Twist and Shout, by Nail Fantasies

You know what? Storms are a pain in the butt. I live in an older mobile home (yay for not paying rent!), so we tend to evacuate when there's a tropical storm or larger coming. That means I'm posting this from my dad's house!

For the record, we're fine. The storm has come and ... well, sort of gone. It's been fairly uneventful, thankfully, and we even had a bit of good luck. Normally we park in the same spot every time we go to my dad's, but this time we parked close to the house. It's a good thing, because when we came out the next morning, there was an ENORMOUS limb right where we normally park our car! It would have been seriously unpleasant, and I'm glad it didn't happen!

We didn't even have to do without power, thanks to my dad's whole-house generator. We lost power sometime in the night last night, but his generator kicked right in and kept us fully-powered. This is where I plan to be for every storm in the future, as well.

But enough of that! I want to show you a lovely polish I got on sale. I've got a few Nail Fantasies brand polishes, and I love them all. This time I'm showing you Twist and Shout, a lovely lime green creme. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures until after I'd put a coat of glitter polish from Love My Nails on, and I absolutely cannot remember the name of that polish to save my life. I'll update this blog once we're back home again and I can check the name.

Still, you can see the color well in these shots. Twist and Shout is a beautiful creamy lime green that applies nicely. It's one of those colors that really called out to me when I saw it, especially considering it was only $0.50 (if I remember correctly, it might have been less).

As you can see, the glitter polish really does give this green more of a kick. It's an interesting combination of glitters, combining fine translucent opalescent microglitter with large round translucent opalescent glitter, larger translucent opalescent hex glitter and large rhombus holographic glitter. In short, it's absolutely stunning and can look very different from nail to nail.

In fact, the difference nail to nail can be seen either as a positive or a negative characteristic. Personally, I really like the varying looks. However, if you're someone who wants your manicured nails to look consistent overall, then you might find this frustrating. There's really no way to guarantee which shape glitters will show up on your nail that I'm aware of.

I guess you could pour some out into a small dish and try to fish out the bits using a brush or a fine-pointed tool of some sort. Still, that would seem like a waste of polish to me, and too much work. I'm fine with the more whimsical, varying application.

So- overall, I'm extremely happy with both of these polishes. The lime green is perfect both for general application and for nail art, and the glitter is versatile enough to be used as a layering polish or for frankening purposes. This could make some GORGEOUS frankened polish!

As for me? I think it's time for me to find a nap... I think I hear it stalking around in the bedroom. I bet I can totally incapacitate it!

Til next time!

Tropical storms are a pain in the butt.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

An experiment that works!

I should wait. I know it. I get way too excited about things before they're finished, then I tell everyone and the surprise is ruined. But I'm halfway through the first set of these, and I think I can share my test nail without ruining too much of the surprise. So, humor me, will ya?

Yesterday, my husband and I went walking through a variety of shops- hobby stores, craft stores, etc. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love wandering through a creative-type store, because I never know exactly what's going to catch my eye, or what I'm going to go home with.

Thanks to this wandering I get to show you a preview of my next set of nails. They're for halloween ... they're spooooky monster nails! Be afraid!

Ok, maybe they aren't exactly scary, but they're monsters! Monsters with googly eyes! The nail in the picture is the second to smallest size nail tip, so most have more room for painting and detailing. Thankfully, I've got all sorts going.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I'm enjoying this set. I was painting last night in a room alone, giggling to myself about how silly and cute some of these monsters are. There are no details yet, but personalities are already starting to show. I cannot WAIT to finish this set!

So, what do you think? Have you started thinking about halloween at all? Am I the only one who starts thinking about halloween in August? Talk to me!

Sally Hansen- Rockstar Pink: My Unbirthday Nails

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't gotten around to putting together a lemming list. It's not that I don't have polishes I drool over, polishes I have planned for when I can squirrel away a few dollars that aren't going toward school supplies or school clothes or kiddo's needs. But with life being what it is, and my somewhat limited amount of energy, that lemming list has gotten pushed to the back burner.

