Sinful Colors Cinderella

When I caught wind of this new Sinful Colors polish I knew I had to track it down. I ventured to three Walgreens to find it but oh so worth it.

This color is so beautiful I don't even really mind the slight hint of visible nail line that I still have after two coats of this polish. I could have added a third coat, but as usual it was late when I did this mani and I didn't feel like adding the third layer.

Do you see the shimmer on this baby?!? It's pink, it's gold. It's simply amazing! I love it when a polish that costs $1.99 can make my heart flutter.

I do believe this would be an awesome base for Revlon's Whimsical, but my I couldn't find my bottle last night. So for now I'm just enjoying this beauty solo.

I believe this color a part of the core line (it was at the store I finally found it in) but many have found it hanging out in the Heartbreaker Valentine's Day display. What do you guys think? Are you going to track this one down?

Extra Extra Read All About It: Newspaper Nails

Happy Monday!

Did you guys have a good weekend? I did but they are always too short. So here we have my week five challenge mani: newspaper nails.

I had a tough time with this challenge mani. Who knew it would be so hard to get newsprint to transfer clearly to nails?

I don't know if I had too much rubbing alcohol on my nails or if I wasn't pressing the newspaper down hard or long enough, but as you can see I got very light transfers. It was probably some combination of the three. Or maybe the Baltimore Sun uses cheap ink. LOL.

It was late when I did this and I wasn't about to start over. Eh. I guess it's not so bad. Not great but at least you can tell what it is.

The base is two coats of Petites Color Fever Vintage Gray. I like this gray because it doesn't give me corpse hands.

Have you guys tried the newspaper print look? Maybe I'll try it again when I'm not racing against the clock.

Nicole by OPI Walmart Exclusives--Swatches and Thoughts

I was roaming around the beauty department in Walmart last weekend, though I truly had no business being there, when I came across three new Nicole by OPI shades.

Best Pink Ever, The Gold Shoulder, Fabulous is My Middle Name

I hadn't seen or heard of these, but I have no qualms about buying polishes swatches unseen, especially when glitter is involved. When I got home I did a google search and found that they are Walmart exclusives that came out this month.

Let's start with The Gold Shoulder.

It's rather sheer so I used three coats to reach bottle color. It does lean rather silver on me but it does have a good amount of gold shimmer in it. Mine just settled to the bottom. I'd say this is a gold that would work well with cooler skin tones. As you can see in the pic I'm holding the bottle upside down so that I can encourage the gold shimmer to mix in. I did a fourth coat after I left the bottle upside down for a while.

It reminded me of OPI Designer de Better from the Muppets collection, so I did a little comp.

L-R: The Gold Shoulder, Designer de Better, The Gold Shoulder, Designer de Better

The bases are similar but Designer de Better has larger coppery shimmer particles in it, whereas the golden shimmer in The Gold Shoulder is much finer. I'd say they're different enough to own both.

Next up Fabulous is My Middle Name. This is three coats on its own. It's a multicolored bar glitter with teeny tiny silver glitters mixed in! This shocked me because the glitter is so fine and dense I didn't even realize that it was a bar glitter until I got it home and started swatching. There's fuchsia, red, blue and gold bar glitters in this rounded out with the tiny silver glitters. This is indeed fabulous!

I freaking love this. I'm not the biggest fan of bar glitters, but the glitters are tiny and dense enough to get you full coverage and I love that in a glitter. Keep in mind you will have to use the edge of your brush to tap any stray glitters on the ends of your nails back in line, but that's no big deal to me.

Here's one coat of Fabulous is My Middle Name over The Gold Shoulder.

And one coat over black. I used American Apparel Hassid.  

Now we have what the people over at Nicole by OPI named Best Pink Ever. Seriously that's the name of the polish.

I can't say that I agree with them. The formula on this is super sheer. It took four coats to get a decent looking swatch out of this and in real life there was visible nail line all over the place--and I'm not a fan of that. And you see all that golden duo looking goodness at the bottom of the bottle? It's nowhere to be found on the nail.

It does have a nice blue shimmer running through it and I do like the fuchsia base. I just wish it weren't so sheer and I want that golden shift that I was so captivated by from the bottle. Maybe it'll do better layered on top of a similarly colored creme, but really if your name is going to be 'Best Pink Ever' you should be able to stand on your own.

I paid $7 a bottle for these. Have you guys seen them at your local Walmart? If you happen across them I'd say definitely pick up Fabulous is My Middle Name. The Gold Shoulder is nice to have as well. What do you guys think?

Week 4: Plaid Barracuda

Happy Monday! Here's my Week 4 Challenge Mani:  Plaid. 

I did three coats of Sally Hansen Barracuda and stamped the plaid pattern from my Mash plate M60 with Sally Hansen Color Quick in Turquoise Chrome.

I'm not thrilled with the way this turned out. I couldn't get the lines to transfer straight and the Turquoise Chrome overpowers the beauty of Barracuda.

See here's Barracuda alone.

So pretty!

Here's to hoping that my Week 5 Challenge Mani (Newspaper Nails) turns out better.

Adventures in Color Blocking

Well I'm off to a great start on this weekly challenge. *Insert self side-eye*

My apologies for not posting the Week 3 challenge mani on Monday like I promised, but I had some computer issues last weekend and couldn't manage a work around until now.

So here's my take on color blocking. I did some google and youtube searching on what a color blocking mani was *supposed* to look like, but I wanted something different. My first thought to was to do something based on those tri-tone gold bracelets but I ended up going with a burgundy tone for the third color instead of a white gold shade.

I started with a coat of China Glaze Love Letters (my favorite "my nails but better" color). The gold is Nicole by OPI The Next CEO, the rose gold is Nicole by OPI It Starts With Me, and the burgandy-ish color is Nicole by OPI Sounds Grape to Me.

