Lynnderella Sweets to the Sweet

After what seems like a century I finally got my hands on some lovely Lynnderellas!  I have a love/hate relationship with glitter as I love them but they don't love me and tend to peel off but I couldn't resist any longer.  The manicure I have today is Lynnderella Sweets to the Sweet.  I can't explain how pretty it is so just look :D

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I think this polish would be much better over something like Essie Marshmallow.  The harshness of the white I used is a bit.. well, harsh.

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This is two coats of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White over CND Stickey.  Two coats of Sweets to the Sweet over that, sealed with OTD.

DROOL!

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Flash

This polish is so yummy, it really does remind me of candy.  Hopefully I can better match up combinations in the future.  I also managed to get a few others, so look forward to swatches of those, too!

Zoya Dea

Out of all the colors in the nail polish spectrum, I realized I didn't have a brown that I loved.  I don't have many, if any, true browns.  I saw swatches for Zoya Dea and it looked perfect, and it is!

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Thi is 2 coats of Zoya Dea over CND Stickey topped with NYC Grand Central Station.  My mom managed to get shimmers into my big 2 fl. oz. bottle of OTD, so I had to resort to back ups.  While GCS is wonderful for holos, it shrunk my Zoya.  It wasn't tipwear, it was tip pull aka shrinkage.  You can't see it in these swatches because I applied another coat of Dea before taking these pics, but beware, Zoya and GCS may not work for you either.

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Dea is a delicious milk chocolate creme.  It make have hints of red in it, I'm not entirely sure, but it does appear very brown to the naked eye and I love it!  Please excuse the fuzzy that got trapped in my final coat on my ring finger, I tried to mask it as best as possible!

Thanks for reading! (=

Personal Update & Giveaway Reminder

The new semester has started and I absolutely am going to be swamped for the next few months.  The past few semester I've only taken 9 credits due to transfer issues - as in, I couldn't find classes I needed and being a transfer student meant adjusting to a new school, etc.  Since I'm quite settled at this point, I'm taking 12 credits which means that many less hours to dedicate to my hobby.

I'm also only taking one English course this semester, which means the other 3 courses are classes I need to work much harder in as English has always come easy to me.  While I did previously have 15 papers one semester, I'm pretty efficient at them.  The courses I'm taking now (MUSIC? Geography, Special Ed) they're going to require more focus in a different way. I'm a bit, OK a lot, out of my element with those, specially music. Good vibes on passing that class.. I'm beyond musically challenged.

I do promise to make a valiant effort in posting as often as I can, as I do enjoy it immensely and find it relaxing. I may write posts in bulk when I have time and then schedule them throughout the week.  Hopefully I can manage both, since I love doing this, it'd make me sad to have to put it on the back burner.  I'm going to, for the first time in a long time, try to juggle full-time school, work, blogging and a boyfriend.  Who needs a social life anyways?

I also have my Praxis test coming up next month as well as a trip to Wisconsin to visit my BFF and her new baby! Congrats on the little stud muffin!! <3

And of course, I appreciate each and every one of you who take the time out of your busy lives to read, provide feedback and comment.  It puts a smile on my face every time I think about it (=

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Just wanted to remind my dear readers (you!) about my giveaway!  The last day for entries is Feb. 11th.

***I had mistakenly listed the 11th as Sunday, it's actually a Saturday.***

The Prize:

- Sally Hansen HD DVD
- Sally Hansen HD Byte
- Sally Hansen HD Laser
- Two surprise Zoya Polishes

The Rules:
1. Must be a follower.
2. Must provide GFC name & contact email.
3. Giveaway closes at 11:59 PM on Saturday, February 11th EST.
4. YOU MUST HAVE A BLOG THAT YOU CAN PROVIDE A LINK TO.
5. This giveaway is International!
6. The winner has 48 hours to reply; in the event they do not, a new winner will be chosen.

A few things worth mentioning:
- It doesn't need to be a blogspot blog. Any host is fine.
- It doesn't need to be a nail polish related blog, any subject is acceptable.

