Pokemon Nail Art Challenge: Week 1 Grass Type

Sooooooooo I've been going a little crazy lately getting my school counseling internship started, but I found something fun to do on the weekends! Adventures of the Nail Friends and The Blahg are hosting a Pokemon Nail Art Challenge using the original 151 Pokemon!

Didn't know I had that much nerd in me? I totally do, and I think I did my nerd self proud this time around. Now, the introduction to the challenge was just pokeballs, and then the first week is Grass type. Each week is a different type of Pokemon (there is a picture at AofNF's blog that outlines it), but I ended up combining my grass type with the introductory post to get things started :-).

So, without further ado..

Bellsprout!

Blurry closeup.

I used lots of different polishes for this one. The pokeballs are OPI Alpine Snow and Big Apple Red, with a Sinful Colors black striping polish. Bellsprout is a yellow Sinful Colors striping polish for the head, Zoya Angelina for the stem-like body, Wet 'n Wild Sage in the City for the leaves, and OPI Pink Friday for the mouth.

Here's the links to everyone else's posts!


Peace!
Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

OMG THE DUOCHROME! Color Club Port-Folio, even though they're phone pictures :-(

So my husband stole my (well, technically our) camera for work, so all I had to take pictures was my phone. My phone has a decent camera, but it's just NOT THE SAME. I'm going to share the picture anyway, though, because they really are that pretty.

So I'm a little behind on this color, but Color Club's Port-Folio came out this fall with the In True Fashion Collection. I'm all for a great duochrome, and boy does this deliver! It has a green/purple/navy color shift, with a a metallic shimmer finish. The color shift is AMAZING, I couldn't really capture it to its full potential on my phone but the different pictures show the shift. The formula also isn't terrible, slightly thin but opaque in two coats. AND since I can't leave anything alone, I did one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust for a subtle holographic sparkle.

Pardon the couch backdrop, I was a little shaken after not having my actual camera. You can see a little bit of the color shift here. No flash, artificial light.

No flash, artificial light. You see mainly the purple here.

With flash. In this light, the purple is BRIGHT. With a little blur to show the holographic sparkle of Fairy Dust.

With flash. The green you see in the bottle really did translate gorgeously on the nail!

 This color is RIDICULOUS to try to capture on camera, if you haven't yet checked it out I highly suggest a purchase. (If duochrome polishes are your thing, of course).

Now, this mani chipped today so I'm getting ready to do a Christmas mani...I had one vote for candy cane stripes on Facebook, you'll have to see how it turns out!

Peace!
-Jessica

OVERDUE Polish Post: China Glaze Winter Holly

So I am SOOOO overdue on blog posts, it's not funny. I had this polish on at the beginning of the week, but with the craziness of being a grad student at the end of the semester, blogging has unfortunately taken a back seat. My nail polish, however, has not, if you check out my Facebook. I actually posted a couple pictures of this polish there, and even made it my profile picture because of the holiday season :-). I even have a Christmas themed blog for the month of December!

*On a note, even though I'm a Christmas-y blog, I DO highly encourage and appreciate those celebrating different holidays. Mine may be Christmas but I love to hear and see others!

On to the polish! China Glaze Winter Holly from the Holiday Joy 2012 collection. Oh how I love thee! So wintery and festive, here you will see a almost forest green fine glitter with gold and some holographic glitter mixed in. Very reminiscent of I'm Not Lion/I Herd That from On Safari collection and United/Hello Gorgeous from the United collection in terms of formula, but with the beautiful Christmas green and gold. It definitely needed topcoat with make it shiny/sparkly, and I did a coat of Gelous to smooth it out. Here's the photos!

No flash in artificial light, with garland background :-)

With flash, artificial light

No flash, more garland!

With flash and blurry, to show the holographic goodness

 Isn't that so festive and Christmas-y? This polish would be perfect for a Christmas-tree mani, as the green of the tree. Maybe I'll make that happen soon...

Until then, enjoy your holiday!
-Jessica

China Glaze Swatch Fest Part 1!

So it was voted on Facebook last night that I do a China Glaze swatch fest, as part of an effort to swatch every color that I own. However, I got about a third of the way through them and realized it was going to take me a while! So, I'm presenting the colors in order of their release dates based on a little research I did, because I feel it's good to know a little about when a certain color came out, or what colors it was meant to go with. This is the first third of the batch of China Glaze's I own. As a note, each color starts with a picture with flash, then a picture without flash in artificial light.

