Swatch Sunday

For my birthday, my lovely mother got me the three metallic Bond polishes released by OPI. I used Bond…James Bond and Morning, Moneypenny in previous manis, but didn’t get very good pictures of either 😦 So I will be doing all three colors again!

We’ll start with Is That Silva?

 

 

 

I really like the magnet that came with the polish. Most other magnetic polishes have their magnet in the cap, but this was completely separate. It has a ridge on the edge so that your nail doesn’t touch the magnet, and is very easy to squeeze with other fingers in order to achieve perfect distribution of the effect.

 

 

(Please excuse my slightly chipped nails)

 

 

The holographic sparkle in this polish is incredible, and the magnet was super strong! I seriously can’t find a bad thing to say about any of the three colors, but I think this one is my absolute favorite!

Trend Tuesday – Textured Talons

Oh, the alliteration! I had to, I’m sorry.

Since learning about OPI’s Liquid Sand polishes included in the Mariah Carrey collection, I’ve been keeping an eye out for other brands following suit. The idea was just so wacky and weird that others were bound to jump on the texture-train. It actually feels a lot like it did when crackle nails were a thing…

Obviously, I’m only listing a few. I’m sticking to the ones I’ve most recently observed, but don’t forget about the caviar mani and the velvet mani! I do not personally own any of the textured polishes that have come out recently, so I’ll just provide you with links to some swatches.

I did have the opportunity to nab some of OPI’s Liquid Sand colors, but they just didn’t appeal to me enough…and from the swatches I’ve seen, I’m glad I didn’t get them. Sure, it would be fun once in a while, but I’ve decided they’re just not for me. Maybe I’ll eventually get the minis…we shall see.

You can see OPI’s Liquid Sand colors here.

Zoya has a fairly similar collection, dubbed Pixie Dust. These ones actually caught my eye more than the OPI ones…I think it’s mostly due to the colors, but also partially because of the finer and more consistent glitter they use, where OPI’s are of varied sizes. I’m still not really jumping out of my seat with excitement (probably because I still like my sparklies to be…well, sparkly!), but I think I’ll end up at least getting Godiva and Nyx.

You can see Zoya’s Pixie Dust colors here.

Another textured line is Nails Inc.’s Concrete collection. These ones, however, are not glitters and aren’t completely matte. I think the similarity comes in the form of the the bumpy, not smooth nail surface, rather than the finish.

You can see Nails Inc’s Concrete colors here.

What do you think of all these textures? Which ones make your heart beat faster?

Mani Monday – James Bond!

So, I finally watched Skyfall about a week ago during my last weekend at home and could not stop gushing about Severine’s nails (or as I called them, claws). And her dress in the casino scene made me drool…but those nails!

 

Since I had yet to get my own claws on ANY of the OPI James Bond colors, after seeing the movie it wasn’t even an option to wait any more! The very next morning I bought Goldeneye, Skyfall, and Tomorrow Never Dies. I was realllyyy tempted to also get The Living Daylights, but ended up leaving without…my mind still might change.

Anyway, I obviously had to use Tomorrow Never Dies ASAP, as it was the color I was most anticipating. I have a thing for blurples, but I’d forgotten how hard it is to photograph them 😦

So, here are my inaccurate pictures of the beautiful TND, along with a guest appearance by Goldeneye and some stamping! (I used TND for the stamping, and the color there is actually pretty accurate).

 

 

 

I also (in a second attempt to photograph the color accurately) tested out the rhinestones my boyfriend gave me for my birthday. As a ballroom girl, rhinestones make me so happy! I will definitely be using them again very soon.

 

As you can see, despite the dozens of pictures I took in various different lights, I was still unable to catch the true beauty of TND. Oh wells, guess I’ll have to try again… 🙂

Once my nails have grown a bit longer, I think I’m going to try Severine’s manicure, so keep tuned!

Sharing Saturday – Christmas Mani

My first example of street nails is kind of cheating /: it’s also combined a bit with Rewind Wednesday as it was a mani I saw before Christmastime.

Over the past semester, I have been spreading my love for all things polish to the girls on my ballroom team. I’ve mentioned before that we’ve gotten together and had a girls night (or two) with movies and manis, but occasionally they’ll surprise me with creations of their own and it makes me so proud!

Here is one such mani done by my friend, Emily! (She’s also wearing some pretty awesome rings)

I’ve been thinking that I may just make Saturdays into “Social Saturdays,” that way I can post online submissions too! If you’ve created a look that you’re particularly proud of and would like me to showcase, send me a message or email me at manymanicures@yahoo.com 🙂

Rewind Wednesday – Christmas Mani

I actually attempted two Christmas themed manicures this past holiday season, but the first one lasted all of 5 minutes before I took it off, and then I didn’t have time to post pictures of the second one! I did these nails on Christmas eve before attending my brother’s birthday dinner (he’s actually a Christmas baby!) and then it was Christmas day and then I spent a week skiing in Tahoe! So I guess this qualifies as rewinding a bit.

