Wet n Wild Dusky Mauve & Red Dog Designs My Stardust Melody

As soon as the sun came out yesterday, I jumped up and grabbed the camera and go some great pictures of this beautiful manicure! I love this combo so much and My Stardust Melody (from the Ol' Blue Eyes collection) is soooo amazing!! It is a combination of pastel green, lilac and white glitter with holographic micro glitter!

Beautiful^^^

My first attempt at a macro shot, with weird placed glitter.

This glitter is amazing. I think it's a very spring-like color but I'd wear it any time of the year! I can't stop staring at my nails and I love the holo glitter a lot! The wear so far is great. I've had it on since Tuesday evening and no tip wear or chips.

My Stardust Melody can be purchased at Red Dog Design's Big Cartel shop. Go like their Facebook page for more information and updates on new collections! I have no idea where you can purchase Dusky Mauve since it's an old one and probably not readily available.

Layla Coffee Love

This is the elusive linear brown holo. I really love brown holos but there's hardly any out there! This one is gorgeous but it's a horrible application. This is 4 coats and it's STILL patchy but I don't care one little bit. It's SOOOO beautiful!! We had 3 full days of sun in England! In February! Unheard of! So a lot of us broke out the holo polishes!

I believe there's some sort of preparation emery board that you can get to make application of these a lot easier. If I'd thought about it before I started applying it, I would have used my Nfu Oh Aqua Base but I completely forgot I had it until just this second.

Layla is an Italian brand. In the UK, it can be purchased from Sally Magpies (which is where I got mine from. Check out their FB page for specials and sales). In the US, it can be purchased in store at Ulta. If you want to support independent companies, it can be purchased at Ninja Polish, which also ships worldwide.

Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day Mash Up

I was trying to figure out if I actually wanted to do a Valentine's Day manicure since I don't really give one little crap about Valentine's Day. I tried to make some hearts with a dotting tool and I just couldn't do it so I opted out of a Valentine's mani. Then I was looking at some ideas for a Mardi Gras mani, trying to figure out if I would be any good at doing some beads with a dotting tool. I decided it wasn't really something I wanted to do and be annoyed with because it wasn't coming out how I wanted it to. So, even though I'd just done gradient glitter tips, I decided that I was going to do them again with China Glaze Glitter All the Way (which I added specifically to my wishlist, and was gifted over Christmas, just so I could use it for Mardi Gras!) with Dior New World Purple (which I ALWAYS call New World Chocolate in my head because, ya know, it looks nothing like purple) because that's what I was wearing and didn't feel like taking it off because it's beautiful. While I know little to nothing about Mardi Gras, I don't there's any brown colors associated with it but it does make a great base with Glitter All the Way. So how many polishes does it take to create a Mardi Gras/Valentine's Day mani?

The answer is 5.

Sinful Colors Let's Talk and San Francisco, butter London The Full Monty,

Dior New World Purple and China Glaze Glitter All the Way.

My cuticles look horrible again. And my hearts are not that great at all. And there's shrinkage from all the top coat I had to apply to get the glitter smooth. And the blue heart? That's actually a royal purple. But you get the idea.

These two taken in really dull light, next to the window.

With flash.

I actually really like how this came out despite the fact that it's not anywhere near perfect. Happy Mardi Gras (from a Northerner and current UK resident!) and Happy Valentine's Day (even though I don't really like it haha). Do you have any plans for either day? And please post your MG and VD manis in the comments!

Illasmasqa Noble and Serenity Comparison + Glitter Gradient

Sorry for such a long absence again. I'm really not sure what happened. I've been taking pictures of my manicures but I haven't posted anything for various reasons. Sometimes it's because I don't like the way the pictures came out or because I just didn't like the mani.

Today I have for you a comparison post. Firstly because when I saw these two bottles next to each other (in the first picture) I couldn't believe how similar they were and I knew I'd have to do a comparison post. Secondly because comparison posts have been my most viewed posts, so I know everyone likes them. Here's the picture that started it all.

 Noble, Serenity, Nurture, Aorta, Prosperity and Cameo

I was really surprised with how similar they looked. Especially since they came out within a few weeks of each other. Noble is a creme finish and Serenity is a rubber finish, so I guess you can say that it's okay to have both but equally, if you have one but not the other, then it's not a huge deal. Here are the comparisons. I apologize for the crappy cuticles. No top coat in any of the first 4 pictures.

Serenity on pointer and ring fingers.

Noble on middle and pinky fingers.

With flash.

 Serenity on pointer and ring fingers.

Noble on middle and pinky fingers.

Under fluorescent light, no flash.

Serenity on pointer and ring fingers.

Noble on middle and pinky fingers.

In sun, with flash, I believe.

 

Serenity on pointer and ring fingers.

Noble on middle and pinky fingers.

In sun, no flash.

I really do like both these colors. As you can see, there's a very slight difference between the two. With top coat, they were even more similar, in my opinion. Here are some pictures with top coat but also with glitter gradient tips with Nails Inc Rainbow Street.

I'm not too happy that Illamasqua put two such similar colors out within a really close time. I realize that they're different finishes but it seems a bit pointless to me. The only reason I actually got Serenity is because it was about to get it for $9.90 instead of the usual $14 (at Sephora) or the very high price of £13.50 at Illamasqua here in the UK. What's your opinion?