33 Day Challenge Day 3- Tape Mani

One day, I will actually get these done on the day I'm supposed to and not the day after!

I was on antibiotics for a sinus and respiratory infection (plus the inside of my ears were red.. and my ears had been ringing). You have to take the antibiotic with food and I tried to take it with a veggie bagel and I ended up getting really bad stomach cramps and having to lie down.. ugh.

Anyway, here's my attempt at a tape mani. I used Santorini by Contrary Polish as a base on all my nails. The lighter blue is my custom, Pastel Heaven by Lilypad Lacquers (which is also mixed into my accent nails.) Then I topped it all with Shifty Smurf by Love Thy Polish. On my regular nails I used Turbulence by Emily by Molly as a glitter topper.

On my accent nails, I used Scorn by Illamasqua, and had the tape applied diagonally. I really like how it turned out after I took it off. For some reason it made me think of the 80's

I tried to ix my ring fingernail because some of the glitters from the Turbulence got into my Pastel Heaven.. and I ended up messing it up.

I love the brightness of the different sparkles in turbulence!

By the way, I have to give credit.. when I was looking for ideas for tape manis, I found this one on That's So Fresh and although mine did not turn out anywhere near as cool as hers, I tried!

33 DC Day 2: Most Used Color

The challenge was to use the color that you use the most.

I didn't finish posting this on time because I had a really stressful, long night. . .but here it is. First of all, sorry that this doesn't look that great. I tried redoing this mani a few times and ended up just going with the 1st pictures I took. 2 of the polishes I use come out pretty thick,so I kept dinging my nails.. or if I tried to even it out with Seche Vite I got shrinkage (which is why the bottom of my ring finger looks so funny)

Since I started my blog, I have used Kids by Enchanted Polish the most. Also, blue, green, and purple are my favorite colors. So I decided to use Pic de Subineux by Elevation Polish on my accent nails. It is alone on my middle finger, and layered over black on my ring finger. Look how drastic the difference is!

I used Future Reflections on my pinky over black.

Unfortunately, it was overcast yesterday so I wasn't able to get pictures outside. But look how stunning the Enchanted holo is, even indoors (with flash, of course).

It just so happened that some of the colors in the shirt I wore went with my nails! This was totally unplanned!

(It was a tunic so I was grabbing it to try to show the tie-dye.. that's why the weird fold is there.) Also this picture IS one of the redo attempts.)

Here is a gratituitous rainbow picture, just because I like rainbow and holos.

33 Day Nail Challenge- Dots

This is the first nail art challenge I've ever participated in!

Dots are harder than they look. I don't have a real dotting tool so I used the end of a chopstick and the end of one of my dental flosser thingys for the smaller dots! (Very classy)

I used All About Blue by Lilypad Lacquer as my base color and Serenity by Illamasqua for my accent nails. Then for the dots, I used Blueberry and Zipper by Colors by Llarowe on the holo nails, and on the accent nails I used All About Blue and Blueberry.

Serenity is not an easy base color to use. I redid this mani several times trying to get it to look right- I had problems with the dry time and with it looking smooth or not ridging/bunching up by the tips. I also ended up using Zipper by Colors by Llarowe for better contrast on my other nails. But I think if I do this again, I would try it with all my nails being a solid, rather than a holo, backgroun color.

I still had fun, though, and I think that Blueberry and Zipper dotted together look a little bit like peacock feathers.

La Bella Vernice Review, Part 1

DISCLOSURE: I was sent some extra polish with my order, in exchange for an honest review.

The colors I used were Reagan, Princess Jasmine, and Pluto is a Planet.

I think Princess Jasmine is amazing! It's a beautiful silver glitter with holographic glitter in it. I was pleasantly surprised to still be able to get one of the Limited Edition bottles with a pink cap. This color is a part of her It's a Girl's World Collection.
Pluto is a Planet is a lavender/silver glitter topper. I think it looks like snow. On a side note, I love the name of Pluto is a Planet. I'm very into anything related to space- just a side note about me- my first tattoo was a star, so the fact that I was randomly sent this polish was very cool to me! I felt a little sad when Pluto lost its planetary status.
Last but not least is Reagan. As you can see, there is also some scattered holographic glitter in this color- and it's also a duo or maybe even a multichrome. I took several pictures so I could get this polish from a lot of angles. I think that the colors you get to show up could vary depending on the base color you use.
Reagan is such a strong color-shifting polish that it was brush-strokey, but if you put 2 coats on, it looks fine. Also, I have been using a strengthening basecoat because I broke my nails about a month ago. It might be easier to apply this polish without a basecoat.

From pointer to pinky I have:
Reagan, Princess Jasmine, Pluto is a Planet, and Reagan.

They are all layered over Grape by Colors by Llarowe.

In this picture, I am holding Reagan.

In lower light, or at certain angles, Reagan shows shades of pink and green.

'

Close-up of Pluto is a Planet:
I think this almost looks like the beginning of a galaxy nail!

These colors and many more can be found at Bellavernice.com. Mini bottles are available for $4.50, and full size ones are $10. There is also a sale going on where if you buy 3 mini bottes, you can get one free!

Also, check out her Facebook Page! If you spend over $40 you can use her code "happy27" for her birthday. The code is valid until September 30th.

Unknown Elevation Polish & coincidentally water themed skittles

I'm finally starting to get caught up on the backlog of swatches on my phone!

This is from the "Good luck mani" I did on the day of the Enchanted Polish restock on her Big Cartel website... it didn't really work LOL. I really wanted August 2013 (is anyone shocked that I wanted blue?) and a couple of the other new colors, but alas.

