Friday, June 28, 2013

Teal and Orange Lasers

Happy Friday!

I know teal isn't quite green...but it's pretty close. So I think it counts as a good closer to the week of green!

Both polishes today are Barielle polishes and both were dreams to apply. The teal is A Bouquet for Ava, and I've used two coats on all fingers except the ring finger. The ring finger is two coats of Gotta Have Fate as the base. Gotta Have Fate is more color accurate on my finger than it is in the bottle in the photos. For some reason it looks really washed out in the bottle. Once it was completely dry I used striping tape to create the laser pattern and then used one thick coat of A Bouquet for Ava. I removed the striping tape and voila, orange lasers!

I really liked these two colors together...looking at this manicure again perhaps there may be some more orange/teal in my near future.





Thanks for reading!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Green with Glitter Gradient

Let's continue with what appears to be green week on the blog with another green manicure!

Today I have a simple glitter gradient using two coats of Joe Fresh Mallard as the base. Then I used Nicole by OPI Kardashing Through the Snow to create the glitter gradient. The glitter has a similar green glitter in it as Mallard so the glitter wasn't as blingy in-your-face as glitter gradients can be. It was almost subtle for such a bold color!





Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Daisy Dotticure Accent

Hi everyone!

Today I have a manicure that I loved! I wore it for four days straight which must be some kind of record for me. I even wore it through a pseudo softball practice. Thus the tip wear...please forgive me, this manicure had four days of hard wear before I took a photo!

The base of this manicure is two coats of OPI Don't Mess with OPI. It's a lovely dusty bright green if that makes any sense (I'd wager that probably didn't make much sense!). For reference the second picture is more color accurate than the first. On my ring finger and thumb I used a dotting tool and Barielle Going to the Chapel and Joe Fresh Pineapple to create the daisies. My boyfriend said they sort of look like eggs...but I prefer them as daisies!




Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

China Glaze Near Dark with Yellow Rhinestones

Hmm...today the title is pretty much self explanatory of this post! I was thinking of a creepy dinosaur eye, but it didn't really translate well.

Here's the details of this manicure. I used three coats of China Glaze Near Dark. It's a lovely blackened dark olive green but unfortunately the whole time I was wearing this manicure it basically looked black. I added a yellow circular rhinestone to each nail at the cuticle. The colors reminded me of dinosaurs and their shiny eyes, but in real life it looked mostly black with a bit of yellow.

Oh, and sorry about the weird fluff on my middle finger. Not sure where that came from...




Thanks for reading!

Monday, June 24, 2013

China Glaze Joy with Stamping

Hi everyone! I hope your weekend was fantastic, I got some yard work done. Not fun but it had to be done! (Apparently I'm a poet and I don't even know it! hehe)

I just have a quick post today. I have one coat of China Glaze Joy on all my nails. ONE coat! How fantastic!! I think this one will be amazing for stamping, it's on my to-do list to give it a try! I have a simple accent on my ring finger stamped with Konad White and Cheeky plate 13.



Thanks for reading!

Friday, June 21, 2013

First Saran Wrap Manicure

Good morning!!

I must admit I've always admired saran wrap manicures that I've seen around the blogosphere. I finally decided to give it a try myself, and I love it! It's such an easy way to make an interesting manicure and you don't have to worry about things not lining up perfectly or stamping perfectly or being anything perfectly and it's supposed to look that way!

I decided to go with two sort of similar colors so that if I didn't like it the mani wouldn't be too garish to wear for the rest of the day. As a base I used 2 coats of China Glaze Sea Spray. Once that was dry I painted on a thick coat of Pure Ice Risk Taker and then daubed the saran wrap on the top to pick up a bit of the top color and reveal Sea Spray underneath. These nails remind me of marble, I should do a white and Risk Taker saran wrap manicure, that would definitely look like I had tiny slabs of marble on my fingers!




Thanks for reading!!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Golden Midnight in Moscow

The blog has been lacking glitter these last few posts. Thus, today we have glitter! GLITTER!

