Sunday, July 29, 2012

China Glaze Summer Neons Gradient

Hello everyone!

I know you've all already seen swatches of the Summer Neon collection from China Glaze, but get ready for some more eye-searing neon goodness from today's post.  I originally wasn't planning on getting the yellow from the collection, but when I saw it in person I know I had to have it.

 I'd been wanting to try a gradient for a while, and I thought the bright, creamy, and opaque formula of the Summer Neons would give good results.   I used one coat of Sun-Kissed (no white undies needed with these neons), then used THIS flawless tutorial from the Nailasaurus to apply Splish Splash and achieve the gradient.  The whole thing was suprisingly easy and quick (for nail art) and even my boyfriend was impressed with the results.  I will definitely be doing more gradients in the future.  Also, the subtle shimmer in these neons really came out to play after being sponged on :)

As a side note before we get to the pictures, I've been trying out the Seche Vite topcoat instead of my go-to China Glaze Fast Forward, and honestly, I'm not sure if I like it.  I know a lot of bloggers swear by it, but it kind of shrinks on my nails, and sometimes it made the polish peel back on my nails.  What?  I love how fast it dries and how smooth it is, but this weird peeling/shrinking nonsense is kind of a deal breaker.  Also, it's not 3-free.  Hmmmm.  What is your experience with Seche Vite like? I used one coat of Seche Vite with the photos below.


Flash

White Light

Macro  - Flash (that shimmer! -swoon-)


Aaaaaaaand, the rare Left Hand! 

Flash



Splish Splash turned out a little lighter on my left hand, so I wanted to include it as well.  What do you think? Do you like the lighter or darker blue better?  Wow, I am just full of questions for you today!

Thanks for reading!

XO
Gina

Monday, July 23, 2012

Whimsical Ideas by Pam - Kismet's Pajamas

Is it Monday already??  Dang, I feel like weekends don't even exist anymore.
But that's ok because I own some of Pam's beautiful polishes, which makes everything better! Right?

Today I have Kismet's Pajamas, which is a semi-sheer black base packed with all different sized a fuchsia and silver hex and micro glitter.  It's stunning!  I think it's the silver micro shimmer that makes it really eye-catching.  These photos are shown with two coats of Kismet's Pajamas over one coat of China Glaze Liquid Leather.  The sheerness of the black base gives the polish depth and a jellyish effect, and is so beautiful!  Like the rest of Pam's polishes, It's packaged in a square bottle with a tiny black bow on the cap, and the application is flawless.  Well, enough of my chatter, lets get to the pictures!

Daylight

Flash

White Light

Macro - White Light

I am seriously in  love with Pam's polishes.  They are all so unique and beautiful, and the application is better than salon brands!  I have some serious ants in my pants waiting for her new colors to come out!  As always, you can buy Whimsical Ideas by Pam via her Facebook.  Her Facebook has pictures of all the available polishes and her information for sending emails.  In case you didn't know, all you have to do is send Pam an email of which polishes you would like to purchase and in a few days she will respond with an invoice.  And then you get exactly the polishes you want EVERY SINGLE TIME.  Woah.  No stressful restocks, time restraints, or polishes disappearing out of your carts.  I'm telling you, Pam is a genius at more than making fabulous polish.

Now, I think I've finally found a way to get Tifa to hold still for a picture...take it while she's sleeping! Haha!


Thanks for reading!

XO
Gina

Thursday, July 19, 2012

China Glaze Summer Neons + Fimo

Hey Everyone!
Today I have an interesting post for you.  I finally got the China Glaze Summer Neons, and I was so excited that I couldn't settle on one color.  So what I ended up doing was Painting my right hand with I'm with the Lifeguard and Love's a Beach as the accent nail and then vice versa on my left hand.  They both applied really well; creamy but not streaky, two coats coverage, and bright enough to use without white undies.  The photos below are show with two lovely coats.

White Light

Flash

Then I decided to try out the Fimo canes I ordered.  Now, I've never worked with Fimo before so this attempt ended up a little messy.  I bought my Fimo in bulk in cane form, and I'm still not very good at slicing so the pieces were a little thicker than they should have been.  Also, I did what I normally do when applying rhinestones and just used top cot as adhesive, but I really should have used nail glue.  Well, at least I know for next time.

White Light

Flash

Macro - Flash - Love's a Beach

Macro - Flash - I'm With the Lifeguard

Aaaaaaaaand, making an unusual appearance is my left hand, which tends to break more and just generally not look as nice as my right hand.  However, it's been looking better lately and I wanted to show the reverse color scheme.

Flash

So, there you have it.  Neon and Fimo: a very summery combination if I do say so myself!
Thanks for reading!

XO
Gina

Monday, July 16, 2012

Darling Diva Polish - Angry Beaver

Happy Monday Everyone (Boo!)

Haha.  So Today I have a post for you about the lovely Indie brand Darling Diva Polish.  I have a number of her polishes and they are all beautiful.  She has a great range of Holos, Glitters, and Glitters in Shimmer and Creme bases.  Today I'm showing you Angry Beaver.  According to Etsy, the name is random, but I like to pretend its because of the '90s cartoon.


Anyway, Angry Beaver is a Blurple Jelly-ish shimmery base with tons of hex glitter in all different sizes and colors, plus some awesome square glitter in a few colors thrown in.


Since Angry Beaver is a bit sheer, I layered it over A England Avalon, which hid most of the blue tones in the base (boo!).  Application was pretty good for a polish with big glitters.  I used one coat of Avalon, then two dabby coats of Angry Beaver, and then to make everything seem symmetrical, I put some of the polish on a piece of paper and applied a few glitter pieces with a toothpick, which was very easy.  A couple of coats of top coat, and that was it!

