Sunday, March 8, 2015

An Abundance of Ugly Greens


Of all the pretty colors in the nail polish world, ugly greens are some of my favorites.

Huh?!

I don't know. I've always loved lime green and for whatever reason "ugly" greens are strongly reminiscent of that certain shade of punchy neon lime that got me hooked.

This ugly green, Spoiled I Only Eat Salads is unfortunately OOP (Out of Production), so good luck finding it. You may stumble across a threadbare Spoiled by Wet n' Wild display at your nearest underfed, if you will, CVS. This brand was exclusive to CVS and they have now replaced it with Pop-arazzi, a deathly-smelling concoction disguised in cute polka dot packaging. Sigh. 

Spoiled made some pretty good polishes. I have features several on this blog and I have a lot. I Only Eat Salads has a great formula, creamy and opaque in two coats, no streaks. 

I accented this color with a coordinating glitter "party nail." Sinful Colors Call You Later is an ugly-toned (lol) spring green microglitter with some yellowish glitters sprinkled in. It could probably become opaque with four or five coats, but it's perfect as a topper with one or two.

Where do you stand on ugly greens? I'd love to know!

XOXO

Is

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Spoiled by Wet N' Wild Spam

Hi guys! Yesterday I showed you swatches of a high-end brand, Deborah Lippmann, but today I'll be sharing some polishes that are a bit more affordable. Priced at only $1.99 per bottle exclusively at CVS, they're practically giving them away!

First up is The Parking Meteor Expired. (ha, ha.)

Flash

Normally I always try to show you pictures in natural light, but this polish was tricky. The Parking Meteor Ran Out is a blackened teal shimmer with a slight purple duochrome in the bottle which sadly does not show up on the nail. Bummer! This polish looks pretty much black in most lights, but in broad sunlight the teal shimmer comes out to play! It is very subtle, but a nice alternative to plain black. The formula was okay, a little thin, so be careful as it might flood your cuticles.

Next is Paying With Platinum!

Natural Light

Natural Light

Natural Light

Paying With Platinum is a gray polish with a lavender to green duochrome. The duochrome isn't majorly strong, but it is there. The purple is visible at most angles in the murky gray base, and at extreme angles the green can be seen. The formula is quite thin and sheer. You could probably build it up to full opacity in three or more coats, but I chose to layer it over a dark gray, Maybelline Impeccable Grays. Duochromes tend to show their full shifts if layered over a darker color, anyway.

The last polish I have to show you is Club Rat. Gross name, but such a pretty polish!

Artificial Light

Flash

Club Rat is a pretty pink jelly with magenta/purple shimmer! For the first picture (mmm... so squishy) I used three coats of Club Rat on its own for the first picture. This creates a full coverage, squishy jelly look that's so fun and sunny! For the second picture I layered one coat of Club Rat over my favorite black creme, Sinful Colors Black on Black. This creates a COMPLETELY different look! I love layering sheerish shimmery colors over black. It brings out the colors of the shimmer like you wouldn't believe! Over black it shows a cool purple and magenta shimmer blast! So pretty.

What do you think about these colors? I just want to talk a bit about the brush. Spoiled brushes are wide and round, and are sometimes cut very wonky. I have had good luck with the brushes, however. The brushes in these particular bottles of mine are cut fine, and although the wideness and roundness of the brush takes some getting used to, it is manageable. Honestly, most nail bloggers out there make such a big fuss over it, but it is really okay.

After looking at Amanda's (from Pretty Girl Science) Instagram, I've discovered that CVS is introducing a new exclusive line of polish at the same price as the Spoileds called Pop-arazzi. The color she tried out seems to be identical to Spoiled I Only Eat Salads, which leads me to think that the Spoileds may be fazed out soon and replaced by the Pop-arazzis, but I am not sure. Thoughts?

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!

XOXO

Is



Sunday, September 14, 2014

Glittery Funky French feat. Orly Bubbly Bombshell

This mani was inspired by Erika from Chloe's Nails. Unfortunately, she doesn't post anymore, but her blog is treasure chest of nail art ideas, especially for those of you whose skills lie in tape and stamping rather than freehand. Erika's nails are perfectly squared off, which allows her to use regular Scotch tape to create her signature style, the funky French, usually with black tips. However, my nails aren't perfectly square, so having a perfectly straight tip looks kind of strange on my nails. However, my nails are a bit too square to use the reinforcement method (I showed you that technique in this post; however, it looks best on rounder nails, in my opinion). Finally I figured out how to get the perfect French tip for my nails: freehand it with a tiny brush! Lately I've been doing a lot of freehand work, so I had the idea to use a small brush, because that would be the easiest method for me. 


I started with two coats of Orly Bubbly Bombshell, a super dense, ultra sparkly fuchsia glitter (with the best name. So effervescent!). I actually saw this polish first on Erika's blog, and snapped it up at Sally's! I applied one coat of Essie Good to Go topcoat to smooth out he glitter and I then used Spoiled Visually Slimming and a thin paint brush for the black tips, which is actually Erika's go-to look, as you can gather from her blog. I finished off with one more coat of topcoat. Voila! My first funky French! I adore this look, and I'll definitely be attempting more of them in the future. I've already tried another combo out, Maybelline Impeccable Greys (medium gray) topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust (fine holo glitter topper) with Essie Fiji (light pink) tips. Swoon!

And now for some spam. ;)




Whats your method for creating French tips? Got any suggestions for me? What's your signature look? Comment down below! Thanks so much for reading.

