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31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 10 : Gradient Nails

Posted on 7 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Gradient Nails: you are my mortal enemy. It doesn’t matter how many tutorials I watch or how many tips people give me, I just can’t get this technique down. I’ve used a bout a million different type of sponges, and I’ve never been able to achieve the beautiful results I’ve seen on other blogs. I was fearing this challenge day because I hadn’t attempted a gradient mani in a long time so I wasn’t looking forward to yet another nail fail.

I started out with two coats of Serenity.

I love Serenity! This polish is one of their new Rubber Brights so it dries to a satin/rubber finish.

And here is my gradient……………………………..

I don’t hate this, but I don’t like it either. I don’t know what happened when I tried to photograph this, but my camera took a million dumps on me and did not want to photograph Muse. What the heck, Sony Cyber-Shot?! These were the best pictures of maybe 50…yes, 50! So anyway, I used Muse on my gradient tip which doesn’t really look like a gradient but whatever. At least I tried, and if you think it’s ugly, tweet me a picture of your gradient so I can mock it too. 😛 The next challenge revolves around half-moons which is pretty hard to mess up so at least I won’t worry about it.

Anywho, don’t forget to check out all of the other submissions for gradient nails below. Let us know what you think.

Illamasqua Serenity

Posted on 22 August, 2012 by Cynthia

Why does Illamasqua keep putting out such lovely polishes? Why do they want to push me to financial ruin? It’s ok, Illamasqua: I forgive you. It’s not your fault that I have no self control whatsoever. When I saw that they had added a few colors to their rubber finish polishes, this was the first one that made me run out to Sephora to see if it was in stock. It wasn’t yet, so I ordered it online along with 2 other colors from this line. For those of you who have NARS Koliary, how does this color compare? I didn’t get Koliary so this color kind of makes up for it in my mind.

(Before I forget, I would really appreciate some input about my pictures. I am using a new light box system that I set up today, and I don’t know if I need to change it up or what. I am used to taking direct sunlight pictures, but I need to move away from that because my schedule won’t allow it in the near future. So please let me know what you think.)

Serenity is such a beautiful shade of blue. Like its name states, it definitely has a serene quality to it. This polish is pretty freaking pigmented so you only need two coats but make sure that you don’t overwork the polish like I did. You can kind of see some brushstrokes, right? I wore a good ridge filling base coat because I find that this formula tends to show every single imperfection.

The two pictures show Serenity with a coat of Seche Vite. Ahhh….glossy and lovely.

And here is my feeble attempt at some type of nail art. I am such a fail at this stuff…I should just face the fact that all I can do is stamping!

What do you think of Illamasqua polishes? Are you a fan of the brand? Is there a color from their new Rubber Brights that you are interested in getting? Thanks for stopping by and have a great Wednesday.

P.S. As you can tell, I am finally trying out some watermarking. Today I got a few emails from people I had contacted about using my pics without giving me credit. They were all apologetic and said they would have credited me if they knew where the pics came from. Weak defense in my opinion, but maybe if I had watermarked, they would have credited. We shall see how it all pans out. As most of you know, there are a lot of shameless people out there who don’t care about stealing/using other people’s work.

Illamasqua Muse

Posted on 15 July, 2012 by Cynthia

Are you surprised that I have yet another Illamasqua beauty to wax poetic about? I think that Illamasqua is looking to dethrone Nails Inc. as my favorite brand for creme finish nail polish. I’m feeling a little rotten right now because I had too much to drink last night. I actually hate drinking because it brings back bad memories (I should write a post about that! lol). Honestly, I don’t know why I drank last night…probably to dull my senses if only for a little while. I am not feeling completely miserable this morning despite my little indulgence so I am very grateful to my body for now turning against me. Being hung over is such a horrible feeling so I don’t get how people can do it regularly. Anyway, I’ll stop with the random alcohol talk and come back to the topic at hand: Muse! (Revenons à nos moutons!)

Muse is gorgeous, right? The name is so fitting because this color inspired me to do so many things: I wanted to stamp the crap out of it, glitter it up, dot it up…the list is endless. Illamasqua calls this a deep teal blue but I don’t see that much teal in it; it’s a lot more blue than green in my eyes. Does this remind you of other colors? Maybe OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. I don’t care how many similar colors I may already have–the formula makes this an absolute stand out. I applied two thin coats here and it was perfectly opaque.

