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.

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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:

• China Glaze Concrete Catwalk
• China Glaze Recycle
• China Glaze White on White
• China Glaze Sea Spray
• Wet n Wild Black Creme
• acrylic paints
• Seche Vite Topcoat

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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*

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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*

Products used:

• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
• China Glaze White on White
• China Glaze Aquadelic
• China Glaze  Gaga for Green
• Black striping polish
• Seche Vite Topcoat

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Products used:

• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
• China Glaze White on White
• China Glaze First Mate
• China Glaze Life Preserver
• gold studs
• Seche Vite Top Coat

I have been dying to do nautical nails forever but the stripes, the anchors... it's all very daunting. However I womaned up, and just gave it a go. Ok for a first try. My favorite part is the gold studs anchors!!! I'd been lusting after Life Preserver for ages and just never seemed to remember to pick it up, and my mother actually picked it up for me, so this one's dedicated to you, Ma! I adore these studs too, I got a ton of them from Dollarnailart.com, and I think I need to order some silver ones, too!

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I've wanted to do "graffiti" nails for a while and this is as close to that as I've come. I was inspired by a random photo of a mid-70s woman with a ratty old Union Jack tee. You know I love to do Union Jacks, but I thought this deconstructed black, white and grey version really was pretty cool. I've been getting pretty tired of Crackle polishes in general lately, but I thought it was perfect for this design, it makes it look like a nasty, dirty brick wall, so awesome.

Products used:

• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
• China Glaze White on White
• Wet n Wild Black Creme
• China Glaze Crackle Cracked Concrete
• China Glaze Purple Panic
• Black and White Striping polish
• Seche Vite

OK so I am now watermarking my photos because 1) it's incredibly stupid for me not to have been doing so for all this time, and 2) I'm seeing my nails randomly popping up on my tumblr feed without credit to me and they're getting crazy amounts of hits and I feel like I'd like people to know they're my nails. Call me crazy, but... Anyway so I'm sorry about the watermark, I personally think they take away from the quality of the photos, but they're unfortunately very necessary anymore.

Read on for more pics and a sad nail story... :(

I recently came across a photo of Rihanna's tiger print nails, and knew immediately I wanted to try to re-create it. I'm a big fan of Rihanna's nail choices; her nails are always rad. I think hers may be Minx or something because look at her left (your right) hand... The middle and ring fingers look identical. Either way, this is a super simple nail look to re-create. I used China Glaze Snow for the base, then I used China Glaze Classic Camel and Goin' My Way from last year's Vintage Vixens collection to sponge random spot on my nails. I did barely any on some, and lots on others to help with that random look Rihanna's nails have going on. Then I used a black nail art striper polish by Art Deco to make the stripes. I finished off with a layer of Seche Vite to seal it in.

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Another one of my favorite Vera Bradley patterns is Baroque. I bought a kisslock clutch last Fall when it first came out because the pattern, honestly, is just irresistable. I love the swirlies and the dark grey and citron, especially together. I've been meaning to do a Baroque inspired nail design for a long time, but I couldn't decide just what to do. I'm not good enough yet to re-create these types of swirlies and I didn't have the right sort of grey. I figured that OPI Who The Shrek Are You? would work for the citron, but then came China Glaze Electric Pineapple and the wheels started turning. It's a perfect match for the citron in this pattern. Then last week I got the Metro collection from China Glaze and Concrete Catwalk is a perfect match for the grey. So I set out to do a manicure that evoked the whimsical feeling of the pattern with these colors. Please realize that this is not meant to MATCH the pattern, it's inspired by it. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I do like it.

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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!

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