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XOXO

Is





Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Chains Nail Art

Today I have a really edgy mani to show you. Combining matte black, silver, and chains creates a great punk look. Check it out:


I started with a base of Spoiled Visually Slimming and added a coat of Essie Matte About You. (Which I've spotted in CVS; it's about time it started going retail. Woo-hoo!) I then used a thin brush to paint silver chains zigzagging across my nails, so each chain kind of flowed into the next, making it a little more seamless. I used Essie No Place Like Chrome for the chains. I did not use topcoat for this mani. The contrast between the matte black and the metallic silver is so striking, I think, and the fact that the chains are kind of messy makes it so much more edgy.

What do you think of this mani? 

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XOXO

Is




Monday, June 9, 2014

Some Recent NOTD's

Greetings, nail lovers! I have A LOT of catching up to do with my NOTD's, so I guess now's the time! Some of them are recreations of various YouTubers' or bloggers' designs, in which case I will link to their post. Oh, and one more thing! I've been doing my lovely friend's nails recently, so some of these mani's are hers.


Here we have a lace half moon mani. This is a sort of recreation of Lucy's Stash's Lace Half Moon Manicure, one of several that she's done. I used Spoiled Correction Tape to paint the white base. I waited for it to completely dry, then applied reinforcement stickers to the "half moon" area and painted over it with Sinful Colors Cream Pink, a squishy neon pink with gold shimmer, and peeled off the reinforcements, revealing a white half moon. I waited for THAT to dry, and then used a black Hot Designs nail art pen to make a smaller half moon inside the white one and then black dots at the edge of the white half moon, and then connected the small black half moon to the black dots with black lines. Wheeee!


Here is just a simple mani with an floral accent nail. This are the gorgeous nails of my very dear friend, who I am currently getting addicted to nails. The hot pink is Essie Mod Square, which you can find a review of here. The accent nail is Essie Fiji, with flowers made with a dotting tool. The blue is Essie In The Cab-ana and the silver centers are Essie No Place Like Chrome. This mani definitely shows that I LOVE Essie!


This mani is based on the Chit Chat Nails' technique called a Skittlette, which she describes here. I like this idea a lot! However, I didn't quite like the result. Originally I had made the my pinkie completely covered in pink glitter, but I didn't like the look of that, so I took it off and changed it up. I started with a black base (Spoiled Visually Slimming). I then used a tiny paint brush to paint small swirls on the middle and ring fingers with Essie Mod Square and then went over the swirls with Essie A Cut Above. I finished with a matte top coat and then added a faux rhinestone with A Cut Above at the base of the nails. Done!


This is a nice mani, cute and sweet. It is a recreation of cutepolish's Pearls and Pastel nails, which I really liked! I painted the bottom half of my nails with Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac. I then added white stripes to the purple with Spoiled Correction Tape with a tiny brush and used a dotting tool to add white dots where the purple met the naked nail. I added OPI Happy Anniversary! to the white dots to imitate the nail art pearls (which I don't have). I finished with top coat, and then added a matte top coat to the polish! Pretty!


Here are my awesome friend's nails again! This is a simply triangle look. I started with Sally Hansen Pixie Slicks, a nice bright pink. I then blocked off a triangle with Scotch Tape at the tip of the nail with Spoiled Paying With Platinum, an interesting duochrome. It's grayish with flashes of purple, and at extreme angles, green. It went well with the pink... I like green and pink and purple together!


This is a recreation of a look from a video by MissJenFABULOUS, a YouTuber. I started with Essie In The Cab-ana on my thumb, pointer, and pinkie fingers and Sally Hansen Pixie Slicks on my middle and ring fingers. I stroked In The Cab-ana down the middle of my middle and pointer fingers and then, with a tiny paintbrush, I flicked white (Spoiled Correction Tape) and the pink over the blue. On my 
thumb, pointer, and pinkie fingers, I made a large dot of pink at the base of my nail and a smaller pink dot above it, and smaller white dots inside the pink dots. Voila!


This was a rainbow dotticure. I used (in ROY G. BIV order) Essie Mod Square, Essie Really Red, Sally Hansen Sun Kissed, some non-brand random yellow ice cream shaped polish, Spoiled I'm So Jaded, Sally Hansen Blue Me Away, and OPI Funky Dunkey. I made rows of dots with a dotting tool. I wore it like that, then a few days later added Maybelline Clearly Spotted on top. It looked sort of ombre this way!


Now we have watermelon nails, again on my BFF. I started with Sally Hansen Coral Reef for the watermelon color, and then with the Kelly Green polish from the Hot Designs nail art pen I made a green French tip. I added a white line with the white Hot Designs pen in between the green and coral. Then, with the black pen, I added three seeds on the coral.


Last (and kind of least), we have a jelly sandwich. The polish I used was a bit too opaque, but oh well. I started with two coats of Orly Sky Blue Color Flip, a blue polish with a lavender and sometimes sea foam green sheen. I added a coat of Essie Set In Stones, a silver hex glitter, and then another coat of Orly. It turned out to be a bit thick, but it was a really nice mermaid-y look.

Whew! Well, that's it! I'm all caught up. I hope you enjoyed, and maybe it gave you some inspiration! If you decide to recreate something, please show me in the comments down below! See ya!

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XOXO

Is

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Neon Rainbow French Manicure

Today I have a rather exciting mani to show you, but I'll be short and sweet.


I'm so sorry, but I don't know the names of the colors I used for this except the base, which is Shell We Dance? from the Complete Salon Manicure collection by Sally Hansen.The pink and orange are Color Club, the yellow and green are Spoiled, and the blue is Sinful Colors. I used all of these colors over white (Spoiled Correction Tape) since they're neon (the picture doesn't reflect that too well). I finished with Good To Go by Essie, my favorite top coat.

This mani is great if you want something traditional, but fun and colorful and unexpected.

Refer to my French Manicure Tutorial post for how I did this French.

Thanks for reading!

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XOXO

Is