The New Black Runway Color Barometer, Midnight Blue and Horchata Cream

I AM IN LOVE WITH THE NEW BLACK!!! 

I had seen this brand at Nordstroms a few times and totally ignored it because it seemed a little pretentious to call your brand the "new black". Then I was on Groupon and saw a special for the Barometer set of The New Black polish for $16 and I had a $15 dollar credit, so I bought it and paid a dollar and then shipping. I am SO glad that I did because this has to be the best formula I have ever used!!! 

This is Midnight Blue and Horchata Cream (and a tiny spot of Electric Banana.) I was going to do the spots and flowers on all the fingers with inverted colors but the blue was so rich, smooth and glossy that I couldnt bring myself to mess with it. I liked how this mani came out.

I even coordinated my outfit to go with it! Navy cords and cream toned top with navy stripes!

The problems with this polish:
First, I was so enamored that I went to Nordstorms to buy a ton of it! They had changed the whole layout of the beauty section of the store and when I asked for "The New Black" no one knew what I was talking about, they tried to sell me Butter London and Mac and Essie's black polish... URGHHH!!!! Not black colored polish, the BRAND NAME. They looked at me like I was an idiot, and I felt like one! So I gave up, it was infuriating.

Second, the bottles are super tiny. SUPER TINY like .125 fl oz each. On the upside they are like $4.50 a piece (but as far as I can tell, you can only buy them in sets.)

BUT if you come across this brand: BUY IT!!! Just do it, you'll love the smooth application and the rich color tones.

Have you tried this brand before? What did you think, yay or nay? Any similar polishes you've come across (no seriously, you must tell me if there are more polishes out there like this!)

})i({ -Amy

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

So... I should've done this at the beginning of the month, but better late than never right?

Please excuse the lack of clean up!!! I usually fix the spill in the shower the morning after I do the mani (I do them at night because I don't move much when I sleep and SV dries pretty quick.) Anyways, I take an orange stick or manicure stick and rub the excess off in the shower after I've soaked for a bit!

I thought this would be a really good color scheme for a breast cancer mani. I think it came out pretty nice (even on my right hand!)

I used the mini OPI Bubble Bath for the base on all the nails save the ring fingers. Then using Color Club's Jackie-Oh! (which I am OBSESSED with) I painted the whole of the ring fingers and then the tips of the rest of the fingers (using the hole reinforcements for guides.) I painted thick tips so that I could use the Art Deco white striper to paint white tips on the pink ones, then used the striper to draw the ribbon design. After that I used the Art Deco blue small glitter striper to stripe between the pink and white tips and to outline the breast cancer ribbon. Over the top I used Essie's Kisses and Bises to add shimmer over every nail. (BTW I totally picked the Kisses and Bisses up at Marshall's for 3 bucks!!!) I top coated with SV and voilà!

I picked up a decent camera... from the boyfriend's junk pile aka: his house. He always has the newest and best electronics so when he replaced his small point and shoot cannon with 12.1 megapixels and 14x optical zoom, with a DSLR, I took the Cannon. I used it to take pictures of the revisited Two Fingered Salute mani but then it died and he doesn't know where the battery charger is... probably somewhere in the junk pile. I both praise him and damn him simultaneously... BOYFRIEND!!! (*shakes fist at the heavens*.) So I'm back with the cell phone camera for now... le sigh. It's decent enough, but I want the cannon to swatch some of the new polish I got in and am getting in... Stay tuned!!!

What did you do for breast cancer awareness? I've realized that you may not be able to upload photos to the comment box but I would be happy to post anything I get in an e-mail!

Let me know what you think!

})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

Hello There!

So this is my first blog... there isn't much here yet and I don't really know how to start. I just got into doing my nails about two or three months ago when I had seen a nautical inspired nail design on Pinterest. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/226657793716680980/

So I went to Ulta and bought three or four of the cheapest nail polishes I could find in the right colors, then went to try it out on my co-worker. I chickened out and ended up painting stripes with little hearts because I had also seen that on pinterest.

... it looks horrible! I used scotch tape to make the lines and the white I bought was so terrible that it didn't coat evenly... but we had SO much fun. So I started doing her nails at work a lot. I was getting into it when we decided to split an Amazon prime purchase of 42 nail art polishes (with the thin little brushes.) Then things started to get crazy!

Eww, right?
Well things have gotten better from there, I guess my next post (probably tomorrow) will just be photos of everything I have done up to now because I just want to start chronicling what I do. The most interesting design stuff I do for my friends because I am a hardcore righty and can't paint those nails... le sigh. But that means that I want nice beautiful, quality polish for my own fingers. I have bought some glitters (Deborah Lippmann!!!) and some holos and other things (because I can't paint little anchors on my own nails.) My collection is getting diverse.

So far I have a random collection of brands:
Pixel (Cheap)
Art Deco (Thin art brushes)
Sally Hansen (BORING!)
Opi (What a given in any collection)
China Glaze
Piggy Polish
Butter London (Bought my first four at an Ulta bogo sale)
Deborah Lippmann
Zoya (So far my favorite for smooth application)
Cult Nails (My newest edition)
Julep (Got four in a mystery box purchase)
Layla
ManGlaze (Love those matte finishes)
CND
Color Club (My first one came out of my bestie's Birch box)
Nfu Oh (Just ordered moments ago, hasn't even shipped yet)

I tend to research a lot before buying. I love finding out about new brands on random blogs. I guess that is my real reason behind this blog; I want to tell people about the purchases I have made so they can make better informed decisions. There's nothing worse than buying a dud polish.

})i({   -Amy