I started with two coats of OPI Midnight in Moscow. I maybe should have used three coats, but I stopped at two. I then sponged on some of Sinful Colors All About You on my ring finger. Why? Because I Love glitter...and who doesn't really? This mani was dark and vampy and glittery all at once, I loved it!



Sorry about the weird fluff that appears to be stuck on my fingers...wonder where that came from lol. 

Thanks for reading!


Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Essie with Striping Tape Accent

Today I have a manicure using all Essie polishes. I opened up a polish drawer and these colours were all together and looked so tempting all lined up that I just had to use them all!

I started with three coats of Da Bush on my pointer, middle and ring fingers. (what's with that name?!) On my thumb and my pinky I did two coats of Armed & Ready. It's a gorgeous olivey green with a beautiful copper shimmer. The shimmer shows up really well in the bottle but is sort of hidden on the nail, but when the light hits the nail just right, wow...just wow. Anyways, on my ring finger I taped off four sections and filled them in with Armed & Ready (dark green), Eternal Optimist (pink creme), Chinchilly (grey), and Antique Rose (pink shimmer).

Three of these polishes can be completely blamed with starting my addiction! The first three polishes that I bought in my collection are Chinchilly, Eternal Optimist and Armed & Ready. I stood in the store mesmerized by Armed & Ready and just had to buy it. I guess this manicure sort of pays homage to my start on the spiral of way too many nail polishes!







Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Etsy iPhone Case Inspired

Hello!!

One of my favourite places to find inspiration is Etsy. I can easily whittle away several hours just browsing the beautiful creations. Today I have a manicure that was inspired by the cell phone cases from the Etsy store TheArtCity. I love their translucent studded iPhone cases. As soon as I saw them I knew I had to recreate one on my nails. Here's my interpretation!

I started with four coats of Barielle Barely There. I love this peachy/pinky nude color, it's one of my favorite subtle nude colors I own. I think the sort of squishy finish it has is a good representation of the background of the iPhone cases. Once that was dry I took a small nail art brush and framed my ring finger with China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise. I then added the studs with just a bit of top coat, and then put a really thick coat of Seche Vite over the whole thing so the studs would have a bit more lasting power.

This is one of my favorite manicures I've ever done. I hope you enjoy it!




Thanks for reading!

Monday, June 17, 2013

Monday...boooo :( Luckily it's almost over. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Just a quick post today since it's so late. It's almost my bedtime! Today I have some blue and silver stripes. These nails really reminded me of cheerleader nails, I wanted to grab a pompom and fling it around with these nails!

On every finger except my ringer finger I started with three coats of OPI Your Royal Shinie-ness. I then put a strip of striping tape near the tips of my nails and painted a coat of China Glaze Want My Bawdy over the top and then pulled off the striping tape to reveal Your Royal Shinie-ness. I reversed the colors on my accent finger, I used two coats of Want My Bawdy as the base for the accent and covered the striping tape with Your Royal Shinie-ness.



Thanks for reading!


Friday, June 14, 2013

Blue and Brown Skittlette

Happy Friday everyone! Here comes the weekend!!!

Today I have a skittlette manicure for you! It features on my pointer and middle finger an unknown light (but still nice and bright!) blue from Color Club. Until the latest releases that arrived at Winners the multi-pack Color Clubs were nameless in both their collections and their individual color names. This one came in a pack with some other pastel/bright colors. Wasn't that a fantastic description, lol. If anyone knows the name of the color let me know!!

Anyways, I used four coats of the unknown blue. It was really streaky and sheer, but once it finally was opaque it was really beautiful. My ring finger and pinky finger are one (!!!) coat of China Glaze Mahogany Magic. I know lots of people aren't brown polish fans, but I quite like browns, I think they're fairly flattering for my skin tone. My ring finger has a star rhinestone which I purchased in a big ring of star rhinestones in various colors from Born Pretty Store. My pinky has one thick coat of Essie Shine of the Times. I love this polish, it adds such an interesting dimension to any polish and looks so different depending on the color underneath it, it's a real chameleon!



