Duochrome Topper Madness

Hey everyone!

Today I have for you some old pictures that originally appeared as a guest post on Wendy's blog, but since I've gotten a tiny bit better at photo editing I figured I'd give them a second chance. I've also been missing my long nails since I recently chopped them lower than ever (pictures to come!).

First I have pictures of Zoya Breezi (blue) and OPI Manicurist of Seville (red). Then, I'll show you what can happen with a little layering magic!

Here's Breezi again, topped with Nubar 2010. How gorgeous are flakies over blues? I mean, come on now.

And the final transformation: MoS topped with Kleancolor Chunky Holo Fuschia. Another winner!

There we have it! Sorry this first-post-of-the-semester didn't come sooner, but I've been really discouraged by the amount of work I have already! I'm trying to change that!

Thank you so much for reading! What are your favorite layering combinations?

Janna

OPI OTTB with Glitter!

Helloo there!

Today I have for you a blue! I always get compliments when I wear blue (I think because it pops against my warm undertones) and it had been a while since I'd worn a great blue polish, so that was the choice for my most recent mani.

The base color here is OPI Ogre the Top Blue from the Spring 2010 Shrek Collection. It's a really saturated bright blue cream. I color corrected this photo so though my hands are red, the polish is pretty accurate.

I loveee creams, so I didn't think I'd have the heart to top this off with a glitter, but once I tried it on my ring finger, I went ahead and did all my nails! This is Nicole by OPI Kendall on the Katwalk, a melange of blue, purple, and green glitter in a sheer blue base. To my eye, the purple and green glitter are slightly larger pieces than the blue, which makes for a really cool textured effect. Pick this one up if you love glitter!

I wish I could do fancy macro shots, but "Close Up" mode just doesn't cut it, so unfortunately I can't do this beauty justice.

That's it for now! What color do you get complimented in? Do you wear that color on your nails?

Thanks for reading!

Janna

"Jewel" Tone Manicure

Hello there!

Today I really wanted to share with you an entry I made for a nail art contest. I really loved the result!

First I started with two coats of OPI San Tan-tonio for opacity. Then I added thin lines with my gold Stripe Rite to use as guides.

Then I just filled in the lines using the nail polish's own brush in one straight swipe of lacquer. I did have to retrace my lines a few times, but they ended up pretty straight.

The red is OPI Bullish on OPI, the orange is a mix of Finger Paints Courdur-Orange and Sally Hansen Insta-Dry in Lightening, the blue is Zoya Breezi and the purple is OPI No Spain No Gain. The accent nail is a bunch of 3mm and 2mm rhinestones in coordinating colors that I got from the Born Pretty Store. Jewel tones are by far my favorite color family!

This manicure took some time to do and I've been itching to do an all-rhinestones nail for a long time. I loved it! Please tell me what you think!

Thanks so much for reading,

Janna

Italian Manicure!

Hello! Sorry that my absence was longer than I thought! I was burnt out from volunteering and took a couple days to do literally nothing.

Today I have for you a special holiday manicure! The reason I was volunteering last week is because my town has a very long-running (137 years, to be exact) festival to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Taken from the Mt. Carmel Society webpage, the Mt. Carmel Society, who organizes the week-long festival, "is an independent nonprofit Catholic Organization formed in 1875 by Italian immigrants new to Hammonton, New Jersey, who took time to celebrate their safe journey to America and a successful harvest by giving praise and thanks to the blessed Virgin Mary." The 16th of July, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, is regarded as a holiday like any other; for example,school and town offices have off!

Since this festival is deeply rooted in Italian tradition and I myself am Italian-American, I did a festive manicure! Lots of layering was involved for this. All red areas are two coats of OPI Color So Hot it Berns with one coat of OPI Animalistic on top. Green areas are two coats of Orly Wandering Vine topped with both China Glaze Glittering Garland and Zoya Ivanka. The white is a no-name white cream topped with Orly Winter Wonderland. Here's the result:

This was a fun manicure and I got a lot of compliments! I hope you all like it as much as I do =] Are there any Mt. Carmel festivals near you? I know there is at least one other in New Jersey.

Thank you so much for reading! Let me know what you think!

Janna

Berry Ombre Manicure

Hello!

