Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow

It's been a sinfully long time since I last posted (or - gasp - even read a blog)...  Even my polish purchasing has been very minimal.  From what I've read in my Facebook groups, it seems there have been a semi-significant number of us who simply haven't been feeling like blogging in the last couple months, so perhaps it's not just me.  That and it's SUMMER!!! :D ...although it's been more like a monsoon season around northern MN.  I have to give a big round of applause to all of you who still manage to put up beautiful, worthwhile content several times a week.  *applause & adoring crowd noises...WAAAH!

That said, I would love to show you something I wore the other day. :)
Hare Polish Neon Palm with an "anti-accent" of Essie The Girls Are Out (which totally reminds me of when I wore a bikini for the first time ever on our Mexican vacation in Feb).

This was taken on a rare sunny day last week. :)  Very rare, I'm tellin' ya!  I've had Neon Palm for quite awhile (last fall, perhaps?) but more recently scored TGAO for less than half price when K-Marts were all clearing out their Essies.  I did have to "fight" with the cashier because only one of the 3 I got were ringing up right.  I think I said something along the lines of: "I'm a nail polish blogger and all my fellow bloggers have been posting about K-Mart not carrying this brand anymore, so they're all supposed to be on clearance."  It was a teenage guy cashier and I totally got a bewildered "she's bat poop crazy!" look. :-P  Ended up being worth it though!!!

Typically, Hare formulas are magically easy to apply, despite the very heavy glitter load.  This one was sadly an exception.  It was like giant, gluey clumps glitter, especially after I tried to wipe off the excess in the bottle neck.  :-/  I think some thinner will be in order!  After two painstaking, slow-drying coats followed by two coats of Seche Vite to try and smooth out the mountains & valleys, I ended up with a very pretty mani. :-)  Perhaps as my grandma would say: all's well that ends well?? 

Oh and I must mention that I used Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A-Peel for my base.  It dries fast & is very effective, and uh, the punnyness of the brand name is just GREAT. hehe!!!  I am so glad to have found a peel-off (or pop-off, like in this instance when I used 2 coats instead of just one) base that makes me WANT to wear my glitterbombs!  Even though it sometimes comes at the price of removing patches of nail plate.  You've been warned!  The 2 coats making a whole "nail" pop off at once seemed to negate that issue, so I guess there's an upside to it.  Although the sheer thickness of this mani might've been a significant factor. 

Surprise fave shot in the shade!  If you look closely, you can see a very similar shimmer in both polishes.  And the color of TGAO matches the neon pink glitters perfectly once they're semi-sunken in the murky zombie flesh grey/blue/green of Neon Palm.  I LOVE discovering I have the perfect creme to match one of the glitters in a glitter topper or a glitter jelly or crelly polish!!

TGAO applied very easily and beautifully in just two coats - quite a turn of events when an Essie is the non-problematic polish! lol  I do have to say it was a tish runny so I was careful to keep it away from my cuticles.  But other than that, it's quite nice and I'm especially smitten with the silvery fleck shimmer.  It reminds me of Zoya Reagan + fairy dust. :)  "Love-UH-leee!!" (think Eliza from My Fair Lady)

Have lovely Sunday, my dears!!!!  I hope summer is treating you well. :)

Challenge mani #2: Sparkles

Well well, the challenge & I meet again!  And again, I was not entirely sure what to make of the theme for today...  I mean, obviously, glitter, but since this is an ART challenge, I couldn't really just do a bunch of glitter skittles & call it good...

I immediately settled on using some Shimmer Polish since I'd recently acquired Leslie & Julie from yet another Pinterest sale.  Gosh I love those things!  They're like the garage sales of the polish world! hehe  

For the rest of the nails, I had two different ideas & ended up going with the one I thought  I could execute the best. ;)  So without further ado:

I give you Shimmer Julie as an accent, coupled with Revlon Parfumerie Wild Violets (which I FINALLY procured just yesterday at Target in the biggest "city" - roughly 15,000 people - near my hometown), and of course the requisite "sparkles."  P.S. I also scored Autumn Spice and China Flower, but they'll have to continue to hold their caps & wait in the wings for their debut on Must.Stash. ;)

Knowing 2 coats of Julie would be a pain to remove - although I probably should've done 3, I decided to forego a base coat and apply a medium layer of Elmer's glue straight outta the bottle & directly to the nail in hopes that I can use an orangewood stick to "scoot" it all off like I've seen in various tutorials.  I'll keep you posted on whether or not it works.  I'm thinking not, because it didn't even start lifting in the shower this morning.  So I must be doing something wrong, or I need to break down & buy Nail Pattern Boldness's Glitter A Peel!

The OTHER HAND.  Nope, no nail art sparkles, just a smattering of Set in Stones.
...ain't nobody got time for that!

Anyhoo, I used my recently acquired Duri Rejuvacote for the base on my other 8 nails.  It dries to quite a smooth & glossy finish, and I'm starting to wonder if that's why my new Zoyas and now this Revlon did not behave very nicely on the first coat... Lots of pulling and streaking and general unevenness.  The second coat however, righted all previous wrongs and wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles; I had no polish acne!  So either this scented stuff cures faster or I just had a rare good polish night. :D

Most of the time, WV looks darn near black on the nail (as you see in most of my photos), but this is the beauty that lies beneath!!  Oh, and the blurred out accent shows its many fine rainbow glitters. :)

Speaking of the scent, for me it was rather sweet & fresh with a hint of fruity, a bit strong for the first few hours and then I went to bed and I kept noticing it while trying to fall asleep.  I could still smell it at work today after adding Rejuvacote as a top coat, but much more muted.  Now (24 hrs later) it's completely gone.  I'm super excited to discover the scents of the other two I got!  Of course I've read other blogger's descriptions at length, but it's a different story to experience something for yourself. 

Ok, so I suppose I should actually talk a bit about why/how I did this mani for the challenge! lol  Umm the first thing that came to mind were the cartooned "sparkles" you see when light hits something shiny, or for example, the glint in someone's eye.  So using dotting tools and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, I drew the body of the sparkles and then hex by hex, I added my ever so useful Essie Set in Stones.  Voila!  It didn't look as fabulous as I'd envisioned, and I couldn't get my camera + daylight bulb combo to actually make them sparkle and capture it, but oh well.  I do like it enough to show you, and that's saying something!

Goodnight my dear readers!  Sleep well!! :)

Twinsie glitter gradient with my BFF!

Hey ladies!  I'm pretty excited to show you this today.  My first attempt at a glitter gradient!!  I was trying to come up with ideas for something my best friend would want to wear with her stunning outfit for a friend's wedding in Chicago; a wedding for which she played piano and sang, and her husband officiated.
So it needed to be stellar.  And since she's a pianist, it had to be executed in a way that would ensure staying power.
After showing her a couple of my ideas that I'd done on those clear Sephora cellophane squares with fingers outlined on them (maybe you've seen them in stores now? They're for testing out the polishes :-), something in what she was describing made me show her this mani:

ALL credit goes to www.chalkboardnails.com!

Her response: "Oooh! I l♥ve that!!" ;)  So the next night I set to work on my own nails so I could practice the technique and test drying times on a couple different options of reds and I wanted to show her another color just for the sake of variety. :)

The difference is almost inperceptible; I have Zoya Karina (2 coats) on my thumb, Sally Hansen Unbreakable Heart (2 coats) on my pointer & index, and Zoya Daul (1 coat over OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI?) on my ring and pinkie. Personally, I love the extra glitzyness that Daul lends to the gradient, but Michelle opted for the classic red - her favorite nail color. :)

Don't ask me why, but there is some optical illusion going on making it look like I got the red all over the side of her ring & pinkie fingers. It's not, I promise.  So, pay no attention to the optical illusion behind the curtain and focus on the loveliness! ;)  (and a gold star to anyone who caught that movie reference)

I will however make the disclaimer that for some reason, my photos are not showing the warmer tones that Zoya Karina has IRL. :( I did try to edit and color correct them, but it still came out more of a dull, cool brownish tone. :-/ Grrr!  I'm so sorry, readers. :(

Both of us together!!! :D  ♥  This was SUCH a fun night... I gave her a full-on mani/pedi complete with foot soaking and massages. I love doing that kind of thing with/for my friends!

