Era Chooses! -Sinful Colors Summer Peach

 A couple of you voted, and even though it was only a couple, the decision was unanimous. Y'all wanted to see what I would do if given a random color by a two-year old.

Well, here's last night's pick:

Surprisingly, the orange turned out great.

Era chose:
     Sinful Colors Summer Peach
I used:
     Hard Candy Black Tie Optional
     Sinful Colors Snow Me White (For a base, to make the neon pop)

I was VERY apprehensive about these. I do NOT like orange! But as I wore them today, they grew on me, which is shocking. My coworkers liked the simple design and the striking color.

I chose the Black Tie Optional because I just got it last night and HAD to try it. I've been looking for a black glitter for AGES and this was honestly the closest thing I've found that was under $5. And because I really couldn't think of anything to pair it with that wouldn't look terribly Halloween-ey.

Acid Wash Nails

Another one from Pinterest, sorry.
I followed this tutorial to get this look :)

I used four colors:

This was the closest I could get to the colors. The only one that's on is the 15 Minutes of Frame.

I used Rue Beaute! Mint, Finger Paints 15 Minutes of Frame, Finger Paints Inkblot Blue, and Sinful Colors Dream On.

I didn't like the way this one turned out- at first. But then it really grew on me :)
This manicure took about 4 hours to complete, because I had to wait for all of the layers to dry. Disregarding top and bottom coats, this took 8 coats of paint.
I will probably not attempt this one again for a while.

Color Blocks and Animal Print

This one I did not find on Pinterest (surprise, surprise)! This one, I found over at Nails by Kayla Shevonne, which is one of the blogs I follow.
Hers look much better, which is one of the reasons why I threw in the gold striping tape.

I used Sinful Colors' Timbleberry for this look, Sinful Colors' Snow Me White, and Sinful Colors' Black on Black, along with gold striping tape from Sammy Dress,
I honestly should have gone with a different pink, I felt like it really subtracted from the overall look. Maybe next time I'll go with a mint green or something more... pastel.

What do you guys think, what color would you have chosen? Please leave a comment letting me know!

Fun with Holos

Sorry it's been so long! I got a promotion at work that changed my hours (I'm now 3:30-Midnight), my babysitter quit with no notice, and I've got an almost-boyfriend that I spend most of my days off with, so I've been pretty busy! Please forgive me!

After getting the Born Pretty holo #7 and then getting the FingerPaints Peacock Portrait, I HAD to do a collaboration of the two! 

On my thumb is a gradient with #7, with a coat or two of Peacock Portrait. My ring finger is #7 with a couple coats of Peacock Portrait.

I used three coats of Peacock Portrait over black to get some opacity. The glitter is not terribly dense, as you can see on my ring finger.

Peacock Portrait is on every finger, while #7 is only on the thumb and ring finger.

Peacock Portrait is a chunky holo with teal hexagons. I'm in absolute love! My ONLY criticisms would be to make the glitter denser, with a faster-drying formula. It took FOREVER for one coat to dry, and I honestly could have used a couple more coats, but I got tired and frustrated, waiting for it to dry.

It was a very fun, very distracting mani a good way to get away from work lol

Sweet Summer Lemonade, Topcoat Comparison

So I recently made my first purchase at the Born Pretty Store, and if you read the previous post, you saw that I got a round of fruit fimo decals.

At first, I was gonna do watermelon nails, but I decided to use the lemons and make lemonade nails first. I usually HATE yellow, but I really like LAC's Hysteria.

These were really fun to make!

1. Prep clean as usual, basecoat.
2. Paint with a white base (I used Sinful Colors' Snow Me White), and then add two coats of your yellow over it. I used LAC's Hysteria, which is a neon jelly, I think. It layers REALLY well. You can find it at Dollar General or online.

