Recently at NYFW, CND did a really cool look they called Flirty Flowers for Rachel Antonoff's runway show. I think it was a real eye-catcher for everyone considering the interesting pattern and the use of bright, bold colors juxtaposed on the small canvas of the nails. I wanted to recreate it, and in fact did start out by using CND Anchor Blue as they did, but I found it was far too dark to get the look in the photos without adding a lot of white to it. I'm probably not using the same technique they did, so maybe they added the Anchor Blue designs while the white was still wet, but either way I ended up using different polishes to acheive this look.

I painted the nails white, added the blue "petals" freehand with a brush, then added the red to the top, using a thin brush to get the red into the angles left behind by the blue.

Products used:

• China Glaze White on White
• China Glaze Electric Beat
• OPI Red Lights Ahead... Where?
• Seche Vite Topcoat

Click for more photos...

La Boheme is a VHTF OPI from the 2003 Holiday on Broadway collection. You can find them on E(vil)bay or you can check out your local salons to see if a bottle is hiding amongst their polishes for sale. Sometimes they'll even sell you one that's been used if you feel the need to buy it. I was super lucky a few years ago to find a couple for retail at a salon near my house. I'm glad I bought them both because I have used up the first one almost completely and will have to crack open the other bottle soon. I try to use it very sparingly, even going as far as layering it over similar color or black, but I broke it out of the vault because I was really in the mood to wear it. It's a gorgeous duochrome berry/rust shimmer with an added layer of floating, glistening red shimmer that turns greenish amber in some lights. I strongly suggest you check out your local salons, and some not so local if you travel, for this. Always target salons that look to be older than the polish you're looking for, and keep in mind that they are usually in little strip malls. I have had amazing luck this way. I've found Black Magic Mountain, Tucamcari Boys n Berry, Jasper Jade and more at these so-called "dusties." So get out and look and good luck!

Click for more photos!!

Happy 4th of July, everyone!! Here's my Independence Day mani; a festive french with an accent nail of "stars" and stripes. I used China Glaze Snow for the tips and the base of the ring finger. The blue is China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway, and it's applied over the tips of all fingers. On the french fingers, I used China Glaze Phat Santa for the dots, and on the ring fingers i used a sparkly red Art Deco striper polish to do the stripes. I made thin silver lines to separate the "stars" and stripes with China Glaze SIlver Bells. Everything was topped off with a coat of Seche Vite!

Click for more photos!

Tarte has come out with a True Blood themed collection, and it includes a pretty interesting palette. I loved the look of the packaging so I decided to give it a try on my nails. The design is simple to do and it looks pretty cool. It would look really good with another color in place of the red as well, especially a nude shade. I painted my nails with a base of China Glaze Phat Santa, and then using a black striper polish from Art Deco I made two diagonal lines from the cuticle to the corners of the free edge. Then I filled in the empty triangles on the outer portion of the nails with Wet n Wild Black Creme. Then I used China Glaze Millenium to make silver dots for the holes for the laces. I put a smaller black dot in the middle of the silver dots to make them look like little eyelets. With the Art Deco striper I made crisscrossing "laces."

Click for more photos!

Today's nails are based on the beautiful pattern Deco Daisy from Vera Bradley. It's my new favorite pattern, for now anyway, and I decided I'd try to do my own version of it on my nails. I started with a base of China Glaze Phat Santa and then Wet n Wild white on the ring fingers, and then I used a Migi Nail Art Pen to make the white quarter-circles on the red nails. Once that was all dry I used Konad plate m63 and Konad special black polish to stamp on the houndstooth on the ring fingers. For the rest of the fingers I used a BundleMonster plate and Konad plate m66 for the flowers. On top is a coat of Seche Vite fast-dry top coat.

Click for more photos!

Nubar Finest Silks Collection - $49.95 for the set, $7.95 a la carte at bynubar.com

The polishes in Nubar's latest collection, Finest Silks, are inspired by and named after several luxurious fabrics. All are cremes but Organza which is a light and airy white-silver that you can wear over the other shades if you wish, or alone. You'll notice that there are only 7 swatches here because I don't have Taffeta to review, so if you're looking for that I know there are other blogs with great swatches of it, so check them out first if you're interested in buying Taffeta. As far as the rest of the collection, there are some pretty nice shades in it and they're all very creamy and pigmented.