Reggae to Riches (Year Unknown), Caribbean Temptation collection: Gorgeous fuschia with blue-purple duochrome shimmer. Opaque in two coats, fantastic formula and shine, no topcoat.

Bought at Sally Beauty Supply as part of regular collection.

      

Fairy Dust (2004), Fashion Fairies collection: Holographic sparkly topper, full of small holographic glitter with a silvery tint. The glitter is a little thick but covers nicely. One coat over Sally Hansen White On, no topcoat.

Bought at Sally Beauty Supply as part of regular collection.

.

Exceptionally Gifted (2006, re-release 2011), Exceptionally Gifted wedding collection, Susan G. Komen  color of 2011: Semi-sheer pink frost. Formula is okay, requires three coats for full opacity and has the streaky finish of a frost polish. No topcoat. 

Bought at Sally Beauty Supply when released for Susan G. Komen foundation.

 Lubu Heels (2007), Louboutin Manicure inspired polish: Dark black jelly with small red glitter throughout. Creates a very vampy, high fashion dark look that’s beautiful. Formula was pretty good, opaque with two thicker coats of polish and not too runny or thin. No topcoat.

Bought at Sally Beauty Supply as part of regular collection.

Unplugged (Spring 2008), Ecollection: Brown metallic with undertones of red tint and gold shimmer. Beautiful formula that went on smoothly and opaque in two coats, no topcoat.

Bought at Sally Beauty Supply as part of regular collection.

     

 Secret Peri-wink-le (Fall 2008), Operation Colour collection: Pale blue/purple cream, pretty much the color periwinkle to perfection (refer to Periwinkle from Blue’s Clues, it’s her in a bottle!). Pretty nice formula, slight running toward the cuticles and streaks with one coat, but perfectly opaque and smooth in two coats. No topcoat.

Bought at Sally Beauty Supply as part of regular collection.

Atlantis (2009), Specialty collection: Teal jelly base with medium holographic glitter throughout. While this color is absolutely amazing, my particular bottle’s formula is awful! It’s very thick and goopy the more you use it during the manicure, and if the first coat doesn’t dry entirely, the second coat drags. I don’t know if my bottle is older, has too much glitter, or a bad batch, because this isn’t a problem I’ve seen before. So if you are able to get your hands on this color brand new, you might be better off. One thick coat of Color Club topcoat.

Bought in a blog sale, but can be found on  e-tailers such as Amazon and eBay.

Dorothy Who? (2001, 2009 re-release), Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection: Blue jelly base with small silver glitter throughout. Can I just say I am one that is not only glad they came out with the re-release of these polishes, but that this color is now part of the regular collection? It’s such a vibrant blue, and the sparkle gives it a magical touch associated with The Wizard of Ox movies. Formula wise, this polish was decent, but it required three coats for full opacity and could use a topcoat one dry to smooth out the slight texture from the glitter. One coat Color Club topcoat.

Bought at Sally Beauty Supply as part of regular collection.

Ruby Pumps (2001, 2009 re-release), Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection: Red jelly base with small red glitter throughout. I feel like I put the ruby slippers on my fingers when I put this polish on, and the sparkle is mesmerizing. The formula is just as beautiful, two coats to full opacity but could use a topcoat as there is a slight texture one dry. One coat Color Club topcoat.

Bought at Sally Beauty Supply as part of regular collection.

Four Leaf Clover (Spring 2010), Up and Away collection: Somewhere between a kelly and mint green crème. The actual color of this polish is poorly represented by my camera. It is not nearly as blue as it looks without flash, and not nearly as mint as the picture with the flash. But the formula of this polish was fabulous, opaque in two coats, smooth, not too thick or thin. No topcoat.

Bought at Sally Beauty Supply as part of regular collection.

Flip Flop Fantasy (Summer 2010), Poolside collection: Bright pink-coral neon. This pink is SCREAMING at you even from the bottle, it is a perfect summer color for toes and fingers. The formula wasn’t the greatest, though, it was rather streaky and barely smoothed out with three coats (topcoat helped, though). It also has that neon tendency to dry with a matte finish. One coat China Glaze Fast Forward Topcoat.

