Nail Challenge Collaborative: Technique #4 (3D Nail Art featuring Cellairis)

Hi lovelies! Today is the first day of my new job, and I am very excited! It's going well so far, I think I am really going to like it. :)

Well, since today is the last day of September, I have my last September NCC mani to share with you, just in time! Today, the technique I chose to focus on is 3D Nails! For the most part, these sorts of nail art looks don't last on me because I admit it, I am a picker. But this one actually lasted me about a week! I couldn't bear to take it off until one of the rhinestones fell off.

Anyway! I drew inspiration from my Hibiscus cellphone case from Cellairis. Here is a close-up so you can see the base of the case is a blue glitter.

So, I started with a base as similar as I could get to the phone's base color. I forget the navy I used, I think it was an NYC, but then I added 2 coats of Nubar Star Sparkle overtop to give it the glittery effect.

From there, I went to work with my dotting tool (and sometimes just the polish brush) to try to recreate the look of the case. I used Revlon Royal, Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint, Zoya Trixie and a bit of China Glaze fairy dust on all but the accent nail. The accent nail, I just used a super thick coat of Gelous and hand placed all the rhinestones. The rhinestones are from a kit I got at Sally's. I was surprised to see that I had rhinestones in all the colors of the case - they matched perfectly! Here's the finished product!

Here are 2 close-ups of the accent nail before I topcoated over it - I so wish I had left it like this, but it wouldn't have lasted nearly as long.

So after that, I added a couple coats of Seche Vite, thinking mostly of longevity of the mani, but it kinda takes away from the finished look, I think. Oh well! I was still in LOVE with this mani.

I think this look went perfectly with the Cellairis case, I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out! As for the technique, I think I'm still figuring out what works and what doesn't. I definitely enjoy the look of 3D nails, but they aren't always the most practical or long-lasting. For an accent nail now and again, though, I'm definitely a big fan!

What do you think of these? Have you tried 3D nails? What have been your experiences? I'd love to hear below! <3
Kelly

Shimmer Polish: Bernice, Courtney, Lindsey, and Trixie (pic heavy)

Hi everyone! Today I have 4 gorgeous Shimmer Polishes to share with you, including one custom polish that I had created! :)

First up is Bernice. She is full of hexes and squares in silver, gunmetal, blue, turquoise and black.

This one has a slightly blue/grey tinted jelly base. It builds up very nicely in 3 coats, but you could just as easily layer it for a different look. Formula was great! This polish is packed full of glitter, but it dispersed nicely with no clumping or dragging. I used 3 coats of Bernice alone, with 1 coat of Seche Vite, for the following photos. 

Next is Courtney. She has a red tinted jelly base and is full of blue, gold, red, purple, and turquoise glitter. Reminds me of a treasure chest!

Again, formula was perfect on this one. I used 3 coats with a coat of Seche Vite for the following photos.

Next is Lindsey, a stunning gold glitter topper. She makes me think of fancy cocktail parties! Very classy and elegant.

While this one was also easy to build up to opacity, and formula was great, I think this one would be better layered, because of the clear base. But I used 3 coats for the photos below and had no problems at all!

Okay, I've saved the best for last (in my opinion, anyway)! I had read that Shimmer Polish created custom polishes before, and recently I decided to go for it. I had it in my head what I wanted, and Cindy was wonderful about creating it and tweaking it until it was just perfect. The final product is just what I was looking for - I couldn't have asked for anything better!
Now for the name. I already own Shimmer Polish in Kelly, so my next logical idea? Name the polish after my furbaby, Trixie! :)

When I contacted Cindy about making this polish, I told her I wanted it to be Halloween themed. Trixie is my black Halloween cat that I got from a shelter right before Halloween in 2010, so it was perfect! Trixie the polish is a black jelly base with black, purple, orange and green glitters! I used 3 coats with 1 coat of Seche Vite for the photos below.

Here's a shot in natural lighting - the rest were shown in my lightbox. But here in indirect sunlight, you can really see all the different colors pop! I honestly could not be any more in love with this polish!

I would love to hear your thoughts on these - do you have a favorite? If not for Trixie, I would have to say Courtney is my next pick. I just love how it looks just like buried treasure!
If you haven't already, I strongly recommend you check out Shimmer Polish on her blog, Etsy shop, and Facebook. She has gorgeous pre-made shades, and creating a custom polish was a lot of fun too.

Thanks for reading! <3
Kelly
Some of these products were provided to me in exchange for my honest review and opinion. I am not being compensated for this post. Please see my Disclosure Statement for more information.

