Flakie Friday: Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (original) over Cult Nails Cruisin’ Nude
Hello polish monsters! Today is Flakie Friday- and I’m going to feature Sally Hansen’s Hidden Treasure!
Sadly, this is not a polish you can run down to the drugstore to pick up.
‘But Diana,’ you may ask, ‘I’ve seen Hidden Treasure in stores, and I just saw it show up on tons of sites for sale when I checked Google.’
Well my friends, that’s because Sally Hansen likes to be annoying.
The original Hidden Treasure (this one) was sold in Spring 2010 as part of a beachy-themed collection. Like all collections, it was limited edition. This was before I was really into nail polish- although I did already have about 50 bottles- so I had no earthly clue something this beautiful was sitting over at Walgreens. I didn’t make rounds of the drugstore beauty counters back then- if I was there and something caught my eye I’d get it. It was certainly not the first flakie, but I think it was one of the first easily accessible ones.
So then Sally Hansen comes out with another Hidden Treasure. Polish loves rejoiced, thinking the beloved flakie had returned! But no. The current Hidden Treasure- in the same bottle style (it’s still part of the Salon Manicure line)- is not a flakie. It’s very beautiful, yes, but it’s more of an opalescent top coat.
In FACT, just to make things more weird and bizzare- it IS a re-release of one of the colors in the original Hidden Treasures collection! The new Hidden Treasure is an identical copy of Ring My Shell.
Why in the WORLD Sally Hansen re-released a color under a different name- and a name from the same original collection- is beyond me. Really, does that make any sense??
Anyways… because I love flakies, I was determined to get my hands on this particular one. I bought mine from Ebay for around $12, around $15 after shipping. It’s definitely buyer-beware on Ebay- I’m hesitant to buy any polish much above that price point (case in point- I’ve seen many a case of people paying a LOT of money for Clarins 230, and they get something that’s very clearly not Clarins 230 in a Clarins bottle). Luckily, my bottle arrived full and perfect. Lets look at a macro shot!
Oooooh, ahhhhhh…
The best way to really show off a flakie is over black, but this post series will get boring quickly if I only ever feature flakies over black. So this week, I opted for a neutral base. I went to Cult Nail’s Cruisin’ Nude for this- it’s a beautiful beige polish with a slight pinkish shimmer.
Lighter colors won’t highlight the color shifts as well in traditional flakes, but it can make for a beautiful look. I think my nails look something like the interior of sea shells (but maybe a bit darker).
Please excuse the state of my nails… I had the GREAT idea to paint these last night- and then do housework this morning, including dishes- before I took photos. Not my smartest idea.
These pictures are all with 2 coats of Hidden Treasure.
Even though Hidden Treasure is hard to get your hands on, the red-orange-green color shift in this polish is one of the more popular flakie shades. In fact, you can get a very similar one right now by running to just about any drugstore- Essie’s Shine of the Times is pretty close dupe. So is Nubar 2010, Finger Paints Flashy, and GOSH Rainbow (though some of those aren’t easily found, either). What I prefer about Hidden Treasure compared to the others, though, is the coverage. Hidden Treasure is SERIOUSLY dense. As you can see in these photos- 2 coats is almost a solid sheet of flakes.
Hope everyone has a great weekend- try to stay cool! It’s going to be a scorcher!
NOTD: HITS Cutie Pie
Llarowe mentioned last night that today’s Brand of the Day would be HITS. When I saw this at like midnight I was sitting at the computer, bored- both kiddos are sick right now and the youngest was curled up on my lap trying unsuccessfully to sleep- so I decided to paint my nails with the only HITS polish I currently have, Cutie Pie. I had no other post planned for today, so why not?
I won’t lie, it makes me a little sad seeing all the beautiful swatches from other bloggers pour into Llarowe’s page. My poor nubbin nails just can’t show off the pretty polishes as well! Hopefully I can start growing them out soon… curse you acrylics! NEVER AGAIN.
As an added twist, I pulled out my Cheeky stamps and added some space images. This polish just seems space like to me! All pictures are 3 coats of Cutie Pie (2 would have been enough), and the stamps used O.P.I.’s DS Radiance. I used stamp plates CH4 and CH5.
And now to show off a bit of the color shift:
The HITS Mari Moon polishes (which Cutie Pie is a part of) are just amazingly beautiful polishes. The Mari Moon collection colors cost $8 each (for 6mL) on Llarowe’s site. Not a cheap purchase (from a dollar to mL standpoint), but they’re definitely worth splurging for when you can.
