Quick LA Splash swatches

I'll do better swatches later but I know these are getting popular and a lot of people want photos and swatches so here are the ones I have. These ones are all glitter in clear bases, Heiress has different sizes of glitter but the others all have one size. Heiress is also the sheerest of the bunch. My favorite is probably Sparkling Lilac, its the most dense and the prettiest color I think. These bottles can be really hard to open, so you can yank off the gold top and underneath there is a round handle that is so much easier to grip. The top slides right back on.

L-R: Sparkling Lilac, Heiress, Sparkling Stratosphere, Sparkling Fushia, Sparkling Fire

one coat

thumb - pinky: Lilac, Fushia, Heiress, Fire, Stratosphere

two coats

three coats

NOTD: St. Patrick's Day Green, another glitter gradient mani

Happy St Patrick's day everyone! I don't often reach for my greens so today was the perfect opportunity to pull out my two favorite greens and show them off in the very best way. I'm wearing 2 coats of Pure Ice Wild Thing and 3 coats of NYX Lime Sparkle (the best green glitter there is imo). These colors go together so well. The first 2 pictures were taken outside in the sun and the 3rd was taken with flash. Inside with normal light its more gold-green then grass-green but I'd say the photos are true to what the color is outside. In any lighting Lime Sparkle glows, if you don't have this color you have to get it. I believe NYX renamed it Simple Sparkle so if you find either name snatch it up (um Simple Sparkle NYX, really? ain't nothing simple about this color).

Tutorial: Gradient with Glitter

For this mani I am using Pure Ice Wild Thing + NYX Lime Sparkle

-Begin with your base color, let it dry 3-4 minutes before beginning with the glitter

-1st layer: have just a little bit of polish on the brush, dab it on the top 1/3 of your nails to get excess glitter off, then do light strokes on the entire nail from base to tip, so it is a thin/sheer layer of glitter everywhere

-2nd layer: again get a little polish on the brush and dab that on the tips, then do the top 2/3 or 3/4 of the nail (depending on how long your nails are), not going over the 1/4 above your cuticles

-3rd layer: dab on top 1/3 of nail again then lightly go over the top 1/2 of your nail

-4th layer: (optional) just put a little on the top 1/4

warning about topcoats: every time I've put a Quick Dry top coat over this many layers of glitter it ends up shrinking and rippling at the tips, so I just let every layer dry 3-4 minutes between coats and I skip the quick dry top coat and just let it dry on its own. Do thin layers so it's not so thick and goopy.

click to enlarge

Franken: Galactic Explosion

I'll start by saying for those who don't know, a Franken is a home made nail polish that you make from mixing different polishes or pigments. I've only made a handful so far but its become addicting. This one I made today and it turned out just a perfect as I imagined.

I used a bottle of Tropez clear polish (from Rite Aid) and all but the silver from the Sparks glitter collection on tkbtrading.com. I used probably a pea size amount of each.

As soon as I reach 100 subscribers I'll make another one (or maybe two) and do a give away, so look out for that.

click to enlarge

Over Wnw's black, 2 coats on the middle & pinkie, 1 coat on the others

Over Color Club's Amp'D Up

NOTD: China Glaze Sprinkles

This color reminds me of strawberries and summer pool parties with my family. Makes me want to lounge by the pool with a fruity drink. Its a lovely mid-tone pink with this glitter that sometimes looks blue or red then flashes hot pink in bright lights. This is 3 coats, and the color is a bit warmer then the photo shows.

Sprinkles

NOTD: China Glaze Grape Juice + OPI Mas As A Hatter in a gradient

I was itching to do another glitter gradient mani, these two seem to be perfect for each other. I used 3 coats of Grape Juice and 4 layers of Mad As A Hatter (my first OPI). I don't really get the hype for MaaH, there are much better glitters in my opinion. Its fun to wear though. I'll be doing a tutorial for the gradient soon.

Updated: China Glaze Summer Days swatches

I know this was released last summer but, its still a great collection and summer will be here again before you know it. So why not post the swatches of the colors I have, right? If you didn't get them last year, get them this year.

I don't have Grape Juice or Cherry Pie but I have the other four. I got the other two, I don't know why I waited so long. Click the photos to see full size, they are amazing.

Grape Juice. Kind of a 'quiet' mid toned purple with a bit of grey, but it has multi colored sparkles what liven it up.

Strawberry Fields. Pink with gold shimmer.

Raspberry Festival. Red-pink with pink shimmer.

Cherry Pie. Gorgeous warm red with pink sparkles. The formula was a dream to apply.

Orange Marmalade. Citris orange with gold flakie/shimmer. I rarely wear orange and this may be my favorite of the bunch.

Watermelon Rind. Tealish green, its more like tiny flakes then glitter.

NOTD: Milani Hi-Res (its a holo!!!)

