More Christmas Nails...

Two days in a row?! I admit, I'm cheating: I wrote these two posts in a row. But STILL. Give me some credit for trying ;) This mani was intended for a party with my friends from school and we exchanged secret Santa. I liked this idea more in my mind and it looks sort of funny until step two... Also, please ignore my cuticles which are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo drrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I'm sorry.

Anyway, step one: Nubar Reclaim (green holo!) and OPI Log on to Love accent:

Check out this gorgeous linear holo... yummmy!

Then I did a gradient over the Nubar with China Glaze Snow Globe using my Orly Smudge Fixer (basically, drop a dollop of a glitter polish and then paint over it with the Smudge Fixer and voila! gradient). And thennnnn I added China Glaze Ring on the Red over the OPI (sheesh, that's a lot of brands!). Here's what I got:

As you can see, I'm obsessed with Snow Globe. I got a backup bottle from my nail secret Santa and I'm so relieved - I was hoarding my bottle (seen here) and refusing to use it as often as I'd like. Now I will be using this wellllll into the summer, probably year round, calling it Sand Globe or Snow Cone or something so that I can justify it...

xoxo,
Amanda

Nubar Absolute

Hi ladies! How is everyone doing today? Sometimes I feel like I don't give you guys a good introduction to my posts. Do you like a little small talk or want me to just jump right into the polish?

Today I have for you one of my first ever Nubars (the second shown on this blog, with the first being 2010). Nubar Absolute is a light blue scattered holo and I picked it out to wear to a baby shower (obviously, she's having a boy). I really only had one picture come out decent but it wasn't even my favorite (and yes, I cropped my pointer out because it's nubbinized again, le sigh).

As you can see, Absolute is a perfectly nice color. However, it took forever to dry. For-ev-er (read that like the kid in the Sandlot for best effect). Hence the huge dent on my ring finger. And it was insanely sheer, this is four coats and you can still see some VNL. It's also not very holo-y, even scattered holo-y.

So, overall: meh. I decided to swap it away to someone who will give it a good home.

xoxo,
Amanda

ELF Mango Madness

*This is a scheduled post for today, as I'm away for the weekend! Please feel free to interact as usual, but my responses may be slightly delayed. I'll be back on August 28th!*

Hello there! Up for today's post is ELF Mango Madness (which reminds me of my favorite Snapple flavor..) which is an orangey pink color. Application with ELF can be tricky, but this one was actually not too bad! A little thin, but not unworkable. It dried really shiny (the picture below is without top coat)

Then I got a little bored and added Nubar 2010 on top, which is my first ever flaky polish! I really liked the way Mango Madness complimented the orange flash of flakies in 2010. Excuse the darkness in this picture, blogger makes my pictures dark sometimes and it won't correct it even if I re-upload?

Up close for detail:

What do you think of Mango Madness, 2010, or the combo?

xoxo,
Amanda