Angry Angel

Happy Friday everyone! I have a nail polish and nail art to show you today. I recently made my first indie purchase from Stardust Polish, and I'm so happy to finally have bought from an indie brand. I got some cuticle oil in the Green Apple scent, which smells so good by the way, and a polish named Angry Angel. The package got here in the time estimated, and was safely packaged.

Check out this stunning polish. Angry Angel is a dark red jelly with red holo square glitter and red and silver holo hex glitters in various sizes. All Stardust Polishes I've tried have all dried quickly, and this one did too. I just can't get over how amazing this polish is. It is definitely one of my favorites from my entire polish collection.

Now I must tell you that some of the pictures ended up looking a bit dark, so I apologize for that. I'm not sure why it happened, the rest of the pictures came out well lit (I guess I just have to improve my lighting). Be ready because I took lots of pictures. Anyways, for my swatches I did 3 coats to reach opacity. I applied 2 coats of matte top coat to even it out, and used a glossy top coat after.

Glossy Top Coat:

Matte Top Coat:

Glossy Top Coat:

Matte Top Coat:

Glossy Top Coat:

Matte Top Coat:

Glossy Top Coat:

Isn't it gorgeous!? It even inspired me to add something extra to it. I took out some striping tape and did some angled tips and an accent nail. The other polish I used for the nail art was Sinful Colors "Starry Night", a black jelly polish with silver holographic glitter and gold flecks (which I purchased late last year). I think both polishes go well together. Surprisingly my accent nail came out nicely, and it wasn't that difficult to do.

Holding Sinful Colors "Starry Night":

Striping Tape Nail Art:

Accent Nail Close-up:

If you'd like to follow or purchase Drema, I have her links below.

Stardust Polish: Instagram, Etsy Store, Facebook

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all enjoy this Mother's Day weekend. Until next time everyone.
-Ana

Lavish Polish Spring Collection 2015

Hi guys, I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I received my giveaway prize from Lavish Polish a while back and I've been wanting to swatch these for you guys. I'm glad to finally be able to show them to you, they're lovely.

So, not only do the bottles have the name of the polish on the bottom label, but they also include the collection they're from. I really liked that, I thought it was a pretty cool because I'll always know which collection they're from.

The formula on these were similar. They do take some time to dry, and you should be careful not to overload the brush or you'll get flooding at the cuticle. The polish itself was very creamy and went on smoothly. I must also mention that they are sheer on the first coat because they're crellies, but you can totally build them up depending on the look you're going for.

First up we have Hydrangeas, a gorgeous blue crelly. This was my favorite of the collection, it's just a beautiful blue. I did 3 coats to reach full opacity, 2 would've been fine but I still had a visible nail line (vnl). Again, you can do however many coats you'd like, I just prefer to see them opaque.

3 coats plus top coat, and matte top coat on the ring finger are shown in the pictures:

Tulips is a pretty purple crelly. I did 3 coats to reach full opacity.

3 coats plus top coat, and matte top coat on the ring finger are shown in the pictures:

Daffodils is a pastel light yellow crelly. It was sheer on the first 2 coats, so I think I'll use a white base next time I use it. I needed 4 coats to reach opacity with this one.

4 coats plus top coat, and matte top coat on the ring finger are shown in the pictures:

Azaleas is a soft, very delicate light pink crelly. I did 3 coats to get it opaque.

3 coats plus top coat, and matte top coat on the ring finger are shown in the pictures:

Wisteria is a delicate lavender crelly, perfect for Spring time in my opinion. I did 3 coats for opacity.

3 coats plus top coat, and matte top coat on the ring finger are shown in the pictures:

Aren't they pretty? I really liked the shades in the collection, very soft and delicate pastel colors. Although I do think a pastel green color would have been a nice addition as well. Also, I normally I don't like purple, but both shades in the collection were beautiful. Wisteria kept reminding me of Fantasy from "The Pagemaster". Hehe! It's a movie I watched as a child, if you haven't watched it I recommend it.

So what do you guys think of the collection? Which polish is your favorite? Mine has got to be Hydrangeas, followed closely by Wisteria and Tulips. If you'd like to follow Emely from Lavish Polish to keep up to date with releases and collections, I have her links below.

