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??

Finger Paints Mulberry Madness

This is another pretty from last year's holiday offerings from Finger Paints - Mulberry Madness. I think the name is appropriate because it is a mulberry shade of red glitter, with fine silver glitter scattered throughout the mix. This dries to a bit of a matte shade, so I've slapped a bit of top coat on it to show you its full potential.
Really, this is so pretty and festive. I just love this. I used two coats here and after a year in my position it had thickened up a bit, so I ended up using a bit of thinner on it before I used it. It does dry a bit gritty, but I could have lived with that, it's not bad at all on the grit scale in comparison to other glitters!
I've included a bright sunlight shot so you can see how sparkly and shiny it is.

Oooooh, ahh! I love this.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DADDY! I love you.

Finger Paints Mistletoe Mischief

Mistletoe Mischief is from Finger Paints holiday collection last year - I actually didn't bother to pick up any of the shades from this year's collection. I don't know, nothing reached out and screamed "take me home"!
So, this is a little sister to China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, one of my all time favorite greens. The base is a bit darker, and there's not as much sparkle in Mistletoe Mischief but boy, it's a pretty one as well. This swatch is with three coats, so be aware that it is pretty sheer. I've still got VNL here - I don't notice it as much though, honestly - the sparkle totally distracts from the sheerness.

Gosh, that's such a beauty! I really liked last year's collection. So shiny!

Finger Paints Special Effects Collection

Good afternoon everyone! This is a break in my regular posting schedule because today...I HAVE FLAKIES TO SHOW YOU! Also. This is a very, very picture heavy post.
I called up every Sally's Beauty Supply in the area, on the hunt for the Finger Paints Special Effects collection. I'm a bit of a fiend for flakies - they're probably my favorite finish, because they can make every boring creme polish lots of fun. So, I found a manager who didn't mind setting aside two sets of these, since my mom wanted one also! Shout out to Nikki of Sally's Beauty Supply for your help.
There are five flakie polishes in the Special Effects collection - Asylum, Flashy, Flecked, Motley and Twisted. They might all look very similar in the bottle, but they're quite different on.
I decided, rather than to do individual swatches, I'd do flakie skittles.  So from pinkie fingernail to thumbnail I have Asylum, Flashy, Flecked, Motley, and Twisted. I used a base of Savvy (by Femme Couture) Garland, from last year's holiday collection - it's a shimmery deep, dark vampy emerald green.

It looks pretty dark in low lights, but it's nice and glowy in the sunlight. So, I thought this would be a nice, festive base for the flakies.
First off, there's a bottle shot of all five bottles. I've labeled them.

I tried to do bottle shots, but it was impossible to get my four fingers and my thumb with the bottle in the picture, so I have a few varied shots with the bottle. Again, pinkie is Asylum, ring is Flashy, middle is Flecked,  index is Motley, and thumb is Twisted.

I gave up the bottle shots, and have decided the best thing to do with this is the claw.

Hopefully you can see the color changing going on here! What's interesting to me is that Motley is primarily blue, but shifts from aqua to blue to almost a violet. Flecked is mostly an emerald but shifts from aqua to emerald to blue. Flashy is basically a Hidden Treasure/2010 dupe, which goes from orange to yellow to green. The two others, Asylum and Twisted, are multicolored flakies that are NOT identical, but have a really good amount of color shifting!
Just a quick word, if you're unfamiliar with flakies. These are best layered, I guess you could wear them alone but I don't think you'd ever see the effects, and they'd be pretty sheer! The magic comes out over darker colors. You can also use a matte top coat for a really neat effect. The more you shift your hand, the more you'll see the color shift.
So, I hope you enjoyed this post - are you on the hunt for these? Don't forget to click to enlarge any of the photos!

Finger Paints Catwalk Queen

I know that this color will probably not be popular - in fact, it really doesn't even suit my skintone at all. But I love it. It goes into the uglyawesome file, and although I look at it on my nails and think why am I wearing this? - I also am strangely attracted to it. Unlike the funky yellow greens, I don't think this compliments me at all. No matter, I'll keep wearing this. And I know I'll find a way to play with it, I think it would make a great base for a plaid manicure, if I could ever master those.
This was not as easy to apply as the other colors I picked up from Finger Paints fall, but still smoothed out after a couple of coats. It was a tad thicker, but it finally laid down right and settled out. It's definitely a dijon mustard shade on me, predominantly yellow with a touch of brown and green.

Strangely fascinating or just ugly, y'all??

Finger Paints Vintage Velvet

Slowly but surely making my way through these fall picks! But then again, I still haven't spotted any of the drugstore collections. I'll be in trouble when I do! So many I want.
Vintage Velvet, from the Finger Paints fall collection, is a soft, dusty teal/turquoise shade. I have a lot of darker teals, I think this is one of the lighter ones I own, and I like the dusty quality. This is another amazing one coater!
You know, I had a favorite combination of flakies I tried a while back - I put SH Hidden Treasure over OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. I absolutely adored it.  Soooo, I got to thinking I should try out the combo with Vintage Velvet. This time I used Nubar 2010. I've been alternating my use of these two bottles, since they're so similar.
I think I like this at least as much as I liked it over Suzi Says Feng Shui! Flakies look fantastic over Vintage Velvet. And naturally, I mattified it - China Glaze Matte Magic.
Get ready to drool.

