Thursday, April 26, 2012

Enchanted Polish - Sugar Spree

Today I have my mani from the weekend, which also happened to be my birthday nails!

I had just received my package from Enchanted Polish and everything was BEAUTIFUL!  I will post bottle shots later in the week.  But today, we are looking at the beautiful Sugar Spree.


Sugar Spree is a deep pink holo that can look a little red in low light.  It explodes in sunlight, and while i was driving i had a hard time keeping my eyes off my nails!  The application was absolutely dreamy.  It was honestly one of the easiest polishes I've ever applied, and it was almost opaque in 1 coat!  I used 2 coats for good measure on all the pictures below.  The only (minor) issue it that its a bit gritty, so when everything was said and done, I added a topcoat. It didn't seem to dull the holo effect, and it helped it look less dull indoors!

  Its been cloudy on and off so i didn't actually get a chance to photograph it in sunlight (boo!) but the flash on my camera was an acceptable substitute.  Now, on to the pictures! (Warning: Picture heavy!)

White Light

Macro - Flash <3

And what birthday is complete without a present? So i used my Cheeky plate CH 1 (one of my favorites!) to stamp a bow on my ring fingers. I used China Glaze Passion for the Romantique collection for the stamp.


Macro - White Light
 White Light - Right Hand

 Flash 

 Flash - Right Hand

Flash - What a Beautiful Polish!!

And because, why not? I added light pink rhinestones to the bows!!

White Light - With Topcoat

And there you have it!  You can purchase Enchanted Polish from her store http://www.etsy.com/shop/EnchantedPolish  The shop is currently closed, but has a link to her facebook where she will announce the reopening dates.


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Hits No Olimpo

Or in English, Hits on Olympus.  Hits is a relatively new brand to me, but i'm already in love.  I buy Hits from the lovely  http://shop.llarowe.com/ , which has great selection, decent prices, and super fast and reasonable shipping! my first order i got some of the No Olimpo collection, but Hefesto (the holo topcoat) was out of stock. boo! :( but Llarowe is fabulous and it was back in stock soon so I placed another order.  My package came today (super fast like last time), and let me tell you, i absolutely love getting nail mail.  opening the package is so exciting!


so L to R we have Hits flakie foxtrot, glitter forte hardcore, No Olimpo Hestia and 2 Hefestos, and my very first A-England; Avalon.  Whooooo!

Now down to business.  Today's manicure is 1 coat of China Glaze liquid leather and 1 coat of Hits Zeus, no topcoat.




Sadly, I don;'t have a lightbox yet, and today was cloudy so i took these pictures uner a lamp in my basement.  you can see the holo a little bit, but it's much better in sunlight. i also probably could have cleaned up my skin a little better and taken care or that hangnail. oh well, haha.

I love this polish. it was so easy to apply and it was nice to use 1 coat over a black base, since Hits comes in smaller bottles, the polish is precious.  The only downer was that the polish smell was REALLY strong while i was using it.  it went away after it dried, but MAN it was intense!

and then, because i think stamping is so fabulous, i added some little stars to my ring fingers with my cheeky plate CH4







Dun Dun Dun DAAAAAA!!!! i like it :)  I used China Glaze Devotion from the romantique collection for the stamp.

i will post my next manicure in a few days, it will be my birthday nails!  and hopefully i can convince my boyfriend to help me make a lightbox by then :)





Hello!

Hello Everyone!

This is my first post on my very own shiny new blog!  And I have to say I'm pretty excited!  It might take a little while to get everything looking right, but that's ok :)

To start things off, i'm going to post everything about my little workspace and how I take care of my nails, so here goes!

First we have my humble little work table.  It's just a table in my basement covered in newspaper, and its pretty much always as messy as the picture haha



Next i figure we'll talk stamping.  I have a Konad stamper and scraper, both metal and plastic.


The plates I use vary.  I have a couple Konad plates, then I have the plates that come in the Salon Express kit you can find at Sally's or Rite Aid, and the bulk of my collection is Cheeky plates from amazon.  To store them, i had a little help from my boyfriend.  He and his friends collect Yu-gi-oh cards, and the books used for storing them happen to be perfect for stamping plates!  So he let me have one of their books, and let me tell you, it is FABULOUS.


I also cut up some of that grip stuff for silverware drawers and put it in each slot to prevent the plates from falling out.


I do not have any Konad special polish, I refuse to give in to buying it!  so instead, i use sally hansen and wet n' wild for black and white, and i also use all the metallics from China Glaze's Romantique collection.


Here is a peek inside the little cosmetic bag i got from transdesign.com that I use to store all the things that go along with fabulous nails.


First up we have cuticle care.  I use sally hansen cuticle gel to soften my cuticles enough to push them back with the metal cuticle pusher.  And although this can be a touchy subject, i do trim my cuticles.  I have a lot of cuticle, and it bothers me! so when i'm done pushing the cuticles back, if there is a big old dead skin flap just hanging there, i cut it off. and of course i'm very careful so don't worry :) I also use the little pointy side of the pusher tool to clean under my nails. It's very satisfying to not have any gunk or dead skin under there


My nails grow slightly square, so to help them out i use a crystal nail file i found at Sally's to shape them.


before i paint my nails, i always rub Hoofer's Choice on them. it's a nail hardener, and i can use all the help i can get keeping my nails strong while working at a hospital.  I found this at Sally's, but i've heard you can get a similar product called hard as a hoof at some Walmarts.


while painting my nails, i use birchwood sticks to clean polish that gets on my skin.  i also use pointed q-tips and polish remover to clean up after.  the cotton pads are lint free, and are wonderful when working with the stamping plates.  all these can be found at sally's.


i also love me some bling, so i  have different colored rhinestones.  I use tweezers as opposed to an orange stick because i think they're more precise.  and i just like them.


now onto storage.  i have two polish racks, and as you can see i am partial to China Glaze.  i love their formula, and I think they have better colors than OPI.  More fun and bright, which suits me.  I have started branching out a bit with the Brazilian hits and British A-England.  I have also recently purchased some indie polishes and am eagerly awaiting their arrivals.  but i will always be a China Glaze Fangirl 



Phew. that was a long first post! Sorry if it was a little boring, but you have to start somewhere, right?  

Next up will be my current manicure and some thoughts on Hits and holographic polishes.  See you!