To execute her mani with staying power, I started with one base coat of Orly Bonder, then 2 coats of Sally Hansen Unbreakable Heart (a rich, vibrant shimmery cherry red with tiny gold microflakies), and then I took a tiny triangle of makeup sponge and using a tweezers, I sponged on Essie Set in Stones and Milani Gold to add more depth to the effect. Then I covered the whole thing with Sally Hansen Ultra-Wear Top Coat (the box says "Salon perfect finish up to 10 days. Guaranteed."  They're the same bottles as the Salon Manicure line with the silver caps).  

Oy. Trying to photograph two peoples' hands in the same frame is NOT as easy as I thought!
Not to mention I was laughing so hard my hands were shaking. :P

Aaaand apparently my plan and the polishes worked because I talked to my friend on Friday and she still had no chips!  I did the manicure the previous Wednesday and she'd played piano on Sunday morning and again for the wedding. :D :D ...plus full work days of typing. WIN!  Oh, I forgot to add, I had her take top coat with her and put on a second coat while they were driving the next morning.  It was about 11 pm by the time I finished doing her mani (and the matching pedi - I did the gradient on her big toes :), we were super loopy, and after the photo shoot, we were done for, so the 2nd application of top coat had to wait!

My hand, chillin' out in the background ;)  SO hard to get both on the exact same plane

I hope you enjoyed ogling the prettiness - I know I sure did!  Seriously, I was constantly admiring the extreme flashiness of Set in Stones in the fluorescent lights at work all day, every day I had this on. ;)
And rest assured, there will be future twinsie manis because I (&, hopefully she) had a blast doing this!!!

100% dotticure, 100% fun!

I have played around with dots before (some of you might remember this mani & this mani), but I've never done a full-on dotticure.  So the other night I busted out a bunch of fun, vibrant cremes and a super sparkly foil and just went for it!  I thought the colors looked awesome together in the bottles, but I wasn't such a fan once they were on my nails in tiny dots. :-/  I'm not entirely sure why...maybe it just felt too kiddish for me?  My inspiration was this dotticure from The Polish Playground, and I think I like her color palette much better.  Feels more grown up & refined!

I used one coat of Sinful Colors My Buoyfriend on all but my ring finger, which is two coats Sinful Colors 24/7 (no undies) which I will again tout as the perfect chalky neon pink!, then used Zoya Arizona, Essie Mojito Madness, My Buoyfriend, 24/7 and Skinfood Glipop Pedicure Sparkle 05 (annoyingly "named" yet gorgie South Korean polishes!) for the dots. :)  All sealed with some Seche Vite.

In an uncharacteristic move for me, I'm only showing you one photo of this mani, simply because I didn't really love it.  I think it might have to do with the fact that the first thing that popped into my head once I had it all done was: Día de los Muertos sugar skulls.  e.g.:

Yes, this is a cookie, but you get the idea.

I hate skulls.  Can't even believe I'm putting this on my blog! :P  Anyhoo, maybe some of you will find this super fun and awesome...  if anyone wants a dotticure for Día de los Muertos, come see me!

Skittles for Essie - A tribute

As many of you probably know, Essie of iHeartPrettyPolish has announced that she is stepping away from blogging, possibly forever. :(  HUGE sad face!  But I'm also very proud of her for making a hard yet necessary choice, for her well-being.
In honor of her fabulous style and famous skittlette combinations, some of her blogger buddies and I (Melissa of Lacquer Reverie, Christine of Polished Marvels, Liesl of Liesl Loves Pretty Things, and Dani of From Polish, with Love), inspired by her manis, hatched a secret plan to create our own skittlettes to celebrate & appreciate her & let her know she's loved - whether or not she is blogging - and will always be an inspiration. :)  So here's to you, Essie dear!!!! :D

