Polka Dots & Dance in the Rain

Happy 2015, everyone! After an extended hiatus, I am officially back in action and excited to get my blogging groove back! As I'm sure you'll notice immediately, the holidays, my crazy semester at school, and lack of sleep due to hours spent on my thesis have taken a serious toll on my talons. I am reduced to the shortest nubs I've had in over a year! But this is all part of being a polish head--breaks happen. I'm going to work on a series celebrating nubs and maybe even some tutorials (!!!) with ideas for ladies that rock shorter nails all the time.

I thought it would be best to re-enter the blogosphere with a simple, colorful look that complements my new shorter style. I started with two coats of OPI - You're So Vain-illa on my index and middle fingers, then used a small Bundlemonster dotting tool to add polka dots in OPI - Hey Baby (pink) and China Glaze - Wait N' Sea. For my ring finger and pinky, I started with a base of OPI - Love.Angel.Music.Baby, and dabbed three-ish coats of Lumina Lacquer - Dance in the Rain on my ring finger.

NOTD: China Glaze Gradient & Lumina Lacquer

TGIF, nail babes! Today I wore this summery gradient topped with one of my favorite glitter toppers of all time. It was a fabulous way to celebrate the end of a long work week!

Gradients & Glitter

Gradients are probably my favorite nail art technique. Once you figure them out, they're by far the quickest way to make a simple mani something more striking and special. Usually I try to stick to similar colors, or shades at least in the same family, when doing gradients, but for this mani I pushed myself to try something new. 

The pink half of the gradient was made using Revlon Parfumerie - Ginger Melon. I have a handful of polishes from this collection, and I've been really impressed with the quality of all of them--not to mention their amazing scents! Ginger Melon was one I wanted to for a while, and it was difficult to find, but I'm so glad I finally did. It's a gorgeous, warm toned pink that smells incredibly delicious.

The blue half of the gradient is Sally Hansen - Blue Me Away! This polish was a birthday gift from my dear friend Rei, and I can't believe I'm just now getting around to using it. Its a summery, vibrant turquoise that gets amazingly opaque coverage. This actually reminds me that I should pick up more polishes from the X-treme Wear line, since they've always had great formulas and I hear they're good for watermarbleing. 

Also, I used the Elmer's glue anti-clean up method for the first time. It's AMAZING how much time it saves, especially for this blue that screams "NAIL STAINER!" I need to practice my application a little, (I got to close to the nail and ended up pulling up some of the polish from my nail) but I'll definitely keep practicing this method just because it's so easy, and saves my cuticles from too much acetone bathing.

I topped the gradient with one dabbed coat of Lumina Lacquer - Dance in the Rain. If you can show me an indie line with better mixes in their glitter bombs, I will eat an entire humble pie. Every polish I've tried by Lumina is incredible, complex, and unique, and it's always easy to grab all of the glitters--even those large dots I love so dearly!

I went macro crazy when photographing this mani, so you get two!

For the two macros, the first photo in the post, and the one below, I topped the entire look with a generous coat of Sally Hansen - Big Matte Topcoat. 

I loved wearing this and got lots of compliments! I even got one from a stranger on the train this morning, which always makes my day. I wish I could keep it on for a few days, but I've got plans for a very special themed mani for the weekend, so it will have to live on in photos alone. However, expect to see LOTS more gradients now that I've found the glue method!

Indie Crush Manis

Hi everyone! Today I have two manis from earlier this month that I never posted. They both feature "bigger" indie polishes that I had on my must-have list for awhile, and was lucky enough to find through a blog sale! As a burgeoning nail blogger, I tend towards the smaller and lesser known indies in hopes of us growing together, but I can't deny that I am often drawn towards the more established brands, if only to find out if they live up to the hype. 

Take away message: they do!

Moon Child by Lumina Lacquer

This is the second glitter bomb by this indie trailblazer I have gleefully added to my collection. In addition to pink and silver microglitters, this amazingly complex polish contains a dreamy mix of large hex, star, diamond, moon, flower, heart, butterfly, and dot (!!!) glitters in pink, white, purple, and holooooo. This photo shows two dabbed coats over a Color Club mint polish, with some placement for the sake of evenness and variety. Since so many of the components of this polish are relatively large, I noticed some curling of the glitters that were placed on rounded areas of my nail (you can see it most notably on my thumb). I don't believe this to be a flaw in the polish, I would just recommend that anyone working with this or a similar polish finish it off with a generous coat or two of top coat.

The Worst is Over by Happy Hands Nail Polish

I love the cute, homemade looking labels of this polish line, and have admired several collections from afar (most notably, the Arrested Development inspired line....I'm such a sucker for any polish-pop culture crossovers!) This polish is a lovely lavender crelly with micro and small hex glitters in several shades of blue and orange. Application with this one was perfectly even, the brush grabbing a variety of glitters in each stroke. The mani shown here is three thin coats of The Worst is Over with an accent nail of OPI Liquid Sand - Tiffany Case. 

Hope you enjoy! Are there any "big indies" that you've been dying to try?