Milani Bare Necessities With a Dazzling Topcoat

EDIT: Sorry, guys... I have no idea what happened here. The pictures were there when I posted, but suddenly aren't now. I'm blaming the web pixies for stealing my pictures! All should be fixed now, so carry on, carry on! ♥

 Psssst.

Yes, you. C'mere. I've got a secret to tell you.

You have to promise you won't tell anyone. I mean it... not anyone! Can I trust you to keep my secret?

I have an almost unhealthy love for sparkly things.

I know. I hide it so well. People are always so surprised when I squee over something glittery, because it's such a shock! But it's true, and I can't hide it any longer...

Ok, fine. It's not exactly a secret. But it's still the truth. I love glittery, shimmery things so much! It's not that I don't like creme polishes, it's just that they're so... creamy and flat. The idea of being able to add my own layer of shimmer to a creme polish to switch it up is a fantastic one, and it's hardly a new idea. Companies have made glitter polishes for decades!

But I recently found a topcoat that is filled not with glitter but with shimmer- tiny particles that glimmer and sparkle almost like diamond dust. To see that this polish was a grant total of $0.99?

Oh yea. I squealed out loud, standing right there in the middle of WalMart, not caring who saw me, who thought I was insane. I bought a bottle, and am now considering buying a couple of extra bottles for backup. I love it that much! It's called Dazzling, and it's a gorgeous iridescent shimmer in a violet-tinged clear polish. If I could, I would marry it and have lots of tiny little nail polish babies in all colors of the shimmery rainbow!

So, I started out with two coats of Milani's Bare Necessity from this fall's line of limited edition polishes. (For the record? Those polishes are crazy gorgeous for neutrals!!) Two coats gave me a neutral that was just a shade or two deeper than my own skin tone, warm enough to look healthy but still a nice neutral beigey-tan. As a work polish, I think this is ideal, even though you might die of boredom from looking at it too long. (I kid, I kid!!)

Once I'd gotten my base color down, I added a coat of Dazzling. This brought that neutral shade to life, turning it into a glistening neutral that seemed to have sparks inside! I honestly am at a loss about how to describe it... let's just say it was flippin' beautiful, 'k?

After one coat of shimmer gorgeousosity, you'd think I would have stopped there, yea? No. I added another coat, which made it even more magically insane than before!!  It's so crazy that I was abusing caps lock and exclamation points with my friends!! It looked almost alive with delicate rainbow sparkles lighting up my fingertips, causing me to spend entirely too much time staring at my nails and not nearly enough time doing important things, like breathing.  I was in love, y'all!

The best part is that it's absolutely smooth. No bumps, no sandpaper nails. Just a billion sparkles of light, turning your nails into a disco paradise. I added a coat of Seche Vite to make sure this baby wore like iron, and wore this for three days.

THREE DAYS, people!!!

I'm feeling a bit dizzy just remembering it... I think I need a few moments to myself. Feel free to dig around the blog while I go retire to my chambers to stare at my nails a bit more. This way, if I forget to breathe, at least I'll have a soft comfy bed to pass out into! :D

Milani's Bare Necessity was provided by the company's PR for evaluation.

What Does the Essence Magnetic Polishes Pattern Look Like? Find Out Here!

Hi everyone! This is just a quick note to let you know that I added a bit to my blog about the new limited edition Essence Magnetic Metallic polishes. While talking with @amusedPolish on twitter, she pointed out a little detail on the magnet packaging that I'd missed. I immediately went back into the photos and looked, squinting, trying to see what the magnet's pattern looks like. This is the best I could do.

So, it looks like instead of the gorgeous starburst pattern Lancome's Le Magnetique produced, these polishes will have stripes. That's if the packaging shows the actual pattern. :D

Have a great rest of the day, wherever you are! ♥

Halloween is Coming, and These Nails Are SPOOKY!

