Rainbow Glitter Pinstripe Nails!

You might remember in my last post I get the newest set of stamping plates from MASH nails.  That wasn't the only thing in the package, there was also a set of 12 holographic bar glitter pots.  I'm normally not the biggest fan of bar glitter.  It sticks up, it catches on things, it generally drives me a tiny bit crazy.  This set had the most perfect set of rainbow colours I had to try out a hand-placed glitter arrangement.  So I present rainbow glitter pin stripes!

To start, I applied my usual two coats of Rimmel Black Satin over a base coat.  I've just switched to Essie Protein Base Coat and it seems fine.  I've had a lot of nail breakages lately so figured I'd better try something a little more proper.  Next, using my slowest drying top coat, I painted a strip down the side of my nail and went to work with my toothpick.  Sure, it takes a while but nice neat pinstripes make up for it.  I found the best way was to start at the cuticle and work upwards because it's easier to just trim glitter off the ends of your nails than try to do it around the cuticle.  I added an extra coat of Seche Vite over normal because I hate bar glitter and it should be completely buried, and voila!  

The Verdict:  Of course I love this.  It's so sparkly!  I even made a vine because sparklies suit the six second video format.  LOOK:

That's all I have to say about that, other than my cuticles aren't doing so great right now, so please excuse the slightly dodgy pictures.  Turns out though, that if you run out of quick-dry oil, olive oil works too!

Rainbow Bar Glitter French Tips on Turquoise!

So I know I just did a post about my new holographic bar glitter but I don't care, it's sparkly so you'll probably see a lot of this in the next little while.  Having just tried stripes the other day, I wanted to see what the horizontal version would look like and it hit me: this could make for an awesome French tip! 

To start, I applied three coats of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise! It doesn't have the best consistency in the world (you really need the three coats) but the colour is so fantastic I can look past it.  Using a cheap top coat and working from left to right, I went to town with the glitter.  You have to be careful when working with such skinny glitter pieces - too much top coat and it will go over the glitter and look icky.  You can see that happening a bit on my middle finger.  Don't do that.  Very thin coats of glitter are your friend.  Once I was done, I put a preliminary coat of Seche Vite on to stick it all down then I trimmed the glitter that was overhanging the tips of my nails.  Another coat and DONE. 

The Verdict: I'm not happy with how my middle finger came out (got a bit too carried away with getting rid of the extra glitter) but all in all I think this came out awesome.  I just love that the glitter is all holographic, just makes it that much more awesome. 

Cos I'm doing this now too, here's a Vine of this mani in action:

You can find the glitter here at MASH nails. 

This product was sent to me for my unbiased review. 

I Don't Even Have a Title for This, There's Too Much Going On

So I knew I wanted to do something glitter tonight but I wanted to not just be your run of the mill glitter pattern.  When I found my favourite blue holographic glitter it hit me: RIDICULOUSLY BRIGHT GRADIENT WITH SPARKLIES OVER THE TOP CAN'T NOT BE AWESOME.  So that then.

I wanted a gradient using creme polishes, preferably in a blue-green-yellow gradient.  Four American Apparel polishes fit the bill so I set to work using Imperial Purple, Passport Blue, Malibu Green and Crescent Heights, purple through lime green respectively.  I just used the normal sponge method: start with a white base, paint stripes of polish on a makeup sponge in the same height as your nail, apply maybe three light coats, making sure you move the sponge up and down a bit to blend it all in.  I found that I sometimes need to apply a colour or another at the tips or cuticles, to make sure the white doesn't show through.  Then, using a top coat I found at Dollarama because I really didn't want it to ever dry, I went to work with my blue glitter and orange stick.  This loose dot pattern really doesn't take long if your glitter spread out - I can knock out a finger in under five minutes.  Top with lots of proper top coat like Seche Vite and you're done. 

The Other Hand: It's not really practical to both hands like this so I usually loosely match the style of my right hand on my left.  This time I went for an ombre mani, using each of the four colours on each finger and a random purple on my thumb.  I then sprinkled on the same glitter, to get it to match.  You really can't tell that much and no one really pays that much attention.

The Verdict: I really like how bright and colourful this one is.  Can't go wrong with bright AND sparklies.  I especially like how the glitter blends in around the purple but stands out at a contrast against the lime green.  Success!  Despite taking forever to clean up!

Water Marbling with Color Club Halo Hues 2013!