However, for my birthday, I was happy to snag one of the polishes I've been eying every time I pass a Sally Hansen display. This time, I picked up Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Rockstar Pink.

I'm not sure where the "rockstar" in the name comes in, but let me say how much I adore it. This polish is truly a glitterbomb of happiness! Overall, it seems to be a cool, rather dusty pink at first glance. Almost a lavender, really, although it seems a bit mottled when you first look.

But when you look more closely, you find absolutely insane amounts of glitter! Not just pink... no, there are lots of colors: pink, lavender, purple, blue, red, gold, silver?  It's hard to tell, because they're so small, but it's so amazing. The picture to the right is 2 coats, and despite the photo, it's basically full coverage with those two coats. I swatched briefly to see what I thought, before doing all my nails.

I decided to use a base coat of pink, something to give it a bit more depth, I guess. I didn't realize just how full coverage those two coats would be! I used a single coat of Nail Fantasies in Peppermint Patty, a beautiful hot pink creme that is almost neon, but not quite. If I were wearing it alone, I'd need two coats, but for this one was sufficient.

Then I layered two coats of Rockstar Pink on top, and realized that the pink didn't show at all. I could have saved the drying time, but next time I'll know. I topped it off with a layer of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails quick-dry topcoat, and enjoyed their glassy smoothness.

Now I have to be honest- while this polish is amazingly fun and glittery, it's also the worst glitter I've had to remove. I've never had a problem like this removing glitters! I felt like trying to sand off my fingernails with a belt sander before I was done! Honestly, it took me a full hour to get this stuff off, and by the end I was cursing up a storm.

Gorgeous color, freaking lousy removal. Plus it was chipped all to hell after 2 days. Maybe it's a problem with the bast coat, I don't know, but I wasn't amused.

Still, I know it's just a matter of time before the glitterbomb bottle sings its siren song to me once again, and I've lacquered my nails with the juicy, glittery goodness of Rockstar Pink once again.

*SPLAT* Manicure!

A while back, I was admiring the splat Konad plate (M21). It's extremely cute, and I was sad because I wanted to do something similar on my nails, but I don't have any Konad supplies. Then I saw someone on YouTube (I think?) paint their nails using a brush to get the splattered paint effect. So, I decided to give it a shot on my own.

First off, I started with two coats of Gosh Holographic. I absolutely adore this polish... I love it so much! I need to take some video of it outside, so that you can see the amazing holographic qualities it has. But for now, trust me... It's INSANE!

Unfortunately, using the holographic base for this design wasn't the best use for it. The splats covered up so much of it that the holographic beauty was lost, to a degree. It's a shame, really, because I really, REALLY liked the idea of having that rainbow goodness under the splats. But it's ok, I guess. I've learned that holos aren't necessarily that great under busy manicures. That's a good lesson to learn, so I won't be wasting any more of my precious Gosh Holographic under it!

After that, I started to add splotches with a tiny paintbrush. I used three coordinating shades (two pinks and a red), but I think next time I'll go for more variety in the colors. I used Love My Nails in Delicious (a moderately deep, somewhat dusty pink), Heaven Nail Lacquer in Ruby (an amazing red jelly with intense glitter), and Nail Fantasies in Peppermint Patty (a super hot pink). I basically did one or two splats per nail, alternating the colors somewhat randomly. I also tried to make some somewhat rounded blobs on some of the ends, just for fun.

Overall, I'm really happy with how this came out. I think more variety in the colors would be fun, of course, but overall this was LOTS of fun. I think I'd use a dotter for some of the ends of the splats, to make them rounder. Speaking of, I'll have to make a post about my oh-so-high-end dotting tools. I spent an afternoon with glue, tape, old dried-up pens and various items to make my own! They're even comfortable to use, until I can get some real ones. :D

So, what do you think?