Girly Girly Glitz

I am seriously obsessed with this manicure... I couldn't even wait to take decent pictures in good light to share this with you! These were taken with my phone under a desk lamp, lol. This is Orly - Kiss the Bride, a super light, almost-white, pink topped with a cheap cheap Wet N' Wild iridescent glitter. Watching the sparkle while I was typing today was really distracting! Apologies for the poor pictures (and my TERRible cuticles, I have not been drinking enough water), take my word for it, this combo is just so girly and cute! I love it!!

Julep - Helena

Since we are talking about Julep Maven, I though I would share one of the polishes that came in my Julep Maven Intro box. This gem is Helena, a beautiful magenta/fuchsia cream. A bright jewel tone, this polish is one of those that looks seriously rich and gorgeous on my hands and I bet would look great on any skintone. In terms of the formula on this baby, I wasn't overly thrilled with it. It was the first Julep polish that I had ever tried and to be perfectly honest, I haven't yet figured out how they can charge $14 a bottle for these things. For Helena in general, I just wanted it to be glossier. Even with a high-shine top coat it wasn't shiny enough for my tastes. So there it is: the color is gorgeous but I could do for a lot more shine!

Orly - Kiss the Bride

Brace yourselves for another Orly polish! 

Kiss the Bride is one of those almost whites with a hint of pink, which I love. This kind of color was made super popular by the Kardashians as the whole family sports them on their show. I have a couple Essie polishes like this that I have loved and this one definitely gets added to the list. It is surprisingly opaque and super flattering against my skin - especially when I've got a bit of a summer tan :) This is another polish that can go virtually anywhere... the beach, the office, the bar... and is cute and appropriate. I also think that this would look great paired with Orly - Rage, so I will have to put together a combo mani here in the near future. Love Love Love.

Orly - Terracotta

Terracotta is another of the polishes I snatched up for half off last week and turns out it is one of my favorites of the bunch! It is a bright coral that leans towards red. It is a little more bright than what I would normally think of as a "terracotta" color, but what's in a name anyway? The formula on this is awesome, with nearly complete coverage in one coat, a super smooth application, and, as you can see in the photos, a gorgeous, shiny finish. I super recommend this for girls, like me, who don't love extreme reds as this is a softer way to go in that direction!

Mani of the Day and a Giraffe

As promised, here is the first manicure from the polishes I picked up at Peninsula Beauty the other day. This one is Orly Rage over Essie Flawless. My diagonals are not perfect here as I just free-handed my use of Rage. If you wanted a more perfect line, you could use tape, scotch or nail tape, but when you use tape you have to make sure your first color is completely dry (and I mean let-dry-overnight level dryness) and I wasn't feeling very patient at the time. I am not a huge fan of flawless, it is a pretty pink, but doesn't really differentiate itself from the dozens of other pinks in my collection... but I am loving Rage. It is a champagne foil with a bit of a pink tint that really compliments my skintone and as you can see, it is really very shiny!

I also wanted to share this little guy with you that I picked up at Forever 21 today. Isn't he cute?!  You can pick up in gold or silver here. I am also very excited about the bright purple jeans that he is resting on in this pic! I have been lusting after some great colored jeans and I snatched these, along with a pair of turquoise ones, at F21 as well! 

Now only to find the perfect pair of red jeans before football season....

Essie - Turquoise & Caicos

Featured as the base color in my last post, Turquoise and Red Polka-Dots, Essie's Turquoise & Caicos is among the most used polishes in my collection. This aqua shade that is truly reminiscent of the gorgeous oceans of the Caribbean is demure enough to wear to the office, yet its cheerful and bright demeanor is anything but mundane. Please forgive the slight tip wear seen in these photos as this manicure was a couple of days old when I got around to taking the pictures. If you work in an office where it's appropriate to wear polish other than nudes and neutrals, I definitely recommend giving this color a try, I guarantee that you will receive loads of compliments!

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!

Wet N' Wild - Pink and Orange

In general, I tend to like the salon brand polishes better than drug store brands. However, whenever I walk into a CVS or a Walgreens I almost always walk out with at least one bottle of  polish, whether it be Wet N' Wild, Sinful Colors, or Sally Hansen. There is just something about those prices that I can't resist! A perfect example are these two Wet N' Wild polishes that I picked up recently. If I remember correctly, these were $0.97 each. Less than a dollar?? Yes, please. 

These two great spring colors are Tickled Pink and Sunny Side Up. Very appropriate names, I think! They are both great on their own but I love the combo of the pink and orange together. 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 :)

Essie - Haute as Hello

Today, I just wanted to share a full mani or the color that I used for the base color in my Turquoise and Coral  reverse french manicure. Essie's Haute as Hello is a bright orangy coral with an almost neon like finish. As I said in the other post, this color does not translate well into photographs. I tried indoors, outdoors, diffused light, direct light, pretty much everything and could not get the brightness of this color to show. You may want to check out this post by a longtime blogger Temptalia, as she manages to capture some of the brightness with her photos, particularly the one with flash. As a polish with a neonish treatment, Haute as Hello dries semi-matte, so make sure you have a high-shine topcoat on hand - Seche Vite, is always my topcoat of choice.This is another color that I love for spring and gets a lot of nail time during the warmer months.

Love and Nail Polish,

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!