Have any of you ever lost a sticker on your polish and not been able to figure out what color it is? I'm having that problem with one of my Elevation polishes right now! So without further adieu, I'll let you look at some pretty pictures and see if any of you can hazard a guess as to what this is?

This lucky mani consists of:

Liquid Sky Lacquer Dewdrops, Nail Nation 3000 H2-OHHHH, Enchanted Polish Electric Feel with the mystery Elevation Polish on top, and Bellskandi Blue Dolphins. (somehow these polishes also turned out to be coincidentally wate rnamed in theme, aside from Electric Feel)

By the way, does anyone notice how similar in color Dew Drops and Electric Feel are?

I love the holo in H2-OHHHH! In the above picture you could see the lovely blue sparkles. In this pic, you can see the rainbow.

By the way, am I the only person who thinks about this song when they think of Elevation Polish?

Lilypad Lacquer Skittles

This is a (Mostly) Lilypad Lacquer Skittles mani.

When I did this, Mei Mei's Signature's was posting some pictures of Pretty Jelly Dream Cloud on her Facebook Page and I realized I hadn't tried the polish yet, so also threw it into the mix and added Rainbow Honey the Worst Possible Thing on top.

Thumb to pinky: Emerald city, Periwinkle Twinkle, Pretty Jelly Dream Cloud with Rainbow Honey the Worst Possible thing, Caribbean Crush, Minty Moment

I love Emerald City so much, I might do a full mani with it soon! Not only is it the most holo, but emerald is my birthstone!

Living room lighting

Outside

Inside (This shows the duochrome in Caribbean Crush the best!)

I also reversed the mani on my right hand.  (the nails on my right hand hadn't caught back up to my left yet!)

The only difference is, Dream Cloud doesn't have any glitter on top.

Then, I put Revlon Celestial FX over Minty Moment so both my hands could have some bling!

Lilypad Lacquer Oceanic and Customs

I had 2 custom polishes made for me by Lilypad Lacquer. At first I only wanted one- a very dark purple that shifted to a sky blue, but Nicole showed me 2 colors she'd been working on and I couldn't decide which one I liked better.

I also got to name them. The purple reminded me of a color named Merlot that she released, so I just "creatively" named it Meredith's Merlot. I named the light blue one Pastel Heaven.

These are shown with French accents- the darker blue is called Oceanic.

What do you guys think? A couple of my friends said that my dark purple custom looks blue. it is blurple, yes, but I think some of what they're seeing is the strong holo as well.

                

indoors, bathroom HE lighting

The next day, I couldn't resist adding some hearts on my ring finger.
This is Rapid Heartbeat by Sparkle Nail Lacquers.

I think that the purple in my custom is more evident in this lighting (in my living room)

Outside!

One thing I love about Lilypads is that most of them end up having a duochromey nature. Look at my thumbnail- it's the same color as my index and pinky, but the shade of purple is totally different!

(side note) I love the frog and lilypad logo- it reminds me of this game, Pocket Frogs I used to play on my ipod all the time! They have another game called dizzypad that. well, makes you dizzy and is hard.

Anyway, if you haven't gotten a Lilypad or 10, what are you waiting for? Her shop is  right here..
Sparkle Nail Lacquer can be found   here!.

Fang, Seven Nation Army, and Nebula

A little while ago, I got some of my first polishes from a new to me brand called Glittering Elements.

I had a hard time deciding which to use first- but Fang ended up being the standout color for me.

From thumb to pinky-
Thumb, index finger, ad pinky all have Glittering Elements Fang. My index finger also has a coat of Essie Matte About You on top. I was really cirous to see how it would look with a matte top coat, but my flash was so bright that I think all it did was help to show the pretty lighter blue hex in the polish that this picture is hiding.

The hexes flash and they look like they are floating around in the blue jelly when you move your hand around. It's very cool!

On my middle finger I have Enchanted Polish Seven Nation Army layered over Ozotic 903 sugar (a baby blue base with a pink/purple duochrome shimmer) On my ring finger I have Ozotic 506, and on the bottom one of my favorite polishes- Ninja Polish Nebula.

Seven Nation Army will be bittersweet for me.. It is the last Enchanted Polish I ever got off Llarowe's site (I was unsucessful at any of the phase-out restocks on her site or Nail Polish Canada.) Seven Nation Army is also VERY hard to photograph.. it's not just black and white, but it has really pretty holographic glitter in it as well. There are 2 coats on over the Ozotic in these pictures.

Indoor lighting with flash

This picture shows Seven Nation Army a little bit better.      

Without flash (and with my cute new blanket!)

Stars and Holo and Glitter, oh my!

First of all, I have reached what many of you probably think is a small milestone- my blog has reached over 1000 views! Yay! I'm so excited!

This is going to be a mouthful... (In fact such a a mouthful that I couldn't fully tag this post. I broke it. Oops!)

 From thumb to pinky, I have: Liquid Sky Lacquer very appropriately named Brit's Hella Holo, Fairy Footprints from Lilypad Lacquer layered over You're my Boy Blue by I Love Nail Polish (Fairy Footprints was a little sheer on me, but it's a gorgeous color!)
I am holding Stars on Fire by Sparkle Nail Lacquer. it is layered over Neutron Starlette by I love Nail Polish, Man in the Mirror by Colors by Llarowe!, and Beat it by Colors by Llarowe.

Man in the Mirror is the color that inspired it all.

With flash, in living room

Without flash 

This is an outside shot of Brit's Hella Holo because the color is so awesome!

This is my left hand with the mani reversed.

With flash, everything is so sparkly it's hard to make out all the stars and holo!

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