Polished To The Nines

Winner winner!

2011-09-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

(Well... this post was scheduled to go up about a week ago. I guess Blogger... ate it? I don't know what happens when posts go missing like that, maybe one day it'll turn up again. I suppose the real shame is that it took me that long to notice it was missing. My life is in shambles XD)

Anyways...

Heather is the winner! Thank you to ALL who entered, and for reading Polished To The Nines :D

Julep referral- help!

2011-08-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

It seems there was a glitch in the Julep Maven program and referral credits program. According to the information on their site I was supposed to get $15 in credits for every new Maven who joined because of me! I have emailed Julep and they emailed asking for a list of names of people I have referred, so if you were one of those people please let me know in a comment! Thank you!

News of My Life 8/23/11

2011-08-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

You guys may have noticed the lack of updates... including the lack of Giveaway winner announcement, which I PROMISE I am getting around to. I have returned to my senior year of nursing school and things are already insane, and I foresee having very little spare time to post. Also, two days of the week I have to do clinical rotations at nearby hospitals where I am not allowed to wear nail polish! (the horror!) In other words, I will try my best to post weekly, but probably not more often then that. Next semester however I will only have two classes, so I can get the ball rolling again this spring!

Another reason updates will be fewer is that I will soon begin training to run a half marathon... 13.1 miles! It is called the Monster Dash in Chicago, and my friend and I will be dressed as Legolas and Aragorn from LOTR! It's going to be great! I have decided to blog about my training experience and run to raise money for the family of two of my closest friends, whose 19 year old brother was diagnosed with leukemia this summer. I will be setting up that blog soon with a paypal setup so people can donate right from the website! This is very important to me, and unfortunately will have to take priority over Polished to the Nines as I won't be able to keep up with two blogs while going to school full time, working 10 hours a week and training... yikes!

If you've read this far- thank you! I'll include at least one nail picture as a reward XD

I call it... OPI Blues Ombre Magnificence. I LOVED this mani with all my heart. I'll probably redo it exactly the same again- it was that good. The blues were perfect!

For this I used: (from pinkie to thumb)
What's With the Cattitude?
No Room For the Blues
Ogre the Top Blue
Absolutely Alice
Dating a Royal

Check out Julep!

2011-08-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

I have just heard about Julep's Maven program, an offer similar to Birchbox for those of you familiar with that. When you sign up with Julep for $20.00 a month you recieve a surprise package filled with $40.00 worth of Julep merchandise, including previously unreleased nail polish colors! I was also lucky enough to hear about a promotional code from Traci at The Trace Face Philes that gives you $15.00 off of your first months order! (smh9oxu) That makes the total come out to $5.00 for a $40.00 package of goodies, INCLUDING free shipping! I have been wanting to try out Julep and this is a great chance to do it cheaply!

Also, if you are interested you can use my URL to sign up for the Maven program and it gives me a $15.00 Julep credit! http://www.julep.com/AP.aspx?ID=XX&EID=14700373

My Giveaway ends today!

2011-08-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day to enter my giveaway! Good luck to all the entrants!

To enter click here to go to the entry post!

(I know it says the deadline is the 2nd on the entry post but I extended it!)

Emily frankened! Success!!

2011-07-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

I call it... Glitter in the Mist. Obviously it's my frankened version of Deborah Lippmann's Glitter in the Air that my tight budget couldn't stretch to cover. I made GITM by dumping two little Sally Girl Polishes (they didn't have names as far as I recall, they were just a silver hex glitter and a pink hex glitter polish) into a half empty Milani Angel Pink bottle. But really any very pale sheer pink polish would work. I am very pleased with the results!

As you can see it isn't a dead on frankendupe as it has silver hex glitter instead of the light blue but I find it to be a good substitute for GITA anyways.

I wore GITM over China Glaze Nude to mimic the look achieved by DL Glitter in the Air + Naked. This was three coats of GITM. Much like the polish I was trying to dupe the hex glitter goes on sparsely and you have to play with it to get it placed where you want on the nail. Obviously these pictures are from a while ago because I was still rockin' my falsies! My real nails have grown out again thankfully, I missed them!

Has anyone else tried to franken a version of a pricey or hard to obtain polish?

I have joined Twitter!

2011-07-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

Here I am! Still figuring it out though... maybe I am a moron but I could not find a link ANYWHERE that indicated where I should upload a picture to. :-(

Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?

2011-07-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

Oh Harry Potter. Those books are a critical part of my childhood and by far my all time favorites. I little part of me died when the last movie was over. Right now I'm suffering from PPD (Post Potter Depression) as my friend Sam calls it. I'll probably read all the books again to try and cure it. Naturally I did an HP mani before I went to see the final movie. :D I decided to do all the Horcruxes and a couple other prevalant HP symbols like the Deathly Hallows sign, the lightning bolt, and the snitch the ring was hidden in. Zoya Raven provided the perfect black shimmery base, and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

Left Hand

Thumb to pinkie: Riddle's diary, HP initials, Hufflepuff's cup, golden snitch, Nagini

Right Hand

Thumb to pinkie: Ravenclaw's diadem, the Resurrection Stone, DH symbol, Slytherin's locket, lightning bolt.

Now that I'm thinking about it I totally should have done the sword of Gryffindor... me thinks another HP mani will be in order for the next time I see DH in theaters.

Anyone else see the movie? Anyone else sob in the theater? At one point I made everyone around me laugh XD. Without revealing too much (POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!) at the part where Draco and Voldemort awkwardly embrace I whispered "Worst hug ever." to my friend and everyone around us was cracking up. Anyways. I'd love to hear people's movie opinions, overall I really liked it. I have my complaints, being the elitist HP snob that I am, but I did really like the past two movies a lot more then the first six.

Meteor Shower

2011-07-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

I'm really not sure why a polish as amazing as this one is not a part of their core line. Neither are many of their glorious glitters, like Atlantis, Electric Lilac, Gold Digger, Nova, and Shooting Stars but I've seen all those and more at supply stores! I bought MS at a supply store for a mere $2.50. The base is an inky dark navy blue jam packed with teal, copper, and royal blue glitters. LOVE!

Sunday Holo Pic Spam

2011-07-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

In honor of the week of sunny days I have ahead of me I wanted to show some holo swatches! A couple I have featured before in other posts but I wanted to showcase their beauty here anyways. ;-)

First here is a picture of my ChG holos collection! Get out your bibs!

2NITE, OMG, LOL, BFF, DV8, IDK, QT

Kaleidoscope Him Out, He's Going in Circles, Octa-Gone Wild, Visit Me in Prism, Sexagon, How About a Tumble?, Let's Do it in 3D, Don't Be a Square, Tickle My Triangle.

Awaiting: It's My Turn and L8R G8R coming in the mail!

Grape Pop + Nova (My favorite holo glitter!)

IDK (at the beach! Hence why I'm holding sunscreen instead of the bottle!)

And again!

Sexagon. This one was a super lemming of mine. Bought for $14 from Pretty'n'Polish I don't know where she keeps digging up all the glorious HTF polishes she sells but I've bought a couple beauties from her and have been very satisfied!

Kaleidoscope Him Out Got it for $6 at a dusty!

It was also a perfect match for the wristlet I was carrying that day! The Coach outlet store is a weakness of mine!

BFF

DV8

2NITE. Yeah, the clean up leaves a lot to be desired but it was my first OMG polish and I was excited :D

Who else loves holos? And who else is excited for True Blood tonight!

75 Follower Giveaway! CLOSED!

2011-07-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

I am pleased and excited to annouce that I am hosting a giveaway to show my appreciation. Just something small, things that I picked up while polish shopping.

From L-R: A franken I've been calling Blue Steel since I made it while watching Zoolander. Revlon Cherries in the Snow, NYC Starry Silver Glitter, China Glaze Atlantis, LA Colors Gold Striper.

So how do you like that old Limited Too polish bottle? Haha it took me ages to clean the petrified polish out of that bottle to make it usable!

So the rules: You must be a follower to enter! There are also opportunities for extra entries. The giveaway will close three weeks from today on August 2nd. Thank you to everyone who reads Polished to the Nines! I have a lot of fun doing my nails and brainstorming ideas to feature on here. Unfortunately due to strict budget restraints (unemployment) I will have to make this giveaway open to US residents only. New and old followers are welcome to enter. :D

CLOSED! Thank you for all those who entered!

ACK!!

2011-07-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

I am sorry to announce that the giveaway post was a mistake! It was clearly not ready to post, considering it was missing a few crucial things/editing! My mistake! I will be putting it up sometime soon once I have my life more together. Again, my apologies!

Em

Layered Crackles... I am back!

2011-07-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hello there old and new followers! I haven't posted in ages! I wish I had a good excuse... an embarrassing one will have to do though. Last Monday I was riding my bike with flip-flops on and my foot slipped off the pedal and before I know it I'm falling off the bike, scraping up my legs and cutting a piece off the tip of my big toe! It was soooo gross, and hurt a lot! :-( Not only have I not been able to change my pedi for three weeks but I've been limping around, afraid to walk like a normal person and terrified I was going to stub my hurt toe! Well now everything has finally scabbed over and I'm back on track.

Alright, enough of the wound discussion now that I have grossed everyone out and on to the mani pictures right? ;-)

I love love loved the way this combination worked out. The base is Misa Coffee Pick Me Up with China Glaze Crushed Candy and Lightning Bolt layered on top. I took a picture before I added the LB over the pointer finger to show how nicely CC crackled! I painted a coat of Priti NYC's 2-in-1 base and top coat in between each color, and I am really happy with how the crackles cracked over it. I have found that they haven't crackled very well over SV for me but that may have been one isolated incident. I was really happy with this result though.

On the other hand I decided to change things up...

And changed the order of the crackles! I'm quite indecisive XD. Which one do you guys like better? In the pictures I like the LB on top of the CC but my opinion may be influenced by the ridiculous lobster claw hands I'm sporting in the last picture... I have no idea why they're so red!

Blogger Roundup: 6/19-6/25

2011-06-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

Check out these Beauty and Nail blog posts from last week!

Lip Tar and MAC Surf Baby Lipstick Give Away Winner on Cosmetically Challenged

Hard Candy Beetle on the Life and Polish blog

500 Follower Giveaway 6 winners on Midnight Manicures

Zoya Touch Swatches on Kewtified

Animal Manicure on Bright Lights Big Color

My First Nubar on A Day in the Life

PritiNYC Summer Day Kit Swatches on Polished to the Nines

Multidimensional Mani on Nailderella Nails

You're Moody, Bish on Lambchop Mobile

Home Laser Hair Removal Guide on Beauty and Fashion Tech

Review: Mary Kay Love Lash Mascara on Style Eyes

A rainbow tape mani from Let Them Have Polish

Are You Down With OCC? Polish Insomniac is.

Pink Glitter Mani on Bookworm Nails

Battle of brush cleaner on Purple Eye Diamond

Get to know JoElle Skincare on Creatively Yours By Ro

Continuing Education in Artistry on Royal Beauty Designs

Review: e.l.f. Studio Cream Eyeliner in Plum Purple on Beauty Mamas

Essie Ruby Slippers on Nails and Noms

Walking the Plank on Polish Pauper

Get in the Mood for Friday with Tara's Nails

Real French Perfume from Fragonard on Reve Noir

Enter the Nicole By OPI Texture Giveaway on Addicted to All Things Pretty

Are you tired of the bandwagon trends? Glitter Gloss Garbage is.

LGTBQ Pride Mani!

2011-06-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Chicago Pride Parade is happening today! Unfortunately my plans to attend didn't work out, but I'm still sporting my pride mani! Incidentally, it happens to be painted on Kiss fake nails! In a rash moment of mind-numbing stupidity I hacked my nails off to go indoor rock climbing, and I'm REALLY regretting it because I loved the length and shape they were before my brain fell out and I cut them down to nubbins. To ease my pain until they grow back I put on some Kiss fake nails.

My plain falsies! They looked really nice, but a regular old french mani gets old fast.

First I present the inspiration for my mani. The lovely Cristina from Let Them Have Polish! granted me permission to use her photo in this post. I just loved this mani, well, I love all of her mani's. She does awesome nail art. All of the polishes she used were from Bettina, which is not available around me, so I selected similar colors from my collection.

I had so much fun painting this! Despite how aggravating it was waiting for the layers to dry. This is the right hand so it is a little rough. But what would a Gay Pride mani be without a little...

Fairy Dust! :D

Now this is the first time I have ever had a shrinkage problem with Seche Vite. Perhaps I did a poor job in wrapping the falsies. :-( I love it anyways. The green finger looks a little awkward, Four Leaf Clover doesn't quite fit in with the other two. Ah well. I've seen some awesome LGTBQ theme mani's this month so this was my whack at it :-)

The gang agreed to pose for a group shot. Say Cheese!

I ain't sayin' she a Gold Digger

2011-06-24T17:29:00.000-07:00

China Glaze Gold Digger over China Glaze For Audrey

This mani was from a couple weeks ago but I got behind in my posting! Shame on me because it was so pretty and I loved it so much. For Audrey is a bright, bold Tiffany blue, and when topped by Gold Digger, a pale gold glitter with pale gold microglitter, made for killer combination. Light, summery, yet glam. I wish the picture was better, I apologize for the blur. I just love this glitter, it's so much fun. Unfortunately, it is not a part of the China Glaze line that is found most places, I picked it up from a supply store on Broadway in Chicago. I have seen it on e-tailers though, so I recommend picking it up next time you're placing an order. :-) Also, I just LOVE the name! XD

I've been layering glitters over my favorite cremes and loving it lately. Anyone else discover a killer creme + glitter combination? Please share!

**EDIT

I'd forgotten that my friend Chloe took a better picture of my nails because they matched a wine bottle. :D

My First Lippmann polish

2011-06-23T11:00:00.001-07:00

I was feelin' artsy so I took the picture with my all time favorite heels. They're Nine West Escher pumps. They have the same hexagonal glitter and gorgeous navy blue color! I plan on wearing these two together to a wedding I'm attending next fall. Without further ado I bring you Lady Sings the Blues from Deborah Lippmann's All That Jazz collection.

Bottle pic of this beauty. How do ya like my driveway as the background?

The close up shot is unforgiving on the spots I left on my cuticles but here's hoping the depth and beauty of this polish will distract you from that fact. :D

Just look at my thumb in this picture! I have read reviews of this polish that claimed the opacity of the dark blue base swallows all the glitters, preventing it from showing through but I disagree! It was quite opaque, I had full coverage in just one coat but I painted two to get better depth and glitter placement. I was over the moon with the result and this is a polish splurge ($37 for three Lippmanns, so not too bad but a lot for me to spend on only three polishes!) I will never regret. Also, DL's have the prettiest bottles.

An Epic Combination

2011-06-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

I combined two of my favorite things in one glorious win of a manicure. Purple creme polish and silver/holo glitter. China Glaze Grape Pop and Nova. Grape Pop is a medium purple creme that is right up my alley and my list of all time favorite polishes. Nova consists of small silver and medium circular holographic glitter suspended in a clear base. There is no way this pair could ever fail so I'll let the 800 pics I took of it do the talkin' (Cause we all no you want me to ramble less and bring on the pretty polish pictures anyways right??)

I promise there was a reason for all the blurry pic spam, I was trying my hardest to capture the holo at different angles in the brief period of sunlight I got. If you don't have these polishes then you must run, RUN to your nearest polish retailer and snatch them up. I procured Grape Pop at Beauty Brands and Nova at a place called Lynamy Nail Supply in Chicago. Both can be found on e-tailers like Trans Design and Head2Toe Beauty.

On a Priti Summer Day...

2011-06-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

I reached for a few polishes by Priti NYC to photograph in my Dad's garden!

I was so excited to receive my Priti Summer Day Kit in the mail Friday that I immediately swatched them all and planned to have this post up by Sunday. Unfortunately pictures of two of the polishes were not up to scratch so I had to delay in order to re-swatch. Now that all those shenanigans are taken care of, here goes it!

