2013 Color Club Halo Hues Swatches

Hey guys! I know I haven't been sticking to my weekly mani schedule. I hope you can forgive me. As a peace offering I bring to you swatches of the Color Club's 2013 Halo Hues collection! I ordered them from Enospring's Ebay Store.

 L-R: Beyond, Cosmic Fate, Kismet, Miss Bliss, Over The Moon, Eternal Beauty 

 L-R: Beyond, Cosmic Fate, Kismet, Miss Bliss, Over The Moon, Eternal Beauty 

OMG guys! These polishes are so beautifully holo that I just don't know what to say. So I'm just going to give you the swatches! All of the swatches are two coats with no base coat and no top coat. I took the photos (no flash) in my light box using a daylight bulb.

Color Club Cosmic Fate

Color Club Miss Bliss

Color Club Eternal Beauty

Color Club Beyond

Color Club Kismet

Color Club Over the Moon

I did a full mani with Miss Bliss and Beyond as accent nails and I used SH Insta-Dri Clearly Quick as my top coat and it did not dull the holo! I also love that I didn't have to use a special Aquabase base coat. I can never get that stuff to dry quickly enough. Words cannot even begin to express how happy I am with these polishes. I can't wait to experiment with layering one coat over darker polishes to see how they perform.

Week 2: Funky French

Hey guys! I'm back like I promised with my french tip mani for Week 2 of the challenge.

I used China Glaze Love Letters for the base. It's super sheer for sure, but adds just a touch of pink to enhance my nail. Once that dried, I put some tape down on a diagonal and painted on two coats of China Glaze Gothic Lolita from the spring 2012 Electropop collection. I used OPI Russian Navy to stamp on the snake print from plate BM-215.

I really like this color it reminds me of one of my favorite crayons, thistle. I wish my camera would let you guys see the beautiful shimmer running through it, but it won't let me be great.

I'll be back on Monday with a "Color Block" mani. I'm going to have a hard time trying to top last year's look. I was in love with that mani!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I'm about a week late, but you can forgive me right?

I'm sorry about the unscheduled hiatus on the blog. I had a health scare that took me out of work and the blogging mood for a few months. Things are under control now and I'm glad to be able to get back to the business of creating manis that make me swoon.

I'm restarting the Weekly Mani Challenge to get myself back into the swing of things. So here's my winter/snow themed Week 1 "Make It Sparkle" mani.

I started out with two coats of Nicole by OPI It's All About The Glam. Then I added one coat of Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs. I sponged on Sally Hansen Whirlwind White on the tips to mimic snow. One coat of Gelous and two coats of Seche Vite top coat smoothed all that glitter and sponge work right on out!

 I'm a week behind, so I'm going to have to get back here and post the week 2 challenge "French Tip" mani on Friday.

Here's to wishing you guys a wonderful 2013!

 

Striped

Week 14 of my weekly mani challenge called for stripes, so here they are. Tiger stripes.

This mani is grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat! I drew my inspiration from Tony the Tiger and now I have an intense craving for Frosted Flakes. FAIL. My nails are supposed to take my mind OFF of food. LOL.

Anywho, I've been in the mood for super bright colors lately, so I started this mani with three coats of China Glaze Japanese Koi (Neon).

I love this color!!! It's soooooo bright. It dries down to a matte finish, but that's nothing a little top coat can't fix.

I added a coat of Icing Tiger's Blood--which has silver and gold glitter suspended in an orange jelly base.

I stamped on the tiger stripes from Konad plate M57 using American Apparel's Hassid.

This is such a fun look. I can't believe I hadn't done something like this before. Next week's look will be an Easter mani. I gotta get my creative juices flowing.

Blue Ruffian

I was nervous to start my week 13 ruffian manicure. I'm not much of a fan of manis that involve creating "moon" shapes, but I really ended up loving this!

 I started out with two coats of Sephora by OPI Bright As A Feather.

  

This is such a gorgeous robin's egg metallic blue. I was pleasantly surprised by the formula. Sephora by OPI shades can tend to be on the sheer side, but I got full coverage at two thin coats. Win. 

 

I paired it with Barielle's Blackened Blue that I got recently from a Hautelook sale. I love this combo!

My crescent moon shape isn't pristine because I freehanded the ruffian. I didn't feel like waiting for my base color to dry completely to be able to use french manicure guides like I've seen suggested elsewhere.  Eh, I'm still happy with the results. It looks pretty good from the front though.

I'll have my week 14 striped mani to share with you tomorrow. I hope you guys are having a great weekend.

Week 12: Taste The Rainbow

Hey guys, life has been so hectic, so I'm playing catch up on my Weekly Challenge manis.So here's my week 12 look: skittles.

I fashioned my skittles mani, after what else, but Skittles! Specifically the Wild Berry pack, which is my favorite kind. For the wild cherry flavor, I used Essie Really Red; for the strawberry I went with Orly Coquette Cutie, for Berry Punch I used OPI Honk If You Love OPI, the raspberry is Pure Ice French Kiss and melon berry is Color Club Twiggie. I used a white acrylic paint to freehand the "S" printed on the candies.

I love all these colors.

L-R: Essie Really Red, Orly Coquette Cutie, OPI Honk If You Love OPI, Pure Ice French Kiss, Color Club Twiggie

Now I want skittles. I'll have my week 13, ruffian mani for you tomorrow and then I'll be set to show you my week 14 striped mani on Monday!

I'm So Jaded

If there ever was an oxymoron for a nail polish name Wet 'n Wild's I'm So Jaded from the Spoiled line is definitely it. There is absolutely nothing boring or dull about this polish. I don't know how an almost neon lime green polish with golden shimmer could ever be described that way. See!

Whoa! It's almost blindingly bright.Definitely a fun look. I wonder if this would look good as a pedi.

