Colors That Look Good on Short Nails: Fashion Footing Edition

Hey all! Today Amanda from Fashion Footing has a post for you guys, showing a color that looks good on short nails. Colors for short nails is one of my number 1 search terms so I'm going to try to bring you guys more of that via some of my own swatches and guest posts, if anyone else is interested in posting! Take it away, Amanda!

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Hey guys!

I'm so happy to be doing a guest post for Amanda. I heart her and she's awesome and so much TWITTER LOVE!!! :-)

I feel like most colors look good on shorty nails and while I don't have the shortest nails ever, I certainly don't like my nails to be much longer than this.

This is probably one of my favorite Catrice polishes. King Of Greens is a positively gorgeous green with flashes of bright green shimmer. This was a dream to apply and covered like a champ.I used 2 easy coats. I don't even think I had to do any cleanup. Huzzah!

So gorgeous! If you can get some Catrice polishes, I highly recommend them!

Thanks for letting me guest post, Amanda!

Amanda

Guest Post: Dolores from Colorful Bottle

Hey ladies, today I have a post from my lovely friend Dolores in Slovenia who swaps with me all the time so I can get international goodies :) We decided to do guest posts for each other to show off some of the stuff we got in our swaps, so check out what Dolores did and then check out her blog Colorful Bottle!

 

Hi!

I'm Dolores from Colorfulbottle and I got honoured to prepare a guest post for The Nail Polish Enthusiast!

When me and Amanda completed our last swap package we got a really crazy idea. We decided to prepare guest post for each other with our new goodies =). I really couldn't wait to make this post, but I sadly had some other obligations so I couldn't prepare my post as fast as I wanted to prepare it. Now I finally made it, and I'm really happy with the result =). 

It was really difficult for me to pick one polish out of so many new pretties in my stash, because of my BIG problem I decided to do a gradient( I got to use 2 colours and not all polishes match, so I ended up with only 3 possible gradient combinations), I used pastel colour for the base because Amanda once said to me, that it is probably my fault that she started liking pastel polishes. I also wanted to include glitter in my manicure, but glitter really isn't my thing. I also have to admit that I cheated a bit. I wanted to do soft stamping on top, but out of all gorgeous nail polishes that Amanda sent to me, there wasn't a pastel polish that would stamp great, this is why I ended up using KONAD special polish, 

Here is what I prepared:

 

 

For this gradient I used Orly Lollipop as a base ( 2 coats) and then I made a gradient using Color Club Mr. Socialite and Orly Lollipop

I upgraded my manicure with KONAD polish in pastel violet and BM 16

 

I was really satisfied with what I ended up with and I hope Amanda likes it too =)

This is all from me!

Thank you all for reading my post and big thanks to Amanda for hosting my post!

Have a lovely day!

 

 -----

xoxo,
Amanda

 

BFF Week: Amanda of MaD Manis

Hi gals! It's my last BFF week post and I'm a bit sad. :( It was so nice to see some manis that people thought I would love (and I did!) and see how tight-knit the blogging community can be when we aren't competing. Speaking of competing, the last post is by yet another blogging Amanda... but I love her anyway. Started BFF week with an Amanda, ended with an Amanda, all hosted on a blog by Amanda... go figure.

Hello nail polish enthusiasts! Amanda is letting me invade her blog for the second time in a few weeks! She must really love me a lot :) Amanda is one of my very best blogging friends and when she asked me if I wanted to do a post for BFF week, I said "As long as I don't have to leap into your territory and do glitter!" (Not really). But seriously. I'm leaving the glitter to her because she's like Kesha and would probably throw it if she could (she DOES eat it....).

Today I have something similar to glitter, but not quite. It's China Glaze Snow Globe! I know you've probably all seen a million snow globe swatches but I haven't used it yet because I've been swamped with my 31-day challenge!

I put two coats over Revlon Perplex. I picked up Perplex on a whim last year when I saw it sitting all alone in a corner of Ulta. I was surprised no one had picked it up yet! Everyone was trying to get a hold of it, and little old me found it without even looking :) So I picked it up and took it home to join my little polish family.

Snow Globe is a flakey glitter goodness in a clear sparkly base. It's pretty much like spreading glue all over your nails so if you want this one to be glass smooth, you'll want to use a few coats of SV or Gelous. I don't mind a rough texture (as long as there's not shards of flakey particles sticking off my nails to snag on things) so I just used one coat of Seche Vite. Voila!

That's all! Thanks again Amanda for letting me invade your blog....again :) Hope you all have a fabulous week and remember everything that you're thankful for!

Amanda #2   


Thanks hun, great post! I have this polish myself and I adore it! Love love loveeee! 

xoxo,
Amanda

BFF Week: Jacqui of The Scholarly Nail

Hi all, I'm blessed enough to have ANOTHER guest post this week and another girl I'm thankful for. Jacqui of The Scholarly Nail is new to blogging, but has such a big heart and presence, especially on twitter. She's such a doll to talk to, so I highly suggest you go check her out! I'm excited to bring you this post on Black Friday because this is exactly the opposite, and that's a nice reprieve from the crazy holiday shoppers!

Hi everyone! It’s an honor to be able to do a guest post for the Nail Polish Enthusiast! Amanda is a great friend of mine, and her blog is one of my favorites so I hope that you all enjoy what I have for you today!

Let me start out by saying that I absolutely LOVE snow! I live in Cleveland, so we definitely get our fair share here. My favorite thing about the holidays is waking up in the morning to a fresh coat of white, sparkling snow on the ground. I decided to base my manicure today on that experience.

For a snow-inspired manicure, I knew that there was one polish that I absolutely HAD to use – Lynnderella Snow Angel, of course. Snow Angel is one of my favorite polishes that Lynn makes – by hand, might I add. What an amazing lady. Anyways, Snow Angel has small white square and hex glitter in a clear base.  I also added one of my favorite glitter polishes to add the sparkle, Cover Girl City Lights, an amazing micro holographic glitter in a clear base. Underneath it all, I used Essie Marshmallow, a sheer white.

This manicure has 7, count them SEVEN coats of nail polish! It’s probably the most coats I’ve ever used on a manicure before. I did two coats of Marshmallow, 2 coats of Snow Angel, 1 coat of City Lights, and 1 more coat of Snow Angel. I used a coat of Seche Vite on top, and I had no problems with dry time at all. In fact, I’ve had manicures with far less coats of polish have a hard time drying. They key here is that I used VERY THIN coats.

I just love how it turned out! So sparkly and ethereal, like a fresh bed of snow on the ground, untouched and perfect. All three polishes that I used in this manicure are sheer, so they were spectacular for layering. I am definitely going to do this again and again for the wintertime.

So here are the pics of my sparkling snow manicure! Don't forget to click on the photos to see the detail enlarged =)

These first three were all taken outside in natural light, to show the awesomeness of the glitter in Lynnderella Snow Angel.

The rest were taken indoors, to better show the holo sparkles lurking underneath.

Hope you all enjoyed and thanks so much for stopping by!

XOXO,

Jacqui =)

Thanks Jacqui! What a lovely polish, I may need to get my hands on this in addiction... ahem, addition, to the six other Lynnderellas I recently bought ;)

xoxo,

Amanda

BFF Week: Nicole of Nightly Nails

Happy Thanksgiving, American readers! Hopefully you're reading this while smelling some delicious food cooking... yum.... Today is another person I'm thankful for on this blogosphere, my good friend Nicole from Nightly Nails. Nicole is someone I was originally intimidated by; she's one of the original bloggers to me, but she never comes off that way. She's so happy to talk to you on twitter and be honest and helpful and sweet. Okay, I'm gushing, enough and onto Nicole's post!

Hi everyone! Amanda asked me to do a guest post for her, for her BFF week. *fangirls* Amanda is SUCH a sweetie! So I put on my thinking cap, but in the end it turned out to not be hard to come up with something awesome for her, since I know she's a glitter addict.

I recently got OPI Grape, Set, Match and Servin' Up Sparkle. I pulled this pair out and thought, well, Servin' Up Sparkle would make a great glittery tip for Grape, Set, Match. Right? Right!

Now, when I first saw pictures for this, I really wasn't that interested. I didn't think I absolutely needed Grape, Set, Match. It's pretty, but was it something I had to have? Probably not. So when I put it on, I was utterly astounded at how awesome it is. Let's see if I can describe it for you.