The polishes came in this adorable little package.

Hula Girl Rose, Read Head Cactus, Fireglow, 2-in-1 Base + Top Coat

Kim from Priti NYC included a few of their nail polish remover wipes in my package as well!

First up is Fireglow, a bright orange cream that screams "wear me to the beach" to me. This is three coats with no top coat AND on an overcast day- look at how glossy it is! I was very impressed by that. This one would probably look even better on someone with a warmer skin tone and less red undertones then I have. It is a very fun color though, my sister's favorite of the set. She's sporting a Fireglow pedi right now.

Fireglow photo from Allposters.com. The orange polish really captures it, no?

Read Head Cactus was another very glossy shade. This was also three coats without top coat! This polish achieved bottle color in one coat but due to it's jelly-like finish it required three for opacity. The drying time was quick though, so no complaints here. This is not a creme but quite not a jelly polish either, a unique polish in my ever-growing collection. Unfortunately I could not find a picture of a red head cactus on google, so how about a picture of a pretty lily from my backyard?

Crazy over-exposed fingers, but the polish and the flower look amazing. It really is that glossy.

I saved my favorite of the collection Hula Girl Rose for last so I could wear it the rest of the day. This polish is Barbie's pink. This photo is not quite color accurate it looks more magenta here then it really is, HGR was so bright it was almost a neon (without the matte finish) that my camera didn't pick up the color exactly. HGR was the only shimmer in the kit, a subtle hot pink shimmer that's more evident in the bottle than on the nail then in the picture, but more visible in person. Know what I mean? I could see the shimmer on my nail but it didn't translate well in the photo. I wore the topcoat for this one to really bring out the shimmer.

There we go. That is more color accurate. I wanted this to be the swatch picture but the up close cropped version was blurry.

See what I mean? Makes my nails look like magazine ad nails though!

I used the Priti NYC base+top coat as a base coat for all three colors and as a topcoat for Hula Girl Rose, which I wore as my mani for the next couple days. The topcoat made HGR even more glossy, and I was chip free until I took a shower and did the dishes, but since water and nail polish are not friends I would not use that as a prime example of the product's longevity.

Overall, I was very happy with the Priti NYC Summer Day Kit. The three polishes are perfect summer colors. I used the wipes in between swatching to save my hands from too much acetone remover and I loved them. They smelled delicious, like citrus and banana and awesome all in one. I was able to remove three coats of polish + base coat from all 10 fingers with one wipe, how's that for efficiency? I wish I had more of them!

The Priti Summer Day Kit retails for $37.50 and can be purchased from Priti NYC's website here. There are several great kits to choose from. Personally, I have my eye on the Summer 2011 Bon Voyage Collection, and the Summer Moody Blues Kit!

EDIT: Priti NYC is currently having a 50% off sale until June 29th!

*These polishes were sent to me for review

Dannii - Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

In honor of Father's Day I took this picture of Dannii with my Dad's hydrangeas. Aren't they pretty?

Dannii is from Zoya's revered Intimate collection, which I picked up in March when it was on sale for $25. Best. Idea. Ever. I love that collection. If I could marry a collection, it would be the Intimate one.

I tried to get a decent sunlight shot but the sun was being elusive. Again. Like it has this whole week, preventing me from taking my holos for a test drive. Didn't prevent me from enjoying the glorious shimmer of Dannii though. The base color of Dannii is much closer to the pinky-purple of the hydrangeas in real life, it just wasn't picked up well in the picture. The predominant microshimmer in Dannii is gold, but it has a touch of multicolored shimmer as well. Very subtle, but very pretty.

I stamped a design from BM 212 with China Glaze First Class Ticket. I haven't done much stamping lately because the untireds I've been trying to make it though are either shatters, glitters, or polishes it would be a sin to stamp over (Lady Sings the Blues). This look was subtle and I liked it, you couldn't see the design unless you took a good look at my fingers. I wish the glare wasn't obstructing the look of the design so much. I'm going to have to get my crafty pants on a make myself a light box. After I obtain a Melmer. My polishes are a damn mess nowadays. What I would really like is a pretty little rack mounted on my wall so I could line them up in color order and look at them but I'm pretty sure my Dad would have a fit if I attempted to mount anything on my wall!

Sweets for my Sweets

2011-06-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Wow! Polished To The Nines is nearly rounding the fifty followers corner! I am beyond honored that there are that many people out there willing to listen to me! I should start cooking up a giveaway to show my appreciation... but then again I should probably get myself a job to fund said giveaway!

In the meantime I decided to change it up and try some freehand nail art. I started with China Glaze Lemon Fizz as a base, which was not what I was expecting. The bottle made me think it was going to be more pastel then it turned out on me, that could be in part because of my skin tone though, which does not play nicely with yellows. See the super lobster hands? Yikes! They didn't look as bad in person. Still, me likey this color. Thumbs up for Lemon Fizz!

Indoors, no flash, two coats

And now... taaadaaa!! How do my cupcakes look? I wish I had waited a bit longer to put top coat on because it did smear my cherries, but aside from that I was pretty happy with them.

Polishes used:
Base: China Glaze Lemon Fizz
Cupcake: China Glaze Flyin' High
Frosting: FingerPaints White creme
Cherry: China Glaze Salsa

Be careful what you blog about

2011-06-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

Or really, WHO you blog about. Hautelook's most recent deal featuring Ginger + Liz nail polishes reminded me of an issue I'd heard about that I wanted to share with as many customers and fellow bloggers I could reach.

After a blogger wrote a post comparing G+L nail polishes to another company's (Diamond Cosmetics) G+L sent the blogger a cease and desist letter, threatening her with a $200,000 lawsuit for "product defamation."

...

Seriously? I said this on the Polish-Aholic's Anonymous forum on Facebook and I'll say it again: I find it to be petty and reprehensible business practice. If you can't handle a little criticism what are you doing in the retail business? I know I will certainly never be purchasing any G+L polishes and I urge others to do the same. Don't support a company that attacks it's customers!

If you want to read the letter she received, it can be found on her blog here. If you've never read Daily Polish before, I highly recommend it, there are tons of wonderful swatch pictures and nail care tips.

Woah Giveaway! Pretty Edgy Nails

2011-06-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

Pretty Edgy Nails is hosting 50 followers giveaway!

There are three fab prizes available, featuring polishes from OPI and Color Club, as well as MAC makeup products. Click right here! to get on over there and enter. I posted about Mermaid's Tears, which is included in one of the prize options here.

Cry me a river...

2011-06-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

filled with Mermaid's Tears please!

I've been in a total funk lately, but looking back through my pictures I knew I had something to say about this baby. Mermaid's Tears is out of this world! Or should I be saying "under the sea"? XD This is surely the star of the POTC collection and unlike any of the other pale/jade greens that have come out this spring. OPI has really been nailing it with the faded, dusty cremes, not only are the beautiful and unique but the application is like buttah. Two easy coats for this one. I usually don't go for back up bottles, I have so much polish that it's unlikely I'll ever use up a full size bottle of ANY color but for a green like this... exceptions can me made. :D

I wish I could have gotten a sunlight picture of this one, but it was blah and rainy for days, and by then it was mani change time! You can't expect a mani to last more then three days on these nails! I just love the process of polishing my nails too much.

Personally, I enjoyed the dusty pastels theme of the POTC Collection. Sure pastels may not be "Piratey" but they are great for spring!

Hi there!

2011-06-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the unexpected hiatus, I moved back home from school and have been looking for a job, which has been not been easy, let me tell you!

Today I have for you China Glaze Dorothy Who? which I picked up in a swap from MUA.

Dorothy Who? is a medium blue jelly base packed with medium blue and silver glitter. I'm embarrassed by the state of my cuticles/clean-up XD. I apologize, it looks terrible. The first coat was a touch streaky and difficult to work with, the second one helped but this baby took three coats to even out completely. The drying time was quick and it pleasantly dried to a completely even finish, not gritty at all.

