China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy

I know fall is quickly approaching, but I cannot return to this blog without paying homage to the neon that was on my fingers and toes for the majority of the summer.

Flip Flop fantasy is obnoxiously bright. The first time I put it on I hated it because I simply was not used to my fingertips glowing. After the initial shock wore off, I found I kept returning to this polish because of how loud it is.

The intensity of this color drives cameras insane, but I managed to capture it's essence in this instagram collage. The formula is not wonderful, but most neons aren't. It also chips pretty easily. All is forgiven though, since there seems to be no other quite like it.

China Glaze - Recycle

Recently grabbed this one on a blog sale for $2, score! Recycle is a medium gray JELLY. I was shocked to see this go on semi sheer. I used two coats but could have probably used three. It has slight blue undertones, but is mostly a pretty neutral gray that would probably look good with all skin types. Dries nice and shiny.

Essie - Lapis of Luxury

I recently saw Lapis of Luxury on a coworker and had to have it immediately. This cornflower blue jelly is slightly grayed out in real life, with a subtle hint of lavender that is nearly impossible to capture in a photo. These gray and lavender undertones are what make this polish a complete win for me. The second photo is a bit more accurate color wise.

Here it is with a coat of China Glaze - Black Mesh. This is a fun but I currently love Lapis too much to justify covering it with anything.

China Glaze - Black Mesh / Zoya - Charla

I'll admit my last crackle combination wasn't making me jump for joy. It was interesting and different, but I was still on the fence about it. Well yesterday I was wearing Charla with no intention to put crackle over it and then I got bored and decided to see what happens. I AM IN LOVE. The crackle is a lot less obvious in this combo, from far away it can come across as a deep sparkly green. Once you get close up you get glimpses of the fun crackle texture. My mom even gave this her stamp of approval, which was a huge feat considering my last crackle attempt creeped her out to the point where she didn't even want to look at my nails.

Charla is even more saturated and sparkly in real life. These awkward photos are the most color accurate.

China Glaze - Black Mesh / Wet and Wild - Grey's Anatomy

Oh dear, has it been 8 months? While I abandoned this blog, I have not abandoned nail polish. I'm going to jump right in with some crackle polish. This is China Glaze - Black Mesh over Wet and Wild - Grey's Anatomy. 

I was on the fence about crackle polish in general until I saw my friend Kim wearing OPI's Teenage Dream and Black Shatter. It looked amazing on her and I immediately hunted down my own bottles. My first attempt at this combo was a bit of a failure as I was still getting used to using crackle polish. Teenage Dream, while very pretty, is just as annoying as any other glitter to remove so I decided on something a little easier to handle on my second attempt. 

Grey's Anatomy is a subtle grey/pink duochrome that works well under crackle polish (it's very similar to OPI's Not Like the Movies from the Katy Perry line). It comes across sort of nude and basic in these photos, but trust me that pink shimmer is there. This was 3 coats of Grey's and one very thick coat of Black Mesh. 

Sally Hansen - Lime Lights over China Glaze - For Audrey

Lime Lights is an iridescent mint green. It's very sheer on it's own, but quite magical as a top coat. Here it is over For Audrey - it gives it an awesome pearlized finish. I'm also excited to try this one over some darker colors.

China Glaze - For Audrey

An old favorite that looks even better with a tan! 

Essie - Turquoise and Caicos vs. China Glaze - For Audrey

I was really excited to get Turquoise and Caicos in the mail, but when I opened it it looked very much like For Audrey! Actually, Turquoise is more green. That said, I wore a mixed mani with both for 3 day and no one noticed I had two different colors on.

As far as formulas go, both are not perfect. For Audrey is thicker and only needs 2 coats, the first goes on pretty uneven. Turquoise and Caicos is kind of sheer, needing 3 somewhat thick coats for it to be opaque. I found Turquoise to be a little easier to work with.

Here is Turquoise alone (please excuse the the bumps on my index finger, I had some stubborn glitter stuck to my nail!):

And a bunch of comparison shots:

These shots emphasize the difference in color. In low light they seem almost identical. You probably don't need both. So do I get rid of one? Of course not. A girl needs back up bottles of these things! 

Upcoming Collections

I have been really excited for China Glaze's Vintage Vixen collection. Here are some photos from their Facebook site, where they also have swatches of the entire line! (you should click on through cause these bottle pics do not do anything justice).

My favorites:
Swing Baby - "taupe chrome/frost with silver micro glitter"
Jitterbug - "grey chrome with silver micro glitter"
Riveter Rouge -"deep red frost with micro glitter"

And now an awesome discovery by Flinty over at Polish or Perish: a new Color Club collection! Not much info on if/when we'll be seeing these (photo was found at 8ty8beauty.com, seems to be gone now). For now I will drool and pretend that light olive green creme in the back is a Rescue Beauty Lounge - Diddy Mow dupe.

China Glaze - Admire

This purchase was inspired for my love for Metallic Muse. Sadly, I don't think it's that flattering on my skin tone. It's a really pretty light pink/silver - it is MUCH more pink/almost lavender in daylight. You only need one coat, no topcoat, and it dries super duper fast.

Daylight:

And artificial light: 

China Glaze - Metallic Muse

This is not a color I would normally go for, but it was on sale at Sally's so I figured why not. Turns out it's completely awesome! It is extremely smooth and shiny, like liquid metal.  Silvery colors usually look odd on me but I think the shine factor adds a certain brightness that makes it work really well. It is definitely the most reflective polish I own. This is part of last fall's Khrome collection, I plan on getting Millennium and perhaps Robotika in the future.

I used Beauty Secrets ridge filler and am really pleased with the results. This is two coats, but you can probably get away with one if you are careful. Oh and it dries really fast and doesn't even need a top coat.

Hello! + China Glaze Pink Voltage

So I finally decided to start a NOTD blog. I cannot promise you perfect pictures (or perfect nails for that matter), but I can promise frequent updates and keeping things as color accurate as possible. I have tons of photos of past manis that I may or may not post (they are mostly taken with my phone camera, I am going to start getting in the habit of using a regular camera for better quality). I usually change my polish anywhere from 3-5x a week (sometimes 7, eep!), so I should hopefully be posting rather frequently. 

To start things off, my current mani -  China Glaze Pink Voltage:

I love this color! The formula was rather sheer, I used 4 coats and there was still some visible nail line; however it went on really smooth and does not feel like I'm wearing 4 coats at all.  For me, this is the perfect bright summer pink.