One Day You’ll Be Cool…

When my beloved neon jelly sandwich started chipping, I wanted something pretty yet simple to replace it. I chose an old standby and a favorite blue, resulting in a lovely manicure.

China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle and OPI My Vampire Is Buff

I wasn’t happy with this gradient – I like ’em to have a smooth transition from one color to the next, with the gradation between colors very subtle, not looking like stripes but seamlessly blending. I didn’t achieve that on all my nails here (particularly on my middle and pointer), but I was doing it at midnight with almost no light, so I’m not gonna be too hard on myself.

I also got two huge bubbles somehow on my ring finger. WHYYYYYY???

I would grumble that My Vampire Is Buff (MVIB) is a three coater, but it’s a light cream and that’s pretty much par for the course with these kind of colors. I don’t know why but there’s something about MVIB that I love – I think it’s because it’s a neutral that doesn’t make me look sickly plus it feels chic but not boring by itself (it’s certainly not the name, oy vey). Unfortunately, due to the three coats I needed for the base and then the additional coats of Too Yacht To Handle (TYTH), this chipped almost immediately, as you can see on my thumb in the photos. Blerg.

I also had a hard time making the cuticle area nice…maybe because MVIB is kinda thick?

TYTH is, of course, fabuloso. It’s a super bright turquoise and that color just makes me happy, man. TYTH combined with MVIB looks sort of beachy cool, and I love it. If only gradients weren’t such a bitch to clean up, I’d do them all the time!

Sunday night some friends and I saw Almost Famous at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. These Cinespia screenings are one of my favorite things to do in LA, even though it’s become way too packed and overpriced (haaaa that could be said about everything fun in LA)!

A sea of people and palm trees…

I do try to go at least once a summer, and while it feels a little irresponsible to throw money away on a screening of a movie I’ve inevitably seen hundreds of times, it’s so fun to see a beloved film with a huge audience that loves it as much as you. If you’ve never been, everyone brings picnic blankets and food and wine that they spread out in front of a mausoleum where the movie will be projected.

The movie’s about to start!

While you wait for the movie to start there’s a DJ playing songs in theme with the movie you’re about to see (oh man, there were some killer ’70s jams playing on Sunday!) and they used to have props from the movie but now they have a setup to take awesome themed photos:

My sister, me, and our friend M…how great is that set?! It’s totally William’s room!

The best part, though, is when they have someone who worked on the movie pop by, and last night Cameron Crowe was there! He said a few words about the making of the film and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s acting methods, and seemed genuinely thrilled about how many people turned out.

It’s a really fun experience despite the few drawbacks, and you should definitely try to go if you’re in LA for the summer!

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! See you next time – A x

A Glitter Experiment

I love seeing photos of El Corazon polishes online. I think they’re a Russian brand and I have no idea where to get them, but they’ve got some cool polishes. I particularly love their collection with tiny matte white and black glitter, which I first saw on Nailz Craze. I decided to see if I could make something similar – when you’ve got as many polishes as I do, you should be able to dupe almost anything, right?

I don’t have tiny white glitter, but Tangled In My Web fit the bill for small black glitter. I’ve only worn it a handful of times since I never really knew what to do with it before now. Unfortunately, the formula is a bit difficult – it’s got a very thick clear base and the glitter itself is pretty sparse, so I had to carefully maneuver to get an even sprinkling of glitter pieces.

I needed sheer-ish polishes for my jelly sandwich, but I hate seeing my nail line, so I did one thick coat of Sunkissed as the base for my yellow nails because In The Limelight takes a million coats to be opaque. I only needed one normal coat of You Drive Me Coconuts (YDMC), though, because it’s really opaque jelly polish.

Ack, sorry about those chips! I had to take these pics super quick so I didn’t notice them until just now.

Then I did the normal jelly sandwich routine: added a coat of glitter, a thin coat of YRMC and In The Limelight over that, another coat of glitter, and a final thin coat of color. I actually attempted to do this with a full rainbow of neons – pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue – but the orange, green, and blue weren’t as sheer so they didn’t allow for that “glitter suspended in polish” look I was going for.

