Sparkle in the Sky

What to do when you are super busy and have no time to do your nails, but you are in MAJOR need to do your nails and have under 10 mins?

TEXTURED POLISH!

I literally took of my previous many on Monday night, applied base coat on Tuesday at some point and FINALLY had the 8 minutes or so to paint my nails on Wednesday. Crazy, right?

Textured polish has saved me many of times and Finger Paints Sparkle in the Sky was the perfect shade to wear given the holiday season! plus it adds just enough sparkly to be a little something extra.

Sparkle in the sky is apart of Finger Paints 2013 Enchanted Winter collection and it was my must have polish that season, and I only decided to wear it now! The base is an inky indigo and the "glittery" texture is made up of what looks like pink and gold shimmer. it really is a stunner.

Application was good, the polish wasn't overly thick like some textured polishes can be. I applied two coats to each nail and touched up about 4 days in for a family event I was headed to (again, no time to do a new, full mani). That is another plus of textured polishes, usually they wear like iron, however should they chip they are super easy to touch up and dry in a snap.

I really hope textures don't go away any time soon! The only negative I can say about this polish in general, is from what I recall this collection was not marketed as a textured collection, meaning there was no indication that they would dry to a matte and textured finish. I only found out online, I can't quite remember if there were swatches in store. Even though I knew, I would appreciate a clear indicator the next time.

True Grit!

Do you ever impulsively buy a polish (always) and bring it home only to have it sit on your desk or in a drawer for eternity before even attempting to wear it? I do that from time to time but found a real gem not too long ago!

I picked up Nicole by OPI, On What Grounds on a whim, the turquoise colour was pretty and I was curious about the texture. I almost left it, but I picked it up anyway and had a little bit of regret as I left the store, did I really need another pretty turquoise in my collection?

This didn't sit for too long, although I did want to try it out sooner. It is just so cool, super unique in my collection. This textured turquoise polish is speckled like a robins egg and dries to a visibly gritty sand texture. I only needed two coats for full, even coverage. It's as if a turquoise stone were ground down in to sand and painted on my nails!

I am curious to see what this would look like with a top coat, I meant to try it out before removing but must have forgotten. Did you pick up any polishes from this collection?

March Haulin'

I have been pretty good lately and limiting my polish purchases. I did order a set of the China Glaze spring polishes, but that hasn't arrived yet...

Other than that collection (I just purchased the Road Trip Ready set), I have picked up some randoms during the month of March. I will start with a few I picked up while shopping across the boarder.

Revlon, Confident - a red jelly polish with red glitter in various shapes and sizes.

Funky Fingers, Sea Glass - A glitter topper with pastel blue, pink, white green and purple glitter in various shapes and sizes.

Next was an impulsive "sale" purchase... although most usually are...

I don't regret this one though, that's always good!
Nicole By OPI, On What Grounds - A bright pastel blue textured polish with darker blue and brown textured flecks.

It is really interesting. The texture is like stucco, which I hate in real life, but love in this polish. It is very similar to the texture used in China Glaze, Bump in the Night. What I love about Nicole by OPI's take on it us the addition of coloured "flecks" or pieces of whatever they have put in it to give it some extra depth. Very unique in my collection. It's as if a turquoise stone was ground in to tiny pieces.

A Small, Neutral Haul

I ordered some polishes from Amazon around early February, and receiving them now I can see I was totally inspired by the hopes of spring coming early and Valentines. None of these polishes are from newer collections, just ones I had been meaning to pick up, plus I had some Amazon credit accumulated from Swagbucks. Lets start off with the OPIs.

From left to right, My Vampire is Buff and I Theadora You.

My Vampire is Buff has been calling to me for a while, I've just put off buying it for too long. It's a very light beigey neutral with the slightest hint of nude. MrCandiiPants on YouTube (among others) uses it often for her beautiful artwork, I just knew I had to add it to my collection as well. Two coats of this creme are shown in my swatch below.

I Theadora You is from the Wizard of OZ collection released last year. This sheer baby pink jelly is super sweet and delicate. I love OPI Bubble Bath and wanted a pinker option to wear on its own or a base for nail art and glitter sandwiches. Three coats are shown in my swatch below.

Next Up is a sparkly China Glaze.

China Glaze Hello Gorgeous was released apart of the United in Purpose collection from 2012. It is so much more awesome in person! It is comprised of dense pink HOLO microglitter. This just shines to beautifully. It dries a bit gritty which is expected from glitters like these from China Glaze, so extra topcoat will be needed for a smooth and glossy shine. I used three coats for full coverage in my swatch below.

Last, but not least, I have a new Zoya Pixie dust, the second Pixie Dust added to my collection, and it impresses way better than the first, Carter. Godiva, I just love that name, is a neutral tan textured glitter.  really love this one, mainly because it is like sparkling sand on your nails and it makes me crave  summer! I applied two regular coats and a final thin coat on top for full coverage in my swatch below.

One last random that was not apart of my Amazon purchase is this adorable Cover Girl Outlast polish in Pina Colada.

The RCSS was clearing a bunch of makeup items last week for crazy cheap, between 25 to 50 cents each! There were also some other items between $1.00 and $2.00. This cute little yellow polish set me back 50 cents and I just had to try it out. It is a little brighter on the nail than the pastel colour in the bottle and took me two to three coats to get fully opaque, it was a tad streaky. But it is a yellow creme!

Last Haul Before Chriatmas...

Happy Friday! Continuing with catching up on posts from late December, today I have my last haul before Christmas, originally it was to be posted on December 21 2013. Hopefully if you like what you see you are still able to pick these up and for a greatly discounted price ;)

I stopped by Sallys over the weekend quite by accident and picked up some of the last of my lemmings from the holiday collections. Lucky for me they had everything I wanted! I also had my first look at the new OPI section and I must say that it wasn't anything super exciting. I didn't look through every colour, but I was at least expecting the latest collection to be out in display. I wonder if they are only carrying the core colours. I hope they start to carry the new collections as they are released.

Edit: Since then I have seen much advertising for the new Gwen Stefani line so it looks like they will be carrying the new collections as they are released, yay! One stop polish shopping!

On another note, has anyone else encountered a pricing increase recently at their Sally's? I sweare their pricing has had to have gone up by a dollar!  And I have the pro card, it was like I was paying regular beauty club pricing. If so that really sucks. I'll have to ask the next time I am in, I only realized when I left and took a closer look at the receipt.

I may have gone in hoping so score OPI's but ended up with China Glaze and Finger Paints. Some more Happy Holiglaze polish for me, Put a Bow on it and Be Merry, Be Bright.

Put a Bow on it is an interesting shade, from swatches online it looked purple, in store it looked pink. I have come to the conclusion that it is a bright magenta with a scattered reflection of purple. This is a dense glitter with a clear base, it built up to opacity on my nail wheel in three coats. I wish it had a slight base to help with opacity. I may try layering this over a similar coloured polish when I decide to wear it.

Be Merry, Be Bright is a surprisingly densely packed glitter made up of various sized pink and purple hex glitter in a clear base. It reminds me of cranberries or holly berries or something! I initially was not interested in this glitter, but it grew on me. Your Present Required was so awesome it made me want to try BMBB, plus it should be great for layering and jelly sandwiches. My nail wheel shows one coat!! No dabbing, just a regular coat. I am very impressed with the density of the glitter and ease of application! This would look great layered between a glittery red jelly, I'm thinking China Glaze Ruby Red Pumps or Essie Leading Lady.

Swatches from left to right, Put a Bow On It and By Merry, Be Bright.

Finger Paints has been stepping up their game lately, I am really impressed! I picked up one Finger Paints for each of their holiday/winter collections and both should be considered textured, however there was no clear indicator so I am still kind of confused lol.

The first, Sparkle in the Sky apart of the Enchanted Winter collection is apparently a close dupe for OPI's liquid sand, Alkatraz Rocks. A cheaper version of a polish I want? Score! The colour is hard to describe, a inky, purple, sparkly indigo textured polish. Again, assuming it is textured, there was no indicator if it was apart of any sort of special collection. Two coats built up nicely on my nail wheel swatches below.

The next polish I picked up was due to Karen from Frazzle and Aniploish showing of the lovely shade. Golden Kisses apart of the Holiday Love Afair collection is a gold, shimmery polish that dried to a textured finish but I can't wait to try a glossy top coat over it I see what it looks like for myself! Karen tried it out, if you are interested click the link to her blog above.

Also random thought, I just realized Finger Paints marked theURL for their site on the bottle as seen in the photo below, good promotion I guess! I checked out the link, however, and the site does not exist lol.

Swatches from left to right, Sparkle In The Sky and Golden Kisses.

I love how these colours can be used during, after and in between the holidays. Do you have any faves?

De-texturing A Liquid Sand

Although I love the finish of OPI, Get Your Number apart of the Mariah Carry Liquid Sands collection (released last year), I just had to see what it looked like with a nice glossy top coat! I first added a thin layer of topcoat over Get Your Number and stamped with a Born Pretty Store dupe plate for Konad M-77. I was actually inspired by a summer look I did with the same design a few years back, you can view that here.

