Purple Chrome Mani with Holographic Tips

Hi everyone!

It's Golden Week here in Japan, that means VACATION for all work/schools. My good friends are visiting me from Tokyo now (I missed them lots :) so I won't be posting a new mani this week, but I do have an oldie but goodie that I haven't posted just yet.

I got some new nail polishes recently, including some from-you'll never guess-an arcade in Osaka. One of the crane games had nail polishes in it, and Yoshi won me some. I didn't have my phone at the time so I couldn't take a pic, but I'll see if he remembers where it was so I can go back and try for some more!

I'll put up some pics of my latest haul next time, but for now I'll post the mani that I mentioned that I had done previously before the pink marbled one.

As the main color I used Sally Hansen Chrome Nail Makeup in Violet Sapphire. The purple polish is Sally Hansen Chrome Nail Makeup in Violet Sapphire. It really is "nail makeup", nothing like nail polish. It goes on smoothly, without ANY streaks, however many times you swipe it with the brush (you know, how sometimes polish doesn't go on evenly the first time or two, and when you try to touch it up it goops or streaks? NONE of that.) It also dries instantly! I'd almost compare it to the way eye shadow primer applies and dries, smoothly and dries instantly. Here's a swatch:

Now the main event. I purposely took a blurry pic to try to capture the sparkle. I can't rave about these polishes enough.
On the tips, I used Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff Nail Color in Secrets Frost #62. This is the most amazing holographic polish I've owned yet. The photo does it no justice. It is truly amazing.
I am looking for ANOTHER one of this color (none on ebay as of yet) as mine is half empty. If anyone has, please, I will trade you LOTS of Japanese goodies for this!

Purple Chrome Mani with Holographic Tips, a photo by KitaRei on Flickr.

Not Feeling So "Rescued" By Rescue Beauty Lounge - But I did Get To Try SCRANGIE!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Store Front

So I FINALLY made it over to the Rescue Beauty Lounge in the Meatpacking district of Manhattan today for a manicure.

I walked up and down the block a few times, stupidly looking for a store front, and not the store #, and then I finally found it! A walk up 2 flights of stairs took me to what I was expecting to be nail polish bliss.

They were out of ALL the good colors...the new spring line was sold out, Scrangie was sold out as well, so I didn't buy any colors which I definitely expected to do.

The manicure (a plain old nothin' special mani, mind you) was $30, and a $5 tip for the lady who conducted it.

It was ok, hand massage was lacking, and the weirdest part of it all was that there were no hand dryers. You have to "air dry". Even in the dankest of nail salons I've been to, I have never had to air dry. And whatever they used for the top coat sucked, because the nails never fully dried, and by the time I got home, I had dents and smudges on my nails. I actually topped off the mani with seche vite when I got home, to help it dry.

The store, once inside, was decorated nicely, had some cute stuff for sale, mainly hats and scarves for the winter. I noticed that the pedicures were done in these small station-like rooms, which is great for people who have ugly feet like myself, and wish for nobody to have the unpleasant experience of having to look at them...

But all in all, was it worth the money? No. Not even no. A big fat old HELL NO! I will stick to Long Island $8 mani specials, thank-you very much. And, not to mention, the place I usually go to gives me a back rub the entire time I'm getting my manicure...still, just $8. Beat that, Rescue Beauty Lounge!

Anyway, here's a look at Scrangie which they painted my nails to, but could not sell me...

excuse my dry hands please!

taken with my cell, sorry for poor quality

It's Wednesday, and I'm wearing pink!

Hi everyone, happy Wednesday!! I actually have an older mani and swatch to post, but I thought I'd post this one first since it's Wednesday, and well, I so happen to be wearing pink!

First the good news: The Japanese school that I will be attending isn't just a Japanese school, it isn't even just a language school. They offer all sorts of programs in the arts, which just so happens to include-are you ready for it-classes for Japanese manicures! The best part is- the regular class is about $10, and one class per month FREE for students! What does this all mean? Well I have a chance to become professional in Japanese nail art, SQUEE!

Ok so back to the manicure. Yoshi just got me a book on Japanese manicure tips and tricks (still learning some of the Japanese terms yet for this stuff) and I saw a relatively easy tutorial for marbling (well, much easier than water marbling anyway, and less messy) so I decided to try it.

First, here's a swatch of NYC Long Wearing Polyester Pink Creme #108A. Just like the other NYC polishes, it took four coats to get an even color, but it is a nice shade:

Now the mani. This is my first attempt at a marble manicure, so forgive me if it isn't super-awesome :p

First Marble Mani, a photo by KitaRei on Flickr.
For the base color I used NYC Long Wearing Polyester Pink Creme #108A. I used Visee Glamorous Sparkle #10(I still can't find my fine brush, so I used a toothpick..) for the glitter half moons on my nails. Half moons are really big here. For the actual marbling, I used NYC Long Wearing French White Tip #134 and Revlon Limited Edition Diamonds Are Forever. I topped it off with Coffret D'or gel topcoat.

