Kell's DIY Nails

butter London, Lady Muck. 2 coats.  Sunlight.  Indoors.  Hey There! I really wish I could find more time to paint my nails but I've already been working tons or overtime and it's only going to increase. The one day off I had on Saturday was the only day I was able to paint my nails. It had been a gloomy couple of days and I decided to match my nails to the weather. Lady Muck is pretty darn amazing. Excellent formula; it went on beautifully and while it was slightly sheer, it was still opaque enough for me at two coats. The brush fanned out on my nail nicely. Dry time was pretty good and I finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite. You can see where I have a bit of a bald spot on my middle nail from where a little floating hair landed and I pulled it off while the polish was still wet. I forgot to fill in the area with polish. Oh well. I love the silver shimmer in this. What's even better is butter London has the Leaping Bunny symbol on their bottles (Go...

Icing, Twisted Fantasy. 2 coats over: Sinful Colors, Rise & Shine. 1 coat.  Sunlight. Do you ever feel the need to just be spontaneous and drop everything to go have some fun?!? Well, that's what my husband and I did for my birthday. Even though I don't have much time to take off during tax season I happened to notice that my boss didn't have me scheduled last Friday and Saturday so the hubby and I drove up to Vegas thursday night after I got off work. We spent all day Friday walking around Vegas and then ended the night with some roulette and some tequilla shots. It was pretty awesome. We spent Saturday morning recouperating and then drove home so I could go to work Sunday morning. Ah, the life of a Tax Pro. :-) I wanted to do something celebratory with my nails so I settled on Icing's Twisted Fantasy; a rainbow of confetti glitter in a sheer teal blue base. It's very sheer even at 3 coats so I used undies of Sinful Colors' Rise & Shine. Ris...

Zoya, Crystal. 3 coats.  Sunlight. January makes me think of heavy snow fall, ice covered car windows and frozen water hoses. It's just plain cold. Here, in Norco, we don't see any of that snow but when I lived in the High Desert (Hesperia, CA) we got one huge snow storm in January that dumped 11 inches (more in other areas) on us. In some ways it was awesome; couldn't go to work for 3 days :-). In other ways it was a real bother; No fast food runs, and when the fun of the snow wore off it was a real pain getting my dogs to go outside and potty. Luckily, we only got hit once in 4 years like that. Crystal makes me think of shimmery ice crystals; a metallic light blue with golden flecks. She went on a little sheer so 3 coats was necessary to build it up to opacity. In addition, it did take quite a while for each coat to dry. I did experience some dragging which could be my base coat of Barielle's Hydrating Ridgefiller; sometimes it doesn't play...

OPI, Berlin There Done That. 2 coats.  Sunlight.  Shade. This is Class-in-a-Bottle! It's elegant, neutral, and very work appropriate. It's a creamy putty color that falls right between taupe and grey. The formula was excellent; it couldn't be any better. While I typically don't care for OPI's wide brushes I'm getting a better feel for them and this was a pleasure to apply. No issues with dragging or streaking. The 1st coat went on pretty opaque with just a few sheer spots so I added a 2nd coat for full opacity. The formula is thin but not runny so it's easy to apply thin coats. It dried to a nice glossy finish but I applied a coat of Seche Vite for staying power. My Seche Vite is thickening up so it gave me some bubbling; time to thin it out. But, the polish didn't bubble at all. Today I am at Dress Rehearsal for H&R Block; it's an opportunity for us to refresh ourselves on office procedure and to show any new associates the ropes...

China Glaze, Water You Waiting For. 2 coats. Sunlight. Shade. Let's Bling in the New Year! ...and that's exactly what I did! Water You Waiting For is from China Glaze's Cirque Du Soleil Cllection. Initially I thought this was a blue glitter but it's actually a trick of the eyes; it's actually aqua green and purple glitter in a sheer blue base. The combo actually looks like water to me... not regular water but the gorgeous waters from many vacation destinations. I thought this was going to be a tricky glitter to apply but this polish had the last laugh because it practically applied itself! It's definitely thick, but it applied really easy and in 3 strokes. The brush worked well with the polish and fanned out on the nail perfectly. I had read some reviews that mentioned they used 3 coats, but maybe my formula was denser and thicker than theirs because mine was good at 2 coats. In one of the photos you can see a little sheerness but it's not not...

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.

China Glaze, Red Satin. 3 coats.  Sunlight.  I've been a little obsessed with red polish lately. It all started when I was looking for a good red polish and I realized that a good chunk of my red collection was not cruelty free. So, I began my hunt to find cruelty free replacements. Luckily, we have a huge surplus of great reds in current collections. Red Satin is one of the reds I decided to add to my collection. It came from China Glaze's Holiday 2012 Collection with quite a few other great reds. This one is a bit different because it is a jelly finish. It gives a nice squishy appearance on the nail yet builds up to opacity nicely in 3 coats. I highly recommend letting each coat dry thoroughly before adding the next. The formula is a little on the thin side and you need to be careful in application to avoid pooling at the cuticle. Dry time did take significantly longer due to the need for 3 coats, but I kind of feel it was worth it. Red Satin looks quite similar to...