Simple Color Blocking + Stamping Fail 2.0?

Hey guys!  So you know that nail art contest that Sally Hansen has had these past few months?  Well I planned on entering each month but I kind of get distracted by other things easily and didn't take time out to sit down and focus on a doing a design didn't have time for it...even though I have no job and all the time in the world... -_-

Anyways, I thought I would rapidly do some color blocking and enter it for last months theme...on the day the entry period ended (I swear I'm the procrastination QUEEN)!  I picked up some polishes and painted my nails faster than a ninja moving through the forest!  Wait...what?!

Here's what I came up with:

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet

Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac

Milani black striper polish

I decided to do something pretty simple so I thought,"why not put a huge stripe down the middle of my nails" and then BAM you have color blocking!  Very creative right? *sarcasm* (lol)  At first I wasn't sure if I liked the way my mani turned out but after string at my nails for a while I started to really like it!  Unfortunately I didn't finish my nails in time to enter last month's contest (I was literally 15 minutes late) but I'm sure I didn't have a chance since my nail art was so simple.

Oh what do we have here...did I try my hand at stamping again?!  Let's have a look shall we?

So I thought it would be a great idea to stamp some images on my nails to add some "oomph" to my color blocking.  I tried to stamp the flower looking image (the one on my index, ring, and pinkie fingers) in the middle of my nails but as you can see the image ended up being a little crooked *oops*.  I really like the way the butterfly image came out though and my stamping skills are a lot better than when I first started obviously.

Do you like color blocking manis?  What's your favorite color combo?  Are you a procrastinator like me? Lol don't answer that! XD

Thanks for reading!
Crystal ❤

OPI Liquid Sands Swatches (Mariah Carey collection)

Hey guys!  Today I wanted to share some swatches of the OPI Liquid Sand polishes from the Mariah Carey collection!  I bought the minis so I could try out the textured polishes to see if I liked these textures polishes.

From L to R: Get Your Number, The Impossible, Can't Let Go, and Stay The Night

Click "Read More" to see swatches!

My Top 13 Polishes for Spring 2013!

Hey guys so yesterday I shared some of my favorite Spring nail trends for this season (you can click HERE to see that post).  Tonight I want to share my favorite nail polishes for Spring 2013!

My top polishes for Spring 2013!

Click "Read More" to see swatches!

Spring Nail Trends! (2013)

Hey guys!  Spring has sprung and the sun is finally coming out!  Spring is probably my favorite time of the year because of all of the fun nail trends and collections that start to pop up during this season.  Today I wanted to share some of my favorite nail trends for Spring 2013!

 Click HERE to watch my Spring 2013 trends + polish picks video!

Pastel Shimmers
Pastels are always on trend during the Spring, but I have noticed that a lot of nail companies have come out with pastel colors with subtle shimmer or some sort of iridescence in them!  Here are some of my favorite collections that include some pastels with a "kick":

 China Glaze Avant Garden Collection

Image Source: Facebook

 OPI Euro Centrale Collection

Image Source: Facebook

Julep Playful Collection

Image Source: Facebook

More Spring collections with pastel shimmers:

Sinful Colors Sugar Rush collection

L'Oreal Versailles Romance Collection

Cobalt Blue
I LOVE BLUE!!!  I don't now why I'm just discovering cobalt blues, but let me tell you they are awesome!  If you love vibrant colors, especially blues, you definitely need grab a few ( yes more than one) cobalt blue polishes.  Here are some beautiful cobalt blue polishes:

L to R: Essie Butler Please, OPI Eurso Euro, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue

Image Source: Essie, OPI, Sally Hansen

More Cobalt Blues polishes:

Sinful Colors Endless Blue

Nails Inc Baker Street

Nina Ultra Pro Cobalt

Indie-esque Glitters
I've been a fan of indie polishes ever since I was introduced to them when I started blogging.  Indie polishes can vary as far as type and finish, but majority of indie polish makers make awesome glitter bombs! I know some people aren't too comfortable buying polishes from indie makers, but there's a solution!  Nowadays I've noticed a lot of mainstream nail polish companies coming out with some awesome glitter bombs!  Here are a few of my favorites:

 China Glaze Glitz Bitz 'N Pieces collection

Image Source: Facebook

Hard Candy Glitters

Image Source: Facebook

Other companies/collections with fun glitter polishes:

China Glaze Cirque Du Soleil collection

Orly (Hope & Freedom Fest and Flash Glam FX)

OPI Oz the Great and Powerful

Milani (Jewel FX and One Coat Glitter)

Textured Polishes
Textured polishes is the newest trend of the year and is kind of a love/hate thing amongst polish enthusiast.  They dry to a matte finish and leave a bumpy texture, almost like sandpaper, on your nails.  Personally I think textured polishes are okay; they look really pretty but I think I would just rub my fingers until all of the polish rubs off.  Here are some examples of textured polishes:

Zoya Pixie Dust Spring/Summer collections and Milani Textured Creams

Image Source: Milani (Facebook), Zoya (Zoya.com)

Others companies with textured polishes:

Julie G Frosted Gumdrops collection

Orly Megapixel FX collection

OPI Liquid Sands (Mariah Carey, Wizard of Oz, and Bond Girls)

China Glaze Texture collection

Nail Art Stickers/ Strips
Nail art strips and stickers are another thing that is gaining more popularity these days.  Sally Hansen was the first mainstream brand to come out with them (don't quote me on that) and many other companies have as well.  They're a quick and easy way to do your nails with no dry time and they come in a ton of different designs!  I'm not a big fan of them but I am curious about the Essie Sleek Sticks.

