Girly Nail Art

Got bored last night, here was the outcome haha, enjoy:

Base: China Glaze For Audrey
Floral: China Glaze Life Preserver / LA Girl Coral / Sinful Colors Snow Me White / Sinful Colors Last Chance
Stripes & Polka Dots: Sinful Colors Snow Me White
Glitter: Mix of Nicole OPI Rainbow in the S-Kylie and Color Club Wish Upon a Rockstar

Until next time,
Lacey

Oh NOOOO! [Essie, Zoya & Hard as Hoof]

I know I was promising the rest of my haul's swatches...

...Unfortunately my MacBook's charger has gone to Apple Heaven. No clue why it stopped working, it's been putting up a good fight though for a few months - thanks Scout for the bite marks! So, I can't get one until the 1st (Payday) Sooo I can't get the swatches from my computer until then. I'm stuck on Husband's HUGE 18" Asus WINDOZE computer for now.

With this disappointing and depressing news haha, I leave you with Zoya Cola:

What an awkward little redish-brown shade this is! BUT I LIKE IT! It reminds me of Dr. Pepper actually. The application was good, it took about 2 coats to make opaque and took a little bit longer than usual to dry with Seche. I think it's similar to China Glaze Brownstone from the 2011 Metro Collection.

I don't know if it's because I changed basecoats (not using nail therapy anymore) or what, it doesn't seem to last as long as most of my other Zoyas. I did cut my nails down to short and square though, it could be part of the issue.

The reason I stopped using my Nail Therapy basecoat is because of two reasons:
1) It's harder to apply over than most basecoats. The polish didn't really want to "stick" when I was painting. So it it seemed I was using more coats than normal.
2) I bought Hard as Hoof.

Here's another mani of Essie Absolutely Shore with Luxeffects Pure Pearlfection.

I was able to find Absolutely Shore at Walgreens for $2 on clearance! (Along with another Essie, the name escapes me) I can't resist a $2 Essie, so I grabbed it.

I was kind of worried because it looks a lot more grey in person. I was scared the green tint wouldn't come across when I painted my nails. WRONG, it so did. And it was perfect. This was 3 coats (I blame Nail Therapy) but it applied very well, and is a gorgeous creamy light green, with a hint of grey, color. I love it. And Pure Pearlfection made it about 100x better with a little shimmer!

Hard as Hoof. If you have soft nails, buy this. If your nails crack or break easily, buy this. THIS PRODUCT is AMAZING! I heard about this product from PlasmaSpeedo's Youtube, so I picked it up from Walmart and gave it a shot.

My nails aren't soft, and not strong, but they could totally use a" pick me up". I've been using this for about a week now, and I see results. I FEEL results, it's there. I felt/saw results within THREE DAYS guys!

The great thing about this is that it's cheap. $5 with tax at Walmart. You apply it to your nails 3 times a day. It can even go OVER nail polish or on bare nails! I've done it over nail polish and it doesn't affect the polish at all, it just does it's job. You just rub it in to your nail bed, cuticles, and tips until absorbed and it works like magic over time.

I highhhhhllllyyy recommend this product! You can find it in the nail tool section of most Walmarts for about $4.89ish. You can also find it online, here!

That's all I have today! Hopefully I can get the rest of the CG swatches up... before I buy more! HAHA

Until next time,
Lacey

PS: My Zoya True Collection is FINALLY!!!! in the mail to me! I look forward to swatching those for you, particularly with Finger Paint's flakie polishes (Since most are swatching the Fleck Effect collection, I'm going for the FP collection that a lot of people seem to like more.) Can't wait! :]

CHINA GLAZE Haul Post 1

Alrighty, So I went a little crazy ordering from 8ty8beauty.com. I did get 2 Color Club polishes (Mol-ten and Wish Upon a Rockstar), but mostly all were China Glaze haha. Here's what I got:

 

L to R: It's Alive, Street Chic (I ordered Below Deck?), First Mate,

Traffic Jam, Four Leaf Clover, Doll House and Life Preserver

I'm only going to review 4 of them on this post, and I'll post the other 3 later this weekend! Please bare with me on the pictures. I usually use my iPhone 4, but I found my point and shoot in some of the boxes we haven't unpacked. They both have issues picking up particular colors. Ughhhh!

First up, It's Alive from the 2011 Haunting Collection: 2 Coats

I saw this swatch when it came out a few months ago and fell in love with it! I'm loving the olive green medium and small glitters! This is perfect to wear whenever, or layer it over black and it's the perfect haunting Halloween color (or well any other time bahaha, but it sure does change over black!):

I also found this a lot easier to remove than most glitter polishes.

