Fairy Dust Feng Shui

I've been a very bad blogger lately, not because I don't love you all haha it's just been a little crazy lately. I've steadily been taking pictures, swatching, and polishing so I have plenty of stuff to share with you :) Thanks for bearing with me during the unintended absence!

So what I have for you today is a layering combination that I la-la-love. Perfect for fingers or toes! This is 2 coats of OPI - Suzi Says Feng Shui and 1 coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust. It's glittery but not overwhelmingly so; colorful but not in your face because of the dusty quality of Suzi Says Feng Shui. It also makes me very happy that the glitter in Fairy Dust lays flat, I hate bumpy glitter.



outside, sunlight


more sunlight outside (the pictures were too pretty to just pick one)


outside, shade

inside

There's just something about the dusty blue color and the light hitting the holographic glitter that makes me very happy. I need to wear this combo again ASAP! Do you have any colors or combinations that have that an effect like that for you?

Layering with... Orly- Fowl Play (picture heavy!)

So Orly- Fowl Play is one of the star polishes of the fall collections and has been hotly anticipated ever since the lovely Carina over at Gilded Nails put promos and swatches of it up. It started trickling into stores recently and I'm sure you've all seen swatches of it by now, be it on other blogs, the nail board, etc. It has kind of a squishy, jelly-like finish, which made me curious about how it would look layered over some other colors. I wanted to try and lighten up the dark purple base color of Fowl Play too. I rummaged through my stash and asked on twitter if there were any colors you wanted to see it over and came up with a nail wheel full of choices :)

Enough with the words, on to the pictures right? haha. So here is a picture of the nail wheel before I put Fowl Play over everything...

(remember you can click to enlarge all of the pictures!)

1. Orly - Fowl Play (3 coats)
2. Orly - Royal Velvet (3 coats)
3. Diamond Cosmetics - Crushed Velvet (1 coat)
4. China Glaze - Light As Air (1 Coat)
5. OPI - Done Out In Deco (1 coat)
6. China Glaze - Spontaneous (2 coats)
7. China Glaze - Grape Pop (1 coat)
8. Essie - Sexy Divide (2 coats)
9. Zoya - Demi (1 coat)
10. OPI - Manicurist of Seville (1 coat)
11. SpaRitual 0 Devil Inside (1 coat)
12. OPI - Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ (2 coats)
13. Orly - Enchanted Forest ( 2 coats)
14. China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint (2 coats)
15. Avon - Vintage Blue (2 coats)
16. Wet n Wild - Blue Moon (2 coats)
17. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On (2 coats)
18. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Black Out (1 coat)

Now let's check out how Fowl Play layered shall we? Since it's kind of a complex polish with the flakies and shimmer and all that good stuff, I'm giving you pictures in sunlight and in the shade with flash, to try and capture the differences and nuances of each combo.

1-4 in sunlight

1-4 in shade, with flash

4-7 in sunlight

5-8 in shade with flash

8-11 in sunlight

8-11 in shade with flash

12-15 in sunlight

12-15 in shade with flash

15-18 in sunlight

15-18 in shade with flash

17-2 in the shade with flash


Did you make it this far after all the pictures? :) Out of 17 possible choices on this nail wheel, which ones are your favorite? I liked a lot of these! I think China Glaze - Spontaneous (number 6) gave me the perfect purple base color I originally was looking for, but I also really loved how Orly - Royal Velvet (number 2), Essie - Sexy Divide (number 8), and Wet n Wild - Blue Moon (number 16) looked because the shimmer in the base colors added to what Fowl Play already had. The most surprising ones for me were the red shades I tried, (thank you Allibally for the suggestion!) OPI - Manicurist of Seville (number 10) and SpaRitual -Devil Inside (number 11) I looooooved how pretty and burgundy looking those turned out. I can see myself wearing these combos during the fall/winter for sure. I like the idea of those manis with sweaters and fall clothes for some reason haha.

