New Year's Eve Nail Art!

Happy New Year's everyone!  I am very glad that 2013 is about to be OVER and we can move on to 2014!  I never really seem to do much for New Year's Eve, usually I just watch TV and count down til the ball drops in New York City's Times Square.  This year I decided to do the same but in my free time to do a simple nail art post to celebrate the holiday!

So my simple nail art this time is: mix and match!  And maybe that doesn't count as serious nail art but for me I almost always have matching nails.  (Part of it is the rules for where I work and the other part of it is I am kind of lazy and one color is fast!)  I think that mixing and matching nail polish looks like fireworks, which here in the United States is a popular thing to do on New Year's Eve to celebrate.  I decided to pick out five different colors, one for each of my nails, and just go for it!  Here are the colors I picked:

Nicole by OPI's "Rainbow in the S-Kylie", OPI's "Big Hair... Big Nails", butterLONDON's "The Black Knight", Sally Hansen's "Golden-I", and China Glaze's "Sunday Funday"

  I picked out these colors for specific reasons.  I picked a major glitter to be bright and very firework like!  I picked a bright red and a blue to represent the United States of America.  I picked a gold to represent that Christmas just passed.  And lastly I picked a black with glitter to really look a dark sky with fireworks going off!  Okay so here is a bit about each polish:

Nicole by OPI's "Rainbow in the S-Kylie" is of course part of the 2012 Kardashion Kolors and is a major chunky glitter in a clear base.  As with most glitters is was hard to get the glitter on my nail and to spread it out to cover the entire nail.  And even after two coats it was plain that no matter what I did I would likely never be able to cover my whole nail.  "Rainbow in the S-Kylie" is very pretty though!  Also worth noting is that this glitter is a nightmare to take off!  Allow yourself plenty of time!

OPI's "Big Hair... Big Nails" is a reddish-orange jell nail polish and was part of the Texas collection from Spring 2011. As a jelly polish it is made to be a bit more see through but after three coats it was completely opaque and the color gorgeous!  "Big Hair... Big Nails" has no streaking and the formula was lovely!

butterLONDON's "The Black Knight" is a black nail polish with fine magenta and blue glitter!  "The Black Knight" came out in 2011 and aside from it's awesome name the color is very pretty!  I was surprised that this polish dried as a matte.  (I added a topcoat for the pictures!)  "The Black Knight" has a nice formula and was opaque after two coats and there is no streaking!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's "Golden-I" is a nice drugstore brand nail polish!  Just like its name this polish is a golden shimmer.  Formula wise "Golden-I" is a bit watery and after the first coat I worried, but thankfully after the second coat the polish was opaque and had very little to no streaks!

And last but not least China Glaze's "Sunday Funday" which is part of the Spring 2013 Avant Garden Collection.  "Sunday Funday" is this GORGEOUS sky blue colored polish!  Like many China Glaze polishes the formula is amazing and was basically opaque after one coat.  I just added a second coat to make the color brighter!

Overall I am very happy with how this easy and fun mix and match New Year's Eve Nail Art turned out!  All five of these nail polishes are great and I cannot wait to try them out on their own in the future!

Thanks for reading my blog!  And I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve!!!  :)

Sally Hansen "Blue It"

Hi everyone!  I hope you all enjoyed Christmas (if you celebrate Christmas that is!)  Every year after Christmas in North Carolina is when we have our best chance for snowfall.  And since I associate blue with snow I decided to pull out a blue nail polish.  I picked out Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's "Blue It" which is a super pretty royal blue.  (It didn't snow today but there was freezing rain!)

