Mardi Gras on my Nails!

Hello my dears! Today I have for you an unintentional Mardi Gras mani. I really just wanted a different color on my nails, since I keep leaning towards pink, purple, and blue, and out popped this green beauty from a brand I don't see on blogs often: Misa. I love Misa for many reasons, one being that it is Big 3 Free and especially because it is vegan-friendly (I'm not vegan, but I love animals and I definitely support any company that respects animal rights). This is Misa, The Grass is Greener on My Side, which is a green shimmer that can be built up to opacity in three coats.

As you can see, because I am a glitter fiend and couldn't resist, I added Ulta Pinata-Yada-Yada on top to give it some flair.

I must say, I was a little disappointed in Pinata-Yada-Yada. The pictures above are THREE COATS OF GLITTER. Can you believe how sparse that is? I ended up having to dot and blot and dig and make sure that the glitter somehow got onto the nail, but it was a pain. The bottle looked like a little glitterbomb topcoat and then it came out with five glitters per nail? I was unhappy, to say the least, but now I know for when I want five sparkles on my nail (rarely) that I have a polish to turn to!

In the end, I decided to cover it up and apply La Rosa black crackle from NailDeRoyale.com and I loved the outcome:

Have you had similar experiences with Pinata-Yada-Yada? Have you tried Misa? (If not, I suggest you do! It's available on Transdesign.com)

xoxo,
Amanda

My First Splatter Mani

Hi my dear readers! My post today is inspired by Jen, The PolishAholic. She made the splatter mani famous and this is my rendition, although she has many others that are much better than this first attempt on my part.

For my splatters, I used Misa Baby I Love You, Ulta Celebutante, and Claire's Fresh Water over Sinful Colors white. I had a bit of trouble with my technique at first (this was initially going to be a holo splatter, but my holos didn't want to cooperate and I didn't want to waste them) but I got it to work with some other colors and the results were pretty cool! Here's both hands so you can see what I got:

For some reason, my right hand has a lot more white showing, but maybe it's because I did my left first and had perfected my technique. I really liked both middle fingers (ironic). I didn't tape my fingers off and boy, did I regret that when it came to clean up!

All in all, a really cool technique! Love the abstract-ness and the variety of colors and combinations you can use. Thanks Jen! I got so many compliments on this when I wore it! Once in a while, people will compliment me but yesterday when I had this on at least five people commented how cool it was and asked how to do it! Guess it's a hit (and a great way to get through untrieds)!

xoxo,
Amanda

Three eh NOTDs

Hi ladies! Sorry for my three-day hiatus. I'm back in school now (last semester of grad school! woohoo!) but that means my time has been severely limited. I'll post as much as I can, but my goal is 2-3 posts per week at the moment. However, I'll try to have several NOTDs/hauls for each week, and crunch them into those 2-3 posts. So hopefully you won't lose quality, just quantity...

Anyway, these are three of my NOTDs for last week. The first up is Misa, Glitz, Glamour, Smile for the Camera.

This was my favorite of the three. I applied it in a bit of a hurry, but the color was pretty: a deep, royal purple with some shimmer in it to make it interesting. I really love Misa polishes! This is about 2 coats I believe plus top coat.

Next I decided to do Zoya Veruschka, with Seche Vite on top to de-mattefy. This color is gorgeous and I loved it, but for Zoya saying they're the "longest lasting" polish out there, I was surprised how quickly I chipped. This flaked off in entire strips, much like glitter usually does for me. Next time, maybe I need to try it with a sticky base coat. Still beautiful though!

Meant to show the shimmeryness, but instead also showcases my bad clean up job... yikes.

Finally, we have Revlon Rock, a $1 polish I found at Big Lots. I had high hopes for this purple but was sadly disappointed. Let me give you the pros and cons. Pros: it looked like a pretty color in the bottle, it was $1. Cons: watery, runny formula; pooled at my cuticles; weird color on the nail - looked black and gray half the time; terrible application, bald spots even after 3 or 4 coats; not only chipped easily, but entire pieces in the middle of my nail scraped off. (That's the reason you're getting a rare, elusive look at my right hand - the left hand was in bad shape after less than 24 hours of wear!)

What do you think? Do you own any of these colors? Any you think I should give a second chance before they go in my swap pile?

xoxo,

Amanda

Misa Sailor Beware, A Swap Haul, Some Experimenting, & A PSA

Hey ladies! This is my NOTD from Monday night and Tuesday using Misa Sailor Beware.

This looks kind of red in the photos, but I assure you it's a mid-tone pink which does lean towards red. Could also be the silly lighting in my room! It dries very shiny... this is with no top coat!

So, of course, immediately after painting my nails I got a package in the mail with some polishes I was swapping on MakeUpAlley. I was trading for 2 Nox Twilight polishes (yes, yes, you got me - I'm a Twihard. I hope this doesn't change the way you feel about me?) and was anxious to receive my end. Well, that sweetheart did me one better and saw the third Nox Twilight color I wanted on my wish list and sent it as a surprise! Don't you love people sometimes?

