Spring Break Sunshine!

Hello everyone and Happy Spring Break!  I officially start my spring break from college today, even though I don't get to go home till tomorrow... #RAproblems.  Since I had a lot of free time today I decided to experiment with a new design.  I was aiming for something that looked a little like sun in a blue sky.

For this design I used China Glaze Lemon Fiz, Orly Blue Collar, and China Glaze Solar Power.  I also used a Sally Hanson Nail Art Pen in Black for some accent lines.

First I started out with two coats of Lemon Fiz. Then I took some scotch tape and I used an Exacto Knife to cut the zig zag sun design into the tape.

After the two coats of Lemon Fiz were completely dry I placed the tape cut out on each nail as a guide to make the lines come out smooth.  It is important that after you paint your top color on, in my case the blue, that you pull the tape off right away.  This will insure that the line come out smooth.  As you can see sometimes they don't come out perfect (pinkie and ring finger nail) but you will be able to fix that later with a nail art pen.

After that I adds an accent stripe of Solar Power just to give the yellow a little sparkle.  While it isn't really that noticeable it looks really nice when the light catches it.

I finished the design off by tracing the rays with my black nail art pen.  This sharpened any of the lines that were not that smooth up and it gave the manicure great definition.  I think it looks like it came out of a comic book or something like that.  I am very happy with the way this came out and I am definitely going to be doing some more experimentation with tape in the future!

What do you guys think of this design and what other designs would you like to see?  Leave a comment here or on the Polished Paradise Facebook Page!

OPI Fall 2012 Collection : Germany

On Monday OPI anounced on their Facebook Page that their Fall 2012 collection will be called Germany and it will contain the 12 polishes shown above.  The polishes are called:

 My Very First Knackwurst
 Don't Pretzel My Buttons
 Berlin There Done That
 Don't Talk Bach To Me
 Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!
 Schnapps Out Of It
 Suzi & The 7 Dusseldorfs
 Every Month Is Oktoberfest
 Unfor-greta-bly Blue
 Deutsch You Want Me Baby
 Danke-shiny Red
 German-icure

The polishes show a wide varity of colors ranging from pastle cremes to  dark vampy shimmery shades.  The line has some very creative names to tie the colors in with the German Theme.   The colors will be available for purchase closer to the fall season.

Do you have your eye on the OPI Germany Collection?  Leave a comment here or on Facebook and tell me what colors you are looking forward to!

Fancy Fishnets

Yesterday I swatched China Glaze Lubu Heels, so today I decided to jazz it up with a stamping plate stamp.  For the stamping I used Bundle Monster plate BM-209 and Ulta Professional Angels Wings for the white stamp.

It took a lot of experimenting to get this look.  I originally wanted to have the fishnet design be in a bright red, but all of the reds that I tried over the dark color would not show up on the nail.  I really like how it ended up though with using the white polish.  I am definitely going to be doing some more experimenting with these plates over my spring break next week.

What do you guys think of stamping plates?  Leave a comment here or on the Polished Paradise Facebook Page!

Lubu Heels

Today I am wearing China Glaze Lubu Heels.  When I first saw the colors I thought it was so beautiful, it is black but it has just the right amount of red glitter to catch your eyes in the light.

The polish is very sheer and definitely needs more than one coat.

The polish was pretty much opaque after two coats but I decided to do three just to see if it you could see more of the glitter.

At three coats it pretty much looked the same as 2 coats.  It did how ever fill in some of the spots that were not as dark on some of my nails.

I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite top coat which gave it a really nice shine and it makes the glitter pop out.  I really like this color a lot and I feel like it will be great color to use come Halloween.  Also I think I am going to try and do some stamping over it tomorrow after it is good and dry.  Stay tuned to see how it goes!

What are you wearing on your nails today? Leave a comment here or on Facebook.

Rock The World!

For my manicure today I decided to try out the bottle of Orly Rock The World that I picked up last weekend. It is a purple polish with a lot of gold shimmers in it that give the polish a lot of dimension. I saw this beautiful color a while ago swatched on some blogs but I was never able to find it myself.  I finally found it in the clearance bin at Sally's Beauty Supply when I was home last weekend and I was able to score it for $3!

   
This is the polish at one coat.  The left was take with a flash, the right without.

The polish was opaque after two coats and it looked pretty awesome, but I decided that I would try out three coats just to see what it looked like.

The third coat just made the purple a little bit darker.  Overall I am very impressed with this color.  It takes on many different colors depending on what kind of light you are in.  It is very purple in bright light, in dim light it takes on a shimmery brown color, and at certain angles it looks very gold.  I am very glad that I came across this beauty!

Do any of you have Orly Rock the World? What do you think of it?  Leave me a comment here or on the Polished Paradise Facebook Page.

