J-E-L-L-O - Fail or Win?

Happy Friday! I don't know how to feel about my latest mani. I used two really cool polishes but am not sure it was right to use them together! I started off with American Apparel Zuma Beach, which is a kiwi green jelly, this is apart of their "Sheer" collection of polishes. American Apparel polishes rarely disappoint and Zuma Beach was no exception. This has got to be one of the best jelly formulas I have ever come across!

It applies mostly sheer in one coat, but builds up nicely with two coats. Three coats gives full coverage. I wish I had taken a photo of my nails with Zuma Beach on it's own, but I decided to do a jelly sandwich! My glitter of choice? Wet n' Wild School of Pyrotechnics, a limited edition multi-coloured hex glitter released last summer.

The formula on School of Pyrotechnics was a bit weird, the clear base was a little runny, which is better than being too thick, however I found it took a bit of effort to get the glitter in the nail. Using the blotting method I tried my best to apply as much glitter as I could. I added the glitter over two coats of Zuma Beach, then added one last coat of School of Pyrotechnics to sandwich it in!

At first it kind of reminded me of jello with fruit suspended within, but once I noticed how kiwi the colour was in different lighting I regretted not using a black glitter for kiwi nails! I'm still not sure how I feel about the mani as a whole. I do really like Zuma Beach though, such an effortless glossy jelly. What do you think, yay or nay?

Happy Belated Valentines!

I fell a tad bit behind again on Thursday and Friday, but better late than never, right? Today I have the Valentines mani I wore on Valentines day. I was super in the spirit of Valentines this year, I even went out and got my family each a little something complete in heart covered packaging, a pink bow and old school valentine cards. I left them out before I left the house Thursday morning as a surprise when they woke up!

Did you have anything planned on Thursday or over the weekend? I made dinner for my boyfriend, I also baked him a little something special and got him some chocolate, because you know, chocolate rocks! On to the nail art. I had so many ideas of what I wanted to to for valentines and when it actually came time to sit down and so it it was hard to make a final decision.

Using American Apparel's Coney Island as a base, I cut made a heart shaped template out of tape and stuck it to the middle of each nail so I could paint a heart on each nail. To fill in each heart I used Revlon Girly, which by the way I love so much more than I thought i would. Unfortunately the slight base colour was not enough of a contract with the pink base, so to make the heart shape stand out I used a dotting tool dipped in white acrylic paint to outline the heart. This was my first time using acrylic paint for nail art and I will absolutely be using it again! For dotting it was great because it doesn't dry up as quickly as polish and it has a nice thin consistency :)

Whether you celebrated with friends, family, significant other or not even at all I hope you had a good day :)

Cotton Candy - I NEED YOUR HELP: Valentines Nail Art

Only one day left until Valentines and I am sporting a baby pink in anticipation :) This is Coney Island by American Apparel. I had originally thought this would have been a lighter shade of pink, pastel perhaps, but it is actually more vibrant. That's not to say it's a bright bubble gum pink, it's just not as stark.

The formula was ok, only two coats were needed for opacity and it was not streaky at all. It was a tad thick but nothing unmanageable. I accidentally added Seche Clear as a top coat to my left hand only lol I was wondering why my Seche Vite was suddenly so thin! I quickly applied a proper top coat of Seche Vite for gloss and a quick dry.

I am still deciding what kind of nail art I'd like to do over top this polish for Valentines, and ideas?

Haulin' Jellies

I seem to have been hauling like crazy the last two months. Little bursts here and there during the months of October and November but in the end it is a large grouping of polish. Today I have some more American Apparel polishes, I picked up the newer ones from the sheer collection.

I was showing them to my sister and she asked why would they call them sheer? Who would want to buy sheer polish? Technically they are jellies, but I do think its good that they label them as sheer for those who don't know much about polish finish. It's almost like a warning! One thing I found a bit weird about the packaging is that the bottles are frosted, I have a close up of the bottle below:

When I see a frosted bottle I automatically think matte polish, however I shouldn't complain because I really do like these versions of the AA bottles! I also love how these polishes all look together, they would make a great skittle mani in the summer :)

First up are Moonlight Beach and Redondo Beach.

Moonlight Beach is a medium blue jelly that I also almost didn't even pick up, the reason being a have many deep blue jellies. Since this is more of a medium I figured I should pick it up. It looks to be opaque in two coats on my wheel, but may need three on the nail.

Another blue, Redondo Beach, which is a light powder blue jelly. I think I was most excited about this one, very versatile for layering.

The next two, Pacific Beach and Zuma Beach

Pacific Beach is a bright teal green jelly, I think it may be my favourite colour out of the four that I picked up. My swatches below show only two coats. This one appeared to be the thinnest out of the four, I'd probably need additional coat on the nail. It also wasn't as shiny as the others.

Zuma Beach is a bright yellow-green jelly, very Shrek-like. In the store I was iffy about this one but I am glad I decided to pick it up. It is opaque in two coats on my nail wheel and has a super shiny, squishy finish.

Below are swatches of each polish, two coats each in the sun and shade.

There are two other jellies in the collection that I am aware of, Summerland Beach is a light pink and Manhattan Beach is a medium coral. I was actually really excited about Manhattan Beach when I saw the promo photos online but in person it leaned a lot more pink than coral in my opinion.

Do you have any of these jellies? What so you like to layer with them, I need some ideas!

Small Haulin'

I got some new polishes, Woohoo! Just some randoms today. Incase you didn't already know American Apparel has a promo going on right now for a free lip gloss and nail polish! Awesome, right? I went with my mother and sister and since they weren't impressed with the colour selection they gave me their polish :) so here is what I got:

Left to right Sunset Blvd., Neon Blue and African Violet.

Sunset Blvd. was the hardest to photograph, in the photos it looks orange, but in reality it is a coraly pink/orange. It is very bright!

Neon Blue is hardly neon in my opinion lol I was so exited for this one but when I saw it in the store I was like really? neon? In any case it is medium blue. It doesn't dry to a matte finish like other neons which is a plus!

African Violet I have been wanting for a while, I actually thought it was already apart of my collection to be honest! It is the most perfect shade of purple, I love purple on my nails, it goes well with my skintone I find. This polish very much reminds me of an old Sally Hansen I have that that it about one quarter to half way finished. I loved that purple but haven't worn it in a while because I didn't want to waste it, but now I have some backup ;) 

Below is each polish at one coat, natural light.

Same swatches with my camera flash below.

Did you participate in this promo? Which polish did you pick up?

The Layering Continues! Glitter Sandwich

Happy Friday!! I cannot wait for the weekend to start. So a random thought popped in my head the other night before I headed to bed and I knew I must try it. I had thought to myself I wonder how a layer of blue jelly polish would look over my Dive Bar, Meteor Shower concoction...

I didn't think, I just did it! And I am soooo glad :) I applied a thin layer of Revlon's Royal and this manicure just came to life. The glitter looked like crushed ice trapped between the layers of polish. This has got to be one of my favorite layering experiments ever!

It just looks so great, nothing else so say. I'll let the photos do the talking:

Gold Shards of Glitter

I decided to refresh my mani the other day with a thick coat of American Apparel's Meteor Shower. I got the inspiration from another mani I had seen with a black base and gold hex glitter in top.

I find the best way to apply these chunky, sparse glitters is to dab the burst at the base of the nail and gently blot and swipe up to make sure enough glitter appears on the nail.

This combo was alright, it didn't wow me like I had hoped it would. I do love how irregularly shaped the glitter is, so sharp and pointy. They are like little pieces of broken glass.

I have been really craving glitter lately! I hope the removal for this one isn't too bad since it's not a huge amount of glitter.

New American Apparel Polish!!

I just got this in my inbox last night from American Apparel: To celebrate the Summer weather, we've releases a limited-edition (for Summer only) line of 6 vibrant-yet-sheer colors inspired, and named after California beaches. The 6 new shades are; Summerland Beach, Manhattan Beach, Zuma Beach, Moonlight Beach, Redondo Beach, and Pacific Beach.

 These new sheer lacquers are unlike other sheers polishes. It's highly pigmented making it perfect for layering art or ombre effects. These lacquers are cruelty-free as well as DBP, Toluene and Formaldehyde free, like all of our other nail lacquers! They are now available online as well as in stores across the US (and soon internationally).

Pretty cool huh? I like how they did the models nails, cant wait to give these a try and see how they build up.

Royal

I actually purchased this unintentionally, I meant to pick up Cameo Blue instead! Oh well, I must have liked Mount Royal enough in the store to buy it, right? Mount Royal is a dusty royal blue cream, simple as that. It applied fantastic in one coat, it has a thicker consistency that most of my other polishes but applies nice and smoothly.

