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Friday, December 31, 2010

Some Enchanted Berries...

  This is another manicure I wore before Christmas, using one of my fabulous Deborah Lippmann polishes!

Indoors, artificial light, no flash
  For these nails I started off with two coats of OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries, one of my favorite pinks.  It is a bright berry creme, with really nice application.  On top of this, I added two coats of Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening, which contains both large hex and small pink glitters.  It is a much more dispersed glitter, which I think would be very hard to achieve opacity with.  However it works great as a topcoat!  These were very fun (and very pink) nails - I am loving all of these chunky glitters!  I have now worn all of the polishes in All That Jazz trio by Lippmann and they were all great - definitely worth getting if you haven't yet!

Artificial light

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Sparkle-icious!

  Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and are getting ready for a wonderful New Year!  Sorry I have been a little absent lately, but we have out of town guests (including my adorable niece!!) and I have just been super busy spending time with family!  But don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you all! :)

Outdoors, shade
  I wanted to share with you a manicure I wore before Christmas, OPI Sparkle-icious.  This is an amazing glitter, it looks like Mardi Gras on your nails!  One of the super chunky glitters from the Burlesque collection, this is full of equal parts blue, magenta and gold glitter.  It is bling-tastic, haha.  This was four coats - I think it was fairly decent in three, but it seems like lately I have always been erring on the side of one extra coat.... so four it was!  Application was great, for a glitter - just make sure you give it a bit of time to dry in between coats, which honestly isn't that hard since it dries pretty quick.  Removal is a pain as always for these chunky glitters, so be prepared to bust out some foil!

Outdoors, full sun
  While it was hard to capture a picture of just how sparkly this one is, the picture above does it a little bit of justice.  Definitely a keeper.  I love this collection!

  Only 10 more followers until I hit 300!  I have started coming up with some great ideas for the prizes of the 300 follower giveaway, so be sure to stay tuned for that.. :)

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!

  Merry Christmas Everyone!!  I hope you all have a wonderful day today, whether or not you are celebrating the holiday.  I am so excited, it is going to be a great day with almost all of my family.  I need to get to bed so I can hopefully make it through the busy day without taking an impromptu nap somewhere... :)

Outdoors, shade, no flash
   My Christmas nails this year are a red and white Santa-themed french.  The white tips on these remind be of the fluffy border of a Santa coat or hat.  I used two coats of OPI Affair in Red Square, followed by Konad Special White with plates m78 and m19.  Simple but very fun and festive!  On my toes I have CG Party Hearty layered over a really nice green, Claw Polish Toxic.  Didn't get a picture of that one (not sure you would have wanted to see toes anyway, haha) but together toes and fingers look really good! :)

  Merry Christmas!!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Party Hearty!

  Yesterday, I tried to do a Christmas water marble.  I tried three reds, three greens, and three silvers, all in different combos, and could not get anything to work right. Then after the frustration of the failed water marble, I knocked over a bottle of red polish when reaching for the phone and it went everywhere.  Needless to say, not the most relaxing polish I've ever done.... so I decided to whip out something easy but really fun instead! :)

Outdoors, partial shade, no flash
  This is one coat of Zoya Trixie followed by four coats of China Glaze Party Hearty.  I thought the from other blogs I had seen this glitter was a bit more opaque than this, achieving a similar look after only two coats.  And I wasn't doing super thin coats either...?  Oh well, adding a couple of extra coats was a minor inconvienince.  This is the perfect Christmas glitter - I love it!  It was great for the party I went to last night.

  Now I need to decide what I am doing to my nails tomorrow for Christmas!  I still have so many holiday ideas I didn't get around to using, I have no idea how I will decide! :)

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas Roses

  Tonight I wanted to share with you all two different manicures based on the same theme - white roses on red nails.  I find this to be a very classy combo, as well as very festive for the holidays!

Outdoors, shade
   The first manicure I did based on this theme was on my Mom's nails, for another Christmas party that she and my Dad attended.  For her nails, I started off with two coats of OPI Affair in Red Square, followed by roses from Konad plate m65 and Konad Special White polish.  This is one of my favorite red polishes (if not my absolute favorite red).  I am not a huge red person in general, but I love this one!  Great application and coverage. The red on white contrast on these nails is really nice.  This looked great with the red shirt she wore to the party!