For the accents:

1. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle your glitter over the tip of your accent nails. (I got the glitter I used from the Dollar Tree, but honestly, I saw some that looked the same at Walmart today in the craft aisle.) Run a dry brush over it gently to knock off excess glitter. 
2. Using a quick dry topcoat, secure the slices of fimo to the nail. Press and hold into place until mostly dry.
3. Topcoat

For the "regular nails:

1. Take your white nail polish and create rings of white using a coffee stirring straw. Allow to dry
2. Apply a thin coat of Hysteria, allow to dry
3. Create larger rings of white, using a regular straw. Allow to dry.
4. Apply another thin coat of Hyteria, allow to dry
5. Using a dotting tool, pen, pin, toothpick, etc, throw on some random dots.
6. Topcoat

The night before I did these, I received an order from Sally's Beauty Supply, which had a bottle of Seche Vite in it. It's currently on sale! Plus, I have a Sally's membership, AND I had coupons. I got the bottle for about $4.50.

SO I put it up to the test. On my left hand, I used my [new] favorite, NYC's Turbo Dry Top Coat, and on my right, I used the Seche Vite.

Here's my observations:

• You can't tell the difference, once they're dried. And they dry at about the same rate. They're both very shiny, very hard, very smooth.
• Seche Vite smells like one of the cheap polishes I won't buy at the dollar store (yes, there are some that I won't buy!). I REALLY found it off-putting, and I did not like it AT ALL.
• NYC is a little thinner, but it's kinda hard to tell unless you're looking for things to compare
• So far, neither of them have chipped. In fact, most of those pictures I took about 10 minutes ago.
• There's a bit more bubbling on the hand with the NYC, but I don't know if it's because of the topcoat or because I was being hasty with letting my lower layers dry. 
• (Probably me being hasty.)

Honestly, I think LAC's Turbo Dry Topcoat is the winner. For the price I paid (50 cents), it has a much better value. Seche Vite isn't 3-Free either, second ingredient is Toulene.

Neon Water Shredding

For this design, I wasn't going for the traditional water spotting, more like shredding the nail polish. Kinda like this. And I did it in neon.

These two were my favorite. The watermarble on my ring finger turned out SO PRETTY, and I love the pink on my middle finger.

To get this look:
Paint your nails white over your basecoat.
Prep with tape.
Get your watermarbling glass of room-temp water, and drop one drop on the surface. Grab your hand sanitizing spray and spray the nail polish once or twice. Find a spot you like and dip your fingers in.
Put your favorite topcoat over and enjoy!


For this look, I used Sinful Colors' Snow Me White, Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away, Sinful Colors' Bikini, and Wet'N'Wild's Limelight. 
For topcoats, I used NYC's Turbo Dry Topcoat and NYC's Matte Me Crazy. 

I'm REALLY loving the NYC's Turbo Dry Topcoat. And I got it for $.50! SUCH the best!

Born Pretty Store

I've been wanting a holo polish for a while, so when Born Pretty had their holos on sale, PLUS the 10% off discount if you follow Polish Art Addiction, who has her own coupon code, I kinda had to finally get one!

Get it here

For the price, Born Pretty's holo polishes are very small. I wasn't aware that it was only .2 fl oz, which is really disappointing. The regular (non-sale) price is $12.88! That's... WOW. One of the reasons I assumed they were full-sized bottles!

I haven't gotten the chance to try it, as Era hasn't gone to bed yet (it's only 1:15 and I JUST got the mail. Had to share this asap!!) and it's such a tiny bottle I would feel it a waste to do a swatch on a fake nail.

I'm gonna use it tonight.

NEXT ITEM!

I've always wanted to try Fimo decals, and I REALLY like the fruit-salad-looking nails, so...

Get them here

Ooooh! They're tiny and rubbery and very cute! Apples and oranges and watermelon and citrus and strawberries!  I can't wait to figure out the designs I'm gonna try!

I was very happy with the size of this item, there are quite a bit of each design, and the detail is great :)

Overall, I'm very excited to use my new stuff!



These items were NOT given to me by Born Pretty for review, nor were they given as gifts.