Batman-Inspired Nails for Otakon

Hey there!

So I've been quiet for the last couple of days because my mom, sister, and I headed to Baltimore for the weekend. My sister and her friend were going to Otakon, the anime convention that is held there every year, so my mom and I went to enjoy the sights and, of course, the food.

I'll do another post about the things I bought there, but for now I'm going to show you the nail design I created for my sister. She was going to Otakon decked out in all of her Batman apparel: a belt buckle, earrings, converses, shirts (one for each day), a bag, sillybands, arm bands, lanyard ...not to mention all of the other Batman stuff she owns that didn't come with her. Needless to say, she's a huge fan and could talk for hours about any of the movies, TV series, or characters.

So for this weekend, I did a Batman-inspired nail design for her. She didn't want Batman nails, but just nails that were black and yellow.

Here's the recipe:

• Two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lightening (which, if you haven't noticed, is my go-to yellow), topped with one coat of Sally Hansen HD in Lite
• To all but the ring fingers, I added one coat of the black glitter I bought in Spain
• A black Stripe-Rite on the ring fingers
• OPI Servin' Up Sparkle

The ring fingers were supposed to be topped with a stamp from Mash plate m72 (the slashed lines image), but of course, I couldn't find my stamper when I was doing this manicure. She was really bummed that she couldn't have the stamped image, but eventually I convinced my sister to let me do a similar-looking design on her ring fingers with a nail art polish. I think it turned out pretty good! Then I topped the design with OPI Servin' Up Sparkle.

NANA NANA NANA NANA BATMAN

So, what do you think? I really liked how they came out and she got a ton of compliments at the convention. Are you a Batman fan?

Thanks for reading!!

Janna

Some Sally Hansen HDs!

Hey everyone! This post is scheduled because I'm away for the day....hopefully it posts.


Anyway, here's something quick to show you. These Sally Hansen HD polishes were at Five Below, advertised as 2 for $3. So needless to say, I got six. I'll show you all six even though my pictures aren't the greatest.

This is Lite, a standard yellow shimmer. Rather sheer and very shimmery. This was four coats.

This is Digital, a coolish pink shimmer. This was is also pretty sheer but a nice color if you don't have anything like it. Shown is 3 coats.

Hi-Def, a light, yellow-green shimmer. This one is rather unique for this collection, but sheer. This is also 3 coats.

Up next is Cyber, a really striking deep purple shimmer. This one is a bit more opaque, needing 2-3 coats. I really liked this one as I don't have many purples.

Here's Pixel Pretty, which I only got because I needed a 6th polish. Your run-of-the-mill turquoise shimmer, related to OPI Austin-tatious Turquoise and $OPI Who Let the Dorks Out. It's pretty if you don't have anything like it I guess. 3 coats.

And finally, the most unique and prettiest of the collection if I do say so myself, BLU. And blue it is. It's a rich shimmery cobalt that was very opaque. 2-3 coats needed. Really worth getting if you like blue!

My camera is awful. Anyway, last time I was at Five Below, these were still there, so take a look if you're interested. Do you have any HD polishes? I feel like this line was sort of a bust...

Thanks for reading!

Janna

Some China Glaze Summer Neons!

Hello!

Today I have for you just two of my picks from the new China Glaze Collection, Summer Neons! I seriously thought I was going to pass on this whole collection until I saw swatches that showed gorgeous shimmer! I love these =]

First I have for you Sun-Kissed, which is a lemon yellow neon with shimmer. The shimmer in this is really pronounced, borderline brushstroke-y, which made it really different from other neon yellows in my collection. The base color is also kind of unique too, since it's a little less green than, for example, Essie Funky Limelight. I've read rave reviews on the formula, but I still needed four coats of this polish to make it close to opaque. This might be because I do thinnish coats of polish, so I may be the exception to the rule. I liked this one well enough.

These pictures were all taken in indirect sun and they're very close to true color.


Now I have my favorite of these two, and possibly my favorite of the whole collection, which is a huge statement since I haven't even worn any of the other shades yet: Surfin' for Boys. This is a reddish coral neon with gorgeous pink shimmer. I don't think I have any other shades even close to this, so if you're looking for something unique, definitely give this one a try. I'm still wearing this one and am already contemplating a pedi with it in the near future, so maybe I should look into a backup bottle. This polish has already made my best of 2012 list is the reason I'm already starting a best of 2012 list! Oh, and I had significantly better luck with the formula; shown here is three coats but two would have been alright, just with some VNL (visible nail line).

LOOK AT THE SHIMMER *Dies*

These were taken in direct sun!

Overall, these were very fun to wear...not to mention, look how tan I look! Have you tried any of these? So far I've picked up Sun-Kissed, Surfin' for Boys, Pink Plumeria, I'm With the Lifeguard, and Love's a Beach. On my maybe list are Beach Cruise-r and Orange You Hot? Any comments? Which do you have?

Thanks for reading!

Janna

Summer Water Marble!

Helloooo.

