PVA Base Coat

Happy Monday peeps. This time next week I'll be back in school and while that is a slightly saddening thought I'll endeavor to make this last week of break count! What could help me out with that more then polish right? Today I wanted to do two things, first use an untried glitter bomb and second test out a PVA base coat. If you haven't heard of a the awesomeness that is the PVA base coat well drum roll please....... it's craft glue. Remember that white Elmer's glue you use to rub on your hand and let dry so that you could peel it off and look at the wonder that is your palm? Yes, that stuff. Who knew it would once again find it way into your heart and back on your hand. Pretty Purple Polish has a very informative post on not only what it is but how to use it. She does use a different glue then I did but my results where exactly the same. The polish I experimented with is Anise Flashbulb from their winter collection, which can be purchased at DSW for $6. The entire Anise Nail Fashion line is free of Toulene, DBP, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin and Camphor. Not only that, they do absolutely NO animal testing. 

Flashbulb is a jelly based black with silver and holographic hexagonal shaped glitters. I'd head this polish described as thirsty from the amount of top coat need to smooth it out and boy was that accurate. I added two coats of Wicked Fast and decided to just let it be since I really wanted to experiment with the removal process. 

This is the only way I could begin to break down the shimmery goodness of the polish, forgive my lack of photographic prowess.  

You can kind of get a good impression from this picture above, with flash if you don't mind my blinds in the background.

And finally, since I was going to reverse happy hour with some friends I decided to add some square and circle studs from Born Pretty to make a little heart shape. Of course I like to pretend that this was purely for the sake of  curiosity. Could this nail base support nail art? 

Yes, yes it could. All in all I'd say PVA is a cheap and effective way to enjoy any glitter polish, and I will defiantly use it again.

Cut Outs

I found these craft hole punches at Micheal's for super cheap and was excited to see the shapes they made where perfect nail size. By the way what's this shape called? I'm sure it's got a name it's just not coming to me right now. Anyways I used this particular shape to make a negative in some painters tape and got to work. 

 My nails are getting a bit long, I think it's time for a serious date with my nail file. Side note I asked Santa for a Cult Nails glass file I'll let you know if he come through ;) 

None of these pictures are in very good lighting but the accent color I used is a really lovely dark sparkly purple that pairs very nicely with the gold.

So all in all a very easy manicure but a tad time consuming since tape can always be a little finicky. Interestingly enough The Beauty Department posted this article today about the new Metallic markers that Sharpie had recently come out with and it just so happened that I had recently purchased those myself. Since  I had yet to use them I decided to go ahead and bust them out.  Of course, since I was using a stencil the markers didn't really get a chance to shine but they still worked out quite nice. The down side to using markers over polish is that, for me at least, the marker tended to smear when apply a top coat. This was addressed in the article but they seemed to have no trouble so maybe I'll have to try again. 

Base: Essie Butler Please & Anise Seductive

Is this Love?

Quick post tonight guys so I'll just get right to the goods. I'm a little upset with China Glaze Sunset Sail which I used as my base because the day after doing this manicure I noticed some really terrible tip wear which you'll notice below. I love the soft sherbety (< not a word) color and it's a nice contrast to the accent colors I used but that much wear after one day is no bueano. Here's a look a fell in love with from Dressed Up Nails that I watered down a bit.

The colors used are;

Thumb- American Apparel Lopez Canyon

Pointer- Love & Beauty Mint

Middle- OPI Jade is the New Black

Ring- Anise Is this Love?

Pinky- NYC Sidewalkers 

Oh and I accidently uploaded a picture of my dog so I left it, mostly because I love her :)

Gold Gradient

 Good morning people, hope everyone is having a great weekend. I finally got my hands on Essie Good as Gold so here's what I've come up with.

For the base I've used Anise Is this Love? and Essie Good as Gold for the gradient. The pictures for some reason look kind of white but I assure you my tips are gold. Once the gradient was dry, I stamped using plate BM- 307 and topped it all off with Essie Matte About You. I think the matte top coat kind of brings everything together. I'm really frustrated with this manicure because Anise Is this Love? stains my nails pretty terribly so it's almost impossible for me to get a nice clean up.  Oh well, until next time people, I'm off to cook some breakfast. Is it an omelette day or some good old pancakes?? 

Weekend Mani

 Finally it's Friday ladies! Any plans? I'll be going with a friend to Houston for the weekend and today I'll be showing you the mani I'm taking with me. I've seen similar styles of these guys quite a bit and always thought they looked really smart but never got around to trying it until now. I'm glad I did since they turned out so well. The color combo reminds me of the inside of casino or something but minus the cigarette smoke. These colors might also be a little more appropriate for the fall but her I am rocking them in the middle of summer.

Try to ignore that random piece of lint. 

I used my nameless gold from Alloy and Is this Love? by Anise. I'm thinking this gold which I love may get replaced with Essie's Good as Gold  if I stop by the store this weekend. From the swatches I've seen that gold is drop dead gorgeous, and has a foil finish instead of the more glittery finish my gold has. While I'm at it I might as well pick up No Place like Chrome it's too perfect to pass up!

Splatter Technique

Hi guys, hope everyone's having a good weekend. I myself have finally gotten around to trying the splatter technique so, my weekends pretty good. Have you guys tried this yet? If not, it's pretty easy and you can find several videos on YouTube showing just how it's done. Basically you paint your base color then of course let it dry. Next you'll take your accent colors and a few straws. Place a few drops on a cleanable surface and dip the straw. Finally you want to hold the straw an inch or so away from the nail and give the straw a good blow. And...that's about it. Here's my results.

The colors I used are Anise Pencil Skirt as the base, Anise Is this Love? and Anise Wildcat as the accent colors. This technique is a lot of fun and I like this color combo, it's subtle but quite shiny in the right light.  

Happy Days!

Good news people my prize from Anise came in today and some UPS guy (or gal) is very lucky I wasn't home because he would have gotten harassed at my apartment door. The box the polish came in was kind of big since when I finally got around to opening it I was greeted with a lot of paper stuffing and two much smaller boxes jam packed with TWELVE colors!! 

Okay enough with the packaging, let's get on to the good stuff! These colors are from Anise's Fall line and boy are they something. As you'll notice this line is pretty purple heavy but they play up the drama with pops of rich colors like red blue and bronze. The application of every single one of these colors was perfect. Most of the colors didn't even need more then one coat for a smooth opaque finish.

From left to right:  Wee Hours , Money to Burn,  Is this Love?

Touch of Seduction, Some Kind of Kiss, Mysterious Affair

Wildcat, Snakeskin Deep, I Spy

Smokeshow, Smouldering Eyes,  Pencil Skirt 

So what do you think? I'm thinking my top three would have to be Wildcat, Wee Hours, and Money to Burn in no particular order. All in all I really like this collection, and I think it has a little something for everyone. The only down side to these bottles would have to be the huge sticker on the side that has the polish name and bar-code! Nothing frustrates me more then a polish with out a name, and I can just tell those damn stickers can't wait to peel off! Whelp over and out ladies I'm off to do something wonderful with these bad boys.

Vote People!

Hola everyone, just a quick post today before I get back to studying. I've be fortunate enough to make it into the finalist round of Anise's Alluring Summer Contest on Pinterest. As the final round of the competition begins, it is up to the contestants to round up as many voters as possible to vote for their favorite board. I encourage everyone to take a look since I personally fell in love with more then just me own lol. You can find Anise's Facebook page here. If you would like to vote you must first like Anise's page then proceed to like the board of boards of your choosing. The lucky winners will receive Anise polish for a year! Good luck to the ladies running and trust me when I say I've got my painted fingers crossed!