Forgotten Polishes: Drops of Jade.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with new polishes, and completely forget about the older polishes in my stash. The other day, I was looking for something quick but pretty for my nails. I didn’t have time for nail art, but I didn’t just want to wear a basic color.

Looking through my stash, I found my bottle of Maybelline Color Show in Drops of Jade from the polka dot collection. I bought it last Summer, and remember being so obsessed with it when I first bought it. Then it got lost in my stash, and I forgot I had it! Which is sad, because this is the perfect polish for nails on the go–it’s like nail art in a bottle. I applied 2 coats of polish for this manicure, but if I had more time I would have went with three just for a little more coverage. Thankfully, because of the glitters, you can’t really see any bald spots.

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So what do you think of the Maybelline Color Show Polka Dot polishes?

Killing it in Killing Red by Layla.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I used to be completely obsessed with red nail polish. I went a good year and a half almost exclusively painting my nails some shade of red. (This was circa 2004-2005 when all the celebrities of young Hollywood–Mary-Kate Olsen, Nicole Richie, ect–were rocking bright red nails.) Now a days, I don’t wear red quite as often (except as a pedicure), but I do love to throw back to a classic every once in a while.

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For this manicure, the polishes I grabbed were:

  • Mariposa Mini polish in red.
  • Layla Ceramic Effect in shade 53 (which, I saw somewhere was called Killing Red.)

I applied a base color of the Mariposa, because I knew from experience that the Layla takes quite a few coats to cover. This Mariposa polish is a red jelly. I’ve never used it before–I grabbed it on a whim–but I must say it has beautiful application, even if there is still visible nail nail with it on it’s own. Next, I applied two coats of Layla 53–Killing Red, to get a full application of the flakies over my nail. Oh my god I love this polish. It’s such a step above your basic red. I finished it all off with a coat of Essence Gel-Look Top Coat, followed by Essence Nail Art Express Dry Drops. When that was dry, I finished with a coat of Icing’s “It’s a Matte World” Matte top coat.

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Such a gorgeous combination. Makes me remember exactly why I use to love wearing red nail polish so much. But it isn’t until you capture it with no flash that you can really see it’s true beauty.

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Can you see those beautiful golden flakies swimming in this red polish? I didn’t have the best natural light inside for taking pictures, but they still come through.

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I legit cant stop staring at my nails, especially in the sunshine. It’s making me realize I’m going to have to go out and get more Layla polishes. All the ones I have used already have all been winners, and they have such an awesome selection! First on my list is going to be some of their holographic polishes. I’ve seen swatches of them online, and I have to have all of them!

Simple Nails: purple & gold.

Sometimes I just don’t have time to get complicated with my manicures, for whatever reason. After rocking my Spiderman nails for two days, I needed to paint something new, but I was feeling under the weather so I had to come up with something quick, but still pretty.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • ACO by Ardene in Sea of Beauty — my gorgeous base color.
  • Layla in Golden Touch (from the soft touch collection) — golden shimmer.
  • Essence Gel-look Top Coat.

Oh man, I love the combination of these two together! Sea of Beauty is just the most perfect blue ever. And Golden Touch is one of my favorite polishes to layer over other polishes. It just jazzes up a manicure, and adds a nice shimmer. Love!

Also, you can see from my ring finger, I’m still having trouble with my Essence top coat–even though I applied the quick dry drops over the top coat, it obviously didn’t dry soon enough for me not to nick my nails. It makes me sad, because the top coat has excellent lasting potential–a good two days with no chipping, which for me is awesome since I work in retail and use my hands for 8 hours a day. =(

 

Crazy for Dots.

My brand new dotting tool set I ordered last month finally arrived last week, and I couldn’t be more excited. I already had a single dotting tool that I bought at Shoppers last year (Essence brand) but it’s had better days. Plus, I only had the one size so it restricted my dot options to two sizes.

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I scored these beauties on Amazon.ca for $1.96. (I also scored some new small detail brushes as well, which haven’t arrived yet.)

It took a while for them to arrive, but once they did I couldn’t wait to try they out! I just needed to figure out what was the first design I wanted to do! It was getting a little late when I started these, so I figure I a funky dotticure was the perfect solution.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Cherimoya nail polish in Dulce de Leche (from the “Make You Melt” Petite collection.) — base color.
  • Essie in The Lace is On — Dark purple dots.
  • Garage brand nail polish — the light pink dots. (No name on this one.)
  • LA Girl Quick Dry Top Coat.

Even though it’s a simple mani, I really like how it turned out on the nail. I really am crazy for dots.

The only disappointment was a I banged my finger in the morning getting ready for the gym, and broke the nail on my pointer finger so I had to file down the rest of my nails so they were all the same length (and go through work with a slight chip to the polish all day). Then I ended up hitting my hand at work, breaking the edge of my thumb nail! So my nails are super short again. I’m a sad girl.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 17: Glitter

I went with a simple manicure for today’s prompt. I really, really wanted to try out China Glaze’s Sand Dollar Make You Holla which I picked up a couple weeks back, and haven’t yet had a chance to wear.

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Sand Dollar Make You Holla(isn’t that just the most amazing name ever!) is an off white–almost pale pink–base with teeny tiny rainbow glitters through out. It’s a textured polish, which China Glaze released from their Sea Goddess collection. And it is beautiful. I’ve seen other nail bloggers compare its finish to icing, and I have to agree. Even though the application is quite sheer, it does build quite nicely. This was three  applications, and they went on super flawlessly.

I really love this color. It’s so different from any other texture polish I’ve picked up, and I’m glad I have it in my stash. I’m also thinking it would be perfect to use for a cupcake manicure, as it already looks like icing!

Also you’ll notice I’ve featured the Timmie’s a lot lately. They just came out with a cinnamon bun latte for a limited time, and they’re right up the street so the boyfriend always gets me one in the mornings. I seriously love anything cinnamon, and these latte’s are starting to become an addiction.