China Glaze In The Lime Light and friends

Today I have a some layered goodness to share with you, although only two of the layers are apparent, haha :)

I started with two coats of Zoya Apple, then I layered on one coat each of China Glaze In The Lime Light and Icing Rockstar From Mars. IRL you can see Apple peeking out from underneath ITLL as flakey, shimmery goodness, unfortunately that didn't translate well in my photos.

Sorry about the tip wear, I didn't have time to take photos before work and working in a soap store is rough on the nails!

When okay manis go bad

Last night I asked for ideas for my next mani over at Polish-aholics Anonymous. It was suggested that I use red, orange and yellow because it's so damn hot (90°F! ;_;), which I thought sounded like a splendid idea. 

... or not

Oh man, what a freaking mess! It looked okay before I went to bed, but as a mentioned yesterday, it's been really humid lately... and I sleep on my hands. Needless to say, I woke up to a smooshy manicure. I couldn't find my sponge either, so the gradient wasn't amazingly smooth to begin with, but gees does it look awful now!

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Poppy over China Glaze Happy Go Lucky

Lesson learned. No more late night manicures... well, at least during the summer.

Barielle Slate of Affairs + EOTD featuring MAC Parisian Skies

Do you ever come across two products you know were made for each other? I had an ah-ha! moment when swatching MAC's Parisian Skies eyeshadow from their recent Blogger's Obsession collection. Parisian Skies is basically Barielle Slate of Affairs in eyeshadow form! Now, I'm not one to coordinate my nails with my make up unless it's a special occasion, that's way too much effort, but these two were begging to be worn together.

Barielle Slate of Affairs with Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor

This manicure (as well as these photos) was a nightmare. It's been horribly humid here and my polish has been refusing to cure. I almost gave up completely! Anyways... I'd describe Slate of Affairs as a grayed periwinkle with royal blue micro shimmer. The shimmer has a vampy quality to it, whatever black magic is at play here makes it appear that the shimmer lives two coats deep in the polish. The formula is a bit awkward. It's thin and streaky with one coat, but as soon as you apply a second coat, it's too thick. I've noticed that two of the three Barielle shades I own (including this one) bubble on me quiet easy.

Oh how I wish my macro lens wasn't broken!

My photos really don't do Slate of Affairs justice (see Lindsay's post here for infinitely better photos), but despite my dislike for it's application, it's too damn pretty to get rid of. Now, let's check out Slate of Affair's brother from another mother, MAC Parisian Skies:

See what I mean?

I could describe Parisian Skies, but I'd just copy and paste what I wrote about Slate of Affairs (well, aside from the formula woes). For some reason, I didn't swatch this to show you all, but that's okay, Temptalia's photo would be better anyways.

Eyelid, from inner to outer: (all MAC unless otherwise specified) Perky paint pot (base), Lark About pigment, Tilt e/s, Parisian Skies e/s (crease), Waternymph e/s, a smidge of Wondergrass e/s to green up Waternymph, topped with Reflects Transparent Teal glitter (my favorite glitter EVER!)

Other: Fascinating e/l on waterline, NYC Jet Black liquid liner, False Lashes mascara, Lingering eyebrow pencil 

Lips: She-Zam dazzleglass

Like I said, I don't typically coordinate my nails with anything, but I do coordinate my make up to my clothes and jewelry :) How about you? Do you bother with coordinating your nails with your make up, clothes, etc? Which part of your look determines the rest for you?

Sally Hansen Magical Mystical Mandarin and EOTD

Hey Blogger, long time no post! Life has been pretty hectic lately - I had some bad stuff happen and my boyfriend and I celebrated our twelve year anniversary - so I just haven't had the time (or mental fortitude) to take photos and make a proper post... and oh! The manicures I have done in my absence! They have been glorious! Yet I haven't shared them. Eh, what can you do? Well, enough with the sentence fragments, on to the good stuff!

Sally Hansen Magical in Mystical Mandarin, artificial light

Mystical Mandarin is a medium pink linear holo polish from the discontinued Magical line. It has a very watery formula and is a bit of a streaky nightmare. I'd wager a bet that if I had Nfu Oh Aqua Base, it'd be less difficult to work with as it's formula reminds me a lot of Nfu Oh holographic polishes. Aside from being a little tricky to apply, this is easily a one coat polish as long as you get it right the first time, which is doable with some practice. Why it is called Mystical Mandarin is beyond me as it is neither orange nor invokes any thoughts of China. Oh well, it's a gorgeous polish anyways :)

Natural light

Next up I have that EOTD I've been promising. It's nothing spectacular (wish I would have remembered to photograph my anniversary look!), but I needed an excuse to play around with at least some of the MAC Blogger's Obsession goodies I got in the mail yesterday!

Eyelid, from inner to outer: (all MAC unless otherwise noted) Chilled On Ice paint pot (used as base, also on brow bone), Gorgeous Gold e/s, Springtime Skipper e/s, Wondergrass e/s, Hocus Pocus e/s (crease), Jealousy Wakes e/s, topped with Reflects Antique Gold glitter.
Other: Fascinating e/l on waterline, NYC Jet Black liquid liner, False Lashes mascara, Lingering eyebrow pencil

Because I'm having a hurr durr kinda day, I totally forgot to take a full face photo sans glasses, you get the idea though. Since I've finally made a make up post, and to make my tags as helpful as possible, I've gone back and added the prefix eyes: or nails: to each color. I may or may not add a lips: tag eventually, but as it stands now, I suck at photographing my lips!

Birthday Cake

Inspired by Kristen over at Glitta Gloves' cake batter mani, I wanted to do a similar manicure for my nephew's birthday party, here's what I came up with :)

I had recently picked up OPI Hearts & Tarts at Beauty Express for $2 and was having trouble figuring out what to do with it as I don't normally wear nude shades or sheer polishes, which Hearts & Tarts is both. Since it's a pretty thin polish, I figured it'd work well for layering and decided to try it in a glitter sandwich :)

OPI Hearts & Tarts, Ulta Diva and Ulta Pinata-Yada-Yada

I layred one coat of Ulta Diva, then OPI Hearts & Tarts, repeated those two again and topped it off with an extra coat of Hearts & Tarts. After the second coat of Diva, I applied one coat of Pinata-Yada-Yada to the ring finger before adding more Hearts & Tarts.

Hearts & Tarts has a delicate purple iridescence to it which I couldn't manage to pick up on camera, but it does show on my nails IRL. It was a great choice for this mani!

You might have noticed I have some fabric impressions on my thumb nail. I've been trying to find a new top coat that works as well as Seche Vite but doesn't cause shrinkage like SV does. So far I've tried Essie 3-Way-Glaze, China Glaze Fast Forward, INM Out The Door as well as a handful of base coats to replace my Seche Clear, and I haven't liked any of them. What are your favorite base/top coats? I am in desperate need of suggestions!