Hard Candy Black Tie Optional

Everyone is going crazy over this polish.
I get it now.

After failing with China Glaze Whirled Away a second time (no pictures were taken, but it was bubbly, lumpy and did not dry for /hours/), I grabbed a bottle of Black Tie Optional from my local Walmart.

Now, everyone says they have a very hard time finding this polish, but I've seen it every time I've been at Walmart. In fact, when the Hard Candy display was mostly empty, BTO was one of the only bottles left.
I guess the nail polish fanatics in Vancouver don't care for the black & white glitter trend? or they don't venture into Walmart?

Anywyas ... The black and white glitter thing started with indie polish makers. They were hard to find and often out of stock - when they came back in stock, they would sell out very quickly. Then everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Here is a not-so-complete list, because companies are still releasing new ones - I've seen new offerings from Maybelline, Claire's and a few others.

For this manicure, I applied two coats of Barrielle Joytini, a peachy-orange almost jelly polish. I got this in a box set of polishes at Winners. The box said "New York Style", but when I looked up that set, Joytini wasn't in it (though, there was an orange), and there were other shades I didn't get. I guess it was random polishes thrown in the box. Not too surprised, because that's what happens with other sets at Winners. I've only actually seen one complete set. Not a big deal, I grabbed the set, because I liked the shades I saw, not because it was a specific set.

After those coats were thoroughly dry, I applied  a single coat of Black Tie Optional.
How was it? 
It was PACKED with glitter, so you can apply it like any old polish. And yes, that is only a single coat in the photo. Unlike Whirled Away, there was no dabbing was required. It is also super quick dry, so I could  apply a topcoat and be on my way without fear of denting or smooshing. I will say I had to dig a little bit to get the big hex glitter, but nothing like Whirled Away, where you had to dig for any glitter.

Reddit Challenge - Half-Moon or Border

The challenge had a choice for this one, and I chose border - half-moons can be really nice, but I had something specific in mind for Canada Day, and the border fit better.

On each finger I did two coats of OPI's Nice Color Eh? - I used this one for last year's Canada Day manicure
Over top of that, I did two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, leaving a border around the top and sides of my nails. I considered closing off the bottom with a strip of Nice Color Eh?, but thought it looked nice without it.
After that was all dry, I stamped on some maple leaves from Bundle Monster plate BM04 (also used last year). Since the design is 3 maple leaves stacked on top of each other, I used the largest one for my thumb, and the mid-sized one for the rest of my fingers.
Unfortunately, I mucked up my pinky after applying topcoat :(

Revlon Selects 3D Jewel Appliques

Ok,
It's been a while since I did a review of a product sent to me by Revlon. I had bare nails and I didn't want to wait for nail polish to dry, so I reached for my pack of 3D Jewel Appliques. I received the Floral Fatale pattern.

This is a very cute and busy pink/white/black/silver pattern. Flowers and silver geometric shapes. It even has a bit of an iridescent shine to it.

The Review:

First up, I read the instructions - pick the right size, apply, fold over nail edge, file off excess. Just like all the other nail strips out there. Easy as pie!
Then I looked at removal. These are not real nail polish, so for removal, you simply peel them off starting at the cuticle.
My heart sank a bit at that, because I have weak nails, and peeling things off of your nails can really damage them.

I elected to apply a basecoat to help prevent damage.

Application was super easy - peel and stick, smooth down.
The only minus here were the small range of sizes. My index, middle and ring fingers are all pretty much the same size - it was tough getting ones to fit. I ended up using a couple of slightly too-small ones. Also, my thumb was in-between the largest and second largest size, so I had to trim that one down - which is pretty normal.

The excess strip filed away pretty easily, but I encountered a slight hitch ... I had stretched one of them to make it fit, but once I filed the end off, it un-stretched and I had a bare patch at the tip of my nail. It was small and the busy pattern on the applique hid it well, so I figured it was ok.

I wore it, went to bed, woke up and had my shower.
This is when it all started to fall apart. They caught in my hair, shifted and lifted. I'm not sure if this is because I used a basecoat, so your mileage may vary.

I peeled them off afterward and they came off really nicely - it looks like the adhesive is gentle enough that it shouldn't damage your nails. It only lifted the basecoat off of one nail. I'm just wondering if they elected to go for a gentle adhesive rather than staying power.

Verdict: they're cute if you want a cute complex pattern without all the work. Probably only good for a couple of days. I personally wouldn't buy them, but I think they'd be great for a lot of people - especially if they wanted a really fancy manicure for an event.

Reddit Challenge - Matte

This week's challenge is Matte.
I have two matte polishes, so I figured I would use those, rather than just using a matte topcoat.

I went with a simple two-tone diagonal manicure.

Avon Matte Concrete - grey. This can get a little thick - as you can see on my ring finger. But it's a really pretty shade of grey.
Avon Matte Red Velvet - shimmery burgundy with a bit of gold. This one is a bit easier to work with than the grey, it looks really pretty both shiny and matte.

