Some Serious Essie Bling

Today we've got Essie's Luxeffects - Set in Stones over China Glaze - Pelican Gray. I love these Effects polishes... all the ones I have are gorgeous for layering and I need to buck up and go buy the rest of the collection. Glitter gradients like this mani are great for parties or a night out when you want a little hint of sparkle and using a neutral base like a grey makes it wearable from day to night. I wear this kind of mani alot with different polish and glitter combos. Hope you enjoyed!

Not-at-all-Mellow Yellow

Happy Go Lucky is another polish from the Up and Away collection from spring 2010. This is definitely not an everyday polish, even for me. I much prefer the more subtle look of Lemon Fizz, but this bright yellow creme has a time and a place. In a very strange weather anomaly for June in California, it was freezing and rainy yesterday, so naturally it was the perfect time for a bright, sunny polish. Happy nails always pick up my spirits on a gloomy day!

A Busy Week and an Interview Mani

As I mentioned in my last post, this last week has been a bit of a whirlwind. In addition to having several interviews earlier this week, one of my girlfriends/roommate/sorority sister from college is getting married today! So of course this meant lots of shopping looking for the perfect dress and shoes to wear to the shindig, and a reunion/Bachelorette party thursday night! It was so great getting to see so many of my sisters, some of which I haven't seen in quite a long while. I am super excited about the wedding tomorrow and will definitely do an update about my nails and outfit!

On a less fun note, I have been looking for a new job and had a couple of interviews downtown earlier in the week. I overestimated the time I would need, so I stopped at a local Starbucks to pick up a delicious Tazo Refresh tea and decided to snap a few pictures of my interview manicure. *Sorry for the picture quality... my camera phone can only do so much!*

I realize that this would not be an appropriate choice for all interviews in all industries, but for the roles that I am interested in, it is ok to show a little personality. I try to do this with little punches of color, maybe a purple shoe or a bright printed top, and sometimes I add a little interest to my manicure. I talk alot with my hands, so it is imperative for the nails to be well-groomed and if they are a little bit unusual it can sometimes be a great conversation starter that gives me the opportunity to talk about one of my passions.

For this manicure, I chose two colors that I consider fairly demure and interview worthy. Similar shades of pink in different tonalities. The base here is China Glaze - Fuchsia Fanatic, another member of the Spring 2012 collection and as the name implies a beautiful fuschia pink. On top is China Glaze - Seduce Me, a more subdued raspberry pink. I think that either of these polishes worn on their own, while beautiful, create typical pink, some-what boring manicures. But when layered in a reverse french, offer a unique twist on "appropriate".

What would you don on your digits for an interview??

Hunger Games Harvest Moon Mani

I have been a little MIA lately, it has been a very busy week which I will hash out for you in my next post. In the meantime, I just wanted to share this shiny copper-gold mani for the China Glaze Hunger Games collection. First, let me just say that I am a HUGE fan of the Hunger Games series. I am a really avid reader, and truthfully just a big book worm, so I tore through all three books in the series in less than a week. Suzanne Collins story is exciting, intriguing and colorful, as well as being a surprisingly deep commentary on societal standards and human behavior. I would recommend the books to anyone and was very excited to hear about the release of the movie. However, I was disappointed in the movie. From what I have heard from my friends, those who have not read the books, LOVED the movie, and those who had, thought that the movie was just ok. It is always hard to translate a novel into a movie and I personally believe that it is very rarely done in a way that truly does justice to the written story. I had such high expectations for how spectacular this film could be and was just.. underwhelmed.

This is pretty much how I felt about China Glaze's homage to the Hunger Games with the Capital Colours collection as well. I only ended up picking up a single bottle - Harvest Moon (District 9 - Grain) a gold, copper foil.

It is really a gorgeous color with tons of sparkle. It is highly pigmented and goes on super smooth, you can almost get away with a single coat, although I still had a little nail line show through so I went with two coats followed by a high-shine top coat.

I really wanted to like this polish and had really high expectations (seeing any parallels here?) however, for some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to wear this outside of the house. In fact, this manicure only lasted about 2 hours before I gave up and repainted. It just looks kind of odd against my skin tone. It doesn't give me lobster hands per se, but I think it would look much better on someone who doesn't have as much red in their skin.

So while I am sure that others will love this polish, it is just not for me, le sigh. Back on the shelf it goes.

Happy Friday!

