Blue Nails for the #31DC2018Weekly

Howdy!

Purchased by Me

It only took 5 weeks before I broke out my old standard, the skittlette.  This have been one of my most favorite nail art ideas of all time.  I generally do my skittlette manicures with two plain nails, two nails with nail art on them and then a textured accent nail.  You can do them in any way that you like as long at two nails are the same.  For the blue prompt this week, I combined light blue and pink together with some unicorn fun.  Let's take a look!

Inspired by a Pattern for the #31DC2017Weekly

Hi all!

Press Sample

I hope all my fellow Floridians are weathering this storm well.  It's a doozy!  I have another look for you all as I try to quickly catch up with the #31DC2017Weekly.  I did some plaid nails!  I love stamping now I know why I stay away from straight lined designs.  They are difficult to line up correctly.  Especially if you can't get a clear jelly stamper to work for you.  Some of these are a little but I don't think it is noticeable much in real life.

Double Side Dots with Born Pretty Store Studs

Hello!

Press Sample

I have a quick little manicure to share with you today!  It is Labor Day here in the states which basically means the summer is over.  Even though it will be hotter than heck here in Florida for another few months, we are still going to be calling it fall shortly.  It's already Pumpkin Everything out there!  But we don't have to let summer be gone so quickly.  Keep summer alive with neon nails!

When I saw these black and white studs arrive from Born Pretty Store, I knew that I wanted to use them with some neon colors.  The contrast of the stark black and white against a neon background is quite appealing.  I started off with a coat of white topped with two coats with China Glaze "Flip Flop Fantasy.  This neon peachy pink is the most difficult thing to photograph.  It is so bright and never shows up the correct color on camera.  But since is it is such a quintessential summer shade, I know most of you have seen it in person before.  I stuck the round black metal studs with white polka dots to the side of my nail in #doublesidedots style when I added a glossy top coat.  It is such a simple design but looks so cool.  Have you double side dotted yet?

What do you think of this mani?!?  I love it :)  These studs come in round, square and triangle versions.  Only $1.99 a pack from Born Pretty Store!  Shop around their store...it is easy to fill a cart up quickly.  Then use my code 'AVAW10' at check out for 10% off your entire order (not an affiliate code).

Thanks for stopping by!

 - Amy 'McPolish' McG

*polish purchased by me, nail art studs provided for review*

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Week 1 Roundup

Hey lovelies!

So the yearly nail art challenge is upon us.  If you are not familiar with the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, stop by Chalkboard Nails for more info.  But basically, you push yourself to create new nail art to share every day for 31 day based on a list of prompts.   I have been posting my creations daily on my Instagram account but decided to do weekly recap blog posts.  So here are my manicure for the first week of the challenge!

Click through for all the nail arts!

Born Pretty Loose Glitter Review

First of all, I'm happy to announce that Polish Etc now has it's very own domain name! You can now find my blog at www.polishetc.com.

I was recently given the opportunity to review a product from the Born Pretty Store. I chose this wonderful selection of mutli-colored hexagonal glitters. This type of glitter is perfect for nail art accents. The 12 colors of glitter come in cute little glitter pots that are easy to store and use.

The set of glitter I got is the 12 Colors Nail Art Shiny Glitter Powder Sheets. I would describe the colors as light pink, dark blue, silver, rose gold, chartreuse, kelly green, red, light green, aqua blue, orange, transparent shimmery, and pink (see image below). 

Each pot is loaded with glitter, and there's easily enough glitter here for me to do hundreds of manicures.

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Here are a couple of looks where I tried out the glitter for nail art.

I started with a base of China Glaze Sexy Silhouette and carefully placed blue glitter (I used the lighter of the two blues) in an arch around each finger to mimic a rufian manicure. For an accent I tiled my right finger entirely with the hex glitters.

This glitter is very easy to use:

• To place each glitter, you simply add clear top coat to your mani where you want the glitter to go. (This will be your glue, so I'd recommend not using a fast dry top coat or it will dry before you place the glitter.)
• To place the glitter, I used a wooden orange stick, but anything pointy should do. 
• First dip it lightly in water, you want the stick to be damp but not dripping. I actually licked mine, but don't recommend that unless you have a new sterile orange stick (gross I know). 
• Touch the damp stick to the center of a piece of glitter. The water will cause the glitter to gently stick to your wooden stick.
• Carefully place the glitter down on the wet top coat and it will stick where you place it. If you work quickly you can change the position if you have to, but don't do this if the base color is still fresh (it will dent). 
• You will need to re-moisten the orange stick every 2-3 glitters if they stop sticking. 
• Finish placing all of your glitter (you may need to re-apply top coat if it dries while you work) and carefully cover with top coat. 

I love how this looks! It's hard to capture in pictures just how sparkly loose glitter looks when used this way. Since every glitter is flat to my nail and perfectly lined up, it catches the light more than any glitter polish can.

