I haven't been so excited about a nail polish collection before in my LIFE. I am a huge Hunger Games fan if you didn't know already, and the marriage of some of my favorite books and my favorite nail polish company is so awesome. I am dying waiting for this damn movie, I'm serious. Anyway, I went and grabbed the collection today at CosmoProf and did some swatches. This is a diverse collection full of color, texture, and awesome.
A few weeks ago I did swatches and comparisons of some of the other Electro Pop colors, and now I've got a swatch of Aquadelic to put up. It's a very vibrant aqua, almost like an electrified China Glaze For Audrey. The application is excellent, just as the others from the collection, and it's very glossy. This swatch is without topcoat:D I wish I'd have had this when I did my Vera Bradley Island Blooms nails, because Aquadelic is a great match for the base color of the pattern!
This item was provided by the brand for consideration.
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I did this right before I changed my nail shape from square to oval. Man, it feels weird to see them so square, lol. Anyway, I'm really into half-moon manicures right now, and I like the added interest of contrasting colors and a little something extra to deliniate the place where the colors meet. I used China Glaze Reggae to Riches for the base, which is a beautiful bright magenta shimmer with a really, really intense blue flash to it. Then for the rest of the nail, I used the incredibly well-pigmented Opening Night by Sephora by OPI which is a rich sapphire shimmer. For the line of "beads," I used a dotting too and China Glaze Millenium. I'm thinking of trying this same manicure out with black, white and grey soon, I think that would be really elegant. Maybe with some 3D pearl action...
Essie Shine of the Times - $8 most drugstores
I have seen Essie Shine of the Times in just about every drugstore and big box store I've visited in the last month or so, so I know it's relatively easy to find at this point. I had been seeing it everywhere on the internet and decided I didn't need it because I have Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, a bunch of Nfu-Ohs, the Finger Paints flakies, and more random flakies and honestly don't use them often, but SotT really impossible to resist in the end because when I finally gave up and just picked the polish up in my hands to examine it, I realized it was different than all the others I mentioned above. The shards of mylar are more finely milled, which does a couple things; 1) there is more variation in color because since these are light reactive to a point, the larger the shard, the less color in the area the shard takes up (therefore the smaller the shard, the more shards per area equaling more color!), 2) the surface appears, and is to a certain extent textured rather than just a bit of interesting color being randomly scattered over the surface making the finish look irregular and sort of gross. So overall, SotT is better than a lot of flakies. SH Hidden Treasure had, to this point, been my favorite overall in the mylar glitter category as it had somewhat small particles and was very dense on application. SotT is the new point to which the bar has been raised, y'all. woot! The only weird thing is that there are some random plummy purple colored specks in the polish. You'll see what I mean below.
I love mylar over dark colors, but because this is so dense and makes such a neat textured looking surface, I decided to use a light, delicate color under it for once; China Glaze White on White.
For the second installment in my Hunger Games nail art series, I did nails based on District 2. In the books, that district is described as having several principal functions; it is home to stone cutters, it supplies the majority of Peacekeepers, they manufacture weapons, and the snow-capped mountain housing the military nervecenter called "The Nut" by the rebels. So in this nail set you see The Nut, the district number, elements of a Peacekeeper uniform as shown in movie trailers, a stone wall, and a gun silhouette. All elements are hand painted.
Products used:
Nubar Polka Dot Collection - $20 at bynubar.com
The Polka Dots set actually contains Black Polka Dot, White Polka Dot and a Diamante Topcoat for that price. Not too shabby. I really liked both of these polishes. I applied WPD over black and BPD over white to give you as much contrast as possible.
Both polishes are nice, but I prefer Black Polka Dots. It's a lot more unique, and black glitter is just cool. Both have mostly small glitter with a dash of larger hex glitter. It's not hard to get the glitter to transfer but you'll have to maneuver the bottles around before applying to get the hex glitters near the top. Don't know why. The black one is pretty straight forward, but the white one... the glitter is this pearlescent white, first of all. It's pretty but it likes to suck up your base color and go all discolored. I let it stay on the black one for a while and the small glitter turned blue. Plus the white large hex glitter are prone to be broken when you get them on the nail so about 30% of them are shards instead of a hex. Either way, I like it. I actually liked when the glitter went blue, it looked cool, but if you want white, this might be inconvenient. The black makes anything look really cool and speckled and makes the purchase of the set worth it, in my opinion.
Side note: I just noticed Nubar has soak-off gel polishes... Has anyone tried them yet? I'm pretty much decided on buying the Orly GelFX kit but just wondering. I daydream constantly about China Glaze developing soak-off gels. That'll be the day.... *le sigh*
This manicure inspired by 10 Crosby Derek Lam SS12 RTW includes China Glaze Gaga for Green and Aquadelic and the colors are such a perfect match for the ensemble in the picture that it's scary. When I was perusing the Style.com app for inspiration, this is one of the photos that really called out to me. I love the graphic nature of the black and white with pops of geometric colors. I recreated it with those two China Glaze polishes with the addition of a white polish and a black striping polish. Also, in case you didn't notice, I filed my nails into ovals! Big change for me, as I have had sqaure nails just about all my life. They're still short yet, but I want Rihanna nails, and I will have them if it's the last thing I ever do! *Evil laugh*
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I've been dying to do something that incorporates these two shades. My winter coat is the same color as Nails Inc Belgrave Place and one day I held something bright orange against it and I've had a one track mind since then. I didn't want something busy and I wanted something that was simple and only incorporated these two colors because the two of them together make such a statement on their own. I painted the nails orange first, then when it was dry I applied some nail art striping tape from dollarnailart.com. I applied the purple over it and then waitied (not quite long enough, sadly) for it to dry and applied topcoat. The concept for the manicure was inspired by pshiiit.com! If you haven't seen her work yet, check it out! It's in French but the photos really are breathtaking.
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In honor of the soon-to-be-released movie version of The Hunger Games, I decided I want to do a nail art series based on the books. The first book actually makes a reference to nail art, when Katniss' prep team paints flame designs on her nails, and while re-reading the books this latest time in anticipation of the film I decided it would be crazy not to do a series.
The first installment is based on District 1, the district that produces luxury items for The Capitol
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CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!
A few days ago we showed you swatches of the beautiful new OPI Holland Collection, and now here's your chance to win this set of minis featuring four of the colors from the collection! There are a couple simple ways to win, so read on to find out how!
Giveaway is active from the time of posting until Friday, February 17th at midnight. Winner will be notified the following day. This giveaway is open internationally except where prohibited by law or shipping restrictions.
How to win:
You MUST be a follower of Beautopia on OnSugar to win (you can follow by clicking "Start Following This Site" on the widget to the right of this post, directly below the Google+ badge), and do one or both of the following:
1) Comment on THIS post telling us which of the Holland colors you like the most. If you haven't seen them yet, click here to view swatches.
2) You can earn a second entry by tweeting the text below about this giveaway, just be sure to add the tweet link to your comment on this post.
" WIN an OPI Dutch Treats set from @BeautopiaNails! Visit http://tinyurl.com/752y5x8 for more info! "
GOOD LUCK and have a great week!
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