Nail Challenge Collaborative: Technique #3 (Dry Marble)

Happy Thursday everyone! Well, today is my last day in my current job - after the weekend, I start my new job as a Case Manager!! I'm really excited, it sounds like it's a perfect position for me and I think I'm really going to enjoy it. So, anyway with that good news out of the way - how about some nails!?

For this week of Technique Month, I decided to try to tackle a dry marble, or needle marble. This is something I have never, ever tried before and I was nervous, but I think it turned out okay. Check it out!

So, what I did was, I followed the tutorial from StrawBrie (the best I could lol)!

I started with a base of white, and the colors I used were Sinful Colors Bikini, Sinful Colors Let's Meet, Sally Hansen Limestone, and an unnamed Fingrs mini that came with the Black Spotted kit. I started with the index, so I think I kind of got better as I went on. I think the trick to this is that you have to do way bigger globs of polish than you think you do! And don't press the needle down deep at all. Otherwise, you'll just get white lines like I did on my index. And you have to work quick! You can see again, on my index that the color didn't really drag through because it had already dried. A thick coat of topcoat will do wonders for the final step - I hated it before the topcoat! :)

This is definitely one of those things that I think will get better with practice, and also learning what polishes work well with this will help. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this or any tips you might have to offer?
As always, thanks for reading! <3
Kelly

Nail Challenge Collaborative: Technique #2 (Waterfall)

Okay, guys. Gotta be honest. This one was kind of a fail. But, I'm all about showing my failures as well as my successes, so here we go! This is my first ever attempt at a Waterfall mani. I used Sammy's tutorial that you can find here, but at this point, I'm completely convinced that she works miracles, because I just could not get my work to look like that lol! So with that said, please be nice haha! Practice makes perfect, right!?

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm obsessed with Halloween! So, I wanted to try to make this a sort of Halloween themed waterfall. I chose some Halloween-y colors and went with it. I used Revlon Haunted Heart for a base, it's one of my favorite Halloween oranges - the shimmer is just lovely. For the waterfall, I used Sinful Snow Me White, Black on Black, (I forgot the name of the purple, but it was Sinful), and Revlon Wicked Star. It ended up looking a bit like striped pajamas lol. Oh well!

I will definitely be attempting this mani again using my regular Stripe Rite striping brushes. I think one of my problems was that the brush I used wasn't quite thin enough.
Well, what do you think? Waterfall veterans, any tips? I'm open to criticism - as long as it's not mean! :)
Thanks for looking <3
Kelly

Model City Polish - Halloween Collection (pic heavy)

Hey lovelies! Happy Monday :) I finally have my swatches ready of Model City's awesome Halloween collection! This is the perfect Halloween trio, and best of all, it's scented! You can get it unscented too, if you want to, but the scents are fabulous, so I definitely recommend trying them.

First up is Bobbing for Apples, a clear based glitter topper with large red dots, red holographic hexes and iridescent microglitters. The iridescent glitters remind me a bit of Pure Ice Sugar Cookie, which I LOVE! This polish is scented like apples - one of my favorite scents! The apple scent smells very fresh, it's not at all overpowering, but you can smell it through even Seche Vite topcoat. :)

For the following swatches, I used two coats of Bobbing for Apples over Sinful Black on Black and Zoya Sooki. You could certainly use 1 coat if you like, but I prefer LOTS of glitter! :) I used one coat of Seche Vite topcoat and everything felt flat and smooth.

Next is The Great Pumpkin Massacre. It's a clear base with orange and black holographic glitter, and I think I spot green glitters, but I didn't see those mentioned in the listing. It's scented like Pumpkin Bread!! Nom nom nom! This polish smells good enough to eat!! (Don't eat it.)

For the following swatches, I used 2 coats of The Great Pumpkin Massacre over China Glaze Creative Fantasy and Sinful Exotic Green. Warning - Exotic Green stains terribly! My thumb and ring finger are still tinted green :(

Last is Witch's Brew! It's a clear base full of glitters in purple, blue grey, green, black and purple iridescent glitters. This one is fruit punch scented!! I could not stop smelling my nails when I had this on, lol. It reminded me a lot of that Zebra gum I had when I was little, with the rainbow stripes.

For these swatches, I used two coats of Witch's Brew over Revlon Haunted Heart and China Glaze Immortal. Formula was perfect everything came out easily and evenly. 1 coat of topcoat and everything was flat.

I absolutely LOVE this collection!! Halloween is my favorite holiday, and Nina has created some amazing quality polishes for it. If you try this collection, I definitely recommend trying the scents!
Which of these is your favorite? I'd love to hear below! <3

Model City Polish on Etsy
Model City Polish blog
Model City Polish on Facebook
Model City Polish on Instagram
Model City Polish on Twitter

Thanks for reading! <3
Kelly