China Glaze: Atlantis & some Orange

I'm gonna rock up two mani's in this post, since I've been on a bad break (y'know, I've never been great with set dates for posting. I just kinda post when I"m not feeling too lazy... Plus it's the boyfriend's birthday soon, and I've been working hard on his present ^^)

Anyways, first up, I wore Candy Corn from Cover Girl. This polish is maybe two years(?) old,  so I don't know if it's still sold. Two coats of that, and I topped it with one coat of Orange Twinkle from The Face Shop.

 I have some weird tendency to get bored of manis pretty quick (this one, a day, no joke!) and to add some pizazz I threw on a coat of my Essie Matte About You topcoat, to give this plastic feel. I got tons of compliments, super awesome!

Next up, here's Atlantis from China Glaze. I heard this polish is back from a while away (as in discontinued), but my local Sally's Beauty Supply had a Treasures collection (no Anchors Away, boo hoo!) and there were some oldies there. This was the last Atlantis bottle, and right away I was like OH SO PRETTY!

Look at the holo sparkles! LOOK AT THEM!! Holo sparkles in a lovely more-green-than-blue teal gel! I'm constantly getting distracted by them when I do anything, it's absolutely ridiculous. This is two coats of Atlantis & two coats of Seche Vite to make it nice and smooth ^_^

Did you pick up any of the treasures?

-Melanie

GildedNails Super-Mega-Like-Faint-At-The-Sight Giveaway!

Over at GildedNails, Carina has passed 500 followers! Congrats!
In lieu of this fabulous event, she's hosting a big, big, BIG giveaway! I nearly spat out my coffee when I saw what was up for grabs (and trust me, I love coffee)!

Brace yourself! Here's a photo of the goodies ~

This giveaway is opened internationally & ends March 31st, 2011.

Enter here.

Good luck everyone!

-Melanie

Sally Hansen : Problem Child

I went to Walmart the other day, and like always - checked the nail polish section. There was a new display of Sally Hansen polishes from the Pro Manicure? line, and surprise, surprise! I managed to pick one up.

Now, I've never been a fan of how freakin' WIDE these brushes are. They're much too large for my nails and I always end up smudging it all over my cuticles (mmm, delicious).

Despite this, I couldn't resist this purple. Here's Problem Child by Sally Hansen.

(Note: this is after 3 days of use)

This polish is a deep, dark purple that looks smokey and quite vampy in the shade (or indoors, really), but when it catches the sunlight it's a rich purple and the peach-y, rust flakes really pop out. This ^ was only two coats + base + Seche Vite.

I'm thinking of a new top coat - any suggestions?

-Melanie

Two Swatches !

Sorry for my lack of posts this week - Valentine's Day certainly kept me busy (^_^) and I because of the tiles I work with in glass art, my nails get wrecked... pretty fast.

Anyways, here's two manicures I did for Valentine's day.

First off is a bright red from Rimmel London. This one is called 310 Red Carpet, and from what I've seen they don't make it anymore.

 As you can see above, I attempted to add some flair to this mani and added on a sticker. They were nifty, but I must've applied them too fast because it got all yucky after I applied my Seche Vite.

Note: these pictures were taken about three days after wear. No major chipping, and only two coats ^_^

Here's the second one I did, simpler this time. This is Claire's Mood Changing Polish in Calm/Wild. It's a really shimmery pink-when-warm/purple-when-cold polish. It does not change by mood, it changes based on your body temperature. It looks really cool with longer nails! Anyways, this polish USED to work for me. I always use three coats, but this time I got a maaaaaajor chip (I blame you, Seche Vite!) so I took it off pretty quickly.

Hope you had a great Valentine's day!

-Melanie

Nail Talez & More Giveaway

Congrats on a year of blogging, Nikki!

Over at Nail Talez & More!, she's having a big giveaway to celebrate a year of blogging ^^ She's does tons of fun manicures. Here's whats up for grabs ~

Enter soon! It ends on March 12th :]

Good luck!

-Melanie

Cosmetic Cupcake Giveaway!

First off, congrats to 'Chelle for a year of blogging!

Anyways, to celebrate she's having a big giveaway over at her blog: Cosmetic Cupcake.

^ Here's a picture of the stuff you could win! ^

Things like stamping plates, nail polish (of course!), EOS lip balm & Lemony Flutter, are all up for grabs - hurry and enter!

Good luck!

-Melanie

Fake Nails : Fireworks

I posted these over at my DeviantArt account a day or two ago - but I figured they belonged here as well!

Done with two coats of Icing - Dark Magic (matte), then a coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust. To top it off, i made fireworks with white & pink polish with my nail pens.

What do you think? It was my first time really using the pens, and as super awesome as they are they tend to... Leak?  Even when not touching it, polish is still coming out of the needle. Very tricky to work with.

I haven't decided what I'm doing with these bad boys yet, for now they're sitting on some foam in my room, haha.

Do you paint fake nails? Do you use them?

-Melanie

China Glaze : Frostbite

Semester one is OVER! No more gym for me! Haha, such a great thing - over the semester I broke three nails halfway down the nail bed, salvaged them with nail glue, but my middle finger-nail kept breaking, grrr. I ended up chopping them all down *cries* and making them the same length. These things are like nubs, it makes me really sad, I want my nails back!

To make up for my little nubs, I painted my nails with a truly BAM! RIGHT IN YOUR FACE blue. It's called Frostbite, from China Glaze.

 Two coats for even coverage, but three coats to make it super awesome!

Like always, I topped it off with Seche Vite to make it super glossy. I've had this manicure on for 4 days now, and there hasn't been any chipping (but 5 coats of polish does that!), but there's been natural tip wear. I've gotten tons of compliments on it, too. I'm definitely in love, love, LOVE with this polish.

Two Giveaways

Over @ The PolishAholic, big follower giveaway! (Congrats on 1000 followers!) Here's what's she's giving away...

Click here to read the rules & enter.

But, here's another! At Sonidlo's nail polishes, she's having a one-year blog anniversary give away. Congrats on blogging for a whole year!

If you wanna enter that, click here to read the rules & enter.

Good luck!

-Melanie