I'm giddy. The air has cooled, the skies are that crisp blue that are so gorgeous they take my breath away. It's fall, and that means it's almost time for sweaters and boots, kitty hats and scarves, and for m favorite holiday of all- Halloween! Don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving and Christmas, spending time with family and giving thanks for all the good things that fill our lives. But Halloween is my favorite.

I love the drama, the costuming that goes into Halloween. I minored in theatre in college and spent entirely too many hours in the costume shop, sewing costumes or building props to be worn by people. I've bled on costumes (it's good luck!!), I've taken costume and makeup classes, I've worked backstage doing theatrical makeup... I love dressing up!

I know what you're thinking. "But Laynie, this is a NAIL ART blog, where is the NAIL ART?!"  You're so impatient! Anyway... today I got an email showing me the KISS Limited Edition Halloween nails, and I thought they were so adorable that I just had to share them with you! There is a design to go with most outfits, and honestly I want them all! Just look close up...

 The nails on the left are black with tiny spiders on the tips, perfect for any gothy costume where you want spooky nails. Be a creature of the night with ebony nails!

If you're going for glam, the nails on the right are the cat's meow. Deep red nails with a black moon look amazingly retro vampy! Dita von Teese, eat your heart out!

Perhaps you want to be a seductive vampire? These blood-red nails with black scrollwork on the tips will help you unleash your inner blood lust! One wiggle of your crimson-tipped finger and he'll be putty in your hands...

Or perhaps you simply want to enhance your inner undead? With spiderwebs on your nails you can be both creepy and sexy.

Frankly, I think any of these would be a total win for Halloween. You get 24 nails in 12 sizes in each kit along with 24 press-on glue tabs. To remove them, simply soak your hands in warm water! At $3.99 a set, how can you go wrong?

New Fall Polishes From Essence and Catrice! GORGEOUS!!!

Oh my goodness, lovelies, do I have news for you!! You know how everyone's been pining away for the magnetic polishes that were out once upon a time and are now nowhere to be found? Well, there are gonna be a whole new set of them out this fall! The colors are so delicious... I really, really want these. Seriously, I want them so bad I can TASTE them!

(That's a bad thing, by the way. Nail polish tastes GROSS!! *bleah*)

Anyway, enough blabbing from me. I know what you want. You want to see these beauties! Well, feast your eyes on this...

You can click the image to make it bigger. They look like they'll be gorgeous even without the magnet, but I can't wait to see what they look like with it! The people at Essence had this to say about them:

Check out the new metallic nail polish collection that’s a perfect accessory for your fabulous make-up! The metallics nail polish collection will make you a fashionista from head to toe. A total of five new must-have colors offer ultimate luminance and ideal coverage. What more could you ask for in a polish? Available in 01 iron goddess, 02 copper rulez!, 03 steel me, 04 nothing else metals and 05 metal battle. Around 1.99 €*.

Is that fantastic or what? I'm giddy. As for the magnet, which is sold separately:

This stylish nail polish magnet doesn’t just attract trendsetters. Simply hold the magnet over a nail that has just been polished with the magnetic “metallics nail polish”*, and watch the color particles move. You’ll create totally innovative, exciting and unique nail designs! Around 1.49 €*.

*all essence metallics nail polishes are magnetic except 05 metal battle

They've also got some absolutely gorgeous other items coming out, all metallic. Silver or gold lipstick, anyone? How about eyeshadow quads with metallic gel eyeliner included? I won't lie, I want the whole collection. You folks who get Essence products are lucky!!

But don't think I've forgotten about Catrice! They're coming out with the limited edition Glamourama line and it looks just as hot! Again picking up on the metallics trend, Glamourama features four stunning metallic polishes. Tell me these aren't making you want to shop!

That purple is so intense. I cannot wait to see what it looks like on! The people at Catrice have this to say about the polishes:

Metallic must-haves: the limited Ultimate Nail Laquer colors are perfectly in tune with the Glamourama make-up in futuristic silver with mirror-effects, deep violet with fine glitter particles and velvety shades of red and blue. A multi-faceted finish with great coverage and long-lasting texture. Available in C01 Mirror, Mirror…, C02 En Vogue, C03 Times Square at Midnight and C04 Glamourista.

