Thermal Valentines nails for #NAILLINKUP

I’ve done a bunch of valentines nails so far this year, but I had to squeeze in another for our February Nail Art Ideas Linkup (more info on N.A.I.L. right here)! To make it sexy for the holiday I wanted to incorporate some red, a thermal heat-activated polish, and some hearts!  The two main polishes I used here are Nicole by OPI Challenge Red-y and Black Sheep Lacquer Enter Sandman.  I also did a white accent nail with a red heart outlined with black dots.  The black dots make it look like a digital 8-bit heart!  I really like it!

The thermal polish that I used over all the red nails, even over the white ones, is a translucent light grey color called Enter Sandman.  It’s a thermal topper by Black Sheep Lacquer which is supposed to transform your base color and give it a black thermal effect.  I didn’t get too much thermal effect in my pics though, sorry.  It’s been so cold here in NY (huge snow storm in effect as I write this)!  However, I did notice more thermal action during my kickboxing class yesterday when I was nice n warm (that’s a nice way of saying ‘dripping with sweat’)!  I love the vampiness of this color combo.  The red Nicole by OPI polish with the indie thermal on top looks really hot!  Even the thermal over the white looks kinda cool!  It has a grey faded newspaper look.

If you wanna see the other valentines manis for the N.A.I.L. Linkup then here are the links.  They’re open for the whole month of feb if you’d like to enter your nails too…

FEBRUARY 2014

Red :

Valentines Day :

Gradient :

Glitter :

More spiderwebs!

I already did spiderwebs a few weeks ago, but those were hand-painted.  These nails I’m showing you now are stamped!  I hope you don’t mind some more halloween cobwebs from Crafty! This is my last mani for the October NAIL Linkup.  Oooh that means that the November themes are right around the corner!  Do you want to join us in a fun, no-pressure nail challenge?   Brijit, Eeeek and I will be announcing the November NAIL prompts soon.  But here’s a spoiler:

Get your moustache on, missy!!

Alrighty!  Well, let’s take a look at my Halloween-themed nails for Oct!  I did these nails for a halloween party.  I wanted something festive but I didn’t have a lot of time beforehand to do crazy nail art.  That’s when stamping comes in handy, for sure!  Do you clean your plate in between stamping each nail?  I don’t.  I get the same results with or without cleaning.  So I don’t even bother.  I just pound right through and do each nail one right after the other!  In just a couple minutes I have a cool stamped mani. 🙂

♥ Sally Hansen Maximum Growth as my base coat

♥ three coats of green ‘no name’ glow-in-the-dark nail polish from Rite Aid

♥ MoYou London Pro Plate 05 XL

♥ China Glaze Smoke and Ashes for stamping

Have a happy halloween everyone!  It’s the one time of the year that you’re allowed to take candy from strangers LOL!  Here are all the NAIL entries for October-

28th Oct – 3rd Nov  Hallow E’en :

21st-27th Oct  Treats and Sweets :

14th-20th Oct  Things That Go Bump in the Night :

7th-13th Oct  Autumn Trees :

30th Sept – 6th Oct  Breast Cancer Awareness :

Thermal Polish from Brijits Digits Boutique

Today I’m showing you another cool indie polish from Brijits Digits Boutique.  This one’s a thermal color-changing polish called Orchis des Marais.  It’s a special polish with a fancy french name, ooh la la!  I hafta say, this is the most fun that I’ve had with a polish in a really long time!  Take a look at it and you’ll see what I mean…

Shown here is one basecoat of Sally Hansen Maximum Growth, two coats of Orchis des Marais and one coat of Seche Vite.  If you apply thin coats then you may want three coats of the thermal, but two did the trick for me.  It appeared violet when I first applied it but shortly after it started turning pink.  On the right-hand side of my photo collage you can see all the blue shimmer in there too- just gorgeous!  Orchis des Marais dries quickly and has a nice finish.  Thermals have a tendency to be matte and dull so I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

Here’s a pic of Orchis des Marais when I first woke up in the morning and my hands were cold as ice.  We haven’t turned the heat on yet this season.  Brrrrr!  ↓

And here’s a shot of my nails after a nice hot shower.  They’re bubblegum pink now and the tips are quickly starting to cool off as you can see.  ↓

Throughout most of the day my nails were a pretty gradient that started out pink and got more purple towards the tips.  They did change very easily too.  If you hold a cold drink you’ll see them shift right away.  Or if you get a droplet of water on your nail you’ll see a perfect little purple circle appear!  So much fun!  All day long I kept looking down- ooh I’m cold, oooh now I’m hot!  Also, I noticed that my right-hand middle finger was strangely cold and purple most of the time.  The weird thing is, that nail breaks all the time too.  It’s my one problem nail.  Maybe my chi doesn’t flow well in that finger?  LOL  You can see in the top left photo of my collage that it’s more purple than the rest!  What’s up with that?

Overall, I’m thrilled with this polish.  I need more.  In every color.

If you’re looking for a heat-activated polish you can find Orchis des Marais on Etsy at Brijits Digits Boutique.

What do you think of color-changing polishes like this one?

Polka Dots and Glow in the Dark Nail Polish Review

It’s day 9 of the 30 Day Nail Challenge for April and the theme is polka dots!

Today I’ve got Glow In The Dark Nail Polish from Claire’s Cosmetics to share with you.  I purchased this un-named pink polish last month at Claire’s Boutique in the mall.  Since the theme is polka dots I used my Konad M79 stamping plate and some black Konad polish to accent my ring finger.  It looks cute and summery but let’s get to my review…

First off, the polish comes in this awesome bottle that has a light in the top!  The whole bottle lights up when you press the button on top of the applicator brush!!  Good packaging ploy, Claire’s Boutique!  They enticed me to spend the $7.