Ever since I found the new Color Club Halo Hues 2013 collection at a nearby Winners, I keep using them but then being unable to fully capture how amazingly holographic they are.  This is the third time I've used the collection and the third time I'm actually angry at my photo setup for eating the rainbows.  This is why these pictures look weird; I was so desperate to get the holo going I shoved an ikea lamp sideways into my lightbox and it was still not that holo-y.  Just pretend there are twice the rainbows, k?

I had great success water marbling the first Halo Hues collection and my only criticism would have been that the colours just kinda look the same. The 2013 collection is really all I could have hoped for.  So holo-y, so bright and so good to watermarble.  I started with two coats of black then alternated five of the colours (leaving out the black) with China Glaze Liquid Leather.  I've found that brand doesn't really make a difference in the marbling effect, it's more how new the polish is.  Anyway, you have to work fast as the holos dry quickly but look how pretty they come out!  I even cheated a bit and did two fingers at once in the middle but I did do my other hand to match, which I don't normally do.  

The Verdict:  Pretend I did these nails in full sunshine, not late at night, and that the rainbows were even stronger.  I love you forever holos!

Sparkly Glitter Dots!

Whenever I do a glitter mosaic mani, I get a lot of people focusing on how long it takes to do.  That's fine, it's easy to see it's time consuming.  I wanted to challenge myself the other night, see how long it would take me to do a slightly more sparsely glitter mani.  

To start, I applied two coats of Essence Black is Back.  You can go three coats, doesn't really matter, you just want a base that has enough polish to let you sink the glitter into, ever so slightly.  Then, with a toothpick and my usual technique, I went to work, but this time with a timer.  It took me about 3-4 minutes per finger, to get the glitter on.  That's pretty reasonable!  If you want to "cheat" with your non-dominant hand, just do what I do, make one hand super fancy, do the other with the same base coat and find a glitter polish that looks the same.  American Apparel Meteor is the same size and shape as my silver holo polish so the only difference is how neat the glitter is!  Total time taken, from base coat to top: 42 minutes. 

The Verdict: I love holo glitter so much, especially in the elevator at work.  So many rainbows that two separate people I've never met commented on me doing this in the light:

Rainbow Glitter Snakeskin Nails!

I kinda like to showboat a bit at the Reddit monthly meetups.  I love the attention I get when I make my nails extra sparkly.  So I usually show up late because I'm trying to cram as much glitter on my nails as I can.  Let's take a look at this month's effort!

Yep, the closest thing to hand when I took these photos was my wind-up plastic kangaroo.  That's how I roll.  Anyway, I knew I wanted to do something with rainbow holographic diamond glitter this time but am a bit sick of a black base.  The advantage of using un-needed glitter from an indie polish seller is that it doesn't bleed, colour-wise, so Urban Outfitters Tiny Shirt it is, a wonderful neon pink creme.  After applying three coats (two would have been fine, but you need a thick base for the glitter to sink in to) I went to work using my usual technique.  You have to be careful with this glitter to make sure it's sunk as deep into the top coat as possible, without having it overflow.  You do this, and your glitter isn't going anywhere.  Except on the ends.  Because it's hard to get the half pieces to stay.  But whatever.  And yes, I did trim the glitter for both my cuticles and then ends, but it's worth it and not hard if you have small sewing scissors.

 

The Verdict:  The pictures came out kinda weird because the pink is so neon, and I took these photos the next day.  These were super awesome in person though, and I'm not kidding about the rainbows on my desk.  Mmm sparklies. 

Abstract Glitter Mosaic!

You might have noticed by now but I love glitter.  Matte, holo, metallic, all shapes and sizes, doesn't matter as long as it's not iridescent.  I hate iridescent glitter because you can't do anything with it and it keeps showing up in 12 packs I buy.  Anyway, favourites of mine are my pots of gold and silver holo glitter, the ones with the black lids.  Nice and evenly shaped and super sparkly, it's really good for my glitter mosaics.  My silver glitter, however, tends to stick together in almost a sheet which is super annoying if you're trying to get a piece at a time.  I decided to run with it this time, so let's take a look at an abstract glitter mosaic.