Also included in this line are individual lashes, a gorgeous metallic silver liquid eyeliner, and some very cute "eye jewels" that just might work as nail jewels as well, among other things. This is definitely something to keep an eye out for. If only I were a jetsetter, able to hop on a plane at the drop of a hat...

Ah well. Back to reality.

EDITED TO ADD:
While chatting on twitter, @amusedPolish pointed out a little detail on the magnet packaging that I'd missed. Apparently the label of the bottle in the picture has the magnet pattern showing! So exciting! Since it's a tiny detail that doesn't blow up well*, please understand I did the best I could to make this visible. But you get the idea!

*Unfortunately, the image doesn't get any bigger. It even looks that pixelated. While you can always shrink a photo, you just can't add in detail that doesn't exist.

Images provided by Essence PR.

Borghese Has Me Going Dotty!

It's funny... for years I wanted to wear nail polish, but my nails just wouldn't cooperate. I would spend ages trying to polish them, making sure they looked as nice as I could make them. Of course, that generally involved painting on who-knows-how-many layers of polish, fussing while they tried to dry, then complaining because I got them dented or smeared. Also, cleanup was SO high tech- I would dip a cotton swab in nail polish remover and try to clean up the polish I got all over my fingers. Obviously, this would destroy the manicure, and I would generally get so frustrated I'd say something really rude, really loudly, then remove the whole thing in a fit of annoyance.

On the rare occasion I managed to get my nails painted and dried nicely, something strange would happen. Within a few hours, the polish would lift off my nails in a single sheet.  Sometimes a corner or a section in the very center would still be stuck down, but most of the time I would end up with a duplicate of my nail. It absolutely infuriated me, seeing all the women I went to school with who had absolutely amazing nails while mine were so frustrating. I tried everything I knew to get polish to stick, and absolutely nothing helped. I'd go through this cycle every 6 months or so, and so I ended up with quite the collection of partly-used bottles of polish.

I decided to pull out one of those bottles for this manicure- a bottle of Borghese Roma Scarlet C so old that I don't even know where I got it! If I'm not mistaken I picked this up back in 2001 because it matched my car's paint job: deep bright red with golden shimmer. Of course, I could be wrong. It could have been any time, since most of the polishes I have pre-obsession were red with shimmer. What can I say, I like red! Anyway, back to the nail polish...

I had big plans for this manicure. I pulled everything out- base coat, top coat, stickers, etc. I was going to use some  red, black, and silver decals (unfortunately, I have NO IDEA where these came from!), and it was going to be glorious! I painted my nails, spent an absolute agonizing amount of time cleaning up the edges since red is such a difficult color to clean up, then pulled out the decals, pulled one off to lay on top of my fingernail and realized...

It wouldn't show up. The red is so intense that the black and red sort of faded into it, leaving me with nothing that really showed on my nails. GRR! I decided to pull out the nail art pens and doodle, but wound up with a design I couldn't replicate on my right hand, so I cleaned THAT off (thank goodness for water-based paint!!) and then decided to go with a standard mani I've done before.

I went dotty.

I chose my Sally Hansen Nail Art pens in black and silver, wanting to keep it fairly simple. I think I failed on that, since it ended up being a very busy design, but it was still fun and I think it was cute. It also has a different look than the last set of dots I did similar to this. So it's hardly a great work of art, but it was a lot of fun, and I'm happy with it.

Finally!

Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens were provided by the company's PR firm for evaluation.

OPI- Crepes Suzi-ette Has Stolen My Heart!

I am so excited! I won the giveaway on KittyPolishNBags, and my package finally arrived! Let me tell you, folks, this chick knows how to package things! Each bottle was wrapped in bubble wrap and taped closed. Then, packing peanuts surrounded the whole thing for even more cushion. Happily, it was a bit like Christmas in that I got to open each package individually, and I'd even forgotten what colors were coming! SO much fun!

