Watercolor Nails

So, totally inspired by Sarah of Chalkboard Nails, I decided to try my hand at watercolor nails. Hers looked amazing! I had enough similar colors, so last night I decided to give it a whirl.
I had just pulled out OPI's Skull & Glossbones, I had thought about trying a sponge with it - but when I read she used that as a base, I thought it was perfect.
In addition to that, for the dots of color, I used Color Club Raspberry Rush, Maybelline Express Finish Sunshine, Sinful Colors Fly Away, Envy, and Amethyst. I would like to try this again with other colors, it was fun! I think my pinkie and ring turned out a tiny bit muddy but overall I'm really happy with it.

So, what do you guys think? They're pretty easy, if you just follow Sarah's instructions - I'd like to see it if anyone else does these!

Top Picks for 2011, Part Four

Oooh, this is gonna be a good one!
First up, the much hunted Owl's Night, by L'Oreal. Some folks were not in love with this, but many of us absolutely swooned over it, myself included.

And the stunning Cult Nails Unicorn Puke. I chose to layer this multicolored flakie wonder over Revlon Royal.

Kiko 237, the traveling polish. Also known as homg, loooook at how awesome this is! You know I love to layer, right? This is one of my favorite layering polishes, ever. This is over Ulta Devious, a luscious purple creme.

Maybelline Express Finish Cool Couture. The gorgeous grey with a hidden turquoise shimmer came out this fall in drugstores and had me hunting everywhere for it. LOVE.

Essie As Gold As It Gets, from the Luxeffects collection. I thought I'd be springing for the flakie, but since I have SH HT and Nubar 2010, I totally passed and nabbed this stunning gold flakie instead. Here, I've got it over Duri Black Diamond.

As Gold As It Gets is actually tied for me with Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Glass Slipper, which is a silvery flakie set in a milky, ethereal sheer base. Silver and gold, go figure they're tied! I'm showing this one off over Duri Fallen Angel.

Phew. That's quite a large amount of awesomeness for one post, even in this series! Next up is the last post of favorites, which will be pulled from my holiday collections!

Maybelline Cool Couture

Wow. I had so much going on that this has sat in my untrieds for what, almost two months? What a shame - this is a seriously gorgeous shade!
After the disaster with formulas and brushes with the spring/summer releases from Maybelline, I seriously considered not buying any more of the Express Line polishes. They come out with some really awesome colors, but I was severely disappointed with the formula. I caved though, when I saw the fall release. I needed two of the shades, so I went on the hunt. I finally found them in a Rite Aid, and then they went into my untrieds bin while I waded through October's Halloween shades and now, here we are!
Cool Couture is a deep grey, tinged with blue. It's shot through with turquoise shimmer that really lights up in the sun - it actually looks like it sparks both turquoise and emerald in my sun shots. The shimmer is subdued in low light, but I can still see it. I tried to get a good bottle shot, but I think the sun shot and the macro tell the tale the best with this polish.
I am happy to report that the formula on this was seriously perfect. I used two thin coats, and the brush was fine.
Loads of photos, in my attempt to show this off from all possible angles!

So, you know I'm going to repeat myself and say you can click to enlarge these. I also have the purple to show off, hopefully in the next week.

Focus On Yellow: Maybelline Sunshine

Maybelline Sunshine is part of the LE Express Finish line - this is one from the summer collection this year. It's a straight up yellow creme, a bit deeper than yesterday's Mellow Yellow. It was definitely more problematic, as you can see from the photo - streaks ahoy! This is three coats. I could probably part with this one, because it IS similar to Mellow Yellow, only a bit darker, and I'm not a fan of the formula.

The formulas on this collection of LE Maybellines have been very hit or miss. I'm sad about that because I loved the colors.

Maybelline Express Finish Blue Brilliance

Okay, we've had green two days running (it IS my favorite color!) so let's do...blue today. This is Maybelline Blue Brilliance, one of the LE Express finish colors from the summer (?) collections. I guess it could technically be from the spring one...here they came out at the same time, haha!
Anyway, this went a lot better than the other color, Coralicious. The brush spread out, application wasn't chalky. It is a creme, but a little thinner. And what a pretty shade!

This was two coats. I've mentioned before, these do dry pretty quickly too - some of the "quick dry" polishes I've tried don't actually do that, so this is a bonus. This is without top coat, so it's nice and shiny! I think this could be cute as a pedi color.

Maybelline Express Finish Coralicious

Okay, so I've got to say that my experience with Maybelline's Coralicious wasn't much better than Ice Queen's. My brush was better - it definitely fanned out. But the polish went on chalky. It didn't want to level itself out. It just...didn't apply well. So, I didn't fall in love with it. This is three coats, and I'm pretty sure you can see that it's still streaky.

Now, this is a pretty color. I just don't love it. It's not really what I'd consider a coral, how about you? I think it's just ... too orange. It doesn't reach out and grab me.

One thing I wanted to tell you guys is that these Maybelline Express finishes is that they DO dry really quickly. 

Maybelline Express Finish Go-Getter Green

This is one of the LE shades that Maybelline puts out for their seasonal collections. I'm still debating if I really need that lime green shade, because I have so many - but I KNEW I wanted this spring-y green. It's just as gorgeous on my nails as it is in the bottle. It's awesome! It's definitely got some yellow in it. I used two coats here. My only complaint is the brush - so stiff, it didn't want to fan out! My other Maybelline brushes aren't like that, so it must be a fluke. I picked up three of the Maybelline Express Finish shades for summer so far, I am thinking I need a couple more, because I love the colors.
The finish of this is nice too - jelly creme, I hope that maybe y'all can see the lightening at the tips? This is so juicy.

Okay, these are similar shots - but I think in that last one is the best representation of the color. It's a mild discrepancy, but I wanted to show it to you. It's yummeh! I've snagged several polishes over the last week from new displays, I'll be trying to get them posted.