Each polish used in this mani has a story.
Thumb: Zoya Reagan
I first saw it in one of Essie's posts, and was convinced it was the perfect raspberry creme. It is.
Pointer: Essie Sand Tropez
This is especially special - the polish that started my & Essie's friendship. :)  I had commented on her post about this polish, saying I was looking for the perfect nude, and she graciously offered to just send it to me because it wasn't right for her skintone.
Middle: Butter London Victoriana
A brand-new acquisition as of yesterday, highly recommended by Essie as one of her all-time favorites.  I can totally understand why!
Ring: Julep Trina + Hit Polish Retro Chic (now d/c & 40% off, fyi!)
Essie included this one as a little surprise when she sent me Sand Tropez, which was unbelievably kind...my first introduction to what a great group nail bloggers are!  I topped it with Retro Chic because in her skittlettes, she usually did a blingy accent with a Shimmer polish.  Having none, I improvised & I think the colors of glitter in RC go well with the cremes. :)
Pinkie: Essie Mojito Madness
Another one I saw in an old post of hers.  I fell in love with the shade, and despite my trepidation towards greens, I had to have it.  Boy, am I glad I saw that post!  This polish transports me to a tropical isle every time.

All of these polishes have top-notch formulas, easy two-coaters (some only one: Reagan, Trina, & Mojito Madness), and they dry super  shiny!  I only put Seche Vite over the glitter accent nail.  For real!!
*Note: I did use two coats of all except Trina & Retro Chic simply to ensure the highest quality for this post.

My blog would probably not exist were it not for her.  Here's an email excerpt of her prompting me to start one: "Well maybe you should have a blog. :) Let me know if you need help starting one! I'll be your first follower. And awesome that you are in Minnesota. That's another reason you need a blog, I have no other bloggers in MN that I know about. :( I'm lonely."
Once I decided to take the plunge, she gave me SO much support & countless helpful tips, like turning off the word verification thing for comments, nail & cuticle care (including her own routine), and a helpful guide to painting your nails neatly when she saw how frustrated I was getting with it. :)

I want to thank you SO MUCH for being a part of not only my hobby blogging life, but also a real-life friend - even though we've never met.  You're a wonderful person whom I feel so privileged to know.  I wish you all the best in life & in blogging, should you ever decide to come back. :)  ♥

My mismatched, matching, minty mani...Mmm Mmm Mmm!

After my trip to Chicago, I've been feeling rather uninspired and blaah about blogging...figure that one out: Chicago should've been chock-full of inspiration!  And really, it was, but I think the trip and the last couple weeks have just taken a lot out of me.  Anyhoo, after poring over some really awesome nail art posts this week, and pulling from some old favorites as inspiration, I came up with this:

Left hand!!  Oh YESSS! 

I decided it was time to "go big or go home," so to speak, and I think I accomplished "big."  :-D  It's by no means perfect like so many more experienced nail art bloggers, and of course the area around the cutes is not immaculate and perfectly rounded (I cannot for the life of me figure out how they manage that, even with detailed, intense cleanup!), but anyhoo, I feel rather proud of this mani. :-)

On to what I used and the process!

L-R: Essie Fill the Gap basecoat, Maybelline Green With Envy, Skinfood 22W (Korean polishes & their numbers...sheesh!), Essie Mojito Madness, NYC French White Tip, Rimmel Hot Black To Go, Zoya Vespa, and Sally Hansen 4-in-1 Complete Care

I started with Fill the Gap which is my new base and I really love it!  It's almost like OPI's Barre My Soul, but it dries to a satin finish.  I have considered wearing it on its own, actually. ;-)  Last night though, it was behaving strangely and driving me nuts...the humidity here was pretty atrocious (which I think gave all the polishes a bad attitude last night :-P ) and we had a ceiling fan on over the table, so that probably added to the issues.  I actually had to redo the base coat on  my left-hand thumb and pointer.

