Kell's DIY Nails

Once again I shall apologize for my absence; it is not the fault of the job this time... but family health issues. In fact I am typing this from the hospital. But enough of the downer stuff. This is a manicure I wore for the last week of January. The deep blue is Midnight ; from the Nerd Lacquer website: MIDNIGHT is what you shall wear when you've really made it -- and also maybe right now, because why not? Deep inky blue linear holo studded with royal holo sequins, little flecks of black (as is proper) and silver sparks. Mysterious, magical, and achingly gorgeous. (See what I did there, Discworld fans?) I don't have the words to describe how much I love this, but the formula was buttery and smooth; opaque in 2 coats. No issues with glitter placement. On my accent nail I applied a stunning silver called Phasma . Phasma is what they call CONVERTIBLE because it comes with a tiny packet of glitter; large and small silver holo, black micro, plus black holo textured glitter. You c...

Hey Gang! Long time no post... It's been over a month! The new job is coming along as can be expected but it's been a little exhausting especially since I've started the 9/80 schedule (Every other Friday off in addition to my usual Saturday & Sunday). I wasn't supposed to start this schedule until my 6 month mark but due to departmental needs I got to start two weeks ago.  Yesterday was my very 1st Friday off so I managed to get some posts up for you! Even though I didn't post much in December I still stuck with Nerd-mas and wore all Nerd Lacquer ! After my last post ( Regal Copper ), I wore The Zed Word . This is a new profile for Nerd Lacquer ; it's a golden off-white shimmer with silver, red, and green micro glitter. No large chunky glitters in this baby, it's pure subtle bad-assery. Then, the fact that this is a Zombie (yes, I know, I shouldn't have typed it) themed polish only propels it further into the bad-ass zone. I freaking love Zombi...

Salon Perfect, Razzle Dazzle - Day 1 When I picked up Salon Perfect's The Manicure System I also got a few colors that included this one. Razzle Dazzle is a purple jelly packed with silver holographic glitter. 2 coats were good enough opacity for me. The formula is pretty thick but if you don't overwork the polish it applies pretty evenly. It also gives that great squishy jelly effect while covering up VNL (visible nail line). No need to fuss with glitter placement either. It does dry to a gritty glittery finish. Once again I am using The Manicure System to see how it holds up with a Salon Perfect color. See my 1st wear test: Kell's DIY Nails: Salon Perfect: The Manicure System Wear Test Results. I used 2 coats of the Top Coat to smooth out the gritty glitters. All went well with application and it actually held up beautifully through the 6 days I wore it. I worked out, did dishes, gardening, and pet care among other things during wear. Lots of exposure to water. ...

Have I dropped off the face of the earth or what?!? Fitting since today is EARTH DAY!! Ha Ha! I've also decided I'm hilarious... The husband and I went to see DisneyNature's Monkey Kingdom today; it was really cute. What did you do today?  Well, let's get to the good stuff... I rocked these awesome nails the last 2 weeks of March and I loved every minute of it! I applied 2 coats of Black Pool which is a very opaque black cream. I then applied one coat of Dazzling Dance over Black Pool. I purchased 3 metallic, topper like colors in the beginning of March (The Gilded Dreams Collection) and this was one of them. It's a very unique topper in that it dramatically changes whatever you layer it over. It gave Black Pool a purple duochrome effect. It also contains tiny holographic silver flakes. It's really freaking pretty! I can't wait to layer it over other colors. Last I added some DIY Nails Decals in Spaced Out ; these ones are in Holographic Silver...

Today's post is one of my very favorite! Every year I like to include an epic Christmas polish; one that I think is all of Christmas rolled into one bottle!  I give you... X-mas Me Silly from Polish Me Silly ! From their website:  ' It is meant to look like a christmas tree with a rainbow of ornaments and yellow, pink, and bright green stars floating throughout it to top it off.... It consists mostly of hexagon glitters and star glitter. It has a jelly green base to make it less transparent and tiny holographic green glitter to represent the tree. All of the colors of the rainbow are in this polish! lol The colors in this polish look beautiful together and it is absolutely stunning on. This is the perfect X-Mas polish...' X-mas Me Silly can be built up to opacity but I opted to layer one coat over Hard Candy, Crush On Ivy. I've had this Hard Candy in my Untrieds for ages and I love how it looks with XMS over the top. Formula was really great and easy to apply; just be ...

