Blue Drag Marble Design

For my nails today I wanted to try something a little different and fun, so I did take on a drag marble.  I started with a base of Deborah Lippmann Let's Hear it for the Boy while it was still wet on my nail I used and orange stick or you could use a toothpick or dotting tool to drag lines of  color across my nails.  The colors I chose to drag were Zoya Trixie, China Glaze Blue Year's Eve, and Orly Blue Collar.  It is so simple to recreate this look.  One finger at a time paint a think coat of your base color (in my case Let's Hear it for the Boy) then dip what ever tool you choose to use in a polish and drag lines across your nail.  Repeat that with all the colors you want to put into your design.  Then repeat the steps on each nail.

Left Hand:

 Right Hand:

I like how this design came out.  It reminds me of a watercolor painting or something like that.  The design is simple but it is still eye catching and very stunning.

What do you think of this design?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

Deborah Lippmann: Let's Hear it for the Boy

Today I have swatched the other bottle of Deborah Lippmann nail polish that I got in the sale from HSN. It's called Let's Hear it for the Boy like the song from Footloose.  It is a baby blue creme polish and I have to say that it is quite stunning on.

One Coat:

The polish went on very smooth and looked pretty good after one coat (above).  It was fairly opaque but needed a second coat to fill in a few thin spots.

Two Coats:

After the second coat the polish was very smooth and creamy.  I love how it looks.  It reminds me of a beautiful blue sky... all it needs are some fluffy clouds!

I am so glad I was able to snag this and the other amazing Deborah Lippmann polish from the HSN sale.  They still have the two bottle I bought and a few more on clearance on HSN.com.  If you didn't see my first post on Dancing in the Sheets; I purchased these two bottles together for $9.95 plus shipping, which is a really great deal for Deborah Lippmann nail polish.  They also have other sets that are on sale too.

Did you scoop up any Deborah Lippmann polish on clearance?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise.

It's the Bee's Knees!

Hey guys! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!  I officially started my new job this weekend working for a local radio station and I  got to work at a huge air show event at one of the local beaches, which was a lot of fun!  The station I work for has a mascot of a bee so in honor of my first day working for them I did a simple bee design on my nails!  I used China Glaze Solar Power and Kiss Nail Art Paint in Black.  The design is simple.  I started with two coats of Solar Power and then I put 4 thin black lines on each nail with the black nail art paint.   The design looked really good until I tried to put top coat over it, the black paint smudged.  This is a problem that I have had with the nail art paint in the past and that's usually why I do not use it.  It's seems like no matter how long you wait the black paint never dries and smudges your design when you go to cover it with top coat.  Oh well, not my best, but it was a fun quick manicure.

What kind of nails did you have for the holiday weekend? Leave a comment here, or share some pictures with me on Facebook, and on twitter @Polish_Paradise!

Jazzed Up Nails!

The other day I brought you swatches of Deborah Lippmann Dancing in the Sheets and today I have for you the way that I spruced them up after a couple of days of wear.  I decided to try out my Essie Cosmo PSS Shimmer that I had received in a giveaway from Cosmopolitan Magazine. Cosmo PSS Shimmer is a fine gold glitter polish in a clear base.  I wanted to keep it simple so I used scotch tape to create diagonals across my nails.

This is what my nails looked like before I put the Cosmo PSS Shimmer on them.  They have two coats of Dancing in the Sheets on.

Above are pictures of my nails at various angles after I put Cosmo PSS Shimmer on.  I really liked how delicate the gold glitter looked over the dark polish.  Also it was so simple to do with the scotch tape.  Make sure to  stick the tape to the back of your hand a couple of times before you stick it to your nails so that it does not pull your polish up, or smudge it if you are doing it over recently painted nails.  After looking at these pictures I cannot wait to get my striping tape that I just ordered because I feel that it would have added something really cool to this design.

My Very First Deborah Lippmann Polish: Dancing in the Sheets!

When I found out that HSN was having a clearance sale on Deborah Lippmann nail polishes I knew I had to scoop some up.  At the price of 2 for $9.95 they could not be passed up. I thought I would never be able to own any Deborah Lippmann's because of their price but this deal luckily changed that for me! I got the package that contained Dancing in the Sheets and Let's Hear it for the Boy from the Footloose collection. Today I have swatches of Dancing in the Sheets for you guys!

