China Glaze "Dress Me Up"

With schools starting back this week it is really starting to hit me that Summer is coming to an end!  Pretty soon the weather is going to turn cold and when it does it'll be time to tone down my nail polish.  I decided to ease myself into it by wearing a more muted color this week.  I picked out a very pretty dusty rose color called "Dress Me Up" by China Glaze.

"Dress Me Up" by China Glaze is in fact one of the colors from The Hunger Games collection that came out earlier this year.  It is this really pretty dusty rose color.  I really like the color on my own but you'll notice my accent nail.  Originally I hadn't planned on doing an accent nail but a few of the little girls at church liked the design on my nails from last week.  (See my August Nail Design post below.)  The girls begged me to do it again so I decided to do it as an accent nail.  The colors in the accent nail pattern are "Celeb City" by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear (silver) and OPI's "Your Palapa or Mine?" (green)

I've been wearing "Dress Me Up" for several days now and I haven't had any chipping at all!  I am in love with China Glaze nail polish because I find it to chip far less than many brands of polish I use.  It is nice to be able to wear nail polish for a week or more without chips.  Typically I end up repainting my nails at a week with China Glaze polish not because of chipping but because my nails grow quickly.

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer and thanks for reading blog!

If you want to try "Dress Me Up" for yourself it is available to buy on Amazon (affiliate link)

August Nail Design: Pinterest

So this entry is a little different than the rest.  I have a Pinterest, and I often spend endless hours looking at nail polish designs.  I have found tons of gorgeous and fun nail designs and I have finally decided to try one!  My plan is to try a new nail design every month, along side of my usual polish posts.

Here is the image I found on Pinterest:

(originally from: http://gosteieagora.com/ )

I thought the design was super cute and the picture gives a pretty good description of how to do the design.  I went through my nail polish collection until I found colors similar to the ones in the Pinterest picture.

Here are the closest colors I had:

(Left to right: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Celeb City," China Glaze in "For Audrey," and Essie in "Tart Deco.")

The Pinterest design called for gold polish but I didn't have any so I substituted silver.  It took me a whole afternoon and several attempts before I managed to perfect the Pinterest design.

Here's how mine turned out:

I think my nails came out pretty good.  However there were a few things I discovered along the way.  First off I found it easier to sit and do each nail one at a time instead of just going down the line.  But that is just my personal preference.  It was easier for me to focus on doing a single nail completely before moving on.  And secondly I found that you should let your nails sit for several minutes before applying a topcoat.  It is hard to tell from the picture but if you apply the topcoat to quickly you'll smudge the design.  A few of my nails have smudges.  Other than that this Pinterest nail design was really easy to do.  I also found that the three polishes I have picked along with Orly's "Sec'N'Dry" topcoat have held up really well.  I've been wearing this polish for nearly a week and I haven't had any chips!

Thanks for reading my blog!

OPI "Suzi Says Feng Shui"

Hey everybody!  So now that I am back home after vacation I have my whole nail polish collection to choose from again!  I decided to pick out an OPI nail polish!  I own a fair amount of nail polish that I haven't had the chance to try out yet.  So this week I am breaking that habit and trying out one the polishes I have never tried.  I'm so excited about it too!  This week I am rocking OPI's "Suzi Says Feng Shui."  It is this really pretty blue.  I find it hard to describe, which is kind of funny since I minored in Studio Art in college!!  Basically I can tell you that this color is not royal blue, but it isn't a teal either.  It is similar to a cadet blue but with more blue in it.  Aside from that I can't seem to come up with a proper name for this color.

Moving on, the formula of "Suzi Says Feng Shui" is fantastic!  It goes on easily and leaves no streak marks.  You could probably get away with only using one coat but I used two coats to make the color prettier.  I was worried that "Suzi Says Feng Shui" would be stain my finger nails when I removed the nail polish (because a lot of dark colors do), but I was excited to discover that no staining occurred!

