Photo Dump!

So I got some pictures from two of you out there of your Halloween nails!

I really liked the spider webs and the little pumpkin! Also need to say WOW, you can write with your left hand!!! Good job, I really wish I couldve done something like this with hand painted designs, but there would have been such discord between my left and right hand. Great Nails!

I love your back drop!!!What green base did you use under the shatter polish? I love the colors!

                                                                                                                           

So I went to my bestie's house last night and she made me dinner (stuffed pepper soup!) So YUMMY! As thanks and for a bit of girl time I decided to do her and her mother's nails. 

I re-attempted gradient dots... these didnt come out as good as the first time but she liked the color scheme more.

Maybe if I had kept the dots closer together...? Anywho, it China Glaze For Audrey Base with Butter London Slapper and Urban Outfitters Bandeau spots

So then I did her mum's nails. China Glaze Recycle base with CND Silver Chrome tips, also not the first time I've done these nails. To add a bit of pizzazz I put a little grey rhinestone on the ring fingers. These came out pretty snazzy and elegant.

                                                                                                                             

The other day I was at Michael's next to the Ulta near my house (I went to Ulta for polish and then to Michael's for nail accents, it works so well for me!)
I found flocking powder which I was inspired to use from Pixel's Blog. I even used the same color scheme but wasnt game to try spots. It worked pretty well and I liked the finish a lot, it was super soft! My only problem was not pushing down hard enough and the powder ended up coming off in spots. I will have to attempt this again though. Fun finish... Kinda like Ciate's velvet manicure.

Also I bought this awesome Essence polish called Chic Reloaded. I love it!!! It is a duo-chrome purple green in a dark gray base. I have had it on for THREE DAYS!!!! I cant take it off (also because I'm expecting a package with Enchanted's Ciao Milano and I think this might be a good base.) Either way, I love it!

 I'm going to end my photo dump there. I must get ready for work, I'm already running late.... and that's where I shipped my package from Llarowe. I cant wait to put on my first Enchanted polish! I'll probably post pictures tonight!!!

As always, I would love to know what you think, what your favorites are, and any advice on how to make my posts a bit better. (I know I should be using the good camera and also working on the quality of my nails and cuticles.... sorry!)

And I would love to get some followers!

})i({ -Amy 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

What an ordeal!!! I have my nails painted all Halloween-y and am super excited about it. Today has been a bit of a post dump this is my third, but I did these nails last night and just in time for Halloween.

I used so many polishes for this mani. Since I am no good at nail art on my own fingers I went for a mix of finishes and textures. Nail polishes in order from left to right:

Mini OPI Alpine Snow

Essence Grey-t To Be Here

Essie Matte About You (for a matte topcoat over a matte polish)

Piggy Polish Nocture-Nail

Illamasqua Nurture

Cult Nails Deal With It

Urban Outfitters Tiny Shorts

The New Black shimmery orange

China Glaze I Herd That

OPI Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear?

OPI The Living Daylights

Butter London Gobsmacked

OPI Black Shatter

China Glaze Liquid Leather

LA Colors Art Deco black striper

ManGlaze Matte Is Murder

So I know that there are more polishes here than I have fingers, but the effect I was going for required it. Every nail is different, and they mostly came out the way I wanted.

On my right hand from my pinkie to my thumb:

• I used TNB orange shimmer with CG I Herd That. This is the first time I've used the CG orange glitter. I think its a nice fall orange glitter.
• I used CG Liquid Leather and a nail sticker. I LOVE LIQUID LEATHER. It is by far my favorite black. Its really like a black jelly, which is why I think it goes on so well
• I used Illamasqua Nurture, I literally just posted a swatch of this but I really used it like a week ago... you know how I feel. I used my Seche Vite over the top so it was shiny
• I used ManGlaze Matte Is Murder. I think ManGlaze has the best matte polished I've ever used. I love the application, they don't dry too quick when applying and they look great even with a shiny top coat. I used Essie's Matte About You as a topcoat over this. I really value the use of top coats
• I used Tiny Shorts on the thumb. I swatched it a while back and I like the color a lot.

