Today I wore a duochrome nail polish. The polish is from a German brand called Artdeco. It's was sent to me from my best German friend, Tini. We've been sending packages back and forth to each other for two years now! She supplies me with all my favorites from German cosmetics companies. And when I can I send her awesome American beauty products that she can't find. We also chat with each other online and lean on each other for support. Tini is the best. :)
I used three coats to reach opacity. The color of the polish shifts from a light blue to purple to dark blue purple depending on the way you move your hand.
It's a gorgeous polish. One of my favorite bottle shapes too. :) Thanks again Tini for the great nail polish pick! Tschüss!
I received this nail polish box from Influenster to try out and share my opinion about the product. Inside was the Sephora Formula X - System XCEL and the Delete All nail polish remover. The System XCEL kit contains a nail prep, base coat, top coat, and a polish color. If you were to order or buy this at Sephora you would be able to choose the polish color. I received TGIF, a pretty coral in my box. The Delete All is sold separately from the System XCEL Kit.
I did actually take the first video ever of applying my nail polish. I used all four steps of the system. If you would like to watch. You can see that it was generally easy applying the polish.
I've purchased Formula X polish before and have used it. I've generally liked it. It's in the same price point as OPI and Orly. The brush is wide which you can notice in the video. I followed each of the steps. I first cleansed my nails with Cleanse XCEL. It helps remove oils from the nail bed. I followed up with a coat of Prime XCEL the base coat. After that I applied two coats of Formula X - TGIF. Following that I applied the top coat Shine XCEL.
The System XCEL claim is that it will provide you a gel like mani. I would have to agree. The Shine XCEL top coat really set the manicure. After it dried which was very quickly! It had a very hard shell to it. My nails were extremely shiny too. I'm unlucky in that I've never really been able to have great wear time with polish. Usually about two days before I have giant chips. No matter what type of steps or products I use. I have a similar issue with gel polish with a light. Where I usually need to take it off in 7-8 days. So I wasn't expecting too much with this product. Surprisingly, I got nearly a week of wear which is pretty nice. I believe they claim you can have 10 days with no wear. So I was getting closer to that mark.
Day 1: Sephora Formula X - TGIF
Day 3:
Day 7: This is after two different painting projects. So I was actually generally happy that I didn't have even bigger chips. The one nail with no polish wasn't nearly as bad but I was picking at it.
Yesterday, I painted my nails with Essie Mojito Madness. This polish is from a collection that came out in Summer 2012. I just picked it up this past summer.
Mojito Madness is a yellow tone grassy green color. Very beautiful! I love this shade of green. The formula was a little runny, but I had no problem with coverage. This was two coats.
Because the polish was Mojito Madness. I obviously had to make a Mojito and I watched some episodes of Mad Men. ;)
I love Joan's red dress in this Christmas episode from season 4.
Today, I even importantly visited a very Mad Men-esque home.
Finally, today I added on some nail art to my nails. Creating a little Halloween look.
Day 8 here we come! Today was Orly - Liquid Vinyl and Sinful Colors - Cold As Ice.
Orly - Liquid Vinyl is my go to black. I use it for just about all black manicures. I only used 1 coat for this. And Sinful Colors Cold - As Ice is a white bar glitter. I used one coat for the glitter. You can see that it applies nicely and doesn't look patchy.
I loved this combo! Way better than the bar glitter mani I had earlier in the week.
Today is day 7! The color I picked out was Color Club The Uptown. It is in a royal purple jelly base with flakes that shift from orange, red, to green. I used 4 coats to receive full coverage and didn't use a base color.
This color will sure to cause you to stare at your nails all day.
Today was Day 6 of my 12 Days of Christmas manicures. Today is p2 opulent. From the p2 Sand Style line. I used 2 coats. Opulent is a dark blackened green that sort of leans teal because of the glitter in it. As you can see the polish is textured too.
Looks lovely. I really liked it. See you tomorrow.
Day 5! Today I wore OPI Underneath the Mistletoe. This was the only polish I picked from this year's OPI Christmas collection. I'm a sucker for red polish, especially at Christmas time.
Underneath the Mistletoe is a darker blood red with silver and red glitter. I used three coats. It was catching my eye all day.
For Day 4 I wore Kiko 630 with Sinful Colors Gold Tinsel on top.
Kiko 360 is a rose gold chrome. Very pretty! I wish I would of just kept it the way it was! As usual with chromes you really want a smooth nail bed. And the 2nd coat needs to be applied thick and lightly to avoid brush strokes.
I added two coats of Sinful Colors Gold Tinsel. It is gold and rose gold bar glitter in a clear base. It didn't really look right over the chrome. :( The good news is that the bar glitter is not sparse and easy to apply.
Good evening! Today marks the first day of my 12 days of Christmas nails. I will be changing my nail color 12 times in the next 12 days. Mostly Christmas color themed but some winter styled.
So for day 1 I have a layer combo on. I started with China Glaze First Mate. I used two coats for this manicure.
Then I pulled out my bottle of OPI Man with the Golden Gun. A real Gold Flake top coat from last winter's James Bond Collection. This polish had a pretty expensive retail price of $30 but I snagged it for about $10 after Christmas! I used two coats.
I picked this color because I actually wore this to my college graduation. These are my University's colors. While graduating was an accomplishment I still have a little work to do. I am still student teaching until February and I have one more state test to pass. Then I will receive my teaching license
This was a quick little manicure today. It's a skittles of China Glaze Mrs. Clause and Mistletoe Kisses. These came out in a Holiday collection in 2010. This is the best photo I had again. Low light makes things blurry. :(
Hello again! Today I have for you a really neat glitter polish! It's from Ulta and it's called Fashionably Late. It's a black base with red glitter and red hex glitter.
While I didn't get behind in the manicures... I did get behind on posting the photos! Today was OPI Designer De Better from last year's Muppets collection.
It's a silver foil with these interesting orange/bronze flecks.
Hello! Today box number 16 has provided China Glaze Love Marilyn. A pretty red glitter with and silver hex glitter. I used e.l.f. Cherry Bomb as a base color and then two coats of Love Marilyn. Poor lighting again today. :(
Well, go figure the day I have this it's raining and dark outside. :( It's China Glaze He's Going in Circles. I used three coats and no top coat. It's very pretty!
You can sort of see the holo here.
I did get a pretty awesome macro! You can see all the fragments.
Today was another mini polish from the Holiday OPI Ulta set. This is Last Minute Shopper. A really bold red shimmer that leans pink. In the bottle it looked not special. On the nails not too bad! It really glowed.