Today I'm rocking another shade from China Glaze's All Aboard Collection . I applied 2 coats of What Are You A-Freight Of? to all my nails. This is a really unique color to my stash. It reminds me of Zoya, Kelly but this one leans more of a red-toned purple. It's dark but it has a muted dusty quality that makes it really nice. Formula was a little on the thin side but still incredibly opaque. Use caution to avoid cuticle pooling, be sure to wipe excess polish from your brush. If you like to apply thicker coats this could be a one coater but I used medium coats so I added a 2nd coat to even things out. It self levels nicely but does take a little longer to dry for some odd reason. On my index and middle nails I dabbed one coat of Lumina Lacquer's Peculiar Pumpkin Posse . This glitter bomb features orange and black hexagons, orange holographic hexagons, large silver circles, silver holographic crescent moons and even a few silver hearts. All that in a clear base. The s...

These were the only two left to photograph. Hey Kids! (That's what I always say to my pets)  I thought I would wear my Jamberry Nail Strips in Born To Sparkle today. I absolutely love the colors and print of these. These were the exclusive Sisters Style for the month if June and are no longer available for purchase. Half of them are in the red with white stars and the other half are in the red to silver gradient. You can apply them as you like; as an accent nail, alternating (which is what I originally did here), or any way that suits your fancy. They are also very fitting for the occasion. The last time I wore some Jamberry Nail Strips was when I did this Black & White Skittle. When I wore these I had a bit of a problem with the edges pulling up and away from the nail. It was really annoying when washing and styling my hair; they kept getting caught.  This time I thought I would try to add a base coat that would help keep the strips adhered to my nails. Barielle's Nail...

Pardon me as I whip this out... I'm tired and I have a Sweet Red Wine chilling in the fridge that's calling my name. Illamasqua's Nudge was originally released in Spring of 2010; it was called a mint green but it leans more aqua than mint. I don't have anything that leans this far blue. It's also got more white in its base than anything else I own. It's bright and cheeky. Wet n Wild's I Need a Refresh-Mint , Barielle's Money Talks , and China Glaze's For Audrey are all greener and significantly darker. The formula wasn't my favorite sadly. The consistency was a bit thick, streaky, and drying time was quite long. I managed to get away with 2 coats but some may find they need 3. You can see in my photos I experienced some bubbling as well. I think the color is unique but with the formula not up to par I won't be reaching for this again. (Nudge is no longer available through Illamasqua but you could probably find it on eBay or a Stash Sale) For...

It's all about the texture! Whoop! Whoop! This time I decided to try the Zoya Pixie Dust in Tomoko . I loved all the swatch photos I was seeing out there; it's a super glittery white that consists of silver and gold. It gives it an off white look. Super pretty. I know you are not supposed to use a base coat but I did anyways. I used my Barielle Hydrating Ridgefiller because I like the added benefit of it hydrating and protecting my nails. I didn't have any issues using Tomoko with my base coat. I used 2 coats, probably should have done a 3rd for more opacity but I was in a rush. Work called to see if I could come in early... Really?!? Already?!? Aarg. The formula was good, not as good as the Julie G texture line but still easy to apply. I wish the Zoya brush would fan out on the nail more with these; the brush wants to stick to itself with this texture. It took a little longer to dry but not as long as a cream. Of course I omitted top coat.  The wear time was excellent; I...

Today I was feeling inspired to try my hand at Nail Art once again. This time I wanted to do something to enter into  Barielle's Holiday Manicure Contest  so all of the colors needed to be  Barielle Shades   Luckily I have a ton of their Shades so I was all set. I knew I wanted to do trees but then I thought of Cris at L et Them Have Polish  and how she is all about Pinkmas. This got me thinking about all the different color themes people go with during the Holiday Season. There's the purple lover who goes with all different shades of purple. Then there is the quirky theme which always seems to use a bright chartreuse green. Last we have the retro silver tinsel tree decked out with decorations in a singular color (I went with red). I ran with it and this is what resulted. I gotta say I am very happy how this came out; My best freehand nail art to date. I started with a base of Green With Envy (a bright grass green creme; 3 coats) on my Index, Middle, and Pinky. ...

Hard Candy, Pixie Pink. 2 coats.  I finally got my hands on the Hard Candy Sprinkles! Yay! I wasn't having any luck finding them locally but when the hubby and I went to Needles, AZ for a wedding we stopped at the Wal-Mart in Bull Head City and I found these stocked there! I did a little happy dance right there in Wal-Mart; which by the way is a pretty awesome Super Wal-Mart that is very clean. Pixie Pink is one of the ones I picked up. I also got Sweet Tooth, Pink Taffy, and Cocoa Smore. Cocoa Smore is the one I really wanted but for some reason Pixie Pink called to me when I decided to do my nails this time around. It's a pale pink/lavender base with small hex glitter in teal, silver, and light pink. It's very squishy looking and you could call this a Jelly Sandwich in a bottle - I'm pretty sure you could call all of them that. Formula was pretty good; it was easy to apply and the brush is nice too. My first coat went on easily but a litt...

MANGLAZE, Fuck Off & Dye. 2 coats. MANGLAZE, Hot Mess. 1 coat.  Fuck Off & Dye. Sunlight.  Fuck Off & Dye. Shade.  It's about time I got around to using my MANGLAZE. I'm not one to buy a pink polish unless of course it has a really awesome name or back story. This one has both. If you are interested in learning more check this out. and this .  Hot Mess. Sunlight.  The formula on MANGLAZE polishes are really awesome. They are practically one coaters but I'm insistent on two. The brushes are a little stiff (yea, I said it) but work perfectly for the thick matte formula. No issues with dragging or bare spots. Of course they dry incredibly fast. FO&D is an in-your-face magenta pink that would work well on just about anyone. Hot Mess is a super dense silver glitter. Great glitter coverage in just one coat. Fuck Off & Dye and Hot Mess with Gelous and Seche Vite. I wish I could have kept the matte finish but for work purposes ...

NYX Girls, Buzz Worthy. 1 coat over: China Glaze, Red Satin.  Sunlight.  Happy New Years Eve! This is also my 60th post so there's even more cause to celebrate!!! I hope you all had a great weekend too; mine consisted of housework and cleaning. The hubby and I are hosting a Game Night tonight with some friends and family. I'm looking forward to it! Buzz Worthy is another NYX Girls polish I picked up at a local Cinderella store in Rancho Cucamonga,CA. Buzz Worthy is different from Mushroom Glitter in that it has more texture and the glitter is not foil like. I would say this is a mix of 60% Gold and 40% Silver glitter. It also appears that the gold glitter is slightly larger than the silver and it is irregularly shaped.

NYX Girls, Mushroom Glitter. 3 coats.  Sunlight.   Gloomy Weather.  I recently bought a few NYX Girls' polishes in hopes that I might find a dupe to Essie's Beyond Cozy. When you perform a Google Image Search you end up with an endless array of swatch photos for Beyond Cozy . I decided to try Mushroom Glitter first to see how it measured up.

When I was browsing www.eyeslipsface.com to pick out some goodies for my giveaway I noticed they had new colors listed. I tried to pull up swatches online to check them out but I couldn't find any. So, guess what?!? I bought them! I did 2 coats for each swatch just to make sure they photographed well. Check them out:

China Glaze, Glitter Goblin. 1 coat over: China Glaze, Roguish Red. 2 coats.  Roguish Red   Glitter Goblin  More after the jump...

Jessica, Smoky Feather. 3 coats. Full Sun  More after the jump...

Revlon, Sparkle Aplenty. 2 coats. If Revlon releases a polish like this every fall they will make me a very happy girl. I love these. Especially the fact that they put matte white hexagons in this one!!! Wow, Revlon, you are stepping out of the mainstream and I like it! Sparkle Aplenty is a black jelly base with 3 different colors of hexagons: Black, Silver, and White. It also contains a good helping of small silver glitter. Formula wasn't bad for a chunky glitter. I didn't need to do anything tricky, just my typical application. If I got a spot with a little too much glitter piled up, I would just go over that spot again quickly to thin it out. Of course the consistency is thick in order to suspend the glitter in the base, but you get plenty of glitter payoff. The black base builds up nicely in 2 coats. You could also opt to layer it over a base color. It took a while to dry being a thicker consistency and required 3 coats of Seche Vite to smooth out the surface. ...

Darling Diva Polish, Queen of Hearts. 1 coat over: Sinful Colors, Blue By You. More after the jump...