Game Day Mani: South Carolina

As I mentioned two weeks ago, now that Pretty Little Liars is over, I'm going to start using my normal #RedCoatTuesday slot to honor a different Red Coats - the University of Georgia!  [For those not in the know, UGA's marching band is called the Redcoat Band, which I was in for two years in college!]  So, every Tuesday, I'm going to share my team spirit!  Last week was a by-week, so I didn't do a spirit mani, but I was back on track this week!  It was a crappy game that made me sad, but I'm glad that I had BEGL taxes to take some of my attention away from the horrible defense.  Anyway, enough with the football talk.  Let's get back to polish!

Purchased by me.

For this weekend's mani, I decided to go with something classic and yet still not super boring and plain - a French mani!  I actually took this look from Ashley over at Plump and Polished.  Hers is a bit different than mine, but I really liked that extra pop of color she added in underneath the main tip color!  For this look I used Elevation Polish SBPs in Rococo and Last Stop... Siberia.

Rococo is a lovely blood red with red and gold shimmers, and LSS is a black with purple, blue, and copper shimmers.  It's also glow-in-the-dark, but the gitd pigment settles.  I didn't really want to have gitd stripes, so I didn't shake it up and mix it back in.

First, I painted my base coat, which I used KBShimmer's Basic Training because I didn't want this mani going anywhere since I painted them two days before the game.  I love using Basic Training when I want a mani to have sticking power!  While I love my normal base of Quimica, it does tend to peel off a little more easily than a real base coat.  I then painted on Rococo on top of the base coat.  I don't have perfect application when it comes to smile lines, so I had to do a fair amount of cleanup.  I took the rest of the base coat off with the extraneous red, but that was by design so it wouldn't look patchy.

Next, I painted on a small stripe of LSS abutting Rococo.  I didn't do it with a striper, so I ended up doing the same type of cleanup that I used on the red.

Last, I added a coat of my beloved Quimica over the bare part of my nail and over the tips, and I then added a coat of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top to finish it off.  I'm really happy that there wasn't any smearing, either!

All in all, this mani was nice, but I was a little bored with it.  I thought about adding something else like a decal, but I ran out of time.  You can purchase Elevation polishes at her site here.  Unfortunately, these are both small batches, so they won't be back.  So, what do you think?  Do you like French manicures, or do you think they're old fashioned?  They used to be my thing for a long time, but my nails hadn't been long enough in recent years to really do them anymore.  It was nice to give it another try!

Game Day Mani: Clemson

Now that Pretty Little Liars is over, I'm going to start using my normal #RedCoatTuesday slot to honor a different Red Coats - the University of Georgia!  [For those not in the know, UGA's marching band is called the Redcoat Band, which I was in for two years in college!]  So, every Tuesday, I'm going to share my team spirit!  I apologize to anyone who doesn't like UGA, but at least red and black are pretty together!  Tonight's mani includes stamping, decals, and Swarovski crystals!  Let's take a look!

Purchased by me or given as gift.

First, though, here's me, Mr. Blue-Eyed Girl (would that be Hazel-Eyed Boy?), and UGA VI in our Redcoat uniforms.  Band geek and proud!

I used the following items for this mani:

Cult Nails Tempest, Cult Nails Nevermore, Cult Nails Kiss, Konad White, Konad Black, Essie No Place Like Chrome, Cheeky plate CH52 from their Summer Collection, Nail Dot water decals, Nail Vinyls, and little red Swarovski crystals I received as a gift!

I started out by applying my undies, (thumb to pinkie): Nevermore, Tempest, Tempest, Kiss, Nevermore.  Next, I stamped onto my thumb, index, ring, and pinkie fingers using the Cheeky plate.  For my thumb and pinkie, I did a double stamp using Konad White and Cult Kiss, which actually stamped really well.  On my index finger, I stamped using the Essie.  Lastly, I used Konad Black and White on my ring finger over Kiss.  This was my first time doing the double stamp, which came out better than I had anticipated!

Next, I used the little G water decal from Nail Dots that I applied over the silver stamping.  I like these little decals, but they always tend to wrinkle and stick up around the edges, which is not so awesome.  I ended up using an extra coat of topcoat to smooth it down.

Then, after I waited for my coat of Tempest to dry on my middle finger, I applied the Nail Vinyls and painted on Kiss and Nevermore.  This was probably the best Nail Vinyl mani I've ever done!  I think it's because I waited long enough for my base to be 100% completely dry and removed the stickers as soon as I put the paint down without letting it dry.

Lastly, I added on the Swarovski crystals and added another layer of topcoat.  I was actually really surprised that most of these crystals lasted for two days, and I only lost two!  I'm not normally the type of person who likes doing anything that sticks up on my nails, but these aren't that bad or inconvenient.

All in all, I was so pleased with the outcome of this mani!  I highly doubt I'll be doing anything this elaborate for future game-day manis, but I wanted to go all out for the season opener.  Do you follow any fall sports?  Do you like to do fun manis to show your team spirit?

Game Day Mani - SEC Championship Edition

Well, the game this weekend was a huge disappointment.  We came so close to making it into the national championship.  Both teams played their hearts out, so I can't be too upset.  Although, I do think it's complete and utter bullshit that Florida is going to the Sugar Bowl and we're going to Capital One.  Ridiculous.  Anyway, I'll stop complaining now.  I'm sure a bunch of you don't even care about college football, so sorry!  :)  Although, football has inspired my more creative nail art attempts.  This weekend I wore a water marble with a jelly sandwich accent nail for the game.

The polishes I used for the water marble were China Glaze Liquid Leather, Elevation Matsuda, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On.  For the jelly sandwich, I used Matsuda and Lynnderella Shape Shifter.

I've only done a handful of water marbles in my life, and they have all turned out pretty poorly.  I originally wanted to use some holographic polishes, but they didn't hold together once dropped into the water.  I changed it up and used my cremes instead.

It actually worked out really well!  It took me a little longer than a normal mani with nail art would take, but I think it's totally worth it.  The hubby, who doesn't really care about my manis, really liked the water marble, too.

For my accent nail, I chose Matsuda, which is a gorgeous red jelly with a slight shimmer.  I've had Lynnderella Shape Shifter for a little while, but I haven't really known how to wear it.  Shape Shifter is so densely packed with silver holographic glitters of all sorts of shapes and sizes.  I don't normally like to wear super chunky glitters on their own, so I settled on doing a jelly sandwich.

I feel like the jelly sandwich really subdued the in-your-faceness of Shape Shifter.  It's a gorgeous polish, but just too dense for me.  I think this was a perfect compromise.  I can still get the gorgeous shimmer and shapes of Shape Shifter without the overly saturated look on my nail.

I was so surprised by this mani.  I only had three or four bubbles and one smudge.  Otherwise, the rest of my nails look pretty close to perfect for me!  I'm getting better at this technique, so you may start seeing more of them to come.  I'm thinking of doing a peppermint swirl one for Christmas, so definitely keep an eye out for that!  China Glaze and Sally Hansen are available at beauty supply stores, drug stores, and grocery stores.  Elevation Matsuda can be found on Lulu's store here.  Follow her blog for updates and news.  Lynnderella can be purchased from her eBay store here, and you can also sign up for newsletters at her store page.

Oh, and one last bit for discussion...  If we hit 600 Facebook followers before I announce my holiday giveaway this Saturday, I will hold another "easy" giveaway with the jelly sandwich makin's I've posted about before.  Essentially, each Facebook follower will get 1 entry.  I will take that list, randomize it, and choose a winner from random.org.  No entry or crazy hoops to jump through required (that's for this weekend, rofl!).  If we can't hit it before this weekend, that's cool, too.  I'll just postpone that particular prize for another few months, lol.  

What's your favorite water marble combination?

Halloween Giveaway Winners plus Game-Day Nails!

Thank you so much for the incredible turnout for the Halloween Giveaway!!  Here are your winners:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Holly S. - Girly Bits Booberry
Sarah K. B. - Vampire's Coven
Sara H. - This is Halloween
Olivia F. - China Glaze Wicked Collection
Angela S. - OPI So So Skullicious Minis
Melanie S. - Wet 'n Wild Duo

Congratulations, ladies!  Emails have been sent out to the winners, so make sure to check your spam folders if you don't see them.  To everyone else, thank you so much for your participation!  Remember, I have another giveaway just around the corner - the reader of the month!  Also, make sure to stop by my Facebook page often as I tend to have flash giveaways or small little games with cool prizes that I don't announce on the blog.  Thank you so much, everyone!

Game-Day Nails: Kentucky

Man, last night's game was tense.  So tense, in fact, that I couldn't even be in the same room as it!  We weren't doing very well while I was watching, so I went on a late night Starbucks run.  As soon as I left, we got a TD.  I got back and tried to watch a little more, but we started sucking it up again.  I took matters into my own hands and went to my polish room to work and watch last week's Vampire Diaries.  I had intended to work while watching the game, but I guess the universe had other plans.  

Anyway, here are my Game-Day nails!!  I did a SOG (Soak Off Gel) mani with Gelish Simple Sheer, Sheek White, and some craft glitter.  Luckily, it's ok to use craft glitter with SOGs, especially when you don't mix it into polish and use it as topical nail art only.  [Although, I will say that you can mix craft glitter into gel polish without having to worry about bleeding or warping, which is pretty cool.]  I then topped my SOG mani with a doticure using OPI Animalistic and China Glaze Liquid Leather.  

My left hand didn't turn out as well, so I am showing you guys Mr. Righty.  Even still, you'll notice that the glitter spread a little before I was able to cure it.  Next time I'll make sure to flash cure each nail as I go!

I really love how this came out, and I'm super pleased with my dotting tools.  I purchased them from Dollish Polish here, and they are currently in stock.  China Glaze Liquid Leather is available where China Glaze polishes are sold.  Animalistic is a discontinued polish from OPI's Muppet collection last year.  It's a gorgeous red with red glass flakes.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep yet another red, but this one is just so pretty that I think I will!

Congratulations again to all of my winners!  You have 48 hours to return my contact email before I choose another winner.  Thanks to everyone for your participation!!

Do you watch college football?

Game-Day Nails: Vanderbilt and Florida Atlantic

Well, despite our seriously lackluster performance on Saturday, I still love my Dawgs.  I'm shocked that we're still in the top 25, much less ranked number 11.  That, ladies and sirs, is insane.  Anyway, I'm so far behind on my game-day nails that I have 2 of them for you today.  I didn't take pics of my nails from the South Carolina game since I kinda smudged them all up, which is a total shame because I had on OPI La Boheme.  I hate being in a rush when I paint my nails.  Ugh!

UGA v. Vanderbilt

I wore a franken that I made for the Vandy game.  I'm not a huge fan of it.  It's a ruby based polish with large black hexes, fine black hexes, red hexes, and holographic silver hexes.  I added way too many fine black hexes for my liking.  If anyone likes this polish and wants it, it's yours for the taking.  Just shoot me an email, lol.

Hunker Down Hairy Dawg! 

Macro shot of the bottle - it has promise...

See, too many fine black glitters.  Just too busy.

I love the holo silver hexes, but I definitely would take out 3/4 of the small black hexes.

UGA v. Florida Atlantic

This mani was one of my favorites!  I'm not very great at nail art, but I thought I would try the braided/fishtail trend that's been gaining popularity lately.  I used this tutorial:

The three polishes I chose to use were China Glaze TMI, Nfu Oh 61, and OPI My Private Jet.

Holy holographic!!!  I couldn't stop staring at my nails the entire day.  I even had guy friends compliment them!  Seriously one of my favorite game-day manis to date.  I think I could do a better job the next time I try a fishtail mani, as it takes a little bit of practice to get it down right.  

Check out a closeup in the sunshine.  I seriously love holo polishes!

Don't forget about my Halloween giveaway!  Check it out here!  Also, I'm looking forward to announcing another massive giveaway that I'm going to take part in with another blogger.  Stay tuned for that announcement, too!  I just love Halloween!!

Have you ever done a fishtail mani?  I'd love to see your pics on my Facebook page!

Game Day Nails: Nail Art and Endless Static Sea

I'm going to make this a quick one tonight as I'm trying to spend some quality time with the hubs and kitties before I go back to work tomorrow.  It was a nice week and a half off, and I'm sad to go back now that the basement is finally unflooded!  Although, the mold and mildew are making my eczema flair like you wouldn't believe.  It's pretty bad.  I apologize for the dry and ugly cuticles...  Even balm and oil aren't helping much.  Ugh.

Updates: only 18 follows away from that awesome giveaway I keep harping on about!  Also, I updated my blog sale with more polishes (indies, HTF's, etc) and lowered prices.  Please help a gal out and purchase a few!  I'd love ya forever!

On to the nails.  My game-day nails from this past weekend included a base of ProGel Deep Abyss with nail art on my thumbs using OPI OPI Red and Revlon Metallic.  Then, I finished off the rest of my nails with Pahlish Endless Static Sea.

I didn't use Gelous over the nail art, so it smeared a little when I applied my Seche Vite.  It's weird, too, because I let it dry for quite some time before I applied my top coat.  Oh, well, I still like how it came out despite the smearing.

Pahlish Endless Static Sea is a black jelly based polish with holo hexes, bars, and squares as well as pink and blue shimmers.  The pink and blue shimmers were actually a surprise because I couldn't see them in the bottle at all!

See, the bottle just looks like a normal black jelly with awesome holo glitters.  Right?

But, when I put this guy on, it was like magic!  I honestly wasn't sure if I would keep ESS before I wore it, but now that I have, there's no way I'll give this guy up unless I absolutely have to.  Look at it on the nail.  The glitters just glow!

Plus, here's a closeup of that pink and blue shimmer I was talking about.  It was such a fantastic surprise!  

Also, look at how shimmery ESS is.  It's absolutely amazing.  I wore this polish for days, which isn't like me at all.  (I get bored easily.)  

You can buy Pahlish at her Etsy store every Friday night and on Llarowe.  You can also follow Shannon on her Facebook page for news and updates.

As a random aside...  Every time I see ESS, I think of this horrible (amazing?) movie I saw in high school called Johnny Dangerously.  Has anyone else seen this??  Warning, this isn't rated G.  It isn't really rated R, either, but it's definitely NSFW.  

Specifically, this is what I envision:

Hah!  Now that I've chuckled like an idiot for a few minutes, I think I'll call it a night.  

Have you ever had a polish that surprised you when you put it on your nail?  If yes, which polish and why?

Comparison Thursday: Red, Black and Silver Glitters

As you may remember from yesterday's post, my basement is still flooded, and I'm still trying to bail it out.  We bought a new sump pump, which seems to finally be doing the trick.  The main issue will be going through the entire basement, which is our storage, to clean up and throw stuff away.  Plus, we're talking about waterproofing the basement and tearing out all of the walls/wood to make sure we aren't breeding mold.  It's going to be long, hard, and crazy expensive, which means I'm on a non-goal related polish no-buy indefinitely.  Although, I will say that I plan to purchase the entire Dollish This Is Halloween collection plus polishes that are tied to personal goals.  So, wish me luck as I try to put on my blinders to such things as the Pretty and Polished and Elevation restocks!!!!  Eeeep!

