Birthday Dots

Hello all!!! Yesterday (Aug 6th) was my 26th birthday! Naturally I had to have some pretty spiffy nails when I went to enroll my eldest into Pre-K. (That is literally all I did for my birthday...getting old stinks.)

Summer is almost over, and I really wanted to take advantage of my bright colors before they look weird in the colder months.

Here's what I did:
1 coat Nail Magic
1 coat Growth Spurt
1 coat Gelous
2 coats Julep Alicia
And I used a small dotter to make my polka dots with Hard Candy Frenzy, Wet N Wild I Need a Refresh-mint, and Konad Special White.
 1 coat Seche Vite

I love love love this manicure. I formed a circular pattern off to the side of my nail, rather than in the middle of my nail. I think it made it look a bit more abstract. I love the color combination, and  Julep Alicia will always be one of my favorite polishes. I adore it.

Application was beautiful, and drying time wasn't that bad. It did take me like an hour to do each and every nail...but let me just say: I was 100% worth it!

As you can see, my nails are crazy short. I had them growing so nicely, then they all broke. It really stinks to have short nails, but I have faith that they will be coming back stronger and hopefully will stay longer. One of my Instagram friends suggested Nail Magic...so we shall see how well it works. This is week one for me. It says it takes up to 8 weeks for stronger nails to come in...so I am testing them!

I have been trying to get good use out of my dotting tools lately. I forget how much I really love polka dots. I must remember this!!

What do you all think of this manicure? Is it too busy? What color scheme would you do?

Also, I would love to hear from you guys about Nail Magic. Have any of you used it before? Did it work for you? I would really like some input on this base coat!!

Until next time....

Christina


Disclosure *I was not paid for this review. I was not given the polish for this review. I paid for the polish with my own money. This is purely my own opinion, thoughts, and suggestions about this polish.*

Number One Nemesis

Good afternoon! I don't think I told you all, but for Mother's Day, my little ones got me the mini bottles of OPI's Spiderman collection. It came with four bottles of polish. And I plan on swatching each and every single one on here. I love love love them! It included: Number One Nemesis, Your Web or Mine?, Into the Night, and Just Spotted the Lizard.

Today I am showing you Number One Nemesis. This is the polish I've been wanting for a little while. Ever since these came out. Every time I see it on someone's blog, I drool every single time. And now I know first hand why.

Please excuse my broken middle finger, and my boo boo on my ring finger. I've had a rough week. And my hands were the victims. :(

Here I used:
1 coat Sally Hansen's Double Duty base coat
1 coat Pure Ice Black Rage
2 coats OPI Number One Nemesis
Stamped the image with Konad Special Polish in black with plate BM-208
1 coat Seche Vite

I love love love the pattern. It makes it look almost like a crackle...but it obviously isn't. My daughter, Seyhan, said it looked like spider webs. How perfect!!! :)

The application was beautiful with Number One Nemesis! (As with a huge majority of OPI polish!) I actually love OPI brushes. They're thicker than Essie's brushes, and I enjoy that. I feel like I use less polish with them...but it could be all in my head. I couldn't get any sun shots with this manicure, mainly because I've been crazy busy. So these photos were taken inside, at night, with my flash. But in the sun, this polish sparkles like crazy! It is truly gorgeous.

I seriously recommend that this polish be in everyone's stash. I think this will be a go to polish for me. I like how dark it is, but reflective, glittery, but subtle. It is yumalicious! (My girls and I have been reading Pinkalicious a lot lately...so I have been catching myself adding alicious to pretty much everything...lol)

Have any of you tried this polish? If you haven't, do you want to? What do you think of the stamping??

Until next time....

Christina


PS:
I really am going to be doing a giveaway soon. But I would love suggestions on what polish to give away. I can't do a huge giveaway...but a tiny one is better than nothin! :D




Disclosure *I was not paid for this review. I was not given the polish for this review. I paid for the polish with my own money. This is purely my own opinion, thoughts, and suggestions about this polish.*

Hologram Effect

Good afternoon nail polish lovers!

Do you love hologram polishes? Who doesn't? I know I am in loooove with hologram effects!! I have a hologram manicure to share with you!

I picked up Layla's Hologram Effect polish in Mercury Twilight, as I'm sure you all know from a previous post. I decided to layer it upon itself, and build up a pure hologram manicure.

Here is Mercury Twilight by itself, in my house with the flash on.

My process:
1 coat Sally Henson's Double Duty base coat
4 coats Layla Mercury Twilight
and no top coat for the naked hologram manicure.

I love AND hate this polish.
Here's why:
I love the effect it does. I love the rainbow. LOOOVE the rainbow. But the polish is extremely streaky. And building it up was a pain in my booty. I had to basically glob on this polish. If I applied it like normal polish, it would create bald spots. Anyone else have this problem with this polish? Any tips/tricks? Luckily this polish isn't uber thick, so 4 coats feels like one.

Here is the gorgeousness in sunlight. I really do like how this polish looks once it is on. But fighting with it, just made me wonder if it was REALLY worth the $15.50 I spent on it.

Seriously...if you guys have any insight on this polish...I need to know how to manage it better!!!

Seeing how beautiful it is, really makes me sad that I spent over 30 minutes just building it up.

After I let that dry, which was literally no time flat...I added a design.

This polish dries insanely fast. Like...crazy fast. There was no wait time. Even when I globbed it on into a thick coat.

I then used my bundle monster plate BM-209 and added a design with my Konad Special Polish in black.

After adding the design, I used a pretty thick coat of Seche Vite to protect the stamping. The Seche Vite did react weird with the hologram polish. I think it just dulled it down a tad. Not a whole lot, in my opinion. I like my nails to be pretty glossy, unless I am shooting for matte. So, adding the Seche Vite was a good move in my book.

This design makes me think of fishnet stockings. LOVE IT.

All in all, even after fighting with Mercury Twilight, I really like this manicure. I like how fast it dried. I love the stamping. I love love love the rainbow. I love everything about it. Now I will be putting this polish to the test...I haven't worn it long enough to know how long it'll take to chip. So I will be reporting that info on my next post.

I would really like some feedback about this Mercury Twilight polish. Do you own it? Do you own the other colors from this line? Do you love it or hate it?

Until next time....

Christina


Disclosure *I was not paid for this review. I was not given the polish for this review. I paid for the polish with my own money. This is purely my own opinion, thoughts, and suggestions about this polish.*