Sally Hansen's "Blue It" is such a pretty color and I couldn't wait to try it out!  The formula is nice, but almost a bit watery.  The brush held so much polish that it took me a couple of nails to master the best way to apply "Blue It."  However even after allowing tons of dry time and using a quick drying topcoat (Orly's "Sec'N'Dry")  several of my nails wouldn't dry and I managed to smudge three of them within the hour.  (You can see my pointer is smudged by the nail bed and my ring finger on the tip of my nail.)  But in terms of actual chipping Sally Hansen's "Blue It" lasted about two days before chipping.  Also even after having been dry for hours this nail polish managed to smudge some more, which was a bit disappointing.  While I know that darker colors can stain nails nothing prepared me for how blue my nails were going to be!  They looked awful and it took me a while to get as much off as I could.

Overall I really love the deep blue color of Sally Hansen's "Blue It" and the formula is fine.  But I am not a fan of all the smudges and chipping, though I am wondering the temperature of weather was affecting the nail polishes ability to dry properly.  I also am not a fan of the extreme staining on my nails, but I am willing to try this nail polish again!

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

You can give "Blue It" a try for yourself - it's available on Amazon (affiliate link)

Essie "Head Mistress"

Hi everyone and Happy almost Christmas!  I am very excited for Christmas because I love all the decorations and cookies!  Plus I love the red and green colors of Christmas!  So this year for Christmas I decided to wear a bright red nail polish, which reminds me of a Santa Claus suit!  The red I picked out is Essie's "Head Mistress"!

"Head Mistress" is a very bright red which looks so pretty on!  (I cannot tell you how much I love this color nail polish!)  So first off the formula of "Head Mistress" is amazing!  It applied very easily to my nails and was completely opaque after only one coat of polish, which is practically unheard of!  I did apply a second coat, but only because I prefer to wear two coats of polish.  Also "Head Mistress" had absolutely no streaks!  As for chipping I started to notice some minor tip chips on day one, but red nail polish does tend to showcase chips.  In the end I was able to wear Essie's "Head Mistress" for a second day before the chipping became too visible!

Overall I really like Essie's "Head Mistress."  It is a gorgeous red color and the formula is amazing and I love when a polish can be a one-coater.  However I do wish I could have worn "Head Mistress for more than two days before it chipped so much!  But I am definitely planning on wearing "Head Mistress" again because it is pretty!

Thanks for reading my blog and have a fantastic Christmas!  :)

butterLONDON "No More Waity, Katie"

Hi everyone!  Christmas is getting closer and closer and I am very excited!  Only 9 more days!  :)  Even though Christmas decorations are usually red and green I decided to wear a sparkly nail polish instead this week!  I dug through my collection and found butterLONDON's "No More Waity, Katie" which is this grey/purple glittery nail polish.  I originally bought this nail polish because f its name, which references Kate Middleton and how long she had to wait for Prince William (of the United Kingdom) to ask her to marry him.  I love Kate for her style and thought the color would be different form all the others in my collection.

"No More Waity, Katie" is different than any nail polish in my collection.  It is just such a unique color, half grey and half lavender purple with a bunch of silver glitter.  In the bottle "No More Waity, Katie" is pretty, but on my nails the color was less than pretty.  I guess sometimes being too unique isn't necessarily a good thing in the nail polish world.  The formula was awful, very watery and the glitter went on thick in some places and almost non-existent in others.  I ended up using three coats for the picture above and the polish still wasn't opaque.  Here's what "No More Waity, Katie" looks like after one coat:

As you can see one coat looks horrific!  I continued to paint my nails with the hope that it would look better after another coat.  And after a second coat it did look a little better but still un-wearable, which is why I applied a third coat.  here's what my nails looked like after a second coat of "No More Waity, Katie":

Other than an awful formula and this polishes inability to be opaque butterLONDON's "No More Waity, Katie" wasn't the worst nail polish I have every had or tried.  Since "No More Waity, Katie" looked pretty awful on my nails I didn't wear it long enough to see it chip.  As for removing I was surprised how well a chunky glitter nail polish came off!

Overall I would be willing to try butterLONDON's "No More Waity, Katie" again but maybe it would look better on a different skin tone? 