Outdoors, shade
 The second manicure was one I did on my own nails just a few days ago, using a polish I got as a Christmas gift from my lab's Secret Santa exchange.  This is three coats of China Glaze Mrs. Claus, which is a reddish pink with lots of pink and silver glitter.  While this isn't a true red (and in certain lights looks very pink), it is still a gorgeous holiday color!  I love all the glitter as well.  Two coats was almost enough here, but three covered up any VNL.  Dry time was very quick, so this definitely made up for the three-coater.  It was also just a tad bumpy but the top coat took care of that.

Outdoors, full sun
   I added a rose to the ring finger using Bundle Monster BM14 and Konad Special White.  There was a little spot on my plate that doesn't pick up polish (you can see it near the bottom of the rose) - is this common for the BM plates?  At any rate, I really loved this polish and enjoyed wearing this!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Christmas French Manicure

  One of the suggestions I got from the giveaway was to do a holiday french manicure, using bright colors.  I thought this sounded like a really fun idea!

Outdoors, shade, no flash
  For these nails, I started off with one thin coat of OPI Glitzerland, just to give a nice touchof that sparkly champagne color to the nail.  After letting that dry, I applied tip liner stickers and used alternating red (OPI Affair in Red Square) and green (China Glaze Paper Chasing) to apply the tip colors.  I used two coats of each of these to get full coverage.  Finally, to give it a final Christmas look, I added holly bundles from bundle monster plate BM14.  I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite!

 For the most part I really liked this mani, although I kind of wonder if it was maybe... too much?  It is definitely very festive, but I am not sure whether it crosses the line or not.  I would say about 90% of the time wearing it I really liked it, the rest of the time I was not so sure.  What do you think - bright holiday tips, a french do or don't?  :)

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Congratulations, Giveaway Winners!

  After going through all of the entries for the giveaway, with a total if 337 valid entries, I have selected the winners this morning using Random.org!  And they are...

1st Prize: Monik!

2nd Prize: Camille!

  I have sent you both e-mails as of just a minute ago, please get back to me ASAP with your addresses so I can get these beauties out to you soon!

  Thank you all so much for entering!  I loved all of the suggestions I got for holiday manis, although I might have to chicken out on free-hand nail art until a later date... sorry. :(  BUT I have gotten some great ideas for nails that I have done recently and that I plan on doing this week!

  Polishology is also very close to 300 followers - once we reach that, I plan on having a much larger giveaway to thank all of you!  I will start collecting up goodies for it now... tell your friends to join!

Friday, December 17, 2010

China Glaze Sugar Plums - My New One Coat Wonder

  As you may know from previous posts or Twitter, I have been really sick this week.  I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty much fine, and by Saturday afternoon felt terrible.  I am still sick too, although I think I am finally starting to feel just a smidge better.  Anyway, I needed to paint my nails on Sunday (they were bare, and I didn't want to chew them!) and wanted something really easy; no Konad, not too many coats.... and I sure did pick the right polish!
Outdoors, shade
  This is one coat of China Glaze Sugar PlumsOne CoatNeedless to say, this ended up being the perfect choice for me that day - while I have read most people used two coats of this, one was plenty for me!  Sugar Plums is a really gorgeous deep plum color with really nice holographic glitter.  Application was obviously great, although the surface was left a tad bumpy.  The formula reminded me of CG's Good Witch? or The Ten Man.  A coat of Seche Vite took care of most of that bumpiness though!

Outdoors, full (bright!) sun
  As I often find with glitters like this, it was hard to capture the true sparlke of the polish.  This one was VERY sparkly, and the holo was really pretty.  If you click on the picture above, you can see more of the holo gliter.

Indoors, artificial light
  In the indoor picture above, you also get more of a hint of the holo glitter, especially in the bottle.  Overall I really love this polish - what's not to love with gorgeous holo glitter and a one-coat application?  And to think I almost didn't pick this one up from the holiday collection... :)

  Also, do not forget that TODAY is the last day to ENTER MY GIVEAWAY!!


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Silent Night with Zoya Kotori

  Today I wanted to share with you all a gorgeous blue polish from Zoya!

Indoors, artificial light, no flash
  For these nails, I started out with four coats of the beautiful Zoya Kotori, a polish from the Fall 2007 Downtown collection.  Kotori has a sheer dark gray base, and is totally jam-packed with bright blue shimmer.  The shimmer, which also has a flash of turqouise to it, gives this polish a lot of depth in the sheer base.  While I used four coats, three would have sufficed to achieve bottle color.  Application was fantastic, as is the case for pretty much every Zoya I have used to date, and the dry time was fine as well, making the multiple coat application not such a big deal.

