A medium haul

China Glaze metallic crackle Lighting Bolt, Ahoy!, and Camisole. Nina Ultra Pro Purple Xing. OPI Rumple's Wiggin' (Shrek collection, I think?). Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter and Frenzy. The main reason I bought so many was that Ulta has a 'buy $10, get $3.50 off' coupon on their website, and Sally's sent me a 'buy $10, get free eye shadow' e-mail coupon. The Sinful Color ones from Target were because I wandered by makeup area while on way to the coolers to get frozen meals for work this weekend :B Can't wait to try these on!

NOTD first time crackling

So it's not that I got bored of my Lunar Eclipse, I just REALLY wanted to play with an untried crackle :D Enter, China Glaze Crackle Lightning Bolt. I like how dang white it is, but I'm not 100% sure if I did it correctly. I heard you have to glop on more than a normal thin layer, so I tried, but did I under or over glop after all? You be the judge (and feel free to toss any tips you think I need my way, please!). It was a shame to cover such a polish, but the dark blue looks good underneath the cracks, I think. I was in a hurry when I did it, so excuse the messy application.

You would think with such a new found love for these NPs I would be a bit more careful with them -_^

My second hand for that first marbling attempt (and NOTD)

Sorry I didn't post it sooner! I've changed my mani like three times by now :B This hand looks better than my first, but I need to look for colors that "pop" a little better next time (or was there advice to use a white/black base?). I loved the swirls on my thumb, but even though I had a bit more understanding of how the process worked (using room temp distilled water plus turning off the ceiling fan), I still feel I have a lot of practice to do! No worries, it was a lot of fun to do, and is definitely something I want to get better at :D [used China Glaze Base Coat first, then mixed Essie Sweet Talker, ORLY Snowcone, and Milani Bolting Blue, then finally covered with China Glaze Flash Forward Top Coat]





And this here is my current mani, please excuse the utter lack of clean up. Earlier in the day I had used ... well, now in my anger I forgot, but some white-ish base, and one of the SH High Definition NPs.... However, I had to go get some blood drawn for a doc's visit tomorrow, and in looking for the paper to take to the lab, I smudged almost all of them :[ Pissed, and in a hurry just to get out of the house with an untried (I got a huge haul 2-3 weeks ago), I put on the CH basecoat, and 2 coats of ORLY Lunar Eclipse. Ended up smudging 2 fingers in the car (ARRGGHH!), but did a quickie fix on them and added a top coat when I got home. After taking pics and getting a good look in the sunlight, I realized that I should have probably done a full 3rd coat over them all. I don't love this NP as much as I did Halley's Comet, but it really is beautiful! I barely see any purple sparkles on my nail in comparison to the bottle, but they are there. Love this series; I will have to compare my haul to the internet and see if there are any I'm missing -_^

An experiment, and NOTD

First pic is for the first time I played with this method of painting my nails, which I learned from this youtube video:
Starry Sky Gradient Nails Tutorial by MissChievous

I thought they were absolutely beautiful, and since I had several blues, I gave it a quick attempt Sunday morning before work (one of the nurses was sweet and before I gave her report that morning was all "Oh, let me see your nails, you always have such pretty colors" *blush* She's so nice!). I used China glaze Base Coat, Essie Sweet Talker, ORLY Snowcone, Milani Bolting Blue. On the very tips, I couldn't find a black, so I either used Sally Hansen Gunmetal, or Finger Paints Meet Me at the Met. I can't be sure now since they were both on my desk today, and I've no recollection of which was used.
Couple things to watch for next time: have another blue or two to even out the gradient, go slower with the dabbing of sponge, and add a purple and glitter like the examples. I did get a few complements, so it must not have been all bad :3

Second pic is my NOTD (Nail of the Day). Yesterday I went on a crazy mad shopping spree at Ulta (never been there before, I really should have known better). Spent over $100 on polishes (some cosmetics, but not many), and I felt like it was absolutely nuts of me. No seriously, who the hell DOES that?! But as soon as I got home, I felt so happy to go through all my goodies, and I don't feel nearly as much guilt as I normally do when I splurge on stuff I want that I don't need. These suckers better last me a long while though, because I need to keep away from new nail polishes for at least a good while!

Anyway, first one to try was ORLY Halley's Comet. Fricking GORGEOUS in the bottle, and also on my nails! The flash added an extra touch of green, but there is still more green than blue on the final product. Or maybe teal? Dunno exactly, but I LOVE this one all ready! I hadn't used too many others of this brand, but I like it. Dries to touch pretty fast, and I guess normal speed before you start doing stuff like putting on your shoes, heh. I must comment that I like how the color looks on both my 'long' nails (2-3mm, as I had to clip a bit before work this weekend, since anything past 4mm starts chipping, tearing, or just scaring me that I'm gonna tear through the gloves) and two that did get torn this week, so are little nubbies.