Day 2: Silver

Day 2 of the 31 Day Challenge is silver. I couldn't resist putting a little pink in my creation, though.

I just put on some cuticle oil, so my fingers are a bit shiny!

This is China Glaze: Concrete Catwalk beneath CG Tinseltown and a touch of CG Fairy Dust. I also used a little bit of a Shany silver nail art striper, but that takes FOREVER to dry so I didn't use much. I love how Tinseltown shines in the sun! So lovely. It is much more sparkly in real life; my camera just doesn't do the shine justice.

This one is blurred but shows the sparkle better.

These are admittedly NOT nearly as cool as yesterday's, but they're not bad. They actually look much nicer in real life than they do in these pictures. The rhinestones should be fun to get off...! 

The next one is gold. Hmm...

Happy Painting!

China Glaze "Wicked" 2012

The reason I started doing my own nails was to SAVE money. I was tired of having to go to the salon every few weeks to drop at least $40, just so that my hands wouldn't look they had gone through a shredder. (I am terrible about picking at my cuticles if my nails aren't done!)

That was $40-$50 every 3 weeks, on average. Now that I paint my own nails, I spend about $30 a week on nail polish! I am not saving money! It is way more fun, though. :)

Most recently I purchased a small set of China Glaze polishes called "Wicked." It's from Halloween 2012 and has four colors in it:

Rougish Red, Glitter Goblin, Bizarre Blurple, Ghoulish Glow 

These all go on very nicely with no problems. It is China Glaze, after all. :) I had a white base on underneath all of the polishes today.

We'll start with the glitter. "Glitter Goblin" is a coppery glitter that reminds me of fall leaves. It is small, round cut, and set in a clear base, with copper and silver rainbow holo glitters. It goes on pretty sparsely with only one coat, so you'll need several if you want it opaque.

Formula Overview

• True to color on the bottle.
• This glitter can go from sparse to opaque, depending on number of coats. Great for Fall! 
• I would not stamp with this, but as usual, if you do something neat please show me.
• It would go nicely over warm colors (such as the included "Roguish Red").

"Roguish Red" is not really red at all, in my opinion. It is the perfect Halloween orange, though! It looks like the color you picture when you think of orange and black together for the holiday. 

Orange is one of my least favorite colors, (red is my least favorite) so this automatically takes a hit. Not fair, but that's just the way it is for me. I will probably only wear this if I'm excited about Fall, or around Halloween.

Two coats each, over a white base.

Formula Overview:

• True to color on the bottle. 1-2 coats, depending on color desired.
• Thick enough to stamp with.
• Definitely more of an orange than a red!
• Very creamy and glossy. No shimmer.

The purple color is called "Bizarre Blurple." It is a deep purple with blue shimmer, as it should be for the name. It shines nicely and has a lovely sheen to it. It is a common but very pretty color, and I will definitely wear it. It would be fun to gradient with, I think, and is great for colder months. It's nothing special, but a good staple to have.

Formula Overview:

• True to color on the bottle. 1-2 coats, depending on color desired.
• Thick enough to stamp with.
• Lovely shimmer and shine, even without topcoat.
• A good, solid purple. 

The lightest bottle is a glow-in-the-dark polish called "Ghoulish Glow." It goes on pretty much clear (it is over a white base in the picture). It glows really well, actually! I tried to get a picture for you, but it just wasn't working out. I need to work on my picture-taking skills...! If I had a more active night life, I would probably REALLY like this, because it's fun without ruining the color you have underneath. I'm pretty much a homebody with an early bedtime, so this won't see much use. 

Formula Overview:

• Clear, or very close to it. It seemed to dry clear.
• IF you're in the market for a glow-in-the-dark polish, this is a good one. Big IF, though.
• You could stamp with this, but you'd only see the design at night. (That could be really cool, actually.)
• It glows a plastic-y yellow/green, like those Halloween skeleton toys or spider rings.

Happy Painting!

Finger Paints: A Tale of Two Teals

Teal is one of the few colors I usually overlook. I'm not sure why that is. I have decided it's actually a really beautiful color and it looks nice with my skin tone.

I picked up a bottle of Finger Paints: Avante Garde Green and some matching glitter: Art You Wondering? for a teal mani. I couldn't decide what design to do, so as usual, my hands look different....

Bokeh nails holding Finger Paint's Art You Wondering?

Finger Paint's Avante Garde Green

These pictures made me realize two things:

1) My cuticles are very dry, so I'm doing an experiment.
2) I need to try to take less blurry pictures!

The Avante Garde looks like a teal metallic in the bottle, with an almost holographic quality and undertones of purple.

When I put on the first coat I was horrified. It was an ugly, dull gray metallic color that looked nothing like the color in the bottle. It was streaky and magnified any minute imperfections on my nails. I would definitely NOT recommend wearing only one coat of this, unless you want to look like you have some kind of fungal growth. Yuck.

One coat vs. three coats. Is that even the same polish?! (Please excuse my french tip peeking through there. Old acryllics. It does show how sheer one coat is, though.)

The second coat really made this polish! I couldn't believe the difference one coat made. However, now that I know this about the polish it makes it more fun to paint with it for some reason. Maybe because it's like the ugly duckling turning into a swan.

Teal nails and comfy pants!

Overview of Formula:

• You will definitely need more than one coat. Plan on using 2-3, depending on thickness of application.
• This polish is thick enough to stamp with.
• This polish is a glossy metallic.
• This polish takes a little longer to dry, but that might be because of how I applied it.
• It highlights imperfections.

Onto the glitter. Art You Wondering? looks exactly the same in the bottle as it will on your fingers, provided you use 2-3 coats. It is a beautiful shimmering jewel-tone teal. It reminds me of a color a mermaid princess would wear. The glitter sparkles in turquoise, teal, and a touch of kelly green. It really is a beautiful polish. It has a lot of dimension once you put it on, appearing to have more depth than many other glitters I have used.

The glitter is finely cut and set in a clear base. While one coat will give you non-opaque glitter coverage, if you're going for a lighter look, this probably is not the polish for you.

The glitter is much more sparkly in person.

As is the case with most glitter polish, it can be a little trying to remove if you don't hold acetone or remover on your nail Deborah Lippmann style. (Make sure you press hard and push from the base of your nail out when you do this, by the way.)

Thumb and middle: 1 coat; Index and ring: 3 coats; Pinky: 3 metallic/2 glitter
No topcoat.

Overview of Formula:

• If you only want partial coverage/light glitter (light..glitter? Is that an oxymoron? Maybe for me.) one coat should be sufficient. If you want opaque glitter, you will need to use 2-3 coats.
• Fast drying and a fairly smooth surface for a glitter polish!
• I would not recommend stamping with this polish. If you are able to stamp something amazing with it, please show me!
• It is a very beautiful glitter with a nice sheen, even without a topcoat.

Happy Painting!