Essie Sparkle On Top Swatch and Review

Hola, chicas. Today I have a swatch of an Essie Luxeffects polish for you. It's fairly new; from the most recent sub-(?)collection of Luxeffects released in winter 2013. It's called Sparkle On Top.

This polish is a bit of a shard glitter/flakies hybrid, a little softer and denser than shard glitter, but sharper than flakies. This creates a sort of iced look, almost as if your nails were frosted with ice. Try layering it over brighter shades for a summer mani to keep your nails looking cool like an iced beverage; or layer it over darker shades for a look that puts winter frost on grass to shame. 

Formula wise, this polish is easily spreadable across the nail using a medium-thick coat, but the polish is indeed a bit thick. It covers perfectly in one coat. The base look of it is kind of like sharper flakies, but some larger shards may end up on the nail too. They have a cool-toned sheen, so this polish would probably look better over cooler-toned polishes.

Here it is over Essie Mod Square, an example of an awesome summer look. Mod Square has an even balance of warm and cool undertones, so it worked nicely.

And here it is over OPI Ogre the Top for a wintry mani. You can see that the blue-green reflections in Sparkle On Top go nicely with the cyan base.

That's all for today, chicas. Hope you enjoyed!

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XOXO

Is

Mermaid Scales Nail Art (Christabell Nails Recreation)

Hi guys! So today I was browsing around YouTube while sporting bare nails, a dangerous combination, and I happened to stumble upon a glorious video by Christabell Nails. She is a fantastic nail artist with a flair for freehand, and she's talented too. So when I found her video on Mermaid/Fish Scale nails, of course I had to try it out! She used a Rica polish that I would love to have, but unfortunately do not have, so I subbed another polish from my stash: Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe, a gorgeous dark blue jelly with emerald green and sky blue glitters (though I wish it had the bubbly effervescent circle glitters in Rica's polish). I simply followed Christabell's tutorial and it turned out great! This is three coats of Across the Universe with one coat of topcoat, followed by the design painted with my Hot Designs Nail Art Pen in white, sealed in with one more coat of topcoat.

My pinkie did get a little wonky... Oh well :P

These nails were pretty easy, and they look absolutely beautiful! 

Here's a link to Christabell's video, if you'd like to recreate it http://youtu.be/ALKPzA3BuBQ

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XOXO

Is

 

Watermelon Ruffian Manicure

It's getting super hot here, and it's starting to really feel like summer! So naturally, I had to do a summer-esque mani. Namely, a watermelon ruffian. I saw it originally over at Adventures in Acetone. You can check out her post here: http://www.adventuresinacetone.com/2014/06/simple-ruffian-watermelon-nail-art.html

I actually just noticed that we used the same base color. Weird! I tweaked the mani to my liking a bit, however.

Anyway, I started with a base of OPI Jade is the New Black, a dusty emerald green with blue undertones. Then, using a small paintbrush dipped into Nicole by OPI Lay it on the Lime, a lime green with yellow undertones, I created thin vertical lines going down the nail. This polish was great to imitate the stripes on the rind because it's pretty sheer, so the lines resembled a real watermelon! After that was dry, I did the ruffian using Essie Sunday Funday, a coral that leans more pink than orange in most lights. To do a ruffian, start the center stroke of polish down a little further than normal and stroke down. Follow the curve of your cuticle to paint the two side strokes down the same length. Lastly, I used a Hot Designs nail art pen to make three black seeds by pressing down with a drop of polish and then lifting up to make a point.

Have you tried any summer manicures lately? What do you think of this one?

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XOXO

Is

How to Make Your Sally Hansen Color Foils Look Perfect

...as possible.

If you follow the world of nail polish, you are sure to know that Sally Hansen has been busy with a few new collections, one of which is called Color Foils! A nod to the Chrome line from the early 2000's, these babies are infused with aluminum to make them as shiny and reflective as can be. (With that said, they are not Minx. Color Foils are pretty dang reflective, but you will not miraculously discover ten little mirrors on your fingers.) 

Although these polishes are indeed quite awesome, we do hit one little snag. Sally Hansen instructs not to use base or topcoat with Color Foils. On top of that, chrome polishes tend to show every little imperfection in your nails, like ridges, peelies, dents, and much, much, more-- possibly stuff you didn't even know you had. While some ladies out there are blessed with smooth nails, others are not, me being one of them. Sadly, Color Foils do not react well with ridge filling base coats, or any other type, as a matter of fact. I tried. The polish went all baldy and clumpy and draggy, and while you may be telling yourself (if you are nail expert) "Oh, I can avoid this, piece of cake," you won't be able to. Sorry to burst your bubble, but no matter how well you apply with however light a hand, you will not be able to make these work with a base coat alone. It's just not gonna happen. Instead of buffing my nails to the point where they're tissue paper-thin, I ventured out to find a way to hide my ridges and dents by still using a base coat. Be a rebel, guys, and read on.

So here is what Titanium Flush looks like alone, without base or topcoat. Titanium Flush is hot pink chrome with fuchsia undertones.

You can see all of my ridges and dents, especially on my middle and pinkie fingers. Joy. 

I then removed it and tried it over my Essie First Base base coat. I can now confidently say that Color Foils look their worst over any sort of tacky base coat. It dragged and clumped and looked awful. Back to the drawing board!

I removed that and realized that my smoothest, driest coat of all would be of my topcoat, Essie Good to Go. I applied my two base coats, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Hardener and Essie First Base, which together do a pretty got job of concealing my ridges. I then applied my topcoat. I waited until that was completely dry, and then painted two coats of the Color Foil. OH EM GEE!!! CHROMEY PERFECTION! 

I'm so sorry, but by the time I got to this combo I was pretty impatient, and I pretty much slapped it on and had no interest in cleaning up. I hope you can forgive me! :(

But seriously... How much of an improvement is that!? I experienced very little clumping and dragging, but my additional advice is to use a light hand and not press on the nail with the brush.

So to recap the layers are as follows:

1 coat Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Hardener

1 coat Essie First Base

1 coat Essie Good To Go

2 coats Titanium Flush

Or...

1 coat ridge filler

1 coat topcoat

2 coats Color Foil

I hope this helps your Color Foils look as AWESOME as possible! Good luck!

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XOXO

Is