China Glaze Stone Cold

Hello lovely readers! TGIF! And this time I do mean it! This week has been crazy for me. I had my house and especially my room upside down for repairs and stuff. I got new windows but the process lasted 3 days. And on the first day the saddest thing happened. I had a huge break on my right index finger! Those following me on Instagram know that I've been sporting super nubs since Monday. I still have 2 more posts with long nails for you and then you'll see them. I'm so nervous because nubs are harder to polish, harder to photograph and my hands are generally a mess. It took me a few days to get used to them and it still makes me sad. Oh well, on to the polish! 

China Glaze Stone Cold indoors, artificial light

This is not a polish I would normally wear or post this time of the year, but I had it on a few weeks ago and needed to post it because it still has my beautiful long nails in it. After all, it is from a collection that came out in the spring, although it totally screamed fall to me. I got two polishes from the Hunger Games collection: Stone Cold because it's a gorgeous matte and Smoke and Ashes because it has amazing flecks in it. You know I love mattes. So how could I have passed this beauty. It's a little darker than stone in my opinion, but still has the stone-like feel to it thanks to the silver shimmer and the matte finish. 

The application of this polish has a story of its own. When I first got it I swatched it on a nail wheel and was pleased to see how opaque it was with one coat, but at the same time it seemed quite thick. I went for a full mani and I had trouble applying it like with no other polish. It was so thick that it dragged awfully if I went over a spot for the second time. And I couldn't even follow my cuticle line properly with the brush. The result was terrible. I just wiped it all off and picked up some other polish. A few weeks later I picked it back up and decided to add thinner, although I was worried about how it would react. After several (maybe 5-6) drops of Seche Restore I was able to use it properly. I ended up doing 2 thin coats and the drying time was very short because mattes always dry quickly. I wore it like this for one or two days with minimal tip wear. I then decided to add some top coat to see how it looks. 

China Glaze Stone Cold with top coat, indoors, artificial light

The top coat definitely makes it look darker and if you are not a fan of mattes, this is still a gorgeous charcoal with silver shimmer. I love it both ways but I still like the alone version better because it's more original. I don't know what happened to my skin tone in these photos. It looks like my skin is made of paper. I only noticed this now as I was editing them and there was nothing I could do (I'm no Photoshop genius), so you'll have to forgive me.

China Glaze Stone Cold with top coat in artificial direct light

Sorry for this long post. I hope my ramblings didn't make you run away. If you made it this far kudos! You are a hero! Thanks for stopping by and I will talk to you soon!

Monday Blues: China Glaze Splish Splash

Hello my beautiful readers! It's time for another Monday blue! I'm having new windows installed today so my house is a mess. I hope I can get this post up in time. Forgive me if I'm not that talkative today, but I have a lot of pictures to speak instead of me. 

This is China Glaze Splish Splash from this year's Summer Neons collection. I don't really know how a blue neon should look like but I can tell you that this is bright! It's sort of a water color so the name is very appropriate. Some of the other names in this collection are a little weird, but they definitely nailed this one. It has tons of gorgeous shimmer and it's just such a yummy color. 

My pictures are all in artificial light because in the sun photos it looked much lighter than in reality. Like most neons it dries to a matte finish that absolutely needs a shiny top coat. It was the first time I used Seche Vite and I didn't wrap my tips properly, so please excuse the shrinkage (it looks like tip wear but it really is not). 

The formula is pretty thick but still manageable. I did two coats and there was a decent amount of opacity. The problem however is the drying time. This dries very slow, so prepare to use your best fast drying top coat over it! 

I think this is my favorite summer polish so far! I still have to try Orly Skinny Dip though, so we'll see. Don't forget to check out the other Monday Blues posts, by these lovely ladies: 

Gosia from Life in Color!

Marta from ChitChat Nails

Stephanie from Sincerely Stephanie

Mandy from Chameleon Stampede
Marisa from Polish Obsession

Color Club Worth The Risque and some stamping

Hello my lovelies! Hope your weekend was great and you are enjoying this Sunday. I have some holo goodness for you today. It seemed to fit perfectly with the sunny weather we are having lately so I had to put it on. 

Color Club Worth The Risque in the sun

Worth The Risque is an amazing silver holo. It's more of a scattered holo but the effect is truly magnificent in the sun. And the color is so elegant and pretty! It comes from the Femme Fatale collection for Spring 2009, but it's still available at online etailers. This collection also has the amazing Revvvolution, which is on my wishlist as well. 