Another Reverse French Manicure

So... I am little bit obsessed with this lately. Pretty much every plain old manicure I do, I repaint the 2nd or 3rd day with a reverse french. It is an awesome way for me to deal with my OCD regarding chipped tips and draw a little extra attention to those digits. I especially love incorporating a bright neon color that might be a little too much for the average working lady. This combo is probably still a little out there since the blue is not exactly office friendly, but for a girl like me, with over the top taste in polish, it is AWESOME. :)

I started with a full manicure of China Glaze - Shocking Pink. This is a bright neon pink that I showcased in my last post. I wore the all-pink mani for a day or two, so it was completely dry and had a coat of topcoat on it before I started with the blue.

The top color in this combo mani is another China Glaze color (I knew you would start to see the pattern here lol), Frostbite. I layered this on top, leaving a small half moon of the pink visible near the cuticle.

Frostbite, is an awesome blue on its own. It seriously glows. When I first picked it up I wore it for a week straight then painted my toes with it and wore it for a solid month on my piggly wigglies. Even if you don't like wearing blues, chances are you will love this color. I can not stop looking at my nails when I wear it.

The two of these together is awesome, I have gotten 17,000 compliments on it and keep flashing my nails around like it is nobody's business. This is a bright, fun, eye-catching combo that I love and will definitely wear again. I definitely encourage you to play around with layering your polishes as it is a fun, fresh way to wear some of your old regular favorites.

Happy painting and a blessed Easter!

China Glaze - Shocking Pink

Amazing neon pink! Shocking Pink is lighter than similar Pink Voltage and Pool Party but still offers that great neon punch that is especially visible in direct sunlight. This is one of those summer polishes that you want to wear to the beach or to a BBQ that will get tons of attention and I think will look good on pretty much any skin tone. 

I had the same application problems with this polish as I do with most neons, they tend to be streaky and you have to be really careful not to get brush drag at the base of your nail. I needed three coats to get full coverage. It dries matte, so if you like shine, like myself, you'll need a high-gloss topcoat. I always have trouble with neons chipping much more quickly than other polishes, and Shocking Pink was no exception. I find that washing dishes and showering always lead to big chips, so I tend to keep wear time pretty short for most neon polishes. This certainly doesn't keep my from buying and using them though!

Shocking pink does look quite different in differing lighting situations, sometimes appearing very neon and sometimes appearing as a much softer pink. I took a bunch of different pictures and I think that these few give a pretty good idea of what this polish looks like.

This is definitely a great sunshine weather polish that I will bust out frequently this summer. I think it will make an especially great pedicure color too!

China Glaze - Sweet Hook

This polish is a lovely light lilac purple from this spring's Electropop collection. The formula on this is pretty good for a pastel creme, getting good coverage in 2 coats. This is similar to Light as Air from the Up and Away collection, but Sweet Hook is a bit more pink and seems a little brighter. Cute color for spring!

A Dressed Up Mani with Essie - A Cut Above

So I went about perking up my bland pink mani from this morning and decided to give it a sprinkling of glitter. I have said it before and I will say it again, glitter makes everything better! The base here is China Glaze's Dance Baby with Essie's A Cut Above from the Luxeffect collection, layered in a gradient over the top. To get this look, I painted a full mani with the base color (see my previous post for the results). Then, taking the glitter polish, I painted a french tip like line across the top making sure to glob on extra glitter and using the brush, gently pulled the glitter down the nail, stopping about halfway down. Make sure to work on only one nail at a time as you don't want your glob of glitter to dry at the top :)

I like this mani much better now! I also really love the Luxeffect polishes. I have this and I just got the silver glitter, Set in Stones. They are great for layering but are dense enough that, with a few coats, you could wear them on their own. I also really want Shine of the Times, an opalescent flake glitter so I am on the lookout for that. Hope you enjoyed!

China Glaze - Dance Baby

Today's manicure is from the new China Glaze collection Electropop for Spring 2012. I picked up quite a few of the colors from this collection, except the one I really really wanted, Aquadelic, was sold out so I am still on the hunt. I always love the spring collections, as I tend to be a pastel creme fiend. I am not gaga over this color, but it a slighlty different pink that an others that I own, and it doesn't give me lobster hands, which some pastel pinks tend to do with my pinkish skin. 

The Verdict: It is a nice feminine pink color, highly pigmented - this was only 2 coats, and easy to work with. Not one of my all time favorites, but I am sure that I will find occasion to wear this color occasionally. Check back again later today, I may try to dress this mani up a bit to make it a little more pleasing :)

Pinspiration Thursday - Turquoise and Coral

I don't know about all of you, but I am obsessed with Pinterest. Those of you who have never heard of it need to visit the site immediately. It is amazing! I spend more time browsing pins nowadays than I do on Facebook (THAT is a big deal). There is always more to see and it is such a great way to get ideas for everything from fashion to crafting and party throwing. A friend of mine pinned this great Polyvore creation a while back and I just love the colors! 

