Blown Glass

This was a crazy easy mani and I absolutely love the effect!

It totally looks like blown glass to me. Don’t you think?

I used a striping brush and splotched each polish around.  You could probably do it with the bottle brushes, but you might have a bit of clean up.  With a small brush I was able to shape the polish around my cuticles and didn’t need to do any clean up.  This was done with all jellies.  I need more jellies so I can do this again.  I might try this over white next time to bring the color out more.  I used NYX Ink, China Glaze Phat Santa, Milani Rad Purple and Ulta The Jungle Look.  I want a yellow and orange jelly.  And maybe a brown.  Are there black jellies?

Ruffian: OPI DS Radiance + NYX Ink

Ever have one of those manicures that just gets worse and worse and worse as you keep working on it? Yep, I had one of those today. I got a couple fingers in and gave up. I took it off. It was a disaster. I’ll try again someday. Oh well.

I’ve been low on inspiration this week. I’ve been pretty busy, so maybe that’s why. I have had OPI DS Radiance for a while, but hadn’t actually polished my nails with it. It’s the only silver foil I have, so I can’t compare it to anything else, but I thought it was beautiful. Application was fantastic, but I did feel like I needed three coats to cover all the bald spots.

I paired it with NYX Ink, a cobalt blue jelly. NYX Ink seems a little thick to me, but it’s a gorgeous polish. I love how it looks like I dipped my nails in blue glass. So pretty.

Ruffians are hard for me. It’s difficult to make that line pretty. Of course it looks nice in the pictures and I’m sure anyone that saw my hand would think they looked wonderful.

NYX Ink + Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings

Did anyone notice the change I made to my blog over the weekend?  It’s small, but a big deal.  I’ve got my own domain!  I’m now officially TopCoatIt.com.  Yeehaw!  Update your bookmarks people!

Oh man, I love this layering combination!  I’ve had Cauldron Drippings for a few months now and haven’t ever really found the opportunity to use it.  I couldn’t think of the perfect polish to use it over; until now.

I give you NYX Ink.  I would call this a cobalt, blue jelly.  It’s gorgeous!  The only other time I had used this polish was when I made my first franken, Starry Starry Sky.  Ink was my predominant color in that creation.  A negative of Ink?  It stained my nails.  An extra coat of base coat probably would’ve solved that.  The worst staining was where the polish went outside my base coat.  I had to bust out the whitening toothpaste and nail brush.  A good scrub and almost all of the blue was gone and my nails were minty fresh. 🙂

The first time I saw a swatch of Cauldron Drippings I was in love!  I’m not a crazy glitter lady, but I couldn’t resist this one.  The orange got me.  Orange glitter isn’t something that can be layered over just any polish.  I try not to pick the obvious choice for polish colors in situations like this, so it took me a while to decide how to use it.

I was tempted to do this as a full mani, but was glad I didn’t do it once I realized how much Ink stains.  When I use it again, I’ll double or triple up on my base coat.

Purple Syrup Nails

These Syrup Nails are harder than they appear to be.  I actually tried this technique with a few different polishes and  it just didn’t show through; it didn’t translate.  The other day I picked up this Milani Rad Purple and was pleasantly surprised it was a jelly.  It’s from their neon collection and it’s beautiful!

So, syrup nails are a way of using a jelly to get a gradient effect.  Notice the color is more concentrated at the tip.  I only wish you couldn’t see the lines from the different layers.  Maybe a little glitter would’ve hidden that a bit.  I love this effect, but I think I love this polish even more.  It doesn’t try with much of a shine, but isn’t matte enough to truly be matte either.  Definitely needs a top coat if you want that glossy look.

Oh, the formula for this polish is awesome, by the way!  Such a smooth application!  I have nothing negative to say about this polish, except I guess, that it doesn’t really look neon to me.  Bright?  Yes.  Neon?  Not so much.

Twinsie Tuesday: Jelly Sandwich

On today’s edition of Twinsie Tuesday we’re all showcasing jelly sandwiches.  This is my first jelly sandwich.  I’ve never really wanted to do one before because I just didn’t see the point.  Why would I put something pretty and sparkly on my nails only to cover it up with a semi-transparent polish?  It’s not a technique I’ve been eager to try.  However, it’s on the schedule for today, so here we go.

I didn’t have a green jelly (but have been on a green kick in case you haven’t noticed) so I made one.  It’s not very good, but it worked.  I took a bottle of top coat, added a bunch of Kleancolor Green Grass and some OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window and Sinful Colors Unicorn.  I didn’t have one of those little mixer balls to put in it, so I went out in my front yard and found a little rock to drop in the bottle.  It worked alright, but wasn’t quite heavy enough to help all that much.

I slapped a coat it my unnamed franken down, then a coat of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Clover, some OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air just to the tips, then a coat of Finger Paints Flecked and finally another coat or two of my green franken.  To be honest, I don’t really like it.  The whole combination is very blah.  I doubt I’ll be trying another jelly sandwich anytime soon.

You should definitely check out what all the other ladies are doing today because I’m sure they’re better than mine.

Be sure the check out all the other sandwiches today:

Amanda of Amandalandish
Anna of Going to the Showing
Anne of Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley of Art Evolve
Brandi of The Collegiate Nail
Chelsea of Nailed Blog
ChiChi of I’m Just Me…ChiChi
Jenn of All That is Gorgeous
Jenna of I’m Still Thinking
Katherine of Haul of Fame
Marisa of Polish Obsession
Meredith of Polish and Charms
Nory of Fierce Make Up and Nails
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch