Sally Hansen Color Foil Titanium Flush Swatch

~purchased be me~


Remember that mini-haul I had recently with the color foils? I went back to that target and not only did they have more colors on clearance, they had dropped the price down to $2.08! I finally was able to get the Cobalt Chrome shade I wanted, yay! Now if I can only find Liquid Gold I'll have all the colors that I wanted from the collection. Don't you love it when limited edition collections work in your favor? ^_^

I know these say to apply without base or top coat but I've heard from others that if you do it that way, not only do you see all the ridges and lines from your natural nails but the mani only lasts a day or two before chipping. So! I just applied this over an old manicure. Worked like a charm! These will work great for when you want a mani change but don't have time to remove your old one. Nail polish sweatpants!

They apply very smoothly but shake them very well before use! When I put my first coat on and didn't shake it properly, it applied almost like an ombre effect on my nails. I used two coats here with no topcoat. The chrome mirror-ness is very nice. When you apply, lightly "float" the brush and try not to go over the same spot too much to reduce brushstrokes. Next, I tried to apply top coat. I used a fast drying one on my pinky (NYC Grand Central Station) and a regular one on the rest of my fingers. At first I was worried that I ruined the chrome effect because the polish became slightly...cloudy? when the top coat was initially applied but that went away when it dried.

Topcoat does take away a tiny bit of the chrome-ness but not enough to be really noticeable. I think the extended wear time is worth that little bit of shine you lose. I think the regular non-fast drying topcoat is better over this than the fast drying. I haven't tried it with Seche Vite yet but I imagine it will be the same.

Sunlight pic! Sorry for the weird angle but I was losing sunlight and had to chase it around my kitchen haha. I think these color foils are pretty cool and I'm glad I was able to snag them (on clearance no less!) before they disappeared. If you haven't gotten these yet, go run and see if you can still catch them at stores.

Rainbow Glitter Placement Nail Art

Blah Monday. It should just be removed from the week! Here is a bright little bit of nail art to cheer you up from the Monday blues!

Note sun-bathing puppy in background

It looks like it takes a while but once you get into the zone of glitter placement, it actually goes pretty fast! Supplies needed:

The polishes from left to right is Orly Bonder (basecoat), Rimmel Black Satin, Wet N Wild Clear Nail Protector (The glue for this whole operation!) and NYC Grand Central Station (topcoat). You then need something to pick up the individual pieces of glitter with and of course, glitter! For the picker-upper, you can use a dotting tool or toothpick but then you will need a little puddle of clear coat for which you will dip said tool in to make it sticky enough to pick up the glitter. Too lazy for that? Invest in a wax pencil and there is no dipping required -- you just have to keep it sharpened to a nice point. I bought mine from Born Pretty Store which offers free shipping worldwide. The glitter is from Martha Stewart. They usually come in tubes but my sister bought some for crafting and I stole mini-baggies of each color :). You can buy them from craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Michael's or online from Amazon and the like.

sun-bathing puppy woke up!

There are plenty or online tutorials you can watch/read for glitter placement so I won't bore you with picture by picture shots of mine. You just basically apply your basecoat, apply your base color, then, working on one nail at a time you put a strip of your clear coat down the middle of the nail and lay your column of glitter. Doing it this way will keep your glitter placement straight. Then you put a strip of clear on the left of the middle column, place your glitters and repeat on the other side. You can also bring the glitter all the way to the edges but for that you will have to trim your glitter with clippers. I only did it for the tips and I think it still looks great! If you only need a few half pieces of glitter, you will normally find some in the container and won't have to snip them yourself. 

bubbly topcoat :(

Put on about two coats of top coat and you're done! I think I had the fan on when I put on my topcoat 'cause it bubbled a little. It didn't detract from the overall look though! Though it may look it, I didn't have any glitter pieces poking out. If it dulls in a few days or the glitter begins to poke out, just lay on another coat of topcoat. This manicure ended up lasting a full week for me. It's very sparkly and shiny in the sun!

SHING!!

Blinding, no? I think this is a really fun easy manicure. It looks like a ton more work than it actually is. Also, if you have a crappy non-dominant hand, this is practically fool-proof! It took me a little longer, but my right hand looked as good as my left! By not bringing it all the way to edges, I think it helped the manicure last longer and saved me a lot of time from not having to clip the glitter. For awesome glitter placement tutorials and manicures you can also check out the blog of the queen of glitter placement Polish All The Nails. So what do you think of this manicure? Would you like to see me do a tutorial for this? Let me know!