Free beauty tips: Gold

Showing posts with label Gold. Show all posts

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure: Gilty Pleasure

Gilty Pleasure is the last of five in this line I have to show you. You can find Yellow Kitty just below this post, and 3 others I shared a few weeks back here. I always love shades of metals, so I wanted to give this one a try. It looks like it could be a foil-type finish by the appearance in the bottle, so I was pleasantly surprised that it's not, because I sometimes have problems with streaking on those types of finishes. This is a lovely light gold shimmer that covered very nicely in 2 coats. It dried exceptionally fast, which is always a bonus. The brush on this one was cut evenly, and again, the formula was excellent. I'm very pleased with this shade, because of it's simplistic beauty. It's such a light and bright shade of gold, yet it seems to have a very noticeable richness to it.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve, Dear Reader!

I was up for a holiday manicure this morning, so I ran with it. Actually, I tried and failed last night (there was a products-don't-like-each-other wrinkled polish incident), and the last thing I did to this mani didn't work out as planned, but now that my second attempt has gone south, I'm leaving it. It's not too far off the mark, and I can show you where it went wrong.

I started out with two coats of China Glaze Midnight Kiss, then added a holly pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM14, painting the leaves with Green Konad Special Polish and the berries with Cool Red Konad Princess Polish. I wanted to add one more thing, so I stamped the Christmas tree from Konad plate m12 in Konad Green, and at this point, all was well. However, the Christmas tree didn't look too festive being green with green decorations, so I had at it with cheapo rhinestones.

That's where the problem came in - I got a bunch of little wheels of rhinestone-y things super cheap off of ebay a while back, and now I see that they're cheap because they're crap. I used a round white rhinestone for the star on the tree, which was fine, and then I added a few little round metallic beads to the Christmas tree, and top coat made the color bleed off of them. So it would have been just right but for my crappy tree decorations. In the picture, there are also some droplets on a few nails - it was snowing pretty hard when I ran out to take the picture, so please just ignore them.

Christmas Eve Nails

See how the color bled right off of the red pieces on my ring nail? That's pretty frustrating at the very end. However, no one's going to look at my nails as close up as this picture, and from a normal close distance it's more okay. The red pieces just look oddly blurry, so I'm going to leave it alone.

The moral of the story is don't buy cheap crappy nail decorations like I did, and if you do, don't use them as the last step of a manicure that was kind of a hassle to execute. Words to live by.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader. Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

Posted in Bundle Monster , China Glaze , Gold , Konad , Long Nails , Nail Art , nail polish

CQ Polishes: Silver Taupe & Cosmic Plum

Above & Below: CQ's Silver Taupe is a fantastic taupe with a little bling. I used 2 coats, but it would have looked much better with 3. These photos are taken in natural light (above) and with a flash below.

Below: CQ's Cosmic Plum is a very slight duo chrome. It's got a lot going on, because in addition to the slight duo chrome, it's also a shimmer, yet it has a somewhat foil-type finish. I do like how the shimmer gives it a plush velvet look.

Yes, I'm still working away trying to open up some space on my untried's shelf, and this evening I have 2 CQ brand polishes to show you. CQ is manufactured by Scherer, Inc., also the makers of Petites and Chameleon brands, often found in drugstore chains. This is the first time I've tried this brand and the results are somewhat mixed. I used 2 coats on Silver Taupe and I think I should've used 3. I used 3 coats of Cosmic Plum, which seemed to give me the right amount of coverage. These are 0.4 fl. oz., so a little smaller than average, and they were priced at $2.59 each. I consider them to be fairly reasonably priced, the application and formula were fine (other than the 3 coats!), and the dried quickly. Now for the shades...

Silver Taupe is just gorgeous to me. A medium taupe shade with silver sparkles. The sparkly glitter is subtle, but it is also slightly holographic under more intense lighting. What's not to like? Again, other than the 3 coats! It was similar to China Glaze Stellar, which was one of my favorites from the glitters they released a few months back. Here is my post on Stellar if you'd like to have a look. Cosmic Plum was just alright to me, but nothing special. It looked somewhat like a duo chrome in the bottle, and once applied, it actually is a duo chrome. But it's a very weak duo chrome. It's a rose gold color that flashes to a more gold color in different lighting. It also has hints of copper in darker lighting. The metallic/foil finish is not to my liking either. I don't hate it, but I'm not nearly as attracted to this one as I am to Silver Taupe. I think I was expecting a little more magic from Cosmic Plum, based on how it looked in the bottle.