New O.P.I. Summer Shades at ULTA
Hello again all!
This is just a quick post- I was going to just post this on Facebook (if you’re not following there, you should! I’m going to base giveaways on FB followers!) but decided to just do it here.
I hadn’t been to ULTA in about a month- which is LONG for me- so I stopped in today while the oldest was at preschool. Right in the front, there was a large display of ‘Summer Exclusive 2012’ colors by O.P.I.
Now, at first I was confused. When I was in here only 1 month ago, they had the ‘Summer Exclusive’ colors- and it was just 4, and none of these. Karen of Frazzle and Aniploish did a great writeup of them here, along with the identical Nicole by O.P.I. twins. I already owned the NOPI You + Me = Blue, so I picked up Hot Fun in the Summer-Lime (it stained my nails badly- they’re still stained).
Now here we have 12(!) colors and no sign of those original 4 in my store. I’m assuming it’s like this at every ULTA, but they don’t display O.P.I. online so I can’t confirm that.
So the REAL reason this display interested me- was the polish that’s nestled right there on the bottom row, left side. Can’t see it well? I got a closeup!
Yeah, I didn’t realize my phone did a cruddy job with this photo or I would have taken more- maybe. The manager was looking at me a bit strangely as I snapped pictures of their displays.
It’s O.P.I.’s Excuse Moi!, repackaged as ‘In A Flirtationship’! Since I just featured this last week and had a few people lamenting that it was no longer available- it’s available again, at least for a little bit! This is the 2nd repackaging of this polish (It also appeared for ULTA’s Holiday collection this year), so it may not make a 4th appearance. Grab it while you can if you want it!
As expected, every single one of the colors is a repackaging of past O.P.I. collection colors.
If you’re interested, here’s what each polish is (as far as I can tell). New name: Old Name (Collection). These go from L to R, top to bottom on the display.
First Names Only : Steady As She Rose (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Passport And A Smile : Sparrow Me The Drama (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Talk About An Upgrade! : Planks A Lot (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Meet Me At The Bonfire : Big Hair… Big Nails (Texas)
Oh, Waiter! : Skull & Glossbones (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Where’s My Bikini Top? : Stranger Tides (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Do My Back Please? : Mermaid’s Tears (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Your Palapa Or Mine? : Don’t Mess With OPI (Texas)
In A Flirtationship = Excuse Moi (Muppets)
No Time For Postcards : The One That Got Away (Katy Perry)
He’s My Surfer Instructor : Last Friday Night (Katy Perry)
See You Next Summer : Not Like The Movies (Katy Perry)
They’re listed as 2 for $12, though the manager at my ULTA was telling me that the original ‘Buy 2 OPIs get 1 Exclusive Free’ still applied. I saw no sign to verify that though. Regardless, $6 for an O.P.I. is a good price! If you want to head in and pick a few up, take this 20% off coupon with you! There’s a lot of pretty re-released colors there, and they’re a bit cheaper than normal- good chance to grab any you may have missed!
Indie Wednesday: 365 Days of Color’s Birthday Bash and Make Me Laugh-y Taffy
Hello fellow polish monsters!
It’s time for my second Indie Wednesday! I was torn on what to post today- but that always seems to be the case! I have too many beautiful polishes I want to show everyone!
At the last minute I decided to show off 2 of my polishes from 365 Days of Color- Birthday Bash and Make Me Laugh-y Taffy! This is because the shop is set to open in 30 minutes! For those who don’t view this RIGHT when I post (which is to say, everyone), that’s 6pm EST/5pm CST/3pm PST. These will both be available, though Make Me Laugh-y Taffy will no longer be sold after today and only created on a made-to-order basis.
You can buy these lovelies at this site, and find 365 Days of Color on Facebook here.
On to the swatches!
First up is Birthday Bash.
Birthday Bash is a white polish filled with multi-colored flakes and blue glitter. You guys all know how I love my flakes!
Application was… ok. It went on smoothly and fine, but I did have some trouble controlling it. See my pre-cleanup photo:
Proof that I fail at putting on polish! Darn you small nubbin nails!
Luckily, it cleans up quickly and easily. I use a small paintbrush dipped in remover and run it along the creases after I apply polish- this time just needed a little more.