Isn't that cool? I love it so much. Seriously, what a great color on its own - but topped with flakies it's divine. I'm so happy with these Finger Paints, I need to go back and make sure I don't need any more of the fall collection - the application has been divine and I love the colors!

Finger Paints Military Green

I am seriously loving all these olive toned, dusty greens in fall releases. This is right up my alley! I knew for sure that this would be another color I'd pick out from the Finger Paints fall release.
Military Green is a dusty, soft olive green. A neutral with a twist, I guess? I don't know if most folks would consider olive green a neutral but for me it's the perfect neutral. At any rate, this is a creme, and almost as opaque as Cordur-Orange, it's just slightly thinner so I ended up using two coats. For cremes, both of these colors I've tried applied very smoothly. I sometimes have trouble keeping cremes even on my nails, because they're thicker, but these have an absolutely buttery application.

Again, you can see that this dried just a shade deeper than the bottle color. Lovely!

Finger Paints Cordur-Orange

I AM READY FOR FALL. It's still warm here - not hot, but warm. But I'm long past ready for the fall weather to swoop in and save me.
To me, Finger Paints Cordur-Orange is the perfect fall color. I knew I had to have it before it ever showed up at my Sally's. It's a rusty orange, a bit deep and dusty and with a hint of red. Also, the formula is perfection - this is a ONE COATER. I'm completely smitten with this! I think it dries a bit darker than the bottle color, so do be aware of that, if that's a concern for you. I think this shade would be so flattering on so many folks. Also, it dried super quickly! I don't have enough of this brand and actually, I quite like them. The bottle shape is cute, and the handle is nice and long.

Yeah, that's a beauty! I love this so much. Have you guys picked any out from this collection? Which ones are you lemming?

Focus On Yellow: Finger Paints Psychedelic Sunshine

I've decided that this week's posts will be all yellow polishes. This gives me a chance to showcase some colors, and at the same time clear through some of my untrieds.
So, starting off with Finger Paints Psychedelic Sunshine, from the summer collection. This is the other polish I picked up from that collection, the first being Outta Sight Orange. I mentioned on twitter that this was really, really gloopy for me. I mean, super gloopy. So much so, that the first time I tried to apply it, it was like applying hair gel to my fingernails.
I added thinner. Probably, 15-20 drops of thinner. It's STILL goopy. Slightly less so, but the bottle is slam full, so I can't thin it any further. This is a jelly, so I don't want to dilute it any more with clear, because the opacity is already thin. A couple ladies mentioned that they had the same problem with this!
The good news is that the second time I applied it, it went on better. More manageable. You'll see that the polish on my pinkie is still pretty "gooped up" - it looks like bad acrylics. But on the rest of my nails, it self leveled. Weird.
Application issues aside, this is three coats of a goldenrod yellow jelly, with holographic glitter. It's not a top coat eater, because one coat of CND Air Dry had this smooth and shiny. It stayed that way, too! This is an AWESOME shade, so I'm going to see if I can just empty out a little of the bottle and add more thinner. I don't want to purge it, because the shade is seriously amazeballs.

Annnnd, a good macro! If you click on the first picture, you'll see the pretty sparklies - and that built-up pinkie.

Finger Paints Outta Sight Orange

This is one of the two colors I picked up from the Finger Paints summer collection. The other one is Psychedelic Sunshine, a jelly yellow with holographic glitter. When I bought it, it was really thick - I can't apply it well enough to do a swatch. So I added thinner. Lots. It didn't work. Not sure what to do about it!
Anyway, THIS COLOR. This is a bright, juicy orange jelly, which actually gets pretty opaque with three coats. As an added bonus, it has this amazing gold shimmer throughout - which SHIFTS to pink shimmer! It's awesome. I absolutely love this and I'm slapping this on my toes this week.
Did I mention I've always loved orange polish? Yeahhhh.
PS, there's something...sticky on my bottle cap, I think it's leftover from that ginormous flower ring. Sorry about that, I should have cleaned it up.
PPS, you should definitey click to enlarge this one!

GAH. I love this SO FREAKING MUCH. Did anyone snag this and love it as much as I do? It's delicious!

Finger Paints Art You Wondering?

When I was in Sally Beauty Supply last week, they had a display of "new" Finger Paints polishes. I asked the ladies if these would be part of the permanent collection, and they said yes! I only picked up this glitter, Art You Wondering?, but they had some neat additions to the core polishes in that display.
This is a sheer jelly turquoise base packed with brighter, metallic turquoise glitter. I used three coats for this level of opacity - this is a top coat eater, so I did a sandwich and that seemed to help. This kind of glitter seems to be easier to remove than the thicker, chunkier sized glitter, because it's such a smaller size. There seems to be a fine emerald green glitter in the macro, as well.

Pretty!