Nail Of The Day/Nail Polish Organization

Happy Monday Lovelies.

I posted on Twitter (twitter.com/lovelydalls) last week that I reorganized my nail polishes. I have always kept them in 2 plastic containers I got from Target but the collection was getting too big and I was forgetting what I had because I couldn't actually see it unless I went through it all.

I had these 3 shelves laying around and had an "AHA" moment. I put them up in the bathroom and organized the polishes by color. I see them organized brand a lot which I don't understand. I never go "ooh, I'm in the mood for OPI polish today". No, what I say is "I feel like pink". That makes sense to me.

I am loving it so far. It's so easy to just go in and grab a color. The polishes are in 2 rows on each shelf. As you can see, I generally purchase Essie, OPI, China Glaze, Orly and Nicole by OPI polishes. I just find that the quality and price point is right for what I like. I would be hard pressed to spend over $10 on a nail polish. I would never use it up before it got old and that's just a waste of money to me. I can't really believe that a $24 nail polish is any different than an $8 polish. Unless it paints itself on my fingers. Then we might be talking!

Now, this is not my entire collection. It's about 1/2 of it. But these are the colors I use the most and more of my summery colors. I will probably rotate in my more fall/winter colors as the seasons change.

So last night before True Blood came on, I ran in and grabbed the girliest mani supplies ever. China Glaze Base Coat, Revlon ColorStay Cafe Pink, Sally Girl In Love glittery top coat and Seche Vite to seal it all in. I only did glitter on the tips, which was kind of fun. Came out like this...

Nail Of The Day

I had the busiest weekend ever. But, probably the most fun I've had in months. Our little town had a festival this weekend and it kept us busy until yesterday afternoon. I wanted something pretty and neutral that would match all of my outfits and chose a shimmery, pale gold shade.

I like this line from Sally's called Ultra Pro Nail. I have another seafoam green shade and they are both awesome. The brush is great, the formulation is always good and this line wears well on my nails. With a good base and top coat, I can get 5 days easy out of one manicure.

I really like this shade, "Big Spender". It's a metallic formula to start with but it has teeny flecks of gold in it that just give it that extra something special. I'd describe it as a cool gold, not bronzey. It can almost look silvery in some lights.

Have you tried this line of polish? Any colors you particularly love?

Nail Of The Day

I found some Essie polishes at TJ Maxx last week for $3.99. I grabbed this deep charcoal grey called "Power Clutch" as soon as I saw it. I was going through my polish collection and thought I could make this gloomy but beautiful color a little more summery by adding a bright neon accent nail. I chose China Glaze "Celtic Sun".

I love yellow and gray together and was really pleased with the way this came out. Fun twist on the neon and neutral trend.

Nail Of The Day-Patriotic Mani

I can't believe it is July already. CRAZINESS. This year is just zooming by and this month is shaping up to be busy as usual.

We are leaving for the beach tomorrow to celebrate the 4th with family so I did my 4th of July Mani on Saturday. Fingers crossed it lasts.

At first, I had the blue/red ombre with white tips on all of my nails, but it was too much for my tastes. So I took it off of all but my ring fingers and then did red, white and blue tips on the other fingers with Northern Lights glitter top coat over all of the nails. Kind of like fireworks ;)

I did go over it all with Seche Vite because the Northern Lights does chip fairly easy on me and I want this to last at least until Wednesday.

UPDATE: It didn't last. I baked cookies last night to take to the beach and all that handwashing did a doozy on my nails. I took what was left off last night and did this really quickly. I think I like this one better. But then I'm a sucker for stars. Same polishes (Loreal Target Red, Wet N Wild White, NYC Blue, Northern Lights and Seche Vite) different design.

Ombre Sunset Mani-Nail Of The Day

Hello Lovelies!

This weekend was so great. SO LAZY. The only thing we did was go out to dinner last night, other than that we lounged all weekend. It was stormy and rainy and grey here this weekend and Little Man wasn't feeling super hot so that meant keeping him inside and letting him rest.

I got inspired on Saturday and decided to play with my nails while I was watching movies. I thought since I wasn't in a crunch for time like I usually am with my nails, I'd do something a little more adventurous. OMBRE NAILS.

I've seen this pinned on Pinterest, using a makeup wedge to sponge paint your nails ombre. I picked out 3 complementary colors and went at it. First I did a clear base coat, then did 2 coats of Essie Ballet Slippers (a lovely pale barely whisper of a pink). Allowed that to dry and then painted the flat end of the makeup sponge with Essie Tarte Deco (a sorbet kind of coral) and Essie Ole Caliente (deep poppy orangish red).