Lavish Polish: Shop, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

Well I hope you guys enjoyed this post and the swatches. Until next time guys.
-Ana

Top Coats Used:
Top Coat: LACC "2013 Top Coat"
Matte Top Coat: Wet N Wild (Wild Shine) "Matte Top Coat"

Inspired Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I have a mani inspired by @sarahmcgphoto on Instagram. She did a lip art inspired by Bettlejuice, which inspired me to do these. I really liked the design she did, and I automatically wanted to try it out. She has some amazing work, so I recommend you check her page out.

To begin, I painted on 2 coats of Wet N Wild "French White Creme", and did the rest in acrylic paints. I painted on the stripes with black paint, and cleaned up the sides with white paint. After adding a coat of top coat, I went ahead and painted the green drips. The reason I added the top coat between the stripes and the drips, was in case I made a mistake. I didn't want to risk messing up the design. I added the white highlights on the drips and let them dry. To finish off, I added the final top coat.

Glossy Top Coat:

Matte Top Coat:

Glossy Top Coat:

Matte Top Coat:

Well the end result came out ok. I wasn't completely in love with these, I believe I could've done a better job to be honest. That being said, I might have to re-do these again in the future.

Mani Comparison:

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this short post. Remember, you can follow me on Instagram and Bloglovin'. Until next time.
-Ana

Acrylic Paints Used:
Apple Barrel White
Apple Barrel Black
Apple Barrel Lime Tree

Night Violet

Hey guys! Today I have a swatch of Avon Nailwear Pro+ "Night Violet". It's a rich dark eggplant purple with some golden shimmer to it, but you can also see some rainbow sparkle in the polish which makes it much more beautiful. I did 2 coats but I think I should have done 3, just because it ended up not being as opaque towards the top (near the cuticle). For each coat, I waited around 5 minutes for the polish to dry.

Glossy:

Matte:

Glossy:

Matte:

Doesn't it also look wonderful when it's matte? You can still see the shimmer even in that state, which I love. So what's your favorite: Glossy or matte?
Thank you so much for reading everyone, and I hope you enjoyed this short post. Oh, and sorry that some of the pictures came out a bit blurry. Until next time. Bye.

First Mani Swap

Hi guys! I hope you've all been enjoying the holidays, no matter what you celebrate. Thankfully, my family and I had a lovely Christmas, we spent it with family members at our house. If you celebrated, I hope it was wonderful.
So anyways, I'm so excited for this post because it is the first time I do a mani swap with anyone. Kelly (@devilishdesigns1) was looking for someone to do a mani swap with, so I told her I thought it would be fun and she agreed. So we went ahead and picked out a design from each other, and began. The design of hers that I chose was her Christmas Snoopy design, which she did an amazing job on. I chose that design because I wanted to do a holiday mani. I also decided to challenge myself, that design is a bit more difficult since I had to paint well-known characters. The design did not come out perfect, but it's ok. Kelly chose my Stained Glass mani, which she did a great job on recreating. To get a better look at her Solo Shot, check out her IG page (linked above). She also made the collage for the Mani Swap and it came out great, check it out! Originals are on the right, and the recreations are on the left.

Mani Swap Collage (by Kelly):

Glossy:

Matte:

Glossy:

Matte:

Mani Comparison:

I first put on a coat of my diy glue peel-off base coat, and then I did 2 coats of Seche "Adorned" on each nail. Before I began to paint the characters and lights, I put 1 coat of matte top coat. That just makes it easier to be able to erase your work without ruining your base color, and it's a better surface to work on. Once dried, I painted on the strings of christmas lights on my pointer and pinky. (All the lights, details and characters were done with acrylic paint and a brush.) Then, I moved on to sketching out the characters' shape, first Snoopy and then Woodstock. I started filling in the shapes and perfecting the outlines, as well as adding their faces and other details they each had. I think Woodstock came out better than Snoopy, and I thought it would be the other way around. Lol! I stretched out Snoopy's face (vertically) way too much, other than that, I'm happy with how it all turned out. Oh, and to finish I applied top coat of course.
I know that it might be a bit difficult to do the design because it's more intricate, but I tried explaining it as best as I could. I know it'd be better if you could see step-by-step, and I'm sorry I can't show you. But I hope the steps can help those who would like to try out the design for themselves.
Thank you guys for taking the time to read this post, and I hope you have a lovely New Years Eve. Here's to a year full of happiness, love, health, family and new manis. Hehe. Until next time everyone, be safe. Bye.
-❤- Ana

