Swatch: Jcat - Mango

So I hadn't heard of Jcat until this polish, but I was looking for a light yellow and I love mangos, so I picked up Jcat - Mango.
This is two coats, no top coat.

Can I start by saying, as a lover of cats, I like the logo? I didn't realize the cat was supposed to be a t until I looked it up, but I like it anyway.

The formula was pretty good, especially for a light yellow.

Not perfect, though. Actually, I probably should have just gone for a third coat, but it was close enough in two that I left it. If I were wearing it alone I probably would go with three to be safe.

This is new, so I've only used it in my Vintage Roses nails. But I like it pretty well,

I'm curious about the rest of the Jcat polishes now. I'll have to keep an eye out for more. It's always good to have a cheap brand that works well. :)

06/21/13 - Magnetic Toes

I've been wanting to try out my magnetic polish for a while, and finally decided to put it on my toes.

Most of my toes didn't really have enough surface area for this to turn out, but it's still fun.
This is Magnetique, no colour name, with the attached star magnet. I also added a coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust just for fun.

My right big toe came out the best. Funny, since that was actually the first one I did. Should I have gotten better after that instead of worse? Oh well. :p

So this was fun. I'll have to explore what else I can do with magnetic polish in the future. :)

06/21/13 - Vintage Roses

I've been struggling for ideas for a bit, but I got it into my head that if I did a saran-wrap base with light yellow and white, then put roses on it, then perhaps it would look like that vintage-y pattern that you see sometimes. So I gave it a shot.

I actually really like it, and my mom agreed that when she saw my nails, so also thought of my initial inspiration (without me saying that's what it was.)
This was further compounded when we were shopping later and saw a bag in that kind of print. What a coincidence!

I started with Jcat - Mango, then did a saran-wrap look with Pure Ice - Super Star. Then I painted on the roses with Sinful Colors - Timbleberry and Lime Crime - Parfait Day, and finished with leaves from Kleancolor - Green Grass.

Fun and relatively simple. :)

06/22/13 - Stash Update

So you haven't heard from me in a while because I had finals week and then had to move back home and just haven't quite settled in yet. Buuut I have been buying nail polish ever since I finished school, now that I have the opportunity to buy in person.

First, at Fred Meyer, I bought

Sally Hansen - Snappy Sorbet, Sally Hansen - Fuzzy Fantasy, and Maybelline - Clearly Spotted.
Here's a couple possible scenarios for Clearly Spotted:

Then at the mall I went a little overboard and came home with six polishes.

Icing - Frost Yourself, Icing - Queen Bee, Kleancolor - TLC, Kleancolor - Mermaid, Jcat - Mango, Love & Beauty - Light Yellow, and Love & Beauty - Emerald.
I've never heard of Jcat before, but I'm quite curious.
You may also notice that Mango and Light Yellow look nearly identical. Well, it's true. I'm trying to find a really light yellow polish. Once home, however, I realized that not only are they both nearly identical, but they're also very similar to Lime Crime - Crema de Limon. Here's a quick side by side, in order: Lime Crime, L&B, Jcat:

Oops. Jcat's a little lighter, so I'm leaving that alone. But I have plans to try my hand at frankening with white and Light Yellow. Wish me luck!
Also, here's a couple coats of Icing - Queen Bee.

I'm finding the formula a little tricky, but the glitter is so much fun I'm trying not to notice.
I also picked up this pack of brushes at the Daiso store, which is basically a Japanese dollar store:

The quality is... marginal, but that's to be expected for a $1.50. I might experiment with cutting them to size, since I'm not really losing much if I screw up.

Well, I thought I was done, but then I went to Ross and picked up this twin set:

I'm giving the pink to my grandma, but the purple is Orly - Velvet Rope, and it's staying. :)

Whew! I'm also lusting after several polishes online, but I don't want to spend the money, so hopefully these cheapie polishes will sustain me. :)

Happy polishing, everyone!

Swatch: Essence - Choose Me!

Oh, Essence - Choose Me! - choose you I did indeed! :D
I've been wanting to wear this as a base colour ever since I received it, because it just looks so gorgeous in the bottle. Fortunately, I was not disappointed. :)

Choose Me! is a bit hard to describe the colour of. In some lights it looks blue, in some lights it looks teal, in some lights it looks like a colour-shifting polish with blue-to-green powers.

The shimmer is also interesting. In this next picture, though not colour accurate, you can kind of see that it's almost more like little flecks than glitter/shimmer.

 Here's one that shows some of the colour diversity:

By the way, this is two coats. It's fine with two. If I was picky I could have gone with three.
Either way, it's quite lovely. :)

I'm glad I have this polish, and finally got to use it in my Sea Water nails. I've also used it in my Let it Rain nails.
I love pretty polishes. :)

06/03/13 - Sea Water

So after the disaster of yesterday, I appealed to my friends for a fail-proof idea. Natalia suggested the saran-wrap method, which I have yet to try.
It occurred to me that if I chose shades of blue and green, it might look like sea water. And so I gave it a shot, and added a fish to match. :)

I used Essence - Choose Me!, Love&Beauty - Mint, and Wet 'n' Wild - Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire for the saran-wrap styled base, in that order.
The fish is done with Sally Hansen - Orange Impulse, with apparently invisible hints of Brash - Gone Bananas. I finished that off with Kiss's black striper for the eye, and dotted on some bubbles with Sally Hansen - Platinum.

Unlike my last design, the more I look at this, the more I like it. :) It's so simple, but it takes me away to lovely thoughts of summer and happiness.

And just to try to show why it reminds me of water, here's a picture of my hand in water:

Have a happy day, everyone. :)

06/02/13 - Fail Stripey Plaidish Nails

So, I saw a Pin on Pinterest that I thought looked super cute. I decided to do a design inspired by it. I tested it on my handy dandy test page. Looks good to go. I did the process on each of my ten nails. By the time I put the finishing touches on it, I didn't like it. By the next morning (since I do my nails at night), I hated it. This design only stayed on my nails less than 24 hours, basically being removed as soon as I could.

 

I don't really know what went wrong, but it just didn't work. I started with China Glaze - Fairy Dust (something I was sure would always guarantee success!), then did stripes with Lime Crime - Pastelchio, Lime Crime - Parfait Day, Essence - Break Through, Jordana - Boy oh Boy, and Lime Crime - Peaches <3 Cream. Then I did the plaidish lines in Pure Ice - Super Star.

I'll post the design I changed to tomorrow, and I like it much better. :)