I love how the next picture really showcases the change from orange to green from Shine of the Times on my pinky finger. I spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at the color change in my pinky nail when I wore this mani! I just couldn't resist!



Thanks for reading!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Yellow Rays

I looooove striping tape! I love how it makes such clean and crisp lines and easily adds interest to a manicure.

Today I have some yellow rays, made using striping tape. This mani sort of reminds me of sun rays breaking through the dark of the morning just itching to lighten up the day.

For my pointer and pinky finger I used two coats of Wet N Wild Night Prowl. On my middle and ring finger I used three coats of Joe Fresh Pineapple. If I were wearing Pineapple by itself I likely would have done one more coat, it was still sort of streaky, darn yellow polish! Since I was planning on covering it up though I stopped at three coats. It was opaque, just not perfect, but good enough for the next step! Once Pineapple was dry I arranged striping tape in a sort of ray pattern and then covered it with a quite thick coat of Night Prowl as the yellow didn't want to be covered that easily.

The purple flecks in Night Prowl were more prominent in real life than I was able to catch in photos. You can see the gorgeous purple quite clearly in the bottle.




Looking at the photos now, I should have tried a matte top coat with this mani! I love mattifying manicures, and now I want to see what this would have looked like. Oh well...maybe next time I'll remember!

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Turquoise Lightening

Today I have a charcoal and turquoise skittlette manicure with a little bit of glitter!

I started with two coats of Barielle Coalest Day of the Year on my pointer, middle and pinky fingers. Coalest Day of the Year is a dark charcoal with silver shimmer in it. It could have been a one coater had I been careful in my application, but alas, I was not, thus two coats. I added a glitter gradient to my pinky finger using Sinful Colors Kissy and Nubar Sky Sparkle. The teal and blue glitters sparkle much more in person.

On my thumb and ring finger I started with three coats of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise. Then I stamped using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Gone Grey using Bundle Monster plate 305. This was my first time stamping with Gone Grey and it was not as opaque as I had hoped. I think it worked out ok though, I like the sort of translucent quality that it has, it makes the stamping look subtle. I really love the lightening stamp, the whole time I wore this mani I kept staring at it and thinking ZAP! Well...when I wasn't staring at the glitter I thought that! :o





Then the next day, just to see what it would look like matte, I used NYC Matte Crazy. And I LOVED it matte. I wore it for another couple days this way. I especially loved how the glitter popped against the matte Coalest Day of the Year.



Which do you prefer? Matte or shiny?

Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Sinful Colors Cinderella Stamped

I had read all around on the blogosphere about Sinful Colors Cinderella and it was a lemming of mine. It's a beautiful light sky blue with a pink shimmer, and I was ecstatic when I found it on holidays last year. Even though I had read complaints about the formula I still was psyched to get it. The formula does leave quite a bit to be desired, it's really sheer and streaky. Since I'm fairly impatient and don't like to do multiple coats I sloped on three pretty thick coats for this manicure. It was fairly thick feeling on my nails which bothers me so next time I think I use it I think I'll exercise a bit more patience and use thinner coats. I really like the color though so will likely suffer through it's application issues again!

I stamped over top of Cinderella on my middle and ring fingers using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Slick Slate and Bundle Monster plate 313. I used the two flowery images on the plate, to me they sort of look like mature dandelions ready to disintegrate in the wind on a summers day.



Thanks for reading!


Monday, June 10, 2013

Feeling Froggy?

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately and am just now starting to feel better, but I have this stubborn frog in my throat that just won't go away. I decided to give my throat frog a little buddy and did a frog themed manicure!