I painted a lot on the sponge because the sponge soaked up a bit at first. I just rolled the sponge over my nails, let it dry and went back and did it again paying closer attention to the cuticles and edges the second time. I did a top coat of Seche Vite and then went in with a small flat paint brush that I used for cleaning excess polish off my cuticles. This looks very messy when you are done, but nothing a little q-tip or brush with nail polish remover can't clean up.

The result is a really pretty coral to poppy manicure that looks like a sunset. Next time I think I'll try 3 different shades on the ombre to see how that looks. Maybe even red white and blue for the 4th?

Have you tried this tip?

Nail Of The Day

NEON CITRINE.

This nail polish is a pain in my a$$!! It's hard to get it evenly applied and it's even harder to photograph to show the color correctly. But let me tell you, it is so worth it.

I talked about this before in my post on Neon Nail Polishes. It's China Glaze Celtic Sun. I used it with white underneath on my toes, but this time I just used a clear basecoat. This took 5 thin coats of CS to get it even and neon. I used a citrine/green glitter on my ring fingers from Sinful and topped it with Seche Vite top coat.

It's so bright but suprisingly flattering. I find it makes my hands look tan without the dreaded red lobster hands that a lot of yellows can make.

What do you think? Would you wear a neon this bright?

Neon Nail Polishes

Neons are everywhere right now. I have a lot of neon pinks, corals, tangerine shades but have been on the hunt for a neon citrine nail polish for a while. When I was at Sally's the other night for my mermaid hair dye I saw the China Glaze shade Celtic Sun. HOLY MOLY. It's like highlighter yellow. So cool. I got it mainly for my toes. I put a coat of white nail polish down first, then did 3 coats of Celtic Sun and topped it with Seche Vite. IT'S SO BRIGHT. I didn't take a picture because, who wants to see someone else's toes, right? But trust me, it's awesome. This one is a little streakier than I normally like and I don't think it would be as bright without the white basecoat. But for a funky pedicure, it's definitely worth it.



photo courtesy of SallyBeauty.com

I also grabbed this teeny bottle of Sally Girl Type A. It looks deeper online than it is in real life, it's a neon fuchsia/purple shade. Nothing deep or dark about it. They had these up by the register and it was such a pretty color I just had to grab it. I used this on my toes after my Celtic Sun pedi. These little nail polishes are suprisingly nice. It only took 2 coats, went on easily and stayed for a decent amount of time with Seche Vite as a topcoat. The only thing I don't like is the handle on the brush is so little it can be a little messy on the application, but a quick cleanup with a brush and some remover cleaned it up nicely.



photo courtesy of SallyBeauty.com

 I also picked up another bottle of my all time favorite neon shade, China Glaze Shocking Pink. Again, looks darker online than it is in real life. This is electric highlighter pink on. Dries matte/satin so I always use Seche Vite on top. The downside to this polish is that it isn't long lasting on my fingers, it will basically come off my nail all in one peice after a few days, but it lasts much longer on my toes and makes feet look super tan.



photo courtesy of SallyBeauty.com

 

Mermaid Hues

Not sure if it's the warmer weather, but I am obsessed with turquoise lately. The two main areas are my nails...and shockingly my hair. I have been wanting a fun, peekaboo streak in my hair for a long time and was wavering between pink and turquoise. I feel like pink is done, it's a little too girlie for me so turquoise was just a good choice with my blonde hair and my personality. It's SO PRETTY. I can't stop staring at it. I used Beyond the Zone's Color Jamz in Tripped up Turquoise.


photo courtesy of SallyBeauty.com

First, I decided where I wanted it and how large of a section. As far as placement, I chose to do it behind the top of my ear. That way you can't see the roots when the bleach grows out and it appears more like a "peekaboo" strand than just a giant chunk of smurf hair. Then I bleached the hair using 40 vol. It took about 30 minutes to get the white blonde I wanted. I rinsed and blow dried it and then used gloves (IT STAINS EVERYTHING) and applied a thick coat to the entire strand. I placed it in a ziplock baggie, zipped it up and used a clip to secure the baggie to my head, ensuring it wouldn't bleed onto my blonde hair or on my face. I left it on for about an hour, applying heat from the blow dryer every 10 minutes or so to keep the strand warm and set the color. Rinsed in COLD water (no shampoo)and viola...Mermaid Streak! I didn't wash my hair the next day, I allowed 24 hours for the color to set before shampooing. Also, this stuff smells SO GOOD. There is no chemical stink with it at all, it's DEEP teal in the bottle and shimmery. It's pretty even in the bottle. I love it. It's semi permanent so it will totally fade, but this one bottle has enough product for weekly touchups, enough to get me and my Mermaid Streak through the summer.

