Crumpet's 31DC: Topper - Non-glitter

This prompt really only left me with one option: matte top coat.
I have a lot of flakies and shimmers, but I felt like those were still in the realm of "glitter," so matte it is.
All of my ideas for a matte mani also included glitter, though.  If you haven't noticed, I kind of don't feel like a mani is finished without it.
As I scrolled through my Pinterest board, I rediscovered this awesome mani by none other than the Nailasaurus herself, Sammy.  Decision made.

*1 coat Gelous base
*2 coats Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out
*2 coats Zoya Storm
*Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love
*Out the Door

This was nicely straightforward.  Black base, matte topper, then shiny top coat on the tips.
Done!

Stormy Halloween

Two posts in one week?  Who is this girl?
Well, be prepared, because I might even have a 3rd up my sleeve...

Tonight's is a very simple mani but I am LOVING it!  I got some chips in my last one so I made a late in the evening decision to switch it out last night, so I needed something quick.

*1 coat Gelous base
*2 coats Zoya Story
*2 coats Cover Girl Boundless Color Candy Corn (accent)
*1 coat Sinful Colors UFO (accent)
*1 coat Out the Door

Sometimes, simple is best.  Zoya hit a home run with their Ornate collection--I never get tired of the scattered holos!  Storm is a black base with scattered silver micro holo.  I used 2 very thin coats
Cover Girl's Boundless Color collection was awesome and I still have a few bottles.  Candy Corn is one of them, a soft, creamy orange that covered okay enough in 2 coats.  There was still some visible nail line and a 3rd would have eliminated that, but I opted for some iridescent sparkle with a coat of Sinful Colors UFO--an orange-tinted sheer base with your standard mix of hex and micro glitter.  I added a little black rhinestone and called it a day with a top coat.
I loved looking at this one today and was glad to see it fared much better in an office than manis did in retail--stones are intact and tips are unchipped!  I think I'm going to enjoy manis much more now that they last!

What's your favorite go-to mani?  What simple look never fails you?

Halloween left-overs

I know, I know, you're thinking about Thanksgiving left-overs and I'm sounding a little out of it.  Well, I am a little out of it.  Between interning, class, and work, my time has dwindled.  With it, my li'l blog has been neglected.  Actually, my nails have too.  I haven't done too many interesting looks and often simply polish one simple color to keep them covered and neat.
But, here are 2 Halloween looks that I did enjoy, but did not get up.

 *1 coat Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hardener

*2 coats Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green With Envy

*Zoya Storm

*Zoya Aurora 

*1 coat Out the Door

Polka dots--easy!  I wanted witchy colors, and loved the holo sparkle contrast of the Zoyas on the cream finish of Green With Envy.

 

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hardener

*3 coats China Glaze Some Like it Haute

*Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out

*Cover Girl Boundless Color Candy Corn

*3 coats Spoiled Vitamin C

*3 coats China Glaze I Herd That

*1 coat Out the Door

I tried to somewhat recreate a Christmas mani that I loved from last year, pattern-wise.  This didn't turn out as I really envisioned, but I love the glittery polishes, so I can't really complain.  As you an see, the orange Vitamin C is incredibly sheer (I really only did 3 coats of the others because I did one coat for each every time I added one), so if you love that orange shimmer, consider a base coat.

So, here's my out of season Halloween looks!

33 DC: tape

So I'm a little late on this one, but I felt better when I saw that none other than Ms. Debbie Crumpet was late too :)
I had this mani done last night but was just too wiped out to photograph, upload and post.  Learning takes a lot more energy than I remembered!
Tape is quickly becoming as comfortable for me as dots.  I received my first roll of striping tape in a giveaway and it has lasted forever!  I think I'm going to order some more, though, because I love using it and want to try using it on its own as well, instead of just for clean lines.  I used to always use Scotch tape for lines, and it works okay, but striping tape never lets any polish seep under and is just so crisp!  Using it for this look has become a bit of a favorite of mine:

*1 coat Yello-Out
*2 coats Zoya Aurora
*Zoya Storm
*1 coat Out the Door

Really, these can just speak for themselves!  Gratuitous  holo shots are always welcome, right?  I used Aurora as my base and taped off the tips and then left a little gap before taping off the bottom of the area I polished, and then used Storm as the tip.  LOVE it!

I don't want to get too cocky here, but I'm feeling pretty comfortable with striping tape at this point.  Do you have any cool tips or techniques for me to try?  Do tell!

New 31DC: Tape

Now, tape is something I feel much more at home with.  I have gotten better at using it for clean lines (when I rally my patience) and like the help it give.  My big problem was settling on a design using tape.  As I browsed through my nail board on Pinterest I remembered this look from My Vanity Basics that I fell in love with and had to make my tape mani.

*1 coat Yello-Out
*2 coats Zoya Storm
*Cover Girl Boundless Color City Lights
*Wet 'n Wild Stars & Stripes and Icing Written In The Stars
*1 coat Hoof Lacquer
*1 Coat Out The Door

I used Storm for the first time after admiring it in the bottle for so long. A-mazing! I used 2 easy coats of this for my night sky. The black is loaded with tiny silver holo particles. My only regret is that this takes away from the star tails in the photos, but in real life it's perfection!

City Lights is a fine silver holo in a clear base (sorry, I forgot to snap a picture).  This bad boy dates back to high school!  I had to work pretty hard to open it and then dumped quite a bit of thinner.  Voila!  I used Scotch tape to tape off the edges of my star trails and then striping tape inside.  When I do this again (not "if," because it's amazing and I am dying knowing it has to come off tomorrow) I think I'll lay down the two pieces of striping tape first, then the edges to make sure that I have enough space for my little wedges.  Other than that, these are just as awesome as I hoped they would be!

I used a paint brush to scoop out a star for each nail, using the silver ones from Stars & Stripes for all but my ring finger.  Because I couldn't figure out which stars I liked best, I used a little blue one from Written In The Stars on my ring finger.  These little glitters were perfect (though if I ever get start rhinestones I can't wait to try them!) and are holo too!  This is just one awesome, glittery holo-fest.  LOVE it!  What do you think--is there such a thing as too much holo?  I think my feelings are clear...