As for chipping I was a little disappointed when less than 4 hours after painting my nails the chipping started.  One nail got chipped and about a third of the polish came off.  I decided to repaint that one nail and after that the chipping was not as bad but still occurred.  After about two days I had chipping on the tips and sides on most of my nails.  As the days passed the chipping continued in the same spots.

Overall while the chipping was a little disappointing the formula more than makes up for it.  With a great formula it is very easy to repair or repaint when chips occur.  Also it is a winner in my books because when the polish is removed there is absolutely NO stains!

Also as a side note: "Suzi Says Feng Shui" was part of OPI's Hong Kong Collection.

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

China Glaze "Flip Flop Fantasy"

Okay so yet again this week I am wearing a China Glaze nail polish, but you see I just got nine new China Glaze polishes so I can't help but want to wear them!  This week I decided to rock my first ever NEON polish!  I'm not going to lie, I was pretty excited to try a bright color!  The neon I bought is called "Flip Flop Fantasy."

So I've read online that with neon nail polish colors you should put a coat of white polish on before the neon.  Supposedly it helps the color be brighter and cuts down on streaking.  I decided to test this theory.  For the first week I decided to go without the white coat simply using my regular basecoat, two coats of "Flip Flop Fantasy", and my usual topcoat.  Well it didn't even take 48 hours before HUGE chunks of nail polish fell off.  What is worse is all I did was spend 11 straight hours in the car driving home from vacation.  How could I possibly chip the polish so quickly??  And "Flip Flop Fantasy" did streak a fair amount.  It was very hard to get an even coat!

I decided to document the chipping for a few days before removing the polish.

Day 2

Day 4



As you can see "Flip Flop Fantasy" without the white nail polish did not last on my nails.

Now for week two I decided to use white nail polish.  The white nail polish I decided to use is Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in "White On."  I used my clear basecoat, then one coat of "White On", followed by two coats of "Flip Flop Fantasy", and then a topcoat.  What I noticed while I was painting was that with the coat of white nail polish "Flip Flop Fantasy" went on in very even coats and has almost no streaking.  However I do not believe it makes the color any brighter.  As for chipping, there still is some but it is mostly limited to your average tip chips.


Overall I think it is clear that using the white nail polish underneath "Flip Flop Fantasy" is the better option.  Less streaking and less chipping, both of which are great!  Though I will say it does take longer to paint since it required more coats (the white nail polish) and you have to be very careful the make sure that you cover the white nail polish entirely otherwise you get an odd white line.  I did end up with a few white lines but I think with practice I could have better success covering up all the white nail polish.

Thanks for reading my blog!!

You can try "Flip Flop Fantasy" it is available on Amazon (affiliate link)

China Glaze "Re-Fresh Mint"

I hope everyone is enjoying watching the Olympics!  I have been continuously watching any event I can.  My favorite part of the Olympics is just watching every country because all the athletes have worked so hard!  Anyway this week I decided to tone my nails down and go for a pale mint polish.  I usually reserve mint nail polish for Spring but China Glaze's "Re-fresh Mint" is very pale and looks like a very light blue in most lights.  I find this "Re-fresh Mint" to be a fun beachy nail polish.

As with all pale colors "Re-fresh Mint" left a few minor streak marks, though it isn't too noticeable.  I was very impressed with the coverage and I only had to use two coats of color.  I've had the nail polish on for about five days now and have absolutely no chips.  I am starting to be very impressed with China Glaze's nail polish.  I also think that my Orly topcoat ("Sec'N'Dry") works really well with China Glaze nail polishes, and that could be why my China Glaze nail polish stays on for a long time.

Also I recently discovered Sally Beauty Supply (I know where have I been hiding?!?) and they offer a rewards card for their store.  It costs $5 (USA) to get one but then everything in the store is less expensive.  For example Sally Beauty supply charges $6.50 (USA) for a regular bottle of China Glaze nail polish, but with their rewards card I only paid $4.99 (USA).  That's a big price difference!  So far I have saved a fair amount of money with the Sally Beauty supply rewards card.

Thanks for reading my blog!  And enjoy the Olympics!!  :)