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For this mani, I started with a base coat of piCture pOlish Dorothy. I then carefully placed a line of glitter (this time using the rose-gold color) down the center of my nail for an accent. This mani was much faster and easier to do than the last, but looked just as gorgeous!

One thing I really love about this glitter is that it's fairly solvent resistant. If you've ever used craft glitter for nail art (which I have) the colors tend to bleed as soon as you add top coat. All of the colors from this set were color-fast and didn't bleed.

The Born Pretty Store has many nail products for amazing prices, so if you haven't checked it out before feel free to do so! They even gave me a discount code that you can use in the Born Pretty Store for 10% off! This glitter set (item ID: 3103) retails for $6.45 USD with free shipping.

Have you used loose glitter for nail art before? I'd love to see pictures, comment with links to blog posts or facebook/instagram/twitter pictures. :)

**Products in this post provided to me for review.**

China Glaze Manhunt

China Glaze Manhunt is a 2012 release, as part of the China Glaze On Safari collection, but new to me. When I see a new collection I always try to convince myself that I don't need any more blues/reds/pinks etc, then always end up buying them anyway!

Manhunt is a beautiful blue creme. It's really the perfect blue creme, nicely balanced with just a touch of dustiness. The formula was great, usually China Glaze cremes run a bit thick for my taste, but this one sat nicely between thin and controllable and thick and opaque. Two easy coats to opaque and it is self-leveling so it dries so shiny and smooth. I didn't have any staining, so removal was just as easy as application!

This is definitely my favorite blue creme, it's just the right shade for my skintone and will make the perfect go-to blue or undies for glitter polishes!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps and a Holiday tag!

I thought I'd kick-start the holiday season (it is December after all) with my favorite holiday polish, China Glaze Ruby Pumps. This one is a classic, and more of a re-swatch here on the blog, but I'm never happy with how it photographs so I keep trying!

Ruby Pumps is a deep ruby-red jelly base loaded with fine red glitter. It's incredibly sparkly and absolutely gorgeous. The glitter is so fine that it doesn't dry rough. As for opacity of this beauty, you can stop at two coats or add a third for a deeper red color, the jelly is very build-able.

Just look at that sparkle!

So pretty! This is my favorite polish for the holidays and I'll be wearing it extensively!

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I saw a fun holiday tag on Red polish or Bad Polish originating from datyorkLOVES that I thought would be fun. Everyone should join the fun!

1
What is your favorite part of the holiday season?
Seeing and spending time with my family!

2
What is one of your family traditions?
We always watch the movie The Night They Saved Christmas on Christmas Eve.

3
Whats your go to polish or nail art design?
Ruby Pumps!

4
What holiday(s) do you celebrate?
Christmas

5
One thing you REALLY want for Christmas?
A Robin Wood print from my favorite novel, The Masterharper of Pern

6
Best gift you have received?
So many! I have no idea.

7
Where would you like to spend the holidays?
Up north in Michigan.

8
Have you ever made a snowman, snow furniture, or a snow angel?
Of course! When I was a kid we made so many snowmen. One time a friend and I made a gigantic snowball (it was larger than our 11 year old selves) and tried to move it from her house to mine across a very busy highway. Needless to say our parents weren't overly pleased. :)

9
What is the weirdest gift you have ever received?
During a white elephant party I'm pretty sure my mom and I ended up with a rubber chicken.

10
Whats your favorite holiday cookie?
Sugar cookies! Particularly from the recipe of an close family friend who passed away a few years back. We will never make them the same as he did but I always have to try.

If you don't have a blog (even if you do) you are welcome to answer the 10 questions in the comment section. I'd love to hear from everyone!

Stained Glass Manicure

Hi everyone!

Today's manicure was inspired by the gorgeous green stained glass manicure from Lacquology. I know I've seen the technique before but it was so beautiful that it inspired me to try stained glass for the first time.

Polishes used: China Glaze Riveting (orange), Blue Sparrow Neon (indigo), Towel Boy Toy (blue), Sun-kissed (yellow), Raspberry Festival (red), Paper Chasing (green), and Grape Pop (purple). (All China Glaze).

I really love this mani! It looked so awesome. I'm not sure how well I could manage this on my non-dominant hand, but it was really easy to do here.

Stained Glass Nails

Doesn't it look like stained glass? I love the combination of shimmers, glass flecks, and cremes.

Stained Glass Nails

Here's how I got this look:

Neon Stamping Mani!

I would like to preface this by saying that my stamping today was quite awful. The polish dried so fast that the whole design didn't make it onto the nail. Even though the pattern is broken at the edges, I still think this mani turned out pretty amazingly.

I used three coats of China Glaze Orange Knockout (a neon orange that really freaked out my camera). Then stamped it with Sally Hansen Whirlwind White and MASH plate #50.

China Glaze Orange Knockout and MASH plate #50

China Glaze Orange Knockout and MASH plate #50

China Glaze Orange Knockout and MASH plate #50

What do you think? I think I'm going to have to re-do this one with a different white polish so that it looks perfect but I love the combination. It piratically glowed in real life!

