Micropost

Sally Hansen Snow Blast over China Glaze First Mate

New Essence and Kiko 600

Hello Ninjas!

Today's post includes two polishes that are from European brands! While Essence is becoming easier to find in the US via the store chain Ulta, I haven't seen Kiko anywhere in person. A really awesome student at work went to London for the Olympics to watch the wrestling events and asked if I'd like a shot glass souvenir. I said I wasn't much in to shot glasses but if he found Olympic nail polish I'd be all over it. Well, as far as I can tell, there wasn't any Olympic exclusive nail polish done but he did pick me up two Kiko colors he thought would go well together. One of them was Kiko 600 which is a light yellow crackle topcoat.

I picked up this new Essence, Gorgeous Bling Bling, at Ulta a while back along with four other new colors with their redesigned bottles and thought it would pair wonderfully with Kiko 600. GBB is a medium orange with gold glass flecks that applied nicely in two coats. I added one coats of K600 over my thumb and ring fingers as a neat accent and really likes this manicure!

Don't forget, my Blue Belt Giveaway ends next week! Hubby and I graduate on Wednesday the 5th so that's when I will be drawing the names (That night after graduation)

Crackle Rage

Hi Ninjas!

This weekend was fun! The weather was a little dreary but I enjoyed going wedding dress shopping with a friend from work and the sun came out afterwards. I had so much fun shopping for my own dress, I had no idea how fun it was to sit on the other side of the dressing room door :)

Today I've got a combination I wore a while back to extend to life of my manicure when I didn't have time to do a whole re-paint one night. I added a black crackle over my two coats of Orly Rage for a nifty cream on metallic manicure.These pictures were taken on a stormy day so I apologize for their quality!

China Glaze Fast Track

Hello Ninjas!

Depending on your time zone, I could be a little early on this post or just on time but it's easier to remember to do it tonight instead of forgetting until late tomorrow night! So, tonight I've got China Glaze's Fast Track from their Hunger Games collection. Fast Track is named for District 6 which is Transportation. Not sure what the finish and color on this polish have to do with Transportation but it sure is pretty.

Many people have said that this is a very plain polish but I really loved it. Perhaps it was because I was in the mood for a little more neutral look or maybe I just love anything with a gold shimmer in it but this was something I thoroughly enjoyed wearing. Though this is a light colored polish, two easy coats was all it took to make a nice and opaque manicure. This isn't quite a mannequin color on me but in a few more months, this would look great with a slight tan! The shimmer really makes this pop and I love how it leans slightly green at the right angle.

After wearing this for two days, I found myself short on time to change my manicure so I just added a pretty shimmery blue-green crackle topcoat from Pure Ice. This is one coat of *Strike a Pose over Fast Track. I love how this neat color actually matched one of my Hello Kitty watchbands.

* Where noted, product was provided for unbiased review by Pure Ice PR.

Sally Hansen Crackles

Here's a look at two of the new Sally Hansen Crackles, Snow Blast and Distressed Denim. The Distressed Denim is a super quick swatch that I didn't keep on because my thumb got messed up so I took the whole thing off. One Coat over Wild and Crazy Amnesia.

Told you it was messy! The next couple pictures are of Snow Blast over Mamba. It's a combination of palate cleansing colors.

A couple NOTDs

I wanted to use my now Wet n Wild Waves of Enchantment so I did a quick mani with China Glaze Black Mesh over WoE and then topped it off with Essie's Matte About You.

I realized in retrospect that this looked like a Halloween manicure but I still liked it!


Last night I used a new color I picked up at my local Rite Aid, Petites Utopia. This is a super cool color packed with a tone of teal glitter that also flashed blue and purple. Love it. I stamped this with a cute little Turtle from my MASH plates and then some stars from the same plate. The turtle are in Funky Fingers Mint Montauk and the stars that barely showed up were in Ulta blue streak.

The only problem with the petites was that it took 4 coats for me to get rid of visible nail line. Maybe it would work better over a dark blue cream base?

My Easter Mani and some failed stamping.

So Justin's awesome family was in town this weekend which meant a pedi for me and his mom as well as a trip to Ulta. I'll post pictures of my haul later but lets look at the mani and my stamping fail. The base color is actually a bit of layering. Two coats of Salley Hansen Insta-Dri in Jade Jump and one coat of Ulta's Always a Bridemaid collection in Something Blue. I do have to say, I really really hate the formula on the Insta-Dris I picked up... Sure they dry fast but they also dry sort of chalky and the polish gets little dry gritty pieces in it... Which is pretty much the only reason I did a layering deal with the Something  Blue, to cover up the gritty ick. I wonder if some polish thinner would help?

Anyways, the next day, I tried to do some stamping with Wet n Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer but as soon as I added Seche QD on top the stamp started to degrade and get blurry and fail... SO I did a bunch of other stamp colors on top to get a sort of tie dyed look.

Also, my easter package arrived today from my mom who's all the way out in California! Can you guess what one of the things in my package was?