NOTD: Glitter Goblin

Hello Everyone!

The NOTD I have for you today is China Glaze Glitter Goblin. This polish surprised me. I was not expecting it to have holo glitter, but I'd say it's a pleasant surprise. From the promo pictures I was really expecting Glitter Goblin to be more like China Glaze Spellbound (which I'm still trying to get my hands on). Glitter Goblin starts off with a clear base and is packed full of orange micro glitter and slightly larger holo glitter. In my pictures I layered one coat of Glitter Goblin over OPI Ginger Bells, but I think you could wear Glitter Goblin opaque on its own with 3-4 coats. Glitter Goblin is a bit of a "hungry glitter", so I'd suggest a coat of Gelous before your topcoat if you want a glass smooth finish.

NOTD: OPI Ginger Bells

Hello Everyone!

Today's NOTD is a polish I passed a billion times. I thought it was hideous in the bottle, but when I saw it at my local beauty supply store for $1.33 I thought, "why not?" So I picked it up, and it sat with my other OPIs for almost a year. I was feeling very much in a fall mood the other day and decided to try it. After all it's only nail polish, and if it's really that bad you can just take it off, right?

Ginger Bells has awoken my love for ugly colors. Ginger Bells is a burnt orange creme polish. It applied wonderfully. My pictures are two thin coats. I was honestly surprised how fond I grew of this color, I'm not usually a fan of orange. I think it looks a bit silly on my skin tone. I think what makes Ginger Bells work for me is how soft and muted it is. It kinda reminds me of pumpkin pie.

What do you think? Is Ginger Bells ugly pretty, or pretty ugly?

NOTD: It's Alive Glitter Gradient

Hello Everyone!

Before I get to today's post I'd like to thank my new followers for joining me here. To all my followers, I appreciate each and every one of you. I always look forward to your comments. I love the polish community and I'm so glad to be a part of it. Okay, enough mushy stuff... on to the polish

The NOTD I have for you today is one of my all time favorite color combinations, olive green and purple. If you've read my past posts it's no secret that olive/military greens are my favorite color. For today's NOTD I started off with 2 coats of China Glaze Urban Night. Urban Night is a rich red based purple creme polish.Urban Night was released in the 2011 Fall collection. It's not so dark that it looks black on my very fair skin, but it's not obnoxiously bright either. It makes me feel warm and screams fall to me. I needed two thin coats to reach opacity.

Since I can never leave well enough alone, and I'm dying for Halloween to be here, I decided to add a glitter gradient using China Glaze It's Alive. It's Alive is an insanely gorgeous (okay I'm biased) murky olive green  multi-sized glitter polish. It's Alive was part of the 2011 Halloween collection.

What are your favorite color combinations?

NOTD: Hidden Skulls

Hello Everyone!

It's finally October, my favorite month of the whole year. I love everything about Autumn, from the cool crisp air, getting to wear cozy sweaters and boots, the smell of the grapes ripening on the vines. I especially love all the changing leaves, and Halloween.

This Halloween season NYC ( New York Color) released a UV glowing topcoat called Demon Glow. Admittedly, I purchased my bottle for the name alone. When I got it home I did a bit of research and discovered it was a glowing topcoat. I have another UV glowing topcoat, and I've tried glow in the dark polishes and I admit I've always been a little disappointed.

Upon learning Demon Glow was a UV glowing topcoat I asked my husband if he'd dig out our black light so I could test it. I did not expect the awesomeness I was about to experience.

Using my Chez Delaney XL K stamping plate and Demon Glow I stamped a skull design over Avon Black As Night.

Natural Light

Black Light

How freaking awesome is that?! The great thing about this is you can stamp over any color of polish as long as it's not a neon, or white the UV topcoat image will show up as well as it does here over black. I could totally see this being handy for someone that wants to go out and party Halloween night, but works in a conservative office and doesn't have time to redo her manicure.

I must say I am extremely impressed by the way Demon Glow well, glows. 

Blogiversary Giveaway! (Now Closed)

Hello Everyone!

To celebrate my one year Blogiversary I'm going to have a little giveaway.

How To Win:
1.You must be subscribed to Starlet's Nails.
2. Comment on this post how you got into nail polish, what you love about it and which China Glaze Awakening polish you'd like to win.
3. Contest is open to US and Canada only (Sorry international readers)
4. You must be 18 or older OR have your parent/guardian's permission to enter
5. Only one comment/entry per person
6. Contest ends on September 30, 2012 at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time

How The Winners Will Be Chosen:
Winners will be chosen randomly with a random number generator on October 1st.
One person will win the grand prize.
Three people will win their choice from the China Glaze Awakening 2010 collection

What are the prizes?