 ANYways, I proceeded to lay down Rimmel Hot Black To Go on my thumbs and pinkies and Maybelline Green With Envy on the rest.

Not too shabby!  This was with no cleanup. :-D  If I were channeling Essie, I would've probably happily stopped here. ;-)  . . . But I couldn't quit!  Must. press. on!

Having done dots before, I knew they were relatively quick 'n easy, so I started with Skinfood 22W (a blow-your-mind bright sky blue metallic foil!) & used a good 'ol yellow wooden pencil tip as my dotting tool, making a diagonal line across my pointer and ring fingers.  I then added rows in Mojito Madness and French White Tip.  Sorry, it went so fast I didn't have time to take pictures! :-P  . . . so I'll just have to show you another one of the finished product! Oh bother!

The middle finger was originally going to be stamped with a Bundle Monster design, but the Rimmel black and a Revlon shimmery black were not stamping well, and I stamped crooked, tried a different design, even gave black acrylic paint a try!  But I just wansn't feeling it, so my eye spied the newspaper on the table & thought ah HA! I've been hankering to try the newspaper transfer technique!  Only took a little rubbing alcohol, some rubbing, and voila!

Here's a YouTube video with a few different techniques:

Then on to the most challenging part of the mani: the hand-painted roses. :-/  The blog I originally saw them on (www.workplaypolish.com) said they were really easy to do as the lines that form the petals are supposed to be "organic" and not "perfect."  That is correct, but it was still a painstakingly long process as I wanted them to be easily recognizable as roses.  Working with a Zoya Pixie Dust was a tad difficult as it dries to its gritty, lumpy texture relatively quickly, especially in such small quantities (for all the dots & the roses, I'd just place a dab of the polish on a piece of cardboard).  I don't have an actual set of nail art brushes, but my roommate just bought a huge pack of pretty good quality craft brushes, so I used a brush with a rounded point, 1/8" wide x 1/2" long bristles.  The technique itself is fairly simple: start with a dot (either centered or off-center, whatever strikes your fancy) and make curved lines radiating out from the center.

I ended up loving my left pinkie ^ and right thumb the best. 

Right pinkie was awful!  I ended up going back with black to "erase" some of the misshapen Vespa blobs & then redefining them with more Vespa.  Painstaking process, let me tell ya!  No wonder it took me like, 3 hours start to finish!  Gotta give a shout-out to my other roommate for helping me keep my strength up during this nail art marathon by literally feeding me grapes when I couldn't touch anything. :-D

Speaking of finishing, I believe this post is coming to a close - to which you are probably drawing a sigh of relief!! 
I finished the minty fingers with the Sally Hansen 4-in-1 clear coat (given to me by my sister - she wasn't a fan).  But I really like it as it can be used as a base that is really nourishing & also claims to help fill ridges (thanks to bamboo extract), and then as a topcoat which although is not nearly as fast drying as Seche Vite and doesn't have that thick, glassiness to it, but it does add a nice shiny protective layer WITH NO TIP SHRINKAGE! :-D lol  There are tradeoffs to everything, I guess. ;-) 

Decided to try a pose I saw on another blog...kinda "meh" about it.

Well, I hope you ladies like this "mismatched" look as much as I do and maybe it'll inspire you to try something similar!  Thank you again for bearing with me through a long post . . . apparently I can't be succinct to save my life!

Nail art; Is it summer yet?

Nail art is something I find totally incredible.  I love looking at designs and ways to execute them & try to replicate them myself.  Even watching the manicurists put the tiny, dainty flowers on my friends' nails is just fascinating.  Hmmmm . . . I am unusually wordless today.  I really must be tired!  Haha

My roommate & I were flipping through her newest? Cosmopolitan magazine and found this:

And heeere's my take on it!  

