Valentine's Day: NOTD & EOTD

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I personally am not a big fan of the day, but you know, any reason to do themed nails and makeup is okay by me!

I did a red and pink striped manicure with all Quo by Orly nail polishes. I adore it!

For the look, I did a soft peach lid with a smoked out cranberry crease, blended out with a light pink. It's such a pretty look. Onto the pictures and products!

The colours are:
Pink: True Love
Red: Red Hot
Dark Red: Very Vixen

Click "Read more" below to find out what I used!

NOTD: Coffee Break with Navy Blue Konad Tips

I decided to do something fancy but still kinda simplistic today, so I went for a nude base with a navy blue stamped french tip :) Some of the designs ended up being a little crooked but I'm still getting used to stamping!

Used:

Essie Feed Me Basecoat

Orly Coffee Break (2 coats)

Sally Hansen Insta-dri Blazing Blue (which their website says is now discontinued...)

Seche Vite Top Coat

As a side note, the Sally Hansen Insta-dri nail polishes are perfect for stamping because they tend to get very thick and goopy after about 1 year of first being opened... so they are just the perfect thickness for stamping at that point.



And the beautiful blue half-moon manicure I had on before this one that I never got any good pictures of (I ended up peeling this one off finger-by-finger in class because I was bored)

Used:

Essie Feed Me Base Coat

OPI Go On Green (4 coats)

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Thinking of Blue (1 coat)

Seche Vite Top Coat

How do you like your nails; 1 colour at a time or covered in nail art?

Hope everyone's great!

Quo by Orly: Turquoise Moonlight Swatches

I've moved on from the Cold Stone nail polish, the texture was just too awful to endure.

This nail polish faired a bit better than the Cold Stone one; another Quo by Orly polish, this time Turquoise Moonlight. This polish has a turquoise base and is packed with shimmer and looks like it has a golden duochrome affect, but this doesn't translate exceptionally well to the nail. It's a gorgeous nail polish, ends up being a very bright glittery. It can go from looking bright blue to a beautiful turquoise-gold.

This is 3 coats of Turquoise Moonlight.

I also put a coat of Finger Paints Flecked flakies on top to give it even more interest! It looks so cool now, I can't stop looking at my fingers :P

Quo by Orly: Cold Stone Swatches + EOTD

So I decided a couple days ago to swatch another of the 18 Quo by Orly nail polishes I got for Christmas... but it's taken be about three days to decide whether I should photograph it and share it or not. The colour should have just blown me away - it looked gorgeous. In the bottle it looks like a gunmetal grey colour with silver sparkles and holographic microglitter. Doesn't that sound amazing? I thought it would be extraordinary.

And it's not that the colour disappointed once it was on the nails, but I felt as though the formula disappointed. You can see what I'm talking about in the swatches. I can't tell if the polish bubbled drastically or if the glitter is so course that the polish ends up looking this textured when on the nails, but even with a coat of Seche Vite on top, it just would not smooth out.

I also tried to mattify it with Essie Matte About You, but you completely lose the holographic glitter when you do that, which is the best part!

Anyway, I love the colour, but I'll let you decide for yourself if the texture completely ruins the manicure for you as much as it does for me. Excuse the tip wear because it took me 3 days to decide whether to swatch this or not.

And finally, I did a look the other day just for fun. I used all Makeup Geek eyeshadows, and no base since I was just doing it for fun and actually wasn't wearing any other makeup on my face.

All Makeup Geek:

Corrupt (black)

Mocha (brown)

Cocoa Bear (terra cota)

Shimma-Shimma (highlight)

Asylum Explosion

My Sally's had the new Fingerpaints Special Effects collection out when I went yesterday! But they were already sold out of Twisted... on the first official day of selling... Go figure!

I'm not giving you any official swatches today, by the end of the week I will. Today I just added an accent nail to my Orly Coffee Break (which I'm still absolutely in love with). The accent is done with Sally Hansen Midnight in NY with Fingerpaints Asylum on top. Beautifulll.
Excuse my cuticles. My hands are so dry from the coldddd.

Orly Coffee Break Swatch

I told a friend that I had been looking for the perfect nude nail polish at Christmas, and it turns out she knew me better than I knew myself. All the ones I had looked at previously were very clearly too light for my skin tone, but she found the perfect one. Orly Coffee Break is a perfect nude, a little on the darker side and may even have a pink undertone to it (plus, the name first perfectly because we're coworkers at a coffee shop ;) ).

This is 2 coats of Coffee Break with 1 coat of Seche Vite.

And finally, here's a webcam picture from New Years Eve. You can't really see my makeup but it's the best I had!

Happy New Years to everyone - I wish you all the best in 2012.

Orly Androgynie Swatch & FOTD

Today I bring you a swatch of a nail polish I was really excited when I bought it at Sally's (on sale!) a few days ago. The nail polish is Orly Androgynie; it's a black based nail polish with a small golden sparkle, a slightly larger silver and almost holographic rainbow sparkle, and a large rainbow glitter. The nail polish looks gorgeous in the bottle. It applied well, I have on 3 coats on most nails, but others took only 2.

My problem with this nail polish is that there isn't near enough sparkle when applied as in the bottle! I was so excited to have some spectacularly glittery nails for new years, and that was not the result. It's still a gorgeous nail polish, but not what I was expecting.

In addition to this nail polish, I also picked up my first bottle of Seche Vite top coat. Besides its repulsive smell (even for a nail polish...) it works amazing. So glossy and dries so quickly. And not just to the touch like most fast drying top coats; it seems like the nail is sufficiently dry to actually proceed in activities soon afterwards!

Onto the swatches. It was really really difficult to capture, my camera was acting up and the sun had already gone down.

See how gorgeous it looks?

With flash

Without flash

Had an idea for a new years look to make it more glittery.

And finally, just my look of the day. I still cannot figure out why my pictures turn out like shit. :/

Quo by Orly: Celestial Star Swatches

My first non-introduction post!

I got the "18 Piece Mini Nail Polish Gift Set" of Quo by Orly nail polishes for Christmas. As by the name, you can tell that these are 18 mini nail polishes of varying shades and finishes. From what I can tell so far, most look shimmery or glitter, but there are a few which have a flat finish.

A lot of the nail polishes in this set look duochrome to me in the bottle, but after trying this nail polish, I'm second guessing whether they actually end up being duochrome on the nail. This one potentially disappoints (because I haven't been able to test it in the sunlight - it's dark out now!) but to me, it looks just like a royal blue glitter.

With that said, it is a beautiful shade regardless of the absence of duo chrome-ness. Another disappointing fact, however is that it took 4 coats to get to this shade. I would hope for a bit more opaqueness for this nail polish. Onto swatches!

Swatches are 4 coats of Celestial Star and 1 top coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

This second picture captures the duo chrome aspect of Celestial Star a bit better than the first. In the bottle it looks like a royal blue shimmer with a bright purple duo chrome.

You can see a little bit of the purple in this picture, but not as much as I was hoping after seeing the bottle.

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