I GOT Cuckoo For This Scene-Stealing Water Lily!

Hello, Fireflies!

Time to pull out a Golden Oldie goodie: Orly Water Lily, a lovely, smooth, silky turquoise cream.  I'm a little nostalgic for the old Orly bottle!

I remember when I discovered ordering polish online, and I had to have this cute 'paint can' bottle of Jessica Scene Stealer.  Great polish, but it's a little awkward to use that large cap.  Still, it's so CUTE!

OPI Cuckoo For This Color is just a little darker teal than Scene Stealer, but the same type of shimmery/metallic finish.  I think they look great together!

I'm digging these striped gradients lately - such an easy nail art, I like how it looks, and it's so much easier and less messy than sponges!

Bottle shot:  Orly Water Lily, Jessica Scene Stealer, and OPI Cuckoo For This Color.

Have you ever bought a bottle of nail polish (or any cosmetic) for the bottle/packaging it was in?  Have you ever wanted a cosmetic but refused to buy it because you hated the packaging?

An InLinkz Link-up

TRI Tuesday - Faux Feathers

Hello, Fireflies!

Have you ever wanted to do a type of nail art, but found yourself lacking in the materials to make it? I wanted to do a feather mani, but didn't have what I wanted.  So, in those ancient words of wisdom, I decided to fake it 'till I made it!

I started off with my nude color, Zoya Jacqueline.  Pretty almond color, lumpy, patchy formula.  Jackie is kind of a b!tch.

I may have found the perfect summer coral color in China Glaze Mimosa's Before Mani's. Thank goodness the color is amazing, because its punctuation is atrocious.

Completing the colorful faux-feather look is Takko Lacquer Nirvana, a turquoise creme with gold flakies.  These little takkitos are hard to get! She restocks once a month, and the polishes last about 3 seconds.

Doesn't this pattern remind you of feathers? From like a really weird bird? Maybe if you squint and walk away from your monitor a little.

A little more...

Keep going...

I knew you could see it.  You're so creative.  Mr. Rogers was so right about you.

Oh, that coral.  I'm in love.

Bottle shot:  Zoya Jacqueline, China Glaze Mimosa's Before Mani's, and Takko Lacquer Nirvana.

Do you fake it in your creative endeavors?  Cooking, crafting, performing?

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Tri, uh, Bi-Beachy Nail Art

Hello, Fireflies!

Ever go beachcombing and happen upon a perfect shell?  I wanted to capture that feeling in my nail art today.  I started with Aly's Dream Polish Unbleached, an oatmeal-ish nude holo.  

Waves lapping up on the beach were painted with Aly's Dream Polish I Dream In Aquamarine, and a glitter striper.  Makes me think of the foamy bubbles made when waves gently break on the beach.

These textured gold studs made me think of sand dollars.  I had a perfect sand dollar shell once that I found on a beach in Mexico when I was young.  I saved it for years and years.

My husband accidentally crushed it with a can of coins.

Bottle shot:  Aly's Dream Polish in Unbleached and I Dream In Aquamarine, and a Stripe Rite turquoise glitter striper.

I live about 20 minutes away from the self-proclaimed, "World's Most Famous Beach" in Daytona, but I don't go as often as I used to.  Maybe it's time for a little beach getaway this summer!  Do you like the beach?

An InLinkz Link-up

TRI-Turquoise Talons

Hello, Fireflies!

You may remember these KISS Everlasting French press-on nails from last week:

I wore them for about 3 days, but in those days, I polished them, removed the polish (with non-acetone remover) and re-polished them many times.  I think Thursday is the last post with these.

After applying a base coat of Rica's Glossy Glam, I used Mineral Fusion Sapphire Dream and a piece of tape to paint a small section at the top of my nails, and a large section below.  I would have preferred to make the middle section a little bigger, but the curve of the French tip and my mistakes in application pretty much dictated the size of the nude section.

Then, I took these square orange-y-coral-y studs in large and small sizes and made them into diamonds (I am clever like that.)

I topcoated them in... except the pinky.  How did I not see that those weren't topcoated?

As an afterthought, I decided to paint the tips with Mineral Fusion Galaxy, a dark bluish-black base with turquoise and green glitter.

I would have been hard pressed to fit all this on my nubs, but it was fun to do on talons!

