Polish Haul from Peninsula Beauty

This weekend I had a Groupon deal for $30 at Peninsula Beauty that was close to expiring so I headed over to my local shop to pick up some fancy beauty supplies. When I arrived I discovered 3 large bins full of polish for 50% off! Woo Hoo! Turns out that PB is replacing their Orly collection (they will continue selling the nail treatments) with China Glaze, which is a total thumbs up in my book. I have never really been all that interested in Orly polishes, I only had 3 before this haul. I always look at the Orly rack, but it just seems like none of the colors are unique. But who can resist a big ol' pile of discount polishes?? I walked away with a nice little haul ranging across the color and finish spectrum.

The colors I picked up, listed by brand, clockwise from the upper left corner are:
Orly: Ancient Jade, Rage, Kiss the Bride, and Terracotta
Essie: Real Simple, Looking for Love, and Flawless
OPI: Meep-Meep-Meep, Pepe's Purple Passion, Warm & Fozzie, and Last Friday Night

I'll be testing out these shades all week, so check back for swatches and manis to see what these polishes are all about!

Glittering Stripes

Today we have more glitter...you know how much I love glitter! Not only, do we have a glitter manicure for today - we have a Stripey glitter manicure. This is my first attempt at using nail tape to create a look and I think it turned out pretty well. However, I will definitely have to do more practicing with it before I am ready to use solid colors in my stripes. The glitter was definitely more forgiving than solids would be.

This mani was created with OPI's Sparrow Me The Drama, a dusty rose pink, layered with Wet N' Wild Hallucinate, an iridescent glitter that sparkles in a rainbow of colors. Using striping tape is definitely a bit more time-consuming and difficult than I anticipated, but I think that with practice it will get easier. The trick that took me a few go-rounds to figure out...it is REALLY important to pull off the tape before the polish dries. If you wait too long some of the polish that you want to leave behind will pull up with the tape. This was really fun to sport around town so I challenge you to give stripes a try!