Swatch: Hard Candy - Cocoa Smore

Love these style/trend of nail polishes! I do wish I had applied them in thicker layers. They tend to dry fairly quick, and in some photos the polish looks mildly thinned out. Next time I need to apply in two thick layers; of course waiting a few minutes in between. Doing three thin ones didn't work out as well. I guess I'm just used to applying creams.

I plan getting the whole "Candy" line of Hard Candy polishes eventually. $4 a piece at Walmart. Considering I was so lenient with application... the polish did goop up just a tad after polishing a nail or two. No biggie. I guess the formula -has- to be made on the thick side due to the style of polish. (Layering on glitter.)

I usually moisturize my hands after my nails dry, and it seems to consistently attract hairs! Sorry about that. Maybe I need to hold off on moisturizing till I get pictures.

Also hoping to get a better blog/lighting set up soon so I can update more. The little set up I have now is in the corner of the room and I just don't have enough room for everything. Gah.

25th birthday cupcake nails

I've been wanting to do cupcakes for awhile and decided that between Valentines Day and my birthday on the 17th, these were a good bet! And since I had a bit of patience on working with something new, I went for it.

They're OK, I don't love nor hate them. Pretty neutral about it honestly, though I do wish I had used tiny dots for the sprinkles instead of using a toothpick for lined sprinkles. Kinda thought I should have made the cherries a hair bigger but oh well!!



Didn't use a base color hence why the cupcakes don't seem to go all the way up to the cuticle.

Used the following:

• Cupcake stripes: China Glaze Chocodisac & ELF Nude
• Icing: White striper brush
• Cherry: Wet N Wild Red
• Sprinkles: Orly Elsabeths Rose & China Glaze Sunshine Pop

Brown with Gold stripes + white hearts and Zoya's Limited Edition 18K gilty

Love this. I had no idea where I was going with it, it started off as testing my new gold polish I got from a $1.89 Walgreens sale. (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure brand.) Thought it was too light for my taste, so I thought it was the perfect time to try my striping tape I ordered. Sooo. I added Essie's Little Brown Dress on top of it after applying the tape. In the process of doing this, I smudged the lines a little and I'm a perfectionist. Sooo. I added little white hearts using my white nail polish striper. Thank god for stripers! Heh.

The next day after I had done this mani, my pre order of Zoya's Gilty Pleasures 18K gold flake top coat came in. Perfect timing, as it goes very well with the mani I had did. Of course I had to use it, ended up putting it on my accent thumbs. :-)

Sorry bout the tip wear. I hate Essie polish, it tends to chip fast for me.
Must be a weak formula. :(

China Glaze's No Plain Jane swatch/review

I'm not a huge fan of duochrome colors but I wanted at least one for my collection and my husband got me one when I was sick. So. He actually went in to Sally's for me (lol!), and got 3 polishes. Including No Plain Jane, which wasn't on sale, but for some reason the lady gave him a discount for being a dude getting polish for his wife. Heh. Amusing. But in total the 3 polishes was only $6, so I was pretty pleased!

Anyway, for No Plain Jane I would seriously advise buffing your nails before hand. The polish seems to be thin and where it's metallic, it shows every little thing if not buffed. (I didn't buff mine because I lost my darn buffer.)

No Plain Jane is a light-ish purple metallic with a brown-ish undertone which shows through in different lighting. It's pretty cool. Still not a huge fan of duochromes, probably my least favorite polish type. I wish it wasn't so thin.

Wth cuticle?

Not the best, but I didn't get a whole lot of the full on purple effect. A few days
worth of tip wear at this point, too.

China Glaze Chocodisiac with Essie's Shine of the Times

Wanted to do something simple and fall-esque, decided to go with one of my all time favorite China Glaze colors-Chocodisiac. I love browns! Ended up adding Shine of the Times over top, hoping it would turn out to have fall like colors... and it did! Very pretty and very simple for someone wanting to do a seasonal mani and not wanting to spend a lot of time on it with decorative designs.

Damn. Random specks of dust. -_-

Blurred, hoping to show off SOTT a little more.

Sorry for the mild chips, it's a few days old.