Click for more pics!

Barielle Style in Argyle - $8 each at Barielle.com

Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year. I know it's a lot of people's favorite season, but the first sniff of that crisp air and my sense of well-being and mood shoot through the roof. I like to take joyrides with the windows down a lot in the Fall, to look at the rolling hills bursting with the colors of changing leaves, feel the bite of the air; everything is right with the world when Autumn is on the way. One of my favorite things about Fall is the clothes. I love warm colors, cozy fabrics, and the excuse to wear dark lipstick! This sweater-themed collection from Barielle pretty much screams Fall and I'm really excited about it. There are a couple shades that might leave you scratching your head, but that's sort of the beauty of it. If you'd like to see swatches and read my review of them, keep reading!

Click to see more Barielle Style in Argyle

Nubar Fire Sparkle Nail Lacquer - $7.49 at bynubar.com

I recently caved and bought four of the Nubar Sparkle collection polishes, and I'm in love people. I'm not the world's biggest glitter fan, but sometimes I crave a really great one. All four of the Nubar Sparkles I bought belong in the "great" category, hands down. The first is Fire Sparkle which is a warm red glitter with a red tinted base. The bit of color in the base helps with opacity, and gives the polish a more rich look. The glitter itself is incredibly small, though I wouldn't go so far as to call it micro, but instead of looking chunky it just glimmers. Like most glitter polishes, to counterbalance the awesome there is a caveat; the gritty texture. With two coats of Orly Glosser and one coat of Seche Vite I get a smooth-as-glass finish that lasts days without wear on almost every glitter polish. This technique worked perfectly with Fire Sparkle. All the photos I'm showing you were taken the morning after I applied it, so you can see that the topcoat didn't sink down into the polish, and that the finish is still glassy.

Click for photos...

I literally thought to myself the other day when picking out polish from my drawers, "I'm in a magenta mood." And I realized I had a polish named that, so even though it's NOT magenta, I went with it. Normally a "magenta mood" means I break out Color Club Power Play, but whatevs. I bought this a while ago from Sally Beauty because it really caught my eye, even though not too many core-line Finger Paints polishes scream out at me. In the store it had sort of a duochrome in the bottle which I've never been able to see on the nail, but the China Glaze-esque glass-fleck shimmer was outrageously gorgeous. This polish is very enigmatic; it's somewhat red in base but the bright deep pink shimmer takes center stage in the sunlight. The photo above was the best representation of the shimmer because in sunlight it was too bright for my poor little camera to contend with. So in the sun photos you see accurate color representation for sunlight but not in finish. The photo above is pretty accurate as far as indoor color appearance as well. As far as the finish, while the glass-fleck is amazing up close, at arms length it's more metallic in appearance. Catching a glimpse of my hand in my car's sideview mirror through a closed window, it looked like one of those black and white photos with one color spotlighted, it's so vibrant.

It is pretty darn pigmented but I used three coats because I detest finding hidden bald spots when I venture into the sun. The formula is very nice and smooth, like most Finger Paints I've used in the past. The brush is pretty standard, slim and round; very good for precision. Me likey.

Have you tried this particular polish? What's your favorite polish by Finger Paints? Click for another photo

Index to pinkie: OPI Hey Vito Is My Car Red-y?, Color Club Sexsea, China Glaze High Hopes, Essie Flirt

OPI Hey Vito, Is My Car Red-y: This is incredibly similar to Sexsea, it's got a definite warm tone to it, making this bright coral look like a retro Hollywood red.

Color Club Sexsea: An easy-to-find and cheap alternative to the OPI Hey Vito, great formula and a perfect seriously vibrant bright coral-red choice for summer.

China Glaze High Hopes: This is more of a sweet mango coral. It's considerably less in-your-face and red than the above two, but it's got a special punch that would be great for less warm-toned people.

Essie Flirt: I thought this one was going to be dupey to the China Glaze by looking at the bottles, but turns out this one is slightly darker and a pinch more pink.