As you could have probably noticed, my semester was rough. From mid-February to the end of April I was literally swamped, and then I turned 21 on April 23rd, so I had to go out and celebrate with my friends, of course!

Here's a mani that is epic enough to make up for my 3 month absence (....wow, that's a big claim). I had just gotten home from school when I did this - so, maybe a week and a half ago - and wanted to do something intricate since I usually just slap on polish during the school year and leave it there for a week so it ends up just about as chipped as can be and then I repeat the cycle.

I started with a base of Savvy French White White (not a typo!) and then water marbled with Sally Hansen Lightening (yellow cream), Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up (orange cream), Essie Olé Caliente (coral cream), and OPI Pink Flamenco (berry pink cream) using random dragging motions. The colors came out much brighter than I expected! I also got compliments and/or questions about how I did it from a ton of people, including my male relatives. I loved it and was sad to take it off!

Left hand! Sorry for the horrid lighting.

Anddd the right!

SO BRIGHT!

Mhm.

So my pictures aren't that great but hopefully you get the gist.

And if you'd like, check out my tutorial HERE and my past water marbles using the water marble tag on my blog and this post, a link to which I've conveniently provided for you HERE! You're welcome.

Thanks for reading!

Janna

China Glaze - Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

So yeah....I fail at posting.

I meant to post this after Labor Day weekend, but I failed. Don't give up on me! This semester, 18 credits and a job is kicking my butt. I need to start finding time to post instead of just napping every chance I get. I am physically and mentally exhausted.

ANYWAY. Enough with the excuses. I hope all of you with a new school year ahead of you are doing well, and actually....I hope everyone is doing well!

I had ended my last post saying a hint for my next manicure was, summer isn't over yet! And to me, that means NEONS. So my labor day mani was China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini!

Shown here is three coats over one (I think) coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White:


Most color-accurate.







They look obnoxiously bright with the flash, and the color is not orange-toned at all in real life. Oh, and as you can see, I topped my ring and thumb nails with red-orange colored triangular rhinestones.

That's it for now! My next manicure was much darker...

Til next time,

Janna

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

Hellooo!

This was my first full weekend back at school, and since I have no classes yet, it's been pretty good =P

Here's a quick post about my two Sally Hansen Insta Dri polishes.

First up in Lightening:







This is a yellow cream. Shown is 3 coats, but two would have been fine if you were more patient than I was. In the last two pictures, I topped the middle and ring nails with Sinful Colors Dumpling, which is a very sheer yellow shimmer, just to see what it would look like. Love this one =]

Here's Flashy Fuchsia:





Love this one too. Could be a one coater, but shown is two. I've only worn this on my toes before I took these swatches, and I was surprised how much I like it. Very pretty pink shimmer with a violet flash.

I like the wide, flat brush on these, but you need to be sure to put more polish on the brush than usual. Dry time was good! That's all I really have to say about them. I definitely want more of them!

Do you have any Insta-Dri polishes?

Sinful Colors Swatches

Hellooooo.

I'm slowly trying to organize my stash into 5 clear plastic shoeboxes. Hopefully they'll fit after all the buying I've been doing. So I'm going to start showing you guys some of what I own little by little til I can show you everything all neat and organized =]

This is my collection of Sinful Colors polishes as of today, 8/10/10. (or 10/8/10, depending on where you live.) August 10th =p No topcoat or basecoat (or clean up) unless specified.



First Row: Snow Me White, Gogo Girl, Dumpling, Bamboo
Second Row: Hottie, Lang Lang (purple), Love Bite

And now for the swatches. I didn't swatch Snow Me White, cause it's...well, white. But if anyone is looking for a review or a swatch, leave a comment. I've heard it's a pretty good white, not streaky or anything. We'll see.

Gogo Girl. I did my swatch on one of my hands, admired it, and then took it right off! I forgot all about pictures. It was my tenth swatch of the day, so I think I was losing it a little. I redid it, but only did one nail. Sorry =\




Second picture is with flash, as you can probably tell. It looks red in the bottle, but I did one coat and all I could see was pink. So disappointed. Buttt then as I kept putting coats on, it got redder, obviously. The picture is 3 coats, but there's still VNL. It's a pretty cherry red though. Cream finish, applied well.


Dumpling. Here's a photo from my NOTD post of Dumpling, from the recent Shanghai Nights collection. (Original post HERE)



It is suuuuper sheer. This picture is 5 (yes, FIVE) coats, along with Sally Hansen Nail Protex (pictured) as basecoat and topcoat. I'm probably going to use this for layering mostly. It is rather pretty though. Also applied well and it has a nice subtle shimmer.

Bamboo. This one caught my eye because I thought it was similar to Jade is the New Black, but now that I own JITNB (YAYYY!), I can tell you that they're quite different. This color is much more blue toned and has a shimmer finish.



Second one is flash (again, stating the obvious).

This is also from the Shanghai Nights collection. Two coats. It has a really subtle but pretty shimmer to it. It dried pretty fast, and was close to matte, definitely needs topcoat. The only thing I don't get is the name, or any of the names from this collection really. . .

Hottie. It's a glitter polish with a (sheer) purple-toned blue base. It has some chunky purple and blue glitter and also a ton of fine glitter.



Ooooooh, pretty.

I only did one nail so I wouldn't have to get all that glitter off. I really like this, but it's going to be for layering. Two coats, and as you can see, it's far from opaque. Definitely pretty and unique though.

Lang Lang. See what I mean about these names? Shanghai Nights collection. This polish is NOT for the faint of heart.


Looks like an innocent purple...


BAM!

This color is electric. That cobalt blue flash is a lot more noticeable in person. This is two coats, slightly shimmery. I'm wearing this in a Ruffian right now, and in some lights it seems more blue, some purple. It photographed really blue in the bottle, but not in this swatch. Aside from the name, this is one of my new favorites.

Love Bite.This is the last of my Sinfuls. I bought this polish cause it looks black, but it actually has green, blue, and purple/magenta shimmer in it, at least in the bottle. Only the teal color showed on the nail =[

Bottle Picture:

Crappy picture, but SEE? The colors are there!




Alright, I guess the purple's there in the first picture if you look for it. . . but I didn't see it at all in person. This is three coats, very pretty.

So there are my Sinfuls. I'm pretty new to this brand, but I'm liking it so far. Application was consistent. The only disappointment was Dumpling, with 5 coats, though I love the color. I think my favorite thing about them is the bottles; they're really cute! And at $1.99, I think they're worth a shot if you can find them. I purchased all of mine at Rite Aid, and I know they sell them at Walgreens, too.

Thanks for reading! Do you have any Sinfuls?

Janna

My Semi-Fail POTW

I hate painting my toes, and I usually wear pedis for about 2 or even 3 weeks if the polish doesn't chip too badly, but this one is coming off very very soon. I did this a couple of days ago because I wanted to use China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini =] But I pretty much hate how it turned out.

First off, Sally Hansen Blue Me Away! stained SO SO SO bad. I've never experienced anything like that before andddd I used a base coat. Then, my Savvy French White White that I used under YPDB was streaking and leaving bald spots, and YPDB was kinda runny and hard to control. . . and then I topped it off with an ugly fauxnad stamp =p

So here you go. Have a couple of laughs. What cleanup I could do is absolutely terrible, and sorry for the crappy picture =p I didn't even want to post this lol.



This is tons brighter in real life, and I took a flash picture that showed the true color but the "paint job" looked even worse.

In other news, I'm STILL wearing my rainbow water marble. I think it's been a week and I am so unbearably sad whenever I think about taking if off. But hey, if I spent all that time and polish doing it, why not wear it for as long as possible? I did add two coats of my newly purchased (for $1.99) ChG Golden Enchantment (gold holo glitter) and have done many touchups on the red. Quick pic:


So that's all I have for you today. Check back tomorrow; I'll be taking off my rainbow water marble (=\) so I can work on my entry for Polish Hoarder Disorder's Nature Challenge (=]). Bittersweet, but it's time to change my polish anyway. It's starting to peel from the bottom, which is the most annoying thing in the world. =]

Thank you for reading!

Janna

My New Favorite Polish and my Old Mani, Revamped

Background Story:

The other day, my boyfriend was shopping and I was texting him about nail polish. =P During conversation, he asked me about what colors I wanted to buy, and I told him I wanted to get some light blues and browns. Long story short, he walked into Ulta all by himself, asked one of the employees for help, and ultimately purchased a bottle of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear polish, FOR ME =] What a great surprise! So this color is now my new favorite. I mean, in the past he's felt uncomfortable even walking in Ulta with me, so this was a big step, lol. What's the color, you ask?







So I'm now a proud owner of Blue Me Away! This is my second ever Xtreme Wear polish. Application was awesome, and it was near perfect in one coat! The bottle pictures aren't even close to the actual color though. The true color is really right in between the colors shown in the flash and no flash pictures, a deep sky blue.

I put this on my toes and I love it! I'd describe it as a deep sky blue that almost leans teal.

Blurry, but this is quite close to the actual color of the polish.


My toes in cute shoes =]

(EDIT: this color stained horribly, even with a base coat!)

I'll swatch this color later on my nails =] I finished it off with a sun design from my new Bundle Monster fauxnad plates. This design is from BM01, done with Design-a-Nail polish in Frostbite. Closeup:


Well I had so much fun with this that I decided to add a design to my current mani. This is Bundle Monster plate BM03, a flower, done in Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Sunrise, Sunset." (I added rhinestones shaped like cherries to my ring fingers out of boredom on day 2 of wearing this; ignore it =p)





Blurry of course, but I really like the design and I definitely can't wait to keep playing with my new plates.

Tomorrow I'm going to design my entry for Polish Hoarder Disorder's weekly challenge, and then maybe attempt a new water marble. Every time Colette posts a new entry about one, I feel the need to do it.

That's it for today, and since I've posted two entries, I'm sure you've had your fill. Thank you for stopping by!!

Janna

P.S. My new favorite snack. This is a winning combination!