China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard

This is such a bright highlighter green that it was a little difficult to photograph. This is pretty accurate on how bright this sucker is. It looks pretty funny against my pale self, I can't quite pull it off. I will save this for my toes. ;-) It has a really pretty shimmer that didn't show up in the pictures. It's very mild and can only be seen in direct sunlight at certain angles.  

The formula was similar to Beach Cruise-R, on the thick side. If you don't work fast, it will get goopy and hard to work with. I tried this after Beach Cruise-R so I was prepared and had an easier time with application. It needs extra time to dry in between coats or you will get major drag. Two coats is all you need but I used three to cover up my nasty acrylic lines. They are almost half way grown out now, yay!! It dries a little matte so used Seche Vite as usual to shine it back up. 

Neon green isn't a flattering look on me so I dressed it up with a half moon mani and a neon green heart on my accent nail from a nail art wheel I got from Ebay. The heart looks washed out but it was pretty close to the color of the polish. 

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more summery neons this week!

-Mira

China Glaze Ride the Waves

Ride the Waves is the second polish with a jelly finish in this collection. Also not a neon but it is gorgeous! This would be fabulous for layering glitters, flakies, and color shifting top coats, oh my! It is a bright royal blue. The formula was similar to Under the Boardwalk. A little thick but manageable. I used OPI Ridge Filler for my base coat, three coats of Ride the Waves, and one coat of Seche Vite. I used three coats to hide my acrylic lines, two is plenty in my opinion. 

I apologize for my pictures, I'm trying to learn how to use my new camera. These looked great on my camera's screen but I had some major shadowing and blurriness for some reason. I'll figure it out eventually! 

It seems like there are a lot of polishes this color coming out lately. There's even one in China Glaze's Safari Collection which is strange to me. It's a different finish but close enough that both aren't necessary. Of course, I have both. I'm just crazy that way. =)

Thanks for reading!

-Mira

China Glaze Under the Boardwalk

The second polish from the Summer Neons 2012 collection I'm going to show you is Under the Boardwalk. It is one of the two jelly finishes in the collection. It isn't neon at all but perhaps that's why I like it so much! It's an interesting color. It's like a fuchsia and berry mix. The formula is a little thick but very workable. I didn't have any problems with application like most of the others in this collection. I used three coats and one coat of Seche Vite. Also, I used OPI Ridge Filler as my base coat since I'm growing out my acrylics. I removed most of the acrylic but left a thin layer since my nails are so damaged underneath. Anyway, I have that ugly line now and it's hard to conceal. 

This would be a great polish for a jelly sandwich. What do you think?

 As always, thanks for reading!

-Mira

China Glaze Beach Cruise-R

Hello again, I'm alive! I know I've been neglecting my blog lately. I'm working on swatching a giant pile of polish so I can give you new pretties to look at. The next few posts will be from the China Glaze Summer Neons 2012 collection (that is a mouth full). Not being a fan of neons, I didn't get the entire collection. I just don't have the nice summer tan to pull these babies off. They will be for my toes but because I don't like pictures of my feet I swatched on my finger nails. You're welcome. 

First up, I have Beach Cruise-R to show you. I like the color, it's a nice bright blue tinted purple. It dries semi-matte but a top coat will shine it up nicely. I don't consider it to be neon at all but it has spunk. The formula drove me crazy! It is thick, goopy, and requires extra dry time. I have shaky hands so I can't slap on my polish in three perfect swipes so I had some issues with it. Acetone anyone? If you can move quickly, you'll be fine. 

I'm experimenting with the new fancy camera so my pictures will be... interesting until I get the hang of it. Thank you in advance for your patience and please, don't hesitate to give me suggestions/advice. It's welcome here. =) 

Pardon the lines from my acrylics growing out. This polish had no mercy. 

What do you think? Is this on your list or are you going to pass? 

Thanks for reading!

-Mira

Orly Electronica Preview - Fall 2012

Here is another small collection from Orly. I've seen these on the shelves for a while now. 

Left to right:

Decoded, Preamp, Shockwave, and Synchro

I picked up Decoded and Synchro but I'm pretty sure I'm returning them. I have too many that are close to what Decoded looks like and I'm not in love with Synchro. 

Do you like this collection?

-Mira

Orly Fired Up Preview - Fall 2012

Here is Orly's Fall collection, Fired Up. I'm not really impressed. I am, however, really excited to collect their FX glitters. I know, shocking. =) 

Left to right: 

Flare, Flickr, Glow, Ignite, Rapture, and Smolder

What do you think?

-Mira

4th of July Mani - Pic Heavy

I'm so excited to show you my 4th of July mani! I worked pretty hard on it and I'm kind of proud of myself for this one. It took forever but that's because it hurts my back to do nail art. I got them done in the course of two days little by little. After each nail, I had to lay down to rest my back. It was annoying but I love the look! 

I'll show you the pictures and then talk about materials and how I did it!

Materials:

Red-China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Blue-China Glaze Dorothy Who?

White-Striping Tape 

Stars-Loose silver hex glitter

First I applied China Glaze Ruby Pumps (two coats) with one coat of Seche Vite. After that was completely dry (it was actually the next day) I applied two pieces of tape on each nail to block out the rectangle shape and applied one thick coat of China Glaze Dorothy Who? and let that dry. I cut down pieces of white striping tape and placed them on my nails with tweezers and applied Seche Vite to seal them in and placed the hex glitter in the blue rectangle for the stars. After that dried, I put on another layer of Seche Vite and cleaned up the cuticles with Acetone and an angled brush! 

I hope you like them!

Thanks for reading!

-Mira