Voila! Problem solved 🙂
This is a very subtle but pretty polish. The white is fairly opaque, so the flakes just add an occasional pop! of faint color. If the polish were yellow, it would remind me of funfetti cake!
Unlike most glitter polishes, this came off quickly and easily with remover. Which is good, because I was rushing so that I could also show off…
Make Me Laugh-y Taffy!
I really, really, really love this polish. I had thought when I bought Birthday Bash I would love it more, but this one is still my favorite! Make Me Laugh-y Taffy is a pink jelly polish filled to the brim with multi-colored flakes. All of the following pictures are only 2 coats of the polish!!!
Just look at all those flakes in only 2 easy coats!
Unlike it’s less flashier cousin, Make Me Laugh-y Taffy applied like a dream. I did NO cleanup for these pictures. I didn’t even need to dab the polish around, the flakes all went on like that! (Though I did dab a little- but it was because I’m slightly OCD about placement. It honestly wasn’t needed)
Looks just like it’s namesake candy…
Maybe a bit more colorful though! 🙂
I hope you all enjoyed seeing my tiny nails showing off these pretty colors! There are SO many other beautiful colors available in the shop, as well as a whole new collection that I can’t wait to get my hands on! Go grab some if you can, and if you miss out just ‘like’ the facebook page to keep up to date on openings!
Until next time!
Try It On Tuesday: Enchanted Polish Across The Universe
I had great intentions of posting this earlier. For whatever reason, I’ve been dragging my feet today. Which is silly really, because I have a BEAUTIFUL polish to show off!
I was stumped over what polish to feature today for Try It On Tuesday- even though probably 75% of my polishes are untried- and had originally settled on O.P.I.’s Metallic 4 Life. Then this morning (before I had painted my nails), Llarowe announced on Facebook that today’s Brand of the Day would be Enchanted Polish- and I just happen to have 1 lone Enchanted Polish that is untried!
I was planning on saving this for an Indie Wednesday, but I decided to bump it forward a day instead!
I was lucky enough to snag Across the Universe during Llarowe’s generous Birthday Sale. I think this is the *only* polish I have ever opened and gasped out loud when I first saw it- when there was no one else around. Stunning is an understatement!
Across the Universe is a multichrome holographic nail polish. As you can see above, in the bottle it shifts from green-gold to blue to purple, though on the nails it’s really more of a purple to blue shift. The scattered holo effect is very vibrant and stunning. This polish went on easily and smoothly, and didn’t require much clean up.
Another bottle shot- truly, I can’t stop staring at this bottle. So stunning!
For all of the pictures I was wearing 3 coats of Across the Universe with a coat of Poshe quick dry topcoat. Coverage was fine at 2, but I really wanted it brighter. I did notice that the multi-chrome effect was much stronger on just 1 coat, though it was too thin on it’s own. It’s possible that with 1 coat over another base color it can show off a bit more! I’ll have to experiment soon 🙂
So beautiful!
I took all of these outside in the sunlight to maximize the holo goodness.
I did notice on some earlier photos the way the sun hit my nails, it looks as if I have a giant spot of unpainted area on my pointer finger. As you can see in the picture above, that’s not the case- it’s just a very weird instance of lighting.
And finally, here’s a closeup of a nail to show off that holo sparkle!
You can find Enchanted Polish and Across the Universe at Llarowe’s , and also on Etsy and Harlow & Co. Go check them out!
Here’s a list of everyone participating in Try It On Tuesday- go check out their posts as well!
Beauty Gnome
DIY Polish
365 Days of Color
College Polished
Munchy’s Nails
Manicurator
Beyond Beauty Lounge
Peace Love Lacquer
Tall Girl In Heels With Pretty Painted Nails
Princess Polish
Jilltastic Nail Design
Shenailigans
Kyoti’s Nails
Polished by Maddie
Samples By Entaeyen
Shelly’s Sassy Nails
Nail Polish Anon
Mixed Mama
Pinked Polish
Nails By Ms. Lizard
Polished Paradise
Enchanted Nails and Fluffy Dog Tails
Two Lacquered Girls
Enchanting Cosmetics
Frugal Polish
Love & Lacquer
Spicey’z Nails
Sparkle and Shine Nails
Sincerely Obsessed with Polish
Polish and Such
Something Polish Like
Fancy Schmancy Nails
And for those that have made it all the way to the end: Enjoy!
Mani Monday: Neon Rainbow Snow Leopard Stamping with Cheeky
I hope everyone had a good weekend! Ours was ok… quiet, relaxing, but slightly boring. Back to the busy week!
