Kozmic Colors and Margarita Madness.

I’m really excited about today’s swatch post and polish.

I posted before about how impressed I was with my first time trying the Kozmic Colors brand, especially for a polish found at a Dollar Store. I popped into a different Dollarama not too long ago, to see if they had anything new in the nail polish section and was very pleasantly surprised with what I found.

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This polish came in a four park of glitters. It was the only milky base color of the four–the rest of them are splatter and glitter toppers. But when I saw this polish in the group of four, I knew I needed to have them. The first thing I thought of when I saw this polish was Margaritas. These polishes don’t come with nails, but if I had to name it myself I would call it Margarita Madness.

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This polish is gorgeous. It is a milky green-blue base that is filled with large and small blue and green hexagon glitters. There are also tiny holographic glitters mixed into the base which unfortunately my camera flash could not capture. It took 3 coats to cover my nail, but it was well worth it. Honestly, I have nothing like this in my stash. It’s absolutely beautiful and eye catching.

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I tried to take a picture without flash to catch the holographic glitters, but they didn’t show up as much as I wish they would have. Regardless, I’ve fallen in love with this color. And now all I want to do is drink a margarita in the sunshine, and admire my nails. =)

I’m feeling tropical… print nails.

I’ve been feeling floral a lot lately, so I wanted to try something different. At work, we’ve been getting in so much tropical floral print so I was inspired to try mimicking something tropical on my nails.

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The (many) polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sinful Colors Cinderella — blue base color. (I also layered it over a coat of Sinful Colors Be Happy because damn… it’s sheer.)
  • Sinful Colors Dream On — flower color.
  • Sinful Colors Coral Reef — flower color & polka dots.
  • ACO by Ardene Ardene’s Secret — flower color.
  • ACO by Ardene Kissed by a Rose — flower color & polka dots.
  • Sinful Colors Strapped — leaves.
  • Pure Ice Wild Thing — leaves.
  • ACO by Ardene Green Peace — leaves.
  • China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin — dots.
  • Stripe Rite Striping Polish in black — flower stem.
  • Nutra Nail Speed Dry top coat with green tea.

 

So what do you think of these tropical floral nails? I think the flower on my ring finger turned out best.

Also is anyone else as excited about iced coffee season as I am?

Freehand, and sort of abstract, chevrons/zigzags.

After my successful chevron moon manicure last week, I wanted to try another chevron manicure as I haven’t done very many in the past. I was inspired by this pin on Pinterest, and figured with my new small detail nail art brush, I could make a good attempt at freehand chevrons.

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Left hand.

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Right hand.

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.
  • ACO by Ardene Neon Pink.
  • Maybelline Sapphire Siren.
  • Sinful Colors Be Happy.
  • China Glaze What a Pansy.
  • Nutra Nail Speed Dry Top Coat.

I’m calling these abstract because… well… they’re not the cleanest lines. Surprisingly, my right hand turned out better than my left, which is funny because it was done using my none dominant hand! Never the less, I’m proud of how they look! When I first started doing nail art, I never would have been able to create something like this without it turning into a big blobby mess. It’s nice to remember that on days when I see others nail art and feel envious that I’m not that good… all it takes is lots practice.

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Seeing these, I feel so proud of being able to create these freehand. For real first attempt, I think I did pretty good. And the colors just look so great together! This is also giving me an urge to do a “then and now” nail art post, just to show myself how far I’ve come from my first days of doing my nails, to now. It would be fun to recreate my first nail art attempts, just for a personal comparison. Maybe that’s what I’ll dedicate next week to. =)

 

My go-to: Revlon Whimsical.

Does anyone else have a favorite polish they go to whenever they can’t think of how to paint their nails, or are short on time for nail art?

Personally, I have a couple. But one of my favorite go to polishes is Revlon’s Whimsical.

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I fell in love with this polish about 3 years ago when it first started popping up on the nail blogs I followed, but for some reason I didn’t end up buying it until last Summer. It makes me sad I waited so long to jump on the bandwagon because oh my god I love this polish. Whimsical has a milky blue base which contains multi-sized hexagon glitters. The base is very, very sheer–I’ve never tried to build up opacity with multiple layers, but I can tell it would take a few. Instead, I always paint another blue-based base color before applying Whimsical.

For this NOTD, I applied Avon’s Vintage Blue as my base color.

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Vintage Blue on it’s own is a very, very pale baby blue color. I bought this color specifically because of my Buffy the Vampire Slayer pale polish obsession. (I’m a dork.) It’s the perfect pale base for Whimsical though–it brings out the blue milky base, and doesn’t affect the end result any.

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As you can see above, the two colors work really well side by side. They look even better when you apply Whimsical over Vintage Blue.

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See what I mean? So pretty! I applied two coats of Whimsical over Vintage Blue followed by my NutraNail top coat. I could have applied another coat for a denser glitter application. However, (1) I was short on time–I did these about 2 hours before I had to leave for work, and needed them dry before getting ready and (2) I liked how it looked already, so decided it was perfect.

Like I said, this is my go-to solution for “I can’t figure out how to do my nails”. This is a very “me” polish (though I’m sure a lot of people say that haha.) I can’t help but love myself some glitter, and these just feel very girlie to me. Too bad the weather is so wretched outside (again! Bah!) because they would pair perfectly with a cute little Summer dress.

So what is your go-to polish?

Waterfall nails.

As I teased yesterday, I wanted to create some fun nail art using Peek a Blue as my base color. Last Summer, I remember seeing waterfall nail art everywhere. I haven’t done a waterfall nail in a while, so I decided Peek a Blue would be the perfect base color for my nail art.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sinful Colors Be Happy & Icing Peek a Blue — my base color.
  • ACO by Ardene Blue Tide.
  • Nicole by OPI What’s the Mitch-uation.
  • The Color Workshop unnamed shimmery blue.
  • ACO by Ardene Midnight Stars.
  • QUO by Orly unknown mini blue polish.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat.
  • Icing’s It’s a Matte World matte top coat.

I feel like it turned out pretty well, even though it’s far from perfect. Next time I would definitely paint my waterfall lines slightly longer. Also I don’t know what I was thinking adding Midnight Stars–I totally forgot it’s a clear base with glitter so it looks a little misplace on the nail. But besides those little problems, I do love them. And the adding Matte top coat just pulled everything so perfectly together. I love the smooth finish it gives the whole look. =)

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So what do you think of this attempt at Waterfall nails? I know the trend was super popular last year, and it’s not featured as much on nail blogs as it once was, but I’m still a big fan.