White Light

Flash

Daylight

Macro - White Light
Angry Beaver is a really beautiful and fun polish, I just wish I had a base color that didn't distort the original color as much.  You can get Darling Diva Polish on Etsy.  The owner is super nice, her shop is usually stocked but if she's missing a color you want, just message her and she'll do a custom listing for you.  She's got a great variety of polishes and is always coming out with new colors.  You can check for updates on Facebook, and sometimes she even does contests (One of which I actually won, which never happens to me!)

Today's cat picture is another of Jester.  D'awwwwwww


Thanks for reading everyone!

XO
Gina

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Speaking of Late...Julep June Mystery Box

Hi Everyone! Sorry about my absence, I meant to post this before I went on vacation, but obviously that didn't happen.  If anyone was wondering, I went to San Diego for Comic Con, and let me tell you, it was AWESOME!!  I'll post a picture at the end of the post :)

So, on to the Mystery Box.  I've been eyeing Julep for a while, but I really don't have the money or space to get a monthly Maven Box.  I do, however, get emails from Julep, and when I got one about the Mystery Box, I jumped on the offer!  The Mystery Box is $19.99 and contains anywhere from $60-$100 worth of products, so anyway you look at it you're getting a great deal.  This being my first Julep Box, I was soooooo excited when it came, but I did refrain from ripping it open long enough to get a picture.


As anticipated, the box was packaged very nicely and had a lot of stuff inside!


The first things I pulled out were a nice little pedicure set; The Best Pedi Prep Ever, The Best Pedi Creme Ever, and a foot file.  Awesome!


Next was a Julep file (which I probably won't use as I usually stick to glass, crystal, or a very fine grit), Nail Growth Serum, and Pomegranate Body Scrub.  I've used the Scrub since the pictures and it is fabulous.  It makes your skin super soft and smooth


And finally, this little surprise was hiding in the yellow package.  That's right! All these Nail Polishes for me!  L to R is Base Coat, Fast Dry Top Coat, Maggie, Sandra, Emma, Taylor, and January.  =D


So here is everything together, and after adding it all up my box was worth just over $200!!! That's so exciting for my first Julep Box to be one of the bigger ones!  Did any of you get the June Mystery Box?  If so, What did you get?


FINALLY, here's a quick pic from Comic Con; It's me and my boyfriend with the Kapibarasan girls at their booth.  Cute!


Thanks for reading everyone!

XO
Gina

Thursday, July 5, 2012

A Glittery (and late) Fourth of July

Happy Late 4th of July everyone!  Did anyone watch fireworks? I sure didn't.  All the fireworks shows were canceled due to the fact that Colorado is currently burning down.  BUT.  I would rather have no fireworks than no house because it burned down.

Anyway, I have this really super cool (I think) Patriotic mani to show you, and I am really (mostly) sorry that I'm showing it to you a day late.

Here are the polishes I used:


Thumb - 2 coats China Glaze White on White, 1 coat China Glaze White Cap
Index and Middle - 2 coats Paris Sparkles Midnight in Paris
Ring and Pinky - 2 coats China Glaze Ruby Pumps

All fingers except my thumb are stamped with Cheeky Plate CH 4 and Sally Hansen White Out.  My thumb has three star rhinestones I got from Ebay.


So put all that together, and you get a super cute, super festive, super GLITTERY mani!

White Light

Flash

Thumb - Macro (white light)

And then I realized that I could put my middle and ring finger together to make a teeny tiny American Flag.  Cute!

Middle and Ring - Macro (Flash)

I hope you enjoyed my patriotic nails, even though they were a day late.  I sure did!

No cat picture today, unfortunately, but I'm working on it!
Thanks for reading

XO
Gina

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Windestine - Star Light

It's the weekend!

Today I'm going to share a gorgeous glitter from the indie brand Windestine.  There have been some issues lately with the type of BB's use by polish sellers, but rest assured that Windestine has changed to stainless steel balls from now on!  Windestine makes some super fabulous glitters that pictures can't even begin to do justice too.  I thought the pictures in her shop looked pretty, so I ordered Jeweled Sand, Pansies, and Star Light.  But when I oped my package my mouth just dropped.  All three were sooooo sparkly and bright and just amazing!

Today I'm showing you Star Bright, which is a clear base packed with pink glitter, small and large holo hex glitter, and holo stars, moons and bars.  Wow!  You might be able wear it on its own because of the amount of pink glitter in it, but I decided to layer it over 1 coat of China Glaze Jetstream, which is a pale pink shimmer that matched the pink glitter pretty well.  You could probably get away with 1 of 2 coats, but I wanted my nails to look extra glittery, so I used about 3 coats.  The large glitters come out very easily with little to no fishing, but they could require a little placement on the nail (which I also didn't really do).  Overall, I think it turned out great!

White Light

White Light 

Flash


Bottle

 Star Light is so pretty! I love the mix of glitter shapes and the fact that they aren't a pain to work with.  My nails were much brighter and more sparkly than in the pictures.  Literally everywhere I went, someone commented on my nails.

You can purchase Windestine on Etsy and Big Cartel.  You can check her Facebook for updates on when she will be restocking each store and what polishes will be available.  I will definitely be buying from Windestine again! 

Today's cat picture is pretty silly, it was when I was trying to get a picture of Whitney for the last post, and when I was going through the pictures, I found this one, where Tifa was in the background actually holding still.  Probably because the camera wasn't pointing at her.  I think its hilarious.  Enjoy!


Thanks for reading!

XO
Gina