Once again I’ll be starting off the week with a Mani Monday! As I sat down to work on this yesterday, I struggled with what to do- and then it hit me! I just recently ordered my very first stamping plates- Cheeky’s 2012 Collection bundle– and hadn’t used any yet!
When I say hadn’t used any- what I really mean is that I have never used a stamping plate- ever. I’d long drooled over designs that I saw people do with the plates but had never bought any. Laziness, again. Stamping plates aren’t something you can just pop into the drugstore and buy.
There are a lot of various brands you can buy stamping plates from- Konad (my stamper is from Konad), Bundle Monster, Cheeky, Red Angel, Shany, Mash… and many stores offer their own line. Ninjapolish.com offers some really interesting ones, Llarowe just announced that they’ll be carrying a line, and you can even find them on etsy, like at Vivid Lacquer’s store!
How cool is that, though? She makes her OWN stamping plates!
So back to the mani… One of the major designs I’d seen people do was a leopard print design… or more specifically, a NEON snow leopard design. Be still my neon-loving heart.
I honestly don’t remember the first place I saw this crop up, though I do have have Steffel’s post on it saved in Pinterest, so that’s the one I’m going to credit. She used the Bundle Monster plate, which is a little different than the Cheeky design.
Supplies:
For this, I used a base of Essie Marshmallow (can anyone suggest a good, plain white? My only one is Sinful Nails Snow White and I’m not a fan), Cult Nails Nevermore for stamping, Cheeky plate CH2, and my Konad stamper. I pictured the Konad scraper, but I ended up using an old gift card (I’ll explain below).
For the neon accents:
I have a lot of neon colors. I picked these out mostly for their brightness factor, but also because they seemed to work well together. From left to right: Sinful Colors Pink, China Glaze Sun Worshipper, Sinful Colors Neon Melon, Color Club What A Shock!, Color Club Pure Energy, and Color Club Ultraviolet. The last 3 are part of Color Club’s Electro Candy neon set from 2009, and I won’t lie- they’re by far my very favorite neons of every color- especially Ultraviolet. You can still find this collection (cheap) at Ross sometimes, and can definitely find it on Amazon.
I didn’t detail the stamping process. I had planned on it, but the photos my husband took just turned out terrible- I probably should’ve given him a clear cut list of how I wanted things, but I was working quickly with both kids screaming for dinner. Luckily, there’s a ton of amazing tutorials and videos all over the internet.
Basically, you paint over the design to be stamped on the plate, scrape off the excess (leaving paint in the design indentations), smoosh-roll (new word) the stamper across the design, and quickly roll it over your nail. Almost every nail blogger I’ve read suggests using an old credit card/gift card instead of the scraper included- and I 100% agree! I initially tried out Konad’s scraper, but was having absolutely no luck. It wasn’t getting all the excess paint off, and by the time I went over it again I’d lose paint in the design or the design would be dry. The first time I tried a gift card was the first time I had a successful stamp on my finger!
*SQUIRREL* moment incoming:
Did I mention my very favorite animal ever is a snow leopard? Has been since I was really little 🙂 We took the kids to the Chattanooga Zoo in September, and I was so excited to see the Snow Leopard was not only hanging out right by the glass… but she had a baby! They quickly became Syd’s favorite animal, too!
So here’s my nails without the neon accents, looking like lovely snow leopards:
Time for neon! To add the neon, I used toothpicks. I didn’t want to have to clean paint brushes, so I simply dipped the end of a toothpick into the color on the brush, and then dabbed it where I wanted it. After I finished all the colors, I added 1 coat of Poshe Fast Drying top coat.
As an afterthought, I threw on a topcoat of fine glitter. Because really, the only way to make neon better is to make it sparkle. Or am I the only one that thinks that??
I wanted the effect to be subtle (believe it or not), so I used the finest glitter I could find in my Helmer. This Avon glitter is simply called ‘Purple Glitter’ (yes, it used to be purple) and it’s from approximately 2003. I also have ‘Pink Glitter’ and sadly it looks the exact same as this one 9 years later. Proof that my nail polish hoarding began a long, long time ago 🙂
So there it is! I apologize for not having a thorough explanation this week, but I’ll be happy to answer any specific questions you may have- just leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you! See you all tomorrow for Try It On Tuesday! And if you haven’t hoped over to my Facebook page, please do! I love being able to interact with everyone!
Flakie Friday: Zoya Chloe over Cult Nails Nevermore
Sorry this post is coming so late! I got caught up cleaning the house and some other things and before I knew it, the day was almost done and I still hadn’t painted my nails for the post. Luckily the sun was still shining when I finished!
Today is my first Flakie Friday, and I decided to start off with a flakie that is easily available to everyone.
Zoya Chloe!
Chloe is part of Zoya’s Fleck Effect line from Spring 2012, along with Maisie and Opal. It can be found here.
This is a beautiful flakie, that’s slightly different from the more common color schemes you’ll find. The flecks are mostly orange with a yellow shift, but there’s also the occasional yellow and green flecks to add some interest.
Application is wonderful- the flakes are fairly dense and you really only need 1 coat. For these photos however I added 2 coats of Chloe over 1 coat of Cult Nails‘ Nevermore. If you’re looking for an amazing 1 coat solid black, check out Nevermore! It’s wonderful.
On to the pictures!
Look at all those beautiful colors!
Close up of my nubbin thumb nail
Hopefully these photos can really show off how beautiful Chloe is! They were taken outside in full sunlight to really try to capture the colors.
Now a lot of people will already know this, but if you haven’t purchased from Zoya.com before, you’re in luck! Use can use THIS referral link to get a free polish of your choice (maybe Chloe?). Also with the program, if you buy 2 extra polishes along with your free one, you’ll receive free shipping! Not a bad deal! As a disclaimer, I do receive sharing points if you use the link- but the more I get, the more goodies I can get for giveaways!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Indie Wednesday: Weird Indeed (PIVOT!, On a Break, Love Gunther, Troy & Abed)
Hello again everyone! Today I’m here with my very first Indie Wednesday post!
Most of the time I’ll only be doing 1 polish each week, but sometimes I’ll make exceptions- like with my first post! Today I’ll be highlighting polishes from Weird Indeed.
You can find Weird Indeed at her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WeirdIndeed. Her shop is also located on Facebook- just look for ‘Shop Now’ button on the header. She doesn’t always have everything in stock, so be sure to follow her Facebook page for updates of when specific things are in the store!
I currently own 4 colors from this lovely indie shop: ‘On a Break’, ‘PIVOT!’, ‘Love, Gunther’, and ‘Troy & Abed’. I recently ordered Pheebs, but don’t have it yet! Perhaps that will be a future Indie Wednesday post. 🙂 On a Break, PIVOT!, and Love, Gunther are all from her Friends line of polishes, which also include Pheebs, Smelly Cat and The Routine. Troy & Abed are part of the BFF collection, which also includes Blossom & Six, and Daria & Jane.
First up is PIVOT! Fans of Friends will probably remember the episode this comes from, but I’m including pictures with each polish to refresh memories or as a reference for people that haven’t seen the shows.
PIVOT! is a beautiful turquoise blue with a splash of fine silver holographic glitter in it that gives the polish a very light sparkle.
PIVOT! applied well and fairly evenly. The pictures were taken with 2 coats, but I probably should have used 3 for fuller coverage. 1 coat of Poshe fast drying top coat.
Next up is Love, Gunther!
Poor Gunther. Always in love with Rachel, and always forgotten or ignored. Much like the character, this shade was initially overlooked and ignored by a lot of people. Hopefully people will change their minds, because this color is beautiful!
Love, Gunther is a beautiful, shimmering rose pink – almost a hot pink, but not quite. It’s filled with fine silver flecks that give it a very subtle shine. I didn’t have a chance to use a matte top coat, but there are photos that way on Weird Indeed’s Facebook page- it looks beautiful as well! This is also 2 coats topped with Poshe fast drying topcoat.
The final Friends polish I have to show off is ‘On A Break’!
Ross and Rachel… *sigh*
‘On A Break’ is a limited edition shade from Weird Indeed. This one is so pretty!
It’s a grape purple filled with holo flecks and ultra fine gold glitter. The final effect on the nail is subtle but beautiful! 2 coats topped with Poshe fast drying topcoat.
And my very last (but not least) polish to show off is ‘Troy & Abed’!
For those that don’t know, Troy and Abed are two best friends on the show Community. These guys take ‘bromance’ to a new level! These 2 are my very favorite characters on the show (though I love them all!) so I had to buy this as soon as it was available.
Troy & Abed is a very very pale blue (almost white) polish with glitter. The larger and small glitter is pink, white, green, blue, and yellow, and then there’s also fine blue glitter as well as a shimmer. The color is fairly opaque, so you do get that jelly-sandwich like effect but with the glitters a little more covered. The final result is subtle (noticing a theme?) and very pretty. Again, 2 coats topped with Poshe fast drying topcoat.
Cool. Cool cool cool.
So that’s it! Each polish costs $8.00 and shipping is $2.00 for the first polish and 50 cents for each additional. Check them out!
Until next time,
~Diana, The Polish Monster
Try It On Tuesday: O.P.I.’s Excuse Moi (The Muppets Collection)
I saw on Peace Love Lacquer‘s facebook page that they, along with a group of bloggers, would be starting ‘Try It On Tuesday’ in order to start using untried polish. Tuesday is one of my unscheduled days, and it seemed like something fun to participate in! I’ve purchased a large amount of colors in a short time, so I definitely have a lot!
Today I’ll be showcasing… O.P.I’s Excuse Moi!
This lovely glitter was a part of O.P.I.’s The Muppets Collection, which was released in conjunction with the movie (of the same name) around November/December 2011.
I’m actually very embarrassed this is one of my untried polishes, because it’s also one of my favorites. I didn’t purchase any of these when they came out because I completely forgot! My nail polish obsession didn’t really take off until January, so even though I had heard about these it just didn’t occur to me that they wouldn’t always be around.
I have always LOVED The Muppets. I watched The Muppet Show with my parents when I was little, watched The Muppet Movie and The Muppets Take Manhattan until the tapes broke, and watched Muppet Babies every morning in elementary school. My mom has always sung ‘The Rainbow Connection’ to me as our special song. And my very favorite muppet?
So aside from it just being gorgeous, I wanted Excuse Moi! because of the character it represented 🙂 I also own Meep-Meep-Meep and Warm & Fozzie from the collection. The second two I was able to find in a salon, but Excuse Moi! eluded me for a long time. I finally found my bottle a few months ago when I stopped into a random nail salon and they let me buy their used bottle for 1/2 price. I was slightly annoyed when I got home and actually examined the bottle (I was too excited in the salon) and realized that it was basically dried up. Luckily for me, I bought some Beauty Secrets Nail Polish Thinner and it worked wonders! I added enough thinner to that polish to make it 3/4 full, and it’s back to normal consistency (that’s how dried it was!). But that explains why my bottle shots have a ring of the larger rainbow glitter around the center.
Recently (and as recently as this morning), I’ve seen bottles of Excuse Moi! in Target’s O.P.I. section. This has happened at 2 of the 3 Targets around me. The one closest to me only opened 2 months ago and did NOT have this on the shelves last week. Today there were 3 bottles. I’m not sure if they’re shipping excess stock to various stores, but it can still be found!
Anyways, onto swatches!
This polish applied like a dream. O.P.I. does a lot of things well, but when they do glitters you can bet they’ll be amazing. All of the following swatches are only 2 coats, and I had ok coverage at just 1 coat. It is filled with a beautiful small pink glitter, and accented with slightly larger (but still small) rainbow glitters. My nails are SHIMMERING!
Did I mention that I had basically no clean up? Even with my small nails, their larger brush glided over nicely and the polish stayed where it was meant to be. The only nail I had trouble with was my pinky, and that’s because it’s slightly smaller than the brush size!
If you don’t already have this polish and spot it somewhere, I HIGHLY recommend adding it to your collection! You won’t regret it! (Unless you hate pink or glitter, of course…)
Thanks for reading! Until next time,
~Diana, The Polish Monster
Monday Mani: Splatter Manicure with Zoya Sooki and Essie Marshmallow
I wanna do bad things to you…
Hi everyone! It’s my very first Mani Monday, and I decided to start off with a tutorial I’ve had bookmarked for awhile, the blood splatter effect. Why, in the middle of June, you ask?
I’m a pretty big True Blood fan, though I’ll admit- I love the books more. That always seems to be the case though! Season 5 premiered on HBO last Sunday night. We had out of town family staying with us that week, so I wasn’t able to watch until tonight- so I got 2 episodes back to back. To celebrate the show’s return, I decided to turn to a tutorial by Dollface22772 (who most of you probably know because her amazing line of indie polishes, Dollish Polish). This tutorial was originally posted just before Halloween to celebrate the start of Dexter, but it fits True Blood just as perfectly! You can find the tutorial I used here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47dWovqryvc. I highly recommend watching it! I’m not going to do a full explanation, but you can see her demonstrate the technique perfectly in the video. You can find Dolly here on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dollface22772.
