Guest Nails: Sarah Edition

Hi lovelies! This post is dedicated to my lovely friend Sarah who lent me her nails for an evening so I could show you on my blog :) You may have seen Sarah comment as "smileviolet" so feel free to say hi or compliment her on her lovely nails and painting job!

Anyway, I dug out my stash and let Sarah pick, and she decided on Mad as a Hatter (thanks again Jamie!). I told her she probably needed to layer it, and we collaborated to decide on Color Club Alias as her base color with two coats of MAAH on top.

There you have it! I think Alias was the perfect choice. Both had the same purpley-grayish base which made them blend in together and covered up any bald spots MAAH may have left on its own. Sarah really enjoyed it and couldn't stop looking at them! I think they are pretty traffic stopping! What do you think?

xoxo,
Amanda

Swatches Galore

Hello my dears! I couldn't hold out any longer... here are some swatches. One was Mad as a Hatter, which I couldn't wait to do anyway, but a reader requested MAAH and the Ulta set swatched, so here we go!

I couldn't make a decision about MAAH, so I decided to try layering it over a few polishes. I used varying degrees of purple. From left to right, we have MAAH on its own, MAAH over Ulta Celebutante, MAAH over China Glaze Harmony, MAAH over OPI Not like the Movies, and over OPI Have You Seen My Limo?. This is two coats of MAAH over all the bases.

On its own, MAAH is too sheer for my taste and the more coats you add, the easier it chips. I decided to use ChG Harmony because that seemed to look best, although I realize it makes MAAH look more purple than it really is.

Here's my mani with MAAH over ChG Harmony... sorry for the messy cleanup. No matter how much you clean up with glitter, there's always some pieces left behind that are impossible and I didn't see these little pieces until the pictures were on my computer :(

So what do you think? I loved this. The base color plus 2 coats MAAH was perfect: beautiful, sparkly, and not chippy! Exactly what the doctor ordered.

Next up I have the Ulta Under the Sea swatches. These polishes are gorgeous, I'm so glad I impulsively bought them. For $8, these aren't too bad although they are minis (but I never use full bottles of polish anyway, so...)

Left to right: Tip the Scales (purple), A Tail of Two Cities (pink), Mermaid in Heaven (orange), and Don't Be Shelfish (green - best name of the collection!).

And, above, here they are in the sun. You can see the glass fleck shimmer much better in this picture and how radiant they really are. They're a little sheer (these were 3 coats), but they do build up. I'm wearing Mermaid in Heaven as my mani and it's adorable! What do you think?

xoxo,
Amanda

Yesterday's Haul!

Hello again! So yesterday I had the privilege of my boyfriend agreeing to go with me to a mall about an hour away so I could (a) get out of the house since it was my day off and (b) go to the stores for nail polish that we don't have here. Roughly translated, it means I went to the Icing and Ulta! My first ever Ulta trip! Yayyy!

First up, Ulta:

 OPI minis: Skull & Glossbones, Planks a Lot, Sparrow Me the Drama, and Stranger Tides. (I always feel like the minis are super super tiny, but then I remember most of my polishes only get used once or twice so... it's okay. And they're cute and precious.) (Side note: I know I said I wasn't going to buy from OPI anymore since their Coty acquisition but, well, I have no will power. I'm sorry. I'm donating money to cruelty-free causes right now!)

Ulta's Under the Sea collection: Don't be Shelfish, Mermaid in Heaven, A Tail of Two Cities, and Tip the Scales. Really shimmery, looks like they could work on their own but may need to be layered.

 I don't know why blogger flips pictures like that... anyway.
Ulta brand: Blue Streak, Celebutante, Scene Steel-er, and Pinata-yada-yada. (Going from bottom to top, which is left to right if you tilt your head thanks to blogger).

And finally, Icing. I actually want to give a shout out here to GlittaGloves. This extremely talented blogger also has the biggest heart! She and I were conversing on Twitter about how my local Icing closed, leaving me without lemmings fulfilled. She offered to send me them all the way from Canada out of the goodness of her heart! I appreciated it so much, and then when I got them on my own I knew I had to send her a little something as a thank you, so it'll be in the mail soon, Kirsten! (Click her name to go check out her blog!)

Okay, on top is one of the Duality sticks in Force of Love and Magnetic Attraction (famous for Force of Love being a Deborah Lippmann dupe).On bottom, from left to right: Chrome Teal, Epic Winning (Charlie Sheen lemming fulfilled!), Rock Star from Mars, Starlight, and Chrome Light Purple.

I absolutely cannot wait to use the glitter polishes. I'm not sure they're work appropriate so my plan is to do a NOTD today so I can wear it all weekend before work comes again. I'm always afraid glitters will chip, though. Do any of you have solutions for chipping?

Finally, this wasn't a shopping haul but from my friend Jamie on twitter (Jamieleelu). You've heard me mention her as "my twitter friend" before, but now she gets a name because she's awesome. She had a giveaway for getting 200 followers and she picked me for a custom gift! Here's what she sent (some inside jokes included):

Does this girl know me or WHAT? Pink, sparkly zebra flip flops, zebra card, some custom drawing (made with nail polish!), chocolate, and...

MAD AS A HATTER! You read that right. My ultimate, first official lemming fulfilled! I was so happy to see this, I think my boyfriend thought I was mad as a hatter when I opened the box and saw MAAH abbreviated in the card. This is the first polish I ever really, truly wanted and not being able to get it is what started my obsession with polishes (and specifically, trying to find a dupe for it). Well, the search is over! This may very well be what I wear tonight! Thanks Jamie!

So, see anything you like? Anything you want to see swatches of?
xoxo,
Amanda