Sunday, October 28, 2012

Different Dimensions World of Warcraft Collection

Hi everyone!  I haven't posted lately because I've been busy ignoring everything and playing World of Warcraft, or WoW for the other lady gamers out there.  Recently a new expansion came out for WoW, and even though I told myself I wouldn't play it, I eventually caved like every other WoW player out there.  So I suppose it's only fitting that I have the World of Warcraft collection from Different Dimensions to show you.

DD's WoW Collection was sold as a set of 5 polishes for a limited time just before the expansion came out, so I obviously had to get it.  I have bottle shots and nail wheel swatches of all the polishes, but the bulk of the post will be about a mani I did with one of the polishes.  Get ready for some glitter!

 L to R in both pictures is Horde, Alliance, Murloc, Bad Ass Panda, and Spectral Tiger

                                            Horde                                                         Alliance
                                         Murloc                                                  Bad Ass Panda
                                   Spectral Tiger                                             Spectral Tiger Glow    

This is two coats of each polish, so Horde Alliance and Murloc can be worn alone, while Bad Ass Panda and Spectral Tiger need to be layered.  For WoW players, these polishes are all part of the game and the colors are very accurate, while to non players, they're awesome glittery polishes.  Everyone wins!  Also, Missi asked which side of the game I was on (Allience or Horde), and sent a  super cute nail polish necklace she made with the corresponding polish.  In my case it was Horde and I LOVE it.  My boyfriend thought it was really cool too!


When I got the collection, I  was most excited about Spectral Tiger because it GLOWS IN THE DARK, so naturally I had to try it first!  This post is pretty picture heavy, so click the jump to see all the pretty.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Vivid Lacquer Polishes

Hi all!

Today is very very special, because I have some swatches of the Vivid Lacquer by the lovely Anni.  In addition to great polishes, Anni also makes these crazy cool stamping plates!  I have three polishes to show you guys and I did order a stamping plate, it just hasn't gotten here yet so expect to see that in the future!

Don't Forget the Rum, Fairy Bread, Sketchbook
This post is going to be pretty long and picture heavy so get to the goodies after the jump!


Sunday, October 7, 2012

Laser Tape Manicure with China Glaze Neons

Hi Everyone!

I suppose it's officially fall, since here in Colorado we had our first snow on Friday and it's been cold and drizzly ever since.  Ugh. I love fall in the sense of deep polish colors, warm candles, and hot chocolate, but I could really do without the crappy weather.  I guess I can't have everything, haha.

Even though fall is in full swing, today's manicure is definitely more summery.  I finally decided to try the Laser Tape Manicure that's been all over the blogs, and honestly it's a really easy technique for such a cool result.  For this manicure I decided to do a "warm" hand and a "cool" hand.

For the right hand I used CG;
Love's A Beach
Orange You Hot?
Flirty Tankini
Beach Cruse-r
Shocking Pink (Thumb, not pictured)

And for the left hand I used CG;
Splish Splash
I'm With the Lifeguard
Turned Up Turquoise
Sun-Kissed
In The Limelight (Thumb, not pictured)

Honestly, I'm not sure why I didn't take pictures of my thumb nails, but it's too late now!  All the colors are from the China Glaze Summer Neons collection except Shocking Pink, Turned Up Turquoise, and In The Limelight.  Those three colors can be found at Sally's as part of their core line.

For each hand I used a regular base coat and two coats of color, and once coat of a fast dry topcoat.  Once everything was completely dry, I placed 4 pieces of striping tape on each nail at different angles, then painted over with one coat of china Glaze Liquid Leather.  Then I quickly and carefully pulled off the striping tape in reverse order of how I placed it.  In order to remember the order of each strip, I taped, painted, and pulled each nail one at a time.  Finally, I let the polish dry for about a minute before adding a no chip topcoat so as not to smear the black too much.

RT Hand - White Light
Index to Pinky - Love's A Beach, Orange You Hot?, Flirty Tankini, Beach Cruse-r

RT Index - Macro - White Light
Love's A Beach

RT Middle - Macro - White Light
Orange You Hot?

LT Hand - White Light
Index to Pinky - Slpish Splash, I'm With The Lifeguard, Turned Up Turquoise, Sun-Kissed

I really loved this manicure, especially how bright the neon colors were against the black!  Some of the lines didn't turn out a clean as others, but I'm sure it will get better with more practice!

And now for the cats.  They have been some sleepy little stinkers lately.  They're comfortable with each other now so they play and wrestle all day, so then they just zonk out.  Here's Tifa sleeping in the corner with her face smashed into the ground.  I'm telling you, she sleeps in the weirdest ways!


Thanks for reading!

XO
Gina

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Jelly Sandwich with Windestine Star Light

Hi Everyone!

Today I have my very first attempt at a Jelly Sandwich!  I really love the look of jelly sandwiches, but my plain jelly collection consists of about three polishes, haha.  So here we have my take on the Essie Marshmallow sandwich, but instead of Essie, I used China Glaze Oxygen.  Which is essentially the same thing, right?  Oxygen leans a little more toward the off-white side, which is great for wearing it alone since it isn't as blinding as a pure white.  I believe Oxygen is opaque in 3-4 coats depending on how you apply it.

For this look, I paired Oxygen with a polish you've seen before; Star Bright by Windestine.  I thought Star  Bright would be fun for the sandwich because of the pink glitter and all the fun shapes!  I used my regular China Glaze base coat, then this "recipe" for the sandwich:

Oxygen
Star Bright
Oxygen
Star Bright
Oxygen
Fast Dry Topcoat

A warning in advance to everyone about the pictures, my right pinky nail got torn off - thats right, my nail tore off - so it looks really nubby and uneven.  to try and make up for my sad right pinky (and to show off the different shapes in Star Bright) I included pictures of my less photogenic left hand.  For some odd reason the star glitter ended up on my right hand and the moon glitter ended up on my left.  Enjoy!


RT Hand - White Light

RT Hand - Flash

RT Index Finger - Macro

RT Middle Finger - Macro

LT Hand - White Light

LT Hand - Flash

I really like how this Jelly/Marshmallow sandwich turned out, and I know i'll be using Oxygen for glitter sandwiches again!  Oxygen was originally released with the Creme Couture collection, but it can still be found in regular stock at Ulta and Sally's.  Star Bright is sold by indie polish brand Windestine on Etsy and also Big Cartel , who just happens to be having a fairly large restock TONIGHT at 5 pm PST!!!


AAAAAAAND, I've been very bad about the cat part of Nail Cats, so today you get a pretty cute picture of our new kitten, Cloud.  He's a pretty cute (and sleepy) kitty!


XO
Gina