I really liked these Mineral Fusion polishes, too.  I bought them on BOGO special ($8 for both) at Ulta.com.  Bottle shot:  Mineral Fusion Sapphire Dream, and Galaxy.

I wouldn't have necessarily thought to put nude, turquoise, and coral together, but I love the combination, and these Mineral Fusion polishes!  Have you tried this brand?

An InLinkz Link-up

A Whale of a good New Year!

Hello, Fireflies!

I hope that 2014 has been good to you so far!

I saw this nail art on The Nailasaurus, and Sammy called it, 'The Whale Tail Nail'.  I loved it, and wanted to do my own version with some of my new Aly's Dream Polish holos.

Probably one of Aly's most popular holos is Tiffanytea, a beautiful bright blue.

I can see why.  Beautiful blue, and with a light scattered holo.  This is from her Macaron collection, which are all subtle scattered holos in lighter, pastry-inspired colors.

When Aly had her last restock, she included an 'easter egg' called Super Black.  It's by far the truest black holo I've ever seen.  It's not a linear holo, which usually greys out any color it's on.  It's a great black, very different.

After applying Aly's Super Black - which in this pattern was harder than it looks - I did have to touch up again with some Tiffanytea.  I then applied the square studs and covered everything with topcoat.

Isn't this cool?  The Nailasaurus took a v-gap and turned it over, and I love it! I wish I were this creative.

Bottle shot:  Aly's Dream Polish Tiffanytea and Super Black.

Will you be donning a Whale Tail? 

Aqua Pool? Bright Lily?

Hi, Fireflies!

You may have seen some other bloggers talking about this dupe recently, but when I came across a bottle of Gap Bright Pool, I had to see for myself if it was just like Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily.

Can you tell the difference?

Aside from the middle finger looking crappy because of a patch job that is peeling off, all the nails looked the same to me.  Both of the formulas were the *same*.  Yes, the $20 (and up) RBL and the $6 Gap polish were the same, for all intents and purposes.

Better yet, the RBL is discontinued, and Bright Pool is available in Gap stores everywhere.  And right now, they are BOGO, effectively making it a $3 polish.  Boo-yah!

Bottle shot:  Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily and Gap Bright Pool.

Playing around with some of my other colors, I found a 'cousin' of these polishes, though it wouldn't be mistaken for a dupe.  I started with Illamasqua Venous, a dark turquoise cream.

I added Color Club Pearl-spective, a purple shimmer - in the same color family as the Aqua Lily/Bright Pool shimmer, but much larger shimmer particles.  It's not gritty, though.

It probably isn't worth it to buy these colors just to make a look that you can likely get for $3 at the Gap, but if you already have them, putting them together makes a nice combination.

I bought a wheel of rhinestones from Cult Nails at The Make Up Show, and decided to get silly-blingy with them.  Outrageous!

Which look is your fave?  Would you still pay $20+ for a bottle of the original RBL?

Sweet, Dangerous Hemlock!

There have been a couple of polishes that Illamasqua stopped producing and then brought back when the lacquer mafia clamored for more!  Along with Illamasqua Raindrops, another discontinued and reissued polish was Hemlock.  I was happy to get this one, too!  The base builds up to a semi-transparent nude, and the green glow is amazing.  Maybe it should be called Absinthe, not Hemlock!

 Illamasqua Hemlock.

A little striping tape and a layer of Revlon Trendy add something fun!  I love how you can still see the green glow peeking out.

There's been some hatin' on Zoya Bevin lately on the Facebook groups, and I wanted to do something pretty with it to redeem poor, tarnished Bevin.  I found this nail art by Robin Moses that I thought would do the trick.  I started with an uneven French tip of Bevin over Hemlock.

Cherry blossoms!  Robin's tutorial explains the process better than I could.

Here's all the colors I used.  Base of Illamasqua Hemlock, tip of Zoya Bevin.  Branches are Zoya Cheryl, and the flowers are a mix of Julep Glenn (metallic red) and Helen (pastel lilac).

Do they look like cherry blossoms to you?  A lot of my flowers are a little more abstract than I'd like!  I loved this look, though.

Are you a fan of polishes like Hemlock that are iridescent?  Do you think Bevin looks pretty like this?