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

China Glaze "Starboard"

Hi everyone!  I am so excited that Christmas is almost here!  Only 14 more days!  :)  So with Christmas coming I decided to wear a green nail polish this week! I picked out China Glaze's "Starboard" which is this very Christmasy green color!

China Glaze's "Starboard" is a super gorgeous green color that reminds me of grass.  Formula wise, as with most of the China Glaze nail polishes I have tried, it was wonderful- not too watery and not too thick!  "Starboard" was completely opaque and streak free after two coats of polish!  Unfortunately the good stopped there, because within about six hours "Starboard" started peeling off in large chunks.  I didn't even get to wear this nail polish out of the house!

Overall while I still love China Glaze polishes and the formula and color are lovely the fact that it chipped almost instantly is a bit disappointing.  I plan on trying China Glaze's "Starboard" again soon and hopefully it won't chip as quickly next time!

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

You can give this gorgeous a green a go for yourself by snagging it on Amazon (affiliate link)

Sephora by OPI "Just A Little Dangerous"

Hi everyone!  So this week Winter seems to have faded away in North Carolina!  (It is like 75 degrees out right now!)  And I have been enjoying the nice weather by spending some time outside.  This week I decided to try out a Sephora by OPI polish that I got in a special QVC set.  For those of you who don't know (because I think QVC is only in America) QVC is a TV channel where you can buy various types of items, but I usually buy make-up and nail polish from them.  I got this Sephora by OPI mini set last Christmas:

So this week I decided to try out another bottle from the set (I've tried one other nail polish from this set before and I plan on trying them all eventually!)  I picked out a pretty purple polish with purple glitter called "Just A Little Dangerous."  I really like the color and how the glitter shines in the light!  The first thing I noticed was the very tiny bottle makes it a bit difficult to get enough polish on my nails, but after a little effort I managed to get the hang of it.  The formula is nice, after the first coat of nail polish I was worried because "Just A Little Dangerous" had a ton of streaking, but thankfully coat two evened everything out!  After two coats "Just A Little Dangerous" was completely opaque and streak free!  As for chipping I started to see tip chips on day three and because it is a dark colored nail polish the chips were very visible.

Overall Sephora by OPI's "Just A Little Dangerous" is a nice nail polish.  The formula is good, it is opaque in two coats, the color is pretty and it lasts a decent amount of time before chipping.  I wish "Just A Little Dangerous" had lasted longer before chipping but as with most darker nail polishes the chipping is just super noticeable.  I will definitely wear this nail polish again!

Thanks for reading my blog! :)

Essence "Off To Miami!"

Hi everyone and Happy December!  Now usually I wear slightly more subdued colors in the Winter because it is darker out and ice cold where I live, but I was so excited to finally get my hands on an Essence nail polish that I just couldn't wait to try it out, even though it is more of a Summer color!  So this week I am decided to try out Essence's "Off To Miami!"

Essence is a British brand of nail polish and it took me an eternity to find some at an ULTA store, and then when I did they had a very small selection.  "Off To Miami!" was the only one that the ULTA had that I liked.  "Off To Miami!" is this super pretty coral color, with a lot of hot pink and I love it.  Formula wise "Off To Miami!" is fantastic and was almost opaque after one coat, which is always a plus, however I used two coats like I always do.  As for chipping "Off To Miami!" lasted about five days before I saw any chipping, which thrilled me!  I think Essence's "Off To Miami!" would have lasted a day or two longer but I ruined one of my nails with a Band-Aid (apparently Band-Aids love nail polish!)  Removing "Off To Miami!" was super easy and my nails had no stains and that makes me very happy!

Overall I am very pleased with Essence nail polish and "Off To Miami!" is a gorgeous color, with a great formula, no streaking, no staining, and long lasting!  I will definitely be wearing this nail polish again and I plan on buying more Essence polishes as soon as I can get my hands on some!

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)