Make sure to like the page too! When we get to 100 Facebook followers there will be a giveaway! Hopefully with all your help it will be very soon!

Zoya Summer Beach & Surf Collection

Zoya recently announced that its Summer 2012 Beach and Surf will be available in store starting April 1st.  Out of all the Summer 2012 collections that I have seen so far this one is definitely the most interesting.  The Beach line includes six beautiful creme colors and the Surf line has six foil metallic colors that are of similar colors to the Beach colors.  All the colors in these collections are inspired by tropical vacations and summery resort stays.  I cannot wait to try out some of these beautiful colors for my summer manicures!

Will you buy any of the Zoya Beach and Surf Collections? Leave a comment here or on Facebook!

3-Free for You and Me!

As many of us nail polish's junkie's know polish can have very harmful chemicals in it, but in recent years many companies have made a push to change their formulas to get rid of many of the toxic chemicals.  When a polish brand says they are "3-Free" it means that they have removed Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde, and Toluene.  


You are probably wondering why are these chemicals so harmful?  


-Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) is used in many nail polishes to prevent chips and cracks.  It can cause birth defects if exposed to during or shortly after birth, and it can also cause a low or declining sperm court (http://www.ewg.org/node/8173).  DBP has been banned in the European Union in cosmetics since 1976, but no ban has been place on it in the USA.


-Formaldehyde is used in many nail hardeners and nail treatments to help make your nails stronger.  When exposed to it, it can cause watery eyes, coughing,  and skin irritation.  It has also been known to cause cancer after years of prolonged exposure (http://www.nontoxic.com/nontoxic/formaldehyde.html).


-Toluene makes the nail polish easy to apply.  It is used as a solvent is things like gasoline, shoe polish, and paint thinners.  It's short term effects can lead to irritation of the skin. Over the long term it can lead to nervous system damage.(http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/chem_profiles/toluene/health_tol.html)


Many brands have been making the switch to 3-Free formulas for polish.  The new formulas are just as good as the old ones, some of them are even better.  Some brand of 3-Free polish to check out are Zoya (which is also vegan friendly), OPI, Butter London, Sally Hanson, Revlon, China Glaze, Color Club, and many more.


You can check out a complete list here. They also have other lists for other types of chemical free nail polish. 

Design of the Day: Girl on Fire

In honor of the Hunger Games movie that is opening tonight I painted my nails to represent the character Katniss Everdeen, The Girl on Fire.  For this design I used China Glaze Riveting, and China Glaze Electrify.  Both of these colors are from the China Glaze Hunger Games Capitol Colours Collection.

I first started out with two coats of  Riviting, which is a bright orange color with a golden shimmer.  This color is perfect for a bright and cheery summer manicure.  In fact I ended up using it for my very first pedicure of the season!

Next I used Electrify to create a glitter gradient.  I used the brush that came in the bottle of polish.  I started by wiping as much of the glitter off the brush that I could then I painted the glitter on the top 3/4 of my nails, leaving the bottom 1/4 with no glitter on them.

Next I repeated the first step but with a little more glitter and only painting the top 1/2 of my nails.

Finally I put the final coat of glitter on the top 1/4 of my nails.

Finally I topped it off with two coats of Seche Vite top coat so that the glitter felt smooth.  I think this manicure looks pretty cool.  I love how the fire looks like it is rising.  Also the gold and red glitter in Electrify is beautiful.  It is so shimmery! I cannot stop staring at my nails!

What are you wearing on your nails for the Hunger Games premier tonight? Leave a comment here or on Facebook!

May the odds be ever in your favor!

Luxe and Lush over Stone Cold

Today I was finally able to try two more of the China Glaze Hunger Games polished that I bought last week.  For my manicure today I used Stone Cold which is a metallic gray matte color which looks pretty cool on its own.

Stone Cold is a beautiful color and is shown above with one coat on my nails.  The polish has great opacity and if applied smoothly enough does not need more than one coat to reach its desired opacity.  Make sure to apply it smoothly and quickly because it does dry fast!

The picture above has one coat of Luxe and Lush over Stone Cold. I love how this combination looks together.  It almost looks like broken glass on asphalt.

I also added a second coat of Luxe and Lush because i loved how it look and I wanted more of it! Over all I really like the both of these colors together.  I tried to include pictures with a variety of lighting so you could see how Luxe and Lush looks in all sorts of light.  It takes on all different shades that are all just so beautiful!

What do you guys think of the China Glaze Hunger Games Capitol Colours?  What other combinations do you think work well together? Leave a comment here or on Facebook!

St. Patrick's Day Design 4: Shamrocks and Gold Coins!

   What are three of the first things you think of when you hear the word Irish? Green, Gold, and Shamrocks! Thats what I have for you today.  For this design I used Ulta Limelight as my background color, China Glaze Holy-day for the shamrocks, and China Glaze Solar Power for the gold coins.

How To:

First I painted my nails the base color Ulta Limelight.  I am in love with the green color!  It's so happy and summery!

Next I painted shamrocks on my thumb, middle finger and pinky.  I did this by making 3 dots with the tip of the polish brush and then I added a little line at the bottom to complete the shamrock look.

I then added golden dots to all of the nails to represent gold coins.  To make the golden dots I used a small paint brush.

What are you wearing on your nails for St. Patricks Day?

Dress Me Up!

Today I finally received the six bottles of nail polishes from the China Glaze Capitol Colors Collection! All of the 12 colors in the collection relate to the book The Hunger Games.  I ordered Dress Me Up, Foie Gras, Riveting, Stone Cold, Electrify, and Luxe and Lush.  I decided to try Dress Me Up first because it is a beautiful mauve pink color and I want something a little subdued since I am going home for a job interview this weekend.

I think that this is a beautiful color and it had really great opacity.  It looked pretty good after one coat but I still used two and then topped it off with a top coat.  I can't wait to try out the rest of these great colors!

Do any of you have some of the Capitol Collection?  What are your favorite colors? Leave a comment here or on Facebook.

Revlon Whimsical Swatches

Last week I was very lucky to snag the two last bottles of Revlon Whimsical from my local Wegman's.  I decided I was going to keep one for myself and give the other one away when I reach 100 followers on Facebook. You can check out that post here!  This weekend I couldn't help but experiment with my bottle of the amazing polish.

I really wanted to do some experimentation with the opacity of the color.  Above I showed the difference between one to three coats of the polish.  I also show the polish over Revlon Blue Lagoon to see if it had better opacity that way.  While the polish started to get pretty opaque by the third coat I think it looked the best over Blue Lagoon, and I ended up using that combination for my latest manicure.

The picture above is without a camera flash.

This picture was taken with a camera flash.  For this manicure I used one coat of Revlon Blue Lagoon with three coats of Revlon Whimsical on top.  I really love how using multiple coats of Whimsical causes the glitters that are on the earlier coats look like they are suspended in a cloud.  It's so airy and beautiful.  For those of you who don't know Whimsical is a dupe for the Deborah Lippmann polish Glitter in the Air.  I love this polish and I am so glad that I was able to find it!

What do you think of this polish? Would you like a chance to win a bottle for yourself? Check out at like the Polished Paradise Facebook Page!  When we reach 100 fans a bottle of Revlon Whimsical and some other goodies will be given away!

First Attempt at Konad Stamping Plates!

I decided to be adventurous the other day and I ordered one Konad stamping plate and a bunch of Bundle Monster plates.  So for my manicure today I couldn't help but experiment with them.

For those of you who do not know what Konad is, it is a metal disk that has various designs etched into it. To use it you:
1) Paint your nails the desired color of your background.
2) Put a dab of polish over the design that you want to use.
3) Then take your scraper and scape the excess polish off .
4) Then you take a rubber stamper and pick the design up off of the plate.
5) Then stamp it on to your nail.

It is not really that complicated of a process, but you have to be quick so that the polish design does not dry before you place it on your nail.

The plate above is the plate that I used for my design.  It is Konad m63 and I used the design in the bottom right corner.

For this design I used China Glaze Reggae to Riches for the background and Sinful Colors Black on Black as the stamping color.  This was my first time using Reggae to Riches and I am in love with the color it is a purple/pink duo chrome and it looks great on my nails!  I used two coats of if for this design.

I really like the design I used off the Konad plate, but some problems I ran into were the black polish drying before I could stamp it over the design and trying to properly line up the design.  The first few nails were rough, but by the end of stamping my 10 fingers I felt like I was getting a little better and faster.





I think for a first attempt that they came out decent.  I cannot wait to do some more experiments with the plates and to try out different designs and color combinations!

Have you ever used stamping plates? Have any helpful tips? Leave a comment here or on Facebook!

St. Patrick's Day Design 3: Gold to Green Gradient

For todays St. Patrick's Day design I did a gold to green gradient.  Green because thats the color that everyone associates with Ireland and Gold because of pots of gold of course! For this design I used Sinful Colors This is it, Ulta Limelight, and China Glaze Holly-Day.

To create the gradient design I started out by coating my enitre nail in  This is it.

The I took a cosmetic sponge with  Limelight on it and covered 3/4th of my nail making sure to make the color darker towards the tip of my nail.

I then placed Holly-Day on the cosmetic sponge and covered the top half of my nail with it making sure that the top quarter of my nail was the darkest green.

After I was done with that I felt like the design was lacking some spice so I decied to go over the whole entire nail with a coat This is it. It really brough the look together and gave the design a nice sparkle.

What are some of your favorite St. Patrick's day nail designs?  Leave a comment here or on the Polished Paradise Facebook fan page!