You know how China Glaze has the famous glass fleck finish? That's what this is, grape glass fleck goodness. This is a perfect mid toned purple jelly with glass fleck shimmer throughout. It has a blue flash. This is pretty opaque at three coats, too. After it dried, I dabbed a bit of Servin' Up Sparkle onto my tips and cleaned off the brush, and then dragged the glitter down my nail. I added a bit more at the tips for super sparkle effect. Servin' Up Sparkle is a clear based jelly with both small and large holographic glitter. The large pieces are hex shaped.

So, I hope this is suitably sparkly enough to grace Amanda's blog! Thank you Amanda, for asking me to be your guest. I hope you all enjoyed it!

This is, of course, perfect for my blog! Don't you all agree? Thanks Nicole!

xoxo,
Amanda 

BFF Week: Steph of Imperfectly Painted

Good morning or afternoon or whatever time it is as you read this! I have another one of my BFFs today for you: Steph from Imperfectly Painted. Steph is a shy but incredibly sweet girl; we talk just about every day and I cherish our time together... we even have nicknames, but if I told you, I'd have to kill you and I just like you too much. Anyway...

First off, I want to thank Amanda for letting me guest post on BFF week! Amanda and I have become good friends, and it means a lot to me that she chose me. One of the conversations we had recently along with some other bloggers was about the China Glaze OMG collection. I was able to get half the collection in 2009 before they acheived their HTF status. I'm kicking myself for not getting the other half then, but hindsight is always 20/20. I figured since it's BFF week it would be suitable to show you China Glaze BFF!

BFF

BFF is a medium pink linear holo.

One of the polishes Amanda mentioned she like was s China Glaze LOL, so I added it as an accent to my BFF manicure.


BFF + LOL

LOL is purple linear holo.

The cornball in me can't help but think that when you're with your BFFs you share many LOLs. I know corny, but true! I think this manicure is definitely fitting.  I hope you like this holo-rific post. Thanks Amanda! 

--

Imperfectly Painted

http://imperfectlypainted.blogspot.com

 

 Man, do my friends know me or what! Glitter and holo and purple all week and all the things and people I love; this is no exception. Thanks for this lovely post, Steph, and I'll forever be jealous of your OMG holos!

xoxo,

Amanda

BFF Week: Dana of Polished Claws Up!

Hi guys! I'm having technical difficulties on Blogger today, so if this post looks weird I'm sorry! Another one of my blogging BFFs agreed to post to help me this week! Dana of Polished Claws Up is one of the first bloggers I really got close to (close enough that we even text!). She's done a guest post for me in the past so this isn't the first (or last) you'll be seeing of her!

Hello Lacquered ladies! It's Dana from Polished Claws Up! 

Today I have the honor of doing my second guest post for my lovely friend Amanda. Since I started my blog one of my favorite things about the world of polish has been the friends I've made. Amanda has become a GREAT pal of mine in the polish community and she's one of the sweetest girls I know! :P Today I thought I'd pick a polish I know she would love for my guest post on her blog - I bring you Revlon's Glitz & Glam from this winter's Spice It Up collection. 

If I know anything about Amanda - it's her undying love for all things glitter! I actually got a pleasant surprise with Glitz & Glam, I thought it would be a polish suited for layering only, but turns out it has a pink base and became opaque in two coats only! I'm in LOVE! 

I hope you all enjoyed my post! <3 -Dana

Dana, you know me too well! I'm drooling over here ;) What do you ladies think? It's a hit in my book!

xoxo,
Amanda 

BFF Week: Mandy of MandysSecrets

Hey everyone... continuing with BFF week is Mandy from MandysSecrets. Mandy (who is, by the way, not an Amanda!) is a beauty blogger who is my go-to makeup advice person. She's super knowledgable, friendly, and down-to-earth. Just talk to her on twitter and you'll see what I mean! We've had the opportunity to get to know each other pretty well through our crazy cat lady group and I look forward to our chats... without further adieu, Mandy, take it away!

Hey everyone! First of all, I'd like to say thanks to Amanda for letting me invade her blog today! I wanted to swoop in and completely redecorate the place, but she put her foot down.. so I guess I'll settle for just controlling her post. :) 

Today I have Zoya's Savita to show you. Amanda told me this was a polish she doesn't care for, so I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to show it some love. Savita is originally from the Matte Velvet collection and is quite possibly one of my all-time favorite purples.