So, in a burst of what I am now referring to as "Pinspiration", I set to work creating a mani inspired by this outfit. The colors are not quite identical, but I really like the way that it turned out.

A really popular trend in polish lately has been the half moon manicure. Where you essentially use hole-punch reinforcers to recreate the natural coloring of a nail bed with your polish, let Lauren Conrad teach you how here. I simply do not have the patience to recreate this look. In order to apply the sticker to your nail, and have it not damage the polish when you remove it, you have to wait for your first color to dry completely - we all know how long this takes without a topcoat.. FOREVER. So, using the Half-moon manicure as part of my inspiration, I went for a bit of a different layering effect that can be achieved without the use of stickers.

For this look I used Essie's Haute as Hello, a bright orangy coral that is actually a bit neon (it turned out to be very difficult to capture the true color, it is much brighter than it appears here), as the base color. I painted two coats paying particular attention to making sure there was no brush drag near the bottom of the nail, as this is the area that is actually going to show, and trying to get good coverage without laying it on too thick. The thicker your polish, the more easily it will chip and with layering it is very easy to end up with VERY thick  nails.

I then layered on 2 coats of China Glaze's For Audrey, starting slightly above the beginning of Haute as Hello. This can be a bit tricky, especially if you haven't mastered the art of not getting polish all over your cuticles, but if you sit at a table and have a surface to prop and steady your painting hand, you can get a very smooth round edge. It has taken me a lot of practice, but I think I have gotten it down pretty well now.

I love this combo and today is actually my 3rd consecutive day sporting this mani, which, if you know me, means that it is a HUGE hit. I might actually try to stretch it until tomorrow (!!!), if the slight tip wear doesn't drive me over the edge before then.

I am getting very fond of these creative manis, so I am sure that this is the first of many Pinspiration posts to come! If you'd like to follow my Pinboards, click here.

Happy Pinning and Painting!

China Glaze - Dorothy Who?

This gorgeous blue sparkler is from a few years back, the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection in 2009, I believe, but I just picked it up for a friend and, in spur of the moment manis, got the chance to give it a go. Of course. I love it. What can I say? I'm a sucker for sparkles. The base is a cerulean blue jelly with an abundance of blue and silver glitter. It goes on pretty thin, but only took 3 coats to get the opacity you see here. I have, and love, Ruby Pumps from this collection and this is definitely it's amazing blue counterpart. Like Ruby Pumps, it is hard to capture the wonderful depth of the glitter and get a true feeling of how gorgeous this polish is. I also love that, even without a base coat, this polish didn't stain my nails at all! I am going to have to pick a bottle up for myself. Hopefully they still have a few bottles when I get the chance to head back!

Life is better with glitter, don't you think?

China Glaze Sugar High

You'll start to notice a trend here at MP3 (the nickname I have decided to use for my little blog)... I love China Glaze. At this point, CG makes up the majority of my nail polish collection. The truth behind this reality is that I simply love the color selection that CG offers, not to mention that they are slightly more affordable at my local nail polish haunt than OPI or Essie. I am a big fan of bright, cheery cremes and CG offers a plethora of these. 

Sugar High from the Up and Away collection is one of my favorites for Spring and Summer. A bright coral pink, this color just makes me happy. I took several photos in different lights and the color shows quite differently under these different circumstances. This first one is under diffused fluorescents and leans more to the coral end of the spectrum.

The second photo is under more direct light and I think the color reflects more as it appears in life, much more pink. Sugar High goes on very smoothly and easily and I love the flawless finish and shine that you get with a quick coat of Seche Vite.

If you're a fan of pink cremes, take this out and give it a whirl this spring. Happy painting!

China Glaze - For Audrey: Everyone's Fav Polish

To kick this off, I would like to share with you one of my, and many other nail polish enthusiasts', absolute favorite polishes: China Glaze's For Audrey. Channeling that iconic Tiffany blue, For Audrey, is a gorgeous creme turquoise blue. It looks amazing on many skin types and is one of those eye-catching, comment-garnering colors that you will want to wear over and over.

I believe this is my third bottle of this polish, in the less than 2 years, and I sincerely hope that CG continues to make this brilliant color for years and years to come!

The formula on this can be a little tricky as it is a bit thick and can be streaky. The secret is to use very thin coats. I always use 3 coats with For Audrey and my fav top coat, Seche Vite. I love love love love this polish and think that it is a must have in every collection and a staple in mine.

Happy painting!