Bought at Sally Beauty Supply as part of regular collection.

 Lightning Bolt and Cracked Concrete (Spring 2011), Crackle collection: Lightning Bolt is a white crackle finish, Cracked Concrete a cement-gray crackle finish. The cracks on these are generally thin, sometimes a little stringy-looking for my taste. However, they always crack on fully dry nails, even though they are starting to get slightly goopy with age. They do dry matte and leave some texture without extra coats of topcoat. One coat Color Club topcoat.

Lightning Bolt bought at Ulta on clearance.

Cracked Concrete bought at Sally Beauty Supply’s website on clearance.

Fan Picked and Try it on Tuesday!

So I ended up a little MIA last week, around the time I posted on my Facebook page that I would do the mani requested by my fans. Well, at that time the most picked was Orly Space Cadet. So without further ado, I will show you some pictures and talk a little about the polish!

Okay, so Space Cadet came out...in the Fall of 2010, I believe? It is one of the COOLEST duochrome shimmery polishes I have ever laid eyes on. It goes from purple to bronze to green to gold, but instead of a sheen like most duochromes, it's more of a microglitter. A little on the thin side, this is two coats and it could have really used three (plus I do have a little shrinkage from my CG Fast Forward Topcoat). But overall, this is one of the coolest polishes EVAR.

NOW, onto blog post part 2:

Jilltastic Nail Design is hosting "Try it on Tuesday," where people post pictures of polishes they've had, but haven't used yet. Well, I had the perfect color for this Tuesday!

Here we have China Glaze Gaga for Green, with OPI Pirou-ette My Whistle. I've had the green from probably a month now, but never had the chance to wear it. The OPI I just got at Ulta the other day, but it was still untried until today!

Gaga for Green is from the Electropop collection from this past spring, so it doesn't have the summer vibe I was looking for. But it's a beautiful green creme, almost a minty lime green. The formula was alright, a little thin and streaky. But I got it pretty smooth in two coats, three may have been better.

Pirou-ette My Whistle is from OPI's NYC Ballet Collection from this past spring, as well. Such a PRETTY glitter! It's got tiny silver glitter and a white-ish platinum hex glitter throughout. The hex glitter was a little hard to get out, but it worked well enough with a little maneuvering.

So I tried TWO polishes for Try it On Tuesday, and it was a fantabulous combination!

Nail Art: Little Owl

So my nail art skills are limited, I will definitely admit. BUT I do have a thing for owls. They are my favorite animal, and yes this is very much due to my love for the Harry Potter series (I WILL be doing Harry Potter nails in the future). And I always feel I can paint them on my nails, even if it doesn't REALLY look as much like an owl as I would hope. Regardless, I'm sharing my little fella' today because I am on house cleaning duty during my break at work (yay working in a school!), and he's gonna get chipped off as soon as my hand go in the dishwater!

Now, I will say, I actually did these nails yesterday morning so I would have them for my grad class last night, but I never had the chance to post them. And after the house gets clean today, I have an epic candy-based design plan using SEVEN different polishes, which I may or may not do tonight:-)

This is China Glaze Luxe and Lush over Four Leaf Clover. The owl design in done with both of those colors, along with OPI Did it on 'em for the wings and belly, and Sinful Colors nail art polishes for the beak and eyes.

So is he as cute as I thought? I kind of want to name him before my messy apartment peels him off, and I get the feeling he's a male owl...is that weird of me? :-P

NOTD: Gold and Green!

So I know last night I posted some St. Patrick's Day nail art, but unfortunately I wasn't as happy with it as I wanted to be. Soooo...I removed the nail art, painted it and put one more coat of polish on all of the fingers :-)

I took my China Glaze It's Alive and put two coats on the finger that had had the rainbow nail art. Then I added China Glaze Luxe and Lush on top of all my fingers. The results is AMAZING, the green polish underneath really brings out the gold in Luxe and Lush, which was exactly what I wanted (the picture does no justice!).

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

St. Patrick's Day Mani!

Okay, so, got my St. Patrick's Day nails on for the weekend! Plans are thus far:
1.) Get some house cleaning done (may lead to a need to repaint nails, hehe, don't know what though!)
2.) Going to my local high school's musical , Seussical the Musical (have a family friend in it, doing amazing!)
3.) Going to the Boondocks Bar and Restaurant for drinks and dancing!

