Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Elevation Polish Stay Behind, Catch a Wave + Layla Softouch Effect 09 Aqua Zen

Hello hello! I have a combo for you today that I really adored while I wore it. A couple weeks before spring semester was over I had to give a big scary presentation for my Consumer Behavior class, suit and all. At the time, I didn't have a suit, so I had to scramble to find something online, shirt and shoes and all. I was a bit accessory-less and feeling a little drab (especially since everything ended up far too big on me, the joys of online shopping) until I realized I had the best accessories of all right at my fingertips :) I decided to match a pretty mani to the turquoise leopard print top I got. I started out with Layla Softouch Effect 09 Aqua Zen, a lovely aqua creme that dries with a satiny finish. I topped it off with Elevation Polish Stay Behind, Catch a Wave, a slightly blue-tinted base full of aqua small and big dots and silvery-gold small dots and microglitter. I then matte-ified with China Glaze Matte Magic to restore the mani to Aqua Zen's original finish.  Take a look:

outdoors, sun
outdoors, shade

On my nails:
1 coat Innisfree Eco Peel-off Base coat
2 coats Layla Softouch Effects 09 Aqua Zen
1 coat Elevation Polish Stay Behind, Catch a Wave
1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly on Top

I love love loved this mani, wore it for almost 4 days! Such a vibrant, pretty color, and I just love the effect matte topcoats has on shiny glitters and how they subtly shine through it, so lovely :) And it ended up looking perfect with my otherwise total-miss outfit, so hurray for that!

You can find Elevation Polish at their Etsy, Bigcartel, and be sure to check the blog for updates~

Have a wonderful day! ♥
 

Monday, May 27, 2013

OPI Chapel of Love

Hey guys! Just wanted to share an old favorite with you today. OPI Chapel of Love was my official  go-to pink pre-polish obsession. It's a bright carnation pink with gold shimmer that almost pulls the polish coral at times. Take a look:

indoors, natural light lamp + flash
outdoors, sun
On my nails:
1 coat Nail Tek III Protection Plus
3 coats OPI Chapel of Love
1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly On Top

Just love this color! Was probably the first polish I ever felt that strongly about, I distinctly remember citing it as my favorite multiple times back in the day. Such a simple but flattering color, I think it would look great on everyone. I last wore this as a palette cleanser of sorts (after my absurdly awesome neon glittery gradient mani) and it is such a nice, elegant look :) I don't wear plain cremes by themselves hardly ever anymore, far too many indie glitters sitting untried to do that, but this is definitely the way to do it!

outdoors, shade

Have a wonderful day! ♥

Friday, May 24, 2013

Emily de Molly High Distinction

Hey guys! I don't think I have actually ever shared an Emily de Molly pretty -- to be fair, I don't have many, they are tough to come by -- so today will be the first time! High Distinction is a pale, kind of dusty almost-champagne gold linear holo. I love love love it! I am hit or miss on golds, to be honest, since the brassy yellow ones can look kind of bleh with my skin tone, but this pale pretty shade is so lovely. So holo too! Take a look:

outdoors, sun
outdoors, shade
indoors, flash
 On my nails:
1 coat Nail Tek III Protection Plus
2 coats Emily de Molly High Distinction
1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly On Top

Such a perfect holo! None of those pesky holo problems commercial brands always have (don't know why they can't create a good formula when all the indie brands seem to be able to...) with excellent application (no aqua base needed), good coverage in two coats, and no rainbow dulling with topcoat, hurray! Such a pretty color, and such nice application -- might have to snag some more Emily de Molly holos sometime soon :)

outdoors, sun
Australian ladies can grab Emily de Molly polishes on their Etsy shop~
International ladies can find them on Llarowe and Shoppe Eclecticco~
And be sure to check out their Facebook!