Ok, on to the topic at hand: Comparison Thursday!!!!  Let's take a look at Nostalgic Wrath and Dollish Polish Team Salvatore.  

 Wrath on thumb and pinkie, Team Salvatore on middle finger.

Here are the bottle shots:

Dollish Team Salvatore 

Nostalgic Wrath

Both are red, black, and silver.  Wrath has gunmetal as compared to Team Salvatore's legit silver.  Wrath is a little less busy, and Team Salvatore is very dense.  Both have red and black hexes and squares.  Team Salvatore has silver medium and fine hexes, and Wrath has large and fine gunmetal hexes.  

(As an aside, I apologize for the bubbles, blurriness, and terrible skin.  Bubbles and blurriness are user error.  Terrible skin is from my latest most awesome eczema flair-up.  Blarg.  I hate allergies!!!)

I asked the husband which I should keep, and he asked me why I couldn't keep them both...  I think that's a valid questions, lol.  Granted, I should've expected him to like them both since they are Georgia Bulldog colors.  

Nostalgic Wrath has been discontinued, but you can purchase her other polishes here.  Dollish Team Salvatore is still available in mini size here or in full size here.

Do you have another red, black, and silver glitter that would compare well with Team Salvatore or Wrath?  Out of these two polishes, which one would you keep?

Game-Day Nails!

Man, today has been INSANE!!!!!  I had the day off today, which would've been awesome, except I had to deal with some pretty crappy stuff today.  As I was walking to the basement to do laundry, I noticed that we had almost 2 inches of water at the bottom of the stairs.  Needless to say, the hubs and I have been bailing water out of the basement for HOURS today.  We finally called it quits when we heard the coyotes howling nearby.  I live in the suburbs of Atlanta.  We have coyotes.  Don't even ask me when or how that happened. Anyway, I'm going to make this a quick picture bomb since I'll be getting into a proper review of most of these polishes later.  Gooooooooooo Dawgs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Basecoats: OPI OPI Red, China Glaze Stone Cold, and Sally Hansen White On

I will say that China Glaze Stone Cold was the biggest pain in the butt to deal with.  It dries matte, so it dries super fast.  Plus, it's pretty thick, so you really have to work quickly to avoid dragging and clumping.  I added a little thinner, which helped a ton.  It's definitely one of those polishes that you really need to use three swipes max.  Also, it stains and is nearly impossible to clean up.  Unfortunately, I brought a remover that wasn't my usual favorite.  Typically, I use a straight-up acetone without any nutrients, but I wanted to bring a smaller bottle I had on hand.  Clean-up was IMPOSSIBLE.  I have pics of my right hand with Stone Cold all over my middle finger because I couldn't get it all cleaned up.  OPI Red has been my go-to red for years.  I've had it for forever (so it's a black label), and it applies really really well.  I probably only needed one coat, but I'm weird and went for two.  No staining during removal, which is key for the perfect red.  Sally Hansen White On is my favorite white because it doesn't streak and goes on in two coats.


I topped this mani with Nostalgic Nail Lacquer Wrath (discontinued), Dollish Greased Lightening, Pretty & Polished Swing (discontinued), and Dollish Team Salvatore.  Tomorrow (today?), I'll have a Comparison Thursday on Wrath and Team Salvatore, so check back for that!

Here are some closeup bottle shots:

Greased Lightening

Team Salvatore

Swing

Wrath

I really liked the way this came out.  Very spirited, don't you think?  :)

You can purchase Nostalgic Nail Lacquer here and here and follow Erin on facebook or twitter for news and updates.  You can purchase Pretty & Polished here and here and follow Chels on facebook or twitter for news and updates.  Lastly, you can purchase Dollish here or here and follow Dolly on facebook or twitter for news and updates.

Do you support a college or pro football team?  If yes, which polishes are your favorite game-day polishes?