Icing - Lemme See Your Peacock

Morning everyone! Today I have another glitter topper to show you, which is another polish inspired by peacocks! Peacocks are pretty trendy lately, eh?

This one is just awesome so I'll quit talking and show it to you!

Icing - Lemme See Your Peacock
OMG. I pretty much have no words for this one. Fuchsia, green, and teal blue glitter all in a clear base.
It's very "me" because of the colors and of course because of the Katy Perry reference in the name.
(I named two peacock nail posts after the song too! Here and here.)

The glitter is all the same size and it disperses really well on the nail. This is two coats, over Depend 255.

Definitely head to your local Icing if you've got one to pick this baby up! It's a winner in my books. It's such a fun glitter topper.
I've also seen the same glitter as a part of a mini set at Claire's.

I've been feeling all kinds of nail-inspiration lately... Check out my Facebook page for a little sneak preview of something I whipped up last night! ;)

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China Glaze Life Preserver + Icing After Party

Hey everyone!

I wish I had better lighting for you in my pictures today. One of my lamps busted and there is no daylight after 4pm in the winter where I live, so they aren't the best. Luckily, I got another lamp so better pictures are on the way! :)

Today's mani starts with China Glaze Life Preserver, a medium burnt orange creme. This is 3 coats, as the formula was on the thin side.

Then I added a coat of Icing After Party. I LOVE this polish! It has multi colored shards of glitter in a clear base. But this isn't the typical rainbow colors, it's a mix of purple, orange, gold, and aqua. It's a little tricky to get good placement and some of the pieces don't want to lay flat on the nail, but since I have nothing like it in my collection (for now, I have some more of this type of polish on the way), it's a keeper!

What do you guys think of this type of flake/glitter?

Pin It

More about → China Glaze Life Preserver + Icing After Party

Captivated by the Taste of a Juicy Peach

Franken-master? I think not. I only show you the ones that turn out nice! My first ever franken was a disaster. It was a few drops of everything and it ended up being a purple gray mold color with a gross texture. My advice to get started frankening? I'll do a later post about that! ;)

I already own Cult Nail Captivated. So why did I buy Icing's Tiger's Blood which is a dupe? Pure impulsiveness maybe? I don't really know. It struck me recently that it would make for a good idea to franken this "extra" bottle that I had on hand. So I added an entire H&M mini polish of "Juicy Peach" a coral-y orange and 2/3 bottle of Icing Tigers Blood. Shook like crazy and this is how it turned out. It toned down some of the gold/bright orange glitter. That's not a bad thing, I like that it makes it different from plain Tiger's Blood.

 I mixed it up in an empty bottle of Essie Good to Go topcoat. I wish it was a bit more transparent so that more of the glitter showed. Perhaps I will add a bit of clear polish to thin it out.

 These swatches were just 2 coats.

And for any of you interested in more of my personal life.... I would like to share with you, my silly mother. She's a lot of fun and always encourages anything creative that I do and is of course my biggest fan. What kind of mother would she be if she wasn't. Anywho, she is furthering her education a bit taking a few college courses and one is apparently computer or internet related in some way because this is what I found when I last checked my GoogleDocs "Suggestion Box" form that is embedded in the bottom of the page:

    9/7/11 @ 17:04 : "This is your Mother. I like the french tip clouds. Really pretty. I'm learning how to make a blog and wanted to figure out how to make a comment on them. You're my guinea pig! Love you!"

and then once again, apparently for emphasis. :)

9/8/11 @ 07:55 : "This is your Mother. I'm trying to comment again on your blog. I like the french tip clouds you did." 

Haha. Read it in a mono-tone, it makes it even funnier! :) She's silly but I love her! She always manages to come up with amazing ideas for art projects, with no desire to start or finish them. In fact, she's the one that came up with the idea for my cartoon manicure exhibit project! I've decided to name it "Childhood is at Your Fingertips" (thanks to Laura's fab idea!) and it will be in an art show March 2012.

More about → Captivated by the Taste of a Juicy Peach

Icing - Epic Winning

OPI Dating a Royal with Icing Epic Winning on the ring finger. 2 coats of Epic Winning and I'm glad I just did it on the accent nail because it was a big pain to remove. It's the most stubborn of all glitters I've ever used!

This is an older swatch pic from when I first bought Icing Epic Winning. I wanted to see if it would build to opacity, the top nail is 3 coats and it was already getting very thick, so I stopped there.

