We're not Irish, but our nails are!

We're showing our Irish pride this weekend with lots of green glitter!  

I chose a green/black gradient design.  I used Forever 21's Love and Beauty nail polish (which is surprisingly nice!) in black and emerald green.  I painted all of my nails black and used the sponge method to create the ombre gradient look.  I like using eyeshadow sponges to create this design, it's much easier and neater than using the larger makeup sponges.  Here's a link to a great tutorial for this technique: Gradient nail design tutorial from Pixie Polish.  I added a slight sprinkle of emerald green glitter on the tips for some extra pizzaz. 

Erin Go Bragh!!

I chose a glitter look as well! I had been waiting for St. Patrick's Day to use my Zoya Rina. It's a stunning green glitter with some bar glitter thrown in for good measure. I found it a little difficult to apply for a few reasons: 1) it was really thick and goopy. 2) the bar glitter made it hard to apply evenly and it stuck off the top of the nail.

 For my accent finger I used Sally Hansen Complete Manicure Golden Rule. OMG! This polish is amazing. It was just the kind of gold glitter I was looking for. It looks similar to an Incoco nail sticker I once had and have been trying to find in a polish FOREVER.

I used 3 coats of both of the polishes and topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite. You can imagine that with all that polish this started coming off in chunks the very next day (today:( ). Oh well, just another reason to start another fabulous mani!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!! 

Twinsie Manis By the Pool

It's not very often that we sisters get to go on vacation together now that we're older. This week we are in Florida visiting Mom. We decided to do matching, opposite manis to post TOGETHER! How fun!

Because we're away we don't have any of our stuff, so we had to make do with what we had. Vicky was smart enough to bring some polish with her so we had some choices. 

We went with a simple accent nail since that seems to be what a lot of our new followers want to see. :) We used two beautiful Essie polishes: a favorite go to pink, Ballet Slippers and a charcoal grey, Smokin' Hot. We used a wooden toothpick to dot the accent nail. (Toothpick Tip: don't use a plastic toothpick, it just doesn't work. I tried it!)

That's me on the left, Erika, and Vicky on the right, enjoying a relaxing day in the pool! Aahhhh!!

Glitter Gradient

This was my sad attempt at a glitter gradient. My biggest issue with this mani was that my main glitter polish (Rockstar Pink) was WAY thicker than I though it was. I thought it had a sheer base, and it does, but it is so packed with glitter and REALLY thick that it can be used on its own and cover completely. Usually when I do a glitter gradient I can get away with just using the brush and not have to use the sponge technique. In the case of this polish, I should have used the sponge. 

My base color is Zoya Sweet, a perfect bubblegum pink. Then I tried to layer the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rockstar Pink, a purple/pink/blue micro-glitter. To add a little extra bling, because you know I love bling, I put some OPI G-listen to Your Heart near the base of the nail, a chunky hex bright pink glitter. Unfortunately, the color of this glitter doesn't stand out enough against the Rockstar  Pink; even in the sunlight you can barely see it.

I like that this mani is sparkly and I really want to try Rockstar Pink on its own.

Putting PixieDust to the Test

When the OPI Sand collection came out I thought, "Why would anyone want their nails to feel like sandpaper??", so I never purchased any of them. Then the Zoya PixieDust collection came out and everyone was FREAKING OUT!! So I caved in and got one, London PixieDust.

I have to say, it's not as rough as I thought it would be, however, I don't love it. I just don't think I'm a texture/matte finish girl. I like my nails shiny, smooth and sparkly! :) 

Application information from Zoya website:

PixieDust Application Information -  Do not use a base coat or top coat. Apply 1-3 (for full coverage) thin coats of polish. Allow product to dry down completely matte in between layers for full textured effect. The PixieDust textured formula may take up to 10 minutes to dry completely matte. Once dry, the textured finish is long lasting, matte and ultra-glittery! 

"Ultra-glittery"- not so much. I used 2 coats for full coverage. It was nice not to have to use a base coat OR a top coat. It felt like it took 2 seconds to do this manicure without those two steps. After the polish was fully dry, I used a buffer to file the tips of my nails to file away the rough edges that felt snaggy. 

These first 2 pictures are day 1 after the manicure. I was curious how long this textured polish would last as compared to regular polish. I haven't seen many bloggers review that aspect of this polish so I thought I would test it myself.

This pic is day 2. PixieDust has held up much better than I thought it would. You can see that it has worn just a little from my pointer finger. 

I had to take it off after this because I just couldn't stand the texture any longer! I have seen these top coated and they look AWESOME, so I will definitely try that. 

Have you entered in our giveaway yet? Don't forget you can share on social networks once a day for extra entries for a better chance to win! GIVEAWAY IS HERE!

The Endless Possibilities of Striping Tape

This mani is an example of one of the thousands of ways you can you striping tape.  It can be tedious to apply, but the results are never disappointing.  Straight lines and fun designs, what more could you ask for?  I started with two coats of Essie Sand Tropez.  Once dry, I applied the striping tape and painted over the tape with Color Club Lavendarling.  Carefully remove the tape and voila!! 

Don't forget to enter our awesome giveaway HERE and you can win some striping tape and create a cool design like this!

You Can Never Have Enough Glitter!

I never knew how much I LOVED blue nails. And boy are these BLUE! 

I started with 2 coats of Nails Inc. Baker Street and layered another 2 coats of Sinful Colors After Party. I was hoping to layer 2-3 coats of just After Party, but it didn't have the opacity I was looking for.  

This glitter polish is beautiful!! It has tons of micro-glitter, small circles and some large circles too! I used one coat of Seche Vite top coat. On a couple of nails the large circles were poking out a bit so I added a second coat and that did the trick.

Don't forget to enter our awesome giveaway HERE featuring some Sinful Colors polishes. :)

100 Facebook Likes Giveaway!!!

~~Nail Addicted Sisters 100 Facebook Likes Giveaway~~

We want to thank all of our awesome followers, so we put together this fun giveaway with an assortment of goodies. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway