Tape Manicure featuring China Glaze - For Audrey

Today's a special day, because I'm linking up with Glitter and Gloss and Just Love.ly Things for their first Mani Monday!!



So the day after I posted my China Glaze - For Audrey swatch last week, I was getting ready to redo my nails. But I loved the For Audrey so much, I decided that I couldn't bear to take it off yet -- so I decided to keep it for another day by trying something new on top. What to try? Well, I have bunches of untested nail polishes, and even more great ideas that I've seen around the internet and on Pinterest. So I decided to try a tape manicure!

Choosing the other color was made easier by the fact that I had just picked up this totally rad set of metallic/shimmer nail polishes in a assortment of earthy colors from Urban Outfitters. I had gone in to see if they carried Model's Own (they do), but spotted these on the sale rack instead. Normally retailed for $20 -- which is still a great deal for six polishes -- but I scored them for only $4.99. O.O

I don't actually know what brand these are, because they don't have labels, or even names for that matter. The box said "Paint Palette" but when I looked online I saw polishes in identical bottles that identified them as "UO Nail Polish." So...it's a mystery. I wish they had names, too...in fact I'm tempted to give them names myself! If they do have names, can someone please fill me in on what they are?

I chose the most glittery gold one and decided to give it a whirl. It had a great formula! It went on perfectly smooth, the brush was excellent, and it only took one coat to cover over the For Audrey and China Glaze Fast Forward top coat that I was already wearing. I also really like the square bottle. It's heavier than most bottles, and I'm not constantly worried that I'm going to knock it over. I'm seriously impressed for a clothing store polish, and I can't wait to test out the other five bottles. If they are as good as this one was, I'll be buying way more polish from UO in the future.

 So here's the colors I actually used for this mani.

To actually do the tape mani was also super easy. I just grabbed a roll of tape and placed it over my nails so that part was uncovered and part was covered. Then I put a coat of polish over it, waited a couple minutes for it to dry, and peeled off the tape. The lines are crisp and clean! I waited a couple more minutes before applying another coat of China Glaze - Fast Forward topcoat because I didn't want to smear the lines, and then it was good to go!

I really like this look, since it's pretty and modern all at the same time--and super easy. It was easy to succeed at, even on my right hand.  It was the boyfriend and mine's six-month anniversary on Saturday, so I wore this manicure on our date as well. In fact, I'm still wearing it now, almost three days later. It's not often that I leave my nails alone for that long! I'll definitely be trying more tape mani's in the future.

Thanks for reading, and I hope I inspired someone to try a tape mani too! Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Love, Juno

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Platinum and Bride to Be (Swatches and Review)

Hey everyone! I'm back with a couple new swatches to show you all! These are Sally Hansen polishes, from the Diamond Strength Nail Color line. I've been fan of Sally Hansen since before high school (I got into painting my nails when I was like 9 or 10!), since they're very affordable and available almost everywhere. But these are actually the first polishes I'd tried from the Diamond Strength series. I don't know why they never jumped out at me before, I think it's probably just because most of the colors are things I'd seen before - lots of sensible pinks and reds. But CVS was having a sale on them a couple weeks ago, and I decided to try a couple. I picked out Platinum and Bride to Be, both of which I thought would be nice on their own and nice to layer over other colors, like black or purple.

For this blog post, I'm going to show you just these polishes on their own. Each took three coats to be somewhere close to opaque, which further strengthens my belief that they're probably best suited for layering.

Platinum, shown above, was extremely sheer. Even after three coats, there was still VNL. It was also a super-thin formula, which made it a little runny and hard to work with. Plus, from some angles it barely even looked like I had anything on my nails at all. So, by itself, this one is perfect for when you just want the barest hint of shine on your tips. It was a little old lady-ish, mostly because of the frost finish in my opinion, but it's still something I might wear to work on a day where I couldn't pull off a more bold color.

I didn't like Bride to Be (above) nearly as much. It had the same formula as Platinum, but after three coats it was more opaque. However, this one was far more silvery and metallic than it looked in the bottle. To me, in  the bottle it looks like a grey with some shimmer. On my fingers, it looked like frosty aluminum foil! If I was going to wear a shade like this one--which I might go for as a metallic silver, I'd want it to be a lot closer to opaque after one coat. This one certaintly wasn't that. I'm going to give this one more shot over a different color, but if it turns out as bad as this I won't be wearing it again.

All in all, I'm less than in love with the Sally Hansen Diamond Strength polishes thus far. I really love the bottle shape, with it's multiple sided-ness and "jewel" embedded into it, but these polishes failed to blow me away. I'd give it one more shot, maybe trying some reds or glitters (are there Diamond Strength glitters?), but if they're like these ones I won't be buying after that.

China Glaze - For Audrey

I know most people are already fans of China Glaze's For Audrey, but the bottle that I picked up this week is actually the first one of it I've owned. I wanted to see what all the hype was about...and then I discovered. This is a perfect robin's egg blue. It goes on perfect in two coats, and dries to a smooth and pretty creme. I love it every bit as much as everyone said I would. I can't wait to use this in a ton of manicures in the future! 

Also, please excuse the grainy photo. I don't have my SLR with me tonight since I left it at work, so I took this with my cell phone. I also don't know what happened to make the bottom of the bottle look all weird and grayish, because it doesn't look like that in real life! I'm still learning how to do these swatch photos.

Polish Haul!

So I may or may not have acquired eleven new polishes in the last week! (okay, you got me, I'm guilty) But the sales have been so good this month! Buy 2 Get 1 at Sally Beauty, and then the same at Ulta! So I picked up a bunch of new China Glazes from each of those stores.

Three of the ones that I got were from the Hunger Games collection, of which I now have SEVEN. I will not be buying any more of these, since I have all the ones that caught my eye. This week, I scored Riveting, Harvest Moon, and best of all Electrify. I had almost given up hope on ever getting Electrify since it was sold out everywhere that I went. That made me super sad since I love glitters sooo much. Luckily, there was ONE BOTTLE LEFT when I went to Ulta! I was so happy I did a little dance in the aisle. (That right there shows you how much I love glitters!) I can't wait to wear it...

The other three China Glazes are basics that I've somehow missed out on trying: For Audrey, Liquid Leather, and their fast-dry top coat. I'm particularly excited about Liquid Leather, since it's been a while since I've had a good, basic, black that wasn't Wet N Wild.

And then I stopped by Walgreens, since Sinful Colors is on sale this week for only 99 cents! (C'mon, it's less than a dollar! How could I resist?) I limited myself to five though. Cinderella, San Francisco, Dancing Nails, and...two others that I can't for the life of me remember the names of! I feel super bad, but I'm at work and they're at home. I bought them just based on the the colors, and forgot to double-check the names. One looks like a really nice creme red, which I really need, and the other is a blue/green shimmery one that looks sooo pretty in the bottle. I'm really excited to swatch all of them and post them here!

The Very First Post

Why hello there! If there's anyone out there reading this, this is the very first post for my new blog. My name's Juno, and I'm in love with nail polish! I have at least 100 bottles, although I haven't counted recently, and that number is growing almost weekly. I love them all, especially glitters! I decided to create this blog to share my favorites (and maybe least favorites? if I find some?) with the internet.

And what better way to start a new blog than by showing you what's on my fingertips RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE, as I type this. When I put this polish on last night, I instantly knew it was one my new favorites. It's an Essie polish, from the brand-new Poppy-Razzi collection for Summer 2012. Without further ado...I present to you....BAZOOKA!

I love neons, and this one is a great red-orange jelly neon. It's still a bit sheer, as you can see in the photo above there is a bit of visible nail line (VNL), even after a second coat, but I expect that three coats would solve that problem. It dries to a semi-matte finish, and under indoor lighting (like in the photo above) it looks bright, but not neon. However, when I went outside this morning to head to work, I noticed that it looks incredibly brighter and more neon in the sunlight! I kid you not...it's like a total day-glo orange, brighter than even a traffic cone! What a perfect color for summer.

The other thing I love about this is the jelly-ness...is that it'd be perfect for a sandwich manicure (which I haven't tried yet, mostly because I haven't had a good jelly to work with. But this one would be a perfect candidate...and I've already got a glitter in mind to pair it with.

I got this polish at Walgreens for $8, but I've seen the new Essie collections at a couple other drugstores near my house as well. There's three other polishes in the collection besides this one: Lights, Camera, and Action. I wasn't as interested in them when I first saw them, but now that I know they're jellies I know I'll be going back for those pretties!

Anyway, thanks for reading (if anyone is). Even if I'm the only one that ever reads this little blog, I'm excited to keep updating it so that I have a tidy little record of my polishes and how pretty they all looked on my nails!

Love, Juno