China Glaze Frostbite & OPI In True Stefani Fashion Swatches (and jelly sandwich!)

Today I have two swatches and a jelly sandwich for y'all!  The swatches are China Glaze Frostbite, a bright blue shimmer, and OPI In True Stefani Fashion, a silver holo glitter.  They looked so good together I decided to try Frostbite as a jelly sandwich and it worked great!


Ok first up is China Glaze Frostbite, a bright royal blue polish with a lovely metallic shimmer.  This polish applied really well, but it is definitely sheer...I used 3 coats to build opacity.  This is one of those colors that glows from within, I think due to the metallic shimmer.

Morgan Taylor Scene Queen Swatch

Today I have the most amazing polish I've ever seen, Morgan Taylor Scene Queen.  It is truly wonderful!  It looks like a silvery metallic nude and then it leans a champagne blush color. Seriously, I'm obsessed.

Orly Darkest Shadow Swatch- Smoky Collection Fall 2014

Today I have a polish from the Orly Smoky Collection (Fall 2014) called Darkest Shadow.    Same disclosure as the last one, pictures do NO justice for this polish.  I don't know why it was so hard to photograph but in real life it is gorgeous! 

Orly Smoked Out Swatch- Smoky Collection Fall 2014

Today I have polish from the Orly Smoky Collection (Fall 2014) called Smoked Out.  Let me go ahead and say that pictures do NO justice for this polish.  I don't know why it was so hard to photograph but in real life it is gorgeous!

Stone Cold Payton

Today I'm showing y'all a very simple tape mani, dark and vampy for fall but still has glitz. This was done using Zoya Payton, with China Glaze Stone Cold on the accent.

Zoya Payton is a dark cranberry to plum jelly base with holographic glitter scattered throughout.  It is a truly beautiful polish, and in sunlight it really lights up!  My accent nail I taped off with striping tape and used China Glaze Stone Cold, a dark grey shimmer with a matte finish.  Finished up with a coat of Seche Vite.

Striping & Glitz

Hey y'all! Up for today is a black and white and glitter all over mix match mani :)  I was going for a dark, simple colored mani with lots of eye appeal and this definitely met expectations.  I was inspired by this post on the nail polish challenge.

First I used Finger Paints Where Art Renoir, a black polish with silver glitter, two coats for my base.  For my middle finger and the base for my ring finger I used a base of China Glaze Gossip over Gimlets then two coats of OPI In True Stefani Fashion.  On the ring finger I used double thick striping tape stripes and added FP Where Art Renoir on top.

China Glaze Autumn Nights

Happy Fall Y'all!
Today I have 2 polishes from the China Glaze Autumn Nights Fall 2013 Collection.

The formula and coverage was wonderful with both polishes and the colors are fantastic.  CG Gossip Over Gimlets is a very opaque silver foil with tiny gold flakes that you can barely see, but they add a nice warm tone to the silver.  CG Rendezvous With You is a very unique dark warm purple foil, I don't think I've seen this color before. 

This is 2 coats of CG Rendezvous With You and tips are one coat CG Gossip Over Gimlets.  Both of these are foil finish shimmers and they are gorgeous!

Zoya Daul Swatch

This is a purple, leaning to a lavender shade but much darker,  packed with golden pinkish shimmer. It also flashes a ton of other colors. Its a bit sheer, this is 3 coats, but i just love the glass flecked look :) 

  *** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)

O.P.I My Private Jet

This is the infamous MPJ, although it's the new version.  The old version was more of a charcoal color and a linear holo, this is more brown with a scattered holo although it looks black in most indoor lighting, and there is also a blue flash version; all with the same name!  Regardless of the holo, I love this color.  The TraceFace Philes has a great comparison on the different formulas of this color.

If you follow my blog you may remember I posted about my all time lemming (here).  I got my nails done in my normal salon 3.5 years ago and still remember this gorgeous color, but  I wasn't into polish as much as now so I never knew the name.  All I have of it are a few pictures from that time that you can barely see my nails in.  I thought I had found the color in Finger Paints Sketch-y until I got it on, photographed it and found more old pictures of my nails and realized it was no where close. Ladies; I fully believe MPJ is that color. Check  out the comparison pictures below, bottom left is probably the best picture.  I'm positive this is it!