Posted in Copper , CQ , Duo Chrome , Glitter , Gold , Pink , Shimmer , Taupe

Holiday Look With A Halloween Polish!

Above & Below: Fright Night's Green Claw Polish layered with Sinful's All About You. It matches some of the ornaments I have in a basket!

Below: Outdoors and in darker indoor lighting, the gold becomes the more prominant color. An amazing transformation! I couldn't take my eyes off of this ever-changing combination.

Below: Back to the indoor shots (with a flash, unfortunately).

Below: Bottle pictures of what I used.

Fright Night's Green Claw Polish works not only for Halloween, but for Christmas too! It would also do nicely as a St. Patrick's Day polish. I used 2 coats of the green claw polish and 2 coats of one of the newer Sinful glitters, All About You, for this festive look. I took so many photos trying to captures the true look, especially what it looks like in lower lighting, but never really got an accurate one. In the house, the gold takes on a look like something I've never seen. The green becomes secondary and the gold appears as a mesh film with just a hint of the green peeking through. It reminded me of Color Club's Wild & Willing, the way the gold lays over the color. In brighter lighting, this look reminds me of a Christmas Tree with little colored lights. My husband really liked the way this combination looked, and when I told him both of the polishes only ran $1.99 each, he questioned why I bother buying much higher priced ones as well. Well, hmmm, it's hard to explain, but I know at least you all understand!

Posted in Fright Night Claw Polish , Glitter , Gold , Green , Shimmer , Sinful

5 Finger Paints, 5 Less On My Untried Shelf!

Above & Below: Please disregard my cuticles. I used a different product (Avon) instead of my usual Sally Hansen cuticle remover and it was very hard on my skin and cuticles. Turquoise Tile is a perfect turquoise shimmer. Lilac Lagoon is also a favorite, with it's delicate color and subtle gold shimmer.

Below: Butterscotch Cookie is an eye-catching gold shimmer. It's bright and shiny, just as gold should be!

Below: Yellow Bikini and Ripe Peach are both nice creme-type shades that have the slightest hint of shimmer to them. My only complaint was that I needed 3 coats, instead of the usual 2.

With so many untried's, a problem I know many of us have, I decided to swatch some Finger Paints that have been patiently awaiting their turn! Finger Paints makes a great quality product, but because they're only available at Sally Beauty, I think they go unnoticed by a large percentage of people. The first two I swatched, Ripe Peach and Yellow Bikini, appear to be cremes. If you look closely, you can see the slightest hint of a shimmery sheen. I liked the shades very much, but I had to use 3 coats to get total coverage. They performed more like pastel creme shades do, which often cause me problems upon the application. The other 3, Butterscotch Cookie, Turquoise Tile, and Lilac Lagoon, applied in typical Finger Paints fashion: perfectly, in 2 coats. I'm not very helpful on when these came out and which ones may still be available, because I've had them for quite a while. I believe Butterscotch Cookie is from last year's holiday collection, likely making it hard to find. The other 4 I believe came out in their Spring 2009 collection, so they may still be available here and there. If anyone else knows any more information about their availability, feel free to mention it in the comments.

Posted in Creme , Finger Paints , Gold , Peach , Purple , Shimmer , Turquoise , Yellow

My last 2 China Glaze Glitters...Finally!

Above & Below: China Glaze Medallion is a fairly bright gold, filled with multi-colored and multi-shaped holographic glitter. I used 3 coats and the photos were taken indoors with a flash.

Below: Glitter detail close-up. You can still see through the skin under my nail with 3 coats, but the density of the glitter is so bold that on the nail at a normal distance, it looks fine.

Below: This is a messy swatch showing 1 coat of China Glaze Dripping Wet (a deep red/burgundy jelly) over Medallion.

Below: China Glaze Cloud Nine is shown indoors with a flash in the first photo, and outdoors with no flash in the second photo. I used 3 coats and the formula seemed a bit thick, so I'll add a few drops of thinner the next time I use it. I love the subtle gold and pink flash of iridescent glitter in lower lighting.

I finally got around to swatching the last 2 glitters from China Glaze and I love Medallion! Cloud Nine doesn't look so great with my winter skin tone, but it's still got some promise. I think I'll try frankening a teal with it, because the glitter is so pretty with it's flashes of pink and gold. Before I removed Medallion I wanted to do a quick swatch of another color over it, because the glitter is so strong, I was certain it would show through. I used one coat of China Glaze Dripping Wet and it is gorgeous! Now I wish I'd done all of my nails using that combination. It's certainly a polish I'll keep in mind for layering over in the future.

