Lisa Frank Nails!

Sooo... I totally ripped this off from another nail blogger, and I feel I must give credit where credit is due. It's due here:
http://kroniclesofakonader.blogspot.com/2010/08/neon-and-leoparda-match-made-in-heaven.html

SO, what I did was.. I painted my nails with a white base. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White. Then I freehanded the stripes using CHG Towel Boy Toy, CHG Pool Party, Essie Funky Limelights, and CHG Flying Dragon. Then I Konaded on top using the leopard print Konad plate. Someone on either my Twitter or Facebook suggested I add unicorns and glitter to make it a TRUE Lisa Frank experience. Well, since I don't have the mad skilllllz necessary to do unicorns, I topped it off with a couple of coats of Cover Girl City Lights.

And I got...


THIS:


I LOVED IT! I actually wore this for a few days before removing.

Recent Fauxnadicures

Wow, Fauxnadicures totally gets the red squiggle underliney thing.

So, I've been having a ton of fun stamping lately since I ordered the Bundle Monster plates. I really prefer the full-nail stamps. I do hate that the Bundle Monster full nail stamps are so narrow. I have fairly narrow nails, but they don't cover my entire nail width. I bet these things would be really horrible for the ladies with wider nail beds than mine. STILL, I've been stamping away. Here are some of my recent looks. I'd tell you what plate the images came from, but I'm way too lazy to go look. However, all of the stamps came from the Bundle Monster plates, and not my Konad or other Fauxnad plates.

Here is Essie Splash of Grenadine with Konad Violet Pearl on top.


China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy with Konad Special Polish in Black. This one got me a LOT of comments. The neon-y-ness of Flip Flop Fantasy is really hard to capture in photos, but this was BRIGHT.


This was OPI Who The Shrek are You with Konad Violet Pearl for the checkerboard tip pattern. This was my first attempt ever at stamping tips, and let me say... it is NOT easy to get it straight. My right hand was pretty crooked, but I wore it anyway. My pointer finger was a casualty of my job.


This is Essie Lapis of Luxury with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White for the stamp. I think I'm going to have to break down and buy the special Konad white polish because I cannot find a white that stamps decently to save my life.


I didn't have adequate sunlight to capture this one, and it was very, very subtle, but I liked it. It reminded me of, say, curtains in a funeral home. LOL. The base is Rimmel Hard Edged stamped with Nina Ultra Pro in Viva La Velvet.


This is what I'm wearing today and I LOVE IT. It may be my favorite one yet. Then again, I love the color combination of aqua and dark brown. This is a base of Orly Gumdrop stamped with Kleancolor in Dark Brown. OH... Kleancolor. I had no idea where to get this stuff, but I went to an asian beauty supply store close to my house, and they had a TON of it for $1 apiece. This is some GOOD STUFF. I actually have another post planned about my trip to the asian beauty supply. :)

Black Holos

My fiance had surgery Thursday, so I'm caring for an invalid. He tore his left achilles playing soccer last weekend. He will be hobbling down the aisle in a boot at our wedding in two weeks. Poor guy! He came home from the hospital today and is slowly trying to get around with crutches. That has nothing to do with nail polish, just thought I'd mention it.

Ok, so if I had a favorite type of nail polish, it would probably be the black/charcoal holographic, since I keep buying them. I never have owned the original OPI MPJ, and probably never will (I'm not too keen on the idea of trying to track it down, but if I happened to see it someplace - HAHA - I'd pick it up).

I do own a few black/charcoal holos. I know I don't have Diamond Cosmetics' Chainmail Charm. I need it. I really should grab it since it's only a couple of bucks or so on their website, and I've liked the swatches I've seen of it. One day I will.

When I was out and about trying to track down the new Sally Hansens (I just want the flaky one... but nowhere here seems to have it), I saw the new Petites Color Fever line. They have a color called Black Diamond, which is really pretty close to Color Club Revvvolution. I was skeptical about paying $4 for a Petites nail polish, since their quality hasn't really been the best, and their original line costs what? A dollar, maybe two? However, I was really pleasantly surprised with Black Diamond. Observe!

The holo effect is fairly weak with this one, but it IS there. This is in indirect light. It didn't really come out much better in direct light. :/


You can at least see the effect a bit here.


Then I decided to do a comparison. Then I ran out of time to remove it, so I've actually been rocking a black holo "skittles" manicure for the last two days.. LOL.
Here's what I compared:
L'Oreal Bijou Crystals in B.Rebellious, Color Club Revvvolution, Icing Blackout, and Petites Color Fever Black Diamond.
Icing, your brush sucked. I love this shade, and the formula isn't bad, but the horrible mop-like brush makes this polish nearly impossible to use. I have some spare clear polishes lying about, and I think I'm going to try dumping the clear polish out and decanting the Icing polish into a bottle with a less shitty brush.