The next thing I'm turquoise obsessed with is a nail polish from China Glaze called Turned Up Turquoise. It's literally a NEON turquoise, so saturated, has a nice shimmer to it and is opaque in only 2 coats. As with all neons, it dries matte/satin so I used Seche Vite to pop the gloss. The picture doesn't do it justice, I couldn't capture just how vivid this color is. It's not just bright, it's multifaceted and just so pretty and unique.



photo courtesy of SallyBeauty.com





Revlon ColorStay Longwear Nail Enamel

I had such high hopes for this stuff. I searched 3 different stores for it and couldn't wait to try it out. And then...let down.

I usually don't like the Revlon nail polishes. They are streaky, watery and chip almost immediately on me. And they don't have any super exciting colors. But I was willing to give the ColorStay a chance. They are supposed to be crazy long wearing (if you use Revlon base and top coat...which are crap, so I didn't) and allege to have a "gel-like" finish. Which, they do. If you can get past the goopy thickness which still ends up with a streaky finish. The brush is a messy nightmare, no matter how many times you wipe it, the handle just keeps sending polish down that brush like a faucet. It's stiff and wide and inevitably ends up all over your cuticles no matter how careful you are. The worst part? It takes FOREVER to dry. Even with Seche Vite top coat. Seriously, I applied it Saturday and 2 hours later it was still denting and moving. I took it off and reapplied yesterday thinking I hadn't given it enough time and 7 hours later, it still was "tacky" to the touch. It's the wierdest thing. I got it in Cafe Pink which is a lovely pink cream shade and would have been awesome for the slick glossy finish, but you can still see through it even after 2 coats. I would have done 3 but it's just too thick. It never would have dried.

End result: Wah, wah, wah...these are not awesome and lived up to my preconceived notions of Revlon nail polishes. Just not great quality in my opinion. Great concept, less than stellar end result.



Maybelline Express Finish Nail Polish Spring 2012

I walked past these tonight at Fred Meyers and had to get them. I intended to get some of the Revlon Colorstay polishes but both colors I wanted were out of stock. Then I saw these and it was love.

I got Tulip Tango and Rose Petal Paradise. Tulip Tango is a warm borderline neon coral. Rose Petal Paradise is a very soft pink. Sheer but not streaky. Feminine and lovely. I used it for my manicure tonight.

I like these polishes because they dry in under 60 seconds and they are decently long wearing. These two colors are part of the spring collection that is a mix of bright and soft colors. A very pretty limited edition collection!

Nail of The Day

Had a set of gel polish on for about 2 weeks but Easter and dying eggs did them in. Freshened my nails up last night with a little at home manicure. Used NYC color in Times Square Tangerine, Essie Shine of the Times top coat with Seche Vite top coat. Fun, bright, spring mani!

Nail Of The Day

Fun spring mani. China Glaze "Spontaneous" with Essie "Shine of the Times" on my ring fingers. Seche Vite top coat. I really like the China Glaze nail polishes, they are good quality and this color was opaque in 2 coats. I love that! I really like how Shine of the Times looks over it, this flakie top coat can appear reddish or green depending on the light, but on top of the purple it looks like a sunset, it's beautiful!

Song of the Day: Time To Pretend-MGMT

Nail Of The Day

Needed something bright and cheery after the weather we've had this week. SNOW...in March. And a ton of it. GROSS.

For this look I chose NARS Orgasm with CoverGirl Boundless Top Coat in Pink Twinkle on my ring fingers. Seche Vite top coat. This combination is a very long lasting one. I love the NARS nail polishes, they last really well on my nails. This one is just such a pretty, glowy peach shade with golden shimmer. Opaque in 2 coats. I find that the Seche Vite doesn't shrink NARS as much as it does some other polishes on me, so that's a great added bonus to a gorgeous color! In fact, I love this color so much and it made me so happy this morning that I busted out the NARS Orgasm lip gloss and wore that today too!!

Song of the Day: Cape Town-Young Veins

Review: Nail Of The Day

Happy Monday! We had a nice family weekend this past weekend. Sunday involved lots of loafing, tv and removing my St. Patty's day manicure.

I decided on China Glaze "Pink Voltage" and then Nicole by OPI "Follow Me On Glitter". I really love the idea of the Nicole one, it's a dark charcoal grey with sparse multi colored flecks. But...once painted on the nail, the colors become practically invisible leaving just a grey nail with silver sparkles. Which makes it not worth the $8/bottle in my opinion.

Pink Voltage is awesome. Seriously, HOT PINK. But it does take 3 coats to become opaque. This color tends to dry a little matte, almost like a satin finish so I top it off with Seche Vite top coat.

Excuse the photo quality...I was lazy and used my Iphone.




Song of the Day: Awake My Soul-Mumford and Sons