Tag: Glitter
The Dude Abides…and Glitters…
This fingernail polish really pulls the room together…
Behold Funky Fingers “Gnarly, Dude”. It’s a solar polish that is supposed to change color in sunlight.
Indoors, “Gnarly, Dude” is a pink jelly with a veritable Hobby Lobby Bukkake of glitter. (I just want Hobby Lobby to be forever linked with “bukkake”, kinda like what happened with “Santorum”. Please don’t Google “bukkake”, Grandma.) There’s silver glitter, pink glitter, holographic hex glitter, black hex glitter – every kind of glitter, just globbed on my fingernails.
I suspected it was a specious claim, but “Gnarly, Dude” proved me wrong – it did EXACTLY what it was supposed to! Sunlight turned the pink jelly dark purple – almost black. In fact, this picture was taken after cloudy sun. I went outside at high noon full sun and my nails were very nearly black.
I used Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat in case of staining. I covered with a thick coat of Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat, but it still didn’t smooth the curling edges of the hex glitter. If you like smooth nails, this is not the polish for you.
This is a great summer polish, but the hex glitters do peel off easily, leaving blank spots. Luckily, it mends easily with a little dab from the brush.
America, Fuck YEAH
Don’t these patriotic nails just say, “America, Fuck YEAH!”???
I’ve been waiting at least 6 months for the 4th of July. Julep “America” isn’t just an everyday polish…
I started with Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat. Rimmel “Blue Eyed Girl” for my blue, Julep “Bunny” for my white and Zoya “Sooki” for my red. I used just a single coat of each. I topped each nail with Julep “America” and then finished with Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat. The Revlon dried fairly quickly and didn’t bubble or crack…good news!
My BFF also did “America, Fuck YEAH!” nails.
Her blue was Sinful Colors “Ciao Bella”, her white was Julep “Bunny” and her red was Sinful Colors “Gogo Girl”. She also topped with Julep “America” – I got a dupe in my Cupid Mystery Box and gave it to her.
We’re twinkies!
My Glitter Game is Strong
After several rounds of Tilex and scrubbing my shower stall door with a toothbrush yesterday, I found that my nails didn’t look quite as spiffy as they did just a few hours before. The solution…you guessed it – GLITTER.
My glitters of choice were Sally Hansen Gem Crush “Lady Luck” and Gem Crush “Glitz Gal”. “Lady Luck” is exactly the same shade as the base coats of JulieG “Gift Wrapping” – they look really spiffy together. You can see “Gift Wrapping” just barely peeking through underneath the steel gray glitter in “Glitz Gal”.
As usual, I used Sally Hansen Diamond Flash to seal the glitter. I washed dishes all morning and my nails still look great. Like I said, my glitter game is strong.
20 Polishes
The other day, I told my husband that I wish I had 10 more fingers. He laughed and said, “You do – they’re called toes.” Painting my toenails is just not the same as painting my fingernails. They’re hard to reach and all different shapes. Plus, I hardly ever have a chance to show off my toes. I have so many ideas for polish combinations, plus – I’ve bought or been gifted about 25 polishes JUST in the month of May (which isn’t over yet.) Sure, I can practice on my junk mail, but it’s just not the same…what do I do? I stay up late and do a different combination on each finger!
Let’s start with my left hand…
Left Thumb – China Glaze “Four Leaf Clover” and Maybelline Color Show “Emerald City”
Left Pointer – Orly “Purple Poodle” and Sparitual Luminary Matte Top Effect in “Opaline”
Left Middle – Nina “Blue La La” and Sally Hansen Gem Crush “Lady Luck”
Left Ring – Julep “Tatum” and Julep “Rosa”
Left Pinky – Sinful Colors “Sugar Sugar” and Nina “Gold Flake Topcoat”
My right hand was a little bit more difficult, both to paint AND to photograph…
Right Thumb – Orly “Bubbly Bombshell” and Sinful Colors “Nail Junkie”
Right Pointer – Zoya “Dillon” and Sinful Colors “Bombshell”
Right Middle – Sinful Colors “Inkwell” and essie Luxeffects “Set in Stones”
Right Ring – Sally Hansen Insta-Dri “Magenta Motion” and Sinful Colors “Call You Later”
Right Pinky – Sinful Colors “Nova” and Nicole by OPI “Rainbow in the S-Kylie”
Which one do you like best? Vote in the poll below and let me know what you think!
[yop_poll id=”2″ float=”center”]
Pink Dots
I just can’t leave well enough alone.
Dookie Glitter looked great, but I had an idea to make it even better. I kept thinking of my favorite dress of Lily’s, from when she was a year or so old. It was an Easter dress that I picked up at Kohl’s – a chocolate brown sundress with pink dots and roses. About half of the dots were sparkly and holographic. I put it on her every chance I got. Of course, I’m a hoarder and never got rid of the dress…so I was able to give it to my niece, Olive (pictured yelling at her mother on the left).
After 2 coats of Julep “Candace”, I topped with a coat of essie Luxeffects “A Cut Above” . I had tried this glitter before, but it just wasn’t striking over another pink or fleshy tone like “Set in Stones” is. But over a dark color…”A Cut Above” is AMAZEBALLS. Now you know…
Aquamarine
Some nail polishes just don’t mix.
I started with 2 coats of Color Club, Gala’s Gems Collection – “Aquamarine Azulino“ from my April Birchbox. It was thick and creamy – but still needed 2 coats. I then put a coat of “Aretha” – Aquamarine for March”. “Aretha” was thick and goopy, but it seemed to go on pretty even. As it dried, it started to crinkle around the edges – NOOOOOOOO! The dreaded crusty cuticles!
It doesn’t look horrible, but it doesn’t look flawless. The polish isn’t chipping off the tips, but it’s chipping around the cuticle…I’ve been in a funk all day, obsessing about it. Tomorrow, it goes…
A Wild and an Untamed Thing
I’m a wild and an untamed thing. I’m a bee with a deadly sting.
The second I finished my nails, I thought of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. At first I thought COLUMBIA, but there wasn’t any gold. Then I realized – FLOOR SHOW. My nails remind me of the corsets from the Floor Show. I really should do a manicure for every character in Rocky Horror, although I’m too lazy to do plaid for Dr. Scott.
Instead of starting fresh, I put the glitters on top of Seche “All Lit Up”. The darker is Revlon “Brilliant Bordeaux” and the redder is Revlon “Ruby Ribbon”. Again, I topped with Sally Hansen Diamond Flash. I am learning about topcoats…slowly, slowly.
Yes, I know that the cuticle on my middle finger is fucked up. Don’t remind me…
Mother’s Day
Oh, Mother’s Day.
I have a love/hate relationship with Mother’s Day. The hate has faded a bit in recent years. Mostly love now, but the twinges of hate since I lost my mother are still there. I can’t imagine how people without children or mothers can tolerate Mother’s Day. My first Mother’s Day as a mother was also my last Mother’s Day with my mother – I never had a gap where I was alone on the holiday. Even then, the first few years were difficult, even with my kids and husband rallying around me. I’m able to love it now because my husband goes the extra mile in facilitating how my kids show their appreciation. I’m not talking flowers and chocolate necessarily, but the true expression of what my children think that I will enjoy.
The true expression of what my son thought I would enjoy was my very own Zebco fishing pole. He had been planning this gift since Spring Break, when I caught my first fish – and fishing fever – using Lily’s ‘Dora the Explorer’ fishing pole. It’s hot pink and awesome, but he was very disappointed that he couldn’t find one that exactly matched my car. He told me that he knows how important it is that everything match my car.
He also cooked me breakfast – red velvet waffles and scrambled eggs. It was DAMN good.
The true expression of what my daughter thought I would enjoy was…of course…fingernail polish. I had my suspicions when she and my husband snuck away while I was at Target yesterday. She picked out 7 polishes for me: 3 China Glaze Crinkled Chrome – “Crush, Crush Baby”, “Don’t Be Foiled” & “Wrinkling the Sheets” (I already have the first 2, but so what), Nina “Blue La La” & “Gold Flake Topcoat”, Orly “Bubbly Bombshell” and Sally Girl “Red Glitter”.
In order to show my daughter how much I love her, I let her paint my fingernails. I have NEVER let her paint my fingernails before. For my left hand, she chose Nina “Blue La La” and “Gold Flake Topcoat”. It looking amazing together! For my right hand, she chose “Crush, Crush Baby” and “Bubbly Bombshell”. Again, an impressive combination. I topped both hands with Sally Hansen Diamond Flash.
I’m thinking this could be a new Mother’s Day tradition, because once a year is probably as often as I could handle someone else painting my nails…
Plié Believer
Although I happily crowdfunded Julep’s new Plié Wand, I was a bit skeptical about how well it would work. How could a longer, paintbrush-like handle make much of a difference when painting my nails? As Channing Tatum so succinctly said in 21 Jump Street – SCIENCE. I don’t know what type of brush Leonardo used when paining The Mona Lisa, but I’ll bet it wasn’t a 2 inch long one.
However it works, the Plié Wand WORKS. My close friends know what a slob I am when I paint my nails, but using the Plié, my nails were nearly camera ready after I painted them. This tool may change my life…
I felt a twinge of regret that I didn’t also get the striping and dotting tools, but realistically, I’m not the Pinterest-y, flowers type of person. I just want glitter and sparkle. I may pick it up at some point, but if I do – it will likely gather dust.
I started with 2 coats of Julep “Paulette” and added Julep “Yumi” on my shocker nails. My nails look FABULOUS.
On a sidenote, I actually started filling out the “Swatch Me” stickers on the tops of my Julep polishes. Until the Plié, I had no idea that the overcap comes off and I was scratching my head trying to figure out how to get the polish on the top of the brush lid. DUH.
Mardi Gross
This is not what I had in mind at all. Imagining the two polishes together, I thought my nails would look like the beach at high noon, the sun’s rays glinting off the sea foam, seashells glittering in the surf. I was dead wrong.
Instead, my nails look like Bourbon Street the day after Fat Tuesday – cheap beads floating in a river of vomit and piss. Mardi Gross.
To be fair, I only put down one coat of Julep “Kennedy” and I should have put down two. I totally misunderstood how Sinful Colors “Bombshell” would look. I should have swatched. ALWAYS swatch.
Excuse me while I go remove this crap and try something else…