Once I had them all opened and entered into my nail polish spreadsheet, I realized I needed to swatch the single OPI in the bunch. It's a creme color that screams fall to me, a deep spicy burnt orange that reminds me of nothing so much as pumpkin pie. It makes me think of leaves changing color, the crisp bite in autumn air, of sweaters and boots and scarves.

Also, I decided to experiment with swatching using artificial nails. I love the way longer nails look on me, but I don't like wearing them all the time. This is a fun diversion for me, but let me know what you think in the comments. If you don't like them so much, I'll try sticking to my own nails.

Back to the polish... It's another one of those lovely matte polishes that I probably wouldn't have chosen for myself, and yet now that I have it, I love it! Maybe there's a lesson in there...

Once I took these photos, I realized I wanted to see what this color would look like with the Glimmer Glosses applied. As you can see, the various colors really do change the color of Crepes Suzi-Ette! The first photos show the nails photographed using flash, which shows the shimmer nicely but seriously altered the color of these. As you can see, Grapefruit Glimmer is packed with a lovely cool pink shimmer, almost glittery. The other two have a more subtle shimmer. Blueberry Burst is full of a very subtle, almost hidden shimmer, while Cherry Fizz is almost all gloss, with just a touch of shimmer bits.

This photo, on the other hand, shows the color more accurately. Blueberry Burst turns the pumpkin pie color of Crepes Suzi-Ette to a deep chocolatey brown, very cool toned. I'm absolutely stunned by this, I wasn't expecting it at all. It's a beautiful brown packed with almost-hidden teeny tiny blue shimmer! Grapefruit Glimmer doesn't change the base color much, but adds an amazing amount of pink sparkle. And Strawberry Fizz takes this to an almost brick-red with the occasional tiny red sparkle. They're all absolutely gorgeous, and I'd wear every one of them!

So, that's OPI Crepes Suzi-Ette. They are fantastic! Have you worn this color? Do you like it? Also, what do you think of the nail tips for swatching? Let me know in the comments!

Nail Doodling: Playing With Nail Art Designs

I got bored again after wearing Shield for just a day or two. The cute little stencil wasn't enough... I had to find something else fun to do. I ended up taking a cue from my sketchbook and started doodling on my nails.

For my thumb, I first stenciled a leaf. Well, I think it's a leaf. It's the shape I used for the tutorial, and although it sort of looks like a crown I figured that if I put a flower on top of it, it would look like a leaf instead. I should have added some detailing to it, but it's not awful. Then I painted a swirly rose. I had a decent-looking rose after 2 colors (red and orange), but then I kept going with various colors (sheer pink, pink striper, white striper) and ended up with... well, this. It's not horrible, but it sort of looks like a badly-wound ball of variegated yarn. Yea... next?

I won't even show a close-up picture of the next one. I stenciled a dragonfly, but it was just... bad. You can see it in the group shot, though, without seeing it magnified to the point it just loses visual coherence. My middle finger was interesting, though.

I used my royal blue glitter striper to paint diagonal stripes onto my nail. Simple, but then I started to think... and I wondered what the water polish would look like over this. Sure enough, it changed the color ever so slightly. It's more visible in person, but since I can't upload my actual fingers, this is as good as y'all are gonna get.

 Finally, there was my pinkie. I pulled out BPAL's Blood Countess and my tiny striping brush and started to doodle swirls and dots. I think I like this one, although I'm not exactly sure. It made a pretty filigree, and the glitter shined through the bloody red in a very delicate fashion.

Of course, now I'm very tempted to do disturbing splatters and drips of blood down my nails with this one. Can't you see it? Ahh, it's so perfect for Halloween! It suits my mood the last couple of days as well! I wonder how well this polish would show on black...

Finally, here's the four nails together. See what I mean about the poor dragonfly? He looked much better in real life.

Ah well, it was a fun experiment! Do you ever doodle on your nails? I'd love to see what you do! Show me, or describe it in the comments!

Some polishes were provided by their companies' PR groups for evaluation.