First off, you’ll need supplies! At least 1 straw, your polish (base coat and splatter coat), tape, some form of protective surface (I just used some foil), and wine. Ok, the wine is totally optional, but if you’re of legal age it’s always a fun addition (yes, I’m drinking from a tea glass… we don’t have real wine glasses. Don’t judge!).
This picture is a little outdated- I started with Sinful Colors White, but had some streaking issues that multiple coats did not help. I removed it, and used Essie Marshmallow instead (totally smart right, replace the original with a sheer color that’s going to take 4 coats? Couldn’t have been the wine!).
Anywho… you paint all your fingers your base coat (in this case, white) and allow to dry completely. I went ahead and used Poshe Super-Fast Drying topcoat to speed up the process. For having 4 coats, I had absolutely no trouble with smudges or other issues that normally plague me when I put that many coats on. I’m unsure if it’s just because Marshmallow is a sheer color and thinner, or if it’s a trait of Essie (I don’t have many Essies), but it was great to work with. Took forever to build up of course, but that’s not unexpected.
After that, it’s time to get down to business! You’ll want to work with each nail one at a time, and tape around the nail to protect the skin. You can skip this step, it just causes a lot more cleanup time afterwards. Especially with a vibrant red that stains! I took a picture to show an example:
*Interrupting this nail discussion for eye candy*
Anyways, where was I… ah ha! Splatter time!
So for the blood splatters, you simply make a pool of polish (a few large drops from the brush should do), and place the end of the straw in the paint, hold above your nail, and blow on the straw quickly and forcefully. This *should* cause the paint to splatter out. The distance from your nail determines the extent of the splatter- the closer you are, the bigger the initial blob. You’ll be able to see these size variations on the photos I’m about to post: my index and ring finger both have blobs from being closer. I did have a little bit of trouble with this- it definitely worked, but I think my straw (one that bends at the top) wasn’t ideal. It would take multiple tries to get paint out most of the time. Even with that, it was an east mani to do! I highly recommend watching the video to see the process in action.
Of course since this mani was done in honor of True Blood, the *only* polish I felt was acceptable to use would be Zoya Sooki. In the books her name is spelled Sookie, but honestly 1 letter doesn’t make a huge difference! I adore that this polish is a bright, blood red.
You can see the topcoat caused a bit of bleeding, even though I applied it after I gave the red time to dry on each nail. It’s not as noticeable in person, but on a macro shot it stands out very clearly.
So that’s it for my first Mani Monday! I had a lot of fun with this one, and I’m happy to finally scratch one effect off my to-do list. This look can easily be switched around to different colors for completely different looks, like the 80’s neon paint splatter!
Till next time!
~Diana, The Polish Monster
Happy Father’s Day!
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Whether your kids are young, old, or covered with fur, this is a day for the rest of us to say thank you for all that you do! A special thank you to my husband, who’s an amazing father but also an incredible husband. This blog wouldn’t exist without his encouragement!
Hope everyone has a wonderful day 🙂
The Circus! plus Milani Gems
The following is what runs through my head now every single time someone mentions the circus. We just saw this movie a few days ago- the kids loved it! Don’t watch the clip if you’re easily annoyed though! 🙂
Almost 2 months ago now, my husband and I took the kiddos to the circus when it came to town. I haven’t been to the circus since I was 8 years old, so I think I enjoyed it just as much as the kids. A larger chunk of the acts were performed by people than I realized- but I know there’s a lot of controversy with the circus in terms of animal rights. Though not amazing, these are a few of the pictures I was able to take during the performance before my camera battery died (note to self: stop going to events with a non-charged camera battery).
Like any other nail nut, I had to have an appropriate mani for the occasion! I had great plans for what to do… but true to form, I put it off until a few hours before we had to leave the house. So in a pinch, I went to one of my very favorite polishes- Milani Gems!