Top Coats Used:
Glossy: Wet N Wild (Wild Shine) "Clear Nail Protector"
Matte: Wet N Wild (Wild Shine) "Matte Top Coat"
Acrylic Paints Used:
Apple Barrel Black
Apple Barrel White
Apple Barrel Pink Parfait
Apple Barrel Lime Tree
Craftsmart Pool Blue
Craftsmart Plum
Folk Art Silver Sterling

Snowflakes and Candy Canes

Hi everyone! Today I bring you my first official holiday mani of 2014. I knew I had to use L'oreal "Pop the Bubbles" from my last post because it's so Christmas-y. I fell in love with the end result.

With Top Coat:

I began with 2 coats of "Pop the Bubbles" on my pointer, middle and pinky. On my thumb and ring finger I did 2 coats of Bonita Colors "Spice It Up". After everything dried, I applied striping tape on my thumb and ring finger to create the candy cane pattern. Once I had all the striping tape in place, I added one coat of "Pop the Bubbles" over each of the nails (thumb and ring) and removed the tape right after. I did these one at a time by the way. On my middle finger I painted a snowflake in the middle of the nail with white acrylic paint and paintbrush, I also brushed on a bit of "Spice It Up" around the snowflake. On my pointer and pinky, I painted some random stars and added 'falling snow' with a dotting tool and toothpick. I let everything dry and added top coat.

Matte Top Coat:

Below is a mani comparison, glossy on top and matte on bottom. Although you can hardly tell, but you can see the glossy version does show some sparkle. Honestly, my matte top coat has seen better days you guys. You can see the difference in my last post where I swatched "Pop the Bubbles", it was working much better than it did this time. Also, my sister surprised me with a new bottle of matte top coat recently because I was running out, so yay for awesome sisters. Lol!

Well thanks for reading everyone, I hope you enjoyed this post. If you decide to recreate this or any of my other manis, remember to tag me on Instagram and/or use the hashtag in my bio so I can see your recreations. If you haven't followed me and would like to, click here. I hope you all have a lovely day, and until next time.

Top Coats Used:
Glossy: Wet N Wild "Clear Nail Protector"
Matte: Wet N Wild "Matte Top Coat"

Day 4: Candy Corn

Today I bring you Candy Corn nails. I had done a different design for this theme, but changed my mind. I used the mani I did for the next challenge, and did a new mani for this challenge. I knew what I wanted to do on my accent nails, but had no idea how to decorate the rest. I thought about doing three different sized dots, from largest to smallest down the nails. Each dot was going to be a candy corn color. But instead, I did little candy corns out of dots. I think it could have turned out better, but it's ok. They don't look bad, and I hope you guys like them. Well, on to the pictures.

Glossy Top Coat:

Matte Top Coat:

Glossy:

Matte:

Glossy:

Matte:

Glossy Vs. Matte:

I first painted my thumb and ring finger black, and the rest a gorgeous shimmery brown color. (My base colors were polish by the way, and the candies were all painted with acrylic paints) I then began painting the triangles on the black nails with a toothpick. I did 2 coats of the white paint so the colors would stand out. While that dried, I did the "dotted" candy corns? I don't know what to call them, lol! I did 3 yellow dots on the top, 2 orange dots in the middle, and 1 white dot at the bottom to complete the candy corn. After, I went back to finish the other candy corns and filled them in with the appropriate colors. Once everything was dry, I finished off with a top coat.

Overall, they came out ok in my opinion. I especially liked the black nails full of candy corns. I did like the idea I got of making the candy corns out of dots, but think I could have made them look better in a different design. Well thanks for reading loves, have a nice one.

Polishes Used:
Black: Wet N Wild (Wild Shine) "Black Creme"
Brown: NY&C "Saturn Sunset"
Glossy Top Coat: Wet N Wild (Wild Shine) "Clear Nail Protector"
Matte Top Coat: Wet N Wild (Wild Shine) "Matte Top Coat"

Acrylic Paints Used:
Apple Barrel "Black"
Apple Barrel "White"
Apple Barrel "Bright Yellow"
Craftsmart "Light Orange"