Grand Prize:

OPI Spiderman Mini Collection, CND Stickey Base Coat,
Mini China Glaze Sex On The Beach, and Gingerbread bath bombs

Runner up Prizes:

Left To Right:
Ick-a-body, Zombie Zest, Mummy May I?

Don't forget to check out my Blog Sale and my Silent Auction

Remember: Sharing is caring

Good Luck, 

     

     Starlet

Blogiversary

Hello Everyone!

Today is my Blogiversary! I can't believe it's been a whole year! To celebrate this I'm going to have a little Giveaway! I'll be back later tonight with a whole post on the giveaway prizes, rules, etc.

Quick Tip: Avoiding Stained Skin With Highly Pigmented Polishes

Hello Everyone!

Today I want to share a very quick tip with you...

I'm very very very pale. Most highly pigmented polishes will stain my skin (not necessarily my nails) around my fingers. To avoid this I slather on a very thick hand cream. Then, I take a cotton pad soaked in remover I place it on my nail and wait 5-10 seconds. I slide the pad off my nail with a little pressure and 9 times out of 10 90% of the polish goes with the pad. I repeat this for all ten nails then go back with a cotton bud (Q-tip) or even my clean up brush to get the bits around the sides of my nails that may have been missed. 

NOTD: Layla Ocean Rush

Hello Everyone!

Today I have a holographic polish for you. I was so thrilled to hear that a company was releasing linear holo polishes. This finish might be my favorite- it's tough to choose!

Layla Ocean Rush is a medium dusty blue holographic polish. First of all I love this color. Those of you that read this blog frequently will know I'm a big sucker for any blue, green, teal, or purple polish. Add some holo to one of those colors and, oh baby, I am hooked!

Holos are always my "I need something to cheer me up" polishes. How can you frown when you look at your hands and see 10 rainbows? I love how holo this collection is. They don't need blindingly direct sunlight to sparkle. I've had this polish on for about 4 days now. In the polish blogging world, that's an eternity. I can't help but stare at it and move my hand in the light while watching the rainbows.

Holos are known to be chippy, but there are ways around that. What's been working for me is one coat CND stickey as a base, 2 coats of polish, one coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Topcoat, one more coat of polish and one more coat of topcoat. The holo will disappear at first, but don't worry, it comes back when the topcoat dries. I've cleaned my entire house, done dishes, done laundry, and even went swimming a few times with this mani. I'm only able to get so much wear from the way I layer the polish. Another quick tip- holos are known for dragging and bald spots. The way I avoid this is to wait for each coat to dry completely, which doesn't take long because holos always dry quick.

NOTD: Sally Hansen- Byte

Hello Everyone!


Can you believe this is my very first Wednesday post that's about a pink polish? Completely coincidental, I assure you.

Byte is a gorgeous medium pink jelly polish flooded with blue reflecting glass fleck particles. This polish would be great for layering, but I wanted to show you her in her pure form so you can fully appreciate her beauty. I used three coats of Byte to achieve opacity.

I really love this whole HD collection that sally Hansen did. I think there are only 1 or 2 I didn't end up getting. 

Haven't had enough Sally Hansen love? Why not head over to The Scholarly Nail and check out Jacqui's Sally Hansen post for today. 

Don't forget about my Silent Auction

NOTD: Sally Hansen Cocktail Party

Hello Everyone!


I have something shocking to tell you. I have never been a fan of red nail polish. I've always thought it was boring and old fashioned. I'm just generally not a fan of red at all. That is, until recently. I've learned it's about finding the right shade of red to work with my skin tone. Personally, I prefer blue based reds. I find the orange leaning reds draw out the yellow tones in my skin and make me look jaundiced. If you've been following my blog you will know I'm a jelly lover. I don't know how any polish lover could resist a gorgeous jelly. That is just what I have for you today, a red jelly polish.

Sally Hansen Cocktail Party was a huge surprise to me. I originally picked up the bottle thinking, "meh, just another red". At the time I didn't have many reds so I decided to pick it up. Boy was I surprised the first time I wore it. It's a jelly, and not only that, it's a very well pigmented jelly. The picture shown below is 2 coats Cocktail Party with no top coat, yep she's that shiny on her own.