I know I said I wasn’t going to purchase any of the CG Prismatic glitters, but I changed my mind once I started seeing all the great things people were doing with them. I used Optical Illusion for the sponging on my tips, and I quite like how my nails turned out. I’m such a glitter hypocrite!

How has your weekend been so far? Thanks for visiting and I will be back later. I’m headed to my nail polish mecca in a bit and I know that’s just trouble. 🙂

Illamasqua Faithful

Posted on 13 July, 2012 by Cynthia

I feel that I am rather faithful to make-up brands especially when I find something that really works for me. But what about nail polish? I seem to buy anything and everything because I like to think of myself as an equal opportunity purchaser when it comes to nail polish. I don’t have the most lavish budget so I am an avid deal hunter. I am very lucky to have so many beauty supply stores in my area that sell a lot of the major brands at huge discounts. Unfortunately, this also makes me buy huge quantities of nail polish because, well, who can resist discounts? Not me!

Illamasqua is a brand that I don’t mind spending a little more money on…or a lot. Granted, their nail polish sells for $14 which is nowhere near bloated Chanel prices, but it’s still pricier than I would like.When their Naked Strangers Collection came out, I wasn’t that excited about it because I am more of a bold nail polish lover and the colors just seemed so…tame. I had gone to Sephora earlier in the week because I wanted to see if they had any of the Nails Inc. matter glitter “Sprinkles” polishes. Alas, they are not in store yet so I had to console myself with other nail polishes. I was playing around with the newest colors and Faithful really caught my attention. It looked like it was glowing from within. It had to be mine.

How can you resist the metallic looking glow of Faithful? The formula was perfect, as usual for Illamasqua, and I only needed two coats. This is a color that I could wear anywhere because it’s a bit neutral but still has a certain playfulness to it. It’s not overpowering, but it’s not boring either. Can you tell I love this color?

I’ve been playing a lot with glitter lately so I took out my #1 favorite glitter of all time: China Glaza Mahagonie. It has such a beautiful brown/red base with lots of holo glitter thrown into the mix. I think this combination sounded better in my head because I’m not too happy with the way it turned out once I sponged it on top of faithful. I don’t know if it was the sponge, my technique or the glitter, but this just doesn’t appeal to me as much. This just goes to show you that two rights, don’t always make a right!

Since I wasn’t too happy with the sponging, I went ahead and applied one thick coat of Mahoganie over my nails. This glitter is opaque at two coats if you wear it on its own. Since I already had a base color in Faithful, I was able to get away with one coat.

So what do you think? Are you an Illamasqua fan? Have you tried any of the China Glaze specialty glitters? This one is my favorite but Atlantis comes in at a close second. Wow…all that writing about glitter is throwing me off. Hello, my name is Cynthia and I am a reluctant glitter lover.

Illamasqua Phallic

Posted on 18 June, 2012 by Cynthia

Wouldn’t you like to meet the person who picks the names for Illamasqua nail polishes? I would! This is my latest Illamasqua purchase, and I just got around to trying it today. I’ve got to tell you that I bought a new camera because my old one is about a million years old and it was getting harder and harder to get decent pictures. Some days it cooperated and other days I could take a million pictures and none of them would turn out to my satisfaction. I have to admit that I am a camera dunce so I have not been able to figure out how to take decent pictures with my new camera. The following pictures are the best I could get and I am not that happy with them. I fiddled with my camera and my light box for HOURS while L. and I watched The Bachelorette (puke). There is something about that show that is getting on my last nerve so I’m going to stay away from it from now on. Anyway, back to the nail polish!

I decided to try this one out because there had been talk of lovely blue polishes early today on my blog so naturally I pulled this untried beauty out. As usual, Illamasqua did not disappoint. The formula was heavenly and I only needed two coats. I could not believe how easily it applied and I had almost no clean up. What an awesome polish and even more awesome formula.

I also did L.’s nails using Zoya Mia since she has an interview tomorrow. I’m wishing her luck!

I’m going to jump in the shower and then read and respond to all my pending comments. Oy vey it’s a lot. I love you all for stopping by and commenting on all my rants and ramblings.