Products Used:

OPI Red My Fortune Cookie

OPI Jade is the New Black

Zoya Sparkle Gloss

OPI Bond…James Bond

 

Edit: Sorry for the late post! I realized I hadn’t added pictures from my first Christmas mani!

Products Used:

OPI Red My Fortune Cookie

OPI Pearl of Wisdom

OPI Bond…James Bond

Zoya Sparkle Gloss

Prisma Luminous Colors #6468 (Unnamed red glitter)

 

Mani Monday – I’m Back!

For the first time in about two months, I’ve actually done something cool with my own nails. Since it’s been a while, I really couldn’t even decide what to do, so I did everything! These are probably the girliest nails I’ve ever done and I love them!

I started with a gradient then tried using Konad plate m75 with for my first real stamping experience! I then topped everything off with a sparkly topcoat 🙂

Products used:

OPI Panda-monium Pink

OPI Dim Sum Plum

Sally Hansen’s Complete Salon Manicure Plum Luck

Zoya Sparkle Gloss

Konad Plate m75

Birthday Post #2!

As my birthday was two weeks before Christmas, my birthday manis tend to take precedence over my Christmas ones. I also received a lot of new polishes that I absolutely had to try!

Here are two of my favorites!

My lovely boyfriend gave me the gorgeous Chanel Sky Line, which was obviously the first birthday polish I tried! I wore it to see the Boston Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker with some of my dance friends because it made me feel super classy!

 

This beauty is like Cinderella in a bottle. It’s absolutely stunning and definitely my favorite in my collection now.

And mani number two is provided by my wonderful mother (: She got me the three magnetic Bond colors from OPI, which are so cool! Holographic sparkles and awesome magnets? Perfection.

 

Unfortunately, Winter had set in by the time I tried to take pictures, so they aren’t very good /: I’ll definitely be using MM again very soon though!

After returning home from Boston for the winter, I finally tried my hand at Christmas themed nails! I’ll post pictures of attempts 1 and 2 soon (:

I hope you’re all having a wonderful holiday season so far!

So, it’s been a while…

And I’m really hoping I’ve finally found my grove and will be back to posting regularly soon.

To start off, I guess I’ll review the past month+ that I’ve missed.

About a month ago, the girls on my ballroom team got together for a ladies night of Mean Girls and nail painting in preparation of a competition. Obviously, I went and shared the love of polish!

My mini supply

 

 

Fingers and toes!

 

And the finished results!

I even attempted at doing a water marble manicure on one of the other girls…but, let’s just say we need to work on our aim as the design kept ending up on her knuckles /:

Also recently, of course, was Thanksgiving! I actually was lucky enough to fly home this year, though it was only for a few days. Instead of going all in and doing a Turkey day design on my tips, I opted to go patriotic as my home studio’s dance party was USA themed.

I’m kind of wishing I had done something like this for the 4th of July as I received a lot of compliments on this mani!

And last for now, I just received my birthday present to myself in the mail yesterday! Using Zoya’s Black Friday promotion, I ordered three polishes I have been lusting after for a while. I present to you Aurora, Tru and FeiFei!

I just put on FeiFei and I think I may try painting some snowflakes on my nails in the morning. I will post pictures of my first beauty either way (:

Thank you guys for sticking with me and I’m glad to be back in action!

A England Holographic Gradient

How have I not posted this before? I did this beautiful manicure towards the end of the summer and it is by far my favorite manicure I’ve ever done. And it’s a simple manicure too! All I did was do a gradient with A England’s Princess Tears and Lady of the Lake. Both are beautiful purple holographic polishes, but PT is a lavendar leaning silver and LotL is a deep, dark purple.

 

 

Sorry for the lack of clean up /: I was just too eager to get pictures of this pretty combination.

 

Here you can see the more silver side of PT, as well as the full holographic effect of both colors.

 

 

And a close up to see how well the two colors blend together!

 

I will definitely be recreating this look again because I absolutely loved it. How could I not? It combines pretty purples and sparkles, two of my favorite things!

Sadly, the weather is getting colder and the darkness is coming in Boston, so my pretty holos might have to wait.

Claire’s Magnetix – Magnetic Nail Polish

I’m so sorry about the lack of posts recently. I’ve had a strange schedule the past two weeks, what with moving back to Boston and getting settled etc. I also didn’t bring any nail polish remover back with me…so I had to wear the same manicure for about a week and a half (oh man, that was hard). But I’m back now! First new post: the manicure I wore before I left.

I know magnetic nail polish is super old news by now, but I finally got my hands on a bottle from Claire’s! The first time I tried it, the magnet didn’t seem too strong…so I was a little sad. But the second time, it worked a bit better! I’ll still have to try again, just for fun (:

 

 

 

I think the magnetic effect actually showed up better in pictures than it did in real life!

I’ll definitely be trying this polish again, perhaps even sharing it with some of my ballroom buddies.

Anywho, I’m glad to be back and looking forward to posting more (: