I'm back! With another gradient!

Hi folks! Sorry for the unexpectedly long hiatus - we moved at the beginning of the month, and when the cable guys came to install the internet, they discovered that the wires they needed were nowhere to be found in our building! So they have to come and physically install these wires in order provide their service to our building. That is going to take another few weeks!!! I've been going to Starbucks almost every day to do my homework, but the outlets there are a precious commodity and I'd feel bad hogging them to post pictures of my fingernails on the internet. Luckily, our upstairs neighbors were nice enough to give us their WiFi password over the weekend, so I'm back online!

I've amassed a bit of a collection of pictures to post while I was gone, but I'll start with the last ones I took at our old place. This is my favorite gradient I've done so far!

I started with two coats of China Glaze Electric Beat, a bright periwinkle blue. Then using a makeup sponge, I dabbed China Glaze Flying Dragon on the tips to create a gradient. (Check out this gradient tutorial for a good explanation of the process.) Flying Dragon is one of the most amazing polishes I've ever seen and I can't believe I never noticed it on the display before, as I think it's permanent. It's a bright, almost neon, reddish purple with chunky purple and blue shimmer in it! I can't wait to wear it on its own because I think the neon-ness will come out more.

I love the way Electric Beat brings out the blue shimmer of Flying Dragon. Unfortunately I took these photos after a couple days so the tips are a little worn, but I still think this mani is absolutely gorgeous. I've got to do another gradient mani soon!

EOTD - Pink and Purple

I got the limited edition Zoom Lash mascaras from MAC recently and I've been trying to figure out different ways to wear them! Here is a look I did with the purple mascara, Plum Reserve.

First as always I prepped my lids with Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original. To start I blended Urban Decay Free Love eyeshadow, a peachy pink, all over the lid. Then I blended Urban Decay Woodstock, a bright shimmery fuchsia pink, into the crease. I accented the outer corner with MAC Passionate, a matte hot pink.

I lined my waterline with Urban Decay Rockstar, an eggplant purple eyeliner. I smudged that with Urban Decay Psychedelic Sister, a bright purple, and smudged a bit more Woodstock around the edges of that too. I highlighted my browbone and inner corner with Urban Decay Sin, a light peachy highlighter.

To finish, I coated my lashes with a coat of the Step 1 Primer side of my Maybelline XXL Pro Extensions mascara. If you want the colored mascara to be extra vibrant, or if you have naturally really dark eyelashes (jealous) then this step is important. Then I finished my lashes with two coats of MAC Zoom Lash mascara in Plum Reserve.

Would you wear colored mascara?

EOTD - Mojo Spa Isis Loose Eyeshadow

Just a quick couple photos for this post, but I wanted to show you guys my last Mojo Spa loose eyeshadow that I picked up a couple weeks ago called Isis. For this look, I basically used the same products and method that I did for this eye look, but instead of using MAC Plum Dressing, I used Isis. Isis is a crazy sparkly cool purple with blue-ish shimmer. Also, instead of Blackout, I used Urban Decay 24/7 Liquid eyeliner in Perversion on the top lashline.

Sorry this photo's kind of blurry on top, but you can
see the shimmer better this way at least!

P.S. Totally off topic, but does anyone have recommendations for a heated eyelash curler and/or a good mascara for short, stubby, pin-straight lashes? My lashes have always sucked but it seems like they've been getting worse the past couple weeks. I'm currently using a Revlon manual eyelash curler, but the curl fades away almost immediately after putting on my mascara. I also hate the Rimmel mascara I'm currently using b/c it's really liquidy and gets all over the place. Thanks!

EOTD - Vibrant Purples

I recently got a slew of new MAC eyeshadows. I created my own palette full of purples, because I adore purple eyeshadow on me. It really brings out my greenish greyish eyes, in my opinion. Here's a look I did with some of my new shades:

First, I prepped my lids with Urban Decay Primer Potion. Then, I patted MAC Vibrant Grape, a matte reddish purple, all over the bottom part of my lid. I blended MAC Plum Dressing, a shimmery reddish purple, into the crease. I darkened the outer part of the crease with MAC Fig. 1, a dark matte eggplant color. I lined my lower lashline with Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Rockstar, a dark eggplant, and set it with Fig. 1. I smudged Urban Decay Blackout, a matte black, into the upper lashline.

I highlighted under my brow and in the inner corner with Urban Decay Bootycall, a light champagne shimmer. Finally, I curled my lashes and finished them with Rimmel Lash Accelerator mascara in Extreme Black.

