Guess who's GOT blue?

Hello, Fireflies!

Welcome to April's Golden Oldie Thursday challenges!  Today's challenge is pastel.  And, I guess I could have picked something a little more pastel-y, but it really is a gorgeous cornflower blue.  This is a polish I wasn't looking for, but when I saw it, I had to have it:  Sally Hansen Diamond Guess Blue?

I used a cosmetic sponge with this unnamed Cosmetic Arts mylar flakie polish and loaded it up and sponged it on.  In hindsight, maybe it was a little heavy on the flakies.  What am I saying? Can't have too many flakies!

I used two coats of Seche Vite, but I probably should have used one coat of Gelous or a glitter tamer and one coat of Seche instead.  Some of the flakies were pointies and scratchies!

Even over a light blue, these flakies ROCK.  Finger Paints who? (well, just the second collection.  The first is still awesome.)

Bottle shot:  Sally Hansen Diamond Guess Blue? and an unnamed Cosmetic Arts flakie.

What's your fave pastel?

An InLinkz Link-up

Think Pink!

As we get closer to Valentines' Day, I guess I'm starting to think pink!  I have a mix of older and newer looks to show you, all inspired by pink.

Orly Sterling Silver Rose.  I love Orly.. but this one?  not so much.  I guess this pink just wasn't my fave shade, and I was really hoping that the silver shimmer in the bottle would transfer to the nails.  Nope. 

I did a sloppy gradient with OPI Suzi is a Chocoholic.  This is the only time I got to wear this color, as it slipped from my hands and broke open.. and splattered all over my carpet.  At least I still get to enjoy it most every day... on my floor.

This nameless glitter from Cosmetic Arts saved the look for me.  I like that it has a reddish jelly base, so you can't really see much of the pink anymore, but it's not so dark that it hides the fact that the tips are darker.  The glitter is chunky mylar shards, but it works for this look.  And, they all laid flat and played nice together.

Pure Ice Draped.  Many moons ago, I did a post about the Pure Ice velour (matte suede) finish polishes.  Somehow, Draped never made it into that post.  I'm a bad blogger, I know.  As a means of redemption, I include it here.  Am I forgiven?

Impala Sex Appeal.  I'm a fan of this Brazilian brand!  They've finally opened their own site that ships in the US, and Llarowe is also going to start carrying them, I believe.  Their bottles are so cute, and so far, I love the formulas.  Sex Appeal is a sexy orange/pink duochrome.  One of my fave duo combinations!

I topped it with Glitzology Guardian Angel.  This is a very pretty pink and iridescent flakie glitter with some pink hearts.  Be forewarned, though, that just about every polish I've tried from Glitzology needs to be thinned quite a bit.  This was so gloopy right out of the bottle!

Revlon Girly.  Another smash-hit glitter from Revlon this year, it's on everyone's wish list.  As well it should be, as it is awesome.  Pink jelly-ish, almost crelly (creme-jelly) base, with pink, blue, and purple glitters.  Great formula and application - really impressive for a drugstore brand, for sure.

Couldn't resist a little matte topcoat.  Love it.  A matte topcoat is so much fun to play with.  I'm currently using one from Hot Topic called Warpaint that I got for a dollar.  Essie's Matte About You is my other go-to matte topcoat, and I hear that Butter London's matte topcoat is pretty amazing.  I've even seen a 'recipe' online for making your own DIY matte topcoat with cornstarch. 

Are you feeling pink?

Naild'it? Mostly.

I love Indies and I love unique finishes, so I paired some fun undies with some fun Indies!

First up, a nameless brown-purple metallic from Cosmetic Arts.  This is reminiscent of NOPI Just Busta Mauve, but I haven't swatched them together.  I really like this color - not bad for a $2 polish.

I can't really say the same for Naild'it Brown Chicken Brown Cow.  The brown polish was so opaque, you couldn't see any of the glitter, except a few pieces of the red.

Where's the white glitter?  Where's the black?  It all melds into this brown mess.  The texture, unfortunately, is reminiscent of the one thing chickens and cows have in common.

I love brown polish.  Most brown polishes, anyway.  This one made me sad.

On to happier things.  The undies for the next mani was Finger Paints Meet Me at the Met, a metallic charcoal grey.   Again, only one coat, though. 

Now this is what a glitter in an opaque base is supposed to look like.  Even though the polish is silver, you can clearly see the blue, silver, and holo glitters in the polish.  I really like Naild'it Peacock Squawk - it's different from all the other blue glitter bombs I own.

This fall is the season of metallics, it seems.  Every collection is chock full of them, including  Cosmetic Arts.  I'm sure I have dupes for this color, but for a $2 polish it looks great and works well.

Naild'it Froggy Pond was the only polish that wasn't opaque in two coats, though it is very thick.  Rolling the glitter off the brush worked well with this polish. 

This polish is mostly microglitters in black, yellow, and green, but I loved the surprise purple circles! My husband thought they were like the lily pads in the Froggy Pond.

What do think of the metallic trend?  Will you be rockin' metallic manis?  Will you be layering with Naild'it glitters?

Doodle nails

These two manis were inspired by this Robin Moses teal filigree manicure.  I love her style, and I've tried to imitate a lot of her designs.. usually with only very limited success!

There's a lot of pictures, so come see the rest after the jump.

The Dark (holographic) Knight

I like having event-specific nails now, if I have time.  I do my nails for date night, girls' night out, and for the movies, among other things.

Guess which movie we went to see? :)

I painted my thumb with white and then layered China Glaze Sunshine Pop over it.  I used Sinful Colors Black on Black to frame the nail and draw the bat symbol.  A friend told me that when her mom looks at the bat symbol, she sees a shark's open mouth.  What is seen can not be unseen.

The other fingers are painted with an unnamed grey from Cosmetic Arts and striped down the center with Jade Magica Negra.  The pinky nail has stripes of Sunshine Pop on either side of the holo black.

Do you like to 'dress up' for special (and maybe ordinary) events?