Illamasqua Velocity

Posted on 9 June, 2012 by Cynthia

Illamasqua:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Ok, I am exagerrating but only by a bit. haha. This is my second Illamasqua purchase and I am falling hard…yes, hard. It’s so difficult to figure out what nail polish to buy when I am perusing sephora.com so this was an impulse buy–and I don’t regret it one bit. Illamasqua calls this polish a dusky grey-purple with a glossy finish and it is very fitting.

I am pretty sure that I have something close to this polish already but the formula is really amazing. Sometimes it’s all about the formula. Since I’m still an Illamasqua newbie, what other colors can you suggest? I can see my obsession beginning….

Illamasqua Nomad

Posted on 4 May, 2012 by Cynthia

First of all, I would like to tell you about my disappointment when I removed Zoya Zuza, and I gazed at my blue fingers and nails. Zuza is stainorrific. Granted it’s not as bad OPI Fly, but there was still staining. I forgive you, Zuza. I’ll still wear you because you’re pretty.

I was super excited to try this new nail polish by Illamasqua. I haven’t purchased anything by Illamasqua before (make-up or nails) so I didn’t know what to expect. I am glad to report that I was not disappointed. The formula was creamy, highly pigmented and easy to work with.

When I first put this on, I immediately thought of China Glaze Four Leaf Clover. It really isn’t the same because Nomad is a more bright jade color while Four Leaf Clover is more teal based. My one complaint would be the cap. I find it so awkward to hold when I’m applying the polish. It’s just too big to feel comfortable in my had for precise application. The brush was nice except that it had one wonky bristle.

I am very pleased with my first Illamasqua purchase and will purchase more products from their nail line in the future. Future meaning June. Hee!

Tomorrow is Cinco de Drinko. Are you going out to get hammered?

Don’t Hate Me! I Have A Sickness.

Posted on 27 April, 2012 by Cynthia

Master enabler Nicole “convinced” me that it was ok to start my no-buy policy this Saturday instead of in the middle of the week. And when I say that she convinced me, she just agreed with me when I put it out there. I needed no further justification to jump in my car and head over to Little Saigon for polish therapy. I told myself that I wouldn’t spend more than $20 and I stuck to it much to my surprise. It’s a good thing that everything is so cheap there or else I would have been in big trouble.

So, this is what I ended up purchasing today:

Enchantress, Showstopper

Jazz, A Crewed Interest, Funny Face and Turquoise & Caicos

Once I had my polish fill, I decided to stop at Sephora. Bad idea. I had gotten a few samples of Korres Wild Rose Moisturizer, and I freaking loved it so I wanted to go check it out. Since I had some store credit, I decided I might as well get something useful like moisturizer. Even though it’s starting to get hot and I have oily skin most of the time, I have noticed that my Clinique gel moisturizer isn’t helping some of the weird dry patches I’ve been getting lately. The Korres moisturizer is really thick but it feels great on my skin and best of all, it doesn’t make me break out. Of course they didn’t have it in store so I have to buy it online. Poo. I started walking around, and of course I ended up at their nail bar. My Sephora is now carrying Julep as well as SpaRitual. I was curious to see if they had Ciaté but it wasn’t available yet. Then I remembered how much I wanted Illamasqua Nomad. No bueno. I picked it up and also grabbed SpaRitual Meditate On This and ran to the check-out before I could change my mind or grab more things.

These are new brands to me so I can’t wait to try them out. So excited!

Remember how I initially went to Sephora for the Korres moisturizer? Well, at check-out they had the usual 100pt and 500pt perks. Yawn. The perks haven’t been worth squat lately so I barely even glanced at them. The cashier told me I had like 3,000 points. I always kind of hate when they tell me my point balance because it makes me feel self-conscious like I have issues. Well, I do but still… Then I noticed that one of the 100pt perks was a mini tube of the moisturizer I was looking for. Score! I ended up taking 5 of them which is 1.7oz of moisturizer: .3oz more than the amount a full size container carries and retails for $35.00.

This is probably the most well-spent points EVER for me. When’s the last time they had any kind of full-size product even at the 500pt level? Poo to you Sephora. You have to kick it up a notch or else loyal customers, like moi, will start to go elsewhere like *cough* Ulta *cough*

Are you glad it’s Friday? Do you have any plans for the weekend? What do you think of the polish colors I got? Tell me! 🙂