I adore the look of a matted glitter, so I threw a coat of Essie Matte About You on top of DW. Love love love the way it turned out. It's like I'm looking at DW from behind a frosted glass window. I have a feeling I'll be matte-ing lots of manis before I remove them just to see a different take on them. What about you guys? Love matte polishes or top coats or leave 'em?

Let it snowwwww let it snoowwwww let it snow!

2011-05-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

Actually, I hate the cold. But you know what I don't hate? Holiday polish collections, because they never disappoint and are usually filled with glittery awesomeness. China Glaze's Holiday 2011 collection is titled "Let It Snow" and images, accidentally or not have already been leaked.

Now from the color chart the ones that excite me the most are Snow Globe, Glittering Garland, Twinkle Lights, Blue Years Eve, and maybe Tinsel Town. Not going to lie though, overall I am much more excited for OPI's Muppets collection. Anyone else excited by holiday collection promotional images?

Have some C-C-Courage

2011-05-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

Woah a gorgeous purple!

Not only is C-C-Courage a pretty polish, but it is unique to my collection, which is stacked heavily with purples. Not just any purple glitter polish, the pink glitter dispersed throughout really brings this one to life! Sadly, the lack of sunshine does little to back me up on this, and I must note that C-C-Courage is much LESS blue in real life. Coverage was great with two coats, and it was a breeze to apply. I did find that it was still a bit gritty after the first coat of Seche Vite, so I'd advise a second for a completely smooth finish.

Merph. Still looks much more blue toned here then it does in person, but there's less glare in this picture and more of the pink glitter that is so visible in the bottle is also visible on the nail as well. This polish is from China Glaze's Wizard of Ooh Aahz Returns collection from 2008. I had to track one down on Amazon.com to obtain it, but I have seen many bottles floating around ebay for approximately $6-$9 dollars a piece.

I would call it a must have for purple lovers, this glitter certainly did not disappoint! As always, thanks for reading!

IDK, my BFF Jill? Giveaway Alert

2011-05-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday and I remembered to wear pink! What a pink it is too!

Now I'm not usually crazy about pinks, but BFF is no run of the mill pink polish. This is pink polish at its finest, holo perfection. I spent the whole day staring at my nails! Not that I don't usually do that most days anyways...

Amazing holo at every angle!

In case you've missed my past posts on DV8 and IDK, here they are!

BFF, DV8, and IDK are all from China Glaze's Spring 2008 OMG collection, and are very hard to find, except for outrageous prices on ebay. However, I'm not trying to meanly dangle polishes before your eyes that you'll never find, because now you have a chance to win these and the rest of the OMG Collection! That's right, you read correctly! Carina at GildedNails is holding an amazing giveaway to celebrate reaching 1500 followers! The first prize is this amazing collection!

The giveaway closes June 15th, so hurry over there to enter! Second and third prizes feature polishes from BYS and Face of Australia. Click here to go to the giveaway post and enter for your chance at one of these generous prizes!

The ABC's of Me!

2011-05-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Want to know some random things about me? You should fill it out too, it's fun! Feel free to blog about it and leave your link in my comments or just fill it out and leave it in the comments if you don't have a blog.

I'm jumping on the bandwagon and filling this out as well!

A. Age:
I just turned 21 on Sunday!

B. Bed Size
Queen sized futon. I love my bed.

C. Chore I hate:
All of them? But currently I'm dreading packing my stuff to move home from my dorm.. ughhhh.

D. Day
Saturday!

E. Essential start of your day:
Something with caffeine in it or else I'm a total grouch!

F. Favorite Color:
Purple! Then teal.

G. Gold or Silver?:
Silver, gold jewelry doesn't look great on me.

H. Height:
5'4" when I'm standing up straight!

I. Instruments:
I played violin for five years and was in choir for six. I love to sing!

J. Job Title:
Currently: Help Desk Associate at IWU IT Services. As of this Friday: Unemployed for the summer. :-( After college? A nurse! :-)

K. Kids
Undecided... babies are so cute but teenagers are a nightmare! (I know I was when I was one!)

L. Live
A Chicago suburb called Homewood! (I bet you've never heard of it)

M. Mom's name:
Janet

N. Nicknames
Em, Emmy, Dopey (last one courtesy of my father lol)

O. Overnight stay at hospital:
Ugh several. Where do I begin?? One for anaphylactic shock from an antibiotic as a child.

P. Pet Peeves:
Bad grammar, chipped nail polish, people who try and push their beliefs (religious, political, etc.) on others...

Q. Quote from a movie:
"I am Goldberg, THE GOALIEEEE GRRRRRRRRRRAHHHHHHHH" -The Mighty Ducks

R. Right or left handed:
Righty

S. Siblings
A little sister who I miss when I'm away at school.

T. Time you wake up:
7:30 am nowadays. GUH.

U. Umbrella:
This said underwear before but I think that's a touch creepy so I'll describe my umbrella instead. It's striped pink, green, blue, yellow, purple, brown, and red with black stripes in between each of the colors. I got it at Target and it is not one of those compact ones, so it has a hook handle that is excellent to use to pull trip gags on say... your Mom when she's not paying attention. Sorry Mom! C'mon, it's not like I made you fall, you know it was funny!

V. Vegetable you hate:
Mixed vegetables. I like them all separate! If they were supposed to be mixed they would all be on the same plant!

W. What makes you late?:
Usually trying to get 10 extra minutes of Zzz's

X. Xrays you've had:
Fractured thumb (seriously), plenty of teeth ones over the years, I think for my ankle too but that turned out to be not broken.

Y. Yummy foods you can make:
I can pour cereal. And make some delicious spongebob mac and cheese! And make bacon. Bacon is my specialty.

Z. Zoo:
The zoo is awesome!! I always see the tigers and wish I had a pet one, like Jasmine has Raja in Aladdin!

Goin' Antiquing.

2011-05-24T06:44:00.000-07:00

For Crackle polishes that is. Despite warnings, I caved and purchased Sally Hansen's Antique Gold crackle overcoat. (Traci is probably shaking her head in disgust if she's reading this!) I just couldn't resist though!!

My experience with Antique Gold wasn't nearly as bad as hers. Not nearly as good as my OPI Silver Shatter turned out though. I tried applying it different ways, on the thumb and pinkie it is applied the way I normally put on my polish, from cuticle to tip. On my pointer, middle, and ring finger it is applied sideways, which was kinda tricky and gave me a different crackle effect. The color is more of a champagne gold then a bright yellow Gold. It looks like a crackle version of my favorite gold polish FingerPaints Key To My Art.

Overall, I give the crackle effect on this one a C+. I would have liked to see more of the base color peeking through (It was Zoya Raven, which is beautiful) and there was one finger where I had a really bizarre effect. Look at my middle finger! Half crackled half... not?

WTF?

So yeah.. uncertain about how that happened. That isn't as weird as my ELF Matte Top Coat experience though, remember that one? I'm still up in the air over keeping Antique Gold. It's not bad, but I'm curious to see how the China Glaze Crackle Metals collection is going to turn out, and if I'll even be able to find it around me! Any thoughts? Should I put AG up on my MUA for a swap?

OPI vs Sinful Colors comparison, and 33 Followers!

2011-05-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

Wow! 33 followers! Last I'd checked there were 29! I'm kind of bummed I missed the rollover, but very flattered that I have 33 lovely followers that listen to my nail ramblings! I would love to get more feedback from you guys on what you'd like to see here on Polished To the Nines! I have some good news as well. Yesterday was my birthday (21! Woo!) and on this monumentous occasion I received the new Bundle Monster plates! Yay! So once I get my stamper in the mail (my Dad ordered the plates from Amazon from a link I gave him, not quite getting the concept/ process of nail stamping, therefore not ordering a stamper and scraper as well!) get excited to see a lot more stamping on here! (And the trials and tribulations of me perfecting my stamping technique! XD) Also, in the future if I reach the honor of having 100 followers I will be assembling a giveaway to show my appreciation for you guys! For now, on to the pictures!

Today I am comparing Sinful Colors' Hottie to OPI's Last Friday Night from the Katy Perry collection. I have not done full mani's of either yet, but here I have them side by side over a base of a black creme polish (Revlon Lunar) because I find them easier to photograph that way.