I started with two coats of Essie Da Bush. On the first coat this polish was very runny and sheer, but it evened out quite well with two coats. On my ring finger I hand painted a much happier frog than the one living in my throat! I used Sinful Colors Happy Ending for the frog himself, the whites of his eyes are done with Barielle Going to the Chapel and the eyes and outlining are done using Wet N Wild Black Creme. He didn't turn out quite the way I wanted him to since I'm a perfectionist and he's not perfect, but I still think he's cute! And there's always room for improvement right? It just gives me an excuse to practice my freehand skills another time!!





 And here's a little close up of the frog himself!


Thanks for reading!

Friday, June 7, 2013

Julep Annie Peacock Inspired Manicure

This manicure was inspired by the brightness of a peacock and my need to use blue polish. Blue is one of my favourite polish colours but I don't seem to reach for it too often, whenever I do though I always end up loving it. I really should use blue more often!

Julep describes Annie as an "electric blue topaz creme". The formula on this one was excellent, I used two coats, but if I would have been careful I could have gotten away with one. It's very pigmented and levelled itself out very well. I used Bundle Monster plate number 212 and Konad white for the peacock feather looking design. Then to add a bit of interest I added some small round pink rhinestones from Cheeky Beauty to my ring fingers.

I love the feeling of the rhinestones on the polish. I spent the whole time I was wearing this mani running my fingers over them!





Thanks for reading!

Thursday, June 6, 2013

China Glaze Keep Calm and Paint On with Scattered & Tattered Accent

More glitter!

Today I have two polishes from China Glaze, the first is Keep Calm and Paint On from the Avant Garden Collection. It's a beautiful pastel green with a hidden shimmer. It was creamy and opaque in two easy coats. I've used one coat of China Glaze Scattered & Tattered from the Glitz Bitz 'n Pieces Collection as accents on my ring finger and thumb (not pictured). It's a pink and black glitter with multiple sizes and shapes. These two are the only polishes I purchased from each of their respective collections. I really like how the green and pink complement one another, it's very fresh and springy!




Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Purple and Gold Glitter and Stamping

Going through my archives of mani photos it turns out I don't use glitter nearly as often as I thought I did! But...what would the first nail post of a blog named after glitter be without glitter? SUPER SILLY!

Thus, I present gold glitter! Oh, and some purple and gold stamping to go along with it.

To create the look I used two coats of Joe Fresh Eggplant, a creamy dusty eggplant purple, on my pointer, pinky and thumb. After that was dry I stamped with Essie Good as Gold and Bundle Monster plate 314. The ring and middle finger contain the piece de resistance, the glitter! I used one coat of Sonia Kashuk Golden Ticket as undies and covered that with three coats of Sinful Colors All About You. All About You is a lovely warm gold glitter with some copper flecks in it to give some depth. It's very sparkly and beautiful and goes well with the dusty purple.



Look at the lovely sparkles in All About You! It's even sparklier in real life, but since it's more of a dusty seeming glitter it isn't as in-your-face as other glitters can be, it's more subtle. Can you tell I'm quite enamoured with this glitter??


The photo below shows the purple truer to real colour, it's a bit dark in the above photos. It doesn't read quite as blackened on the nail.


I really liked this design, it had a sort of elegance about it with the scroll like stamping and the golden accent fingers.

Thanks for reading!

Inaugural Post

Hello. My name is Kim and I'm a polishaholic

I love all polishes, but I particularly love glitters. I'm attracted to them the way that a naughty dog is attracted to an unattended bowl of biscuits; I just can't help myself. When I see glitters all I want to do is stare at the bottle, tilt them all around to see the glitter in all it's glory, buy them, bring them home and then put them on my nails so I can admire the glitters where ever I am, and photograph them so I can stare at them later! Thus the name Glitteratzi...I'm like the paparazzi of glitter polishes.

I've created this blog to document my obsession with nail polish. Don't worry though, what you see here won't just be all about glitter polishes. I LOVE nail art and am very excited to share my passion with you! So sit back, relax and prepare yourself to become immersed in my world of nail polish!





PS - If you don't like polish now is probably a good time to unbuckle your seatbelt, locate the nearest exit and leave this polish plane, it's going to be a long flight!

Thanks for reading!