Nail Art: Gold Tips

So here's the mani I teased in my last post.  I'm loving it so much!  This was my first time doing tips - I honestly just did it because I was bored, and there was a roll of scotch tape and a bottle of polish in the vicinity.  But I really ended up liking the color combo - that's Essie Fiji as the base, and Orly Rage on the tips.  Plus Rage is a duochrome, so sometimes it ends up looking like this:

Which works equally well with the base color.  This is making me very excited to wear Rage on its own!

Next up: Zoya Izzy.  Finally!

Review: Essie Fiji

Loving this color!  Have to say though, it now feels odd not to hide my pinky at work!

CVS Mini-Haul

I keep going into CVS for random things and passing by the Sally Hansen display, where I get distracted by the Complete Salon Manicure color First Kiss.  I kept talking myself out of buying it, because I had no money and more than enough nail polish that I haven't even used yet.  But I'm finally OK financially, so I figured what better way to waste my hard-earned money?  And of course, I couldn't just stop at one bottle; I ended up walking out with 4.

So in addition to First Kiss, I picked up Essie Fiji.  I'd been planning to eventually get OPI's Mod About You, then MissGlamorazzi mentioned this color, which is extremely similar.  And at the end of the day, CVS is closer to me than Ulta, so decision made.  Lastly I discovered a whole display of different colored crackles!  Yellow, green, purple...I really wish I had my camera with me.  And they must have put it out very recently, because every slot was filled.  I did a little test on one of my fingers with the pink (Hot Coture), and it was much more opaque than the Sally Hansen Vintage Violet I've got, so I decided to go ahead and try it.  I got the pink crackle for a specific manicure that I've got in mind, then the blue (Strike a Pose) I grabbed on a whim.  Looking forward to doing that pink mani, it's one I've been thinking about for awhile now.

Next up: Sally Hansen Salon Manicure First Kiss.  Right in time for the work week to start again.

Salvaged!

So this is e.l.f. Light Pink, from the previous post.  Barely recognizable anymore once I covered it with OPI Significant Other Color, then Essie Matte About You.  Not bad, huh?  A few more pics under the cut.

C-ya Real Soon!

Been getting tons of compliments about my nails - I'm really not looking forward to taking them off when I go back to work!

Sam let me do her nails, which unfortunately didn't come out like I had hoped.  For starters, she only wanted one coat of red, and I think she could have used another.  Secondly, the combination of my shaky hands and old, thickened polish did NOT make for very nice dots.  Sam didn't want the bow on an accent nail, and we didn't have time for topcoat.  So by the time we snapped a picture the next day, they looked like this:

Practice Makes Perfect

My Tart Deco mani was finally so terribly chipped that I had to take it off completely, it would not stay on - on one of my nails the polish even popped right off, like the entire nail at once!  Definitely need to use a topcoat next time I try Matte About You, but I'm also wondering if I was using the Orly Bonder properly.  Are there any tips or tricks for that?

In any case, I know that I won't be able to do my fun-color vacation mani for a few more days, and I was getting bored of bare nails in the meantime, so I decided to do a test run for Sam's Minnie-Mani.  I'm thinking red nails, white polka-dots on the fingers then a yellow bow on the thumbs.  Dots are easy, but I've never done a bow before, so here was my attempt.

No clean-up, because I'm just going to have to take this off before work tomorrow morning.

Hmmm.  Needs work, clearly.  Plus the wide brush in the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear color I'm using wasn't really made for fine-tuned designs.  I'll have to keep experimenting.

Tart Deco update

Survived work with my nails - even training under what's supposedly a stricter department than ours, but based on the people that I met today I'm beginning to question that; they were very cool and laid-back.  In any case, one of my bosses had a shimmery reddish color, and another girl had a purple holo, so I guess my worries were unfounded.  I'll just stay away from really bright eye-catching colors like white.

Tart Deco never really grew on me, I'm just not a fan of the color.  I'm considering putting a layer of white underneath it sometime to see if that will help lighten it up.  Next time, I'm also going to wear a topcoat!  I was under the mistaken impression that Matte About You was a topcoat, not just an effect to be added over a topcoat.  The result?  Quite a bit of chipping the first day alone.  Go ahead, laugh it up - I'm sure it's not the only rookie mistake I'll make.

In the meantime, I added an orange stripe (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed) on my thumbnails just for fun.  My first time using the Scotch tape method (as displayed so masterfully by Chloe's Nails) - it'll definitely need perfecting.  Not too easily noticeable, and I like the contrast of the shine and the matte (that you can't really see in the picture).  Plus, having a bit of fun makes me feel like I'm sticking it to the man.  Kinda.  Buckle up people, this is about as rebellious as I get.

In other beauty news, finally got mah hair did.  Hooray!  I didn't do anything fancy - just reshaped my bangs and added some layers - but oh man do I love the smooth feel of freshly-cut ends with no splits. 

Additionally, I let my friends who will be vacationing with me later this month know that I'm doing their nails.  Yay!  Something fun for me, and more content I can post for you guys without getting spoken to again.  Win-win!  Sam is getting a Minnie Mouse manicure - we found several pictures online that look absolutely adorable.  Ashley is really intrigued by the OPI Shatter topcoat, and if I can't find it at Ulta before they arrive she thinks her mother may have a bottle we can borrow and experiment with.  Their mani styles are so them - bright and cute vs dark and funky.  I'm looking forward to it!

Work-Safe Mani #1

I have to say, I was unimpressed with Essie Tart Deco.

For starters, I didn't find the application to be very smooth.  Then again, I'm experimenting with better technique (as reccommended by The Lacquerista), so hopefully that will improve over time.  Also, even after three thick coats, I still don't feel like I got bottle color.  It's much darker and more orange on my nails, nowhere near as light and fleshy looking as in the bottle.  I cut my nails because they were uneven and starting to annoy me while typing, so less nail means less polish.  To detract attention I also used my new Matte About You to take away the shine - which is super cool, I have never had matte nails before!  I'm just hoping that the color doesn't get me in hot water again at work.

On my toes, I simply covered the white with my Sinful Colors Silly Alix, then matte'd that as well.  And oh my god, it's so pretty!!!  I love the effect of matte over a shimmery color - it gets you this really gorgeous pearly effect.  I'd post a picture of my toes, but between my horrendous polish job, dry skin, and deformed big toenails due to repeated injury, I don't really think anyone wants to see a close-up of my feet.  Trust me.  But next work mani?  Definitely doing that same effect.

...In With the New

This is how long it's been since I shopped for makeup anywhere other than the drugstore:  I wandered around for a good ten minutes before I figured out where the nail polish section was - and that was only because I asked someone!  FAIL.  I saw small collections with other makeup from their respective brands, but I wasn't finding very much selection - until I asked, and was directed to the back of the store where there were three giant racks full of polish.  I AM VERY DUMB.