Posted in China Glaze , Glitter , Gold , Polishes as Top Coats , White/Off-White

Christmas Nails

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I'll tell you what I've been up to this week. I've been adding to that China Glaze Midnight Kiss manicure, the gold foil one, that I showed you on Sunday. At this point, I've added so much stuff to it that I'm deeply concerned about the removal process and how much life it will suck out of me, but that's a concern for another day.

Today, I'll just show you the layers. As a reminder, here's the base I started with, Midnight Kiss, in natural light.

China Glaze Midnight Kiss Nail Polish, Two Coats

That was Sunday. On Tuesday morning, I decided to add some China Glaze Party Hearty to it. I did three coats of Party Hearty to get the coverage I wanted, then I added (and here's where the big trouble starts) three coats of top coat to smooth it out. So as of yesterday, the official coat count is 1 base + 2 base color + 1 top + 3 Party Hearty + 3 top coat = 10 coats of nail polish I have to remove without just snapping a nail off in my aggressive pursuit to get rid of glitter. But it looked cool. This is under artificial light.

China Glaze Party Hearty over Midnight Kiss = One Metric Boatload of Nail Polish

I've stated the down side of removal, but there's also an up side to seventy zillion layers of nail polish. I spent a few hours yesterday tearing tape off of one of those big rolls with the tape cutter on it, hanging things on walls. A few times, I really dug into a thumb nail with that tape cutter, but this industrial strength manicure didn't get scratched. I also knocked my nails right into things a few times where I was certain I had to have broken one, but they were fine, only one big chip in the polish.

This morning I was going to do a fresh manicure to protect the exposed nail from that big chip, but the prospect of getting rid of glitter prompted me to add even more to this manicure in order to put that off for a little longer. I decided it could use some silver, so I added two coats of CND Silver Sparkling Effect, which barely showed up. I gave up on the CND and added one coat of OPI Disco Ball Glitter, which gave enough silver to make me happy, then two coats of top coat to smooth it out. The CND shows up much more in this macro picture than in person.

More Coats of Nail Polish Than Is Reasonable

So now I have festive holiday nails, but I've also raised the official coat count to a staggering 15, quite likely a personal record, which affords my nails a protective barrier that may well deflect bullets.

I'll let you know how it goes when I change this one, supposing I'm able to talk about it right away. Until then, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Posted in China Glaze , CND , Glitter , Gold , green , Long Nails , nail polish , red , Silver

China Glaze Midnight Kiss

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I've been neglecting my nails horribly lately, so I haven't had any pictures to show you until today, when I finally changed my beat up manicure. I decided to try out China Glaze Midnight Kiss, the gold from their Holiday 2010 collection.

Midnight Kiss is a gold foil that was well pigmented, applied easily, and was good in two coats. I think it makes my nails look like those 70's metallic ball Christmas ornaments - the ones that shattered into a zillion shards of glass if you looked at them funny, probably not safe by today's standards. They were pretty though, and so's this polish.

China Glaze Midnight Kiss Nail Polish, Two Coats

That's just about all I have for you today, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Posted in China Glaze , Gold , nail polish

NOTD: Tip Toe (Old Navy) Gold Rush

Above & Below: Shown outdoors in full sun with no flash. Depending on the angle, it looks brown, gold, or an olive gold.

Below: Shown outdoors with no flash in partial shade.

Below: Again, in full sun. You can see that the shimmer/glitter has some purple, red and gold tones in it.

Below: I added a coat of Essie's Matte About You for a deeper antique gold with black finish.

Below: A close-up of the bottle shows that there is some purple in the formula around the sides.

Below: Glitter detail close-up.

Yesterday I showed you bottle pictures of the Tip Toe brand polishes I picked up at Old Navy, and today I have Gold Rush, which was my favorite in the bottle form. I'm not disappointed now that I have it on, and it makes me excited to try out the others. I used 2 coats and touched up a few bald patches after the first coat. It dried quickly and I was happy and surprised to see how well it covered the nail. This is an interesting shade...it looks like an olive gold shade in the bottle, and you can actually see some purple around the edges of the bottle. During application , I noticed that it has a charcoal base, and I also noticed that it not only has very small gold glitter, but also additional glitter shades. I applied Essie's Matte About You, which gives it a deep burnished gold look with a black base. These retail for $3.50 and can be found in a canister at the check-out lane in Old Navy.

Posted in Essie , Glitter , Gold , Matte or Matte Top Coat , Shimmer , Tip Toe (Old Navy)

Tip Toe Polishes from Old Navy

Above & Below: L-R-Midnight, Memory, After Party, Pop, Gold Rush, Cheers. The bottles are sealed in plastic in the photos, so their color is slightly muted from that.

Above & Below: Close ups of Gold Rush (above) and Memory (below).

I stopped at Old Navy today and picked up some of their Tip Toe brand polishes for $3.50 each. I'll be trying them out later this week, and not surprisingly, Gold Rush (olive gold) caught my eye immediately. They're located in a canister at the check-out lane and they're all sealed with plastic, which I like. They're still sealed in the pictures, so if you see any odd reflection, that's why. There were probably another 6 or so shades that I didn't get, including a black creme, a red shimmer, and a frosty pink. The size of the bottle, which is square...another plus for me, is 4.5 fl. oz., so they're just a bit smaller than a traditional bottle. Here's a quick description of my shades:

Cheers-a red creme with a hint of fuchsia

Gold Rush-an olive gold shimmer with tiny gold and olive glitter

Pop-a tangerine orange shimmer with micro gold glitter

After Party-a purple shimmer with tiny red and blue glitter

Memory-an eggplant purple creme with slight brown undertones

Midnight-a deep royal blue shimmer with tiny red and purple glitter

Posted in Blue , Creme , Glitter , Gold , Green , Orange , Purple , Red , Shimmer , Tip Toe (Old Navy)

Art Club Pretty Shiny Things Nail Art Kit

Above & Below: My first real attempt at nail art using Art Club's Pretty Shiny Things kit. The bottle pictures are the 2 shades I used.

Below: Close-up of my handiwork. It's far from perfect, but it was fun to try. I'm sure I'll be practicing using this kit for some different looks.

Below: This is how the kit is packaged. It even has a carrying handle!

Below: The kit includes 2 sheets of nail decals, and although I didn't use any today, I think they're some of the most intricate and beautiful decals I've ever seen.

FedEx delivered a package yesterday and I thought it was my LORAC Cosmetics orders, but I was pleasantly surprised to read the address label from Forsythe/Color Club. They sent me the Pretty Shiny Things Nail Art kit to try out. I was glad they sent it, but I was a little concerned, because I don't know that I've ever tried nail art beyond the occasional Konad or a nail decal. This is my first real attempt, and I am happy to report it wasn't too terrifying! It's certainly not perfect, but it was fun to do and I'm sure now that I've broken through my fear of trying nail art, I'll do it more often.

BeautyJudy did some nice work with her kit recently and she mentioned that she got it at a local beauty supply. I also see that they're available on the Victoria Nail Supply website for $19.95, and she offers a variety of them. It comes with 3 art striper polishes that are easy to work with, 2 sheets of nail decals, 2 jars of sprinkles and a carousel with compartments filled with jewels and gems. According to the brochure, these items can also be purchased separately.

Here's what I did...the instructions show several looks you can try, and they start out by saying to paint your nails with one of the striper polishes. That sounded a little too time consuming to me, given the narrow and long size of the brush, so I opted to paint 2 coats of Color Club's Rule Breaker, a turquoise shimmer with a nearly metallic or foil finish. I then used You're Golden and painted a quick "Lazy S" shape on each nail, beginning at the cuticle. I took the copper art striper, Penny Pincher, and drew a thinner line inside of You're Golden. Taking a drop of clear polish on a piece of paper and a toothpick, I put a small amount of the clear on a toothpick, picked up a "Sprinkle" jewel, and placed it on the nail. I pressed it down for a few seconds using the clean side of the toothpick. It took me less than 10 minutes from start to finish, which delighted me simply because I don't have a lot of time or more importantly, a lot of patience. I think that's one of the reasons I've avoided nail art, because I thought it to be too time consuming. Granted, mine was a simple look, however.

There are endless looks that can be created with this kit and now that I've tried it, I'm sure I'll be ordering a few more. Victoria Nail Supply now has their China Glaze Wizard of Ooh Ahz sets in, so I'll be sure to ad another Art Club Nail Art Kit onto my order. How many of you do nail art on a regular basis? How many of you have been afraid to try it, like I was?!!

*Products furnished by Forsythe Cosmetic Group

Posted in Art Club , Color Club , Copper , Gold , Nail Art , Nail Decals , Turquoise

Free beauty tips