Sugar skulls and alien heads!

Wait, sugar skulls and alien heads? YUP!  These kinds of noggins don’t normally go together… but these two designs were on the same bundle monster stamping plate… so why not?

These images you see on my nails are actually little diy decals that I made with nail polish.  They are so cute I’m glad I finally got a chance to wear them!  But it’s been two weeks since I made them (original post here)… and they got a little brittle.  Plus, my house is cold and that seems to make them even more brittle.   So I tried to warm them up before I applied them to make them more pliable.  I have one of those neck warmer things that you microwave, so I set my decals on that for a minute so they’d be more bendy.  That actually did help in getting them to fit the curve of my nail better. Oh, and two coats of seche topcoat helped too. 🙂  I also added studs at the end by sticking them into my topcoat while it dried.  The studs really made the mani come together.  Before studs- meh.  After studs- wicked!

Also, I don’t want to neglect mentioning my awesome base colors.  Under my decals I’m wearing two different AVON cosmic collection nail polishes.  The blue is called Celestial and the yellow is called Starlight and they’re both scattered holos.  I swatched these cosmics in the past (here) and I needed three coats.  But now that my nails are shorter, they only needed two coats.  Or maybe the polish thickened a little over time?  I dunno, but it works for me!

I hope you like my nails! Talk to ya soon!  Next time you hear from me we’ll be talking about the April prompts for the #NAILLINKUP. 😀

 

Zoya Dream Dupe (and a discount code)

I recently received the 6 piece Zoya Zenith collection from nailpolishcanada.com. One of the clear winners of the bunch is the scattered dark blue scattered holo called Dream.  It’s stunning, but yet it kind of reminds me of another polish that I’ve had for about a year now.   Could Zoya Dream be a dupe of last year’s L.A. Girl Brilliant Blue (old swatch found here)? Let’s look!

indoor lighting

Can you tell the difference?  Honestly, I cannot.  I asked my boyfriend (he has a trained artist’s eye) and he thought that Zoya looked more green in the bottle, while the L.A. Girl looked more purple.  But once I got them on the nail I could not tell them apart.  He agreed.

I’m wearing no base coat, two coats of blue, and no topcoat.  I’ve seen other bloggers say they needed three coats of Zoya Dream, but I definitely only needed two.  Same with the L.A. Girl-two coats does the trick.  The formulas on both are very similar, but if I had to pick my favorite I’d choose the L.A. Girl.  But I’m partial to bigger brushes, so I found application easier with that one.

outdoors in natural light

If you’re interested, Dream can be found here on the Zoya website.  Meanwhile, the old L.A. Girl 3D Effects collection is still available at cherryculture.com.  Cherry Culture has low prices on these and China Glaze.  Their shipping is a lil bit of a mystery though since I don’t think they emailed me when my order was on it’s way.  But I’ve placed some big orders and they are always accurate, timely, and are packed up really well.  So just have faith.  Check it out! They have a coupon code (JTV14) for 20% off your entire cherry culture order through Feb 6 2014.  Brilliant Blue is on sale right now too so after the discount code it’s only $1.92  !  I’m tempted to buy a back-up bottle of the Black Illusion since I love it so much!  Feb 6th is almost here so hurry up.. and happy shopping!

UPDATE on Feb 6th, 2014—   I just bought more L.A. Girls online woot woot !  Ground shipping within the U.S. was $6.85…  but be aware that international shipping is pricey on cherryculture.com!

Holos: AVON Cosmic Collection

AVON recently released their new Cosmic Collection of nail enamels described as having ‘holographic pearl effect’.  When I saw them in the brochure I knew I had to have some of these new scattered holos!  At $3.49 a piece I was tempted to buy all 10 shades but managed to whittle my list down to four.  Here’s some swatches for you!

All photos are in natural sunlight and sans top coat. 

Celestial: A powder blue scattered holo.  It went on pretty sheer so I think you’d definitely need three coats.  I really love the cool glimmery effect of this one. ↓

Starlight: Starlight is a funky yellow shade with an almost greenish tinge.  I needed 3 coats for opacity with this one.  I think Starlight is an odd shade but it’s a real eye-catcher.  I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a polish like this one!  ↓

Radiant:  Radiant is a nice neutral beige-y shade.  In real life the holo is subtle and demure.  In indoor lighting it looks like a nude.  Like the others, I needed three coats for opacity.

Aurora:  Aurora is probably my favorite of the bunch!   This purple holo was surprisingly streakier than the others, but it covered perfectly with the second coat.  Finally!  I was hoping to find a two-coater in the lot!  I think it’s just gorgeous.  ↓

Even though the Cosmic Collection wasn’t quite as holo-rific as I anticipated… each one of these polishes is stunning in it’s own way.  I was a little bummed that most of them required three coats, but I am now realizing that the shades I picked were the lighter ones in the collection.  They also carry red, teal, black, etc and I have a feeling that those may be more opaque.  Removal of these was easy.  They don’t contain any glitter, so they came off with nail polish remover with as much ease as standard cream polishes do.  Considering the low price and range of colors… these Cosmics are a great way to add some more holographic goodness to your stash!  What do you think of these?

And here’s a quick reminder of the upcoming July nail art challenge that I’m hosting with Brijit’s Digits and Eeeek! Nail Polish!.  I sincerely hope you join us!  The challenge is called “Oh Mon Dieu! It’s the Rather Awesome 31 Day Challenge Giveaway!” and we have fondly nicknamed it the OMD Challenge :D. Entries open up on July 1st (my brithday hehe) and I don’t want to you to miss a second of the fun!  So please contact me if you have questions.  Check out our awesome themes!

L.A. Girl Brilliant Blue Swatch

Today is day 5 of the 30 Day Nail Challenge and the theme is BLUE.  I’m wearing L.A. Girl Brilliant Blue and it’s about as blue as you can get!  This polish amazes me.  I want it in every color!  The scattered holo effect is very intense and my boyfriend said it’s like ‘looking at the cosmos’.  I dunno, maybe he said it just to humor me.  Hahaha.   Shown in the pics is two coats without a topcoat.  One thing I love about this polish is that it looks like a glitter, but it’s oh so smooth upon application.  It’s easy to remove too. 

I love this blue and there’s nothing more to say about it.  The pictures speak for themselves!   I’m thinking of ordering some more online since my local Rite Aid hasn’t restocked their L.A. Girl 3D Effects display.  Their website has free shipping in the US if your order is over $25 and most of their polishes are $5 right now.  (I can’t find any international shipping info on their site though :(.)  They carry metallics, textured, neons, glitters, scented polish and a whole line of french manicure colors too.  Check ’em out here: L.A. Girl/Nails.