Which is which?

The middle finger is Sinful Colors Hottie and the pointer is OPI Last Friday Night. As you can see here they are quite similar, but I would not call them dupes. Hottie has more densely packed small gold glitter, while LFN has more larger blue glitter.

At this angle the difference is even more pronounced, and makes me prefer LFN over Hottie. Both are pretty glitters, but something about the blue catches my eye more... even though my hands look like scary lobster claws here. Which polish do you prefer?

I purchased SC Hottie at Walgreens for $1.99 and OPI Last Friday Night as part of the Katy Perry minis set for $12.99 at Trade Secret.

Arrggghhh Matey! Silver Shatter on the horizon!

2011-05-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

Thar she bloooowwwwwsssssss!

I love Silver Shatter! My first shatter/crackle polish experience surely did not disappoint. I applied two coats of Sparrow Me The Drama as my base polish, which I regrettably did not take pictures of (Grrr), but was a gorgeous dusty yet still bright medium pink. Then I followed with a coat of Seche Vite top coat before applying one medium-thickness coat of silver shatter to top it all off. The reason I'm gripping SMTD with an awkward claw grip is to include my thumb in the pic because of how awesome the polish shattered on my thumb.

After a day of this beautiful mani I got to thinking about how cool a layer of Black Shatter would look with it as well. In my excitement to try it out I neglected to put a top coat over Silver Shatter before I applied Black Shatter, and this is how that turned out:

D'oh! Let that be a lesson learned to all. OPI Shatters do not play well together when layered. As you can see, it basically looks like I painted a black matte accent nail, there's just one measly little crack. -.-
Next time I'm feeling adventurous I'll be sure to remember to use top coat in between Shatters!

Been lemming a bottle of Silver Shatter but unable to get your hands on one? Check out The Trace-Face Philes to enter her 200 Follower Giveaway! I know I will be! I've had my eye on a bottle of Sapphire in the Snow for ages and who couldn't use a back-up bottle of Silver Shatter? There will be three winners total and polishes from both OPI and Orly up for grabs. Click here to enter the giveaway!

Here is a group shot of the prizes!

DV8 (aka Love At First Sight)

2011-05-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

Guh.

Really. That's all I have to say.

Now for UP CLOSE HOLO ACTION!!

How could I sing the praises for DV8 any better then by letting the pictures show it themselves? Trust me, the holo is even better in person then on camera. This is one lemming I was glad to put to rest... and for a mere $5! Oh the joys of dusty diving!

Does anyone else have a success story of discovering a hard to find polish for a bargain price?

Absolutely Alice vs. Almost Alice

2011-05-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

One fall afternoon I meandered through the cosmetics section of the dollar store across the street from my college campus. It was there I discovered that, lo and behold, it was chock full of LA Colors striper glitter polishes. CHA-CHING. I spotted a blue one, and then a gold one, and then, the solution to the only math problem I've ever been interested in... blue glitter + gold glitter = Absolutely Alice franken?!?

So a-frakening I went. About a month later I did manage to get my hands on my very own Absolutely Alice, for the very reasonable (and surprising) price of $9.00. So what does that leave me with? The ingredients for a comparison to see how close my adventures in frankening got me to the real thing!

The answer is...

Not really that close. (womp womp)

(Enlarged for greater detail, despite the sad state of my cleanup)

It seems adding a couple drops of Ogre The Top Blue didn't help my cause. Obviously the real AA is the more vibrant blue, and the picture makes them look even more similar then they really did. Unfortunately I could not get a natural light picture as it was quite overcast. Overall, this batch of Almost Alice gets a B-. From a distance and to someone who doesn't know much about polish probably wouldn't pick out the difference. Perhaps my next tweaking will yield a better result.

Nubar Giveaway!

2011-05-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! (And I'm never one to say those words) but today is a happy Monday because Sonidlo's Nail Polishes has Nubar nail polishes to giveaway, and who doesn't love Nubar? Well I can't say I do because I've never tried their polish but I have heard only good things about it and I'd love to! This giveaway was too good to keep to myself!

Look at the pretty polishes!*drools*

Click here for the entry instructions post! Have at it ladies!

Zoya Marley

2011-04-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Marley is a pretty lady isn't she? I have heard this color described a lot of places as lavender but in my opinion it is too pink to be lavender. Unfortunately the sky was overcast when I was wearing Marley so the fine microshimmer isn't visible at all. The formula was probably one of the most difficult ones I have dealt with from Zoya but still not too bad, just a bit thick and goopy. Once I added topcoat though the bumps evened out. The color was very pigmented though, so I had no problems with streaking, unlike another light pink I know. (I'm looking at you Revlon Pink Chiffon) I still the the Intimate collection was the best one to come out this spring, there is a little something in it for everyone; a wide variety of finishes, pretty soft colors, and a couple totally unique shades. Zoya gets an A+ from me for that one!

Essie- Going Incognito

2011-04-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

This is a first for me, as in my first Essie nail polish. I am pleased to report that I could not be happier with it! I bought GI from a giant blog sale recently and could not wait to try it, even though I was sad to see Sea Spray go. I wavered back and forth about purchasing GI for months because I try to limit myself to polishes that are completely unique to my collection and I was so sure that this one would be very very similar to OPI Jade Is the New Black. When I saw GI on this blog sale for the price of merely $4 I took that as a sign and put that lemming to rest.

Going Incognito is a deep green creme that leans just a touch blue, enough to make the color extremely rich without pulling it teal at all. It is a true forest green. The application was just a touch streaky on the first coat and the polish seemed a little runny at first but it smooths out completely by the second coat for a flawless finish in two coats. The polish dried a bit darker on my nails then in appears in the bottle color but that is fine by me because this color is green perfection! (And I'm a true green lover- it's second only to medium purple cremes in my heart!) I'm playing with picture sizes, how does Essie look extra-large?

Essie has one extremely satisfied customer with this polish. Now it's probably time to go and grab that bottle of Mesmerized that I have had my eye on!

Incognito huh? I would go just about anywhere for this polish! ;-)

Color me obsessed.

2011-04-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

With moon mani's. I will never again shun a mani technique I have not tried for myself again. And yes, I'm still working with Sea Spray, and still in love with it. Yesterday when I did skittles of different techniques I did my entire right hand in a moon mani with a silver foil polish, and it looked so amazing that I went and did the left hand. I'm not that crazy about the accent nail but it is kind of pretty.

The silver foil polish I used is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Celeb City.

Experimenting with Sea Spray on a rainy day.

2011-04-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Yep. More rain. After about a week of glorious sunshine and 65 degree weather it is chilly and rainy again here in the midwest. My current mani is still Sea Spray from yesterday's post, and while I am totally in love with the color I decided to practice my hand at some scotch tape mani's and other variations on the muted light blue theme.

Not that anyone needs reminding, but here's Sea Spray on it's own.

And here's the after shot!

I'm not over the moon with how it turned out because I am a perfectionist when it comes to my nails but since it was my first try I'm giving myself a break. Next time I will put top coat over each layer of the scotch taping on my thumb and middle finger. I'm actually surprised at how much I like the moon mani since I've never been crazy about them in the past.

Polishes used:

Thumb- China Glaze Midnight Mission and Jingle Bells
Index- Zoya Luna
Middle- China Glaze Jitterbug and Frosty
Ring- Orly Pure Porcelain
Pinkie- China Glaze Midnight Mission

Grey Kinda Day.

2011-04-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

The sky is grey and so is my mood. In the spirit of my grey mood I have grey polishes. Don't get me wrong, I actually love grey polish, especially grey cremes.

ChG Sea Spray, OPI I Vant To Be A-lone Star, Claire's Rain Drops, Zoya Dove

Originally I was only going to compare the Zoya and Claire's polish but IVTBALS toes the line of grey and then I tossed in SS to make it an even four and because in the bottle it bears a similarity to the OPI. Not so much in the bottle pic I featured because my camera really brings out the blue in SS, it leans a little more grey in real life. On to the swatches!

