Guest Nail Art

Nails by my sister, Melanie.
China Glaze Dress Me Up and China Glaze Liquid Leather

Nicole by OPI Pitch Black Glimmer Gradient

This is one of my favorite manicures of all time. Gradient done over OPI Bubble Bath. Hot Damn.

Nfu-Oh 60

Ulta Underground

This is 2 coats of Underground. Black base (I *think*) with a teal-leaning blue shimmer. Supa dupa pigmented. The formula was average. Nothing spectacular, but not the worst I've ever used. Dried rather quickly.

Unfortunately, this looks black most of the time. The shimmer only comes out to play in direct sunlight. It doesn't "glow", if you know what I mean. It falls flat. I'm not a fan of blackened polishes, so this one goes in the purge box. I did however catch myself staring at my hands all day and I've realized it's because I'm ready for fall. I'm going to dive head first into my fall polishes (starting with OPI Germany, which was delivered to my house today. Yay!). The weather in Chicago today is overcast, foggy, and crisp (my favorite weather!), so I'm crazy for dark colors. Just as long as they don't look black :P

EDIT:
cell phone pictures!

China Glaze Haunting

2 coats. Formula was good. It went on slightly sheerer than expected with the first coat, but then I realized it was a black polish and everything was opaque after coat 2. You can feel some texture (it is glitter after all), but it's not top coat hungry, so one coat of a thicker top coat should suffice.

Haunting was released this past Halloween. It's similar to Orly Goth in that it's black with silver glitter, but the glitter is more dense in Haunting.

Honestly, I don't really care for this. It doesn't wow me. I've been noticing that I'm not really digging blackened colors in general. I have Nicole by OPI I'm a Pool for Love on my toes and I don't like that one either. I'm sure there are probably some exceptions in my collection somewhere, but I usually like my polish to be bright and in your face - not to say I don't like darker colors, but I don't want to have to explain to someone "Oh this is red, it's just so dark that it looks black all the time..." because if I want to wear black polish, I will. If I want red, I want RED... Ok, this turned into kind of a crazy rant. Simply put, I'm going to purge Haunting.

I did a funky french a few days later to cover tipwear...yeah. Doesn't look so hot. I used China Glaze Millennium for the tips. And I freehanded them. Good in theory, but I think I painted the tips on a little too thick.

Cult Nails Mind Control

2 coats

Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers

3 coats

Lynnderella Connect The Dots

One coat (should've done two) over Essie Cocktail Bling and some bad cell phone pictures.

Chicago Blackhawks Crackle

For those who don't know, I'm a huge hockey fan. Since I'm in Chicago, I'm a huge Blackhawks fan. I wore this mani to the home opener at the beginning of October. I forgot to post it, and since they're playing tonight in Florida, I thought it'd be appropriate to post now.

Base:
China Glaze Red-Curl-Grl
China Glaze White-Kwik-Slver
Wet n Wild Black Creme

Crackle:
China Glaze Black Mesh
China Glaze Lightning Bolt
OPI Red Shatter

Sky + Revvvolution

I added Color Club Revvvolution to HC Sky a few days later.

Revvv looks like a dud, but I swear it's not. These are just terrible pictures, but they are the only ones I have. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, Revvvolution is a black/charcoal holographic polish. Unfortunately, there have been "duds" emerging recently, most notably with the Color Club holos. Some say the holo pigment is becoming more rare and therefore more expensive. Lucky for me, none of my CC holos are duds.