Sinful Colors/W&W sponged gradient

Here I did a gradient with Sinful Colors - Let's Talk sponged over Sinful Colors - Fiji with a topcoat of Wet & Wild Wild Shine - Kaleidoscope.  The end result was pretty similar to Purple-xing but with subtle gradient.

... I love purple. And holo glitter. 

Skittles + stamping

A while ago I bought a super cheap stamping kit at walmart. It came with a plastic scraper (which didn't really work, so I used an old video store card instead) and stamper, and one plate with flower designs. I've had a hell of a time trying to make it function as it's supposed to, but I'm not sure if that's because I'm crummy at stamping or if it's because I'm using a super-cheap kit. Anyway. I finally got it to work halfway decently!

For this manicure I used BB Paris mini polishes (left to right: Midnight Mystery, Mulberry, Sage, and Aubergine) and stamped with a Color Club - In Bloom. Then I added a coat of OPI - I Juggle... Men, which doesn't really show in the pic but added a nice subtle purple-blue shimmer. Unfortunately I think I can blame that one for the fact that this was absolutely destroyed after one day of wear. OPI polishes always chip ridiculously fast on me.  :(

Funny thing is, Nicole by OPI seems to last just as long as most other polishes. But every single time I've used an OPI it's been a chippy mess in a day, no matter how much topcoat I use. That's reason #2 why I'm not a big OPI fan. Reason #1 is that they don't have particularly unique colors and I don't see much point in paying $8 for something I can get a near-identical dupe of for $1-$5 from another brand.

Nina Ultra Pro Purple-xing and Sally Hansen Gem Crush Lady Luck

Purple-xing is a purple creme base with silver microglitter and larger holo glitter. Possibly some smaller holo glitter as well but there's too much going on here to be sure! Surprisingly enough the base doesn't dull the glitter much. A little, but not as much as I expected it to. Pic is with top coat, this doesn't dry super shiny.

After wearing this at work and chipping the hell out of the tips, I wasn't quite ready to take it off yet so I covered up the chipping by sponging on gradient tips with Lady Luck:

Like everything in the Gem Crush line, Lady Luck has a clear base packed with microglitter and a scattering of larger pieces. Here the microglitter is pink and the larger glitters are holo, the same as the larger holo glitters in Purple-xing. This was super gritty and took several layers of topcoat to smooth out, but I love the glitter bomb effect :D

Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle - Bold Buff and Sinful Colors - Glass Pink

Well well, first post time! I guess I'll show off the polishes I'm rocking today. First I used Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle - Bold Buff.

I love this polish, it matches my skin tone and even though it's a bit sheer at one coat, it smooths out nicely and covers well enough to hide all the stains and icky yellowing (a bit of yellow shows on my pinky in the pic, but it's not noticeable IRL). 

(sorry for the fuzzy lint or whatever it is on my middle nail in the pic. I didn't notice until uploading the pics, and it's in every single one, but vanished for the next set... no idea what happened there!)

I wanted a little extra girlyness on my nails today, so I put Sinful Colors - Glass Pink over the top.

Very sheer, with my icky stained nails I can't wear this on it's own, but the shimmer is just gorgeous. I'm not sure I can describe it properly... almost like a subtle pastel holo shimmer when the light's just right, but that doesn't translate well in pictures apparently. Most of the time it looks like a silvery white shimmer. A bit of the orange-to-green shows on my pointer finger, but the rest washed right out.

I don't know why Sinful Colors don't get more love, I have yet to find one of their colors I don't adore. They tend a bit toward the sheer side, but for gals like me who don't mind a bit of nail line showing through, it's not a problem. I'd wear sheers more often if I hadn't screwed up my nails by not using base coat... now that I've seen the error of my ways I'm just waiting for the stains to grow out. I tried buffing, which helped but made my nails thin and too easily breakable before it got the stains all the way off. So I'm growing the thin bit out too. :(