Mani Monday: Leather and Studs

Guys, I have some terrible news.  My ring finger had a gnarly tear that I've been managing to keep patched up and I've been nursing for about a week, but it finally broke all the way though.  If you're following me on Instagram, you would have seen the break when it first happened.  So now I'm back down to nubbins.  I'm going to try to grow them out and hopefully be back to swatching for you guys soon.  In the mean time, I do have a couple of back ups and older pictures I hadn't been able to post yet.  This is one of those!

I like to pretend that I'm a badass.  I really am the exact opposite.  I'm more of a fluffy, cute, pink princess, glitter and sparkles, unicorns and rainbows kind of girl.  Once in a while though, I do like to be cool.  This manicure did that for me.  

I am wearing Bliss Polish Jax with Nails Inc Noho as my accent nail.  Jax is from Bliss's Son's of Anarchy collection and it's awesome.  For the picture I used two coats, but a careful one coat would be enough.  I just had the odd bald patch, so the second coat was done one nail at a time so that I could press a stud at the base of each nail.  It dries to a matte finish and its a really nice gunmetal shimmer.  A layer of top coat would have made this a lot more shimmery, but I loved it just the way it was.  Noho is from Nails Inc's Leather Effect line that came out late last spring/early summer.  This is my go to black texture and I love it.  This painted on the same way as Jax, almost completely opaque in one coat.  I placed four studs on my accent nail in the shape of a diamond and called it a day.

I got the studs from Born Pretty Store a while ago and they are awesome.  I got a plastic zippered pouch full of them for about $3 and they are great to have around when a rhinestone isn't quite what I'm going for with my nails.  

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Mani Monday- Solitaire Spectrum

Happy Monday everybody!  My computer is spazzing out right now, so I'm trying to do this post on my iPad.  So far so good, but here's hoping nothing gets messed up in the process.  Also I've just noticed that I can't add links on here.  Damn.

Yesterday I went to a meet up with all my fellow San Diego nail junkies and had a blast.  Of course I spent way too much money, but I regret nothing.  We had decided to do blue manis for the event.  All I knew was that I had to use Bliss Polish On the Spectrum as my base.  

On the Spectrum is a beautiful blue polish with a linear holo.  I almost want to call it Crayola blue, if that makes sense.  I love it because it is holo AND a one coater.  The only other one coat holos I own are the Color Club Halo Hues.  

 I knew that I wanted to do some sort of nail art for the meet up too, but for the life of me couldn't come up with an idea.  Finally I just went with my stand by, rhinestones and polka dots.  

First I dropped a glob on top coat on my nail and placed eight pink rhinestones on my nail in the shape of a flower on my nail.  I also made sure to swipe on a coat of top coat before moving on to seal the stones in place.  On my ring finger, I used two coats of OPIs Solitaire on my ring finger.  It is their white texture polish from the 2013 holiday Bond Girls collection.  On my thumb and middle fingers I lined up my polka dots.  On my pointer and pinko I scattered them on the nail.  I made sure to do my polka dots on top on my top coat because it gives my nails some extra dimension.  

When you touch them you have smooth and rough bits.   I think it's fun.  

As the usual kind reminder, all of these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Swatch Saturday: Zoya Lux

I love textured polishes.  Ignoring the fact that they are glittery and play up to my need to be constantly touching things, textured polishes wear on my nails like iron, and they don't require top coat!  As much as I love textured polish, I love holographic glitter even more.  Rainbows and glitter??  Ah I love it.  So when I saw that Zoya was coming out with their Magical Pixie Dusts I was so excited.  Until reviews kept pouring in that it was a super bumpy and would constantly snag on stuff.  My work clothes would not be okay with snagging polish. :-P  So I made peace and told myself that I did not need them.  UNTIL MissHollyBerries described Zoya Lux has OPIs Teenage Dream on steroids.  So no matter what everyone else said, I needed to have this one specific Magical Pixie Dust.

Oh. My. Goodness.  This is three coats of Lux inside my not all that bright kitchen.  This is the only only holographic polish that I've ever seen actually be holo in doors.  I tried taking pictures outside in direct sunlight, but my poor camera was just not having it.  

Lux is a very sheer, blush pink base with tiny, matching glitters and holographic, large hexes.  I don't know if my third coat was just too thick, but the texture feels the same as any other Pixie Dust.  The larger hexes did not snag on my clothing or anything else.  I may need to get my hands on the rest of the Magical Pixie Dusts.  

Also MissHollyBerries was right, this is totally Teenage Dream on steroids.  It's like a dupe, BUT BETTER.  My huge lemming for it is pretty much non existent now.  

As the usual side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

What Wizardry is This? OPI and Liquid Sand

So for those of you who don't know, one of the nifty new things in nail polish right now are textured, matte polishes.  OPI was the first to come out with them in the form of four new polishes that were part of their Mariah Carey line.  They were chock full of glitter, which we know I love, but there were also little stars.  Considering how annoyed I've been getting lately with polishes that had confetti, I thought it best to stay away from the Liquid Sands.

Then Zoya came out with their Pixie Dust lines and I thought that they were awesome, unfortunately none of the colors really sung out to me enough that I needed to spend the extra money on shipping, so I controlled myself.   A couple smaller lines came out with textured polishes, like Milani, but they're not sparkly so I'm not interested.  Without the glitter they just kind of look like you messed up your polish while it was still wet and was too lazy to fix it.

Finally, OPI came out with the press releases for their line inspired by Oz the Great and Powerful and I saw this baby.  I NEEDED it.  Usually when I buy polishes, it's either when they're on sale or online and cheaper.  I really hate spending a full $9.50 on a bottle, but as soon as I saw the display at my Ulta on Saturday, I plucked it off the table and clutched it in my little hands.  I was so excited to find it, that I wasn't even upset that Ulta's usual $3.50 off of $10 coupon doesn't work on OPI any more.  Did you guys know that?  I had to pay full price for this sucker, and looking at it now on my nails, I regret nothing!

What Wizardry is This? is a chocolate colored polish with gold glitter and that totally awesome texture feel to it.  It went on in two coats perfectly and dried pretty quickly.  To keep the texture, you of course don't want to add a top coat.  It'll make the polish smooth and shiny, taking away the totally awesome bumpiness and matte look.  Also, sorry about how red my hands look.  I think it's the terrible lighting in the kitchen.

I'm a sucker for the feel of things, and while I do love a smooth and glossy nail, I adore the sandpapery texture of this nail polish.  I even showed it off at work by walking up to people and demanding they rub my nails.  Yeah, if my coworkers weren't used to me they'd think I'm a weirdo or something.

I've had this polish on for three days now, and for me that's a long time.  I don't even want to change my polish yet.  Usually by now the cheaper polishes have peeled off and most others are chipping away, or I get bored with the color and NEED to change it out.  This Liquid Sand color is still holding up strong with only the single chip on my middle finger.  Looking at it now, I might finally splurge on some of the Zoya Pixie Dusts.