NOTD - Batman on my Nails

I love the movie The Dark Knight. I think Christian Bale makes a perfectly brooding Batman, and Heath Ledger is an even more insane Joker. The fact that it was filmed in my hometown makes me love it even more. (Whenever I watch it, I'm always shouting out, 'Hey, that car chase was filmed on Lower Wacker!' or 'The parade is in front of that building on LaSalle!') So I can't stop calling this butter LONDON polish The Dark Knight. I feel a little invincible when I wear it, like I have a suit of impenetrable armor and an unlimited supply of awesome gadgets at my disposal.

It's actually called The Black Knight. It is a black jelly with tiny silver glitter and larger chunks of fuchsia and turquoise glitter. I did three coats to get it opaque. You could probably layer it over a black creme to get some more mileage out of the bottle, but I love to wear jellies by themselves to let their true finish shine. It applied amazingly well, not goopy and thick like some glitters can be. My one issue with this polish is that, unlike Batman's suit, it is not impenetrable. It chipped like crazy. I touched up a chip less than 12 hours after I applied it, and within 48 hours my nails were a hot mess. It's still such a sparkly awesome polish though, and it's perfect for going out.

What do you think of this polish? What polish makes you feel like a badass superhero?

NOTD - Flaky Sandwich

Glitter/jelly sandwiches are something I've been wanting to try for a while, ever since I saw the trend start popping up amongst other nail blogs. If you are not familiar with this term, it means a layer of a jelly (sheer) polish, a layer of glitter, and then another layer of the jelly polish. It creates a really cool effect, and makes the glitter less blingy, which is a little more my style.

I've seen a ton of glitter/jelly sandwiches using nice bright colors, but it's still winter so I wanted to do something more subdued. I have this really cool Ulta brand polish called Lav-ish, which is a murky, muted sheer lavender with a fine bit of gold shimmer to it. I did two coats of Lav-ish, and then decided to amp up the gold shimmer factor by doing a layer of Essie As Gold As It Gets, a gold flake in a clear base. Then another layer of Lav-ish on top of that to finish it up.

I love AGAIG straight-up layered over another polish, but adding a sheer wash of that murky lavender over the top really made it something different and interesting. What do you think of this combo? Would you try a flaky/glitter/jelly sandwich like this?

butter LONDON Spring/Summer 2012 Swatches - Disco Biscuit

Happy Valentine's Day! My valentine and I both have to "work" tonight, so alas we won't see each other until tomorrow night. Oh well. His reaction was so funny when we decided it made more sense for both of us to see each other the day after V-day instead of be together for the real thing: *feigned disappointment* "But...it's a Hallmark holiday!"

Coincidentally, my last butter LONDON color from the Spring/Summer collection is a PERFECT Valentine's Day color! Disco Biscuit is a sheer hot pink jelly with tiny iridescent blue sparkles. The sparkles really come alive in the sunlight, although the bright blue freaked my camera out, as you can see. In real life, the blue sparkle looks like fairy dust :)

People who despise any form of transparency in their polish will want to layer this over a hot pink creme, but I personally like the way it looks after three coats. VNL is...well...visible...(redundant much?) but I think layering it over a creme would rob it of its lightness and make it less special. It applies really smoothly. It also dries really fast, which is nice, although it does dry gritty so you will want a good layer of Seche Vite or whatever top coat you prefer.

Whether you're having a hot date night with your honey, chilling with friends, or flying solo with Chinese food and a DVD, I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

NOTD - Orly Fowl Play

I was loving my NOTD from yesterday, but for some reason the finish looked so dull already today that it was bothering me and I had to take it off. I have to fulfill another request - from my boyfriend, who wanted purple.

Flash

Purple is probably the color that I have the most of in my nail polish collection, so it was a little hard to decide which one I was going to do. Would it be dark purple? light purple? bright? muted? I finally landed on Orly Fowl Play, which I searched several Ultas for and finally snagged, only to wear once since then. It's a really awesome polish that I need to wear more often! It's a dark royal purple jelly with holographic flakie glitter in, as well as some silver shimmer. This polish builds up to opacity after two coats.

This polish is seriously one-of-a-kind. As soon as the first coat went on, I felt like my nails were becoming a work of art. The flakes shift from orange to green in the light. Against the shimmery dark purple base, it looks like a galaxy. It's one of the few Orly polishes I own, but I highly recommend you pick this up if you still can!

Artificial light to show the flakie color shift

NOTD - China Glaze Skyscraper

Happy Friday! TGIF! This week has been miserable - both the kids I nanny are extremely sick with colds, and haven't gone to school this week so I've been home with them during the day. Poor guys. Not only that, but this dog of theirs is driving me absolutely up a wall. I can't wait to get out of the house this weekend!

Sunlight

Anyway, I asked my Facebook friends yesterday what color I should do my nails, and my friend requested China Glaze's Skyscraper specifically. (My boyfriend wanted purple, and my brother suggested "blurple". I'm amused that he knew that was a thing, considering he's a Marine. I'll do it this weekend, guys, promise!) This is a shade from their Fall 2011 Metro collection, and I absolutely adore it. It's a navy blue jelly base with silver and blue sparkles. It becomes opaque at three coats, which is what my photo shows. I love the color, and how the glitter comes alive in the sunlight!




What has your week been like? Do you have plans to get out of the house this weekend, or are you staying in?

Shade

Let's start the new year off with my declaration of love for nail polish and makeup!

I have become increasingly obsessed with nail polish over the past year or so, in large part to the blog that started it all for me: www.alllacqueredup.com. From there, I discovered www.temptalia.com, which sparked my interest in eyeshadow, eyeliner, lipstick, etc. I am not a makeup or nail polish expert by any means, but I enjoy experimenting with new looks and collecting interesting new colors and formulas of nail polish and makeup. So I thought I'd start this blog to document my frequent polish changes and makeup looks of the day!

To start off with, I have Revlon Starry Pink on my nails. This is one of the shades that put Revlon on the map for me, and I scoured several Walgreens in my area to find it. It feels very wintery to me, with its almost-white pink jelly base sprinkled with small silver glitter and larger silver hex glitter. I'm normally not a huge pink nail polish girl, but I love how unique and interesting this one is. I've worn this a few times so far this winter and it wears without chipping for a few days. I always change my polish after 2 or 3 days anyway because I get bored! This photo shows three coats because the jelly base is slightly sheer, but I think it looks pretty that way.








I'd been lusting after the Bare Minerals Ready Eyeshadow Quad in the Elements for about a month or so now, and I finally nabbed it at Ulta yesterday with some Christmas money. I have two of the Duos (in Enlightenment and Escape) and I LOVE the formula, so I knew this quad with these interesting colors needed to be mine.

First, I prepped my eyelid with Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original. I swept Earth, a matte gray sage color, across the whole eyelid, then blended Fire, a matte rusty orange color, into the crease and up. Then I blended Air, a shimmery taupe highlighter, into the browbone and inner corner. I really love how it kind of came out looking like a sunset on the horizon! I did not use Water, a shimmery teal blue color, in this look because this was just a casual daytime look, but next time I'll use Water on the lower lashline. I love the way these shadows applied. They are very pigmented, and practically melted into the skin.

I used NYX eyeliner in Gray to line my waterline (although this photo was taken after a whole day of wear, so it's no longer visible) and on the top lashline. I don't love the way the gray eyeliner became a bit invisible against Earth, so I might try a brown or olive green liner next time. (Black liner looks too harsh on me, unfortunately.) Then I swept my eyelashes with CoverGirl LashBlast mascara in Black.


Have you tried the Bare Minerals pressed powder eyeshadows yet? How would you wear these colors?