It did feel a little thick on the nail, but surprisingly it only took one regular coat of Seche Vite to smooth everything out. I’m pretty pleased with how this came out, actually. I love the pink nails, they reminds me of dragon fruit, although my sister keeps calling them my “poppy seed nails.”

Ready for the weekend, y’all!

I’m sure it’s gonna be a bitch to get all the glitter off, but I’ll just enjoy this while I’ve got it on. It’s very summery and eye-catching – I’ve actually had people grab my hand to get a closer look! I will definitely be rocking this look again in the future, it’s too fun. I hope y’all liked this mani as much as I did, and I hope everyone has a fun and safe long weekend! Thank you for reading, see you next time – A x

She’s So Evil…and She’s Only in High School!

I recently received some nail mail from the awesome Rach at Stuff I S(w)atched that included my first Funky Fingers polishes! I decided to use the two most popular ones in my manicure today.

Jawbreaker really does look like candy, doesn’t it? And of course, the name reminds me of the movie, although I can never quite tell if I like it or not. Jawbreaker was weird as shit – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, many ’90s movies I love were weird – and often it was cringe-worthy but did have its funny moments… I don’t know, man. I guess I’ll just respect it for being a crazeballs movie that could never have been made today.

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Anyway, I was really surprised with how easy Jawbreaker was! I usually get a little frustrated with milky glitters because they take more effort than I prefer to get on properly and feel really thick, but Jawbreaker was super easy to maneuver. It was also probably good in two because I used slightly thicker coats, but I did three just to make sure it looked okay on camera.

I did a little accent nail with Sweet Hook as the base and a terrible glitter fade with Sand & Stilettos, a fantastic lavender holo glitter. I was also super excited when I took a macro and discovered the glitter pieces are SQUARES. I love square glitter, y’all!

Sorry for the lack of posting, I did do one other manicure recently but I wasn’t really feeling it. I’ll try to have another post up by the end of this week, though!

Anyone out there a fan of jawbreakers, Jawbreaker, or Jawbreaker? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading! See you next time – A x

Once Upon A Dream…

I was oddly craving a darker, very saturated color the other day – I was watching something where a character had fantastic burgundy nails, which are not usually me, but something about it clicked. I wanted to use my new Love.Angel.Music.Baby, too, though, and I thought burgundy and gold would look very Christmas/holiday together so I chose Zoya’s Dream instead. Of course once I had those two on my nails, I realized that they were Chanukah colors. Oy vey.

I wore just L.A.M.B on my thumb and pinkie and Dream on my other fingers by themselves for a day or so, but then I got bored and attempted a striping tape look I’ve seen on The Nailsaurus.

On my nails Dream kept photographing more denim but it’s really a brighter, more royal blue in person.

I haven’t used my striping tape in a long time and I forgot how frustrating it is sometimes, but after taking way too long fussing with my first nail, I got the hang of it. The hardest part is getting each nail to be uniform, which I failed at a bit (plus one piece of tape was weirdly thick and I didn’t notice until after painting, of course) but I still love this look.

I’ve had my eye on L.A.M.B. for a while, but kept passing it up until I found it on sale for $4 at Ulta and decided it was a sign. I used to hate mattes but I’ve grown quite fond of the very few I have, and this one had a great formula – slightly thick but almost perfect in one coat, but I did two to cover up some weird texture from my getting-too-old base coat. I forgot how quickly mattes chip, though, which is kind of a bummer.

See that lovely shimmer?

Looks like a sex-ay galaxy on your nails.

I mentioned how much I love Zoya’s Payton in my Zoya haul a few posts ago, and I love Dream even more (although Aurora is my #1 fav of that finish). It’s lovely enough indoors – a deep, saturated “space blue,” according to Zoya – but in bright light it’s jaw-dropping! The blue brightens a bit to a fabulous royal, the holo flecks come alive, and anyone who is gazing upon this beauty starts drooling. If I did a favorite Zoyas post, I would absolutely have Dream on there – I really think that everyone needs it, it’s just too gorgeous. It looks like a sex-ay galaxy on your nails!