I applied the necklace designs to my ring fingers and thumbs and accented with a tiny pearl on each nail. I added a final layer of top coat to seal the design and was done! My photos were taken right after application, so they looks nice and glossy. I would probably need one last layer if topcoat to make this mani smooth and super glossy. The sandy texture really absorbs the top coat!

After trying this polish with and without topcoat I would have to say I prefer it on its own without a topcoat, I lot less effort plus it is so tough and long wearing! I thought that applying a top coat would make removal a bit easier, but I think it actually made it worse! That is the only thing I dislike about glitter polish, it takes more work than usual to remove, lots of scrubbing!

So Sugary! My First Ever Textured Nails!

My first Liquid Sands polish! As I have stated previously, the whole textured trend really wasn't doing anything me when it was first introduced late last year. Somewhere along the way I got curious and decided I should try it for myself. I almost purcahsed Get Your Number, apart of the original Mariah Carry Collection, last winter. I loved the colour but not the texture so I ended up leaving it behind. Fast-forward to last month, I must have purchased five textured polishes then! The one thing I do like about this trend is that it seems each brand has their own interpretation of "textured" polish. Makes it more interesting when shopping around. Today I have Get Your Number in all it's textured glory!

Get Your Number is blue jelly base jam packed with various sized holo glitter, even though it is matte it is so glittery! It applied perfectly with no issues. During application I only applied two coats, however I ended up adding a third in the photos posted. The two coats I originally had gave the perfect blue raspberry sour candy texture! I really loved it, and kind of regret adding the extra coat! Don't get me wrong, it's still super pretty, but I feel like it had more of a sugar texture with two coats.

I decided to add the third coat to add some opacity, two coats was good, but I had slightly visible nail line showing though. So far wear on this polish has been fantastic, showering, cleaning, washing dishes and no chips!  Below shows the polish after about five full days of wear. These best thing about this polish is that if you do get some chips, they are really easy to fill in with polish to fix up your mani!

Great formula, texture and longevity, I think I have to try a few more of these Liquid Sands ;) I am hoping to pick up Alcatraz Rocks, but I can't seem to find it.

Polish Picks for Late Fall!

Finally, a short list of my fave polishes for fall! I meant to get this up earlier, however in September I was extending the wear of my summer polishes, and October was all about Halloween! November is the perfect month to rock some vampy fall shades before December when everything is snow and Christmas! Wow, where did this year go, it's almost December again!

I have so many fall polishes I love but I have narrowed it down to six different finishes with corresponding polishes for what I am loving this year. In no particular order here are my fall picks for 2013. You can click the link in the polish name to see the full posts I have on these polishes.

Creme - OPI, Skull and Glossbones

I love this light grey neural for fall. It has a great formula and looks simple and chic. A great base for glitter or nail art.

Shimmer - Revlon, Perplex

The taupe base in Perplex is another neutral, but the purple shimmer flash adds that something special. Another simply chic shade.

Texture - OPI, Get Your Number

A nice bright blue for fall, this Liquid Sands polish really reflects the cold weather we have been having lately! Full post to come soon on this shade.

Duochrome OPI, Peace Love and OPI

The duochrome flash from teal to purple is so sparkly in the bright sunlight and super cool looking in overcast skies.

Glitter - China Glaze, Emerald Sparkled

Usually used more as a festive shade for Winter, this glitter is so deep and sparkly, perfect for late fall.

Matte - Zoya, Dovima

The perfect matte black with a hint of shimmer. This goes great with the leather clothing trend this fall.

Pixie Dust Confusion

I was convinced that Zoya's pixie dust polishes were the only texture polish I would truly appreciate based off of photos I saw online. I was super excited for Carter, a deep purple glitter pixie dust, however I feel like something isn't right. First of all this polish took FOREVER to dry when I attempted to swatch it on my nail wheel. The final outcome was't what I had expected either, it looked more like a regular, dull glitter to me.

I'm not sure if I got a bum bottle or something, but I'm super disappointed. I read some mixed reviews online, so this may be the case. Most of the negative comments were based off of the issues I experienced as well, this includes being sheer and taking long to dry.

Three to four coats, this photo was taken the day after application. In comparison to the
liquid sand OPI to the right, you can see the Zoya does not have the same sugar like finish.

I love Zoya's formula, they are usually one coaters, and from what I have read some of the other pixie dusts are opaque in only one coat. This took me three coats for full opacity, combined with the fact that matte polishes generally dry a lot faster than regular polish is weird. It's not like you can add a quick try top coat to help it along either!

On a side note, I found this at Marshals for around $6 or $7, the whole pixie dust display was there. A few other salon brands I spotted with full displays included OPI and Orly.

Do you own this polish specifically? Have you had the same issues as me?