 Essie Sleek Sticks

Image Source: Essie.com

More companies that make Nail Art strips/stickers:

L'Oreal Paris Colour Riche Nail Lingerie 

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips

Maybelline Color Show Fashion Print Nail Stickers

Holographic Polishes
Holographic polishes have been around for a while but have recently become a "trend" again!  Holos are so much fun to look at and when you get them in the sun your eyes might explode (not literally) from all of the holo beautifulness (<--- is that even a word? Lol)  Here are some holographic collections that I'm loving:

 China Glaze Hologlam collection

Image Source: Facebook

Color Club Halo Hues

Image Source: Facebook

Some more holo goodness:

Ozotic

Glitter Gal

FUNG

Layla Hologram polishes

So there you have it!  I'm so excited to see all of the bright colors and fun nail art for this season.  If you guys ever want to share your nail art (or just the polish on your nails) you can post a picture on my Facebook page. 

What's your favorite nail trend this Spring? 

Thanks for reading; follow and share if you like!

Crystal ❤

** Tomorrow I'll be posting my top 13 polishes for Spring 2013!**

Simple Spring Neutral/Neon Tape Nail Art

Hey guys!  Today I'm going to talk about a recent mani that I did the other day.  When I was looking through my pictures of nail designs I drew up, I wasn't really in the mood to do anything to detailed so I thought it was the perfect time to try out a tape mani that I saw on Pinterest (the most AWESOME site on the planet!)  The picture I saw used a black and nude polish, and it was cute and everything but I wanted to do something bright and Springy!

Nabi Magnetic Nail Polish Review

Last month I purchased this magnetic polish from Walgreens just to try it out and see how it compared to China Glaze's Magnetix polishes.  I didn't really think that these Nabi polishes were going to be that great since they were only $3 but I was pleasantly surprised at the results that I got when I used this polish.
You can find these polishes at your local Walgreens and they run for about $3.99 per bottle.  They come in a variety of colors, 30 to be exact, and each bottle comes with a different magnetic pattern (horizontal, diagonal, or chevron).  I decided to pick up this burgandy shade because I thought that I should at least get a color that I liked on its own just in case I didn't like the magnet design.

BOTTLE DESIGN
You can see my video review of this polish HERE.  The first thing that I found out about the polish is that it didn't have a name on the bottom of the bottle, which is kind of irritating to me.  Next, I realized that the magnet was attached to the cap with the brush, which means that when you paint your nails you'll have to immediately flip over your cap and place the magnet above your nail.  Now that might not be a problem for some people but for me, I didn't like the fact that if you had a lot of polish on your brush then you flipped it over all the polish will go towards the top of the lid.  If the polish does this it can cause the polish to get on neck of the bottle, where the cap and bottle lock, and dry which will make it difficult to reopen the bottle.

One last thing that I didn't like about the bottle is the magnet.  It did work okay but I would've liked to have a "cuticle rest", that piece of plastic that you can place on your cuticle while the magnet is doing it magnetic thang to your nails without touching them,  on the bottle.  It's not that big of a deal, but I did occasionally touch my nail with the magnet which was kind of annoying.

On a positive note, I do like that you get 0.5 fl.oz of polish, the amount that you would get in most  polishes.  Something that I've seen with other brands is that their magnetic polishes are usually smaller than their regular polishes, which wouldn't be a problem if the price wasn't 5x more than the regualr polish.

The bottle.

Ombre Mani 101: Tips and tricks

Hey y'all today I'm going to talk about a nail trend that has been all over Pinterest for a while.  I'm talking about Ombre manicures!  Surprisingly I just discovered this nail trend via Pinterest in February!  In this post, I'm going to talk about this trend and give you some tips and tricks to achieve an amazing ombre manicure on your own nails!

My Easter Mani!

Hey y'all!  I hope y'all had an amazing Easter holiday.  I just wanted to share my Easter mani with you all.  I originally wanted to keep a turquoise stone nail design that I did (I'll do a separate blog post on it) but my polish started chipping after 3 DAYS! : (  Since that tragedy happened, I decided to try the half moon mani out.  My first attempt was all wrong because I used the worse possible colors!( I would show y'all a picture but I had to delete them!)  My second attempt came out a lot better.

I used SH Celeb City and Pacific Blue

This time around I used a more opaque polish as my base color, which made this process a lot smoother.  I also took this opportunity to make a basic half moon mani tutorial on my YouTube channel, which you can watch here.

At first, I wasn't really sure how I liked this design, but it eventually grew on me.  I do think that I will like it more once my nails get a little bit longer but overall, I like this design and will do it more in the future.

Crystal

One last thing!  I made a Facebook page to share some of my designs and y'all should definitely check it out here!

China Glaze Magnetix Polish Review

I've wanted to try this new type of nail polish that everyone and their mom have been talking, which is magnetic nail polish. The only thing that had stopped me from purchasing them in the beginning was the price of them. Most of the companies that were selling them had them for around $15-$16! To me, that's just way too much to spend on a trendy polish that I might not like; so when I heard that China Glaze was coming out with a line of magnetic polishes I was extremely excited! The CG ones were less than half the price of the higher end magnetic nail polishes and had more variety of colors and magnet designs. I purchased my polishes at Sally's Beauty Supply while they had the buy 2 get the magnet free sell. These are the colors I purchased: