Rainbow Connection: The Obsession

As the title of this post states, yes, I adore Rainbow Connection by OPI.  I adore it so much that a while back I did two manicures in a row using it as a glitter top coat.  How very creative of me.

First I used it on top of Essence Color & Go choose me!, and then I layered it over OPI's Planks A Lot from the Pirates of the Carribean collection.

I also tried out the Sally Hansen Diamond Flash fast dry top coat.  I like it, but not for dense glitters.  For those I prefer Sally Hansen's Insta Dri or Seche Vite.

The Hungry Asian - Twenty Ten

I know I mentioned that I was going to post this a few days ago, but I hadn't gotten around to it.  Sorry guys! Life = busy.  When I'm not working there's always something else going on.  Yesterday I had to dye my mother's hair and go shopping, which oddly enough did not include the purchase of more nail polish.  That's a huuuge shock, isn't it?!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently bought a couple of polishes from The Hungry Asian to add to my very small, but growing collection of indie nail polish.  My purchase included Twenty Ten, and Belle, which I will post about later.

Twenty Ten...

What can I say about Twenty Ten? Oh, it's just a gorgeous little black jelly with small red squares, blue hex (which appeared to be holo on my nails!), small blue glitter and small copper glitter.  It pretty much matches its description and photos on The Hungry Asian's etsy.

I used three coats - but it's just as easy to layer one coat over a black base.  The application was smooth.  I didn't have to fish around for any of the glitter or force it to spread evenly over the nail.  I really like the forumla.  The consistency is good; not too thick, not too thin.  Just right! It definitely lived up to my expectations! Girl definitely knows how to make an awesome nail polish.

You can purchase The Hungry Asian polishes on etsy here.  They are $9.25 USD for the .5 oz, $4.50 for the minis, which are around average prices, and she does ship internationally. (awesome, right?!) Kae also released a couple of new polishes recently.  I looked at them yesterday and reallly wanted to buy Itsy Bitsy, a really gorgeous yellow, but it's sold out already.  Maybe I will catch it eventually!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Yes, yes, I am indeed talking about Deborah Lippmann's Yellow Brick Road.  It arrived in the mail today and I could not wait to do a glitter jelly sandwich with this sheer little yellow number! This was one polish that I decided that I had to have after seeing it on somebody else's blog.

Now, I'm kind of regretting not sandwiching Rainbow Connection in between the layers instead of Nicole by OPI's Make U Smile.  Of course, Make U Smile is still pretty, being shiny silver glitter and all!

I must say, it looks pretty good!  I used two coats of Yellow Brick Road to start (did I mention how sheer it is? It's PERFECT for glitter jelly sandwich manis!), a coat of Make U Smile, another YBR, another Make U Smile, and then one final YBR.  Then I topped it with Seche Vite, which I also got in the mail today.

I didn't really need the top coat, but it helped it dry faster, given I used 6 layers of polish, not including my base coat.

On to the pictures!

Dotticure...fail?

I bought some dotting tools yesterday, so I decided to give them a shot.  I like how the dots turned out; I was just bad at placement.  Oops.  I guess practice makes perfect!  I started with two coats of Essie "blanc" and used China Glaze Pool Party and Papaya Punch for the dots.  Afterward I topped it off with a coat of Essie "Shine of the Times".  It looks way better in person than in the pictures.  My camera couldn't really capture the glitter well, unfortunately.

Glamorous Life.

Earlier this week I went to Shoppers Drug Mart and picked up a few more Essence polishes.  I didn't plan on buying six, but since they're so cheap and I couldn't choose, alas, I did.  I love these little gems.  They're so pretty and colorful! :D

Here's the ones I bought:

Here's the mani I did with them.  I used three coats of "glamorous life", and for the accent nail I used two coats of "break through" and added a couple of coats of "space queen", also by Essence but not pictured above.  I think it looked pretty funky.  Someone even commented on it at work (a dude), haha.  :)

Weekend fun! + Another Blue Manicure

I had a pretty good weekend, hence the lack of blog updates.  I went out of town with family.  We went to the beach and then stayed at a hotel in a town a couple of hours away where my mother used to live.  We ended up eating at Don Cherry's restaurant and then going to a local bar for a beer.  I wanted to visit the famous "Jack's".  (It's not called that now, but everyone calls it that anyway. xD)

Don Cherry's has this AWESOME drink called the Electric Popsicle (as seen below).  It's sooooo good! The last time I had it I had a green popsicle; this time I got pink! I had to take a picture.  The beer wasn't mine, but Electric Popsicle wanted a friend. ;) 

Anyway, onto the nail polish!  I bought more. (of course!)  Yesterday I bought these for a dollar-something each at Walmart.  I actually really like these polishes! They're awesome, and an awesome price.

(L-R:  Sturdy Sapphire, Teal Steel, and Ice Queen)

I bought these on Friday; also at Walmart.  I've been meaning to try these Maybelline The Color Show nail polishes but haven't gotten around to it.  So...I bought a few.  Plus, I saw swatches of Wine & Dined on somebody's blog (I forget who; if I remembered, I'd post a link or something) and loved it!

(L-R:    Styled Out, Wine & Dined, and Amethyst Ablaze)

Obviously, with new nail polish comes a fresh mani.  I decided to try out Sturdy Sapphire.  Now, I will mention that this polish is quite sheer.  This is three coats:

I like it, though.  It applied smoothly and it didn't leave a million brush strokes.  It's really shiny and pretty and bright, despite the fact that it doesn't seem like a bright color! And, did I mention the price of these Hard as Nails polishes? You can't go wrong.

After those three coats I decided to add some glitter, so I used Ice Queen.  Ice Queen has light purple and bright blue hex glitter and fine silver glitter.  It looks really awesome paired with Sturdy Sapphire.  I had to do some fishing for the bigger chunks of glitter and I used two coats.  It's a very pretty glitter polish.

 Of course, I wasn't finished yet.  After the glitter, I then decided that "hey, since this blue polish is very sheer, why not try a glitter sandwich.  This is what it looked like: Not THAT much of a difference, as you can tell.  The first photo was taken with flash.

Last but certainly not least, I've decided to share my favorite cuticle cream with you all.  It's called "Nail Butter" by TVAL.  TVAL is a local store that sells 'homemade' beauty products.  They make the products IN the store! It's a pretty cool place.  They even sell cupcake shaped soap.  :D

Ever since I've started using TVAL nail butter, I've noticed my cuticles haven't been so dry and flaky.  Not so many "hang nails" either.  I like this stuff.  It works for me! It also comes in several different scents, or unscented.

HERE is the TVAL website.  You can order online and it ships internationally!