Noho & Solitaire

Good morning! Just a quick post today with a black and white textured look I've worn for the past two days.  :)

I got a mini bottle of OPI Solitaire from my Secret Santa last month which had been on my wishlist for a while, and I finally got around to using it!  (Thank you Blair!)  I layered two thin coats over a silver polish which I'll keep a secret for now because swatches will be on the blog soon... 

I finally caved and purchased Nails Inc. Noho over the weekend, which is part of the Leather Effect collection.  I've got the burgundy and light blue and have been wanting this one forever, and I'm so glad I finally bought it!  It's a super awesome jet black with the really cool leather finish that I love.  This is two coats; it's opaque in one if you're careful, but it does wear at the tips pretty quickly.  

I really liked mixing the Liquid Sand and Leather Effect polishes in this mani; the different textured finishes were really fun together, and the black and white were a great contrast.  What do you think?  :)

Half-Moon Gradient

Good morning!  It's been a couple days since I've posted, but I was really enjoying my last mani and ended up wearing it for 3 days!  (Yes, that's a long time for me!)  Since I'm one of the few bloggers who actually posts what is currently on my nails, I had to take a short break from blogging while I enjoyed wearing my leopard-print nails.  

Anywho,  today I've got a half-moon gradient that I've seen floating around quite a bit.  The main reason I tried this was because I have an audition on Sunday, but I have a social event to go to immediately afterwards and was looking for something that I could do in french manicure colours while being more interesting than a plain french tip.  I gave it a trial run in these colours to see if I liked the look, and it turns out I LOVE it!  

I began with a base of two coats of Orly Plum Noir, and a coat of Seche Vite to speed up the drying.  I then used hole-reinforcers to block off the half-moon shape, and sponged on a gradient of Plum Noir and Nails Inc. Power Pink, followed by a second coat of gradient with Plum Noir and Revlon Raspberry Scone.  Two coats of Seche Vite to smooth it all out.  

As I've already made clear, I absolutely love this; I keep looking at my nails and thinking that I should be seeing them on a model in a magazine or something!  I think that this is such a chic, modern and edgy look that would look great in so many different colour combinations, (dark red and gold for Christmas?), and it wasn't difficult at all!  Needless to say, I'll definitely be repeating this design on Sunday in french mani colours, so keep an eye out for that post early next week!

What do you think of this look?  Do you like my colour choices?  Are there any specific colours that you think would work great for this?  :)

Fantasy Fire

I never thought the day would come when I'd have my own bottle of Max Factor Fantasy Fire, but thanks to a conveniently-timed business trip requiring my dad to go to London a couple weeks ago, I now have this beauty on my nails!  

Choosing what to wear this over for the first time really was a no-brainer, I went with Nails Inc. Baker Street (any other Sherlock Holmes fans out there?) which is a beautiful bright royal blue.  Over that I layered two coats of Fantasy Fire, followed by one coat of Seche Vite. 

It was impossible to catch the beauty of this in pictures.  It turned my base a stunning glowing indigo, with the colour shift from red to gold to green.  I've said before with various manicures that I couldn't stop looking at my nails, but THIS?  This isn't even close to the same level. 

Believe it or not I got way more compliments on this one than I've had on any of my recent stamping manis (which from nuggles (nail muggles) usually elicits a response of "WHOAH how do you do that?!?!?")  This polish is positively glowing and is just so eye-catching!

Hooray for awkward sun pictures taken in the parking lot at the dance studio/my school.  I'm beginning to have problems with my pictures due to the fact that it is now dark when I leave the house in the morning and dark when I come home.  Grrr. 

I'd also like to mention that my dad is the best person in the entire world (alongside you, mom!) especially after hunting around every drugstore in London to find this for me!  Because he's super awesome, he actually got me three bottles, but I've yet to figure out what to do with the other two.  Keep an eye out just in case  ;)

Nails Inc. Power Pink & OPI Navy Shatter

I'm not sure this is really worth its own blog post, but I had to show you what I've been wearing on my nails for a couple days now.  

This is Nails Inc. Power Pink topped with OPI Navy Shatter. This was my first Nails Inc. polish, and while the formula was perfect (almost a one-coater) I really just didn't like the colour on me. After wearing it for a couple of hours the mani was still perfect, so I put on my practically new OPI Navy Shatter to tone down the colour of the pink. I was never really a fan of the whole shatter trend, and I only own the one bottle.  This is with 3 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Invisible. I definitely didn't need 3, but I did it at school and I find painting my nails calming, so I kind of just kept going.  Anyways, here it is. 

I have some VERY exciting stuff to share with you over the next couple of days, so be sure to check back in tomorrow. Good night! :)

Tribal Nail Art

Wow, two posts in one day!  In my previous post I had a swatch of Essie Meet Me At Sunset, and now because I can't seem to leave anything alone, I've added some tribal nail art to it. 

This was my first go at anything close to tribal print, and I pretty much winged it. I'm really pleased with how it turned out!  White is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, and the black is acrylic paint.  Freehanded with a striping brush and dotting tool. 

Mildly off-topic, my parents came home tonight from a 2-week vacation in Mykonos, Greece.  There were there to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary!  Their flights had an 11-hour-long layover in London, and my mom bought my sister and I some British magazines and such.  My mom and I have a thing with international fashion magazines.  She bought me an InStyle UK, and it came with a bottle of Nails Inc. polish!  This was my first British polish, so I was quite excited.  Unfortunately, the bottle doesn't have a name; if anyone recognizes it please let me know! 

EDIT: After doing some searching, I discovered that the colour is Power Pink.  Apparently the box that mine came in was just missing a sticker! 

Also, while in Mykonos, my mom bought me a beautiful bracelet with a charm very common in Greek jewelry, thought to ward off the evil eye.  

She got me a pair of UGGs too, (not a present you'd expect from Greece, eh?) but I've been wanting a pair forever.  Given the clothes I wear being a dancer going to and from rehearsal, they are very practical.  

I'll leave you with that for tonight. How do you think I did for my first attempt at tribal nails? I love comments :) Good night!