Milani Gems is part of their Jewel FX line, and in my opinion it’s the prettiest of the bunch! I’ve used Milani Gems on it’s own before and it looked wonderful, but for this mani I used O.P.I.’s DS Radiance as underwear. Since you can’t see it well, Radiance is a beautiful 1-coat silver. I then added 2 coats of Milani Gems on top. Gems is a dupe of Deborah Lippmann’s beautiful Happy Birthday, though as far as I can tell Gems is a bit thicker with more glitter per coat. Without underwear, 3 coats is plenty to give complete coverage. I didn’t need to dab the polish to place glitters, I was able to just brush it on. I have noticed the polish seems to be thickening with time, but it’s nothing a bit of thinner won’t fix.
If you notice my cuticles look a little off, its because I did do some rushed editing in Photoshop. I wanted to be able to use the photos but my poor cuticles looked TERRIBLE! So for the sake of everyone’s eyes, I cleaned them up a little after the fact. I didn’t touch the polish, though 🙂 I was wearing acrylics at the time- which are the cause of my itty bitty weak stub nails I’m currently sporting (and everyone will see soon). I don’t think I’ve ever had this much trouble recovering from acrylics- my poor nails must have been filed down thinner than I realized at the time, because they have absolutely no strength and chip and break even when short. Luckily, the damaged area is almost grown out, so I can focus on growing them again!
This polish is definitely perfect for a party, the circus, or anything in between! I got quite a few compliments while we were at the circus on my mani, so I know I’m not the only person that loves a good glitter bomb!
And to finish off, here’s a picture of me and my biggest monster at the circus! The littlest monster did NOT want to cooperate for pictures.
Until next time!
~Diana, The Polish Monster
Hello (Polish) World!
Welcome to my tiny corner of the internet! I’ve talked about launching my blog for so very long- and I’ve finally forced myself into taking that very first step!
Sydney and Me
Now for a little about me! My name is Diana, and I’m a 28 year old mom of 2 in the Deep South (though not originally from the South, so I’ve been told this makes me a damn yankee). My son, Troy, is 1 1/2 and my daughter, Sydney, is 4. I’m sure you’ll all discover quickly that I talk a lot- both in ‘real life’, and on the internet. I’m also a fairly happy person, which can lead to an annoying level of exclamation points and smiley faces.
As you could expect with a nail polish blog- I LOVE nail polish! Many of my family and friends think I’m completely insane for my near-obsessive polish hoarding, but I know there’s a large community of like-minded crazy awesome people out there. I’ve always really liked nail polish (I had 80 bottles before I got ‘into’ it), but it was only around December of 2011 that my love really took off. I spotted a photo on Pinterest of a full glitter mani- I think it was probably Lynnderella’s The Glittering Crowd- and just went nuts! I looked high and low to try and find out what polish that was. From that search I discovered nail polish blogs existed, and from then on I was doomed 🙂 An enormous wish list started, and it has only grown since then! You can see the current state of said wish list, as well as my current stash, via the links at the top of the page.
I’ve been encouraged for years to start a blog, but I never truly felt inspired to do that until I became sucked into the nail polish world. Most of the women (and some men!) here are just amazing, and I’m so excited to be joining the official ranks! I decided on the name of my blog because we have a bit of a monster theme in our family… my daughter loves monsters, and we already refer to my son as the ‘little monster’ or ‘Troyster’ (he really is a monster, I swear), and he also loves monsters… so it seemed only natural to make that my blog title!
I’m hoping to make regular posts almost daily, though I know every single day is unlikely. I’ll interact a lot on Facebook with any fans who may make their way over there, so please check out that page as well (the link can be found on the sidebar- its http://www.facebook.com/polishmonster). The posts will be mostly polish related, but I may once in awhile throw in something else- you can ignore it completely if it’s not your thing!
I may be shooting myself in the foot for this, but I have grand plans (right now) of following a loose ‘schedule’ for my posts to stay on track. Here’s what I plan to do!
::Prepare thyself for cheesy theme names::
Mani Monday– I intend on getting creative over the weekends, and this will be the day to highlight a polish combination, artwork, tutorial, stamping, or things of that nature.
Indie Wednesday– my specific day devoted to my growing indie polish stash!
Flakie Friday– I LOVE flakies. They’re probably my very favorite polish effect, and accordingly, I have a lot of them. Though I’m going to include a range of things on this day- flakes (iridescent and metallic), polishes with flakes in them, flake topcoats, etc. I have enough to last about a year, so this day may change when I run out 😉
So there it is! My inaugural post. I hope you’ll stay for awhile! I have a lot of fun giveaways planned and tons of ideas floating around in my head and I do hope I get to share them all with you!
~Diana, The Polish Monster
Polish Monster 