After applying my first coat I was surprised at how sheer it was- it barely tinted my nails pink at all.  So I started investigating the bottle to see if there were special instructions.  Maybe I was supposed to put the polish over top of an opaque color?  I peeled off my price tag- to reveal no instructions at all.  I guess you are supposed to wear it by itself.  But hold on!  Wait… under the price tag sticker I found an expiration date!  The bottle says it was manufactured in Feb 2011 and it expires in August 2013…that’s only a couple months away!  Well, that would’ve been nice to know!  I wish I still had my receipt- I’m tempted to write a letter to Claire’s to suggest that they not intentionally cover the expiry info!

I applied three coats and I still have a lot of visible nail line.  But I figured I’d stop at 3.  It dries fast though, which is nice.  It has a very strange formula due to the particles of glow in the dark stuff that’s in it.  It was thin but gritty and I had to paint with as few strokes as possible.  If I painted over a section that was just painted- then the polish would lift off and it looked streaky and thin.  Application was weird but it dried quickly so the three coats weren’t a hassle.  The final result?  A sheer neon with a gritty matte texture.  Here’s a closeup.↓

I put a nice thick coat of seche vite over top to try and smooth it out.  It still feels a little bumpy though, but no biggie.  So the next question is….  HOW WELL DOES IT GLOW IN THE DARK?

It glows just fine.  Nothing that I would write home about, but I’m not disappointed either.  It works as expected.  I wonder if it would glow more with a bright base coat underneath?  Also, my bottle’s getting close to expiration so perhaps a newer bottle would glow more?  I’m surprised that it didn’t glow in pink… instead, it was more of your standard yellow glow, typical of most glow-in-the-dark stuff.  Wonder what it looks like under a blacklight?  I had a hard time photographing this… but here’s an untouched shot of it in the dark. ↓ On the computer this pic looked okay, but on my Nook Tablet it looked so dark.  Sorry, but I tried!

Overall, I do like this polish.  I really love the tone of this pink.  It almost has a peach tint to it and it makes me look tan!  It’s so summery and tropical and the sheerness of it makes it look like a sheet of neon glass over my nails. Normally I don’t like sheer polishes- but this one reminds me of summertime so I will definitely wear it again.  The glow-in-the-dark thing is fun… so why not?  I’m glad I added this polish to my stash.  The more I wear it the more I adore the color.  I feel like I need a vacation, sunglasses and a drink with an umbrella in it!

Have you ever tried glow in the dark polish?

Heat Activated Mood Struck Polish

Today I have a fun polish to share with you – it changes with your mood!  It’s called Mood Struck Color Changing Nail Polish and it’s heat activated to change from teal to turquoise.  I’m a sucker for cheesey products like this- mood changing, glow-in-the-dark, I love them all!  I found this bottle on ebay and also picked up two shades that change in the sunlight!

This Mood Struck polish dried to a semi-matte finish.  And it just may be one of THE fastest drying polishes in the world!!!  It started drying instantly- so you better brush it on quickly, and with as few strokes as possible!  Otherwise, it gets goopy and streaky.  I used three coats here since I needed to even out the surface- and I didn’t bother with a topcoat because I really like the satin finish.

I wanted to photograph this polish in natural light so you could see what it really looks like in it’s natural state. But it’s so darn cold here- my nail color just won’t budge when I’m outside!  It’s pretty chilly in my house too, so I didn’t get much variation in color indoors either.  But I did notice that the tips of my nails were a bit cooler and were a dark teal color.  Whereas the base of my nail is warmer from my body temperature so the polish there was more of lighter turquoise.  It almost has a slight gradient effect !

Both pictures in this post show my nails after I dipped the tips in a small bowl of hot water.  I love the cool effect!  I can’t wait to try the polish during warmer months so I can see more of  this!

Scented Nail Polish Review

I spotted this scented polish at Forever 21 clothing store and I just couldn’t resist!   I’ve always wondered how smelly these polishes really are!  I assumed they’d be disappointing for some reason… so I went for the glitziest color on the display.  If it doesn’t smell good- well at least it looks good, right?  I decided on Love & Beauty by Forever 21 Scented Nail Polish in Raspberry.

My first instinct was to open the bottle and take a big whiff. 😀   Uhhh… so where’s the yummy raspberry scent?  Instead it smelled like chemicals and alcohol (well, I guess for some people that might smell good. LOL)!  As it turns out, the raspberry aroma doesn’t pop up until the polish is drying.  I applied one coat and within a minute or so I could smell the fake fruity smell.  I immediately recognized it and it didn’t take long for me to make the connection.  This polish smells just like the magenta Mr. Sketch scented markers from the 80’s!  Ahhhh… I feel like a kid again! 😀

I like the surprise retro scent of this polish… but the formula is just plain weird!  It forms a thin and rubbery layer over your nail that’s very susceptible to bumps and gouges.  I lightly banged my hands a couple times and it really messed up my paint job!  It took forever to dry and then I had to go for a third coat to fix the dents and cover some bald spots.  With three coats there’s no way that the polish would set before bedtime.  So to cut down on dry-time I had to go over it with a topcoat of Seche Vite.  I figured the clear coat would totally mask the scent… but surprisingly, I can still smell the Mr. Sketch markers a little bit!  Yippee.  I can’t wait to sniff my nails all day at work.

<Warning!  Felines do not like this scent.>