Have a wonderful day! ♥

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

China Glaze Sunsational Neons - Jellies: Swatches and Review

 Hey guys! Today I have to share with you part two of the China Glaze Sunsational collection -- the jellies!

top to bottom, left to right: You Drive Me Coconuts, Shell-O/Are You Jelly?
Keepin' it Teal/Heat Index, Isle See You Later

Might as well get the worst over with first, yes? Isle See You Later is a medium blue jelly. I am super disappointed with how thin this one is. This is coming from a fan of well-done VNL (I have mentioned this many times now I think) but come on... the first coat of this polish barely shows up at all, less than some tinted clear base polishes. It took five coats to reach the opacity shown, which is not an acceptable level of opacity in my opinion. Plus, you will notice the yucky little bubbles as well, probably from applying so many coats in rapid succession.... overall, this one is a disappointing miss.

On my nails:
5 coats China Glaze Isle See You Later

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
Shell-O is a coral pink jelly, and Are You Jelly? is a grape purple jelly. Both were much better formula than Isle See You Later, that's for sure -- three coats each here. I believe both would benefit from one more coat, especially Shell-O, but three is acceptable. Love how bright they are!

On my nails:
3 coats China Glaze Shell-O/Are You Jelly?

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
 Keepin' It Teal is a jade green-leaning teal jelly. Heat Index is a warmer-leaning hot pink jelly. Both were decent at three coats, but judging from my pictures, Keepin' It Teal probably needed one more.

On my nails:
3 coats China Glaze Keepin' It Teal/Heat Index

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
 You Drive Me Coconuts is a cooler leaning hot pink jelly, much cooler-toned than Heat Index. I did this as a full mani, so I was forced to layer on that extra coat and use topcoat, which did improve the overall mani quality I think.

On my nails:
4 coats China Glaze You Drive Me Coconuts
1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly On Top

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
 So it's not as if application was awful, it's just that they were so sheer! These are all nice enough colors, but unfortunately the sheer quality was disappointing enough to leave me a little underwhelmed. If you like jelly sammies this would probably work well there. If you want to pile coat after coat on your nails, just make sure to wait in between coats to avoid nasty bubbles. These are bright, pretty summery shades... but the formula gets a big fat thumbs down from me. Bummer.

Have a wonderful day! ♥

Monday, May 20, 2013

China Glaze Sunsational Neons - Cremes: Swatches and Review

Hey guys! The next two posts I will be sharing the China Glaze Sunsational collection with you. As you may have already seen this collection is new for this summer, and is made up of 6 neon cremes and 6 neon jellies. I totally adored (and still adore, I use them all the time) last year's China Glaze neons, so I was super excited to try these babies out. Instead of traditional swatches, though, some are nail art manis instead -- was short on time, but thought you'd want to see them anyway :)






(I'm sure you have heard of the issues with formula on these, and I will try to address that for each individual polish, and then overall at the end)

Today I will share the cremes!


Neon & On & On is a coral-leaning pink neon, kind of salmony. This was the first one I tried out, and since I had heard of the formula issues I was very apprehensive, but it turned out to be one of the nicer ones application-wise, I think, with less streaking and patchiness. For a cute flower pattern I dotted on China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle and Cult Nails Tempest. Loved this mani! Very bright :)

On my nails:
1 coat Innisfree Eco Peel-off base coat
3 coats China Glaze Neon & On & On
(dotted) China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle/Cult Nails Tempest
1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly On Top

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
Highlight of My Summer is a bright minty creme. It is hard to see this is neon so much as just bright, but bright it is! I didn't have too much of a lobster hands problem with it, either -- hurray! I have heard this one to have major formula problems, but it didn't seem as bad as some others to me, about on par with Neon & On & On. I dotted and accented with That's Shore Bright, a medium bright lavender, that also doesn't seem quite bright enough to be neon. That's Shore Bright had the best formula though, I think, of the entire cremes. In particular, it didn't cling to my ridges the way some of them did, which is even more annoying than streakiness almost, since it is hard to hide even by piling on the coats. Really liked how these two complemented each other :)

On my nails:
1 coat Nail Tek III Protection Plus
3 coats China Glaze Highlight of My Summer/(accent) That's Shore Bright
(dotted) China Glaze That's Shore Bright/(accent) Highlight of My Summer
1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly On Top

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
Bottoms Up is a bubblegum pink neon. This sucker sure is bright! It also had one of the more obnoxious formulas, for me. Lots of friendly streaking and patchiness/bald spots :| I really adore this color though! These pictures are really no good, colorwise -- it more or less looks exactly like a pink highlighter in person. Love.