Thanks for reading!

Dorothy who? More like Dorothy..SAY WHAT?

So apparently, I have discovered that pretty much any nail polish will look a million times more amazing with black underneath it. As you saw from my post with Zoya Faye, black just brings out the color so much more! Also it saves about 20 coats of said polish.

I bought Dorothy Who? last year and I have to say it is one of the most gorgeous colors that china glaze has put out, but the sad fact is,  that you have to use about 5 coats to even look like what's in the bottle. So I thought, I wonder what it would look like if I put black as a base first. And VOILA!

I just can not get over how amazing this looks. And I am telling you, to the people who spent over 20$ for Chanel Black Satin, NYC makes an amazing black polish for 99 cents. Just saying.

But I'm going to keep this a short one, I'm just dealing with something private at the moment and I have a buttload of school assignments. I can not wait for June 17th, where I can call myself a college grad:) But ta ta for now ladies...(and gents!)

An Eastery Sparkly Day- And My Easter Present!

Happy Easter! 

Is that just about the scariest easter bunny you've ever seen? I couldn't help myself.

You know by now that I cannot just keep one color on my nails for longer than 24 hours, right? So consider the last Easter post a "trial" of sorts! A preparation for the real deal ;)

I was also just thinking, as I know I've pretty much created over-kill on sparkly accent nails. What do you, as readers of our blog, want to see more of? Because we are ready and willing (perverted thoughts aside!) to deliver what you would like to see! At first, we started this blog more as an outlet to feed our obsessions, and share our nail polish looks as friends, but now since we have followers, we want to keep you entertained as well! So speak up. Let us know what we can do more of, less of, no more of....and hey, we'll give it a shot :)

I recently purchased an armload of nail art stamps (copies of the real Konad deal on Amazon for  a fraction of the price) so look forward to many Konad experiments ahead in near-future posts.

And moving on to my Eastery Sparkly Day look.....

My new Sephora OPI swatch "Havanah Dreams" accented with Deborah Lippmann's "Today Was A Fairytale". The blue jelly blended in really nicely with the blue cream swatch, and I really like this look! Maybe I will try it over purple next time. I *like* the Deborah Lippmann swatch, but I feel like it's been done before, by just about everyone. I think they could have really knocked this swatch out of the park if they added super-micro glitter, too. 3 levels of glitter would have been bliss!

this is just 1 layer of TWAF

Now on to the Easter present....please note, this was an Easter present to myself! I don't expect Mr.Scary Easter Bunny to leave anything at my doorstep, so I have to take initiative and buy a present for myself, right? I found this Juicy Couture Kindle case for $35 at TJ Maxx, and didn't even hesitate. I had to have it. I love it!

And we have a winner!....Er..Winners!

Okay, bear with me here. I'm dealing with the slowest internet on the planet at the moment. But finally have tallied up all the entries, going by every tweet, blog, blog roll, etc. It took many many hours but here is the winner of our 1st grand Prize, randomly picked by Renee - (original entry here)

Olivia's Nails!

and for our second prize, randomly picked by Erika -

Nikki!

Thanks again you guys for entering, and please remember we are having another giveaway very soon.

XOXO A Polished Life

Happy Easter Purple And Hello Kitty Brand Decals

Just thought I'd throw in a quick little mani I did this morning. I got these really cute hello kitty brand mani strips and gave them a shot. I love the look! I'm wearing Grape Pop by China Glaze, with Hard Candy on my ringfinger.

The strips are a little tough to stick on and don't stay down. Maybe I will try them with nail glue next time. I also think I attached them upside down! Still cute.

A Secret Bunny Exchange

I belong to a really freakin amazing community called Purseblog.com, and I obviously spend most of my time in the sub-forum for nail junkies such as myself.

I noticed there were occasionally these "exchange" posts, organized by a really awesome girl, where you sign up, and become a secret santa of sorts for another person on the board. You can participate to send internationally, that way you can get goodies from any part of the world. And you never know what you're going to get. You just brief the organizer on what nail polish finishes/brands you like/dis-like, etc, and the rest is up to whoever gets to buy for you.

And this is what my Secret Bunny (Easter!) put together for me! People can be SO awesome and thoughtful. I am so happy to have found that forum, and so grateful for this amazing gift!! Keep your eyes out for swatches of these!

 

Left to right:

Sephora for OPI - Havana Dreams
Sephora for OPI - Traffic - Stopper Copper
Milani - 530 Gems
Illamasqua - Ruthless
 

I see this Illamasqua perfecting a great outfit. Black tank, my 7 For All Mankind Roxanne skinnies in Beverly Glen, my red ruffly spike pumps....red on fingers and black on toes. Oooh! SO going to do that!

Well, HOLO There!

I've had this semi-fascination with holos, but always felt that they just don't work with my skin tone. Not sure why. Anybody else feel this way? I do remember buying these by the armload back when Sally Hansen released the prisms collection, and thinking it was the greatest thing since triscuits. I just had a swap with a super awesome chicka and she sent me so many extras, and was actually able to dig up some DS holos by OPI in a beauty supply store, so she got me two! One is DS Sapphire, the other is DS Original. I swatched one, and wow I just fell in love. Screw bad skin tones, there is no way on earth anybody could not be drawn to this nail polish. These are just as the Sally Hanson Prisms collection were, with even prettier colors IMO.

This is OPI's DS Original-

Click me!

You MUST click this one to see full size! I insist :)

Also we want to keep you updated, we are still working on getting all the entries together so we can announce our winners, and we are going to start working on our next giveaway, which we will inform everyone of once we've reached 500 followers. We were going to do 300, but we just don't have the time to do a giveaway following so soon after we've just completed our last one! We sure wish we could! But we hope 500 comes soon, and spread the word! We are going to do THREE prizes this time around, and first prize winner gets to choose from all 3. Stay tuned!

Winners will be announced ASAP!

Hey ladies, hang tight. We are getting everything together, and will have our winners announced as soon as humanly possible. It's been a complicated last week for the Polished folk here, but we are right on top of it, and promise to deliver the results soon.
Thanks SO much for participating, and helping in spreading the word about the blog! Many hugs!!

I don't care if it's spring!

Okay, I do. But it's been raining like crazy and I well, I wish the whole April Showers would hurry so we could get some dry land! Okay complaining over..

I had my friend Tarah visiting and we decided to do our nails (when I say "we" I really mean "Tarah, lets do our nails.."Not now.." "Now?" "nope" "Now?" "Nooo" "How about now?" "Okay...sure.."

 I knew I wanted to break out Zoya Faye, and I also knew when I got the email for the bogo that I needed to get this color. I also came to the realization that I have way to many nail polishes. Of course I got the email about 2 minutes after this decision. But yeah.. that didnt last long. (Tarah, also did Faye on her nails, she also said she wished she had nails like moi..)

But I digress..I saw a recent post from Nails by Chloe, where she layered black nail polish and Faye, and got this amazing color. Well I knew I had to do the same! Here are the results:

I wish I took better pictures! This is one of the most insane combo's. It's like a pink chocolate shimmer on one side, but then a bronze like orange on the other side. Over all, a very simple and very gorgeous combo. Just make sure you make the black opaque. I had to use 4 layers of black to get every streak out. But then again that could be the fact that it's NYC. 99 cents, can't complain!


Don't forget today is the last day for the contest! Enter before 11:59pm to be counted.

My favorite RED - What's Yours?

Hands down, Ulta Professional - Revved Up Red. I bought this (in Ulta...no way!) for .99 during the after the holidays mark-downs.

I have about a dozen bright blood reds, but this one takes the cake! 2 coats for opaque, and it's super shiny without a top coat, it dries fast, and doesn't stain with removal. The color is so bright and pretty! A true definition of red.

Which red is your favorite?

Ulta Revved Up Red with Nfu Oh GS-14 French Mani:

And from a few months ago when my nails were nice and long:

Blue Nail Polish + Blue Eyes + Nfu Oh =

photo op! :)

Hey everyone. Sorry I've been MIA again. This week, I ended up breaking out in contact dermatitis from chopping onions ...apparently, I'm allergic to touch, but not ingestion thank god... and before I knew it, (warning: TMI ahead) my entire BODY was covered in a rash. It's still healing, but I managed to take some photos of my newest mani without any evidence of the rash...And yes, I photoshopped the hell out of that eye photograph, around my eyes to hide the wrinkles. Hey, I'm going to be 30 in a few months...and this girl needs better concealer. I also had on last night's mascara which I clearly failed to wash off.

the swatches are Nfu Oh GS 05 over China Glaze Shower Together...

Last a close up of amazingness in a bottle!

I also swatched (Yes...AGAIN!) - pre rash - Clarins 230 on top of a beautiful navy blue by Orly, called Star Of Bombay. It was on sale at Sally's this week along with a few other colors for only $1.99. I really love this photo because it catches the brilliance of the swatch from a few angles, so you can see the green and the red.