Zoya Dove, two coats in overcast daylight. As you'll see in the last picture Dove is the lighter of the two grey cremes. Personally I could have a million variations of a medium grey creme so I love it. What can I say about Dove that hasn't already been blogged about? It's beautiful.

Claire's Rain Drops is almost, almost a dupe for Zoya Dove but is just a touch more blue. Barely. This was also two coats here. I featured this polish in another post, the one where I stamped for the first time.

OPI I Vant To Be A-lone Star. OPI describes this as a light blue shimmer but I don't see any blue in it. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty light grey shimmer. I balked at first at getting both this and Sea Spray because I thought they would be dupes but the two are much more similar in the bottle then they are on the nail. This was the only Texas collection polish I picked up.

China Glaze Sea Spray. Normally I wouldn't throw SS in a comparison with the grey polishes but I wanted to compare it to IVTBALS myself. I think SS is my favorite of the day. I did this one last so that I could wear it as a full mani. I'm still looking at it now and it is just the perfect soft muted light blue. The subtle shimmer seen in the bottle is not as evident on the nail I found that adding top coat (which I did after I took this pic) helped that a little bit.

And finally, the whole gang all together. I'm not actually wearing top coat here, I just held the SV bottle to be free of any bias XD. Dove is obviously the lighter creme and SS is obviously the more blue of the two shimmers. All are keepers in my book!

Polish Teal I Drop

2011-04-13T16:21:00.000-07:00

Teal comparisons! Teal is such a lovely spring color and now that the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and... I have an insane amount of studying to do? What's wrong with this picture? Well I'll take a break from that to play around with my stash. I've been meaning to do a myriad of comparison posts for a long time so I am mighty proud of myself for getting around to this. Yay me!

From L to R: Orly Viridian Vinyl, China Glaze Flyin' High, Sally Hansen The Real Teal, China Glaze Custom Kicks

Indoors

Outdoors

Two outdoors pics because Viridian Vinyl is in the shadows in the best picture of the other ones. No dupes in this lot! Indoors The Real Teal... wait.. why did I label it as TTT?? NOOOO!! And of course I didn't save the other copy. Fantastic. For the record that is supposed to be TRT. Moving on.

Indoors The Real Teal and Custom Kicks look like dupes but in sunlight that is not the case. TRT has has a much more obvious shimmer, while CK is subtle. Golden and pretty, but subtle. FH is much too blue to even be considered a dupe and Virdian Vinyl has a matte finish, so although the color is right on par with CK I think the matte finish makes it unique enough to justify me owning both ;-)

Custom Kickin' it old school

2011-04-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

Custom Kicks is the headline polish from the Spring 2009 collection. i picked it up from Ulta a while ago and it has been lingering in my untrieds pile for ages. Now that it is springtime I am ready to break out the bright colors again! (I will miss you dark purple.. until next fall. Au revoir.) I own quite a few teal polishes so I try not to collect dupes but something about Custom Kicks caught my eye. And by something I mean, an amazing gold shimmer that really pops in the sunlight.

See it? It does a pretty good job of hiding in the pictures even though I took them in the direct sunlight from my open window. Shown here is two coats of Custom Kicks with a coat of topcoat over it, which seemed to dull the shimmer a little bit. I have another teal shimmer by Sally Hansen I'm going to compare it to. They won't be dupes because the shimmer in the other polish isn't gold but they'll be close.

New Editions!

2011-04-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

To my ever growing collection. After another successful dusty dive today I now own the entire 2BKEWL half of the OMG collection from China Glaze. I was so excited to find LOL and 2NITE to round off the cool half of the collection as well as He's Going in Circles from the Kaleidoscope collection.

In honor of Autism Awareness I am wearing 2NITE first.

Just soak up the holo goodness, and please disregard the lack of cleanup on my part, I was too excited to take and post the pictures of this amazing find! I was never crazy about holos until I bought a couple to try them out and now I am hooked. line and sinker. I'd really love to get my hands on the Tronica counterparts to the OMG's that I have but I can't find them anywhere and I really should give my debit card a break.

I found this baby for a mere $3 at a place called Nail Expo. The little Asian lady was very confused as to why I wanted a bottle that had a little usage. Just a little though, like it had been used for one mani before I bought it. Have any of you ever bought a used polish from a nail salon that you'd been hunting down? If not, is there a polish you'd consider buying used if you stumbled across it. I know I'd never turn down Lippmann Across the Universe, used or not!

I forgot!

2011-03-31T20:53:00.000-07:00

About this pretty little thing! From Nicole by OPI's target exclusive holiday collection I bring you Fell From the Tree. FFTT is my own personal piece of emerald green heaven. It is the exact color of my birthstone, and not to mention a perfect holiday green. The photo is almost exactly color accurate but makes it appear a little brighter then it really is. Application was perfect, opaque in two coats and the formula was a dream. Over Christmas I wore it topped with China Glaze's Party Hearty.

The picture didn't turn out very well :-( Bad lighting AND blurry but they looked so good together!

In my opinion this fall/holiday boasted some of the best collections. I loved every bit of OPI Swiss, CG Vintage Vixen, OPI Burlesque and CG Tis the Season to be Naughty or Nice? As far as spring goes the only collection I've felt that every color was a must have has been Zoya Intimate. Texas was a flop in my opinion but that's mainly because of the "sorbets." I detest VNL and those six colors are all so similar that they could almost all pass for the same one. There is just nothing in the entire collection that sticks out at me. I did end up getting I Vant to Be A-lone Star and although I haven't tried it yet one polish won't have me eating my words about the rest of the lackluster collection.

Don't get me wrong, there are several colors in Anchor's Away that I adore (First Mate, Sea Spray, Life Preserver) but the collection as a whole is not a must have. I suppose since Intimate is only a six color collection then it might be easier to make a dynamite collection filled with must haves, or maybe I'm just hard to please ;-)

On the other hand I was super excited to scoop up all of the holos coming out in the Tronica collection but balked as soon as reviews on a lot of the blogs I read claimed they boasted a much weaker holo effect then the famed OMG collection. Boo! What happened in two years that CG can't make a decent holo anymore?

Varnish Vixen's Giveaway!

2011-03-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Varnish Vixen is hosting the giveaway to end all spring giveaways! Seven different prize packages are up for grabs and the winners even get their pick of prize!

The prizes are as follows:

The Katy Perry Collection (including Black Shatter)

A set of China Glaze Holographic Polishes

MAC Wonder Woman Polishes

Three BB Couture Polishes

Rescue Beauty Lounge Insouciant

Illamasqua Scorn

A grab bag of 19 polishes

Click here to view pictures of all of the prizes and enter into the giveaway! You must be a follower of Varnish Vixen to enter.

Shame on me.

2011-03-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

For a ten day hiatus. Is an extremely hectic academic schedule a valid excuse? Fear not, in this time I have not neglected my nails, just been neglecting blogging about them. Since I never posted about my myriad of St. Patrick's Day themed manicures I have belated gorgeous greens for you!

Sally Hansen Gentle Blossom. I love mint greens despite the fact that they give me lobster claw hands. The shimmer in this one makes it extra special. It is more of a blue toned mint green, along the line of Essie Mint Candy Apple but not as blue as Sinful Colors Mint Apple. This is from a line that Sally Hansen claims is "Miracle Growth" and will make your nails 30% longer after a week to 10 days of wear. Now I can never wear a polish for 10 days without changing it so I can't truly attest to it's miracle growing abilities but I have to doubt that a polish can make your nails longer when growth happens in the nail matrix underneath the skin...

Zoya Ivanka. I don't know how many of you got on the green promo at Zoya but I sure did. Ivanka did not disappoint. She is awesome. Greens are definitely my thing, especially emerald green. Ivanka looks like a glitter but applies smoothly and is opaque in three coats. I found that three coats that were on the thinner side worked best because if I started with two much polish it got kind of runny.

Zoya Gemma. Another lovely green from Zoya that I also obtained through a promo. I've been blown away by how many promos Zoya has been having lately. How can they be making any money at all? Gemma is a pea green that has a flash of blue/purple shimmer. This picture is taken indoors and at night so I had a hard time capturing the shimmer but it is there and it adds a completely unique element to Gemma, which in my opinion would have still been great even if it were just a creme.

