Avon Gleam Gold quad.  It took me time to work around with it, specially with the light shades, but finally came out with something that I loved :)

Avon 24k Gleam Gold quad

This quad was part of a collection launched last year if I'm not wrong, this particular quad was limited edition. They have other quads on the True Color collection that are part of the permanent collection.

Names of the shades according to the back of the quad:

gold frost: pale pink with gold shimmer, it as a pearl finish (top left)
24K: true gold (top right)
gilded violet: plum with golden shimmer (bottom left)
bronze treasure: redish brown with golden shimmer (bottom right)

I think the color scheme works beautifully and the shimmer is subtle, elegant; but wish they was more pigmented.  Despite the fact of the medium range pigmentation, I love this quad and will force myself to create something with it. As a random fact, gilded violet reminds me of Awakening polish from China Glaze :p