Saturday, January 31, 2009

Manglaze Fuggen Ugly ★★★★☆

Good evening everyone!

I just received the 2 Manglaze polishes in the mail a few days ago, so two nights ago I decided to try one of them. Now, I've been wanting to get my hands on these matte polishes for a while, and I was not disappointed by the end result! Fuggen Ugly is a very pretty and edgy shimmery grey that has a completely matte finish :D I used 2 coats over Barielle Camo and no top coat to preserve the matte finish, so I had to be a little more careful while it dried ;-)

Last night I decided to add some konad, and picked plate M63 with the China Glaze Admire polish. I also added some top coat to make everything shiny... I adore this combo :D

Enjoy and have a great weekend! :D

Thursday, January 29, 2009

China Glaze C-C-Courage ★★★★★

Good evening everyone!

I'm a little late in posting this NOTD, but I was waiting for the sun to come out to get a good pic ;-) C-C-Courage is from the unfortunately discontinued and very hard to find Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection. I never thought I'd ever get my hands on it, so can you imagine my surprise when my good friend Hillary from The Crystal Files offered to send me one she'd found dustying? OMG! It's an amazing deep blurple with dark purple and magenta glitter :D I usually prefer brighter purples, but this one is truly fabulous. Pic is 3 coats of color over Rock Hard base coat and topped with Out The Door :)

Enjoy and have a nice evening! :D

Monday, January 26, 2009

L'Oreal Bijou B.Brave ★★★★☆

Hello everyone! I recently received this polish as an extra from a wonderful MUAer, and last night felt like the perfect occasion to try it as it was still sitting on my desk ;-) I used 3 very thin coats to get an even color, and it applied pretty well too. I wasn't too excited about it at first, but after a few hours it has really grown on me and I'm really enjoying it now! This pic is pretty accurate - the polish is a deep purple loaded with holo microglitter :D

Enjoy and have a great day! :D

Friday, January 23, 2009

Orly Charged Up, supercharged! :D

Good evening everyone!

Last night I added some Konad to my still perfect Orly Charged Up mani. Since I'm loving the color so much, I didn't want to use a pattern or color that would hide the base color too much, so I settled on this image from plate M60 with Art Club Orchistra. I'm absolutely in love with this combo! In fact, it's probably my favorite konadicure yet, and it's still wearing perfect after 4 swimming practices =O

EDIT ++ Here's my konadicure on day 3 after 10 hours in the pool, and under sunlight :D This is the best wear I've ever gotten from a polish and I'm hoping it's due to the Out the Door top coat I'm trying out!

Enjoy and have a great weekend! :D

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Orly Charged Up ★★★★★

Good morning everyone!!

Last night I decided to use Orly Charged Up for my mani. Now, this has been out for a while, but I just ordered it before Christmas, and WOW, I cannot understand why I ever waited that long!! It is a fabulous medium bluish purple neon creme (well almost neon) that just looks rich and yummy =O Sadly, I probably used a little too thick coats so you can see the little pinkish bubbles between the color layers (3 coats)... Regardless, this color gets an easy 5-star rating from me and is the newest inductee to my running top 20 :D

Enjoy and have a great day! :D

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

SH Emerald Green ★★★★☆

Hi everyone!!

Last week I picked up 3 colors from another Sally Hansen Canadian-exclusive collection: Jade, Emerald Green and Twilight Teal. By popular demand on MUA, I chose EG for my mani yesterday. It's a wonderful blackened forest green shimmer that doesn't look completely black even in low light. Besides the brush stem which I find a bit too long, it applied pretty well and was completely opaque in 2 coats.

Then last night I decided to add some Konad ;-) I knew I wanted to use some chrome, so I finally settled on China Glaze Cherish, a light green chrome, with the full nail flower pattern of plate M64. I love this combo! It will also stay on my nails for at least another day.

Enjoy and have a great day! :D

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Misa Ready, Set, Sunshine ★★★★☆

Good evening everyone!!

As I'd been wearing a lot of darker colors recently, I was itching to do something bright and so I chose Misa Ready, Set, Sunshine. It's a very pretty jelly orange neon that applies wonderfully in 3 thin coats. It's maybe a tad less red than Misa Six-Pack Summer. Sorry for the crappy shade pic =(

And now with Konad pattern from plate M60 using SpaRitual Surreal polish. Very cool look, but for some reason it's not doing it for me today. I've already removed it and will be doing a new mani tonight!

Enjoy and have a great evening!! :D

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Rainforest, you say? :D

The fabulous OPI Rainforest, subtly enhanced with some little white konad flowers (plate M20 with special konad white polish)... It's awesome :D And it's been wearing amazingly, as this is day 3 and all I have are small chips on both my middle fingers, and a little bit of tip wear.

Enjoy and have a nice day! :D

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

OPI Rainforest ★★★★★

I'm in love!!! Wow, what a fabulous shimmery forest green!! It looks amazing under the sun, but even indoors you can still see the shimmer. I used 3 thin coats to achieve a perfectly opaque and smooth finish :D My only gripe is the old somewhat runny formula which leaks onto my cuticles... I've also filed my nails down slightly again, and I will be staying with this length as I really like it!

Enjoy and have a nice day! :D

Friday, January 9, 2009

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blazing Blue ★★★★☆

Good evening everyone!!

This will be my last post from here in California as I'm going home on Sunday morning. I'm so happy I'll be able to play with all my polishes again!! Yesterday I had to redo my nails since many were badly chipped, but I couldn't stand to reuse one of the two colors I had so I went back to RiteAid to find something else... Ended up coming back with 2 SH Insta-Dri colors: Blazing Blue and Uptempo Plum ;-) I wanted Jumpin' Jade but it was already OOS :( Anyways, I chose BB for my mani and it's wonderful! It's a very deep navy blue infused with tons of blue/turquoise and even purple shimmer =O But wow the brush is huge!! LOL it's like an OPI prowide brush on steroid, but I really like it! I just don't recommend using this brush when you don't have cleanup tools handily available (like here).

Enjoy and have a great weekend!! :D

Monday, January 5, 2009

Borghese Palermo Plum ★★★★☆

Good evening everyone!!

Well I decided I wanted to change my mani rather than redo half my nails, so I chose the only other polish I have with me, Borghese Palermo Plum! It's a beautiful deep purple/plum creme that applies flawlessly in 2 coats. I really love the Borghese brush too, it's like an OPI prowide but slightly thicker and curvier :D As pretty as it is, I felt it needed some more "umph!" so I topped it with Petites Stardust so that it now matches my toes! LOL!! The color is a bit more purple and less red-plum IRL.

I've also shortener my nails even further so that they're now all the same length, and I'm really enjoying it so I'll keep them this way ;-)

Enjoy!! :D

Friday, January 2, 2009

Happy New Year from California!!

I'm currently in Coronado (just across the bay from San Diego) for a 2-week training camp. When i left home, I figured it would be too much trouble to bring polish and redo my tips every 2 days so I left them bare... Well that sure was a mistake as within 2 days of swimming, both my middle fingers were broken to the quick, and both my thumbs got tears on both sides =( I made an emergency RiteAid visit this morning to pick up some color and quick-dry top coat, so now even tho my nails are still uneven (I filed all of them down as much as possible), at least they don't look as bad! Also, I don't mind the length on my remaining fingers, it's really just the middles ones ;-) NOTD is then Sally Hansen Twisted Pink. ★★★★☆ (4.5)

EDIT -- New sunny pic w/ my nails filed even farther down. I like it even better like that cuz now they're almost all the same length :D

Enjoy and have a great weekend!