Application is a dream with this one. It was opaque in two coats (the first one was thin, the second one a little thicker) and there are no issues with dragging or anything like that. It dries to a shiny finish and my pictures are all without any top coat. I think the top coat might make the holo effect fade a little. 

Since today is Sunday I decided to participate in this weeks Adventures In Stamping challenge. I haven't stamped in a while so I'm a little rusty. The theme was "Something I love" and since I love holos it was perfect. The result was a bit of a fail for me but I'm gonna post it anyway and let you judge by yourself. 

I decided to use the other Color Club polish I have, Gossip Column, for the stamping. I think it was because of the consistency of this polish that the designs were smudged on some fingers. I should have redone the pinky but I was too lazy to do so. The plate I used is the m63 fauxnad. The combo of teal and silver is kinda weird in my opinion, but it started to grow on me as I was wearing this mani. I can't wait to read your opinions about this mani! What do you think about the color combo? 

Hello to summer! Rimmel Limealicious

Hello loves! Hope you are all doing well! I'm doing great today because it's officially the first day of summer vacation for me. I had my last exam yesterday and I'm finally able to relax and do what I please. I've made it my mission to have very bright and obnoxious nails this summer and I think today's manicure will totally achieve that. 

This is Rimmel Limealicious from the 60 Seconds line. I picked it up today along with two others because my favorite drugstore had a sale on these. The color is so unusual and I don't have anything similar in my collection. So naturally, I had to put it on immediately and use some of the fimo slices I got from ebay a while ago. I don't even remember when I did this the last time, namely to post a manicure immediately after doing it. I was so eager to show this to you! 

in the sun

Limealicious is a yellow green creme that goes on opaque in just 2 coats. I had to search what this color is called because it's not a lime green. It's a bit more olive in reality than it comes out in pictures so according to a color chart, yellow green it is. The formula is good and the only problem I encountered while applying it was the stiffness of the (wide and flat) brush. The following picture shows the color a little better. 

This was my first time using fimo slices and let me tell you, it's harder than I imagined! They kept lifting up on the sides so I drowned them in top coat, which ended up creating bubbles around them. I didn't use glue because I don't have any, but I think I should get some and try using it to see if it would turn out better. That's it for today. Hope you are enjoying the great weather and aren't too overwhelmed by the heat!

Sandwich Day

Hello loves! How are you all doing? Today's post is a blue jelly sandwich for Sandwich Day! If you don't know what that is let me fill you in. 

Polish Days is when a lot of bloggers decide to post a certain manicure or polish at the same time. And when I found out that the next theme is something I could do too, I just had to participate. I did this in a rush but I had to do it even with exams and everything. So here we go!

I started with a base of OPI No Room For The Blues. This is one of my favorites because application is flawless and it dries fast, so it makes for a perfect base for nail art. The glitter is NYX Carnival (2 coats). I'm debating if I should do a comparison between this and Essence Circus Confetti. Please let me know if you would like me to do one! Finally, I layered one coat of the jelly, which is Aden Cosmetics 92. This dries to a matte finish so it needed a coat of top coat as well. 

direct artificial light

I don't know what it is with jelly sandwiches, but I've noticed they are pretty hard to photograph. They come out more flat in photos compared to real life. So I took some pictures in direct light to bring out the shine. There was no sun the day I did this so no sun pictures unfortunately. I really enjoyed wearing this and ended up wearing it for 5 days between exams and all. 

Make sure you check out all the blogs participating in the Sandwich Day event!

Polly Polish
The Nail Polish Project
Susy In Color
Beauty by Jenny
Mara In Polishland
Nail Tart
OMG Polish Em
Colour Coated
Love Varnish
Hooked on Polish
The Crimson Petal
Sparkles Make Me Happy
Pris Nails
Time On My Nails
Refined & Polished
Oh So Lacquered
xoxo Alexis
Cuti-CLUE-less
Sincerely Stephanie
Pretty Painted Nails
My Polish Stash
A Lacquered Affair
Fab Fingertips
Nail Of This Week
Wendy's Delights
Charlotte's Nails
Unhas a Trois
Polished Off
Colores de Carol
Nailutopia
Manicurity
Ishah x Beauty
Pish Posh & Polish

Fancy Phalanges
Frenzied Polisher
Right Hand Nails
Fooding With Emily
Inky Polisholicious
Karinea
Nail Photos by Lany
Not Without My Polish

If you want to take part in future events check out this page to find out how. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did and thanks for stopping by! 

PS: I hope all the links are working and the names are correct. I will be adding more links later. Special thanks to Hannah for putting them all together!

Later edit: Sorry it took me so long to update the links but it was night over here. Hope everything is ok now!