It's nice to have a holographic glitter that also contains a dark blue glitter. :)

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Icing Force of Love

Hey! I am finally posting...it's been insane today! I got my hair colored today and it took 4 1/2 hours...I was SO ready to be out of there, but it turned out cute so I guess it's worth it. ;)

Today's polish is from a duo polish from Icing called Force of Love. It's a supposed Deborah Lippmann  Across the Universe dupe. I don't own the original, but it looks pretty close to me! This is kinda sheer and I hate doing too many coats of glitters, so this is maybe 2 coats layered over Sally Hansen Insta Dri Teal-y Fast. This polish combo is gorgeous!

To add a little extra flair, here is the stamping design we used to spice it up. Simple, but gorgeous! :)

Sorry for the short post...I am driving home after being gone for a month so I will schedule some posts for you ladies over the next few days! <3

More about → Icing Force of Love

*Guest Nails*

Morning! You are probably wondering who's nails these are...these are my baby sister's! Well, she is 16 but she is the youngest of my siblings so I will always see her like that. :P

Also in other news, as of writing this post I am ONE follower away from 500! Woo hoo! Thanks for being so awesome! I am gathering a few things for a giveaway but I can't promise it will be huge like last time. Sometimes simple is good. :)

On to the mani! My talented hubby did her nails one night and I liked them so much and I thought you lovelies would too!

Polishes used:

LA Girl Iron Red, LA Girl Glitter Addict in Uninhibited, and Icing Blackout

Plates Used:

Born Pretty M59 and M71

It's no secret by now I am a sucker for anything girly so I am in love! What about you?

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glitter bomb!

Good morning!
I know I said yesterday that I would be posting my Teeez holographics today, but I forgot that this is Monday. And Monday means Monday Nail Art Challenge on Polish-Aholics Anonymous!

Before I get to that, however, I want to share a link with you.
Recently I came across this blog - Loodie Loodie Loodie.
This lovely lady shares all her knowledge about nails, and I have learned SO much from reading all her posts. I read them all in 2 hours because I was so interested. I know so much more about my nails now!
Go read her posts. Your nails will thank you! She also has some YouTube videos!
(Have you noticed this happening to you? I have, and this post saved me some worrying! I thought there was something wrong with my nails!)

Okay, back to my own nails!
This week's theme was glitter bomb.
I have a lot of glitter. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do.

I decided I wanted to try a glitter gradient, using the colors from my peacock mani as inspiration!
It turned out pretty nice! But it had to come off right after taking the pictures. You'll see why.

Glitterrrrrr! The gradient effect was much smoother in person.

For these blinged-out nails I used:
Color Club - Object of Envy (green)
Milani One Coat Glitter - Blue Flash
Milani One Coat Glitter - Purple Gleam
Icing - Runaway (pinky purple)
I also used several glitters from the 2 way nail art pen set. (Shades of green and blue to help smooth out the gradient.

This was so pretty and glittery and I would have liked to keep it on... But...

Look how thick it was! It would never dry.
I took the easy way out and wiped it all off with a tissue.

More about → glitter bomb!

icing duo - force of love/magnetic attraction - swatches and review (deborah lippmann dupe!!)

Good afternoon! Today I have a more fun post for you, haha.
I'm going to show you swatches of this cool duo I got from Icing:

Yes, you are looking at a really close dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Across The Universe!
I first saw this polish on The PolishAholic, she compared them both and I was totally sold. I pretty much ran to Icing.

These sell for $8.50 in Canada or $7.50 in the states, and cosmetics are basically always buy one get one 50% off. They are only available at Icing stores.

Force of Love is a deep blue sheer base with big hexagonal blue and green glitter, with smaller blue and silver glitter mixed in.
I swatched it over 3 different blues to see which combo I liked best:

Top-bottom: China Glaze First Mate, no-name blue lollipop polish, and Finger Paints Carnation Creation.
I liked First Mate the best, so I put it on my nails!

Loooooove it. 3 fingers are 2 coats of First Mate with one coat of Force of Love. The pinky is 4 coats of Force of Love alone.

My pinky is on the right. Doing more coats gives it more depth, but these bottles are pretty small so I would rather layer it.

It's just so pretty. I'm so happy I discovered it.

And now for the next color, Magnetic Attraction. This reminds me a little of Lippmann's Today Was A Fairytale, but it is not really that close.

This one is a clear base with large hexagonal glitter that is a bit holo, and smaller black and iridescent glitter.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to swatch this one over, but then I got nail mail from Traci! And I decided to wear it over the polish she sent me.

This is 2 coats of Essie's Going Incognito. It's really pretty! A nice dark green creme. I meant to take a bottle comparison of this next to OPI Jade Is The New Black but I forgot and now I'm at work with no access to my stash :P
I guess I'll have to compare them whenever I swatch JITNB. They aren't too close.
Thank you Traci! I love it :)

And then I added Magnetic Attraction.

The glitter disperses pretty well. Almost all the iridescent glitter looks dark blue over the deep green base.

I really like this combo and I kept it on instead of just swatching it!

Verdict: If there is an Icing store near you, go there. Go there now.

In other news, my kiosk is right next to a Mrs Fields cookies store, and they are baking cookies right now, and the smell is KILLING ME.
Need. Cookies.
But cannot have cookies as I only have 16 days left for my Katy Perry diet! Hahaha.

More about → icing duo - force of love/magnetic attraction - swatches and review (deborah lippmann dupe!!)

one of the best layering combos ever!

Hey guys, when my floral mani started chipping yesterday I decided to try and remake a stunning combo that my lovely blogging friend Jane did. Her blog is Nailside and everyone should check her out because her designs are great and so perfect!

She posted this mani one day and mattifed it the next day, and the combo was so great that I had to try and recreate it!
But out of the 3 polishes she used, I only had one. So I hunted through my stash for similar polishes and I think it did the trick!
This post will be pic-heavy because it was too beautiful!

I started out with 2 coats of OPI - Yoga-ta Get This Blue.

This is a dark blue with turquoise shimmer, but the shimmer is less noticeable on the nail than it is in the bottle.

I wasn't too happy with the formula on this one, it was a bit streaky and hard to make even.
I got this for 60% off though so I don't care! This next picture is more color-accurate but a but blurry.

And then I added 2 coats of Gosh - Gasoline.
My mom heard me complaining about how much I hated the last Gosh polish I had bought and decided to exchange it for me, lollllll. I feel a little bad where I had used it on 4 nails but whatever!
Gasoline is gorgeous but a bit sheer.

Like Jane, I loved it at this step too. Gasoline was just so pretty.

(click to enlarge and see the beauty!)

I was tempted to stop here.
But I had to keep going and add OPI - Last Friday Night.

I love Last Friday Night. It is sheer, but lately I've been down with sheer polishes. And as you can see it is great on top of stuff too.

(click to enlarge and see more beauty!)

The above picture is the most color accurate, because the purple was really that visible in person!

Last Friday Night also happens to be one of my favorite Katy Perry songs. (Behind Peacock, of course. Have you heard that song? If not, go listen to it. Unless you're easily offended... heh)

And then, matte!

My matte top coat is Icing - Matte About You. 
I'm never sure about matte looks.

I like this one though! Glittery matte manis pretty much always look nice.

Just look at that purple shimmer! And all the glitter! I'm in love.

I think I managed to recreate this really well!
But the problem was, after 5 coats of color and then matte top coat, it just wouldn't dry fast enough and I took a big chunk out while doing some tidying. So I took it off. :(
But it was nice while it lasted!
I will be using Gasoline again sometime soon, I love it!

Here's a picture of the bottles.

Thanks for the inspiration, Jane! :)

I get my grades for this semester today, wish me luck!

More about → one of the best layering combos ever!

I WON!! :D / icing - runaway - swatch and review

You guys! I am one of the winners in the Bundle Monster contest!
Big thank you to everyone who voted! I'm positive I couldn't have won without you guys!
I can't wait to get the plates and start playing! :D

I'm delighted.

Now I'll show you the nail polish I am currently sporting!
It is pretty rare that I end up posting something on the day I am wearing it, hahaha.
I got this polish on Monday and put it on that night because it was too pretty not to.

Runaway is a magenta glitter polish that can't really decide if it wants to be purple or pink.
I found it hard to photograph the same way Senorita Bonita was - always too pink or too purple.
But I think I got a good one!

More details and pictures after the jump.

For this swatch I used 2 coats of Runaway over 1 coat of Revlon Violet.
I hauled out my handy wheel of purples and decided that Violet would be the best match to wear underneath it! Hahaha.

The above picture is a bit too purple.
And the next picture is a bit too pink. (But under certain artificial lights it does look this pink.)

Now, I did wear this over another color, but that isn't necessary.
I was going out to dinner and didn't want to possibly have on 4 coats of glitter because it wouldn't dry in time even with Seche Vite, so I chose the safer route.
However I did swatch it on a wheel alone, and it can be opaque!

That is three coats. The base is tinted a bit so even if the glitter doesn't cover fully, you won't have naked spots.

Love this polish. Happy I bought it. And despite the glitter it wasn't AS gritty as I expected.
You know it must be a cool polish when I wear it, alone, for 2 full days (and counting.)

Another cool thing that I noticed today as I was being distracted by the sparkly-ness is that where the base is tinted, the first layer of glitter looks darker than the second, where it has the tinted polish over it. Cool!

One more picture for good measure.

Sparklyyyyyyyy.

Thanks again for the votes you guys! :D:D

More about → I WON!! :D / icing - runaway - swatch and review