Neon Mermaid

I decided to take my gradient mani from my Poptastic collection post and add to it. I had first seen this collection on +ohmygoshpolish page on Instagram so it iwas only fitting that I tried to recreate her beautiful mermaid inspired mani. I went in with Opi's alpine snow and Gal Cosmetics plate GA14 to stamp on the scales. Instead of Inm Northern lights in gold I used the silver that I had for a subtle sparkle.

Base and Top Coat

I have tried out a million different base and top coats. So many that my head spins. Some are great, some are horrible, and some just in between. I had always been a fan of Opi's nail envy. My nails within the past couple of years had been splitting on the edges peel a lot. I used nail envy for about a year and was pretty happy with the results. I still had peeling but not like I had before. I recently picked up something new within the last couple of months and boy has it made a difference. I had seen several people on Instagram talk about Duri's rejuvacote and decided why not. I picked it up in my local Wal-Mart. After a week of using it I noticed that my peeling had started to look so much better. I have been using it non stop since I purchased it and now I have zero peeling or splitting. As far as top coats everyone praises Seche Vite as the holy grail of top coats but I strongly disagree. Now don't get me wrong it is still pretty darn good but I have found something so much better. Glisten and Glow HK Girl Top Coat shines where Seche Vite falls flat. It dries super fast just like Seche Vite, doesn't streak nail art, but the biggest difference is that it doesn't shrink your polish like Seche Vite. In case you don't know what shrinking means it's when your polish pulls away from the edges. Even with capping the edges of my nails I would still see shrinking. It would be very frustrating to spend all this time painting your nails and doing designs just to see it ruined a few hours later. You can order their top coat off of their site here. I'm sorry for such a long post but I really wanted to give details about why I use the products I do.

Holy Holographic Batman

I have become OBSESSED with holographic polishes lately and as far as I am concerned the best out there are by Color Club.  Which is also becoming my favorite polish in general. I have both holo collections but am only swatching one at a time here and there. Today I have Miss Bliss. It's this beautiful dusty pink shade. I was afraid looking at the bottle that it wouldn't be very bright but on the nail it's more visible. I can not wait to use all of the other holo polishes.

Poptastic Collection 2014

My order of the new Color Club Poptastic Collection 2014 came in today and of coarse I couldn't wait to play with them. There are 6 new colors to this bright collection. They all have an iridescent shimmer to them. Without a white base underneath they are a bit on the sheer side, but can be built up. First up is Not-So-Mellow-Yellow which is this fluorescent yellow that has a hint of green in it. Next is Foxy Mama, a highlighter orange color. There are two pinks in this collection. First one is Peace, Love, and Polish which is more of a bubble gum pink color. Kapow! is more of a strawberry pink shade. Right on is more of a bright violet shade. Lastly Bell Bottom Babe is a denim shade and also my favorite right now.

I Love Applause Swatch

I recently went on a little splurge at Sally's Beauty and one of the polishes I picked up is from Opi's new muppet collection. I love applause is this beautiful milky pink color. The polish applied like a dream. It only took two coats to get full opacity. I would recommend this color to anyone who is looking for a light pink. I have several in my collection but this one is in the top 5 because of how creamy the formula is. Unfortunately while painting I managed to get lint in the polish so please excuse that while looking at the pictures. It is of coarse sealed in with Glisten and Glow's HK Girl Topcoat. 

Fashion nails

For day #19 of the May Nail Art Challenge the theme was fashion. I had found this color block bikini on Pinterest a while ago and was dying to use those colors. It makes for a pretty simple mani but I love the coral and turquoise together. My camera was a bit of a pain and didn't capture it true to color unfortunately. The base color is China Glaze For Audrey with Flip Flop Fantasy and Grass is Lime Greener for the color blocking. The part that is supposed to be the bikini bottom is Opi's Jade is the New Black. As per usual I finished it off with Glisten and Glow HK Girl Topcoat.

The inspiration photo

Sheer Lace

I have been seeing all of these beautiful lace mani photos floating around Instagram and Pinterest so I decided to give it a try. I wanted something understated and not so in your face at my brother's graduation. I only used Opi's Funny Bunny as an actual polish. The white and blue were acrylic paints. I am not overly happy with it because I didn't use a dotting tool for the dots so they are a bit uneven but even nail fails teach us something.

Blurple

My younger brother's high school graduation was Saturday. I now feel so old :-( I saw this beautiful eye makeup look on Instagram done by _tiarni_ You should definitely check her out. She does AMAZING looks. Her photo reminded me of this mermaid type look so I figured I had to try it. I didn't have the products she did so mine came out a bit different. Overall I was very happy. I think it really made my blue eyes pop. I used colors from my Sigma Creme de Couture palette, Lorac Pro palette, and my Morphe brushes palette I made myself from their single shadows. Eyeliner is Maybelline eye studio in black. I had just picked up the lashes from Wal-mart the day before. They are Salon Perfect in #109. They were a dream to apply. First attempt and they were on. I highly recommend them to anyone who has been having trouble applying falsies.

Isn't he handsome??

  

Soft Nautical Nails

So for day 28 of the Nail art May challenge the theme is nautical. I actually decided to be a little early doing these as today is memorial day as well. I didn't want to do the traditional colors seeing as I hate red nail polish. It's such a pain to remove. So I used Color Club's Look, Don't Tusk as my base color and the blue is their In De-Nile while the pink is Je'Aime. Whole thing is finished off with Glisten & Glow Hk Girl topcoat.

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Aztec Nails

For day 15 of the May nail art challenge the theme is Aztec. I have never attempted to do this type of design before so I decided to only do accent nails. I used a base coat of Opi's Nail Envy. I am trying a new method where you paint one thin layer of base coat right at your tips then go back in and paint the entire nail. I am hoping it helps prevent chipping. I used all neutrals from the Opi Brazil collection. I started out with two coats of Taupe-less beach as my base color. I then went in with I Sao Paulo Over There, Don't Bossa Nova Me Around, and Can't Find My Czechbook for all of the small details. I finished everything off with a coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl Topcoat to seal in my design.

Pastel Pink and Sparkles

I picked up several colors at Sally’s Beauty Supply the other day and one of them was Opi’s Mod About You. I had heard that the color was gorgeous but the formula was a bit difficult. Both are true. I have been struggling with finding a base coat that I really love so I decided to use my Gelous one this time. The first coat of Mod was very streaky and patchy. I was thinking “this does not look good.” Luckily with the second coat things seemed to smooth out. It was by no means perfect but I always hate using 3 coats of any polish unless it’s a jelly. For my accent nail I used two coats of Color Club’s Sugarplum Fairy. Which is GORGEOUS and beyond sparkly. I have yet to meet a Color Club polish that I am not in love with. I finished everything off with a coat of Glisten & Glo HK Girl Topcoat. I noticed within hours of wear that I had a small chip on my pointer finger. By the next day there were chips on 3 of my nails where I had painted the pink. My overall opinion is that it’s a pretty pink but don’t expect a lot of wear time out of it.

Mother's Day Mani

I wanted to do something simple on my nails for Mother’s Day. I have been practicing my roses but I am a little ocd about it and feel like they are never good enough. Oh well. I used a base coat of Gelous before adding on two coats of Spring in my step. I have to say that the color was beautiful but the formula was a mess to work with. I had to use 3 coats to smooth it out completely and it chipped off within a day of wear. For the roses I used Color Club’s Pucci-licious, Warhol, and Twiggie for the leaves. I also used China Glaze’s Lotus Begin, White on White, and Peonies & Park Ave. I finished everything off two a coat of Glisten & Glo HK Girl Topcoat.