Kotori in outdoor shade

Evening sunlight, no flash
  Sometime about this polish made me think of the night sky, so I decided to stamp it with stars!  I used BM21 and BM05 (ring finger) with Konad Special White to add the stars.  Since I was in a Christmasy mood, I placed a larger star on the ring finger to symbolize the Christmas star.  Then I added a gemstone to the center of the larger star, and topped it off with some Seche Vite!

Christmas Star!
  This was a fun manicure, and Zoya Kotori is definitely going on my list of favorite blues, with its stunning depth.  I have seem some really neat layering done with this one as well, so I may have to try that out soon myself!

DISCLOSURE: The polish featured in this post was provided to Polishology by Zoya for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Naily News - Walmart Exclusive Nicole by OPI

  Hey everyone!  I just got this news from Nicole by OPI - they are releasing a new Walmart exclusive line, with some really gorgeous shades!

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Nicole by OPI Launches 
New Walmart-Exclusives

This January, Nicole by OPI turns up the heat with four fashion-forward additions to the Nicole ♥ Walmart collection, available exclusively at Walmart. From reds in hues of burgundy and mauve to purples in shades of plum and iridescent lilac, these four new Nicole by OPI Nail Lacquers provide a modern take on classic favorites.

“We are thrilled to offer these four new Nicole by OPI Nail Lacquers exclusively to Walmart customers,” says Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, Nicole by OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director. “These variations of red and purple offer a burst of color for a look that’s both timeless and sophisticated.”

The new Nicole ♥ Walmart Nail Lacquers include:

Count On Me
This glimmering lavender will never let you down.


Got Style?

Mauve has never looked this chic!


He’s A Keeper

This classic red is one of the good guys.

Never Give Up

Hold onto gorgeous color with this persistent plum.

Nicole by OPI Nail Lacquers and Nail Treatments contain no DBP, Toluene, or Formaldehyde. These new Nicole ♥ Walmart Nail Lacquers will be available January 2011 at select Walmart stores nationwide.

For more information, visit nicolebyopi.com. Follow Nicole by OPI on Twitter @NicoleByOPI and become a Facebook fan!
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  The two we have pictures of so far look really gorgeous, I can't wait to see the rest!  I am sorry for a lack of posting the last couple of days, I have been (and still am) really sick.. :(  But I will plan to get a post up with some pretty nails later today for you to look at!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Lady Sings The Blues

  Today I want to share with you another gorgeous Lippmann polish!  This is another polish from the All That Jazz trio.

Outdoors, shade, no flash

  Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings The Blues is a dark navy base packed with silver chunky hex and microglitter.  I absolutely love the way this one looks!  This was two coats, which was plenty for decent coverage.  Dry time is very nice as well - just be sure to give it enough time that you don't accidentally push the chunky glitter around on the nail!  Each coat gives you a nice distribution of both types of glitter.

Outdoors, Sunlight
  I really love this polish.  I have read that some people have issues with this one chipping easily.  I wore it for two days and had one minor chip, but a chip nonetheless.  I didn't really even think anything of it until I started reading other reviews, so I wouldn't really classify that as a negative in my book.  I liked everything about it!  So far, the is three for three Lippmann polishes that I am in love with! :D


Thursday, December 9, 2010

Some Amazing Promos from ZOYA!

  I wanted to share with you all a couple of cool promos from Zoya, one of my new favorite nail polish brands.  I am sure most of you have seen these already but just in case you haven't, check out these awesome announcements!

FREE Zoya Color Spoon Friday!


Here's how it works...
First pick any 6 colors you would like to try on... Add the matching Zoya Color Spoon to your shopping cart on zoya.com. Add SP6 as your code. Process order. Zoya will ship them to you for FREE! Plus you will automatically earn a $3 Zoya Color Spoon credit code for use on a future zoya.com purchase. Feel free to order more at the regular price if you would like (shipping is always free on Zoya Color Spoons).

Zoya Color Spoons allow you try on nail color before you make a color commitment. Now you can see exactly how a color will look on you before you buy it. 

SEE IT . TRY IT . BUY IT

To learn more about Zoya Color Spoons and how easy they make it to find the perfect nail polish color see the video here.


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   Color spoons are an awesome way to check out these polishes before you buy them, to see what the polish really looks like and how it works with your skin tone.  Plus, you get a $3 credit towards buying one (or more) of the colors you try!  There is no way to go wrong here - go start picking out your colors for tomorrow!

Facebook Fans Giveaway


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  Okay this one is pretty self explanatory and also awesome - go "Like" the Zoya page on Facebook, and if they reach 20,000 by January 3rd, 2011, all of their fans get a code for three free nail polishes.  Sounds like an amazing way to pick up some of the colors you try out from your free color spoons.... they are SO close (19,423 as I write this), so if you haven't already go LIKE ZOYA NAIL POLISH!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

China Glaze The Ten Man and Silvery Snowflakes

  Today I wanted to share with you a really gorgeous silver glitter polish, China Glaze The Ten Man from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection.

Outdoors, Shade, No Flash
  The Ten Man is a frosty light silver polish loaded with silver microglitter.  It has a very similar finish to GOOD WITCH?, another polish from the same collection that I reviewed earlier (on much longer nails!).  Here I used three thin coats for full coverage.  It is a bit on the sheer side, but these three thin coats really applied nicely and dried quickly for an overall very positive application!  The only downside is that the finish on this one is a bit bumpy without a topcoat (which I am not wearing in this particular photo), but one coat of a nice topcoat should smooth it out very nicely!  This is one really sparkles quite a lot in the sun.  It is a really great silver! 

Indoors, artificial lighting
  I recently used this polish to do my Mom's nails for a work party.  She was wearing a glittery silver sweater and dark gray pants and wanted something wintery to match - I knew this was the perfect polish!  I used three coats of The Ten Man, and follower by adding snowflakes and tiny stars from Konad plate m59.  Then, on each of her ring fingers I added a small rhinestone to the center of the top snowflake.  She really liked the manicure, and got several compliments on it at the party!  It matched her outfit perfectly.  It is a lot of fun to do my Mom's nails, since she has always been one of those people that never wear nail polish.  I plan to get this addiction rubbed off on everyone! :D

DISCLOSURE: The polish featured in this post was provided to Polishology by China Glaze for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Down The (Purple) Rabbit Hole...

  I got the chance to try out my first BYS polish the other day, thanks to Lisa from NEVER ENDING OBSESSION - thank you so much again! :D

 
Outdoors, sun
  Rather than use this pretty polish by itself, I decided to start off with another color, since I thought that would give it a really cool and different look.  Being the purple lover that I am (go Cats!!) I started with two coats of OPI Funky Donkey.  Then I applied a coat of the gorgeous BYS Down The Rabbit Hole.  It is a black jelly base with tons of holographic glitter.  This stuff was seriously shiny - I could not get a picture that captured the true holo glittery bling of this polish, but it was amazing!  In these sunlight pictures the purple shows through well, although in other lighting I found that it was an "almost black" polish, with a touch of purple showing through.  I think the purple added a lot of interesting depth to this manicure.

Slightly blurry shot to try to show more of the holo effect!
  Th BYS polish applied very nicely and had a really decent drying time.  The one downside - it totally reeked.  I know the smell from somewhere, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it... whatever it was, it was awful.  Luckily it was pretty enough that I didn't really mind so much.  You will be seeing this baby again!  In the shade, the glitter is just a nice silver:

Outdoors, shade, no flash
  However I found that I could almost always find some holo peeking through, even in very shady conditions!  This also wore very well - after topping with two coats of Essie Quick Dry Topcoat, I wore it for three days with virtually no tipwear and no chips.  Overall a very nice polish, and a very fun manicure!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Hello Kitty! Skittle Swatches and Reviews

  Several weeks ago I was picking up some things at Target and I noticed these adorable little Hello Kitty polishes - the bottles were cute so I decided I had to get them!  Even though I had my doubts about the potential quality of the polish, I figured I would go ahead and try them out - I found a few pleasant surprises among the mix!

Hello Kitty Brights


  The first set of polishes is a set containing five bright colors, a yellow, blue, orange, green, and dark pink/red.  These are all slightly shimmery polishes.  All four coats except the red (3), so all are fairly sheer but some are really nice.  All without base or top coat.

Outdoors, shade, no flash
  Dark pink/red (thumb) - This one applied nicely in three coats.  It was fairly smooth application with decent drying time.  The shimmer is a bit more subtle here, but you can see it if you look for it!  I liked this one.

  Blue (index) - This is a frosty light blue with very subtle shimmer.  This was a touch streaky and fairly sheer, but still a pretty color.  While I might not wear this one on its own due to the VNL, it is a pretty color and may still prove useful.

  Orange (middle) - This was a pretty decent orange, which fairly smooth application that covered well in the necessary four coats.

  Green (ring) - This may have been my favorite of this set.  A nice grassy green with a lot of shimmer.  Good coverage in four coats, could have done three with thicker application.  Also went on pretty smooth,  I really like this one!

  Yellow (pinky) - I know that yellows can be hard to apply, but this one was seriously awful.  Thin and streaky, and look at what you get after four coats.  I have several much nicer yellows, I am not sure this one will be getting any more use from me.

Indoors, artificial light
  Overall: The brights set had a few good polishes - I really like the green a lot, and the red was pretty nice as well.  The orange and blue might have some use for me in the future.  The yellow - not so much.

Hello Kitty Pinks


  The second set I picked up contains five polishes in varying pink colors, including a medium and light pink shimmer and three glitter topcoats in peach, ivory and dark pink.  Application on all of these is again at 4 coats, without base or top coat.

Outdoors, shade, no flash

  Light pink (thumb) - This was a fairly nice frosty light pink with a touch of shimmer.  A bit streaky, as you can see a bit of the brushstrokes in the final product, but fairly nice overall.  I am not sure I have another polish this light so I may use this at some point.

  Medium Pink (index) - A nice color with pretty god application.  Could have gotten away with three coats, and was much smoother than the light pink.  I liked this one.

  Ivory Glitter (middle) - It says something about how yellow my nails have gotten lately that this hardly looks any lighter than the peach glitter on the pinky).  This is a decent chunky glitter topcoat, with multicolored glitter mostly flashing green/blue.  As a topcoat, you could of course use many less coats to get a nice look.

  Dark Pink Glitter (ring) - Like the other glitters, this had decent application.  Same type of glitter as in the above polish.  This one looked kind of pretty on its own, as well as being useful as a potential topcoat.

  Peach Glitter (pinky) - Slightly more peach version of the ivory glitter from the middle finger.

Indoors, Artificial Light
  Overall: The pink set contained some nice polishes as well.  My favorites are the medium pink shimmer and the ivory and pink glitters.  The other two may get some use as well.

  All in all, these are cute little sets for the $5 price tag - I liked the bottles (and the little charms), and there are some decent polishes in here as well.  Would be a great polish gift for somebody younger, or for yourself if you are a big fan of Hello Kitty or really cute things, haha.  These can be found at Target! :)

Friday, December 3, 2010

Manhattan 610K Continues Its Travels...

  Manhattan 610K has made its next stop!  After spending a bit of time here, I sent this gorgeous polish to Jess, the Polish Insomniac.  Check out her mani using this pretty purple:



  If you were interested in having this polish sent to you and didn't win last time, go check out HER POST and give her your info for another chance to be part of this fun event!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Christy's First Blue Nails!

  When I was visiting my sister a couple of weeks ago, my nail polish addiction started to rub off on her... we went to Ulta and she purchased some of her first ever blue polishes!  After I left she continued to go shopping to pick up some new colors she had never worn before.. I am so proud of her, haha!  While we were visiting, I gave her her first ever blue manicure!

Indoors, artificial light, no flash
  For these nails, we started out with two coats of China Glaze Adore, which is a completely gorgeous metallic blue with a hint of green.  This one was my polish, and I have not worn it yet but it is stunning, and I cannot wait to wear it myself.  I feel like I am getting too many polishes, there are so many pretty ones I haven't gotten the chance to wear yet!  On top of this base color, we added flowers from Konad plate m64 using OPI Ink, which was one of the new polishes Christ picked up.  It stamped really nicely, and is a really nice color.  I haven't bought this one yet but it is a polish I have considered many times!  Very pretty.

Indoors, natural light from window, no flash
  I was really happy with how these nails came out, and more importantly Christy really liked them too!  I am glad to have passed on just a bit of my crazy obsession to her (and to have introduced her to Ulta, heh).  We had a lot of fun playing with polish, in addition to the adorable baby.  ;)