Above is Dancing in the Sheets after one coat of polish.  It has very good opacity and did not apply streaky.

Dancing in the Sheets is shown at two coats above.  It is completely opaque and it is a beautiful color.  It looks very dark blue in the bottle, but on my nails it looks a lot more purple.  The color is very rich and pigmented and I can see myself using this for many more manicures to come.  I also have been wearing it for a few days now with no chipping and no tip wear!  Now I get what all the fuss is about when it comes to Deborah Lippmann polish not only does she make cool polishes, but they are very high quality too!

If you would like to got this polish and more for yourself the sale is still going on HSN.com.  You can get these great polishes at a discounted price!

Do you own any Deborah Lippmann's?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

Graduation Glitters!

In case you hadn't already heard I graduated college this past Sunday!  I officially have my BA in English Literature and Rhetoric from Binghamton University!  While I am very sad to be leaving Binghamton, I am very excited to be starting the next chapter of my life!  All this excitement means that I had to have a just as exciting manicure to go with all the festivities of the weekend.  I wanted something elegant, yet fun, and I believe that I came up with the perfect combination of that for myself!

I started out with three coats of OPI You Callin' Me a Lyre? from the 2012 NYC Ballet collection.  It is a beautiful soft pink gel color that looks extremely shiny on your nails.

I then topped it off with a glitter gradient with Color Club Sugarplum Fairy, which is a silver scattered holographic polish.   I loved how this design went from soft and pretty to loud and fun... much like my college years were. I could not stop staring at my nails and I received so many compliments on them throughout the weekend.  I have to say that this is one of my favorite manicures that I have done yet!

Congratulations to the Class of 2012! I am so excited to see where our futures go!

OPI Just Spotted The Lizard

I was so excited when I saw that OPI was going to be releasing a duo-chrome shade that was very similar to Channel's Peridot.  I finally have gotten my hands on that shade of polish and it is called Just Spotted The Lizard from the Spiderman collection.  It is a goldish color that also turns to a greenish blue when in different light.  In my eyes it is a pretty spectacular color and I hope that my swatches below do it justice!

The two pictures above show Just Spotted the Lizard after one coat of polish.  I tried to show it at different angles so you could see the duo-chrome effect.  The polish applies very smooth and had decent opacity after one coat, but defiantly needs two to bring out the richness of the color.

Above is the polish shown at two coats.  It is also shown at multiple angles so that you can see how the duo-chrome works in this polish.  It is very beautiful and rich after two coats.  It has great opacity.  I was very impressed with how rich this polish looked,  it seems as if it is very highly pigmented.  I cannot wait to do some stamping experiments with it!

Do you have any polishes from the OPI Spiderman Collection?  Tell me which ones you own! Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

FLOAM!

Today I have for you Nail-Ventrous Floam! I am so excited that I was finally able to get my hands on a bottle of this precious nail polish.  This polish is amazing because it is designed to look like Nickalodeon Floam, one of the great Nickalodeon inventions of the 90's.  It has very tiny yellow and blue matte glitters in a clear base that look kind of blue-green when the are together on the nail.  This nail polish amazes me because it actually looks like you stuck bits of Floam to your nails!

Above Floam is shown at one coat on my nails.  It looks very sparse, but the glitters apply very evenly across the nail.

The two pictures above show Floam after two coats.  It looks pretty good, but you can still see some gaps so I used a third coat.

The top picture shows Floam after 3 coats and I think it looks pretty solid! No gaps and it looks pretty much like the real thing!  The bottom picture shows Floam with one coat of  Seche Vite top coat on it to give it a nice shine!  

I have to say that I really love this polish and I am so glad that I was able to find it!  It is such a pretty color and it looks so much like the real Floam which brings back great memories from my childhood!

Do any of you guys have Floam?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

Essence Cosmetics Colour & Go Nail Polish

Today I am very excited to be reviewing two polishes from the Essence Colour & Go Quick Drying Nail Polish Spring/Summer 2012 line!  The colors I received are Walking on Air, which is a beautiful blue creme that is lighter than navy blue but darker than royal blue, and Glamorous Life which is a bright raspberry colored polish with a beautiful shimmer.

Above is Walking on Air after 1 coat.  It applies very smooth and the wide brush that is provided with the bottle makes it very easy to paint it on your nails.