Can you feel the sand between your toes and hear the waves crashing? :-)

I decided to add a mini star from my bottle of Jindie Nails "Fantastical"
I was going to attempt to freehand a star using a toothpick, but something
was telling me I'd end up ruining the design.
So I opened Fantastical and the little guy was right there waiting for me! ;-)

Sand Tropez (what else?!), French White Tip, Skyline Blue, and  Milani Twinkle

I hope you lovely ladies are inspired to try some nail art of your own . . . don't expect perfection (mine was nowhere near the magazine photo), but you might surprise yourself!  And besides, since we're surrounded by non-lacquerheads in our daily lives, they're guaranteed to be wow-ed no matter what. :-) 

I am SO blessed - - by nail mail :-)

Ok, I realize this is a rather odd thing to feel blessed about, but perhaps I just feel that way because when I think of being blessed by nail polish, somewhere in the back of my mind, there is this tiny thought that God does not bless people with nail polish as it's such an insignificant thing in the broad scheme of things.  But He does bless us with amazing people in our lives - some of which just happen to send us polish! hahaha :-)

Lookit these beauties!!! Mmm...some of my favorite brands!
PLUS a super sweet card :-)

Today I'll be showing you my second package of nail mail, which I got from Melissa, the beautiful brains behind Lacquer Reverie. :-)  Like my previous package from my dear Essie (iHeartPrettyPolish), she sent me this purely out of the kindness of her heart.  Awwwww! LOTSA warm fuzzies here! :-D

There's no name on this one, but I've ascertained it's Port-Folio from the 2012 Fall Fashion collection

Just look at that green duochrome amazingness!
Melissa must've noted my love for dc's! :-D

Since I am seemingly unable to make myself swatch every new polish I get right away so I have swatch photos for my blog, I figured I might try this occasionally. If you'd like to see this Color Club on the nail, check it out here:

http://www.onceuponapolish.com/2012/10/color-club-port-folio-notd.html

What do you guys think about this approach? ^^

OPI DS Jewel - a gorgeous liquid copper with purple-y pink and gold shimmer/sparkle

Zoya Arizona
I can't wait to wear this intense cantaloupe creme!
The IRL color is somewhere between this & first picture.

Zoya Yara
Stunning, mysterious dusty moss green with a boatload (bottleload?) of gold flecks

I just had to include a pic of what Essie sent me, complete with her sweet 'lil note :-D
I showed them individually in other posts, but I wanted to do a cute arrangement.
Note: I cannot seem to capture the IRL color of  Sand Tropez.
This is after some editing; still not quite right. :-/

This isn't nail-mail related, but it does relate to being blessed. :-)  My sister came to visit me today, and she brought me a lovely and tasty surprise: Two Fools - 48th Parallel, which is from a local vineyard (literally, like 10 miles away).  As I held it up to the sunlight, it reminded me of my OPI Malaga Wine.  Well, this is Minnesota wine, but they sure do look the same!  Malaga Wine was a polish I purchased mostly because of its nostalgia factor.  I miss Spain with all my heart!!!  And of course, every woman needs a gorgeous deep red polish. :-)  Feast your eyes on the beauty and intensity:

I also wanted to comment on my thumb in the photo of Zoya Yara.  I'm STILL wearing my Pixie Dust Vespa mani - boy, does that stuff wear terrifically!  Barely any tip wear at all (as you can see if you click on the photo to enlarge it), and NO chips.  I did put mine over one coat of Zoya Neely, and a coat of Revlon Quick Dry base coat on my right hand as an experiment.  No chips anywhere!  :-D  I guess this is a huge "pro" for textured polish.  I'm sure I'll be taking it off with the easy glitter removal method as the staying power is about the same - gotta haul out the big guns!  If you're not familiar with this method, check it out here:

I can attest that it works VERY well!

I have so many beauties from my nail mail; which one would you guys like to see?  You can refer to my massive haul photos here too for other options. ;-)

Sleep well, y'all . . . and the HAPPIEST of Mother's Days to all you moms!!!!  (I'm just thanking God I'm not one of 'em! lol!)

