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

Guest Post! Nina Ultra Pro Purple X-ing

(Hi everyone! I've finally arrived at the University of Santiago de Compostela! Time to get to work =] Today I have for you a guest post from Amanda of the Nail Polish Enthusiast blog. Definitely go check her out!)

Hi ladies! Today I'm posting for Janna while she's in Spain (hola querida! estas usando tu espanol? espero que si!). This is quite an honor, so I picked a polish I thought both Janna and I would adore, and I think I found it. It hits all the things I love about polish: cheap ($2.99!), easily accessible, beautiful, and a one-coat dream.

Here's Nina Ultra Pro, which is available at Sally's. The polish is called Purple X-ing, which I mistakenly called Purplexing for about a week until my friend pointed it out. This is a deep, almost royal purple with silver and purple glitter and slightly larger holo glitter in it. The picture below shows the texture (slightly gritty) and the sparkle pretty well, although it isn't so color accurate (the bottle is).

And finally, a macro shot of the bottle. Look at that sparkle!

Applying this polish was heavenly. Did I mention that is only one coat on my nails?! I loved this color, although I only wore it for one day since it started to chip and I was getting behind on manis to post on my blog and Janna's.

I hope you enjoyed this guest post! Nice meeting all of you ;)

xoxo,
Amanda


(Gracias Amanda! I hope you all enjoyed this guest post and expect to be hearing from Amanda again really soon ;])

Almost-Pink Wednesday - China Glaze Señorita Bonita

Hellooo there!

Today I'm showing you an almost-pink, China Glaze Señorita Bonita. I love the name, the color, and the formula. This is a very warm toned purple or purple toned pink or berry if you like. Let's just say it's purple to make sure that I'm not stretching it and trying to make it pink for Wednesday ;] Although it has gorgeous pink glass flecks. Take a look!

Woah, blurry. I'm sorry =\

The formula on this was awesome. I was able to create a near-perfect curve near my cuticle and leave the perfect gap. This is definitely one of those polishes that you fall in love with when you put the first stroke on your nail...I was in love at one, two, and three coats. Shown here is three with Out the Door topcoat. I only grabbed this and one other from the Island Escape Collection: Electric Pineapple.

Do you own this "pretty lady" or any others from the Island Escape collection? Please let me know!

Thank you so much for reading! Don't forget that there less than one day left to enter my Long Overdue Giveaway!!!

Janna

It's Wednesday!

And for the first time ever, that means I'm wearing pink!

For those of you who don't know, a bunch of bloggers have decided that "on Wednesday, we wear pink!" which is a nod to the ridiculously-quotable movie Mean Girls. Check out http://onwednesdayswewearpink.com/ if you're interested in joining!

Now, I don't know if I can participate every week, but I'm gonna try! Pinks once a week might be too much for me =P

Here's a mani that's mostly pink. This is Sephora by OPI Who Let the Dorks Out? topped with two coats of Jesse's Girl Confetti to turn up the purple sparkle, and then finally topped with one coat of China Glaze Broken Hearted and top coat.










Here are some bonus pictures of WLTDO and Jesse's Girl. Look how awesome the purple is! WLTDO is shown alone HERE.







Thanks for reading!

Janna

Better Late Than Never - Zoya Intimate Collection

Helloo!

So I finally got around to swatching the Zoya Intimate Collection. I ordered the whole collection for $25 from the Zoya website for the Women's Day promotion, and I love them all. Zoya's vision for this collection was awesome - soft and delicate rather than bright and shiny like some other spring collections. None of these colors were like anything that I typically wear, but I think that's why I loved them so much.


This is Dove. For this swatch I used three thin coats of Dove, but you could definitely do two medium/thicker ones. Medium gray cream...maybe even jellyish. I didn't expect this to look good with my skin, and I'm not even sure if it does, but I loved this one when I put it on. I definitely need more grays, since this is the first one I've ever worn, and the second one in my collection.










Me trying to get Dove to photograph more gray and less blue.


Next is Zoya Jules. This is a champagne/taupe shimmer polish. Shown is 3 coats. This was one of the colors I was most excited about from this collection, but when it arrived I wasn't sure how it would look on me...but it's gorgeous nonetheless. This one, along with the other shimmer in the collection, was hard to remove since the little shimmer flecks did not seem to want to come off.






FLASH. Not this silver-toned in real life.









Then there's Marley. This is a pink-based lilac pearl polish, if that makes sense. The finish reminded me of Color Club Pretty in Platinum (shown HERE). I really liked this one too, mostly because, if you can believe it, I don't own any other light purples. Shown is three coats, but two is fine if you pay more attention when you apply this lol - I only did 3 to fix my application flaws.
















Next up is Zoya Gemma. This one definitely got the most attention when the promos of this collection started showing up, but I've read many people wish there was more blue shimmer. I do agree, since the blue shimmer almost disappears on the nail, but I still love the color. It's a murky green jelly with subtle light blue shimmer throughout. This is three coats.






FLASH. Look at that blue! =]









Onto Zoya Caitlin. Very pretty, very dusty deep periwinkle color. Cream finish. I actually wore this on my birthday with China Glaze Black Mesh crackle on top, but it didn't turn out very well. I love Caitlin. This is two coats.
















Finally, Zoya Dannii. This is a very shimmery warm toned purple, almost magenta. Same finish as Jules. Two perfect coats. She may be my favorite of the collection? I hate picking favorites!






Not this bright in real life, but not as dull as in the other pictures.









This collection is awesome. I love how the colors fit perfectly together but couldn't be more different from each other. Oh and also, I always forget how awesome Zoya's brush is. It fits my nails perfectly! The formula on all of these polishes was awesome and Zoyas used to not dry for me, but these all have dried very nicely. Oh, and sorry for the dry hands - I used pure acetone while swatching...=\

Don't forget: Zoya is offering Caitlin and Dove free with any purchase on their site through tomorrow, 5/23, at 11:59PM. Click here to see Zoya's post!

What were your favorites from this Zoya collection? Do you own any? Planning to get any?

Major Catch Up: Valentine's Day Mani

Hey everybody!

My apologies for not posting this sooner, but since I have the week off I'm going to catch up on past manicures as well as post some St. Patrick's Day nails in a timely manner. So don't be surprised if you see some more "Random Manis" posts to come.

Anyway, here's my Valentine's Day Manicure that I need a month before Valentine's Day for a contest (I did a post about it a while back asking for votes =]). The last two pictures are pictures I took for fun of my manicure for the ACTUAL Valentine's Day; sorry for the awkward angle, but I thought it was a cute pose.

Contest Entry:

Woah, props!











The base is OPI Color So Hot it Berns (NOTD here). I painted half of every finger except my ring finger with Milani One Coat Glitter in Red Sparkle. All white stamping is done with a Bundle Monster plate and Color Club Pretty in Platinum. Purple hearts were made with a dotting tool dipped in China Glaze Spontaneous. Thumb is accented with a red rhinestone heart.

I loved this manicure. What do you guys think?


Real Valentine's Day Mani featuring my boyfriend:





This is Pure Ice Peony, a frost/pearl bright pink. Same BM plate as above I believe. Purple lips are ChG Spontaneous, silver (pinky) is OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, and all red is Design-a-Nail polish in Rage. Mani topped with ChG Golden Enchantment.

Thanks for reading!

Janna