China Glaze Sour Apple

Sorry I have been M.I.A.! I'm preparing for my last two finals in biology and chemistry - wish me luck! First semester sophomore year has been mad stressful, but very satisfying. Going to visit one of the medical schools in the area today was a real wake-up call (in a positive way) and only made me feel more motivated.

Anyways... on to the nail polish! I've had China Glaze Sour Apple for a long time (one of my first China Glaze polishes), but I never blogged it. It's one of the specialty collection glitters and is worth the pain in the butt to remove (even though it's super sheer). Also, it's highly staining when I put two layers of China Glaze Paper Chasing under... my nails turned YELLOW. Atrocious!

Two layers of Paper Chasing + two layers of Sour Apple.

Good luck with everyone else who is taking finals!!!

China Glaze Light as Air

I absolutely LOVE this polish. Yes, I know we're mid-autumn right now and China Glaze Light as Air is totally a spring shade, but I needed a pick-me-up before the onslaught of exams. The polish is a gorgeous light purple (very, very light), and the application is smooth as butter (and a one-coater too). I feel like pastels can be thick and difficult to apply, so I braced myself for chalkiness. The polish totally proved me wrong! I'm in love!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps & Lubu Heels

Hi everyone! Today, I am wearing China Glaze Ruby Pumps on all my fingers, except China Glaze Lubu Heels on my ring fingers. I am going to be a devil for Halloween (only one of the best holidays ever!!!) so I thought the manicure would be quite appropriate!

I originally did a fun version for the devil manicure (as pictured below), but then I decided to switch it up to something more plain, but prettier.

My fun devil manicure! Like the moustache?

Ruby Pumps and Lubu Heels - blurred to show the gorgeous glitter!

Hands down my FAVORITE red!

What is your favorite red polish? What are you doing for Halloween? Have a fun and safe weekend ladies!

China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint

First post in a long time! College has been crazy busy as usual (and kicking my butt a bit, especially biology). I have another two exams this week, and then *slightly* less busy. So apologies for not posting often! I really wish this was something I could do more often, but school does come first of course. I still do my nails a couple times of a week (as time permits), just to have some relaxation time in between all the studying.

I used Konad plate S10 with Essie Licorice over China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint. I love this color! It's very flattering and reminds me of a lighter, greener ChG For Audrey. As you can see (at least with the puppy), I'm still learning how to Konad properly (this is just my second try). A definite improvement from my first time though!

China Glaze VII

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. I spent the last two days playing StarCraft II (the boyfriend's account); I finished campaign on casual. I should have prefaced this by saying that I don't play computer games at all. I bought the boyfriend the game for our one year anniversary, and him and his friends have been playing nonstop since it came out a few weeks ago. I just discovered how fun it is, and now I completely understand their obsession. However, a girl does need to go to work and go to school, so no more playing for me (except maybe on weekends with the boyfriend).

On to the nail polish. Today's polish is China Glaze VII. I bought this polish last week on sale from Sally's Beauty Supply near my apartment. It was only $1.99, which made me very happy! I really do like this color and I think it'd be a great color for fall. However, after applying it (intending to wear it, not swatch it), it didn't really feel like a summer color for me so I took it off. The color is a purple/red creme (leaning more towards purple). The polish applied easily and I see myself wearing this in the fall!

As always, don't forget to check out my giveaway (ends September 15). You can find the directions/link to the blog on my giveaway tab at the top of the page.

China Glaze Jitterbug

I absolutely love foils and glitters (even though they are hard to remove). Today I am wearing China Glaze Jitterbug. I ended up topping it with China Glaze Fairy Dust and China Glaze Wireless Holographic Top Coat for a super glittery effect. I feel like if I added a matte top coat, it would have looked like those suede matte polishes. Maybe I'll try that next time! I have China Glaze Matte Magic, but I generally prefer my polishes to be shiny. My boyfriend always says I'm like a magpie, attracted to shiny things; this is definitely true in the case of polishes!

(From left to right: China Glaze Wireless Holographic Top Coat, China Glaze Fairy Dust, and China Glaze Jitterbug)

Jitterbug alone

Jitterbug alone again

Jitterbug + Fairy Dust

Jitterbug + Fairy Dust + Wireless

Don't forget to check out my back-to-school mini giveaway here: http://aliceinpolishland.blogspot.com/2010/08/back-to-school-mini-giveaway.html. You have until September 15 to enter!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

I had a tiny haul on Thursday with two of my best friends. We went to the Sally's that is close to our college, and then to the Asian grocery store next door! I bought China Glaze VII (on sale for $1.99!), China Glaze Fairy Dust, China Glaze Ruby Pumps, and Finger Paints Tough Art to Follow. I am absolutely in love with all of them! I have only tried Ruby Pumps so far, but I've wanted Fairy Dust for a while now. VII and Tough Art to Follow were more of an impulse buy, but Tough Art to Follow is my style of green! My friend S let me use her camera because Ruby Pumps was so difficult to capture on mine. I still didn't quite capture exactly what it is; Ruby Pumps is a gorgeous glitter in a red jelly (not chunky glitter though), with black/darker undertones in some light. I think the best description of these are really Dorothy's red slippers from the Wizard of Oz. As you might know, I am not a fan of wearing red polishes; I've just always felt like the color was old on me. However, Ruby Pumps totally changed that. I can't stop staring at my hands!