On my nails:
1 coat Nail Tek III Protection Plus
5 coats China Glaze Bottoms Up

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
 Sun of a Peach is a peachy orange neon. It looks nearly pastel in the bottle, but this one practically glows neon, it's so bright! A really beautiful, summery orange. I also adore this shade, but the formula was garbage on this one as well. Same old song, streaks galore and bald spots. Still, love the color.

On my nails:
1 coat Nail Tek III Protection Plus
5 coats China Glaze Sun of a Peach
1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly On Top

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
Lastly, since it didn't even get to accent like That's Shore Bright and was just petals in my flower mani, Too Yacht to Handle is a bright aqua creme. It is bright, for sure, but it doesn't punch you in the corneas the way the pinks and orange do. I have seen it described as a brighter For Audrey, but I don't actually have For Audrey to compare. Formula was medium here; no real patchy problems but I don't care for how it stuck to my ridges.

On my nails:
1 coat Nail Tek III Protection Plus
3 coats China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle
1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly On Top

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
And there you have it! Overall, these polishes are all so pretty, but it is such a shame they have so many formula issues. I was really looking forward to taking these on my beach vacation, (beach = neons and holos, in my book) but I wanted quick application polishes so I didn't suck up all my relaxation time painting my nails, so these are definitely out. Also, they chipped pretty bad really quick for some reason, with my usual base coat, which was an unexpected bummer :(

I would suggest using these for nail art and glitter bases, I think. That takes the focus off any application imperfections (clinging to ridges, missed patches, etc.) while still showing off the pretty hue. Of course, it is up to you whether you can put up with the issues :)

Will share the jellies next post!

Have a great day! ♥

Friday, May 17, 2013

Chirality Nail Polish Cereal Killers Part Two - Swatches and Review

Hey guys! A few months ago I reviewed the amazing Cereal Killers collection from Chirality Nail Polish. I was lucky enough to be sent the new colors from the collection as well, which I have to share with you today!

top to bottom, left to right: Gacy Charms, Starkweather Pops,
Apple Jack the Ripper, Frosted Speck
Starkweather Pops is a milky white base with bright yellow and white matter hexes and squares in a variety of sizes, tiny gold holo squares and gold microglitter. This one reminds me of scrambled eggs for some reason, haha. Opacity was pretty good, I messed up one nail by not waiting long enough between coats so I needed three, but if you don't fail like me, you could probably get away with two.

On my nails:
3 coats Chirality Nail Polish Starkweather Pops
1 coat OPI Topcoat

outdoors, sun
outdoors, shade
 Frosted Speck is a pinkish-nude base with satin white squares, hexes, and microglitter, as well as a smattering of iridescent microglitter. I love this one! So subtle and delicate. I love nude polishes that have a little something special, they always look so classy and cool to me. You can see some VNL with two coats, as shown below, but the coverage and application was nice and even, so I actually thought it looked kind of nice and delicate, like a "my nails but better + glitter". Of course, if you hate VNL three coats would probably take care of that.

On my nails:
2 coats Chirality Nail Polish Frosted Speck
1 coat OPI Topcoat

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
Apple Jack the Ripper is a milky white base full of shiny and matte green and gold hexes, dots, and microglitter, as well as large blue circle glitters. I think the blue circles were actually holo as well, but that doesn't show up in my pics, and is of course dulled when the milky base covers it. I really like the mix of glitter in this one! It was totally full of glitter, but still applied pretty well.