I probably spent a good hour and a half on this mani. I used tape to create the lines and sooooooo much Seche Vite. Seriously I think this mani added about a quarter of an inch thickness to my nails. LOL. I wasn't completely enamored with it at first but it grew on me the longer I wore it. I got lots of compliments over the week. Yes! I wore it for an entire week.

Tomorrow I'll have a plaid mani to share with you guys!

Funky Fresh French and A Challenge!

I love a good challenge and while I'm not quite up to doing another round of 31 Days of Manis, I figured I'd delve into this weekly mani challenge I've seen floating around on the interwebs.

I missed Week 1, but that was a "Make it Sparkle" mani, and  if you've been reading my blog for a while you know there's no lack of that here on ManiCured. LOL. So I'm officially starting this in Week 2, which calls for a French Tip mani.

I used OPI The Color To Watch as my base color and Wet n Wild's On a Trip, from their revamped megalast line, for the tips.

Note, these photos are NOT color accurate. My camera hates purples so this looks way more periwinkle than in real life.It's more of a dusty lilac.

Here's the schedule for the rest of the year in case you want to do it with me.

Week 3: Color Block Mani

Week 4: Plaid Mani

Week 5: Newspaper Mani

Week 6: Half-Moon Mani

Week 7: Valentine's Day Mani

Week 8: Corset Mani

Week 9: Vintage Mani

Week 10: Polka Dot Mani

Week 11: St. Patrick's Day Mani

Week 12: Skittle Mani

Week 13: Ruffian Mani

Week 14: Striped Mani

Week 15: Easter Day Mani

Week 16: Dotticure Mani

Week 17: Earth Appreciation Mani

Week 18: Cartoon Mani

Week 19: Floral Mani

Week 20: Bows Mani

Week 21: Fruit Mani

Week 22: Splatter Mani

Week 23: Ombre Mani

Week 24: Flag Mani

Week 25: Pride/Rainbow Mani

Week 26: Neon Mani

Week 27: 4th of July Mani

Week 28: Gradient Mani

Week 29: Rockstar Mani

Week 30: Water Marble Mani

Week 31: Crackle Mani

Week 32: Needle Marble Mani

Week 33: Galaxy Mani

Week 34: Bling Mani

Week 35: Cupcake Mani

Week 36: Tape Mani

Week 37: "We Remember 9/11" Mani

Week 38: Metallic/Magnetic Mani

Week 39: Dry Marble Mani

Week 40: Animal Print Mani

Week 41: Patchwork Mani

Week 42: "Pink 4 Breast Cancer Awareness" Mani

Week 43: Spider Web Mani

Week 44: Halloween Mani

Week 45: Tribal Mani

Week 46: "Mustache 4 Movember; Prostate Cancer Awareness Mani"

Week 47: Thanksgiving Day Mani

Week 48: Feather Mani

Week 49: Glitter Sandwich Mani

Week 50: Snowflake Mani

Week 51: Red Mani

Week 52: Christmas Mani

And to round out the challenge, of course I'm going to do a New Years Eve Mani.

Any of you guys interested in coming along for the ride? I'll be posting these challenge manis on Mondays from now on.

I'm Back and Armed With Flakies!

Oh my gosh guys, my apologies for being on this ridiculous unannounced hiatus. I had all these great plans for Christmas and New Years Eve manicures, but when it came time to actually do them I just wasn't feeling it. Next year I guess. My eyes being glued to my television as I watched the entire SERIES of  The Wire in about a week didn't help either. Then I got into Game of Thrones and by the time I knew it, it was time to go back to work. Sad. All that free time wasted. But to whoever is reading this thanks for sticking with me!

Although I wasn't polishing my nails I did manage to keep shopping for polish!

Finger Paints Special Effects L-R: Flashy, Flecked, Motley, Asylum, Twisted

 

You know I wasn't trying to miss out on the Finger Paints Special Effects (a.k.a. flakies) Collection. I went to one Sallys a few days after it had been reported on makeupalley that they were starting to pop up in stores. I must have some polish hounds in my neck of the woods because by the time I got there all they had left were two bottles of Flashy and one bottle of Flecked. I bought one of each and sulked while I wondered how I would get the other three (Motley, Asylum, and Twisted). A couple weeks later I went to a Sallys near my boyfriend's job and the sales lady claimed they only got Flecked in their shipment so again I went away feeling sad.

Once the new year hit (Oh by the way Happy New Year! I read somewhere that you have until the 16th of January to say that to people without sounding dumb lol), when the collection was to be officially released I called the first Sallys I went to and they told me they were getting a fresh shipment that Wednesday. Not trying to take any chances I called them that morning and put the three I needed to complete my collection on hold.

So that night I go to pick them up and do you know the sales lady started messing with me, saying she had no idea what I was talking about. I knew she was joking, but I decided to go along with it and said to her "Noooooooo you can't do this to me!" LOL. She pulled my polishes from behind the register and $15 later I was a happy camper. LOL.

Anyway, so that was a long story as a prelude to this manicure--one of my first non-fails of 2012--China Glaze Peachy Keen and Finger Paints Asylum.

I'm sorry that I don't have pics of Peachy Keen on it's own, but when I took the photos I wasn't in complete blogger mode, I was just snapping pictures.

I'm really pleased with the way this turned out. I know these Finger Paints flakies stand out way more when you layer them over a darker base, but I wanted to try something else. So here you have it.

Still, these photos do absolutely no justice to how pretty and ethereal this combination is. My only real gripe about this mani is how much darker Peachy Keen dried compared to the bottle color--but that isn't much to complain about. Have you guys snatched up these special effect top coats? They are seriously game changers. I want to put them over ALL THE POLISHES. LOL.