NAIL MAIL!!! ...and the mani that's been waiting for it. :-)

Happy weekend, everyone!!  Ahhh do I ever love Friday nights!!  Even though I'm sitting at home doing nothing (other than reading blogs and looking at polish swatches on Google Images), I love the feeling of having two whole work-free days stretching out before me like the pages of an open book. :-)

Today was a pretty important occasion (in the life of a new blogger) as you can probably tell from the title of this post. I received my very first ever nail mail from a blogger friend. :-D
Essie from iHeartPrettyPolish sent me the wonderful, undeserved gift of her bottle of Essie Sand Tropez - a polish I've been ogling every time I go into Wal-Mart or Kmart as I keep seeing manicures that use a nude base, which I did not have up until this point.  Included in the bubble mailer envelope was a BEAUTIFUL, unexpected surprise: Julep Trina.  I have no idea how she could've known this, as I'm just starting to discover I have a thing for vampy, shimmery, glittery purples, and especially duochromes!! :-D  So imagine my surprise when I pulled that beauty out of the bag!  I already have a mani idea (inspired by my shower curtain, of all things!) that I will do as soon as the mani I'm showing you today wears to the point of being unacceptable.  As I said in my original post, part of my goal is to provide info about the wear time you may expect from a polish.  So here are the day 1 photos:

Super fun dot/gradient mani! Looking at this now though, I'm horrified at the polish I somehow left on my cuticles.  I swear I touched up before I took these pics, so I don't know how I missed it. :-/ Embarrassing!

Got a 'lil carried away on the pinkie! Whoops.

This is my favorite one. :-) So happy with how it turned out!

I decided I had to take a pic with my Lia Sophia rings since they match the color scheme so perfectly!

Other thumb. Also very nice.

The one - the ONLY: ESSIE SAND TROPEZ!!

And I had to get a good bottle shot of this one too. I'd been wanting a purty orange glass fleck ever since I saw China Glaze Riveting.  So I was very happy to stumble upon W 'n W's 9-0-2-1-Orange! Only $1.69, babyyy!

I just realized I posted manis inspired by other bloggers (and ironically, the same blogger two posts in a row!  Oh well.  See Chalkboard Nails' version here if you'd like. :-)  I sure wish I had long nail beds like hers!!
http://www.chalkboardnails.com/2012/06/gradient-dot-manicure.html


What I used:

L-R: Revlon Base, Essie Sand Tropez, Revlon Royal, Kleancolor Orange Metallic, Wet 'N Wild 9-0-2-1-Orange, and SV

I did one coat of the quick dry base, which I am fairly certain I will be replacing with a different brand as this one is getting so gloopy and stringy every time I take the brush out of the bottle.  I mean, I realize base coat is in part supposed to help the polish stick to your nails, but this formula is just kinda "ick."  So I'd like to see what else is out there.  

Ok, so base coat (I get off-topic quickly!) - then two coats of Sand Tropez which I soooo badly wanted to get good pics of before the nail art, but I had some bubbling issues (could've been from over agitation as I hopped up and down when I got the package, and/or the fact that I was so eager to get this beaut on my nails that I didn't allow proper drying time between coats).  Pretty smooth application though a tad streaky, it evens itself out very well!  Mmm, love it!

Also due to this eagerness, I forgot I'd intended to do an accent nail of just solid 9-0-2-1-Orange, so I ended up painting two coats of that over one coat of Sand Tropez on my ring fingers.  Oh well, it was probably good undies for it, as the orange has a jelly base. :-)

I then proceeded to scrounge up "dotting tools" . . .a.k.a. the clicker end of a retractable pen, and the lead tip of a pencil. ;-)  Rock what ya got, right?  I used Revlon Royal first, and then the Kleancolor, just trying to make the dots random and different sizes.  You can see the baby dots in Royal on my pinkie. 

Then of course I finished everything off with a medium coat of Seche Vite.  THERE YOU HAVE IT, FOLKS!  

I couldn't stop staring at my nails today.  Finally doing this mani made me happy...and it happens to remind me of one of my favorite movies, Finding Nemo.  The orange and the blue: Marlin/Nemo, and Dory. :-D  And of course, the fact that the dots look like bubbles:

Thank you for reading, and if you made it to the end of this LOOOONG post, you deserve a gold star!!!