I'm With The Lifeguard: put on your sunglasses!

I haven't seen a single blog post from a blogger who doesn't like the new China Glaze Neons. This collection is something spectacular. Now that I have neon polish that can be opaque in two coats I doubt I'll ever pull anything else out of my stash.

This is China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, a gorgeous neon green shimmer. The shimmer gives the neons an almost glowing quality, and man is this one bright! I'm absolutely in love with these neons. I've been wearing every one of them rather than just swatching my way through. 

Sun:

Shade:

Shade:

China Glaze Red Curl Girl

Oh how I love red polish.. are you sick of seeing it yet? I've got some other polish sitting around ready to be swatched but haven't had a chance to do it yet! But since I wear red about 50% of the time I have a bunch of red swatches saved up that I will now torture you with. I'm sure I can find something else, but you're not sick of it yet right?

This is China Glaze Red Curl Girl. It was released as part of a surf-themed collection if I remember correctly. It's a bright cherry red with fuchsia and red glass flecks. It's pretty... but very bright! This one might be a bit too RED for me to wear as a mani. I might reserve this one for the perfect pedi color. I find that the China Glaze glass flecks last FOREVER as a pedicure. It's wonderful for this girl who is too lazy to paint my toes that often (no one sees them most of the time!). I made the mistake of using neons on my toes the last time.. awesome look... wear-time=zero... pedi=fail.

CG Red Curl Girl Shade:

CG Red Curl Girl Sun:

But anyway, isn't this just a splendid color? Imagine it on your toes sitting on the beach with a nice tan sitting in the sand, drink in hand... I apologize for the imagery for any of you in the southern hemisphere. 

Red Checker Nail Art!

Here's a mani that I did for fun when plain red got boring after a couple of days. I started with China Glaze Red Stallion, taped it off in squares (slightly lopsided squares, but it really doesn't matter) and used one thick coat of Zoya Trixie for the silver.

I really like how this turned out. It kind of reminds me of a medieval knight's shield with the red and sliver checkers. It would be really fun to wear to a Medieval Times restaurant or a similar event. 

Edit: August 5, 2012. I was looking through old posts on Lucy's Stash and found the manicure that must have subconsciously inspired this mani! I didn't even realize it!! I just wanted to give credit where it's due so go check out the mani on Lucy's Stash. She even has a tutorial!

China Glaze Red Stallion

Sorry I don't have much to say! Life has been crazy busy and I haven't been able to post.

CG Red Stallion is a gorgeous medium cherry red shimmer. It is more of an orange toned red because the shimmer has a yellowish tone to it. It's a gorgeous polish and has an almost metallic finish. I love this color and use it as a go-to polish frequently when I'm busy as it only requires one coat! Photos below are two coats and top coat. (Brush strokes are a little visible in the pictures, which is strange because they never are in real life, trust me I've worn this color 7-8 times!)

China Glaze High Maintenance Swatch

China Glaze High Maintenance is a gorgeous classic red jelly. It has a great formula that was easy to work with and covered completely in two coats (the vnl is really only visible in the photos, not in real life).

I really like this color, and I don't have much else to say. Red is great, this is just about the perfect red jelly. It's a bit darker in color than OPI Vodka and Caviar, and I like that fact. It's bright without being obnoxious.

I took loads of photos because High Maintenance is so photogenic. Every picture I took looked perfect!

Shade pic to show just how shiny this jelly really is:

I was curious to see how High Maintenance compared to some other red jellies and cremes that I own so I compared it with OPI Vodka and Caviar (a bright red jelly), OPI Manicurist of Seville (a berry red creme), and Zoya Vanessa (a medium red creme). As you can see all of the colors are different, although Manicurist and Vanessa are quite similar. 

CG Thunderbird and Heart of Africa Comparison

Since summer appears to be in full swing here in South Carolina (I don't think the temperature has dropped below 75-85 in over a week) I figure I'm running out of time to wear all of my favorite fall/winter colors. Looking through all of these precious dark shades I noticed that China Glaze Heart of Africa and Thunderbird seemed very similar, so I did a quick comparison of the two.


Index and Ring Finger - CG Thunderbird
Middle and Pinky Finger - CG Heart of Africa

Heart of Africa is a bit darker and more purple-toned than Thunderbird, but they both share the same red metallic-like shimmer with dark undertones. I think I'm quite content owning both of these.

China Glaze Fast Track Swatch

Now here is a polish that I won't be hanging on to. I'm not a huge fan of nude or natural looking polish, but I was really excited for a nude polish with gold shimmer. One thing I do know about "natural" colors is that they need to match your skin tone, everyone has a perfect mannequin hands polish, and sadly this is not mine.

I love the idea of China Glaze Fast Track. Fast Track is a light tan creme with gold flakes. Fast Track is definitely a creme, the formula covers easily in just two coats. It's from the Hunger Games (Capitol Colors) collection and I love nearly every polish I've tried from this collection, but Fast Track and I just don't get along.

The polish is very pretty, and it might just be your perfect shade!