NYC Crystal Couture NY Princess

NYC came out with a great collection called the Crystal Couture Collection. Today I have NY Princess from that collection! It is a gorgeous purple jelly packed with glitter! I feel like mainstream brands haven't done many jelly polishes, so I was excited to see one and that it was well done. I used three coats for the photos below.

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 19 Galaxy Nails

I have an overdue post today, day 19 of the nail challenge was galaxy nails. I love galaxy nails and have been wanting to try a pastel version. It was a really simple process with high impact. I love it! I started with a base of NYC Robin's Egg Blue, then I sponged on NYC Mimosa Bouquet, Jacaranda Flower, and Sally Hansen Blue-Away. I then painted little stars with white acrylic pain and added OPI Pirouette My Whistle for a glitter topper. I love it as a glitter topper for galaxies because it has both small and larger glitters which look like stars. 

Nail Art: Primary Colors Unite!

So, today is the first time I will be participating in Tri Polish Tuesday! It is a challenge that requires you to use the three polish colors for that month. This month is blue, red and yellow! I decided to create a dry marble using wHet Facetious, NYC Carnival Red which I also showed you in yesterday's post, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening. I started with a base of Facetious and dry marbled over that. Then I placed some tape triangles on my nails and painted Facetious over that.

Swatch and Review of NYC Samba Collection

Today I have some simple swatches for your viewing and reading pleasure! I have two polishes from the NYC Samba Collection. I have a purple called Jacaranda Flower and a red called Carnival Red. My Rite Aid's display was pretty bare bones when I went, but I was able to pick up these two beauties and share them with you today!

Comparison: Which White?

As you know, black and white are pretty much staples in any nail art lover's stash. I have recently been trying to find the best white of them all. I only have five to share with you today, but I figure that is a good start. The biggest problem I find with white polish is that it gets terribly streaky. When you use white as a base for nail art, you don't want tons of layers before you even start your nail art! I decided to try this over the last design I had on, so see more easily the contrast. I used (Left to Right) Sinful Colors: Snow Me White, Sally Hansen: White On, NYC: French White Tip, China Glaze: White On White, and OPI: Alpine Snow.

One Coat

Above I have a picture of just one coat on each nail and however many coats were needed to achieve opacity. Starting out, Sally Hansen White On was my favorite, and I think it still out performs all the others. It has the easiest formula to work with (a bit thicker than I like, but still the easiest) and it has the best opacity with no streaks. Sinful Colors Snow Me White is one that I have had forever, it also covers very well with only two coats and is a bargain at only $1.99. I would choose this as my backup because of the formula. It is a little runny, making it a little messier. OPI Alpine Snow has been acclaimed by many as their favorite white of all time, but I have to disagree. I only own the mini, so maybe the regular size is different, but I found this to not give great coverage. It has a tendency to streak and not self level, which creates a lumpy surface. I only applied two coats in the photos, but I probably would have applied three if I was using the white for a nail art design. NYC actually was surprisingly easy to work with. I have a distant memory about having a really difficult time with this polish, but maybe it was in the warmer months. This time, it seemed to apply well but didn't give as good of coverage as others. China Glaze...what do I say about White on White? Clearly from the first photo, it has the least coverage of all. I was so disappointed with this polish. I had such high hopes! I think I actually would have applied 4 coats if this were for a design. If my polish has such little coverage, I expect it to be a jelly with a gorgeous squishiness, but this was so streaky! Overall Sally Hansen White On takes it with the best coverage and formula. China Glaze was the big disappointment. I wish I could say better things about it. I would really like to know if the full size Alpine Snow is better than the mini, and if so, why would the quality of the mini be any less acceptable than the full size? Whew, I think this was the most I have written in a while, but I hope it was helpful! I may have a part two if I collect more white polishes soon! Thanks for reading and stay warm out there!

Nail Art: Blue Flowery Wisps

I've been wanting to get better at using my nail art brushes so I decided to try something new, but not too complicated. I decided to try a flower-like design which looks very wispy and feminine. It reminds me of dahlias, which were the flowers we had at my wedding! All I did was create slightly curved lines from the same starting point on my nail. These aren't perfect, but I'm practicing, so bear with me!

These also remind me somewhat of fireworks! What do you think? These were pretty fun to make. I used four different colors of blue and layered dark colors over the light colors with a metallic blue on top.

My biggest mishap in this manicure was the white base. I used NYC's French White, but it was the first time it failed me. I think that maybe after a little while the formula just gets tacky. It bubbled like crazy! I think from now on I will stick with Sally Hansen for my white bases. Do you have a white polish you really like? I think I might post a white polish comparison soon. Let me know what you think and any particular polishes you think I should compare!

Nail Art: Monochromatic Stamping

Today I have an updated mani to share! I added to Sinful Colors: Skylark and I think the effect is interesting. I added a matte top coat to my nails, let it dry and stamped a leopard print in the same color on top. I used Konad M57 seen in this post. It is pretty easy!

 

Really the key to getting this to work is making sure that the matte top coat is completely dry and making sure that you use a thick polish for stamping. I've had a couple questions about stamping lately, are you all interested in a tutorial? I don't use any special polishes, but I stamp fairly often. I think this look is a great way to do subtle prints on your nails without looking too wild. Pretty sweet! Let me know how you like this, and if you want to see more designs using matte polish. Thanks for reading!

Battle Royale: Cheap Matte Top Coat Comparison

Battle Royale will be my title for any post that is a comparison. I like how epic it sounds! This time around it is a battle of cheap matte top coats! I don't know how you all feel about matte finish polish, but I've noticed a lot of people are on the fence about it. A while ago I wanted to try out a nail design that required a matte top coat. The problem was that I didn't want to spend $8 or more on a polish I wasn't sure I would love. Turns out there are cheap ones on the market! I first found Sinful Colors Matte Finish Top Coat for $1.99 at Rite Aid. More recently I found NYC Matte Me Crazy Top Coat for the same price, $1.99 also from Rite Aid. The only major differences that you can see from the bottles are that Sinful Colors has .5 fl oz whereas NYC has .33 fl oz and SC clearly has a different color tone. Unfortunately neither are fast drying top coats, but in researching it seems there aren't any fast drying matte top coats. I recycled my half moon manicure so I could show you a comparison over colors. Here are the contenders:

The color difference here is color accurate.

The NYC Matte Me Crazy has a flattened but narrow brush, which makes application a breeze. The Sinful Colors Matte Finish has the usual Sinful Colors brush which is thick and rounded.

I staggered the different matte top coats, hoping I could see the difference more clearly. Honestly, I don't see much of a difference. All of my nails feel the same, and they seem to have the same level matte finish. However, I did notice an ever so slight color difference between the two. Can you see it? I think the SC makes the color look slightly lighter.  

Here is another view, can you see the difference?

The difference aesthetically isn't enough for me to fret over. The application difference is something that can help determine which to buy. I found that the Sinful Colors took a long time to dry and had a tendency to apply thick. NYC seemed pretty quick drying and was a great consistency: thin but not runny. I like the flat brush that the NYC polish came with instead of the Sinful Colors brush. Overall, I would say that the NYC Matte Me Crazy is the winner here, though I wish it came with .5 fl oz instead of the .33 fl oz. Would you all like to see matte designs that inspired me in my next post? I hope that you will at least try out the matte trend! For $2, it's not a bad deal! Thanks for reading!

Nail Art: Patriotic Nail Designs!

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July!! Independence day kinda snuck up on me there. I love how festive things are for the fourth. BBQs, camping, fireworks and parades are just a few things that always remind me of the fourth of July. For the occasion, I thought I would share some red, white and blue inspired nail art!

Water Marble

Glitter Gradient and Doticure

Simple Flag Design

First up is the water marble design. Water marbling is hard work! I haven't mastered the art yet, but I'm trying. You can find lots of tutorials on YouTube, but it really takes practice. I find that you really have to find thin polishes that separate immediately, if not, it won't work. I use regular tap water, but I try to use colder water. After I water marbled my nails, I just added some contrasting dots. I really love the dotted effect. 

This is what the water marble looks like before you dip your finger.

Next up is a crazy design that uses a couple different techniques and looks great! I painted my nails blue with white accent nails. On the blue ones I added a glitter gradient just using the brush, no special tools. After that, I just added a ton of dots on the white nails.

Last but not least, I have a very simple American Flag design. This was inspired by Miss Jen Fabulous on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaTEKSqPBpk. As you can see, she definitely inspires me!! I just used regular tape to make the stripes, freehand painted the blue and used a dotting tool for the "stars".

These are the colors used for all designs. From left to right: Essie "Head Mistress", NYC "French White Tip" (really clever name...), Pure Ice "Celestial". The red photographed a little strange in some of these photos, but I really love the tone of this red. 

This was really fun for me. I love themed nail art! Well, I love all nail art, but I especially love themed nail art and I love America! I hope you all get to try some patriotic nail art. It is a very small way to show pride in the USA. Thanks for reading!!