Hypnotic Week

good morning! today is the last day of my Hypnotic Week post series :( i used Hypnotize Me over 2 coats of In a Trance for this manicure. i don't know if it was just my bottle, but Hypnotize Me was gooey and super hard to apply. i was pretty disappointed with this polish, because it is so amazing looking. oh well!

Hypnotic Week

good morning! this morning i'm a little sleepy. tehee! as promised, i have another Cult Nails fall collection polish for you today! Enigmatic is a gorgeous eggplant purple shimmer/glitter with gold hues. i adore this polish. for this mani, i used 2 medium coats and had no troubles with the formula. smooth sailing! enjoy!

for whatever reason, i don't have a bottle shot of Enigmatic. it is the third polish from the left!

Hypnotic Week

 good afternoon readers! it's a bit of a dreary day here unfortunately, so i have a bit of a stormy color as today's manicure. today i have another new polish from the Cult Nails fall Hypnotic collection, Awakening. Awakening is an inky blue creme...and personally i think it is the perfect rainy day polish! it was fairly easy to apply and dried in ten or so minutes. i used two medium coats for the swatches below....enjoy!

Cult Nails Fall Collection- Hypnotic Week

good afternoon, readers! i consider myself a lucky nail fanatic because i pre-ordered Cult Nails' Fall Hypnotic Collection and it came in a few days ago! i have been a busy blogger with all of the swatching, photographing and writing this week. so i am very excited to share with you Hypnotic Week...a series of posts showcasing this gorgeous fall collection!

today's post is In a Trance...the first polish on the left

In a Trance was easy to apply, i used 2 coats for full coverage on my nails. this is an amazing color. it reminds me of the gemstone Tigers Eye. it is truly a wonderful fall color, with deep saturation, gold metallic shimmer, and a coffee colored brown somewhere in the mix. the formula was smooth and creamy, although not fast drying...to me that is a small price to pay for such fantastic color payoff!

Cult Nails is a Florida based nail polish company (local for me!), polishes retail for $10 on the Cult Nails Website. Check it out!

OPI Designer Series (OOOHLALA!) Shimmer

good morning! happy Tuesday everyone! today i have an OPI DS manicure for you. this is one of the original Designer Series polishes, so it can be hard to find. i found mine as a "dusty" in a local salon. Shimmer is an icy silver blue holographic polish. i used 2 coats for this mani, although i noticed there was a bit of VNL (Visisble Nail Line) when i was finished. i am fairly obsessed with the brushes on these OPI Designer Series polishes; they are very flexible and rather wide, but allow for an extremely even application. enjoy!

blog sale haul

good morning everyone! happy Monday!
this morning i'll show you my nail mail from last week. i found some great polishes over at Rachel Marie's Nails recently during her blog sale! i can't wait to try these out.

back from posting hiatus!

good afternoon, everyone! my best friend was down from college for a couple weeks so i've been on a bit of a posting hiatus, and i'm quite sorry for that. i'm back now, however, and better than ever! whilst on my blogging break i happened to discover YouTube...who knew there would be beauty bloggers on there!? this is a manicure inspired by a Tweet i found about a video on YouTube. this is my first shot at a gradient manicure, and also my first time painting on stripes, so please, don't be too harsh!
i started with 1 medium even coat of Mermaids Tears from the OPI Pirates collection. then i used a q-tip soaked with water to apply a band in the middle of my nail using Barielle in Do Unto Others. on the tip of my nails i used another q-tip soaked in water to apply another band with Nicole by OPI in Respect the World. over the top of my banded color nails, i used a ColorClub mini clear glitter top coat from the Starry Temptress collection and 1 coat of Nicole by OPI in Nicole...Spotted! using a mechanical pencil tip, i drew criss-crossed stripes on all of my nails except my middle finger and ring finger with OPI DS Desire. on my middle finger i used the mechanical pencil tip to draw a seashell. i used my ring finger as a bling finger and glued on rhinestones using a clear top coat.
have a fabulous day! enjoy!

Coalest Day of the Year

good morning/afternoon, everyone! today is Mani/Pedi Monday (as is every Monday) on Barielle's facebook page. i encourage you to upload a picture of yourself wearing some Barielle polish! (i did!) so i will share with you what i shared with Barielle! just in case you didn't see on facebook, or in case you love to read my blog (i like the latter of the two.) i used 2 thick coats of Barielle in Coalest Day of the Year. i purchased this polish at Ulta for $1.99 at their giant beauty clearance a few months ago...and i don't regret it! Barielle normally retails for $8/bottle so this was a steal. Barielle polish is easy to apply with a fat-bottomed brush and rather gooey formula. enjoy!

OPI Designer Series (OOOHLALA!) glitz mani

good afternoon, readers (and some browsers)!
i've spent the majority of today reading my Google Blogger for Dummies book and drooling over nail swatches. i also stalked a couple of Sally Beauty Supply's in my area for the China Glaze Metro collex, since i heard a few other bloggers found them already. that is not the case here in south west florida. oh well! so, on to the good stuff. i happen to own a bottle of OPI DS (the original series) in Glamour. i loove this color. its like a purple bluey goodness with ultra subtle holographic in it. i also have this pretty cool Sally Girl (from Sally Beauty Supply) loose glitter that coordinates with the polish. helloo glitter mani! i used 2 thin-ish coats of OPI Designer Series in Glamour, and used China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat to attach the Sally Girl loose glitter in streaks across my nails. this is a picture heavy post (like most of my posts) so please be patient! as always, questions, comments, concerns and opinions are always welcome! xoxo Marina

this is the Sally Girl loose glitter i used for my mani!

Green Up Your Act!

good afternoon! today i was falling for Fall. i used Nicole By OPI in Green Up Your Act! from their new Fall 2011 collection. i used 2 coats for full opacity, and the formula was slightly difficult to work with, although it might have just been me! the color is gorgeous...not quite olive not quite sage...and fairly conservative as far as greens go. since i was feeling Fall-ish, i added Hard Candy Matte Top Coat over it...and fell in love! the look is fantastic and sets the color apart from others. it's Fall with flair!