Barielle Elle's Spell

For Christmas this year my husband gave me Barielle. (Well, he gave me the money and told me to go pick out colors I wanted, lol). I'd never tried Barielle before and the timing was just right because I was all aflutter over Elle's Spell from the Holiday Hustle collection.

Barielle Elle's Spell over SH Celeb City


I chose to layer Elle's Spell over Celeb City because I wanted to see how the shimmer would shine through the red jelly base. Click for the bigger picture, it's beautiful.



This was two moderate coats of Elle's Spell over one coat of Sally Hansen Celeb City.



Sadly my Poshe top coat caused slight shrinkage. But I'm blaming the weather. ;)



I'm glad I ordered a backup bottle. This polish is so beautiful alone or layered. Absolutely no application issues...I have a feeling I'll be posting about this one again.

Quirius Caribbean Turquoise & China Glaze Grape Pop + Hidden Treasure

Depending on the lighting, Quirius Caribbean Turquoise can lean a bit more towards green or blue. I did the best I could to take pictures of the awesome. Really, I think its my new favorite turquoise! I feel a bit guilty, I've had this first pic uploaded and waiting for almost a week. BUT, I also wore this color for 5 days! So I took a picture of that too so you can see how well it wore.

Quirius Caribbean Turquoise, overcast sun


This was three coats of polish over Nailtek II Foundation and topped with Poshe Fast Drying topcoat. Two coats of polish would have been fine, but I was watching House while doing my nails and accidentally put a third coat on my pinky...I got a little obsessive and *had* to make sure they all had the same amount of layers. *blushes*

The polish consistency was a little thick. Not chalky, but it did have some cuticle drag if you went over the same spot twice too quickly. Easily remedied by just letting each layer dry a bit. It does dry semi-matte so you'll have to add topcoat for shine (if you want that, of course!). Otherwise, pigmentation is very good. Caribbean Turquoise pops quite nicely without the white layer some neons require underneath to really show off their potential.

As I said earlier, I wore this for five days with minimal tipwear and no chips!

Quirius Caribbean Turquoise, Day Five


And, because it was holding up so well, I decided to pull out some the the nail art supplies I was sent by Viva La Nails and attempt some nail art. I'm thinking I'm not nearly as talented in this area as other bloggers, lol.



What the heck, if you've kept reading this long, here's a picture of China Glaze Grape Pop topped with a layer of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. Sadly, Grape Pop didn't fare as well, this tipwear is after only one day of wear. Same number of coats, same base & topcoat combo as the Caribbean Turquoise. Still pretty though! (Ouch, my poor dry and abused cuticles!)

China Glaze Grape Pop + Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure


And now, I'm going to be late for work so you all have a beautiful day!

Finger Paints Red Marzipan & Sally Hansen

For this manicure I decided to pull out another untried I've had sitting around. I was hoping the sun would come out and show how sparkly this really is, but sadly he kept hiding behind a cloud. This is two coats of Finger Paints Red Marzipan.



I actually did this shortly before I went to bed the night before I took pictures and everything was fine. When I woke up I had a bubble on my middle finger, bleh. I'm blaming the Poshe topcoat I used. It probably needs thinning. Anyhow, Red Marzipan was a dream to apply. It's not a one coater, but the second coat evened it out quite nicely. Consistency was great, polish went exactly where I wanted it to go, no cleanup required.



I wore Red marzipan alone for couple of days before the Konad bug got me and I used one of the french tip designs on Konad plate m56. Completely forgot to take pictures of it before the next thing happened. I was in Walmart (work-related, ha) and took a quick swing through cosmetics and found a treasure. Literally.

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure


Of course I bought it. We don't see flakies much in person around here. It's almost a nail polish desert. Naturally I swatched it right over my existing manicure...

Finger Paints Red Marzipan + Konad m56 + Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure


...and proceeded to take many, many pictures.



So many colors. Pictures don't do it justice. But you can click to see bigger pictures.




It was a good day.

Nfu Oh 51 layered + Konad

So, I won't tell you about how gorgeous Nfu Oh flakies are, because you probably already know. But I do want to show you my Nail of the Week (yikes, that's rare for me...a whole week!) because I pulled out the Konad again. This time I tried a full nail stamp. I need more practice!

This was one coat of Wet n Wild Black Creme (gotta love cheap one-coaters!) and two coats of Nfu Oh 51. Poshe quick-dry to make it nice and hard and then out came the Konad! I used plate m73 and Color Club Worth the Risque for the stamp.

Nfu oh 51 + Black Creme + Color Club Worth the Risque konad, sun






Do you like my japanese bellflower? My first bellflower of the season. I had to take a picture with it because I thought I had killed it. All the leaves and stems dried up and fell off and I was so sad...turns out it was just hibernating. So few plants do that in this climate, I didn't think to check. Silly me. =)

Nfu-Oh 54 MATTE

Okay this is the last picture of this mani, I swear. On the third day I wore Nfu-Oh 54 over Icing Manic Monday, I had to see what it looked like matte. So I swiped some Nailtek Foundation II basecoat over it. Quite pretty mattified, I think. Apologies for the tipwear, my job is hard on my nails.



A few weeks ago, I actually found this Color Club set in my local Ross. Browns aren't usually my thing, but for that kind of price I'm certainly willing to try them!



Hopefully I'll get to them soon!

Nfu-Oh 54 Layered

Last time, I showed you my Icing Manic Monday disaster. I fixed my cleanup issues ( definitely need more practice using a brush instead of an orange wood stick) and yet I still wasn't happy with Manic Monday. Too dark for my mood. So I did the best thing you can do with a dark polish you're just not feeling.

I layered it.

Two coats of Nfu-Oh 54 over two coats of Icing Manic Monday. Pictures taken outdoors on a sunny day.







Nfu-oh 54 is a gorgeous flaky. Heck, even the Nfu-Oh bottles are pretty. I'd really like to try layering this over a beautiful teal creme. I think the effect will be rather like a mermaid's tail. There is nothing I can say that you can't see in pictures. All I can say is I'll be buying more of them when I can.

I forgot to mention in my last post that these are not old pictures. My nails are shorties again. In fact, today they're even shorter than these pictures show due to an unfortunate accident. I was filing a rough edge while watching House and got so caught up in what was going on I kind of filed a little too much on one side of the nail and had to even it out and then it didn't match the length of my other nails and then....well you know how it is. I well and truly have nubbins now.