Nox Twilight: Poseidon, Sugar Plum, Talon

 I haven't swatched any of these beauties yet, but if I could describe them in the bottle I would say Poseidon is a stormy blue, Sugar Plum is a pink/purple duochrome, and Talon is a royal blue with some beautiful shimmer in it. They look gorgeous and I'm excited to try them out! Although I must say, for being Twilight polishes you would think the names would have something more to do with the series... just sayin'.

Finally, I decided to experiment with my NOTD before taking it off. I added China Glaze Fairy Dust (left), Orly Winter Wonderland (center), and Essie Matte About You (right) to a finger, just to see what it looked like.

Unfortunately, my camera wasn't really cooperating but you can see the multi-colored sparkle in Fairy Dust, the white sparkle from Winter Wonderland, and the matteness from Matte About You - what a contrast to its ultra-shiny normal state! This reminds me...

NeverTooMuchGlitter posts frequently about her feelings towards animal-tested products - she dislikes them. I agree with her, so I'm glad she makes this topic public. Unfortunately, Essie does test on animals, so I will not be buying any more polishes from them or featuring their colors I already own on here (except Matte About You, since I just did...). Unfortunately, OPI was recently acquired by Coty, which has iffy testing policies and refuses to sign a statement saying they don't test, according to PETA's Caring Consumer website. I know PETA is rather controversial and sometimes sensationalist, but if a brand makes their "goodie" list, I feel pretty secure knowing they leave animals alone. Therefore, after the Katy Perry Collection/Black Shatter, I will not feature or buy any more of their products, either (unless they will state they don't test on animals). If you have questions about whether a company tests on animals, you can check their bottles for a "jumping bunny" logo (although some companies that don't test don't use the logo on their bottles, so this isn't failsafe). You can also check Caring Consumer which updates weekly and simply reports on brands that signed a legal document stating they do not test on animals and those which refused to do so. Lots of brands we don't think about test on animals, so give the list a look if it strikes you. Animals shouldn't have to suffer for our own vanity, don't you think? Okay, PSA over. Sorry! Had to say it.

xoxo,

Amanda



Misa It's Electric & Jesse's Girl Confetti

Hi everyone! Here's my NOTD for yesterday and the day before. I started with two coats of Misa "It's Electric".

The name "It's Electric" is pretty misleading. Don't get me wrong, I love this color - but wouldn't you have expected a florescent, neon blue? I'm glad it wasn't since I'm sure that wouldn't have complimented my skin tone, but still! Anyway... This was one of those polishes that naturally dried to a satiny finish, but I'm still not thrilled about that particular finish. Matte or shiny, there shouldn't be an in-between! So I added Seche Vite for the look above and to force it to go to the shiny side.

(Side note: this was my first time ever using Seche (!!) and I must say, I was totally impressed. I had avoided it for a while as I thought my 99 cent topcoat was working fine, but now I've seen the light! ;) Shiny, dries fast, and the polish stays on FOREVER. Now I understand why everyone complained about glitter taking forever to take off, because mine always just chipped. Those days are behind me now, and I'm not the least bit sad about it!)

I wore the polish with the Seche for about a day but then I started getting bored with it. I decided to add Jesse's Girl Confetti, which was one of my Rite Aid finds. It's kind of a glittery, sheer, duo-chrome that complimented It's Electric perfectly!

In some lights it was purple, others dark blue, others light blue. Overall, very pretty! I'm not crazy about sheer polishes... I get upset because I like the color in the bottle to be the color on my nails, and 15 coats of sheer is not what I intended, nor is layering it over a different color. But this sheer was very pretty especially over this blue. It definitely gave it depth and made it more interesting, so I could wear it another day without being annoyed with my boring polish.

What do you think? Was it better before or after Jesse's Girl?

Next post will be dedicated to a very special man who passed away last evening, and I found out when I was painting my nails, so stay tuned for that (and it's a Tronica!).

xoxo,

Amanda

First nail post! Petites: Wild Plum

Hey everyone! In trying to keep my word, I'm posting my first haul and even a NOTD!

Rite Aid (who knew they still existed!?) was having a buy one, get one half off sale, so I picked up a few gems:

Chameleon Calypso; Petites Figi; Petites Wild Plum; Jesse's Girl Confetti

Then, after trying a Misa polish, I decided to order some others:

Top: Looking for Trouble, Sailor Beware, It's Electric

Bottom: Glitz, Glamour, Smile for the Camera; The Grass is Greener on my Side; Like it Like That

Very successful haul overall and picking a color was hard, but I finally decided to try the Petites Wild Plum:

 

Sorry for the mess - I was in a rush to make sure I could post my first NOTD :)

 

Wild Plum is an A+ in my book. I always go for lighter colors, so when I find a dark color to wear for fall and winter, it has to be good. This has all the qualities I look for in a polish: highly pigmented, nearly holographic (I say nearly because we have no sun to check!), beautiful color, and cheap (about $3 normally but I got it for $1.50).

 

What do you guys think? Have you had luck with Petites polishes before? What about Misa?