Reminds me of a perfectly coated candy apple. Ugh, I'm in love. What was I thinking not liking reds? This red is certainly not boring. 

How do you feel about jelly polishes?

Don't forget about my SILENT AUCTION.

Silent Auction

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to put up a quick post letting you know I'm having a silent auction for some  discontinued and HTF polishes. You may click here to see the polishes I have up for auction. To all of my fellow bloggers, I would appreciate it if you'd share the link to this auction.



-Starlet

NOTD: Batman Nails!

 My husband and I went to a Batman marathon last Thursday so I had to do Batman nails. 

I drew inspiration from the movie trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. In the trailer they show the camera panning straight up through the skyscrapers of Gotham. In the negative space you can see the batman logo. That's the idea I was going for. 

I used CHG Jitterbug for a base, and topped it with OPI Pirouette My Whistle. My intentions were that the white glitters in  Pirouette My Whistle would look like stars in a night sky. I then used my Chez Delaney K plate for the Batman logo and stamped with WNW Black Creme. 

Have you ever done a movie themed mani? 

NOTD:4th Of July Mani

Hello Everyone!

The NOTD I have for you today is what I wore for Independence Day. It is a water marble using Wet n' Wild French White Creme, China Glaze Frostbite, and Essie Scarlet O'Hara.

What did you wear for your Independence Day mani?

NOTD: Orly Mysterious Curse Swatches & Comps

Hello Everyone!

The NOTD I have for you today is from Orly's Dark Shadows collection. Mysterious curse is actually a repromote of Orly's Royal Velvet. Mysterious Curse is a purple based polish with tons of blue shimmer. I noticed the formula was a little watery and thin but not unmanageable. I needed three coats to reach opacity.

Indoors

Flash- look at that shimmer

I decided to check my stash for dupes. The closest I could come up with was OPI Glacier Bay Blues. Glacier Bay Blues is a blue based polish that's packed with purple shimmer that sometimes flashes green. 

You can see from the picture above the difference in the base colors. 

NOTD: China Glaze Harvest Moon Swatches & Comps

Hello Everyone!

The polish I have for you today is from the China Glaze Hunger Games collection. The polish is called Harvest Moon, and I think it is aptly named. A long time ago when I was about 10 years old I went on a Halloween themed hayride. It wasn't scary but we did go through corn fields. I will never forget that night because I remember the moon was huge that night. I'm sure there is a name for that but I'm not sure what it is. Nonetheless when I saw this polish it took me back to that night on the hayride. That is why I feel this polish is appropriately named.

Harvest Moon is a copper foil polish. That seems simple enough, right? One would think so, but until you see this polish I don't think you can fully grasp how stunningly beautiful it is. I've seen plenty of copper polishes in my life, but this one, this one blows me away. The color of Harvest Moon is so rich. That's the best way I can describe it. On the nails Harvest Moon almost looks molten.  Pictures shown are 2 coats Harvest Moon.

Indoors

Flash

I have a love for foil polishes. I decided to go through my stash to see if I had anything close to Harvest Moon. The closest thing I could find was Revlon Copper Penny. Pictures Shown are 2 coats Copper Penny & 2 coats Harvest Moon.

Indoors

Flash

Do you like foil finish polishes? What are your favorite foil finish polishes?

NOTD: Teal Glitter Gradient

Hello Everyone!

The NOTD I have for you today is a glitter gradient using all OPI polishes. After applying my CND Stickey Base Coat, I applied 2 coats of OPI Ski Teal We Drop. I then applied OPI Austin-tatious Turquoise to about 2/3rds of my nail. If you look closely you can see the turquoise doesn't go all the way to my cuticle area. Using OPI Simmer & Shimmer I created a gradient effect with the densest glitter at the tips of my nails. I topped everything off with a generous coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat.

Have you tried a glitter gradient?

NOTD: OPI Buenos Aries Iris

Hello Everyone!

The polish I have for you today is, I believe, the oldest polish in my stash. The color is Buenos Aries Iris and it is from the Spring / Summer Collection in 1992. That's right! This polish is 20 years old. I didn't collect polish in 1992, in fact I was still in grade school in 1992. I picked up this beauty about 7 or 8 years ago at a garage sale. I am so glad I did. I remember at the time thinking how obnoxiously bright pink it was. I mean who wears retina searing hot pink nail polish? I think it's funny now because the color is actually very tame compared to other neon pinks that I own.