To finish this look off I applied a coat of NYC's quick dry top coat. Mount Royal dried pretty quick on it's own, but the top coat added the perfect amount of gloss. And wouldn't you know it, I forgot to take a photo :(

That is before I did some fauxnading. I used Bundle Monster plate BM-224. I used two opiates to stamp with to create a gradient effect. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Brisk Blue and Color Club's Take Me To Your Chateau.

I really like the effect, tone on tone with the gradient gave it some depth.

Mannequin Hands?

Today I have a polish I purchased from American Apparel, Mannequin. I'm pretty sure it's apart of the latest shades released, although I'm not sure when exactly it was released.

I would describe this shade as a nude cream with yellow undertones. The yellow undertone is was made me need this polish. Most nudes look pink on me and I thought this one would mesh better with my skin colour.

Overall application sucked for an AA polish. Every other one I own applies like butter, usually in one coat and is greatly pigmented. Mannequin applied very streaky and thick the first coat, I thought I got a bad bottle or something. Sure enough after searching around other blogs, they had the same to say.

That being said, with a little bit of thinner two coats worked fine for me. Seche Vite also helped to smooth everything out and add a glossy finish.

Overall I really liked this polish on my nails and think it would even work well in the summer time when I have a bit of a tan. It would be the perfect light peach for my skin tone.

Holiday Hauling

Today's haulng was spread out from before Christmas up until January 2nd. I'll just get right in to it, the first polish I picked up was before Christmas and was glad to find it half off :) I finally found Pumpkin Spice, super glad to have it!

The next couple of polishes I picked up for an amazing price through a group buying site, at the moment I can't remember the exact one I used. The promo was basically 5 polishes for $15, best deal for American Apparel I have found. I love their formula, so I was super excited to find this deal.

From left to right I have Army Jacket, Mount Royal, Coney Island, Mannequin and one of the new glitters, Meteor Shower.

Just after Christmas I went to the mall and found Zoya's Neeka on sale at Trade Secrets for about half off which I was really excited about. It's this gorgeous greyed out purple with these tiny gold flecks, sooo my kind of colour :)

Later that day I passed by Sephora and picked up some polishes with some gift cards I got for Christmas. You've already seen Looks Like Rain, Dear, but I also picked up Sugar Plum Faries Gone Wild. That was an impulse buy while I was in line to pay. It looks cool, but I didn't get a chance to swatch it in store so I'm still on the fence about keeping it, that's why it's still sealed.

I got a good amount of money in giftcards for Sally's so this is what I picked up just after new years. I got some good deals there too! I picked up some holiday colours and one I had been lusting over for a while. Plus they had  a buy 3 Orly get $5 off. Left to right I picked up Au Champaign, Bailamos and Le Chateau.

Sally's also had another promo going on, buy Seche Vite, get a China Glaze Free, so I picked up White Cap. Pretty good deal, they came out to around $4.50 each with the discount!

Lastly at Sally's I picked up some of the new flakies from Finger Paints, from left for right I have Twisted, Flecked and Asylum.

The last polish related purchase I made was at Wal Mart, all of their holiday gifts/gift sets were half off, so I picked up these two mini polishes. They both came with rings, I just happened to be wearing one at the time ;) It's weird that in Canada the polish is the only beauty product we don't get in the Hard Candy display. This polish reminded me of Lava, I picked up 2 since they were minis and 50 cents each. I couldn't find the actual names for these ones.

That's all for now, I'll have another haul post coming up tomorrow. I've had that post ready for a while, can't wait to share it with you, it includes my OPI holos!

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Halo Stamping :)

Hello ladies,

I actually wanted to post this mani on Friday, but blogger wasn't letting me upload my photos :( Oh well, I have it now. I was playing around with my BM plates and Sally Hansen Nail pPrisms in diamond (pure white halo, think china Glazes OMG). Although the Nail Prisms line is pretty sheer, if used quick enough it will work for a subtle blingy Konad :)

I decided to go with a swirly almost water marble design over my past mani of American Apparel, Peacock. I could not get this to photograph correctly at all! Please enlarge the photos to see the halo and design more clearly. For the first and last pictures I had to use my desk lamp to capture the halo and deign.

As you can see below with the flash, it is hard to capture the beauty of the halo pattern.

For the most part I was just playing around and decided to change the mani up right after these photos. As you can see more clearly in the photo below, I double stamped some nails and it was obvious enough to bug me lol.

It does look super cool though, I will try something similar again in the spring or summer when I can actually enjoy the halo in the sun.