I started as usual with three coats of Urban Outfitters Hottub which is a really strong bright pink creme. Goes well with the silver glitter.  When the three coats were done - you don't really have to wait for them to dry here - I covered my nail in my slowest drying top coat.  You don't want to use something like Seche Vite as the glitter won't stick because the top coat is too good at its job.  I'm using Wet 'n' Wild top coat I found at the dollar store.  Anyway, starting at a corner, I used an orange stick to pick up the glitter.  Because of the way this stuff sticks together, I'd get between six and a dozen pieces in a sheet or a chain.  I have no idea how you do this is you didn't get the specific sticky batch I did.... but look, sparkly!  You'd be able to get the same effect by carefully shaking the glitter onto your nail, I guess.  I'm tired and appear to have lost my point.... sparkkklyyy

The Verdict: Man, Vines are really good at getting across how sparkly a thing is, especially when my lightbox is where sparklies go to die.  Short of using a flash or a halogen lamp, has anyone had luck accurately capturing holo glitter sparkly inside?  

Review: Essence Nail Art Decoration Kits

Shoppers Drug Mart is a dangerous place for me and it's worse because it exerts a kind of magnetic pull I just can't resist.  I have to go in nearly all I pass because WHAT IF THEY HAVE NEW SPARKLIES MMMM SPARKLIES I COULD GO THAT, I'LL JUST GO IN REAL QUICK.  Didn't help me that I found Essence now sells Nail Art Decoration kits and they have holo glitter in them.  I clearly wasn't going to not buy them.  The trick is how to use them...

The kits come in gold and silver and I had really high hopes for the gold and silver holo diamond glitter.  The hardest part about working with this particular shape is that it often isn't cut even.  When you're trying to do a precise design, having a piece be off in shape or size really gets old fast.  Anyway, I got started with two coats of Essence Back in Black as my base colour then went to work with my usual technique.  I started by laying a line of a single colour down the middle of my nail, then alternated colours, building out each side.  On my non-feature nails, I just laid a line near the tips of my nails.  When I had the glitter spread out on my little plastic tray, I could find enough consistent pieces but there's a lot in there that has cut-off bits, weird shapes or just generally not even.  It is very sparkly though, so I guess it's ok.  

The Verdict:  For ~$3, these kits are worth it, wonky pieces aside.  If you're too impatient or generally not into ebay, it's a good start for holo glitter.  And seriously, look how sparkly it came out.  

Watermarbling with Halo Hues 2013 Collection

I cannot get enough of holographic polishes.  They're like crack to me.  That and sparklies, neons, blues, flakies, multichromes but holos have to be my favourite.  Especially when they're not just pastel colours and have a really strong rainbow, no matter what the lighting conditions.  Color Club Halo Hues 2013 collection is pretty much the best thing ever then, in my book.  I've tried watermarbling with the first collection to good result, so I had to try it with the 2013's.  And blue, because I love blue.

To start, I applied two coats of my base blue colour, Urban Outfitters Blue Velvet.  I love this blue creme so much I can't even articulate it properly.  It's just the best blue I own.  So once the blue was dry I taped off my nails and went to work with the blue and each of the six colours in the collection.  It's always a surprise to me how well these marble and keep their mega rainbows.  The last picture in this set captures it the best but trust me, it's about four times more rainbow-y in the sunlight.

The Verdict:  I love how this came out, especially it being something other than black marbled with the holos.  I rely too much on black with rainbows, gotta break out of my comfort zone at some point.  As I'm typing this, I'm having a vision of what this would look like with spacing out the holo polishes with six different rainbow creme polishes.....hmmmm.  I <3 you, holo polishes.

Urban Outfitter Cherry Tomato with Gold and Silver Diamond Holo Glitter

That's it, I think I've run out of fancy names for my nails, after being actually creative with the title yesterday with my computer nails.  Basically, I have this gold and silver diamond holo glitter and I wanted to use it and red was the colour I felt like using at the time so here we are.  Sparkly!

To start, I applied three coats of Urban Outfitters Cherry Tomato, a polish that I think is going to take the top spot for my new favourite red creme polish.  It's such an amazing red and applies so evenly and smoothly, I can't believe I just let it sit in the drawer for ages.  When it was dry, I did the usual thing to apply my glitter, starting in the middle and building out.  And yeah, I might have trimmed some pieces to fit around my cuticle and that might seem excessive but shhh look, sparkly.  The result reminds me of some kind of lacquered inlay box but I can't seem to turn that into a snappy title.  Sparkly!

The Verdict:  After all that, while it's sparkly I'm now not sure if I'm 100% down with the colour.  Oh well, sparkly!  So sparkly.

The Other Hand: Same base colour, dunked my thumb and ring finger in the same glitter and brushed off all the sticky-uppy bits.  SPAAARRRKKKKLLLYYYYYY