You want me to pay how much for glitter?

I'll pass.

First off let me say I have no problem getting high end polishes.  I have quite a few, and I love them all.  But when I get more expensive brands they have to have a little something more to them.  They need to give me a reason to want to pay that much for them.  Dior has these new limited edition sparkling powders available through their website and Nordstrom.  The pack contains a fixing base, as well as black and gold glitter.  It comes to a total of $48USD.  Now I love Dior.  One of my favourite polishes I own is Dior, but as pretty as this looks, I could not pay that much for what essentially clear polish and loose glitter.

I had a 1.5oz bottle of Martha Stewart glitter in Onyx.  A sparkling black glitter I had been sitting on for almost 2 years.  I think I paid $5 for it at the time.  Used my essence Black is Back and just dumped the glitter on top of the wet polish(over a piece of paper).  I used a nail art brush to easily get rid of the excess.  When I was done I carefully poured the glitter back in the jar.  And while application was messy(and I'm assuming more messy than the Dior one because you apply those with brushes), I was easy to clean up.  It was super pretty, especially in person.  It would be great for a fun, yet more classy night out.  The only thing I would do differently next time would be to put the glitter over a layer of topcoat.  In the end Ii may not be EXACTLY the same, but it's good enough for me!

You can get a bottle of the Martha Stewart glitter on Amazon, and I'm sure you can find it in any craft store that sells Martha Stewart craft products.

Any thoughts out there?

 Outdoors(cloudy)

CYBERNAILS!!! You shall like these nails!

It has been months since my last Doctor Who mani!  And as we all know, that is wrong.  For this round I decided to do some old school Cybermen, and an old school Cyber Controller.  Even though I haven't really been able to watch the older series :(  First off they were simple to do.  I used a base of Revlon Metallic, Essence Black is Back and acrylic paint, as well as striping tape for the mouth.  Another reason I went with these guys is because I think they look much more terrifying than the new versions.  Less going on with their faces actually makes them creepier.  They sort of remind me of medieval torture masks.

Now big question since we are talking Who.  What do you think of Peter Capaldi?  I am super excited!  I think he's wicked talented actor.  If you haven't you should check him out in the show The Thick of It.  It's a super funny show and he is fantastic in it.  He was also great in Doctor Who a few years ago ;)

So tell me, what do you think of the mani and Peter?!?!

 

I would like Peter to play the Doctor as Malcolm

Revlon Metallic: What are you doing?

I'm on a metallic roll!

Now normally I'm not a huge fan of Revlon BUT I found this for $1!  And I figured I didn't have anything like this so why not.

Metallic is a silver foil.  I only needed 2 coats for this, although I should add it did bubble.  I think it was because my coats were a bit too thick, but the bubbles weren't massive so I had an easy fix(When the polish is dry, but still somewhat tacky, gently rub the polish to smooth it out).  Now my big problem with this polish actually came almost two days after originally putting this on.  I decided to do some bad ass nail art to spice it up.  This involved putting more top coat(Seche Vite) on.  About 5 minutes after I put the top coat on the polish started to lift like CRAZY around the edges.  I eventually got them under control with some acetone.   I have never had this happen with a polish before.  This is also weird because I originally put Seche on when I wore the colour on it's own and nothing happened.

Has anyone had their polish lift up after you put on top cat(this is a typo that I liked)?  Has anyone ever decided to forgo tocoat and instead use a cat?

Lightbox

Sunlight

 

You can see the lifting around the edges.  Also the polish looks a bit off because I edited out the nail art :P

Copper Lady Liberty - This is a science post...but not really.

Just a bit of simple nail art for you guys this weekend.  It's a combination of the last 2 polishes I swatched(Bondi Lady Liberty and Barry M Copper).  I actually had a very good reason for putting these two colours together. 1) I just liked how they looked and 2) While The Statue of Liberty currently has a green-blue colour to her, she is copper.  So she originally looked copper but then the copper began to oxidize which is why she looks the way she looks now!

Barry M - Copper ft. Creepy men

If I had a copper penny for ever creepy man I've encountered I would have quite a few.  A few days ago I was at a train station, sitting by myself, and a guy approached me.  Mind you the station wasn't busy, but it was also far from dead.  Anyways he stood sort of in front of me for a minute trying to get my attention, but I was "doing things" on my phone.  I then briefly looked up, and apparently that meant "Yes, take a seat, and start talking".  So he sat down, and said "Hey girl I was just-" and that's when he started stroking my arm.  I immediately got up and said "Nope" and walked away.  Almost as soon as I got up and started walking away he sprung up and was borderline jogging away.  I think he thought I was going to call for security.

Anyways on the topic of copper here is Barry M Copper.  There is nothing creepy or sketchy about this colour.  Depending on how you look at it Copper can either be copper, lean more towards brown, or gold, with hits of green and pink.  It has a foil finish and it is beautiful.  It came out last summer and I have had it for quite some time.  This is another why didn't I wear this before polish.  And on top of that it had amazing wear.  I had it on for 5 days(no basecoat) and all I had was a bit of tip wear.

Now I have heard this is a dupe for OPI Warm and Fozzy but since I don't own it I can't say for sure.  But I can say that from photos I've seen they are pretty close. Either way I am glad I have this!

 

Natural light

Note:  Sorry this took so long to post.

Bondi New York - Lady Liberty: The lemming I never knew I wanted.

Well sort of.  For the longest time I wanted a polish that was the same colour as the Statue of Liberty(as it is now).  Not only that but I REALLY wanted the polish to also be inspired by the her.  I know another brand had a polish based on the statue a few years ago, but I missed out on that.  So when I saw Bondi New York had one I jumped on that faster than a monkey on a bed.

I've actually been to the Statue of Liberty once when I was maybe 10 or so.  I was visiting family with my mother.  And at the time she was having some work done so we couldn't climb her. I've been to NYC quite a few times since then but I have never gone back to the Statue.  I'm not actually much of a touristy person.  Despite the fact that I have spent weeks in that city I've never even been inside Central Park, I don't have a photo of myself in Times Square, and I don't have any intention to go to Madame Tussauds wax museum.

Lady Liberty is the oxidized blue green colour of the Statue of Liberty.  The formula was fantastic as like the first Bondi New York polish I tried NYPD.  Like that one I only needed 2 coats.  Although I will say this one bubbled a tiny bit.  Once I put on top coat all was forgotten.  And can I just say(well of course I can say it.  It IS my blog) I think colours like this look fantastic on me. I was sad when I had to take it off earlier than planned after my botched attempts and nail art.

Born Pretty Nail Strips - Checkered Watermelon Nails!

These nail strips from Born Pretty actually feature checkers AND leopard print. "Checkered watermelon" is the reaction I got from a friend who noticed them after downing a mug of rum.

I really wasn't sure about this design at first - Kas picked them out and surprised me! Once they were on, though, yes. This pattern is amazing. Check it out:

I did have some issues with application, however. The package doesn't indicate if they're real nail polish strips or stickers - we think they're stickers, but very thin ones. They can stretch a LITTLE bit, but be careful as they can tear! Because they're not very forgiving, I found it difficult to apply them completely flat and most nails had a few bumps in them. I suggest placing them along the centre of the nail first and then smoothing them out along the sides.

This is what happens if you try to "clean up" the edge with acetone. It's not pretty. Be sure to cut them to size and place carefully!

Kas wiggled the thumb sticker around a bit for me, but it ended up tearing. Watch out for that! Fortunately, it wasn't really visible from a standard hand-to-face distance.

These lasted me well through an evening, but they started to look pretty ratty after 8 hours. If you're planning to wear these for more than a night out, be sure to wrap your tips well and use the hardest-wearing topcoat you've got.

Final Verdict: These are not the best. But for $2.99 and free shipping, they're worth the price for a fabulous one-night manicure! Now that I know what to avoid when applying them, I would happily try them again in many of the very exciting designs available.

Go check out Born Pretty Store for these and more fabulous nail art supplies! Always remember our coupon code for 10% off!

 

*Product sent for honest review