NOTD - Midnight Mission

Today I'm wearing China Glaze Midnight Mission from the Fall 2010 Vintage Vixen collection. I have to say I wasn't really excited about this color when it came out, but now I am SOO glad I got it.

China Glaze - Midnight Mission

The awesome thing about this polish is how it looks like a true navy or denim blue no matter what kind of lighting. Even in in dim lighting is still looks beautifully blue and not black. In addition, it looks amazingly sparkly in the sun! It's also nice and easy to put on in two coats. I think it is one of my new favorites!

Lincoln Park After Dark and Nfu-Oh 49 Matte

So for today, I figured I'd give the matte version a shot, even though the manicure is getting a little ragged at this point. I used China Glaze Matte Magic.

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark w/ Nfu-Oh 49 and China Glaze Matte Magic

I really like the matte version! It looks even more like fall leaves! What do you think? Matte or shiny??

NOTD - Lincoln Park After Dark and Nfu-Oh 49

Today's NOTD is a pretty cool one, but one that you've probably seen before elsewhere. I used OPI Lincoln Park After Dark for the base, then one coat of Nfu-Oh 49 on top. I really like it, 'cause it looks a little like fall to me.

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark w/ Nfu-Oh 49

And I figured I'd take a sun picture as well. I don't know how to feel about sun pictures, because sometimes they really don't show colors well at all. What do you think?? In this case, it shows a little better that it's actually dark burgundy and not black.

I may try it tonight or tomorrow with a matte topcoat as well.

A couple more NOTD and an excuse

This photo is actually a NOTD from a few months ago (who knows when). It's China Glaze Four Leaf Clover with China Glaze Medallion over the top. I actually got this idea from a post on All Lacquered Up (here). Isn't it awesome??

China Glaze - Four Leaf Clover w/ Medallion

And now comes the excuse... one of the reasons I haven't been posting is because my nails have been in transition. See, for the last four or five years, I've had gels on my nails, both to keep them strong and to not have to worry about painting them. Of course, one of those doesn't apply anymore (since I'm now obsessed with nail polish and like to paint them every couple days), so I decided to grow them out. Since gels cannot be soaked off with acetone (I think maybe some can, but not these), it was a VERY long process to grow them out. And of course, pieces chipped off sometimes and they wouldn't buff down perfectly smooth, so mostly they were NOT nice enough to photograph.

But now that the gel is completely gone, I'm having fun taking care of my nails and painting them often, as well as taking pictures of them! So here we are now, with nice new natural nails!

OPI - Visions of Sugarplum

Visions of Sugarplum was an Ulta exclusive for Holiday 2009, and since it was free with an OPI purchase, I didn't think much of it at first. But when I tried it on, oh my gooses, it was gorgeous! I think it's glass fleck glitter because it's easy to take off, and I think it's kind of similar to a blackened Zoya Mimi.

NOTD - Blue/Teal Glitter Gradient

Hi all! So I think I'm gonna try to get back into posting more on the blog, and here's the first post since April!

Claire's Twinkle w/ Claire's Glam gradient

For my NOTD, I used Claire's Twinkle on the entire nail, then painted a glitter gradient with Claire's Glam. I think it turned out pretty awesome, but it looks a little washed out in these pics. Hopefully you get the idea. Here's another pic, and I kinda like this angle (let me know what you think!).






I'm still working on getting colors correct, but it'll get eventually, I promise! :o)

Master Chief Green

Ok, so I was all ready to put up this big long post with all the new jelly polishes I've gotten, but then this post ended up being so much more AWESOME.

Brett and I both LOVE video games - the Halo series is one of our favorites. Needless to say we BOTH have a huge crush on Master Chief, so I've been searching for the perfect Master Chief Green, and I think I've finally found it... maybe.

Sinful Colors - Show Me the Way
AKA: MASTER CHIEF GREEN

In this picture, it is a little bit more yellow green bright than in real life, where it looks slightly more dusty and olive. Just a tid bit more subdued, but not much. I asked Brett what he thought, and he said it was too sparkly. This is true. At this point it was too "gorgeous" to be MC... So I figured maybe a satin topcoat like Orly's Nails for Males would do the trick:

It's still pretty sparkly, and I may not have waited long enough for the topcoat to dry (I'm so impatient, haha), but it was still not exactly what I was going for. So I tried China Glaze Matte Magic:


Whoa. Yes, THAT is what I was looking for. It brings out more of the true color of the polish instead of the color of the shimmer. Of course, I had to test the theory and put it up next to a REAL Master Chief to see if it was indeed a match... (haha, I wish! But alas, it's just the collector's edition helmet)



I love that you can see me taking pictures in the reflection, heehee :o)



Although it's still a tiny bit brighter, I think it's pretty darn close!!

I might end up buying another one (since it's only $1.99 at most Targets, Walgreens, and CVS's) to try to Franken it a little bit grey-er. I also think it would be really cool to have one accent nail done in an orange chrome or even better, orange MINX!

What do you think? Do I have a match? Is this the perfect Master Chief Green?

Amaranth!!

Oh my gooses, I got New York Summer Amaranth!! I'm SOOOOOO happy right now! I'm sure I will post pics soon.

:o)