China Glaze Four Leaf Clover. The only think I can think of is wow. Four Leaf Clover is incredible. Not quite a neon but still very bright. So bright that it did goofy things to the camera that is making it look way more teal and closer to CG Custom Kicks then it is in real life. Think about the color of a... hmm. Not very easy to describe! Strangely enough the first thing I think of is green frosting. I could just be hungry though. ;-) Even stranger, I think this might be my favorite of the batch, if I could pick a favorite out of a group of green polishes. I do love a prefect creme.

In other news I have reached five followers! A small accomplishment but one that makes me smile nonetheless. So thank you lovely followers of mine, I truly appreciate that you take the time to read my blog. I am slowly collecting polishes to put together for a giveaway for my followers but I'm going to go on a couple more dusty diving trips to see if I can't dig up something really good. Speaking of giveaways I have one from another blogger that I will be blogging about shortly. Trust me, this one is not to be believed! Until then I hope you enjoyed my belated St. Patty's Day post!

My dusty diving find of a lifetime.

2011-03-19T16:03:00.000-07:00

Otherwise known as, the time I scored several hard to find polishes at a bargain basement price. Still being relatively new to collecting nail polish, I missed out on the goodness that is the OMG collection by a couple years, and have been lemming for DV8 in a big way, but not enough to spend $22 on it from ebay. I considered Techno Teal as a substitute but after hearing from numerous sources that the holo effect leaves much to be desired I knew I'd still end up wanting DV8 anyways, not to mention the fact that I haven't been able to track down the Tronica collection at a couple different area Sally's. Lo and behold one day I am strolling past a little nail place called Pro Nails in my town when I spied silver bottles in an under the register counter. Knowing only good can come from that I ~~ran like the wind~~ calmly and collectedly strolled in and crouched down to stare at the glory before me.

For the quite astonishing price of $5 a bottle I added these beauties to my collection. DV8, Don't Be A Square, IDK, OMG, and BFF. I'm in polish heaven! Once the sun decides to shine around here I'll do a post about DV8, and sadly I'll have to wait to try the other four out because they are going to be birthday presents for me come May 22nd. I can hardly wait but DV8 will fill the hole in the meantime! How cool are the Kaleidoscope bottles?

Emily stamps for the first time... and it's love.

2011-03-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

I've always been intrigued by polish stamping, especially after reading Let them have Polish! and seeing all of the amazing designs she does, but have been wary about investing the money into it, as most plates cost about $7 each. What if I'm no good at it? Then that's good polish money wasted! Luckily, a girl I work with has a set that she let me borrow so I could get a feel for it before investing in my own set. Thanks Lauren! Lauren has only one Konad plate, the stamper and the scraper, and a huge set of Bundle Monster plates that she said worked just as well.

I started by applying Rain Drops, a light grey creme from Claire's as my base. I'm loving all the grey polishes I've seen this spring.

I watched a couple of instruction videos on youtube to get a feel of what I should do and decided on BM plate 20 as my first stamp. I did exactly as they said, scraped the polish, stamped quickly and...

Nothing on the stamper. Huh??

Puzzled, I try again. Nothing. Hmm.... mystery. Fifteen minutes later I find that this plate still has a plastic wrap on it. Oh.

Good one Em. After five minutes of grumbling about being outsmarted by nail art equipment I am ready to try and stamp again, sans plastic wrap. I get a much improved result, but still not the entire image. Several attempts with several plates/designs yield no better result. I end up trying the actual Konad plate to see if its something I'm doing wrong and I ended up with this.

Not bad for a first shot eh?? I used Revlon Lunar to stamp with. The next day I removed just the top design, painted another coat of Rain Drops and tried another design.

I love the way it turned out! This cemented my interest in Konad, but not my faith in Bundle Monster. The price is right, the BM plates are much cheaper on Amazon, but even with subsequent attempts with different polishes I have yet to get a decent image from a BM plate, which is pretty disappointing. When it comes down to it, I'd rather spend more to get a product that yields better results then save and end up with a headless peacock mani. Does anyone else use Konad or Bundle Monster and have better results? I'd love to get some opinions!

Isn't she lovely?

2011-03-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

Zoya Crystal is unlike any other polish I own or have wanted, and trust me, both lists are long. The gold flecks add the perfect element of interest to what would otherwise be just an average light blue shimmer polish. I've heard that is bears striking resemblance to a limited edition OPI polish called Reflecting Pool. I don't have a bottle of RP to compare with but judging by the comparison pictures I've seen Crystal can satisfy that lemming. I believe I used three coats for full coverage, the first was sheer but it built up nicely.

On the subject of Zoya polishes, did anyone else grab their chance to get the Intimate collection for $25 during Zoya's Women's Day promo? Or the three greens from their March 4th promo? I gave in and grabbed both! Still waiting for my Intimate collection to arrive!

The PolishAholic's One Year Blogiversary Giveaway!

2011-03-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

Congratulations are in order to Jen at The PolishAholic for a year of awesome blogging! If you've never seen her site before I highly encourage checking it out. To celebrate she is hosting a giveaway of four prize options including polishes from Misa, OPI, Nicole by OPI and Maybelline.

Click here to enter the giveaway and check out the prizes!

Parlez-vous OPI? Yes I do!

2011-03-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

Often described as the perfect grayed, muted, dusty lavender by... yours truly, I am not exaggerating when I say PVO may be my favorite nail polish. (But don't tell the others I said that!)

This gorgeous polish is from OPI's French Collection. It is supposed to be discontinued but I picked my bottle up from Ulta just this December on a rack with plenty of other bottles! What a great find for me! Even better, I suffered no application issues with PVO, it applied creamy and smooth and covered perfectly in two coats, it's a dream polish!

I added a gold foil finish polish over it (Finger Paints Key To My Art) to make it a Ruffian, as I have been doing with a lot of my manicures when they chip lately but I hated the way it looked so I didn't even take any pictures.

Does anyone else love PVO as well? Or have any suggestions for other grayed lavender polishes in a similar vein that I should try out?

The One That Got Away... and then some.

2011-03-04T14:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last post, so I have one I've been excited about! The weekend before Valentine's Day I picked up the Katy Perry Minis from Trade Secret and plopped them right in my untrieds box (which now contains about 20 polishes... good grief) where they would stay until the end of February. I finally picked up The One That Got Away, wanting to stick to my promise to wear only reds and pinks throughout February I tried it out.

It's a nice pink... but nothing really original. Nice shimmer, pretty bright magenta color but doesn't blow my mind. I had just been wearing Let Me Entertain You though, and they are remarkably similar. The shimmer in LMET has the glass flecked look and in TOTGA is not but unless you are a nail fanatic [but really, who else would be reading this? ;-)] the difference would be lost on you.

Since I've been wearing nothing but pinks all month I've been itching to try out a new look, especially the Ruffian manicure, since although I love the look I am not very good at it yet. I slapped a coat of Revlon Navy Baby on top of my nails.

Taadaa! I'm not claiming perfection here but it's a far cry above my last attempt. (Here if you dare... it's not pretty). I really love this look and I think I'm making progress! I really like the way the magenta pops compared to the inky dark look of Navy Baby. Navy Baby is the darkest dark blue shimmer I own and usually looks black in most lights. It also has a tendency to stain nails, so I would not apply it without a basecoat.

And because I couldn't leave well enough alone

I added China Glaze Fairy Dust over Navy Baby to give it some holo sparkle. Unfortunately it was night out so the lighting is not very good but the slightly blurred picture makes the holo sparkle effect look awesome. I'm always captivated by the look that Fairy Dust gives polishes, you should have seen me sitting at my desk doing nothing but turning my hands under the light to check out how my nails looked in different angels!

Any thoughts? Does anyone else love Fairy Dust?

Retro Red

2011-02-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

True to my word I have stuck to wearing all pink and red polishes in honor of Valentine's Day for this entire month.