My 3.5 year old lemming mani

This is 2 coats MPJ, it dries a little satin but clear coat glossed it right up.  Accent nail is one coat MPJ, China Glaze For Audrey, & Orly Nite Owl.  Clear coat is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. Next time I think I will try a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust for some extra holo sparkle, I wanted a simpler look today. This is what I call a fishtail chevron because a chevron is generally straight not curved but a fishtail is also referred to as this, which I'm calling a fishtail braid. Here is a tutorial from Chalkboard Nails for this design :)

*** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and thanks for looking***

Zoya Mimi 50th Birthday Nails

Today I have a mani from my Mama's 50th birthday yesterday:)

So here is the motivation for this mani... The color is Zoya Mimi, Mimi is my son's name for my Mama (although we say it more than him at this age) which is actually why I bought this polish.  The design is actually an "L" which is the roman numeral for 50.  There are also 5 little polka dots on each nail for each decade she's been alive and the black and white is representing "Over the Hill".  I love how well this represents her, simple but still gets your attention and has a beautiful glow.  Happy Birthday Mama!

Warning: these are not good swatches, the first was taken right after painting my nails but the pictures came out blurry.  the second pictures came out better but i had broken my index finger and my cuticles are a bit rough.

I LOVE Mimi, this color is so amazing! It's a gorgeous purple by itself and then it flashes pink or flashes gold.  It is one of those lovely glass fleck shimmers I love so much.  The Silver Aluminum was a bit thick but that's to be expected considering it's a pretty old polish that I need to thin.  I taped this off but also could have free handed it, I just didn't have the time to start over if I messed up. The Gentlemen! was wonderful also, went on like a dream, no fishing for stars, nice formula and coverage.

This is 2 coats Zoya Mimi, the designs are Maybelline Express Finish Silver Aluminum, the accent is two coats Well Nails The Gentlemen! and all are topped off with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

*** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and thanks for looking***

Zoya FeiFei Swatch

I honestly don't even know how to describe this color. The base is a steely blue color packed with tons of shimmer, and has the lovely glass fleck look. There are a million colors of shimmer in this so it hard to explain, its something you need to see in person. This is 3 (rather sloppy :/) coats, its a bit sheer.

  *** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

Lemming polish

Three years ago when i was having my nails done every few weeks at a salon, my nail guy picked a polish for me and i fell in love but forgot to go back and find it.
Every time i have shopped for polish since then, i look for something similar. No such luck online or in store. Too red, too purple, too black, right color but not enough shimmer/fleck, right shimmer wrong color. It has been incredibly disappointing. Until this weekend.

For reference, here is the one shot i have where you can see the original color, If anyone thinks the have a better dupe please let me know!

I ran in sallys 10 minutes before they closed while my husband and son circled the parking lot. I glanced over the China glaze display, looked at clearance, then checked out the finger paints rack. I find something i like, ask salesgirl for something to test it on and she doesn't have anything. She is nice enough to test it on her own finger for me and its my color! If not the same brand its a close dupe of whatever it was. Working off memory and the one badly lit picture i have where you can see my nails, the original may have had slightly more silver shimmer/glass fleck and the particles were larger. That gave it more of a brown tint than a red tint but its close enough to make me happy! 

close up

So long story long, here it is. Finger paints sketch-y. Gorgeous plum-wine color with red and purple shimmer/glass fleck that flashes brown, red, purple, bronze, and wine. Sparkles in the sun and gorgeous grown up shade in regular lighting. Formula was great, two coats for full coverage. Shiny finish on it own but i prefer a top coat for depth and protection. Im absolutely in love with this color. And utterly excited i finally found it :)

brown flash

Base coat, 2 coats sketch-y, one coat instadry clearly quick.

purple flash

Frankenstein mani coming up later this week!

***EDIT: I found a better picture of the color in question! This is actually not very close to it, but I believe I have found the actual polish! ***



 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

chic peek stripes

This is two coats Ulta chic peek and two coats clear accent nail is sally hansen diamond strength save the date, wet n wild wet cement, and Ulta chic peek. Stripes made with scotch tape.

 

 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

Fall mani

This (L-R) is wet n wild wet cement, Ulta chic peek, the color workshop brown, and pure ice iced copper. All are two coats color and two coats clear.

 

 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

wet cement\chic peek

One coat wet n wild megalast in wet cement (201C), 2 coats Ulta chic peek (one good coat wouldve worked but i was sloppy), 2 coats Sally hansen insta-dry clearly quick (110).
Love the chocolate milk color of the wet cement color but it was very runny, would definitely need 2+ coats for full coverage, the Ulta was a bit thicker than im used to but with a brush full of polish it went on smooth. Love this clear coat, i was leaning toward trying Seche vite clear coat but read somewhere this was just as good

 

 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/