This is a color you have to get if you love holos. Milani Hi-Res is a light purple with holographic glitter. In some lights the glitter just looks grey, and kind of looks a bit like cement to me. When you put it in sunlight or under a light the holo comes out and blows you away.

This is 3 coats of Hi-Res and one coat thin of Seche Vite quick dry. This polish is very smooth, with the top coat it feels and looks like glass. It also wears well, usually after 24 hours I've got shrinkage and some minor chipping but these photos were taken two days after I put it on. This first photo is taken in natural lighting, the others were taken in my bathroom, which apparently is a magical place for holos. *shrug* The sun was hiding and it was too cold to take photos outside.

Essence swatches.

I've got some Essence swatches for your viewing pleasure. Essence is a European brand that Ulta recently started carrying in the US. They have make up and nail polish for very cheap, like Wet N Wild does. The nail polishes are $1, but they are less then 1/3 of your usual size polish, .16 oz vs .5 oz. For most of the colors I used 2-3 coats, but the blue and green needed 4 coats on some fingers. My favorites of the bunch are No More Drama, and Pool Party. My least favorite is Plum Perfect because it looks kind of gross in some lights, kind of brownish like old dried blood.

The best thing about these polishes is the brush. Like the NYX, the new Rimmels, and OPI brushes it is flat, not round like most other brands. This makes applying it so much easier. I didn't have to break out my acetone and nail brush to clean up any messes while swatching any of these colors, and the brush really helped with that (loads of pratice helps too).

Sweet As Candy, 3 coats + Space Queen, 2 coats. Sweet As Candy was very streaky with 3 coats so I won't post a photo of it alone, but it looked alright with Space Queen on top. I wouldn't buy Sweet As Candy again if I had that chance.

No More Drama, 2-3 coats. Light dusty purple cream with a hint of mauve.

Ultimate Pink, 2 coats. Mid-tone pink with fine purple shimmer. Great formula, was very easy to apply.

Everybody's Talking About It, 3 coats. Medium-dark coral cream.

Plum Perfect, 3 coats. Dark plum/mauve that looks brownish in most lights. I don't prefer it.

Break Through, 3 coats. Dark dusty purple cream.

Check Me Out, 3-4 coats. Bright green cream.

Pool Party, 2-3 coats. Bright blue with silver and blue glitter.

Green Sinful Color swatches & a flakie comparison.

So many people are wearing green this month (for St Patricks day) and I don't have a lot of greens so I had to go get some so I could fit it. I got these 4 colors from Walgreens. Irish Green and Green Ocean are limited edition colors that Walgreens brings out each March for St Patties, so get them while you can. You can also get Sinful Colors nail polish at Cherryculture.com.

Mint Apple, 3 coats. Dustly pale grey-green with gold shimmer.

Rise and Shine, 2-3 coats. Kelly green with subtle blue shimmer.

Irish Green, 5 coats. Neon burnyoureyes kelly-lime green. You can layer it over white to make it fully opaque.

These are the flakies I have. Here you can see that the NYX flakes are huge and there aren't enough of them so it looks awful. The Nfu Oh's are perfect of course. The Sinful Colors is somewhere in between with nice sized flakes but there isn't any shimmer to fill the in spaces like the Nfu Oh's, and most are a little too square.

L-R: NYX Purple Ave, Nfu Oh #51, Nfu Oh #56, SC Green Ocean

NOTD: Claire's Magic + ChG Cleopatra glitter gradient

Oooh baby! I pretty much just got Cleopatra for the name and didn't think I'd really love it but it looks great with dark purples, like Claire's Magic! Doing it in a gradient style made it look really classy in my opinion. I also want to try it with a navy sometime. This is 3 layers of Magic and 3 layers of Cleopatra.

Sadly after only 5 hours my nails had serious shrinkage due to the evil Poshe quick dry top coat. Of course that was after my polish started rippling at the tips (basically that looks like little hills going up and down the tips) and fixed it by both licking it (wish I was joking) and pressing it with my finger. I don't think I'll ever be able to trust Poshe again. *sob* I will fix it this morning by putting a bit of np on the tips.

and this is how it turned out after I fixed it, not too bad!!

NOTD: Orly Oh Cabana Boy (neon pink!)

This color is INSANE! Its so bright and a lovely shade of neon pink. Love love love. If you like neon pinks you need Orly's Oh Cabana Boy. I was at a resturant yesterday, sitting on a bench while my dad was in line, and this little girl who must have been 2-3 years old comes over and touches my nails. Then her mom pulled her away but she came back and touched my toe nails. We just smiled at eachother and had that nail-polish-junkie to future-nail-polish-junkie connection. She was so cute, and so serious about studying my nails.

Neons never photograph quite right but I got this close with photoshot. Its a little less washed out and brighter in person. The base is a neutral-warm toned pink but the purple shimmer gives it a cooler tone in the photos.