Today we have Orly's Retro Red from the Plastix collection of last spring. I picked this and two others from the collection up from Sally Beauty for less then half the price in the fall, sometimes it pays to wait! The Plastix collection has sort of a velvety matte finish. Retro Red is a bright, warm, almost neon orange red, actually looking more orange here then I'd like it too but it was very hard to capture, especially in artificial light - there was no sun to be seen. It makes me think of summer time, which should help to drag me through the dreary February weather.

Until next mani!

ELF Matte top coat... that unexpectedly turned crackle?

2011-02-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

During an ELF promotion I added their matte topcoat to my order to try it out. It was only a dollar, as are most of their products and I have been pretty impressed with the quality of the eye shadows and brush kits I bought from them. I have always liked the way glitter polishes look when made matte so I applied it over my polish and imagine my surprise when this is what I got.

Honest to God, I don't own any crackle polish. The first two nails I applied it to were my thumb and pinkie, and instead of drying matte like the rest of my fingers did, they dried crackle! It was so bizarre! I put some polish remover on a Q-tip to try and take only the topcoat off to spare myself from redoing the entire nail and it had the effect I desired.. removed the unwanted crackle effect and left a matte finish. I decided that maybe since the polish had beenout in the cold for a long time (It sat out overnight on my porch over Christmas Eve) that the chemical composition had been altered somehow. I used it again this weekend and the same thing happened.

The first couple of fingers I applied it to crackled and the rest came out matte. I'll chalk it up an unsolved polish mystery.

First photo: Frankenpolish I call "Almost Alice" and ELF Matte topcoat
Second photo: OPI Let Me Entertain You and ELF Matte Topcoat

China Glaze Salsa: surpassing expectations.

2011-02-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

I'm impressed! This mani lasted through a tough couple days with only minimal chips! By tough I mean a few hours of indoor rock climbing which is nothing but trouble for my nails, and then work at the restaurant on my college campus right after where I washed dishes! I expected my mani to be trashed after that but it held up very well!

Shown here is two coats of China Glaze Salsa with one coat of INM Out The Door Topcoat. Salsa is a gorgeous warm bright red creme that is a part of China Glaze's core line. I got my bottle at Sally Beauty for $4.99 with Beauty Club card.

Valentine's Day - Simple and soft

2011-02-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

I've decided that in honor of Valentine's Day and all the varied choices I have regarding my manicure choices that this will be a month of pink and red manicures. :-) By the end of the month I'll probably be so sick of reds and pinks that I'll never wear them again. That's a risk I'm willing to take.

Currently I'm wearing Panda-monium Pink from OPI's Hong Kong collection from Spring 2010. This is the perfect baby pink. The soft cool tones flatter my skin tone very well. No application problems, standard two coats for complete coverage, unlike the other baby pink I'll talk about next.

Brace yourself... this one's pretty bad.

Guh. The horror. Messy application of the base... uneven application of the second polish... wore this for less then a day until I ended up hating it so much it all had to go. It might not be clear but this was my first attempt at doing a Ruffian manicure and obviously that turned into a disaster! I made the mistake of choosing difficult polishes to work with in the first place. The base pink is Revlon Pink Chiffon, which is hands down the streakiest polish I own and gives me the most application grief. It takes nearly 4-5 coats to become completely opaque and drying time takes a while. More then once I've considered pitching it but its so pretty. The color itself is a warm baby pink which I would recommend if it wasn't such a huge pain.

The top color is obviously China Glaze Mrs. Clause. This polish is best described as a light red jelly finish with pink silvery glitter. Ruffian manicures require precise application and that was not easy to achieve with this polish and my unsteady hand. I opted not to use the smile guides method as I like the look of applying the second polish on top better then just painting a line over my cuticle. Next time I try to do a Ruffian I'm going to find some polishes more willing to cooperate :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

-Em

Tis the season... for nail polish giveaways!

2011-02-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

I came across yet another polish giveaway for February that I wanted to share.. there must be romance in the air... or at least something that is prompting bloggers to be so generous! :D

The polishes in the picture will be split into two awesome prize packages that any polish fanatic would be lucky to win!

Click here to enter!

Edgy Valentine's Day Mani for under $10

2011-02-08T20:05:00.000-08:00

I love a good drugstore polish, and lately there seem to be more and more coming out at Walgreens to tempt me. I know I can't be the only one wowed by how cool Sally Hansen's new Xtreme Wear color "Grey Area" is. That's not what I'm here for now though.

Sinful Colors never fails to surprise me. For being such an inexpensive brand at only $1.99 a bottle, they sure do have some awesome polishes out right now. Today I'm talking about one I picked up just yesterday and interrupted my evening plans to change my previous mani even though I'd just polished the day before.

WHAT UP PINK HOLO GLITTER!!

The polishes featured are Sinful Colors "I Miss You" layered over Sally Hansen Intsa-Dri "Night Flight."

Due to minor issues I had in application, which I will delve into later, there is more glitter on my left hand then right. I think I like the right hand better, where the glitter is more sparse because more of the black shows through. On either hand I can not stop looking at how cool the holo effect looks when I view it at different angles. "I Miss You" is a pale pink glitter with larger pieces of holo glitter, but for some reason the pink is pretty washed out in my pictures, it looks much brighter, like a cotton candy pink on the nail in person. The pink glitter really pops against the black background, ditching the cutesy-traditional Valentine's mani for an edgier look.

I took a super blurry picture to show off the holo effect but of course had trouble capturing the awesomness in action. It looks better in the bottle then on the nail in this picture, but the holo on the nail is just as awesome as the bottle looks.

As for application... yeesh. The Insta-Dri dried in about a minute as usual, but I waited a few minutes anyways before layering "I Miss You" over it. The formulas of these polishes must not have agreed because I had pretty significant drag while applying the glitter and it got so bad on one nail that I had to scrap it and redo the entire thing from the beginning. Grrr... For my right hand I waited at least 10 minutes before applying the glitter and seemed to have an easier time with it. Regardless, I broke out my big guns to finish it all off -- I was not about to bang this manicure up because of my impatience. One thick layer of Seche Vite sealed this sucker right up and I haven't had any problems since then.

Thoughts on drugstore polish? Love it or leave it?

Blogger shortwidenails is hosting a giveaway!

2011-02-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

To celebrate her 300 followers she is giving away five gorgeous polishes from OPI and Color Club along with a nail art set complete with image plates, stamper and scraper.

Check out the fabulous prize below

If you haven't entered what are you waiting for?? Click Here to enter.

Kick off post - CG Bogie + LA Colors Gold striper.

2011-02-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

I've been contemplating blogging about my adventures in nail polish for a while and today, whilst procrastinating studying for my exam feels like the right time... also because I created a pretty cute design while watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet :-)

For this mani I used:
China Glaze Bogie
Wet & Wild Precious Metals Collection Pink Sheen
LA Colors Striper Polish in Gold Glitter
INM Out The Door Topcoat

The prospect of launching my new blog excited me so much that I forgot to clean up my cuticles :-( Forgive me?

In one word, CG Bogie is awesome. I have a huge soft spot for purple polishes and this one nuzzles in there nicely. The dark, shimmery eggplant shade makes me smile and I love to look at it from different angles to catch the multicolored microshimmer. I purchased my bottle of Bogie last fall at Ulta for $6.50, but since it is part of a seasonal collection I'm not sure if it will still be widely available.

Pink Sheen is a color I got ages ago from a drugstore, long before I came to love polish as I do. It is a pale pink frosty shimmer and although I usually don't go crazy for pinks something about this one calls to me. Perhaps its the densely packed pink and silver microglitter. Love me some glitter. Unfortunately I bought Pink Sheen so long ago I'm not sure where from or for how much :-(

The Gold Striper Polish I used retails at the Dollar Tree for... $1! The brand is LA Colors and the shade is called Gold Glitter. This is the first striper polish I have used so I cannot compare how the brush handles vs. other brands but I found it pretty easy to use for my simple horizontal stripe. Once I perfect my striper brush dexterity I will attempt more complex designs.

That's all for now, I hope someone else will enjoy my first post as much as I have :-)