Next up, Street Chic from the Fall 2011 Metro Collection: 2 Coats

Gorgeous, chocolate brown creme polish. Two thin coats did well for full coverage! This wasn't what I ordered. I was a little confused when I got it since I have Milani's Teddy-Bare which is SLIGHTLY similar but SC is darker and more rich, less gray. I don't mind SC at all! I just wish I had Below Deck instead haha.

Here is the comparison between China Glaze Street Chic and Milani's Teddy-Bare, to show... and to ease my mind a little haha. The difference is a lot more evident when they're next to each other, in the bottle they look a lot a like:

 

As you can see, Teddy-Bare is more gray and Street Chic is a lot more rich and chocolatey. I like them both equally, might do a brownish gradient some time soon maybe.

Third, First Mate Spring 2011 Anchors Away Collection: 2 Coats

 

IN LOVE. This is what I was looking for when I purchased Milani's Midnight Satin (which is more black). This is a gorgeous navy creme polish. Again, 2 coats did the trick! Such a smooth, beautiful navy blue! This is a must have!

And for the record, it's Anchors Aweigh ;] not Away, lettin' the Navy wife in me come out a little haha.

Lastly for today, Traffic Jam again, the Fall 2011 Metro Collection - Uptown: 2 Coats

I would consider this a raspberry, magenta, creme I think. It is a beautiful color for sure! A great go-to pink. It is verrrryyy similar to Revlon's Plummy, which is SLIGHTLY darker than Traffic Jam. Two thin coats, like the other cremes I posted today. Just a beautiful color!

And I leave you with 2 nail arts. A black french matte mani, which a friend requested on Instagram (@LACERZ if you want to follow/stalk) and the mani I finished with after swatching these CGs haha.

Sinful's Black on Black and Hard Candy's Matte-ly in Love. I only left it on for a day, I'm not a big fan of black nails on me haha. I DO love this matte polish though. I've tried both Essie and ELF's mattes. ELFs is horrid, to be honest. So streaky and rarely went matte in the 3 bottles I had! Essie's wasn't bad but I had issues with it un-matte-ing when I used my hand lotion. 

Zoya Marina, which I added last minute to their get 2 free polishes/free ship $25+ promo. I LOVE it. Beautiful dusty, metallic blue. I added a quick konad stamp using Black on Black by Sinful so it wasn't so boring for a few days haha.

I leave you with this long post haha

Until next time,

Lacey

JULEP: Gayle

So, another quick mani. I swatched Color Club's Under the Mistletoe collection, but I figured since it isn't holiday anymore I won't post it. If someone would like me to, I will! :]

I did this for a wedding we're going to in Tampa, FL this Saturday. I wanted to do something a little more elegant than a glitter mani, but still something more different than a french manicure or pink nails. My dress is a purple fade so I decided this was a good time to try out my new Julep Gayle polish!

This is a GORGEOUS color! I was worried it was too dark, but I fell in love with it. It is a very rich, dark purple, eggplant color. Like most Julep polishes, this one is heavily pigmented, WHICH IS AWESOME! haha Someone told me this was a one coater, but I felt more comfortable with 2.

I added the rhinestones with Seche Vite, followed by another coat of SV. I love it so much! I got the rhinestones from 8ty8beauty.com, which has good prices but I didn't have such a great time ordering from them. Anyone else have issues with them?

And here she is:

I've also been using Julep's Nail Therapy for the last week, 1 coat every 2-3 days. I've seen a change in the strength of my nails already! I can't wait to see what else this stuff can do :]

Julep is running a contest right now too! They're giving you the chance to win ALL of their polishes! It was just for new members but they let me know that they opened it for everyone :] Click here for more information! Follow them on Twitter, @JulepMaven and follow me while you're there! @LACERZ

Also, I hope to be reviewing soon! It's surprisingly hectic all of a sudden with husband having to go to FL for eye appointments (he's getting LASIK done!) and the wedding this weekend.

Until next time,
Lacey

MILANI: Teddy-Bare, ZOYA: Kennedy, and MAC: Immortal Gold

Just a quick manicure I did today with my Konad stamper, I'm getting better with the stamper! I feel like my fingernails are still oddly shaped for it haha but I'll deal :]

I really like Milani's Teddy-Bare, I got it during their cyber monday sale. This is 2 coats, and it went on pretty well and dried in the decent amount of time.

The pink is Zoya's Kennedy which is from the Feel collection, which I'm IN LOVE with. This also took about 2 coats, I could see through spots at the tips of my nails but since I was stamping I didn't add a 3rd coat. Seche Vite also saved me again with Kennedy, it took awhile to dry I thought.

Teddy-Bare and Kennedy go really well together, they both have grey-ish undertones.

I also added MAC's Immortal gold for accents on the cheetah konad stamp. I'm glad I chose it because it is a very nice and sparkly gold! I have yet to use it as a full mani, since I just got it for Christmas, but it's great for accenting!

Until next time,
Lacey