It's a rich royal purple with a pinkish-purple/gold shimmer. Application was flawless, like with all Zoya polishes. Two quick-drying coats, and my nails were matte perfection. But if you know me, you know I'm not someone who can leave well enough alone..

Here's what happens when you top Savita with a top coat.. the pink/purple shimmer really comes out and just looks stunning. While it's not the most unique shade out there, it has a luxuriousness to it that I can't help but love.

Which way do you like Savita better: matte or shiny? I still can't decide!

Again, many thanks to Amanda for inviting me over to play.. I hope you're all enjoying your week so far!

♥ M

I must say, I love this polish on Mandy! I think I like it best shiny, but it's really great either way. Maybe it just didn't go well with my nail shape or skin tone or something. Anyway, I hope you guys liked Mandy's post and stay tuned for more of my BFFs this week!

xoxo,

Amanda

BFF Week: Amanda of Fashion Footing

Hey guys! This is the first post in my series this week: BFF week! I'm going to feature a guest post from my best blogging friends all week :) I thought this was really fitting for thanksgiving week since friends are one of the things I'm most thankful for :) I hope you all enjoy this series!

Today I have a post from Amanda from Fashion Footing. Amanda and I have a lot in common (including our name!) such as our undying love for glitter, nail polish, and blogging; but she is also a sweetheart I've had the pleasure of getting to know on twitter. Enjoy her post and check her out!

First off, thanks Amanda for letting me do this post! I'm so excited! This is my first one and I hope you like it!  I feel like Amanda and I are polish soul mates.... we like a lot of the same things, as long as they have glitter :-p

I have a nice fall combination for everyone today. Hopefully it feels like fall where you are, or you are at least in the fall spirit.

I started with a base coat of Barielle's Unraveled Rust. This is exactly that: a rust color. It is much prettier on that I expected! This was a super deal at Ulta a while back and my first (and so far only) Barielle. I only used one coat, because I knew I was going to put some shatter over it.

Here is Unraveled Rust. 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I layered the shatter over it. I got this at JCPenney a few weeks back; the OPI's were BOGO 50% off, and I had a few coupons so it was a fantastic deal :-)

 

 

 

I like this combination. It is perfect for the fall, don't you think? Warm and earthy but not a plain manicure. I don't do plain very well, lol! It seems a lot of people are over the shatter trend, but the different colored shatters do help to punch up a plain manicure a little bit, without taking a ton of extra time to do! Simple and flashy = A-Okay with Me :-)

Talk to you soon!

Amanda

 

What do you all think of Amanda's post? It's a great post, to me, because it's a color I don't own and wouldn't normally buy and totally reminds me of Thanksgiving!

 

xoxo,

Amanda

Guest Post: Amanda from MaD Manis

Hi ladies, today I have a guest post from Amanda (isn't her name awesome? Great name!) from MaD Manis. She and her mother, Melissa, blog together and I just love that idea! Amanda (and Melissa, for that matter) is an incredibly genuine, sweet, and kind person who I've had the pleasure of getting to know through twitter, facebook chat, and our common love for our kitties. Meow! Anyway, on to her post for today, China Glaze Trendsetter.

Hello all!
I know I'm late to the party on this, but I just got some of the Metro colors recently. This is the one I was most excited to use so I thought I would share it with my fellow Amanda's readers!

Trendsetter is an awesome yellow-green mustard color with teeny tiny shimmer in it. It honestly kind of looks like the color of baby diarrhea.. that's the best way to describe it. It's one of those colors that's super, super ugly but still interesting  at the same time.

This one definitely got some weird looks. It's one of those colors that you either love or hate. I happen to love it because I'm a nail polish freak and I like anything weird and unusual, but I know some *normal* people don't have the same sentiments. :)



Application on this one was awesome! Pictured is two coats. Perfect consistency - no cuticle flooding or streaking. Really just perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better application. It makes the swatches look that much better!

I tried to think of some cool nail art to add over the top of this, but I think it's one of those colors that works better when left alone. It's definitely out-there enough as is, don't you think? I think adding to this would just be overkill and way unnecessary. 

I don't think I've ever seen another color like this. So if you like this one, I highly recommend going out buying it. It's just so unusual that I think every collection needs it!

What do you lovely ladies think? Yay or nay? It's definitely not for everyone!

Thanks, fellow Amanda! I'm glad to see this color on here because it's a) not a color I own and b) not a color I feature very often (if ever) since I avoid mustards, browns, and basically, non-glittery colors... although, this one looks great on you, Amanda!

xoxo,

Amanda

Guest Post: Lisa from Happy Nails

Hi everyone! This post is going to be coming to you straight from across the pond (unless you're reading this in Europe or not in North America, I guess) with my friend Lisa from Happy Nails! Enjoy!


Hello everyone!

My name’s Lisa and my blog is Happy Nails ( http://happynailsuk.blogspot.com/ ).  I’m a UK polisher, brand new to blogging but firmly addicted to colour and sparkle.  I am so happy to be guest posting!

In my post I’ll show you polish from one of my favourite UK brands, 17 by Boots.  I love it because a) it’s cheap, and b) it has a really vibrant range of colours.  I will be painting my nails blue with a cheeky bit of nail art thrown in at the end ;-)

These are the polishes I’ll be using:

On the left we have the lovely Ruby Gem, a rich and creamy crimson; in the middle, Mini Skirt, a bright solid white; and, on the right, the polish I’ll be mainly painting with here: True Blue, a solid, fairly dark primary blue.

After a base coat of Sally Hansen’s Double Duty (I only bought this a couple of days ago so can’t give a full opinion, but it’s worked really well for me so far), I painted 2 coats of True Blue.  I think it’s a fab ‘wardrobe staple’ colour but it is noticeably darker on the nail than it is in the bottle, as you can see in my pic:

 (Excuse my messy painting!  It’ll be evened out just fine in the top coat.)

After being patient for once and letting my nails dry fully, I got painting on my ring finger with Mini Skirt and then Ruby Gem, borrowing the skinny brush from a nail art polish for the details.  And this is what I ended up with...

A patriotic salute from the UK blogger!  *‘God Save the Queen’ plays in the background*

The above Union Jack flag is about as steady as my hand can get, and so I’m fairly proud!  The sparkle on the rest of my nails is from a prized polish in my collection, INM’s Northern Lights silver holo glitter top coat.  Here it is:

I ordered this online as holos are seemingly nonexistent in UK shops (especially if you live in the dreary North-East of England like I do!).  As a sparkle addict this polish drives me wild; holos are like catnip to me!  On this Union Jack mani it represents the most British of institutions... rain XD

Here I will wave goodbye with my nails sparkling.  Thanks so much Amanda for letting me post!

Hugs,
Lisa from Happy Nails xx

Ahh, it feels so British in here ;) Thank you for the lovely post, Lisa! I really have to start practicing my freehand nail art!

xoxo,
Amanda

Guest Post: Dana of Polished Claws Up!

Hey girls, today's post will be brought to you by my lovely, sweet friend Dana from the blog Polished Claws Up. Yesterday was the first day of fall, so I found this post very a propos and the glitterfest will return tomorrow!

Hello ladies! This is my very first guest post, and I couldn't be MORE thrilled that it's on my lovely friend Amanda's blog! :) When we were throwing ideas back and forth, we agreed on a fall theme. Immediately a few different ideas went streaming through my brain, and I decided to try something new! I give you my fall mani! Enjoy!

When I think fall, I think the great outdoors! What could be better then a deep green (Orly's Wandering Vine) and a deep shimmery brown (Orly's Golden Maharajah)? FLAKY SPARKLE of course!!!! I finally had an excuse to try my ever-so-stunning Crowd Surfing by L.A. Girl Rock Star Nail Color. :P

I started with two coats of Wandering Vine on all but my ring finger, and decided to let the gorgeous Golden Maharajah stand on it's own with it's bronzey brown goodness on my ring finger. Wandering Vine has been in my stash for years now, it's a dark true green and needed two coats. Golden Maharajah is also an oldie but a goodie, a warm-toned brown with bronze shimmer within. Also two coats. Crowd Surfing is far too sheer on it's own, so to finally have a reason to layer it was wonderful! CS is a very sheer polish with a lime green base, green fine micro glitter, & awsome golden flaky glitter.

Thanks again for having me on your blog, Amanda! It was fun coming up with this mani! :)

So there you have it! Thanks for the lovely post, Dana! I don't feature many browns so I'm sure it was a treat for my readers to see it for once! :)

xoxo,

Amanda

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