LA Bella Vernice - Tinkerbell

Today is a new polish maker to me. La Bella Vernice.
I ordered 5 minis from her collection, one of which is Tinkerbell. It's a soft blue holo. The formula was great! Went on smooth and easy, and dry time was quick. It is a scattered holo, of which I am really liking lately. I'm still a lover of linear, but this really captured my heart.
I layered it over Sinful Colors Love Nails. I think that the color really matched well with Tinkerbell, and only enhanced the holo.

The Accent nail is Orly's Sparkling Garbage, another scattered holo polish that I absolutely ADORE.

I did some stamping with "I <3 Nail Polish" with a little polish bottle using NOPI Stolen Kisses. 

Tinkerbell really seemed to me like fairy dust, and that it was floating! That was really hard to capture in the photos, but it was a great effect. 

You can buy from her store at www.bellavernice.com. 

Rachel

Hard Candy Crushed on Caribbean and Orly Sparkling Garbage

I'M BAAAAAAAAACK!

It's been a very very very long time since my last post. Moving and the new job... Well... Moving and my laziness overtook me.

So, to inspire me, I felt a lil bit o' the sparkle would help! I had not used HC Crushed on Caribbean since I got it months ago, and saw it while unpacking. I love how nutso sparkly it is. Then thought... SPARKLING GARBAGE! Imagine me thrusting the polish bottle in the air in triumph. That happened.

Inside with flash.

Outside in sunlight.

My camera was overcome with the spectacular beauty that it felt that it could not do this mani justice. For real, in the sunlight it is a blue disco ball of awesome. Oh, and please forgive the tip wear on my index and middle fingers. I had to hunt for my SD card, and this mani is a few days old. Which honestly, is pretty dern good for me. I'm hard on my manis. Surprisingly, my cuticles don't look too worse for wear either. Moving wrought havoc on them.

Check out the awesome planter in the background my fiance made with his own two wittle hands. We hauled that thing from San Diego to Sacramento... He was NOT leaving it. LOL!

Speaking of Sactown... If any of you readers are familiar with the area and know of some great polish spots, or would like to meet up and geek out, please drop me a line! I don't know anyone up here and would love to meet some new friends!

Until next time,

Rachel

Nails of the Day - Ocean Waves

A girlfriend commented that my last manicure reminded her of waves more than of clouds and suddenly my mind went into obsession-mode. I couldn't stop thinking about how freaking pretty that would be!  So, I busted out my sponges and fan brush and got to work.  The result is something that I'm disappointed doesn't capture completely on camera.  I love this look!

I started with a layer or two of OPI Nail Envy then sponged a layer of  LA Colors BCC 656 (white) onto the nail from the tip to about 3 quarters down. Next came a layer of grey (Sinful Colors Slate) that was sponged down about halfway down the nail.  Sinful Colors Mint Apple was sponged throughout the grey and a little further into the white. I repeated the colors (white, grey, green) until I'd built up enough color that it was opaque but had maintained the white at the bottom to look like the wave touching shore. I came in with a fan brush and Orly Sparkling Garbage to dab in some glitter without covering up the detail before topping each nail with 2 coats of Seche Vite.

Normally, I don't prefer individual finger pictures but I couldn't get my camera to cooperate to show you the detail without it.  Sorry!

Index

Middle

Ring

Pinky

Thumb

 

Nails of the Day - Teal Dandelions

I'm heading to the bridal shower a girlfriend of mine is hosting for her sister today. When the invites came, I was in love with the stylized dandelions! I adore how simple, delicate and unique they are. So, come the day before the party I got my nails ready for the party with the invite in mind.

You can see a bit of the inspiration in the background!

What I did: I started with Emily de Molly Oceanic Forces on my accent nails and laid down a couple coats of Sinful Colors Mint Apple on my other nails. You can't see it in the pictures well, but after that came a coat of PA AA37 (a green/teal/blue shifting flakie) over the Mint Apple.  Then, realizing how much better it would look, I put a coat of Orly Sparkling Garbage over that.  I used a thin, small brush to freehand the dandelions onto the nail with Sephora Teal We Meet Again.  Finally, I fished glitter from Oceanic Forces and hand placed it on the flowers. 

I really hoped to show off how much this mani reflects light!

I only wish I could do this more justice! Soooo sparkly!

piCture pOlish - Voodoo, plus special guest OPI Funky Dunkey

Ah, the saga of the temporary insanity continues... Another installment of "I went nuts when Llarowe restocked" is here for your viewing pleasure.

I got my first piCture pOlish, and lemming down! It was so dreamy using. The first polish I used that was so easy to paint with that I didn't need clean-up! Some may say that I should have done a little touch up here and there... BUT I WAS SO PROUD! So yay for first time painting nails like a really person instead of The Bride of Frankenstein.

This pic is in direct sunlight. Outside it just sparkled like crazy! When the bottle came, it was mostly a gold/coppery dusting of glitter on the bottle, giving it a more brown than red vampy look. So, I remember thinking... Is this what I ordered?! So, I put it off putting it on. OH THANK GOODNESS I FINALLY USED IT! One of my absolute FAVORITES right now.  This pic, to me, really represents the dark, luscious, saturated color. The sparkle is not really popping in the pic though. SO.... I did a macro. Well... AS macro as *I* can get right now.

Ok, first. This photo is not edited AT ALL. It's so crazy hot awesome it came out. It looks so velvety.

As much as I LOVED this by itself, I wanted to try out something new I also got from Zulily when they had the OPI duo's on sale. OPI Funky Dunkey was paired with OPI Black Spotted!!!!!!! ANOTHER LEMMING X2 DOWN! To have the opportunity to FINALLY get Black Spotted for less than $4 billion?! That's just... I'm verklempt. Mucho fotos soon.

Moving along... I did some nail art with Funky Dunkey. I am actually proud of it. It's me. Fun, jagged, understated, and lovely. Iffffff I do say so myself... Also, I googled color wheels and played with colors and this is my favorite combo that I made... MOVING ALONG....

In these pictures the sparkle comes out better. I took them in direct sunlight. This is the first set of pics that I took without artificial light. 

To conclude, this I am pretty proud with this post. I think I did a good job with the color combo and the pics. :D

Don't forget about our giveaway. As I posted in FB,  *IF* *WHEN* we reach 200 likes we are adding an additional polish per prize. We will reveal the prizes after reaching 150 likes. There's a Julep, two Barielles and an Ulta.  Don't miss out on your chance to win a CUSTOM indie +1, 4 Barielles +1, 3 Calvin Kleins +1, and Orly Duo +1!!!!!  Pretty sweet deal. 

Rachel

Giveaway!

OH YES IT IS HERE!!!!
Avast me hearties! Weigh anchor! We be on a journey to Polishlandia!
Where the pretties be sparkly, and the color abounds.

In celebration of the change in the name of this blog, we are having a GIVEAWAY!

Replygif.net

He's so sexy.

Ahem...

We have four wonderful prizes!!!!! 

Prize 1: Carpe Noctem Cosmetics - No Sweets for Sweet Jujie

This is a custom polish Emily from Carpe Noctem Cosmetics made! IT IS INSANITY OF BEAUTY IN A BOTTLE! I asked her to do a polish for my kitty, Jujie. Emily generously donated another bottle for our celebration! He was recently diagnosed with diabetes, and it was a very scary road towards this. He is way better now, but no more carbs for Mr. Kitty!

This is No Sweets for Sweet Jujie over aEngland Tess D'Urbervilles. NSfSJ is in a sea green/teal jelly base with large holo circle, gold hex, and magenta hex glitter.  The green base is the spitting image of his eye color (which I asked for), and the glitter is like candy and wrappers! Emily is so amazing to work with, and she really cares that the polish turns out exactly how you want it. Thank you to infinity, Emily!

 Prize 2:
Three Calvin Klein Splendid Color polishes. Fuchsia Pink, Salmon, and Bright Fuchsia. I thought these are so summery, and thought would be perfect for the giveaway for this time of year.

Prize 3:

Four Barielle polishes in Exquisite Dance, Positive Zen-ergy, Secret Admirer, and End of the Rainbow. They aren't really as summery, but I thought they really went well with each other.

Prize 4:

An Orly duo of Ultra Violet and You Are Not Alone.  The pic shows them a bit darker than in person. I tried to get as good of a pic, but my camera was not wanting to cooperate.

This giveaway will run from August 14 to September 19 (Talk Like a Pirate Day, btw). When it's over, thar shall be treasure! This is for U.S. only. Still looking into how to get the international ladies in on the treasure!

There are a few mandatory entries, and all entries will be verified. Those who do not participate correctly will be disqualified.  All prizes are brand new, and purchased by me, Rachel. Once the prizes are mailed, the blog owners are no longer responsible for the items.

Good luck!

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