Zoya Paz is an awesome bright orange, next thing to being a neon, and a very stand out color all on its own - the camera does not do it justice. These pics are old enough that I can't remember how in the world I managed the gouge on my index finger LOL:
And then after a day I decided to try my hand with some freehand tiger stripes. I used black acrylic paint for the stripes:
Here's the tutorial:
I was really quite pleased with how everything came out. Before that I'd always just gone with stamping but I think I'll try some more freehand animal print in the future.
So, tired as I am during the week, for some reason I don't go to bed early on Fridays ... I suppose I could, but somehow I always end up staying up later than I intend. At least tonight I am being productive =) I plan on posting a lot this weekend - starting now!
This is my last manicure from ... January. I suck so bad LOL. I can't even fool myself that I can conceivably get caught up in a single weekend at this point. But if I can start doing several posts a day, maybe I can make a dent in this huge backlog - I really appreciate all of your patience =)
Nails Inc Whitehall is an awesome teal magnetic polish. I am still madly in love with magnetics & I saw a promo pic somewhere a few days ago that China Glaze is coming out with a 2nd collection that I'm looking forward to. I started off with it glossy:
Then I had to do a couple days matte:
I think this may be the first blog post with my new matte topcoat? Many of you may know that Matte Magic is HTF if not completely discontinued, so I picked up Warpaint Beauty Mattify because it was the cheapest one that I came across. I still have a bit of MM left but I'm glad to know there is an easily available alternative - Warpaint Beauty is sold at Hot Topic (& elsewhere as well I'm sure but I don't know where).
Here's a look at both versions in motion - I love the depth of magnetic polishes, the seemingly peaks & valleys inside the polish:
This was a pretty awesome manicure in all 3 stages. I started off with OPI Ogre-The-Top Blue from the Shrek collection, which could certainly stand on its own if you're looking for a bright creme blue:
SO awesome & glittery I had to do a vid, so here's a look in motion:
Then on the last day I did some stamping with black polish & Konad image plate m57; usually I double-stamp this end-to-end, but this time I tried something a bit different on my thumb, placing the design the wide way & stamping side-to-side & it turned out pretty well too:
This is around hmm, probably half the hauling I've done lately LOL. I'll be posting up the other half, which is mainly an order from Nailogy, a little later.
Here's a closer look at the Icing polishes:
Pink, Blue & Silver Magnetix & Purple Glitter Crackle. I really don't like that Icing doesn't name any of their polishes that have effects.
From Claire's:
Gold Magnetix, Fuchsia & Turquoise Glitter Crackle, & Night Sky - which did in fact turn out to be a dupe for Icing Epic Winning, as you can see in the swatch vid below.
From Hot Topic:
Warpaint Beauty matte top coat Mattify & glow in the dark Glow Turq.
The China Glaze Ulta Exclusive Holiday colors I was so thrilled to find:
Fireside Glow, Ultamate Holiday & Mistletoe Me.
Zoyas - my 2 free bottles & my 2 clearance bottles:
I had this polish on for a full week, Sunday-Sunday, with no chips. I picked it because I knew at the time I wasn't going to be on my normal schedule of every few days & I'm happy to say it lived up to my expectations, and I wasn't bored with it even when I finally did take it off.
Another of their Magnetic Effect Polishes, this is Nails Inc Trafalgar Square - I got this design by holding the magnet sideways, which is a bit tricky since you can't use the guide but still pretty simple as you only have to hold it in place for a moment for the magnet to do its job:
Just so you can gauge the wear, I believe I added Matte Magic to it Thursday or maybe Friday morning:
Here's a look in motion - so deep & 3D, I'm heavily leaning towards more magnetic polish for Christmas:
Almost caught up =) Just Monday's & my current manicure & I'll be current. Thanks for reading.
Very behind this week. Lots going on IRL that I don't really want to get into, but I'm going to try & just get some catching up done tonight & tomorrow. I'm going to admit I may drop out of sight again for a while, I'm just not sure how this is going to go so I'm going to post while I can.
I split the haul & the swatches each into their own vids again this time. Here is the haul:
& here are the swatches:
& for the bottle pics I kind of broke everything up by brand, regardless of where or when I purchased ... these are all from quite a while ago, I think I recorded the haul vid like 2 weeks ago & the swatches one week ago LOL. So here we go.
Icing ... I went overboard at 2 different Icing stores. I got 4 different 5-packs of mini bottles - although Icing's minis are pretty decent size compared to for example OPI, at .4 fl oz - but then again, normal Icing bottles are bigger than many brands at .65 fl oz:
First row - Cancun Spring Break set: Hot Date, Flamingo Dancer, Suntan Lotion, Lime Martini, Blue Caribbean. Second row - Glow in the Dark set: Gleam and Go, Lamplight, Twinkle Stars, Glowworm, Moonbeam. Third row - New York Graffiti set: Silver Spray Paint, Tag Me Pink, Midnight at Times Square, Black Shatter, Fourth row - Paris Romance set: Un Cafe s'ilvous Plait, Paris Romance, Bonjour, Printemps, French Lavender.
And the other single bottles:
Top row: Glimmer, Gold Dust, At Dusk, Pumpkin, Tiger's Blood. Middle row: Rock Star From Mars, Witch's Brew, Vampire's Blood, Cherry Blossom, Orchid. Bottom row: Thunderstorm, Twilight, The Golden Age of Glitter, Irish Gold, All That Glitters is Green, Electric Emerald.
No names on them, so they just go by color on my spreadsheet - Neon Yellow, Neon Fuchsia, Pink w/ Glitter.
Justice - and yes it took some serious courage to go into the kid store for my own purposes LOL! The sales girl thought maybe I was buying a gift but I fessed up it was for me:
Also no names I could find - Black Crackle, Purple Crackle & Pink to Purple sun changing polish (pics after sun exposure at the end of the swatch vid)
And finally, my unexpected find at DSW, Anise:
Night Adventure, Midnight Electric, Ring My Bell, Pearls for the Devil, Crocodile Tears, Agent Glam.
So yeah, a pretty big haul. I thought my no-buy following this would last longer - but I forgot how early holiday collections come out. I spied the China Glaze Let it Snow collection when I hit Sallys today for cuticle oil, and ... well ... I'm sure you can guess. Another haul post in my future =) But not before I edit & post NOTDs for the past week!