I love these purples. The warmer, reddish purples really work with my skintone and eye color. Vibrant Grape was a little hard to work with because it was on the dry side, but with some work I got it to build up to opacity. What's your favorite color eyeshadow to use to bring out your eye color or skintone? 

China Glaze Optical Illusion

I was so excited when I first heard about the China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters collection, but then I saw them at Ulta and they didn't look nearly as cool as I thought they would. I mean, they still looked awesome, cuz they're pure glitterbombs, but I wasn't seeing the duochrome effect that was promised. Today, though, I decided I had to see for myself and decided to pick up Optical Illusion because it seemed to have the strongest duochrome effect out of all of them. 

Man am I glad I gave this one a chance! It is pure glittery awesomeness. There are so many colors of glitter in here I can't even tell you, but the overall color is a light aqua blue. There is a slight purple shift when you move your fingers. I can't wait to see this outside in the sun tomorrow!!

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?

NOTD - Choose-your-own-holo!

By now everyone knows about the amazing Speciallita Hits no Olimpo collection. I REALLY wanted to get the whole collection, but that was just not feasible with shipping charges from Brazil :) To satisfy my craving, I decided to just spring for Hefesto, which I was able to find on Ebay for a pretty reasonable price. Hefesto is a sheer holographic topcoat, which enables you to turn any color your heart desires into a holo!

I really wanted to try Hefesto on top of a color that I've never seen as a holo before. I decided to try it out on top of American Apparel Dynasty, which is a medium red-toned lavender creme. This is an untried polish for me. The reason I haven't gotten around to wearing it is because it was the third polish in a 3 for $15 sale they were having on their polish a few months ago, and while I was able to choose the first two immediately, none of the other colors jumped out at me and it took me a while to decide what my third one was going to be, so I just wasn't excited to wear it. It was a great choice to wear under Hefesto! It makes for a really unique combination. It's a good winter-to-spring transitional mani, I think.

What do you think of this combination? What color should I wear under Hefesto next?

NOTD - Girly Glitter!

While on my Ajax run yesterday, I also picked up this little "gem". This particular color is called Be-Jeweled, from a new collection from Sally Hansen called Gem Crush. It's a light lavender purple micro glitter with large pink circular glitter that also flash holographic.

This photo shows the color most accurately.

The brush in this bottle is really weird. It's very wide, about the entire width of my pinky nail, and also very short with a curved end. It surprised me the first time I saw it, and I thought it was going to suck, but it actually worked very well for applying glitter polish. I applied two coats for these photos. Although you can kind of see the whites of my nail in the photo, you really can't see it at all in person; the glitter looks totally opaque.

The pink glitter is holographic from some angles.

It dries pretty quickly, and I think that's thanks to the brush; I didn't have to do a zillion coats to get it to cover evenly. I did do one coat of topcoat, but the glitter ate it up and it looks pretty matte once it dries. It's still insanely sparkly though. It feels gritty and looks bumpy, but that doesn't bother me.

Blingy glitter is not normally my style, but I think I'm starting to convert. This glitter, especially with its girly purple and pink color scheme, just puts a smile on my face. I'm sure that will turn into a scowl when I go to take it off, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it...

EOTD - Smoky Purples!

I was bored a few days ago and wanted to challenge myself to use some eyeshadows that I haven't used in a while. I was feeling in a purple kinda mood, so I grabbed a few purple and pink eyeshadows that I think came together for a very fun purple smoky eye!

First, as I always do, I primed my eyelid with Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original. Then, I covered my whole lid with the "Eyelid" color, a grayish lavender frost, from the Wet n' Wild trio Silent Treatment. I then blended a Mary Kay eyeshadow in Sweet Plum, a deep shimmery royal purple, into the crease, on the outer third of the lid, and onto the bottom lash line. I used another Mary Kay shadow, in Raisin, a matte reddish purple, just above the crease. To finish, I blended the "Browbone" color, a light candy pink, from the same Wet n' Wild trio into the browbone and the inner corner. I lined my waterline with an Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Rockstar, a dark eggplant purple. Lastly, I coated my eyelashes with CoverGirl LashBlast mascara in black.

 

 Hope you liked this eye look! Purple is my favorite eyeshadow color because it is just so flattering to my skin tone and hair color, and it really makes my greenish/grayish eyes pop. What is your favorite eyeshadow color?

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