As always, a blurred-for-maximum-sparkle .gif!

Speaking of Dream…I’m tired of seeing promos for the new Maleficient movie – I think it’ll be terrible, like when they tried their live-action Alice in Wonderland a few years ago – but I love Lana Del Rey’s version of “Once Upon A Dream.” It’s perfectly eerie and haunting, and I only wish the movie would match the song. Annnnd now I want to watch Sleeping Beauty because Maleficient is da best.

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Any thoughts on this mani or the soon-to-be-released movie? I need people to rant with!

Thank you for reading! See you next time!

A Sunny Combination

I couldn’t resist playing further with Solange, and originally I thought it would pair nicely with some oranges from my stash, but I ended up not liking the combo that much:

The lighter orange is Zoya Arizona and the deeper orange is China Glaze Riveting. Love both of them, just not with Solange, for some reason.

Then a day or so later when I was at my fav beauty supply store (buying presents, I swear! Okay, I may have picked up two for myself too) and I was given a little gift – a two-pack of Color Club In Theory, a salmon-y peach, and Wild Cactus, a gorgeous blue-leaning teal that was impossible to capture accurately (of course). I love that place, they’re always so nice and helpful, and this isn’t the first time I’ve gotten a little gift with purchase (I didn’t even buy that many things, for once!). I’m preeeeetty sure they think I’m a nail tech since I buy so much nail polish/supplies, but whatevs. If you’re ever in the downtown LA area, pop down to Skyline Beauty because it’s amaze. But anyway, back to my nails!

Once I saw Wild Cactus, I KNEW it would look amazing with Solange and as soon as I got home I took off my previous mani to put these two together. I adore this pairing – the vivid jungle green of Wild Cactus looks so fabulous with the metallic sunshine yellow of Solange. I don’t know what it is about both of these polishes, but I’m obsessed with them…don’t be surprised if you see them pop up in my manicures all this summer!

Wild Cactus looks a bit flat in these photos, but trust – in person it’s sooo rich and gorgeous.

I used some little nail guides that I also picked up at Skyline – I was delighted to see angular ones as well as the usual French guides! The top is a little rounded, which I like, because V gap manis are my standby but usually they’re super sharp because I just do them with tape, and the nail guides give me a little variation.

I did one thin then one slightly thicker coat of Solange on my middle and ring fingers, to make sure no green shone through. On my thumb, however, I experimented and only did one coat, which makes Solange come across as more gold than yellow.

Wild Cactus in the background here is probably closest to how it looks in person.

Okay, one more photo for good measure! You might notice the Solange area looks a little lumpy on my middle finger – I mentioned that I applied Solange a little thickly, and I guess it still wasn’t dry two hours later, because I looked down and it was almost completely scraped off. I managed to sort of reshape it but I had to add more polish to fill in the messed up areas, but it honestly doesn’t look that bad in person.

Arghhh sorry for the random glitter, I was touching up where Solange had chipped a bit.

I’m so in love with both of these polishes! The weird thing is, I’m usually more of a yellow-leaning green person; blue-leaning greens usually aren’t my jam but Wild Cactus has just jumped into my favorites list (as has Solange, I think it goes without saying). There’s not much else to say, except I think everyone in the world needs both of these polishes. I think Wild Cactus may be similar to China Glaze’s Four Leaf Clover, which I’m pretty sure I own (no judgements, I own a lot of polish, y’all, sometimes I forget one!), I’ll go looking for it and report back if it’s a possible dupe, but either way, swoooooon. I haven’t been this in love with a manicure in a long time!

And since I’m wearing Solange, I can’t resist:

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Anyone else way too amused about Solange Knowles trying to beat the shit out of Jay Z? I can’t wait to read the press release trying to explain away that! I also love what some awesome person wrote into Solange’s Wikipedia page:

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Anyone else share my crazy love for Solange (both the polish and the person) and/or deep greens? I’d love to hear in the comments!

Thanks for reading! See you next time – A x