NOTD: Orly Sparkling Garbage

To be honest, I bought this polish only because of the name. "Sparkling Garbage" just has a nice ring to it, don't you think? I mean, I didn't buy this entirely because of the name... I thought it was really pretty, too!

Polish used:

Orly Sparkling Garbage (light dusty green jelly with holo glitter)

First, please excuse the background. I had to take photos while on my break at work, the table wasn't the cleanest (because of the arts & crafts activity we did), and I forgot to move my water bottle. And the color in the photo looks a lot different than it does in real life (wow this post is a mess haha)... Just imagine it a bit more green and less teal.

I can't put into words just how awesome this polish is! I used four coats for this manicure and each coat went on like a dream. It wasn't quite fully opaque after four coats, but the holo glitter masked any visible nail line that there might have been. In direct sunlight though, it looks gorgeous. It looks like it's almost a hybrid of a linear holo and a scattered holo. It's so pretty.

This polish also worked with the camp theme for the week! This week was Monsters vs. Aliens. I dressed up as Mike Wazowski and this color worked perfectly!

Thanks for reading!

First Look: China Glaze "The Great Outdoors" Collection!

I went to my local drugstore on Monday (Harmon to be exact) because I needed to pick up a few things that I was out of. Of course I also needed to look at the nail polish since I was there! My Harmon always has a really good selection of polishes and is usually really good with keeping up with new collection releases from the big name brands (Essie, OPI, China Glaze, Color Club, etc.). China Glaze was only a recent addition to my Harmon, so I was shocked to see this display hiding in the back!

So this is The Great Outdoors collection that China Glaze is releasing for Fall 2015. It has a good variety of crèmes, duochromes, metallics, and with one glitter thrown in.

I was not expecting a new release from China Glaze this soon, especially since my Harmon only got the Electric Nights collection in about a month ago. Even on China Glaze's Snapchat, they said that this collection was "coming soon." Confused? Me too. But oh well!

Polishes L-R top row to bottom row:

Check Out The Silver Fox (silvery gunmetal metallic)

S'more Fun (bright chartreuse crème)

Cabin Fever (bronze/cranberry duochrome)

Wood You Wanna? (warm taupe metallic)

Take A Hike (hunter green crème)

Gone Glamping (dusty bronze/olive duochrome)

Let's Dew It (blurple microglitter with tiny pewter hex glitters) - swatch below!

Sleeping Under The Stars (deep blue crème with pink microshimmer)

Pondering (blurple/green/slightly pink duochrome)

Free Bear Hugs (oxblood crème)

Change Your Altitude (lilac-y grey crème)

My Lodge Or Yours? (dusty mauve crème)

While I wanted to pick up all of these, sadly my wallet only had enough room to spare for one... So I picked Let's Dew It!

Even though I really wanted this polish just because I thought it was pretty, I thought it would also go perfectly with my Mermaid Man costume for camp! This week was our Nickelodeon themed week and everyone dressed up as different characters on Tuesday. The seashell bra that I made, I painted with a medium purple paint that's right in between a warm and cool purple. So to match that, I used a warmer purple (China Glaze Plur-ple) underneath Let's Dew It. It matched perfectly!

The formula was a bit thick, but the glitter payoff was awesome. It's pretty much impossible to not have a thicker formula with a polish like this, especially since it can reach full opacity in about three coats. I used two coats of Let's Dew It for the picture above, but sponging it on would easily make it opaque.

Overall, I'm really pumped about this collection and I can't wait to pick up some of the other colors!

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Tie Dye Nail Art!

It seems that I'm quickly becoming the counselor known for her nails at the camp I work at. Every week we have a theme, and on Tuesdays we dress up as that theme for our weekly Spirit Day. This week was "That 70's Week," and literally every single one of my coworkers suggested that I paint my nails tie dye. So I took their advice, and now I'm obsessed.

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri OMGhost (white crème)

China Glaze Pool Party (neon hot pink crème)

China Glaze Sun Worshiper (neon yellow-y orange crème)

Color Club Under The Blacklight (neon pastel greenish yellow crème)

China Glaze Treble Maker (bright medium cool-toned green crème)

China Glaze Ride The Waves (bright medium blue jelly)

China Glaze Plur-ple (bright medium cool-toned purple crème)

I have to make it a point to say that I didn't come up with this technique on my own. I drew inspiration from knailart (video here) because I didn't want to screw these up, and because I remember seeing these nails on my Instagram feed ages ago. I only watched a tiny bit of the video just to see how she started the design, and then did the rest on my own.

First, I painted my nails with two coats of white. I started the tie dye with the lightest color (the yellow) and made a spiraled line going outwards from the center of my nail with a little nail art brush. Then, using the same brush, I starting painting over the line I just did to make it look jagged. After doing that, I did the same thing with the green, blue, purple, and pink; I finished with orange to connect the whole spiral together. After cleaning up around my nails, I finished with a coat of Essie's Good to Go top coat.

This is honestly one of the few manicures I've done in the past couple years that have stayed on my nails longer than two and a half days. I really love the fact that these are just so obnoxiously LOUD. Saying that these are really bright is a gross understatement. Literally the past two days I've worn these I've gotten compliments from my coworkers, my campers, campers who aren't even in my group, random cashiers, I've been asked if they were stickers, and I've even gotten stopped by random strangers who wanted to see these nails. I can safely say that this my favorite manicure that I've done in a while!

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: 4th of July Nails!

This is actually a manicure I came up with for the 4th of July last year. I'm working at a summer camp now, and yesterday (Friday) was our red, white, and blue day. So, in addition to wearing huge blue sunglasses, fuzzy white leg warmers, a tiny sparkly hat, and various beads and whistle necklaces, I decided to redo this nail art from last year because I loved it so much then!

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue (cobalt blue crème - original formula) - thumb and middle

OPI Alpine Snow (white crème) - index and ring

Zoya Kristi (red crème) - pinky

I started by planning out which colors were going where, and then painted two coats of them on each nail. I used the red, darker blue, and clear iridescent glitters from this set from Born Pretty Store. On the middle nail, I did a basic glitter placement using the darker blue glitter. This glitter placement is different from the other one I posted a little while back, because instead of lining up the corners of the glitter pieces, I lined up the edges so the entire nail would be covered.

For the flag, I started by placing a line of red glitter down the center of my nail. Then I took the darker blue glitter and starting placing it next to the red line, stopping after (I think) seven pieces. I continued with that part of the flag, the next row being an alternating pattern between the blue and clear glitters for the stars. I placed another row of just blue glitter after that one, and the row after that I alternated with the white again. After finishing that part of the flag, I finished the rest of the nail by placing stripes of white and red glitter. I finished my manicure with two coats of top coat for the glitter nails, and one coat for all the other nails.

I still love this manicure as much as I did last year! The kids in my camp group as well as some of my coworkers (including one of the camp directors) thought these were stickers and that they were fake nails. I don't know about anyone else, but when someone asks if my nails are fake, I consider it to be an awesome compliment!

Thanks for reading!