The three pictures above Walking on Air at two coats.  The two pictures of the polish on the top show it in natural light, and the picture on the bottom shows it with camera flash.  Overall I love this color!  It is going on the list for one of the best blue creme colored polishes that I own! It goes on so smooth and even and after two coats it was completely opaque!

Above is Glamorous Life after one coat of polish.  It goes on very smooth and was not streaky at all!

The three pictures above show Glamorous Life after two coats.  The two top pictures are in natural light and the bottom one is with a camera flash.  I am absolutely in love with this color!  I think that it is perfect for summer, and I cannot wait to use it for my next pedicure!  The formula is so smooth and applies very evenly, and it also is a two coater with great opacity.

This polish also is very fast drying and shiny on its own. I did not put any top coat on either color and they both were beautiful and glossy on their own.  Another thing that I really love about the bottles is that they have color coded caps.  The cap is the same color as the polish in the bottle and I think that makes it so much easier to find in my large dark case of nail polish.

I am really impressed with these two polishes and I definitely will be buying more Essence nail polish very soon!  These bottles retail for $.99 at ULTA, HEB, and Fred Meyer stores.  Essence also sells other cosmetics that range in price from $.99 - $3.99.  Their goal is to be a high quality and on- trend brand for incredibly low prices, and I definitely think that they have achieved that with these polishes.

If you are interested in getting more information about Essence Cosmetics you can check out their website.  http://www.essence.eu/us/home.html

Will you be buying any Essence Nail Polish for yourself?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise.

*These products were provided for review.  All opinions expressed are my own.*

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Bannana?!

Today I decided to keep it simple with my manicure.  I used China Glaze Peachy Keen with a thin coat of Revlon Stunning.  I think these two polishes go really well together.  Peachy Keen is a beautiful pink-orange color that is perfect for spring and Stunning holographic glitters look really nice when the light catches them on a beautiful spring day!

What do you have on your nails today?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

Design of the Day: Starstruck Gradient

The other day I posted about some really awesome polish I bought at Claire's from their Starstruck collection.  Today I am using Little Dipper in a gradient over black polish.

To create this look I followed the steps that you would take for a glitter gradient manicure.  I started by painting two coats of Wet n' Wild Black Creme.  Over that I started by painting a thin coat of Little Dipper on the top 3/4 of my nails.  Next you put another coat on the top 1/2 of your nail, and then after that another coat on the top 1/4 of your nails.  The layering of the polish leaves you with the desired gradient effect.  The I topped it off with some Seche Vite top coat to help the layers blend together.  I really love how this polish looks over the black. Also I think that its great that the polish becomes opaque at the tips.  This is definitely a look that I will have to try again.

What designs would you like to see in the future? Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me at @Polish_Paradise!

The Very Blog Giveaway: 100 Bottles of Models Own Nail Polish

The Very Blog is  currently holding a giveaway where the winner will receive 100 bottles of Models Own nail polish.  Models Own is a British owned nail polish brand that is very popular due to its duo chrome collection called Beetlejuice.  Their polishes are not typically sold in America.  One winner will receive 100 bottles of polish which includes some of their most popular colors.  If you would like to enter to win this giveaway check out the link below:

http://blog.very.co.uk/2012/05/win-100-models-own-nail-polishes/#comment-22287

**Picture from The Very Blog**

OPI Releases Line of Nail Polish Strips

This month nail polish OPI has released a line of nail polish strips.  The strips come in 14 different designs  with lots of different colors used.  Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, Vice President of OPI, said "Nail art has become increasingly popular with both consumers and trained professionals. These strips provide the perfect way to get a one-of-a-kind look that cannot be replicated by hand." The nail polish strips will retail for $12 per pack.  For more information check out the article below.


http://www.bodycare.becomegorgeous.com/hands_and_nails/opi_introduces_nail_polish_strips-7744.html

Healty Feet, Happy Nails

As the summer pedicure season begins to roll around it is important to know the different risks that you face when you go to the salon to get your toes done.  A article from BDN Maine recently gave some tips that might help you from contracting fungal infections on your feet and toes.  One of the tips that they gave was to not shave your legs before getting a pedicure.  Shaved legs lead to fresh cuts on the skin that could be filled with bacteria and fungus from the salon foot baths.  If you would like to see the rest of the tips they gave you can view the full article here:

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/10/health/as-flip-flop-season-nears-health-dangers-lurk-at-the-nail-salon/

Claire's Starstruck Swatches

The other day I was at Claire's in my local mall and I saw the Starstuck collection of polish.  They immediately caught my eye!  They are bright shimmery summer polishes.  I decided to only buy two of them because I am trying to save some money, also because Claire's has a buy one get one 50% off deal on all of their cosmetics.  I bought the aqua color which is called Drops of Jupiter and the orange color which is called Little Dipper.

The picture above shows each color at one and two coats.  I really like both of these colors on their own.  They are really bright and fresh, and their shimmers catch the light really nicely.

Next thanks to a conversation I had with Nails by Ms. Lizard I decided to swatch them over black and white polish.  When you apply 1 thin coat over black polish it really brings out the duo chrome in both polishes, but especially with Drops of Jupiter, you can really see the purple in it.  I also think that Little Dipper over the black would make for a cool gradient manicure.  When you put the polishes over white it really brings out the brightness of their color.  Drops of Jupiter over white reminded me of a Caribbean sea!

For my manicure I ended up using Drops of Jupiter over black.  I really like how it looks, although it was really hard to get a good picture of it with my camera.  I am really impressed by these polishes and I am thinking about going back and buying the other colors that I did not pick up.  I cannot wait to try out some different manicures with these polishes

What do you think of the Starstruck collection?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise.

Holographic Stamping

Today I was in the mood to do some stamping.  I had always heard that holographic polishes are great for stamping because they are highly pigmented so I decided to try it out by using Color Club Revvvolution a dark gray holographic polish to stamp over Ulta Concrete Evidence.  I used Bundle Monster plate BM-224.  If you would like more information about stamping be sure to check out my tutorial post here!

The stamping design that I used kind of looked like reptile skin.  I really liked how Revvvolution worked for stamping.  It showed up great on all the nails and it was great to look down and see the holographics catch the light.

Have you tried stamping yet?  Let me know about your experience by leaving a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

Spring Fling Color Block Nails

I was really feeling the spring fever this weekend!  My university held there annual Spring Fling carnival/ concert event on Saturday and I wanted my nails to match the mood of the weekend, so I went with a spring themed color block manicure.  For this design I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz, China Glaze For Audrey, and China Glaze Peachy Keen.

I started by painting all my nails with two coats of Lemon Fizz.  After that was dry I used scotch tape to mark off where I wanted the color blocks to be on each nail.  Then I filled it in with the other two colors of polish that I had.

This design was defiantly an experiment, but I really like how the design came out.  A lot of people complemented me on them over the weekend, which is always nice. I also really enjoy how the colors of the polish went well together.  I feel like they would make for good water marble colors.

What do you think of color block nails?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me@Polish_Paradise.

China Glaze Summer Neons

China Glaze will be releasing their summer neon polish collection this June.  The collection consists of 12 different shades of neon polish.  The unique thing about this collection is that all of the neon polishes contain a shimmer.  Most neon polishes do not have a shimmer and finish matte.  If you would like more information about this collection you can find it at the link below.


http://chinaglaze.com/

Trend Alert: Indie Nail Polish

Since the start of this blog there has been a jump in indie nail polish brands.  Indie nail polishes are made independently by certain people who start up their own brands.  Most of them create, produce, and bottle the polish and then sell them online.  Some of the most popular indie nail polish brands are NerdLaquer, Nail-Venturous, and Lynnderella.  If you are interested in finding out more information about indie nail polish check out some of the links below.

http://www.ninjapolish.com/home.php

Esty Nail Polish Store

300 Fan Giveaway!

I am excited and proud to announce my 300 fan giveaway!  There will be two winners. The first place winner will receive Sally Hansen Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Color Pens in Silver Chrome and Gold Chrome and a E.L.F. Super Glossy Lip Shine in Honey Do and the second place winner will receive Sally Hansen Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Color Pens in Purple Chrome and Red Chrome.  If you would like to enter fill out the raffle copter below!  You must be 18 years or older to enter and I can only ship the prize to a US address.  Sorry to my international fans, I am still learning about shipping abroad!  The giveaway will run till midnight on May 21st 2012. Good Luck to all those who enter!

*This Giveaway is not associated with Facebook, Sally Hansen, or E.L.F.*