Rainbow Honey Nail Mail!!

I got a wonderful delivery today!  My order from Rainbow Honey has arrived!! 

First of all, how cute is the packaging?!  Plus, Rainbow Honey is totally affordable.  I paid $10 for the larger bottle and $5 for the smaller bottles.  The colors are (from left to right): The God of Destiny, a multidimentional blue/black/green glitter topcoat, Sweet Talk, a white-based chunky glitter lacquer, and Lunairetic, a gold/red/purple glitter topcoat.  I can't wait to try these out!  This is my first indie polish purchase and I think I'm in love!

Check out Rainbow Honey here!

Colorful Stripes

I've been rocking this striped mani all weekend and I have gotten so many compliments!  Here's how it's done...

Paint vertical stripes of 3 or 4 colors.  The stripes don't have to be perfect because any imperfections will be undetectable once you put the black over it. 

Once the stripes are dry place striping tape across the nails.  You can try all different designs with the tape, vertical, horizontal, zig zag... be creative!  Then paint over it with black nail polish and remove the tape to reveal colorful stripes.

Tada!  I think next time I want to try white on top instead of black to get a brighter, summery look :) 

Colors Used for this mani:
Sally Hansen - Blue Me Away
Essie - Chastity
Color Club - Lavendarling
Forever 21 Love & Beauty - Black

Brightly Studded Shield

I got this awesome stud wheel from Born Pretty that has a gazillion different kinds of studs in it. For todays mani, I worked in a sort of stud shield using silver squares and black circles.

The thing I hate about using studs is that that rarely stay on for more than a day or two before they start to pop off one by one. I think I'll try to use a bit of nail glue next time for maximum adhesion!! 

I'm absolutely LOVING this color by Orly, Purple Crush. It reminds of Essie Bermuda Shorts. I used to wear that color EVERYDAY a few summers ago!! It's the perfect mix between a neon and a pastel and I always get complements when I wear this color!! I'm so glad a found this dupe!!

I've been using a new top coat BTW, Sally Hansen Dries Instantly. It's very similar to Seche Vite, but there's no shrinkage and it's a few bucks cheaper. Double Score!! 

Blue Hues and Silver Accents

We met up for brunch over the weekend and by pure chance we had almost identical matching manis!! Great mani minds think alike I suppose!! LOL

My(Vicky) mani features my new Julep polish I received in my April Julep Maven Box.  Lena is a beautiful turquoise with a hint of gold.  The accent nail is 2 coats of Pure Ice Silver and Sephora by OPI Flurry Up glitter topcoat.  

My(Erika) mani is China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, one of my new purchases. I was so excited about this polish because I really wanted a mint polish. This looks a lot like a robin's egg blue to me and others agree. I just don't see the green hues in this polish at all!!! So my search for a mint polish continues. My accent nail is 3 coats of Essie Luxeffects Set in Stone. This polish definitely needs a base color, even after 3 coats you can see my bare nail. No bueno!

Is showing up to a party with the same mani as someone else just as bad as having on the same dress?? We say NO, but only if the other person is your sister. 

:)

I LOVE NAIL POLISH!!

Who doesn't love nail polish????

It's been gloomy here the past few days so I wasn't able to get a great photo of how amazing this glitter polish is, but it is truly amazing!!!

I started with a base of one coat of OPI Black Onyx. This amazing glitter bomb is I Love Nail Polish (ILNP) Babes In Toyland, a mix of green, fuchsia, blue and gold glitter.  

It's so pretty, I can't wait to try it with a different base color!!

ILNP has amazing glitter nail polishes. Check them out on Etsy here!

Colorful Plaid!

This mani is inspired by a method I read about on Rebecca Likes Nails.  To achieve the straight lines of a plaid design I used painted Scotch tape.  I painted several strips of tape in the colors I chose and let them dry thoroughly.  Then I cut the tape in strips with varying widths.  That's the most tedious part of the mani.  After that you simply stick the strips in a plaid design and trim any excess tape.  A thick coat of topcoat is key with this kind of mani, especially if you want it to last.  So far I have worn this mani for 2 days and it's holding up well!

This is the first time I've tried this method and I have to admit that it was pretty time consuming, but having straight, clean lines made it totally worth it!

These are the colors I used:

Revlon Sheer Petal (pale pink base color)

Revlon Violet (purple)

Essie Camera (hot pink)

Julep Kaylen (neon orange)

Nicole Not A Gold Bigger (gold)

Glitter Bomb!!

Part 2 of my Lush Lacquer haul is this beauty, Neon Blast, a glitter bomb of neon and bright colored glitter in a sheer black base.  

I used 2 coats, but probably could have used 3. You can see the sheerness at the base of my thumb nail where a 3rd coat would have given a more opaque look.

For the accent nail I just had to use another new polish I picked up, Essie Luxeffects Set in Stone, a silver glitter bomb in a clear base. I used Sephora by OPI Social Climber, a silver metallic, as the base to make the glitter really POP!

I'm in love with this mani!! I'm so happy with my purchases from Lush Lacquer! Check out their Esty store here!

I've seen a lot of bloggers use a matte top coat over glitter polishes and I really love the effect. I decided to try it on this mani.  These last 2 pics are mattified using Sephora by OPI Matte Top Coat. I don't love this top coat because I don't think it fully mattes the polish. 

I'm in search of the perfect matte top coat. Any suggestions??