On my nails:
2 coats Chirality Nail Polish Apple Jack the Ripper
1 coat OPI Topcoat

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
Lastly, Gacy Charms is a milky white base full of all sorts of glitters, more than I can probably describe! The "base" glitters if you will are the small gold dots/squares/hexes and the green microglitter, and then on top of that is the rainbow of stars, moons, dots, flowers, hearts, etc. -- love love love! This is a really cute, fun polish, and the fun glitters are abundant, so no worries there. I did two careful coats here to avoid patches in the white base without covering up the glitters with the base, since that would be no fun (and potentially bumpy).

On my nails:
2 coats Chirality Nail Polish Gacy Charms
1 coat OPI Topcoat

outdoors, shade
outdoors, sun
 Definitely a strong addition to the original Cereal Killers collection! I really like all of these. There is something for everyone, from the classy and work-appropriate Frosted Speck to the crazy rainbowtastic Gacy Charms. I also think the formula seems a bit improved from the old ones? I had an easier time applying the glitters and getting good coverage in less coats than before. Overall I am very pleased with these pretties!

If you are interested in grabbing these polishes I believe Amanda is releasing them tomorrow, May 18, at 12pm PST :)
To check out Chirality be sure to visit their Bigcartel shopEtsy, or Facebook~

Have a wonderful day! ♥
 
~This polish was provided by Chirality Nail Polish for an honest review~

Thursday, May 16, 2013

I'm Back! Giveaway Winners + Neon Gradient & Candy Lacquer Razzle Dazzle

Hey guys -- it's been awhile! Sorry for taking a bit of a longer break than planned... the past two weeks have been the last two weeks of the semester, and I had more tests, projects, presentations, papers, etc. all at once than I've ever had before, it was crazy! Luckily, I made it through :) and took my last final a few hours ago -- it's summer break for me, hurray!
I am hoping I will now have more time to dedicate to my blog this summer. It might still be a couple weeks before I get back to regular posting because of vacation plans (yay!) and a malfunctioning USB slot issue on my computer (boo!) and then when I get back and settled into my summer routine (two classes and an internship... will be a busy summer!) I hope I will be able to post several times a week like normal.

As for my giveaway, again apologies for not wrapping that up quicker! I just finished emailing the five winners, as seen below and in the Rafflecopter widget on the giveaway post. Congrats ladies -- and thanks so much to all who participated! I hope to have another giveaway sometime this summer, so keep your eyes peeled :)

Entry #4142Patrycja
Entry #5146Ashley S.
Entry #1140Heidi P.
Entry #3994Sofia B.
Entry #797Jessica E.

 And now on to actual polish, yay! If you follow me on Instagram (ptrnails -- follow if you haven't already!) you already saw this crazy mani a couple weeks ago. I wanted to do an insanely colorful neon gradient mani. I started with Cult Nails Tempest, a white creme, as a base, then used the sponge method with China Glaze Ride the Waves, a deep ocean blue jelly, Beach Cruise-r, a very pink-leaning purple neon shimmer, and Essie DJ Play That Song, a warm purple neon creme. Then, since that wasn't crazy enough, I topped it all off with Candy Lacquer Razzle Dazzle, which is full of rainbow matte neon glitters in all sorts of fun shapes. Check it out!

indoors, flash + natural light lamp
outdoors, shade
On my nails:
1 coat Innisfree Eco Peel-off Base coat
2 coats Cult Nails Tempest
2 (sponged) coats China Glaze Ride the Waves/Beach Cruise-r/Essie DJ Play that Song
1 coat Candy Lacquer Razzle Dazzle
2 coats KB Shimmer Clearly on Top

outdoors, sun
This was my first time working with sponges, so it was quite the adventure, haha. I had no idea how messy gradients were! I am still not satisfied with my clean-up on this mani, I had a hard time cleaning up my cuticles all the way, but as far as the mani design itself, it came out just as I was hoping and oh so fun! Will have to play with gradients again soon :)

You can find Candy Lacquer at their Etsy shop, Bigcartel store, and Facebook~

Have a lovely day♥