As you can see, the color looks different in every picture, it was so hard to capture. I highly recommend this gorgeous red!

Our other little haul on snacks! I grew up on Pocky so I absolutely love that stuff!

Don't forget to check out my back-to-school mini giveaway here: http://aliceinpolishland.blogspot.com/2010/08/back-to-school-mini-giveaway.html. You have until September 15 to enter!

China Glaze Custom Kicks

China Glaze Custom Kicks is a gorgeous teal blue with a gold shimmer. I love, love, LOVE this color! It reminds me of the sea in the summer. The color is really special with the gold shimmer. These next photographs show the color as more of a sky blue, but it's a lot darker (like the photo without flash). The only thing I don't like about this polish, is the extreme smurf fingers I get after taking it off; everything is stained!

The actual color is not as bright as these (taken with flash).

P.S. I swear, I'm going to try to improve my photography skills! It's really hard because even though I love my darling little point-and-shoot camera to death, it's also reaching 8-9 years of age (and had an unfortunate accident last semester when a friend dropped my little baby face down while it was on).

French Manicure 2.1

This past weekend, my mom attended one of her friend's daughter's wedding. I did a standard French manicure and pedicure for her, and then added some flowers/rhinestones for fun! I think she really enjoyed the manicure, minus drying time! I won't show too many feet pictures, in case that kind of thing grosses you out.

I used CND Stickey Base Coat, one coat of China Glaze Innocence, two coats of China Glaze White Out and one coat of Seche Vite.

My mom has really pretty nails/hands!

In the car... toesies and hand!

China Glaze Atlantis

China Glaze Atlantis is a glitter polish of green-blue color. This was one of my first China Glaze polishes. I read and saw gorgeous reviews of this and decided to take the plunge. However, when I first tried it on a month ago, I really didn't like it. I can't exactly put my finger on why. Maybe it was that my nails were longer. Anyways, I really like it now that my nails are short. It's very glittery, and depending on the light, can look greener or bluer. I'd say that it generally leans more towards green (although in my kitchen, it looks blue).

Betsey Johnson Version II

My nails are still sad and nubbly... I really miss having my longer nails! It makes it harder to paint/do nail art sometimes. Anyways, today's nail is a different version of the Betsey Johnson nail challenge I did a couple weeks ago. While I liked that design better, the diagonal portion of gold seemed too much for short nails. I also used black rhinestones for the center of the flowers. I'm so addicted to the bright, summer nails!

I started by painting the base color: China Glaze Happy-Go-Lucky. Then, I made brown branches on the thumb and ring fingers using a small brush and China Glaze Wagon Trail. After that, I used a dotting tool to dot China Glaze Sugar High in a flower formation.

I then dotted some China Glaze Innocence (a sheer pink) in the centers of each flower, followed by a dot of white polish. I immediately dropped a black rhinestone in the center of each flower.

China Glaze Fly

China Glaze Fly is part of China Glaze's Kicks Collection from 2009. It's a very shimmer pink/purple/magenta color that is absolutely gorgeous! I had a really hard time photographing this one, because I am indoors with no sunlight! I hope I captured the color well enough. I feel as though in the past, I wouldn't have liked this color, but as I've said, I'm growing to appreciate pinks (and anything in that range) a lot better. This color definitely reminds me of brightly colored sneakers, as the collection name implies.

Blurry, but shows the color better

I apologize that my names are still nubbly looking! I wasn't going to post any swatches for the time being because they are so short, but I got bored so here we are!

French Manicure 1.1 and 1.2

I call these French manicures "1.1" and "1.2," because I forsee myself doing many French manicures in various styles. I have never owned any sheer pinks/beiges typically used in a French manicure. Instead, I use Sally Hansen Pink Promise or Fairy Tale Ivory, for a shimmery version. In today's 1.1, I started with CND Stickey Base Coat, followed by one coat of Sally Hansen Pink Promise. Then, I painted the tips white along the "smile line" with China Glaze White Out. I followed that with one coat of Sally Hansen Fairy Tale Ivory and finished it off with one coat of Seche Vite.

Of course, if I just stopped there then I wouldn't be me. I decided this morning that tips weren't white enough, so I painted another coat of CG White Out on the tips, followed with one coat of China Glaze Wireless Holographic Top Coat. The result is a super shimmery French manicure, with very white tips!

Cheetah Girl

I was feeling the animal print today after I painted my nails with China Glaze Passion. When I first painted them, I think the lighting made Passion look more yellow-gold, but it's really more of a rose gold. Nevertheless, it made for a good background color.

I started with one coat of CND Stickey Base Coat, followed by two coats of China Glaze Passion. As I mentioned in my post when I was swatching Passion, it seems to dry almost instantly - if you go over a spot too many times, the polish will peel off a bit, so you have to have the right amount of polish loaded on the brush already. Then, I painted with my LA Colors Art Deco in Black the cheetah spots. I followed that with dotting some of the spots with OPI Bling Dynasty (don't you just love the name?) and some with Sally Hansen Fairy Tale Ivory. Finished it all off with two coats of Seche Vite! For future times, I think I will make the cheetah spots in more varying size. In my next post about nail designs, you will see that I did a better job drawing cheetah spots.