I had a terrible time trying to get a good picture of these four. Part of this is because I've been at the hospital a LOT in the last couple of days and just haven't had time.
My observations are this. The L'Oreal polish is probably my favorite of the four. It is the sparkliest. It isn't a "smooth" holo, but is a dark, dark grey that is interspersed with a TON of holographic glitter.
The Icing polish is the only one of the four that is actually BLACK. It also isn't a smooth holo, but is interspersed with holographic glitter.
Color Club's polish has the smoothest holographic effect and also the hardest to capture.
The Petites polish isn't technically a "smooth" holo, but it is smoother and the glitter is finer than in either the L'Oreal or the Icing polish. It is REALLY close to Color Club Revvvolution, and I think that if a person owned one, they wouldn't need the other.

Now for the pictures! Clicking on any of these to get a larger image might be helpful.
On my thumb and pinky are Petites Color Fever Black Diamond
On my index finger is L'Oreal Bijou Gems in B.Rebellious
On my middle finger is Color Club Revvvolution
On my ring finger is Icing Blackout


And again... this one shows the holo-ness a bit better.



Also, I had to run to Sally's this afternoon and found that they now have the China Glaze Poolside collection. They also still have all polishes buy 2, get 1 free. So I picked up half of the collection. I got Pool Party, Sun Worshipper, and Towel Boy Toy. The yellow and green didn't much appeal to me (neon yellow looks icky on me), but I was torn between the pink and the coral. I might go back later this weekend and pick up the other three, but I'm going to sleep on it first. :D


Our Sally's hired a new girl to work there, and while I was talking polish to the cashier, she butted in and was trying to inform me of the "new mint green trend" in nail polish. I wanted to LOL. "Excuse me, missy, but DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA how many nail polish blogs I read?!?" Also, mint green is SOOOOO last season. I dunno, it was just funny. But I'm not a bitch, so I said, "Yeah! I have a bunch of mint greens and I really like them!"

Indoor swatching, blah

So, it's been gross and gray and rainy all day long today. I got quite a bit of swatching done, actually, but they're all indoor photographs since I have better lighting indoors today than outdoors.

I did manage to get out this afternoon because I needed gas in my car. I am on a freaking mission to find those stupid Milani 3D holographic polishes, but I was foiled not once but twice today and decided to come on home. I've found the new Milani neons and nail art pens at K-Mart, but no holos. I went to Walgreens, where they have a whole section with a big "Milani" sign over it, but no Milani anything underneath it. I DID, however, find a couple of other polishes I'd been lemming at Walgreens -- Borghese Stellare Notte and Sally Hansen HD Opulent Cloud. I also picked up SH Insta-Dri Grape Going, since the SH polishes were buy 1, get 1 half off. And that is IT for my polish-buying for now. I swear.
See the pretties!


Anyway, after that, I ran by CVS, where there was a tag on the REGULAR Milani polishes that clearly read "Milani 3D Holographic polishes, $4.99." Which would be awesome if, you know, they actually HAD the polishes. Which they didn't. So I came home.

I put on Stellare Notte once I got home and went to photograph it and my camera would not focus on anything, which is usually a sign that the batteries are dying. We usually have freshly charged batteries in the charger, but not today. Oh well, it's supposed to actually be sunny tomorrow (although I have to work), so hopefully I'll be able to get a shot of it tomorrow.

Now that I'm done bellyachin', here's what I've swatched from my haul yesterday.

China Glaze Flying Dragon. How awesome is this color? It's Play-Doh purple with blue glitter in it! The formula was awful, awful, awful, though. It evened out okay in three coats, but it had me worried through the first two coats.


China Glaze Blue Sparrow. This is from the same collection as Flying Dragon, but the formula was 1000 times easier. This is just two coats. I also love this, but not quite as much as I love Flying Dragon. If I could get Flying Dragon's color with Blue Sparrow's formula, I'd be a happy girl.



After the China Glazes, I swatched the Sally Hansens I got yesterday. First up was Lacquer Shine in Glow. Meh. This is the third color I own that is very similar to this. It's a spring green with yellow shimmer. It's pretty enough, but I don't need three of these.


This is Lacquer Shine in Lustrous. It's a nice black creme. Seems as if it might have a greenish base, but it's definitely all black on the nails -- no shimmer or anything. This was two coats.


This was the first Fire Opal I decided to swatch. What is wrong with this picture?


Ummmm. Yeah. I guess that's Dollar Tree quality for you. Luckily, I am a crafty lady and I have all manner of paintbrushes in my house!
It figures -- the brushless wonder is my FAVORITE of all the opals I picked up yesterday -- at least, on it's own! This is Blush Opal and this is also three coats. I knew these were sheer, but this is the least sheer one I have.


This is the one Star Opal I got, in Red Opal. Does ANYONE know the difference between the Star Opals and the Fire Opals? They're all similar to me. This is a peachy sheer with some green shimmer in it.


And this was the other Fire Opal I got, in Royal Opal. It's a peachy sheer with gold shimmer. I guess the gold is what makes it royal?


Then I tried layering all of them over Lacquer Shine Lustrous. I dig it!
Index finger is Blush Opal, Middle is Red Opal, and Ring is Royal Opal. I LOVE Red Opal like this. Oddly enough, Red Opal over black becomes black with awesome emerald GREEN shimmer (no red to be seen)!