L.A. Girl Deep Sea Mica

L.A Girl is a brand that doesn't get enough love. They have a slew of great nail polishes at very affordable prices. I found this gem on www.cherryculture.com.

Deep Sea Mica is a lovely jewel-tone teal shimmer. Application was a breeze, though I did need three coats for full coverage. Totally worth it. This polish was very glossy on its own, but a top coat of Seche Vite amped it up even more. This wore like iron for days, and I couldn't stop looking at my nails! Both photos taken indoors under an OttLite bulb.

The rarely seen right hand! My left had an unsightly paper cut. I'm really impressed with Deep Sea Mica, and look forward to trying the other L.A Girl polishes I picked up.

Have any of you tried L.A Girl polishes, or some of the brands on Cherry Culture?

Liquid Eyeliner As Nail Art?

I participate in a couple nail polish groups on Facebook. Today, I read a post where people successfully used liquid eyeliner for nail art. Hey, worth a try! I like my experiments cheap, so I hit the Dollar Tree and picked up a bottle of L.A. Colors Liquid Eyeliner.

I tried to paint stripes on my old mani (Essence Grey-t To Be Here) before removing it. This eyeliner did not want to make stripes. The eyeliner liquid seemed to shrivel and pull away from the nail surface. I'm sure there's a better description for this effect, but I'm at a loss. I thought it looked a little bit like OPI Black Spotted, so I tried painting two full nails with the eyeliner, one thin coat. The "pattern" emerged immediately. I waited a few minutes to let it dry, and then hesitantly used NYC Grand Central Station top coat. The top coat didn't ruin the effect, woohoo!

Both of these photos were take indoors under an OttLite bulb. Please keep in mind that I was about to remove this mani!

I really like this effect! It looks a bit like the veins in a leaf. I like the delicate appearance much more than a crackle polish. Now I want to try other liquid eyeliners so I can get this effect in different colors...or actually get the original look I was going for, a nail art pen.

Has anyone else tried liquid eyeliner as nail art? What should we call this effect?

Essence Grey-t To Be Here: Swatch and Review

I purchased this little polish at my local Ulta. It is a much more subdued polish than I would usually choose. I picked it up and put it down half a dozen times before I decided to just buy it. It was $1.99 for 8ml, so not much of a risk if it didn't work out. These are the new Essence Colour&Go bottles, with adorable matching caps.

Grey-t To Be Here applied easily, two coats for full coverage. CND Stickey base coat and Out the Door top coat. A light grey creme with tiny pink flakes.

Indoor light

Well, here's how it looked most of the time. I don't wear many light colors, and this was my first time wearing a grey polish. I wanted that pink shimmer, but it was so subtle. Further attempts to catch that elusive pink shimmer...

With flash, and way too much cuticle oil :P

Flash brought out the pink shimmer a bit, and made the grey color appear slightly blue. Very pretty!

Indirect sunlight

Unfortunately, I didn't see the pink flakes often enough. This polish just isn't very "me", and it chipped rather badly on day 2. Those who enjoy grey polish will probably like this one though, and the price is certainly right.

In the beginning...

...there was nail polish. Lots and lots of nail polish, in all colors and finishes.

After much procrastination, I've finally decided to start a nail polish blog. It was inevitable really. In the fall of 2011, I dove head first into the nail polish world. I've always enjoyed nail polish, but suddenly I found Sally Beauty, China Glaze, and Scrangie, in that order. From there I started following a number of blogs and joined polish groups on Facebook. Before I knew it, I had Helmers full of polish, a polish spreadsheet, and I was polishing my nails a couple times a week. 

Now I want to document my nail polish journey on this blog, in notes and pictures. I accept that my nails are not perfect, my nail art skills are in their infancy, and my photos are certainly not the best. This blog will inspire me to improve and grow, and I'm excited to see where this takes me. Here we go!