Left Hand thumb to pinkie:

• I used Butter London's Gobsmacked. This has to be one of my favorite polishes. If I were stranded with one polish for the rest of my life, this would probably be it. Its super sparkly but deep and dark.
• I used Cult Nails Deal With it and OPI's Black Shatter. I did these nails a while back but didn't post about it ( I literally so my nails everyday, I don't have time to post about it.)
• This is OPI's Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear? from their Texas collection. This is a very thin orange jelly despite looking very opaque in the bottle. I made a jelly sandwich with OPI The Living Daylights which I also posted about today. Its a nice combination, I may do it for a big Denver Bronco game because the blue glitters stand out over the orange (and I'm in Denver.)
• I used Essence Grey-t To Be Here. This is my first Essence polish, I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to my polish. I dont like to buy a lot of cheap stuff, but the color is phenomenal! It's a light grey with pink micro flaky things in it. Its gorgeous! At .99 cents GO BUY IT! I used the LA Colors black striper to make it look like a tombstone EDIT: I also used Julep's Meryl cling wrapped over the top to make it look like stone.
• I used the mini bottle of OPI's Alpine Snow to make the base of a ghost and then used the LA striper to make the outline and actually used a dotting tool with CG's Liquid Leather to make the eyes and mouth.

They all look a bit dull because I used the Piggy Polish glow in the dark Nocture-nail over the top of everything. To get a good glow you have to use like 4 coats of it. So it distorted a lot of the colors. VERY sad on the CG Liquid Leather with skull and crossbones nail... it was so richly black before I put the glow on... le sigh. This is also why I was obsessed with top coats on this mani: Piggy Polish uses formaldehyde in their polish and I put my fingers in my mouth a lot. 

It looks pretty cool and I am going to try to keep my nails like this until Wednesday... TRY is the operative word there. We'll see.

I want to see your Halloween nails! Email me at drama.ocelot@gmail.com and I will post the pictures I get before Halloween!

})i({ - Amy

>(/ / /)<  (candy)
[¬º-°]¬  (zombie) 

Zoya Charisma

I Love Zoya's formula. It goes on really smooth and looks really nice, so when I was feeling a little blue the other day I went out and bought 3 Zoya polishes: Charisma, Tony (dark burgundy red), and Evvie (dark greenish tinted gray). I thought the last two would complement each other so you may see them in a post coming up...

This is Charisma, it is a fun magenta color. This was two coats, a little VNL but that wouldve gone away with a third. On the ring finger I used Butter London's Slapper and a dotting tool with Charisma.

This was a fun colored mani and picked my spirits right up! Charisma dried a little dull, kinda matte but the top coat solved that issue! Overall I like it... so yeah, super short post for you 

My internet was down for a few days, other wise I would have posted this sooner. Instead you get to have 2 posts today!!! Yippee!

Whats your favorite Zoya color? Do you even like Zoya? (why, why not?) Let me know!

})i({  -Amy

Butter London Two Fingered Salute REVISITED

So this is a super short one I was supposed to post a week or two ago... I have had a hectic time lately, midterms, new employee, and a southern vacation.

I swatched Two Fingered Salute two posts ago and was unimpressed. My boyfriend's  solution? Apply a copper colored tip to enhance the subtle copper tones in the polish. Well after much debate I went with the cheapest option because it was an Amazon Prime item and I'd get it in two days... Revlon's Copper Penny is o.k. It looks very rosey in the bottle and looks kinda rosey on the nails but in some light it looks pretty gold. It applies very well, goes on smooth, coats evenly, and doesn't streak much (but keep in mind all I've used it for have been tips.)

I think if I found a shade of copper that I liked better then this mani would work. It highlighted the copper in Salute pretty well. Good idea boyfriend!

Let me know if you liked this idea, what else you would have done to Salute to make it pop and what other kinds of copper polish you like better!

})i({  -Amy

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

So today I painted my nails at work... It needed to be done! I bought Butter London's Two Fingered Salute a little bit ago, but hadn't tried it out yet. I ADORE the way it looks in the bottle, it jumped out and screamed at me from Nordstrom's display.

Its SO purdy! I thought it looked like tarnished copper. It's basically a grayish mint green base with flecks of what looks like copper shimmer in it (but is actually copper micro glitter... only learned that after I tried to get it off). You can kinda see it in the picture.

(Flash on)

After putting it on my fingers I wasn't so sure about it. Its not a green I would normally wear and the coppery shimmer is hard to see on the nails.  

(Flash off)

I was a little upset after shoving my hand into my boyfriend's face so he could see how pretty this polish is (will I have to do that to everyone?)

I want to be able to notice the beauty of this polish, and my boyfriend suggested that the copper would "pop" if I used a copper for tips (how helpful, boyfriend!) So I looked online for some copper polish and came across some that I thought would work. Essie's Penny Talk looked pink enough but after reading a few blogs, some people had said it was a little more on the brown side and I am looking for a pinker copper. I found Revlon's Copper Penny on Amazon Prime for $2.99 so I bought it anyways... but then I'm still looking at Butter London's Old Bill (maybe since they made the Salute their coppers would be the same... but I'm not sure), also Elf Polish 1576 Copper but I can't find any swatches of it... we'll see how the Revlon looks and go from there.

When I get the copper I'll paint my nails again and see if it looks any better!

})i({  -Amy