I did this one freehand, but you can do this type of manicure really easily with tape (and you'll get straighter lines)

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by a Movie / TV

This one was actually pretty easy, because I've wanted to do this as a manicure for a little while ...

The movie I picked was "Oz the Great and Powerful"

Here is a picture where you can sort of see the manicure in question:

And, here is my version:

I started with one coat of Essence Sweet as Candy for a sheer base.
Then I drew a triangle on my nail with Zoya Envy - an almost-black pine green.
I went over top of that with China Glaze Winter Holly
Finally, I did a line of gold just inside the edges of the triangle - I used my Icing by Claire's gold striping polish.

Reddit Challenge - Summer and Galaxy

This is proving to be a busy few months!

I have two weeks for you again.

First up is Summer ... I actually received an email from Butter London with a video tutorial on how to achieve this look using their summer shades. I picked 3 similar shades from my collection and went at it. I'm not that great with my dotting tools yet ... but I'm sure I'll get better at it.
Super bright and super cute!

1 coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White
1 coat of Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine
Blue dots with an unnamed blue from an Ombre set I bought.
Pink dots are Sinful Colors Dream On

---

After I took off the above manicure, the nails on my left hand started to peel really, really badly, so I had to cut and file my nails down to nubbins ...

Next challenge is Galaxy - I wanted to do a single galaxy on all my fingers - I think it worked.

This was done using mostly Essence polishes, so I'll just list the shades.
2 coats of  Black is Back
Using a sponge, I dabbed on (in order) Choose Me!, Walk on the Wild Side, Let's Get Lost, Grey-t To Be Here, and Date in the Moonlight.
On top, I dabbed a bit of KiSS Big Break Blue #3 (glitter in a very sheer blue jelly base) from their blue Gradation kit.
Then I finished it off with Quo silver glitter from their "Nice" Christmas nail polish pack.

phew!

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by a Pattern

My "inspired by a pattern" manicure was actually inspired by a game!

My gaming group is just starting a Pathfinder game set in Ancient Greece, so I thought, why not do a Greek Key pattern on my nails.

2 coats of Sinful Colors White on White - I finally switched over to my new white. My Zoya one is getting a bit thick, and it's also an off-white, so I didn't think it would work as well with this one, especially since I was going to be using a white detail polish.

On my ring finger, I did one coat of It's So Easy Stripe Rite polish in blue.

For the white nails, I used the same striper polish to add the design
On the blue nail, I used my Claire's white striper polish.
I also used these for corrections where needed. Unfortunately, the Clair's polish has a single long hair that sticks out and I couldn't find my nail scissors to trim it down, so it was a bit messy. I'll have to fix that before I try another really detailed manicure.

I think it came out pretty well.

Reddit Challenge - Pastel

I bought some nail studs, so I wanted to do something with them, and came up with this little pattern:

I think it looks a little bit art deco -ish

Anyways, the colours I used were
1 coat of Zoya White (to create a base for the pastel)
2 coats of a miscellaneous pale aqua colour from an 'ombre' set I bought (I'll show the set at a later date)
1 coat of Essence Black is Back, applied with a nail art brush

I pressed in the studs while the polish was still soft, and then I topped it all off with a clear topcoat.

The first stud fell off after around 24 hours (and chores), and I picked the rest off the following day.

It was fun while it lasted!

Reddit Challenge - Text

I knew this one would be a stamping challenge, because I didn't want to do another newspaper manicure just yet.

I used 1 coat of Sinful Colors Rain Storm - I really love this blue. It's got a slight grey tone to it, and the polish is perfect in a single coat.

I used my Zoya white and Bundle Monster plate BM-311 to add the ampersands.
BM-311 has stamping images with numbers, a love letter, "love" written in different fonts and then the ampersands. I figured having little &&&& all over my fingers would be cute.

Next week's challenge is Pastel.
I've been a bit tardy with my posts lately, but that's mostly because work has been wearing me out and we've barely been home. I've always had something on my nails, but haven't had a chance to get nice photos of the manicures.

Reddit Challenge - Yellow

Ok, something simple this week.
I actually have several yellow polishes. This is a bit surprising, because I really am not a big fan of yellow.
They're all different too - pastel creme, scented bright yellow creme, sheer super shimmery yellow and opaque slightly shimmery yellow.

I used my opaque, slightly shimmery yellow for this one - Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine
Since yellows can be difficult to apply, I started with a coat of Zoya White. After the white was dry, I applied a generous coat of the Essence polish. I really like this one. I probably could have gone with two coats, but one worked.

After the yellow was dry, I topped it off with a coat of China Glaze Whirled Away.
One of the many popular multi-sized black and white matte glitters ("matte glitter meaning it's not metallic - it's still shiny though ...)

I had a bit of an issue with this one. It might have been that I put on Whirled Away too thick, or I put on Out The Door (quick dry topcoat) before everything was dry enough, but I got bubbles. You can see them in the photo.

When I removed the manicure, You could really tell it went all the way through the polish!

The rest of the manicure came off really easily with the foil method.