I'm back today with a Clever and Colorful first: an ombre manicure. Ever since I started my blog in July 2010, I've wanted to try an ombre manicure. For some reason, I found them incredibly intimidating because I never thought I could create the perfect fade on my nails and I'm super picky.

But on Tuesday, when I was looking for a pretty berry color to compliment my beige dress and printed shoes, I pulled out OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries and then a bunch of other berries and reds from the OPI Colección de España and I put together a little group. I could have probably used other polishes to make a smoother fade but I decided to stick to all the same collection for some consistency.

Thumb: Pink Flamenco
Pointer: Ate Berries in the Canaries
Middle: Mix of Pamplona Purple, Ate Berries in the Canaries, and No Spain No Gain
Ring: No Spain No Gain
Pinky: Manicurist of Seville

The middle finger started out as just Pamplona Purple but it looked more like a skittles mani than an ombre so I mixed one. I'm really liking this look and it's fun to wear different shades on your nails! I can't believe I waited so long to try it..it's definitely not as hard as I thought!

So how about you? Have you tried an ombre manicure?

Thanks for reading!

Janna

OPI San Tan-tonio

Helloooo.

Just a short, late-night post for you guys. Here is OPI San Tan-tonio. At first glance, this polish seems rather plain or boring, but it's a really pretty neutral and a great mannequin hands or underwear shade for your collection. It's a bit darker than my skin tone, but each time I paint my nails with this shade it's like painting my nails with "skin out"....like white out but in a skin tone shade. For reference, I'd say I'm like an NC 15 normally, probably NC 20 right now for reference, so if you fall in that range or darker I'd say this would be a great nude shade for you!

This is two coats. It definitely could have been one coat but my pressure was a little uneven, so the color was a little thin in spots.

closest to real life!

So that's San Tan-tonio! Do you have this polish? What's your favorite mannequin-hands shade?

Thanks for reading =]

Janna

Rainbow Glitter!

Hey everyone! This is a quick post because I'm going with my boyfriend's brother to his college orientation tomorrow! Here's one from the vault. The bright lime green polish is from Icing and since I'm not home, I don't have the name handy. (EDIT: It's Icing's Absinthe.) But you wouldn't want this polish anyway; it was streaky and sheer. It's topped with OPI Rainbow Connection though, so that makes it better.

That's all for now. Sorry for the short post! Thanks for reading!

Janna

My Take on: The Ever-Popular Gradient!

Hello!

How's everyone been? So since I was so behind on my blog-reading, I only-recently came across the wave of gradient manicures that swept the blogosphere, so I had to try it.

For this manicure, I started with a coat of Sally Hansen No Hard Feelings, a really pretty lilac that was opaque and actually vibrant enough for me without looking washed out or almost-white. On top of that, I took a regular kitchen sponge and painted one "strip" of OPI No Room for the Blues (blue), then under that a strip of No Hard Feelings (lilac), and finallly a strip of Zoya Whitney (pink) directly onto the sponge, so it differs slightly from the technique of painting the colors onto a piece of plastic and swirling (I originally tried that but my sponge wouldn't pick up the color from the plastic baggie!).

Then I went crazy on my nails, sponging onto each one with No Room for the Blues near the tip and Whitney nearest the cuticle. I made sure to move the sponge up and down to create a more gradual fade, and I ended up doing two coats of sponging. These are also topped with a coat of Cover Girl Night Lights to smooth/distract from the lines. Check it out!

For some reason, I could not get this to turn out normal. Don't judge.

 I really loved this manicure and kept getting a ton of compliments over Memorial Day Weekend. Someone even asked, "How do you ask them to do them like that?!" thinking I had them done at a salon, and my boyfriend grabbed my hands (without being provoked) and told me they looked really cool, which we know are like two of the best compliments ever.

Oh, and don't mind my amateur watermark. I like watermarks on pictures because as I'm reading through Google Reader, I can remember whose post is whose as I read. There's also the added benefit of actually getting credit for your photos, but whatever. Let me know if you have any suggestions for it! I just did it very quickly whilst playing around on Gimp.

So that's it for now. Are you tired of seeing gradient manis? I'm going to do my best to do more nail art for you all while I have time!

Thanks for reading!

Janna

China Glaze Trendsetter with some stamping!

Hello again!

Today I have for you a polish I was DYING to wear...China Glaze Trendsetter. It's a really awesome olive green with very strong yellow tones and a really pretty fleck finish. When I put it on though, I was a tiny bit disapointed because it showed up a lot more green on my nails than in the bottle. So the hunt continues for a really awesome mustard shade of polish, but I really liked this one for what it was.

Since I had some extra time on the Sunday night that I did this manicure, I decided to stamp it so that 1) people wouldn't be weirded out by the shade, and 2) ......it would look cooler?

I stamped it with OPI Here Today....Aragon Tomorrow using Mash plate m64. The design was a forest green that I think looked really nice over Trendsetter, and the design on the plate was as....funky....as the color.

Have a look!

Most color-accurate

Sorry for the strange background...none of my stamped photos
came out clearly so I had to use the ones that were the closest.

So what do you think? Would you wear this shade? I got so many compliments while I was wearing this!

Thanks for reading!

Janna

Back-to-School Haulage

Hello!

The hurricane is coming! I'm in southern New Jersey and it has been raining since about 10 AM. Luckily I still have my power, though!

Sorry I kind of ran out of manicures for a bit so I'm due for a long swatching session. Fortunately I have so many new goodies to play with! Wanna see? Sure you do!

First, the two most recent Serena sets. I bought the red and gold one first, since the purple was sold out at my Ulta and I couldn't NOT buy a Serena set since I play tennis, but I went back to make my last Ulta trip yesterday and they restocked Grape...Set...Match! My lucky day =]

L to R from top: Pros & Bronze, Love is a Racket, Grape...Set...Match and Servin' Up Sparkle.

Here are my two picks from the Miss Universe collection, which also randomly showed up at my Ulta yesterday. I was just there two days before but yesterday there were SO many new things and everything was restocked. I chose It's MY Year, because it was so much prettier in person than I expected, and Swimsuit...Nailed It! Fun fact: my boyfriend actually LOVED that blue.

Oh, and has anyone else seen OPI caps stamped with numbers? This is the first time I have.


Next are my Orly Birds of a Feather picks. I went out originally just wanting Fowl Play, like the rest of the world, but Sea Gurl stuck out to me for some reason as well, so I also got that one. I loved Peachy Parrot too, and actually the whole collection =P Maybe someday I'll get the rest.

Here's what I've recently grabbed from Sally's: China Glaze Trendsetter (I'll probably get more Metros in the future) and Finger Paints Cordur-Orange. I also got a One 'n' Only Argan 1.25" Curling Iron. I mentioned this on Twitter, but when I asked the woman working at Sally's if the Metros were in, she said they were in the back, but she wasn't allowed to put them out until September for some sort of promotion? But she asked if I wanted to see them and told me I could buy the ones I wanted...weird! The saleswoman got to Midtown Magic before I could, though!

This picture shows both polishes much more color-accurately.

Now I can show you these glitters I got in Spain! These are all chunky glitters that I got from an Asian Bazaar for 1 euro each. They are full of chemical goodness. They don't have names, but from left to right, it's a lilac circular glitter, a white/iridescent circular glitter, and a BLACK! circular glitter. Besides the large circular glitter, each polish has tiny glitter of the same color. I wore the black one in Spain, and application was typical for a chunky glitter: annoying and all of the glitter came to my nail tip. But they're pretty cool nonetheless.

And last but not least, MY GLITTER GAL HOLOS! These just came today and I'm already in love. I ordered them from llarowe and shipping was only $2.22. It's great that when polishes are already so much, you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for shipping as well. Super fast shipping and I highly recommend her site! I got Red, Marine Blue, and Dark Purple.

DO YOU SEE THIS RIGHT NOW?!

So, yeah....my stash has absolutely doubled this summer. At least. Sigh. I hate it, but I love it. This isn't even close to all that I've bought.

Oh, yeah, when my Ulta restocked, I noticed a brand new display with a white shimmery polish, a red (typical), and base and top coat. The tag on the bottles noted that some of the proceeds from sales go to a charity. The name of the white I can't remember but it had "man-i" in it, and the red was "Red-y to Help." Has anyone else seen it? I took a cell phone pic but it will not send to my email.

Did you grab any of the polishes I did? I love fall collections. And now I'm definitely all set for school! Thank you so much for reading =]

Janna