Cosmic Dot Meltdown

For this week's manicure, I finally decided to dig into my Urban Decay polishes (released last fall). I decided on "Meltdown", with a top coat of CND's new "Effects" polish in Raspberry Sparkles. This was incredibly difficult to photograph with the micro-glitter and foil effect. Hopefully you can get the gist of it.



I made it thorough most of the week without polish, and my nails made it through with only one bad break point. As you can see below, my middle finger ended up with a pretty bad break across it below the smile line. Needless to say, I had to put some clear top coat over it to protect it over the weekend. Not that it helped - the Lippmann "Addicted to Speed" top coat peeled off the next day. Huh. You might notice my thumbnail grew back out to the edge of my finger, which is nice, and the staining is mostly gone.

In any case - I was happy to polish these up again last night, and provide some good protection for that break until it grows out enough to cut off. I started with my normal Zoya base coat, followed by two coats of "Meltdown".

I topped that with just one coat of "Raspberry Sparkles", which added sort of a metallic pink foil look to the top. I know the photos didn't turn out well - if any of you have tips for capturing metallics, I'm all ears.

Then I added flat-backed beads...white iridescent and purple with an interesting pattern in them. Some nails have three, others five. I was going to do dice, but decided to go random instead. These numbers are actually symbolic this week - anyone want to guess why?

Two coats of top coat, some clean up, and voila! I think the color of these is almost "cosmic" looking - I feel like my nails are kind of "space age" this week.

I'm not sure what's up next - I have some serious glittery polishes from Zoya to try, some Essie colors from last fall and more of these Urban Decay colors all unopened just waiting for their turn. Any suggestions?



What's on your tips this week?

The Eyes Have It

'Twas a very busy week last week, and while I have a photo of my party manicure, I'll post that later this week. For now, here's the manicure I'm sporting this week - the last Halloween nail art of the season for me.

The colors I chose this week were traditional Halloween colors with a little bling - China Glaze "Liquid Leather" and "Spellbound", and Pure Ice in "Hot Tamale" (I have no idea why orange polish would be named something that sounds red, but it's Walmart polish, so that probably explains it). I was going to use some clay canes as you can see in the photo, but they just didn't look quite right over the dark polish (I got them cut nice and thin, but the polish dulled the colors then). So I decided on a simpler approach, and got out my tiny little googly eyes instead.
First, base coats of Liquid Leather and Hot Tamale, alternating for the most part. I love these colors - so bold and warm.
Then a coat of Spellbound - over the black polish on one hand, and over the orange on the other hand.
I was originally just going to have two fingers, one on each hand with the glitter coat, but decided to do three each instead.
Then my googly eyes on the non-spellbound fingers! I love these eyes...they may be cheesy, but they make me smile when I look down and see the little "eyes" wiggling.
A few thick coats of top coat (too thick, as it turns out...I used the Sephora top coat, and it bubbled on me, dang it anyway), and voila!
My nails are watching you...

Next week, something tamer, and fall-themed. Some leaves, maybe?

Halloween Meltdown

I decided to go purple, orange and silver for this week's Halloween nail colors. I was a little apprehensive about whether the China Glaze "Spellbound" glitter would go with the Urban Decay "Meltdown" royal purple. After some reassurance from hubby that it would work just fine, I started with two coats of Meltdown over base coat.
I can't say this polish was my fave to work with. It's thicker than I'm used to, and harder to control. I just adore this color though - isn't it gorgeous?
Then I added one coat of Spellbound from the cuticle just half way up the nail for some glitter. I have horrible light at night, but wait for the "finished" photos. Spellbound is...spellbinding!
I was going to use silver bouillon beads for the letters, but decided that they'd "get lost" in the silver glitter. So I used the white Migi pen instead to write "Eek!" on one hand, and "Boo!" on the other.
A little top coat, some clean-up and a little outdoor lighting - voila! Another festive (and very easy) Halloween manicure!

I've already gotten a compliment at work for these...Halloween nails seem popular this year! More Halloween next week...