ILNP swatches – Grape Alicious and Molly

Today I’ve got two I LOVE NAIL POLISH shades for you.  I won these from Brijits Digits giveaway.  I’ve never tried ILNP before, so I was thrilled to get my paws on these!

First up is Grape Alicious…

Grape Alicious is a purple holo. I used two coats here along with basecoat and topcoat too.  The holo didn’t seem too strong for me in Grape Alicious.  But I love this shade!  It’s a purple that leans more towards blue than red, which is my fave kinda purple.  Dark blue-ish purples look so rich and regal to me.  So I love this one.

Next up is Molly…

Molly is a magenta holo.  Shown here is a basecoat, two coats of Molly, and topcoat.  This shade is so pigmented and the formula was great.  So easy to apply.  I wasn’t expecting this, but Molly has tiny flecks of sparkle in it!  On the downside, it chipped pretty bad within 24hrs.

I’m so happy to have some ILNP added to my small stash of indies.  Do you have any of these??

Spring Flowers for #NAILLINKUP

This is my design for the SPRING FLOWERS theme of the N.A.I.L. Linkup!  The colors I chose are a bit more intense than the usual spring pastels.  But then again, it doesn’t feel like spring yet in NY!  It was kinda nice out yesterday, but today is like brrrrr.

BASE COLOR ♥ I Love Nail Polish – Grape Alicious

STAMPING NAIL POLISH ♥ AVON Mirror – Blaze

STAMPING PLATE ♥ MoYou London – Pro Collection 04

RHINESTONES ♥ magenta gems from Sally’s Beauty Supply

ACCENT NAIL GLITTER ♥ Sinful Colors – Star Dust

NAILLINKUP Spring Flowers –

My Stripes for Golden Oldies Thursdays

This is my first entry in one of The Crumpet‘s nail challenges! This one’s called Golden Oldies Thursdays and the theme for this week is STRIPES. For my manicure I used some very old polishes to stick true to the rules. In fact, I really went for the gusto and used one verrrrry old polish!

My white tips were painted with Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff polish called French White Tips.  I don’t know how old it is, but I would guess about 20 yrs old? Wow, right? My magenta stripes were made with a Stripe Rite striper that I bought at Sally’s when I first started dabbling in nail art.  So I’d say that it’s probably 4 yrs old. Funny thing…. I never use my stripers anymore! Why, I have no idea! Then I outlined the stripes with a black nail art pen and stamped a little floral konad design on my accent nails.  This M4 KONAD plate was the verrrry first stamping plate that I bought a few yrs ago, so it’s perfect to use for this Golden Oldies challenge! 🙂

I’m not excited about my nail art pen lines looking so sloppy though!  I think the pen sticks and drags on the surface of my polish and it always looks funny- like a kindergartener did them.  Oh well!  It is what it is.  The sloppiness gives it some panache, right?

If you’re wondering why my nailbeds look so pink, so am I!  I started using Duri Rejuvacote and I am halfway through my ten day trial!  Not sure why my nails are turning pink with it!  I will post all the results when my ten days is up.  I love before and after pics!!!

view the other girls’ GOT Stripes here:

snakeskin magnet swap-out

This is a follow-up to my snakeskin post from a few days ago! That green Sinfully Magnetic Snakeskin mani came out great! I really love the magnet that came with it. Ever since then I’ve had the urge to test out that snakeskin magnet on other polishes from my stash! Here are the two I chose….

Orly Magnetic FX Paint On Electron: This silver/grey polish was a little meh for me since the snakeskin design came out very subtle.  If you want to see more pics of this polish here’s a nice post by thePolishAholic.

Magnetic Force by Color Club Hipnotic: This magenta polish never disappoints.  I like the bright pink undertones that pop up when the magnet hits this polish!  Just a side note- this color is a dupe of Finger Paints Hipnotic.  Somehow I ended up with both bottles and they are identical!

That was a fun test- those polishes only needed one coat and also dried super quick.  Now I feel like mis-matching my magnets and trying them with all my different polishes!