Nails Inc Special Effects 3D Glitter Collection

Today I have four polishes by Nails Inc. to show you. Fitzroy Square, Bloomsbury Square, Connaught Square, and Sloane Square are part of the collection new to Sephora. I've never tried Nails Inc. so I was pretty excited to try these out. For each polish I used Kensington Caviar base coat (by Nails Inc. which is supposed to prevent staining and very good for your nails), two coats of polish and 1 coat of Seche to finish it off.

Connaught Square - a clear base with blue and chunky purple glitter. Very easy to work with for such a jammed packed glitter polish. Cleanup was piece of cake piece of pie, you don't have to worry about using the foil method for any of these.

Fitzroy Square - a clear base polish with green glitter and chunky teal glitter. I personally think this is the star of the collection. I was very surprised that I loved it so much because I was just thinking green, but its really more of a turquoise. Very beautiful color that was very easy to work with!

Bloomsbury Square - a clear base with purple glitter and chunky red glitter. I didn't like this one at all. I think that the red glitter was to overpowering of the purple, maybe hints here and there would have been better. It could just be that I didn't like it on my skin tone, but either way I didn't like this one at all. This one also had the only hard to work with formula, it was the most difficult buy very thick and goopy. Also, this one was the only one that the glitter was a bit of a nightmare to clean up and dry time was slow...



Flash

 

No flash

Sloane Square - a clear base with silver glitter and chunky iridescent glitter. This polish was very easy to work with but is definitely a layering polish. It doesn't build to opacity easily like the others but I think it would look really good layered on top of OPI's Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees.

Flash

No flash

My only major complaint is the brush which is really soft and flimsy. I'm definitely not jumping for joy over this collection, so I think I will just try some of Nails Inc. regular polishes and stay away from their glitters until I'm wowed. The sun is back in hiding, so getting good pictures really sucked and I wasn't really happy with any of them but I wanted you to see this collection. What do you think of this collection?


Kisses
Marketta

Layla Magneffect Silver Galaxy

Today I have the last of the three Layla magnetic polishes I bought. I'm not crazy about Silver Galaxy at all, I don't care for the black and silver glitter. The formula is the same, very thick but easy to work with and manage. You might want to clean up as you go because the glitter is a nightmare to clean up if you happen to get any outside the nail. In my last post I said I would take a before and after picture, so that you can see what it looks like if you want to wear it with no effect.

The name is accurate, it looks like what I imagine a Silver Galaxy would look like but it still doesn't work for me. Below is the before picture before using the magnet.

What do you think of Silver Galaxy? I personally like Blue Grey Flow and Changing Lilac much better.


Kisses
Marketta

Newspaper Print Mani

A while back a saw a really cute mani on YouTube that was really simple, so I made a mental note to revisit it at a later date. Well that date has come for me to give it a try. For my base I used two coats of Skulls and Glossbones by OPI. I LOVE the whole Pirates collection, two easy coats for all, best and easy to manage formula, and they all dry to a glossy finish! OK so for the newspaper print mani you paint your nails and let them dry, dip your finger in rubbing alcohol, and then press a piece of newspaper over your nail for a few seconds and there you have it. You can watch the tutorial video here, Cute Polish has tons of tutorial videos on YouTube, she's AMAZING! The print didn't come out as dark as I wanted, so next time I will hold it a bit longer, and I will also probably use Japanese letters or better print. Here's how it came out:

I should have held the paper with the letters going from side to side, but it totally slipped my mind. Here's my base Skulls and Glossbones.

So what did you think of my newspaper print mani?


Kisses
Marketta

Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance

I decided to post two for Brittany today AND I really just wanted to swatch Bad Romance by Deborah Lippmann! Bad Romance is a black jelly base with big purple glitter and hexagonal glitter. The formula is good and its opaque in two thin coats. You really want to watch your cuticles because cleanup really sucks on these, and the glitter can be a nightmare with a rushed paint job. Dry time is is not to bad on its own but I opted for one coat of Seche Vite because it wasn't that shiny on its own and I wanted it dry asap. I know this has been swatched like crazy for a while but I still wanted it and I love it just as much as Ruby Red Slippers! Here's  how it came out:

I REALLY love this polish, its amazing! If you don't have it, you just really have to see it in person because its awesome!

What do you think about Bad Romance?


Kisses
Marketta

Purple Passion: A mani for Brittany

One of my best friends Brittany was the biggest supporter of me starting a blog, and even though she doesn't blog she was one of my first followers. Her favorite color is purple and she loves shopping and shoes, so I thought I would do a few purple manicures for her :) . I used OPI's Funky Dunkey as my base color, BM plates 213 and 221, and Konad special polish in black. Here's what I came up with:

Animal print and heels <3 ! I was going to do all leopard print but I had another plate sitting out from doing a failed Halloween stamping and there were shoes on that plate also! VOILA! Funky Dunkey is actually just a tiny bit darker than how it photographed, it was a little hard to capture inside and out today, but its close enough :)

Just to try out my new topcoat I put on INM Northern Lights which is a holo, after Seche Vite of course.



Outside with flash

Here's Funky Dunkey with a top coat of INM Out the Door (a thinner version of Seche Vite thats perfect for just wearing colors plain, SUPER FAST dry time). The first coat of Funky Dunkey was really streaky but cleared up and evened out perfectly on the second coat. The brush holds a ton of polish so you will want to remove some first. So what do you think of Brittany's Purple Passion mani? I love how it came out!

Kisses
Marketta

The Manicured Monkey's Giveaway!

The Manicured Monkey is having a giveaway! You can enter here and below is what you have the chance of winning and the rules.

Nubar- 2010 and Brilliant (pink holo)
Wet N Wild- Tangled in your web, correction tape, behind closed doors, cougar attack, Fantasy Makers glow in the dark
Orly- Fowl Play
Headband- from my Etsy shop, you will get to choose what color/shape/finish you would like.
Rules:Must be 18 to enter or have your parents permission, Required fields in form must be filled in, you must be a public follower, One form submission per person.
Giveaway ends on October 16, 2011 at 6 pm, pacific time and is open internationally.
I will be verifying entries and verifying the winner before I announce them, so be honest. 

Layla Magneffect Blue Grey Flow

Today I have another Layla Magneffect polish for you. Blue Grey Flow was the polish that I wanted the most out of the collection released, I just love the ways it looks. In the magnetic polishes, the lighter color is the actual color of the polish before using the magnet. The formula is thick but not unmanageable or sloppy. I used IMN Out The Door as a top coat which sped up the already very fast dry time. I wore this polish for two days, and it looked the same is it did on day one. I used two coats but if I really wanted to I could have gotten away with one. Onto the swatches:

I love this color! I really should have swatched the actual color before doing the effect, so I guess I will do that on my last one when I get ready to swatch it.

The line is how you want to align the magnet on your nail. Whichever direction (up/down, diagonally, across) you aim the magnet will be the direction the design flows.


How are you liking Layla's Magneffects?


Kisses
Marketta