Fun WIth Layering Wednesday: Gray by Gray and Star

Happy Wednesday? I've got one more final left to take tomorrow and some end of semester work to finish this week and then I can breathe for like one minute haha. Next week I start more classes and the 2 baseball radio and webshows I co-host start up. Phew! But I do have a cool thing planned for this weekend - it looks like Mimi from Makeup Withdrawal and I may be meeting up for a nail polish playdate!


I've got another Fun With Layering Wednesday post for you today, using Sally Hansen - Gray by Gray from the Complete Salon Manicure line. In case you want to check it out on it's own and missed my post about it the other day, here is the link.



sunlight


shade


inside


I used two coats of Revlon - Star overtop of Gray by Gray. I think the glitter in Star really works well with Gray by Gray, the colors work really nicely together. I'm not super into the random hex glitter in the polish, I need to figure out a way to make it a little more symmetrical or something next time I use it. The polish Star has special meaning for me though, a few months ago when one of my cats Starlight passed away, a really really sweet MUA-er sent me this polish to cheer me up. She included a poem and a little note with it too which was so wonderful. Do you have any polishes with special meanings to you like I do with Revlon - Star?

Fun With Layering Wednesday: My Version Of Chanel Riva

Once bottle pics of Chanel's newest offering, Riva, came out I've been intrigued by it. I don't spend that much on a single nail polish so I never planned on actually owning it, but I loved the concept. A pale blue with shimmer? Pretty! So I set about figuring out a layering combination that would satisfy my craving, and I think I came pretty close - at least close enough for me. Check it out!

I started with a base of Color Club - Take Me To Your Chateau, which I showed you yesterday, but here's a refresher:

And I picked NYC - Scandalous Blue Glitter to layer over it. The name is a little deceptive, it's not actually glitter, but more of a shimmer with a hint of pearl finish. Very pretty and very excellent for layering.

sunlight

shade

inside

I personally love it! I think it turned out pretty well, and cost me about $4 total for both polishes, much less than a Chanel would set me back. I've got another one or two layering ideas that could produce something close to Riva that I'm going to try out soon too. I'll post those and let you guys decide which ones you like best! Whether or not you buy Riva, you should try this combo out, it's very delicate and pretty. So what do you think, did I get close? What do you think of Chanel - Riva, will you be buying it?

Layering, Paradoxal style.

Today I have a layering combination to show you that is my version of Chanel's Paradoxal. The actual Paradoxal isn't my style because the shimmer is too "secret" for my liking. But I like the idea, so I've been hunting for the perfect combo of layering to give me my own version of it. This is the first try, which I think turned out pretty well :) First check out the base color, which is perfect, Nina - Never Glum Plum.

sunlight
shade

inside

Look how shiny it is - no topcoat! It's very pigmented too, only need 1-2 coats for perfect coverage which made me happy. You can see my reflection in some nails even haha. I like this on it's own way more than I thought I would. It feels so fall to me! I want to have this on my nails while I'm wearing a sweater and going to football games or sitting by a fire or apple picking or something. Yes I'm crazy, but the happy good kind of crazy ;-)

Want to see it with shimmer now? It's prettyyyyy! I layered Pure Ice - Busted over top of Never Glum Plum.

sunlight

shade

inside

I really like these two polishes together. I think I will get a lot of wear out of the combo (hopefully while wearing a sweater and doing stereotypically fall things hahah). I think there are one or two other things I want to try layering over Never Glum Plum to see which will be my favorite, so we'll see what wins. What do you think of these two polishes?

So my latest giveaway has ended; tomorrow I will go through all the entries and announce our winner!

Layering with... Wild Orchid

The other day I showed you Color Club- Wild Orchid. Since it was such a dream to apply I wanted to see how some other polishes I have would look layered over it. Wild Orchid has silver shimmer in it which I thought would bring an added dimension to any layering combination! So I tried out four different sheer polishes over it; all from Savvy Femme Couture.

sunlight

shade

inside

So I have a different color on each finger. From index to pink they are...

Index: Prince Ala Charm

Middle: Fairy Twinkle

Ring: Glass Slipper

Pinky: Knightly Armour

I think the ring finger with Glass Slipper on is my favorite combo, I think you could get a similar effect with Pure Ice- Heartbreaker (which I can swatch if someone wants to see as well). I also really like Knightly Armour, which is kind of like a ramped up version of Wild Orchid.

