China Glaze Pelican Gray and Spoiled Shuffle The Deck

Hi everyone! I know, I've been away a lot this week and I didn't intend to have this much downtime on Nightly Nails, but my hubby got sick and has been in the hospital, so I didn't get anything prepped for posting.
I got a sweet little package in the mail from one of my longtime readers and dear friend Rebecca this week, she sent me one of the new Wet N Wild Spoiled glitters, Shuffle The Deck. This is such a pretty glitter combination - black, silver, and raspberry red in a clear base? Sounds like a layering combo to me! So I thought I could put this over a white - and then I thought about it some more, and I thought I might actually use a gray that I haven't posted yet. I absolutely adore gray polishes but I haven't posted too many here, so I'll try to show a few more. I don't know if I have enough for a full week for Focus On, but definitely I have a few!
I chose China Glaze's beautiful light gray, Pelican Gray, from last year's Anchors Away collection. This is a gorgeous gray with silvery shimmer, and because the base is a creme, it's more of a subtle effect, but you can definitely see it. This is well pigmented so you'll only need two coats.
With Shuffle The Deck, I only used one coat, but I had to use the pat on method of application, because swiping on does not distribute very well. It's not too hard to master, just something to be mindful of.

I think this combination is so super cute! Hopefully if you click to enlarge the photos, you can see the subtle shimmer in Pelican Gray. Rebecca, thank you so much honey!

Top Picks For 2011, Part Five

Last part, and all holiday polishes! There are so many more awesome polishes I could have put on this list, but that's okay - 25 is a good number, right? Let's jump right in!
OPI Warm & Fozzie. Whew, is this foil a looker or what? I even see duochrome in it!

Orly Au Champagne. The perfect holiday shimmery white, fully opaque at two coats and really stunning.

China Glaze Blue Year's Eve. Oh wow, this one just glows - it's a stunner! I didn't even think I would love this as much as I do.

Of course, if I'm mentioning Blue Year's Eve, I cannot skip out on the beautiful evergreen Glittering Garland, from the same collection.

And finally finishing up, Orly Ingenue. A beautiful pink absolutely packed with gold shimmer? Guh. This is too pretty, and I just loooove shades like this.

Well, that's it! I hope you enjoyed seeing my choices, were any of them yours, too?

Top Picks For 2011, Part Three

I could pick SO many more than the ones I'm showing you, but this has been fun taking a stroll down photo-memory lane!

OPI Glacier Bay Blues. The second one to make it into my top picks not released this year, but acquired this year! How can I resist adding this one in - it's a stunner.

China Glaze Skyscraper. Again, from their fall collection - I really really loved that collection, so many great colors to choose from!

Color Club Alter Ego. Yum, I just love the complexity of this!

Orly Fowl Play. Boy, did this cause a stir among the lacquerheads of the world or what! For good reason - this is a purple flakie stunner and a dupe to the much beloved and discontinued OPI Merry Midnight.

Last for today and most certainly not least, China Glaze It's Alive from the Halloween collection. Gosh, they really do the best Halloween collections. I can't wait to see next year's!

Just two more days left of great polishes from 2011!

Top Picks For 2011, Part Two

On to part two! It's been a heck of a time narrowing these down - there were some great polishes released this year.

From Finger Paints fall, Cordur-Orange. YUM. This is an awesome polish.

Zoya Yara. Seriously, one of the best years for greens, especially in the fall. Yara is divine, and I really loved the Smoke & Mirrors collection.

You didn't think I would skip China Glaze, did you? This is Midtown Magic from the fall collection. Shown off in bright sunlight, to see how freaking amazing it is.

Color Club Ulterior Motive. Holy bats, is this hot or what? This was a great collection.

China Glaze Trendsetter. The ultimate uglyawesome polish. Seriously this is one of the most perfect greens ever, and then it's got the China Glaze glass fleck too? *swoon*

Moving right along! Part three goes up tomorrow.

Happy New Year's Eve!

I hope you have a fantastic (and safe!) holiday. I decided to re-create my glitterbomb manicure for New Year's Eve. I went a little nuts this time - I used a full eleven layers this time around, not including base/top coat or a little bit of brightening.
So. I can't exactly remember what order I went in, but I started with a base of China Glaze Frostbite. I used China Glaze Meteor Shower, Essie As Gold As It Gets, Kiko 261, China Glaze Snow Globe, Confetti Ice Ice Baby, Finger Paints Asylum, and Island Girl Island Volcano. Whew. Then around the bottom, in a kind of U shape, I added an "accent" of BeYu 209. I then topped everything off with China Glaze Fairy Dust.
Although it didn't come out really thick - I did use thin layers - even with a fast dry top coat, it took forever for this baby to dry.
I have pictures in full sun for you to get an idea of the bling, and the last shot is in low light. It's probably nowhere near as awesome as it looks to me, but you'll get an idea of it anyway. I really, really love how this turned out.

Is that crazy nuts or what? Hahaha, I love it. Have a great evening!

China Glaze Phat Santa and Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat

Just a quickie layering post today! China Glaze Phat Santa is probably my favorite holiday red, it's a bit dark and blue toned, so I think it's really a sexy red and makes a great base for layering or glitter gradients. I'd call it a jelly creme, it's very pigmented but it's super shiny and squishy, too.
I just popped last year's Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat on top of this, and it's so pretty and festive looking! It's a sheer, milky base with multicolored, fine pastel sparkles.

Last shot in direct sunlight so you can see the bling - wow that's an awkward pose. Oh well *sigh* I only took two more in direct sunlight, and they were not as clear as this one, so this is what we have. The Finger Paints reminds me a bit of a smaller glitter Snow Globe, yes/no??

Layering: China Glaze Glittering Garland and White Cap

Hey guys! Did you have a good holiday? I've got a few more holiday combinations to show off, which should carry me to New Year's Eve, I think. Hope that's okay with everyone!

This layering combination is directly inspired by the lovely Salla, who has the best ideas! I just love her wonderful style.

So, I lied a little. I said I had finished up posting my picks from this year's China Glaze holiday collection - and I had forgotten the star of the show, Glittering Garland. I think this is the runaway hit of the collection, and you can see why. This is a sister of the very famous Emerald Sparkle, a forest green jelly with golden glass fleck. Gah. COULD this be a more perfect holiday polish? I don't think so! I love it of course. I used two coats of this, because I was going to top it with China Glaze White Cap, which is, though sheer, lovely on its own - a milky white shot through with gold. Seriously, if you don't have this, this is a gorgeous, gorgeous shade I'd highly recommend picking up, because it can spice up so many colors. Check it out! First shots are Glittering Garland on its own.

White Cap just really amps up the beauty of Glittering Garland, right? You can better see Glittering Garland if you click on the photos to enlarge them, though. It's a stunner on its own!

China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

MERRY MERRY!

I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday.

This year I decided to keep it simple and wear one of my two favorite holiday polishes, China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. The other favorite is, of course, Ruby Pumps. Emerald Sparkle is divine - if you have the opportunity, definitely hunt it down and nab it! It's a darkened emerald green jelly jam packed with the signature glass fleck - it's divine. I used three coats here for opacity.

I'm playing with my new camera, so we'll see how these photos came out.

And a couple of direct sunlight shots.

Guh. You can click to enlarge these! I don't even know how those pieces of glitter ended up there. Hard to tell today, lol! Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Layering: Orly Au Champagne and China Glaze Snow Globe

So, this combination is pretty much awesome - it looks like fairy wings! I love it!
Orly Au Champagne is from this year's holiday offerings, and it's a white shimmer. It dries to a satiny matte, so if you prefer shiny, just slap a top coat on top of it! It's pretty opaque at two coats. I then put a layer of China Glaze Snow Globe over the top of this - perfection. Snow Globe is previously from the collection of 50 glitters, but was re-released in this year's holiday collection too. It's a milky sheer base with opalescent flaky glitter. It's a great layering polish!
This came out so perfectly.

This is just perfection, to me. I've seen this done and I really wanted to try it out, and I'm glad I did! That last shot really shows off the pretty colors of Snow Globe.

China Glaze Tinsel Town

Another one of this year's holiday collection, I think this will be my last one - I do have Twinkle Lights but I don't think I have time to do an individual post on it. Tinsel Town is a bit reminiscent of Nina Ultra Pro Glam Rock, only lighter. You can see that there are big and small pieces of glitter in the macro I've done. The base jelly is a much lighter color, a light blueish grey.
I used three coats here to build up opacity, and this is such a pretty color!

I got a lot of compliments on this one too.

China Glaze Holly-Day and Medallion

Okay, so this is a festive little glitter gradient! It's the first time I tried a glitter gradient at the base of my nails and I really like how it turned out.
First of all, I picked up Holly-Day from the China Glaze holiday release this year, because I don't have a single green creme like this. It's the perfect pine green creme, really. And it applies like butter! It's pretty enough on its own, but it just screams for a holiday mani combo, so I decided to add Medallion as a gradient. I have had no success with sponging gradients, so I dab a little onto the tips (or in this case, the base) of my nails and drag downwards (upwards). I love it, I know it's not perfect but it came out really pretty and festive! Holly-Day only needed two coats.

Last shot in bright sunlight so you can see how awesome Medallion is - that gold with holographic glitter is just perfect! You can also see that Holly-Day leans just the slightest bit yellow. I'm so pleased with how festive this came out!

Peppermint Bark

You guys all know what peppermint bark is, right?
I love that stuff. I wait all year for it, I swear I do.
I decided I wanted to do a holiday jelly sandwich, so I debated and debated what I was going to use as a base, and I decided to try out a white base. I ended up with Essie Marshmallow for the outer layers. Then I did a layer of China Glaze Party Hearty, and a layer of China Glaze Twinkle Lights from this year's holiday collection, and then I topped it all with Marshmallow. YUM. My nails looked like a super-festive peppermint bark!

And this is what it looked like without the top layer:

So anyway, with the camera at a macro setting, it shows off the glitter a bit better even with Marshmallow layered on top. If you're looking at it on your hands though, it's a little less obvious and more like the chocolate minty goodness - I just want to nom my nails lol! This is such a fun holiday jelly sammich.

Focus On Holographic: China Glaze Let's Do It In 3-D

You nail fanatics are already aware of this, I'm sure, but let's start at the beginning properly. China Glaze, once upon a time, came out with two drool-worthy holographic nail polish collections - the OMG collection, which were linear holo nail polishes, and the Kaleidoscope nail polish collection, which were scattered holos. These are now discontinued and have been popping up on Ebay and blog sales for higher prices. I only have a scant few of these precious polishes.
Let's Do It In 3-D was from the scattered holo collection, Kaleidoscope. This is one of the strongest scattered holos I have, too. It's a stunner! It's a dark charcoal grey base with shimmery holo particles. Because the base is almost jelly, I used three coats here.

In lower light, the charcoal base is more clear - but I had to show this off in super bright light to give you an approximation of the rainbow this has. It's much, much blingier in person, let me assure you. For some reason, the face print on this bottle is just peeling off. Sad. Both the OMG and the Kaleidoscopes are well worth hunting down, if you can nab them at the higher prices please do it. I wish I had nabbed them all before they became as rare as they are now.