OPI DS Passion

This is one of those bizzaro polishes that looks amazing in the bottle, amazing in photographs but sucks in real life.  Ok, that is a bit unfair, it doesn't suck by most standards: it's beautiful and has a strong linear holo effect, but it falls very flat against my personal skin tone.  It's a personal grievance.  It's a bit close to my skin tone and I don't think holo mannequin hands are.. good.  But I do love it regardless.

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This is 3 coats of OPI DS Passion over the Jessica holo basecoat, topped with NYC Grand Central Station.  NYC GCS really doesn't kill holos!  It may dull them a little, but I couldn't notice a difference.  My manicures feel incomplete without a topcoat, so I'm glad I now have one for holos!

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Flash

Flash

You really can't even tell what I'm talking about with the skin tone dilemma, but it's quite apparent in real life.  She is quite the knockout though!  Thanks for reading (=

Galaxy Nails!

I wanted to give galaxy nails a try after seeing so many wonderful examples.  Mine, unfortunately, look uh, much better at a distance.  They're not awful but I hope to do better next time.

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I used a previous mani to build on, click HERE to go back and see it.  That explains what I built on, since it was also a layered manicure.  It can be seen below.

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Upon that manicure I used a couple different things to create the effect.
-Hits Zeus (sponged over)
-Hits Demeter (sponged over)
-WnW Black Creme (sponged over)
-Finger Paints Asylum (sponger over)
-Acrylic paints in various colors (used to make the "galaxy" design)

I used paint brushes with the acrylic paint and a make up sponge for the nail polish.  I knew I wanted it to contain orange for contrast reasons.  The dots were done using  a dotting tool with paint, not polish, to make them irregular.

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Flash

Have you done galaxy nails? I'd love to see your examples!

Color Club Ultra-Astral with Valentine's Stamping

I'm slowly but surely accumulating the Starry Temptress collection piece by piece, year by year.  I really thought that was a fun collection and it brought something different to the table.  I have another to show you today, Ultra-Astral.  It's a hot pink base with holo glitter, eye-catching really.

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This is two coats of Ultra-Astral over CND Stickey and topped with Out the Door.  Look how bright it is! It's kind of glowy. It stands out, jumps off your fingers almost.  I'm in love with it, by the way.

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I added some stamping to create a Valentine's Day feel.  I used Konad Special White polish.  The plates I used were Konad m57 and Bundle Monster BM202.

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This was a fun manicure, I may create it again for the actual holiday!

My giveaway is still running! Please click HERE to read the rules and enter (= Thanks for reading!

Revlon Royal & Sally Hansen HD Mani

I found some Sally Hansen HD polishes that I've wanted forever and couldn't wait to wear them! I layered two different ones over Revlon Royal for this manicure which I wore for THREE days. Unheard of!

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The layering goes as follows:
-CND Stickey
-2 coats of Revlon Royal
-1 coat of SH HD DVD
-1 coat of SH HD LCD
-1 coat of Out the Door

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Sally Hansen HD DVD is a bluish purple-y duochrome like glass fleck.  Sally Hansen HD LCD is a pink based glass fleck with hits of a bright green duochrome.  They played nicely together but were incredibly hard to capture.

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You can see some of the duochromeyness (not a word!) in these pictures, but it really was MUCH more beautiful in person.  It leaned from blue to pink, which was really pretty.

I did something SUPER FUN YAY with this mani, keep an eye out for an upcoming post!

Ulta Aim to Squeeze & KleanColor Chunky Holo Candy Jelly Sandwich

The Ulta Aim to Squeeze polish came in a set of minis comparable to the OPI Texas Sorbets.  I used the orange one from the Ulta mini set and put 3 coats, one coat of KC Chunky Holo Candy and then one more of Aim to Squeeze, a fun orange jelly.

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This is over CND Stickey and sealed with OTD, of course.  The three coats of AtS on their own were.. quite ugly.  It's a fun polish to sandwich with but in my humble opinion, fugly on its own.

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Its just not my style and there was some bare spots (my fault) on the tips, but they were covered by the rest of the layers.

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Definitely click to enlarge to see the detail. Candy is INCREDIBLY subtle buried in the jelly.

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Thanks for reading! (=

Brucci Lou Lou's Peachy Creme

I love my Bruccis, this one.. not so much. The color is great but the formula on this one bit the big one. My guess is that this is a white polish with some orange added to it because it has the same problems any white cremes have: they suck, they're streaky and they take more coats than desired.  Once I did smooth it out, it was pretty though.

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This is FOUR freakin' coats of LLPC over Orly Nail Armor topped with OTD. Such a pretty color, not unique by any means but I just have a crush on all pastel cremes.

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Thanks for reading! (=

Blogger Appreciation Giveaway!

I wanted to offer a little something for all of the bloggers out there.  While blogging is a lot of fun, it does take a lots of time and effort.  I read a bunch of blogs and it provides me with even more entertainment and an escape from reality, I want to say "Thanks!" to all of the bloggers out there!  Don't worry if you're not a blogger, while this giveaway is for bloggers only, I will be hosting an additional giveaway soon for hitting 200 followers!


The Prize:

- Sally Hansen HD DVD
- Sally Hansen HD Byte
- Sally Hansen HD Laser
- Two surprise Zoya Polishes

The Rules:
1. Must be a follower.
2. Must provide GFC name & contact email.
3. Giveaway closes at 11:59 PM on Sunday, February 11th EST.
4. YOU MUST HAVE A BLOG THAT YOU CAN PROVIDE A LINK TO.
5. This giveaway is International!
6. The winner has 48 hours to reply; in the event they do not, a new winner will be chosen.

A few things worth mentioning:
- It doesn't need to be a blogspot blog. Any host is fine.
- It doesn't need to be a nail polish related blog, any subject is acceptable.

Revlon Royal & KleanColor Chunky Holo Bluebell

I've had these KleanColors forever and finally tested them out - about time!  I also have an upcoming post with a different Chunky Holo so keep an eye out for that, too.

I went food shopping and spotted Revlon Royal.  I don't know how many times I've passed it up but I ended up picking it up at Wegman's of all places, it was time for me to own this stunning blue jelly after dodging it for ages and I'm very glad I finally got it!

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This is two coats of Royal (it's surprisingly very opaque for a jelly!) with one coat of Chunky Holo Bluebell over CND Stickey and sealed with OTD. The whole combination was so shiny and eye catching.  The KC is a bit subtle over this color but when the light hit it right, it was stunning.

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I did have a little bit of trouble trying to catch the essence of this combo due to the shiny glare from my lamp, but you can get a pretty good idea of what it looks like if you click to enlarge.

Thanks for reading! (=

Jessica Disco Diva & Valentine's Stamping

With the lover's holiday approaching, I thought it'd be cute to add some themed stamping to my dazzling previous manicure.  I seriously can't get enough of Disco Diva, the linear holo is so incredibly strong!

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I used Funky Fingers Monster Ballad for stamping and Klean Color Metallic Blue for the dots as well as Monster Ballad.  The finishes of the colors (foils) played so nicely with the base (holo).

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For anyone wondering, the rose is from plate BM09 and the kissy lips are from plate BM02.  I used a dotting tool for the dots, of course!

Jessica Disco Diva

OH MY GOD. This polish is incredible. INCREDIBLE! I'll let the pictures do the talking for this post.  This is 3 coats of Jessica Disco Diva over holo base coat that came in the set.

Orly Fowl Play & Gold Stamping

I decided to break out the Fowl Play again and spice it up with some gold stamping.  It played very nicely with the design and color I chose.  The combination was also forgiving and hid stamping errors as well.

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This is 2 coats of Fowl Play with Funky Fingers Platinum Record stamped from BM225.  I'm not sure if it was the grittiness of the polish that prevented the full image from being picked up or my fault from lack of practice, but as I said before the busyness of Fowl Play sort of hid the errors, especially to the naked eye.

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It was weird for me to be wearing a dark polish after months of bright ones, but this color is pretty spectacular, you can't go wrong with flakies, either!