My Birthday Mani

As with almost every major celebration-type event, I spend the day running around getting things ready and leave my nails to the last minute. This isn't always a bad thing because it means that I can't go back and forth over which polish to pick - I just have to be decisive and go for it!

I did it again yesterday - it was my birthday and I had 15 minutes to get my nails done so we could get to my parents' house on time. 

What mani to go with? Time for a glitter sandwich with OPI Funny Bunny! It's a nice clean white jelly, which is perfect for the middle of summer. I layered it with my favorite version of Lippmann's Happy Birthday knockoffs - Confetti Tazmanian Devil. The fine silver glitter that makes this version different than the rest gives it an extra delicate and pretty look.

Here's a coat of Funny Bunny, one coat of Tazmanian Devil, and a second coat of Funny Bunny all over Essie's Fill the Gap! ridge filling base coat (to guarantee extra smooth, streak-free application) and topped with Seche Vite so we could get out the door as quick as possible.

I added an extra coat of Tazmanian Devil on my thumbs so they could be full-on, blingy glitter.

Simple, straightforward, and looked just like the sprinkles on my birthday ice cream cake!

Sharing Saturday: My Favorite Disappeared Bloggers

Much like the newest trends and collections they review, polish blogs come and go in the blink of an eye.

As someone who doesn't post as regularly as she should, I know that my love of polish is just as strong now as it ever was, but it's hard to get back in the game after a break. How many new polishes does a person miss in a few months? Will anyone come back to read and comment on my posts if I don't have the latest and greatest to show off? In a world that moves so fast, it's easy to understand why bloggers go missing.

Some bloggers, though, like me, All Lacquered Up, and The Polish Addict, have taken a break, and returned to their blogs to share their polish passion.

I'd like to share three polish bloggers that rocked my world before they vanished into the internet ether.

MeganChair from Little Music Boxes

Source: Polish or Perish

MeganChair wasn't the first person to take a brush and acetone to fix the edges of a messy manicure, but her tutorial was so detailed and straightforward that it became a gold standard.  This method is still referred to as The MeganChair Clean-Up Tutorial.  Seriously.  You can Google it like that!

She also wasn't the first person to ever play with accent nails, but she is the one who brought the glitter accent nail into my world. Sure, accent nails are everywhere now but they weren't mainstream back then. I loved glitter polish and to just use it on a ring finger or thumb was inspirational!

MeganChair shut down her blog, Little Music Boxes, when she needed to make time to start a family. She showed up on Polish or Perish for awhile, but ended up disappearing from there, too.  Fortunately, a few of her posts, pictures, and famous clean up tutorial still live on there for future polish fanatics to reference and enjoy.

Erika from Chloe's Nails

Source: Chloe's Nails

The Queen of the Scotch Tape Manicure. The Diva of Funky Frenches. Erika was the master of these nail art techniques. When her pictures pop up on the Stylish Eve Facebook feed without credit, I just want to jump up and down on those posts telling everyone to go to her blog to fully appreciate her nails.

Named after her daughter, Erika's blog, Chloe's Nails, had swatches of new polishes, but it also featured the many uses of scotch tape in nail art designs from French tips to rays to flames. She was nice enough to write up several tutorials, including one for the mani shown above.

She's been gone from her blog for a little over a year now, but all of the content is still there for people to learn from and admire.

Polish Hoarder from Polish Hoarder Disorder

Source: Polish Hoarder Disorder

Polish Hoarder was funny (read her explanation of the PHD symptoms) and artistic. She used a mirror to reflect her nails, she featured the polish bottle in open, unfocused fingers, she showed off her mani on both hands crossed.  Polish Hoarder's playful photography and distinctive poses quickly made her nails recognizable.

As her blog gained popularity, she fostered the good feeling of community by hosting weekly nail challenges where she would post participants' submissions in a photo gallery. Anyone that encourages community over cattiness in the polish world gets an A+ in Awesomeness from me!

This only scratches the surface of polish people that I miss reading. The long list includes Dr. Frankenpolish, the girls from The Edge of Sanity, Lacquer Laine, e-PolishBlog, and Get Nailed, to just name a few.  However, if someone told me to start a "Where Are They Now?" series of disappeared bloggers and magically gave me the means to find them, these three are the girls I'd track down first! Where'd they go? How are they doing? And, of course, what polish are they wearing now?

Color Club Otherworldly

As our weather gets warmer, I'm in the mood for colors that are brighter but not quite neon. Today I pulled out an oldie but goodie collection - the Color Club Starry Temptress from Summer 2011. This was a set of neon glitters, but some of the colors were more intensely neon than the others. I pulled out Otherworldly, a bright blue with silver, slightly holographic glitter.

This dried matte so this definitely has neon qualities, but this is not an eye-searingly intense neon. I used two thin coats for this mani, which was opaque for the casual eye but I can see some translucency in this close up shot.

This polish is packed with glitter that stays on top of the blue base, but this glitter doesn't sparkle.  A shiny top coat takes Otherworldly from matte to shiny, but not sparkly. The matte glitter gives this polish a speckled look on the nail - this shade reminded me of the mosaic floor on the bottom of a pool. This is also a very smooth glitter.  Being ultra smooth with the matte glitter made this mani look like it was done with nail polish strips.

Otherworldly was nice and long-wearing, which made the removal extra sad because it was such a hassle!! All the glitter that you can see in the bottle is there on the nail when you're trying to take this polish off.  Once the top layer of blue came off, there was nothing but tons and tons of silver holographic glitter stuck on underneath.  It took patience and acetone to get all the glitter off - lots of patience and acetone.

I still love Otherworldly because it's so cool looking on the nail, but I'll probably be smarter next time I'm wearing a polish from the Starry Temptress collection and use a glue base coat to make the removal easier.

Claire's Dream Catcher & A Winner!

I wanted to do a cute St. Patrick's Day mani. I was going back and forth in my head between ombre or gradient. Since I didn't think any of my greens leant themselves to a nice festive ombre (I could have done murky and/or olive-y) and I wanted to get to bed sooner than later, I skipped the gradient and went with a straightforward oldie but goody.

Claire's Dream Catcher started showing up in the blogosphere in 2010 and really gained a lot of steam when people noticed it was a dupe-ish cousin to Chanel Jade. Dream Catcher is a yellow-toned mint green with a fine blue shimmer. After quite vigorous shaking (and subsequent resting) to dissolve tiny chunks that had formed in my bottle, this polish went back to its old thin self and went on in three coats.

Dream Catcher is still one of my favorite light greens because of that blue shimmer. It might take three coats to get everything smooth and streak-free, but it dries fast and gets decent wear, so it's all good.

I hope everyone is having a happy Friday, especially the winner of the Sinful Colors giveaway.... April G.! Thanks to everyone who entered. I appreciate your participation and I loved reading what your favorite polishes of 2013 have been so far!!

SinfulColors Sweet Tooth & Last Day to Enter

Today's the last day to enter the Fun Friday Giveaway: Sinful Edition, so I'm showing you one of the colors that I'm giving away.

Sweet Tooth is a warm light purple with the subtle hidden shimmer of Cotton Candy and Orange Cream. While Sweet Tooth is a warm purple, it only leans pink. It's still obviously purple, not a purplish pink like OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender.

If you don't like pink-leaning purples with red undertones with your skin tone, I recommend getting Candy Coated, the blue toned purple of the Sugar Rush collection. That one also has slight shimmer.

Back to the polish! Sweet Tooth goes on fully opaque in two coats. Just be sure to thoroughly wipe the excess polish off the brush because this is a thin formula.

This is another winner from the Sugar Rush collection. Speaking of winners, don't forget to enter the giveaway! You still have a few more hours and you could win a new bottle of Sweet Tooth for your own!

Fill out the contest form after the jump!

SinfulColors Orange Cream & Fun Friday Giveaway!!

Here's another shade from the SinfulColors Sugar Rush collection!

This one's Orange Cream, which actually happens to be peach. It's soft and light enough to be reminiscent of an orange creamsicle, so maybe that's where the "orange" part came in? Orange Cream also has a hidden shimmer, which is a little bit more visible than it was in Cotton Candy.

Orange Cream is even easier to work with than Cotton Candy and fully opaque in two coats!  

In case you're wondering how peachy Orange Cream really is, here it is under my Ott light which really brings out the true tones of a polish. It's slightly more orange than it is in normal lighting...

... until you look at it compared to true light oranges like Essie Tart Deco (Art Of Spring - Spring 2010 collection) and SinfulColors Luminary (Girls in Pearls - Spring 2012 collection).

Orange Cream, Tart Deco, Luminary, Orange Cream

In comparison, Orange Cream practically looks like a pink. I think everyone should have a really good peach polish for spring and Orange Cream is getting my recommendation. It's opaque, easy to work with, affordable and has a cute hidden shimmer to make it special. This is the shade that has been disappearing first from my nearby Walgreens Sugar Rush displays so if you see it, get it!

And to wrap up this week of SinfulColors, I'd like to do a small Fun Friday Giveaway: Sinful Edition!

Unicorn, Show Stopping, Sweet Tooth

Unicorn is a core color featured in the Sugar Rush collection, Sweet Tooth is the new light warm purple from the Sugar Rush Collection, and Show Stopping is the pink holo glitter from the Almost Famous/Paparazzi collection.

I know Unicorn isn't new and Show Stopping is a possible dupe for Sally Hansen Strobe Lights and OPI Teenage Dream, but if you haven't found these displays or if you're on a no-buy or if you just like free polish coming to you in the mail, then fill out the form after the jump to enter this giveaway!

OWWWP - SinfulColors Cotton Candy

It's Wednesday. You know what that means? On Wednesdays, we wear pink!

The Sinful Colors Sugar Rush collection has eight spring-y shades that look like they're all creme finishes under the fluorescent lighting of Walgreens. But look closer!! Some of these new colors have fine, hidden shimmer!

Cotton Candy is the light pink of the collection. The shimmer is extremely subtle, but the slight twinkle is visible in real life. It's slightly more visible in the top picture - the one I took in full sunlight. On my index finger. That shimmer's really there. Slightly.

I was so excited to put this happy pretty color on that I needed three coats to smooth out some streaks due to rushing. Using a little bit steadier approach, Cotton Candy should be fine and opaque in two coats.

With two full Helmers, I know I have a few colors similar to this - OPI Strawberry Margarita, Zoya Lo, China Glaze Empowerment - but those are all a little bit darker and definitely cremes.  I'm going to recognize and appreciate Cotton Candy's slight shimmer which makes it different enough to stay in my stash!