Illamasqua Strike

Hello lovely readers! I hope you are enjoying a well needed rest this weekend! I went to see The Hunger Games last night and it was pretty good. Still the book is a lot better. I can't wait to read the other two but I know that if I start one I won't put it down until I finish it, so I'm waiting for some more free time to do that. I have something amazing to show you today! 

Illamasqua Strike, indoors, artificial light

I've been a bad blogger, I know! I have kept this beauty from you for almost two weeks. Truth is I didn't have much time to edit pictures and I wasn't too happy with my short nails, so I needed time to adjust. Nevertheless, I think this looks amazing on short nails. Just the pop of color they need to look pretty! 

Illamasqua Strike in the sun

This polish is very hard to describe. I would say it's a turquoise frost that looks more blue or more green depending on the light. There's also a secret about this polish. It has tiny shimmer particles that only come out to play in the sun. I've tried to capture these but failed miserably. You can still catch a glimpse of the sparkliness in the sun pictures. 

Illamasqua Strike in the sun

Application is not very hard, thanks to the amazing formula. I did two coats to make it fully opaque. You might end up with some brush strokes but I don't mind those. I used the "last stroke in the middle of the nail" method to minimize the brush strokes. 

Illamasqua Strike in direct artificial light

So you can see from my pictures that this looks more green in artificial light and more blue in natural (sun) light. I also stamped some butterflies after one day but didn't like them too much so I didn't do any photos. I really need to work on my stamping skills. Placing small designs on the nail is much harder than it seems! 

Illamasqua Strike indoors, artificial light

I would really like to thank the amazing polish fairy that made it possible for this polish to reach me! I think this is such a classic and a must have for every turquoise lover out there! 

Take the Load Off

Two days of skiing did a number to my limbs. All I wanted to do all day today was sit down and take a load off. Tired eyes and tired legs need the time off.

Bare all this in mind when reading these polishes names.

Elegant and simple, this manicure was inspired by my friend Tammy, who said she had seen something similar on Pintrest. I haven't been able to find the image she was talking about, nor do I know which colors they used, but I used Illamasqua Load and Sinful Colors Time Off.

I know, so clever. About as clever as I can get without overstimulating my tired brain into a state of malfunction.

Such a Pansy

Pansies have always been one of my favorite flowers. The contrast between the purple and the yellow and the white is so yummy! I've been wanting to do a manicure featuring pansies for a while, and this is the first attempt. I think I should've picked a different background color, but I also blame the camera for silly contrast problems. (I haven't mastered manual mode yet.)

The base is OPI, Stranger Tides. The purple petals are Kieko from Zoya, the white petals are Load from Illamasqua, and the stamens are Savina's Grape. Finally, the center yellow pollen is Color Madric's Design Yellow.

Not bad for a first attempt, but not the best.

UPDATE: 2/3/12

I've created a tutorial for this manicure. Enjoy! (I'm also trying a new layout for my tutorials, and I must say, I love it.

Dainty Asian Flowers

Is grey work-appropriate? Where I work, there is no dress code. One of my friends had purple hair for a while! So when I show up everyday with a new, usually bright manicure, no one blinks an eye. I mean, we can bring our pets into the office, no biggie. However, tomorrow we are having some potential clients come in, and I'll be organizing the lunch, so the potential for them to see my nails is large. With that in mind, I wanted a manicure that was appropriate, but I also really wanted to do this manicure, so I risked it. What do you guys think...appropriate? Would a stickler boss strike down these colors?

I used I Vant to be A-Lone Star (OPI) as the grey base, Be My Valentine (Sinful Colors nail art brush) for the stems, and Illamasqua's Load for the flowers. Subtle?

Birthday, Christmas and New Year Haul

The end of the year is always full of some serious celebration for me. With a birthday right before Christmas, Christmas itself, and all the celebration and hangovers that accompany New Year's Eve, there's a lot to be happy about. In addition, I have gifts and presents to celebrate over that I know you all will also appreciate. Of course, I recieved some lovely non-nail gifts and love from my family and friends that are also reason to celebrate, but since this is a nail blog, I'll just share those with you today.

Get ready...it's picture heavy!

First up, these are the gifts my sister gave me. She understands nail polish more than anyone I personally know, so you can only imagine my joy opening her gifts. She gave me tools:

...dotting tools

...striping brushes

...and a glass nail file.

She gave me the Butter London Dressing Table duo, Black Knight and Tart with a Heart. Unfortunately, the dressing table suffered a fatility during the 17-hour car ride, so it won't be making an appearance in today's shots.

She gave me some amazing nail art brushes I've never heard of, but definitely want more of. The formula on all of these is great, and only requires one coat. That's practically unheard of with brighter striping shades. All of these are from a company called Color Madric. They're all sort of metallic, not matte as their bottles seem to indicate.

Shown here is Design Yellow, Green, Ocean Blue, and Hologram Glitter.

Hologram Glitter really is holographic, as I tried to capture here.

Shown here are the metallics from the Metal-licious collection of Color Madric brushes. These colors are Am-Ore, Platinum Rush, Lead to Riches, Metal-Licious, Iron I Lovely, and Gold Digger.

These all appear metallic, as their collection's name suggests.

She gave me part of L.A. Girl Glitter Addict collection, including the elusive Uninhibited I've been craving since I saw Rie from Nails and Noms use it.

Shown here are Uninhibited, Jostle, Animate, and Celebrate.

A few days after getting these, we stopped by a random Rite Aid to get Andy some contact solution, and I saw a glittering display of five more colors from the collection!

I added Eutopia, Nostalgic, Purge (a new nail polish name favorite in my book), Synergy, and Provocative to my infant collection.

Now it's a glittering grand collection!

She gave me some polishes we had talked about over the phone. These are randoms I mentioned liking that she had cheap access to out there in So-Cal.

Shown here is Sea Gurl from ORLY, Good Witch? from China Glaze, Cleopatra also from China Glaze, Glass Slipper from Sally Hansen Diamond Strength (one I actually snagged for myself), Lady Luck from Sally Hansen Gem Crush and January from Julep. She didn't like that color on her, so I took it off her hands. To top this load of polishes off is the amazing Load from Illamasqua. Look at it back there. Beautifully raunchy.

Rounding out my sister's amazing gifts is my first bottle...or bottles rather...of Seche Vite.

Look at this monstrosity! It's so much top coat, I don't even know what to do with it! 4 ounces!

So that's it from her...but fear not, my haul has not ended! She did an unbelievable job of making my Christmas gifts a thrill to open. Thanks Sisser, I love you!

I mentioned in Sapphire that Andy's mom's trainer, Robbie really hooked me up with some amazing CND products. Here they are!

She included in my bag of goodies some nail care items including some tasty CND Solar Oil (a cuticle conditioner), Scentsations lotion minis in Sparkling Champagne and Clementine & Mistletoe. They smell awesome! There are also several samples of CND's Spamanicure hand lotions, in Citrus Soothing Creme and Almond Hydrating Lotion. I absolutely love the smell of the almond lotion. Finally, there are a few nail buffers, showing their support for breast cancer research with the words "Nail Community Cares" written on them.

She also included some amazing colors, including Smoochie (#518), Sapphire Sparkle (#561), Plum Truffle Sparkle Effect (#586), and Plum Truffle Colour (#585).  You've seen Sapphire Sparkle already in Sapphire.

Thank you again Robbie, I love everything!

Last but not least! We have the polishes I bought myself.

You've already seen the Urban Outfitters collection I picked up here, but here's a few more shots of those beautiful bottles.

I also snagged the entire Finger Paints Special Effects collection today at Sally's!

 Not much to look at when they're in the bottles, but I'm sure you've seen them used by other ladies. My favorite shots are from Jen at The PolishAholic, from this post showing each on its own, and this post showing them all layered together. Oh many these are going to be fun to play with!

So that's it. Can you feel my excitement through the screen? It's radiating!

Two more looks with lllamasqua Faux Pas

Hi everybody! Well you might have noticed that my posts are running low these days and that's because I have an exam on Monday and I'm studying like a mad person. But I thought I should take a break tonight and do some posts for you guys. So I'm back with Illamasqua Faux Pas. I thought I should experiment a bit more with this fabulous polish and show you the results here. First off, I naturally wanted to see how it looks with a glossy top coat. So on the second day of wear I added one coat of INM Out the Door. 

indoors, artificial light

Not much to say about this one. Except for the fact that I like my polishes glossy and adding a top coat really made this shine. I had some scratches on the surface of the nail before adding top coat, which makes me think I'm too sloppy to be wearing polishes without anything over them.

On the third day, I really wanted something shiny and fantastic on my nails. So I went with one of the ELF glitters, the one called Glitter Glam. It's a silver microglitter in a clear base, with just a few larger glitter pieces that seem to be holographic. The holo glitter pieces are too sparse though to even call this a holo. Feel free to click and enlarge the photos to take a better look.

Illamasqua Faux Pas with one coat of ELF Glitter Glam

I'm really impressed by this glitter and the amount of coverage it gives with just one coat. I still think of it as a layering glitter, but I'm curious how many coats it would take to get it opaque. I really like this combo and I can't wait to try this ELF polish over lighter colors to see the effect. 

So what's your opinion on these? Do you like Faux Pas better as a rubber or glossy finish? Or do you prefer the blingy alternative? 

Illamasqua Faux Pas

Hello my dears! Today I have a very special polish to show you. My first Illamasqua! I've received this as a gift (early birthday present maybe) and I love it! This is from the Theatre of the Nameless autumn-winter 2011 collection and is one of the four rubber finish polishes Illamasqua came out with this year. 

indoors, artificial light

The color of this polish is a perfect grape purple, a little darker in reality than it looks here, but for some reason it doesn't come out right in pictures. I've also seen this on many blogs and it still looked a bit more blue than it does actually. This is the first polish I get that comes in a box. So fancy! The rubbery square lid also comes off to reveal a more round and hold-appropriate cap. 

The brush is on the small side, just as I like. The polish is very opaque and you could get away with just one coat. I wasn't very careful with my first coat so I applied two. It dries super-fast to a "rubber" finish, something between matte and glossy. This is still pretty glossy so I wouldn't compare it to the rubber on the cap, more like to the rubber bracelets teens wear these days. 

I just put this on and I was eager to show it to you guys, so I can't tell you anything about how it wears. I've also wrapped my tips to increase wearing time. Please excuse my horribly dry hands and cuticles. It's very cold and lotion doesn't seem to cut it anymore. I've also been using a treatment on my nails that contains formaldehyde and that thing is very drying. 

some close-ups featuring the ugly cuticles, enlarge at your own risk

I'm very excited about this polish and I can't wait to use it for a lot of combinations. What do you think?

Later edit: Forgot to mention that I made it to 50 followers. Thank you so much to all of you! Couldn't have made it without you!

Illamasqua Bacterium and Gamma Swatches/Review

Good Morning,

Illamasqua has some of the most brilliant nail varnishes that you want to own. The colors are rich and the formula is spectacular.  I have a few to show you from the  "Toxic Nature Collection" Spring 2011

Bacterium:  Pearlescent Ash Ochre, I describe it as a frosty duochrome toffee brown with a flash of purple.  Two coats were used.

Bacterium is a unique color.  It's the first of it's kind in my collection.

Gamma:  Neon Orange,  a bright creme orange that dries matte. Two coats were used.

With Topcoat

What I like about these polishes is the formula.  No problems while applying them.  I would wear Bacterium on a job interview it's a safe color. I can't wait to wear Gamma on my toes.

These 2 and others from this collection is available here

These were sent to me for review

 

Until next time please have a great nail polish day. (✿◠‿◠)