I picked all four of these up on clearance from Sallys (yay clearance!) Do you have any? Which of the four pictured are your favorite? I can't wait to try them over some other colors!

A Hidden Treasure of Diamond Cosmetics

I've had such a gnarly 2 days. My next door neighbors were having people digging in their front yard looking for the water on/off thingy. Very technical soundng right? Haha I'm not totally clear on what they were attempting to do, just on how it affected my life. Long story short, the workers cut the cord that controls my internet, tv, AND phone (silly me for bundling my services with one company!) at 11 am yesterday. After several phone calls someone came to fix it this morning around 10 (originally they said they wouldn't come til SATURDAY..because I don't need a phone or anything). By noon today, the same worker crew had cut the cord AGAIN. I couldn't make this stuff up, my goodness. So finally around 4 I had services again and the workers were gone and I could breathe a sigh of relief. But I had no way to post yesterday, so today I'm giving you twice as much!

I'm done venting now :) Let's move on to pretty picture shall we? I've got another Diamond Cosmetics nail polish to show you, Don't Teal My Heart Away; which I looooooove. But for some reason, it made my camera insane... so these pictures are way way greener than it is in real life. This is a true teal in person, much bluer than these pictures reflect. So make a little mental adjustment, kay? Great!

sunlight

shade

inside and closer to the actual color

Now how about some Hidden Treasure on top? Yes please!

wheeeee, flakies in the sun!

shade - look at the colors!

inside!

I also showed you Don't Teal My Heart Away in the very first Fun With Layering Wednesday, with Sinful- Nail Junkie on top (another magical layering combo). I really like working with this color because it's so opaque in just 1-2 coats so it's easy to use and it's gorgeous! Once I got my hands on this I stopped buying teals like crazy...I used to buy pretty much everyone that came my way but now I think long and hard about it. Mainly because this is my perfect teal creme, so reach for it the most, so why mess with that? :)

Do you have any go-to colors for layering for a favorite polish for one kind type of color, like me and teal? Let me know in your comment!

You know what day it is...Wednesday!

Which means times for layering fun! Yay. This week's layering combo has taken over as my favorite one. Sorry, Teal My Heart Away with Nail Junkie on top, you are number two in my heart now. This mani is just SO PRETTY! At least in my opinion haha. But let me show you the pictures and you can decide what you think :)

The base color is Wet n Wild - Eggplant Frost, which on it's own is really nice. A deep purple with a strong blue flash. Super easy to apply too!



Then I thought, "Oh hey, wouldn't Nfu-Oh #51 look good on this? Maybe I should find out." AND I did. It's magical!




sunlight


shade


inside

I love this! Squishy, flake-y, magical goodness. So what do you guys think?

Fun With Layering Wednesday comes on Thursday this week.

Shiny! Glittery! Possibly close to a hard to find OPI color?! Purple! Today's (day late) Fun With Layering Wednesday combo has everything I could possibly want. And I actually don't know for sure if it's close to the OPI..but we'll get to that in a minute. I'm pretty jazzed about this mani, so there's a lot of pictures. Prepare yourself accordingly.

What wonders lay ahead? China Glaze - Light As Air with Sinful Colors - Purple Diamonds on top. Looking at all these pictures makes me want to wear this again ASAP.




ohhhh the sun makes it looks so nice!


outside in the shade


inside

Now, let's chat. I found a slightly used bottle of OPI - Vio-Let's Surf in a local nail salon a month or two ago. I haven't swatched it yet. (It's going to be a part of Hard To Find Week that I'll be doing in the future) But once I put these two colors on, it made me think about Vio-Let's Surf. So I grabbed my bottle and took it outside to hold next to my nails to see if it looks close in the bottle or not.





So it could be close. It intrigued me enough that I may need to swatch Vio-Let's Surf sooner than I had planned and compare these. Wouldn't that be cool if they were close? Those pictures make my hands look huge too, which is strange because I have really small hands in real life haha. But I digress. Would you guys want to see a comparison of this layering combo and Vio-Let's Surf soon? I could make that happen :)