My Most Expensive and Least Expensive Polishes.

For this group collaboration we're featuring our most expensive and least expensive polishes. I knew right away what my most expensive polish was. That was Dior Shadow that I purchased from my friend, Bénédicte, over at I'm Anaa. She lives in France and was able to get it for a few of us when it first came out there in February or March instead of having to wait until July in the states (some ladies might have waited until July but there was no sign/news from Dior as to when or if it'd be available in the states). Not sure if even came out here in the UK or not. On to the pictures!

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Not sure what's going on with my ring finger. Oops.

For my cheapest polish, I went for Sinful Colors (as I think most people will since they have a fantastic formula and a HUGE range of colors). But then I remembered Pure Ice Heart Breaker. And then I thought I'd use both because I'm a cheater like that! :) So here is Sinful Colors Amethyst and Pure Ice Heart Breaker. I had a really hard time with this. I think it was the top coat. Almost all my nails had bubbles on them and looked absolutely horrible. I only got one good picture and I HAD to take it off ASAP because I just couldn't stand the bubbles. I used the NYC Grand Central Station top coat and I've heard wonderful things about it but it was nice the first couple of times I used it but I'm not sure I'll use it again. It's back to Seche Vite for me because that's what I have at the moment! 

Dior Shadow was a LE polish, I really don't think you can get it anywhere online anymore unless you want to pay a crazy price on ebay. Sinful Colors can be purchased at a few different drug stores in the US for anywhere between $.99-1.99 (or $6 on Copius, if you're dumb). I know you can definitely get Pure Ice (for $1.97) at WalMart in the states, I'm really not sure where else you can get it though.

NerdLacquer All of Time and Space.

Doctor Who Series 7 premièred last night and in honor of that, we're having a Dr Who mani collaboration weekend! And since I'm no good at nail art at all, I broke out NerdLacquer All of Time and Space (AOTAS). The name comes from a quote from an episode of Dr Who called "The Eleventh Hour":

So... all of time and space, everything that ever 

happened or ever will - where do you want to start?

Who could say no to that?!? Anyway, on to the pictures!

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I applied AOTAS over Dior Waterlilly. That's what appears to be yellow on the side of my nails. Not sure why it's photographing so yellow but I took advantage of the sunshine and grabbed the camera and snapped these pictures off really quickly. Waterlilly is a really thick formula and is also rose scented. While the scent doesn't bother me very much, I know it bothers a lot of other ladies. FYI, I could smell the rose scent even after 2 coats of AOTAS and 2 coats of Essie Good to Go. The smell is gone now but I was really surprised I could still smell it with all that other polish on top. The formula on AOTAS was really runny and hard to get the same amount of glitter on each nail. I've used this once before but I can't remember what the formula was like before. I might have added thinner to the polish and that could be why it's so watery but I really can't remember if I did or not.

My middle finger nail broke on Friday while I was eagerly opening a package that my mom sent over from New York. I was too lazy to go back downstairs and get a knife to open the box so I proceeded to rip it apart and I sacrificed my nail :( 

Dior Waterlilly is available from a few different sites and I'm not going to bore you with it since you can't even really see it in the picture :) NerdLacquer is, unfortunately, really really difficult to get a hold of. This was another indie brand that blew up selling a crazy amount of polish last year and was hard to get then. It's nearly impossible to get now as the lady that was making the polishes has seemed to have disappeared completely. The only way to get them is to occasionally catch them on ebay or in nail polish groups on Facebook but at really inflated prices since they are very hard to find.

Did you watch the Dr Who premier yet? What did you think? I LOVED it and I was super shocked by one aspect of it that I won't mention because it's very spoilery!

Rebel Rainbow Fish Blue - Owen is here!

This weekend's collaboration is a kind of spontaneous because my friend Jacki at Adventures in Acetone (go like her Facebook page as well!) had a baby boy on Monday, July 16th! We're welcoming Owen James by painting our nails blue. Because how else would we welcome him? Surely he's going to appreciate this when he's a teenager (yeah, right haha)!!!!! CONGRATS to Jacki, Wes and Hailey (who is going to be a great older sister!)

I've used L'Oreal Rebel Blue with NailVenturous Rainbow Fish gradient tips. When I showed Gary he said "why did you only do the tips and not the whole nail?" And I said that I wanted to be able to see the shimmer in the blue (although it's not very apparent, not sure why, maybe it's the 3 coats of top coat). Gary responded with: "so, is it gradient because you messed it up and went further down than you wanted to?" HOW DARE HE! Of course I did it on purpose and didn't mess it up. I'm awesome like that. *rolls eyes* Anyway, this took many days to capture on camera since we've had nothing but miserable weather here for a week and hardly any sun. This is day three of the mani and it's holding up well on my left hand but not looking too great on my right hand. I think this is mostly because a few of my nails are damaged and peeling.

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L'Oreal polishes can be purchased at Boots and Superdrug (and I'm sure a few other places as well). NailVenturous is another indie brand. Amy has decided she won't be selling publicly any more so, therefore, they're really really difficult to get a hold of. But go like her Facebook page in case she decides to open shop again.

Happy Ironic 4th of July

There are 2 reasons why this is an ironic 4th of July mani. First, none of the polishes I used are actually American polishes. And second, I'm an American living in England, the very country that America became independent from. I used a England Order of the Garter for the blue, Illamasqua Scorch for the white and Ozotic 621 for the red.

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My friends, Chris and Andy, sent me the star glitter in a box with my birthday present. And I don't mean in a bag. It was all loose inside the box. I'm STILL finding glitter around the house and my birthday was in March. But it's okay because I love them. To apply the glitter, I put a thick coat of top coat on over the blue.  Then, working quickly, I dampened a cotton swab (making sure that there wasn't any stray bits of cotton sticking out), dabbed the cotton swab onto the star and then applied it to my nail. I did try this out before I applied the top coat since I've never done this before and wanted to see if I could actually do it :) In the bottom picture, I applied two thinish coats of Glitter Gal Light As A Feather, which you really can't see.

A England and Illamsqua are British brands and can be purchased from their  respective sites (Illamasqua can also be purchased at Sephora in the states). Ozotic and Glitter Gal are Australian brands.  A England, Ozotic and Glitter Gal can be purchase from Llarowe, Ninja Polish, Harlow & Co and Overall Beauty.

Canada Day? Kinda.

I really couldn't think of anything to do for a Canada Day mani. Well I could but I lack the skills to actually do it. And I tried. So, instead, I have for you a polish from a Canadian indie company. This is Essie (not Canadian) She's Picture Perfect with Pam's Girly Bits Hippity Hop. I wore it last month and only got one good(ish) picture of it.

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Not great quality.

She's Picture Perfect was really easy to apply and has a really pretty shimmer (which you can't see in this picture). Hippity Hop was a little bit harder to apply but I got there in the end. There's an absolute GORGEOUS shimmer to this that I definitely couldn't capture. You just have to see it to understand the beautifulness of it! Essie can now be purchased at Boots in the UK and in lots of stores in the states. Pam's Girly Bits are a little harder to buy since it's an indie seller. But like the page on Facebook for updates or keep an eye on her store. Happy O Canada Day!!! Especially to my favorite Canadian, Silver!!!

Jubilee Weekend!

Since it's Jubilee weekend, we're having a British Themed weekend. Wear your favorite British brand polish. I'm not wearing my favorite British brand but I decided these were best for Jubilee weekend. This is Nails Inc Jubilee over Nails Inc Baker Street.

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These can both be purchased at Nails Inc. Jubilee is a limited edition UK exclusive. Baker Street can be purchased at Sephora as well.