Neutral + Sparkle!

Sometimes I like to wear a very understated color on my nails, but I still want them to sparkle.  This is where neutrals come in!  I don't wear neutrals often, but when I do I find they make an excellent background color for many glitters.  In this case, it's a holographic metallic chunky glitter topcoat I made several months ago.

The neutral--which is, of course, too light for my skin tone to be a true nude--is Brain Power by Formula X for Sephora.  I really like this color, and the Formula X line is a new and increasing favorite of mine as well.  I've mentioned that glitter typically peels off my nails in whole pieces, but this never happens when I use "The Formula."  Sephora has developed a set that works with their Formula X polishes, and the set consists of a nail prep/cleaner, a base coat, a color of your choice (complimentary), and a top coat.  I use my glitter topcoat after the nail color and before the Formula X topcoat, and it wears...and wears...and wears.  I don't have to worry about chipping or the polish peeling off!  I usually have one set in use and a backup; this is the backup (less the bonus polish, in this set it was a color called Extreme)

This is certainly one solution if you find that glitter manicures peel from your nails all too easily!

New Summery Multi-Dot Topcoats

I've been making topcoats where all the glitter is the same size and shape for a while now (such as my homage to Minnie Style).  However, I've been seeing more and more of these polishes available commercial nail polish companies lately.  I have even purchased a few from Ciaté, Hard Candy, and Finger Paints.  However, it's always more fun and fulfilling for me to make my own!

This weekend I wanted to explore bright, summery colors.  As shown below, the polish with smaller glitter has red, hot pink, yellow, light orange, light blue, and light green hexes.  The polish with the larger glitter contains bright red, light blue, light green, pale green, yellow, and light yellow hexes.  Both are so pretty, and I've already worn them both!

In fact, right now, I'm wearing the one on the left.

This one was relatively easy to apply, and since I changed suspension base brands a couple months ago, I was able to get a good amount of glitter on the brush at once.  As a result, what is pictured is one coat over a reddish-orange L.A. Girl Disco Brites polish.

Four Years?

I've been blogging about nail polish and manicures for four years, but I simply never bothered to put the word out about it or advertise for it.

One reason was because I didn't know how long and how often I'd update, or whether I'd even keep this as a polish-related blog period.  But I've been around awhile, and I'll probably be around longer, and let's face it, I like coming up with manicure designs, glitter topcoats, and talking about nail polish, of which I own entirely too much.  The polish blogging world is over-saturated, with everyone and her mother posting manicures, but I like to think I offer something at least a little different: tips about designing your own nail polish topcoats, and ideas of how to wear them once you get them made.  I halfway want to include other topics on this blog, but for now, I guess it will be polish, and finally I'm going "live."  Honestly, I have fun doing what I do, and I love writing about what I do, and...well...I don't mind "sharing."

And speaking of sharing, there will be a nice giveaway when I reach one-hundred followers, so if you know anyone who likes all things manicure, spread the word!

In the meantime, here to visit and follow us on Facebook!

Something for the Patriotic

I was at a local Walmart not too long ago, and I saw a collection of Independence Day themed nail polish.  The Salon Perfect line, sold at Walmart, had released a limited edition set of nail polish colors and glitter topcoats all in shades of red, white, and blue!

 A press photo for the collection, called "Paint the Town Red White & Blue" (my main concern, naturally, being the glitter topcoats) are below:

 

At the store, it was the glitter topcoats I surreptitiously took a photo of:

 

I decided not to purchase them, although I'd been wanting another red, white, and blue topcoat for awhile now.  I'd been toying with the idea of buying the one from Sephora, but to tide me over I made my own last week--but more about that later.

Since I have a ton of glitter already, and of course hundreds of empty bottles, caps, brushes, and suspension base at my disposal, I decided to make my own set of red, white, and blue topcoats, inspired by both this one from Sephora called Liberty:

 

and the set of six red, white, and blue glitter topcoats from Salon Perfect.

Here they are, yet unnamed; I finished designing them two days ago:

 

The first one shown was made a week or so ago while I was still deciding whether or not to buy Liberty.  The other five I made over the space of a day.  Click on the photo to enlarge.

I need to come up with names for these, but so far, I'm very pleased with them!  

Going from l - r, the polishes contain:

1.   tiny matte red hex glitter, matte blue star-shaped glitter, tiny white matte square glitter, matte bar glitter, tiny matte white hex glitter, tiny matte blue hex and square glitter, and holographic shimmer glitter

2. a ton of equal-sized tiny matte white, matte blue, matte red, and holo red glitter

3.  tiny blue, periwinkle, red, and white stars and holographic shimmer

4.  metallic red, blue, and silver bar glitter

5. holographic red, silver, and blue moon and star glitter, and multi-colored, multi-sized holographic glitter (the only polish that contains colors other than red, white, blue, or silver)

6.  tiny matte red bar glitter, tiny matte white rectangle glitter, and tiny matte square bright blue glitter

I really LOVE these and I can't wait to wear them in flag-themed manicures!