Buenos Aries Iris is a hot pink polish with gorgeous blue shimmer. I'm sure she has many dupes or close dupes but I'm not drawn to pink polish very often so she's original in my collection.This lovely did require a bit of thinning but c'mon she's 20 years old, I think that's to be expected and she thinned out so beautifully for me. The picture shown is two thin coats. Personally I would have liked a third but I want to conserve this polish. I highly doubt I'll ever find another bottle of it. Please excuse my cuticles. It's been horrendously hot here and I've been swimming almost everyday. My cuticles are paying the price for that. 

Have you ever found polish at a garage sale? What's the oldest polish in your collection?

NOTD: LA Girl Matte Lilac

Hello Everyone!

A few years ago we were hit with a matte polish trend. Personally I still love this look and I wear it quite often.  The polish I have for you today is LA Girl Matte Lilac. To my eyes this isn't exactly what I'd call lilac. I would say it's more of a blue based pink. When I think lilac I think of a color somewhere between pink and purple leaning more towards purple.

At any rate, Matte Lilac had very easy application. One thing I will note is that I let the first coat dry before I added a second. Mattes dry on the surface very quickly but if you use a thicker coat it will still be wet deeper in the layer so I like to let the first coat dry completely to prevent any dragging or bald spots. I used two coats of Matte Lilac over one coat of CND Stickey. I did not use topcoat for the picture below.  I had no removal issues.

I love the rubber like texture

There are many companies now that make matte topcoats that allow you to make any polish matte. With this in mind I decided to compare a few creme polishes I own to see if I had a dupe of Matte Lilac. 

From index to pinky- Matte Lilac (with topcoat), OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, Matte Lilac (with topcoat), Essie Splash of Grenadine.

Now that I'm looking at this I wish I'd swatched China Glaze Dance Baby along with these polishes. As you can see there are no dupes here but Splash of Grenadine is quite close.


How do you feel about matte polishes? Do you own any?

China Glaze Glitter Crackle Swatches

Hello Everyone!

Today's post has proved to me that you can't always judge a polish on first impressions. Yesterday I decided to go hunting for new collections. I was quite surprised to find the China Glaze Glitter Crackle collection. I didn't expect it to be out so soon. Of course I had to grab all of them.

Right To Left:

Jade-d: a yellow green, possibly chartreuse, glitter

Glam-More: a rich fuchsia glitter

Luminous Lilac: a delicate lilac glitter

Gleam Me Up: light to medium blue glitter



When I first got these I immediately added them to my current mani. I was disappointed that they weren't opaque and only Glam-More cracked significantly for me. I decided not to give up and to swatch them over a fresh mani that's not completely dry but still tacky. Here they are over China Glaze White on White

As you can see they cracked much better for me using this method. I liked these results so much that I decided to swatch them over China Glaze Liquid Leather.

I figured this will give you a good idea of how they'll look over both dark and light colors. My favorite from this collection is Glam-More. Glam-More seems to be more opaque to me, but I think it's just because the color is so much bolder than the other three. I especially like how amazing Glam-More looks over black. I will be wearing that combination as a mani very very soon.

I picked these lovelies up at my local Sally's Beauty Supply. The display was quite picked over. If you're interested in these I suggest looking for them soon. They seem to be going quick.



What do you think of crackle polishes? Are you over them? Still in love with them?

NOTD: Studio M Lost In the Forrest

Hello Everyone!

I've completely fallen in love with the polish I'm showing you today. If you've been following me you'll know I am head over heels for green polishes. I cannot get over how shiny and easy to apply this polish is.
Studio M (formerly Massini) Lost In The Forrest (yes, like Forrest Gump. Their spelling error, not mine) is a highly pigmented blue toned green polish that falls somewhere between a jelly and a creme. Lost In The Forrest was opaque for me in two coats but if you're careful with a thicker coat it could be a one coater. Picture shown is two coats Lost In The Forrest over CND Stickey and topped with China Glaze Fast Forward top coat.

Look at that shine! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

I did not have any removal issues with this polish and I wore this mani for a few days with very minimal tipwear. Also worth noting, Lost In The Forrest did not stain me. I find that unusual (in a good way) because I am so fair lots of polishes will stain my skin upon removal, but not so with Lost In The Forrest.