And you know I couldn't just leave this alone, so.....

 

I stamped some shamrock's down the side with Color Club Artsy Crafty from the Back to Boho collection. The image is from Cheeky plate CH26, from their 2012 set. I do wish the image had come out a tad darker, but hey there's still plenty of contrast.

Are you guys enjoying this green week? I gotta figure out what to do for tomorrow's post.

Did It On 'Em

Yep. I have another green mani for you guys!

This one's featuring OPI Did It On 'Em from the Nicki Menaj collection and OPI Fresh Frog of Bel-Air from the Muppets collection.

Did It On 'Em is this wonderful yellow-green creme. I did two coats here. The first coat was streaky, but the second evened that all out. It reminds me of Fiercely Fiona from the Shrek collection. I don't have that one though so I can't compare.

I love this way more than I thought I would. I picked it up on a whim when I bought the other shades in the collection and I'm glad I did.


I like Fresh Frog of Bel-Air, but I don't think it went too well with Did It On 'Em. I think the silver hex glitters in it clashes with it's yellow tone. Ah well.

Stay tuned for more green. I'm feeling a neon is in order!

Week 11: St. Patrick's Day Mani

Hey guys! Are you ready for my Week 11 mani?!? This one is St. Patrick's Day themed.  I don't wear my green nail polishes nearly enough so I was super excited to do this look!

 I started this look with two coats of Milani Hi-Tech, a yellow-green scattered holographic polish. These pictures don't do any justice to this polish. It really looks amazing in sunlight!

Here you can see how it forms a scattered rainbow "flame." Super gorgeous!

I wanted to practice my freehand nail art, so I pulled out a green acrylic paint and a fine nail art brush. I made little shamrock shapes by putting two heart shapes together. Not perfect, but I was relatively happy with it.

And you guys know me and glitter so I added a layer of Sinful Colors Call Me Later, which has different shades of green and gold glitter in a clear base.

I love it! I'm on a green kick so expect to see more this week!

Pink Polka Dot Wednesday

Hey guys! Please excuse the tardiness of my Week 10 mani challenge. Polka Dots! Let's give a warm welcome back to Pink Wednesday. I can't even remember the last pink mani I showed you guys. Shame! Anyway, without further ado here's the mani.

I started with two coats of Milani Bare in Mind. It came out in that Bare It All collection in 2010.

The color is very sheer and the only reason I was able to get away with two coats is because I used Nail Life Ridge Filler over my usual base coat--Pro-FX Epoxy Bond--in case you were wondering.

 I love this color and it has a nice pink shimmer to it, that my camera didn't pick up that well.

For the polka dots I used Pinky Brown from Model's Own Beetlejuice Collection. I hear they're coming out with three more Beetlejuice shades for spring/summer 2012. The promo shots look amazing! I'm certainly intrigued.

Anyway, back to Pinky Brown. It's a very glittery duochrome shade and shifts between a magenta pink and a bronzy brown. I like the contrast.

I'm pleased with this mani! Much better than last week's challenge for sure.

Next week's challenge is a St. Patrick's Day mani. I'm excited about digging through my green stash to see what I can come up with! So friends I'll leave you with a wish for a lovely Pink Wednesday! Are you guys rocking your pink today?

Week 9: Vintage Mani FAIL

Hey guys, it's Week 9 of this yearlong mani challenge I'm on. I'm putting this Vintage mani in the FAIL column.

Yuck! I really really really don't like this. But in the name of the challenge I did it and posted it.I started with one coat of China Glaze Heaven, a sheer shimmery light peach color, because I was trying to camouflage my yellow tips a little bit--not that it actually worked.

 
I used reinforcement stickers and tape to divide my nail area. 

Then I painted the center with China Glaze Winter Berry--a really nice deep jelly red, and took off the tape and reinforcements as soon as I finished painting each nail. I tried to clean up my lines with my cleanup brush  and acetone. 

So yea FAIL. Once I saw how this was turning out I decided to only do these four fingers you see and as soon as I snapped these photos this came off with the quickness. I don't even have the desire to ever try this again and see if it turns out better. It's just that bad.

Anyway, hopefully next week's polka dot challenge leaves me with a mani I can actually wear for more than five minutes.

Milani Color Play Swatches

I was in CVS the other day and I saw the new Milani Color Play collection. It had been a while since I had seen a new Milani collection that I was actually interested in so I was excited. I picked up four of the six colors. There was also a silver called Silver Stiletto and pink called Tip Toe Pink included in the collection, but they didn't excite me much so I left them.

L-R: Sail Away, Orchidia, Mint Candy, Beach Front

Sail Away denim blue with very strong silver shimmer running through it. I did two coats here, but I could have easily gotten away with one had I not been trying to camouflage the patch on my middle finger nail. As you can see it dries a bit darker than bottle color, but that's alright with me.

 Mint Candy. My absolute favorite of the collection. It's a pretty turquoise with this awesome light turquoise shimmer running through it. Two coats shown here. It's a bit greener than my swatch shows here though. I love tone on tone shimmer. It excites me! LOL.

 Orchidia, runner up for my favorite in the collection. I tried to color correct this photo a bit as my camera absolutely refuses to show the true color of any purple. It's a purple that leans towards the pink end of the spectrum and it has this great silver shimmer running through it to keep it interesting. As with the others I did two coats here.

 And the last of the four I picked up, Beach Front, a pretty sky blue color with silver shimmer. Again two easy coats for this swatch. It looks like it could be a cousin of OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam and OPI I Have a Herring Problem from the Holland Collection.

I really like all of these. The formula is really smooth and easy to work with. Two coats and you're set. Have you guys seen these yet? Are you planning on getting any of these? If you haven't spotted them at CVS, they're available on MilaniCosmetics.com for $4.49.