While doing all of this, I will (hopefully!) be sporting these nails:

The green is China Glaze It's Alive!. The nail art is done with Wet N' Wild Black Creme, The Gold and the Beautiful, and an array of the rainbow colors that I can't remember at the moment (plus some "Broadway" yellow nail art jewels). I'm not entirely happy with it, because my cat decided to get in the way and help smudge the design. But overall, it's cute, so I may have to stick with it :-).

So there you have it! Enjoy your St. Patrick's Day, everyone.

Old Mani's

So as I've said before, I have some pictures of different nails I've had since last October. I've only used my phone to take these pictures, but I still want to share some of them, because some of them are pretty cool :-)

This was a polka-dot mani I did freehand in January. The purple is L.A. Colors "Nuclear Energy" with an L.A. Colors white nail art polish for the dots (I did them freehand with the art brush, this was done before I discovered a dotting tool). You can't see it in the picture, but there was also one coat of Orly's "54" on top, which is a very sheer pink shimmer/sparkle. Overall it was really cute :-)

So another blog I follow, Nails Never Fails talked about a "jelly sandwich" mani, using a jelly-type polish with a layer of glitter. So this is OPI's "It's a Girl!" as a base, with a layer of Wet N' Wild's "Sparked" in the middle, and then the "It's a Girl!" on top. It was the coolest thing, the glitter looked suspended in the polish. Therefore, because of this, I bought "Translucent" by Color Club to try this mani again.

Finally, this is probably my proudest mani. These were my Halloween nails, and it was AWESOME! There are three stripes of color underneath: Wet N' Wild's "Sage in the City" for the green, Pure Ice's "Hot Tamale" for the orange, and L.A. Color's "Amethyst" for the purple. I have Color Club's Black Fractured on top. Love this, and will try this type of  mani for another holiday (I have some of China Glaze's metallic crackles that will be nice for spring/Easter).

Magnetic Nail Polish FTW!!

So I finally got some magnetic nail polish! I know a lot of people say its just another fad like crackle, but frankly I will use crackle whenever I want, and after trying magnetic will feel the same way about it!

So I've had quite a few shopping trips this week, and have scored a little haul of my own which I will post about sometime in the near future (been pretty busy, went with my brother's school band to perform for senators yesterday, shopping the days before hehe). But this is probably one of my favorites. I got TWO China Glaze Magnetix polishes at Sally Beauty Supply, because if you bought one you got the magnet free! (which equates to a free polish, since the magnet costs the same as a polish!). I got "Instant Chemistry," a really pretty plum color, and "Cling On," a sage-y green. Here's Cling On:

(I guess I need to work on camera shots!). I used the diagonal line design from the magnet on my four fingers, and the star on my accent finger. Using the magnet takes time to get used to (you can almost watch it suck the polish in!), and I paint so fast to make sure it doesn't dry, I make a bit of a mess, so timing will take time as well. But overall, I am VERY happy with the Magnetix!

Hello, nail world!

So, I have joined a large part of the polish world and decided to blog about my own experiences.

Now, I'm going to be up front about a lot of things in this first blog post:
1.) My application techniques are improving, but by no means are perfect. So when I do post pictures, you will notice polish often all over my cuticles, or smudged because my cat jumped on my lap, ect...
2.) I don't own a ton of polishes YET. My collection grows slowly but surely, as I discover the brands I like to use more, the types of polishes that are fun to wear (GLITTER!), and my financial situations.When I can afford more polishes, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll have a larger collection!
3.) I love experimenting will nail art, but I've never actually been a decent artist on paper to begin with, so my nail "art" is often basic and messy (but I love it, and that's the point of blogging about it!)
4.) My nails are never really in good condition, leaving them shorter than I would like for nail art :-(
5.)  I'm ALWAYS willing to take advice :-)

So, my mani for my first post is...

Zoya Gemma! With an accent water marble finger (first success!) done in three shades of Wet N'Wild: Night Prowl, Blue Moon, and Fatal from their "Crystalic" polishes.

Close up of the marbling (the red spot is from dry skin, this weather is horrible on my nails!)

Wow, I need to practice camera skills, as well (or have my husband take pictures). So yea, lots to learn, hopefully lots to share :-). Will continue to keep getting polishes as I can, trying new manis/art, and join the polish world!